Page 24 of Godslayer
“Because it takes a lot of infrastructure to run a city. That’s what all that is back there. That’s how the city exists. It’s the plumbin’ for the water, it’s the way the spark is processed. It’s the business side of things that the common person has no clue about. And before I leave here, I wanna see it.”
“OK. Lead the way.”
We return to the loud mechanical room and go up the stairs. Tyse pauses on the landing of the first floor, but then looks up. Pointing.
I nod, because what else can I do, the machines are too loud to talk, and we go up. But we don’t stop at two. We don’t stop at three. Or four. Or five. We go all the way up to the top. It’s a long climb and I’m huffing, very out of breath since I’m carrying a rucksack, by the time we stop.
Tyse turns to me. It’s not as loud up here, since we’re literally like a hundred feet above the machines down below, so we can talk now. “I want to see the dome.”
I squint at him. “Dome?” It hadn’t occurred to me that they’d have domed towers here, but of course they would. If the city is laid out like mine, the tallest towers have domes. “All right,” I agree. “Let’s look at the dome.”
He opens the door a crack, peeking through for a few moments. Then opens it wide. We step in, finding ourselves in a circular space covered in shiny, black screens. They cover every single space of the curved wall. “Wow,” I say, turning in a circle. “This is… well, I have no idea what this is.”
There’s no one in here—not even bots—so Tyse walks over to the nearest screen and begins studying it. “It’s a control room,” he says.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a way to watch people. Look.” He taps the front of the screen and it comes to life with a burst of light. A moment later, an image appears. A video. “There they are.”
He does this to many screens. Tapping dozens of them into life with a press of his finger. And each time one comes to life, it’s showing people. People who are walking around a city that looks almost identical to my Tau City, except for the color scheme.
I walk over to Tyse, who is standing in front of the largest screen in the room. It’s at least ten times as big as the others and shows a view of the whole city from the perspective of the tower.
The god’s tower.
I know this because on either side are two more towers. In my world, the one on the right is the Maiden Tower and the one on the left is the Extraction Tower.
And down the middle is a canal. Filled with dark, gray, nearly black water.
I recoil just looking at it. “What the hell is wrong with the water?”
“Hmm,” Tyse hums. But it’s not one of his sexy hums. It’s one of his concerned hums. “I dunno. Looks gross though, right? Like oil, or somethin’.”
Yeah. Really gross. But then I get distracted by the smaller screens. Each of which seem to show a little slice of the city and the people in it.
Again, it’s reminiscent of my Tau City—but the vibes are all wrong. Everyone is wearing black. There isn’t a bit of blue anywhere. And they all look… well, not unhappy, exactly, but even after searching several dozen screens across the entire city, I can’t find a single person that’s laughing.
“There isn’t a bit of spark anywhere,” Tyse says.
“What?” I turn and walk over to him. While I was looking for laughter, he was looking for spark, I guess. “No spark anywhere? Hmm. It makes sense though. That’s why the water is black.”
“I think you’re right. Thatiswhy the water is black. But… why would there be no spark here? In your Tau City they raised spark. They cultivated it inside women, then sacrificed them to the fake god in the tower. Which was just them stealing your spark to feed Anneeta. So what is goin’ on here? Because there is no baby god back in Delta City. Well,” he laughs. “I guess, technically, there is. But trust me when I say this, Delta isn’t growing Anneeta up to take his place. I don’t know what he’s doin’ with those little gods, but it isn’t that. He doesn’tshare.”
“He still has to feed them.” Even I recoil from my words. I think Tyse does too, but I wasn’t looking at him, so I don’t know for sure. “Wow. I can’t believe I just said that.”
“It’s true though. And might explain the lack of spark here?” He shrugs. “Maybe?”
My brow furrows, thinking. “Well, when Delta and I had that talk in my head after I first arrived in his city, he made a remark about the Extraction. Something like… it was barbaric. That he didn’t do it that way. Not his exact words, but along those lines.”
“If he’s not extracting spark,” Tyse looks confused, “then why does this place look dead and empty? And how does he live?”
I shrug. “Maybe he’s too old to need spark?”
“But… all gods need food.”
“What?”
“Nothin’. It just doesn’t add up. There has to be spark here. Why else does it exist?”
