Prequel Novella: Scion Revolt
(Working title) (summary of a book)
Rosh is an Orphan Scion on his first shift going outside Tholaren Dome to gather up resources from a fallen meteor made of Tourite, a material toxic to the dome systems. It's stored away in the Ether. Rosh returns home to his sub-group, the scion term for a family. His sister-in-name Zoya is happy to see him, as are little sister-in-names Avlynn, Cytherea, and Elthie. The only person not present is younger brother-in-name Cor, which worries Rosh because Cor is something of a loner and a troublemaker. This turns out to be true, because Cor is out taking a walk to hide the fact that he's going to withdraw some of the recently discovered tourite to shape something for his friend Brenna. He shouldn't be able to access it, but found out a few years ago that gaining access to the Ether is easier for him. Rosh gets worried at how long it's taking Cor to return, and goes looking for him. He has a vaguely menacing encounter with Justana Shreve, a teacher who says she works with Cor and doesn't want him to turn aggressive. When Cor shows up, he's dismissive of her, and as they walk away tells Rosh that they barely interact. In fact, Justana rarely works with scions, and since she had an encounter with the Hatharan Crew a while back no one pushes her. The next day, after another frustrating day at school, Cor observes Hannalee Waldera, about the same age as his sister Avlynn, looking sad. They talk for a time, and to comfort her he gives her the flower he crafted. The encounter is cut short when Brendin Mejoral shows up. An Equivalent, Brendin is Hannalee's brother, and clearly doesn't like her interacting with a scion. That evening, a Crisis Shutdown Procedure (aka a CSP alarm) goes off. The dome had fractured. Zoya rushes to her job at the Darostrate's office, to help keep people calm, and Rosh isn't far behind her. As he grabs his equipment, an object that he'd recovered some time ago begins to glow, and Rosh determines that it's actually an insignium, going through the process to choose a new palador. Except that all 15 Insignia are already accounted for. He grabs it to take with him. At work, Zoya works with Mereena Dautrich and Hamon Trice, assigned to deal with a situation. Hannalee's breather failed, because of a tourite sample she'd had on her. When they go to investigate, Hannalee's parents aren't there. Instead, her brother Brendin is there, letting Justana Shreve take charge. She spins a tale painting Cor's gift as a malicious act, arguing insistently that Cor was a menace. Zoya stops her and instead gets Hannalee's story directly, which shows Cor in a very different light. Two days later, by which everyone is thoroughly sick of being in lockdown, the Rolmguard show up with an arrest warrant. Rosh nearly panics, thinking it's for him and the strange insignium, but it's for Cor. It's clear the accusations were made by Justana, and easily disproved when Cor is upset finding out about Hannalee's danger. The lead guard is reasonable and doesn't pursue the issue outside of issuing community service so Cor doesn't use tourite irresponsibly again. Five days after the fracture, Cor goes to Hoelfir Lane, the local black market, because it was that or go stir crazy. And then Brendin and a group of other boys attack him and beat him up pretty badly. Brendin has a knife and seems particularly unhinged, referencing his sister several times. They tie Cor up and kidnap him. Rosh, who suspected Cor would wander off, is just in time to see Cor get tossed in a transport and who was doing it. Justana stops him from intervening, insisting that Brendin's teenage aggression needs an outlet and that as the one at fault Cor deserves this. Rosh goes to find Zoya and figure out what to do next. Instead, he finds Hamon, who volunteers to help. Rolmguard Anzelia Atrisain, one of the ones from Cor's near arrest, also offers assistance. Rosh gets some advice from Elco, a more experienced scion, and Hamon has an idea where to find Brendin. He's wrong, but the trio find out more about each other. Anzelia is intensely practical, Hamon is an idealist and a bit of a philosopher, and Rosh is a peacemaker. The dome cracks even worse, causing the interior imaging to fade, and they're forced to take shelter in Hamon's apartment. The next day, Hamon checks in at work to see if anyone has seen anything, and while he's gone, Rosh and Anzelia share a moment. When Hamon returns with Elco, they all head to the school, following the idea that Justana is involved. Cor was there, as they discover from watching security footage, but he's in bad shape. They're three hours behind, but find out Brendin is taking them to the Itusial District. Rosh intuits that they're trying to broadcast something, since that's where the best systems are. Elco gets them through the barriers that go up during a fracture, and goes back to keep his own family-in-name safe, as well as get a message to Zoya, who should have joined them by now. Zoya's boss kept her from helping because it was outside the bounds of regulations, he hadn't been missing long enough, etc. With Mereena's help, Zoya swaps tasks and is able to get out of there. Justana shows up, and leaves looking smug. Zoya looks into it on her own and discovers that her own spineless boss gave permission for Brendin's group to go to the Itusial in the middle of an ongoing crisis. Zoya calls the woman out, and finally is allowed to leave and help find Cor. Rosh and company search the Itusial. When they find Brendin, it's a standoff, with Brendin threatening to kill Cor. Rosh pleads to let him go, that Cor's already paid for his actions, but Brendin insists that he has to die for his crimes. After their retreat, Hamon points out the specific wording, implying that Brendin has a specific place for death in mind. Meanwhile, Cor had begun to lose hope until he saw that Rosh was trying to find him. He antagonizes Brendin, trying to get a sense for what his plan is, why he's doing this. Lightning strikes within the dome force Rosh and his party into a shelter. The tunnel they choose has its own problems, but they survive and make it to an airlock. Rosh is trapped and miserable. Zoya finally catches up, and the brother and sister have a good talk. Zoya theorizes that Justana is the driving force behind Brendin's actions, and Rosh agrees, but can't discern her motives. Hamon tells them all about how her parents were killed by the Hatharan Crew, a group of vicious scions who attempted a coup. As a result, Justana has a record of being horrible to scions that she gets away with because of her past trauma. They think she's projecting all her rage onto Cor, with deadly intent. Zoya is upset about how Justana is getting away with it, but Rosh is numb. He takes the chance to look more into the insignium he's had with him, since the Itusial houses the main data centers for the dome. He enlists Hamon to take him through the tunnels. To his shock, the computer fully recognizes the insignium as the Arthenarian and provides the usual list of data, including ten candidates for its palador. Rosh is one, and so is Cor. Since Rosh is the one in current physical possession of the Arthenarian, he can cut the list of candidates down. With some help from Hamon's data analysis skills, he does, leaving himself and Cor on the list. Rejoining Anzelia and Zoya, Rosh has figured out where Justana would have Cor taken: the execution field where the Hatharan Crew were finally ended. Worse, they plan to record it, to demonstrate to the rest of the dome how they thought the world should be. Rosh and Zoya rally what help they can find, and go to face Justana and Brendin. Rosh and Anzelia share a kiss, agreeing that it could only ever be a whirlwind romance, but they're okay with that. Justana has put Brendin in charge, keeping herself more to the shadows, as the whole area is recorded and broadcast. She has a gun, however, a highly illegal item in a closed environment like the dome. Rosh and Brendin debate, with Brendin unwilling to act just yet. Rosh gains the verbal upper hand, and Justana steps in. They're evenly matched, with Justana's charismatic well-prepared arguments against Rosh's calm persistence. Rosh finally says something that gets Justana to crack. She rants, until she realizes how it makes her look, and sets the gun down to put her image back as the sympathetic teacher. Brendin snatches it up and the fight begins. It's Rosh and company against Brendin and his group of fanatical teens. Justana stays to the sidelines, ineffectually calling for them all to stop to make it look like her side weren't the aggressors. The Rolmguard arrive, but they do little more than contain the situation, unwilling to intervene. The Arthenarian activates and hovers over the chaos, time running out for it to choose a new palador. Rosh takes advantage of the confusion and goes straight for Cor, only Brendin standing in the way. Brendin gains the upper hand, but Cor somehow blasts him away. This act, of defending a friend, is enough to tip the scales on the selection process. With blinding light that no one can miss, the Arthenarian comes to rest in Cor's hand. Justana is completely blinded by her rage and self-righteousness, and deludes herself into thinking it’s her moral imperative to make sure a scion doesn’t get an insignium. She charges forward with a knife, and attempts to drive it home. Cor is too weak, and still half-tied to a post. Rosh dives in front and takes the knife to his arm. Justana pulls it out and strikes again, since no one stopped her. She moves to do it again, but this time Anzelia downs her. Anzelia arrests Justana for attempted murder, daring the Rolmguard to stop her. They don't. Now that the real leader of the group is downed, the rest of them go quietly. Cor collapses, and they rush him to a doctor. Three days later, Rosh is still being held. Not under arrest, of course, but with the understanding that he's not meant to leave without having a particular conversation. His injuries are treated, but he's otherwise kept isolated. Finally, he's taken to see the Darad Chanostrate, the person in charge of the whole dome at the moment. This man, Fedruel Pyre, explains that Cor will be okay, and expresses sympathy at the damage to Rosh's arms, which will take a long time to heal, if they ever do. He asks Rosh about the Arthenarian, and works out that this was likely the first emergency situation where someone would have been close enough for it to activate. Rosh reminds him that Cor is a palador now, same as Fedruel. Which also means that Cor will be evocated and moved into a new family, no longer considered a scion. Rosh figures out that his new anti-authoritarian streak will end up with consequences, so he tells off Fedruel, and they come to an understanding. They discuss Justana Shreve briefly, and what her fate will be. It’s not as severe as what she planned, but she is moving to a lower class job, and her status was even called into question. She attempted to all the Arthenarian into question, but there was too much data declaring it to be a legitimate insignium, and that was part of her downfall. Fedruel admits the decision to conceal the insignium originally was a good idea, and that now it's out in the world things will be chaotic. That Rosh will have to suffer consequences for his overt rebellion, but he would do what he could to ameliorate that. Rosh goes home to family. He still has his job but it’s pretty clear he’s permanent low guy on the totem pole. The girls are traumatized in various ways. Anzelia keeps her distance, making sure to kill the relationship they had, not out of malice but just because that was how it had to be. Zoya undergoes a lot of flak at work, but is able to blackmail her boss into getting a better position. Hamon remains steadfast in his friendship, which surprises all of them. It's implied he has a crush on Zoya. Approximately two weeks later, they're allowed a rather unusual goodbye with Cor. The girls are tearful, especially after all the recent turmoil, but they’ve been conditioned to think this is a good thing. All the empty platitudes they’re raised with, plus genuine hopes for the future of meeting again. Nervous about his new family, Cor doesn’t want to go, but Zoya assures him they’ll be fine. When they're about to leave, Cor repeats what Rosh has said to him often about keeping his head down. Rosh smiles at him and instead says, "Change the world."
Rosh is an Orphan Scion on his first shift going outside Tholaren Dome to gather up resources from a fallen meteor made of Tourite, a material toxic to the dome systems. It's stored away in the Ether. Rosh returns home to his sub-group, the scion term for a family. His sister-in-name Zoya is happy to see him, as are little sister-in-names Avlynn, Cytherea, and Elthie. The only person not present is younger brother-in-name Cor, which worries Rosh because Cor is something of a loner and a troublemaker. This turns out to be true, because Cor is out taking a walk to hide the fact that he's going to withdraw some of the recently discovered tourite to shape something for his friend Brenna. He shouldn't be able to access it, but found out a few years ago that gaining access to the Ether is easier for him. Rosh gets worried at how long it's taking Cor to return, and goes looking for him. He has a vaguely menacing encounter with Justana Shreve, a teacher who says she works with Cor and doesn't want him to turn aggressive. When Cor shows up, he's dismissive of her, and as they walk away tells Rosh that they barely interact. In fact, Justana rarely works with scions, and since she had an encounter with the Hatharan Crew a while back no one pushes her. The next day, after another frustrating day at school, Cor observes Hannalee Waldera, about the same age as his sister Avlynn, looking sad. They talk for a time, and to comfort her he gives her the flower he crafted. The encounter is cut short when Brendin Mejoral shows up. An Equivalent, Brendin is Hannalee's brother, and clearly doesn't like her interacting with a scion. That evening, a Crisis Shutdown Procedure (aka a CSP alarm) goes off. The dome had fractured. Zoya rushes to her job at the Darostrate's office, to help keep people calm, and Rosh isn't far behind her. As he grabs his equipment, an object that he'd recovered some time ago begins to glow, and Rosh determines that it's actually an insignium, going through the process to choose a new palador. Except that all 15 Insignia are already accounted for. He grabs it to take with him. At work, Zoya works with Mereena Dautrich and Hamon Trice, assigned to deal with a situation. Hannalee's breather failed, because of a tourite sample she'd had on her. When they go to investigate, Hannalee's parents aren't there. Instead, her brother Brendin is there, letting Justana Shreve take charge. She spins a tale painting Cor's gift as a malicious act, arguing insistently that Cor was a menace. Zoya stops her and instead gets Hannalee's story directly, which shows Cor in a very different light. Two days later, by which everyone is thoroughly sick of being in lockdown, the Rolmguard show up with an arrest warrant. Rosh nearly panics, thinking it's for him and the strange insignium, but it's for Cor. It's clear the accusations were made by Justana, and easily disproved when Cor is upset finding out about Hannalee's danger. The lead guard is reasonable and doesn't pursue the issue outside of issuing community service so Cor doesn't use tourite irresponsibly again. Five days after the fracture, Cor goes to Hoelfir Lane, the local black market, because it was that or go stir crazy. And then Brendin and a group of other boys attack him and beat him up pretty badly. Brendin has a knife and seems particularly unhinged, referencing his sister several times. They tie Cor up and kidnap him. Rosh, who suspected Cor would wander off, is just in time to see Cor get tossed in a transport and who was doing it. Justana stops him from intervening, insisting that Brendin's teenage aggression needs an outlet and that as the one at fault Cor deserves this. Rosh goes to find Zoya and figure out what to do next. Instead, he finds Hamon, who volunteers to help. Rolmguard Anzelia Atrisain, one of the ones from Cor's near arrest, also offers assistance. Rosh gets some advice from Elco, a more experienced scion, and Hamon has an idea where to find Brendin. He's wrong, but the trio find out more about each other. Anzelia is intensely practical, Hamon is an idealist and a bit of a philosopher, and Rosh is a peacemaker. The dome cracks even worse, causing the interior imaging to fade, and they're forced to take shelter in Hamon's apartment. The next day, Hamon checks in at work to see if anyone has seen anything, and while he's gone, Rosh and Anzelia share a moment. When Hamon returns with Elco, they all head to the school, following the idea that Justana is involved. Cor was there, as they discover from watching security footage, but he's in bad shape. They're three hours behind, but find out Brendin is taking them to the Itusial District. Rosh intuits that they're trying to broadcast something, since that's where the best systems are. Elco gets them through the barriers that go up during a fracture, and goes back to keep his own family-in-name safe, as well as get a message to Zoya, who should have joined them by now. Zoya's boss kept her from helping because it was outside the bounds of regulations, he hadn't been missing long enough, etc. With Mereena's help, Zoya swaps tasks and is able to get out of there. Justana shows up, and leaves looking smug. Zoya looks into it on her own and discovers that her own spineless boss gave permission for Brendin's group to go to the Itusial in the middle of an ongoing crisis. Zoya calls the woman out, and finally is allowed to leave and help find Cor. Rosh and company search the Itusial. When they find Brendin, it's a standoff, with Brendin threatening to kill Cor. Rosh pleads to let him go, that Cor's already paid for his actions, but Brendin insists that he has to die for his crimes. After their retreat, Hamon points out the specific wording, implying that Brendin has a specific place for death in mind. Meanwhile, Cor had begun to lose hope until he saw that Rosh was trying to find him. He antagonizes Brendin, trying to get a sense for what his plan is, why he's doing this. Lightning strikes within the dome force Rosh and his party into a shelter. The tunnel they choose has its own problems, but they survive and make it to an airlock. Rosh is trapped and miserable. Zoya finally catches up, and the brother and sister have a good talk. Zoya theorizes that Justana is the driving force behind Brendin's actions, and Rosh agrees, but can't discern her motives. Hamon tells them all about how her parents were killed by the Hatharan Crew, a group of vicious scions who attempted a coup. As a result, Justana has a record of being horrible to scions that she gets away with because of her past trauma. They think she's projecting all her rage onto Cor, with deadly intent. Zoya is upset about how Justana is getting away with it, but Rosh is numb. He takes the chance to look more into the insignium he's had with him, since the Itusial houses the main data centers for the dome. He enlists Hamon to take him through the tunnels. To his shock, the computer fully recognizes the insignium as the Arthenarian and provides the usual list of data, including ten candidates for its palador. Rosh is one, and so is Cor. Since Rosh is the one in current physical possession of the Arthenarian, he can cut the list of candidates down. With some help from Hamon's data analysis skills, he does, leaving himself and Cor on the list. Rejoining Anzelia and Zoya, Rosh has figured out where Justana would have Cor taken: the execution field where the Hatharan Crew were finally ended. Worse, they plan to record it, to demonstrate to the rest of the dome how they thought the world should be. Rosh and Zoya rally what help they can find, and go to face Justana and Brendin. Rosh and Anzelia share a kiss, agreeing that it could only ever be a whirlwind romance, but they're okay with that. Justana has put Brendin in charge, keeping herself more to the shadows, as the whole area is recorded and broadcast. She has a gun, however, a highly illegal item in a closed environment like the dome. Rosh and Brendin debate, with Brendin unwilling to act just yet. Rosh gains the verbal upper hand, and Justana steps in. They're evenly matched, with Justana's charismatic well-prepared arguments against Rosh's calm persistence. Rosh finally says something that gets Justana to crack. She rants, until she realizes how it makes her look, and sets the gun down to put her image back as the sympathetic teacher. Brendin snatches it up and the fight begins. It's Rosh and company against Brendin and his group of fanatical teens. Justana stays to the sidelines, ineffectually calling for them all to stop to make it look like her side weren't the aggressors. The Rolmguard arrive, but they do little more than contain the situation, unwilling to intervene. The Arthenarian activates and hovers over the chaos, time running out for it to choose a new palador. Rosh takes advantage of the confusion and goes straight for Cor, only Brendin standing in the way. Brendin gains the upper hand, but Cor somehow blasts him away. This act, of defending a friend, is enough to tip the scales on the selection process. With blinding light that no one can miss, the Arthenarian comes to rest in Cor's hand. Justana is completely blinded by her rage and self-righteousness, and deludes herself into thinking it’s her moral imperative to make sure a scion doesn’t get an insignium. She charges forward with a knife, and attempts to drive it home. Cor is too weak, and still half-tied to a post. Rosh dives in front and takes the knife to his arm. Justana pulls it out and strikes again, since no one stopped her. She moves to do it again, but this time Anzelia downs her. Anzelia arrests Justana for attempted murder, daring the Rolmguard to stop her. They don't. Now that the real leader of the group is downed, the rest of them go quietly. Cor collapses, and they rush him to a doctor. Three days later, Rosh is still being held. Not under arrest, of course, but with the understanding that he's not meant to leave without having a particular conversation. His injuries are treated, but he's otherwise kept isolated. Finally, he's taken to see the Darad Chanostrate, the person in charge of the whole dome at the moment. This man, Fedruel Pyre, explains that Cor will be okay, and expresses sympathy at the damage to Rosh's arms, which will take a long time to heal, if they ever do. He asks Rosh about the Arthenarian, and works out that this was likely the first emergency situation where someone would have been close enough for it to activate. Rosh reminds him that Cor is a palador now, same as Fedruel. Which also means that Cor will be evocated and moved into a new family, no longer considered a scion. Rosh figures out that his new anti-authoritarian streak will end up with consequences, so he tells off Fedruel, and they come to an understanding. They discuss Justana Shreve briefly, and what her fate will be. It’s not as severe as what she planned, but she is moving to a lower class job, and her status was even called into question. She attempted to all the Arthenarian into question, but there was too much data declaring it to be a legitimate insignium, and that was part of her downfall. Fedruel admits the decision to conceal the insignium originally was a good idea, and that now it's out in the world things will be chaotic. That Rosh will have to suffer consequences for his overt rebellion, but he would do what he could to ameliorate that. Rosh goes home to family. He still has his job but it’s pretty clear he’s permanent low guy on the totem pole. The girls are traumatized in various ways. Anzelia keeps her distance, making sure to kill the relationship they had, not out of malice but just because that was how it had to be. Zoya undergoes a lot of flak at work, but is able to blackmail her boss into getting a better position. Hamon remains steadfast in his friendship, which surprises all of them. It's implied he has a crush on Zoya. Approximately two weeks later, they're allowed a rather unusual goodbye with Cor. The girls are tearful, especially after all the recent turmoil, but they’ve been conditioned to think this is a good thing. All the empty platitudes they’re raised with, plus genuine hopes for the future of meeting again. Nervous about his new family, Cor doesn’t want to go, but Zoya assures him they’ll be fine. When they're about to leave, Cor repeats what Rosh has said to him often about keeping his head down. Rosh smiles at him and instead says, "Change the world."
Comments