Howdy! Welcome to the summary of chapters 29-39, like the title says. >.>
If you’ve read the previous summary, then you already know I fill summaries with little tidbits of extra info as a kind of ‘prize in the bottom of the cereal box’ kind of thing. To be extra nice, I’m going to put a ** where there’s more info given.
Here we go!
We start off with Yadira doing something pretty stupid. She goes and visits Lars all by herself in the middle of the night while everyone else is sleeping. She still feels bad for him that his brother was killed.
She tells him they buried him, and she offers to take him to see his brother’s grave so that he can say goodbye. She asks him to promise that he’ll behave himself and come right back when they’re done.
He never actually promises that, instead distracting her.
**
Lars would’ve made a great actor. He’s not the brightest bulb in the box, but he’s also no dummy. He’s really a treasure hunter by trade (interesting life in a post-apocalyptic world), but he also uses his knack for understanding the human psyche to better be able to track people’s movements, which is why he ended up on this expedition.
Yadira unlocks the door for him. /sigh.
He pounces and, after a struggle, eventually gets Yadira to pass out, even telling her before she does that she’s going back to Victoria with him as a kind of prize. He didn’t tell her this part, but he figured he’d better not go back empty-handed considering he was sent out to get Amina–and Zuri if it looked possible. (Amina is Zuri and Vik’s child that Reck thought was his.)
**
Lars chose Yadira as his captive because he knew that Reck would be interested in this kind of ‘magic healer’ person he’s discovered her to be. He suspects she’s more than meets the eye.
Off they go into the night!
Rohan wakes up in the morning and finds her gone, and he freaks out. In searching for her, he wakes up everyone at the main settlement, and they all start freaking out too.
Then they notice Lars is also missing. Dun dun!
Orion comes running up as they notice Lars’ boat (really Corin’s) is gone. He says he saw the boat on the horizon. Now they all know they’re gone. The three of them race up to the main settlement and immediately start arguing over what’s to be done. Of course they’re going after them, even if Vik’s boat still needs minor repairs. Rohan insists he’s going. So does Orion. Asa points out that no one in Victoria knows him meaning he should go. Sama says the same thing. Vik ain’t so hot on that idea. Finally, Corin has had enough of the bickering and forms a definite plan.
Asa and Sama are going. Vik is in charge of the sailing. Orion is going to be backup muscle. Rohan is staying here.
Yeeeeeaaaaah, Rohan is furious. Yadira’s his wife, after all. It takes Asa, Orion, and Vik all carrying him down to the cellar cells so that they can lock him up in there until they’re far enough gone. He’s fighting all the way. They plan on tying him to the bed with Corin going to untie him later, but they can’t get it to work. Instead, Orion just punches him out.
Why isn’t Rohan going? He’s too emotionally involved and could jeopardize the mission by behaving rashly.
**
As he’s giving the order (before they drag Rohan into the cellar), Corin’s voice cracks as he tells Orion that he’s going. Just a hint of some emotional involvement in that decision for him.
It takes Lars a month to get Yadira to the coast. The whole time, she tries to sail back while he sleeps. He’d wake up, slap her across the face, and tie her up again. Even with all that, the other team can’t catch them.
They arrive at what is now called The Watch, previously known as the Skeeve village.
**
I’ve taken some serious artistic license and requests for the suspension of disbelief with the oceanic currents of a melted-ice-cap future. Going east-to-west across the Atlantic takes two weeks tops in a mid-sized sailboat (whoosh!). Going west-to-east takes a month or more (much more zigzagging needed against the current). They’re all still trying to figure out their changed world since it really did happen rather quickly. I tell myself that should I ever rewrite this, the time-frames will be fixed to be more realistic. When I’d started with Rohan talking about how long it took him to get to the island (in chapter 1), I’d still kind of thought of the world in more of a sims kind of world instead of finally deciding that it is, in fact, Earth. 😀 (by chapter 11?)
So, a month has gone by. Now, let’s back up a week. 🙂
The rescue crew has been gone for three weeks, leaving Zuri, Corin, and Rohan the only adults on the island with Zane and Amina as the kiddos. Zuri and Asa had been drifting apart, and before he left, they decided to end it amicably. Now, she is bored, which is never a good thing.
She loves going to the temple, and she’ll frequently leave Corin in charge of the babies, especially at night, so that she can go and do her priestess stuff. She never feels cold there, and she feels like she’s really being heard.
That’s because she is.
Tonight, she arrives to pray for everyone’s safe return, but there’s an unexpected man already here. He acts like he already knows her.
That’s because he does.
They’ve already met and “spoken” before–that time Zuri brought Yadira to the temple for the first time. He just looked different then. He was a crystal. (not a rock!)
It’s Yadira’s brother Peter! He’s not just a crystal!
He’s a huge fan of Zuri’s, and he was dying to meet her as himself instead of a geologic formation. This is when we find out his main trick: transformation. He can transform anything into anything else, and that includes himself. (Yadira’s trick is healing.)
**
Both Peter and Yadira have more than one “trick.” More will be revealed as the story goes on. Also, Peter tells Zuri that Yadira can’t see him yet in this form. I’m still not 100% on why at this point in time. I mean, I have a reason right now, but that reason may not stick. I know, that’s not new info, but I thought I’d give a little background to that. (the tiniest amount possible lol) I will advise the reader to pay attention to Peter. He’s kind of my deus ex machina when needed. I also pull his personality as a combination of my own thoughts (like when he’s giving moral stuff) as well as from other ancient deities (not always good ones). I doubt I’ve ever written a more truly neutral character. (If he were DnD, he’d be neutral unlawful.)
He does whatever he wants, and right now, he wants to do Zuri.
He tells Zuri that his Mother has told him to stay out of the mortal’s lives, but he doesn’t like to listen. He’d much rather have fun, and he knows Zuri likes fun. After some discussion, he decides to up the fun meter by slightly altering Zuri’s appearance.
Zuri’s totally turned on, and he knows it. He can read thoughts.
**
Peter views the world as a kind of plaything. He can manipulate it. He can walk through it. He can vanish into it. In doing so, he learned how to read minds, by literally watching the synapses in the brain. After all, to change something, you need to know how it works on a fundamental, atomic level.
He uses those skills of his to go at it all night with Zuri. In the midst of that, she wonders if she’s going to get pregnant. He tells her no. Their DNA isn’t compatible.
They make plans to meet frequently in the future. Zuri is no longer bored, at least physically.
Now let’s zip back to the future! A week… back to Yadira arriving at The Watch.
Lars leaves her with a couple of what look like nuns, saying he’ll be back to fetch her but that she needs a bath. (Like he doesn’t? ugh.)
Upon entering the house, an old woman races up to Yadira and is all like ‘you’re here!’ She checks behind Yadira’s ear where she sees a mark, and she knows the one she’s been prophesying about has finally arrived. Yadira has no idea what she’s talking about.
Meanwhile, King Reck has been making judgments about farmer squabbles. Even though his farmers are his most important people (remember the wars were all about food supply), he can’t stand it. He despises all the arguing going on around him and wishes that humanity would just stop bickering and move forward, but survivors of the war remember their old enemies, and now, they’re all beginning to live together in Victoria. It’s not the utopia he wants it to be, and he knows he needs a solution before the powder keg of old hatred explodes.
His regular day ended, he hears that his scouting party (one of them) has returned. Instantly, he wonders why it’s Lars who is announced instead of Corin, whom he’d placed in charge of the expedition.
Lars fills him in. Amina is not his daughter. Rohan shot and killed Odin. Corin has defected. Reck is livid and wants immediate revenge on both Vik and Rohan. Lars tells him he may have already accomplished that. He explains he’s abducted Rohan’s wife then explains how there were already a few people on the island. He tells him that she’s extraordinary and, praying he’s not blaspheming, something of a divine nature. Reck is like ‘well, where is she?’ She’s on her way.
When she walks in, he phrases it: “It would be impossible to stop staring.” After some speaking with The Mother (the old lady who’d looked behind Yadira’s ear), he formulates a plan.
One of the only things that unites everyone is this religion that The Mother preaches, and now, this ‘daughter of the Goddess’ has shown up. Wouldn’t the king of Victoria and the daughter of the Goddess make a great pair? No one would challenge them.
There’s no chance in hell that he’s letting her slip away.
As he attempts to explain to her the part about bringing everyone together peacefully, she’s not interested, saying that’s his job. She’s already heard all about him from Rohan, Zuri, and the others. He’s nothing but a bully, and she won’t be his puppet.
He decides to change tactics. He now points out that she can be of better help to the population here where the population is larger. He talks about how she can heal the pain and loss experienced by everyone.
As he does, his OWN pain and loss fly into his mind in a way that he cannot block them like he’s done for half his life. Just before eop (end of plague), he’d found his brother shot dead and then found his father had shot himself, meaning he probably killed the brother before offing himself as well. Yadira comments like she’s seeing it as well.
Of course, he’s shocked as she explains to him that both the brother and father had gotten the plague. The father didn’t want the brother to die painfully, so he ‘did him a favor’ before ‘doing the favor’ to himself. She also tells him that his father was so happy that he (Reck) didn’t also get sick. Then, seeing tears in his eyes, she breaks down.
**
Not particularly new news, but this act of giving him closure starts some healing in him that is a really, really big deal. It becomes more and more evident with the passing of time. However, ‘the monster’ in him is still currently in charge at this point.
Reck uses what she’d just done to him as further proof that she belongs here. She doesn’t say it, but she speaks ‘to herself’ that she understands now what Peter meant, that she might come upon a time when she wouldn’t want her memories of her life before. (What happened to her after The Land of Weird chapter) Peter had warned her.
Still, she says she wants to go home, saying Rohan must be worried sick.
Reck offers up a solution to that after startling her and spinning around after he’d looked like he was leaving the room. She doesn’t need to worry about Rohan being worried sick anymore. As king, he hereby dissolves her marriage.
**
Seriously, did anyone even catch the Mel Brooks reference I made in this chapter? I had Reck internalize “It’s good to be the king.”
She argues back that he can’t do that, and they have a bit of a back-and-forth. Even though she’s disagreeing/arguing with him, he’s thrilled. He’s been striking quite the figure as king of Victoria, and women have been all but throwing themselves at him. That’s boring. Yadira arguing/etc isn’t boring. Yay.
Oh yeah, somewhere in this chapter, he gives her the nickname ‘poppet’ because of her saying she wouldn’t be his ‘puppet.’
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Rohan is in a foul mood.
That’s enough of that. Back to Victoria…
Yadira is… kinda freaking out. The more she thinks about it, the more she believes she’s where she’s supposed to be, even though she doesn’t want to be there. She realizes that that means she may never leave even if given the chance.
Now for someone only seen in a few pictures but is still kind of important: Ali Campbell. It’s not for lack of trying, or maybe it is idk, that she doesn’t appear in many pics, but she’s mentioned frequently at least (in later chapters). Reck hires her to be a kind of assistant for Yadira, but he tells her not to tell her her life story. Yadira gets it anyway with some of her strange gift for seeing what deeply troubles people. Ali runs out of the room crying.
Then Reck walks in right after her. Yadira is really ticked off. She’s been locked in her room for about three days with no visitors other than the quick delivery of food, and that was with no conversation.
After telling herself repeatedly not to slap him or claw at his face, she notices he appears… calmer. Of course, that doesn’t mean she’s happy to see him just because he’s only the second person she’s spoken to in days. She’s accuses him of asking for her help then locking her up. He comes back with he didn’t want to let her loose on the public without first getting a better understanding of who she was and what she can do.
He’d just spent the last three days grappling with his personal issues.
He tells her he wants to test out her skills on an extreme case. Or… she could stay in her room alone for a while again.
She decides to give it a go.
Enter Macie.
If you’re just reading along in the story, you have no idea how important Macie becomes later. Right now, she just looks like a kind of side-act. But you’re not reading along in the story, are you? Nope. You’re reading the summary.
Macie is much more important to the story.
**
I do my best to avoid any ‘un-fired guns’ in my stories, writing way ahead of what’s actually out so that I have the opportunity to throw in hints. 🙂 I say it once in an A/N: not much of anything is random or however I phrased it. That’s not to say… oh well. It’s just a hint to look for hints from time to time.
So, yeah, Macie.
Macie has gone utterly mad. Reck wants to see if Yadira is able to cure her or at least bring her to a point where she can function.
**
Yadira discovers things from Macie in a smattering of scattered visions. There’s a lot of burning. Here’s a huge bit of info that won’t be released for ages yet: Macie was a child spy/operative. If you’ve gotten this far into the summary, I feel like that extra is earned. Now you know something that only Macie herself knows, and she’s not speaking about it.
All of her past as well as the most-recent stuff she’s experienced led her to completely break down when she reached Victoria. All around her was humanity succeeding, but where she was most recently from had a very odd phenomenon happen: a strange sound from a mountain made everyone lose their minds and kill each other except her. They killed her baby. Why couldn’t that success she saw be her group? What if what happened to them was her fault? What if she hurts everyone in Victoria? What if they KNOW she’s nothing but dangerous?! She went into a kind of self-defense psychosis and started attacking people.
Yadira steps in and does her best to calm her down, telling her none of what happened to her old tribe was her fault. (That’s Yadira’s bodyguard freaking out behind her. I like Niel. He’s not going anywhere.)
Then this happens when Yadira’s eyes close:
It’s a lighting effect!
Hehe, yes, of course it is for the picture, but it represents a light coming from Yadira and going into Macie.
She’s sane again.
And his majesty the dunghead (as Yadira calls him) is realizing just exactly what he has, convincing him even more of how he’s not letting her go anywhere.
(Three days does not a ‘monster’ cure.)
Reck and Yadira go back up to her room, and he follows her in there, deciding to pester her for the fun of it.
Guessing, correctly, that she’s an amateur at flirting (because he knows Rohan), he has his fun guiding their conversation in whatever innuendo he feels like at the time.
Then she shocks him by saying, “Stop it, Derek,” calling him by his real name, having guessed it like she’d done with others.
This ‘amateur’ turned it around on him, unraveling him further as she unwittingly attacks ‘the monster.’ She doesn’t exactly bring up any past traumas, but she does state that ‘Reck’ was carrying around a lot of baggage, so without the baggage, he has more room to care, meaning he’s more like his old self ‘Derek.’ He says some things that hurt her feelings, and then he apologizes. Then he’s like ‘I never used to apologise.’ He complains that she’s messing with his head, that he NEEDS to be strict, unbiased, and above the general population! She’s making him want to go out and kiss babies and all that bloody politician nonsense. He doesn’t need to be liked; he needs to be feared and respected.
She tells him that she did him a favor if that’s the attitude he was taking before.
They have a kind of staring match.
Yadira suddenly surprises him with “What are you thinking about?”
After all that, seeing her go from what he was perceiving as an omnipotent being to acting just like a twenty-something totally throws him.
They talk some more, and he almost regains control of the conversation. He tricks her into talking about her home, and she mentions two names: Asa and Sama. Sure he’s gotten info on as much as he could from Lars, but he’s always curious about more. Aggravated at herself for falling for it, she makes him leave. He does, grinning.
Wow. All that and I just finished 32?
Okay! Asa and Sama have arrived around Victoria.
They do the best they can to act like they don’t know one another, and they use their old names: Samantha and Asante. Bet you can’t guess who’s who.
And I really like that hat on Asa.
They also plan to use Orion’s accent, him having taught it to them on the voyage over. Even though he’s been trying for a month, Asa just can’t seem to grasp it whereas Sama picked it up right away. The reason behind needing the different accent is they know that if they don’t fake an accent, people would know where they’re from immediately. That could potentially be bad.
They walk into a bar, ahem, pub of sorts. Eh, it has rooms for rent as well.
Asa immediately notices the fine ass of the girl standing at the bar proper. She says hi to him, but he remains quiet, having decided to be the ‘silent type.’
That girl and her friend are ‘working’ the bar. Eventually, she comes over to Asa and starts chatting it up with him. Sama, to pay for them to have some food, works by cleaning things up for the owner. She goes ahead and lets Asa do what he deems he wants to do. He’s an adult and all, but her doing all the work means he owes her one.
**
If this place looks familiar, you play Skyrim. The entire The Watch lot is Riverwood made by someone else (will adjust if I can ever find it again and hopefully provide a link). It’s awesome.
Now Asa has a problem: he has to talk. When he opens his mouth, out pops a pathetic imitation of Corin’s accent. He has to stick with it now, though.
Then the fine-ass girl takes him to one of the rooms. On the way there, we learn her name is Maren.
Yes, she’s doing what she looks like she’s doing under the front flap of his shirt. Asa tells himself that he’s back there with her to get intel. This kind of woman would hear things, right?
He EVENTUALLY asks her if she’s seen someone looking like Yadira. She has, and she tells him she’s gone to the castle.
(Yes, it’s the future, and Reck has a castle.)
When they’re finished, Asa tries to act noble and say he could take her away from this. She’s all like ‘you weren’t interested in my life BEFORE we came in here.’ Yep. He gets an emotional slap in the face.
Still, he goes out of the room to tell Sama what he’s learned. Then the bar owner tells them he has to deliver them to the guard so they can have their entrance interviews. (It’s what they do in order to help place people in jobs.)
Now, remember when Corin said that Rohan couldn’t go on the rescue mission because he may endanger the mission by acting rashly due to too much emotional involvement?
Orion starts doing exactly that. He goes on a solo mission. He knows a secret entrance he’d remembered seeing on the plans for the castle before he’d left. It leads first to the dungeon. (Reck insists upon calling it a jail.)
As he presses himself against the wall, he hears two women speaking. (Macie and a guard named Angie) Through them, he learns that Reck knows what Yadira is capable of.
Even though stealth is NOT his thing, he manages to time everything perfectly and get up to Yadira’s door.
Yadira’s bodyguard Niel stands in his way. Niel hears him and says Orion may as well come out of hiding. So, he does.
They fight. Street-fighter versus the ninja. 🙂
**
Ninja is just what Orion calls Niel. I haven’t fully decided what martial arts Niel uses. More on that in later chapters, I guess.
Orion barely beats him by dislocating his shoulder then knocking him out. He finds the key on Niel and unlocks Yadira’s door.
“Shh!”
He drags Niel into the room and closes the door back. Yadira’s shocked.
“I’m here ta take ye home.”
“No.”
Now we jump to Corin! hehehe
Corin can’t sleep. He has a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he’s pretty sure it has everything to do with Orion. So, he decides to head out to the temple, leaving Rohan in charge of the kiddos.
But when he arrives at the temple, it’s already occupied… by Peter and Zuri.
Peter “hears” his thoughts. (So yeah, it’s not just mind reading if those thoughts are ‘loud.’) Then he tells him to come on out.
So Corin meets Peter. Now, Peter gets a better read on him, and he knows why he’s there. He answers Corin’s unspoken question: Is Orion okay? The answer is no, he’s not but that he will be.
Corin almost breaks down. Zuri immediately gets it.
Zuri is one of the few people who knows Corin is gay… but not out. (Ages ago, she made a play for him which was rebuffed utterly. He eventually had to tell her in strict confidence–which she’s kept.) His emotions raw and totally on the surface, she realizes he’s in love with Orion and probably has been for some time.
Corin internally talks himself down, also trying to deal with being embarrassed that he let his guard down in front of people. Orion is his best mate. That’s it. That’s all. Peter ‘listens’ and agrees, saying that Orion is totally straight. Corin gives them both a ‘fuck off’ and starts walking away.
Peter’s like, ‘I’m surprised you haven’t thought of it yet. I can change things.’ Corin’s like, ‘You can’t change the way Orion thinks.’ Peter’s like, ‘No, but I can change YOU.’
Now it’s back to Orion! 🙂
Orion can’t believe that Yadira just said no to going home. Then she leans down to heal Niel, shocking him again. She tells him she knows she’s supposed to be here. He tells her that she’s supposed to be home… with Rohan. Then she tells him to tell Rohan that he’s free, as in no longer in any relationship with her. Orion is pretty damn sure now that she’s lost her mind, so he decides he’s just going to carry her out of there.
However, now healed, Niel wakes up and knocks Orion to the ground, where he hits his head. Then Niel knocks him out.
Back to Corin! 🙂
Did he seriously just hear what he thought he heard? Change HIM? Sure, before docs were too busy during the wars, it used to be a thing, but ever since the world ‘ended,’ it just isn’t an option any more.
Corin asks if it would be permanent. Peter says it doesn’t have to be. They debate it, mostly Corin internalizing his debate with himself as to whether or not he wants it to happen. His most prevalent question is ‘what if Orion hates me for this?’ This bugs Peter because Corin is basing his whole decision on what someone else will think when he needs to make it for himself.
Eventually, Corin decides to go for it. Seeing there’s a smidgen of reason that he’s also doing this for himself, Peter agrees.
He snaps his fingers, and the chapter ends. muahahahahahaha!
I’m not SO evil that I don’t start the next chapter with the Corin stuff. I do.
Boom. Peter pulled his/her new appearance from the image in his/her mind as well as his own preferences. He stares at her chest and congratulates himself ‘damn, I do good work!’
Corin notices scars on his/her hands are gone. Are the face scars also gone? Peter makes a mirror from a rock. They are! Corin keeps doing more personal inventory.
Peter’s like ‘are you seriously wondering what kind of SOLDIER you’ll be?’ like that’s not what Corin should be thinking. He/she’s like ‘it’s what I know.’ Peter keeps trying to get out of her if she likes it. She hasn’t gotten that far yet.
“How long do I have?”
“You’re not going to change back at the stroke of twelve, Cinderella.” Corin meant how long does he/she (sigh. SHE) have to change her mind. Peter swears that all she has to do is call out, and he’d be there. Then he advises her not to base her decision on someone else’s opinion. She can’t help it. She’s all about Orion’s opinion on this.
She finally does thank him, though.
**
Corin the sim comes from a duplicate of a sim I made using Charlotte Taylor and Jarvis Watanabe (turned Taylor) from my Chain Reaction legacy. I was playing in CAS and made the sim then saved him. In my game, Corin’s last name is Notttaylor. lol. 🙂 Charlotte and Jarvis make pretty babies.
Now back to Yadira!
Niel grabs Yadira then orders her into the corridor. She refuses, so he searches Orion for the key then shoves her out there, holding her arm. Then they march to Reck’s chamber.
Immediately, Reck knows something’s wrong.
**
It gets said much later, but I wanna put this in as an extra bit: Reck didn’t speak until he was about four years old. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how; he just wasn’t interested/didn’t see the point. Instead, he learned to read facial expressions combined with body language to know what a person was saying. That was his ‘first language’ so to speak. (pun intended) Of course, this worried his parents at first, thinking autism. By the time he was seven or eight, he acted like any other kid, just incredibly intelligent. As he grew up, he was surprised that others couldn’t read expressions to his degree of accuracy, it coming so naturally to him that he thought everyone was like that. He almost had to teach himself to have ‘normal’ conversations and have people actually speak their thoughts. It sometimes amuses him how a person will ‘edit’ what they want to say.
It’s this ability that makes it possible for him to frequently be very good at hiding his own emotions: the mask.
Niel tells Reck that Orion is here, and for the first time, I actually call Orion a Scotsman. *gasp!* lol. Bet you couldn’t guess that one!
**
Now that we’re on the subject: nationalities. In my world, people see them as that they USED to have them. When the world fell apart, most everyone dropped that idea. (Weeeeeellllll…. some took the other extreme but that’s a surprise later.) It’s common to say something like ‘I’m from an area once known as _____.’ Unfortunately, this non-patriotism doesn’t extend to forgetting old enemies. Then it’s a ‘we’ and a ‘they.’ This ‘we’ and ‘they’ is the only struggle with starting to call everyone in Victoria Victorians. (Makes me think of corsets and Gibson girl buns, bustles, terrible food safety, factories, etc.)
I keep getting distracted. Eh, I’m running 101 fever. (That’s Fahrenheit! I’m not bursting into flames lol.)
Reck gives instructions, knowing exactly how good a fighter Orion is. He tells Niel to pick four soldiers and know that Orion will be ready for him. Then he tells him to leave Yadira here.
Since I get to be ‘tell-y’ in my summaries, He’s livid. He’s convinced Yadira knew about some rescue plot. She tries to tell him otherwise, but he’s in no mood to listen to reason. She’s like, ‘Yes, he showed up, wanting to take me home…’
‘THIS IS YOUR HOME!’ Temper slipped through the mask.
‘But I told him no.’
That shocked him. Of course, he wants to know why.
‘Which is it? Do you want to stay or go?’ All he can read is that she’s conflicted, and it’s making him bonkers.
She tells him that if she felt she had a choice, she wants to go, but she agrees with him that this is where she’s supposed to be.
Not exactly the answer he wanted. He gets snarky then walks to the door, saying that he owes Orion a little something himself. Terrified, Yadira worries that Reck wants to kill him. He doesn’t say otherwise, and he has his guards force her back into the room before closing the door and keeping her in there.
Now, let’s pop over to Asa!
He and Sama have both been given one of the newcomer’s flats, where they put people until they themselves can afford to acquire better. Asa thinks about how much he likes it here, even if his job at the lumber mill isn’t the best. He’s impressed by the infrastructure, which includes the usage of old coins. (Paper money didn’t survive the fall.) There’s running water… but no electricity. He doesn’t know exactly how that plays in to what Corin told them about Reck wanting to reactivate the power grid. As long as the extreme scenario of Reck reinstalling slavery as a method for labor isn’t implemented, he’s impressed.
Here we have a pic of Asa trying to look cool. He’s observant, trying to pick up on what people call things and the overall custom. He’s at the pub/bar to meet Sama, who is actually sitting off in the corner while he pretends not to notice her for a while.
Then he walks over, and they discuss how Orion isn’t back yet. Asa had warned him not to do his crazy, hair-brained scheme of a solo mission, but Orion didn’t want to listen.
Tomorrow is their day off, and Asa tells Sama he wants to go visit Maren again. Sama’s like ‘WHY?’ in a whiny voice. ‘She’s not interested in you like that.’ Asa notices Sama has hardly touched her drink. Sama doesn’t tell him, but she’s wondering if she’s pregnant.
Then Macie shows up. Yep: Macie.
She gets on Sama’s. last. nerve.
They work together at the tailor on 3rd Street. Macie cuts the fabric then hands it to Sama who pieces it together to hand to a tailor/seamstress. Macie is blissfully unaware of how she gets on Sama’s nerves. She’s heard that Sama wants to go to the beach tomorrow and asks if she can tag along. Sama pleads with her eyes to Asa, reminding him he owes her one, and he mentions he’s going to The Watch tomorrow. Macie gets excited because there are two ladies she wants to visit there.
Asa has successfully taken Macie off Sama’s hands, and he’s already wondering at the sanity of his act.
Back to Yadira!
She’s trying to stay calm and NOT rip apart Reck’s room, figuring that wouldn’t help Orion if she did.
Reck bursts in and says Orion has been ‘dealt with’ and her room is being set to rights. Immediately, she interprets this as Orion’s dead. Reck smirks and tells her that he’s just been thrown in jail (the dungeon). However, he’s not sure what to do with him. Yadira’s like just don’t kill him. Reck’s like well, he’s a traitor.
Then, as if out of nowhere, he dive-bombs the question, “Is he in love with you?” She doesn’t have to answer; he can already see that yes, he is but that she doesn’t quite feel the same. He’s thinking ‘great. another one.’ But since this chapter is told in Yadira’s pov, we don’t exactly get that, but it’s not too hard to guess.
They debate back and forth as Yadira literally fights to save Orion’s life. Reck can’t see a way out of it. If he lets him go, Orion will only try again and possibly hurt more of his people. He doesn’t buy her saying he’ll do as she asks because he knows what a stubborn bastard Orion can be. He determines that although he doesn’t want to, he’s going to have to execute him.
Yadira. is. ticked. off.
She pulls her trump card. She threatens to do everything she can to undermine him by announcing herself. She’ll hate him forever and do whatever she can to remove him from power.
Reck is thoroughly intrigued.
She has no idea (and it’s not actually mentioned until much later **) that a good fight/discussion is a kind of turn-on for him.
He opens negotiations. What will she bargain for Orion? She’s like I’ll hate you less. He almost snorts and says he can fix that on his own, do better. She’s like he already has her promising to help the people (which he’s also preventing her from doing) what else? He suggests she accept that she’s no longer married. They have a bit of church vs state debate on the topic of marriage. Church wins.
Fine. So SHE renounce her marriage if SHE’S the authority. She wants his promise that he’ll let Orion go. He doesn’t promise that, just that he won’t kill him or have him killed. Nope. Not acceptable.
She threatens that she’ll announce herself. The Mother will help her. HIS people would fall in line. There would be peace, but he would be irrelevant.
For the first time in this discussion, he gets afraid, and he almost lashes out, asking her if she’s even capable of continuing with everything he has put in place. She calls his bluff before finally admitting that she’s not interested in taking his kingdom from him but merely pointing out that she COULD. (In the midst of this, we read how Reck is frustrated at getting the power plant running again.)
So he’s like ‘what if word gets out I let him go?’ She’s like big deal. Oh, I know. Just say it was the will of the goddess.
“Incredible.” ** He’s thinking to himself that he just sat here and watched her bloom into one hell of a negotiator. He doesn’t even care that he ‘lost.’ He later reveals that he had a death grip on the edge of his desk so that he wouldn’t either a: fall to his knees in a kind of almost-worship and/or b: kiss her like a madman. Either or both could’ve been disastrous.
But she has to concede something. He laughs when she scoffs that of course she would have to placate his ego. He says she has to renounce her vows to Rohan. If she does, Orion goes free. (omg I literally almost typed Scot free *facepalm*)(*sigh*)(That has seriously not occurred to me until now–with my fever brain.)
She renounces her vows.
Then she asks for stuff. More on that later.
It’s later.
“You want… corn? … I think you mean maize.”
“No, I mean corn.”
** I have done so. much. actual. research on this stuff. Good gracious, I had only the faintest idea of just how different American and British English really are (and that’s not even counting different dialects in both). Even now, I frequently go back and edit stuff depending on whose pov it is as to how I’ll even SPELL things, even if the meaning or pronunciation of the word doesn’t change (if it’s not fixed yet–give me time). Some things I already knew, but this ‘corn’ thing threw me. I just couldn’t believe it until I had four or five different sources confirm that ‘corn’ isn’t just ‘corn’ as in ‘sweetcorn.’ The word ‘maize’ to me brings to mind like the Aztecs or Maya or something: history lessons. Otherwise, we (at least SE USA) don’t use the word. Everything else goes by its specific name: rye, barley, wheat, etc., and really, rye and barley make alcohol, not often bread (though I see it in stores if I happen to look).
That said, AS ALWAYS, PLEASE point out errors to me. I like to do things right and would prefer they be correct rather than protect any ego I may have going on. 🙂
Reck finally shakes his head and assumes Yadira means sweetcorn, deciding not to discuss it.
This is Yadira’s little plan: The island hasn’t had any kind of grain going in its crops. She knows this has always bothered Sama, and she wants Orion to bring back a gift of wheat and –corn– seeds. That, and she asks for paper to write Rohan a letter.
Right now, Yadira could ask for just about anything, but her needs are simple.
Reck has to explain to her how to use an envelope. He does it ironically at first, but, reading her face, he sees that she really doesn’t know what it is. Well, she once had one as a bookmark but that’s about it. She’d never seen an unused one before. (She’d read about them, of course, but it’s a surprise to her to see an unused one.)
He offers his desk for her to use to write her letter. She wants to write it in her room, but he says she can’t because her ‘hero’ fights dirty, and things got broken. So, she sits down to write. Giving her some privacy, he leaves the room.
To go visit Orion.
Then I have Orion say a line that would’ve possibly fit well for this guy:
This show, Still Game, I found on Netflix, and it heavily influenced Orion’s ‘voice’ in my head. (As long as it’s not Shrek’s voice, I’m good. lol) Anyway, this bartender would always say something cheeky when the main characters would walk in. (btw, I had to turn on subtitles bc I often couldn’t make heads or tails of what they were saying. lol)
I keep getting distracted. We’ve made it to 38, btw. 🙂
Reck and Orion talk, and Orion learns that Yadira had to bargain for his freedom.
He jumps to conclusions. Reck, for a moment, wonders if Orion can actually bend the bars. He lets Orion stew in his wrong conclusions for a while before he berates him for it.
He also wants to know who else came with him. He’ll get no answer about that from Orion. He warns that if he should find anyone else, he may not be so lenient as he’s about to be. Then he explains the terms of his release and how Yadira is arranging a kind of ‘care package’ to go back with him.
Meanwhile, Yadira has finished her awful letter. Reck walks in not too much later and sees she’s been crying. He offers her his handkerchief.
“Up yours.”
After a bit more discussion, Yadira just folds up. She’s done. Just. Done.
Then, Reck, even with all his gift of reading people, acts like a true idiot and tries to cry friends. (Seriously, Reck? Now?) He has what he’ll later refer to as the ‘Yadira bug.’ He tries to tell her he doesn’t like hurting her, but of course, she doesn’t want to hear it.
“Go to hell, you rat bastard son of a bitch.”
After some thought, speaking aloud, he claims he’s already there. She doesn’t care, so he stops pushing. Well, he pushes the chair she’s in over to the window and then pushes over one of his armchairs to use at his desk.
Then there’s this long bit of introspection that I almost edited out. I decided to keep it because it shows Yadira just watching Reck (via the reflection in the glass) simply being a dude with a never-ceasing job. He’s going through the papers on his desk, signing some and putting others to the side, unsigned. I wished I could’ve better displayed how Reck looked, but the chair was actually set too high. I portray it, in the writing, as him sitting in the low chair and having to reach up to his desk in order to write something, and it makes him seem like a child who’s too little to sit properly at the dining table. It shows Reck’s humanity.
She falls asleep; then gets up; then falls asleep on the sofa.
He’s distracted, and we hear about his thoughts on recent events–that I included in stuff earlier. Right now, he hates himself for ‘breaking’ her. But, to him, what choices does he have? He knows that just letting Orion go is a really stupid thing to do, but he’s doing it anyway. Should Orion try again, he’ll be forced to take more drastic action, knowing it’ll only make her hate him more.
That said, he bemoans the loss of his mates. Now that he’s more like his old self, he sees where he went wrong, but that doesn’t stop him from missing them. It actually hurt that Orion threatened to kill him earlier (when he was overreacting).
He’s torn in so many ways, and above all, he wished he wasn’t pushed into doing things that would make her hate him.
Now to Orion!
He’s beating himself up over his stupid actions, especially worried about whatever it was Yadira bargained away for him. Somehow, he finds sleep, and the next morning, there is the sound of many feet.
Yadira’s here! Well, her, Reck, Niel, and six guards, but all he sees right now is her. She’s worried he has a concussion (he’d hit his head when Niel knocked him down); he’s dying to know what she bargained away.
She tells him, and he registers immediately what it implies.
“It’ll never work. There’s only room fer one man in ‘er heart, an’ it sure as hell ‘int you!”
Reck’s expression says he’s not going to listen. Orion thinks to himself that that’s Reck’s own folly.
Yadira is determined to stay on target, and for her, that’s getting across to him not to do something stupid once he’s out, her eyes implying she’s already given up enough.
(I love how I have Niel in this pic looking at Reck like he’s just dying to be given the order to pull her back away from the ‘brute.’)
The guards enter the cell to cuff him, and Yadira slips in with them, the guards being so focused on the mad warrior to bother paying attention to her. haha.
She puts the note to Rohan in Orion’s pocket, asking him to wait a while before giving it to him so that he doesn’t automatically toss it into the fire or something. Orion’s like take it back. take it all back. I don’t care what happens to me. She’s like well I do. Then she hugs him.
I stinkin’ love this look he’s giving Reck as Yadira hugs him. Old mates? yes. Old rivals as well? Oh yes. He leans down and kisses her. He’s expecting her to step away like she’s always done eventually, and he’s planning on using that scene to dig it into Reck’s psyche.
She doesn’t!
And for a few, all-too-brief, very precious moments for Orion, it’s Yadira and Orion the couple, right here in front of everyone… until she gets literally snatched away from him.
Niel finally got his wish and holds her away from the ‘brute.’ She yells at him, and Orion starts looking enraged, sounding warning bells in Reck’s mind. He tells Niel to let go of her before promising Orion no one will hurt her. Yeah, Orion ain’t buying it.
Now to Corin!
Or rather… Corrine. Zuri convinces her to change it to the female version of the name.
Corrine is still battling to get used to being female. She misses her old amount of physical strength, and she wonders how she’d fare sparring with someone. Zuri only has the most basic of training, and Corrine wants a tougher opponent. That just leaves Rohan available to her.
She pays him a visit.
After some back and forth where Rohan says ‘he doesn’t fight girls,’ she’s beginning to realise what it means to be female in this post apocalyptic society. She calls Rohan a lazy fuck, which really ticks him off.
Rohan unloads his pent up frustration against everyone, especially her for saying he couldn’t go on the rescue mission. He lets out a beautiful rant. Corrine’s like ‘so that’s a no,’ referring to her questioning if he would spar with her.
She stands by her reasons for not letting him go, but he doesn’t give a rat’s left stone for her reasons.
WHEW! That’s the end of 39! Dang, and here I’d thought to do the whole 29-50 in one summary. Ha!
Thank you for reading. If you’d like to start reading chapters at 40, click HERE.
If you want to read the next summary (40-49), click HERE.
After the End 