The Tears of Balore

Zaren's family had always worked in the mines … he had searched the memories of his ancestors as well … there had to be something somewhere, why else had he been the first ?!

The world had changed, and yet it hadn’t … a millennia had come and gone, and another millennia more … The Yarogs were still in power; now searching for a way to encase their star, empowering them to travel the galaxies … But they needed ever more minerals and materials, of an ever varying nature …

Two thousand years of prophecy still unfilled; the people were growing weary, the guard had grown lax … drugs were growing, both in availability, and potency … though one drug remained above them all …

“Your squad’s toss was off again this week Z!”

There were more important things to worry about … of course someone would start to take notice, but that couldn’t concern him right now … What had he missed ?!

“Hey Z, did you hear me ?!?”

He had 4 drops of krwl left … if he needed to find more … well that was a bridge to cross when it came …

“Yea I heard ya”

“This is the 3rd week Z, they’re gonna start measuring you b/f you leave if you’re not careful.”

They still wouldn’t find anything, the bigger they are the harder it is for them to see what they’re standing on, as his uncle used to say.

The perks of an aunt who married into the Releal, 1200 years ago, enabled their family certain benefits above the rest of the stock. And while the range may have diminished over the years, the family had still grown; it had become tradition to allow the Chumakoia a wider berth in all things social, political and economic.

Not to say everyone held to the same values, but tradition was tradition.

And tradition is notoriously difficult to break.

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“If they’re all listening to the Oracle’s speech, won’t they be occupied enough ?”

“You’re forgetting that we have to coordinate this between 3 dozen sites around the globe; in sync with the sun and her 3 moons!”

Bardle never had a way with words, but directness served its purpose well in his position. The Wild Roaster had served in the mines for 2 decades, across 3 continents. He’d learned to read and write, taught by an aunt who married into the Chumakoia clan. And he’d been leading the resistance in the Sabansanya sector for the past 3 years ...

“We need to make sure the solar-syncs are calibrated perfectly Drelden!! I can’t stress that enough, the whole thing falls to shit if they’re off by a gradient!”

Drelden had heard this before … Bardle was in part respected for his sincerity, but this was different. This had to be different … how could any of them rely on a plan that rested on such a singular event ?!

It was beyond faith to even think it reasonable … it was arguable insanity …

But after nearly 2000 years of depravity … delusion was demanded before reality.

“It’s not possible !! It’s not reasonable !!”

Thadwick was the embodiment of Bardles emotions, or at least the one’s Bardle couldn’t admit to having …

“There has to be another way! The prophecy can’t lie!”

No the prophecy couldn’t lie, but it could be misinterpreted …

What was he missing ?! Drelden was not accustomed to such a sense of ineptitude … he’d always excelled in scenario solutionaires, been called a genius since grade school --- whatever good that did for a slum-grub destined to work the mines until their final unwinding.

Now they had a mission, a hope, slim as it was, it wasn’t non-existent … his mind could calculate the possibilities even if his mouth could not verbalize the how … what was he not seeing ?!

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Z wasn’t a loner, he just didn’t like anyone enough to always be around them … it was nice sometimes … but most of the time it was nicer to just wonder and wander … mis-adventure into a knowsack, see what could be found … after nearly 2000 years of imperial rule, the Yarogs had gotten good at it …

People had food and shelter, the illusion of vacations, work schedules, and all of the other mundane decisions that make us feel like we’re in control of our lives. You never notice the walls you never run into … and if the path set is relatively pleasurable …

Though every now and again, someone gets a lil’ bored … which isn’t to say Z was bored specifically … but … he knew that there had to be something more …

They’d been told that they would see the Releal rise within their lifetimes … though they’d heard stories that their parents has been told something similar … no one really cared anymore ...

You could work a measly job, earn enough to get a drink of whatever you wanted for the weekend … and that was a simple enough routine … budget in a few meals, and life was made a cake-walk until your final unwinding … it was easy enough …

Z didn’t mind working in the mines, it was good exercise; they’d yell at him a bit for his under-tosses. He’d apologize, pick it up for a few weeks, and then … well hopefully by then it wouldn’t matter … he had enough to jump the wall.

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“Naw man, you ain’t never gonna see anything like this in your life !!! It’s like you’re there man ~~ You can feel their pain, their panic, their fear, whatever it is man !!! You’re ~ Them ~”

He’d bought from worse salesmen … it wasn’t boredom, but a quest … he told himself.

He’d been looking for these drops since he’d first heard of them, K-relic, or krwl, as it’s known on the streets is usually just a cheap cut of an original tear ... like the sliver of a sliver of god.

You can’t find many books any more, though a cult once spoke of a family who collected the tears of anyone who would provide them. This family would then brew these tears with divination herbs and fires into potions and pleasure pills sold to the highest bidder …

Ya gotta start somewhere, ya gotta start somehow ?!

“Yea, I’ll take a drop.”

“Two for the price of one, only 45 credits down, 55 upon return -- jaja”

Dealers these days ….

They didn’t make you pay if you didn’t survive the trip …

The money wasn’t the impossible part to come by … it’s the feeling that everyone was searching for …

“Yea, sounds good whatever,” Z slipped him the credits …

It’s that same buzz whenever you acquire something new … the anticipation of it all.

And this was no different. Oh sure, it had probably been cut with something; that’s actually why it was called K-relic … it used to be cut with kninephosphate … until folks learned they could cut it with virtually any chemical under the three moons.

No, this wasn’t the most dangerous drug on the market, but it had the most mystery .. it wasn’t like anything else … and it was rumored that there was a limited supply … which might have just been an excuse to drive the prices up …

You never could tell these days … and no one really cared … if there was supply now, good; and if not, there was always something else to try …

And there was a supply now; Z had two drops all to himself … where to go and what to do with two ?!?

+++++++++

You couldn’t get outside of the walls without a work or a travel pass; and only then by rail. Though within the walls there were leaf-spaces, with trees, grass and the occasional rabbit or bird … it seemed like a good place to drip a drop.

++++++++

Z thought he knew despair … this was a prison more destitute than a lost miner in an abandoned cavern … “I DON’T NEED YOUR BULLSHIT ANYMORE, I NEED YOUR HONE…”

Z thought he’d felt loss … this was being torn between what you already knew but had refused to believe … and a nightmare made real ... “THIS ISN’T LOVE, THIS IS TORTU…”

This wasn’t real … this couldn’t be …

“We knew it could never be … I don’”

There it was again ...

Who was she … he …

And what was that … light they’d seen ~~~

++++++++++

The sun said it was an hour or two until dinner, he wasn’t hungry … he felt sick …

There hadn’t been any blood, but there was the knowledge … of what had been, so what would be … that it had all been real.

And that there would be more …

++++++++++

Melamere waded across the chamber, elegance dipping like sweat on a hot day; she wasn’t accustomed to hearing no … this was intriguing …

“Your majesty, the squad lost them in the caverns again …”

“Were you at least able to identify any of them ?!”

“Your majesty, I …”

Melamere’s finger formed a solemn stake before her slender nose … now was not the time to speak … “Yes or no, Marrok … don’t make this more fun for me than it already is …”

The failures of others had always been amusing to her; no, but this had not been entirely their failure … this wasn’t even her problem … but it was interesting … and this was fun ...

While the information could be valuable … why run around sanctuary caverns at these hours ?!