Remnant Tails Read online

  REMNANT

  TAILS

  If you like Remnant Tails, don’t forget to check out some of my other works:

  A Girl Named Trouble: An Altered World Novel (1)

  Brick & Bones: An Altered World Novel (2)

  Beastly Manners: An Altered World (3)

  Ampersand: E’haile & Talia (1)

  Ampersand: Effusion & Trammel (2)

  Also, be on the lookout for some of my upcoming works:

  Family Matters: An Altered World Novel (4)

  Available Winter 2017

  Remnant Tails: Criss Cross (2)

  Available Winter 2018

  A Little Evo: Junebug (1)

  Available Spring 2018

  Ampersand: Extra & Terrestrial (3)

  Available Fall 2018

  Remnant Tails

  By Fey Truet

  Copyright 2017 by Fey Truet. All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form (written, electronic, recordings, photocopies, or otherwise); stored in or introduced into a retrieval system without prior written permission of the author, Fey Truet. The exception would be in the case of brief quotes embodied in reviews, critical articles, and pages where permission is specifically granted by the author.

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  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  To all of those who’re Remnants of your former selves,

  The world awaits your reemergence.

  Let free your inner child,

  And let no harm come from it.

  —Peace!

  Winter’s Callous Promises

  Promises.

  I looked down at my best attire, now worn old garments, imminent to fall apart any day now. The threads of the former budding flowers that once made up the lovely dress hung loosely to the weak material.

  They reminded me of exhaustion. They reminded me of… well, me.

  They reminded me of promises.

  Promises. They make up the world, don’t they? Like threads in old clothes?

  “Ss,” I breathed in.

  I looked both ways checking for the Head before I stopped twining the wires and pulled my sore hands to me. They were red and felt strained. At least they didn’t scratch and callous painfully as they used to.

  Didn’t that mean I was used to the work? That they were now strong hands? Strong as the metal wires I wrapped together to make the cable cords that powered Oeffing.

  Ahum. Maybe not, but they’re still good hands. Good for keeping promises.

  “Take care of your brother, even when it’s hard. Promise me, Emare!”

  I balled my fists tight as might let me, trying to push away my mother’s ill-burdened face. Even six months past, her sickly heat and heaving chest weighed down my soul and troubled my mind.

  Her weighty words and promises, and by heaven I swore to keep to them if it’d ease her tortured soul. Her words…

  “You are all he has. And… If a creature so loathsome shall appear before either of you in the form of man. Eyes of crystal and a mass of no weight… Then spurn them and refuse them any grant or disdain, for they are soul eaters and will wind your greatest passions against you, for they are demons. Promise me, Emare. That no matter how hard it becomes, that you will persevere for your brother’s sak—”

  “Hey! Fourteen! Get back to work!” The Head yelled, almost causing me to topple over.

  “Y-yes!” I called back, grabbing abandoned wires and twining them once more.

  A hot blast of steam sneezed in my face as a new bundle of twined wires was melded together. I frowned at it and continued with my own cord.

  It was disconcerting that new fellow could finish five bundles in all but nine hours when most of us who had worked here for the better part of three months could barely get two finished.

  The new fellow walked by and my eyes darted back to my work.

  His hands are big.

  Big hands made this job harder. Much harder. That’s why the Head hired me. I had small hands.

  “Why do you hire all these whelps? Slow as yolks they all are. Why, that one barely finishes the day’s load,” the new fellow gestured to me.

  I bit my lip.

  “Yeah?” the Head might’ve agreed. “But that one is the only one who understands the job. The quality of work I get from that one, why, I can sell her cords to those fussy aristocrats uptown. These youngsters are good laborers and would no sooner take to starving on the streets if I didn’t employ them.

  “Orphans they all are. Shirkers can’t keep up with them since the plague wiped out all the adults in the Outer. Small, nimble hands are good for this job and keep them out of the cold. Those Shirkers ain’t doing nothing, and the town is still too young for a children’s home. All these youngsters have are humble folk like me willing to sacrifice.”

  Without another word, the new fellow walked away from the Head. He didn’t like the low class or their children. He called us brats. He didn’t like me. He couldn’t call me a brat.

  But still, I agreed with the Head, even if his intentions and his words were unmatched.

  To hire a child was a misdeed the Regulators punished adults for. Only, there were a lot of children like me, their Moms and Dads taken by the Dog’s Plague that still ravaged through Oeffing.

  I looked at a girl two years younger than I, Marcy, I believe. A young seven. An orphan like me, she had a home, though I wasn’t sure if you could call it a children’s home, though. It was a big building owned by Liviny Spakerse, the widower. She took in children, but to call what she did for them wasn’t care. She was woven from a slightly different cloth from the Head, and Marcy never got to see so much as a dime of her wages earned here.

  A blow to the leg of my chair knocked me over to the floor, the wires tangled around my fingers pulled tight and dug in. Wincing, I looked up and saw the new fellow. Tall, balding, and his gut hanging over me, in a kind gesture he picked up my chair that he bumped and caused to fall over with me, but he made no effort to help me.

  “Sorry,” he said with a practiced smile, but the narrow of his eye told me his words were just for the Head’s benefit. He meant no apology as he meant to knock me over in the first place.

  I gave him a brief nod and got back to work, taking no notice of the new pain in my hands.

  Getting angry wouldn’t help me keep my promise.

  Besides, my work would suffer, and the words from the Head that my work was approved of by the upper-class brought a smile to my face. It meant that I might just yet have a future to grasp. A future to share with my brother, who, in his condition, might not have his own. I just had to keep up my good work with the cords.

  Under and over, then… over and under, I got back into the rhythm of work.

  Cords were important. I wasn’t exactly sure why, but they were made out of special metals. Then they were given to special contractors who built special things with them. Like the live wire, or voice gateways. Or even magic doors and carriages.

  Magic. An uncouth rumor I was sure, but still…

  Here, we twined them together. Then we melded them. At final, they were pulled and tested. The metal, if not corded right, wouldn’t melt together in one unit and would snap, and that caused mini e
xplosions of energy. That would be bad if in real use, we were told.

  “Metal of the Gods,” the Head called it.

  As I twined it, I sensed nothing godly.

  I did feel, however, that big hands a week at the job could not twine wires so fast that it would hold up, but that was proven wrong yesterday, so I closed my eyes and pictured the smile I’d bring to my brother’s face tomorrow morning.

  I can almost taste it!

  Cake!

  After an entire year.

  I’d be able to afford cake after I got paid for this bundle. I’d be able to afford the medicine my brother needed. I’d be able to keep all my promises. I’d be able to take proper care of my brother.

  He was ill, my brother. Sickly since birth—though not sick enough to ever need to be hospitalized at others inconvenience. It was no surprise to either one of my parents since Mother had a hard time of carrying him.

  He’d get sick at the slightest whim and has never been able to walk properly. It surprised me most of all when he survived being plunged through the darkest phases of the Dog’s Plague and nudged his way through it when the plague took Father within hours, who was always so strong, and Mother in only a week, whose strength had declined since her third birthing.

  Over six months, though bound to his bed, unlike how a child should be, he was so strong. Unlike how I was: bold and immature, never backing down to boys who wouldn’t let me play swords with them or told me I couldn’t climb trees less they’d see up my dress.

  Bound to his bed, his only tether to life being me, he deserved a smile pure from his heart, and not from the struggle he has to overcome. And I made a promise to myself that I’d give it to him.

  After all, tomorrow is his birthday. A day to be rewarded for living another year in this harsh world. Done!

  I smiled as I coiled the end of the new cord around my wrist tight and made a knot to keep it from unraveling.

  I took the other end and hooked it to the puller thing, and arranged the entire length of the cord—equal to twenty of me— in the clutch. I leaned back in my chair, stretching myself long to reach the pedal that kept slipping past the tips of my toes. I finally seized the pedal enough for the machine to start, and fed the puller the rest of the cord as it pulled it along the clutch. When the entire bundle was in the melder, I embraced the blast of steam that rustled my hair.

  “Take care of your brother, even when it’s hard. Promise me, Emare!”

  I closed my eyes and gave my mother the same reply I gave her that dire night with much bolder conviction.

  I will mother.

  I turned around to get the Head, but there he was, already at the melder.

  I ran up to meet him, trying not to seem too eager.

  As I ran I held fast to the pouch tied around my neck.

  70D.

  All the money I had in the world. After today it’d be 76D. 72D for my brother’s medication, 1D for a pound of cake, and 3D for the farmer’s old goat.

  I concealed the smile that threatened like a cannon to burst forth. Though surely I’d gleefully skip like a pony as the excitement exploded out of me the minute I walked out of those doors. By Avers, I was rich right now. Indeed very rich. And if only my brother’s medicine weren’t so expensive, well, we could enjoy the months ahead more splendidly.

  Ah, well. If wishes could be, the soul’d be spoiled. We’ll get what we need and just a little more.

  The Head lifted the melder a whole second before it was finished with the bundle. I gasped again when he picked up the new cord, though it cooled instantly, and he inspected it.

  Once again, I thought my smile would slip through when I saw the sheer satisfaction on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out ten bills, and my eyes widened. He held the bills in front of me, and I was glad my hands didn’t fall off when I took them.

  “If you’re done for the day, then I’ll take this. Eller! Get these cords rigged now! Go get your card swiped, and tell Villend your three days starts tomorrow,” he ordered me, his eyes observing all else but me.

  A quarter of the year, I remembered. A three day weekend plus an unexpected bonus. I had completely forgotten, or, actually, I just didn’t think those rules applied to me.

  “Ah. Thank you!” I said, and humbly ran off as he grunted.

  Ten dollars and an extra day. My brother wouldn’t have to spend the day alone tomorrow. I could give him something more. Not a ball, but maybe a soldier, or even jacks. Or colors! Something he’d enjoy.

  I ran to the counter and handed the man my paper work card. The adults got shiny real ones. Everyone else got paper ones once a week that got holes stamped into them.

  “The Head says my three day week begins tomorrow.”

  “Mn,” the man said and waved me away. “Got it,” he said as I ran off.

  “Bye,” Celia whispered to me shyly before turning back to her work. “Good luck with your brother. Tell him Happy Birthday for me.”

  “Yes. Thank you. I will,” I slowed to tell her.

  Celia was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a friend and lived with her older brother in their inherited house not far from my own. The death of four beloved family members left tired black rings under her eyes.

  I ran, then slowed down when I got to the cord pullers.

  The rigs.

  I wished I could exit through the other entrance strictly for “employees,” but was only allowed through the back, past the cord pullers.

  They scared me. All of us.

  The adults got to wear the vest, helmets, and glasses to protect them.

  We just walked through because running got us fired.

  Exactly like that, I began a fast trot to the door.

  I spotted the new fellow rigging his cord up not too far ahead of me, but the first cord I did earlier, already rigged, was being pulled already and was holding up like a dream.

  I watched, carefully putting one foot in front of the other.

  It was amazing how much force a bunch of wires could handle together. I stepped in front of a few guys who began teasing the tester of my cord. “Crank it up to the max! 20D says it won’t hold!”

  “Oh, yeah!” The woman teased back, and a hint of fear tensed my step as she did something to make the strain on my cord audible, like a band constantly snapping. A duitra?

  After five seconds I heard a whistle. “Yeup! That’s the good stuff!”

  I turned back to the door—glad it was ever closer—with a smile on my face.

  Then I heard it.

  The high-pitched snap, like the high note of a duitra.

  I tried to look as thunder burned over the white noise in my ear, but in a blink of an eye, everything went black.

  When I could see again, I saw the new fellow standing over me. Shouting?

  He pulled down his face, completely missing the sweat that furrowed his brow.

  Why was he sweating when it was so cold?

  He yelled again, and I wondered why I couldn’t hear anything. I figured I should apologize.

  “Sorry,” I tried.

  I don’t think it came out.

  It felt wrong, and suddenly it felt as if everything below my eyes was plunged in cold water. Even so, my heart refused to hammer as it normally pleased. My blood might as well be cold syrup for all the good it did for me. The only warmth was…

  Why can I only see out of one eye?!

  I’m sure my eyeball swarmed around frantically, no, slowly. It was all becoming a long, sluggish tunnel. I had no idea what was happening, even as the Head appeared before me surrounded by black.

  He yelled something at the new fellow, then turned to me.

  The Head.

  Reaching out with the eye I could feel, I met the Head’s eyes.

  “Help me!” I tried, and saw a small red-covered hand reaching towards him.

  My hand.

  The horror of that revelation found my heart, which tried to rally on my behalf with slightly stronger beats.
That awoke some sleeping nerve that sent pain shooting through my body.

  Then I heard it.

  “I’m sorry! I didn’t see her! My cord snapped the minute I turned the machine on! There was nothing I could do! God!” The New Fellow cried.

  Then the Head’s mouth moved in five syllables, “Get rid of the body, fool.”

  The Head turned around and disappeared from my sight.

  No!

  ~~~

  I jolted, the cold more bitter than the grave.

  I drowned in a pain worse than death.

  Snow. Crimson red snow!

  I could see it.

  In front of me. Around me.

  It wasn’t snowing before. But still… I closed my eyes in crimson red snow.

  “Do you have to go, Emare?” Pohlin, my brother asked.

  Before I could answer, his dark hair and red cheeks were already resting on the pillow, asleep.

  He’ll be alone, but he’ll be okay until I come back. This time he’ll be thrilled with what I’d bring home.

  I gasped, my eye snapping open.

  No!

  My eye widened in horror.

  “Take care of your brother, even when it’s hard. Promise me, Emare!” my mother’s voice haunted me.

  I grabbed a fist-full of snow and tried to pull myself forward, but I had no idea where I was.

  Couldn’t see where I was.

  Is it snowing?

  “Take care of your brother, even when it’s hard.”

  I gasped in exhaustion.

  I will. I will! I have to keep my promise!

  There was no breath left in my body. Still, I had to see his smile. My mother’s smile.

  He had to live, even if the life was oozing out of this very body.

  I will keep my promise!

  Because if I didn’t, he’d die.

  I pulled myself forward one last time.

  I couldn’t move afterward as my body became entombed.

  I opened my eye one last time before I failed everyone, and saw it.