The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

“I’m fine,” I insisted as I took a few more steps up, ignoring my aches and pains to prove my point.

Jathem turned and looked at me, his eyes taking in the cast and some of the still-visible bruising on my scalp and face. “You were injured recently?”

I gave a bitter chuckle and nodded. “You could say that.” You could also say that I went on an almost suicide mission to save my family and kill an insane princess with a grudge. I killed her, but I almost died in the process, so…

“Change of plan,” the man announced suddenly. “We’re going to have you looked over by a member of our medical staff. We need to wait here while they clear the appropriate halls. We aren’t prepared to alert the rest of the tower to your existence. Take a moment to catch your breath.”

Blinking, I came to a staggering stop. “That’s a very kind offer,” I replied. “But it’s unnecessary.” He shrugged, and I felt a thrill of excitement, even through my feigned indifference. Could they be able to help me mend a little sooner?

“It’s clear that your medical practices are rudimentary at best, and we are not a people who like inefficiency. You’ll be met by two councilors after you have been examined by one of the Medica.”

“The Medica?” I asked, trying to quell my excitement. “Is that what you call your doctors?”

“That is how we refer to the department of doctors,” Jathem corrected, tugging his shirt down and smoothing it out. I noticed MacGillus was similarly making a point of straightening out his uniform, and frowned.

“And one of the councilors coming to meet us is your leader, isn’t it?” I surmised out loud, and it really wasn’t much of a question, but by the look in Jathem’s eyes, he was at least a little impressed by my deduction.

“Indeed. Knight Commander Devon Alexander.” There was a reverence in how he spoke Devon’s name; I would have found it almost amusing if it weren’t also a bit nerve-wracking. That level of devotion to a person made warning bells go off in my head as I recalled the Liberators’ blind devotion to Desmond.

“I see. Who’s the other one?”

“Raevyn Hart. She’s Head Farmer.”

A woman working with men? Maybe Matrus and Patrus’ problems were not endemic to all human beings. That was… a nice thought. It meant we could grow and better ourselves, overcome the genderism that had separated us for all of recent history.

“She could coax an apple tree from used soil,” MacGillus said. “Under her, her department’s efficiency has gone up a whole percentage point!”

“MacGillus, shut your hole,” Jathem barked, and MacGillus immediately turned contrite.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell her how much we produced, just the stats.”

Jathem sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s fine. We’re all… a bit unsettled by all this. Let’s just keep quiet until we get you checked out by the medics.”

I exhaled and shoved my hand into my pocket. My questions would have to wait for a bit, it would seem.

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8

Violet

Several minutes of waiting on the same steps later—an eternity during which thousands of questions churned inside of me—Jathem, at some unseen signal, gave a nod and speared me with a look. “The way has been cleared. We need to climb up three more levels though. You ready?”

I nodded and ran a hand nervously over my scalp. The hair was growing back in quickly, but it still felt weird under my hand. I wiped my palm on my t-shirt and began to climb once more, following Jathem. We soon reached the correct level. According to the numbers, now we were at 124-N-43. He turned the wheel on the door to the inner wall and swung it outward, toward us.

He stepped through, leading me into a narrow hall with a long sheet of glass paneling one side of the wall. As he moved on down the corridor, my steps slowed to a halt, and I openly gaped at the enormity of the sight on the other side of the pane.

Just past it, I could see three giant structures hanging from the ceiling. Thousands of feet below, around the base of the tower, were lines of green vegetation, bisected by straight white lines that were probably footpaths. The three buildings were arranged in a rough triangle—the two closest were cylindrical in shape, and glowing, while the one farther away, at this angle framed perfectly by the white ones, was cone-shaped and so dark that the light reflected off of it, giving the illusion that it was glittering.

Bridges ran from structure to structure, and periodically, every hundred feet or so, a flat pavilion stretched in between them, seemingly suspended between all three, much like a hammock suspended in the air. The ones I could see looked very much like public parks. I could see people wearing uniforms similar in cut for the most part, but in different colors—mainly white, black, crimson, green, gray, and blue—but it was hard to discern much beyond that; that’s how far away we still were.

“You built this?” I whispered in awe, my eyes tracking up to where filtered sunlight seemed to radiate out into the tower from all levels, illuminating it as if it were a warm summer’s day and the inside was shaded by branches from dozens of trees.

“Our predecessors did,” Jathem replied, his voice carrying from ahead. “Come along, Miss Bates.”

“You better go, miss,” MacGillus said as I lingered, and I reluctantly tore myself from the view. It was mesmerizing how… strange and beautiful it was. How could they have achieved all this? It was mindboggling.

I walked slowly after Jathem, following him down the hall while my eyes continued to slide all over the incredible sight out the window, drinking it in. The sheer manpower alone… If this tower were to be filled to its maximum capacity, I’d bet there could be more than three times the number of humans here than there were