In the Shadow of the Rings by Frank Kennedy (grave mercy .txt) 📕

and no one answered. The Baek staff knew Kara’s morning routine; someone typical y opened the door as she approached.

She waited. Nothing.

That’s when the odd silence drew her attention.

No vehicles. No gardeners.

She walked around the main house, spied into windows, saw no lights and no movement.

Kara pul ed out her hand-comm and told the AI to contact Chi-Qua. Silence preceded a message she did not understand: Chi-Qua Baek is no longer identifiable by this code. Please reset the code using the metric database.

“Wait. What?”

She saw her best friend fifteen hours ago. They talked of nothing special. They laughed. They gossiped.

Kara ran home and asked for her father, but Perr was en route to Nantou headquarters. Her mother, however, sat relaxed in the main parlor, enjoying tea and listening to a symphony by Sibelius, one of the greatest Chancel or composers.

“Where is Chi-Qua?” Kara asked. “What happened to the Baeks?”

Li-Ann seemed neither surprised nor put off by the question. She sipped tea and returned the cup to its saucer.

“You should be in school, Daughter.”

“Answer me.”

“You wil hear the news soon enough. I’m afraid the Baeks have had a sudden change of fortune. Their extensive col aboration with the Chancel ors was uncovered. The details are too numerous. Suffice to say, their family name has fal en into disgrace. The Baek name is being removed from the Nantou Executive Charter this morning. But don’t worry, Kara. I’m sure Chi-Qua wil do just fine in her family’s new accommodations.”

“Where?”

“No idea. Somewhere in the city, if they can afford the lodging. The penalties and reparations they face are staggering, you see.”

“For doing what?”

“They were collaborators. What more do you need to know?”

The words fel from her mother’s lips with the casual drip of indifference. Kara unleashed the volcano within.

“Collaborators? We were collaborators! No one benefited more from the Chancel ors than Syung-Low.”

“I disagree, Daughter. Our family has worked very hard to build Nantou, and Nantou has benefited al Hokkis. Our corporate records are clean. Any association with the Chancel ory was peripheral. The Baeks, on the other hand …”

“Were sacrificed! Isn’t that right, Mother? I heard rumors about scapegoats being handed over to satisfy the vendettas, but I never thought we’d betray our closest friends.”

Her mother crossed her legs and raised her ears to the music.

“I cannot reason while you’re in such a state. Be glad your Honorable Father does not see you this way.”

“Why, Mother? Why destroy the Baeks?”

“We didn’t. Their ruin is their own. Be glad they won’t face imprisonment. I’m sure the family wil make a solid go of it in time.”

The chil was strong in the parlor. Kara backed away.

“You’re not honorable, and you are not my mother.”

“Go to school, Daughter. Fulfil your duties.” As Kara turned to leave,

the music died. “Remember this, Kara. We have two heirs. A third might be considered an extravagance. Never raise your voice in that manner again.”

Kara did not go to school. Instead, she changed out of her uniform and into casual clothes. She retreated to the garden, pouted for a while in the gazebo, and turned her eye to the giant bul abast tree.

Minutes later, she found a cubby where she was camouflaged and might cry and rage without interruption.

She was sixteen, but Kara wished she was six again. It was so much easier to be blind. The lies gave comfort and insisted al would be wel until the end of time.

But the age of gods and lies was over, and Kara knew the truth was far from ful y exposed. The pain, though desolate and unforgiving now, was bound to intensify in the coming months.

A cancer was spreading through paradise.

2

To be a Kohlna

Standard Year 5359

ARA SYUNG FOLLOWED AT THE REAR because she did K not want to draw attention from her guide. She preferred this pompous ass in a lab coat to indulge the whims of the tourists, regaling them with his boundless bio-marine expertise and tossing about terminology that echoed through their empty minds and fell into the ether. This might have been their first experience inside Nantou Global, but her family shared responsibility for running it. She wasn’t here to gawk, but Kara’s purpose was more complicated than the guide knew.

She checked her hand-comm every two minutes in a discrete maneuver. The security app she copied from her brother’s corporate memglass proved she was on the right course. When the time came, she’d have to figure out a convenient excuse for dropping off the tour.

It wouldn’t sit wel with the guide, a man who guest-lectured at the Vox School for Girls an entire semester. Kara thought his arrogance was exceeded only by his lechery.

The group of six entered a lift. When the door closed, their guide paused the descent.

“The research division is normal y hidden from public view,” Dr. Taul Parke told them. “However, you have been granted VIP access. Per the contracts you