Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VII: Fighting for Pacifists

25 Autumn 1926

Lyta scowled as she left the Oxford Institute for Physical Advancement.

It was not, as dozens or hundreds of Badlanders might attest, that she needed to get into fights. Despite the smashed chairs and cracked tables she often left in her wake, she could live without bar fights. She was perfectly content not to be punched in the face or gripped in an arm-lock. What she couldn’t live without was movement.

Would you like to know more?

Wordslingin'

Into the Humanist Alliance, where the people are polite, the buildings are clean, and you really don't want to be called a deviant by doing things like breaking and entering.

Would you like to know more?

Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: The Prodigal Daughter Returns

1 Autumn, 1926

Lyta had almost managed to forget how bad Khayr ad-Din smelled. After the lush jungle scents of Junira Loresh, returning to the refuse city was an assault on the senses. At least she wouldn’t need to be there long.

Inside Hotel Bravo, the smell was lessened, and Lyta was grateful for the brief respite. Bill Pearce met her as she entered; she suspected there was a special facial-recognition program somewhere in the Nexus computers keyed specifically for her and her brothers. When they showed up, things started exploding, both figuratively and literally. So it was little surprise that she had barely made it past the lobby when she came face-to-face with Hotel Bravo’s manager.

Would you like to know more?

Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Entranced

The Tergami tribe was a constant stream of visitors and well-wishers. Koreshi of all walks came to congratulate the tribe’s Thral, its Matriarch, and of course Jireni herself. No runner had passed the nineteenth course of the B’Ti in a generation, and Jireni’s accomplishment brought great honor.

Most of the guests came, spoke for a few minutes, and left their own tribes and kin. But a few stayed behind, finding kindred spirits even though they had never met before.

Would you like to know more?

Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Running Blind

Junira Loresh thronged with Koreshi, and Lyta ran through them, racing past the tent-city of Ratir that had sprung up for the summer competitions. She sprinted along the paths that had formed between the camps of various tribes, making her way toward the more permanent buildings of the Ferah, the Koreshi who lived in Junira Loresh year-long. Torgath was somewhere far behind her, tending to the armadillos, but Lyta hadn’t been able to wait. She had waited so long.

She reached the outer edge of the Ferah village and stopped, hands on her knees, sucking in breath. As a Ratir, she was not allowed to enter without permission, so she waited impatiently for someone to notice her.

An older man with scars on his arms found her after a few minutes, emerging from the homes within the village. He looked at her expectantly.

“I’m Hippartha of the Bathani Ratir,” Lyta said when she saw him. “Where’s Thralan Jonas?”

The Ferah looked at her for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t know. He may be with the other Thrals. Follow me.”

Would you like to know more?

Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Heavy Is The Head...

21:22
19.SU.26
KAD
Hotel Bravo

“Thanks for your help,” Doc Chambers said to the tall man sitting in the nondescript office in the underground Nexus of Hotel Bravo which Bill Pearce used.

“What would you do without me?” Kain Delacroix asked rhetorically with a barely perceivable hint of sarcasm.

Chambers smiled as he circled the desk and sat facing his old partner. “I manage to muddle through somehow.”

“My presence would seem to indicate otherwise,” Delacroix said flatly.

Would you like to know more?

Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Dealing with the Devil, part 2

Lyta walked with barely more enthusiasm than a gallows prisoner and reminded herself that she’d wanted this. She’d sat in Doc Chambers’ office and asked, practically begged, for him to let her see Geddy. But now, as they descended into the under-levels of Hotel Bravo, she wanted nothing more than to bolt back to her room, lock the door, and stay there until she and Todd left for Junira Loresh.

She wanted to, but she wouldn’t. Lassanders went forward. Even into the arms of psychopathic madmen.

Would you like to know more?

Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Dealing with the Devil, part 1

19 Summer, 1926

Dr. Tomohiro Chambers' cigar extended its grey arm of ash ever further as he skimmed papers in front of him. “Preliminary Interrogation Report: Geddy Jay Gordon,” read the header. The contents were much as he’d expected: volatile; prone to digressions and extended metaphors, particularly those graphic or violent in nature; unprovoked outbursts of anger; and so on. His people had not been able to obtain much in terms of concrete data beyond what they’d known already, which was disappointing. Still, he had been in custody barely two days, and there was still plenty of time to get answers.

Chambers’ eyes lingered over the middle of the second page, a paragraph entitled “New Queen.” Geddy’s anecdotes repeatedly turned back towards a woman he described as his “new queen,” the woman who would replace his old, broken queen to sit at his side and rule the underworld. Chambers read through the description with increasing interest. The report strung together fragmentary references to Geddy’s “marble bride” with her “hair like gold needles, sharp enough to draw blood” and “eyes the blue of diamonds that glint out of the hard rock.” He referenced how fluidly she danced, “like a stream that flows in the riverbed, so calm and welcoming on the surface, while in the darkness it cuts gashes in the rock that holds it in its embrace.” Geddy spoke about how his queen would dance for him at court, how happy they would both be, how they would subdue anyone who stood in their path.

Doc Chambers let a fine stream of smoke curl up from his lips. It was obvious who Geddy was referring to. The question was what reaction she would provoke on Geddy, and how he could raise the topic with her now that her brother had turned down his request for employment.

Would you like to know more?