“Kiera,” said Thread Alpha’s voice out of a nearby android. “While you have network access like an executive, you are still eleven. I am sorry, but you cannot tell the administration what to do.”
“Then I’ll ask.” She held her chin up. “I have dangerous powers of cuteness.”
Epilogue
The Blue Ring
Kiera wandered the garden beside her home, adoring the feel of damp soil between her toes. Her thin cloth dress breathed in the wind, comfortable despite the temperature being past a hundred. She didn’t sweat quite as much as right after she’d awakened from VR. A clean breeze laced with the scent of the nearby forest kept the air from being stagnant. Her ‘citadel clothes’ sat folded on the shelf in her room, waiting for the next journey with her parents to get supplies.
She sprayed nutrient liquid from a plastic bottle over healthy tomato plants and carrots, cringing from the ‘somewhere-between-poop-and-dirt’ smell of it. Pet floated along at knee-level, scanning each plant and commenting on which ones needed more water, less water, or another few squirts from her bottle.
Her mother, too round with baby to work in the garden, rested on a padded bench by the back door, watching her with a smile. Dad went into town to work with the other villagers and a group of androids, setting up solar panels and batteries that would, within a couple weeks, provide electrical power to the entire town instead of a few individual homes. Thread Alpha had told her she had a balance of 847,300 credits, the remainder of her bio parents’ accounts that she’d inherited.
Once the town could support it, she’d buy herself a holographic TV and video game system. Living in a world where going outside wouldn’t cause death in ten minutes from heatstroke or inhaling toxins as well as having four real live friends―not to mention chores―would cut into her game time… but, she’d deal.
Permanent summer! I don’t have to wear pants ever again, there’s no school, and no more tests! Kiera frowned playfully. I wouldn’t mind a nice set of PJs though. Those I miss. But gah. Too hot. Maybe when I’m like fifteen, it might get cool enough for PJs in the winter sometimes.
Plant by plant, Kiera made her way down the row, spritzing at the leaves, until she reached the end of the fluttering plastic canopy. She stepped out into the sun, grinning at the sky. Already, a donut of clear blue circled the top of the tornado sprouting from the Citadel. Similar rings probably existed above all the citadels, expanding over the coming weeks and months until the sky once more looked like it did before Cloudfall.
An hour or so later, she finished her work in the garden and set the bottle of plant food on a shelf by the house.
“Kiera? Would you fetch me water, please?” asked Mala.
“Okay, Mom.”
She darted inside, filled a plastic cup from the pitcher, and carried it outside to her mother. While Mala drank, Kiera rested her hand on her mother’s swollen belly, hoping to feel the baby inside move.
Peter, Mei, Osc, and Sparrow ran around the corner of the house and gathered beside her.
“We’re going to the river to swim,” said Mei. “Wanna come?”
“Can I?” Kiera looked to her mother.
“Who’s watching you all?” asked Mala.
“I am,” said Peter. “I’m thirteen.”
Mala made a hesitant face, but relented. “All right. Please be careful. I’m in no shape to run if you get in trouble.”
Kiera stooped and hugged her. “I’ll be careful.”
“I know you will.” Mala winked. “It’s the little one I’m worried about.”
Sparrow put on an innocent face.
After the group of kids crossed the scrapyard behind the house, Kiera diverted to the left. “Hang on. I’ll be right there.”
Her friends waited in a group while she hurried over to a mound about a hundred yards behind the house with an irregular chunk of concrete protruding from the ground at one end. She’d laser-burned ‘Legacy’ into the slab. The Citadel’s administration had released his body to her father, and they buried him here out of thanks.
Kiera knelt by the grave, head bowed, Pet hovering at her left shoulder. “Thanks doesn’t seem like enough. I wish you told me you knew you’d die… I would’ve insisted we do something else.” She let out a sad chuckle. “Guess that’s why you didn’t say anything. There’s a ring of blue in the sky now. The machine’s working. If Mom has a boy, I’m going to ask her to name him Legacy, but I don’t know if she will. If I have a kid when I grow up, I’m going to name him after you… even if it’s a girl. Unless my brother gets named that, then it’d be kinda weird.” She smiled. “I’ll never forget what you did for me. Guess you were right. I am the Child of Earth.”
“I liked him, too,” said Pet.
She stood, pausing for a moment of silence before running to rejoin her friends.
“What are you talking about?” asked Peter.
Mei pointed toward the Citadel, a dark haze in the distant sky. “We’re gonna have to go to school soon.”
“What’s that?” Sparrow scrunched up his face.
Kiera froze in horror. “What?!”
Mei looked at her. “Inna couple months. Mom said. There’s gonna be another Passage for all the kids in all the villages, takin’ us to the Citadel ’couple hours a day for school. ’Ministrator changed his mind. We’re not dumb as dogs, so we gotta do school now.”
“No!” Kiera leaned back with a desperate, overacted wail.
Peter raised an eyebrow. “Is it that bad?”
Kiera laughed. “No, I’m being a drama queen. I thought I was free. Just my luck. Two things survive the end of the world: cockroaches and school.”
“What’s a cockroach?” asked Osc.
“Forget it.” Kiera stuck out her tongue and grimaced. “It’s a bug. People always said they would survive the end of the world.”
“Come on!” Sparrow shouted and ran off toward the river.
The others followed.
Sparrow shed his loincloth and hurried to the edge, standing on the concrete rim for a few seconds before holding his nose and falling forward like a plank.
Mei flung her poncho off and dove into the water. Osc jumped in after her, not bothering to unwind the cloth around his middle. Peter left his skirt on and hurled himself in.
Kiera approached the edge, grinning at the sky. She dropped her precious dress beside Mei’s and dove headfirst into the river. The shock of going from such heat to freezing paralyzed her for a few seconds, but wound up feeling awesome. Swimming deeper, she glided out of a cloud of dirt as the water washed garden soil from her arms and legs. After touching her hands to the bottom, she spun around, kicked off, and broke the surface, finally able to release a squeal at the cold. Basking in the relief from the heat, she floated on her back, gazing up at the clouds. Lightning flickered far overhead in the haze, but didn’t look as green anymore. Kiera took a deep breath in her nose, grinning at the giggling coming from the other three splashing each other.
A high-pitched shriek of glee preceded Sparrow’s scrawny body flying over her. He hit the water nearby, splashing her with a rain of droplets.
“My turn!” yelled Mei. “Peter! Throw me next!”
Kiera started to laugh, but stared straight up in awe at a little moving dark spot.
An actual sparrow sailed overhead, gliding into the forest.
She pointed and opened her mouth to shout, ‘Look!’ but Sparrow (the boy) pounced on her and dragged her under. Laughs bubbled out of her as she wriggled away from the over-energetic seven-year-old and swam back up. She splashed him in the face, which made him laugh and fling water back at her.
Kiera looked around in a hurry, but the bird had disappeared into the trees. Still, seeing one filled her with hope.
There’ll be more.
fin
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading Citadel: The Concordant Sequence!
My sincerest appreciation to Merethe Najjar for her help editing this
novel.
Additional thanks to Alexandria Thompson for the cover art!
About the Author
Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place. Along with being an editor at Curiosity Quills press, he has worked in IT and technical support.
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom RPG systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Visit me online at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mscox
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/matthewcox10420/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox
Email: mcox2112@gmail.com
Other books by Matthew S. Cox
Divergent Fates Universe Novels
Division Zero series
Division Zero
Lex De Mortuis
Thrall
Guardian
The Awakened series
Prophet of the Badlands
Archon’s Queen
Grey Ronin
Daughter of Ash
Zero Rogue
Angel Descended
Daughter of Mars series
The Hand of Raziel
Araphel
Ghost Black
Virtual Immortality series
Virtual Immortality
The Harmony Paradox
Divergent Fates Anthology
(Fiction Novels - Adult)
The Roadhouse Chronicles Series
One More Run
The Redeemed
Dead Man’s Number
Faded Skies series
Heir Ascendant
Ascendant Unrest
Ascendant Revolution
Temporal Armistice Series
Nascent Shadow
The Shadow Collector
The Gate to Oblivion
Vampire Innocent series
A Nighttime of Forever
A Beginner’s Guide to Fangs
The Artist of Ruin
The Last Family Road Trip
Standalones
Wayfarer: AV494
Axillon99
Chiaroscuro: The Mouse and the Candle
The Far Side of Promise anthology
Operation: Chimera (with Tony Healey)
The Dysfunctional Conspiracy (with Christopher Veltmann)
Winter Solstice series (with J.R. Rain)
Convergence
Containment
Alexis Silver series (with J.R. Rain)
Silver Light
Deep Silver
Samantha Moon Origins series (with J.R. Rain)
New Moon Rising
Moon Mourning
Maddy Wimsey series (with J.R. Rain)
The Devil’s Eye
The Drifting Gloom
Samantha Moon Case Files series (with J.R. Rain)
Blood Moon
Dead Moon
Young Adult Novels
Caller 107
The Summer the World Ended
Nine Candles of Deepest Black
The Eldritch Heart
The Forest Beyond the Earth
Out of Sight
Evergreen
Middle Grade Novels
Tales of Widowswood series
Emma and the Banderwigh
Emma and the Silk Thieves
Emma and the Silverbell Faeries
Emma and the Elixir of Madness
Emma and the Weeping Spirit
Standalones
Citadel: The Concordant Sequence
The Cursed Codex
The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey
Sophie’s Light