Death-Marked

The earth really was dying.

Worse, it was already dead, according to the kami.

Lily sighed at the symbol where she knelt upon rocky earth. Not far from the outskirts of her settlement waited yet another death-marked heart. Plenty of people believed the symbols resembled hearts and she had to agree. They’re close enough that it doesn’t really matter, she thought.

Blackened thistles grew around the new heart, their pink flowers dripping something acidic. Despite the potential for medicine, she didn’t dare touch it. Curiously, before the flowers sprouted, the marks were always warm.

It was the fourth new symbol in a week.

Lily drew the first of three small jars from her belt. She met the gaze of the dark-skinned kami within. His eyes were bright, but no patterns glowed on his body for the moment. Even so, she knew which kami she held. “How long, Yellow?”

A year.

She flinched at the voice in her head. Not because it spoke into her mind, for she was used to the kami’s telepathy. But because of the timeline. One year only? How? Just last month, the estimation was a decade or maybe more. Even that small amount of time was awful, but one year?

“Are you sure?”

Yes. Yellow sounded impatient. The wounds are growing everywhere.

Lily rose and kicked a stone at the symbol. A useless thing to do, of course. “Tell me how to stop it.”

You can’t, Lily. No-one can, remember?

She clenched her free hand into a fist. “You always say that, but there has to be a way. Please.”

He answered, but spoke in his own murmuring language, something she didn’t understand, even now, after years as a kami-tamer. But the kami was speaking to the other two spirits she kept, their skin mostly the same but with differences growing clear in their eyes as they conversed: blue and green, compared to yellow.

She waited.

We don’t know if it’s fair to give you false hope, Yellow said.

“Even that’s better than nothing.”

Are you sure?

She wasn’t… but giving up was definitely worse. “I’m not going to stop fighting just because the world is ending.”

Has ended.

“Fine.”

We’re serious, Lily. There’s only enough resources on this planet for one year, at best. At this rate, the wounds will take over. In time, they’ll destroy the few remaining crops, reducing the liveable space. Poison the final rivers and wells.

“Yes, but –”

There’s no way to restore the Grand Ships and escape Earth, either – even if the world’s governments and settlements were willing to cooperate. Humanity, animals and kami alike are all going to die together, there’s only –

She frowned. “I don’t have to accept it. And I never will.”

The kami blinked up at her, then shrugged his tiny shoulders. Very well. Find the Silversong. If our creation-myth has any truth to it, that might be enough to save the world. But it’s a slim chance. Impossible even for your computers to calculate.

“There are no more computers,” Lily said absently.

Exactly my point.

She didn’t answer. The Silversong was a myth, just as the kami said.

The song of a lost Goddess. The song She sang to create the world – according to the kami’s version of history.

The song that could heal the land.

The song that guided your spirit to Her flower-fields after death…

Was it any more likely than human histories and theories about life, death and the creation of the world? Maybe, maybe not.

Lily knew she wouldn’t be the first one to set out in search of the Silversong. Many had tried and failed over the years. Even so, she’d be the first to return – a promise she made while dust swirled across the barren plain before her.

Yet, the idea that a great power was out there somewhere and that She’d done nothing to save the world, to stop the foolishness of humans, was not very comforting.

Lily began to pace.

But if the myth was actually true…

I can find it, she thought. I know where to start, after all: the Ringwood.

And there was another reason to try – Gabriel.

Her brother would be able to hear music for the first time since losing his hearing, back when they were so young, back when a few musical devices still worked. His oldest hope, the one tried to say wasn’t important anymore…

You won’t get very far walking in circles, you know.

“Thanks for the advice, Yellow,” she said with a smile.

It was time to head back.

There, she would gather whatever meagre supplies could be spared, tell the Twins what she had in mind, and then try to convince her brother. Leaving Gabriel might not be the right thing to do… but on the other hand, what kind of sister was she, if she didn’t at least try to make a better world for him?

For everyone who deserved it.

Lily set off toward the settlement, hooking the kami-jar back onto her belt as she did. She pulled her woven fibre-mask up and set her headphones over her ears as she jogged, feet thumping against stone.

The headphones didn’t play any songs. Not anymore. But they might be able to, under the right circumstances. If she could find anything to play music in the first place. And if there was enough spare electricity.

Maybe in some distant land…

More importantly, the headphones could be used to catch signals from any working transmitters. If she was lucky, it might lead her to other settlements on her search. Her headphones also offered a little extra protection from the fumes she’d soon have to pass through to reach home.

The fumes were still some distance away, locked within a stretch of narrow trails that led through grey, decaying hills, an especially dangerous place if she wasn’t careful.

Deadly without the kami at her side.

And when she finally reached the dark mouth to the hills, a lone figure in a patched cloak was waiting for her, leaning against a staff of steel.