Trolley Problem II

The biggest weak point of the Ry’keth empire was sitting in front of me, eating eggs and reheated vegetables.

That he was a weak point wasn’t common knowledge either. That was one of the things I had the privilege of knowing as an author—and I’d wanted to use what I knew as the author to bring the empire down, as compensation for getting it going in the first place and for Jayla’s sake.

He sat curled up, plate balanced on his knees, watching me with wary eyes. Jayla’s blanket was draped around his shoulders like a cape.

I had a pair of crutches by now. I was already standing because I’d gone to get food; I went to the window and closed the shutters, then flopped down onto the other bed. “I’d rather people not even suspect that you’re here. You’d better stay in the bedroom, too, or you’ll run into this house’s owner. If this goes into the long term, we can figure something out.”

“I don’t go outside anyway. Surprised I’m not pale as you by now.”

“Well, in that case, we gotta get you outside.” I grinned at him. “A little Vitamin D’s good for you. Want seconds?”

“Nah.”

That was all he seemed interested in saying for the time, but he kept glancing at my leg.

“I got shot,” I told him. “Have you seen Lil in the last week?”

He shook his head. “She kinda vanished.” A flicker of interest and concern finally lit in his eyes. “You seen her?”

“No. I was hoping you had.”

The interest went away. “Nope, haven’t.” He handed me his plate and curled up in bed again.

…

…

“She might’ve got hurt cause of me.”

“No, it wasn’t because of you. It was because of me.”

“That’s a relief… not. You hurt her?”

“No, I didn’t, but she tried to protect me. I’m a magician, too, only I just found out.”

Sai-ee stared at me. “No you’re not.”

“Yes I am?”

“Prove it, then! I’m the only one!”

Magicians were extremely rare. Sai-ee had grown up constantly treated as special and strange. The way I’d written him, he’d loved the special treatment…right up until the Ry’keth military had found out about him. They’d used state laws to strong-arm his clan into giving him up and locked that boy who was then a preteen into a gilded cage, where he spent fourteen hours a day being used as a human battery. That was still special treatment in a different way, and it’d cemented in his psyche that he was unique.

“I can’t prove it yet. I just found out about it.”

He looked at me with disdain. “Um, how old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

Some said a picture was worth a thousand words. Sai-ee’s face right now said about five: How could you not know.

Maybe seven: How the fuck could you not know.

“Look, leave me alone. Who’d assume they were a magician?”

“I didn’t say anything, y’know.”

I heard knocking. “Wait, be quiet.”

Sai-ee shut up. I heard the knocking again, but now I was paying more attention, it became clear that it was at the front door, not the bedroom door. It was faint and muffled.

I went to the window and peeked out through a gap in the shutters.

A group of soldiers in undyed clothes were marching through the streets.

Apart from the clothes, there were no similarities to the procession from earlier. They moved like an army, fanning out, and several of them split up to go knock on doors.

They were already searching for him. It was probably one of those soldiers at our door. I could hear Makis talking to some stranger now.

Shit. If I fucked this up, she would be in danger too, not to mention Sai-ee would get dragged back.

On one side of the bedroom was a tall closet, almost completely empty. It’d work, but it was conspicuous. If I was a soldier, I’d look in there.

“Hey. Sai-ee.”

“What?”

“There’s soldiers out there.”

“I know.”

“They’re hunting you down.”

“So what?”

“You came here for a reason. You didn’t want to die, right?”

“They wouldn’t kill me,” Sai-ee said listlessly, “don’t know what Lil was talking about.”

An idea has started to form. “Hey, Sai-ee, you know your aura?”

“My aura? The green glow, or the other thing?”

“The other thing, the one that draws people to you. What does it feel like?”

“I guess it’s just background, I’m used to it. But I’ve turned it up before…and I guess it feels like a buzzing in my skin or something? I just sort of push energy and heat out and imagine that buzzing.” He closed his eyes and concentrated. My gaze was suddenly drawn to his eyelashes, and a slight green glimmer that dusted his eyelids like makeup.

He opened his eyes and that green glimmer went away. “I can maintain it but I don’t feel like it.”

“What about turning it down?”

He frowned. “I’ve never tried.”

“Test it out. I’m gonna hide you, and having an aura that draws attention isn’t great for keeping a low profile. But meanwhile…”

I closed my eyes and imagined heat moving out from the core of my body into my skin, my face, and the tips of my fingers. Imagined a buzzing…no. I couldn’t just “imagine”. I had to believe it myself, with all my heart. There was heat moving into my skin. My face was buzzing.

“Whoa,” Sai-ee said. “You almost made those raggedy old clothes look good for a sec.”

I lost concentration. The heat dissipated. “What do you mean, raggedy?” My clothes were perfectly fine! Sure, I only really had one set, so they’d had some wear and tear by now, but they were hand-woven and given to me out of the kindness of Jayla’s heart!

“They’re some scruffy Asan shit. Why are you wearing them?”

“Clothes are expensive, you know. How’re you doing?”

His skin seemed duller, his eyes less striking, and the few bits of acne across his cheekbones looked grosser, making me avert my eyes. “Think I figured it out. I feel kind of numb all over. Hey, you want to draw attention, right? Maybe we should switch clothes.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. He wore a silky, pretty shirt and pants complete with a jeweled collar and trouser cuffs, and rows of bangles to boot. Jewelry was a sign of prestige in Ry’keth, so of course they draped their court magician in it. But they wanted to keep him exotic, so his clothing style was a mimicry of Koteran stage costumes. It was definitely an attention-grabbing ensemble.

A few minutes later, I was closing the collar on the pretty shirt and Sai-ee was crawling into the cupboard. Soldiers were at the apartment building now, going through all the rooms below. I didn’t have much time to figure this out.

I focused on maintaining the heat, which I could feel running through me now. Looking in the mirror, maybe it was the placebo effect, but something seemed different about me, like I was wearing well-applied makeup. I focused harder and for a second—just a second—saw my skin glow purple.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I hurried to open the door. “Yes, sir, what is it? Why are you going through people’s homes?”

The soldier couldn’t tear his gaze away from me.