Keepers of the Realm

“The distribution center is this way follow me. I’ll introduce you to the Mother Superior and she’ll help you get settled,” Lyra said as she began to skip forward.

Yami stepped off from the platform and followed her as instructed. As they walked along, he was able to notice how small Lyra actually was. She was a petite girl with short light green hair and an odd demeanor—she smiled a lot, but her tone was apathetic. It’s as if she had been programmed.

The pair reached the entrance of the distribution center when a sudden voice came booming from the intercom by the door.

“Lyra you numb skull! Did you forget your keystone again? How long were you stranded this time?” said an old female voice.

“Uhm about eight hours Mother Superior,” she replied with a smile.

“I see you have the newbie with you! Boris phoned in earlier telling us he was coming. Bring him in then,” the old lady ordered as she unlocked the door so both of them could enter.

As they entered the distribution center Yami couldn’t help but think of how rundown the building was. The paint on the walls were cracked, the wooden floors creaked with every other step. But most of all, the rooms had a stale floral smell that one could only describe as “old smell”.

“Whoa what a dump,” he said in a hushed voice.

“Believe me, down here this is like a five-star hotel,” Lyra replied.

“Whoa, you heard that!?” Yami replied shocked.

“Well, this building may be old and crappy, but it has good acoustics,” she said pleasantly.

Suddenly an old female voice boomed from behind the reception desk.

“Inconceivable! Unacceptable! How dare you call this dingy old place a crappy dump!? I’ll have you know this dump is a fine and reputable establishment. You youths today have no respect!”

The pair looked over the reception desk, toward the direction of the old voice, and they saw a tiny old woman standing on top of an apple box. She wore an all-black cloth garb combined with a black wimple that had the word “Superior” embroidered on it in white thread.

“But you called this place an old dingy dump too!” Yami replied defensively.

“Well, I don’t have to respect this place cause I’m older than it! So that makes me superior!” the old woman snapped back at Yami while pointing at the embroidery on her wimple.

“Uhm is that what it means to be superior?” he asked.

“Well of course! Afterall age means more beauty!” the Mother Superior replied confidently.

“I don’t think that’s how that saying goes,’ Yami replied.

“Don’t mind the old hag, she says crazy things sometimes,” Lyra said smiling.

“Hey Lyra! I may be crazy old but at least my memory is nowhere near as senile as yours! This is the fifth straight time you left this in your locker!” the old lady bellowed as she handed Lyra her keystone.

“Wait so you’ve been sleeping on that platform for the last week?” Yami asked.

“Yup!” she replied.

“No wonder you reek! In fact, both of you smell kind of funky. Go use the showers before you start your shifts!” the Mother Superior ordered.

“But I’m not on rotation,” Lyra protested.

“Well, this old hag just put you back on rotation! So, you’ll be showing bunny boy here the ropes. Go on off to the showers, both of you,” the old lady commanded.

They started walking toward the shower room and Yami noticed that there was only one door.

“Wait! There’s only one door, so it’s a common shower!?” he gulped.

“Oh, no the lockers are common, but the showers are divided once you get inside. Why? Are you a perv or something?” she asked with a blank expression.

“What!? No! I’m just…” but before Yami could finish Lyra interrupted him.

“Oh, ok so you’re a shy boy then. Come now shy boy don’t worry I won’t peep at you,” she replied in a deadpan voice.

The inside of the locker room was just a one huge square room with cabinets all around at the edges and a couple of benches in the middle.

“Wah this place is too open!” Yami thought to himself.

He noticed Lyra stop by the locker on the left corner of the room near the entrance, so he dashed to the opposite corner of the room to create as much distance as possible.

“I guess you really are a shy boy,” she told him in a monotonous voice.

“I’m not! This common locker room is just weird!” he retorted.

Yami opened his locker and was shocked to see that the mirror inside reflected the opposite side of the room perfectly—he saw more than he bargained for.

“Ahh!” he yelped as he suppressed a nosebleed.

“You ok over there, Shy boy?” Lyra asked.

“Good she didn’t notice,” he thought as he looked up towards the locker once again.

He could see Lyra’s reflection clearly; she had her bare back facing him as she started to drape a towel over her torso. It was then that Yami noticed a scar on Lyra’s nape.

“That’s a nasty cut on your neck there. How’d you get it?” he asked.

“Ah, so you are a perv. Shy boy,” she replied with feint humor in her monotonous voice.

Yami turned bright red with embarrassment as he thought to himself, “carp I got caught!”

“You mean this?” Lyra touched the back of her neck with her left hand as her right hand continued to hold the towel.

“I got this from the Fates’ procedure. The Fates implant some of their magic in all of the realm’s Keepers to offset the lack of a partner. Even the old hag has one of these. Have you not taken the procedure yet?” she asked him.

“Uh no mine has not been scheduled yet,” he replied hastily.

“Oh? And they sent you on rotation already? That’s odd. Times must really be tough,” she replied as she closed her locker door.

“She bought that!? I’m so lucky that she’s super dense,” Yami thought to himself.

After both of them had showered they met up just outside the locker room.

“You about ready pervy shy boy?” asked Lyra.

“Please don’t call me that. It was a mistake,” Yami replied, turning red once again from embarrassment.

“Whatever you say, pervy shy boy. Come on let’s head to the backroom and I’ll show you what we Keepers do while on rotation,” she said as she leads Yami towards a huge door.

The doors to the backroom swung open and Yami was surprised yet again. This room felt like it was part of a completely different building. The interiors weren’t old and dingy, and there was sophisticated equipment scattered throughout the area.

“Welcome to the backroom. this is where all the preparations happen before distribution begins,” Lyra explained.

“All in all, there are three stations in this area and we Keepers perform the tasks necessary for each station to function, The first station is called the maker’s station. The Keepers here are tasked with refining the raw materials that the capital donates to the distribution center into food, ” she said gesturing at the left side of the room near the entrance.

The maker’s station had several large barrels with conveyors attached to them. Raw materials, which was a powder like substance, were released from the barrels onto a conveyor belts that run across the entire left side of the room. Standing on each side of the conveyor belt, were refine magic users that turned the powder substance into a mushy porridge like substance which is apparently food.

“How are they able to refine materials into food like that? There’s no fire or cooking or anything?” asked Yami.

“As I told you earlier, all Keepers have the magic of the Fates implanted upon them. Because of that we can perform these special tasks. We truly are the blessed ones of the Fates,” Lyra replied.

“Right,” he replied hastily. Hoping that Lyra wouldn’t catch that Yami actually knew too little about Keepers.

“Moving on, this next station is called the lacer’s station. This is practically the most important of all the stations in the distribution center. Only the most experienced Keepers like Mother Superior and her direct staff are assigned here.”

The Lacer’s station was clearly the most mysterious one in the room as it was cordoned off by huge black curtains that ran up all the way to the ceiling of the room. The conveyors from the maker’s station ran toward the curtains and then through to the other side to the next station.

“Lacer’s?” Yami asked this instinctively and hoped that it wasn’t a dumb enough question to get him caught.

“Yeah, this is a special station. The Keepers assigned here take the food from the maker’s station and do a process on them called “lacing”. We younger ones don’t know about it much. Mother Superior just says they place a secret ingredient on the food that helps the people in the Outskirts deal with the severing,”

“Whew, that wasn’t a stupid question after all,” he thought to himself.

“What’s severing?” Yami asked yet another possible dumb question instinctively. “Crap,” he thought to himself.

Lyra suddenly stopped and stared at him curiously.

“Yami, they sent you on rotation without telling you wat “severing” is?” she asked with her monotone voice.

“Oh no I asked one stupid question too many! She must have caught on already!” he thought to himself.

“Times must really be tough for you to be sent out in rotation like this,” she said.

“Safe! My gosh she’s super dense,” Yami cried internally.

“The usual state of the citizens of Harmos is to contribute magic to the Council of Fates. When they are incapable of doing this, they undergo a phase of withdrawal and depression, that’s why they are sent here to the Ouskirts. And we keep them from going over the edge so they don’t do anything harmful to the realm. That’s why they call us Keepers of the realm,” Lyra concluded.

“Ah of course that’s right I forgot. First day jitters and all Hehe...” Yami replied to her pretending to know this information.

“Right, ok. So that brings us to the last station, the runner’s station. This will be our station for this rotation, since you don’t have your implant from the Fates yet you won’t be able to use the special refine magic that the maker’s use. And this is a good opportunity for me to show you around the Outskirts, so you don’t get lost in the future,” Lyra said as they finished their tour of the backroom.

“Alright you two, seems like the newbie has been caught up to speed go on ahead and prepare to head out. Boy, why don’t you go and load in the laced food on your cart,” the Mother Superior instructed.

As Yami went a head to the cart the Mother Superior tapped Lyra on her shoulder, leaned near her ear and whispered, “He’s an odd one, that newbie. Keep an eye on him and let me know later if anything odd happens during your rounds.”

“As you wish, Mother Superior," Lyra replied in a deadpan voice.

***