The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.
The Guild Master’s General and Katherine have been phased between matter and energy, and followed Eric Mehmed through the convent cloisters, to where Sister Ancille showed him to his room. (This story is dedicated to David Prosser, who has supported these stories for almost a decade. You can visit David’s blog The Buthidars here)
The Guild Master’s General has had the audacity to take Katherine with him on the very same cart ride that Alexand’s father is on. Neither of them is phased out of focus and are corporeal. The Guild Masters General has replaced his balaclava with a Stetson hat, and his sunglasses have clear lenses, so they look like ordinary glasses. They are both a few seats behind Eric Mehmed. Thankfully Eric doesn’t recognise Katherine as they had never met, although Alexand told her father a lot about the woman she fell in love with, so Katherine has insisted that the Guild Master’s General call her by her middle name, Anastasia.
Alexand finds the Ocular Cyber-technology ward, where there are patients being assessed, and other patients recovering from operations. Sister Ancille sits reading to a man with bandages around his eyes but stops when she sees Alexand.
The Guild Master’s General wants to show Katherine something important, as he knows she will try to contact Alexand now she has her writer back. He takes her to Saskatoon, just before dawn, to the military graveyard, where Katherine’s fake corpse is buried.
Alex has a writer full of potential cures, and needs to get her group out of the facility, unnoticed by the guard. This means remaining with the socialites for a few hours longer, to avoid suspicion. (A note from the author: Fight fascism. Never give up on hope and love and a future where everyone is treated with respect, dignity and equality.)
Alex collapses onto the floor, taking Katherine’s body with her; she remains on the floor, hugging her dead wife, unable to move through the grief.
Doctor Kothari released Katherine after Katherine refused to discuss being part of the resistance with her. Katherine has spent the past day analysing Juba Apfvarzian’s blood. She hasn’t had to avoid Doctor Kothari, as she is in Afghanistan, arranging her son’s funeral. Katherine has retired to her apartment to record one final message to her mother and father. It’s her birthday, and she’s alone.
Alexand and the rest of the resistance have settled in a cave in the mountains of Southern Russia. Alexand has scanned the area; there are no inhabitants for hundreds of miles. Inajda has illuminated a map on the far cave wall, showing the topography for two hundred square miles. She scrolls through the map, until she reaches the nearest settlement.
Inajda doesn’t need to scan the grave to realise what has happened.
The survivors bury their dead, deep in the dirt of the Red Sand Hills of Kekexili. They lost four people, including a very young, Farokh Merek.
After analysing samples of her own blood and that of Helga Ritter’s, Katherine attempts to translate her findings to an expectant Alex, Anesidor and Inajda. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Baio-Yujia Sun had been accidentally killed in a crash. (See issue 25: Baio-Yujia Sun) Her three surviving friends Alexand, Heyem and Jarad were found responsible for her death and sentenced to military correction. (See issue 26: There’s No Place Like Home) Three years have passed, and Alexand Merek still has vivid nightmares about Baio-Yujia’s death. Things have escalated and Alexand now sees her dead friend’s shadow at night, when she’s alone in her room. Next chronological story here.
Alexand Merek, Jarad Vijay, Heyem Merek and Baio-Yujia Sun are all fifteen and are close friends. They left their home in China, to look for Inajda Rekaya, (Alexand and Heyem’s mother) in the hope she could give them some money for food, as there is a famine in their village. (Inajda sends her family most of her wages, but it isn’t enough) In order to get to India, (where Inajda’s military base is) the children stole an army tank. On the journey they did some bad things, and got a little distracted from their task. These events change their lives forever. (This is the first in a double release. Issue # 26 follows on the 2nd December, to mark some birth and death days.) CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Eldenath Balsara is an orphan. She doesn’t know who her father is and her mother was put in ‘The Bad Thing Box’ for being ‘evil’. She has a new mother, who is a matron in The House of Plenitude and Mirth. Eldenath has to un-learn the Bad Things taught to her by her old mother, like reading big words and looking at paintings and singing in the shower and listening to music. (See issue: 17) She is about twelve years old here. (A Spanish translation is now available, by Hernán Jara Droguett.) CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Images, story and characters, © Cheryl Moore
Anesidor Sumian dreams of escaping from a gradually shrinking world and the confines of a disapproving society. Her story begins with a wish and is set over a century before her first appearance in my series of novels. (A Spanish translation is now available, by Hernán Jara Droguett.) CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Images, story and characters, © Cheryl Moore
