Session 5 - The Weak Link

5 Sleepwind 850

A few days after the conversation with Elvar Morren, one of the guards said that the “assigned work” had changed a little and ordered Talik to follow him. Talik merely nodded and followed the guard. He had long since realized that Mom had once again been right — if you obeyed adults, almost no one would hurt you. To Talik’s great surprise and delight, the guard led him into the very same tunnels that had interested the boy for so long. His excitement did not last, however. The tunnels were monotonous, long, empty. Sometimes there were intersections, even doors leading into some rooms, but Talik was not allowed even to peek inside. By the time the boy had completely lost track of all the turns and descents, the guard led him into a spacious cavern. Near the entrance, several mine carts stood on rails while a few men loaded them with various chunks of stone and some other debris. As the guard explained, from now on Talik’s job was to push the full carts along the rails to another place and bring the empty ones back. One of the men showed him how to properly grip the special handles, and Talik rolled his first cart forward. Then another… and another… and another… The task was clear. Pushing a full cart, as it turned out, was not all that difficult either. The important thing was to hold the special handles correctly, otherwise the cart would stop. The main problem was that Talik could no longer get to the exercise yard before everyone else, so there often was no room left for him on the bench. At first he pushed carts until lunchtime, but after a few days it became his “assigned work” for the entire day.

The days dragged on. Talik slowly pushed a cart full of stones. The work, which had seemed interesting at first, was no longer nearly as enjoyable. It was boring here, monotonous and not interesting at all. And then there were the “experiments”. One day Iskar Orten said that from now on they would move from tests to experiments. Talik quietly asked what the difference was, but instead of answering, one of the assistants cut his arm with something. It hurt. But Talik did not even have time to complain before Iskar Orten ordered him to heal the wound. When the boy said he did not know how, they reminded him about his knee. So now, besides the cart, the same experiments were part of his “assigned work”. Sometimes they pricked Talik, sometimes they cut him, making wounds in different places. And each time they ordered him to heal himself. They might tell him that he simply had to want it, or stroke the wound with his hand, or blow on it, or do all of those things together. Talik diligently did everything they told him, and sometimes the wounds really did heal. At such moments Iskar Orten would nod happily and say something about “primitive triggers”. No one explained anything to the boy. A few days ago, Iskar Orten invited Elvar Morren to observe the experiments. Once again, Talik’s arm was cut and he was ordered to blow on the wound. It healed immediately. After that, Iskar Orten said something like:

“As you can see, the trigger is quite simple, but his limited intelligence prevents him from understanding it. I see no point in continuing any further.”

Talik never understood what they were talking about, but he felt there had been something insulting in it.

But the worst thing about everything happening around him was something else — people had stopped saying the word “Wandwind”. And when they did mention it, they said it was over. Today Talik could no longer stand it and asked a guard about “Wandwind”. The answer was the same — it was over. Tears began running down his face on their own, because that meant his “special day with presents” had already passed, and Mom still had not appeared. Talik remembered Ratt Mossen saying that this was no ordinary place. Which meant they simply had not let Mom in. Because Mom could not have missed his “special day with presents”. These thoughts filled the boy’s head, leaving no room to think about anything else.

Lost in his own thoughts, Talik did not immediately notice that he could smell something familiar. After that conversation with Lial, the boy had begun smelling it very often, as though Lial were always somewhere nearby. Looking around, Talik really did see the man standing not far away and watching him. When Talik caught his eye, Lial managed something like a crooked smile and slowly approached. Coming almost right up to him, the man said:

“Well, hello, boy. I promised we’d talk after your special day, didn’t I?”

The coldness in his words did not match the smile he was trying to put on. Talik shrank in on himself like prey before a predator. The boy did not remember any promises, but for some reason he really did not want to argue.

Meanwhile, Lial continued:

“If you really want to see your mother, then we can help each other.”

He fell silent for a few seconds, then nodded toward a door in the tunnel wall nearby and continued:

“There is something there that will help both of us. If you do as I tell you, you’ll get a chance to see your mother, but I’m warning you now, it will most likely hurt. Think about it. You can give me your answer later.”

Lial slowly turned around and walked toward a side tunnel, leaving Talik alone.

7 Sleepwind 850

For the next few days Talik felt as though he were in a fog. The thought that he would be able to see Mom if he only did what Lial told him would not leave his head. That hope was even stronger than Ratt Mossen’s words. So when, one evening, tired from physical labor, Talik came to the exercise yard and saw Lial there, he was overjoyed. But before the boy could say anything, the man said dryly:

“Just nod. Yes or no?”

Talik, who had frozen there with his mouth still open, slowly nodded.

The next moment Lial grabbed the boy by the hand. A short blade flashed, leaving a deep cut on his palm. Talik, still standing there with his mouth open, could not even manage a proper yelp.

“Sorry, boy, but I have to check. Heal.”

Lial’s voice sounded especially cold. Talik’s chest tightened with hurt. The boy stared at the wound for a long time, unable to understand what exactly the man wanted from him. When the pain eased a little, the recent events in the medical block came back to him, where something similar had happened. Talik squeezed his eyes shut and wished himself healed. But when he opened them, he saw that the wound was still there. Talik was already about to cry, but when he met Lial’s cold stare, he simply became too afraid to do it. The man did not look away, and his face grew angrier and angrier. Talik made several more attempts to heal himself simply by wishing for it, but all of them were useless. The man furrowed his brow, which frightened the boy even more. Talik knew that somehow he could heal himself, but he had no idea how he actually did it. Unable to hold back a tear, Talik did what he had wanted to do from the very beginning — he blew on the wound, which was hurting more and more. And at that very moment the pain became somehow strange, and the wound healed within seconds.

Lial’s snort drew Talik’s attention away from the place where the cut had just disappeared:

“Good. Sorry again. But if you couldn’t do that, you wouldn’t be able to complete the task either. But you did it. So now you have every chance of seeing your mother.”

Those words instantly drove all the hurt out of Talik. Smiling broadly, the boy nodded eagerly. Lial snorted again and added:

“As far as I know, you need time to recover. Wait. When the time comes, I’ll tell you what you need to do.”

11 Sleepwind 850

Lial disappeared again for several days. Talik waited impatiently for him to return. He kept sniffing the air, searching for the familiar smell, but it was not there even in the dining hall. The smell appeared again just as suddenly as it had vanished. It happened while Talik was cleaning a room filled with strange devices with pipes, levers, switches, and other parts whose names the boy did not know. Something inside them bubbled, hissed and gurgled. It was while he was examining one of those devices that he smelled the familiar scent. A smile appeared on his face by itself. But before he had time to turn around, he heard a quiet, serious voice:

“Watch carefully. See the red valve on the left? The round metal wheel, the red one. Good. When the time comes, turn it all the way to the left. Then hide so no one can see you through the window in the door. When you hear a loud hiss, turn the valve next to it. All the way to the right. As you can see, it’s simple. Nod if you understand and remember.”

Talik nodded and, pointing with his finger, added:

“This one, then hiss, then that one. Right?”

There was no answer. When Talik turned around, Lial was nowhere nearby, only several other residents who, like him, were busy cleaning.

The boy repeated the sequence of actions several times in his head. It seemed simple enough. The only thing he did not understand was what “when the time comes” meant. The boy froze in the middle of the room. Instead of joy and hope that he would see Mom, fear began creeping in that he would not be able to do everything correctly. Because he did not know when that time would come. Suddenly he remembered his previous conversation with Lial. Back then, the man had said that when the time came, he would tell Talik what to do. So if he had told him what to do, that meant the time had come.

Without another second of doubt, Talik walked over to the first valve and began turning it. But before he had managed even a single full turn, a loud shout rang out:

“Stop!!!”

Talik let go of the valve in fright and took a step back. The boy looked around helplessly, not understanding what he should do next. He had not even had time to hide. The next moment the guards rushed over to him. They put Talik in shackles and dragged him back to his room. It was the first time the guards had treated him so roughly here.

Interlude

Elvar Morren irritably folded the sheet containing the report “on atmospheric phenomena” several times and ran his fingernail hard along the crease. He had been waiting for this document for almost a month, but its usefulness was questionable. Yes, according to the report, a “rumbling” in the sky had indeed been recorded on the specified dates. Moreover, according to the listed coordinates, it had been localized precisely near the village of Saladuz. The problem was that Elvar had obtained all this information not from Secret Service reports, which were normally distinguished by the extreme thoroughness with which they investigated situations, but from publicly available civilian data, where the “rumbling” had been classified as a “minor atmospheric phenomenon”. There simply were no reports from the Secret Service. He looked at the sheet as though it were a personal enemy. Before he could examine the report, Elvar had been forced to spend more than an hour listening to one of the prisoners. The information he had received had been useful, but it felt as though the prisoner had simply talked his ear off. So Elvar had placed great hopes on the report, not only as a source of information, but also as a way to relax. It had not worked.

So when a guard knocked on the office door, Elvar even perked up a little. He had expected almost any kind of problem, but not that Talik would go messing with valves in the seventh waterworks chamber. Elvar Morren wrinkled his nose and said:

“Have you figured out why that idiot went messing with them?”

The guard nodded:

“Talik said Lial told him to do it. The guards who were in the room confirmed that Lial approached him right before the incident and said something to him.”

The Senior Overseer furiously tore up the folded report, which had proved a waste of time, and stared out the window. His voice suddenly sounded tired:

“Lial, then… Well… Increase surveillance on him and on everyone he actively interacted with in “Gareza”… This doesn’t look like some petty prank…”

The guard asked uncertainly:

“Sir, is that all? Just surveillance? But…”

The Senior Overseer spun around sharply. Rage twisted his face, but his voice remained quiet:

“And what do you suggest? Put Lial in solitary confinement? There’s a problem with that. Lial was here. And he spent more than an hour talking my head off. It’s strange that you didn’t run into him. Do you think he could have been in two places at once?”