Folio Two, Page Forty-Three (svegra mos droskron tal-biet)
At the last hour of night, I awoke to a pulsing light on my wall monitor. I didn’t understand what was going on at first — my head felt like it was filled with sand — and lay in bed watching it.
And then I bolted up.
Every account had been left open. Some people had taken my arguments to heart, and they combated the naysayers for me — but I only saw that through the pulsing white alerts. I had a message on my Scoop account, a gossip site.
The name was unfamiliar, but I hadn’t been treating the naysayers like people. Who they were didn’t matter as much as proving them wrong. This one had broken the protocol and messaged me internally.
His name was Nightofday1840, which I presume refers to the massacre at Blue Sky. He listed himself as male with no age or birth date visible, and his profile message said simply that he “knew things.”
Standing in the moonlightUnder ordinary circumstances, I would have gone to my aunt, but now I had no one. Whoever Nightofday1840 was, he knew my family name — or at least he had guessed it — and he threatened me. Perhaps I shouldn’t have done this, I thought — but how could I go back now? Other people had taken up the sword where I had fallen.
The stars shine like lights
In an obsidian disk, nebulae
Hang wraithlike in the vastness.
From the Canyon Dark, you
See an image of the universe
Reborn as foliage and rock.
But one thing hangs above them
All — Fate cannot be bribed,
Not even with your lips against
The fruit that sustains the ages.
Keep your guard up, Niksubvya. I know who you are. They might, too.
I remember the exact words of Nightofday1840’s message, but I must paraphrase my own reply.
What are you insinuating, Nightofday1840? My family hates the Niksubvya House … we’ll bring them down any way we can, just you wait!Masquerading as an enemy of the family made my heart sink. I was no better than Aneti.
He retorted in minutes.
Your life is not the only one on the line. Maybe I was mistaken about you — you do sound like a kid, by Yilrega! — but you should really be thinking about the future. Dunno why I thought otherwise … but your account is definitely coming out of the Niksubvya House. She may be your mom, but do you really think she would have liked this?Most of the reply truly made no sense. I pinged a resource guide for assessing a computer’s security. He could only have found me through hacking, and — I couldn’t think about it without retching — I had seen a hacker in one of the children’s shows who had accessed the room’s audiovisual feeds remotely, and she had done so silently. Had Nightofday1840 seen me sleep? How could I protect myself from someone — and I did imagine the worst —— after all, I was only a child!
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