Page 43 of Blightfall

“I never imagined the past would smell this bad,” Nedd added as a flock of goats was shepherded past. Dung littered the roadside in patches. Animals in the city must be relatively common, which made sense, given the number of meat vendors.

“This city is a mix of technologies,” Suki said. I held the bag in front of me to protect her from the crowd. She spoke so softly that I could barely hear her. “None of the cities of your past would have looked exactly like this one. It’s not a particular era, but a mix of bygone ones.”

“That makes sense,” I said. I imagined that was what would happen if our people on Detritus tried to replicate an Old Earth city. We’d probably create a mix of anachronisms—things we thought of as old that actually came from many different eras, using whatever we could scrounge together from the resources we had.

Stars. Was it possible this was an intentional re-creation? Some kind of…Old Earth theme park?

A young girl rode by on a bicycle—one of the ancient kind, with a chain and pedals to power the wheels. She steered the craft with one hand, thrusting the other into a basket on the front that was stuffed full of leaflets. She handed one to Gilaf and continued on, passing the flyers out to members of the crowd. On closer inspection, many of the people crowded around the wagon were already clutching them.

“What’s that say?” I asked, and Gilaf passed it to me. The leaflet was written in several languages, with the English passage toward the middle of the page.

The End Is Nigh! it proclaimed. Humanity’s forces are gathering for a final battle. Don’t miss the most exciting event of the century. The End Times Tournament begins today!

“The End Times?” Nedd said, reading the flyer over my shoulder. “That sounds dramatic.”

Sadie scanned the flyer over my other shoulder.

“Let me guess,” I said. “You think it sounds awesome.”

“I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully. “I guess it depends how much you like the current times and why they’re ending.”

That was a good point. I listened around me. Most people sounded confused, but a couple following the scion ahead of us mused about whether this meant the war was coming to an end.

“Did you hear that?” I asked the others, nodding to the couple.

“I did,” Alanik said. “What war are they referring to?”

“We could ask someone,” Sadie said. She glanced at me, then added, “But that seems like another question we’d know the answer to if we lived here.”

She was right. Still, nothing about this settlement suggested war. Yes, their city had a wall, but I imagined that was more about keeping ambulatory trees from rampaging through than protecting themselves from starships. Were they at war with the scions? Was the one in the wagon some kind of prisoner?

We continued to follow the wagon, though it felt like everyone in the city had the same idea. The press of people grew as we entered some kind of residential district with multistory wooden buildings. Soon we were surrounded on all sides—and despite Nedd’s observation, the smell of the crowd wasn’t as bad as I would have expected. These people were clearly bathing frequently and controlling their body odor. They had a variety of hair colors and skin tones—from pale to dark brown, though I didn’t see anyone here with Sadie’s blue hair. A few women wore scarves covering their hair entirely, which might be an option if she needed to disguise it without an illusion.

The crowd was loud and distracted enough that no one paid us any mind, though we took off our packs and held them between us so Suki and the slugs wouldn’t get squished. The last thing we needed was one of the hyperslugs jumping out of the bag and into the dense crowd. Several other people were protecting their own bags, though I assumed they had different reasons for not wanting their belongings battered around.

The crowd grew louder and more excited as we pressed on, and Sadie and Gilaf cheered, matching their energy.

“What are we so excited about?” I asked.

“Everything!” Sadie said, bouncing up and down in a little circle, like she was taking it all in.

I listened, trying to figure out where we were going, what war these people were fighting, and why it was coming to an end, but the random snippets of conversations weren’t enough for me to learn anything useful.

Still, if the anticipation of the crowd was any indication, wherever this scion was headed wouldn’t disappoint.

Thirteen

Arturo

We pushed through the residential district and toward the center of Epiphany. As we advanced, we passed taller buildings with metal trusses that looked like they might have been built out of ruins, or even old, repurposed starships.

Several of the buildings featured large posters, only some of which were in English. Every effort supports the war effort, one proclaimed, while another said simply, We sacrifice one by one, but our victory is for all. They reminded me of the propaganda the DDF had spread during our fight against the Krell, but I couldn’t imagine who these people could be fighting, isolated and unprotected as they were.

As we neared the center of the city, a structure loomed ahead—a ring of white stone walls that rose above even the tallest building. Every story was lined with gaping arches, open to the air, and through the highest level I could see the lavender sky beyond. The crowd swarmed around it, rushing into the building through the arches at the cardinal points.

A coliseum, I realized. It had no roof, and was instead open to the sky. Maybe Sadie wasn’t far off when she said the scion was going to perform. The stadium was so big that I wondered if it had been built using a metal truss system, but all I could see was stone. It was possible it was constructed with techniques inspired by the ancient buildings of Old Earth.

We passed through another commercial district, this one with more permanent shops instead of booths. They all had racks on the street, advertising their wares to the crowd. There were fewer staples for sale and more prepared food—rolls of rice and meat wrapped in tortillas, and cups of a fluffy, pale yellow substance I couldn’t identify. The scent of spices was heavy in the air and made my mouth water.