[Tyrana]: 64.Xaadn.Chapter Five

Xaadn lay on her bed for a while, just daydreaming. She eventually fell asleep again. She dreamed. She dreamed of Nalnsyr and the old man in the sitting room. She dreamed of sky carriages, and people with wings, and bloody handprints on her windowsill.

She dreamed of that night as she often did. She saw her mother wheeled from the basement. Watched again and again as her mother opened her mouth, and emitted that dry, paper sound… Her mother’s eyes burned, hollow and empty, but following her daughter, nonetheless. Again, Xaadn was motionless, and forced to watch the wheelchair, the wheelchair with the straps, and locks, and buckles. The wheelchair with her mother in it. Forced to watch as her mother’s back was turned in this wheelchair, and see only what was left of her hair hanging over the back, hear the crackling sound dissipate as she rounded the corner… and see the metal spike. It looked like a large shard of glass, but gold. Xaadn could see the light from the lanterns flash against it. It had apparently been inserted in the top of the woman’s head, and had since been pulled downwards to the nape of her neck. It started to fall, and sliced further down.

Xaadn woke up out of breath. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her arms were wrapped tight around herself. When she started breathing normally again, she opened her eyes to prove to herself she was really awake. She opened them to her little bedroom, with the curtains half-drawn, and the bed drenched with sweat. It was night now. She was surprised to see she had slept through the day. Especially with all the commotion going on. Xaadn, still a bit shaken from the dream, let out a long breath, happy to be alone in her quiet room. Alone… She swung her eyes to every corner, just in case. The last corner. That’s where he was sitting.

Xaadn’s uncle was sitting on a stool in the far corner of her bedroom. He had something in his hands. He was turning it over and over. He was chuckling. Xaadn just looked at him. She didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t personally been in her bedroom since… well… he had never been in her bedroom since it was her bedroom. He got up, and strolled over to the bed, his fist clenched.

“Well, then. It seems you’re awake. You also seem to have a… a chill. I wonder why that’s so? Do you know why, Xaadn?”

Xaadn was more confused than frightened. There wasn’t anything particularly frightening about her uncle. He was big and loud, but he usually took to ignoring her as much as possible. She was still half-asleep, and very drowsy. After all, she did fall asleep in the middle of the day…

“You didn’t answer my question, Xaadn. You know what? I’ll just tell you. You have a chill, because you spend the night in the attic. Or rather, you stay up all night in the attic, and sleep all day in your bedroom. Do you think that’s it? Is that why you’re cold?”

She really didn’t know how to answer. She had never heard her uncle say her name so many times before. She just looked at him. He bent over her face, and put something down on her chest. She looked down to see what it was.

“Recognize this, Xaadn? Is this what you were playing with last night in the attic? Where did you get this?”

Xaadn jumped, and tried to get up. Nalnsyr snatched the cylinder, then grabbed her wrist.

“Do you have any idea what this is? Where did you get it? Did your mother give it to you? She did, didn’t she? You’ve been hiding it. I knew you would. I knew you would do this. She told you to. She told you…”

Xaadn shook her head franticly. Now she was frightened. Her uncle had never done this. This couldn’t be her uncle tonight. He was… so different. He wasn’t even yelling. Just… talking. His eyes dug into her. His nails dug into her.

“WHAT DID SHE TELL YOU?”

Xaadn, frozen to her feet, just shook her head. She couldn’t tell him the old man gave it to her. That she snuck down and stole it off the mantle…

Nalnsyr took his niece by the wrist, and dragged her out of her bedroom, and down the hall. Fortunately, she was too terrified to make a noise.

They went down several hallways. Xaadn, even with her extensive experience of the building in the dark, was lost. She didn’t know this area existed. It was as if her uncle was going through doors that weren’t there. Through walls…

A door opened, and she was shoved into a black room. Then the door shut behind her, and electric lights flickered on. Electric lights? Xaadn was unaware the castle had any electricity. She was unaware anywhere had electricity. She had heard of such a thing. Her mother described it to her when she was small. Since the accident at the hall sixty years ago, though, and then all this snow… electricity simply wasn’t practical. Nobody used it anymore. Maybe in the south, where the effects hadn’t been so bad. But they had both suns on their side now, so it was daylight most of the time there, anyway.

The room was white. So white, it hurt her eyes. What wasn’t white was gold, and shiny. When her eyes adjusted, she could make out actual objects in this glow. There were people. They were behind a pane of glass. There were a lot of people. Crowded all around…

There were three chairs. Gold. Funny chairs. No straps or clips, though they looked like they should have had them. Just plain and gold, with an area mapped out on the floor where one was to set one’s feet while in a chair. They were connected by wires to a huge white switchboard. There was a big white screen on one wall, facing the pane of glass. There was a table with a series of instruments, and another that was covered in paper. The floor was hard and white. The walls were hard and white. Everything was hard and white. The room was quite empty, especially for its size, but there was no echo. Only the buzz of the electric lights could be heard. Xaadn disliked it immediately. She turned to her uncle, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was busy at the pane of glass, talking to the people softly, motioning to her. They all stared.

He walked over, and set the cylinder on one of the tables, then turned back to Xaadn.

“Just like your mother,” he mumbled. “You will be… you are… just like your mother.”

With this, he picked Xaadn up. Picked her up! And set her gently into one of the chairs. He then turned back to his audience.

“This child’s mother was a disturbed individual. Her daughter, though she appears normal, carries some of these genetics with her. With these genetics comes the mental pathway between her and her late mother. There have never been any legitimate scientific attempts to communicate with the dead before now. But with this technology, people will no longer be able to ‘take it to the grave.” The audience gave a slight chuckle. Nalnsyr continued.

“Children are a bit more fragile than adults, and it won’t take a lot of force to retrieve this information. The equipment might even be damaging to the child itself. Of course, these are just assumptions. This will be our first test. Notice the child’s inability to move. She has been drugged. This will ensure the experiment runs smoothly. If there are no questions, we will proceed.” There was a short pause.

“Very well.”