The Rise Of The Consortium

"Not needed," she said shakily. Her eyes were on the blue light emanating from the palm reader. So apparently everyone has that. Except herself. She suddenly wanted to have one. Where does one get that?

"Have this. We have been ordered, you know. Might get charged if we didn't pay you." he shook his arm for her to believe. "How do I send you?" Rio bit her lower lip. Should she take it? What if the employer gets to know about this and charge her instead? She never thought of the risk of hiring herself. But she had not thought of getting paid for that. It looked like an honest request. She thought she should take it anyways. By the way, it might help her a lot. She promised herself to inform someone when she wanted to hire herself the next time.

"I have my worker's ID." she took out her card from her right trouser pocket. She gently touched the card to his palm reader. Bling! The short sound confirmed the receipt of fifty coins of recreation. Fifty coins! Her eyes went wide. That's too much for recreation. One can get even more coins for anything by exchanging. Health, knowledge, and enhancement! She thought about how many coins one can get for health. As much as five times of recreation! She could get so many things. Food for around half a month. Medicines for her mother. Mother. Her eyes widened as she thought that she had to visit her as soon as she finishes her work. She would have to hurry.

But she wanted to meet the messy man for the last time. She should know at least something about him that would make easy for her to recognize the next time she meets him.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to run a test with others. Will take a few minutes." Rio said as they were going to descend from the stairs.

"Um--OK." she didn't find him disagreeing about it. That made her feel a bit better. She thought she must know the person quite well before she tells anyone about him. "And thank you. You're the best. I don't think anyone would have even touched the machine today. So thank you." she saw Mr. Baetroine's face beaming with a smile. She couldn't think of anything in response so she nodded instead.

She made her way back to the filter again, towards the far-right when she saw Mr. Baetroine leave the floor. There was no sign of the man there. Walking behind the machine, she saw him sitting crouched with his head down. She stood there waiting for him to look at her. But he was being seated like that for about five minutes.

"And may I ask you why are you here?" Rio spoke when she was done waiting for a response. "Not being intrusive but it's not good to stay here. Find yourself a place." she saw him lift his head slowly to look at her. His face was drained out of life. For a while, it reminded something of her mother. Was he also possessed like her as Kner says?

"Everyone is disappearing. You might have seen that." he looked at the light being poured from the backyard. "Also the summoning every fortnight, more uncertain diseases, you know."

"What do you mean?" Rio frowned at his cryptic words. What was he talking about at this time. He didn't say anything about disappearing from the sight and yet he's talking about people disappearing. What an irony!

"One day it will make sense to you. But you can't keep cleaning the specks of dust every day. Can you?" just then she understood what he meant. The stubborn dust that is gradually becoming a chore to clean, she can't do that every day. She would often think about how she must ease the process, but never found anything. Or at least she couldn't remember anything just for many things.

"So what do you think I should do?" maybe he has some answers now that everyone seems to have some advice for her. She promised she would leave the place immediately if she heard things like 'stay away from the Manings'. Enough is enough and so everyone must give an alternative solution instead of saying stay away from the people you're somewhat attached to.

"Wake your father." she felt as if he said something as she was too far away in her thoughts.

"Sorry, I didn't understand. Could you say that ag--?"

"Again! You're here again! Will you even go?" Rio was about to finish what she was going to say but was interrupted by yelling. Turning towards her right, she found it was Mr. Baetroine, wearing a frown on his face which didn't suit him.

"Sorry Ms. Tarnilier, but this person is a waste." Rio clenched her teeth at his mention of the word 'waste'. She knew what it meant quite well. "Sorry, I mean unwanted." Baetroine's eyes went wide as he realized what he had just said. Rio couldn't believe that there were people around her who still thought that the jobless are wasted. "You're not supposed to interact with him." she frowned at him as he didn't lower his voice as he said that. Isn't he supposed to be respectful? "So please try not to---now will you even go? Get out! Now!" Rio saw him ordering the man to get out of there. She even got more mad at Baetroine.

"What's wrong?" she abruptly asked.

"A wanderer. It doesn't do anything but just lies around. Don't know how does he get in here." she saw him looking at the man apologetically which she couldn't understand whether that was real or not. Then she saw the man getting up slowly on his own, stumbling now and then and made his way out of there. She wanted to help him get down the stairs at least but felt her feet planted there. When he disappeared out of their sight, she felt she must also go.

"I think I'm getting late. Thank you so much," she spoke disappointedly. She expected to get any response back, but Baetroine's head was rather hung low. Maybe he realized what he had done, Rio thought to herself.

She drifted through the crowd of workers who lined up to get back to their work. She didn't pay much attention to what was going on. Her mind was still reeling on to the thought of why she had to witness such behavior from a person like Baetroine. When she first saw him, she thought him to be a respectable person, but was such a harsh treatment necessary? Is this what everyone thinks of people like the messy man?

By the time she kept thinking all these, she reached the entrance of the factory. She could now see everything. She didn't notice when the filter was turned on, for she was so lost in her thoughts that the deafening sound didn't reach her ears. Shaking her head in confusion, she looked around to see whether there were any guards near the entrance. Perhaps they were running errands, no one was near the entrance.

There was a tree beside the factory. And next to it, a grassy passageway. She walked there and looked ahead to see if it was clear. Hoping no one was there except the person expected, she took a deep breath and continued walking through the tall grass. One couldn't see the insides of the factory with the large walls on the perimeter. Reaching the top of the wall was also an impossible thing to do. She wondered why was she even thinking that. In case any climbing needed, she must observe the surroundings, the answer formed in her head.

After minutes of rambling through the dry grasses, some of which needed parting by hands, a thunder made her stop in her tracks. She looked up to the grey sky filled with clouds running fast, sometimes clashing with each other. She has to reach the backyard of the factory soon, she thought to herself. Taking another deep breath, she dashed ahead. She took a turn towards the right, only to find a tree a few steps ahead and a crater next to it.

She slowed down to see if anything or anyone was there. The crater looked as if it was dug to empty it. There were a couple of trees whose roots were visible to her. She looked around her again to see if there was anything she was finding. Unable to find, she looked at the crater once again. There was a sloppy side that could lead her to the bottom. For a flash moment, she thought what was she doing there. She gaped at the huge dug area in front of her. Her legs felt frozen and immediately she turned away to run away from it. Then the next moment, she couldn't move ahead and had to turn back to the crater. She winced as she turned towards the crater. She walked to the sloppy side to find the footsteps printed on it already. "So this is it." her face looked at the roots of the tree with a grin.

She walked slowly towards the slope as she heard another round of thunderclap. The slope could get slippery if she didn't reach there on time. She took a deep breath and drifted through the way. She realized that the slope wasn't that steep, so she slowed down halfway through the slope. She couldn't say that she was in the woods. But there were trees around her. Once she reached the trees whose roots were visible from far, she couldn't see things clearly. She looked at the sky only to see it had grown dark. She should better go ahead and find what was needed before it rains.

It took her a few minutes to get a clear vision of what was there between the trees. She walked casually towards the roots. She saw there was an empty space behind the roots. She thought she heard something from there. She walked carefully with large strides to reach towards the empty space. She saw there were dry branches on her way. She ducked under those trying not to make any sound. Her eyes were on the branches and didn't notice there was a bigger dry branch ahead of her. It brushed sharply against her left neck. She was about to scream but gasped instead. She quickly touched her neck. She sensed there was a cut on her skin. She looked around and wondered what was she doing there. Her head whirled around the thought that she was in the middle of a dark forest and there was no way of getting out there. Her eyes welled up feeling helpless. "How did I get here?" she mumbled being teary-eyed. She wandered around where she stood but the more she tried to get out of there, the more she got in the way of the dried branches. She felt screaming at another thunderclap but couldn't utter anything. She ran towards the empty space but couldn't find a way out of there. Before she could take another step ahead, her feet planted where she stood. She shook herself to move them, but couldn't do so. All she could feel was her body to be shaking, but her legs frozen at the place. She screamed again only to find that it was soundless. Tears blurred her vision but she thought she saw something coming her way. She jerked herself hoping she could get away from whatever was coming, but the only thing that moved was her upper body. She thought she was going to fall, but it twisted and she was back on her pose again. She covered her face with her hands to stop herself from looking ahead. She felt as if her heart jumped all over the place, trying to disconnect from everything that held it in place. A slow surge of coldness rose from her legs and as if cold water was sprayed at her, it crept towards her c.h.e.s.t. She clutched her arms feeling extremely chilled. The coldness zapped at her head making her give out a silent cry. She felt as if a snowball hit hard on her head. But instead of falling she stood in her place, looking around her, the tree with dry branches few feet away. The pain in her neck hasn't gone away yet, but she felt she could move ahead.

"Keep moving." she heard herself say as she steadied herself. It wasn't all that dark. She realized as she walked ahead. After a few steps, she saw more trees with roots clearly visible. Between the roots, she saw a dark space. Closing in, she saw that it was a cave. She approached it with silent steps to catch whatever she could find. Crunch. She failed to notice a big dry leaf near the cave and stepped on it accidentally. Walking carefully is of no use now, she thought to herself. Or was it? She stepped ahead silently as she heard someone mumbling. She quickly took large strides and leaned towards near the cave to hear it properly.

"Eskar, is that you?" she slowly peeped inside the cave to see who it was. She thought she has heard the voice before. Also the name she just heard.

"Eskar, it's ok. I'm not mad at you. It's ok." she wondered if it was the man she met in the factory who talked about her father. But what was he doing here? Whatever he might be doing, that has nothing to do with her, she shook her head as she thought that.

" Eskar, are you here? "

" Hey, it's not Eskar. It's me." Rio stepped in front of the cave to look at him. It was the same person, with a bony wrinkled face and hair all over the place. He looked even older than he must be real. There was still some light as she could see him staring at her with small eyes, reflecting some hope left in him. Part of her felt shocked looking at him, and part of her focused on wondering what he has to do with the person named Eskar.

" I really don't know what's going on between you two, but all I want to say is that we haven't got much time for sobering." she saw him look at her with wide eyes as if she just said something to be offended. "Here, take this" she raised her right hand towards him, with her ID in it. He looked at it and then at her face, clueless of what was happening. "No. Don't think of taking her ID. You'd be getting yours soon." he got even more confused whatever she was saying. He felt mad when he heard her saying not taking her ID. Why would he want that? He looked at her face again. The look she wore didn't look anything like her. The deep searching eyes and a face that radiates a vast nothingness could never belong to Rio. It must be Him.

"Show me your hand, Amodor." he stunned for a moment. No one has addressed him like that. The voice, it too sounded effortlessly commanding. It can't be Rio. But how? The face is hardwired in his memory, but he couldn't fail to recognize the essence behind it. Without him realizing his hand shot up, the gadget in his wrist glowing on its own. It has to be Him. No one else makes things move like that. Rio swiped in some random directions in her ID and then swiped one time towards the gadget on his wrist. Amodor kept watching her face while she was doing her thing. The intensity of focus of whatever she was doing, he knew Rio never had that. He jerked as his wrist gadget blinked.

"Go do something. For now, take care of my assistant." Amodor watched Rio nod her head. "And don't be an embarrassment in your life." he watched her taking back her hand and slowly leaving the place. It could mean only one thing. He has chosen Rio to be his assistant. Everything is going to be fine. He looked at his palm reader on his wrist and as if he had forgotten to breathe, he could never imagine what just happened. The reader was glowing with notification of transfer of one hundred and twenty-five coins of philanthropy in his account. Everything is going to be fine or he has to make it fine.