Bastion 2 - Chapter 17

The journey back to Pi-Ki was fast, and quiet. It wasn’t until I boarded the train that Mae spoke up. I was too occupied with my anger for mother to concentrate on anything she had to say, anyway. I appreciated her giving me the space.

When I took my seat and leaned back, her voice filled my head. “I’m very certain there’s a connection between your mother’s disease, and the signal I’ve detected from those who have ingested the prank potions, or drugs.”

‘Why so?’ I asked as I leaned forward, my gaze pinned to the floor as I focused on her words.

“The parasitic nanites in her system—let’s just call it malware for now—are giving off a signal that seems similar to the others I’ve detected, just less advanced. As if the malware your mother has is a predecessor to the new potions going around. Her malware was sending some of the same information to a location in the Kingdom. Not sure exactly where, but it was close enough that the malware was receiving return signals that verified receipt of the data.”

‘What does this all mean? Someone in the Kingdom has been experimenting on my mother?’ I asked as the tension in my shoulders made them burn. I relaxed my posture again, trying not to look suspicious for when the sungchal would do their pass.

Mae took over my field of vision with a piece of parchment lined with data points that showed a history of months along the bottom, and a plot of points far to the right. The page zoomed in to the last three months as she said, “This signal is simple enough that I would’ve detected it coming from her without the additional device, just like I had with the junky, and the girl who took the prank potion. I compared the more advanced information to my previous, lighter scans and found this started very recently, as if her malware detected the startup of whatever technology is in the kingdom and decided to start sending data.”

“Decided?” I blurted, then mashed my lips together. Mae closed the data in front of me and I glanced around casually to see if any eyes were on me. No one seemed to notice, so I relaxed again and thought, ‘What do you mean decided. These things aren’t thinking, are they?’

“Sorry, that was a poor choice of words to allow for simplification. I forget your becoming more adept at understanding my world… I think the more accurate term would be, they were activated. It’s possible whatever agent is spreading the drugs in the kingdom was setting up last year. When your mother had the particularly bad relapse, it could’ve been her malware responding to a test broadcast signal of the machina designed to send and receive data.

“The agents doing the work in the kingdom may or may not even be aware of her presence, or be able to decode the information the malware is sending, simply because it doesn’t match up exactly with what the other malware—from the drugs and prank potions—are sending. If we want to find out, we’ll have to go to the source of the receipt signal.”

I took a deep breath and cycled zo to calm my nerves. ‘So, what’s the next step? How do we find the location of the signal?’

Mae was quiet for a moment. At my mental prodding, she made a sound like a sharp inhale, then said, “Hana’s not going to like this. You, or someone we trust, must take one of the potions. Then, I’ll run a continuous scan as we move in the direction of the pings as they get closer together until it enters our detection radius. It’s the only way I’ll be able to track the signal to its exact point of origin.”

‘Of course.’ I pushed another round of zo calm through my veins and the muscles in my neck melted. My posture loosened and I let my mind become still.

The conductor came on to mention the final stop before the kingdom, and I presented my student badge and paperwork to the sungchal as they patrolled my section. They wanted to look in my bento, then made a few jabs about my mother packing my lunch and moved on.

It was getting dark when the train let off at the Bastion stop, but the gates were still open. I kept my eyes down as I flashed my badge to the guards—though they all knew me by now—and headed toward my lodge. I didn’t want to think about the conversation to come with the crew. I knew Mae was right; Hana would not be pleased. Knowing Hana, she’d likely demand to be the one to volunteer for ingesting the potion.

That wasn’t going to happen. I would be the only one taking that risk—and Mae. Was that fair? I felt Mae’s apprehension at the edges of my consciousness and invited her to share her thoughts.

“I must admit, I’m not excited for the prospect of being painfully eroded with no hope of survival,” she said with a nervous chuckle and paused. Then, her tone took on strength, and resolve as she went on, “I owe you my life. You rescued me from the eternal void in my device, you’ve allowed me a home in your mind, and welcomed me into your family. I’m ready to do what must be done to get to the bottom of this, and to save Moon.”

“Thank you,” I whispered as relief and gratefulness swelled in my chest. We would get through this together.

“Who are you talking to?” Ko-nah’s accusing voice made me jump with a start.

I stopped and half-turned to see the shorter boy walking a few paces behind me. His steps were inaudible and his face unreadable as he approached. I cleared my throat for a lie, despite not being very good at them.

“I was saying a prayer to Jigu,” I said with as little emotion as I could manage.

He nodded but didn’t look convinced as he stepped up next to me. “Where did you go today? You know the rules. I’m supposed to follow you everywhere.”

It was then I noticed a weak ry glimmer over his left eye. I breathed and pulled a small energy reserve through my ry block. Purple, effervescent munje gathered in my palm and I waved my hand past his face. Ko-nah shied away from the gesture, a look of shame in his eyes as his gaze darted away.

“Did Tae-do do this?” I asked as the reddened mark around his left eye appeared below his disguise. There was a cut on his swollen bottom lip, and another over his eyebrow. Someone had given him a good pummeling.

Ko-nah didn’t reply, keeping his gaze firmly on the trickling fountain at the center of the resident village. My senses prickled with a warning of deception, but the watery gleam in Ko-nah’s eyes pushed that feeling away.

“Did he duel you?” I pressed as I reversed my revealing magic and reinforced his previous glimmer to hide the burgeoning bruises.

He shook his head. “No, he had one of his cronies do it. I wasn’t worth his time.”

“Why?” I asked, my anger bubbling.

“I’m supposed to follow you…” he trailed off.

“Where is he?” I demanded.

“Jiyong, this isn’t a good idea,” Mae warned as she sensed my thoughts.

‘I don’t care,’ I sent back. I wouldn’t allow Tae-do to get away with beating my friend over failing to meet an agreement that should never have been forged. I was going to show him firsthand the power of doing things right.

Ko-nah shook his head, shrugging as he looked away.

“Where?” I demanded with a growl.

His eyes locked on mine and for a moment I saw the flash of hungry malevolence in his stare. Worry overcame the look of burning desire for vengeance in his eyes as he whispered, “Finishing dinner.”

“Jiyong, he’s using you to get back at him,” Mae whispered, her voice pained.

I turned toward the main pagoda. ‘I know.’

“Then why are you doing this?” she asked, frustrated. “Tae-do’s fist is almost the same size as your face and I don’t want to know what getting punched by it feels like.”

‘We’re all-in, Mae. I said I would teach him, help him, and make him a Bastion. I can’t do that if he’s getting beaten any time I leave campus. He’s going to resent me.’

I stormed up the thick white steps with Ko-nah close on my tail. Heat bubbled in my chest at the thought of Tae-do’s malicious injustice. Ko-nah ranked in the high three-hundreds, so fighting him served no purpose for he or his friends who were all in the low two-hundreds. It was purely a show of force, of his control over Ko-nah.

The dining hall was only a third full when I stepped through the doors, and all the food had been carried away. I caught sight of Hana, Yuri, Cho, and Il-sung at the far end, wrapping up their meal. Hana’s amethyst eyes locked on mine and she jumped to her feet. I could almost hear her concerned voice in my head as her lips mouthed, “What is it?”

I gave the slightest of nods to Ko-nah behind me, then turned my gaze toward the center of the room where Tae-do and his buddies laughed obnoxiously. Someone at his table saw my approach, and quickly reached into their pockets for something. Tae-do turned to face me with a confident smirk as I came to a stop before them.

“Duel me,” I said with hot fury.

Tae-do looked over my shoulder at Ko-nah. “Good boy,” he said with a patronizing tone.

I glanced back at Ko-nah who shrank away from my stare. They beat him, then sent him to me with fresh, barely disguised bruises so I’d get upset, and do something rash. Exactly what I just did.

Ko-nah could’ve told me it was a trap, but he didn’t. He was still just protecting himself. The sting of his betrayal was not unexpected, but hurt nonetheless. Hana stood not far off, her eyes blazing with the desire for retribution. Just another thing for us to fight over later.

“You could’ve told me he sent you, it wouldn’t have stopped me,” I said and Ko-nah’s cheeks colored with shameful heat.

He crossed his arms and took another step back as he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“That’s cute, ganhan,” Tae-do taunted and I turned my attention back to him.

The occupants at his table were sniggering—except Shin-soo, who slowly shook his head as he tapped his empty teacup twice. I looked to Tae-do’s cup as he lifted it to his lips. It was steaming with inky-black rivulets of power that looked like death manifested.

He drank back the tea and rose to his feet with a deadly grin. “I accept.”