Mystic Beach Blue #10, Wizard #13

[kay_brooke]

Name: kay_brooke
Story: David/Cleaner
Colors: Mystic Beach Blue #10 (here), Wizard #13 (Defense Against the Dark Arts)
Styles/Supplies: Graffiti (Skindiving
Word Count: 293
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply.
Summary: They kept it a secret.
Note: Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.


The priests kept it a secret, their place.

They kept it a secret from the city (always). The city and the Corporation (one and the same, really) who would come in and take it, strip it of everything living and vibrant and leave it as barren and gray as the rest of the world.

They kept it a secret from the ruffians in the rurs (rebels, they called themselves; outlaws was the Corporation name for them; but the priests knew lost souls when they saw them) who would use it to set up camp and plan their battles and breed more of themselves in their stinking huts, all for the continuance of their pointless and hopeless war.

They even kept it a secret from the acolytes (newly arrived from the city, heads shaved, all outcasts and not a one with a stitch of true faith) who could not be trusted until the city and the Corporation had been (sometimes--many times, forcibly) beaten from their unquestioning heads.

Because there were no places like that left in the world. No places where green fields stretched to the horizon (there was only endless gray dust). No places with clear, flowing rivers (there was only the placid lake, fed from the same sluggish spring that provided the city with its heavily-filtered water). No places where people could dangle their feet of the end of a dock and spend an afternoon fishing (beneath a sun not blurry with haze and ash). No places where they could talk and laugh and eat fruit picked straight from a tree (the city had mastered hydroponic farms, but it just wasn’t the same). No places that the end of the world hadn’t touched.

And so they kept it a secret, their place.

Comments

[settecorvi]

The mix of possessiveness and protection in keeping such a rarity secret is interesting. I also liked how the priests differentiate themselves from the rebels, even if the Corporation would likely lump them together under the same banner (?) as not-them and therefore enemy.

[kay_brooke]

Not exactly the same banner--there's a very delicate balance between the temple and the city where each one works to undermine the other while still pretending to be allies. The rebels are more like just pests to both sides. But yes, the Corporation would probably like to wipe both groups out if given the chance.

Thank you for reading!

[bookblather]

I love the description at the end, a beautiful place described in negatives.

[kay_brooke]

Thank you!

[shipwreck_light]

The flow. The movement. The way you can smell the secret and then the gras.

YES.

[kay_brooke]

Thank you!