The Cliffhanger Chapter 1
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I. Wycliff
I, Aylesea Wysax, was conceived in the bonds of the slaveowner called Wycliff in the Wystill mountains. Everyone in Wycliff, from the mayor to the field generator workers who kept the town’s AG engines operational, lived to serve the kingdom Tyrian. No one in Wycliff had ever seen the drivers who reigned over us. But what is so important about a town held aloft by rope, steel, and anti-gravity engines? Why keep 20 generations under someone’s thumb?
Chordata ore.
The Wystill mountains were made up this metal. Chordata, when combined with electricity, would cause whatever it was made with to effortlessly float in the air. Try as the could, my father, grandfather and great-grandfather could not convince the mayors to allow the use of the ore in Wycliff. They were always to accept a ‘no’ response as the mayors were afraid of the Tyrian overseers who would arrive, every week, just as the sun would set over the town.
Their ship would silently glide over the town and hover over a large gap in the square. Men in uniforms would off-load supplies and then load up the containers of ore. No one of Wycliff had ever successfully entered the ship. My father tried.
He walked right up to the door and took a step onto the connecting platform and was just about to take that giant step into the cargo bay before a burly uniformed man pushed him off the platform. I was told my father did not scream as he fell into the cloud bank below.
Mother was scorned by the town council and arrested for crimes against the Kingdom of Tyrian. The mayor, Pyotr Wylock, bowed down to the orders from the kingdom and mother joined my father as she was thrown into the abyss. She too, did not cry out, as she vanished from everyone’s view.
I had wanted to believe they were able to save themselves. Maybe there was an engine core they could have grabbed onto or maybe they harassed the power of ore coursing through our veins due to the magnetic properties of Chordata.
That was the wish that kept me going.
I grew up without my parents but I was placed in the care of the Wylocks. I despised Pyotr, but his life mate, Rysia was kind, and her daughter, Aysenia, risked becoming an outlaw to be my friend.
The stigma of my family’s attempts to flee hung over me as a dark cloak. One I was a teenager, the only things that prevented me from meeting the same fate as my parents were Aysenia and my inheritance to repair the town’s technology: from the complexity of our core drillers to the AG engines. I was expected to know all about them. And know about them I did, as tinkering and repairing technology was the lifeblood of the Wysax family.
“You up, Ayle?”
My eyes opened to a blurry silhouette standing next to my cot. My house was small, with almost every square inch devoted to parts and engine core fragments. Books and blueprint scrolls packed a giant bookcase on one side. A small stove and cabinet were near the cot.
“Are you my wake-up call? Ayse?”
“Aye,” she replied as she learned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Father wants you at the meeting tonight.”
The town hall meeting. It would be my first time going as an active member of Wycliff society and not a burden to the Wylocks.
“Wouldn’t miss it for all the Chordata ore in the world,”
“Which is all around us,” Aysenia said with a laugh. “You need to promise me something.”
“Anything for you,” I replied as I sat up and held her hands.
“The overseers will be there. You didn’t hear this from me.”
“And your father wants me to keep quiet?”
Aysenia nodded. “He said he wished you didn’t have to come at all, but all active members of society will need to be there.”
“Is this to prevent me from trying to board the supply ship and fly off into the blue.”
“Ayle, don’t even think that.”
Too late, I had always though about it. Ever since I could understand the laws of our town.
I snapped up and hugged her. “I will be on my best behavior. I will be as silent as a gryworm.”
“You better,” she replied and he hugged me back. “You need to get to work.”
“So soon?” I asked.
Work required heavy boots, a coat, helmet, and the use of two baskets suspend from cables. One basket held two workers, while the other held the chiseled ore. So much of the mountain close to Wycliff had been depleted of the ore, causing the tram basket voyage to take an hour, as you float above the clouds.
I was always tethered to another member of the mining crew. On that day it was Cedric Wydosk. I learned the tether was used to keep in line. In hopes I wouldn’t try anything stupid and kill my digging partner the day.
Cedric’s father was a part of the town council. He was also in line to be the intended life mate to Aysenia, and he was never stopped telling me how Ayse was contractually bound to be married to a Wydosk.
Our basket connected to another line, and we started our ascent up this new mountain.
“It’s our law,” Cedric said and I simply nodded.
“Do you know the first thing I will do when I am first chair?”
“What’s that?”
He leaned in close. “Your family line ends with you. I’ll have you banished to these mountains of thrown off where your parents fell.”
I grabbed onto metal the tether and kicked Cedric out of the basket. He fell, and I almost went with him as me body slammed into the side of the basket.
“You wyresnfack!” Cedric yelled, a not so elegant phrase, but in his present situation seemed like the best word to shout out.
“It’s a long drop, Ced!” I yelled as we continued to ascend the mountain. Cedric tried to grab onto the side with his boots. He was then able to claw his way back into the basket.
“Wyresnfack! I swear I will cu this chain and throw you off this basket!”
“You’re not on the council, yet..and there’s something else you lack.
Cedric’s body heaved and steam flowed from off his head.
“Aysenia may be forced to be your intended. But her love is mine.”
The Cliffhanger Chapter 2
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II. The Hearing
“What are we to do with you, Aylesea?” Pyotr Wylock asked as he stared at me. I answered his question with silence.
I stood in the center of the council chambers, my hands shackled. The men in the council looked bored…except for Feederk Wydosk, who stared at me with disdain from the far side of the table.
“We need to throw her off at the square! She tried to kill Cedric!”
Pyotr took off his hat, wiped his brow, and then stared back to Feederk. “Not until the overseer arrives. No official judgement can be—”
“It most certainly can, Wylock! This, this wysat!” Feederk pointed a bony finger at me. “All in favor of banishing her to clouds, signify with an aye. Now!”
The other council members looked amongst themselves and then to the mayor and councilman Feederk, desperately wishing they were not present.
No one raised a hand, which caused Feederk to stand and slam his hands on the table. “Pyotr, you are aware of the impending joining of our families.”
“I am, sir.”
“My son, tells me that this wysat and your daughter are in a betrothment! This is against all bonds, our ways. Do you deny it?”
“I do not,” Pyotr said with a slight sigh.
“This cannot stand! Our houses can never bind until this matter is satisfied.”
“Your satisfaction or Cedric’s?” I asked.
Pyotr shot a look back at me, an expression pointed to me time and time again.
“My son’s, my family’s, honor will not be tarnished by this Wysax’s tainted blood!”
We all looked to the door on the far wall as voices behind it rose to a crescendo, followed by a high-pitched howl.
The door clicked open and Aysenia barged in, followed by Cedric, whose face was red and swollen.
“You son is foul-mouthed wypilli!”
Silence filled the room, except for Cedic’s whimpering.
Pyotr glared at me and then to his daughter. “This is a private matter, Aysenia.”
“A private matter that concerns my sister and best friend.”
“Is she more?” Feederk asked with a scoff.
“If I want her to be, yes,” Aysenia stomped across the room, her boots echoing across the stone floor. She grabbed onto the table for a brief moment and then her hands gripped into the air.
“I’m over here, Ayse,” I said.
She walked over to me and felt at my face. “Are you hurt?”
“Not yet,” I replied, as I stared at Cedric.
“Your daughter is not a part of these proceedings,” Cedric shouted.
“Neither are you!” I shouted back.
“Enough!” Pyotr rose to his feet, turned to me and unshackled my hands.
I at once wrapped my arms around Aysenia
“Are you mad, Wylock? She needs to be sentenced!”
Pyotr shook his head. “Not today and not by you, Feederk.”
Cedric stood by his father, and if looks could kill, then they would have had thier way with me right then and there.
“This council meeting is adjourned!” Pyotr barked. The other men scrambled and left without a sound.
“On the first day of the betrothment ceremony, you will meet your fate!” Feederk snapped as he left wth Cedric.
The door slammed shut and Pyotr sat back down.
“He is right. That is our law.”
“You can’t let her be sacrificed because of some scared little wyquio.”
“That wyquio, you speak of is to be your betrothed.”
Aysenia looked at her father. “I will throw myself off with her, and we will die together then, father. Is there not a meeting tonight with the overseer? Can we appeal to him?”
“Such men have no value or care for a race of convicted souls. They will simply state they have no care in the laws we have put in place. These. Are. Our. Laws, Ayse.”
“I don’t approve, I never have, father.”
Pyotr stared at me and pointed his muscular hands towards me. “You will accompany the family tonight. You will sit, and you will be silent. Is that clear, Aylesea Wysax?”
“Yes sir.”
“Get out, the both of you.” I guided Aysenia to the door. “And don’t provoke the Wysocks anymore than you already have!”
The Cliffhanger Chapter 3
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We walked from the square back to Ayse’s family home in the Riven district. It was considered the upper echelon of the village, with homes that were once the home of ancient overseer and his ranks. They would take turns firing shots from the upper towers, striking down any villager within range. Ayse, and myself at one time, lived in one of the towers and every morning we would look out the window, and I would describe the bright colors I imagined were above the never-ending cloud cover.
“Were they looking at us?” She asked as we steppe into her room.
“We can’t stop them, Ayse.”
“I know that…I just-I wish it could be normal. The only reason we’re still alive is my family’s status.”
Tragically, that was the main thing keeping me alive too. I was master mechanical engineer, but the Wysocks were master mania engineers. I bit my lip that I played right into their power play. I allowed Cedric to goad me and the more I thought about it, the more I should have cut the line and allowed him to fall.
“I don’t want him,” Ayse whispered. “I want you.”
“You’ll always have me, Ayse,” I replied as I kissed her cheek.
“We need to beg father to talk the overseers before Cedric can.”
“I think he knows, Ayse.”
I looked out over the village and took a deep breath as my time living there would soon come to an end. Pyotr was correct, the overseer’s only concern was the output of Chordata ore, anything else was a distraction and they wave everything off to whoever promised higher totals. That, and bribery—something the Wysocks took pride in.
“I was serious, Ayle. I would rather fly through the clouds with you than be forced to be with Cedric.”
“It won’t come to that, I promise.” I wrapped my arms around Ayse’s waist and leaned my head on her shoulder and released the deep breath I had been holding.
A violent explosion broke the silence, and we looked out the window.
“What is it?”
Plumes of smoke rose into the air in the short distance, followed by the scream of an AG engine failing.
“Gotta go!” I whispered as I kissed Ayse.
“Be safe, Ayle.”
The staccato of my running combined with the sounds of a dying engine to form an untimely melody. The AG engines used in Wycliff were designed by someone who had been long forgotten. The knowledge of how they worked existed only as oral history until my grandfather took it upon himself to transcribe the words of the elder engineers. The town elders and engineers balked at my family’s knowledge and for the longest time the Wysax family would sweep in at the last moment to save a falling district.
Those engines stayed operational, combined with the multitudes of tethers holding each district, and the buildings stacked on their plateaus. Drills were carried out every few months—at least when the town elders deemed it to happen. Pyotr had been overruled to allow the tests to occur. Th grim thought of the population of the Wyland District panicking and falling to their deaths was becoming a reality.
The engineering guild—the one that my family had been barred—rushed from dying engine to dying engine.
“There not going restart!” I yelled over screaming. The guild members ignored me, causing me to get in front of the engine. “Ignore me all you want, wyquios, but everyone stil on the district is going to die!”
All of the men averted their eyes and continued ripping at the systems.
“Wyasath!” I screamed as I turned to the district. It had fallen a few inches. I ran along the edge of the district to the west side entrance, the widest one, and stormed past a man who was there to lead foot traffic, but his face and eyes were filled with fear.
“You can’t go in there, it’s going to collapse!”
“I’m going to fly to my death one way or another!” I shouted back while running across the crumbing firmament.
The Wyland district was one of the older parts of Wycliff. The buildings were made of stone and wood. Very little Chordata was used—hence the overworked engines and tethering lines. The district’s inhabitants were of the poorer folk, not that anyone had any money in our village, but they were low in society’s eyes. The buildings showed structural damage, with cracks fingering their way through the mortar.
Maybe everyone had been evacuated.
A man’s voice broke through the chaos: “Help us!”
I scanned the area, trying to pinpoint where his voice was coming from. The screaming of the collapsing couplers was not helping.
“We’re up here!”
My eyes darted up to see a man, woman, and child standing on the upper floor of a crumbling building. I did indeed run into the building, dashing down the halls and up any staircase still in existence. The structure rumbled with every second.
I turned onto the floor and could see the family huddling together against the stone wall.
“Come on!” I yelled as I waved for them to follow me.
The man and woman stood up just as a cable groaned and snapped, the heavy metal cord flew over my head.
A sickening scream filled the air as I saw the torso of the woman fly against the wall, her skull cracking against the stone.
The impact launched the man over the side of the building; a four story drop onto a stone and steel plateau.
I stood in shock as the woman’s body slid down with her head landing next to the boy.
“Are you okay?” I asked him
The boy could only scream.
“I agree with you,” I whispered to myself as I scooped him up and ran back the way I came.
The ground rumbled beneath my feet, throwing my balance to the side. There was no time to look around for an exit, I simply chose to run as far as I could, hoping not join my parents that day.
There was a crowd gathered around the falling district, most of them able-bodied men…and none of them would come across to help us. I felt my body working against me, not wanting to continue running.
The ground then fell, several feet below the rest of Wycliff.
“Wyda,” I whispered to myself as I threw the boy up and into the crowd above, hoping someone would catch him as the entire district fell into the clouds, leaving me to grab onto a frayed cable, holding on for dear life.