Ruth Silver - Moirai

Together, we descended to the lobby. Stepping out, I glanced around, catching sight of Chloe and Elsa waiting for us. I wondered how this meeting in Torv would go. The last high council I'd met out east in Haven and it hadn't ended well for anyone.

“Thanks for getting ready fast.” Chloe gestured for us all to follow her outside. We walked to the end of the road and two blocks north. My eyes scanned the streets, taking in everything surrounding us. Torv was huge! There was no other way to describe the city. It was bustling with people and made Haven look inferior. I pushed down such thoughts as I felt Joshua's hand in mine. I glanced at him, giving him a faint smile.

Together, we followed Chloe inside the old brick building. It was tall, approximately six stories, but nothing like the place where we stayed. It looked much older than the rest of the town. Ivy climbed the outside walls, and I wondered why they hadn't worked to remove it. We were led into the main foyer and walked across the hardwood floor to another room. Chloe knocked before continuing into the room. “Douglas.” She nodded once. “I've brought the three from Shadow—Olivia, Joshua, and Elsa—to help us with the pregnancies.” She introduced each of us to him.

Douglas was a tall, heavyset, balding man. He sat at the head of the table, wrapped in exotic red robes and presumably clothing underneath. He acted in charge as he tapped his fingers against the table. “Come in, come in.” He gestured for us to come closer. I didn't particularly want to be here. I tried not to seem affected though, watching as he sized us up and down. “We appreciate your help in the matter. As such—” I felt his eyes lock solely on me. “If what they say is true about you, Olivia, I feel it necessary to keep an armed guard with you at all times. Your head will not be my responsibility.” I didn't quite know what that meant. Did he think people in Torv would harm me? I knew Margo had been shot but it had been outside of Spade. They hadn't so much as been given acceptance into the town before they'd been fired upon.

“Mr. Douglas—” I smiled weakly, unsure how to address him. “I'm not concerned for my safety unless your men can't control themselves.” I felt plenty capable of looking after myself, and considering the Mindonsiphan, I had little doubt anyone would be capable of hurting me.

He nodded curtly. “Although you may put such little value on your own life, or the responsibility of carrying a child, I cannot do the same while you are in our home of Torv. Once you leave the city walls, you are free to go wherever and do whatever. While in Torv, I ask that you please have the guard, Kelvin, with you at all times, and accept this as an offer of peace.”

I didn't quite know how peace and armed guard fit into the same sentence, but I nodded all the same. There was no point in arguing. I reached over, holding Joshua's hand. I still didn't quite understand how they knew about me but bringing it up now seemed like a terrible idea. If they suspected we didn't trust them, things could get a whole lot worse. “Let it be known that Joshua and I are together.” I didn't care what they thought. “Understand that having a guard to protect me is your responsibility, but separating us is not an option.”

Douglas laughed. “We have no intention of dictating your life for you, child.” His voice was condescending, but I ignored him. “We merely wish to make sure your destiny isn't chosen for you while you're here.”

Joshua squeezed my hand and spoke up. “Can you tell us how you've come to help women in Torv conceive?” So far we hadn't been given any real details and we had been more than just a little curious.

Elsa nodded, stepping forward. “Perhaps the procedure you've used is in part the reason for the high number of deaths. If we know what we're getting ourselves involved with, maybe we can offer more assistance.”

Douglas eyed Chloe. “How far have you come?”

Chloe sighed. “Elsa and I have developed an experimental hormone. We hope to administer it during labor to save the mother's life.”

“That is good news.” He clapped his hands together. His gruff voice echoed through the room. “I can assure you the procedure we performed on the mothers was safe and no more challenging than that of two hundred years ago when some families couldn't conceive: IVF, or in vitro fertilization,” he explained. “In most cases the implanted egg will take. It's not until the final trimester when the woman is in labor that they die. We can't fathom why.”

I spoke up, remembering the discussion in the lab just a short time ago. “The government demands of its people marriage at eighteen. There's always one man and one woman, the perfect number of pregnancies, always healthy and always ready for the government's wishes.” A hint of annoyance rose in my voice. “Is it not the government that determines a child's sex? Whether a baby is a boy or a girl? Could it not be the government tampering with our genes? The government determining who is right for one another to live by and have a child with if they deem necessary?” I laughed darkly. “Our government, a sick and twisted system, tells us what is right and what is just.” I shook my head in defiance. “I say they are wrong. I say they do this on purpose. They keep us infertile. They want us weak. They wish us to denounce ourselves and fail at will.”

Joshua coughed softly and nudged me as Elsa spoke out. “Olivia is right. The government always has the perfect number of boys and girls. Yes, the chances of a boy should be fifty-fifty but the odds that every year each is exact is unheard of. We all know they choose the sex of the child. It fits their system. Why couldn't they choose other traits: hair color, eye color, or perhaps something much more important, like reproductive ability? This isn't by accident,” she affirmed. “Maybe once the Red Plague was an accident, a misfortune, but our current system is no longer that today.”

The room erupted in loud chatter. Then Douglas raised his hand to quiet everyone. Clearly he was the man in charge of the council. “We accept your theory.” He nodded, understanding where we came from. “It still doesn't change the fact that we're all here. If certain genes are gone, or turned off, how do we fix it?”

“They're not all gone.” I stepped forward. “We all know my mother conceived me naturally. We don't know how that was possible. Perhaps her mother or grandmother hadn't been inoculated or it had been faulty. Perhaps she has a new gene that is dominant and allows me to give birth to a child. I'm not a scientist,” I reminded the high council. “I'm a girl, thrown into this mess by mere chance.”

Douglas laughed, glancing at his council members. “Chance?” He shook his head and then stopped laughing, staring hard at me. “Nothing, child, was by chance.” I wondered why the sudden dark look appeared in his eyes. I couldn't quite read his expression and felt my stomach somersault. I wanted to look at Joshua but I couldn't. Did I say something wrong?

He didn't answer me. He didn't have time. Douglas stared at me. “Child, you have no idea what the rebel alliance in Torv has done for you. Your father—” Speaking about him made the room spin. “He secured your future long before you were born. Chance hardly plays into your life. Your marriage ceremony, your job placement—all decisions made by the high council and interjected into the government's systems.”

“How?” Joshua spoke up. I didn't blame him for questioning what they said. It did, after all, involve him as well.

Douglas smiled. “You would be curious, wouldn't you?” He didn't seem entirely surprised. “Joshua, your family and Olivia's were close. Much too close long before you were born. If marriage had been a choice, I believe your parents, Rebecca and Gavin, would have wed. That's neither here nor there.” He brushed his hands together. “When Olivia was conceived, it happened to be the same lottery Rebecca had won that winter. Gavin knew who he could trust. There weren't many in Genesis willing to help.” He paused momentarily. “Rebecca didn't come to us. Let me tell you that. We came to her when she became a member of the high council of Haven. She'd known two other rebels in Genesis, but her allegiance and what she promised to do proved her beyond a doubt as one of us.”