Slumrat Rising

Chapter 34: A Need to Decompress

Truth was in an odd mood as he walked into the PMC. He was still thinking over the scene in the Vice Principal’s office. The matter just… ended. There would be no negative comments in the siblings' permanent records. No problems with their college applications. The kids that were bullying them would be suppressed, and their parents given a quiet, but firm, word. The teachers too, for that matter. Not because of the moral rightness of his case nor the simple injustice of bullying. Not even because he was a person of some status. Just money. He had the credits to burn and did.

It was wild. You could buy a pass to break the rules from Starbrite. It only worked for Starbrite’s rules, and it only worked for some rules, and obviously, you had to have access to the System to buy it. Which meant that you were C grade and already stood above hundreds of thousands of people. He had no idea such passes even existed. Were there more powerful passes available the higher up in grade you became?

Of course there were. There just had to be. Fifteen thousand credits to “fix” a high school drama situation set a certain threshold. How much would, say, a simple assault on an F-tier employee cost? It couldn’t be too much, right? It might even be cheaper. The school's faculty and parents were C and D-Tier, after all.

“Medici! Hope everything worked out with your siblings. You missed a RAGER of a party.” Sergeant Murthey sounded painfully chipper.

“Hey, yeah, it’s sorted.”

“Great. Really, family is so important. My god, I think I may have kids in Okepuela nine months from now. I’ll have to swing by again and check.” Murthey smiled like an angel reminiscing. “Women, music, food. Beer, too, obviously, but the food. Oh. My. Sweet Baby Prager. The food. I have never in my life eaten such good fish. I didn’t know it could be that good. This was a fish revelation, Corporal. How was the food on your flight?”

Truth had gotten a couple of candy bars from a vending machine in the cargo hanger. They were not the best.

“Oh, fine. You know how food is on those flights.” Truth hedged.

“Honestly, I don’t. I was still sleeping off the party until we entered Jeon airspace.” He shook his head happily. “Oof. Anyhow. Time to get back to it.”

And so he did.

That night, he corralled his siblings. Harmony was firmly in the study bubble, but Soph and Vig were hauled away from whatever sinister plans they might have had.

“It has not been a great week.” He announced.

“I’m… sorry to hear that?” Vigor offered tentatively.

“Thank you, but you know the rules. We do not bitch. We find solutions. And I have found a solution.”

“Oh?” Sophia sounded distracted as she was editing her notes.

“Yes. Come. Come to the healing place with me.”

They flagged down a flying carpet and went downtown to a major shopping district. It was a garish explosion of light and noise. Every building and there wasn’t a building less than forty stories, was covered with enchanted signs. Dragons coiled around buildings, fighting with tigers leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Eagles soared across windows, advertising cheap beer. Shopping malls the size of small towns rose, shaped in curious, bulbous extrusions of blued glass and steel. Some had entire libraries in them. Two had amusement parks. One had a ski mountain with fresh powder falling from indoor clouds. Another had a waterpark staffed with carefully collared and glamoured mermaids.

Fifteen department stores, each with huge glass windows on the ground floor displaying luxuries most couldn’t afford. One row of windows displayed vehicles for the absurdly wealthy. A custom chariot, low and sleek and built for speed, etched with alchemist’s mercury and inlays of mother of pearl carved into arabesques, was propped up on a plinth. Next to it was a sedan built upon the same lines, but rather than youthful speed, it promised mature power. This was not a carriage to drive but to be driven in.

Attractive golems, carved from golden wood and ivory, decorated with subtle gems and shimmering glamors, dressed in the finest clothes the store had to offer, draped themselves over the chariots. Looking at the passers-by with smoky eyes, promising all this could be yours if only you had the money. It isn’t a dream, they seemed to whisper. It’s a promise.

Such a place was only for Citizens. Denizens would be arrested the moment they set foot in the district. Slumrats like the Medicis couldn’t even get off the subway here. The gate would not open for them. Now they were citizens. They could come here if they wished. None of them had ever been anywhere like it. They just stood on the corner where the carpet had dropped them and gawked.

“Have your driver honk if you are already a subscriber.” Truth said, seemingly at random. Sophia and Vigor looked at him, and he shrugged. “A billboard for The Patrician magazine. I saw it by the airport and thought it was funny.”

“Some joke,” Vigor murmured. Sophia just nodded.

Truth shook himself into action. “Alright, reason number one I wanted to come here should be,” he looked around, “this way.”

It wasn’t hard to see where he was leading them. A side street, well lit and lined with stalls and little plastic tables. A riot of different food smells came from the stalls. Little booths, big lines. Some had more than a hundred people queueing up for a bowl of whatever they offered.

“Not going to lie to you guys- I’ve been struggling to get used to uptown food. So I figure, tonight, we try some stuff. I see stuff that is deep-fried, shallow-fried, covered in goopy sauces, and even stuff that looks like mostly eggs. We can, for sure, find things we like to eat here.” The sibs snorted at that, but they threw themselves into things with a will.

Truth wound up eating some kind of sausage in a bun that had been studded with cheese, battered, deep fried, coated with some sweet and tangy sauces, then put in a toasted bun. It was surreal but good. But surreal. It didn’t make a lick of sense, it was a complete mess to eat, it would sit in his guts like a boulder… and it was really tasty.

Vigor got a bowl of cold noodles that appeared to be topped with ground chicken and pain. The sibs felt that they had a healthy tolerance for spice. They learned they were wrong. The cold noodles were swimming in chili oil. It was still delicious, but they agreed it was a dish for masochists.

Sophie honed in on lamb skewers served with a slightly sweet flatbread. The skewers were brushed with oil, then rolled in a mixture of crushed and whole cumin seeds. Once they were nicely charred and cooked through, the skewers were dusted with mild ground chili powder and more cumin. They were finally topped with a sprinkle of coarse salt. The mixture of cumin, chili, and lamb, the way the fat balanced the heat, the way the bread soaked the spilling oil and brought everything together- pure joy.

And at no point did any of them reach for cash. They just walked up, ordered, and walked away. The Starbrite lapel pin was all they needed.

Once satiated, Truth led them to their next objective.

“TheCalm Heart Café?” Sophie asked. “Cute cat logo, I guess. But seriously, even if they have the best desserts, I’m stuffed.”

“No. This is better than dessert.” Truth said with certainty. They walked into the Café and were greeted by a calm-looking young man wearing a fur-covered apron.

“Medici, party of three? This way, please.” He led them into a bright, airy hallway with many rooms running off it.

“As this is your first time visiting us, please allow me to introduce you to our residents. We are proud to share our space with the widest variety of animals of any café in Harban. We have a variety of dog and cat breeds, ranging from energetic and playful to calm and dignified. We have hedgehogs, our spikey but cute friends, who are a joy to feed. In this room, there are owls. A staff member will be delighted to provide you with a gauntlet and show you how to carry one on your wrist. Last but never least, my favorite room of all- short-clawed otters. Playful, smart, and so cute I just can’t stand it.”

Truth looked at his siblings. “Come. Let the healing begin.” They laughed but went for it.

It was when Sophia was playing with some sort of hound. She would roll a ball for it, and it would chase the ball. It had long, droopy ears that almost reached the floor, short legs, and skin so loose it looked like a child wearing a fat man’s clothes. She would roll the ball to the end of the room, and the hound bounded after it, tongue flapping, ears waving, and the skin flopping around like baggy trousers in a breeze. It would always overshoot the ball, bounce off the wall, catch it, and run back in doggy triumph, ready to go again.

She took the slobbery ball from the dog and sat down to pet it. Then she hugged the dog. The dog licked her face with a handkerchief-sized tongue. Soph started laughing, but the laughter turned to wracking sobs. The dog kept licking, this time going for the tears. Truth and Vigor came over to her, gently holding her.

“I was scared all the time. I didn’t let it show, but I was always scared,” Soph whispered. “Every time I went out, every time I was alone on the street, every time they were home, I was scared.” Her brothers just nodded. They got it.

“I started flirting back, you know? When they called out to me. Like, somehow, it would prove I wasn’t scared of them, and if I wasn’t scared, they couldn’t hurt me. Like I could win the game.” She was getting a little garbled, but they still got it. “But you couldn’t win. There was no way to win. I knew it. I knew it, but it was all I could do.” They got that too.

“And the only thing we could count on was you, and you kept going out. You would go out and disappear and come back with dinner. And you would have bruises and cuts, and you got quieter and quieter. And now you go out, disappear and come back with an apartment and dinner and schools, and you are spending a week in the hospital, and we can’t even call you! We can’t even visit you when you are in the hospital and you are still going out. I was crawling under torn metal to fish scrap from a poisoned canal, 'cause I thought you weren't going to make it.”

Truth nodded sadly. Soph buried her face in the scruff of the dog’s neck. The dog settled down, leaning into her. Vigor and Truth sat with her. They petted their dogs. Neither knew what to say.

Eventually, Truth spoke. “I always needed you guys. I still need you. I don’t know what I will do when you go to college and move out, both of you. It was how I survived. I survived because you needed me. Since you needed me, I had to do it. Whatever it was, I just had to do it. That’s all. I could focus on that and try to ignore the… everything else.” He felt he should say more but had run out of words. He had been getting quieter for a long time.