Fair City
Room 33 was empty but for two plastic chairs in the middle and a long white countertop with two elaborately decorated thrones behind it.
A recorded voice sounded: “Please take a seat. Someone will be with you shortly.”
Laraby started for the plastic chairs. “It’s unacceptable that Administration is allowed any form of punitive authority over us. I’m sure this will be cleared up quickly, penn 1.”
“It’s Pennie. And I’m guessing they can punish us, considering you tried to rip that Administrator’s arm off. It was just a red flag, lara—”
“Laraby. And I beg your pardon, but I had a perfect record. Have.” He sat. “Which is beside the point. Administration is made up of bookkeepers, pencil pushers, form-fillers. That’s the entirety of their job description. Not doling out punishments. If they’d wanted to become Fair Force, or do our jobs, they should have thought about that long before doing whatever it is they did to get them where they are now.”
Pennie sat next to him. “Why isn’t anyone here?”
A light snapped on above the white counter and an elderly Fairship with a red beard three times the length of Laraby’s walked directly out of the wall.
He didn’t look particularly friendly—until you compared him to the next elderly Fairship who stepped through the wall. She was slightly taller with red hair pulled into a bun and a severe face that, like it or not, was still quite beautiful. Their robes were crisp and white. As the highest commanders of the Fair Force, Fairships did not wear tool belts and their unwrinkled robes proved it.
“These aren’t just Fairships. They’re Lord and Lady Fairships; Original Eights,” Laraby said quietly.
“How do you know?” Pennie watched the two sit on their thrones.
“Their sleeves.”
It was true. Both had bell sleeves adorned with red cuffs. The only Original Eights Pennie had ever seen before were in her Manual. She had seen one or two Fairships, recognizable by their orange cuffs, propelling around Fair City on rare occasion. But Original Eights stayed out of the public eye.
A third figure stepped out of a solid door to the left side of the wall. He was younger and less impressive-looking, and his bell sleeves were lined with yellow cuffs.
“That’s a Higher-Up,” Laraby whispered.
“One of them came to talk to my rookie class,” Pennie remembered. He’d explained to the class that as an assistant to the Fairships, a Higher-Up could eventually become a Fairship, but most preferred to remain where they were, counting numbers and creating spreadsheets.
“Good day, Lord and Lady Fairship,” the Higher-Up bowed from the end of the counter where he stood.
“And to you,” Lord Fairship responded brightly.
Lady Fairship offered only a small pull of her lips.
“And good day to you, Fair Ones.” Lord Fairship acknowledged them. “Now let’s begin. You two have been brought to us on suspicion of Bending. Using Renegade Weathers. Is this correct?”
Laraby shook his head. “I’m afraid there’s been a mistake, your Fairship.”
“Excellent. Let’s hope there is.” He nodded. “We’ll take a look.”
The Higher-Up tapped on his tablet and a large hologram screen appeared on the right side of the room. “Please remain still, Fair One,” he ordered.
A red laser dot appeared on Laraby’s forehead. It travelled down and then left across his red eyebrow, finally settling on the temporal lobe two inches above his left cheekbone. Pennie squirmed in her seat but Laraby remained stiff. He shifted his eyes toward the screen without moving his head. The lights went out.
There’s Holden, outside in the quad, minding his own business, practicing a few moves on his skateboard, when something catches his eye: a Frisbee heading straight for a girl passing out flyers. He launches off his board to intercept the Frisbee. He misses and nearly lands on the girl, who steps back just in time.
The screen froze and the dot disappeared from Laraby’s temporal lobe. The lights snapped on.
Pennie frowned. How was this scene in Laraby’s memory? How did he know Tenley Tylwyth?
“We cannot confirm that Fair One lara b3 enlisted Renegade Weathers here,” the Higher-Up announced after tapping his tablet a few more times.
“Because I didn’t!” Laraby threw his hands up. “Like I already told that Administrator down there, I’ve never enlisted Renegade Weathers for the protection of my client, or for any other reason. Ever. I protect my client with my tools, as archaic as some of them are. I didn’t even use those in this circumstance. My client was not in any danger.”
The Higher-Up agreed. “From this report, your Fairships, not a single one of his tools was used to manipulate the flying device.”
“Frisbee,” Laraby corrected him.
“Frisbee.” The Higher-Up nodded, making the change in his tablet.
Lord Fairship looked pleased. “This is good news. We should remind you anyway that using Renegade Weathers is a serious bending. Although Renegade Weathers may come across as harmless, they are still a part of Mother Nature’s army, however estranged. They can turn on us and your client at any moment. Our Fair Force does the best job they can of dissolving these Weathers before Mother Nature can recapture them, but it’s quite difficult and requires a substantial amount of USE.”
“I understand, your Fairship.” Laraby stood. “So may I go?”
“There is still the matter of threatening an Administrator,” Lady Fairship said.
“It was his fault!” Laraby argued.
“Be careful, Fair One lara b3. If security is called, this will count as your third red flag,” Lady Fairship warned.
Laraby dipped his head. “Your Fairships, if I may, Rule 2938 in the Manual states that any punitive action given by an Administrator requires a review before being implemented.”
The Higher-Up nodded regretfully. “He is correct, Lady Fairship. Would you like me to add this to your calendar? I can see you have a little time after dinner.”
“No,” Lady Fairship said. “I’m afraid I have a previous engagement.”
“Very well, which is …” The Higher-Up started to click on Lady Fairship’s calendar.
“Which is something that I’d rather not discuss here.”
“I’m afraid I won’t have time for another review today either,” Lord Fairship said. “Asteroid Golf.”
“Your Fairships,” Laraby said quickly. “Becoming a Lieutenant Fair One has been my goal for as long as I can remember. These red flags will prevent me from reaching it. I am sorry for the incident with the Administrator. But if you will please allow me to keep my perfect record, I will gladly volunteer to tutor rookies with their Manual exams.”
Lord Fairship turned to the Higher-Up. “I’ll allow it,” he nodded. At Lady Fairship’s look, he said quietly, “We are short of Lieutenants as it is. Any aspirations for a rise in ranks should be welcomed.”
Lady Fairship tightened her mouth but stayed silent.
“Thank you, your Fairships.”
“We will need you to stay while we move onto the next Fair One,” Lord Fairship said. “Let’s hope we find good news here too.”
“Let’s hope,” Laraby mumbled, sitting again.
A red laser dot appeared on Pennie’s forehead. She tipped her head back to see it.
“Please refrain from facial movements and sit flush against your chair, Fair One penn 1,” the Higher-Up ordered.
Pennie scooted back and froze. The dot travelled the same way it had on Laraby’s head, ending on her temporal lobe, just below her left ear.
The screen blinked on again. Pennie turned her head to look at it. The screen went fuzzy.
“We need you to please keep still,” the Higher-Up repeated.
“Unless you’d prefer a skull cage?” Lady Fairship offered.
Pennie shook her head but stopped when she realized she shouldn’t have.
The screen blipped on again.
Tenley Tylwyth stands in the middle of the quad passing out flyers. “Vote for me, Tenley T!” She smiles at her fellow students, none of whom pay any attention to her. Tenley remains undeterred. “That’s right, people. I’m running for America’s Next Most Inspirational Teen. And I need your vote, Hadley Beach!”
The school bell rings.
Tenley looks over her shoulder, affording her a peripheral view of the Frisbee heading straight for her. She blows out a quick breath and watches as the Frisbee heads off in the other direction … until something even bigger comes flying toward her. A boy. She steps back just before he lands on her. The boy hits the cement with a hard thud.
The screen froze.
Pennie looked pale.
“Now your Lordships,” the Higher-Up said without turning the lights on. “If we slow this same scene and magnify the Frisbee, this is what we get.”
The Frisbee, just before reaching Tenley’s head, comes to a complete stop, hovers, flips over, and zooms out of frame in the opposite direction.
The lights returned.
“It was me!” Pennie blurted out. “I used my iWind to interrupt the Frisbee’s trajectory. It was heading straight for my client’s left cheek. I should have let the Frisbee stay on its course. Seeing it again, like that, up there, I can tell that it was not, well probably not, an attack by Mother Nature. It looks more like, you know, normal daily activity, which I know we are not meant to interfere with. I’m a rookie your Fairships, I guess I overreacted. It won’t happen again. I’ll take the penalty.”
Laraby frowned over at her. She was talking a mile a minute. The Higher-Up frowned at her too and then clicked on his tablet.
“Give us a moment, Fair One,” he said.
“What’s your problem?” Laraby leaned into her while the Higher-Up and the Fairships conversed in a huddle. “Why are you talking so fast?”
“I’m not. I wasn’t.” Pennie tapped her feet.
“Unfortunately,” the Higher-Up turned back to them. “Despite what you’ve just told us, we cannot find any evidence of your tools being used either, Fair One penn 1.”
Pennie stood. “What? No, I definitely programmed the iWind—”
“Sit,” Lady Fairship said. “Perform the deep memory excavation,” she instructed the Higher-Up.
“Your Fairship,” he argued, “may I remind you that the deep memory laser uses five hundred times the USE that review lasers do. I would suggest that we don’t waste supply on smaller matters.”
“She’s lying,” Lady Fairship turned to Lord Fairship. “We cannot have Fair Ones telling lies. This is a perfect example of what I was saying at our last meeting.”
“I’ll allow it.” Lord Fairship nodded to the Higher-Up.
Pennie sat forward. “Please don’t waste the USE on me.”
“Sit back, Fair One,” the Higher-Up told her.
A red dot appeared on Pennie’s prefrontal cortex.
“Fair One lara b3, you may now leave,” Lady Fairship said.
Laraby stood. Pennie glanced over at him but this time when she moved, intense pain shot through her forehead. “Good bye, Fair One,” Laraby said, before turning to the Fairships and bowing. Without another word, he walked out from under the spotlight.
“Laser’s ready,” the Higher-Up said. “Fair One, please state your identity.”
“penn 1.”
The same scene they had all just watched started over again.