bowl. It was beautiful but hardly appetizing. Still, his stomach growled, and he lifted a spoonful to his mouth and ate.
He coughed, choking on his food with surprise, and had to dab at his face and take a drink of the tepid water he’d been served.
“You don’t like it?” Elroy asked.
“It went down wrong,” Arlen replied, pounding a fist on his chest.
In truth, it was barely warm, and truly, amazingly bland. He thought maybe one of the potatoes he’d eaten was rotten, but Elroy’s was steaming and fresh, and he was moaning with each bite, his eyes closing as he savored the flavors.
Still, figuring it was better to not attract attention, he ate, picking around the questionable bits, and when the burly purple man returned to collect their plates, Arlen complimented him and gave him a good tip. Thus filled, the two men sat, taking in some sunlight, before Elroy reached into his coat and grabbed the rolled message he’d gathered from the Transfer office. He cracked the seal and unfolded it. A second, smaller parchment slid out, with Arlen’s name scrawled on it. Elroy handed it over to him.
His body went stiff with dread. Arlen hated messages from his father, and he doubted this would be any different.
Arlen,
I should like you to keep Elroy close, and let him teach you the ways of Shine Territory. You must keep your unique relationship with shine a secret. I am sorry events transpired that kept me from fully informing you about your nature before you left, but you must prepare yourself now, and give nothing away. It will not be safe for you if people know what you are.
In the meantime, I need you to locate a good place for a textile mill. It needs to be somewhere between Freetown and Grove, with easy access to water, and near the train line. It should also be large enough to hold around one hundred employees as well as large machines. Elroy has been given of a list of potential locations for you both to scout.
M. Esco
After all these years and Matthew Esco had known that Arlen, for some reason, reacted differently to shine than anyone else. He ran his life over in his mind, pulling out all the oddities he’d excused, or not noticed until now. The carefully chosen, shine-free boarding school. The doctors, when he’d caught the mosquito flu as a child, had treated him without the latest shine techniques. The wind-up watches, the wind-up toys, the wind-up everything. When everyone else had shine powered machines, he had his ingenuity and lots of dials to maneuver.
He'd always admired his father for controlling this wealth of shine, yet refusing to use much, if any, himself. He was a man of means, and yet he remained modest.
He thought of the Boundary, which he could see when others couldn’t and had no impact on him.
Food, which was nearly cold, and bland. Tepid water.
Matthew Esco, always a bit more than an arm’s reach away.
It hit him like an asteroid falling out of the sky. How carefully his life had been lived. A game of mirrors and shadows. Matthew Esco was a shark and always had been. He was adept at manipulating events to suit his needs.
Arlen never expected he was the one being manipulated.
“Everything okay?” Elroy asked, eyeing him warily.
“Fine,” Arlen said, tucking the letter into his breast pocket to deal with later. “What did your letter say?”
“Nothing unusual. There’s a wanted man running around, making trouble. Matthew wants us to apprehend him, bring him in. If things get too far along…” his voice trailed off.
“If things get too far along…?” Arlen pressed.
“Well, we’ll hang him. This is Shine Company land, which means all these people on it are dependent on us for their safety and livelihoods.” Elroy leaned across the table, tapping on it with his fingertips. “We’re sent out here with a list of things to do for the company. That’s only part of the job. This sort of thing is the rest of it. We need to keep the people safe.”
He listened to Elroy with half an ear. There were too many thoughts vying for his attention, none of which he could deal with right now. “Who is the man?”
Elroy pushed the parchment across the table. Along with carrying and relaying messages, the men who worked in the transfer offices were all good at drawing, for moments just like this, Arlen suspected.
The official Shine Company logo was at the top and took a