Aurrin in the City

Aurrin buttoned her coat tightly across her front, brushing her fingers over the dark wool, searching for the familiarity of that texture. Out of uniform, she was no less threatening than she usually was… except, that her cold protocol and weaponry was replaced by a simple, quiet viciousness. Pushing gloved hands down into the deep, square pockets of that so-versed of garments, she shouldered her way through the door and out into the brisk grey of evening.

Her heart was heavy, and her head was high with the power of the anger that was set to flowing through her blood like electricity. It was that current that had switched on her present restlessness, forcing her out of her home and into the faceless streets of the night. The city itself was winding down from the bustle of the day. Businesses were closing in their clockwork way, lights flickering in and out as she wandered the coridoors of the city. The evening shifts all turning out onto the streets created its own particular burst of traffic – almost all people on foot, weary, with intent eyes on the concrete beneath their feet. These people did not want to interact with her, or with one another. All these people wanted to do was go home. Her own eyes sullenly forward, she moved through them like she was a ghost, occasionally brushing shoulders with an exhausted waitress or aggravated night-clerk. These were the dregs of the populace… those not skilled enough to be employed by the government, or any branches of the military and intelligence that the government propelled. These were people who were paid very little for their work, and worked into the ground… smeared into the concrete by the boots of their employers and the people they served. People like Aurrin.

Her steps fell into a deliberate rhythm, swift against the road as the peculiar thoroughfare drained, supplanted by shadow. Slowly, her mind began to resolve on the polarized forces that had pulled her out of routine, out of reverie, and into this painful wanderlust. Veering around a corner to leave the main street, the woman frowned as Banen’s face came into her thoughts… a particular memory, of an event that took place some odd year ago. They’d been in the home she still occupied, bedclothes strewn across the floor where he’d slept the night, and she’d later joined him. Half clothed, he sat with his guitar lazily leaned across his lap, long fingers working the strings to quiet melody. Aurrin had watched, restless in the aftermath of passion hours before, wanting for action as she often did. They had talked, then, though she did not now recall the conversation in any detail. It was irrelevant.

What was relevant, in her mind now, was Banen’s face. His strong brow and the fringe of his hair, the eyes so dark a blue they fell black in the shadow. They were secret eyes, and she’d just began to realize how many secrets he’d been keeping from her.

Aurrin’s face set itself into stony lines. She felt foolish, naïve for expecting the kind of honesty from him that she’d worked so hard to deliver in the months that their romance had blossomed and, subsequently, wilted.

That heavy feeling that had pulled her out of the house, brimming with nervous energy, now swung like a weighted pendulum in her chest, turning her legs to clay. Darkness now held her city fully, and she could feel the blacker forces that worked within it beginning to take life. Slowing finally, Aurrin backed away from the curb and set her shoulder against a building, taking stock of her surroundings with narrowed eyes. What had been intended to be little more than a stroll around the block had turned in to quite a trek. She didn’t want to walk home. Unfortunately, the tram had stopped running months before, like almost all of the after-hours services in the city once they caught wind of the power that Calthan was amassing after sunset.

Voices sounded from somewhere toward the end of the street, approaching in an alley the opened onto the road. Instinctually, Aurrin pushed herself beneath the eve and further into the shadow cast by the locked shop.

“I’m sorry, darling… you know this won’t have to go one for much longer.” Said one… this was the first she had perceived; a man, speaking in quiet, sincere tones. A smaller sigh sounded. The walking couple was making good time, now on the street coming toward where Aurrin stood silently in the shadow.

“I know. Once Enan comes to port, I’m sure everything will resolve itself in barely more than the blink of an eye… it just all seems so far from now.” This second voice was that of a woman, articulate and wistful, also very quiet.

How sweet, Aurrin though to herself, all but dismissing them in the subsequent silence. There was all manner of romantic talk blossoming to herald the visit of the big ship to their city. Enan was legendary, the largest and most successful airship in the history of their nation. It had been commissioned by the nation for evacuations, by the military for troop transport, and by the fabulously wealthy as novel, posh entertainment. Upon arriving in a’Min, it brought scientists. Scientists, and a cargo of highly sensitive – both politically and physically – information and equipment. Once that was unloaded, however, there were many – like the pair she was eavesdropping right at that moment, it would seem – that hoped to barter for passage on its decks. That was a passage that would take them away from their troubles and debts, offering new beginnings and genuine adventure.