Burning Night: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 2, Part 1: Tabitha

There is no night in the Everburning City. There can never be.

Night meant your home was safe enough to let you rest. That you had security enough to set aside the vigil and trust that the world would survive without you for a night. That your community, your world, was safe enough that it could be left alone.

That if you chose to sleep, no one would come with metal-plated gloves to pound on your door.

"Stop trying to break your hand! I'm on my way!" Tabitha a'Loria called out, grating her teeth as she wiped her hair, and a little ink from her face. In front of her, on her desk, a sketch of her newest project was badly smeared from what was likely her face.

She considered, for just a moment, making whoever it was on the other side of her apartment door wait.

She unlatched the heavy metal door, and yanked it open. She looked down, and saw a wide-eyed teenager in a soldier's uniform standing at attention, with his fist over his chest. "Madam Crafter. Are you Tabitha a'Loria?" He asked, stuttering a little when he reached her last name.

Despite being inside for most of the day, Tabitha remembered she was still wearing her rust-red Crafter's coat. While the cut and style was the choice of each Crafter who earned one, the colour was uniform, and easily recognized by every citizen of the City.

"I am." She answered, simply. In addition to his uniform, she noticed the young soldier wore an arm band around his left arm, just above the elbow. The band marked him as a military courier; charged with delivering messages of varying degrees of urgency. The darker the colour, the more urgent the message.

Brown. Tabitha cringed. The boy was about to ruin her evening.

"You've been summoned to the Foundry, ma'am. A tram-line has been closed off to assist your haste."

She almost, out of reflex, demanded more information. Summoning a Crafter in the dead of night was not something anyone, not even the Bureau Chiefs or the Lord Captain, did lightly. If this was at all frivolous, she might light someone on fire.

But it wouldn't be frivolous. Abyss below, she wished it would be.

"Lead on." She said, as she stepped through the heavy door and turned to shut it.

The boy lead her at a stuttering jog, and looked back frequently as if he wanted her to hurry. She scowled at him as she started down a flight of stairs, and kept her pace to a brisk walk. She was not willing to run to this summons.

The messenger boy might see it as callous indifference. But whatever was waiting for her in the dead of night, she did not want to arrive tired.

"Where are we headed?" She asked, as they exited the building she lived in. Thirty-seven stories tall, each unit a little larger than most citizens were allotted, and deep in the heart of Central. The small difference in size was a sign of formidable status in the City,

"A cold-stone production facility in the Foundry, ma'am. An Evaluator will meet us at Withering Evergreen station." He recited from memory.

"Smoke and ash." She cursed, gritting her teeth.

"Ma'am?"

"Has anyone else been summoned?"

"I don't know, ma'am. We received the order by telegraph." The boy explained.

"So you have no idea what you're sending me into." Tabitha said, and held up her hand to stop the fool boy from mistaking that as a question. She wasn't going to learn anything more from him, and was too distracted to offer him polite small-talk.