Page a Day: Fifty-Eight

           And after one day, I left. At least I think it was a day. It had been morning when I went there. I remained active long enough to pee three times and watch the cache machines whisk it away. Then I was nearing a full night’s sleep when someone fell through to the floor. Maybe none of us ever enters these places properly? Well, regardless, there came a thud. I sat up, hand ineffectually going to where my dagger used to be. The person unfurled and came to stand beside me. It was the politician. Bald and ascetic-looking as ever. The first time I saw him I’d known he was a clerk. I sat up.

            “Why are you waiting?” he asked. “That is not your nature.”

            “I can’t go anywhere,” I said. “The nightwind’s all over.”

            “Do I wear a shroud? Do I look like an enemy to you?”

            I stood and faced him. “They never do. That’s the problem. I thought you’d know that.”

            A corner of his mouth turned upward. I supposed it was a smile. “I have awaited your return. Let your mind be transformed.  You are not on Earth. You have allies, and you need not fear. Draw breath, and the nightwind has no power over you.”

            So I could walk out, if I believed him, any time I chose. “Did you come to bring me back my dagger?”

            He shook his head. “That blade is needed by another. Go instead to the Temple and you will have an army. In three days the first will be gathered there.”

            “And these people, whoever they are, they’ll obey me?”

            He looked like I’d suggested water might flow downhill. “In the ruins of the cities of the swamps to the south waits a soldier fallen in white armor. Wake him, and he will tell you how to find the rest.”

            I frowned. “I see.” I didn’t. I sat on a case of dried fruit. “And what am I supposed to do with my core cadre?”