More time passed after Serru showed up. All three of us had to do work occasionally, just so that Julo could tell people that we were being productive without lying. Not that anyone would ask, but we figured better safe than sorry. Then, only a week or two after Serru was transferred, and his bruises were almost done fading, as I was told by Dsekene, another person showed up at the work camp, this one unannounced.
I think it was somewhere around noon when we heard the noise at the front gates. Well, actually I was the only one who heard the noise, and since no one else who counted was near me at the time I couldn't tell anyone easily. The noise continued for a while, which annoyed me because I couldn't quite figure out what it was. It was a low rumbling, not very loud, but painful to my sharpened hearing. Then, finally, my curiosity, and annoyance, got the better of me and I went to find out what it was.
I knew that I shouldn't be going anywhere near the gates. If there had been any guards there I would have been in deep trouble, as would Julo. Luckily for me, there weren't any guards, or anyone else who might have problems with a "shelon" near the gates of the work camp. Instead it was just a girl, younger than me, though I didn't find that out until later.
"Hey, it got someone!" the girl exclaimed happily when she saw me, or at least I guessed that was when she saw me. It was then that the noise stopped too. "I wasn't sure if it was going to work."
"Uhh, what are you talking about?" I asked. "And who are you?"
"This," she said, presumably holding something up for me to see. "It causes vibrations in the collars, or at least that's what I wanted it to do. I'm assuming that since you came here that something happened. Though I didn't expect to find a girl with a collar on."
"Hey, if you hadn't noticed, my eyes are closed," I said, just a little annoyed at her for calling me a girl when she sounded younger than I was. "I can't see whatever it is you're talking about."
"I see," she said. Then I felt something pressed into my hand. It was a small metal box, with a knob on it. "This is the device I was talking about. I wanted it to vibrate the collars when it gets near them because I wanted to be able to find people with collars on. I didn't get a chance to test it though because I fled my lab too fast. So, are there any other people with collars here? I hope I got the right place."
"Why are you looking for people with collars?" I asked suspiciously. "Isn't having them on enough torment?"
"No, no," she said. "I don't want to do anything bad. I just was looking for other people who might want revenge at 'Lord Isuni' and I figured that anyone he collared would probably want that."
"What do you want with my father?" I asked.
"Your father?" she asked, sounding surprised. "Do I know him?"
"Unless there's more than one man who calls himself 'Lord Isuni,' yeah," I said.
"Oh, so you're the girl that he was so angry about a while ago," she said. "My deadline got shortened because of you, you know." She sounded annoyed. "But I won't hold that against you 'cause I don't think you meant to make life hard for me."
"I don't even know who you are!" I said. "Why would I want to make life hard for you?"
"As I said, I don't think you meant to make life hard for me," she said.
"And I still want to know who you are," I said, about ready to lose my patience. "And what you're doing here."
"I don't suppose we could go somewhere else first, could we?" she asked. "This isn't exactly the most comfortable place, and it's outside. I hate being outside. It's so...bright."
"Why should I help you?" I asked.
"How about because I can get that collar off of you?" she said smugly. My heart leapt at the thought of being able to actually see again, and to be able to feel people and be sure that I wasn't alone. But the girl was annoying me. She sounded far too pleased with herself. "You can't be happy with it on, and I can remove it for you, if you let me inside somewhere. It's the least I can do."
"Fine," I said reluctantly. "Follow me."
"Uh, shouldn't you open your eyes before you go somewhere?" she asked.
"I would," I said. "But my sight is completely tied to my mayin powers, and because of the damned collar if I try to open my eyes I get nothing but pain. It's not a fun thing; you should try it some time."
"Oh," she said faintly, and I thought that maybe she had realized how annoyed I was with her. But at the same time I doubted it. She, so far, didn't seem like the kind to see herself as annoying, ever.
I lead her into the work camp, and into the gate house, where I offered her a chair and then sat across the table from her. I then crossed my arms over my chest and tried to give her my most menacing look. It probably wasn't very effective, and the fact that I couldn't open my eyes and glare at her didn't help at all. Of course being short and quite girlish looking, as I was and still am, didn't help either.
"Take it off, now," I said.
"Have a little patience," she said, but I could hear her get up out of her seat and walk over to me. Then I felt her hands near my neck, and I had to keep myself from squirming because it tickled. "It's going to take some time anyway. These things were designed to only come off with an operant mayin's touch, and I'm definitely no mayin. But what Isuni didn't realize was that I made them with one little trick. If I just short out this..."
There was a slight shock of electricity that ran through me from the collar, not enough to be dangerous, but enough that I felt it, and then there was an audible click. I could feel the block on my mayin abilities fall away, though the collar was still there. Then I opened my eyes just in time to see her take her hands away.
She was a small girl, and definitely younger than I was, probably by about two years. She was extremely skinny, and taller than I was, which didn't do much to make me like her any more. Her hair was brown, and very messed up. It reminded me of the pictures of palm trees that I'd seen in books before, but brown. It also reminded me of pictures of this one scientist I'd seen in old books, this one physicist and mathematician whose appearance fit the stereotypical "mad scientist." Her eyes were hazel, but hidden by glasses that dominated her thin face. I figured that she was duseken, since she obviously didn't have any wings, and I couldn't see gills on her neck.
"Told you I could get it off!" she exclaimed, looking far too proud of herself.
"But it's still on," I said.
"The clasp's in the back," she said. "It should be detectable now that the field is powered down, so you should be able to just take it off."
I reached up to the back of the collar, to see if what she had said was true. Sure enough, I found the catch that held it together and undid. Then, happily, I removed the damned thing from my neck and took it down to look at it.
I had known before that it was metal, mostly because I could reach up and touch it, and it certainly felt like metal. It was an ugly dull silvery color and I couldn't quite figure out what kind of metal it was. The only mark on its surface was a scorch mark in the front, which I figured was where the girl had shorted it out. I was desperately curious to find out just how it blocked mayin powers, but unfortunately I couldn't see anything that would make it able to do that kind of thing.
"Kinda cool how just a simple collar can cause so many problems for the mayin, isn't it?" the girl said when she saw me staring at the collar.
"It's not so cool if you're the one wearing one," I said. "And I still want to know who you are."
"Oh, yeah," she said. "I'm Zeki. I invent stuff, including that collar that you're holding. Of course, most of the stuff I invent is much nicer than the collars. The collars themselves weren't my idea. They just aren't my style."
"And what does all of that have to do with my father?" I asked. "You mentioned him before."
"Yeah, he's the one who had me make the collars," she said. "I found this stuff that can block mayin powers, and he somehow found out about it. And since I'm just a shelon to him, and a female, he decided to order me around and had me incorporate the mayin blocking stuff into collars so that he could get an edge over other mayin. But he pissed me off a little too much recently, so I decided that it's time to take him down."
"That doesn't explain why you're here," I said.
"Actually it does," she said. "A couple of months ago Isuni had me make three more of the collars for him. He said they were for a bunch of rebellious she-'s who he was sending to work camps. When I left him I figured that rebellious she-'s would have to be smart ones, and that they'd probably all have grudges against Isuni. So I went looking for work camps with collared people in them and found this one."
"You didn't find the other one?" I asked. "Or the two others with collars?"
"No," she said. "They friends of yours?"
"Yes," I said. I had already figured out that Jalki and Myini were most likely collared before she told me. Despite that, my mind had been searching all over for any traces of them that I might find since the block on the collar had gone out. I was desperate to find some hint that Jalki was still out there. Unfortunately it wasn't working.
"I can help you find them," she said. "As it is I'm going to need more than just you to get my revenge against Isuni. At least, I assume you're going to want to get him back for this."
"Of course I do," I said. "But there are other more important things for me to do first, like find Jalki. And you should probably get Julo's collar off of him."
"Julo?" she asked. "There's another collared person here? There shouldn't be, 'cause I've only made a few of them, and I didn't think he'd collared any other she-'s."
"Well there's a collar around his neck," I said. "So you're going to have to take it off."
She tried to say something else, but I held up my hand for her to be quiet as my mind sought out Dsekene. It was harder to find her without her bond to Myini, because she felt much more like everyone else in the work camp without that spark of mayin ability that let her hear. But in time I did find her, along with Serru, and a mind that was closed off to me that I assumed was Julo.
"Dsekene," I thought to her, and I felt her surprise, and happiness for me. "I found someone who took my collar off. Could you get Julo here so she can take his off too? And get Serru as well. This girl wants to get revenge against my father, and I assume you two would like in on that."
I felt her agreement directed toward me and withdrew from her mind. It felt good to be able to feel people again, and know that I really wasn't alone. It also struck me that communicating would be much easier again, since I could make Dsekene able to hear in a fashion, even without Myini.
"My friend Dsekene is getting Julo, he's the guy with the collar, and another friend of mine who's going to probably want revenge against my father," I told Zeki. "And when they get here you're going to tell us how you can help."
"Sure thing," she said, shrugging. I had been trying to be intimidating and authoritative. It didn't seem to be working.
About five minutes later Dsekene burst into the gate room, followed by Julo and Serru. The first thing Dsekene did was stop just inside of the door and stare. It took her a few moments to fully realize that I really was sitting there with my eyes open. Then, before I knew it, she ran forward to hug me, tears gathering in her eyes.
"Kiya, I'm so glad you have your mayin powers back!" she exclaimed, her voice rough with tears.
"I'm glad too," I said, and she started staring again. I'd half-broadcast my words mentally, on the "frequency" that her bond with Myini was on, so she had been able to hear them. She must not have realized when I contacted her that I would be able to make her "hear" again.
"Kiya..." she said in wonder. "I actually heard you!"
"I know," I said. Dsekene looked so happy that it was raising my spirits just being around her.
It wasn't until then that I actually looked at anything besides Dsekene. She'd been the first person I saw, because she'd been in the lead, and when she had flung herself at me my attention had focused on her. Now that that was done with, I took the opportunity to see how Serru was, instead of going by what Dsekene had told me before, and to actually see Julo for the first time.
Serru looked much better than I thought he would after the state he'd been in when he arrived. As Dsekene had told me, his bruises were almost completely faded. They were certainly faded enough that it was almost impossible to see them against his dark skin. And besides the bruises there was only a little puffiness around one of his eyes to indicate that he'd been hurt at all, at least that's all I saw after just a quick glance.
I spent longer taking in Julo's appearance. After all, he wasn't someone I was used to seeing everyday. It was the first time I'd been able to see him, and I was more than a little curious to know what the guy who had taken care of me looked like.
He was much taller than I was, taller than any of my friends from the school, even Serru, who was by far the tallest of us. He was also thin, but in the muscular way that indicated a lot of physical activity and not much extra food. His hair was a sandy brown color, one of the typical hair colors that aren't affected in my sight by the stray energies that screw up my vision so much. It was thick and raggedly cut off at about chin length, looking like he'd used a knife to do the cutting job, which was probably what he had to do.
His eyes were green, I think. They appeared an almost glowing green-gray color to me at the time, which marked them to me as obviously not pure in color. I tried to see what color they really were, but I gave up when they were still almost glowing and a little closer to green, because I was starting to get a headache.
I almost didn't see what it was that made him she- at first too. His hair was thick enough and just long enough to hide it, until he moved his head a little. Then on the right side of his head the hair shifted enough that I saw his ears, and they were pointed. They were like the description of elf ears in the books that Jalki and I read for Literature class, quite pointed, but still small enough to be hidden by his hair most of the time.
Just seeing that made me wonder what the hell was wrong with our society that we would consider someone less worthy just because his ears were shaped slightly different. It was a thought I'd had many times before, since I'd felt the same way essentially ever since I was old enough to know the difference between the life I lead and the life most people lead. It was just that, seeing the trivial little difference that made Julo a she-mayin and not a full mayin, that feeling came back even more.
"So Kiya, you gonna tell us what's going on?" Serru asked me.
"Oh, yeah," I said. "As I'm sure you've noticed, the collar is off of me. She's the one who took it off." I pointed to Zeki. "Her name's Zeki. Zeki, these are Dsekene, Serru, and Julo." The other all exchanged silent, but tense nods. I could tell that they didn't really trust each other.
"She says she made the collars," I said, and that got me some attention besides the "what am I doing here?" looks I was getting from them up until then.
"You're the one who made the collars?" Julo asked, glaring at Zeki. She nodded, looking proud of herself. "Get it off," Julo demanded.
Zeki stared at Julo for a few moments. She was clearly not happy being ordered around, and I could tell that she was almost ready to refuse his demand. Before she could do it though, I gave her my own flat stare.
"Do it," I said. "He wants revenge against my father just as much as the rest of us do."
"Fine..." she grumbled, and she got up to go over and inspect his collar. She just stood there for a while, prodding at his collar with a small metal pick that she'd pulled out of a pocket. Then, after about a minute, she stepped back, and I could tell that something was wrong.
"What is it?" I asked. Julo looked angry at her.
"This is the prototype," she said. "I can't take it off."
"You what?" Julo asked.
"I can't take it off," she said. "I wasn't quite sure of what I was doing when I made that one. Isuni wanted permanent collars, and the prototype was just that. It was designed to never come off, not even with an operant mayin's touch. As for the loophole that I put in Kiya's collar and the others I made at that time, that's not there because I hadn't thought of it yet."
"So this thing will never come off?" he asked. She nodded.
"Not unless you take a high-powered flame to it," she said. "Or a really strong saw. But not even my most powerful blowtorch would be powerful enough to do it. That material is amazingly strong. Anyway, anything strong enough to break the collar would probably kill you."
"Damn it..." he said, and I could see, and hear, the tears he was trying to hold back starting to win over his control. I moved forward to lay my hand on his shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting gesture. To my surprise he sagged forward and started crying in earnest.
"Don't worry Julo," I said softly. "I'm sure Zeki will keep looking for a way to get the collar off of you. And if she finds anything I'm sure she'll tell you first."
"I just can't believe it," he said. "I never wanted this. I never asked for this. I just wanted to do my job, to work for the church. But I got assigned to that stupid school instead. And after I made just one little mistake he this thing put on me and dumped me here! Why the hell did this have to happen to me?"
"Is it really worth regretting what you couldn't change?" I asked. "Why not focus on how to get revenge against my father instead? After all, he more than deserves it. We're people, not things, and he has no right to treat us the way he does."
"You're right," he said, wiping away the tears that were still forming in his eyes. Had I been paying more attention I would have noticed the gleam in his eyes that was just beginning to show.
Then the five of us sat down around the table to discuss. First Zeki told the others everything she'd told me. Then we started talking about what we were going to do to get revenge against my father.