The Telematrix, Part 13
Her seventeenth birthday (or “conjurationday” as some of the others had ruefully come to call it) was an occasion of absolutely no importance to her. She was stubbornly refusing to celebrate it. A number of her sisters were gathering secretly in the frontier village of Ojikilasajawyk, since King Reginald’s sentries still hadn’t discovered its connection to the Free Telematrix Movement.
The pragmatic side of her brain wished to avoid the event since any congregation of the Telematrix risked accidental infiltration of a Loyal. Following their sixteenth birthday, Telematrice was especially cautious: a Loyal had betrayed 32 of them along the Lystrian front. She knew this day would have been carefully and sinisterly anticipated by the king and those young women still working with him.
And yet she felt strangely drawn to her sisters on that day. She at least arrived at the village before the gathering. Her justification was simple: in case of a Loyal, she could be of some help. Indeed, she had always been the most industrious of the bunch.
Unfortunately, she never made it as far as the homestead. A young man was waiting for her outside the village tavern. His eyes were incredible; she could hardly look away, they shone with intensity.
Most suspiciously, he seemed to have been waiting just for her. His eyes sparkled when she stepped into the light by the door. He removed his hat and gave her a little bow as her eyes roved over him lustfully.
“Evening, miss. The name’s Leve.”