Her father shaking his head. The blood, oh God, the blood on her hands. A vicious thrill when the first demon died at her blade.
The pain.
The pain, both physical and emotional, of waking up nude and helpless as the man who killed her family, her life, openly mocked and leered at her.
Her eyes snapped open, icy blue flashing in their depths. "Shut up!"
"I touch a nerve, child?" Kaern seemed unperturbed. He just rolled his shoulders and looked over at her with an intense gaze from his dark eyes. "I suppose that means that it was foolishness more than bad luck that got ye in that position."
The pronouncement, delivered with a flat, uncaring tone only made her blanche more as she struggled to get free of the hides she was wrapped in.
"Now, lass, don't go a doin’ that," he told her, rising to his feet in a single fluid motion. "Yer not ready to be up and about just yet, not if ye have a choice."
She glared at him as he walked over to her and gently, but firmly, pushed her back down.
"Now, why don't ye tell me what it was that brought you to this end ye've found?"
Elan turned her head, eyes boring into the far wall, her mouth a thin, hard line.
"Fine," Kaern sighed. "Be that way then."
He returned to his feet and walked a short distance away from her, grabbing a small wrapped pouch, and tossed it into her lap. Elan jolted in surprise, and stared down at the leather wrap that was there.
"Food, lass," he told her. "Eat. Drink." Then he chuckled softly. "Doctor's orders."
She frowned at him, puzzled, but he didn't say anything else as he returned to his cross-legged position near the smoldering fire and idly turned the spit that floated over the weak flames. She pursed her lips then, but unwrapped the jerky he'd tossed her and began to chew hungrily on it.
After a while, Elan dropped the food and took some water, then looked around the immense cave again. Only it wasn't a cave, she didn't think. There was something unnatural about it, bathed in light the way it was now, something very wrong.
She cleared her throat softly, noting Kaern's eyes as they rose to gaze at her.
"Aye, lass?" he asked softly, barely moving a muscle.
"The...the light..." She spoke softly, looking up for the source of light that had to be somewhere above her but she couldn't find.
"It's not magic, lass," he told her, his words ringing with déjà vu for her. "I know magic better than I know this. This is just a clever toy, like an oil lamp, only bigger."
"Oh," she whispered, unable to find the lights.
The light that surrounded her seemed to come from everywhere at once, yet from nowhere at all. There were no shadows, no way to tell the time of day, even when she passed her hand close over the ground and peered under it.
In fact, a few seconds investigating under the hides covering her told her that there was light there too. Like it was being projected from the very air itself. Oil lamps cast shadows, the sun cast shadows, this...this had to be magic, no matter what Kaern told her.
He must have read something on her face because he smiled knowingly and shook his head. "Ye are a simple one, lass."
Elanthielle stiffened at that, indignation flaring within her, but he quelled her response with a raised hand.
"And I mean ye no insult by that," he said soothingly. "Sophonts are no smarter than ignoramuses. They merely hide their stupidity behind other people's knowledge."
Elan stared at him blankly, barely understanding two thirds of what he'd said.
He chuckled again. "What I mean, lass, is that yer simple because ye know no better. Not because yer stupid."
"Oh."
"’Course," he went on, "ye might be stupid too. I dinna know ye well enough to tell that just yet."
She scowled openly at him, eyes flashing, but he just laughed it off.
"To answer yer question, lass," he smiled as he went on, "the lights are made by a machine that excites the tiny bits o’ matter in the room to give off light... Everything except the matter that's alive, that is."
Elan's blank stare told him about as much as he needed to know about her current education and he sighed. "What do ye know, lass? Did ye at least learn yer numbers?"
"Of course!" Elanthielle fumed. Of course she knew her numbers. Her mother had taught her those when she was four.
"Good. Good. How about arithmetic?"
Another blank stare was his reward, and Kaern sighed again.
"Do ye know how to add and subtract? Two plus two equals four?"
She blinked, then nodded slowly. "I know that...I can take numbers away too, and I know the shortcut to adding..."
"Shortcut?" It was his turn to blink.
"Five by five," she said, "twenty-five."
He smiled. "That's called multiplying. Alright, lass, you have some of the basics, at least. How about yer elements?"
Elan nodded. Of course she knew her elements. "Earth, air, fire, and..."
"Nay, lass. Nay..." He held up his hand. "Those are mystical elements, and while they're important to know too, they aren't what I mean." When she just looked confused, he gave up. "Alright...we'll use those. It'll be easier for ye to understand anyway."
She stared at him, waiting, as he took a moment to piece his thoughts together.
Finally he nodded. "Alright. Ye know how earth is all around ye, right?"
She nodded slowly.
"And ye know how fire gives off light?"
"Yes..."
"Well, what this machine does is it turns earth and air to fire in very small amounts," he told her. "Just enough to make light, but not enough to burn."
Elan thought about it, still puzzled, but nodded slowly. It made sense in a strange way—she supposed that she could understand it—but it still seemed fantastic. Why not just use oil lamps?
"That's why the walls and floors here are smooth," he went on. "They are slowly burned away by the machine. All the dust and dirt goes first, turned into light for us to see. If we leave the machine on long enough, it will burn away everything until there is nothing left."
Her eyes widened in fear then, darting around her in search of the enemy he'd just describe, the all-consuming blaze.
Kaern, though, just chuckled at her. "Ye can relax, lass. It would take many thousands of years for the machine to burn away these walls. They're made of a very heavy form of earth, and the machine won't burn living cells either, in case yer worried.
"Besides," he said a moment later, casting a hand along the dirt and dust on the floor, "there are many years of dust here for it to burn first. Much light to be had for no cost to us, so do not worry about it."
She nodded slowly, trying to relax, but the image of an out-of-control fire wouldn't retreat from her mind and she found herself looking for it from the corners of her eyes. His explanation done, Kaern fell silent though and, despite herself, she found herself slipping off again.
***
Kaern watched the girl fall asleep again and realized that he'd again forgotten to ask her name. He snorted softly and rose to his feet again as he pulled the cooked rabbits from the fire. It didn't matter, he supposed. Lass and child would serve well enough for the moment.
He left her sleeping then, knowing that she'd be out for a while longer with the painkillers he'd ground into the jerky affecting her system. So he continued what he had been doing for three days and began to explore the old Redoubt.
What he'd told her about the lighting systems was incredibly simplified, of course, but he knew that light was only a secondary effect of the machine. Its primary purpose was to generate power, and the light it released from the stray molecules all around them was only part of what it generated. Other energies, far more dangerous than white light, were also released, but those were caught and tamed by the machine and stored for future use.
The place was what he'd thought it to be, he had quickly learned, one of the old public transportation centers. It was also in uncannily good shape, even for something built by World Builders, by the Engineers.