The Low Nutrient Zone was like a rubber band that had been stretched for too long and was about to snap. The air, which was filled with the smell of Karu and sweat, was buzzing with a strange tension. Ration cuts were just announced, and people were saying it is because the Maw is blocked. So now, instead of just a few unlucky people getting the Withdrawal, everyone is scared that it will come to them.
Joan Rhodes was disguised and walking through the crowded market in a simple robe over her tunic. Her Taste-Guard armor was kept aside. She only needed to hear the words of the people and not see the law. Her son was with Adler and that was worrying her, but still, she could do this.
She was able to sense the fear. It was not loud that is for sure, but the quiet voices, the empty stares, and the way people were holding their food rations showed it.
"...my youngest is already getting the shakes…"
"…they say the Maw's shut down. Where will the good lymph come from?"
"…the Heretics say the god wants us to stop. Maybe they're right…"
The last one made her grind her teeth. Bianca's poison was spreading and it was surrendering instead of giving solutions. Joan wanted order and was a firm believer in the Chain. But she also knew that chains break when they are stretched too tight. She has even witnessed doubt in her own guards, the flicker of it when they put down Karu riots.
She went into a dark substation which was a public dampener spot and usually watched by some acolyte who was bored. It was empty. The dampener crystal in the middle of the room was dark and cracked. Sabotage. Probably Heretics. She was about to use her comm to report it when a voice spoke from the shadows near a leaking lymph pipe. "Those things don't work anymore, you know."
Joan turned around to see a knife in her hand, although she was not sure how she got it.
A thin man came out of the shadow and stood in the dim light. He was Nutrified and was early in Withdrawal, his hands were shaking. But he had a sharp gaze. "They set them to fight the Echo, to drown it out. But the Echo… it's changing. It's getting… specific. The dampeners can't argue with a specific question."
"What question?" Joan asked with a hard voice.
The man gave a sad smile. "The same one your boy hears, Captain. 'Why?'"
Joan felt her blood turning to ice. "How do you know about my son?"
"The Echo doesn't care about rank. It goes where people listen. Your boy… he's like an open wound. We can all feel him, in the noise. Just a tiny point of pure 'why.'" The man came nearer to her and was not scared of her knife. "You chase Heretics, think they're the problem. But they're only a symptom. The real problem is the god is dying. And the New Appetite… they just want to scorch everything to feel warm one last time."
That was the talk of a Heretic, but he said it in a practical way like cause and effect. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Just a concerned person. A father. Like you're a mother." He looked at the broken dampener. "I did it. It gave my daughter headaches. The real ones, not Echo ones. When it was off, she said the 'voice' was quieter, nicer." He looked at her. "Your Cardinal's 'inventory' is a one-way ticket to death. Not for the god, but for us. The Final Digestion will burn the planet. People like your son, my daughter… they'll be the first ones to disappear."
He was saying what Benny had tried to tell her and what she'd pushed away with her rules and sense of duty. The thought of Benny, his fragile mind open to Wilder's signal…
"What do you want?" Her voice was barely there.
"The Heretics, the Still Voice. They have a plan. Not to take over, but to… change things. To get us off it gradually. They need time. And someone inside the Taste-Guard. Not to betray it, but to save it from itself. To stop the Final Digestion."
He was requesting her to go against everything she believed in. Her oath, her Cardinal, the whole system.
"The system is flawed," the man said, seeing her inner conflict. "But it's the only thing we have. Wilder's way ends everything. Bianca's way might… change things. You're a mother who trusts in order. So, what is more orderly? A gradual change? Or total collapse?"
He put a small, mushroom-like object into her hand that was similar to the one Bianca gave Naomi, but this one was different. A Symbiote tool. "You know they're cooperating. The Heretics and the Mycelium. Like the immune system and the conscience. When you are ready… break this. Not at the Palate, the spores won't grow there. Somewhere… living."
He went back into the shadows and left Joan with the broken machine and a crazy choice to make.
Her comm was buzzing. It was Adler, his voice was tight with panic and excitement. "Captain Rhodes! Come back to my place immediately! The subject… your son… there was something that happened to him. He's drawn something… really important. The Cardinal needs to see it now!"
Benny. Important. Those words turned her blood to ice.
One hand was holding the mushroom while the comm that was in her hand was buzzing.
The world was falling apart. And she had to decide which pieces to save.