Chapter 2 - The Museum

“Come on Fade, it’s almost time to go!” Vious shouted up the stairs.

Fade groggily lifted her head to look out of the one small window in her room. The glass was permanently stained around the sides making the exact middle of the window the only clear spot. It was already sunrise. She was late. Freaking out, Fade slipped out of bed and flattened the covers. Scavenging for the pillows she threw off while sleeping, she scrambled to make her bed while using one foot to open her dresser. Today was a family day. She didn’t want to get her parents in a bad mood from the first minute they left.

“Coming Mom!” Fade shouted as she rummaged through her clothes. At the very back was the only dress she had. She always saved it for special occasions. A day where all three of them had a day to themselves was indeed, a special occasion.

“Fade!” shouted Obli. Before Fade knew it, they were stomping up the stairs.

“Nini, please give me one minute,” Fade requested as she closed the door.

“Is everything alright?” Obli asked.

Sitting on the floor at her desk, Fade’s hands were shaking as she was trying to apply eyeliner. “Yes,” she responded with her voice shaking far more than she wished.

“Are you sure? That wasn’t a very convincing yes.”

Nini always knew when Fade was about to cry and it drove her insane. She had no secrets in front of Nini and she knew it. Before she could stop herself tears started rolling down her cheeks ruining the sub-par work she had just applied.

“Oh Fade, don’t cry.” Obli opened the door and sat down at the desk. “What’s wrong? This day is supposed to be fun.”

Hearing this loud and clear, Fade cried harder. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to screw things up.” Without any grace, she wiped the tears from her face leaving black streaks across her arm.

Sighing, Obli took a rag off the desk and dabbed at Fade’s face. “Is that what this is about?” Taking Fade’s arm, they started rubbing off the watery eyeliner. “Dear, don’t stress. We just want to get there early so we can do as much as possible together. This isn’t supposed to make you miserable.”

At this point Fade couldn’t stop herself from bawling. “It’s been so long since we’ve…” she tried really hard to breath normally but the crying was not helping. “We’ve had a day together. I don’t want to mess things up.”

Obli smiled. “I promise you haven’t messed anything up besides your makeup. How about I help you finish up here and then we can head out. Deal?”

Slowly her sobs subsided until deep breaths were regular. She didn’t mess anything up. Her parents forgave her for oversleeping. The world wasn’t going to end. Everything would be okay. Taking another rag from the desk Fade wiped off the rest of her face ready to start over again.

“Hold still,” Obli instructed as they started applying more eyeliner.

Within twenty minutes they were out the door. At this point the sun was already well above the mountains shining down on what turned out to be a pretty fantastic day. The skies were clear with not a single cloud in sight. It was rare for the Fifth Division to have such a clear day.

“Do you remember what I told you to do Fade?” Vious asked as she took the lead on the narrow sidewalk. Nini took Fade’s hand.

“Stay quiet and don’t answer any questions, right?” Fade confirmed. Nini squeezed her hand.

“Exactly.” Vious looked back and smiled as she turned the corner.

Walking through sidewalks and alleys covered in steam being released by metal pipes wildly winding from one building to the next, the family made sure to not draw too much attention. Occasionally guards would give them a side-eye while they lifted and dropped the head of their batons in their hands signaling that they should slow down their pace. The key was to walk slowly enough to look like you are at a leisurely pace, but not too slow making it look like you’re stalling. Vious had a knack for knowing just what the right speed was, which baffled both Fade and Obli every single time.

Before she knew it, Fade was looking at the gondola station busily hustling folks in and out. Taking out her pocket watch, it read 7:24AM. It had taken a whole twenty minutes to get there. Had she been able to just jump from building to building without following the rules, it would have taken her half that time. Of course, her parents would never approve of such illegal action.

Making sure to stand in front of both Fade and Obli, Vious approached the guard at the entrance with her documents ready in hand.

“Papers please,” the guard lazily asked. His outfit matched his leisurely attitude with a gray beret, a gray wool coat, gray wool pants, and black boots to spice up the color palette.

Vious offered the papers. The guard snatched them from her hand and took a deep sigh as he mumbled to himself. “Fifth Division? Must be your first time trying this. I’ll do you a favor. Don’t try to leave the Fifth Division. You’re not allowed. I could arrest you for attempting to escape your Division.”

“You imbecile, look further down. I work on the Fourth Division, I need to work overtime,” Vious snapped back. “We can’t accommodate all the new uniforms needed after you lost the last batch.” For good measure she stood up straighter making her height of six foot one very apparent.

The guard took another look down at the papers then back up at Vious. “It appears you are right,” he noted trying to keep his lazy composure. Coughing, he continued. “You can take the next gondola on the sixth floor. Get back by 6:00PM or you’ll sleep in the shop.”

“Thank you,” Vious curtly snapped again taking her identification papers while corralling Obli and Fade through the entrance.

“Wait, who are they?” The guard called out after her. He clearly wasn’t going to stop them as he stood still barely wanting to turn his head.

“My family. Do you want me to get these uniforms done today or should I tell your friends to show up to their next shift naked?”

Without saying anything else he waved them on. At this point Obli was squeezing Fade’s hand so hard they had practically cut all circulation to her fingers.

“We really should make sure we make it back by 6, right?” Obli asked.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make it. For now, relax,” Vious assured them.

They climbed the stairs to the sixth floor pounding loudly on the ancient wooden stairs. When they reached the waiting platform, they were nearly knocked back from all the wind. On the Fifth Division it never mattered how nice the day was. If you went up high enough, there was always a vicious wind. Out in the distance each gondola swayed back and forth as they traveled to and from the Fourth and Fifth Division.

“Ready to see some of your history?” Nini asked Fade. Their face was filled with excitement. Fade nodded.

A gondola approached the platform snapping onto the guiding rails used to keep the metal box level. They all stepped, almost half jumping, inside and immediately sat down taking a hold of the nearest rail. Despite the lack of safety precautions, it was actually quite rare for someone to fall out of a gondola. As far as Fade knew, only one of her classmates had taken the deep free dive all the way down to the surface below. Rumor had it that classmate liked to hang off the side of the box and swing back and forth in the roaring wind.

After a five minute ride and a rather rattled Nini getting prepared to vomit out the window, they hopped off and walked another twenty two minutes to the museum. When it finally came in sight Fade’s jaw dropped. The building was unlike anything they had on the Fifth Division. Beautiful wooden pillars carved with immaculate detail held up the front of the building decorated with various pieces of copper ingrained to give color. Each pillar looked like it told its own special story from top to bottom. The main building had a stone base with thick wooden walls also decorated with giant carvings depicting the history of the Fourth Division. Supposedly the Fifth Division was planning on getting its own museum, but the project had already been delayed multiple times within Fade’s short fifteen year life.

“Five copper pieces each,” the front attendant requested.

It was a completely absurd price. Both of Fade’s parents didn’t make that much in a week!

“Here you go!” Obli handed all fifteen copper pieces. Looking back at Fade, they winked.

The wink hurt. It wasn’t hard to tell even as their daughter that this outing took a lot of savings to make happen. A trip like this was not going to happen again anytime soon.

Stepping inside brought the same sense of aw that Fade had just looking at the outside of the building. Chandeliers lit the huge entrance with winding wooden staircases splitting off in all sorts of directions. In the center, between all the staircases sat a giant model of the Fourth Division. Velvet ropes surrounded it to make sure no patron got too close.

Too excited to wait, Fade let go of Obli’s hand and rushed to the model. It was unbelievably detailed. Better than anything her professor has drawn despite his artistic skills. What was even more impressive is that it looked up to date. All the floors of the new gondola station were there. Some of the new building projects were even under construction in the model. If she had to take a guess, this piece of art was worked on every night.

“Don’t see that every day, do you?” Vious asked to no one in particular.

“No kidding,” a familiar voice sounded from one of the staircases.

Stealing her gaze away from one of the skyscrapers, Fade saw professor Fog slowly hobbling his way down the staircase. “Professor Fog? What are you doing here?” Fade asked pointedly.

“Fade!” Obli hissed.

“You wound me student. Can’t a teacher exist outside the classroom?” he commented trying to look hurt. “Alright, it’s a fair question. I teach at the museum as well as your classroom. And I assume this is your parent and a friend?” he half-halfheartedly greeted.

“Parents,” Vious corrected. “We’re partners.”

“Name’s Obli, they/them. Nice to meet you,” Obli greeted.

“My Nini!” Fade added defensively.

“Apologies! Apologies, I forgot you folks from the Fifth Division simultaneously have more freedoms to be who you are while having less freedoms overall.” For some reason the comment rubbed Fade the wrong way. Why were they “folks from the Fifth Division”? They were just normal humans like everyone else.

He turned his attention to Fade specifically and whispered, “just remember. Your freedom is what you choose it to be. No one is truly free in the five Divisions.”

“Let’s go dear!” Obli urged as she took Fade and Vious’ hands. “So nice to meet you professor Fog!”

Begrudgingly Fade followed as Fog waved goodbye and continued to the exit of the museum.

When they were out of earshot Obli whispered to Fade, “is he normally that weird?”

Looking up at the ceiling Fade sighed. She hated to give yet another reason her parents should be worried about her. Rather than telling the truth, she smiled and said, “absolutely not! He’s one of our best teachers. Must just be having an off day.” Without waiting for Nini to respond, she walked over to a doorway labeled “RELICS”.

While she was already impressed with just the entrance of the museum, she was not expecting to be completely caught off guard. Much to her surprise, Fade was standing in front of one of the biggest machines she had ever seen sitting inside a glass box. It was at least three times her height. Giant pickaxes sat at one end, with two huge cranks on the other end. Various wood studs stood the middle with an assortment of gears gears turning metal bars every which way. A small control panel looked like it was tacked onto the side with three levers.

A small podium sat next to the machine with a charred piece of paper sitting on top. It had various pen and ink diagrams of how the machine worked as well as a short explanation at the bottom:

Due to the extended heights of the Fourth Division, new mining machines were needed to gather materials faster. What you are currently looking at is the last retired automated mining machine that broke during the construction of the Fourth Division’s pillar’s base.

“Wild. To think more than one of these machines are used in the same area.” Obli thought out loud. Fade jumped back surprised. “Haha, apologies. Didn’t mean to scare you Dear.” They placed their arm around Fade’s shoulders.

“Where do they deploy these machines? I thought no one was allowed on the surface?” Fade asked. The existence of the machine definitely contradicted what she was taught in school.

“The Front Gate,” they answered simply. “Mines burrow deep into the mountain. It’s where they find most of their materials.”

As the day moved on they continued to look at more decommissioned behemoths of machines and eventually moved onto the “TOOLS” branch of the museum. Technology that Fade had never seen before sat in glass boxes labeled as ancient. While it was cool to see old inventions, it brought up far more questions than either of her parents could answer.

Before they knew it, the sun was setting. It was getting close to their curfew. “Shall we head off?” Vious asked. They both nodded.

Stepping back onto the sidewalks of the Fourth Division, they walked through cluttered streets (much less steam here) and towards the gondola tower. Unlike the Fifth Division, it appeared the Fourth Division guard’s had slightly less horrific uniforms. Their berets were a soft brown, as were their wool uniforms. All their boots were still black and scuffed dying for some attention.

“Papers please,” the guard requested slightly less beaten down than the first guard they had encountered. “Oh Vious, didn’t recognize you for a second. Working overtime?”

Vious handed over the papers and smiled. “Yep, had the family help out today. Far too much work to do after that last shipment went overboard.”

The guard laughed. “You should have seen the young lass’s face when the Manipulator kicked the box she was holding over the edge. I think it was her first posting on duty. Nonetheless she did great. That scoundrel was arrested.” He stamped her papers multiple times.

Vious joined in the laugh. “I can’t imagine. Poor girl, just trying to prove herself.”

“Well rest assured you should be safe.” He winked. “Fifth floor, you’re all set.” He handed her back each paper carefully folded together.

“Thank you,” Vious nodded as she yet again corralling Obli and Fade toward the entrance.

“Did you see that?” Obli asked horrified. “Who is that guard? Why does he act so nice to you?” Their face was bright red. Fade had never seen Nini so flustered before.

“A very nice man who lets me get back home every night despite my work keeping me late.” Vious gave Obli a quick kiss. “Can we not talk about it?”

A very uncomfortable silence followed them up the slightly less ancient wooden staircase to the fifth floor. As they started to walk on the waiting platform a scream echoed from below. Vious pushed the two of them towards the incoming gondola. “Let’s not stay to find out what’s going on,” she mumbled as she pulled Fade and Obli into the rattling metal box.

“Stop! You aren’t allowed here!” a guard shouted from below. The stairs thudded away under what appeared to be multiple guards boots.

By the time the woman who very much looked like she was being chased reached the waiting platform, the gondola was already free floating in the air. The woman shrugged and took the longest lunge Fade had ever seen. Instinctively, both Vious and Obli grabbed her hands tilting the entire carriag with all the weight leaning in one spot.

“What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?” Obli screeched.

The woman started to laugh.

Both of Fade’s parents slowly pulled her into the carriage as the guards shouted from the waiting platform. It was hard to hear them over the wind, but Fade figured it was many more swears than commands.

“Who are you?” Vious demanded.

“Chill out, chill out!” the woman giggled. “Do I look like a threat to you?” Fade looked at her parents and shrugged.

They both sighed in response.

Catching her breath, the woman replied, “I’m a Manipulator. That’s all you need to know.”