For Darkness Shows the Stars

own image. They were Reduced. After that, there were also two kinds of people: the Luddites and the Reduced.
The Luddites took pity on the Reduced, and helped them survive.
Except now there’s a third kind of people, called the Children of the Reduction, who are born just like Luddites, which must mean that God has forgiven the Reduced. There are many of those on the North estate.
        
     
    Dear Elliot,
    I hope you are okay. I read your essay and it sounds like what we learn too. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I don’t know why you would be in trouble. The only thing I never heard about before was the part where you said that the Posts were a sign of forgiveness. They never say that to us at services. Do you think that’s true?
    Your friend,
    Kai
        
     
    Dear Kai,
    I am grounded. I had to bribe Benedict with my dessert to send you this letter. I hope it gets to you and he doesn’t read it. My mother says he’s a very naughty boy and I shouldn’t spend too much time with him.
    It was the part about the forgiveness that made my teacher so worried. She and my parents explained to me that we don’t have the right to decide when God has forgiven you and your ancestors, which I guess makes sense. But at the same time, doesn’t it seem like He must have? For so many years, the Reduced only had Reduced children. But now there are people like you and your father. If I were God, and I wanted to show that I had forgiven the Lost and the Reduced, that’s what I would do.
    But when I told my father that, he got very angry and slapped my face. It’s the first time he’s ever hit me, and I hope it’s the last. He said I also don’t have the right to pretend I know what God would do and why. Although, if that’s the case, then how is it that we know that the Reduction was a punishment from God? It’s so confusing.
    Since I’m grounded, I can’t pick up letters in the knothole. If you write me back, try to get the letter to the housemaid Mags. She likes me ever since I gave her baby one of my old dolls. I trust her way more than Benedict.
    Your friend,
    Elliot
        
     
    Dear Elliot,
    I hope your grounding ends soon. I miss you.
    You’re right, it’s very confusing. I asked my da what he thought and he just stared at me for a really long time without saying anything, then told me to go clean out the stalls. I hate cleaning out the stalls. I’d far rather work on the machines than with the farm animals.
    But what you wrote made a lot of sense to me. After all, God never tells us what he’s thinking. At least, he never tells the Reduced or the Posts. I think that’s supposed to be part of our punishment, right?
    It’s really unfair, I think, being punished for something I didn’t do. If I was going to have to be punished, I’d at least like to have the fun of being fast and never tired and having superhuman eyes and super smart brains and everything first.
    DON’T TELL ANYONE I WROTE THAT.
    Your friend,
    Kai
        
     
    Dear Kai,
    Your secret’s safe with me. But I’m glad you sent this one through Mags and not through Benedict. Mother tells me I’ll be done with my grounding next week. Please find something fun for us to do. I’m going crazy stuck here in the house.
    Your friend,
    Elliot

Three
     
    ELLIOT BOATWRIGHT’S HOUSE WAS located on the border between the Boatwright lands on the tip of the island and the North estate. It was covered in flowers during the spring, but now dying russet vines crackled in the breeze as they crawled up the eaves and arched over the door. She’d hoped to make some improvements to the place before the Fleet’s arrival, but time had been in short supply recently. Harvest was coming on, and even with the influx of money from the Fleet’s rental of the Boatwright estate, it was vital that she produce as much grain as possible.
    Perhaps the Innovations and their staff would consider these unruly vines pleasingly rustic after their years spent in the Post enclave down in Channel City. This was the home where Elliot’s mother, Victoria, had grown up, and she always liked to remember the way her mother had cared for the garden, pruning the hedges and trimming the flowers twining over the railings of the porch.
    The Boatwright had three nurses to tend to his needs. They were all Reduced. A few years ago he’d had a Post housekeeper as well, but now they didn’t have enough Posts to spare for the care of Elliot’s grandfather. Once