For Darkness Shows the Stars

“What were you thinking, Elliot? I’d never have expected it from a Luddite. Even you.”
    “We needed to survive,” Elliot said, ignoring his “even you.” How did this become about her? A field of cross-bred wheat paled in comparison to illegal inventions and abominable animals. “Now you explain. This isn’t about Sophia this time.”
    “No, it’s bigger than that. It’s about every Post on the islands. Yes, the Innovations lied. And your kind ate it up with a spoon. Look at the Luddites—beholden to their high-minded ideals, yet so desperate for something new, something better, that they don’t even ask basic questions.”
    “Our naiveté is no justification for your deception,” said Elliot. “Are they all lies? Everything?”
    Kai hesitated, then sighed. “We do go to nearby uninhabited islands. But they aren’t filled with miraculous inventions and highly convenient livestock, just off the coast. Or rather, they are, but it’s because we make them there.”
    Elliot’s breath broke on a sob. “So if it’s all lies, what have you been building in my grandfather’s shipyard?” What had she been a party to?
    “A ship!” Kai responded. “A real, ocean-going ship. It’s the truth this time. That’s why we’ve done all of this. For the money. For the support. The ships we have won’t take us beyond the islands. We need to make a new one—one that can harness the power of the sun to travel faster than sails. And a few other vehicles to help us on our journey. Everything we’ve done has been in preparation for this.” He leaned forward. “You know me, Elliot. I’ve always wanted to get away.”
    “And go where?”
    “Anywhere other than here.” He stood. “We don’t know what’s out there, beyond these islands. Are there people? Are there other people who have overcome the Reduction? Are there people who have cured it? I want to find out.”
    “You sound like we did when we were children.”
    “When we were children,” Kai said, “we were right.”
    Elliot looked down into the dirt.
    “You think we should, too, Elliot. I know you do. But the Luddites would never let us if they knew. So we bring them back little presents, make them think there’s treasure out there to find if only they help us. And there is—but it’s not the kind of treasure that will ever help them.”
    She shook her head in defeat. He was right. She hated it, but more than that, she hated the bone-deep ache of envy that threatened to crush her at the thought of Kai’s mission.
    Kai was silent for a few moments. “What bothers you most?”
    She looked up at him and laughed mirthlessly. Like she’d ever admit it. “What bothers me most about the abominations you’ve created? About the laws you’ve broken? About the way you’ve made fools of us all?”
    “Ah,” he said, nodding in triumph. “What bothers you most is that you didn’t sniff us out sooner.”
    “No, I—”
    “No, you’re a Luddite?” he asked. “No, you don’t think the Reduced should be cured? No, you hate the idea of new experiments? No, you would never lie to a Luddite lord to give everyone—including the Luddites—something they needed? I know you weren’t going to say anything like that.”
    Elliot pressed her lips together. The wind tugged at her hair and cooled her cheeks.
    His tone was insistent. “We rented the shipyard to build a ship, just as we said. A ship worthy of taking us across the ocean. We needed your facilities to do that—they are the only ones on the island that would have worked.” He shrugged. “If there was anywhere else I could have gone, don’t you think I would have? I would never have come back here by choice.”
    Elliot buried her hands in her lap, hoping the folds of her skirt would hide the way they trembled. Would she have been better off if he’d never come back? If she could have just remembered him as he was instead of realizing that he’d achieved everything he’d ever wanted—and that he’d done it without her? No, more than simply without her. He’d done it because he’d left her behind. “I suppose then, you wouldn’t want to stay.” He would take Olivia away with him. That, at least, would be a relief.
    “What?”
    “Here. With Olivia.”
    “Of course not! I told you—” He rubbed at his forehead in frustration. “This is all a nightmare.”
    A nightmare. Of course. It was also her home. Elliot stood and turned away from him, looking back at the brightness