Deluge

Chapter 1

The day the rain started

Sister Cassandra was raised high by the current, trailing much blood in her wake.  Higher and higher, until it broke, and Cassandra fell.  Her face met cold, rusted steel with a slam.  She felt the bruised half of her body swell and beat with renewed agony as she compulsively gasped in a lungful of air.  If she had a voice she would have screamed.  As it was she lay in silence and pain, alone.  Her mind began to drift.  Was that rain she felt on her back?

“Where the :cuss: did that wave come from?” She heard a man's voice say along with footsteps, more than one pair.

“Who cares, the drought is over!”  Another said with apparent glee.

“Holy :cuss: guys, look.” Yet another said as Cassandra came into their view.

The crowd muttered as they approached her.

“Throne, she’s hurt.  Look at all the cuts!”

“Get the Chirurgeon , now!”

“And the captain.  Look at her neck.  She’s Inquisition.  Guys, I would stay back.”

Cassandra was fading fast, but she managed to thrust one arm out enough to roll over.  The crowd gasped.  The sky was completely covered with deep purple clouds, shot through with lightning every second.  She opened her mouth.  It was raining. 

Mission accomplished, Cassandra thought.

The rain tasted sweeter than anything ever had in her life.  She was in so much pain.  But it's over, she thought.  She had lost track of time down there.  In the caves with the Demon.  Her face still managed to form a snarl, thinking of the creature that her and Calpurnia had bested.  But where was she?  And how did she get here?

“Oh well I’ll be an Orks dinner, you weren't pulling my leg.  A lady washed up on the ship.  Terra, look at her!  What in the Emperor's name…” Cassandra heard the voice of a large man cut through the din of the rain.

A pair of heavy footsteps stomped towards her, and she saw blue scanner lights passing over her.  She saw a face covered in a medical mask, with a mechanically overlaid eye, wearing a rain hood.

“Curious.” The masked figure said.

“She has already begun stabilization.  There is medicine in her system.  Quickly, help me carry her to the sick bay.” it told the other pair of footsteps that she couldn't see.

She was picked up and carried out of the rain, into the ship's interior.  They reached a room that was full of beeping machinery and sterile smells.  She was placed down on a gurney, barely conscious at this point.  The masked man looked her in the face.

“If you’re still with us, I am going to put you to sleep now.  You are gravely injured and need to heal.”  He said and turned away without waiting for affirmation.

He returned with a needle which he placed into her arm, and she did not reject.  Cassandra fell asleep within seconds.

She woke again to voices in the room.  The same two.  She kept her eyes closed. 

“Same time, her and the rain.  Showed up at the same time.” The first said, large and higher pitched.

“Surely you are not accusing her of something.” said the second, flat and monotone.

“No no no, I’m not saying that.  She could know something about it though…” The first said emphatically.

“It is rain.  It is what we wanted.”

“No one wanted a week of rain over the entire goddamn planet, sawbones.”

Cassandra opened her eyes to this remark.  There was a big bearded man with a grimy hat and yellow rain jacket on her left, and a man dressed in medical whites turned brown to her right.  She was on a hospital bed, in a very cramped medical facility. 

“She’s awake.  I will leave you to your business, Captain.” The doctor said.

“Alright alright.  Thanks doc.  Hey, watch out it's raining- ha!” The man said, with a chuckle.  The doctor cranked the door shut behind him.

The Captain's smile dulled when looking upon Cassandra again.  She was not a pleasant sight, so dramatically and strangely wounded.  He felt extremely uneasy around her, and did not know why.

“Well I suppose I should introduce myself.  I’m Captain Thomas Warberwill, and we’re here on my ship The Big Fish.  You arrived in one hell of a state lady.  Flung up onto my deck by, what, a rogue wave?  Your top half all cut up… Beyond cut up.  Hundreds of em.  And your entire left half was bruised near black, still is, not so bad now though.  Lots of busted bones, pooling blood.”  The man seemed to have a knack for talking.

Cassandra listened to the man in silence.  When he again met her eyes he put a palm to his head.

“Well here I am yapping… We noticed your… Uh… condition.”  He said, and opened his mouth, gesturing to his tongue.  She cut off his pantomime with a nod.

“Uh, here…I brought some vellum and a pen.” He pulled a pad and pen out of his pocket and offered them to her.

“We noticed your tattoo.  Are you with the Inquisitor?  The one that arrived right before everything went to hell?” He asked.

Cassandra nodded.

The man stood stunned for longer than he should have.  He shook his head and said,

“W-well what happened?”  With a wave of his arms.

Cassandra thought about how to answer him.  She could say Inquisition business and that would be that.  But she did not want to say that.  Cassandra was a tool of the Emperor’s divine will, made hard and cold by the unimaginable horrors of the galaxy.  But she was still human.  And she wanted to tell someone.  She wrote one word on the velum;

“Demon”, and turned it to show him.

His eyes went wide. 

“There is a Demon on Veyrfall?”

Cassandra nodded.

“That’s what hurt you so bad?”

Cassandra nodded.

“But you are alive, so you got away?”

She wrote another word;

“Trapped.”

“You trapped it?  Oh well I suppose that's as good as news gets.” The man said with an exasperated chuckle, pulling off his hat and leaning against a counter.

“Well.  Forgive my decorum.  This ship has never greeted a guest of such high esteem as yourself, a member of the Inquisition.  At your service.”  He said, and made the sign of the Aquilla

“Do you have any questions for me?”

Cassandra met the man's gaze and held it for some time.  His eyes were kind, but troubled.  There were streaks of grey in his beard and hair.  He looked like he might be getting too old for whatever job was weathering his body so harshly.

She thought of what to ask.  She had been asleep for a week, that much she heard. 

She wrote;

“Comms?” and showed the Captain.

“Communication?  None.  Haven't been able to raise a signal since the rain started.  That really shouldn't be possible. The entire planet has a redundant satellite communication system that The Dam utilizes a lot for its fishing crews.  Cloud cover normally isn't an issue.  The way it works is if one tower can’t get the signal out, it just routes to one that can and data gets passed just the same.  The only way you can get completely shut out is if every single tower on the planet is being interfered with.  There are millions of them.  That's how we reckoned the storm must be everywhere…”

The man took off his rain jacket and hung it on the door handle.  He seemed to be working up a sweat.  He looked back for another question.  Cassandra wrote;

“Ship?”

“Oh what The Big Fish?  It's my ship, passed down in the family.  Crew of around a thousand.  Commercial fishing vessel.  You see, Veyrfall has some really big oceans with lots of room to grow.  There are dozens of ships like mine, bringing in the big and small hauls.  We use a simple but effective method of influencing life in the ocean.  We seed massive amounts of the little ones, Vitafish we call em.  They're a primary food source for a lot of life down there, but they mostly feed the real big fish, the Steel Whales.  Bigger than any fish you've ever seen, these things.  Just one pays for the entire trip three times over.  We’re pulling three right now!  HA!” The Captain laughed and slapped his knee hard.

“By the high council I love my job.” He said.

Cassandra had a screwed up half smile on her face.  The man’s attitude was infectious.  She wrote another word;

“Far?”

“About six months.  We’re on the last leg of the journey.  We got a belly full of the Vita fish and the three big ones behind.  That's a pay day.” He said with a devious smile.

Cassandra looked down at the pad wondering what to ask next.  She was perplexed.  Was the storm the Demons doing?  Cassandra did not think so, but had no other idea what it could be.  Maybe it simply was rain.  Maybe this is what the planet's water cycle truly looked like without the Demons influence.

She looked down at her body.  Her top half was entirely bandaged, with only some blood seeping through.  Her bottom half was clothed with clothes that were new to her.

“We had some of the girls on the ship come and help you with some stuff… Uh… Cant really leave you uncovered too much on the ship with the rats and mites and salt in the air.”  The captain told her, shyly. 

Cassandra nodded.  She did not particularly care, but appreciated the courtesy.  She tested her muscles and was very surprised that she had not atrophied nearly as much as she expected.  Everything ached so much that she felt like one pulsing wound, but she could move more or less as normal.  She tested the theory, and swung her legs off the side of the bed.

“No wheelchairs on the ship unfortunately but we got you a couple crutches you can take if you need them.” The man reached above and behind her, and brought down two crutches. 

Thomas.  That was his name, Cassandra reminded herself.  She took one crutch, and seemed able to stand well enough for now.  She thought back to Drayvus.  She almost certainly had him to thank for this expedited recovery. 

Cassandra looked at the man and gestured to the door, a steel oval in the wall with a wheel crank in the middle of it. 

“Oh.  Oh!  Um, you want to go outside.  Sure we can do that.  Damn.  Just, uh, brace yourself ok?  This one is kind of hard to explain… Best you see it yourself I think…” Thomas said, suddenly nervous. 

He pushed himself off the counter and turned the crank.  Cassandra heard the rain as soon as it cracked open.  It was loud.  And just behind the rain was soft rolling thunder.  Thomas bid her first through the door, and Cassandra hobbled her way over the threshold.  Thomas followed her out and closed the door. 

“I’m assumin you want to see the storm in action.  Quite a sight, I must admit.  Never seen nothing like it.  Follow me.”

Cassandra followed him through the town like structures of the huge fishing ship.  She could hear the rain and see the water running, but they were still below the deck above them, and surrounded by habs on all sides.  Eventually they turned a corner and Cassandra saw the lightning clearly, flashing endlessly at the end of the corridor they walked down. 

“The strangest thing… Well, the second strangest thing about the storm is how calm it is.  Hardly kicking up any waves at all.” Thomas said before putting his hood up and stepping out into the rain. 

Cassandra followed him to the railing and looked out over a black sea, highlighted purple by the moonlight and constant lightning.  She could feel the pressure of the rain, and the sound it generated on her skin.  The world felt muffled, and crowded, even though this ship was likely the only structure for kilometers.  Thomas gripped the railing of the ship and looked up into the sky. 

“Never seen nothing quite like it…” He said under his breath.

Cassandra followed his gaze, and became entranced by what she saw.  She could not discern its true nature at first.  The lightning rolled without pause, yet when the bolts ended their light did not.  The purple light seemed to catch on the rain and split into new colors, creating ghostly images that faded slowly, and reinvigorated with each lightning strike.  Cassandra focused on the image closest to them, and when her eyes had finally adjusted to the visual chaos in front of her, she saw a pair of dead eyes staring back. 

The lightning showed bodies in the rain drops, hanging by an infinite length of shimmering light let down from above.  Cassandra's mouth fell open.  She scanned the sky and now saw them clearly, everywhere.  Some hung nearly as far as the sea, others high in the storm clouds.  Some were massive, others merely pin points of shivering light.  Each one hung by the legs, throat cut, pouring red rain into the sea below.




Chapter 2

Sixteen days since the rain started

Vitali Baycliff walked with a hand along the curved steel side of The Fall.  He could feel the current raging downward constantly, as it had for thousands of years.  But it was stronger now.  Stronger than it ever had been.  Vitali walked to meet The Fall’s Steward, a tech priest that seldom left the workings of the massive system.  Change was coming, and they needed to make a plan.

The population of The Dam, especially the Harborfolk, were beginning to forget what the planet's day night cycle felt like.  Vitali had begun his own personal day with an urgent notification from the Steward.  He had been waiting for it, ever since the lower levels of the hive began to flood, and run in rivulets down the cliff face of the Harbor.  The Falls intake had reached its limit, a monumental occurrence that had never happened before.  The overflow reservoirs were beginning to fill.  Soon the river would be flowing over the cliffside.  Vitali had not visited The Falls' cherished inner workings for a very long time, and he desired to see its operational state at such a unique period in its history.

“Greetings Steward” Vitali said, as the tech priest came into view. 

He was not so heavily modified as many other tech priests, and did not wear a mechanicus robe, instead wearing one he acquired in service to The Dam.  Sea blue struck through with red.  The blood of the whales is on us all.

“Greeting Harbormaster.” The priest said looking up from the data slate mounted against the retaining wall.

“Your presence is well received, Master, though I could have shown you anything you require via servo projection.” he added.

Vitali nodded at this.  “That is just as well.  This is a historic occurrence for The Fall, however.  It may see us through these strange times, best not to neglect it.”  He said with a smile.

The tech priest returned the smile.  “Well, then let me boot up the diagnostics.”

He returned to the small data slate mounted on the huge plasteel wall, pressed a few runes, and a projection flickered into life that covered the entire thing.  Faint green lights that reflected the workings behind the wall, with bright red letters and numbers everywhere showing diagnostic data.  The Falls inner workings were ancient, built by Vitali’s ancestors, the first settlers upon Veyrfall.  True understanding of it has faded into history like so many other things, but The Fall endured the test of time, and stood as the foundation of the Harbor and The Dam for thousands of years.

Vitali marveled at the projection.  Everything looked as fine as it ever had.  In fact, it looked better than he had ever seen it.  Every single diagnostic was at peak performance, and holding absolutely steady.  He could see the projections representation of the raging current crushing downwards, but it presented as a perfect unbroken flow devoid of imperfections or irregularities.

“Quite magnificent.  I never thought I would see it in its full majesty.” The tech priest said as he pulled up another diagnostic, a simple large number that represented the Harbors battery banks.

“By the Throne!” Vitali said, shocked.  He did not know they could store so much power.

The tech priest chuckled through his half respirator.

“Yes it looks as though we can end the power rationing.” He said.

“I’ll say,” Vitali said.  “It's still going up…”

That was a bit of good news at least.  They would need every ship soon enough.

“And The Fall is stable?  It will not fail us in our time of need?” Vitali asked.

“Barring direct catastrophic damage, I struggle to think of an event that could disrupt The Falls function.  This cliffside is not subject to seismological activity, and sits at the terminus of an enormous drainage basin.  The Hive could fall into the Harbor, and The Fall would persist.” The Steward said with certainty and pride.

“Well.  Nothing without a price.  How long do we have until the overflow reservoirs fill?” Vitali asked.

“Three days,” The priest said curtly.  “The minister of the upper hive has already begun evacuations, as I’m sure you’re aware.  Until this time The Fall has been absorbing the grand majority of the flooding at the ground level, but once the reservoirs fill, every passage through the cliffside will become an outlet.”

Vitali sighed.  That was not nearly enough time to evacuate the Harborfolk from the cliffside.  They should have started evacuations sooner.  But how could they expect the rain to continue?  Each day that it continued only made them more certain its end was near.  But this was not a normal storm.  They knew that right away.

Vitali hung his head and strolled to the outer wall, a giant curved window, looking out over the Harbor.  This area used to be bright at all times, with either the day or moon's light.  Now it sat dark and shimmering with the same anxiety inducing lightning as the rest of the Harbor.  Vitali did not look into the sky.  No one did anymore, not on purpose.

There were many ships docked below, but Vitali knew that there were many more in the darkness further out.  Ancient ships.  For some it's been centuries since they came into port.

“You will see some of the classic ships coming by for a top up soon then.  We will need to house the Harborfolk in them.” Vitali said, resolute in his decision.

“It will be an honor to service the ancient machines, even from this distance.”  The tech priest replied.  The Steward was not as bothered as Vitali, it seemed.  It made sense.  In the days to come the Steward’s job may not change much at all, the ancient machine a sturdy bedrock for his life.

Vitali turned back to the priest and bid him farewell, making the sign of the Aquilla.  No sense in wasting time he supposed.  This evacuation meant a great deal of things needed to be set into motion, and he had a lot of people to talk to.  He decided to start with the whale float and the Black Wall.

Vitali took the lift down to The Harbor.  The great shell of The Fall sat half embedded in the cliffside and shot deep down into the water below, The Harbor built around it.  Vitalli stepped out onto the massive floating platforms, and passed through the ceremonial space that surrounded the fall.  There was housing down here, dense housing that climbed against the cliffside.  It would not be enough to house everyone that needed to evacuate the Harbor facing hab units.  Vitali followed the cliffside to its edge, where the housing thinned, and large empty docks dominated. 

They did not build any permanent structures near the whale float, the primary reason being the smell.  Vitali was used to it, as were most of the Harborfolk, but it did have deleterious effects on one's health.  The unique biology of the Steel Whales, mixed with preservatives and rot, created a thick miasma that made a respirator necessary to work in the float.  Vitali had an exceptionally well made one that he clicked into place as the smell began to bother him.

They floated the whales off the corner of the cliffside.  Though Vitali could not see them now, he knew they had three floating, and one on the wall, processing.  Vitali approached a small podium that held a servo skull with a loudspeaker attached.  He activated the skull and it followed him.  There was limited direct access to the whale processing units in the cliff face and it would be easier to communicate this way.  Vitali walked to the work lights that lit up the blood blackened cliff face.  He had to get uncomfortably close to the whale corpse in order to communicate with the crews.  It generated heat, one of the stranger things about a dead organism this size.  It took so long to process and the chemicals involved were so volatile that the lower body of the whales begin to decompose rapidly once on the wall, producing prodigious amounts of heat and gas.

Vitali had spent his entire life in this harbor, and they had always processed the Steel Whales.  The size of the creatures still left him awestruck, even after all this time.  He could only see the creatures' lower portion, the rest swallowed by darkness.  But from what he could see, things were not going well.  This whale had been on the wall for too long, and they should have more than one working.  They were having to fight the flood as they worked.  They hadn't even turned this one around yet.  And they had more whales coming back soon.  Not good, Vitali thought, as he commanded the servo skull high into the sky and activated the connection.

“This is Harbor Master Vitali Baycliff.  I am issuing a general command to the whale processing teams to stop production, and reinforce your work spaces.  Troubling times are ahead, and we need to keep this wall functioning.  The hive depends on you to eat!  Prioritize diverting waterflow, and shielding the bays from water from above as well as within.  Whalemaster Sturgis, see to your crews, and call me later.  I have more people to talk to.”

The crews came to the edges of their bays, all nearly identical in their yellow hazmat suits and respirators.  They waved in recognition.  Vitali waved back in confirmation, and went to return the servo skull to its podium.

The processing docks went out far into the bay, vacant and covered in industrial smog.  The air cleared the further from the whale float he went, and he un snapped his respirator once he neared the outer edge.  The docks here usually sat empty for loading and unloading. To his left he saw the first ships of the far harbor peaking out of the darkness.  The empty docks were soon filled with busy sailors and tired dock hands.  Hundreds of small ships sat anchored.  Vitali looked at his chrono.  Nearly half the day had passed already, and the rain was getting underneath his coat.  He was heading for the dockmasters office.  He could dry off there.

He stood under the canopy in front of the office doors for a moment.  He took his hat off, to hang it when he went in the door.  As he turned his head, he looked into the sky, and nearly jumped out of his skin.  One of the… Things.  Caught him by surprise.  Slightly lower than the rest, bigger too.  Just look away, Vitali told himself, but had difficulty looking away from its eyes.  Sometimes they looked so real, bouncing off the rain the way they did.  But they weren't, Vitaly reminded himself.  He went to enter the office, but instead saw Dockmaster Sasha nearby.  So much for drying off, he thought.  Vitali whipped his exaggerated wide brim hat off once, and  went to meet her.

Sasah was looking out over the water.  As Vitali approached she was taking a swig from a flask, turning it up and closing her eyes.  He took a stance beside her.

“All is well on the docks?  Dockmaster?” He said, startling her.  She gagged on her liquor slightly, opened her eyes, and widened them further when she saw Vitali.  She capped her flask and wiped her lip.

“Aye Captain.  Just don't look up.”  She said with an alcohol scorched throat, and a half smile.

“Well get ready for some excitement.  Big changes, starting today.” Vitali said, stern faced.

Sasha widened her eyes again.  “Whats that mean?  We gotta go talk about it?”  She said, gesturing to her office.

“No.  Simple orders to start.  I will be back before you finish the first of it.  The rain has granted us a surplus of power, and it robs us of space to live.  We are moving the Harborfolk that live on the cliffside either to the Docks, or housing them on ships.”  Vitali expected her reaction.

“Oh :cuss:.”  She said with a sigh and an eye roll.  Vitali did not blame her, this would be a large task for her.

Vitali continued.  “We are pausing all production concerns and fortifying ourselves against the weather.  We can not wait for the flood to consume us.”

Sasha nodded, resigned.  “Yeah.  No, I know.  No one can even really live up there anymore anyways, it's all wrecked.”

“Your first task.  Get every ship in the port charged to bursting, and out of the way.  Anchor them close by, create a lane for them, so we can bring the big ships in to charge, and load the Harborfolk.”  Vitali looked around.  There were so many ships.  But Vitali had seen it empty before.  It could be done again.

“Hmm…”  Sasha hummed, and stared off to where one of the bigger ships might be docked.

“How much power do you think those old batteries hold anyway?” She asked.

Vitali had not thought of it in those terms yet.  He did not know.

“Hm.  I’m not sure.  I would imagine a great deal.  There is a lot about those ships I do not know…” Vitali said. 

“Same…” Sasha said.

She turned her head, seemingly having found her motivation.  “Well.  Orders received, Captain.”

Vitali nodded curtly and tipped his hat.  “Carry on Dockmaster.  I will find you again in the morning.”

“I’ll be here.  Somewhere."  She said, as they both turned to their business.

Vitali was exhausted.  He needed to eat and was soaked through.  He decided to return to his quarters and await Whalemaster Sturgis.  The solution to the housing crisis would be unpleasant and a detriment to efficiency, but it was a solid plan, and it would work.  The ancient ships are massive and sturdy beyond reason.  The oldest of them were gifts of the Imperium in the wake of Veryfall's conquest, to be used in further subjugation of the planet.  Venerable machine spirits dwelt within them, and have been left to rest in respect.

The solution of the Black Wall still vexed Vitali, however.  Him and Sturgis had much to discuss.  The Dam not only produced various goods from the Steel Whales and Vita fish, as well as other industries, for the Imperium.  But they also produced all of their own food.  They did not supply anyone else on the planet with their food stores, so he need not worry on their behalf, but if they can not keep the processing facilities running The Dam will fall into chaos quickly.  The other Hives may indeed call on them for food in time though…  Vitali wondered how many less mouths to feed there were already.

Vitali took off his hat and coat.  It was very cold.  Days and days without sunlight would do that, Vitali supposed.  The rain that fell from the sky was somehow warmer than the ambient temperature around the docks, and in Vitalis quarters.  He lit the whale fat lamps that served to barely warm the drafty old building, and he took a seat in front of his window.  Some days Vitali imagined leveraging his station to obtain better quarters, somewhere on the cliff face, or in the lower hive.  He never had because it put too much distance between him and his work.  He supposed he was glad he hadn't, with the flooding now.  Though he still did not relish his quarters. 

Vitali sat and lit his Lho pipe.  He could see The Fall and the cliff face from here, at the furthest edge of the housing district.  To his relief, he also found his view free of the… Monstrosities… Visions… Whatever they were, that hung from the sky.  He could simply observe The Dam with his thoughts.

Some minutes passed before something caught Vitali’s eyes on the edge of the cliff.  Some sudden movement where there was none before.  He squinted but could make nothing out.  He picked up the spy glass he kept on the table and peered through it.  Some distance past the edge of the hive a current had dislodged an amount of earth, forming a channel.  Water was pouring down the cliffside from a new aperture, scattering in the high winds, its purchase in the wall growing with every second.  Vitalis’ heart sank, though this was to be expected.  Just too soon, he thought.

Vitali kept his spyglass trained on the forming waterfall, and he saw something get caught on the aperture, before ripping through and tumbling over the edge.  A body.  Vitali followed its descent until it disappeared behind the Dock Housing.

Vitali put the spy glass down, and put his head in his hands with a sigh.  That would not be the last.  He would need to deal with this.




Chapter 3

Twenty days since the rain started

Xelia Share had always loved the rain.  She loved the river Highwater, the one she grew up on, and had dreams of one day seeing the great oceans of Veyrfall.  Fate is evidently not without a sense of humor, she often thought to herself. She would be seeing the ocean soon.  At this rate her and the other survivors would be there in days.

All of the Share farms were destroyed by the rain.  The floods came so fast it was unbelievable.  At first they rejoiced at the drought's end, but after three or four days the ground became waterlogged.  The unnaturally flat plains became swiftly spreading pools of water and within another day, everything was submerged.  Everything she ever knew was gone.  Her family was either dead or barely surviving like her.  Her future was gone, she thought.  The only people that still knew her name were on this barge, floating with her towards The Dam, and they did not like her.

They had been farmhands for the most part, and it was part of her job to see to their care.  There were millions of them before the flood.  Some surely still survived in the same manner that they had, floating on some old farm equipment.  As soon as the situation had become clear to Xelia she made for the barge on the river highwater.  She had to swim for longer than she ever had in her life to reach it, but it was her best chance at survival.  They used the barge to float machines that weigh a hundred tons across the river Highwater when necessary.

Xelia lay on the edge of the barge, one leg hanging off, her long black hair barely touching the water's surface, dragging behind her.  They were moving at a decent pace.  They had been on the barge for over a week.  She estimated one more week before the reached the outer perimeter of The Dam.  She had never been.  She lived her whole life until now in the fields between the hives, never visiting any of the four.  She hated her life in the fields, but she had at least looked forward to the passing of her father so that she might inherit his status and change things for the better.  Now that he was most likely dead, there was nothing left to inherit, and Xelia resented that fact more than she ever had resented him.

She hadn't managed to escape with any clothes or suitable protection from the weather.  She lost her shoes and back pack in the swim.  Everything was soaked constantly, but the survivors managed to hobble together a small shelter from the rain out of wreckage they floated by.  Xelia did not partake.  She wore her long black farm dress, old and tattered at the ends, and her fine white billowing blouse with a corseted mid section.  All soaked through and clinging to her body.  The rain was warm though, and it simply did not bother her.  She expected her flesh might wrinkle more than it was.  After over a week in the rain, her skin seemed as supple as ever.  So she stayed in the rain.

Death or violence had never bothered Xelia.  She had in fact visited violence upon her subordinates many times, and in her short nineteen years on Veyrfall had ended more than one life.  It was part of her job.  People are not all the same, and some best serve as examples to others.  So when the ghostly images appeared in the sky she did not react like most others.  Maybe… There was something wrong with her.  Sure.  She did not know.  It did not matter.  She was not the one averting her gaze from the sky, hiding from the reality that stared at them all with dead eyes.  Were they scared?  Well she was not.  Whenever she thought of it, she felt angry for some reason.

The rain was playing tricks in the sky like the most magnificent light display she had ever seen.  The purple light from above the clouds bounced from raindrop to raindrop splitting into all the colors of reality.  As the rain passed through the light they shone their magnificent array for only the seconds that they passed through the space of the image, and the rain that followed did the same.  As Xelia looked into the distance, the bodies stretched forever, and the rain that fell below them coalesced into a red haze that streamed from their ripped necks.

The hangers passed overhead often.  The blood that poured from their open throats was merely water, and it tasted as delicious as any water ever had.  The light simply persisted in its tricks, even when she held it in her hands.  There was little to do on the barge and she did not want to socialize with the farmhands.  So she became friendly with the hangers.  She did not delude herself, she was not talking to the images, or believe they were talking to her.  But they had eyes that were open.  Eye contact could be made, and it did not leave Xelia feeling nothing inside, like so many things did.

Before the storm Xelia was in line to inherit fourteen mega plantations that stretched across the planet.  However her father had never seen fit to let her venture beyond the worst plantation they owned, the Grox Pit.  It made no sense, and Xelia hated him for it.  They had watched all their Grox die when the floods started.  Nothing to be done about it.  The deep pits they kept the vicious creatures in filled with water sooner than anything else, and in some cases they needed to execute the beasts before the water let them rise to the surface.  By the time they were sure of the flood's proportions they had slain each one, to let rot in the water.  She did not love the beasts, but the sight of it did Xelia harm.

What would happen when they reached The Dam?  She spent much of her time considering this.  No one would know that she was Xelia Share, heiress to the Share fortune, and by right should have a notable say in planetary affairs, especially regarding the tithe and food production.  She had no identifying information, and without her father to initiate the proper proceedings, she would die sifting through red tape before anyone ever recognized her for who she was again.

She had never been to an actual Hive before and the stories did them no favors.  She imagined the plantation she grew up on, and stacked it on itself over and over again in her mind until it touched the sky.  Of course, she had seen actual picts of The Dam before, but the still images did not convincingly portray the scale in her mind.

The Dam was an exceptional Hive.  Those that were educated at a young age on Veyrfall learned of it extensively, as it was the first Hive to rise on the planet's surface.  The river Highwater ends at the continent's edge in what used to be a magnificent waterfall.  The settlers of the planet, with their ancient and lost technology, harnessed the full power of the waterfall in a great device named The Fall.  This ever flowing source of power helped the Imperium gain its foothold on the planet.  In the decades to come, the hive grew downwards, over the cliffside, and onto the ocean that the Highwater emptied into.  They discovered the Steel Whales, and their venerable hunting ships culled them into a manageable harvesting population, glutting the planet with whale fat, meat, bones, and many other by-products.

Xelia considered how The Dam might be faring in the storm.  No amount of flooding could truly destroy a hive, they were too massive and too many people lived above a reasonable height for water to ever reach.  But the lower parts.  The under hive.  The common folk.  Most likely all dead, with not even an attempt made to save their lives.  Where would they go?  Billions of unwashed un-educated witless drones.  The industry they supported would be the thing that truly harms the hive.

Xelia considered the river she rode on now, and how it now more resembled an ocean.  Does water now flow through and around The Dam, and over the cliff in one great sheet, enveloping the historic Harbor?  Would they simply wash over the edge when the time came?  All of their hopes hinged on somehow being able to prevent that eventuality from coming to pass.  But what would happen if they were able to actually make it to the hive?  Would they reject them, simply seeing some plantation rabble floating down the river, not worth the time?  Or would they capture the barge as it floats by, and incorporate them into the hive?  Xelia's guts squirmed at the thought of it.

Xelia had not been eating, none of them had.  There were precious few items that were gathered by the survivors that they were rationing out very carefully.  She was weak, and tired.  She did not think she would starve to death, and she was at least well hydrated.  Before the rain started it was the exact opposite, and that was playing to her favor, she thought.  She let the hunger become a part of her bodily experience and it ceased to bother her.  If she lay still and did not expend energy she almost did not notice.  She fell in and out of sleep often.  The rainfall on her skin was such a consistent yet erratic pattern that her sense of touch became static, and disembodied.  When she closed her eyes she felt as though she didn't have a body.  When she listened the sound of the rain extended forever, and it felt as though she could hear the rain a million miles away.

Unbidden and without reason Xelia woke from her sleep.  There was a hanger, very low, close to her.  Its eyes were open.  Xelia met its gaze, and the position of the image's eyes made it look like it met hers.  It was a male.  Clothed, and arms tied across his chest.  Short hair, soaking and dripping with blood that ran from its throat, slashed open in a heavily one sided wound.

Xelia was not a fool.  She was perplexed by what was happening.  The storm, the insane images in the sky.  The fact that the Inquisition had been on the planet for months now.  All extremely unusual and massively concerning.  But what could she do about it?  Now she was just farm rabble, floating down the river.