Curse of the Woven Chord

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Before the Whale Fall, we had fish farms and rice paddies where families worked for generations. There was even a hydro-generator at the base of the cliff to power the city up on the plateau. You can still see it if you peer over the edge.

That is if you can stand the stench. I never got close without getting sick, but my friend Jenny was obsessed. She would have paid anything to get a closer look, so it’s no wonder they hired her at the observatory. Personally, I think it’s just a mountain of rotting stone-flesh with a lethal swarm of dragons and other vermin busy about their frenzy. Something that should be left well enough alone until they finish eating and leave.

My daughter, Claire has the same unhealthy obsession and I know exactly why: my grandmother fills their heads with stories about when the dragons first arrived. She and her friends were able to watch the Whale Fall when it was still high above the plateau — no one could smell it yet. They all thought it was so magical. But she doesn’t talk about when the carcass blocked the sunlight from reaching the valley, causing a famine; she doesn’t have any fun stories about when it sank low enough to permeate the air in the valley with a fetid odor of death; she never talks about the night it was low enough for the dragons to swarm down onto the people and drive them out of their homes. She doesn’t talk about any of that.

But now that’s just a part of family history. Today, dragons and the sky-whale are the furthest things from my mind. I was with my team at the lab and we were finally on human trials for one of my inventions. I was working off a hypothesis I had that used music theory to combine sorcery with bioengineering. So far everything had gone exactly as my math said it would. If we were successful then anyone could use the prosthesis to add any conceivable appendage to their anatomy. One minute it could be writing one’s thoughts down on paper, then redirected to enhance one’s legs for a record breaking sprint.

So naturally, that’s when I got the call.

“Mrs. Haert, this is Principal Fergus. Your daughter has been suspended for a week; please come by to pick her up and collect any assignments she’ll need to work on while absent.”

I wanted to be surprised, I would have been thrilled to be confused and to think I must have misheard him some how. But I know Claire.

Restraining my voice from betraying any hint of frustration, I explained to my team the reason for my immediate departure. They sympathized and were gracious enough to postpone the trial run.

“No, no, run the tests. This is about the results, not the achievement. I’ll review the footage tonight and we can go over the results tomorrow.”

They stood for the polite amount of time before turning back to the subject(there was no more attempt to hide their enthusiasm).

As I drove to the school, I thought bitterly of my brother. Orrin was to blame, really. He was always a terrible influence on her: enchanting everyone with his tales of “daring adventures” and “legendary escapades.” I knew it was all talk, but Claire drank in every word. We would often get a call from the school and hear about which of Orrin’s stories Claire had tried to reenact. Usually it involved a few injuries; sometimes they were hers.

That’s not to say Orrin was a bad person. He was great with kids and always had a gift ready for anyone he met. He especially never let us forget the time he helped my husband saw off a pair of horns that had grown out of his head two hours before his address to the parliament. No, Orrin was decent enough. Which was more than I could say for the crowd he spent most of his time with.

They were definitely pirates. Of course, Orrin always denied this. But my friends at the women’s club informed me sufficiently to the contrary.

The drive had helped me clear my head. I walked into the school and went to the office. I didn’t see Claire, but the administrator had her homework in a neat stack.

“Hi I’m Claire’s mom, I’m here to pick her up. Is she still with the principal?”

The administrator gave a half-glance my way that almost seemed like an admission of guilt. She pressed her intercom and said, “Sir, Claire’s mother is here for her.”

She gave me another look that was definitely the same face my daughter made when she was caught trying to hide a talking mouse in her room. A felt an annoying sense of foreboding about the whole situation.

Principal Fergus made his way out of his office, fidgeting with his belt and puffing himself up to prepare for, what? My reaction?

“Good afternoon, ma’am. Er, well, Mrs. Haert- This is a bit of a situation.”

“Doctor Haert.”

“Sorry?”

“You can refer to me as Dr. Haert.”

“Oh! Right, sorry Doctor. Well, about Claire. So… She caused quite a mess all over the school, everything short of a full riot. We apprehended her of course, but we’ll now— She’s gone.”

He said it blunt and simply. As though he hoped it would be enough that I had the facts and wouldn’t trouble him anymore.

“What do you mean? Gone where?” I held back, but I felt the edge in my voice.

“We don’t know.”

A ringing sound echoed in the silence and my throat was sore from shouting when I finally came back to myself. From the looks on their faces I had probably gone off on everyone in the room for a full minute.

Without saying anything else or looking at anyone, I took Claire’s assignments in my arms and stormed out of the school.

I got into my car and drove with all speed to the bar Orrin haunted with his pirates. Somehow, this was all on him. Somehow, he would know where to find Claire.

A part of me already knew as well. A voice in my head reminded me of the night before when Claire had been chattering excitedly about what she had learned in class that day. About how the hydro-generator in the valley worked to power the city.