Page 24 of The Sunlit Man

“Someone want to tell me what a Sunlit Man is?” Nomad said, frowning. He kept his eyes on Zeal, the one person in the room who had not jumped at his entrance. The short man had his hand in his pocket, presumably on the device that could freeze Nomad in place.

“Accept this explanation,” Compassion said with her small, frail voice. “Long ago, a people existed who could live in thesunlight. People who could take it into themselves, rather than being destroyed by it. People who could use it. They were able tostayin one place long enough to build a city beneath the ground. These are the Sunlit Ones—those who could survive the light.”

“I was touched by that sunlight, yes,” Nomad said. “But it nearly destroyed me.”

“You touched sunlight and were not instantly killed?” Jeffrey Jeffrey whispered, looking to Nomad with eyes wide. “It’s true?”

“For a few seconds only!” Nomad said.

“Sunlit,” Compassion whispered.

“With all respect and mindfulness,” Confidence said, “I find this entire story to be a notion for children, not a fact for adults. If these people went under the ground, mud would suffocate them.”

“No,” Contemplation said. “There are places where the ground is all stone. There could be holes in it, like lava tubes. Places where people live. I’ve always felt I would see one, before my time arrived.”

“Stone melts in the sunlight,” Zeal said.

“The stones of the Sunlit People don’t,” Contemplation continued. “They are deep. The Cinder King believes this; that’s why he’s spent years trying to find a way through that door. And this man here, he came from the Refuge of Stone!”

“Yeah, you’re wrong,” Nomad said. He’d expected outcries when he’d come barging in, maybe a fight. Not…whatever this was. “But I don’t particularly care what you believe. Do you know where this door is? The one the disc opens?”

“We have some idea,” Compassion said softly. The smallest and oldest of the women considered him, then smiled. “It was the plan of Elegy, our Lodestar. To steal the Cinder King’s key and figureout how to use it, gaining entrance to the hidden lands of peace beneath the ground.”

“The only way we can escape him,” Zeal said with a grunt. “He’s the most powerful man in the world now. He controls the corridor at the equator, with the most resources. He forces everyone else to the bands closer and closer to the poles, where even a stumble leads to death…”

Nomad filed that information away. “Well, I want to find that door too. I’ll help you get there.”

And are you going to tell them? the hero asks sharply, voice laden with implication. Are you going to warn them what they’ll find inside? Not a refuge for outsiders, but a small alien installation, likely here to monitor the Investiture that sun is emitting?

“Not our problem,” Nomad said in Alethi. “These people want to find that door. I want to find that door. I’ll help them get there. That’s where our responsibility to them ends.”

Callous.

Auxiliary didn’t push him further, though. He knew as well as Nomad did that their best chance to get off this planet was to get into that installation.

“I find this man intriguing,” Zeal said. “Shall we accept his offer? Perhaps he can help.”

“What can you do for us, stranger?” Confidence asked. “What aid do you offer?”

“For one thing, I can read that,” he said, pointing at the disc. “It belonged to a person named Haridan, a lieutenant. It’s his authorization badge, letting him open the door. I’ll be able to read what is on the door too, and if there are people inside, I can communicate with them.”

“Sunlit,” Contemplation whispered.

The others nodded.

“I offer my opinion that we should take his help,” Zeal said. “We must find this place and escape into it! Would it not be pleasing to us and all our people to pray for the safety of the poor Cinder King as we lock him and his minions outside the very door they’ve spent years trying to enter?”

“Adonalsium will bless us in this endeavor, I feel certain,” Compassion said. “It could lead at last to real rest for our people. No more relying on sunhearts to power our cities. No more outrunning the sunrise. No more…loss.”

“Adonalsium, eh?” Nomad said. “By the way, how’d a bunch of Threnodites end up worshipping the father god of an entirely different planet?”

“We learned before our exodus,” Confidence said. “We were those who believed the words of the first Lodestar. We lived in Hell itself and were led by our faith to a new land.”

“One that’s perpetually on fire?” Nomad asked.

“Adonalsium,” Contemplation said, “willremember our plight eventually…”

The cynical squire wisely choosesnotto explain to these people the sad reality of their god’s demise some ten thousand years before. Hint hint.

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