Eternal Dawn

IV

Kate waved down a hack and she and her former husband settled into the back. Will inched forward as if he wanted to rub his leg, but didn't touch it.

"Are you publishing the story about the Purists?" Will asked as the wheels began rumbling down the street.

"That's what I need to talk to Howard about." Kate bit her lip. "He's not too keen on it."

Will rolled his eyes at the new managing editor, who stonewalled all of them. "What's his problem now?"

As the carriage rumbled along a road that was in urgent need of repair, Kate clutched on to the seat to stay still. "He thinks it has nothing to grab attention."

"Believers of the Eternal protesting at a sanctuary and advancing claims that the priests aren't the only ones who can summon the Light?" Will scoffed. "Oh, that isn't interesting at all."

Kate let out a reluctant laugh. "He considers it dull. No arrests, no massacre. It won't move papers."

Will leaned back and snorted. "Such a shame the guards weren't beating people to a bloody pulp."

"Well, that's my angle." They went over a bump and she tried not to slide into him. "The Sacred State is trying not to draw attention to it. Isn't that suspicious?"

The question came out in a whisper. In the past, she would discuss these things with Will. Now she held back, afraid of igniting his curiosity.

"I think they don't care about Purists," he said.

Kate instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes from a flash of light as they passed a gleaming sanctuary. "Guards were watching them."

"But nothing happened?"

She ran her fingers over the hand that had come so close to Light. "Nothing done by the Sacred State."

There were many reasons not to tell Will. His self-destructive inquisitiveness. Her own ragged reputation when it came to new forms of illumination. The way he knew her too well. He might see the hope she was trying to kill.

"Maybe you can use it in a bigger piece about factions protesting the Sacred State," Will said, unaware of her turmoil. "More groups joining the cause."

"I talked to the Purists." She frowned, unsure of how much to say. "They don't want to join the cause. They want people to follow their creed. An austere, righteous life. They won't work with people who reject the Eternal Light."

Will made a face. "They really are killjoys. Howard is a dick, but I don't understand why you give them any attention."

"They have a truth," she said in a faraway voice. "We might be missing out on something."

"Celibacy and sobriety." Will chortled. "If I wanted that, I'd have become an acolyte."

The hack stopped two streets down from the secret location of the newspaper. Kate paid and she and Will took a slow walk until they arrived. Hidden beneath a fish shop, Kate ignored the terrible stench as they went inside and downstairs to the busy headquarters of the paper. People bustled around and papers were packed into secret compartments to be delivered.

"Morris!" One of the new writers went up to him with a smile. "How are you?"

No one spoke to Kate. Many of her old coworkers were gone, and those who remained weren't friendly with her. She was blamed for her article that made the Sacred State crush the resistance group Umbra and almost ruin the newspaper. If that wasn't bad enough, some considered her too moderate. With Jon Knight in hiding, the paper had gone in a more radicalized direction.