Boring encounter 

'The capital's largest dispensary has been ransacked. By an as yet unknown group. It contained a large supply of life serum.

Obsidian forces have so far found no conclusive leads.'

Extract from the radio news, the thirtieth Lopela of the year 3028

***

Ahes, capital of the human world

For some time now, a strange atmosphere has hung over the capital. Perhaps it was the bad news that was swarming like a swarm of locusts.

Indeed, the Upper Town was more agitated than usual. One day, detonations had erupted in this part of the city, and the day after, a fire had destroyed one of the birth control centres on Avenue Mail, injuring several Obsidian women on duty at the time.

Then, four or five days later, the structure targeted was the emperor's cult monument.

In fact, most of the buildings targeted were institutions erected in honour of the Alh family, the self-proclaimed protectors and benefactors. Self-proclaimed? Yes, an open secret. Years ago, the Alh clan sat on the throne after a coup d'état against the previous ruler. 

Then everything changed, and taxes became heavier, particularly for the Lower Town, while the golden youth of the Upper Town sank into opulence. A harsh and inhumane law had been passed: the law of programmed death. 

No one knew why, but for years, babies had been born with significant differences. This was considered a horror by the powers that be. They had found the perfect scapegoats. People who were dissimilar were said to bring bad luck and were responsible for ills and other calamities.

But most people in the empire, and even in the capital, didn't care. What was a good or bad ruler? As long as he could, he could make these demons, known as cursed children, disappear. Most people, like automatons, bowed to the demands of the law. As long as they could eat, have a roof over their heads and earn a bit of money, what did it matter? They had been given many promises, most of which they had kept. So what was the point? As long as they lived well.

For the inhabitants of the Ville-Haute, the emperor was a saviour, a God who had protected them from the damned. In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, the poor and the rich shared a common thought, for some as for others. Indeed, by dint of brainwashing and their fear of people said to be outside the norm. It was because of them.

Fingers were pointed at those who were different, those who had been forgotten, as being responsible for all their suffering. Then hatred sprang up and they felt superior. By thinking straight, they were born to disappear. Sometimes hiding behind a mask of self-righteousness, 'we're not responsible', 'it's their fault...'. Questioning didn't seem to exist. They were given a model and followed it. But isn't that what mortals do?

***

Like every morning since Caleb died, Aki got up and sat prostrate on her old sofa, waiting. Waiting for what? He didn't know. Just a feeling, a premonition perhaps. Since her disappearance, he rarely went out. The death of his best friend had broken something in him, painful invisible chains weighed on his hands and feet. Everything had become grey and heavy. Beneath the surface, a storm of vengeance and anger would soon engulf him.

It was such a beautiful day, but without a word, Caleb had abandoned him to his fate. He didn't blame him. He really didn't. The dark-haired man was just another victim. He felt incompetent, powerless in the face of these cruel laws. The possibility of saving him was now so far away. Unattainable. 

Even the catastrophic news in the paper didn't cheer him up or lift him out of his despair. It was as if he had lost all will to live and all emotion.

After sadness and tears came hatred.

Self-loathing, followed by a burning resentment of the system. Why?' he asked himself. What had these people done? Apart from being born in a country that didn't accept them. To exist in a society that considered them pariahs because they were too different? He couldn't understand it. Why had Caleb had to go through all this? From childhood to adulthood, he had grown up alongside her. Watching him grow from an unloved boy, victim of the cruelty of his parents and the world, to a man who couldn't see that he was important. That he had incredible strength! He admired him and his personality. And his eyes fascinated him... Those eyes, shining like precious stones, sparkling with a sparkling brilliance. 

Aki wanted to deconstruct prejudice, to repeal the laws of this totalitarian empire. Could he do it? He hardly knew.

A knock at the door snapped him out of his thoughts. When he opened it, no-one was there. His gaze was caught by a piece of paper on the doorstep. A single sentence was scrawled: 'Another måne. 

A måne? But of what? This paper... There was no clue as to where the note had come from. Not even a seal. He thought about revealing the fingerprints, but changed his mind. He didn't even know who wrote it. Slipping it into his back pocket, he settled back into the old sofa. He didn't feel like going out, and his sadness engulfed him like the wreckage of a stranded ship. 

It was not until the end of the day that he emerged from his torpor, losing interest in the note. He found himself wandering aimlessly through the streets of the Lower Town. Leaving behind his flat, which was becoming increasingly stuffy. He came across a few acquaintances, but left without saying hello. The gentle breeze of the flower season guided him into a park. If you could call the one bench and two bald trees a garden. Closing his eyes, he rested for two minutes, then opened them again. Reaching into his pocket, he took out the paper and looked at it. Instead of thinking intelligently, he became increasingly confused. A ton of questions came up that left him perplexed. A few tiny seconds were enough before a word came to him. Aÿad.

But what was it? A name? An organism? The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Was it Aÿad who had slipped him this paper? And then a måne? Wasn't that too little or too long? What did he want from her? His intuition was telling him that when this person, these people, this organism came, his life would take an even stranger turn. 

Walking around had done him good, feeling the wind on his skin and hearing people talking made him feel alive. Before he returned to his melancholy, tasteless routine. Just imagining it made him tired, as if a rock weighed him down. Slowly, he resumed his walk without wanting to go back. As he passed an alleyway, something shiny caught his eye. At first, the idea of doing nothing emerged, but a presentiment told him otherwise.

He sighed: 'If anything happens to you, it'll be your fault.

As he made his way down the dimly-lit alleyway, he stopped. In front of him, in the rubbish, lay a badly injured body. The face was so badly bruised that he couldn't make out the man. A huge gash ran across the victim's torso and stomach. Aki thought he was dead, but his chest was throbbing.

Exasperated, he thought: what have I done in this life to find myself in such a situation?

The idea of leaving the body in the rubble crossed his mind. In the end, it was his conscience that prevailed. Aki even thought of dragging the man by his feet as compensation for the headache he had caused. But he changed his mind. 

With difficulty, he clumsily moved the body out of the dump and out of the alleyway. Staggering, he carried it for a hundred metres before stopping and resuming his walk. Drenched in sweat, he settled the stranger on the sofa. Wiping away the dried blood with water, he set about the task of applying the medicine paste to the wound and bandaging it.

In the silence of her flat, with only a fainting wounded man for company. Unable even to hold a conversation, Aki went back to dreaming without thinking for a moment that the man had opened his eyes. A slight smile of triumph had begun to appear. The fish had taken the bait. Indeed, as Caleb had told him, the man had a good heart.

To put Caleb's death out of her mind, Aki locked herself in her bedroom. The walls of the room were covered in sheets, photos and notes. All relating to the largest sanatorium in Ahes. From the plan to the members of staff to the directors of the establishment. The floor was no better, with books piled one on top of the other, making it difficult to move around. 

Lopela was already lighting up the cerulean vault when Aki, who had slept all night, emerged. In the living room, everything was calm and the stranger had disappeared. It was as if yesterday's adventure had never happened. Just a single piece of paper lay on the coffee table in the living room: the letter 'Fu' for 'thank you'. 

The man had vanished. On the day before, the day after and the day after that, the feeling that he was being spied on grew stronger and stronger. But he didn't care, he was already used to being followed by people. Because he knew the monster. As if nothing bothered them more than someone who was friends with the demon. And so he saw him as a threat. Aki had made the connection between the man, his wound, which wasn't as bad as it looked, and the first note.

And that look, although insistent, didn't seem to mean him any harm. So he didn't care. If he could see her ugliness, maybe he'd leave her alone.

***

Definition: 

Lopela: Star of the day for the world of Mailim like the sun (corresponds to one day)

Måne: Star of the night for the world of Mailim like the moon (corresponds to a month), Moon in Danish

Example: In a Måne (month) there are thirty Lopela (days).