New Dawn

It had been three days since Auburn was admitted to the clinic under supervision from Dr. Tausidi and Laura, and for the time being Sio stayed with Laura and her family, much to Sio's relief. It was nice being around younger children, Laura had two. The oldest was six, a girl, and the youngest, four, a boy. It was eventful to say the least. They were not the best behaved children, often getting into some mischief and dragging Sio along with it. They said it was because she was the 'elder' of the group they had to bring her along to 'supervise.' What that really meant was Sio had to keep watch for adults while the children got into whatever their hearts desired. Laura, to her credit, did her best to discipline the rascals, but since her husband had taken on two trades to help out the village and she being the only herb-woman had to leave the children much to their own devices. It was fortunate that they lived in a small enough community where the whole village looked after all the children together. Sio was struggling trying to wrangle two young children all alone. Luckily several of the village 'aunties' would step in from time to time and make sure no harm was done. 

It was another one of those days taking care of the children. They were in the town square when Laura stopped by. All three children immediately perked up and greeted her with the warmth of a close family. Laura hugged both of her children and gave Sio a pat on the shoulder for taking care of them. She probably realized how taxing it could be on someone barely older than eleven to look after her rather intense children. After sending her two kids on their way toward their shell unit, Laura stopped Sio and nudged her toward Dr. Tausidi's clinic. 

"The doctor asked for you, Sio." she said as they followed the children who were running and occasionally stopping at every doorstep as the aunties called out to them. "I'll drop you off, head home when you're done." She said it decisively. It must have been a stressful day. 

Sio walked beside Laura until they reached the clinic, then after a brief goodbye, Sio headed inside. No one was at the entrance, so Sio could only assume everyone was in the back where the patient beds were. She made her way back there to find everyone waiting, everyone being, to her surprise, Tomak, Algodon, Auburn, Otheyo and the good doctor. 

"What's going on?" she asked as she stepped through the corridor. All eyes were on her as she spoke except Otheyo who was currently working on a console. 

"Sio, good of you to make it." Said the doctor. She shuffled some data on the freestanding console next to Otheyo and switched off the screen. Auburn smiled and nodded at Sio, which she returned and saw the geminidi make his own gesture of greeting awkwardly from his place in the room. Maybe he never really interacted with children before, but it was amusing to watch. Tomak for his greeting approached Sio and guided her closer to the console which Otheyo was working on. Otheyo let out a grunt and slapped his hand on the console desk making the styli jump. 

"The blasted thing doesn't have shi–" Otheyo stopped as soon as he looked to his right where he saw the girl standing. "Sio!" 

"What wouldn't it have?" The girl asked feigning innocence. Although she worked with Otheyo and Auburn for only a day as an official apprentice, she was already becoming accustomed to their swearing mouths. The miners were not known for their courtesy, so it was interesting to watch Otheyo struggle with his words in order not to swear in front of her. Tomak let out a small bark of laughter at Otheyo's expense. Auburn merely put a finger to his lips to hush his own chuckle of amusement. 

"The data–" continued Otheyo with a grunt " –is corrupted."

"It surely can't be that bad." said Algodon as he scanned through the screen displaying the information. "Afterall, there is clearly enough data about the geological activity of this particular region."

"But not enough to make it clear where we ought to mine," argued Otheyo. 

"Perhaps if I were to look at it–" offered the geminidi, but Otheyo stopped him with a raise of his hand. 

"You've done enough don't you think?" 

"Gentlemen." Tomak said with authority. Both men quieted and watched as Tomak swiped through some of the information stopping at a specific data log. "We were looking at this particular entry."

Sio read some of the entry but admittedly could only make out a few words. One word however did seem to imprint on her mind as she stared at the message. 

OBELISK.

A series of images flashed through her mind– a sanctuary, a woman– and a sound like that of an orchestra in her head. Dizzy, Sio sat down in the nearest cot. Dr. Tausidi noticed immediately and went to her. Sio could see her mouth moving but not hear any words. All she heard was a deafening singing tone that she thought she had forgotten. After a few moments, the ringing subsided. Sio stood up and pointed to the word. 

"What is it?" The room went silent. Algodon hummed and approached Sio.

"Have you seen this before?" He asked. Sio nodded. 

"Just now when I looked at it, the world started to sing." At this everyone in the room began looking at one another. Algodon, however, stood motionless. Then in another moment he was before Sio bowing deeply. 

"The Symphony is here, truly after all." He gasped. 

"What's all this?" Otheyo questioned. 

"Are you people so truly removed from The Symphony that you do not recognize an astérthan before you?"

At this Otheyo began to laugh. 

"Outworlder, there no sooner was a homonae astérthan than a home in a black hole." He said waving him off. "Her grandmother claimed the same title for years but brought nothing forth from The Symphony except sorrow."

Tomak urged the geminidi to rise, and he did. "What Otheyo speaks is true, Algodon. There has never been a homanea that could claim such a gift. Her grandmother only boasted the title as a means to escape her troubled Path." 

Dr. Tausidi hissed at this answer and put a hand on Sio's shoulder to steady her. "Iridia Yuka was the finest star-observer this village had seen and made several accurate predictions of the fate of this town. None of you listened!"

"But that does not defend her claim to be an astérthan." Otheyo said as he stood. "Nor does it defend this Outworlder's claim that Sio is the same."

"Enough!" Said Auburn as he took strides to be by Sio's side. "The girl does not know of what we speak. Let her alone."

A silence once more fell upon the room. An uncomfortable tension was in the air that Sio did not much care for. It reminded her of the times Lurio would confront her grandmother about her chosen Path. It made her wonder, what truly was the issue? To seek out another Path was not unheard of. But perhaps for those set in their ways, tradition had always won out over practicality. She was not so young as to not see there were other problems beneath the surface, but she was not so old as to be able to perceive those problems. Dr. Tausidi squeezed Sio's shoulders and the girl looked up at the tall reptilian. Her blonde-scales shimmered a bit under the harsh operating lights and her eyes were slits barely holding their anger. Anger not directed at Sio, but at the very topic they had been discussing so heatedly. 

"Sio…" She said as calmly as she could manage. "Where did you see this obelisk?"

"In the mines, before… before everything happened."

"They're collapsed now, unfortunately." Muttered Otheyo. 

"Surely there's another way, if there's an Obelisk here, do you know what that means?" Algodon was impassioned. Clearly, he was not going to let this go. Before anyone answered he continued. "An age of a new dawn has begun!"