The sight of her froze Ember in place. January was taller than her by a couple inches, which was an odd feeling. She was beautiful for a woman in her 40s, Scandinavian stock, and inspired a feeling of familiarity.

Even if Ember could tamp her fear down enough to talk and look around, there was no way she could fight on the narrow platform surrounding the tree house. July was also, like herself, without any initial purchases. If January was anything like May, they were finished. So it came as a great relief when the older woman held up her hands in a sign of truce.

“I’m not here to hurt anyone.” January said.

“Okay,” Ember said, and then nodded to the government-issue tough beside her. It had to be her Agent. He certainly looked like an agent, though more Secret Service than magical shoulder fairy. “What about him?”

“It’s just a precaution—you know how dangerous this place can be.” January said.

“I have some experience with that, yes.” Ember said.

“I’m January. Call me Jan.” the older woman stepped forward and motioned for her apparent bodyguard to take a few steps back, which he did. January extended her hand and Ember shook it. Whatever such a shake was worth, it was probably measured in Chits.

“I’m September—”

“Ember,” January said with a smile, then nodded to July, “And July. I saw what you two did. Ember, I wouldn’t have been any prouder if you were my own daughter.”

Ember noted a dipping tone of sadness in January’s voice when the woman mentioned her daughter. They’d all been separated from their loved ones and thrown into a deadly world, certainly a feeling that would be hard on a mother.

“The most important thing now is for us to stay calm.” January said. Ember felt that July was close at hand now, over her shoulder, but she was too tense to look over at him. So doing would require she take her eyes off of January and her bodyguard.

“What if someone doesn’t want to?” Ember said.

“Then politics will continue by other means. Though it’s early, I’d like you to consider joining us. You don’t have to answer now—just think about it. I’ll be in touch.” she said.

January smiled at her and July, and then disappeared down the steps with a series of steadily fainter clicks. All Ember could think of right then was how difficult it must be to go down that many steps in heels. Once the steps faded into nothing, she felt safe to speak to July.

“‘Us’? Join us?”

“The Blue Team. No drama from ‘em, news didn’t have much to say. Imagine they’re all like peas in a pod. Older and more mature, for sure. Don’t think a one of them was under 30.” July said. Nice to have someone around who watched television news. He misspoke, though—Ember noted that the Fall member of the Blue Team had come after her, so July didn’t know if he’d caused problems.

“What about the Reds?”

“Them? Younger but not as young as the Yellows, if you except December. Mid 20s. Don’t think they fought each other either. Still a couple after you we didn’t catch, but it looks like May is the odd one.”

“You’re telling me we’re the only team that didn’t stay intact?”

July sniffed.

“Don’t go blamin’ me. Just a messenger here.”

She felt alone in a world where Reds and Blues were four-person teams, and her own Yellows were weak and fractured.

“I’m getting the band back together.” she said, and opened the messaging application on her Eos.

“You sure? Other teams seem pretty put together. We could just join ‘em. Those two—”

“We join another team and we’ll just be the muscle for some ideologues. I didn’t become neutral for no reason.”

She sent off a text to December: ‘We need to unite. Can you control May?’

Her Cell began to play that song which most people only knew by its most often repeated line “Oh What A Night” but was in reality named “December, 1963.” One of those songs which, for marketing purposes, must enclose the famous line in parenthesis.

“What the—” Ember said, surprised by the ringtone. She’d never installed such a thing.

“It’s his ringmotif.” SOFI said, seeing Ember’s confusion. Since she controlled the speaker, she had to duck the audio to say anything.

“Other people decide what plays on my phone when they call me? Can I disable that?” Ember said, a bit indignant, having to raise her voice to compete with Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. She was used to having control over her own stuff.

“Insularity fosters anomie.” SOFI said, making quite a few philosophical bones over the ability of someone else to annoy her with a ringtone. Ember shot her a look and answered the call just before the ring expired.

“Good morning, Ember.” she heard when she put the phone to her ear, “It’s nice to meet you, too.”

There was something about the man’s voice that made Ember nervous. He spoke as if he had nothing but time, as if he were right next to her rather than miles away, as if he were invincible. It wasn’t far from how she imagined a vampire would sound. Whatever he was, he had something of a point in that Ember had skipped proper introductions.

“Sorry,” Ember said, “I’m kind of nervous. There’s a lot that’s happening.”

“I understand. Take a deep breath or two. I find it helps to take a moment out, in times like that.”

After a pause and some consideration, she took couple deep breaths. It did help, and was a good idea, though she quietly resolved to ignore any future directives from him.

“Okay.” Ember said, “Inner peace achieved. So, what do you say?”

There was a long pause from the other end, and Ember was sure he hadn’t heard her. Just when she was about to repeat her question, she heard his voice again.

“You don’t know what you’re asking.” he said.

“I’m asking if you can stop May from attacking anyone.” Ember repeated, getting a little exasperated.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” December said. She couldn’t judge whether he was mocking or sincere in this suggestion.

“Yeah!” May spoke up, her voice distant but audible, “Why don’t you?”

Ember rubbed her forehead, then drew the palm of her hand over her face and let out a sigh.

“Am I on speaker?” she said, her hand still over her mouth.

“You sure are, you conniving little ginger.” May said from the other end. Her voice was loud enough now that it seemed December had handed his own Cell off to her, even though he had to have known how valuable it was by now. Ember thought: That was the answer, wasn’t it? He could control May. No one hands their most valuable weapon off to someone they can’t. But would he?

“May, do you think you can hold off on killing for the time being? We might be able to solve things diplomatically.” Ember said hopefully.

“And just who made you the Queen of France? Ciao.” May said, drawing the last word out into a tune, and closed the connection. Ember looked at her phone, completely bewildered.

“Talks break down?” July said. Ember turned to him with a blank look, totally clueless about what to do.

“SOFI, help me out here.” she said, remembering her special power. SOFI popped up and looked smug.

“Ember. You can read Sun Tzu while waiting for the bus, so why haven’t you?”

“I have a car.” Ember said.

“Oh do you. Kids these days, spoiled to the core, I say. The core!” SOFI said, and Ember bobbed her head like a child who was numbly agreeing with a scolding in the hopes it would end, “Stop playing dumb, Ember. You know what I mean.”

Ember hadn’t read Sun Tzu, but cultural osmosis being what it was she assumed that SOFI was engendering her to ‘know her enemy.’

“But, shouldn’t everyone want to get out alive?” Ember said.

“Everyone is not you, my solipsistic darling. What does May want?” SOFI said. Ember was slightly ashamed that she hadn’t considered that. Past events being what they were, May cared about victory much more than any safe way out.

“Oh. Any thoughts on December?” she said. SOFI shrugged theatrically, having no guidance to offer there. Ember couldn’t even say for certain that he was sending a message when he handed the phone off to May. It could be that, as July said, he was an overly trusting person, and May would make a victim out of him at the first opportunity.

“No use overthinkin’ it.” July said, seeing the perplexed look on her face. Ember nodded to him hesitantly. It could wait.

“SOFI, when an Enduser goes down it’s all over the news, isn’t it?” Ember said.

“Yes. I would let you know if that happened, or even if a fight were in progress.” SOFI said. Ember breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t know what December was capable of, but whatever it was, it would likely take a while to manifest.

“December is our canary then. We’ll deal with May if she kills him.” Ember said to July.

“Smart. So how do we find her? The city is, I mean—just look at it. Big.” July said, and gestured out to the dawnlit cityscape just over his shoulder. Ember hadn’t considered that.

“—Um.” Ember stumbled, feeling a bit deflated compared to a moment ago, “SOFI, how did she find us?”

SOFI again spoke up.

“All the neutrals started within two blocks of each other, in the same cell. That’s what makes a cell phone a cell phone, by the way—the hexagonal ‘cell’ of coverage.” she said.

“…so?” Ember said.

“So, the cell is an important concept here. All the animal Agents can scout via cellular and report back, though, and some can even hand off to other cells and go further afield. Both May and December have animal Agents.” the little fairy said. There were all the reconnaissance abilities of her team, distributed among the inscrutable and recalcitrant.

“SOFI, you said you were the wisest Agent.” Ember said. SOFI nodded emphatically.

“Yes, absolutely. No contest!”

“So, just out of curiosity, how many of the other Agents are animals?” Ember said, looking at SOFI dubiously.

“Most of them.” she said, and when she saw Ember’s sidelong glance she clarified: “But all the Agents except for FIDO can communicate via text.”

July folded his arms and rocked his head back, silently cursing his luck.

“He’s very clever for a dog.” SOFI said to July, and dove back into Ember’s Cell.

“Speaking of FIDO, what happened with the warning bark? January didn’t set it off.” Ember said. She heard FIDO whine out in shame from July’s pocket. Neither of his devices were slim in a modern sense, so on either side of his jeans there were bulky outlines where he had managed to jam them into his pants. It made her recall May’s struggles to cram July’s Nokia into the pockets of her little shorts. Looking back, it was an impressive feat, probably borne of adrenaline.

“Gotta be a way around it.” July said, not at all happy about the new development. Ember didn’t point it out, but July was immune to BT attacks, so it only made sense that someone could skirt his abilities.

#

The inside of the tree house was defined by a schizophrenic mix of consumer electronics and rustic charm. In a roughly circular pavilion there were tree limbs which came up through the finish of the floor and wended to the roof, or out of the side of the building. It was an elegant and simple design combining load-bearing with aesthetics. In other respects it was a typical electronics store: the walls were weighted with shelves and pegboards full of cases and third party accessories. If this was anything like the world she knew, that was where they made their real money. The stars of the show were sold on thin margins, while a plastic bauble to affix them to your car dash represented a thick vein of profit.

In the center of the room were rows of tables with devices on them—MP3 players, phones, tablets, smart watches, VR gear, all-in-one PCs and laptops—the usual lineup. Lighting came from a couple rows of dangling paper cubes with bulbs concealed in them. Sleeping behind the counter was a young dark-haired woman who was so dedicated to slacking off that she had brought a full-size pillow to rest her head on. Ember had a hard time blaming her. She had customer base of twelve. Twelve—Ember thought grimly—at most!

She picked up one of the smart watches and appreciated it as best she could given the bulky loss-prevention apparatus that was encircling it. She knew that whenever she got a text or wanted to know the time, she removed her phone from her pocket and looked at it. It was an enjoyable act which she now understood was satisfying in the same way that unsheathing a sword was. All the same, she imagined there must be someone who was so busy, so time-conscious, and who was the target of such a multitude of reminders that a smart watch made sense for them. She would hate to be that person, but surely he existed.

While she was futzing with the watch she must have hit a button on the side or made a gesture on the screen, because shortly a transparent orange hexagon about a foot across flashed into existence a couple inches over the face of it. Ember was startled and nearly fumbled the thing. Once she had steadied it July tapped the orange shape with his index finger. It was solid and sounded like a dinner plate when struck. Soon they were both tapping on it, hunched over it like a pair of chimpanzees who were investigating something outside their experience and beyond their comprehension. Their fascination was drawn out by the discovery that different areas of the shape produced different kinds of pong sounds, as if it were a drum.

“How cute. It’s a little shield.” Ember said.

“Puppies are cute, Ember. That thing’s weird.” July said.

She couldn’t manage to shut the shield off once she activated it, so she awkwardly tried to maneuver it back into its little security cradle without letting the edges of the shield touch her. They probably weren’t razor sharp, but she wasn’t in a mood to find out. She didn’t manage to get it in the cradle exactly, and the watch tipped over and rested on the counter as if she’d just tossed it there from chest height. It offended Ember’s sense of propriety to leave something in a store other than how she found it, but given her vague unease about the potentially atom-thin edges she let it go. When she looked up she saw that the cashier-lady was rubbing her eyes and stowing the pillow underneath the counter. The tapping must have woken her up.

“Good morning! I’m krazygreen. Just call me kray.” the woman said. Ember prepared a polite smile to greet the woman which grew into a full-on grin when she saw the pillow-creases impressed on the woman’s full cheek.

“I was looking at your watch and that happened. Sorry.” Ember said, and pointed to the watch with the shield still buzzing away. kray gasped and hustled over to where July and Ember stood. She was short, on the heavy side, and wore a low cut purple shirt with skinny jeans. A red lanyard around her neck identified her as an employee.

“Oh no. It’s ruined. You’ll have to pay for this now.” kray said. Ember looked at the price tag of 45C and recoiled with an audible choke. That was practically everything she had!

“She’s messin’ with you.” July said. kray picked up the watch and shut off the orange dinner-plate forcefield, and put it back where Ember got it. She turned and gave Ember a reassuring smile.

“Oh.” Ember said, too relieved to try to save face or say anything clever. kray clasped her hands together and turned to the pair of them.

“September and July, wow! You guys made it. They have been screaming at you on Natter ever since you got on the subway.” kray said, and turned her own phone to them. More Natter traffic tuned to her hashtag. September looked at it. Many users were apoplectic about how careless they thought she and July were. There were other crowds of people who were defending them and accusing the first group of being, of all things, autistic. An accusation which, if true, wasn’t much of an insult. The only people worth accusing of being disabled were the abled, in order to make an unfavorable comparison. So was, buried in the insult, its own negation. Neither faction was engaged in what might romantically be called ‘civil discourse.’

“Holy wow,” Ember said, “As usual, everyone is up in arms.”

“Yeah.” July said, “Think its because they want you to succeed. When they see you make a mistake it gets them angry. I know when I’m watching a game and my team chokes, it gets my temper up. Dad’s even worse than me.”

Ember recalled seeing grown men rail impotently at the television whenever fortune turned away from their local sports team of choice. That was a totally apt analogy for what was happening on Natter. It was a nice feeling to know that people cared about her as much as sports, but it didn’t do much to offset the names she was being referred to as. She wasn’t made of iron or a famous person who was, if not accepting, at least acclimated to mass hatred. She looked away from kray’s phone, mentally worse off for the experience. The girl couldn’t have intended her to feel that way. Abuse was categorically different when it was directed towards you.

“It doesn’t affect you?” Ember asked July, who she had seen similarly assaulted in the scrolling text. He was variously a hick, redneck, idiot, and, a classic from the Vietnam era, a baby killer.

“Here, look at this.” July said, and borrowed kray’s phone for a second. He picked out a tweet from the stream and held it up to her. It read: ‘#Ember is such a sweetheart.’

“There’s plenty of good if you look for it.” he said, and handed the phone back to kray.

July walked over to one of the nearby phones on display and picked it up. It was a new Eos, like Ember’s, except in factory white coloration. She didn’t know what color hers was, originally.

“Thinking about upgrading?” kray said, “That’s the newest Eos. They come in white or black, and offer a wide variety of inexpensive Gestures.”

“SOFI, if my Cell gets destroyed, can I just buy another?” Ember asked. That wasn’t how May made it sound. She could have been mistaken, or simply been lying to increase her leverage. The latter seemed kind of beyond the seat-of-the-pants impression she had of May. SOFI spoke up via the speaker.

“Not exactly. To switch you’d need to migrate your Gestures—and Agent—from your old phone. If your Cell were simply destroyed you’d be at a disadvantage, and that’s soft-pedaling it. You can buy back Gestures if you have the cabbage lying around, but remember: there’s only one SOFI!” she said. July put the phone back down and looked over at Ember.

“They come in white or black. How’d you get an orange one? It looks factory made.” July said.

“My dad had it made it for me.” Ember beamed.

“Man, SOFI was right. You are a spoiled one.”

“I’m an only child. You can have my phone and my car and my responsibility to be the whole vessel of my parents’ hopes, and I’ll take your siblings.” Ember put her hands on her hips. July considered with a deep breath and gave her a nod, conceding the point.

“They can be a pain sometimes, but I’ll take ‘em over a car.”

“Yeah, well,” Ember said, biting her lower lip mischievously, “my Porsche 911 is like a sister to me.”

“Oh you do not have a Porsche.” July said, all sympathy from his quarter evaporating instantly, “We could work out some kind of weekend custody thing. I’ll drop off my sisters and pick up the car on Friday?”

Gleeful Ember waved her hand in refusal.

“In or out.” she said, baring her teeth in a wide smile. July looked physically pained, but eventually shook his head. All the same—Ember didn’t have a Porsche, 911 or otherwise. Before she had a chance to admit this, she saw kray look up from her phone and then wave to get her attention. kray was standing near a rugged gray machine near the checkout counter which looked like a freestanding ATM. The kind that are always dirty and tucked away in the corner of a gas station, waiting to stick some desperate mark with a surcharge.

“Sorry to interrupt,” kray said, “but Natter is going to form a lynch mob if I don’t introduce you two to this thing. The End Station allows you to trade Coins for your abilities, which are called Gestures. Save at least 5C, because I’ve got a thing or two you might want.”

“First dibs.” Ember said and, childish ritual complete, elbowed past July to get at the machine.

“‘Only child,’ she said.” July spoke under his breath, and went over to examine the accessories. kray hustled after him. Ember hoped the girl didn’t rope July into anything useless like a case.

The machine had a touchscreen on it which mirrored many of the choices available in the End Store app on her phone. Despite a high price of 15C the Cellbow was a natural choice for her. Even though the Cellblade seemed to confer some level of sword-wielding proficiency on her, the fact that she had no direct experience with swords gave her pause. By contrast, she’d spent many afternoons with a bow in casual competition with a boy from the neighborhood. Any arrow that failed to hit the target went sailing off into the woods beyond and had to be retrieved, a wrinkle which, in concert with the camouflage pattern on many of the arrows, made a great inducement to accuracy.

A juvenile love triangle put a shaft through the heart of their little archery club. Since that particularly awful day she hadn’t loosed a single arrow. Four years was a long time for a skill to lay fallow if you were in a fight for your life, but it was markedly better than never.

Purchasing ‘Leaflight’ set her back another 10C. It allowed her to fall without hurting herself. She was a little dismayed to find out it was a quick Gesture she had to draw during the fall or shortly before it—as if she’d have the presence of mind to do that. Her purchase of Leaflight had revealed a new ability called Foothold. Foothold allowed the user to leap on a short series of imaginary footholds along a wall or even in midair, but Ember quickly grasped it was just a fancy version of her old archenemy, the ladder, and thought perhaps it wasn’t for her. Unless.

“SOFI, is there a flight ability at the end of this path?” Ember said. It was sort of an academic question, since she wasn’t sure she’d have the wherewithal to use it.

“Mmmm… I can’t tell you about the exact structure of the Gesture tree, but I can tell you that one tenet of Enduser abilities is that they should be fun to watch. The objective is to accrue approval, even if you’re fighting.” SOFI said.

That didn’t answer her question definitively, which was proper given SOFI’s limits, but it did tell Ember that flight was unlikely to exist in a form that totally disassociated people from the ground, or allowed them to defy gravity as they pleased. It was hard to make sense of an aerial battle, even with the carefullest of editing. It followed that movies featuring kung-fu masters were about spectacular brawls, and movies featuring fighter pilots were about volleyball.

Taking to heart SOFI’s advice about spectacle, Ember made her next purchase an ability called Shatter for 10C, which promised to ‘break down barriers’ if applied to a Cell weapon before a strike. She assumed that meant shields like the one she saw on the watch. A good offense didn’t always beat a good defense, but it always beat it in ratings. At this point she had 15C left and picked up a couple less expensive things. One one was ‘Cell Defense’, a 5C ability for SOFI which allowed her a couple of options in case Ember’s Cell was in danger. A distinction Ember noted was that Agent powers didn’t require her to do anything. Use of Cell Defense was up to SOFI.

The other Gesture she purchased, unique to Eos, was called ‘Surface Tension Lite.’ It offered the ability to ‘walk on liquids,’ which she found out after purchasing referred to mercury and oil. Water required upgrading to the Pro version. Lastly she noticed that Natter was a free application, and downloaded it to her phone. She still had 7C in the bank.

“All done. Better tell July about it. No need for both of us to have a bow at this point.” Ember said down to SOFI.

“Summer and Winter don’t have access to the Cellbow, a Rebellion-aligned ability. They are Throne-aligned.”

“Ah, but still, we should complement each other…”

“Ember, you know: you don’t have to tell July everything you can do. Nor should you feel obligated to pigeonhole yourself into a subordinate role. Both of those actions are potentially dangerous. You must remain individually strong.”

“If he were going to take advantage of me, he passed up a few good opportunities already.”

“There are many reasons you might outlast July. He might be killed. You might have a falling out. You could even elect to wait for him to have a moment of weakness, and then kill him for his bounty. Only you know what you’re capable of.” SOFI said, causing Ember to frown. It wasn’t how she was used to thinking. She had to remind herself that SOFI was just advising her, not handing down normative statements about whether July was trustworthy or giving murderous recommendations. Any action she could conceivably take was also an action someone else could take against her.

“Okay.” she said to SOFI, and then rose her hand to wave July over. When he finally noticed he came over and furrowed his brow.

“You sure took your time.” he said, less annoyed and more wondering what she was up to. Definitely a little annoyed, though.

“Ah… there was a lot to think about.” Ember said sheepishly. She stepped out of the way and July replaced her.

“What didya get?” he said, off-hand. He was thinking the same thing she was: not much point in overlap. Even in view of SOFI’s mostly-decent advice Ember wound up telling him everything, including the somewhat embarrassing Eos-specific app she’d purchased. July thumbed over his shoulder towards the shop girl. “Watch out for her. Don’t let her talk you into a case.”

“Don’t worry.” Ember said. She had an almost religious aversion to being upsold, and if she were ever to consider a belt case she certainly wouldn’t buy one in one of these stores. Her family was reasonably wealthy, but, as her father often reminded her, they didn’t get that way by spending money all willy nilly.

“I know,” kray interjected, and took Ember by the shoulder and began to all but shove her towards the accessories, “you keep your phone in your pocket like a normal person. That’s in your world, though. Here, you’re going to want quicker access to it.”

“I don’t need a case. Not now, not ever.” Ember said. Her father had gone through a lot of trouble to swathe her phone in her favorite color, and obscuring that with some awful injection-molded plastic bulk would be thoughtless.

“It’s a holster, not a case. You can take the Cell out of it easily. It’s more like a pocket.” kray said. Like all good salespeople, it was as if the girl could read her mind and anticipate her points of resistance.

“I still don’t need it! But your high-pressure tactics are great, and defy stereotypes of saleswoman as leaning on their sexuality.” Ember said.

“Thanks! And you do, now, more than ever. Just give me a second here and I’ll show you. Your Cell is in your pocket now, right? So summon your Cellblade and draw it as fast as you can.” kray said. Ember saw where this was going, but went through the exercise. All told it took about five seconds for her to go from having her Cell in her pocket to having her Cellblade at the ready. kray put the red belt-clip case on her and instructed her to sheathe her Cell. Ember slid her phone into the rails, which were smooth yet had a firm grip.

“Now, use your left hand to complete the Gesture, and your right to pull the sword out.” kray said. Ember hadn’t considered using her left hand for anything. Nevertheless, she completed the Gesture to summon the Cellblade with her left hand, messy but acceptable, and drew it out. She completed the entire operation somewhere between two and three seconds. Drawing the sword from the hip as if from a scabbard was also immensely satisfying.

“That’s pretty nice…” Ember said, still a bit dubious about it all. She wasn’t sure if she was being bamboozled in some way.

“Not just that. Now it’s easy to complete a Gesture while holding a sword.” kray said.

“With my left hand?” Ember said, looking to her sinistral as if it were an alien paw.

“Gestures are best made using the middle finger on your left hand. There’s no better way to do it in the middle of a fight. Unless you’d rather use the sword with your left hand.” kray said. Ember wasn’t into thrillseeking by way of non-dominant swordsmanship. She put up a good fight. Her father—who was still very alive—would have been proud.

“How much?” Ember said, biting the inside of her lip.

“5C.” kray said confidently.

“Five golden Coins for a piece of plastic?”

“It’s custom made. When I found out your Cell was actually orange, of all things, I had to make it special. Same with July’s old stuff.” kray assured her. It did have a nice red color which complemented her phone well.

Ember sighed deeply and took the case to the counter. The least they could have done was ‘custom make’ it out of a nicer material. It was still a wise purchase at 5C. Certainly better than Surface Tension Lite. Now she had just two Coins, and was starting to feel a real pinch. She didn’t know what sort of emergency would crop up which might require funds. It wasn’t like she had credit, or her parents, or any other fiscal safety net. Perhaps she could vote herself one.

“SOFI, since December has arrived, can I vote?” Ember said. She remember SOFI said Endusers could vote in the election as well.

“Yep! I figured you would want to.” SOFI said.

“Then I’d like to vote for… myself.” Ember took her Cell from its holster and SOFI pulled up the voting application. It was a simple act to chose herself from among the twelve, and after she voted the current results were displayed. To her surprise she and July were currently the most popular Endusers, bringing in about 14 percent each. May and December were at 3 and 10 percent respectively. A great showing for the Yellow Team, given one of them was a quarrelsome virago.

Ember voted for herself because she was by definition always—or in the worst case, about to become—the one she agreed with the most. If there was anything she had complete faith in, it was the democratic process.

July was much quicker with the machine than she was, having evidently forwent internal monologues about his past. He may have had a point about her maladaptive habit of spacing out.

Just as he completed his purchases Ember received a text from December.

‘Meet us in Wikitown.’ it said. She showed it to July.

“If he’s got something to say, he can sure as hell say it over the phone.” July said suspiciously.

Ember put her thumbnail in her mouth and bit down on it in thought.

“They want to see an act of faith.” she said.

“Don’t see what he’s done to deserve it, myself.” he said.

Ember sent December back a text:

‘We’re on our way.’