Series Recap
Why does everything always take some getting used to? In a world of impossible choices, every yassing one of them had a cost. Some were more bearable than others.
After the Inundation that they had been told had never happened, and four seasons becoming just two, the world outside the City – Derbon – had begun to recover, while the City itself had withdrawn, isolating – imprisoning – its population through the effects of three scientific discoveries: genetic engineering, to produce a class of people bred to be nothing but obedient; gas and a set of key words, to enforce a set of beliefs that kept them subservient; and a metal alloy, Silver, developed as a tool to heal severe burns but used instead to enslave.
Two people, one nothing but a ‘designed’ who, though obedient to a fault, was far stronger than anyone ever expected – even herself – and the other a natural birth, anything but compliant, unable to be contained by any boundary put around him, set out on a quest to save each other, to save those they loved, and, along the way, to save those who might help them in their task.
The cost of ChimmaHaddon’s attempts to free Denzin Walker was twofold. They both now had to live under the layers of self-fulfilling vows, and their eyes were opened to the reality in which they lived.
Rodder and Mathy Walker, like their son, had been put into ‘pods’ and brainwashed into believing they were grateful for their slave labour. They were the first Denzin and Chimma rescued, but not the last – sixteen-year-old Ranna Bule, father Mik Markson, Councillor Ban Criche, long-term podded Prime and Dee, fourteen-year-old Tandy Mill and sixteen-year-old Fil King are amongst those who soon also inhabited their safehouse, the Tower. But in order to rescue his perfectly designed twin sister, Kayda, Denzin and Chimma first had to escape the City.
When they broke free of from the Boundary that had imprisoned them, Denzin and Chimma discovered a world far bigger, far more beautiful, yet far crueller than anything they had ever known could exist. Besides Denzin’s family and the rest of the podded ones in the City, there were far more people who needed saving from harsh enslavement.
Twice, Denzin found his sister, yet each time, he could only watch in despair as she was yet again whisked away into the unknown. He needed Chimma to pull him out of the black holes he was determined to keep throwing himself into. Incredibly vulnerable herself, Chimma needed Denzin to keep her safe. Together they empowered one another to keep going.
While they searched for her, Kayda was brainwashed into believing herself both nameless and faceless, first as a Helper to Greyman, then as a Shepherd to her Flock, and finally – eternally – as a Silverer. Her cunningly designed mix of intelligence and compliance ripened to make her into just the right tool to be picked and then used to condemn others to her own fate. Completely reliant on her ‘Source’, Daise, for everything from her air supply to emptying her catheter, a permanently Silvered tether changed their relationship forever.
Her nights were filled with failed attempts of being rescued by her idiot brother, each more distressing than the last, forcing her to package up any last shreds of hope she had. As she struggled with who – or even what – she was, the deity Senda broke in, claiming her as his own, and Senda’s Child haltingly stepped into this new identity.
Then she was given a new – and as of yet, impossible – task of discovering how to put new Silver onto old. Her project and her newest victim, the recently recaptured Mik Markson, soon became the catalyst that launched Senda’s Child into turning her situation inside out – for a day, at least – with long-term ramifications.
One day, Kayda had a dream that she didn’t wake up from. Her stupid, crazy, incredibly amazing brother indeed rescued her, reuniting her also with her beloved Flock.
But where would they all be safe? First, an abandoned barn became their refuge, but after they were discovered by the head of the Silvering Lab Kayda had escaped from, Professor Tafe, and his student, Brow Tanner, Senda led them to an ancient building, the Bastion, beyond reach unless you knew the secret of jumping a boat over a submerged causeway at high tide.
Kayda and Daise struggled to accept the freedom and love they were offered until it was too late. The only way to move forward was to be released from their physical – and empathetic – tether with one another. Yet Senda had other plans, and forged a connection between between Kayda, Daise, Denzin and Chimma beyond anything they’d imagined possible.
The unusually ferocious Winner blizzards hemmed them in, giving the community time to gradually find greater freedom, both mentally and physically, in the care of Denzin, Chimma, Kayda, Brow and Mik. Denzin found he ‘knew’ the words each one needed, and his voice took on an authority not only in ordering the world around him, but inside those he longed to heal.
Two more impossible choices awaited them. For Denzin’s sake, but he and Chimma had their entire bodies fully Silvered and elaborately decorated. At the same time, a dream forged a different ‘tether’ between them: their hands drew one another like magnets, creating a ‘steel ball covered in six layers of Silver’, which no one but their own will could ever separate. This enhanced the empathetic connection between them.
The second choice, the remedy to prevent Denzin from harming Chimma by his unwitting commands, allowed her to at last walk in freedom. This carried an even higher cost, however. Chimma would only obey if he looked into her eyes … which was now impossible, for neither of them could find nor even remember one another’s eyes. Thus, they learned to rely on the connection through their tether and the support of those around them – not easy when trust was an uncertain bet at best, and often dangerous.
‘Two strands unravel without the third,’ they discovered. And the prophecy that harnessed the choices available to them was even more difficult to escape than they realised.
The Designed one that was not designed will be taken and freed.
When the Designed clings to his Strength and the Strength empowers Designed, they will free the taken and take the one who sees himself free.
But without his Strength, he is lost, and hope melts away. And without the Designed, she is weak and easily defeated.
Armed with lightning, clothed in fur with his Strength, wearing the colours of those he came to save, the storm gathers around him and breaks to his right.
Blessed is the one who aids the Designed and his Strength.
