Laura
For three days Magni kept his distance. I was sick and tired of not knowing how to act around him. I needed him to sit down and talk to me. To figure out a way for us to live as husband and wife with the respect and love that we both deserved.
He’d asked that I go back to the Gray Mansion, but to remind him that I made my own decisions, I stayed at the school. Magni was gone most of the day and when he came around the school at night, he was more closed off to me than ever. Twice we’d had sex, but both times had felt purely physical and as soon as it was over, he’d turned his back on me. My choosing the Motherlands had not been forgiven or forgotten by him. More than once, I regretted leaving his bed that night I went to catch Devlin. If I’d known Devlin wasn’t a danger to anyone, but living with his girlfriend, I would have stayed with Magni that night.
Athena, Finn, and Tristan were still at the school as well. Wrestler had asked to meet Tristan for some testing on Wednesday morning, and the boy was so nervous about getting the apprentice job that he’d begun biting his nails.
On Tuesday evening, the school was packed when Boulder, Christina, Khan, Pearl, and Magni joined us for the poetry night that Kya had arranged.
All the children had either written a poem of their own or picked out a poem written by a child. After dinner we sat for an hour listening and clapping.
Mila read out Generation of Mirrors, the beautiful poem she had shared with me, and Raven enjoyed the spotlight with her own poem on farts that had all the boys laughing.
“The last person tonight is you, Solo." Kya smiled to the oldest of the boys at the school. Solomon reminded me of a younger version of Magni: strong, tall, fierce, with blue eyes and blond hair.
“Do I have to?” he asked and shot a sideways glance at Willow, who sat a few seats from him.
“Yes, you have to.” Archer pointed to a spot at the end of the table where the other children had read out their poems.
“Can’t I stay in my seat? Mila got to sit down.”
Archer raised an eyebrow. “Unless you have a broken leg like Mila, you don’t get to sit. Go, Solo!”
The fourteen-year-old boy made his way to the end of the table and a few of the oldest girls shot long glances in his direction.
He shifted his balance and rubbed his nose. “Ehm, okay, this poem is about light versus darkness. It’s called Truth, and this is how it goes.”
Darkness:
Turn your back on the light, you’ll see me in the shadows.
Let me educate you and open your eyes to the cruel truth of this world.
It will overwhelm you with sadness and make you feel depressed.
I can show you the truth.
Light:
Turn your back on the shadows, you’ll feel my warm light shine in your face.
Let me educate you and open your eyes to see the beauty of this world.
It will inspire you and make you want to share your happiness with others.
I can show you the truth.
Both:
Look up at the sun or down at the shadows.
We both show the truth, because we are the truth.
Depressed or inspired, the choice is yours.
We can show you a truth.
Everyone clapped and Kya asked. “That was a very deep poem, Solo. Can you tell us who wrote it?”
“Some kid.”
“Do you remember the name of the kid?”
“Nope. But I’m sure it was a girl.”
“Okay, but can you tell us what the poem was about?”
“Some shit about looking up or down.”
Kya raised a brow. “That’s your analysis?”
“Yeah. It’s stupid. Lightness and darkness can’t talk – it makes no sense.”
“Then why did you choose that poem?”
Solo was already on his way back to his seat next to Storm and Tristan when he threw his answer over his shoulder to Kya. “Because it was the shortest of the poems you had us pick from.”
The other boys laughed.
Kya didn’t give up and drilled a little more. “But what did you think of it?”
Solomon looked back at her. “I think it’s a waste of time, and I don’t see why I have to learn about that stuff.”
Kya’s nostrils expanded and she raised her chin like a weapon aiming straight at the disrespectful young man. “Poetry is like music, Solo. Would you like a world without music?”
“Nooo.” He dragged out the word.
“Then there is your answer to why you have to learn about poetry. It’s the heartbeat of a culture.”
Pearl got up from the table and walked over to place a hand on Kya’s shoulder. “Thank you, dear.”
Kya’s black curls bobbed around her face when she nodded. “My pleasure.”
Pearl turned to address the children. “A big thank you for sharing your favorite poems with us. I enjoyed it very much.” Holding up her hands, she led a round of applause that we all took part in before she made an announcement. “This is the first time we’ve all been gathered, and that gives us an excellent opportunity to have our first town hall meeting.”
“What’s that?” Marco asked and caught a piece of bread that William was throwing at another boy. “William, do you want to be on kitchen duty for a week?” Marco’s voice was stern and William was quick to put his hands on the table, signaling that he was done throwing food around.
“A town hall meeting is an opportunity for a community to discuss important matters,” Pearl explained. “With all the changes we face here in the Northlands, it would be interesting to hear different perspectives. I suggest we start by talking about how to deal with all the Motlander women who wish to move here.”
Magni, who sat next to Khan, leaned forward and spoke in a booming voice. “That’s easy. They marry a man and become his wife. End of story.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Motlander women are used to having a profession and would like to contribute with their unique talents.” Pearl turned from Magni to Christina and Kya. “I’m sure you worry about what kind of life your daughters might have in the Northlands as well.”
Christina nodded and Kya clapped her hands with excitement. “Yes, let’s do a town hall meeting. It would be a great way to show the children how democracy works and how important it is for everyone to feel heard. Maybe we could do a vote as a learning experience.”
Magni flew up from his seat. “I’m shutting down this madness before it gets any further. The only two people with a vote in this room are Khan and me. We don’t need anyone’s advice on how to run the Northlands.”
“You’re not the only two people living in the Northlands. The rest of us have an opinion too,” I muttered, low enough that Magni didn’t hear me.
“A town hall discussion will offer you and Khan valuable input.” Pearl folded her hands in front of her. “What you do with the input is up to you.”
Khan leaned back on the bench, supporting his back against the wall. “I told you, Pearl, this isn’t how we do things here.”
Magni, who was standing next to Khan, looked down on him. “You knew she was going to pull this shit on us?”
“No, but I’m not surprised since Pearl has been talking about town hall meetings for days now. She wants us to tour around the country and listen to people’s input.”
“Jesus Christ.” Magni’s outburst had everyone looking at him. “Get your woman under control, brother.”
Magni’s words provoked me.
“Women aren’t supposed to be controlled by their husbands,” I said, my pulse drumming like a freight train with too much speed to slow down in time to avoid the disaster.
Magni pinned me with a dirty look that spoke of spankings and scoldings, but my frustration with him was bigger than the lust his heated looks inspired. “I’m with Pearl. Let’s hear what everyone has to say.”
Pearl gave me a small nod of recognition.
“I’m with Pearl too,” Christina pitched in and was hushed by Boulder, who warned her not to get involved. “Of course, I’m getting involved,” she told him. “I love town hall meetings.”
When Athena, Kya, and Shelly supported the idea, the children began to speak up as well.
“Can we stay and listen?” Rochelle, who was the younger sister of Shelly, asked.
Magni shook his head at Khan. “Aren’t you going to say something? First you allow women to have a voice, and now children too?”
Khan looked thoughtful and then he rose in a slow movement. “I’ll allow this town hall meeting to take place, but there will be no vote and no children present.”
A collective sigh of disappointment was heard from all the children.
“It’s okay,” Pearl comforted them. “We can do a separate town hall meeting for children only. I would like to be present and if some of you have good ideas, I’ll present them to Lord Khan on your behalf.”
“It’s late anyway,” Archer added.
Nero wrinkled his nose. “It’s only eight-thirty.”
“Goodnight, Nero.” Lord Khan gave him a direct glance that made the boy lower his head in respect.
“Can I stay?” Tristan asked. “I’m fifteen and I’m not a student.”
Khan looked to Shelly, the assistant mentor, who was still in the room and fifteen too. “Tristan, you and Shelly can stay, but you’ll keep quiet unless spoken to.”
Solomon stuck out his chest. “I’ll be fifteen soon, can I stay too?”
“No.” Archer stabbed a finger in Solo’s direction. “I’m placing you in charge of getting everyone to bed. Make sure they use their teeth cleaners and stay in their own beds. Lights out at nine-thirty, okay?”
Proud to be trusted with the responsibility, Solomon nodded with a serious expression. “Got it.”
A minute later all children had left the dining room. Pearl tilted her head. “Athena, dear, would you like to lead the meeting? I know you’ve done many town hall meetings in the past.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll let you do it. It was your idea.”
Magni’s expression was that of a thundercloud but he had resumed his seat next to Khan.
“With the children out of the room, let’s start our first town hall meeting,” Pearl began in a soft voice. “Today’s agenda will be to discuss visions for our future. Let’s begin with ideas on how to deal with the list of almost seven hundred Motlander women and men who are interested in a relationship with an Nman. And by relationship, I should specify that some of the people on the list are interested in friendships with the potential to grow into more.
“By people, you mean women, right?” Marco asked.
“There are twenty-four males on the list too. Twenty-one of them have expressed an interest in a romantic relationship.”
The men exchanged glances, but Finn was the only one who commented. “Think of it this way, Motlander males are more feminine than most of the women in the Motherlands anyway.”
“Hey, that’s offensive,” Christina complained. “You make us sound like we’re masculine.”
Pearl continued. “Let’s focus on ideas on how to match the Northlanders with the Motlanders.”
“How many Northlanders have signed up so far?” I asked.
“Applicants are still trickling in from both sides of the wall, but so far we have two million and eighty-seven thousand Nmen hoping to find a wife.
A loud whistle came from Archer. “That’s a lot.”
“Yes, and the number is growing fast. I don’t see how we can make the best possible match without interviewing all of them, but that’s too time-consuming. The Council is overwhelmed with the disaster relief after the earthquake and they asked if we have suggestions.”
Shelly raised her hand.
“What do you suggest, Shelly?”
“Algorithms.”
“What do you mean, algorithms?”
“We have millions of men and seven hundred women. We could have all participants fill out a questionnaire and design a program that matches the people with the highest compatibility score.”
“How would you do that?” Pearl asked.
Shelly looked up for a second. “Give them a hundred questions about values, habits, and expectations for a marriage and see who matches the best.”
Khan took up the flow. “Shelly, I like how you think. It sounds like an easy solution.”
Athena’s voice was calm and unrushed when she spoke. “You’re forgetting something important.”
“What?” Pearl looked at her.
“Even if a couple have a high compatibility score there is no guarantee that they have chemistry. Finn and I don’t have much in common, but somehow we work in spite of that.”
“I have an idea,” Marco said. “Let’s run Shelly’s system and then we’ll have the fifty most compatible men fight for each woman.”
“No fighting.” Pearl’s voice was firm.
Shelly raised her hand again and was allowed to speak by Pearl. “If we could figure out what makes it work between people in relationships that are functional, then we can make a system that matches couples using those algorithms.”
“You think algorithms can predict chemistry?”
“What do you mean when you say chemistry?” Shelly asked with a frown. “Are you suggesting we should do blood tests on people?”
“No, I’m saying that sometimes there’s a special attraction between two people. It doesn’t have to make sense from a rational point of view, but that person just gets under your skin.”
Shelly pulled her sleeves over her hands as if protecting her own skin and frowned. “I don’t know about chemistry or attraction, but if we’re to make some kind of system, we’d have to find couples that are happy and design the algorithms around them. The problem is to find a sample group large enough. We only have four couples of Nmen and Motlander women.”
“Boulder and I are happy,” Christina offered.
“So are Khan and I.”
“Yes, but we would need a larger number of couples to get an idea of what makes you successful as a couple. Algorithms based on four couples are too random.”
Khan cut in. “We’ll find some programmers to create a system and maybe you can talk to them about your ideas, Shelly. For now, we’ll have to work with what we have.”
“Can I ask a quick question?” Marco stood up. “Will there still be prize money for the Nmen who marry?”
“No, of course not. I didn’t get a prize when I married Athena either. The prize money is connected to the tournaments.”
“There will be no tournaments and no fighting,” Pearl pointed out. “The Council has made that a condition.”
Marco sat down with disappointment on his face.
Shelly’s eyes were on Marco. “I think you had a good idea about giving the women a number of men to choose from. Instead of letting the fifty most compatible men fight for her, maybe we could let them charm her instead.”
“Charm her how?” Marco asked with a frown.
“I don’t know, and maybe fifty is too large a number, but we could let them record a video of themselves that she can watch.”
Tristan raised his hand. “That’s a great idea, and then the woman can pick out five or ten men that she finds attractive and wants to meet.”
“I like it.” Khan nodded. “That’s what we’ll do.”
“Good.” Pearl looked at Magni. “Do you agree?”
He uncrossed his arms and tucked his hands in his pockets. “No, I don’t agree. I want tournaments, but since we can’t have that I guess we’ll have to rely on some fucking algorithm.”
Pearl gave a satisfied smile.
“Now that Khan and Magni have approved, we can move on to discuss how we take advantage of all the knowledge the women are bringing.”
“What knowledge?” Magni asked.
“There are highly educated and resourceful people on the application list. Librarians, architects, environmental workers, programmers, mediators, doctors, nurses, psychologists, and artists of different kinds. They have been told they’ll be allowed to work here.”
“As long as we can keep them safe,” Magni said.
“How do we do that?” Pearl asked.
Heads turned to look at Shelly as if she had the answer to everything.
Self-aware, she tucked her hands under her thighs and hid behind the curtains that her long brown hair provided to hide her blushing cheeks. “How would I know? Safety isn’t my specialty.”
“I understand you want to plan everything, Pearl, but we’ll have to treat each woman’s request to work on a case-by-case basis,” Finn commented.
“Of course, but wouldn’t it be good to at least discuss it?” Pearl argued, but Khan shut her down.
“I agree with Finn, and this is enough town hall meeting for one night.”
Pearl angled her head. “But there are still so many things for us to discuss.”
“Discussions are good. That’s how we broaden our minds,” Athena added.
Khan answered in a flat tone. “My mind is stretched plenty and I listened to you for half an hour, that’s enough.” As to underline that the meeting was over, Khan leaned toward Archer. “I want to hear about your plans for the survival camp.”
My focus changed to Finn, who was stretching his legs and said, “Hey, Marco, did you sign up for a Motlander wife yet?”
Marco, the only single adult in the room, shook his head. “No. I have my hopes on winning a million dollars like Magni did when he won Laura.”
“Magni, did you hear that?” Finn waited for Magni to join the two men. “Marco wants to go your route and fight in a tournament rather than sign up for a Motlander wife.”
“Good for you.” Magni patted the young man’s shoulder. “How old are you again?”
“Twenty.”
“Then you have plenty of time. Don’t rush into marriage. Especially not with a Motlander.”
“What’s wrong with us Motlanders?” Shelly asked.
Magni rolled his eyes. “Don’t even get me started.”
Khan looked up from his conversation with Archer. “I heard that. Careful what you say, Magni. You’re surrounded by Motlander women and their husbands.”
“So what? Do you think I’m afraid of any of you?”
“All I’m saying is that you’d never allow anyone to be disrespectful to Laura. Don’t think we’re any different with our wives.”
“That’s right, and there’s four of us to beat some manners into you,” Boulder added.
“Make that three,” Finn waved a hand dismissively in the air. “You know my policy. I never fight.”
“Not even to defend the honor of Athena?” Marco asked with an incredulous glance in Finn’s direction.
Finn gave the young man a grin. “Don’t get me wrong, if someone physically touched her, I would stab a syringe into their eye. But Athena is a spiritual gangster like me. Mentally, she wears a bulletproof vest and Magni’s opinion of her makes no difference to her.” Finn looked proud when he nodded to Athena. “Isn’t that right, babe?”
Athena gave him a soft reassuring smile in response.
“It would be pointless for any of you men to fight Magni,” Pearl said in a matter-of-fact tone. “By being rude to us Motlanders as a group, he’s being rude to his own wife too.”
Magni stiffened. “Why? What are you talking about? Laura is a Northlander,” he exclaimed and looked from Pearl to me with confusion.
Flames shot up my neck, and licking my chapped lips I exchanged a panicked glance with Pearl, who shouldn’t have dropped that bomb right now.
“I’m so sorry,” Pearl breathed. “I thought he knew.”
“Laura.” The way Magni said my name, in a deep voice, sounded like a warning.
“Ehm.” I coughed from the thorns on the words I had to force out. “It’s true.”
A vein near Magni’s temple popped out and his facial color grew crimson red. I had seen him throw tantrums many times, but seeing him too mad to speak was new and terrifying.
With a shaky voice, I explained. “The thing is… I was granted citizenship when I lived in the Motherlands.”
Magni’s hands were pressed against his thighs in tight fists, his lips formed a grim line, and he looked at me with disgust.
“I’m still a Northlander too,” I called after him when he stormed out. “I’m both.”
The front door to the school slammed hard and the rest of us stood for a few seconds, collectively holding our breaths.
“You shouldn’t have told him that,” Khan reprimanded Pearl.
“I’m sorry!” she repeated. “It just slipped out.”
“Let me go talk to him,” Finn suggested and moved to the door.
“No!” Khan took a step forward. “I know Magni and right now he needs time to calm down.”
“Why is he so mad about you being a Motlander?” Shelly asked.
I closed my eyes, unable to express in words what I felt on an instinctual level.
Athena answered for me. “Shelly, try to see it from Magni’s point of view. He has been raised to see us Motlanders as the enemy. To hear that Laura crossed over to become one of us must have felt like the ultimate betrayal to him.”
“I didn’t cross over. It was just a formality for me to live there. I’ve always been a Northlander.”
“That’s right, and we’re not the enemy,” Shelly pointed out. “I don’t understand what Magni’s problem is.”
“His problem,” Khan said dryly with an undertone of annoyance, “is that Magni’s life revolves around his role as the defender of the last free men. He doesn’t like the influence you Motlanders have over us, and he doesn’t trust you.” Khan gave Pearl a sideways glance. “To learn that your wife has been keeping something this big from you, and that the person you consider your adversary knew about it, would be a blow to any of us.”
Sympathetic glances met me from the women, and Christina placed an arm around me. “He’ll get over it. You know Magni; he’s a hothead.”
I nodded, but inside I knew this time things were different. Everyone had a breaking point, and my gut told me Magni had reached his.
“Fuck me.” Marco ran to the window. “Magni’s drone is lifting. He’s taking off.”
Finn walked over to stand next to Marco, looking at Magni’s red drone flying away from us. “Maybe he’ll really go to Alaska this time.”
I was so used to Finn making fun that it hit me hard how serious he sounded this time. With my eyes large and my body stiff, as if rigor mortis had just set in, I stood with an equal amount of despair and disbelief.
“Don’t worry,” Boulder said and walked over to stand next to Marco by the window. “He’ll be back. As long as Laura is here, he’ll always come back.”
I recognized the same doubt on Khan’s face that I felt myself.
The last pieces of string holding Magni and me together had been brutally snapped just a few minutes ago. For the first time, I felt the painful desperation he must have felt when I left him without a goodbye seven months ago. I sucked in a shallow breath that failed to fill my lungs. The strings that had once bonded us were now suffocating me and I couldn’t speak.
“You look sick, Laura. Do you need to sit down?” Pearl and Athena led me to a chair. “You need to take a deep breath, honey, you’re pale as a corpse.” I tasted the salty taste of tears in the back of my throat and tried to focus on their blurry faces through my wet eyes.
My voice broke and my chest felt like it weighed a thousand pounds when I whispered, “He’s gone. I lost Magni!”
The fact that none of the women contradicted me made it sink in deeper. Magni was gone and he wasn’t coming back to me.