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Across the sea and far away from trouble, young Pest was dangling from an electric power line, shimmying her way across. Her friend Ajax, who was a little older than her, told her she'd have a once in a lifetime sight to behold tonight, a formal thieves rite. The height below didn't bother her but her friend Ajax looked worried and insisted she’d to hurry up. He wanted to show her the rites and rituals of Queen Mother Nebala, a living Saint of St. Solomon's Third Temple. She heard all the story’s growing up in Newport. She had predicted when the bombs would fall and even convinced the entire town to take shelter in an old French Tungsten mine but she didn’t believe she was immortal, or could command dead men back to life or any other such nonsense. Her arms were getting tired so she knotted her legs and dangled there, swaying. It was a long drop but she liked being upside down.



Finally after the climb they could have a look through the Missions domed glass roof. Far below through the grimy glass they could see Mother Nebala and her congregation. Mother Nebala looked like a hunchback wrapped in black reams of cloth and Pest recognised the men she did odd jobs for from the harbour. Candlelight was all that illuminated the smoky room and prayers in song almost hummed the glass. Ajax beckoned Pest over to the rooftops entrance. Soon as they’d managed to tease the lock off the door, the clink echoed down the winding stair, clattering deep down into the murky black. Pest was furious at Ajax’s whimsical attitude. Tiptoeing down the jagged metal steps was agony on Pest’s bare feet. Once they’d found the second door, Ajax peered through, then held it back, his eyes ablaze. “Don't run Pest!” Ajax let the banging door open and soon the veiled maids of the Church burst through with Heavies behind them.

Pest saw Ajax surrender immediately, bagging his head and leading him out into the smoke and chanting. After slipping on her bloody feet, Pest swiftly leapt from the locker she was perched upon. She made a quick dash for the stairwell but was stopped by her shoulder by a Heavy. “You know how this goes, Pest. Please don’t fight me. Mother Nebala wants an audience with you.” Once the bag was over her head she went limp. She worried for her friend Ajax, how much trouble he was in until the smoke and chants grew heavier. She wanted to kick and scream but she felt too sick from the fumes and the droning hums. She called out for Ajax but found no voice.

Mother Nebala never broke Pest's gaze as her veiled maid brought the deck of cards to the small wooden table she knelt by. Pest had never been in the big hall. The crude black portraits of Saints covered the lower gallery and above was that glass dome she now wished she had never peered through. Mother Nebala’s big black lumpy hump up close scared Pest to the marrow. Ajax had told her it was filled with the bones of the holy men and women of Guyana. Once she was free from the remorseful Heavy, Pest knelt before her. Her eyes were a black nothing encircled by amber. She felt the urge to bolt but before she could, Mother Nebala spoke silently, in a deep earthy tone, "Don't run child. To know me is to know yourself." Her old face creased into a smile. Pest drew in a sharp breath as a veiled maid drew three cards, face down. Pest was beyond anxious and found herself wiping away tears she was shocked to find streaming down her cheeks.

“Look, I talked Ajax into it, I just wanted to see what-” With a flurry, two decrepit old fingers flicked out of Mother Nebala’s many sleeves. She laid down a Jack of Clubs. “Ah, you must like this boy.” her hollow eyes still stared ahead at Pest. The maid knelt down to Pest’s right resting a hand on her shoulder in a sham attempt at consolation. “You can keep this card or reveal the card below it, the choice is yours.”

Pest’s anger rose to her throat. “C’mon! This isn’t fair! I was just curious! Where is Ajax!?” The maid pointed him out in the gallery, standing among the Heavies, freely. She couldn’t make out his face up through the smoke but she could make out his blue striped white t-shirt and wild, frizzy mane. “Fine. Then the other one beneath.” Mother Nebala tore the Jack of Clubs in half and threw it into the brass gas burner nearest to her. Pest’s heart skipped a beat when the flame sparked pink and violet as the maid flipped over the first blind draw.



“Well now child, this is interessant.” She hunched forwards, whispering, praying in gibberish. Pest leaned back, afraid a cascade of old bones would rattle loose from her swaying, rattling hump. The gallery above was becoming crowded with more Heavies, Maids and what the Church called the Faithful. Ajax had told Pest that the Maids and the Heavies called them paid up loiterers. Pest caught a glimpse of Ajax above, now that the smoke was clearing. He’d a hard expression on his face and Pest felt the urge to bolt again but felt a gentle squeeze on her shoulder that snapped her out of the ill formed, sketched out vengeance's she had for Ajax. Trapped in this ritual, she sighed. Her heart raced. His deception was complete. On the table lay the Ace of Diamonds.

With so many eyes on her, Pest tried her best to act calm and solemn. Her dignity in the matter was soon usurped by Mother Nebala’s second draw, this time it was the Seven of Clubs. The gallery remained hushed when the maid by her side motioned for silence. “Look, I’ll just go, you won’t see me ever again. It was him, he led me here! Ajax! Tell the truth, you coward, you-” Mother Nebala’s thin fingers snatched the card from the table and held it to a look of grim reverence.

“You said the boy, the child, your friend was innocent and now he’s suddenly guilty?” Pest squirmed. She wanted this old witch and her horrible hall as far from her as her mind would allow but in that moment of unrest she managed to evade her. “I don’t want to see the other card. Let’s finish this. I’ve other places to be.” The Ace of Diamonds was placed beside the Seven of Clubs. There were a few stifled murmurs and laughs from the gallery but they subsided when Mother Nebala flashed the final card. The Jack of Hearts.

Pest knew nothing about the Church of St. Solomon or it’s weird theology but she had been fed, clothed and sheltered by them since as far back as she could remember. She didn’t feel like she owed them anything, she could get by fine on her own. Ajax was always doing odd jobs for them for quick cash and he split his earnings with Pest. Now he stood above her with the Heavies and Maids they once mocked together. He’d given himself over to them and had landed her within touching distance of their supposed deathless and all knowing leader.

Her mind raced. Was this all just a performance before they took a blade to her? The gallery was filled with the paid up Faithful so maybe they were here for their money’s worth? How could Ajax just abandon her to the whims of these freaks? As she planned her escape she resigned herself to the ugly fact that the Ajax she once trusted was truly lost to her. If this old mountain of bones thought he was a Jack, then a Jack he’d remain. “Rip it up. I’ll take my chances.” She saluted Ajax up in the gallery with a finger as Mother Nebala ripped the card and sent it to the poison flames.

“I’m so sorry Queen Mother, I don’t know how this could have happened. My sisters and I inspected each deck twice, I swear by the sanctity of-” Mother Nebala shushed her with a cluck followed by a thoughtful look at the final blind card. Her facade of grave piety was rinsing out as she gazed emotionlessly at the draw. The Rules for Bridge. “Hand me my pipe.” The maid sprinted across the hall and sprinted back again, fear lighting up her steps. Mother Nebala drew in deep and exhaled above Pest. “Ajax is waiting for the Messiah, child. He loves you but you are beyond my love and so, beyond his. Leave my sight Pest, I’m weary of your presence.” Pest couldn’t make any sense of what Mother Nebala said but she knew it was aimed to upset her. Pest looked up at the gallery for Ajax but he was lost in the crowd. She was escorted out by two Heavies. She couldn’t see him, only her own bloody footprints and Mother Nebala staring at the three cards that had clearly vexed her.



Once she was on the street and it seemed like she was in the clear, at least for now, she sprinted off and took to the rooftops. The dim light of the port revealed an Old World ship, twice the size of any other ship in the harbour and made entirely of steel. Losing Ajax to that nutcase Nebala was an ache that she couldn’t resolve, the only way she knew how to dull that ache was going out into the sleeping night to steal and fence things so she could expand her tree fort on the outskirts of town. She still needed a few rare parts to get her hot water tank working and yet… Ajax had helped her build it, he knew where it was. She felt like crying but simply sighed her grief into the vast clear night.

A couple arguing below shook her from her panged reveries. She began tending to her cut feet, weighing her options. That mammoth of a ship was bound to have something both portable and valuable, then, after fencing it at the market, avoiding the Heavies, perhaps she could move further inland, find a new crew to run with, and even build a new treehouse? No, that was stupid. The Church was everywhere, so maybe she could live near a far off trading posts trail and... She looked down from the ledge she had perched herself on. Heavies were dispersing out of the Mission. She wasn’t sure if they were looking for her but without Ajax, she’d never know. She never liked to rely on someone but she’d let her guard down with Ajax. A mistake she resolved to never repeat. Newport now seemed lonely and isolated. Perhaps it was always this way and she’d just never taken the time to truly see it. Now with her thoughts of leaving, Newport looked like a big broken down wreck on the edge of nowhere. Trying to fit in as a pale ginger with that pox of a church always calling her a Yank or a Rus, she’d felt unclean. She knew she was enough now.



She guarded her hurt feelings and thought of the new treehouse she’d build soon. Let them try to find me, she thought, arching her back. The couple below had stopped arguing after a few retaliatory door slams. The local dogs started barking, but much later than they should have. Pest knew the Heavies were looking for her. She livened up at the thought of her outsmarting Mother Nebala. The Rules for Bridge. What a charlatan. She spotted them below, spreading out. So, this was it. She’d nowhere to go. She stretched before leaping down to the next crumbling tenement. They missed her jump. She could still see the harbour beyond. They wouldn’t find her on that big fancy ship.



To be continued..

If you got this far, thanks for reading. Episode 2 will be out soon.

Ya boi,

Seth