Between Darkness and Light Trilogy by Brianna Hawthorne

fall
asleep.
    I awake to hushed conversation, “What now,
Novanus?”
    “I think her concentration is elsewhere at
the moment, but still we must be cautious.” His voice drops to a
whisper that even I can barely hear. “Sarah, are you awake?”
    Sarah – do I know a Sarah? Why am I so cold?
Oh… right. “Just.”
    “You did well earlier. Now let us continue
the game.”
    Celeste’s voice lifts higher, “Sarah, are
you awake?”
    “Yes, my Lady.”
    “Good. I'm bored, and the only distraction
available to us is conversation. I’m curious, Sarah. Do you truly
have no idea who your parents were?”
    “It is true. I have absolutely no memory of
a father, and my mother was taken from me when I was quite young –
in your years, I think I would have been five.”
    “How did you survive then?”
    “I was taken in by caretakers, but that
relationship didn’t last. I raised myself.”
    “How sad. Tell me, do you still wish to find
your parents?”
    “YES!!! Mathair, that is.”
    “What about your father?”
    “He chose to distance himself from me even
before I was born. He has given me no reason to care for him.”
    Novanus joins the conversation, “Perhaps he
has good reason. If he is a criminal, then he could be forced to
sell you into slavery… or worse.”
    Celeste adds, “If he is man of any
importance, then having a child would open him and you up to such
dangers as kidnapping or bribery. It can be dangerous, being
related to someone who is either powerful or has a less than
sterling background. Have you considered the fact that he could be
protecting you? Or on the other hand, perhaps he is no longer
alive.”
    “In which case, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
Don’t you understand? I don’t care who he was. He wasn’t there for
me as a child, and he wasn’t there for Mathair. He meant so little
that she never spoke of him! Why should I care who he was?”
    “What if he was rich, or powerful?”
    “What would it matter? I don’t want his
wealth, I don’t want anything from him at all. The only way I might
even speak to the man, assuming he still lives, would be if he
sought me out. If he could justify his absence, then maybe… but
only then!” I can’t help the bitterness in my voice.
    Novanus rejoins the conversation, “Well, if
your mother was as judgmental and traitorous as you, perhaps he
prefers to forget the affair altogether.”
    His words flood my mind with fiery anger,
but I know better than to act upon it. Our conversation ends for a
while, but dungeons are terribly boring, and Celeste eventually
strikes up a new conversation.
    “We appear to have a great deal of time on
our hands with little to do, so if there are any questions you
would like to ask about Lumina, now would be a good time to ask
them.”
    “Why isn't there any robotics?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Your technology is far, far more advanced
than I've experienced before, and yet while my world was
experimenting with artificial intelligence and robotics, I never
saw any in Lumina.”
    She sounds surprised, “My, you really are
new, aren't you? Of course, there would be little reason to
instruct a maid in the advanced taboos, but I'm surprised and
concerned to hear that your world is performing such experiments.
They will have to be stopped.”
    “I don't understand, isn't robotics a
natural progression for scientific worlds?”
    “For those that don't know any better, yes.
There were some in Lumina, long ago, during the reign of Ctesibius,
our second Emperor. He was brilliant, and laid the foundations of
much of our current technology. There were not yet many people who
could withstand the energies in Lumina then, and he wished to
lighten the burdens of the laborers. At first his machines were
single task devices, but were soon computerized. The trouble didn't
start until he devised highly complex computers. There was a short
age of mechanical servants, robots if you will, that were so
complex it could be difficult to