The Harvest by K. Makansi

Bolt, his weapon will immediately call for backup drones and signal other nearby Watchmen.
    â€œAh, but I am a Sector citizen, and I am armed. And I will report you for attempting to violate an underage courtesan, Outsider or not, and for pointing your Bolt and threatening other citizens. You’ll be looking at suspension and a pay cut at the very least.”
    He looks me up and down. “ You’re going to report me ? Who do you think you are?”
    â€œRank and file Watchmen like you”—I say it with a haughty sneer—“are not privy to all the SDF operations happening around the Sector.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” Doubt creeps into his voice.
    I give him the most disgusted look I can manage. It’s not hard. “Your disregard for the law compromised my operations and put citizens at risk. Leave the boy to me.”
    He tightens his grip on his Bolt. “What organization are you with?”
    Thinking fast, I reply, “Sector Guardians.”
    â€œProve it,” he pulls a retinal scanner from his belt and holds it in front of me, dropping the boy’s arm.
    The boy acts like he’s going to run and then, in a flurry of motion, he pivots, plows one foot into the officer’s groin, bends and rips the Bolt from the man’s hand. As the officer keels over into a fetal position, the boy thwacks him on the side of the neck with the butt of the weapon. The man goes still.
    â€œFollow me,” the boy says with an unnerving calm. We run down the same alley where the Watchman was about to drag him. Together we make it about a kilometer, before he stops.
    â€œThanks,” he says. “I need to get home now.” He turns away, heading down a side street.
    â€œWait!” I reach out to keep him from darting off. “How did you learn to do that?”
    â€œTo fight like that?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œOne of my moms taught me, before I came to the Sector. Groin shot. Pressure point. Disarm. Incapacitate. If necessary dim mak . Death touch.”
    â€œYour moms?”
    â€œWhen my mom died, all of the Outsiders became my parents. The mom who taught me to fight is Soo-Sun.” He stares at me. “You know her.”
    Yes, I think. I do. I don’t know how he knows this, but like everything with the Outsiders, I don’t ask too many questions.
    â€œHow did he catch you, if you’re such a good fighter?” I ask.
    The boy just shrugs. “He was bigger and stronger, and he surprised me.”
    I admire his honesty. True strength comes from knowing your weaknesses . Something my grandfather used to say.
    â€œThank you for helping me.” He turns to leave.
    â€œOne more thing.” He stops and turns back to me. “What’s your name?”
    â€œHeron,” he says, and something clicks in my mind. I realize why he looks so familiar.
    â€œYou’re related to Osprey, aren’t you?”
    He smiles faintly, looking almost ghostlike in the ephemeral Okarian night. He turns and slips away. Did I just meet Osprey’s brother?
    As I head home to meet Meera, I think: I need to find Shia.

    The next morning, after I wake from a long, deep sleep, I sip a mug of tea and press my fingers into the leaf for the millionth time.
    Persephone has returned, and with her, Spring.
    It’s code, of course. In the old mythology, Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, ancient goddess of the harvest, was fated to spend six months of each year in the realm of Hades, Lord of Death, as his queen. During this time, her mother Demeter was so sad that she caused all the plants and food crops to wither and die. But for the other six months, Persephone returned to the land of the living, and her mother celebrated, giving life back to the earth, and food back to the mortals who survived only by the grace of the harvest. The message from Bunqu tells me that Demeter and Vale have been successfully reunited.
    I feel my way