The Penumbra Paradox - ONC 2023

Chapter -4. The good girl

"Silas." Arya paused for a second hesitantly, "Benji... He needs to know too. You cannot keep him in the dark for ever."

"Are you challenging my methods, child?" Silas leaned on to the desk again, his eyes gathering a smoke of assertiveness. "I knew this long before I planned it. You don't probably realise how important it is to do what we are doing."

Arya slowly shook her head, gaze drooping downward, "no, I do understand the pressure we have, trust me. Even then, you know how much difficult it is for me to lie to him."

Silas studied her, letting her slip what he was always afraid of, from her mouth.

"I don't know Silas, I... I don't understand the point of all this, we know we are all gonna die sooner than later."

"Arya." Silas groaned, "look around you, what do you see? Everywhere it is the calamity... The apocalypse. The Gods above are taking their sweet time to make sure we go through this pain. We have been stretching our limits for a century now. We cannot give up at this point, can we? This is your last chance, my last chance. This. Is. Our salvation."

Arya nodded a little approvingly this time, again looking away from the screen. "What do I do next?"

"Stick to 'our' plan. Now, when I sent you there, I didn't expect you guys to return until we have what's needed. This one is different than all of your other slum visits. Gather useful information, Arya. Look for what I'd told you. That thing is what I want, the authority wants and the whole fucking world wants."

"The chieftain -she seems a lot guarded." Arya scratched her neck, her eyes straining to analyse Oja in her mind. "She definitely needs something from us, too. There's no other reason for letting us in here otherwise. I sense something's wrong...very very wrong. The tribe, it's almost as if they're self sufficient enough. These incredible mud houses and her people seem well fed and well cared for. They trust her, loyal to her but also, at the same time, hate her. I can see it in their eyes. It's unlike any other slums or tribes I've seen."

"Did you say 'she'?" Silas wondered, "it's not how it works. These tribes and clans they are building since the initiation of apocalypse, have always had male dominance. Patriarchy ingrained in their dna. The Last time when I was recruited, the Hayal's tribe had a male chieftain. I forgot his na... Yeah, it was Idrif."

"She mentioned about closed doors, but upfront, warned not to sneak around or oversmart her." Arya honestly said, picturing Oja's every death stare in her head.

"Typical chieftains." Silas dismissingly laughed, playing sideways on his round-about office chair. "You said she wants something from us? That's our entry point. She is desperate, Arya. The walls of her tribe have been unbreakable otherwise till now."

"I do see that." Arya, double checked towards the direction of the door. The last thing she needed was somebody sneaking up on her and Silas's conversation, even if it was Benji, although he knew better than that.

"It'll take time to break her in. Being the chieftain, I guess she is one of the people who knows what we want."

"I'm counting on you child, do not disappoint me." Silas nodded. That look on his face sent shivers down her spine.

Why was she doing this? She could outright say that she was not comfortable with this, she could just listen to Benji for once and save the trouble for the lifetime, that was if they lived at all.

It all started when she was recruited from a tribe that she didn't even remember anymore. Faces were all blurry, she remembered a feminine voice that comforted her often, was she her sister? Or mother perhaps? No, it was her grandmother? May be a friend even? She was not sure anymore.