Wattys shortlist 2021. One morning the sun rises a few hours early, striking levitating skyscrapers in Soliara ahead of schedule. People in the streets stop to look up at the sky and then down at their watches. Most of them, puzzled but disbelieving...
Calcus Donato had had about enough of Calo Gloriam chasing him around the whole evening, plying him with drinks and introducing him to everyone as if he were such a lonely hermit that he would do anything the Gloriams wanted if they would only introduce him to all of their friends in high places and invite him to their cocktail parties.
At quarter to undecima, he had been greatly relieved when Calo invited him to Constellation's north tower for a gathering with Justin Marius; it gave Calcus the opportunity to insist that he had something of urgent importance to take care of before crepesculum, and finally Calo left.
The party in Potestas Tower's lounge was quieting and seemed to be waiting for the sun to come up, and the entire story had became frigid. The hosts disappeared, rumors of murder whispered from mouth to ear to mouth to ear, the names of the victim and the murderer changing with each telling. Calcus Donato was in the front row of the audience gathered at the window when the sun peeked over the horizon. The quiet didn't last; shouts and murmurs rose with the pale gleam of daylight. Most of these people had never been up to see dawn before anyway, or so they exclaimed.
Calcus had, and he was unimpressed. It was just like any other morning, only it was at the time for dusk. "Excuse me," he had to say several times to push out of the audience, which pushed and struggled to steal the space he left in his wake. "Excuse me," he said, trying to get back to open space and unbreathed air. He had wanted to be first row for the light show of lightning strikes on black canvas, but a mere sunrise wasn't worth being jostled, pushed against the cold glass from behind, lungs compressed, breathing stale air in little reluctant pumps.
When he made it to the edge of the crowd, the brink between this one and the tribe of executives crowding around the nearest firepit, he gulped an inhale with relief as if drinking fresh mountain air. He hadn't lied to Calo, there was something urgent he meant to do before crepesculum, and it wasn't watching the sun to see whether it would tap dance; the groupies at the window would let him know if it did anything out of the ordinary.
His legs transported him to the nearest teleportation link kindly linking Constellation Invernali to Constellation Soliara Downtown. The tunneling hallway reminded him of the rapid transit stations in tunnels he hadn't stepped foot in for two years but he assumed the lower class still had to use.
Once inside Constellation Soliara, he had power back; in three steps he opened a link to where he more specifically wanted to go: his own office.
Boxes crowded his desk but he sat anyways, ignored the cramped feeling and a link opened in front of him, a square mirror of his party-wearied face for the time being. He saw that his reflection wasn't haggard and careworn as he would have expected; the past hour of worries and paranoia hadn't grayed his hair one bit or drained all color from his face, only most of it. He still had no crow's feet, he was surprised to find.
He just looked a little tired, drowsy eyes in need of a refreshing nap as soon as this buggered meeting was done, not in the least expressing the jolts of terror like jolts of lightning in his stomach or his gut. Maybe both. He gave himself credit for adequately suppressing his emotions.
"Hello," said a voice from the other side.
"Aura, it's Calcus Donato." The reflective mirror vanished and turned into a window to Sunyin Auara's office, where the woman sat at her own desk, looking no more abused by the events of the night than Calcus himself did. "Are you alone? I hope you don't mind me asking."
"Yes, what can I do for you, Exequi?"
Inhale, relief, stuffy boxed up office air like mountain fresh air. Exhale, all that's left inside is the static storm turmoil jolting the belly. He hoped he was making the right choice.
"Exequi, normally I don't make snap decisions, and I don't leave choices to the last minute. Therefore, it takes a lot to change my mind. At this point it's nineteen minutes to the board meeting that will choose a company president for the next year, and although the past decade of experience, evidence and calculation tell me that the danger of rapidly accelerating magical development will be worse under your direction, and that you are an unfit candidate to lead this company . . . I fear that Exequi Marius would be worse. I can see through the facade now, this movement too excitedly exhilarated to be about restricting and limiting magic.
"Everyone involved has this jubilance, the anticipating of triumph, like the power-hungry about to get their hands on something they want badly.
"I can't believe this is about making magic safe, improving the security of the empire, ensuring survival and protection from the danger of technology spinning out of control. It's about something else, though I can't see what yet.
"I want to promise to vote for you, Exequi Aura, but I oppose everything you stand for. So do a significant population of the empire, not that they get a vote, and perhaps a significant portion of the world, as the whole world is affected by the president's direction; though again, the rest of the world gets no say. So, if you win, I want something in return for my vote.
"I want you to act on behalf of everyone, and not solely for the board members who put you there and can take it away; I mean everyone in this empire. I want you to listen to the needs of every citizen. Even Justin Marius. If you win, I want you to take the middle, balanced road. Instead of treading over the needs of the defeated party, work on behalf of both the losers and the victors. Like President Solin did.
"To ensure that you will do that, I want a promise from you to propose and demand electoral reform. You can't be a puppet for a tiny board split directly in two. Let the entire company elect you, or, an even more insane idea, the entire empire. You need to be held accountable to the entire population, and balance the needs of millions of people instead of two greedy factions, which are, frankly, both wrong."
Sunyin Aura steepled her hands in front of her and said, "No, I'm not going to promise that. You have seventeen minutes to choose to elect me based on my merits and what I stand for, rather than what you can get out of it if you can bend me. You probably have time to propose your electoral reform pitch to Exequi Marius."
The link snapped out of existence. Calcus considered opening it again, not to call Exequi Aura back or to call Senator Marius, but simply to check his reflection.
Was he gray yet? Was he angry? He didn't know, but he had sixteen minutes to figure it out.
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