Initiation: Hunger

S1E3 | Sci-fi | Biopunk | Coming of age

Hello my fellow voyagers🖖. Initiation is a coming of age, biopunk, sci-fi mini-series in four parts. In this episode a young girl cannot still her hunger.

Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4

A slap and a gasp for air. These were the first two sensations Amiie felt before someone lifted her up, grunting, brought her down a short flight of stairs, and laid her on something soft—a bed. She was too exhausted to open her eyes and drifted into a deep, dark sleep rocked by the rhythmic movement of the ocean.

Later on, when she woke up weak and feverish, she was cradling in someone’s arms, shivering, hungry for their body heat. At first, she thought it was her mother, but she couldn’t feel the soft warmth of her breasts. It was the flat chest of a man but not the familiar embrace of her father’s strong arms. Suddenly, in high alert, her eyes opened wide, staring at the young man carrying her through the palace gates, where they were met by a choir of unintelligible gossipy whispers that made her gut churn. She pressed her eyes closed, too tired and scared to deal with the outside world.

‘I’ll take her now,’ she heard her father’s familiar voice. ‘My deepest apologies for the trouble we have caused you, young master Kaiser.’

‘It was truly no problem, lord Vesper,’ young master Kaiser said, depositing her body into her father’s arms. ‘She was out of oxygen when I found her.’

Amiie wanted the earth to open and swallow her whole. But she didn’t have time to wallow in her own sorrow.

‘What were you thinking, girl?’ her mother said in her speaker implant, her alarmingly high-pitched voice breaking.

Amiie’s weak, soft limps hung over her father’s strong arms as he walked quietly into the palace. Her eyes were still closed, and she heard the sound of steps trailing them, no doubt curious about what would happen next.

‘She was lucky that young master Kaiser was there to save her!’

‘What a reckless thing to do!’

‘Lady Vesper must be beside herself with worry!’

She felt her father sharply turn, causing the steps shuffling behind them to stop.

‘Ladies, dinner will be served for you in the tea salon. I’m afraid that my wife and I won’t be able to attend you tonight. I’m terribly sorry. Now, if you’ll excuse us!’ said her father.

The walk to her room was brisk and quiet. She could feel her father’s heartbeat, but she didn’t dare to open her eyes and look at him. Was he angry with her?

‘Amiie!’ said her mother, opening the door to her room.

‘I’m so relieved you’re safe, jaan,’ said her father, depositing Amiie in her bed. ‘I was dead worried! Never do this again, understood?’

With those words, her father straightened up again and left her bed.

‘You only had one job!’ he said to her mother on his way out.

Her mother sat on the edge of her bed, touching her hand.

‘What have you done, jaan?’

Amiie pressed her eyelids tighter and turned her head away from her mother. A warm drowsiness overcame her body, her eyelids grew heavy, and her thoughts turned liquid, rolling in waves in her head, smooth and soothing, lulling her to sleep. It was probably medicine administered by the nanobots in her bloodstream.

‘I won’t fail you again, jaan.’

Her mother’s voice propagated through the air in slow motion, hardly reaching her brain before she fell again into a deep, heavy sleep.

~~~

A fresh salty breeze woke her feeling healthy and strong the next morning. With her network connection restored, Amiie tuned in to the whales’s pod, searching for Alva. Strange. Her young whale sister was far from her pod, playfully diving and rolling with an unknown male singing for her. Alva seemed happy. Flash images of a hand pulling her out of the water, her diving skin feeding oxygen into her lungs, and a pair of green eyes watching her ran through her head before a soft knock on the door, and her maid came in. An early brunch followed by elaborate preparations to meet their female guests kept her busy until tea time, when she was escorted to the salon.

‘You need to be on your best behavior today,’ said her mother before they sat at the round table piled with sweets and teas.

Time stretched and contracted in the stuffy salon under the inquisitive eyes of the women from the other houses gliding over her body, counting her every bite, and taking indirect jabs at her.

‘Lady Vesper, it’s a pity your talent with whales is not inheritable!’

Under the table, Amiie allowed her sliders to fall away from her feet and felt the smooth, cool yellow siena marble with her toes. Slap, slap, slap. It was hard to tell the age of the women gathered around the table. As noblewomen, they had stopped their aging process in their nubile years. All except for one, Lady Kaiser, who had allowed time and life to work on her body. The Kaisers were blood descendants of the most powerful and influential data mogul clan and quite purist in their approach. They liked to uphold traditions. But the Vespers were the only truly noble lineage descendants of the first and most influential data mogul clan. Amiie drummed her bare feet under the table—slap, slap, slap— fascinated by Lady Kaiser’s soft lines and furrows.

‘Are you alright, jaan?’ said her mother.

Amiie slipped her feet back into her slippers and reached for her third cookie, crunching it between her teeth and chewing on the small pieces of soft chocolate. The women chattered around the table, slurping tea from porcelain cups and stuffing their mouths with spoonfuls of colorful cakes.

‘Another cookie? The young mistress has a sweet tooth,’ said one of the ladies. ‘But don’t we all?’

Their laughter filled the tea salon. Amiie’s jaws tensed, and she chewed harder to keep out the offending chitchat. She reached for another cookie.

‘That’s enough, jaan,’ said her mother, touching her elbow.

But her fingers locked around the cookie and brought it to her hungry mouth. Crunch!

‘I said that’s enough sweets!’ said her mother.

‘Oh, let her be, Lady Vesper! To be young and rebellious! Don’t we all remember those days?’

Crunch, crunch, crunch! Her hand lounged for the fifth and sixth cookies before a servant moved the tray away from her reach. Her mother gives her a triumphant look and turns her attention to Lady Kaiser.

‘Lady Kaiser, I didn‘t thank your son properly for saving my daughter’s life,’ said her mother. ‘I am truly sorry for all the trouble. I don’t know what got into her. She’s always been such a good-humored girl.’

Amiie reached for the crystal tray with the remaining half of the rainbow cake and pulled it closer. She cut a double slice with the silver cake knife and served it on her plate.

‘Self-restraint is the mark of a well-bred girl,’ said lady Kaiser.

The massacred cake leftovers glared at Amiie with pink, blue, yellow, and violet misty eyes of sweetness. She dug her spoon into the fluffy, tremulous mass and swallowed it eagerly.

‘I’m sure you’re trying your best, darling,’ said lady Kaiser, standing up. ‘But I’m afraid there won’t be a match for the house of Kaiser.’

The swift hand of a servant plucked the desert spoon from Amiie’s fingers and removed her plate.

‘I’m not done yet!’ said Amiie.

‘Yes, you are, young lady!’ said her mother.

Chairs shuffled on the pale yellow marble as the other four mothers stood up from their chairs.

‘Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Vesper,’ said the women, exiting the tea salon with lady Kaiser.

The scornful eyes of her mother drilled into her.

‘What?’ said Amiie, glaring back at her mother.

‘For tomorrow’s dinner, you’ll get an appetite suppresser!’ said her mother, opening the salon’s windows. ‘We’re suffocating in here!’

The sticky humidity did nothing to alleviate Amiie’s burning cheeks. Her body was shaking with tears, anger and sadness that she swallowed hungrily in her rumbling bowels. Oblivious to her faith, the white shape of an almost full moon languished in the evening sky.

~~~

That night, she dreamed of the ocean and Alva, the cool water gliding against her black skin as she flapped her long white pectoral fins. Then she was Alva and felt a deep, rumbling song vibrating through the water. A male whale glided past her, singing his hypnotic symphony, his eyes a deep dark green. Then she woke up in a pool of sweat.

~~~

Finally, it was the last day before her mysterious initiation. In the morning, the lords of the five houses arrived in submarines, announced from afar by the singing whale pods guarding the Vesper domain. The festive air, the delicate pink frilled dress her mother had prepared for her, which greeted her nostrils with the purple woody, floral scent of ionones, and the appetite-suppressing drugs kept Amiie on edge the whole day.

Come evening, the guests gathered in the bel étage and made themselves comfortable on cushioned chairs at the long wooden table. Amiie sat between her cousin and her mother, trembling, eager to hide herself from the prying men and young boys unpetaling her with their eyes.

‘They all came for you,’ said her cousin.

‘Who cares?’ said Amiie averting her eyes from the pimply young boys strewn around the table next to their eagle-eyed mothers.

‘Not every girl’s so lucky! You should be grateful!’ said her aunt, raising an eyebrow.

Her cousin reached for her glass, but her hands shook so badly that she spilled half of the water on the table and half on her dress.

‘Don’t be a klutz!’ said her aunt, snapping her fingers.

One of the maids hurried to clean up the mess. Around the table, the young boys elbowed their mothers, pointing at her poor cousin with an evil grin. It was going to be a long night.

Slowly, the adults got engrossed in their adult chatter, and Amiie felt invisible again. Her mother was busy talking to Lady Kaiser, who was devouring her dinner.

‘Isn’t she going to eat?’ said Lady Kaiser, reaching for another serving.

‘She’s not hungry. It’s the nerves, you know how it is!’ said her mother, laughing a bit too loud.

Young master Kaiser coked his head to peek at Amiie past his mother, then leaned back on his seat. The food on her plate tickled her nostrils, but not in a good way, thanks to the drugs. But her intestines felt empty and flat. So she dug her fork and started eating. As they said, appetite comes with eating. When she was done, the servants brought the next course, and she got a big serving. She was working through the second plate when her mother’s fingers locked on her wrist.

‘You don’t need to eat so much!’ said her mother, hissing in her ear.

‘Maa, it hurts!’ said Amiie.

‘Let go of the fork!’ said her mother, squeezing her fingers tighter.

‘No!’ said Amiie through clenched teeth.

Aimee heard the sound of bones cracking, followed by a sharp pain. Her limp hand dropped the fork on the plate. She opened her mouth to scream, but before any sound could come out, her mother sneered at her.

‘Don’t you dare make a scene in front of everyone!’ said her mother.

She felt her mother’s fingers interlace hers, and with a swift wrist rotation, she heard the bones shift back in place. The pain was so sharp that she bit her lip not to scream until she felt the iron taste of blood in her mouth. Her mother applied a healing patch to her wrist. The black tunnel of pain cleared up, and Amiie could hear again the cheerful clinking of silver spoons on porcelain plates, glass against glass and the oblivious chitter-chatter of the guests. Yet something had shifted. Watching the well-poised women sitting at the table, Amiie glimpsed, hidden behind the facade of youth and beauty, their pain. For the first time, she was afraid of her pending initiation.

‘It’s for your own good,’ said her mother.

A satisfied smile spread on Lady Kaiser’s face. From the next seat, a pair of green eyes fixated on her, hungry for something she couldn’t understand.

To be continued…

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Initiation: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4

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Author’s notes

It’s getting hard to keep up with the weekly serialisation of this story and I’m happy that there’s only one part left. I usually finish every work of fiction before I publish it here, but this time, I want to try something new: serialized fiction.

This story is set in the same world as Welcome to gulmohur, the first short story I published on Story Voyager in March 2023. This story world is a continuation of the Dust Road universe and is set in the year 3600 CE.

Like ‘Welcome to gulmohur’, ‘Initiation’ explores the youth of a prominent character from an upcoming novel with the working title The Deep Dive which will be a sequel to my ongoing cli-fi series, There Is Hope.

I hope that you enjoyed this glimpse into the future. Once I finish my experiment in serializing Initiation, I will edit the story and publish it here. Let’s make this an exercise of writing fiction in public!

As always, thank you for being here. It means the world to me 💚.

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Initiation: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4

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