Stories From Syena

Thorgai Kilin’s mother was crying.

He expected it and braced himself for it. He held his diploma clear as his mother wrapped her arms around him.

“Ah, look at you! My precious chick!” She cried as she hugged him. “My little Thor, a magical engineer!”

“Ah, Amad.” Thorgai laughed, hugging his mother back. “But I’m not an engineer yet, I just have the degree.”

“A degree from the Academy of Sciences, Thorgai! You could get a job at any reactor anywhere in the world with that!”

“Actually, Amad, I… think I already have a job waiting for me. Do you remember that old mountain spring we’d go to in the summer?” Thorgai asked as he pulled back slightly. “That little village, Syena? They’re building a plant there. The Energy Commissariat already talked to me about working there.”

“So you are an engineer already, Thor!” His mother exclaimed, the tears starting yet again.

Syena was different from how he remembered it. It was a quiet little village when he was a chick, nestled in the mountains of northern Gaul. Griffons had been coming here for generations with their egg-chicks, teaching them to hunt for fish in the small mountain lake near the village.

The village was still there, on the other side of the lake of course, but it was nothing compared to the city that now dominated the eastern shore. It was a bustling, modern metropolis, with towering apartment blocks sandwiching commercial centers and cinemas and parks. When he spoke to the Energy Commissar, Thorgai had been told that there were 50,000 people in Syena now, from all across the Ankor. Boletarians, Gauls, Zhar, and Wyr griffons, even Carthans apparently, though Thorgai could hardly imagine a Giantkin living in one of the apartment blocks.

Everyone who lived in Syena now had something to do with the power plant nearby. Most were construction workers and maintenance staff, and their families, others were physicists and magical researchers from the Academy of Sciences. Some, like Thorgai, were plant workers. Engineers, plumbers, and technicians that were assigned to the Syena Magical Power Plant after applying for work with the Gaelic Soviet’s magical energy program.

Thorgai had been given an apartment, fully furnished, and had already received his first paycheck, more money than anyone in his entire family had ever seen at one time. Nine generations of poor farmers and lumberjacks along the Endless Coast and now here he was, a Magical Power Engineer, or at least a trainee to be one, with more money coming in each month than his whole family had ever managed to scrape together.

The paycheck was technically an advance, two months to get him settled in, with a reduced stipend until his third month's pay. He started work at the plant tonight.

“Report to Reactor 3 Deputy Night Shift Chief, Cassian Judiam, no later than midnight, October 29th.” Thorgai read over the instruction letter as he got off the tram car at the power plant. Night shift apparently took all the new people. It made sense, he supposed. Energy usage was lowest in the middle of the night after all, less demand on the reactor. A few weeks on the night shift for training, then he’d get transferred over to one of the three day shifts. That was another thing his ancestors could only have dreamed of. A six hour working day. It was a dream come true to work only 6 hours a day doing something he was already interested in doing.

A crowd of people were streaming out of the plant, the evening shift going home for the day. Thorgai kept to one side, slowly making his way up to the door, where a cream-colored unicorn was leaning against the wall.

“Um, excuse me.” Thorgai nervously asked the unicorn Gaul, before checking his letter again. “I’m looking for… Cassian Judiam?”

“Thorgai Kilin?” The unicorn asked. Thorgai nodded. “Welcome to Syena. I’m Judiam. Going in, know that this is a government plant, so everyone calls everyone by their last names here, alright?”

“Oh, alright Judiam.” Thorgai nodded again, stashing his letter away.

“Follow me, I’ll show you the basics of where you’re expected to go every day.” Judiam motioned for Thorgai to follow him as he turned and walked into the plant. “Every evening, before you clock in, go to the locker room and stash your belongings. Save for your ID card, don’t have anything on your person when you’re in the plant. Honestly, a lot of us just leave everything at home except our keys and ID, less to keep track of.”

“Why can’t we have anything else on us?” Thorgai asked as they walked through the corridors.

“Regulations. Keeps the amount of items at risk of being contaminated to a limit during the work day.” Judiam shrugged. “I’m not sure what they expect, given that our bodies are in the plant the whole time, so I will never get your ass for keeping your wallet and keys on your person, but don’t let Karatay know you’ve got them, she’s a hard ass for the rules.”

“Who is Karatay?” Thorgai asked, hoping that they would just be someone he wouldn’t have to interact with at all if his supervisor was warning him about them.

“Unfortunately for you, she’s Night Shift’s Chief Engineer.” Judiam patted Thorgai on the back. “You’ll meet her, you’ll hate her, and I’ll do my best to keep you out of her crosshairs. Reactor 3 has only been in operation for 18 months but she’s driven a dozen trainees to other plants.”

“Why does the plant chief keep her around then?”

“She’s the only actual magical engineer in the senior staff. The rest are electrical engineers, turbine engineers, mechanical engineers, everything but magical.” Judiam explained. “The way the plant chiefs see it, you keep the magical engineer around the trainees so that if they screw anything up, she’s around to fix it.”

Judiam led Thorgai to a sterile white locker room, tapping on locker 419. “This one here is yours. Since it's your first night, I’m going to tell you to just stash everything. Good first impressions when you meet the boss.”

Thorgai nodded, shedding his bags and placing them into the locker. His ID card, already on a lanyard, was worn around his neck.

“After the locker room, you go to the main office and clock in. Don’t clock in any earlier than you have to, you won’t get overtime pay.” Judiam chuckled to himself. “You’re from the Coast, right? Not Gaul?”

“Y-yeah, that’s right. My whole family’s from the northern side of the Endless Coast.”

“Well, welcome to glorious communism. We all get paid the same but somehow the word ‘comrade’ became a word used for our superiors.” Judiam said through his chuckling. “When you greet Karatay, you’re to address her as ‘Comrade Karatay’. The same goes for my immediate superior, Loddal. He’s ‘Comrade Loddal’ during work hours.”

“They at least know what they’re doing, right?” Thorgai asked, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Judiam’s chuckle became a full throated laugh.

“You’ll fit right in around here! That’s exactly the question to ask, because in a lot of places in our utopian worker state, the answer is often ‘No’.” Judaism said. “Fortunately though, we all know what we’re doing. I’ve been working on reactors since the end of the war. Karatay and Loddal were part of the project that created our first reactors before the Revolution. Couldn’t ask for better people in charge… from a technical standpoint anyway.”

“You fought in the war?” Thorgai’s eyes widened.

“That's why I’m good with people.” Judiam sighed as he nodded. “Red Guard serzhant in the last years of the war, I got to know a lot of kids younger than you and made sure they were able to do their jobs. But I don’t want to talk about that. Come on, you’ll be with me in the control room tonight.”

“R-right, sorry. I’m starting in the control room?” Thorgai asked. “It’s my first day.”

“Exactly, start you in the command center, you can see everything going on. You’re a magical engineer, right? Not an electrician or a plumber.” Judiam explained as he started down the hall, Thorgai quickly following behind. “So you’ll be cycled through all the other rooms, but your job is going to end up in that control room, or if you’re unlucky holding a Persimeter.”

“Why is that unlucky?”

“You’ll be bored all night, meter sweeps are only done at the start and end of every shift.” Judiam shrugged. “But it has to be a magical engineer taking the readings, you’ll know what you’re looking at on the meter.”

The control room doors were huge, with a big obvious sign over them reading ‘Control Centre’. There were already five other people in the room, Two other Gaelic unicorns, a Boletarian pegasus, a minotaur, and another griffon.

“Comrades, our new trainee got in today,” Judiam announced as he and Thorgai entered the control room. “Comrade Kilin, allow me to introduce you to the staff of the Night Shift Control Room.”

“Comrade Mahal, Deputy Chief Engineer.” Judiam pointed to the griffon, who offered a warm smile.

“Comrade Loddal, Night Shift Chief.” The minotaur nodded curtly.

“Comrades Kragg, Potitus, and Volso, control room workers.” The pegasus and the two unicorns waved.

“Welcome to the night shift, Comrade.” Mahal walked up, shaking Thorgai’s claw in his own, before looking to Judiam. “What time is it?”

“A minute past midnight, Comrade,” Judiam said.

“I need to go clock in before Comrade Karatay threatens to pluck me for forgetting. I’ll be right back.” Mahal gave Thorgai a pat on the back before leaving the room. Less than a minute later, a unicorn mare practically burst into the control room, her ill mood evident to everyone inside.

“The blasted tram wouldn’t move fast enough out of the way.” She huffed as she moved to sit down at a large desk in the room. “Where is Mahal?”

“Bathroom, Comrade Karatay,” Loddal answered quickly.

“Pidgeonbrain couldn’t have gone before starting his shift? Fine. Everyone get to work, I have paperwork to review.” Karatay didn’t spare anyone another word, least of all Thorgai, as she buried herself in paperwork at her desk. Judiam just looked to Thorgai and offered a shrug, before motioning for him to come over to the control panel.

It was an uneventful first few hours. The reactor was stable, though kept on half power for some reason. A casual adjustment of the mana feed into the reaction chamber every half hour or so was all that was needed, so Thorgai spent most of the next few hours learning what all the buttons and indicators on the panel did. It promised to be an informative, if somewhat boring, shift to mark the start of his career at the plant.

Then Karatay spoke up.

“It’s early enough in the morning. The plant manager has informed me that we need to run a safety test. The reactor has been kept at half power all night, the reaction should be choked enough to begin.”

The control room was quiet for a moment, everyone looking between one another after Karatay's order.

"Do any of you even know how to do a rundown test?" Karatay groaned, looking around the room. "It's standard procedure."

"Um, I-I don't, Comrade Karatay." Thorgai raised a single talon. Before Karatay could wheel around on him, Judiam interjected.

"He's a trainee, Comrade. It’s his first day on Night Shift to learn basic skills on-site before transferring to the Day Shift."

"Very well, Judiam. Tonight's not the night for a trainee in the control room, however. The test needs to be done without issue." Karatay looked to Judiam.

"Comrade Loddal, do you know who's currently watching the storage room?" Judiam asked.

"Gnaeus on the schedule tonight, Comrade," Loddal said. Judiam nodded.

"Alright. Kilin, go tell Gnaeus he's transferred to the primary pump room tonight. Comrade Loddal? Does Naggam know how to rundown the unit?" Judiam looked to Loddal.

"He does. Yes. Kilin, sit out the shift tonight, and tell Gnaeus to swap with Naggam, Naggam's to be here." Loddal instructed.

"Yes, Comrade." Kilin nodded before hurrying out of the control room. He practically fluttered down the halls, following the signs since he wasn’t entirely sure where he was going. Thankfully, most of the doors were as plainly labeled as the control room, and it wasn’t long before he was knocking on the door to the storage room. A unicorn with a neatly trimmed mustache opened it.

“Yes?”

“Comrade Gnaeus? Comrade Loddal says you’re to switch with Comrade Naggam in the pump room, and Comrade Naggam has to be in the control room. I’m taking over here for the night.” Thorgai said nervously. Gnaeus groaned.

“There goes my easy night. Right, the Persimeter’s in the blue case, it’s the only thing of value here. Don’t touch my book. Even if you’re bored, I don’t want someone removing my bookmark.” Gnaeus moved past Thorgai.

Thorgai looked around the storage room. Dozens of steel shelves, lined with boxes of paper. A spattering of janitorial supplies. A desk with Gnaeus’ book and a swivel chair. A large blue case was on a shelf close to the door. First day on the job. Well, at least he got those few hours of real instruc~.

“Why are we running a safety test? I thought those were only supposed to be done when a reactor finished construction?”

The world felt like it was coming apart at the seams. A furious roar came from the other side of the door and the ground shook with the fury of the gods themselves. Dust fell from the ceiling and cracks appeared all along the floor. Thorgai threw himself under the desk, expecting the entire room to collapse on his head.

What was going on?! It had to be an attack, nothing short of a megaspell could shake the plant like that.

Was it seconds? Minutes? Hours? Thorgai couldn’t tell how long it was between the shaking and a desperate pounding on the door to the storage room.

"Open up! Kilin! Open up!" Judiam’s voice came from the door. Thorgai scrambled out from under the desk. Pulling the door open took far more effort than it should have now. He stared at the Deputy Shift Chief.

“I-is… Is it war?” Thorgai squawked out. Judiam pushed past him.

“The reactor exploded. Where’s the Persimeter?” Judiam looked over at Thorgai when there wasn’t an immediate answer. “Kilin! Where’s the Persimeter?!”

“Th-third shelf!” Thorgai fluttered over, pulling the blue case down and giving it to Judiam. “What do you mean the reactor blew up?! Reactors don't blow up!”

Thorgai dropped to the ground, staring in horror at Judiam. His leg, where it was once covered in fur and ended with a hoof, was now scaly, a clump of gnarled, bony growths starting to grow out of it at a rapid pace. “Judiam! Your leg!”

Judiam spared his mutated leg the barest glance as he broke open the case, starting to flick through the settings on the mana-reading Persimeter. There was a rising panic in his face as he looked up from the device to Thorgai.

“Kilin, get out of here! D-don't take the south corridor, take the service passage and get out of the plant as fast as you can! All the way to Syena, get the Guards, and do NOT come back here! Do you understand me?!” Judiam barked.

Thorgai just nodded before taking off, running down the halls. The hallways were wrecked, many of the walls had gaping holes, and a few of those holes glowed a sickening multicolor. The shifting miasma actually made Thorgai ill while it was in his vision. His eyes watered and his head pounded every time the color was in his field of view.

He was sure he heard screaming more than once, but he couldn’t stop. He had to get back to Syena and make sure the local Comita raised the Guard. He was looking for a door, but what he ended up finding was a hole blasted in the exterior walls.

The sky was a hazy multicolor, forcing Thorgai to keep his eyes on the ground as he took to the air. He spared a single look back towards the plant.

It was a disaster. The building had a massive hole in the roof, nearly threatening to topple the cooling tower. Fires were raging across the plant, and that abominable multicolor shone from the bottom of the hole.