The Rise Of The Consortium

Rio didn't know whether she should be happy or not. It wasn't the fault of the night, but she was shocked by how she was heading to a place that is absolutely against the law.

She made no mistake of straying away from her destination by constantly looking at the provided map. She wanted to make sure she reaches there in time and finish the work quickly.

If her eyesight didn't betray her, it clearly said to enter street five and keep walking till the end of the street. She got confused for a moment. How is she supposed to reach a location in street six of she was to go through street five? It didn't make sense to her. Frowning, she kept walking.

Maybe it was that time of the night when all sorts of activities were on a halt. All the shops were closed and the places were all deserted. After a few hours, the city will be full of life, first by transporting all the raw materials to their respective places. Then the places themselves. Then the citizens.

She was experiencing silence after many many days. The city she faces every day is full of life, almost all the time. She tried not to think too much about it, or else she might get lost into unnecessary thoughts. She has got a job to do. She distracted herself by adjusting the strap of her backpack continuously.

She decided she would search for her mother after she gets her job done. But she wondered where she should start looking for her mother. She didn't know where her mother worked. Not even what job she did. Maybe she forgot things, just like the simple password for that encrypted file. Maybe I'm going a bit delusional, maybe he is right. I have to go to a doctor, she said to herself.

She realized that she had been there before. Yes, the night when she witnessed her mother acting weirdly all of sudden and she had to chase her in the middle of the night. And yes, she remembered who took her there.

It took a memory of resemblance for her to experience sudden sadness from the unexpected confidence. She cursed herself thinking about him again. She grabbed her strap hard and marched towards the destination as the device instructed.

She was glad that the direction was not towards the silver swirl, the wretched place she had visited with him and also in her mind. The swirl must be so bright, that it reflected the lane which she hadn't even entered. She had sensed the swirl to be several kilometers deep inside that lane. The swirl must be so bright, she thought to herself. But she chose to move ahead, as her work was waiting for her. The location was even deeper into the street, thankfully there were more shops ahead.

There came a diversion on her right, which was covered with large trees. After dozens of more shops after she crossed the lane, she found the way that leads her to the location. She still looked at her device to make sure she was going in the right direction. What should be in this forest, she wondered as she tried hard not to trip on any bushes.

The path was muddy, maybe due to a hard rain a few days ago. She didn't like to step into any of them but she couldn't find a choice. Whatever light was falling from her device, she managed to get away from the large trees and reached an open space.

Looking around, she found a low platform. There was a staircase with a couple of stairs near it. On the platform, there was a white light emerging from a flashlight like an object. But it looked like someone held that flashlight.

She looked at her device and it also indicated that she has to reach that platform. She looked at that area again. Hardly visible, it looked as a bus stop would look. Maybe it was a sitting area in a big old park. If so, what must be there for her do? Thinking about this, she kept walking to the source of the white light.

She realized that instead of white, it looked like a very pale violet-hued light. It was mesmerizing to look at but didn't realize that it was focused on her. She couldn't see who held it up, focusing on her.

Squinting her eyes, she saw that the source wasn't held actually, but was floating on its own. Feeling tired, she looked around to see how the source was held. Was it some new kind of technology she wasn't aware of?