Ascension, Chapter 8

 NaNoWriMo and Movember are over, and the moustache may be gone, but Ascension travels ever onwards. Just two more chapters until the end of the first section, and then the real story starts. I've had to divide what would have been 'Book 1' into two separate parts to make things more  straightforward, but there you go. Sometimes you have to be prepared to make adjustments, when what was meant to be the first 3 chapters of a story accidentally spills out into 10 (well, 9 and a Prologue, which isn't really a prologue anymore).
 Onwards!

 The guards were barking orders at the crowds, hurrying them through the tall archways that led through the palace to the city outside. Mari spotted her father and brother close to one of these entrances. Set, more than a head taller than their father, was scanning the crowd for her. She waved when she thought he was looking in her direction, only to be unceremoniously pushed aside by a barrel chested man with a thick ginger beard. He glared at her as the crowd swept him away.

 Mari, like the others, had seen the prince collapse after his Ascension. The uneasy silence had been broken as the guards, on some unseen order, had begun barking directions at the people assembled in the courtyard. Although Mari could hardly make out the words that were being said, the meaning was clear. Anyone who wasn’t a citizen of Haven- anyone who didn’t belong here in the floating city- had to leave. Now. 

 Mari realised then that the crowd was taking her in the wrong direction, pushcing and pulling her like the tide towards an archway on the other side of the square. She fought against the pull, desperate to reach her family.

 Mari willed herself forward, against the crush of people. She wanted to be there, not here. There, not here.

  And then Mari was everywhere.

  It was like the Ascension all over again. Mari felt herself expanding into the world around her, her mind permeating every empty space available. She wasn’t just looking down at the rapidly thinning crowds from above; she was also looking up at them from the floor. And she was also, somehow, standing beside, behind, and in front of every single person in the courtyard.

 ‘Mari!’ She heard her father’s voice call her name. The sound was almost inaudible on the other side of the courtyard,, swallowed up by the yelling and grumbling of the crowd, but practically deafening right next to him. And that was where she needed to be. All she had to do was focus; draw herself into that single empty space between her brother and father.

And then she was back in her head, back in her body.

She was stood next to Set and her father.

 ‘How did you do that?’ Set asked, as Mari stumbled into him. The world was spinning around her, and her whole body felt tight; compressed and claustrophobic after existing within the entire courtyard.

 ‘I… have no idea,’ Mari admitted.

 ‘A teleporter? Really?’ Set asked.

 ‘Well, I think my aunt was a teleporter,’ their father admitted.

 ‘Oh,’ Set grinned ‘Cool. No more walking to school.’

 ‘Come on, we’d better hurry,’ their father said, as the crowds continued to buffet them towards the exit. The courtyard was nearly empty now, except for the guards who continued to shepherd people out through the archways, and the Faceless, who hadn’t moved from their position in the centre of the courtyard.

 ‘Why bother? Can’t Mari just zap us home?’ Set asked.

 ‘Uh.’ Mari fidgeted with the sleeve of her top. The mere act of teleporting- if that was what she had done- the few metres across the courtyard had left her disorientated and exhausted. The thought of doing the same thing, over several miles, with two passengers, made her feel physically sick.

 ‘Better not risk it; we don’t want to find ourselves half way between Haven and the ground,’ their father said.

 ‘Oh, yeah,’ Set laughed uneasily ‘Splat.’ Mari grinned sheepishly, as their father led them towards the exit. They had just entered into the shadow of the hallway when Mari felt a light, but officious, tap on her shoulder.

 ‘Excuse me, miss,’ said the guard.

 ‘Yes?’ she asked. Set and her father stopped.

 ‘Come with me, miss,’

 ‘What?’ Mari began to panic. She felt a hand slip into hers, and looked up into her brother's eyes as he moved to stand between her and the guard.

 ‘Hey, she didn’t do anything,’ Set said, trying to stand between her and the guard.

 ‘No, sir,’ the guard barely glanced at Set. ‘These are orders from the Faceless.’

 ‘The Faceless?’ her father asked, casti9ng a wary glance towards the hooded figures. Two of them were looking in their direction, Mari thought, although it was impossible to tell for sure where they were looking.

 ‘Your daughter has been recruited, sir. Into the Honour Guard.’

 ‘What?’

 ‘No, she’s coming home with us,’ Set snarled.

 ‘Set,’ Mari began. The heavy lights overhead began to flicker as Set faced up to the guard. For a second Mari wondered what would happen if her brother tried to fight him. And then she realised that it wouldn’t be a fight; not really. Set might be able to talk to machines, but that was nothing compared to what the guard could do, if even half the stories she’d heard were true. It wouldn’t be a fight. It would be suicide.

 ‘Set!’ Their father snapped, as the light flickered and sparked, threatening to blow.

 ‘Set, its fine,’ Mari said, squeezing her brother’s shoulder. He blinked, the rage in his eyes giving way to a glazed look of confusion as whatever power he might have built up drained away in an instant.

 ‘Mari-’ her father began.

 ‘It’s fine, really,’ she said, moving to stand beside the guard, ‘I’ll see you soon.’

 The crowd surged forwards again, carrying Mari’s family away from her. The last she saw of them was her brother’s face as it vanished beneath the archway.