Chapter 240: Command Ring

The middle of the crown-heart sped up, red-black commands spinning around the heart, every one of them attached to a ward pipe, and as the ring spun, the shadows within Cinderhold’s fires began to light up with more and more information, until the city started reporting that new offers were appearing in its flames.

Tova was the first to speak up. "The offer is on our ward’s fires. It’s saying that if we take the crown’s mark on our food, we’ll get heat."

Velis spoke from the throat, where she was monitoring the clinic fires. "It’s on the clinic fires too, saying that if the clinic accepts the central mark, we’ll have heat for the burn patients."

Ferrin’s residential crews reported a third offer. "If the residents sign with the crown, they’ll receive a warm home."

There were different offers in each ward, and that was the problem.

Maelor stood within the command ring with the crown fire circling around him. "You can’t force a city to make one decision. Every ward has different needs, and every person fears something different. I’m giving them what they need, while your witness lists only delay it."

Austin Veyron could feel it in the fires, and he knew they could refuse the offers, but the crown-heart was showing them to every person in the city at once, and he wanted to shout to every one of them and make the offers useless by the force of his voice alone.

Veyra knew what he was feeling. "Name it."

"Telling the city what it should do."

"And what would it make?"

"A crown with better messaging."

"Then smaller," Sable said, the shard in her hand reflecting the commands on the ring. "Show each ward what the offer is taking."

Nyra studied the ring with her heart shard. "The commands aren’t creating fire. They’re taking what the city already fears and telling people it’s authorized by the crown, and every offer makes them give something up to the crown."

Tessa began opening relays. "Tova, Velis, and Ferrin, please share the offers with your wards, along with what we currently have."

The lower ward didn’t refuse the offer because Austin Veyron told it to, but because Tova read it out to them. "If we give the crown our mark, we’ll receive fire for our food line, but we’ll give up control of our grain to the central reservoir."

The kitchen workers began sharing their current grain count, those tending the clinic fires shared how many burn patients they could treat, and the residents shared when their valves would open, so that the offer was no longer mysterious, and each ward began doing the same until the whole city knew what was being offered to it.

Maelor struck the command ring, and mirrors of the heart rose from the red-black fire, not mirrors of the team this time, but mirrors of the people of Cinderhold, a woman holding an empty food pot, someone running with sheets for burn patients, and a man standing next to a vent that gave off no heat, and each mirror began speaking a new phrase.

THE CROWN WILL MAKE THE DECISION IN TIMES OF EMERGENCY.

One of the mirrors rushed at Tessa’s relay slate, but Seris swooped down, caught it in her wings, and threw it back into the fire, while another mirror tried to strike Nyra with black fire and Veyra cut through it with her good arm, and Sable held the crown shard to the command ring and forced the messages to show themselves.

Austin Veyron knew what they had to target, because the city had emergencies, but that didn’t mean the crown should have control over them.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The crown-decides-in-emergencies claim. Not the emergencies, the ward counts, or the city’s fires."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed the white root chain on the phrase.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like bells ringing throughout the city while one person tried to answer them all.

THE CROWN WILL MAKE THE DECISION IN TIMES OF EMERGENCY.

He consumed bell.

The command ring cracked, and while the offers were still in Cinderhold’s fires, they were no longer overwriting what the wards had, so that the kitchen fires showed both how much grain they had and what the crown was offering, the clinic fires showed how many burn patients they could treat and what they were being offered, and the residential fires showed how long their heat would last and what they would give up if they took the offer, and while the city could still make the wrong choice, the crown could no longer use people’s needs against them.

Velis and Ferrin were working the engineering panels above them. "I see the control points," Velis said.

"Can we take them down?" Tessa asked.

"Not all at once," Ferrin said. "We’d have to do them one at a time. If we took out the whole ring, the fire might fall into the need layer."

They decided to take them out in order, with Ferrin taking the control points on the tower, Velis taking the ones at the throat, and someone from the lower ward taking the point beneath the ration hall, and they shared each cut before they made it, until one point went dark, and then another, and the command ring began to slow.

Maelor screamed and fell back toward the need ring, and he drove the portable crown flame into his own chest, red-black lines spreading across his body as he pushed himself into the inner ring. "If you want a city with no center, then you’ll see what happens when everyone’s need speaks at once."

He put one arm into the need ring, and every ward’s lights flashed as more offers appeared in the fires, not one offer to the whole city but a different offer to every person, food if you gave the crown your mark, heat for your clinic if you gave the crown your mark, a safe road to travel if you gave the crown your mark, and working vents in your home if you gave the crown your mark, because Maelor was no longer trying to rule Cinderhold with one command, but was offering everyone what they needed in exchange for the crown.

The relays filled with offers being shared.

"A family on the north lane is being offered two rations of heat if they give the crown control over their kitchen," Tova said.

"Our clinic is being offered the temperature we need to keep the burn patients warm if we accept a red supervision mark," Velis said.

"Our residential area is being offered heat all night if we give our valve to the crown," Ferrin said.

They were all being offered exactly what they needed, which was what made it frightening, because none of these people were foolish, they only wanted what was best for their families, and the crown was hoping they would want it more than whatever they were giving up.

Austin Veyron stared at the need ring, and DEVOUR wanted to devour it, because if he took it, Maelor wouldn’t be able to use it, but he would also be carrying everyone’s needs inside his own body.

Veyra stepped closer to him, the red-black fire reflecting in her eyes. "Name it."

"The need ring."

"And what would it make?"

"The place everything these people need to live has to pass through."

"Then smaller," Sable said, her shard hovering over the ring. "We make it so people know their needs, without putting them inside you."

Tessa began opening more relays. "Don’t accept these offers quietly. Share them alongside what you currently have, and if someone decides to take an offer, let the rest of your ward know."

The message traveled through Cinderhold, but not everyone was able to respond right away, because some people were cold, some clinics were already full, and some streets were blocked by crown patrols, and the message couldn’t reach everyone still caught under Maelor’s commands.

On the north lane, a mother was looking at an offer that would give her children heat, along with a clause that would give the crown control of their kitchen carts, and Tova didn’t tell her what to do, but read the offer to her and asked if there were any other ways the lane could get heat, until a baker nearby offered his old coal supply and two people agreed to carry heat cloth from the clinic back to the lane, so that the offer was still there, but it was no longer the only option.

More options began appearing throughout Cinderhold, some wards pooling their fuel, others rotating heat from the clinics, some opening their basement vents to let the heat out, and others taking the evacuation route to the salt caverns if they wanted to leave the city, and every one of them had a price, but it was a price they knew about.

"North roof here," Rin said over the relay. "Somebody up here just tore a crown offer in half and started a fire with it. I think I’m in love with them. Don’t tell Veyra." She paused. "I can hear you not laughing, Veyra."

Veyra smiled but didn’t look at Austin Veyron, only leaned her good shoulder into him, and on his other side Sable took his hand and laced their fingers together, and when he glanced at her, she was almost smiling too, the white light of her shard soft on her face, as if the sound of a city choosing for itself was the closest thing to music she had heard in a very long time.

Elena spoke up next. "The Grand Meridian is sending fuel to the east side of Cinderhold through the salt road. No one has to give the crown anything to be warm tonight."

"I’ll let them know," Austin Veyron said, and the slip over his heart felt warm.

Maelor watched as the city began to fight back. "There will always be someone who wants what I have to offer. Someone too cold to say no."

"Yes," Austin Veyron said. "But that person doesn’t belong to you."

The need ring glowed, and a new phrase appeared at its center.

THE CROWN WILL TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.

Every offer being made to the people of Cinderhold lit up at once, and they knew their next battle would be with the need layer.