The Law Of The Land
With the careful adjustment of a bowtie, a gentle kiss on the forehead, the hazed blur of buildings, and the cheerful popping of champagne. I now stand in the middle of my birthday banquet with glass of champagne in my right hand, as a waiter pours more to my barely half full glass as she walks by. The mahogany walls are decorated in gold and red as live music, laughs and, meaningless chatter filters through the hall.
"You think Rosa's going to show up?" Cassian speaks to my right as he takes a sip of his glass. I mindlessly stir my glass in my hand.
"Every Save-For female is here, all under the guise of wanting to wish the next in line Supreme Leader a happy birthday." Luca chuckles.
From my peripheral to my front, I can make out colorfully eye lined sultry-gazes as they sheepishly filter through passing shoulders.
"If you think the room is already packed with hunger vixens that can't wait to have a chunk of some Konn, imagine if the Praxis Laws allowed Synthetics as well, instead of Save-Fors only. We'd need a GPS to find Nova through the swarm of women." Luca speaks.
"It would be a sheer brothel." Cassian jokes as we all chuckle softly, "thank you Praxis Laws."
"Always there to protect your Supra-Humanis genes." Luca says as he gives me a playful shove.
"I am curious though, say a girl who's on the verge of a H-I score of 90% gets so high on trying to marry you and join the lavish Citadel lifestyle that she gets some discreet synthetic parts to boost her H-I score and become a Save-For. How'd you know she was a fake?" Cassian asks through sips of his champagne.
"First off, no Synthetic no matter how rich can afford to synthesize their way to becoming a Save-For without showing symptoms of radiation poisoning aka 'Recurring', but hypothetically let's amuse your story and say it somehow happens. It is against Praxis for me to involve myself sexually with any female until she's Scanned and Skinned by Equilistors and then Scanned and Skinned again by The Order of Konn once she's brought to citadel. If she somehow manages to avoid all of that, the nose bleeds, the canisters all of that would be obvious signs she's a Synthetic." I speak.
Cassian lets out a low whistle. "There's no cheating The Union."
"Indeed." Luca and I say in unison.
"The security makes sense, if Nova marries a Synthetic, that's it for his Supra-Humanis gene, except someone finds a cure to radiation poisoning."
"Impossible." I say under my breath.
The sound of gentle metal taps on glass causes the chatter in the room to die down. I look up to see the glass wall of the isolated boxed off VIP area, slide across and for my mother to step out into the balcony with her two high ranking Equilistors, cladded in their black and crimson leather uniforms with their silver synthetic arms and legs, in toe. The rest of The Consortium ranging from all the chancellors from all the Ministries join her at the balcony, adorned in their white and grey attire, in raising their glasses in a toast. We all do the same.
"To The Union, Praxis Laws, and the prosperity of the Konn household." She says as we all echo the words back to her. Glasses move around and ring against one another under the soft golden lights of The Consortium banquet hall.
As the night progresses through the blur of drained glasses and dipped women. We continue deeper towards the dome Ministry's debate hall and my brain rifles through the library of Praxis Laws that exist in my head to judge this situation and provide a cane for my motives. Finding none, I squint through the dark to see Luca faintly smiling as Cassian leads us from corridor to corridor, through dark burnt-umber mahogany hallways that lead to The Consortium auditorium, with nothing but the soft ambient lighting, that line the hallway walls, and Cassian's buzzed wanderlust to lead the way.
As if on cue, Cassian drunkenly stumbles down. He waves us away and tries to come back to his feet.
"I told you...I'm not drunk. Come on, it's just down this way.
"How do we even get back?" Luca says as he looks back into the dimly lit hallway. Given I've traversed these halls since I was a child, I look back to an unfamiliar hallway. I frown as I ask myself how I got here and receive no reply.
"Just...come on," With his speech now reduced to a slur, he gestures us forward.
After enough turns Cassian comes to a stop and stares at the door in front of him.
"What are the chances it's open?" Luca speaks. Cassian pulls out an access card and waves it behind him. He taps the card and the door parts way revealing the empty massive debate auditorium. The auditorium quietly lights up turning the hall from pitch black to soft yellow. Silhouettes of chairs folded next to long spiraling tables circle the auditorium. Our feet scuffle against the carpet floor as we tentatively proceed further.
"I'll find the lights." Cassian says as slips past my outstretched grasps and drunkenly descends the flight of stairs before I can pull him back. Luca and I call out his name in harsh whispers as we continue towards the stairs. Luca curses as he says.
"Where did he go?"
I scan the auditorium in response before the ceiling lights suddenly flicker to life. We stop at the stairs as the dysfunctional lights whiz and strobe across our bodies before continuing our descent.
"Guess, he found the lights." Luca says as the bright lights spontaneously lick across us and cut through the darkness of the auditorium. Without The Union anthem booming through the PA system the frantic lights create nothing but an eerie feel throughout the auditorium. I grip the rails and go ahead, down the stairs annoyed with Cassian's drunken lack of regard for sanctity of The Consortium auditorium.
I look up from the stairs to the stage as a loud thud reverberates through the hall and call out to Cassian once more. The curtains begin to slowly peel across the stage. The loud bone rattling trumpets of The Union anthem that plays for a split second and then reverberates throughout the hall. I wince as I cover my ears in pain and begin to vault down the stairs. The trumpets distort and glitch through the PA system as Cassian begins his drunken speech on stage.