Exception to the Rule

by gadrin

5:52 PM

"There's no such thing as a Blackout," said Kurchen, "Not any more."

The owner of Talos Tower stood atop his monument to money and looked down on the mostly darkened city. He'd been working late with his staff when word was brought to him by Security.

"We know who the mages are now, eh?"

Here and there among the cityscape were buildings still lit. Talos Tower was one of those, its structure lined by a soft glaze of magical beams. Most of the tower's floors were similarly enchanted. It saved a bundle on electrical bills.


"Or those that paid for Magelight," corrected his assistant, Mureen. "Still, alot of the city is in darkness."

"Alot of the city's in darkness anyway," growled the CEO, meaning those lessers who weren't on his level. "This only shows how utterly dependent they are on other people. I imagine there are people cowering in their houses, stuck in cars, in subways and what not. All powerless in the dark."

Kurchen remained silent for a few minutes.

"Get a camera crew up here," he ordered. "Someone with some batteries. I want them to make a documentary showing how Talos kept going while the rest of Seattle stumbled around in the dark. Have it leaked to the television studios. It'll boost our stock."

"And our employees?" asked Mureen, meaning the hundreds of Talos workers that had gone home for the night, only to be caught in the power outage themselves.

"It'll do them good as well," Kirchen smirked, "Give them something to talk about, boost their morale."

Mureen shook her head, he had no idea what she meant. She thought of pregnant women stranded in the dark, the elderly and the infirmed on life-support who might not survive the outage. Mureen had just flown in from asia two days ago, landing after dark and being fascinated by the lights of the city and SeaTac's runways.

She wondered if SeaTac had a Magelight backup system. She'd check before her next flight.

"Get going," grumbled Kurchen, "Now!"


Mureen turned on her heels and headed off to carry out her boss' wishes. She was now sure that old man Kurchen was a thorough-going bastard.


Copyright 2002 - Gadrin

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