A Day in the Life of Olivia Solnus

I saw the light coming down from the heavens and decided to get behind a brick building before it made contact. I was rewarded for this by the hint of a blinding flash and a deafening sound. Being muted by all the stone in front of me, they managed to only blind and deafen me for a few moments, as opposed to permanently. 

After a long few minutes making sure this wasn’t some sort of repeat event, I stuck my head into the road where I’d previously been traveling. The highest point of the city, where the glittering palace had once stood, was now just a wide column of smoke. 

“It just had to be on Saturday,” I said, frowning. I only came into the city on Saturdays. People had been talking about the new star in the sky for weeks. It wasn’t very bright, but it stayed in the same spot regardless if it was day or night. Some people figured out it was a comet, but there were plenty of rumors. It probably wasn’t very big, but it didn’t need to be very big at the speed it was going.

I glanced behind, to the country-side where I’d come from. A minor duke was setting up residence nearby, and it had been very easy to convince him that he’d need at least two dozen windows for his new estate. I’d just finished the paperwork, but I was still flat broke until Julian gave me my commission. Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified. But what else could you do? Better to hope I’d get a bonus for pulling my boss out of the rubble then head home with no coin. I decided I liked Julian as a boss anyway, so without further ado, I headed towards the horrible destruction.

By mid-afternoon, the winds had moved most of the smoke out of the city by way of the east. I saw more and more people coming from that direction, in various states of distress. Most of the buildings this far out were unharmed, but the occasional large chunk of debris had taken out a story or two. As I turned a corner, I paused.

A woman sat atop a pile of rock that had probably been a house. She looked like she could’ve been painted on there. Her clothes were stained by ash and the cloudy sky shone rays of light on her tears. The moment was so perfect in its tragedy that I immediately felt the need to disturb it.

I made it about halfway up the pile before I tripped, and earned a few scraps for my trouble. As I sat up and dusted myself off, the woman only stared ahead.

“They’re all gone.” She said, voice hollow.

“Yeah, probably.” I said, finally getting eye level with her. “Want a sandwich?”

The woman seemed to speed straight through the many stages of grief and onto confusion. “What?”

I reached into her bag, and pulled out my lunch. With a savage motion, I tore the sandwich in two. I had tried to cut it neatly in two this morning, but my knives were dull. A couple pickles fell into the dust.

“Why? I’m going to die anyway.” The woman said, her voice back to that hollow nothingness.

“Better than dying on an empty stomach.” I shrugged. I wasn’t completely sure why I was offering it, myself. I wiggled the sandwich half, and an olive fell out, but the woman did take it.

I sat next to her, and we ate our sandwiches for a couple minutes, before the woman finally spoke. 

The hollowness was gone, but she didn’t sound very happy. “What is in this?”

“Pickles, olives, salmon, bit of cheese. It’s an acquired taste.” I said, taking another bite.

The woman looked down at the offending bread, and her face twisted as she appreciated what she was eating for the first time.

I didn’t take any offense. The olives were mostly there for moral support anyway. My family always called me Olive, so I’d gotten into the habit of having them with every meal.

“Are you going to stay?” The woman asked.

“No, I got an appointment. You’re welcome to come with, but I don’t think the office is going to have the budget to hire more people after this fiasco.”

She nodded, like this was a normal conversation.

We finished our sandwiches, and when I had cleaned the last bit of pickle out of the paper, I stood up, tipped my hat to her, and made my way back down the carnage. More carefully, this time.

The biggest trouble came when I got to the gate into the inner district. Normally, it had guards around it, keeping anything without an official pass or identification from snooping around the royals’ backyard and surrounding neighborhoods. 

For some reason, it still had guards around it, pointing their swords towards a small crowd. Standing at their head was a man yelling at said crowd.

I caught a few uses of the word ‘looting,’ and decided that this was probably going to be a whole thing. Well, my sister always said I was a bit mouthy, might as well use that.

“Excuse me!” I said, yelling above the crowd. I made sure to push my way to the front for good measure. “I’ve got an appointment through there.”

“Like hell you do,” The man sneered. He was noticeably more well dressed than the crowd, though no less covered in soot. “If you think I’m going to let a single one of you get your hands on our city’s–”

“Got the paperwork right here, sir.” I said, thrusting said papers towards the nearest armed guard. He had to awkwardly tuck his shield into his armpit in order to grab the paper and pass it back to his boss.

The crowd behind me had gone quiet, seeing where this would go. I guessed this was probably the farthest anyone had gotten to making the yell-y man listen to sense.

He grabbed the paper, and his eyes squinted. The two guards standing behind the lord (cause he was definitely a noble of some kind) exchanged a look.

“Didn’t even know we had one of those in the upper quarter.” One of them said.

“Someone’s gotta sell those fancy windows everyone’s got. Right on the corner of Guidelight avenue and Pilson’s.” I said, before addressing the lord again, “Frankly, I don’t know what you’re doing here, sir, when the east wall is being overrun.”

The lord stiffened at that, and the guards gave me frowns. “What?!”

“Why didn’t you just go in that way then?” Someone in the crowd said, before making the small noise of someone being elbowed by their friend. 

“Didn’t want to get looted.” I shrugged.

Someone sniggered, but fortunately the lord seemed to miss it. “How long ago was this?” He demanded.

I tried to figure out how long it would have taken me to walk over here if I had actually gone to the east end of the wall. “Twenty minutes? Maybe a half hour?”

The lord, apparently deciding that there was still time to halt the greater threat, began barking orders. Soon there were only a few guards in front of us, with strict orders to allow no looters through while the lord was gone.

One of them, who seemed to be the higher ranking one, turned to me and sighed. “Are there actually any looters on the east wall?”

I replied, “I haven’t seen any today.”

Someone stepped out of the crowd. A tall man, though he was hunched. “I’m no looter, sir. My sister’s a keeper of the gardens, and I just want to make sure she’s alright.”

Soon a choir of similar stories joined him, as the crowd tried to give their excuses to the guards in a dozen different voices.

“Quiet! Quiet, that’s enough.” He said, and the quiet followed obediently, if slowly. “Form a line. We’ll let you through one at a time, and you’ve got an hour to find your family members before you’re legally trespassing, got it?”

I doubted any of them would be back within the hour unless their relative had died somewhere convenient. I stepped forward, and a hand came out to stop me.

“That includes you, Miss Solnus,” The guard said, glaring me down. 

I took my hat off and handed it to him. “On my life, sir. Should I disobey, you can burn that right up and I’ll get fined a good month’s pay for losing my uniform.”

The guard didn’t seem quite sure what to do with that, so he let me pass.

The upper quarter was a mess. Most of the buildings had been completely destroyed, and few of the roads had even been torn up by flying debris. I had to reroute multiple times just to avoid having to climb over a chunk of the former palace.  I thanked my lucky stars that the office was on the west side of things, far from the complete haze of the east. While I was at it, I requested that said stars keep any more of their neighbors from dropping on my head. 

And then I arrived at the corner of Guideline avenue and Pilson’s Street, and looked up to where the office was. Should have been.

There was nothing there. Only wood and stone, like all the rest of the debris piles. The office was far from the palace- Julian couldn’t afford anything closer. But still not far enough.

I stood on the edge of the street and realized that Julian was probably in there somewhere. As was my salaried future. I suddenly regretted giving out the other half of my sandwich. 

I don’t know how long I stood there, but it was long enough that someone came by.

A gravely voice said, “You want a drink?”

I reached out and took the bottle. I didn’t even like alcohol, but it was the spirit of the thing. I took a swig, and made a face at the spirits in the thing. They were as bitter as this day had been. 

I handed the bottle back to the man, who looked about as gravelly as his voice, and twice as tired. “So what’s your deal?”

“My house blew up.” He said, and if I had summed up my situation as “my paycheck is going to be delayed,” it would’ve had a similar tone. He glanced down at the wreckage and continued, “Was hoping Julian, the boss here, would let me stay at his place.”

I laughed. “Shit luck you’ve got, eh?”

He smiled back, which I took as a good sign. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it. You feel like getting lunch?”

“Depends. You know someplace that gives out food for free during the apocalypse?” I said, then added on, “And serves olives?”

He thought for a moment, and said, “Kia’s Haven is nice, it’s a bit south of here. I think they’re closed on Saturdays though. Can’t hurt to check.”

I sighed. “Gods, I hate Saturdays. Alright, lead the way.”