First Child |
|
|
|
|
|
Chapter 1 |
|
| While it was a statistical anomaly, it was also a statistical inevitability. Guildmaster Roland himself had confirmed it perinatally, and nothing in the intervening ten years indicated that he had erred in his prognosis. Durp was the first, and only, child born of Obernewtyn who had no Talent. To many of the older generation, this was not so much of a surprise. His father, Rob, was a reclusive Teknoguilder who had demonstrated only marginal machine empathy, and had once supposedly ‘unlocked’ a tin of a Beforetime product labelled ‘Spam’ with the power of his mind. His mother, Evelyn, had come to Obernewtyn on one of Madam Vega’s original Marketing Excursions. After Ruston’s hostile takeover, she had escaped deportation to the Lowlands by insisting that she had once had a Truedream, and managed to work her way into the Futuretell guild while Maryon was in a week-long trance. She kept a low profile by industriously churning out knitted leg-warmers and avoided scrutiny by half closing her eyes and mumbling incoherently every time anyone tried to talk to her. So the adults of Obernewtyn, when they saw Durp, would roll their eyes a little and think, ‘Psh, well what did you expect?’ Then they would remember that they were once victims of prejudice themselves, and that they were better than their persecutors because they were tolerant and magnanimous. And then they would pat Durp on the head with a condescending smile. |
|
| Views | 534 |
|
|
|
