Chains and Memory by Marie Brennan

Author:Marie Brennan [Brennan, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2015-12-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Four days after my release from the hospital, I had an appointment with a DSPA administrator to finalize my transition from ordinary citizen to wilder.

For this I went to an unremarkable office building tucked away in a back street not far from the respective headquarters of SIF and the Guardian Corps. It was a depressing place, all fanboard partitions and low-burn lighting. The administrator was named Lualhati Masangga, and the first thing she did was slide a sheet of paper across the desk toward me.

“What’s this?” I asked.

Masangga looked like a motherly sort, but she had the brisk manner of an experienced bureaucrat. She said, “Ordinarily the change of surname is handled as part of transferring a wilder child to the custody of the state. Since you are not a minor, and are still a legal resident of Georgia, we need you to fill out paperwork informing the state of your intent to change your name. Georgia law also requires that notice be posted once a week for four weeks before the change takes effect, but we’ll take care of that for you.”

She added that last part as if she were doing me a favor. I gaped at her. In all my focus on the deep shield, I’d forgotten that there were other legal effects from being declared a wilder. “You can’t be serious. I know wilders are supposed to be called Fiain, but—” Words failed me. “You can’t take my last name from me.”

Masangga tried a motherly smile. She wasn’t very good at it, despite the soft bun and softer features. “I’m afraid it’s a legal requirement, Kim.”

Normally I preferred my nickname to the full “Kimberly,” but I wanted to snarl at her for using it. “What the hell is the point? I’m a grown adult, not a ward of the state. It isn’t like you don’t have me recorded in the system, regardless of my name.”

“Please don’t make this difficult, Kim. It’s only a formality.”

And a pointless one. If wilders were free citizens upon reaching their majority, what was to stop them from filing the paperwork to change their names away from Fiain? I wondered if any of them ever had. Probably not. If Julian and the people at Toby’s were anything to go by, being Fiain was part of their identity, as much tribal as familial.

But it wasn’t my identity. The only thing that stopped me from balling up the name-change form and throwing it at Masangga was that last thought: family.

If I truly wanted to leave my mother behind, now was my chance.

I looked down at the form, and the pen Masangga placed next to it. I’d been Kimberly Argant-Dubois my whole life, one part of it from my mother, the other from my father. I could cut one of my few remaining ties right now, with just a couple of lines on a form. Become Kimberly Fiain. Or flip Masangga the metaphorical bird and make myself just Kimberly Dubois instead—no. My father would never forgive me for that.

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