Restoration Province

Restoration Province was one of the many small, ephemeral political entities that emerged along the Great Southern Highway in the chaotic aftermath of the Nightfall eclipse. It was a narrow strip of territory, perhaps seven miles long, that served as a buffer zone between the remnants of Saro City and the provinces further south. Its defining characteristic was its system of "Search" checkpoints, where travelers were forcibly stripped of any fire-making equipment, a policy born of the universal terror of conflagration that gripped the post-catastrophe world. The province's most notable resident was the astronomer Beenay 25, who, stranded there while his contract-mate Raissta 717 recovered from a leg injury, served as the local "official professor," using his intelligence to draft diplomatic messages and provide scientific reassurance to the border guards.

Origins and Territory

Restoration Province was carved out of the chaos that followed the eclipse, a period when the old provincial governments of the Federal Republic of Saro had completely disappeared. It was one of a string of such "new provinces" that sprang up like mushrooms along the highway, each a petty kingdom covering six to eight or ten miles of the roadbed and spreading out for perhaps a mile on either side. The province was created by local strongmen who had emerged from the general madness and were able to put together a little realm. Its territory began just a few miles south of Saro City, at the point where the Great Southern Highway was still choked with the wreckage of the initial panic. The province's northern border was marked by a deliberately constructed roadblock of car doors and wheels, piled eight or nine feet high, which served as a Search station. The province's southern boundary was the next such checkpoint, where travelers would enter Six Suns Province.

The Search System and Fire Monopoly

The central institution of Restoration Province was the Search, a formalized ritual born of the universal paranoia about fire-starters. The new paranoia was a direct consequence of the Nightfall catastrophe: a third of Saro City had burned down on the night of the eclipse from people's panicky attempts to drive away the Stars, and another third had been destroyed in the following weeks by crazies who went around burning things down for fun. The people of Restoration Province, who were more or less intact of mind, responded by searching everyone for fire-lighting equipment. It was forbidden to possess matches, mechanical lighters, needle-guns, or anything else capable of starting a fire. The penalty for a first offense was a fine, typically the confiscation of whatever the traveler was carrying. The Search was conducted by a force of border guards, rough men who looked like cutthroats but who were, in their own way, trying to restore order. The system was a fever of fear, a universal suspicion that made everyone an enemy. The only people exempt from Search were the members of the Fire Patrol, who wore green neckerchiefs and carried needle-guns, and who were considered the elite, the only ones whose use of fire would be tolerated.

Beenay 25 and the Role of the Professor

Restoration Province's most valuable asset was its "official professor," the astronomer Beenay 25. Beenay had been heading south to the provisional government at Amgando with his contract-mate Raissta 717, but they had run into trouble. A mob of anti-intellectual crazies, who blamed university people for causing the eclipse, had nearly lynched them. During their escape, Raissta cut her leg on broken glass, and by the time they reached the highway, the wound was so badly infected that she could not walk. The border guards of Restoration Province, who were in need of a professor, took them in. Beenay was considered useful for his intelligence: he could compose diplomatic messages to adjoining provinces, he had ideas about how to make broken things work again, and he could explain why the Darkness was not going to come back and why nobody would have to look at the Stars again for two thousand years. The guards found this very comforting to hear. In return for his services, they fed him and Raissta and took care of her. Beenay's presence gave the province a veneer of legitimacy and a connection to the world of knowledge that had been shattered. He was able to write out passports for travelers like Theremon 762 and Siferra 89, which, bearing his florid signature, were sometimes enough to get them through the next few Search stations down the line.

The Threat of the Apostles of Flame

Restoration Province, like all the new provinces along the highway, was ultimately doomed. A messenger brought news that the Apostles of Flame had assembled an army and were marching south, planning to clear away all the new little provincial governments and smash whatever reconstituted governing body had taken form at Amgando. The Apostles were not using the blocked highway; they had kept a fleet of trucks undamaged and a supply of fuel, and were coming down from Saro through the west on minor country roads. Beenay, upon hearing this news, urged Theremon and Siferra to flee immediately to warn the Amgando group to scatter. He himself could not leave, as Raissta was still unable to travel. The province's border guards, who respected Beenay, would likely be swept aside by the advancing army. Restoration Province, like the other petty kingdoms, was a fragile and temporary construct, a desperate attempt to impose order on a world that had been shattered, and it was about to be crushed by a far more powerful and organized force.