Of course, Aidan never wore the standard issued clothing, opting to don the thick, hooded robe and cloak his father had given to him on the day he graduated secondary school. It was drenched in black and littered with sharp strokes of hot red across its surface, as if they were cuts into his skin. No other symbols or patterns were emblazoned upon it otherwise, and Aidan saw no reason to decorate it further. He already had enough markings.
“So where are we going now?” Isaac asked, rubbing his hands through his messy blonde hair. From the steadily rising tide of voices far behind them, they could tell that the presentation was now over, and soon they would both be overtaken with an assortment of disgusted, shocked and respectful glares.
“Bed,” Aidan declared. Isaac rolled his eyes. Aidan’s hibernation schedule was directly correlated with the amount of villagers who were awake. The more there were, the less he tended to be around. If it hadn’t been for Isaac’s insistence, Aidan wouldn’t have even gone to the schoolhouse. In hindsight, Isaac thought to himself that perhaps that would have been the better move. Still, he knew where Aidan truly went in the deep of night…
They continued walking casually, past the miniature cabins that were all designed exactly the same. Whomever had wished them into existence had little imagination. The vegetation surrounding the cabins, however, made up for their lack of décor. Reaching across the sides and over the humble rooftops, thick white tree branches stretched over with a decadent array of flowers in full bloom. An explosion of blues and pinks and yellows pushed against the tree leaves and kissed up against the wooden posts of the village homes. There were even a few Yen born arbors that produced flowers within flowers. However, these Yen-manifested flowers were unique: in full bloom, their eerie luminescence rivaled even that of the moonlight in radiance.
The local birds, each known by name, traversed back and forth between plants, carrying the seeds to dull brown spots behind the houses and creating new jaw-dropping scenery whenever one fell and became part of the rich soil. Though there was little sunlight that could break through the sentinel forest canopy up above, the surroundings and ambiance of Lowsunn was undeniably rich and cozy.
Though he would never admit it, even Aidan was apprehensive over how easily the scenery would take his breath away and force new creations and possibilities to be born in the recesses of his imagination. An outsider looking in would think it was paradise.
But it wasn’t.
It couldn’t be.
It was just a pretense. A ruse to make him comfortable. And the moment he fell into comfort’s arms, he knew he would be taken unawares, his Yen stolen from him either through torture or some other unspeakable measure. It didn’t matter if Lowsunn was the most relaxing environment he had ever laid eyes upon in his whole life.
It was not impenetrable. And its inhabitants were trying so hard to believe that it was. Just because it provided necessities that were no longer guaranteed in the new world: a secure shelter, an abundance of fresh water and food…community…it didn’t mean it was invincible. It had survived almost a decade, but how long until its luck ran out?
Lowsunn used to be a real village with another name, but none of the original townspeople were there anymore. No one was sure why, but then again, there had been a lot of madness when Advent came. Wishes being used left and right, and without restraint at the time. All the Elders knew for sure was that the founder (Judge bless his soul) had used one of his wishes to restore the village to its rightful, pre-event origins, and then used his second and final wish to throw a massive, invisible barrier around it, preventing from entering all those who didn’t have permission from the chosen Elders. Without having to worry about the danger that was outside of Lowsunn’s walls, the village was able to truly focus on the only real task at hand: surviving.
“You think the Elders will ever give us a scouting mission?” Isaac asked as they reached their quarters. All single men and women bunked together in their own respective cabins as if they were at boys’ and girls’ academies. They were each at separate ends of the village (boys to the south, girls to the north) but it wasn’t necessary considering there were few midnight excursions. Everyone knew the risks. Getting caught after curfew meant banishment. Banishment meant death.
“What are you talking about?” Aidan replied, half-listening.
“I hear they’re going to announce their selections at the dance,” Isaac said. “You know. The Dance of Yesterday?”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you ever wonder how we get our away missions?”
“I never paid much attention. The odds of me being picked for one are astronomical.”
“Because the Elders hate you. Your birthday is probably what they call their Advent. But I might be picked for one. Would you be sad if I left?”
“You wouldn’t be gone long, so no.”
“What if I got killed while I was away? Would you be sad then?”
“You would have gone on the mission knowing full well the possibilities.”
“So is that a no?”
“That’s a no.”
“You’re the only thorn in the rose garden, aren’t you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aidan groaned. “And what’s with the hypothetical situations? There’s only one thing we should be worried about right now. The end of our fifth year.”
“You mean how we’re supposed to give our wishes to the Elders?”
“Exactly.”
“I take it you have no intention of following through on that.”
“Do you?” Aidan asked, turning to face Isaac for the first time in their conversation. Isaac grinned and shook his head.
“Hey, Aidan!” a student of Mr. Young shouted from behind them. They turned to see a short, stocky boy with glasses that were more like goggles. “Heard about your threat during Mr. Young’s presentation. What are you doing? Trying to graduate early? You know you’re not getting expelled while those are still active.” He pointed directly at Aidan’s right arm.
“I understand that, Jared,” Aidan said.
“Then what’s the deal?”
“I have a plan.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“I would rather not,” he said, staring forward. “The walls have ears and the wind is an excellent messenger.”
“Isn’t he hilarious when he gets all metaphorical like that?” Isaac laughed. “Don’t know where he gets it from.”
“Fine, whatever,” Jared huffed. He turned to Isaac. “You watch out for this one. He’ll get you in trouble too.”
“Oh, I’m fully aware,” Isaac chuckled. Jared waved bye and ran off to the right as the two boys remained outside their home. The crowd from the presentation must have decided to mingle in the village center, located further north and in the opposite direction the boys had gone. The voices were now at a tolerable volume.
“Guess I don’t have to blow a hole in the shield next week,” Aidan said, looking towards Isaac for a reaction. All he did was raise an eyebrow in puzzlement.
“Because you have a master plan all of a sudden?”
“Tell me more about these missions.”
“Basically the Fourth and Fifth Years are their strongest and most mature, so the best of them are sent on missions outside of the Institute.”
“I already know that part.”
“You want to learn something or not?”
“Fine. Go on.”
“I think the Elders use the somewhat established adults because they don’t want to risk their own lives to procure supplies and information.”
“I don’t even want to know what it takes to get established around here…still, what I don’t understand is why they use Fifth Years. They have the most to lose. They could stay out there as long as they pleased, and if anyone tried to bring them back, they could just use their Yen to resist.”
“There are chaperones of course,” Isaac replied.
“It doesn’t matter.�
��
“So your master plan is to go on one of the missions and then bail?”
“Exactly.”
“Like no one has thought of that one before,” Isaac scoffed. “And I’m sorry but it’s too late for you. You said it yourself. No one’s going to send you out there without a leash, a bridle and a muzzle. You’ve caused too much trouble.”
“But you’ll be selected, won’t you?” Aidan asked, looking hard into Isaac’s eyes.
“Doubtful. I associate with riff-raff like you.”
“When they’re desperate enough, they’ll take you,” Aidan nodded with confidence. “And when that happens, I’m coming along for the ride.”
“While getting me killed in the process.”
“What are friends for?” Aidan chuckled.
“Well, this is highly suspect,” a pleasant, sweet voice muttered from the shadows between the two cabins. The boys turned, half-worried that too much had been heard, when the intruder stepped into the moonlight. Isaac smiled with glee.
“Morrigan! How good it is to see you! To what do we owe the pleasure of being able to bask in the glory of the marvelous, radiant, magnificent – ”
“ – put a lid on it, Isaac. I’m sick of your false praise,” she snapped, pushing her maroon, thick, horn-rimmed glasses further up the bridge of her nose.
“But I thought you liked that sort of thing. Sucking up,” he grinned. “Or is it only acceptable when you’re the one doing it?”
“I love people sucking up to me,” she smiled through her rapidly blinking eyes and thick green lipstick, “but I would hardly consider you a person. Something between a virus and a deformed toad is more precise.”
“Yet I’m still on the evolutionary chain. There’s hope for me yet. Oh, Morrigan!” Isaac pretended to swoon as he pranced around her with clasped hands. “Your compliments are like the kiss of snowflakes upon the cheek.”
“That wasn’t even remotely intelligent.”
“So, what do you want?” Aidan said bluntly, crossing his arms. “Ms. Head of the Discipline Squad. Here to follow up on some rumors?”
“Are they rumors, Aidan?” she asked, leaning close to his face. “Considering every single person present at that presentation is ready to testify against you?”
“Oh, is that how many people I have to kill tonight?”
“You’re not funny.”
“Murder never is.”
“You have a subpoena for tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.,” she said, handing him a folded packet of paper. Isaac whistled at the size. “I assume you know where the Squad’s chambers are located.”
“You assume wrong. I’ve never been there in my entire life.”
“And afterwards, I can tutor you in the library on proper use of the Obsidial language. It can help with whatever…backwards, wild man grunting thing that’s dribbling off your lips.”
“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not green,” he said, gagging at her lipstick. She gave a false smile, her cheekbones raised as high as they could go.
“Language doesn’t have a color, imbecile. See what I mean about having to tutor you?”
“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned us getting together,” Aidan raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me out on a date?”
“I would rather choke on my own vomit,” she said with an up-curled lip. “And I would never do such a thing as to taint my reputation.”
“Taint?”
“Do you even know the meaning to -” she turned to Isaac. “Can you please enlighten your dense friend here?”
“Enlighten? What poetic enunciation is this?” Isaac batted his eyes. “Perhaps the lady cares to educate this backwards gent on the particulars. You know green happens to be my favorite color.”
“Go jump off a bridge,” Morrigan said flatly. She shoved them aside and headed back towards the village center where the crowd was enjoying themselves. Both of them couldn’t help staring at her strange, multi-layered clothing ensemble and bouncing pink pigtails as she walked off.
“You think that’s her natural color?” Aidan asked, but Isaac ignored him.
“Her speech loses some of its bite everyday,” Isaac sighed. Aidan unfolded his arms and glanced at him. He didn’t know what to think of their strange relationship. Sometimes he was sure Isaac was in love with her, and then in the next second, it couldn’t be anything but loathing. What went on in that head of his?
“All of Lowsunn knows I’m not going to that hearing,” Aidan declared out loud. Isaac nodded in agreement as he continued staring off in the direction Morrigan had disappeared.
“She knows too, but it’s part of the job description. Has to keep up a good standing for the higher-ups. She is the only villager our age to gain their favor. She probably has an exemption.”
“Ugh,” Aidan gagged. “Then who would want to be here a moment longer? I’ll never understand women like her.”
“You don’t understand women, period.”
“Oh, and you’re one to talk!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You drive me nuts every time I see the two of you interact,” Aidan shook his head. “Your eyes study her whenever she walks by like she’s a new species, but then your lips say otherwise.”
“I’m maintaining my distance until I’m sure of who she is, that’s all. I know what I’m doing. Unlike you.”
“Are you talking about Leah again?”
“You said her name. Not me.”
“I know her well enough,” Aidan said, glancing away and re-folding his arms.
“Oh?”
“We have a class together. Woodworking.”
“Right. I’ll make sure to check the roster and see if it exists.”
“We were partners. The teacher put us together. She made me a practice sword.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I didn’t say that. I just suspect there’s more to the story than you’re willing to admit. Don’t you remember who you’re talking to?”
“Right,” Aidan said, closing his eyes. “The last thing I need is to be thrown on your radar. I don’t know what’s worst. Being a part of your conspiracies or listening to them.”
“I would say listening, because then we can work together. We’ve yet to figure out the mystery of the disappearing chocolate cake.”
“I already told you,” Aidan sighed, slapping his forehead. “The head of the dining commons ate it whole.”
“But she’s so nice.”
“She’s fat,” Aidan stressed. “And noticeably fatter after the incident.”
“That’s stress from the job.”
“For someone who’s paranoid, you sure are willing to dismiss those you like.”
“She could be pregnant.”
“Yeah, you go ahead and ask her.”
“I’m a gentleman. I wouldn’t think of it.”
“Uh-huh. Or is it because she gives you the leftover cookies after hours?”
“You saw that?”
“Now who’s part of a conspiracy?”
“At least you’re not,” he smiled. “You’re not on my radar…yet.”
“Lucky me,” Aidan said as he began heading inside the cabin. “Lucky me.”
***
The nightmare was more vivid than usual, and what made it worse was that for the first time, Aidan couldn’t wake himself up. He was back home again, falling out of bed over the piercing screams he heard coming from outside. He thought it was all a figment of his imagination, that he had just conjured it up in his sleep, but the shrieks didn’t let up. Disoriented, he staggered to his tiny, clay hut window, and scanned the area.
His neighbors were outside his window.
And they were on fire.
Aidan rushed out through the open door, so concerned with the plight of his neighbors that he didn’t even think of whether his parents and little sister would be okay. They had been outside the safety of their home.
; As soon as his feet hit the dirt, however, he was paralyzed.
The sky had turned a blood red. The clouds, a lightning blue; and a sickly yellow rain drizzled from the heavens, slowly corroding the clay of their homes and withering their bountiful harvest. Aidan stepped back inside as soon as he realized the effects of the yellow rain, but it didn’t appear to affect his skin any more than regular water did. Still, he took off his shirt and wrapped it in a turban around his head for protection, then rushed back out and searched for a solution to the fires. A way to save his people.
Water, sand, blankets – nothing worked.
And as he watched them all stumble and fall, barely even twitching once they hit the soil - he wondered why he was the only one not afflicted. He felt like throwing up, and the only thing that prevented him was the sudden boom in the distance, sounding as if the planet itself had just cracked in half. He ran to the source, past the smoldering clay huts and the recently deceased until he hit the edge of what was once his home, now just a land of fertilized soil, sitting atop the second mountain of Tilkin.
A firestorm was coming towards him, rolling across the adjacent mountains and valleys with a mix of thunder, flames, sand, and destruction. Aidan stayed frozen in fear as it approached with a deafening roar. Nothing he did could save him. His fate would be no different than those of his people.
And he didn’t mind at all.
He closed his eyes as he felt his skin begin to singe and crackle, the hairs on his arms and head already gone. He winced and grit his teeth through the tears, accepting his certain fate when unexpectedly…
A voice asked him a question.
“What do you wish for right now?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the sole survivor of Quinn spoke.
“I wish I was protected from the fire!” he cried aloud.
Just as the firestorm descended upon him, he screamed, not over the incoming storm, but the intense ripping sensation that came from his right arm. Three seals appeared in an instant. Two illuminated, signifying wishes yet to be granted, and one dark – blackened over the words he had just uttered. He had no time to examine the symbols. The pain in his arm was too great. All he could do was roar within a cloud of mixed emotions as the firestorm engulfed him, destroying his village, his friends, and everything he had ever loved within seconds, leaving no trace behind. As if his life had never existed.
The Works of Julius St. Clair - 2017 Edition (Includes 3 full novels and more) Page 27