I have never had such hardship before. I have trekked mountains before but never like the Labrose. It was a steep climb with jagged rocks eating the soles of my battered boots. The worst thing was the mocking smiles my kind guides gave me. Sometimes they would laugh when I slip. Other times they would speak in their tongue. Those were mockeries of me, I could tell. But the strange thing is, I find this refreshing. People treated me like a God back home. Now these rascals are treating me like a common human.
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Crystal propelled the air forward. The gust was sharp and rich. It spiraled toward the rock. The rock edged back and Crystal pushed harder.
It flung toward the wall. It shattered upon impact, pieces blown like soot. Chips fell gently on the ground.
"Too slow" Marble's voice chilled her neck. The older Councilor waved her hand, the motion smooth and refined. A strong gust shattered the next rock. It didn't even it the wall. It just shattered as if the gust was hammer.
Marble waved her hand again. She used both this time. Her motions were fluid. She flowed like the wind, moving like the dances of those humans Crystal saw in Shadow's dream. Air spun, the force apparent through the booming sound. The wind gathered the shattered pieces of the rocks and formed a whirl.
Crystal squinted and shielded her face. There was too much air, too much energy. A person hit by the whirl would be minced.
Marble clasped her palms. The bits compressed into a single rock surrounded by spinning air. For a moment Crystal was terrified of it. She expected an explosion, one which would rock her ears.
The rock eased to the ground. It was round now, too round to be natural. The edges were soft and the evidences of the pieces were gone. It was as if every bit was crushed into dust. Marble removed her air but the bits still clung together. Marble just did this. It was a great power. Scary. Sticking the rocks together must have required tremendous strength.
Marble patted dust from her cape. "Your gift is too weak. Whisk your disappointment though. Gifts improve."
"Thank you Highness."
"I have no necessity for gratitude." Marble tilted her arm and grasped. An air bubble formed, spinning as always. It moved with accordance to Marble's fingers and lifted a rock. The rock was placed a dozen paces in front of Crystal.
"Shatter it without throwing it against the wall just like what I did. Do not worry child, we are alone." Marble looked around. "Go for it."
It was impossible. She could probably do it if she could Air Surge. Bur her gift wasn't Air Surging. She could produce ash which could turn into either air, gold, graphite or iron. The ash was limited and so her air was also limited.
"Highness I can't. Perhaps my gift is tailored to something else other than breaking rocks."
"You need to do it Child. Getting a better understanding about our gifts is necessary for us Councilors. The Resistance is prowling around the corners. We can never be too safe."
I know. Crystal had the urge to laugh. Of course she does.
Crystal opened her palm. The ash was visible only to her. It oozed from both her palms, spreading as she willed it to. Air, Crystal commanded.
The ash formed air. It was still unlike Marble's violent air. Even the elder Councilor took notice of that. Cystal extended her arm. The air surged with a fury. Her volume was meager and her strength was feeble but she willed it to crush the rock.
The air only succeeded in rolling the rock before disappearing in a puff. The ash returned to her palms defeated.
Crystal looked at Marble. A scowl met her. Marble's flaxen eyebrows creased and her chin sharpened. Crystal retreated through a smile.
"I'm sorry Highness."
"It's alright" Marble beckoned. "Come with me. Practice is through. We need to work."
It would happen again, Crystal thought. She went to Marble's side and the older Councilor grabbed her. Marble Air Surged their ascend.
Crystal felt her feet leave the ground. Her first few experiences of this were truly terrifying. Now it was still terrifying but she found that closing her eyes helped. Her heart still thumped though. What if she would slip? What if Marble's gift fluctuates? What if she dies?
"Oh stop it little child" Marble said. "You scaredy thing. The air is our domain. We surge it as if it was our slave. Do not fret."
Crystal opened her left eye and then her right. They have landed but one of Marble's foot was still hovering beyond the edge of the stairs. A steep drop was below- a deadly drop.
Marble led her to the safer part of the stairs. She huddled to Marble, clinging tightly and shaking. She hated being afraid. She hated the feeling of a racing heart. But she was afraid of heights.
Crystal stilled herself. She rose though her knees were tender. Three Sentinels passed them, all provided her and Marble frowns. They skirted from her, trekking the edge without a single wince.
"Rage's guards" Marble said, walking to her side. There was annoyance in her voice, bubbling despite her effort to subdue it. Marble joined Crystal in staring at the Sentinels' back. "The Sentinels do take the attitude of their masters. Crass things, they are. Impolite too."
"Compared to your Sentinels they are dirt Highness. Your Sentinels are disciplined."
"Disciplined? No child. I would rather have the praise of elegance. Discipline is for brutes forcing a copy true elegance. Your simper praises are unneeded Child. Come inside. You shall continue on your duties."
Marble flicked her hand. Air pushed the stone door open. It rolled and showed the floor.
A wide space greeted. It was shaped as a circle with windows carved from the rock every few paces.
The floor was divided in two by a wall. The other side was Marble's private quarters and Crystal wasn't brave enough to venture inside. She was permitted only in the outside office which was, for the moment, empty. A single stone desk stood at the middle as representation of a counter. Two seats were beside it, both made of hardened mushroom stalk. Other than that, there were nothing else in the office except maybe for the dull lamps.
Crystal didn't dare ask Marble why her office was like this. She had a reason, Crystal knew. Perhaps Marble desired tranquility or something.
"Finish your work." Marble said and vanished into her private lounge.
Crystal regarded the silence as strangely disturbing. She was used to the squalor of the city, of the endless gossips of the Commoners. Her assigned dwelling before this was located in the center of the Commoners' Sector. Now she was here, at a high floor in the High Tower. She was at the center of Ninev. And yet a part of her longed for that lowly place.
Crystal took one of the seats. The hardened mushroom stalk was soft to her bottom. She slumped. The table was full of her burden- sheaves of paper stacked in three neat piles. Each pile was half her height. Given, she was a little short but the papers were still a hefty business.
She grabbed one. Written on the paper was information about one Marble's miners. This one was named Celidan. He was from Area Fifteen, a son and a daughter, a wife working in food production. The other details bored Cystal.
There were thousands and Crystal was to prepare a list of viable ones to work in a new mine Marble was planning on. She was given three hundred slots.
"Make it comprehensive. I am dealing this crucial task to you. Failing would erode my confidence." She remembered Marble saying, with a face of steel of course.
Crystal put the paper on one side, a soon-to-be pile of rejected names. Celidan was just too old at forty and Area Fifteen was too far away. She reached for the next in the pile. Another reject. And another. The next twenty only saw one accepted and even that was a serious consideration.
Marble went out from her private lounge. She was... prepared. Crystal didn't know for what but Marble's flaxen hair was tied. Her clothes were long, and the design was almost a dress. It was probably a dress, one which mirrored the clothes of the ladies she saw in Shadow's dream.
"Too loose?" Marble asked and then she frowned. "Do not false a praise. Tell me."
"It it alright Highness. Looks great. Where are you going?"
"Not your business child. Continue what you are doing. I will be needing the list after the cycle's end."
With those words, Marble ebbed outside. Crystal sighed. Being left alone was fine by her. She had no need for constant attention from Marble. But Shadow was growing restless. Breeze was always bugging her for updates. It had been five cycles and Marble was yet to show her the mines. Soon Shadow would probably deem her as a liar and would reveal her secret. The Grand Consul would come for her neck soon.
Crystal slid another paper into her hold. Another Commoner awaited rejection. This one was found guilty of some petty crime she cared little about. Her mood staled after a while. The dimming of the lamps didn't help either.
It was always a mystery to her why the lamps would dim half of the cycle. And why would everyone feel drowsy after the dimming?
The stone door rolled. A tall figure entered, walk more like a strut. It was him. Breeze. He was in armor, mail topped with golden silk uniform. His helm covered most of his head save for his smirking face.
Crystal jolted up and presented her palms. Ash formed into iron spikes.
"I will scream!"
Breeze just walked to her, slow as if teasing her sanity. Should she propel the spikes? The last time she fought against breeze, she lost horribly. It wasn't even a fight and more like a performance.
Breeze held her hand, bent and kissed it. He rolled his eyes up to her as if expecting a response.
"What are you doing?" Crystal asked.
Breeze let go of her hand and walked passed her to one of the small windows. He swept the curtain and peeped. "Shadow taught me that. Well no, he didn't do it with me. I just heard about it from his tales regarding the humans. It is related to courtship."
"Courtship? Like what Commoners do? You are wasting your breaths. I will not be paired with you. And even if, by the slightest chance that would happen, I would file a complaint of compatibility."
"But we are compatible. Like a mushroom and its stem we are connected."
"Mushroom and...." Crystal shut her eyes. That comparison was just too mangled. "Why are you here?"
"To guard you. It is my task and I will have my blood spilled before anything happens to Highness Crystal."
"You are Marble's new guard?"
Breeze sat on the other seat and slung both feet on the table. Those boots were cracked and scraped. It reeked. Crystal just wrinkled her nose.
"I will miss guarding the gate" Breeze used both arms as pillow as he teetered his chair. Fall please, Crystal thought. Fall and break your neck.
"This is Shadow's doing?" Crystal asked.
"Who else? I swear even I am afraid of that old guy sometimes. He is just everywhere. His hands extends to the deepest corners of this mountain. I wouldn't be surprised if he is with us right now, watching like falcon."
"Falcon?"
"A bird. Anyways, do you have something to munch? I missed lunch."
"Not my problem. You can go back you your post now. Stay outside and don't bother me."
"So you don't have food? No matter."
Breeze cupped something from underneath his uniform. He soon produced a small tin bottle the size of his palm. He popped the stopper, strange smell spreading.
"You want some?" Breeze offered the container to a wide-eyed Crystal.
"You..." Crystal gulped. "This is contraband!"
"It's just cheap wine don't exaggerate. And it's weak. You should taste the stronger ones in Shadow's arsenal. You'll be seeing spinning mushrooms after three gulps. Ah but Shadow is thrifty with the stuff. Hadea don't brew good wine nowadays, he said whatever that means."
"Are you insane?" Crystal looked around and the windows. She leaned closer. "Bringing a contraband in the High Tower. You are insane!"
"Calm it Crystal. We, both of us, are members of the Resistance now. We literally want the Grand Consul dead. Being caught with wine is the least of our troubles."
Crystal slumped with a deep scowl. Breeze. Shadow. The Resistance. Her life was going straight into prosperity before they meddled. She would need to find a way to cut them loose.
"Ah Shadow has a task for you by the way, before I forget. My mind is not that sharp, you see." Breeze took one of the papers in the desk. "Felice. Ha! Foul name. Like Feces."
"What is the task?"
"If you can name a babe, would you have it Felice? This is horrible. Why Felice? Could be Joord or Tred or whatever. The humans are good with names. Even their leaders have good names. Timothy! Lucia! William! Leopold! I know now why we haven't defeated them. It's the names. Because we have horrible names."
"The task" Crystal bit her lower lip, her irk showing through crossing eyebrows. "What is the task?"
"Your temper is quick. You are still pretty anyway." Breeze sighed. "Shivan mines. He wants you to gather information about what happened in Shivan mines."
Crystal's irk fled, replaced by a chill. She would be crazy if she sought the truth about Shivan mines. Four years ago all five hundred miners in that mine vanished. The incident was too interesting to escape the gossips of the Commoners no matter how much the Council muffled it. In the end, heads rolled but the tale remained in the mouths of the Commoners.
"There's nothing to it. A cave-in buried the miners."
"And yet nobody heard even the slightest rumble that cycle the miners vanished. Nobody even knew that something happened until someone found the empty tunnels."
"Many were killed to suppress the rumors. I will not dip myself into it."
"I'm afraid you are out of choice pretty girl. Shadow demands the information within ten cycles."
Crystal crumpled one of the papers. Ten days? Demand? Those people are too much. But what could she do? Reject Shadow's demand and have her identity as a Deviant revealed?
"Give me twice than that at least. I can't discover a buried secret in ten cycles"
"Shadow said that you would say exactly that! Oh no that old man. And" Breeze raised his finger. "He also told me that if you told me that, then I should tell you that you have ten cycles, nothing more. But I must help you."
She'd rather not have his help. It would mean disaster. This tricky task Shadow wants her to do required thinking minds. Crystal cannot find any semblance of a thinking mind behind Breeze's smirking figure.
"It is alright." Crystal pressed her lips together when she noticed Breeze's bare feet. The boots were gone and what remained were stinking, pale and wrinkled feet. "You can go now. I have other things to do."
Breeze pulled his feet. "What about my courtship?"
"Go!"
"Fine, alright. Have it your way. But I am..."
The door slid and Marble went inside. Her stiff expression turned stiffer when she saw Breeze.
"You are the new Sentinel assigned to my security."
"Yes Highness." Breeze bowed. "I took the liberty of familiarizing myself with your floor. I hope that is..."
"It is not. Your station is outside. Get out."
Breeze looked back to her and shrugged. "At once Highness."
The annoying rebel was gone in a moment. Only Marble's unhappy face remained.
"Have you finished what I ought you do?"
"Not yet Highness."
"And may I have your reason?"
Crystal just lowered her head. What should she say? That a member of the Resistance gave her a task to inquire about Shivan?
"I apologize Highness. I shall work on it."
"No. You should rest. Leave the papers for now. I would rather not have you making mistakes. Have you eaten?"
"Not yet Highness."
Marble hurried to her private room without a word. Crystal was left staring at the closed door with nothing to do. She eyed the stacks of paper. Perhaps she should finish a few more names? No. Marble told her to leave it for now.
Crystal just went to the window, the same spot where Breeze stood earlier. The lamps had indeed dimmed. She could see east Ninev from here, Areas twenty-six to sixty if she wasn't mistaken. The streets divided the dwellings into neat lines and rows.
The dwellings in Area ninety-two were not as fine as the ones here in Area one. Commoner's Ghetto, Area Ninety-two was called for its large population of commoners. It was a mystery to her as to why she was assigned to dwell in the area. The structures were low there, some even crumbling. The daily food ration was always late. Sometimes the sewers would overflow and she didn't want to rethink about the smell. It was worse than Breeze's feet.
Now that she was finally a Councilor, she would at least get a dwelling here in Area One after retirement. A few more decades to go, a few decades of hiding her gift and pleasing Shadow. If she was lucky, she could put the Resistance thing behind.
"Eat" Marble's voice sounded behind. Crystal turned. Marble pushed the paper stacks and laid a bowl filled with brown mushrooms.
"Highness..."
"Don't you dare utter gratitude child. Just eat."
Crystal hurried to the table. The brown mushrooms smelled sweet and they looked juicy. She had brown mushrooms only thrice since the things were rare. Daily rations would only involve white mushrooms, sometimes even rotten.
Crystal spooned some into her mouth. It exploded with tastes she never had before. Salty but sweet, dripping to juiciness. Every bite would creep flavors to every part of her palate. The saltiness mingled gently with the sweetness, evoking a feeling of warmth.
"Delicious Highness. Delicious!"
"Don't talk while you eat child. Be proper."
Crystal nodded and finished the meal with a shy smile. The bowl was bare and even the oil was cleared.
Marble took the bowl and rose. "Rest. Tomorrow you shall finish sorting the miners."
Marble walked back to her room, steps elegant as always. She halted and looked back.
"That Sentinel earlier. You know him?"
Crystal's smile retreated. "We met Highness. When I came here, he was the guard stationed in the gate."
Marble nodded and went on her way. "Good then. But don't stick too close to him. There is something about him I don't like."