NESSA POV:
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, then immediately closed them because of the bright lights.
Wait, what?
I blearily remembered going to the light, seeing kids go through walls, and then coming back home. I fell asleep after that, right?
"You awake?" My eyes shot open at the familiar voice. My neck was stiff, but I turned in the direction of the source of the voice. It was one of the twins. The girl.
What twins?
Oh...Those twins.
I went back, didn't I?
Yep, you did.
"I..." My voice was croaking.
"Here, have some water." She fumbled out of the seat next to my bed and handed me a glass of water from the table.
I pretty much inhaled the water.
"Thanks."
She didn't say anything, just stared at me with an inquisitive look.
I sighed.
"Listen, I know you're confused-" she started before I cut her off.
"Who are you?"
"Okay...I'll introduce myself. My name is Grace. Grace Bower."
"Where am-"
"You're in Amaris."
"I'm where?-"
"Amaris...You've probably never heard of it before, but I'm not the best at explaining. I'll let the others tell you."
I wondered what she meant by 'others' before I remembered the two boys I'd seen with her.
"You should stay in bed for a bit, I'll call someone over to tell you everything."
"O-Okay..."
With that, she stood and left the room, leaving me to examine it for a while.
It was much bigger than my room back home. Rectangular in shape, my bed was opposite to the door. In various places in the room, there was a desk, a fireplace, and a bookshelf. Considering its size, the room was relatively empty. I knew I had to get out of here. Some group of supernatural kids had kidnapped me, of course I did. Whoever came to explain to me what was going on, I'd have to get as much information out of them as possible.
I tried to remember as much as I could about the marketplace. Now that I was a bit more awake, I could remember more and more about what had happened.
I'd gone into the marketplace through the wall, I'd seen inhuman creatures and when I'd realized I was trapped indoors, I'd run. But then some big guy started screaming at me, calling me 'Mundane' or something and I'd seen the three kids I'd followed in here before passing out.
Just as I finished my recap on the events of the previous night, somebody walked in. Somebody I'd seen before. Black hair, insane gray eyes, cross around his neck. (pic of his eye color is at the top). He'd changed into more comfortable clothes since I last saw him, now wearing a simple gray shirt and black ripped jeans. He had a classic, expressionless face. He stood at the door staring at me, examining me probably.
"Hey," I said as he walked in, hands in pockets.
Not one to start conversations. I made a mental note. I didn't know how that'd be helpful, but I'd find a way.
"Hey." He didn't sit, just stood at the foot of the bed I was now sitting on. "Name?"
Should I tell him? Yeah, if they wanted to kill me, they would've done it while I was passed out. If they want ransom...
"Livia...Livia Blackthorn." (Yesh, Shadowhunters. RIP Livvy. qwq)
"Real name."
"Nessa Hayes," I said with a poker face.
Busted.
"Age?"
"You know you shouldn't ask a woman her age-" I tried to bring some humor into the bland (af) conversation.
"Age." he emphasized it a bit.
I frowned. "17."
He sighed, then proceeded to take a seat on the same chair the other girl had sat on.
What was her name again? Glaze or something..? Wait...that's not even a girl's name.
I mentally facepalmed.
"So...I'm guessing you have questions."
I stared blankly ahead.
"You can ask them, I'll answer as much as I can."
I did nothing.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him frown. "Your eyes...They're weird."
This wasn't the first time I'd heard someone say that. My hair was pitch black, nobody found anything wrong with it. My eyes though...They were an unnatural shade of hazel. "You think?" I don't think I'd frowned so much in one day in my whole life.
"Not in a bad way. I mean- I've had people tell me mine are odd too."
"Wonder why."
He just stared at me blankly.
"Sorry for that, I just needed the information and I'm a straightforward guy."
"mmm...It's okay. What's your name?"
"...Carlos"
"Well then, it's nice to meet you, Carlos."
"Likewise. Now, can you ask your questions?"
"I don't have an-"
"Don't complete that sentence. I've just met you, but you're a bad liar."
"Where am I?"
"Amaris."
"Where was I?"
"The Dublin ShadowMarket."
(A shadow market includes any unregulated private market in which individuals or entities can purchase assets or property that are not publicly traded. Basically a black market.)
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Probably not."
"Did you kidnap me?"
"No, we saved you."
"What is this place?
"Amaris."
"What is Amaris?"
"The place you're in."
I blinked.
"Amaris is an ancient hidden city in Ireland. It's made for Aerie and Elementals." (lmao just realized that sorta rhymed)
"What-"
(INFO DUMP FORGIVE ME ILL LEAVE A SUMMARY AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER)
"Okay..." He took a deep breath. "It's been a while since I've done this."
"As I said, Amaris is an ancient hidden city in Ireland made for Aerie and Elementals. It's hidden by the haze. People have written books about the haze, nobody quite understands how it works. It makes us look natural or just completely hides us. Amaris is underground, right below Dublin. Aerie and Elementals are two species you've probably never heard of. They are born enemies. The others here, as well as myself and you, are Aerie.
"what-"
"Let me finish, you can vent after that."
"..."
"We're a humanoid species, though our only purpose of creation was to destroy the elementals...They're not always evil, but a few of them are so bad, it ruins the entire race's reputation. We classify them into different types to figure if they're to be hunted or not. Before sorting, we classify how dangerous each of them are with a scale of 0-10. 10 is the weakest, 0 is the strongest. We're currently facing a problem, but we'll be telling you about that after you process this information."
Then he tried to lighten the mood a bit.
"The house we live in is owned by Grace and Will's parents."
"Who?"
"The girl you met and her twin. He was with us at the shadow market too. Their parents took Raven and me in when we were kids, and we've been living here since...Raven is my childhood friend, by the way. You'll be able to meet him soon."
He paused for a second, and I knew it was time to get back to business.
"If you're Aerie, one of your parents must be too, or you could be Olivia Aerie. Which you're not because she died ages ago. As far as we know, Erina, your mother, Evelyn Hayes, is Aerie.
"We'll know for sure if you can confirm the fact that you're her daughter."
"My mother died when I was a child, l-leave her out of this."
"Can you just tell me her name?"
"...Evelyn"
"You're her daughter then...It's confirmed..."
"You're Aerie Nessa Hayes"
"Welcome home."
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for those of ya'll who skipped the info dump-
Basically, she's currently in a household in an ancient city under Dublin (Capital of Ireland for the non-nerds here). People inside are the twins (Grace and William/Will), their parents and a guy named Raven along with Carlos.
Raven and Carlos are childhood friends who got taken in by the Bowers (Twins' parents). The city is hidden by something called 'the haze' which makes them look natural, or if it can't, makes them invisible.
There are two new species here- Aerie and Elementals. Nessa and the other people in the house are Aerie. Elementals are what they were made to hunt. Not all elementals are bad, but some are so devilish, it ruins the entire race's reputation.
They're categorized in two ways. Whether they should be killed or not, and how dangerous they are. On the danger level, they're given a score from 0-10. 0 is strong, 10 is weak.
Its discovered that Nessa's presumed dead mom was Aerie, which is how Nessa is Aerie, and that's how it ends.
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THIS CHAP SUCKS IM SORRY I WAS SPEEDWRITING A HUGE CHAP. QWQ
Word Count: 1475 Words...Second-Largest chapter I've ever written by 3 words lmao.
Welp
Not
Anymore
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