Chapter 1

This is Chapter One of my novel for school. Enjoy!



Chapter 1

Chapter 1

You will be taught

I open my eyes to complete darkness.

I will always remember the feeling of lying in bed, feeling the passage of time as the Lighting approaches, the draft on my bare legs, the sleep breathing of my sisters near me, and my eyes staring out the venta, waiting to dart to the first flicker of light in the Nox.

Just as I think it, they do. My house is on a small hill, so my eyes skate across houses and fields as they fly to the Centra, where a small flame has flared up. Emi, our timelighter, lighting the day candle. Two more lights stem off of it and settle next to each other a little way away. One of them is the Tenuo; the thin minute candle, and one is the Saeta; the thicker candle showing the hours. It is Emi’s job to replace the Tenuo every hour, and the Saeta every eight hours: a new one when the day starts at zero o’clock, and one at eight o’clock (right after lunch), which lasts until the day ends at sixteen o’clock.  He has been the timelighter since I can remember, with his partner; Sewen.

Like the runners of a race, the Lighters spread out from the Centra, each carrying a flame. It takes years of training plus a Laki to be a Lighter. They have to run in complete darkness, fast as the river, never missing, never faltering in their quest: to light all the torches in Qae. This is usually done by the fifth minute of the day; that is how fast these people move around Qae.

I watch as a Lighter, a young man, lights the torch outside our house. He comes every morning, and my sister Hart says she is in love with him. He is good-looking, I guess, but I am certainly not in love with him. In fact, I am not in love with anyone at the moment. Perhaps I never will be. It doesn’t matter. I don’t need a partner to be the best grower Qae has ever seen, which is what I strive to be.

I look up at the sound of a yawn. By the new torchlight, I can see my sister Imber is awake. She flashes me a breathless smile. I return it. Today is our day.

This is our first day of Teaching. It’s relatively important, but not vital, in my humble opinion. Everyone my age seems to act like it has never happened before, while countless generations have gone before us. However, I do recognize its importance. This is the milestone that will change us forever. Hopefully, we will change Qae forever as well.

I hear Imber giggle, and look over to see Caleo has woken. My other sister. Her Laki name is Caleo, a name she chose to honor her skill with fire. She can tease a burning twig into an ember and back again, tame a flame to dance around her finger, and (perhaps this is what she is best known for), she burned off the ends of her hair in a fire Imber started when we were eight. It resulted in a debate by some of the adults in Qae, for one of the ancient laws: No person may purposely, drastically change their appearance for any length of time. No one really follows these laws anymore, they are so obsolete. Hart was probably the only person to break this law, ever. Leave it to Hart.

She is sitting bolt upright and clearly shaking with excitement. Her hair is frizzy and it stands out from her head like a flame. She looks like some kind of fire creature, with her paper-pale skin, flame-colored hair, and wiry-thin build. When she’s shivering, (or flickering, as I think of it), it looks as if she is a flame in the Nox. Imber’s blonde hair and olive skin look somehow dark in comparison. I look down at my medium brown hair, medium skin with freckles. So medium. But I do love my freckles.

All three of us move around on our lofts, preparing to drop. Automatically I look around to see if my sisters are ready to drop. Ever since we were old enough to sleep on lofts, we have made this drop together. We may be different, but we have always gone through everything together, and this is no exception.

I hear three quiet-as-a-breath thumps as we land. We rush over to our drawers, and l open mine. I survey the neatly ordered contents – three tunicas (one brown, one blue-grey and one green), a notebook, a handful of soil, seeds I’ve been storing up for years in a small woven box, and some twigs. I can’t wait until I have my own studio to live in. Then I can finally plant all these seeds and see what they grow.

We pull off our sleeping clothes in the near-darkness and pull on our tunicas. I put on my blue-grey one. I can just make out Imber pulling on her favorite, dark blue. Hart decides on a dark red one. To match her name, I think.

“Hart, why are you shaking?” Imber pulls out her hairbrush.

“Must I tell you?”  She turns her head, her hair whipping around her face.

     At a giggle from me, she looks up. “What?” She shrieks.

     Imber laughs. “You look like your head is on fire.”

     “I always look like my head is on fire!”

     “But now your hair is frizzy and for some reason, which I suppose we shall never know, you are shaking.”

“Ah. Yes. Believe it or not, dear Imber, not everyone is always as calm and emotionless as you and Viri. I am simply excited for today, it being one of the most important days of our lives.”

“Hmm . . . I don’t believe it, as a matter of fact. Are you sure you don’t have something else making you happy . . . a secret lover, maybe?”

“Hmm. Let me think about that. No, Imber, if I remember correctly, teenage romance is forbidden.”

“Oh, Hart, everyone breaks that law.”

“Everyone. . . you mean like you?”

“Oh, hush. That was not a romance. That was me smiling, and her smiling back. Somehow I doubt we are soulmates, dear sister.”

“Oh, I think you are.”

“Maybe you are her soulmate, Hart.”

“Imber, may I use your hairbrush?”

“Only if you don’t singe it.”

“Imber!”

“It is true. Yours is not a bad hair color, but you must admit, it is rather reminiscent of a flame.”
     “You think if I use your brush, my hair will turn as perfect as yours?”

Imber blows in Hart’s ear and laughs. “I just blew you out! Now you must be quiet. Could someone braid my hair?”

I stride over automatically. I don’t feel left out of their bickering, even though I am. They have always acted younger than I, even though we are exactly the same age. Perhaps I am just more mature.

We are out in the street now, the same one I navigated in my dreams this morning. Now it is brightly lit by many candles, and people are opening up their shops and going to their jobs. I wave to Posha, the woman who makes tunicas out of her home. She waves back. “Hello, Viri!”

Soon I hear the buzz of many voices, and see a brightly lit sod building looming up in front of me. It is brighter than the buildings around me. I have waited my whole life to enter this building a second time. I entered it once, but that was a fluke. My father is a teacher, and I once had to run and get him at work. Imber had accidentally set the kitchen table on fire, which seems amusing in retrospect, but at the time it was terrifying. Imber had screamed, and without thinking, I just ran. I had burst into his class, yelling. He ran just as fast as I had, back to the house, with his entire class of thirteens behind him. By the time we got there, Hart had extinguished the table with a pitcher of carrot juice, but the ends of her hair were burned a finger-length shorter. The thirteens almost died laughing, but Hart was the only one of the family not crying. “What? It’s just fire” she intoned. Half of Qae heard about it by Darkening.

I approach the building. The clay steps already seem familiar, in a way. I look around. For the next eleven days, this will be my home.

I notice Imber and Hart walk over to join a girl with black, curly hair. I follow them, if only to avoid being alone on the first day.

“Peace!” she flashes us a grin. Her skin is very pale. “What are your names?”

     Imber begins. “Sauver Seel Imber. Call me Imber.” She flashes her quiet, Imber smile.

     “Sauver Hede Viri. Call me Viri.”

     “Sauver Hart Caleo.” She adds. “Just Hart. For now. What’s your name?”

     “Collen Fleur Haele. Call me Haele. I am a healer, or I will be soon. What are your Lakis? Do you know yet?”

     “Oh, yes.” Hart laughs. “I have been playing with fire since I was a baby. I would love to make a career of it.” She fingers the ends of her hair subconsciously. I see a flicker of recognition, but Haele doesn’t say anything. Perhaps she heard about the fire, but not the name of the girl involved, like most.

     “I plan to study water. I am the fish among us.” Imber grins yet again. If I have to grin this much to make friends, I definitely do not want them.

     “I grow things. Plants, flowers. I’m a grower.” I do not smile, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She just nods. “That’s free. I love flowers.”

‘Free’ is an expression we Qui use to describe something impressive, interesting, or different in a good way. I have an idea of where it came from, but no one else in Qae knows. In fact, no one else in Qae knows what I know.

Just then, our teacher, who I know is named Ducare Ostin Merzen Kaum, comes out of the building. “Teens!” She calls. “If you wish to learn, please come inside.”

We assemble inside, which looks exactly as it did when I last saw it, if only for a split second. I sit down between Imber and Haele.

“Hello,” she sings. “I am Ducare Ostin Merzen Kaum, call me Merzen. I am your teacher.”

“Today’s lesson is on. . . darkness.”