Beads of sweat formed on my forehead as I struggled to breathe, I was down on my knees as my hands searched the muddy earth for my cartridge. Hildir the treg Tholen that decided to ruin my morning, laughed hysterically as she kept shuffling my cartridge around with her foot, enjoying the sight of my suffering.
I hated seeing her rejoice in my misery and I couldn’t let her continue in it. I stretched and finally grabbed my cartridge lifting myself off the ground to give her a thud with my head as I stood up, quickly putting my cartridge into the micro cartridge port at the jawline of my aeriq. She was knocked out cold; of course I made the whole thing look like it was a mistake; I can’t afford the extra attention. I’ve already been in enough trouble for the week.
I noticed the air wasting, so I readjusted the cartridge inside the aeriq, a breathing mask we use due to the air in our planet, Reika. One can still survive on the air, although the health implications that come with it aren’t worth the risk. The Avarins on the other hand are never in a condition to consider choosing between the synthetic air and Reika’s terrible air, caused by naturally occurring toxins from Reika’s atmosphere.
The planet, Reika is divided into the Avarins and the Nadrins. Avarins are the high society consisting of three levels; the Vaedrins, Arazins and Nimvars. The Vaedrins are the highest in the society who first received the aero-bionic surgery that made them handle the toxins better, they’re the people who invented the synthetic air and the different machines we use in administering air. They possess blue eyes and wide, ink-blot freckles scattered across the bridge of their nose and upper cheeks.
Then the Arazins, they were the second to receive the surgery with less resources as the first ones causing them to have blue eyes and tiny, paint-sprinkle freckles scattered over the bridge of their nose and upper cheeks. They maintain the structure of the society, keeping the balance in the air distribution.
And then the Nimvars, the last group in the Avarin society, they did the surgery with barely enough resources, making them have only blue eyes, they are the air protectors, ensuring the produced air is guarded against looters.
Then there’s the second class citizens. They serve the Avarins in different ways to access the supply of synthetic air, even though the air given isn’t exactly fresh. This group did not receive surgery and have no distinctive feature: boring brown eyes, no freckles and absolutely no honor to their name.
The Nadrins are divided into two levels; Tholens and Nafrens. The Tholens are the highs in the Nadrins society, they delegate duties between the Avarins and the Nafrens, which I believe is the reason for their unnecessary pride, the need to be important despite their position; it’s simply pathetic. They also work for the Vaedrins since the Nafrens are too low a status to do such.
Finally, we arrive at the Nafrens, which if you haven’t guessed by now is where I fall into. The lowest in the society, basically the people that are always stepped on. We work for the Avarins and fill daily air quotas in order to be able to breathe proper air.
“Hi Tira, is that a new record I see lying on the floor, the sun hasn’t fully risen yet,” Darius, my childhood best friend said as he observed the unconscious Hildir, “you know you won’t be able to get a duty if you keep causing disruption.”
“I didn’t do anything, I promise, she got on my nerves and I gave her the punishment she deserves. She's a treg, they'll understand.”
“You should know Hildir only starts a fight with you cause she’s jealous of your skill, why can’t you just let it slide? And you can't keep calling people treg, she has intelligence.”
“Cause Hildir’s a bully and needs someone slapping some sense into her once in a while, I can’t let her get away with that attitude. Her level of intelligence is next to low, so yes; treg. Besides, you didn’t see anything, let’s leave before anyone assumes otherwise,” I said grabbing his arm and pulling him along.
“Why do I always have to be your accomplice?” he grumbled as he followed reluctantly.
We headed to the allocation hall, where Nadrins gathered to see available jobs based on their skill. I touched the latch of my aeriq which folded to a blue collar around my neck and collar bone, Darius struggled bringing down his aeriq from his face, which meant he agreed to switch with his treg girlfriend again. He successfully brought his aeriq down while avoiding my death stare, knowing that I was going to give him an earful about his life decisions which of course includes his love life.
We separated and went to our different allocation counter, I never have to bother about lines since Nadrins with my skill are few. I get to the counter with the luck of seeing Gulraaz, the nicest human to ever exist. She's a sweet old woman with tender gray hair, soft wrinkles that seemed to laugh with her, and a cheerful glint in her eyes that made everyone around her feel at ease; she is one of the many reason I'm grateful for my skill.
“Good morning, Gulraaz, is it me or do you keep getting more beautiful, it’s not easy catching up with you, maybe you should slow down for us younger folks.”
“Oh, Tira, it’s nice to see you, with the kind of trouble you got into the last time I was scared they would give you a heavy punishment.”
“Oh, you know me, I always get out of these things.”
“Please don’t scare me like that again, this society would collapse without you.”
“Gulraaz, you flatter me, you can be assured that I’ll stay clean from every drama.”
“Here’s the available jobs,” she said handing me papers containing different house names and the society it’s located in.
“Yes, Arazins!” it was my first time getting to work for them.
“Some specifically asked for you.”
“Perks of being a skilled mechanic I guess,” faking my confidence even though that made me really nervous.
“You’re also going to be working with Sven for the Arazins, they don’t like it when one person works on their machineries, they don’t trust that the work would be done properly.”
And there’s the downside to all this, I knew it was too good to be true. Sven is a good for nothing know it all, who always feels the need to be in a constant competition with me. Always trying to argue about who knows more and competing with me, like I cared about who knew more. Darius says it’s because he’s threatened by me, but Darius is always saying people are jealous of me.
And Frankly I don’t see the reason why anyone would be jealous. I’m an orphan fending for myself, I literally don’t have any external support, no guardian, no influence whatsoever, what exactly is there to be threatened by. I would admit, I’m really good with machines, cars or anything technology; it’s one of the things I got from my dad, along with the habit of never doing what I’m told.
It was my dad’s persistence that made Nadrins get the right to be mechanics, he was the only one in his time; he was my idol. Yes, there were days we would have to struggle and breathe the natural air since he couldn’t reach his daily air quota but he saw it through and succeeded.
I just wish he never died in that fire. One of the houses where he worked caught fire and burnt down with him inside, it was terrible, his absence made my mom depressed, which caused her death. Well that and our constant consumption of natural air.
“It’s not that bad,” Gulraaz said snapping me back to reality.
“You have no idea, thanks anyway.”
I left the counter, to wait for Darius at the reception area. Sven who was just entering the hall saw me and waved; just great.
“Hello partner.”
“How did you know? You haven’t even gone to the allocation counter yet.”
“Yeah, well, some of us actually take our jobs seriously and go early.”
“You don’t say.”
“I arrived earlier than you at least four times this week,” he said with a stupid smug smile, I just wanted to slap it off his stupid face.
“Good for you,” I said with a fake half-smile and then let out a sigh of relief as I saw Darius walking over, I waved to call him.
He approached us clearly holding in laughter, perfect, him making fun of me would be the cherry on top of my terrible morning.
“Isn’t this a beautiful morning, hey Sven,” he said, shaking his hand.
“Beautiful indeed, oh well, got to go, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us,” I said standing up to grab Darius’s hand and pulling him away, as he finally let the laugh his been holding come out.
“Where are you going, we’re working together today,” Sven said, making Darius laugh even louder making me roll my eyes.
“Yeah well I plan on finishing my other jobs first, jobs are usually time scheduled you know.”
We left the hall with Darius mocking me with laughter till we got to the train, most people preferred using the bus but the train always seemed faster, besides, it was less crowded since people didn’t really make use of it. We headed over to our coach and settled.
“So…Working together huh, my condolences,” he said smiling coyly.
“You think they knew about this morning’s incident and did it to punish me?”
“What incident?”
“Really? Ugh, whatever.”
“Okay, okay, there’s no reason to be mad. There’s no way that’ll be a form of punishment and you know that. I guess, it’s best to just brace yourself for a competition you don’t even know your in.”
“That’s the most annoying part, I’m not even competing with him. Like okay you’re better, good for you. Let’s move on with our lives.”
Darius chuckled and then made his serious talk face.
“Look, don’t let him get to you. You’re good at what you do, like really good. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
“Yes sir,” I said saluting, making him frown, “don’t worry there’s nothing to worry about. Besides I can’t let Sven make me feel bad, it’s Sven.”
“Hmm okay. I don’t want you to…”
The train came to a sudden stop, outside we could see Avarins in their hover-cars, we couldn’t help but envy the simplicity in transport; I fix it but can’t use it.
“Hey, let’s drop off here,” Darius said nudging my arm.
“Huh? I plan on having breakfast before my impossible work load, I’ll pass.”
“No you won’t,” he said pulling me to my feet and then out the train.
Darius has always been an adventure guy; I have issues following the laid down rules which makes me argue with authority a lot and he has issues staying within the environment he’s supposed to be in; we’re both defiant in our own ways.
We left the train despite the conductor’s protests. I wasn’t exactly excited to leave knowing it meant I’d miss breakfast but I also wasn’t exactly ready for an argument because Darius does not believe in the word no.
We walked passed the grasses and moved towards the edge of a cliff, he made sure to hold my hand throughout the walk knowing I was capable of running away. We went down the cliff, with me giving him questioning looks, and him giving me his trust the process smile. Then we arrived at the bank of the river.
“Here we are!” he said gesturing proudly towards the water.
“Wow, nothing like missing breakfast to stare at water. I like the way it looks shiny,” I said sarcastically.
“Ugh! It’s not the water I brought you to look at, learn to look beyond what you see.”
“Hmm, well aren’t you poetic? Darius, I’m hungry!” I grumbled.
“You know you would’ve just eaten at home right?”
“No! I’d be too full for free food from the nice Nimvar lady. You also missed breakfast for her food, so what’s your point.”
“I’m not complaining, that’s my point. Anyway, I didn’t bring you here to see the river, look beyond it like at the end, those trees in the land beyond this river leads to the…” he paused to give a dramatic effect, “Vaedrin society!” he said with arms thrown in the air.
I was neutral at first, then it hit me and my eyes grew wide with shock and excitement.
“No way? Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s swim over there.”
“What? Isn’t that against the law or something.”
“No sweetie, they didn’t explicitly state it, which means were good.”
“I’m not sure about this.”
“So you showed me so we could marvel at the trees?”
“Not exactly. Okay fine. But we’re just going to peek okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, come on.”
We got into the water and swam to the end. Thank goodness, I had spare clothes in Darius waterproof bag because we were beyond cold when we got out of the water. One of the many perks of being a mechanic with a handy friend.
We hid in the trees to get dressed, met back in front of the river and started our journey into the forest. After a thirty minutes’ walk we arrived at a hover-way and had an overview of the entire city.
It was beyond words; the city rose above like it had been carved from the sky itself. The towers rose in clean metallic lines, but their silhouettes followed a distinct style; sharp angular edges fused with smooth curves. Every building had a recognizable outline, narrow bases that widened slightly as they rose, topped with geometric crowns that resembled stylized runic shapes.
Hover-ways looped around the towers like bright threads, lit with thin blue lines that tracked movement. Hover-cars glided through them at different levels, their engines emitted a soft air-tone.
At the center of the city stood the legendary hall of Vael that contains statues and images of heroes of the past, I had always wanted to know what it looked like, it was a massive structure built from mirrored alloy that reflected the sky. Its façade carried carved reliefs, precise digital etching that displayed shifting patterns, knot work transitioning into floral motifs, constantly animated by embedded light.
Walkways between towers were clear-glass bridges reinforced by magnetic fields. Some of them hung banners displaying stylized ravens and winged lions’ symbols drawn from our roots, modernized into sleek monochrome emblems.
Trees grew in controlled terraces on building sides, shaped into spiral forms. Water channels ran beneath the platforms, following straight geometric paths reminiscent of ancient qanat systems, except here the water glowed faintly, purified and lit from below.
“Okay, we have got to take a look around,” I said in excitement.
“Uh, what do you mean by that? You said we were just going to take a look.”
“O come on, you’re the one who loves exploring.”
“Yes I do, and you’re the one who loves getting in trouble.”
“Just a quick look around.”
“Like how we were just going to take a peek?” he said with folded arms.
“Fine.”
“Thank you,” he said turning back towards the forest we came from.
Exploring the city wasn’t something we were meant to do being Nafrens but I’ve only heard about the city from the Tholens and this was my only opportunity to get a look of the city for myself; not just picturing it from stories. I followed Darius towards the forest then after a few steps I stopped.
This opportunity wasn’t going to come again and it would be foolish to waste it. It’s not like I wanted to betray him. I really didn’t. But for the strangest reason my body seemed to start moving on its own and before I could think, I was turning around and running towards the hover-way, right when I was half way across the hover-way I was immediately hit by a hover-car and everything went dark.