As we walked through the town I couldn’t help but remember the busy nature of the square I’d seen. Men and women of all shapes and sizes scattered around: buying, selling, laughing, shouting, haggling. It was filled with mirth and life. But I paused and looked at the shops I knew so well.

We walked, as our purposes directed, in straight paths. Shopkeepers sold at regulated times to regulated customers. It was dead, silent, empty. “It’s so lonely,” I mumbled to myself and suddenly realized the words were truly new.

“Indeed, it is a lovely day out. Do you think it might rain?” Syntyche looked at me with his cool amber eyes. His response was just the same as if I’d said the words my purpose had given me. I struggled to remember what my given response had been as his calm face gazed at me lovingly.

“Um… Oh! It might, only the clouds can tell what fate they have in store for us this day.” I tried to give him a warm confident smile but my hesitation had put him on edge. In all the years that the Kumihedian had reigned no one had ever changed anything given in their purpose. He looked at me with concern as worry furrowed his brow. He didn’t dare change his own purpose to ask, but the question danced on his tongue like a wild bird, caged and clipped, wishing to be free.

“Will your shift be long today?” His soft russet skin looked shiny with the anxious sweat that had coated his face. I knew he was trying to hide the fear he felt at my hesitation and I carefully played out my part in reassurance.

“Not long. It would please me very much if you would join me for midday meal. The salters and the shop girls are in charge today, it might prove to be very interesting.” I gave him my playful smile and I saw the tension visibly ease in his shoulders. We both knew the shop girls and the salters had an ongoing feud as to whose job was harder and which ones were the pampered princesses in the Crystal Basin. His smile was all I needed to see, and as he affectionately kissed my cheek goodbye, I quickly tightened my apron and slipped on the thin white crystaller gloves they’d given us.

I went easily to the work I knew so well, handling the finished crystals at the front of the shop and cutting the sugar string away from the pale glittering gems. Though the purpose colors they received each twelfth were always dazzling, I couldn’t help but admire the rainbow of pigments the sun revealed when it cast it’s shadowed hand across the facets of each piece.

“I don’t know how you do it Astrayna. You cut so swiftly and yet every crystal you cut is a perfect little masterpiece.” Karuli, my fellow crystal cutter and newest official worker in the shop, looked at me with innocent wonder. I couldn’t help but smile as she gazed at me with her bright sapphire eyes.

“It’s just like cutting hair. Gather a few strands of crystals between your fingers, hold them straight, and slice.” I smiled as I showed her the motions and she mimicked my method.

“Where’d you learn to do that! My mentor never told me anything about this skill!” She tried the same trick on a few more of her strands and smiled at the clean invisible slice it left.

“My purpose, one twelfth I saw myself trying it out and it worked. I’ve done it ever since.” I smiled down at her and she smiled back up at me. However as she went back to her spot my smile fell. The answer felt natural, it was part of my purpose to say so, and yet…. I carefully traced the memory trails in my mind and with a shiver I realized it hadn’t been my purpose that had prompted me to try the new technique, I’d chosen to try something different, I’d chosen to violate my purpose.

I worked to fight the sick feeling that rose in my throat and smiled politely as Karuli rushed over to show me more of the crystals she’d finished. Her tawny skin shone with pride and her coppery hair glinted in the light. I envied the girls in the village with hair that was rigid and straight. Hair that didn’t defy you with every turn of the head.

I took a breath and chased away the fears and envious thoughts. I lost myself in my work until Syntyche came and casually knocked on the wooden pillar of the shop’s awning. “I’ve arrived! I’m ready for the promised midday meal drama.” He smirked at me and some of the other front girls gave me a wary glance.

“Let’s hope the food stays on the plates this time.” The head girl, Elandra, led the procession into the shop and the scene before us, though not a surprise, still made us stop in our tracks. The shop girls, tasked with bagging and selling the goods, and the salters, tasked with pouring the correct amounts of salt into the boiling vats and mixing, were standing in rows, each glaring at the other, with ingredients still on the table.

“Looks like midday meal will be a bit late today.” Elandra rolled her eyes and flicked her golden plaits from her face. She’d been married only two twelves ago and she never missed an opportunity to show off her braids. “What seems to be the trouble this time?” She placed her hands on her hips and gave both sides an exasperated glare.

One of the salt girls pointed a finger at the other side and piped up in a squeaky accented tone. “Ve vere trying our best to make a lovely quiche for midday meal, but they insisted that ve vere doing it vrong!”

Another girl from the shop side piped up. “Well you were doing it wrong! You’re supposed to clean and soak the meats and veggies in a salted vinegar to give them extra flavor! You’re salt girls, you should know this!”

They began shouting and talking over each other, the noise becoming a deafening cry of shrill voices. However, I couldn’t help but remember the vivacious cacophony of the village square from my dream. The way the people spoke with more than just their mouths, their hands, their faces, and even their bodies moved and radiated with emotion, but the crowd before me was scripted. Every line, every face, I’d seen the night before when I’d received my purpose.

As the noise settled and people began to gather supplies to finish the meal together I couldn’t help but feel the wrinkles in my brow as I frowned with the weight of my thoughts. This was the way it had been for centuries, so why did it suddenly feel so wrong.

“You coming to eat?” Syntyche looked at me with his usual charming grin but his brow soon furrowed to match my worried face. “Are you alright?”

From my purpose, I knew what the concern I was supposed to be expressing was, but the dread inside me overpowered the worry about the youngest apprentices handling the knives. I bit my tongue before responding with the reply I was supposed to give. “Yes, I’m fine. Just worried about the little ones.” I plastered on a smile and inclined my head towards a pair of girls from either side of the previous feud as they clashed their knives on the last vegetable that needed to be sliced.

“Ah, indeed. That could end up being quite the bloody debacle. Not to worry, I'll handle it.” He winked at me and quickly shuffled over to the pair who immediately became more occupied with his looks than their fierce battle over the mutilated legume.

I had to admit that I was truly fond of Syntyche. His short chocolate hair was like the wool of one of Sarish’s newly sheared sheep and his warm olive skin was always smooth aside from his calloused hands with his frequent work in the grain fields. He had broad shoulders and often wore gold and yellow tunics that brought out the natural gleam in his amber eyes. The Kumihedin had chosen the perfect mate for me. My purpose was clear, and yet since the visit of the cloaked man, doubts clouded my mind.

I felt off, almost out of balance with my world and the glimpse my dream had given me. As I set the plates for the meal I wrestled with the curiosity that had ignited inside me. I pushed away the invading thoughts that wished for the cloaked figures to return, just one more time. Just to ask them about a life without purposes.

I didn’t remember much of the meal that was served nor the conversation and farewell kiss from Syntyche. I went through the motions imprinted inside me. It was all automatic as I watched a spark of knowledge ignite into a dangerous flame.