Present Day
312th A. P.
Castle City;
Sun Continent,
The Kingdom.

An act of freedom.

My first ink.

The black ink bonded with my skin tinkling it pink, connecting forever. And Zarya my only friend questioned my sanity.

"They use to call this creature the King of the jungle? But it's an animal."

She doubted my choice of permanent art, a lion head. But to be fair animals like the lion didn't even exist anymore. The "pure environment" as we used to call it had evolved into something else. Flowers looked different, animals did too, even fruits and vegetables. We had been able to resolve some environmental issues but not enough yet. This adaptation went as far as changing genes, there were no more pure environment people left either, dominant genes became recessive and then extinct. I unfortunately had been left with one of those dominant genes so it was more of a hassle for me to blend in. Still I did it for my own safety and of those around me.

"Come on, you know you want one." I teased her and she just shook her head.

The girl was inking the small space by the bone between my thigh and the side of my lower stomach.

"All done." The inker girl said to me and I smiled proudly about my little secret.

"Now pay the girl Hesper, cause I'm about to be late to my shift." Zarya said looking at the time.

Zarya only knew me as her friend, Hesper, and nothing more, because more would endanger her life.

I paid the girl through my Tiger tattoo. The old world trusted mere pictures to identify an individual. But people were too prone to changing their looks but fingerprints remained a steady source of identification. A mere picture couldn't be trusted so with the abolishing of pictures physical papers were also an environmental disaster to keep track of and we went digital.

These "tattoos" as we called them were electronically maintained in the Kingdom's citizen body and it held our specific currency, information, and tightly implemented identification of a person. They said it was infallible but a handful over the years had managed to commit fraud.

Including me.

My father had tattooed me with 6 out of the 7 different tattoos. He just didn't know I had learned how to manipulate them to activity. The only tattoo I didn't have was the Knights' tattoo. The Knights are what the people fear in the Kingdom. They were the enforcement of the Kingdom upon the population. The most untrustworthy of all the seven powers, that's how we were separated. You couldn't trust anything you saw when it came to them.

Still I could activate one tattoo at a time to use and they'd turn on, resurfacing to my skin. But the real problem was attaching a whole identity to one of them. That was the real challenge. So far I had only been able to get help for creating one. Still when they weren't active they lied dormant without any trace of existence. So I used my Tiger tattoo, the only one I had an identity linked to. This ID was called Hesper Nyx, the friend Zarya knew.

It took me years to get this ID since I had to do it while no one was looking and someone was always looking for me. If anyone caught me I'd be as good as a Raven, the lowest of all the powers, imprisoned forever. My ID was forged little by little. Tested little by little. Until the final project was done and when I was finally able to escape for the first time I met Zarya. I'm not rational enough to say it wasn't fate. But maybe that's what happens when you almost die, something goes loose in your brain.

"So any new info?" Zarya asked about my findings on my mother's death.

"Nothing conclusive but I'm not giving up. What about you?"

"Nope. His trail ran cold for now," she was looking for her brother.

Zarya and I were both trying to solve our past. She was looking for her brother and I was looking into organized Ravens who hated my family. There were too many and many more with motive to have planned my mother's murder.

"We just need to find ugh... How?"

"What?" Zarya looked at me when I talked in half sentences, because my brain was thinking too ahead and already crossing out what couldn't be done.

"Well we need a source. I don't have a way to look into data without access. So we need to get close to someone who does. but that means they have to be close to leadership but not too close or they're too protective of it. But where could I have access to this kind of... Wait, I think I have an idea."

"What idea?"

"Never mind that, you're late! I'll let you know once I have news!" I hurry out the door even before she does as I notice the clock knowing exactly where to head towards to: the place I run away from.

"You better!" She screams, shaking her head.

Before anyone noticed I was gone I also headed back home.

I wasn't technically allowed to be out. And by technically I meant literally under no circumstances was I supposed to be anywhere else other than home. If anyone found out I escaped there'd be hell to pay and I'd be the one paying it. And if anyone knew about my ink art my father would cut it out himself.

In order to get fresh air from time to time I had to do everything disguised as someone else. It wasn't easy but it was the only way. I had discovered my sanity lied away from the walls of my house a long time ago when they took me away.

On the way back the trash truck had its usual route and when it stopped at a traffic light I climbed between the front and the back holding on to a piece of metal to get back to where I lived. The truck stopped to get the plate checked before entering the Castle. As soon as it was inside I climbed off.

First I traded my disguise for that of a servant.

In the kitchen I hid my other clothes in a plastic bag behind a thermal cool air vent. Dressed as a servant I typed in the code of the day. The code let me back inside the Castle.

Right before I crossed into the big golden doors where the King lived, I changed once more.

This time into my real clothes and mask.

"You're late for dinner." Evangeline complained but I had successfully escaped yet again undetected.

"One minute Evangeline, one minute," I told my guardian.

"Late is late. On time is late. Early is on time," she said it again to me as I sat for dinner. "How many times will I have to tell you how things work in your Kingdom?"

"Until it makes sense. So I'm guessing you'll be here for a long time."

"Wash your hands," Evangeline said impatiently.

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No part, character, names, plot, setting, conflict or resolution, point of view, theme or symbolism of this story may be replicated.

Copyright: All Rights Reserved to A. Sena Gomes.