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11 - Cello

I'll be the first to admit that girls are a wretched web of confusion. I'm at odds with myself, because I honestly love them and at the same time find them perplexing and certain parts of their being more than a little annoying.

While I don't have much of a track record in this area, I'm aware of and a little worried about certain patterns when it comes to my preferences. It seems to me that the ones I like mostly are the slightly crazy ones.

Not that in Aafta I had that many to choose from. There are two types of girls in Aafta, the girls who Aren't Quite There Yet – meaning, girls who still have a little growing up to do, and the girls who Have Been There and Done That, which theoretically I don't mind, but maybe they were moving too fast for me.

And then there was Lane who was her own type of girl, and as it turned out, my type of girl. Lane was the most depressive person I had ever met, just being around her instantly made me want to be happy. Naturally, I decided to see her as an antidote to sadness, although, if I'm completely honest with myself, the reason I was with her  was simply that she was the prettiest girl in Aafta, period, exclamation mark. True, we had a thing or two in common, both kids of divorced parents, both outsiders who are intimidating to others and attractive at the same time. I saw us as a sort of team, and while Lane's personality was destructive, I honestly cared about her.

Maybe I still do. I never expected her to betray me like she did, I wish it were another boy, I wish she'd have chosen to skip town instead; I wish I had been able to do something for her. She promised me she wouldn't do it, no matter how miserable she was, she promised me a hundred thousand times.

She lied, or maybe the darkness in her soul was too absolute. She chose to leave the world forever. She died and gave me something I would carry with me for the rest of my life. I felt the pain of being the one abandoned. The agonising reality of what it feels like to have someone you care for gone to a place you can't follow. Like her, I have left my mother forever.

Syianne is peculiar in a special way, and the way she stares at me brings Lane to mind. I'm worried that I like her because of that. Or maybe that's why I started liking her, now she's stuck in my head and I already know that she's carrying a small tale of woe of her own.

*

She's giving me the silent treatment throughout breakfast. As I eat my eggs and toast, utterly famished, I reason that there are two options: either Syianne is petty and furiously hates every boy she's ever rejected, or she likes me, but this doesn't sit well with the fact that she already has a boyfriend.

Because the second option is my favourite, I bring to mind the blond boy I saw her with yesterday morning. In looks he might be superior, if she likes the athletic, broad-shouldered, buff, manly type – and by the look of things she does – okay, he certainly has me there. Then there's their previous history which I know nothing of and I have to keep in mind.

They looked rather well-acquainted.

I'm about ready to give up on the notion, when I come up with one last ray of hope. There's always the present and future, and when it comes to the future, I have the upper hand over Syianne's blonde and absent boyfriend. So I decide to keep the future in mind and with a smile I turn to her. "They didn't come get us, so I guess we can go to Reception again today," I say.

And she has to respond because it's something she can't run away from. She nods curtly without looking at me and goes on eating her breakfast. I continue looking at her. "I get it, you're uninterested, I'm sorry."

Silence.

I sigh. "That's very mature."

Freezing silence.

I put my fork down and straighten in my chair. "I should be the one who's mad, I don't get why you're being so petty about it."

Finally, she looks at me with blank eyes. "I'm not being petty," she says drily.

"Right." I decide to continue along this line. "So what are you doing?"

"Keeping my distance. I don't want you to get any wrong ideas."

I shake my head, now believing that maybe I've misjudged her and the first option is the true one. "That is being petty. You don't have anything to worry about; it's enough to get rejected once, after that, I lose interest."

"You're not interested?" Her voice is toneless, but her words sound hurt.

I'm annoyed now. "Not in that way," I say.

She smiles briefly. "That's a relief."

I shake my head and go back to my breakfast. She's still looking at me; I feel her eyes on the side of my head and I am compelled to look up and meet her gaze. "What?" I ask.

"You're an odd boy."

"And you're an odd girl."

"I wasn't hitting on someone I just met first thing in the morning."

"I wasn't hitting on you," I say. She just looks at me and doesn't reply. I shake my head, "Forget it, this is getting on my nerves." I've finished my breakfast anyway, so I get up. "Thanks for what you did for me yesterday."

She doesn't argue with me. She just stares as I go upstairs, and when I come back down with my rucksack, she's still staring at me, following me with her big brown eyes.

I can't get her out of my head all the way to the Zephyr, especially since I know I'll be seeing her again soon enough. I'm pretty angry, so I walk fast; I don't have to slow down because of anyone today and I arrive at the gates before they open.

"Cello!" I turn at the sound of my name and am surprised to see Fellin standing right next to me. He looks very different, and it isn't because he's combed his hair for a change – he didn't — he's simply dressed smartly in the Zephyr uniform. Yesterday we came together, we were standing on the same spot more or less, but somehow in a handful of hours my story became so much more complicated. Now Fellin is one of them, a Jewel of the Zephyr, and as for me — I suddenly understand that I'm still on my way.

"Hi there." I'm happy to see him. Out of all the people I've met so far, he's the one I'm most comfortable with. "How was your first day?" I ask, and I honestly want to know what it's like, what're all the colours about, how'd he get a uniform, where did he spend the night.

"Overwhelming," he says. I get it, so it's too big to start elaborating straight away. He stares at my face and clothes and cocks his head to the side like a curious puppy. "But more importantly, where's your uniform?"

"I'm undercover," I joke.

"See, told you it would work out for you." He doesn't take me seriously but I wouldn't blame him if he did, I don't think that just one day inside could uncover the entire system, maybe there are some Jewels who wander around undercover? "It looks like you had a really good first day though, I mean, you're glowing. So, whose the girl? That Lemonade girl?"

"Ah." I'm guessing that whatever happened to me yesterday is still showing. "About that, well, it's a bit of a story, I'm not even sure – "

"Cello Riles." At first I think it's Syianne, who else would call me by my full name? I turn and I can't believe that I'm actually a little bit disappointed to see that it's Risa Medrick. I grin and see she looks particularly smug at first, and then bites her lip when she sees my face. "So I take it you had quite a day yesterday?"

"I thought that might have had something to do with you."

She takes a step nearer to me, but I keep my distance — I want to keep my breakfast down. "I'm really sorry about that, I had no idea you were so – " her smile returns, "compatible."

"I am?"

"We'll get to that." She eyes Fellin questioningly and then looks at me. "Your friend?"

"Yeah, this is Fellin Quaine, Fellin, I'm sure you know —"

"Risa Medrick," Fellin says in awe looking like a gluttonous child who has just been presented with a ticket to candy heaven. "You? And Risa?"

I laugh and rub the back of my head.

And Risa laughs too. All of a sudden I'm feeling very lucky that Risa Medrick and I are laughing about something together. "Anyway, it's a good thing I've run into you." She leans in closer and is practically whispering in my ear. "About your special assignment, we're discussing it at 8:30 in the second floor of the main dome."

"Who does 'we' include?" I ask, with a rush of excitement. Since no one had contacted us last night or this morning I was beginning to believe that whatever the mix up was, it had been sorted out without us and we would be starting today just like any other Undefined.

Risa looks around and then I see that every Jewel around us is completely tuned in on our conversation. It's noticeable when a famous Black Jewel is talking to a new Undefined in such a chummy way. "Let's resume this discussion in my study," she says in a formal voice. She looks around, as if searching for something. "What about Syianne Locke, where is she?"

I assume the meeting at 8:30 includes her, but I shrug. "She doesn't answer to me." The gates open and people begin shuffling away, though a good number of them loiter, their curiosity obvious.

"Did he tell you," Fellin suddenly pipes up, shinning with hyperactive friendliness that's a bit over-exaggerated even for him, "that he named his Alprine – "

It happens so fast; a million occurrences take place in the course of three seconds. Risa Medrick gasps and her hand whips in Fellin's direction, as if she's flicking a fly out of the air. Suddenly, Fellin's mouth closes with a snap and I can see how he's trying to make his jaws part but his lips are glued together. And I notice how the air changes, how everyone is staring at the white head sticking out of my shirt pocket,  how they identify what that creature is. A tall, broad-shouldered, black-skinned Blue Jewel takes a step towards us.

And for some reason, it all feels dangerous.

Risa grabs my arm with one hand and Fellin with the other. "Run," she instructs. Before my mind has time to make my legs obey; Risa's command makes my legs move. And we're speeding through the white streets of the Zephyr, zigzagging between the domes, everything moving past us faster than our legs are actually going.

Then we sharply turn left, and we're headed straight for a wall, I open my mouth to scream –

Air rushes down my throat as our feet leave the ground; an arched window opens up to greet us, and with a flurry of papers blown off a desk we roll into a small room.

I hit a cabinet and several books come crashing down on my head, Fellin slides from the impact of his fall under the desk. I don't move, I don't speak, I'm wondering if I'm even awake.

Risa is standing over me, without even a hair out of place. She looks somewhere between angry and entertained. "There are some things you need to know now before any harm comes to you," she says. She takes a step back and closes the window, then two more steps across the room and she locks the door.

"First, keep in mind that as long as you're here, you are being watched, you are being listened to." The first thought that springs to mind is why would anyone bother watching me? I pity the fool – probably an Undefined – who is sitting in a room filled with monitors and huge earphones on his head and is watching everything everyone does.

"Not just by people here, but by the Zephyr itself," she adds, as if she hears my thoughts. Fellin comes crawling out from underneath the desk with a soft groan, and rises to his knees, his face red with shame.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to –" he begins.

"You didn't know." Risa doesn't seem mad at him, it's hard to be mad at a kid like Fellin. "Alprines are extremely rare, and people here, some of them are ignorant. They don't know, or choose not to believe that once an Alprine chooses a Jewel, it will live and die for them. In this place of contradicting interests, anyone you meet is trying to manipulate things to their own private agenda."

"Including you?"

"Including me."

I bury my face in my hands, there's a tingling in my body again, I can't really focus on Risa's words, only on the thought that I'm going to have another one of those Overflows.

"What you did just now–" I try to start from the first thing that's troubling me.

"If it makes it any easier to understand," she says to me, her voice soft and soothing, "everything they've ever said in stories about the Zephyr, it's all true."

"So that was," I pause, as the word lingers on my tongue, "magic?"

Risa crosses her arms. "I'm disappointed," she says, "I thought that coming from the west you'd be more accepting of magic."

"Why? Because we're primitive?"

"They say that it starts there, in the West of the world, the energy, or magic or however you'd call it. It starts there and then it flows down and down until it pools here in Rockdem."

I look at Fellin who is looking at me; he doesn't seem to be as uneasy about this as I am. I decide to ask the question that's irking me, the question that probably burns in the heart of every Jewel who is born. "And what are we here for?"

Risa exhales and looks away from me. "We're here," she begins, a strange melancholy slipping into her voice, "we're here as magic's slaves."