3 - Cello

Apart from an old lady who's fast asleep and looks dead and a woman with an army of toddlers on the far end, the car is deserted. I slip my rucksack onto the rack and edge into the seat by the window, pressing my cheek to the glass as I look outside. The fields are yellowed from the winter, with patches of snow still dotting the landscape. But the morning sun illuminates everything in such a way that makes it sparkle, as if the fields and sky are made out of molten gold.

Risa climbs into my lap and nuzzles my hand. I dig my fingers into her thick, soft white fur. She makes a sound of pleasure from deep within her throat, not like a cat purring, more like a human snore.

Someone slips into the seat facing me. I wait a moment and then casually lift my head from the window and stare; it's the boy from the other car. A fair-skinned, small-boned boy wearing a broad-rimmed straw hat. He's grinning widely, his green eyes sparkling with excitement. Before I can even find anything to say to him, he removes his hat, revealing a mane of messy red-brown hair that's in desperate need of a haircut.

I straighten in my seat at the sight of the greenish-yellow Jewel at the centre of his forehead.

"Crazy, isn't it?" he asks.

I nod.

"I thought I'd be the only one this far from the Zephyr. You usually don't get any Jewel in these parts, who'd ever imagine two on the same train?"

The boy's voice is high, he's probably not even thirteen yet, and the Jewel he has on his forehead sports a very distinct colour. I can't help feel a slight pinch of jealousy, I had waited and waited for my Jewel to change into a colour - any colour - but here I am, sixteen years old and destined to be an Undefined forever.

"Of course, I was born near Rockdem," the boy continues, "so I guess you'd be the really rare one, where're you from?"

"Aafta," I say.

The boy whistles and shakes his head. "You've come far. What, Aafta is practically in Maral."

"It's farther than Maral, it's in Furget county near the border with the Darabin."

"Maybe that explains how you found an Alprine," muses the boy. "They're almost extinct."

That's a first, my eyebrows shoot up. Yes, I know they're rare, but extinct? I imagined that around the Zephyr, every Jewel had one. Weren't they the mythological familiars of Jewels? In all the old legends about magic and heroism, the Alprines were the size of elephants, and could fly, breathe fire and had spikes on their fluffy tails. Jewels rode them everywhere, stopping wars, saving princesses and generally spreading about love and magic.

Of course, that was in a time when people believed that the Zephyr was magic, and not a source of energy as it is known to be today.

"My name's Quaine, Fellin Quaine." The boy's voice draws me back from my thoughts. I have to take another take on my new companion.

Even I had heard about the Quaine family. It had been the name of some important baron during the expansion of the Medanese empire 800 years ago. It was said that Baron Quaine had received the responsibility of overseeing the Zephyr and for that reason, up till this day, there were always Jewels born into his family. I had always thought it was a legend. My eyes wander from the mane of messy hair to the loose brown corduroy overalls and down to the worn-out muddy sneakers. Nothing to suggest any blue blooded ancestral connections.

"How old are you?" I ask, suddenly curious.

"Fifteen," he says cheerfully. "I was so worried that it would never change colour, I mean, I had only a handful of months left, then two days ago, I wake up in the morning, wash my face, and - " he suddenly stares, realising who he's speaking with, his face turning crimson. "Sorry, I - "

"Don't worry about it," I say with a shrug, stopping myself from adding a pitiful comment about how I had been worried that I'd end up an Undefined too.

Just like I did.

"So, you're sixteen?" Fellin asks tentatively.

"From today."

He smiles, drawing in a breath and is about to wish me happy birthday before he gets to his senses and decides otherwise. "You didn't tell me your name," he says instead

"Riles," I reply.

"Riles sounds like your surname."

I nod making Fellin blow hot air at his messy bangs. "You know, at least you have a nice face. It's sad but people have a lot more tolerance for someone good-looking."

"Basically, you're telling me that with nothing else going for me, at least I have my looks?"

Fellin glares at me and crosses his arms. "If that's the way it seems to you."

I turn my head away and return to what I had been doing before Fellin had interrupted - staring out the window. Only now, instead of molten gold, the scenery has become grey and misty, there isn't much to see through the curtains of rain.

"They're very shallow-minded in the Zephyr," Fellin continues in a haughty voice. "The prominent people like to have young, good-looking people surrounding them, that's what my cousin Kaitha told me. She said that even the Black Jewels would choose an Undefined over anyone else if they were beautiful enough. It's because the energy of the Zephyr is attracted to beauty or something. She's Undefined too, by the way, and she's not a servant or anything, she's got real solid work."

Fellin's words are enough to capture my attention; I look briefly at him. "That's only what she tells you. You can't know what really goes on inside."

"I was trying to cheer you up," he says dejectedly, "and Kaitha wouldn't lie to me."

I smirk and turn back to the window. Usually, I'm nicer to people, but this Fellin is hard to tolerate. It's aggravating enough to meet a boy only a few months younger than me who had just received his colour, but who asked him to shower me with sympathy as if I had just been told that my grandfather passed away?

"Not much of a talker?" He nods to himself. "I can respect that, but will you please take back what you said about my cousin?"

"I don't remember saying anything about your cousin," I snap at him.

"You were implying that she was making up stories."

"Was I?" My irritation peaks. I woke up before the sun and I guess that's also making me cranky.

Fellin takes his time to come up with a retort. "Well, it wasn't nice," he finally says, scratching his chin. "Anyway, that's not the point. The point is the hierarchy. It's bridgeable to a certain extent. Undefined aren't servants just because that's what everyone on the outside believes."

"Oh? Is that so?" I say dispassionately, trying to make it clear that I have no interest in Fellin's theories. I won't lie, I haven't come to terms with this yet. I'm hoping that whatever will happen, at some point, will grow on me. No matter what, though, I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that I deserted my mother. Only a few hours separate me from when I saw her last, but what would it be like not to see her for weeks, months and even years?

"Aren't you curious?" Fellin asks, ignoring my frown, "about what it's like?"

"Not really," I lie. I am curious, at least, I spent a lot of my time being curious about what the hell the Zephyr is and why we can't know anything about it unless our Jewel changes colour or we turn sixteen. But right now it's a painful curiosity and leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

"I guess it's only me, seeing as I was the only one who got to talk to Kaitha. It's so weird, no matter how hard she tried, she told me that she can't reach her parents."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, Riles, we're not only leaving. Our connection to our families are completely severed. It's literally impossible to make contact again."

"That makes no sense."

"That's why I'm curious," Fellin says so quietly he almost whispers. "What's going on? Where are we actually going?"

I don't want to be talking about this right now. A part of me wants to run back, to my mom, to my house, to my small free world. But the frightening thing is that an even larger part of me knows that my old world has ended, I can only move forward into the dark abyss of Rockdem and the Zephyr.

I say nothing, I don't want to egg him on, I don't want him to say more things that I feel in my heart but don't wish to hear. He makes a small noise in his throat and I find him watching me expectantly with his childish green eyes.

"What now?" I snap at him.

"Can I... touch the Alprine?"

I blink down at the fur-ball on my lap and then glare up at Fellin. "Not unless you want to lose your fingers," I say it snappishly, but I actually mean it. Risa is known to be particularly hostile to anyone who isn't me.

There's a boy in my class named Brinten who plays on the local football team. He's a big chuck of meaty muscle known for having a wicked instep drive. Unfortunately, he has never sported much in the way of intelligence and when we were all younger he enjoyed bullying things, other kids, dogs, cats and basically anything living that was smaller than he was. That is, until he made the mistake of trying to tie a string of cans to Risa's tail. She bit a sizeable chunk out of his cheek; he's a boy that remembers me every time he looks in a mirror.

"You don't have to be so mean about it," he says.

"You kind of ruined my mood." I reply.

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"That's not an excuse."

He gets up, "I thought it would be nice to meet another Jewel," he says. "Good luck with making friends in the Zephyr with that attitude." He snatches his hat from where he had put it on the table between the seats and storms away.

I turn back to the window.