But today, I’m a prisoner.A monster bound by silver.
* * *
The market sounds grow fainterthe higher we climb, as if even the sound wishes to escape.Roasted rootcakes and stewed meats fade away into small plumes of smoke, a smell I desperately cling on to.The smell of home.
Each step towards the city above, warms in anticipation.My chest tightens, breaths coming in fast as the realisation hits me: I’ve dreamt of this moment my whole life, yet this isn’t how I imagined passing the Hollow’s ceilings of stone—being able to see the sun for the very first time.And now I’m being dragged to it like a lamb to slaughter.
He jerks the chain again as the clinking has me grinding my teeth.“I—I can’t do this.”I pause, bracing for the tug.
Metal scuffs against the stony ground as he steps closer, brushing his hood back to display his neatly trimmed, bleached hair.Strands of white fall over his forehead, highlighting his silver gaze.He looks menacing, but his dark grey clothing has me contemplating his place within Auria.I’ve only ever seen those from above dressed in white and gold.
Who and what is he?
His lip curls as his nose wrinkles.“You can, and you will.You have no choice.”
He spins on his heel as he pulls the chains taut, yanking me ever closer to the tunnel that leads to the city above.
My lungs burn, legs tremble as we climb higher and higher on the steps that lead to freedom.Years of being trapped underground doesn’t make me feel as confined as I do now, heading out into the vast, open space, and the oppression beyond.
I glance back to the life I’ve only ever known; the lights twinkling in a sea of black, smoke from the pyres dissipating the higher they climb.The scale of our fracture beneath the ground strikes me like a blow to the face, and I suddenly feel so small and insignificant.Yet again.
We walk blindly into the engulfing darkness as the view of home vanishes beneath black rock, water weeps down the wall, mimicking the turmoil inside my mind.
Cold air fights for dominance in the confined space, as warm air enters through the tunnel mouth ahead.Light—real light—slices through the dark.Not torchlight, not fungus glow, but something harder, purer.
My breath catches, chest constricts as if my body knows it doesn’t belong this high above ground.Our footsteps echo, as the sound bounces against the walls back to us, its vibrations only adding to the rapid beating of my heart.
We pass guards clothed in silver and gold waiting at the entrance, not men, but an iron curtain that drops between my past and future.A living portcullis of muscle and steel, designed to crash down and seal the world above from the abyss below.
Luminary Guards.
The moment their golden eyes find me, my blood chills, freezing in my veins.A wave of icy nausea washes over me, slicking my skin with a sudden, chilling sweat.
The shadows around me seem to shrink as a high-pitched hiss fills my ears, drowning out the conversation to nothing but mumbles and grunts.
I can’t tell if it’s coming from me or from somewhere else, but all I know is that every instinct I possess is recoiling, retreating into the deepest parts of my soul.
He pulls on the chain, dragging me forward, breaking the spell of my internal dread.
The hiss becomes a shriek, like tearing metal that scrapes against my skull.
My vision dissolves into a painful, brilliant white.
I stumble into the open as the world explodes around me.
13
SEREN
Light as sharp as glass splinters my vision.
My bound hands fly towards my face in a useless attempt to shield myself from this unfamiliar blaze—but the manacles flare, a spike of burning pain climbs up my arms.
I choke on a cry as I wait for my eyes to adjust to the blinding light.
The Hollow’s mildew and smoke are long gone, instead a tang of incense—dry, clean and sharp drifts in the air around me, washing away the impurity of below.
My hands lower, as I squint towards the sky.
