a/n: hey, thanks for checking out Starry Veins! This is the novel I
wrote for Round V of LMS, and it's still a first draft! While I don't
discourage any feedback, I prefer not to receive feedback on grammar!
I'm not polishing this draft up yet, so I'm not as concerned about
editing. I am, of course, open to all feedback, but I ask that you keep
this in consideration! Thanks <3
*
[Ember]
Ember
missed her parents.
It
wasn't as though she hadn't before, or as if it had suddenly onset
her after sitting long forgotten after the fire. But so much had been
happening, and she couldn't stop thinking about the fire and its
cause that she had not stopped so much to think about them. It was
terrible of her and she knew it.
She
missed Mama's kiss on her forehead every morning, and Mother's stern
but kindly voice. Sitting on her knee and reading a book, or sitting
in the common space and just... being together.
And
she didn't know if they were all right. They didn't even know if she
was all right. Could they even go home?
Was
the Chronicler's Guild even home anymore?
She
had asked Enoch about Chromium. Technically, she had no obligations
or need to go there. It was just a place she had been born. She had
not grown up there, she had never seen it or at least, not beyond
what an infant would have seen.
The
way Enoch described it... An underground metropolis. Wall hewn from
the very stone it was carved into, veins of copper and gold and
silver and other metals and ores running raw though it, untouched in
the public spaces and left as a decorum. The gargoyles, sitting high
atop the walls and on lookout for any aberrant behaviour.
And
the best blacksmiths in the world lived in Chromium. If someone was
wearing jewellery, it was probably from Chromium. The horseshoes they
nailed to their horses hooves were likely made by a smithy in
Chromium. Kettles, weapons, hinges, utensils, how much of it was
exported from Chromium? What about the great inventions like walking
carriages? And Heaven's Keep may have made the most use of the
airships, but she knew who contributed largely to the creation of
them.
He
had not told her why he had left. He had not told her about his
sword, and what it implied, or how he had come to kidnap kids on the
road whom he would come to look after instead.
She
picked at a patch of dead, wet grass. It hung limp from her fingers,
and she frowned at it.
"What
are you doing out here all alone?"
She
turned to see Danica, who must have just gotten back from their food
supply run, since she was carrying a large basket with her. Rowan was
trailing behind her, holding a smaller basket. They murmured
something to her, and she handed them the basket. They disappeared
into the barn with the baskets, precariously holding them by
themself.
Ember
turned back away, staring out at the land that stretched beyond her,
and the view that was summarily cut off by the wall surrounding the
Blessed Gates. She grabbed a nearby rock, and threw it. It clattered
and landed dead in the grass several feel away.
"We've
been stuck here for a while, we don't go out much because of the
stupid Grey Masks. We don't even know why these random guys are after
us, or why they set the Citadel on fire." She curled her hands
into fists and clonked it against the ground. “It's stupid.”
Behind,
the barn door creaked again. She glanced over her shoulder again as
Danica sat beside her on the damp ground. She was wearing a pelt
wrapping now, as opposed to the armour she had worn for a while when
they had first met her, Hypatis, and Cadelia.
Ori
made their way over to them, and sat on Ember's other side. "You're
not getting into trouble with Cassius? I assumed the first thing you
two would do is start stirring up mischief."
She
scowled. "He's eating off Hypatis' fork. He's placated."
To
her annoyance, it made Ori's mouth twitch into a smile. "I can't
tell if you mean that figuratively or literally, and whether that's
supposed to be gross or not."
She
rolled her eyes. "No, not literally. That's be even more
disgusting than those two already are."
Danica
chuckled. "They're young and they like each other. It's not so
strange. It's natural, for some."
Ember
gagged. "It's gross. He's my best friend, and I have to watch
him make stupid eyes at Hypatis whenever he's near. And Hypatis
allows him to do it. It's just... ugh."
"Perhaps
one day you will see what he's so stupid about then," Ori said.
"The person who catches your eye would be a very remarkable
person indeed."
She
rolled her eyes. "Uh huh." She picked at the grass again.
"Dani, you're taking Hypatis and Caddy up to Glacier's Keep,
aren't you?"
"That
was what we set out for. I thought you and Enoch and the others were
coming with us?"
She
frowned and pulled the furred parka around her tighter. She wasn't
cold, she was actually quite warm. She needed the closeness, maybe.
She liked the softness of it.
"I
want to go to Chromium."
"What
was that?"
She
cleared her throat. "I said, I want to go to Chromium."
Neither
Ori nor Danica responded. She didn't look up at them, cheeks warming
and feeling silly for even suggesting it. Just because she wanted to
go to Chromium didn't mean that everyone else did. What about going
back to the Citadel? What about Isadora and Mishal and the rest of
the expedition?
The
grass crunched behind her. "You want to go to Chromium?"
She
turned, as did Danica and Ori, to see Enoch standing several yards
away, arms folded over his chest and frowning. She scooted around up
she was facing him.
"I
want to go to Chromium," she repeated. "I suppose you're
going to say that's a bad idea?"
Enoch
glanced towards Danica, then back at her. He approached, cautiously.
"Depends on the circumstances. I don't know why you'd want to go
there when Glacier's Keep is so close. Do the others know about
this?"
"No,"
she said. "I was saying what I wanted. Chromium is where...
Well, it sounds really cool. And I don't want to be in the cold,
especially for the winter. Besides, if the gargoyles work so well in
Chromium, it'll mean I can actually go places, and I don't have to
worry about those dumb Grey Masks because the gargoyles will tear
them to shreds if they try to touch me, if I don't get to it first."
"You
would have a very good chance to get a blacksmithing apprenticeship
too, if you wanted," Ori pointed out. “Anyone would be a fool
not to take you.”
She
stared down at her hands. "Yeah. I know. And I want to see the
smithies. I want to see the great forges and I want to see other
masters work and I want to see more. But I also... I don't want just
anyone else to teach me. I was supposed to work with Laska, until...
I don't know. Coming-of-age. Maybe Margaretta would have sent us all
on stupid expeditions to see the dumb ruins though, once we were all
old enough."
"The
ruins?" Danica asked. "You mean like, the cursed ruins?"
"Cursed
ruins is a wives' tale," Enoch snorted.
Ember
set upon him her best withering glare. "It could be. Why does
nobody know what's in them? Why do the kingdoms fall? Why do people
disappear when they go there?"
"Fabricated
stories. Besides, you mean to tell me that a whole group of people
you know willingly went to a place they knew they were disappear if
they went to?" Enoch asked. "That's ridiculous, and a
stupid plan besides."
"But
that's just the thing," Ori interjected. "If someone can
figure out what is going on in the ruins, and why nobody knows what
is in them or why they became ruins in the first place, it would be
huge. A massive breakthrough. And that's not even telling what kind
of strange magic may be in them. It could even be what people call a
curse, but could be some form of twisted magic or... well, it could
be anything."
Enoch
rolled his eyes, but Danica watched Ori with curiosity. "But if
everyone disappears, how would anyone know how to figure it out? What
would make any undertaking less dangerous."
Ori
bent their head and stared towards the ground. "I have an idea
about it, about why Margaretta thinks she can get in, but I'm not
certain yet. It's probably nothing."
Ember
twisted. "Do you really? What then? Why didn't you ever say
anything?"
They
looked pointedly at her. "Because it was only something that I
recently learned that got me thinking about it."
"What
was it?"
Ori
shook their head. "It's nothing, Em. Really. It could be
nothing."
She
frowned. It wasn't like Ori to not talk about the ruins, or their
speculations about them. But then again, Ori liked to mysterious too,
so there was no telling what they would or would not reveal at any
given time. She shrugged and pulled her knees up to her chest.
word count:
1,504
Points: 29825
Reviews: 465
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