Ignite the Jewel

Chapter II: Ariana

           The photo stared back at her. It was so...odd. So strange to see the outline of her feline blue eyes. There was something about those blue eyes... something so familiar. As if she had seen them before. "Ari?" Her voice got closer until she could feel her heavy hand on her shoulder. "Oh, Ari, are you staring at that damn photo again?"
She sighed but still could not break from the photo, "I'm sorry, Steph, I just got distracted."
Stephanie shook her head, "Come on, Ari, I get you're obsessed with her but hey she's been long dead! Can't you move on long enough to walk to class?"
Class!
She had completely forgotten about class!
She had to get home!
"How long have I been standing here?" She asked disappointingly.
"I don't know? Like forty minutes?" Stephanie answered with a shrug.
"Oh God, not again."
"Is everything okay, Ariana?" Stephanie asked in a more serious tone, "You've been acting really weird lately. Like even weirder than usual."
She could only shake her head. Oh how much was there she would like to say. How much she wanted to lift off of her chest but what worse timing could Stephanie have chosen?
        A time when she could not tell her anything and in a time where she was being crushed from all sides. She wished she could tell her how strangely uneasy she felt for no reason whatsoever, maybe she could offer her help? If only she could have told her.
"No, no, I'm fine."
Stephanie simply sighed, "Ari, for heaven's sake. Why can't you just be honest for once?"
"I am being honest."
"Yeah right you are."
"We...We should get going." She stuttered absentmindedly, her eyes wandering back to the photo.
"I don't get what you're so obsessed with in that woman." Stephanie said with crossed arms, "She's not exactly anything except beauty."
"How can you even say that?"
"Well what else is she?"
"Steph, it's not her looks that are so intriguing. Don't you know anything about her?"
Stephanie shook her head, "It's not like those new bastards on the throne let us study about them so no, Ari, I don't know shit."
"She was so... I can't really put it into words. She was so strong and just... perfect."
"I don't think I wanna know, Ari."
"You're so closed off, Stephanie."
"Hey if I don't wanna cry myself to sleep over the rulers we lost then don't mind me." Stephanie replied, "I'm not the only one who wishes to have them instead of these asses on the throne now but what bullshit can we do?"
"That's not what I'm saying, idiot. I'm just saying maybe she deserves a little more thought. She gave her life for the empire, you know?" She said, jogging to catch up with Stephanie.
"Sure. That's why we're here today, right?"
"Oh come on, Stephanie, it wasn't her fault. She tried her best. How would you fight an ambush war if you have no idea who you're fighting and everyone you love was just killed off?"
"Stop wasting your time thinking of them." Stephanie replied as she checked the time on her phone, "You do know that researching them is punishable by death if anyone catches you, right?"
"But why? Their family ruled our empire for thousands of years, why are the Golders trying to erase them from history?"
"I don't want to find out." She answered coldly, hoping to change the topic as quickly as possible, "A family that died thirteen years left us with these assholes on the throne. I don't want to risk my life over them."
"We're just talking about them."
"And that in the law is illegal, sweetheart, and it'll make us late to class." Stephanie handed her her books, "You have to go home now, don't you?"
Ariana let out a sigh and clutched the book to her chest, "Yeah, Mom doesn't like me being out for too long."
"You're just at school, why's your mother so annoying?"
Ariana shrugged her shoulders for she too had no idea. "If only I knew."
"Anyway you should get going before that brother of yours goes snitching to your mommy." Stephanie said lightly to lessen the anxiety she knew must have been boiling in Ariana's blood.
She had never wanted to go home. It had always been the most dreadful time of the day.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Ariana said with a dejected sigh, giving Stephanie a half hearted one armed hug.
       It was raining yet again. The thick grey clouds hid every inch of the peach colored skies. Ariana tried to cover her head with her binder and protect her laptop in her jacket. It was the only school material she had and she knew that there was no way that her mother would buy her another one if she ruined it.
       The small house was completely quiet except for the rain pouring down on the threshold. It was just as dark and gloomy as always but what used to scare her was now just a depressing reality she had gotten used to. She slowly shut the door carefully, defiantly not wanting to distract anyone else. Luckily there was just one small light that was enough for Ariana to see where she could put her soaked and muddy shoes. She recalled how Stephanie and her friends had talked about the sweet smell of food cooking when they get home from school as she walked through the tiny dark living room. There was not a small crumb or sniff of food anywhere nearby. Her stomach twisted and growled and Ariana struggled to remember when was the last time she had eaten anything.
"Ariana? Ariana, are you home?"
She cursed at herself when she heard her husky voice calling her name from the other room. She froze in her place when she saw her large shadow approaching her. Ariana looked around nervously for anything that she may throw at her and was rather relieved that there was nothing but the vase she loved so much. She would never hurt that vase, Ariana reminded herself.
"Why aren't you answering me?" She bellowed when she finally did approach her.
Ariana kept her head down. She could not bring herself to see her face but she could see her shadow overlapping her. Just the shadow of her was intimidating for she was an exceptionally big woman.
"Speak up girl! What's wrong with you?"
"I-I-I'm sorry, Ma'am." Ariana stuttered nervously.
"You're home late! I hope you have a valid reason."
"I h-had an extra sh-shift, M-Mother." She mumbled back.
"Okay then." She reached her hand out, "Where's the money?"
With trembling hands, Ariana slowly pulled the money out of her bag and laid it in her mother's hands. Though she was too terrified to look up at her, she could see her wrinkly and blemished face frowning as she counted the money. "Oh no." Ariana thought, "She doesn't look happy."
And she was not.
"Is there a reason you've made nothing today?" She shouted in her husky voice, slamming the stack of money on the only table in the room
"It was all they had for everyone today." She said as calmly as she could muster.
"Liar!" Daniel's voice shouted.
Ariana clenched her fists. She had to keep a straight face on but she knew that her path ahead was short. Daniel shut the door and ran up to them, throwing his backpack away.
"She's keeping the money!"
Their mother's drunken eyes glared down at Ariana, draining all courage out of her with nothing but a glance. Daniel was much shorter than her as many people were but at the moment that short and petite guy had the upper hand.
"No I'm not." She relied calmly.
"Yes you are! I followed you home from work!" He turned his eyes to his mother, "Check her pockets!"
"I'd never keep money from our family, mother!"
But Ariana knew exactly what was about to follow no matter how hard she tried to deny it. Her mother would never believe her over Daniel. She backed off a little but she knew that there was nowhere she could go. The floor seemed to tremble as the large woman stepped towards her. Electric like pain shot up Ariana's arm as her mother dug her nails into his wrists. "Mom, I don't have anything! I swear!" She pleaded desperately for she knew what would happen if her mother did find the cash on her.
"In the left pocket, mother!" Daniel said, pointing at the torn pockets in her worn out jacket.
Ariana screamed and cried in hopes that her mother would have pity on her and let go of her but it was to no use. She felt her mother's hands explore the holes in her pocket until she finally found the two bills she had hidden in there. Ariana only got a brief glimpse of the black rage that seeped into her drunken eyes before she felt a hard blow strike the side of her head, pushing her into the floor.
"I knew I gave you too much freedom!" She shrieked angrily, "Now you're learning how to steal!"
Ariana tried to sit up quickly, she remembered exactly what happened the last time she had laid by her mother's legs. But she instantly felt Daniel's foot push her head back down into the cold, broken wooden planks. She was hungry, tired, cold and rendered helpless like prey by her tormentors' feet. "Mom, I forgot it I swear! I swear, Mom!"
The alcohol in the woman's blood had contaminated her intellect as well. But Ariana knew that even if she had not been drunk then she would still not forgive or even bother listening to her. While Ariana was trembling in her own bubble of fear she could not see the vase being thrown at her until she heard the shatter ring out in her ear and the pieces of the beautiful white glass shatter around her.
"Get out of my sight! Get out of my sight while I'm still allowing you to live!" She screamed, "I broke the base because of you! Get out of my sight, you disgusting pig! I should have never brought you home in the first place!"
Daniel was shocked as well. He quickly removed his foot and allowed Ariana to get back on her feet. She seized her chance while her mother was raging and Daniel was shocked, she picked up her backpack and ran out of the house. She had forgotten to take shoes and with every step in the cold rain puddles, she felt tiny rocks jag and cut the soles of her feet. But she did not care.
       The rain was still pouring as mercilessly around her. Nobody was left outside and Ariana was not shocked because she knew that nobody in their right minds would stay out in the cold and heavy rain. Sure poverty had overtaken the empire for more than a decade but most people had a roof to go back to. Most people were not just kicked out of their home by their own mother. Dirt seeped into the cuts in her foot, sending stinging pain through her foot. It was difficult to see through the outpouring of rain around her but it seemed that she was not alone in the streets. She was glad that the store front she was taking shelter beneath was closed. The last thing she wanted was to annoy anyone else that day. But it was only when she had finally caught her breath that Ariana realized that her empty stomach was growling. She looked around the rain drowned city to find a restaurant or a cafe that she could go to but she quickly realized that she did not have as much as a dime to buy a crumb of food. Sighing she realized that even if she did, there was not a single restaurant that was open now.
All she could do was pull her jacket around herself and curl into a ball in a desperate attempt to keep out the cold. But it was to no use. Her jacket was far too thin and worn out and the weather was far too cold. The rain poured down on her in what felt to be gallons in every moment. With her head buried in her lap, she did not notice the man sitting down next to her in the rain. "You seem tired." He said in his strong northern accent. His voice should have startled her but he sounded too clam and composed to be scary. Ariana slowly looked up to be met with the man's patient blue eyes. Ariana instantly saw something comical in them. His eyes did not have the casual look in them.
"I-I'm sorry, sir, do I know you?" She asked nervously.
He chuckled a little, "I know you but you don't know me."
Ariana was sure that she had never seen him before no matter how hard she looked at him.
"I-I'm sorry, sir, but I don't catch on."
His eyes were observing her from head to toe, examining every inch of her.
"It's really cold out here, darling, why are you out in the rain?" He asked.
No matter how much his eyes observed her, he managed to not for one moment make her uncomfortable. His messy mop of wavy blond fell over his blue eyes, his bright smile was not dimmed out by his growing stubble.
"I don't have anywhere else to go." She replied with chattering teeth.
"And why's that?" He asked lightly, as if to indicate that she did not need to tell him if she did not want to.
Ariana simply shrugged her shoulders, "Nobody wants me."
"A girl your age deserves a warm home and a good meal." He said with a sigh as he got to his feet, "You'll freeze to death or drown in the flooding streets."
"No, I'll just sit here."
"Dear, it's already starting to flood and you'll drown by the time morning rises." He insisted, "I have a niece and a son your age. I'm sure you three can entertain one another till the morning. Plus a roof and a little bread will do you better than freezing."
"I'm not sure, sir." She said reluctantly.
"Don't worry, dear, I promise I won't abduct you." He answered jokingly, "I just want to help you."
He did not look anything close to threatening and Ariana could not find any sign that should have attracted suspicion other than she did not know him. She weighed her options. It was barely seven p.m and school was a long time away. She had no money and had already not eaten in almost twenty-four hours. The man was right and it was akready starting to flood. Where was she supposed to go once it flooded above her height? She would probably drown and if she did not then she would none the less starve or freeze to death in the cold. But then yet again in an empire like theirs, law was scarcely enforced and she had heard many girls being abducted, assaulted and murderers without being found until weeks later. Was it really safe to go with a man she had not even learned the name of? But then yet again she reminded herself that even if she was dead then perhaps all that would happen was that she would be saved from the terrible life of hunger and hate that she lived in now. She knew one fact and that fact pushed her to agree to go with the man. That one fact being that she knew whether she was dead or alive her family would not care.
"I- um... okay I think it would be amazing to have some food." She stammered.
The man smiled brightly, "Let's go then before we both drown in the flood."
Ariana had to trudge through the knee high rain water that was already flooding the streets. But the man did not offer to carry her perhaps, she thought, to not make her more uncomfortable than she already was. Ariana glanced at him every time she could. He began looking more and more familiar but she still could not recall one single time in her life that she had seen him. "Um do you live nearby?" Ariana asked once she noticed that they had been walking seemingly aimlessly for a while.
"No, sadly I don't." He answered as they took a turn into a dark alley.
"Then...um do you have a uh a vehicle? Like I don't know, a car?"
He laughed and stopped walking once they had reached well deep into the dark, isolated alley. Ariana's anxiety built up, a small part of her began to regret following a nameless stranger into a lonely alley where nobody would even find her body if he did murder her. The man noticed her uneasiness and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Don't be scared, Sel-"
He quickly stopped himself. His smile twisted and color drained from his face. There was nothing that he said that should have attracted suspicion or hesitation except that last unfinished word. But Ariana could not think of what that word could have possibly been.
"Why are we here?" Ariana asked.
"You'll see."
Without giving her a chance to ask further, he pulled a small silver remote like device from his pocket. It took Ariana a moment to recognize it but she finally remembered it from the book she had stolen.
"I-Is that a t-t-teleporter?" She asked in shock, almost forgetting to keep her voice down.
He hushed her quickly, "Yes, Dear."
"How do you have that?" She asked in a whisper.
"I'll explain once we get out of here." He replied as he was setting up the device.
"W-Where the hell are we going?" She questioned fearfully, "I don't think I want to go anymore."
"Sweetie, you won't be hurt." He reassured her, "I just can't get a car so I have this left over from the old days."
The trip was quick and Ariana barely noticed it. It was nothing more than a quick flash. In just a blink of an eye, Ariana found herself out of the cramped planet she had spent her whole life in and in a whole new world. The rainy and cloudy skies were gone and had been replaced with beautiful creamy pink skies. The old cramped city was nowhere to be found. All she could see were beautiful intricate mazes of gardens and fountains in all directions she looked. She could not remember a planet like this from any book she had read.
"Wh-What is this place?" She stuttered.
"It's where I live." He replied with a bright grin.
"Wh-Why do you liv- how do you- where are we?" She shouted, her courage completely exhausted.
He chuckled and placed a hand around her shoulder, "We're in the furthest corner of the empire."
"Why are we her-" her voice trailed off, "Is that-"
"Yes, dear." He answered with a chuckle, "Welcome to the Dianada Palace."