"Cause they will run you down, down 'til you crawl."
-Kaleo
Adira pulled her blanket tight around her as she stood at the edge of the rooftop, on the outskirts of Acadia. From her perch, the city spread below her, filling her vision with its grandeur. It never ceased to amaze her when she stood there taking it all in, breathing in the fresh air. Up there, she was free.
Tall slender buildings of different sizes were scattered among each other, reaching for the sky. The morning sun reflected off their silver windows, beams slicing through the fog that drifted between the buildings. Whispers of peace that blew through the air when the city woke up was what made Adira want to stay there forever.
The crisp first wind of autumn blew through her long chocolate-colored hair. Behind her, she could hear the the Arys Sea, its waves hurtled over each other in a battle she would never see again. The Council had finished building the city's wall five years ago, its surface slick and metallic. The dark halo surrounding the island was a stark contrast to the glowing white city trapped inside of it. Wielders weren't the only ones who were kept inside—Adira was kept inside too.
The world away from the large island of Acadia had grown dark. The Council said that the Mainland had succumbed to darkness, that Wielders had taken control, leaving destruction in their wake. Acadia had closed itself off from the rest of the world to its citizens.
But there were the whispers.
The whispers of power, stone, and magic. The murmurs of a shaded story, a mystery yet to reveal itself.
Adira took one long last look at the sky, bidding the painted sunrise farewell until spring. With one step backwards, she returned to reality, already missing the freedom on her edge of the rooftop.
The rooftop had been her home during the months of spring and summer, when the weather would allow it. Over the years, she had built a canopy to shield her from spring rain and the bright summer sun. Leaving her slice of paradise always tore at her heart.
She spun on her heel and went back to her canopy, exchanging her blanket for her brown hooded jacket and her scuffed up satchel. It was about time she visited Bea.
Adira took the stairwell to Bea's room on the sixth floor, her palms growing sweaty as she neared her door. Since she had turned eighteen over the summer, maybe Bea wouldn't let her stay there for the winter anymore. She had taken in Adira every winter since she could remember, but she wasn't underage anymore—she would have to pay for her rent.
Adira knocked on her door and Bea opened it, putting her hand on her hip.
"You couldn't come by more often?" Bea asked, her honey brown eyes throwing daggers at Adira's emerald ones, demanding answers. "You're ten floors above us, not in the mainland."
"I'm sorry," Adira said, dropping her gaze to Bea's impatient, tapping slipper. "I just...escape out there."
Bea threw her head back and laughed, her dark, silver-streaked curls bouncing behind her. "Where are you escaping to? Orica? The Crystal City?" She pushed open her door, motioning for Adira to go inside. "Let's go discuss our escape plan, shall we?"
"Seriously, Bea," Adira said, brushing her off. "It's peaceful up there." She walked past Bea, hearing her close the door behind her.
Her apartment's earthy tones and simple furniture always made Adira feel like she was at home even though she had never had one of her own. She could smell the candles that Bea had lit in the kitchen along with the remnants of bacon. If she ever had a home one day, she would want it to smell like Bea's.
Everything was exactly how she had seen it six months ago. Bea's grandson, Quinn, had not learned how to clean up his messes during her time away. His toys and drawings were scattered across the living room.
Then Adira stopped. Something was different. To her right, a suitcase sat next to the first door down the hallway.
No. Bea didn't.
"Bea?" Adira spun around, her voice quiet. She prayed that she was wrong. "Did you sell the room?"
Bea nodded, the humor from earlier leaving her face. "I had to."
Adira turned her head away, walking to the window across the living room. "You know I have no where to go."
"You can't blame me. Quinn's mama isn't coming back." Adira could hear Bea's voice right behind her as delicate fingers grazed her shoulder. "I need something to help me raise the boy. I can barely afford to feed the two of us, much less another belly."
Adira understood. She really did, but it did not help make the situation any easier. It did not make it hurt any less. She could not be on the streets. The authorities had been cracking down on the homeless lately. She wouldn't last a day. They would sniff her out before she could warm her hands next to a fire in an alley.
"What if I can pay?" Adira hoped. "What if I can match whatever they're paying you?" She turned to look at Bea who gazed back for a moment in contemplation before speaking.
"Six hundred credits for six months. If you can do it, the room is yours."
Adira wasn't about to turn that down whether she could do it or not. She would find a way. She knew someone who might pay her enough for a job, depending on its importance.
"Deal."
☆ ☆
Adira arrived at Josiah's pawnshop after a forty minute walk. She walked into his store, pulling her brown hood away from her face. She shoved her hands into her pockets as she made her way around all the junk and to the back counter.
"Long time no see," Josiah greeted her, leaning back in his chair. God, he'd gotten fatter and hairier. Probably drunker, too, given the slight tilt in his posture, and the husky stench of liquor hanging in the air. "Lookin' for a job?"
She nodded her head. Most of the time, his deliveries only paid enough for food and other necessities. It took her five jobs with him to earn enough to buy her jacket.
"I've got a few packages in the back that need to go to—"
"I need something bigger this time," Adira cut him off, knowing that nothing in the back of the store was going to be close to what she needed. "I need six hundred."
Josiah stared at her, assessing her. "Six hundred, huh? I've only got one job for that amount." He scratched his chin with one of his sausage fingers. "I'll tell you what. If you can bring me a special package I've been waiting on, I'll give you the six hundred and then two hundred more."
Adira's eyes bulged. "Why more?" she asked skeptically.
"Because the package is at the Den."
The Den. More whispers of Acadia. In a bar once, she had heard a group of men talking about the secret Den, the lair of the Wielders. No one knew where it was, though. How did Josiah expect Adira to know? Why would Josiah be getting a delivery from the rumored house of magic?
"The Den? But I don't—"
Josiah held up his meaty hairy hand, stopping her. "Don't worry, I'll draw you a map."
☆ ☆ ☆
Adira had never been to this part of the city.
The Den was in a warehouse by the northeastern wall of the island. With all of the walking across the city, Adira wouldn't make it back to Bea's until dusk. Josiah's map had taken her to the storage district, a collection of short squat buildings. Their exterior was not nearly as clean as the rest of the city. Dirt climbed up the once white walls.
She walked through the rows of warehouses passing people dressed like her, which was a relief. There was no need for fancy dress in this part of the city. She knocked on the door of the biggest warehouse, closest to the Wall.
Adira held her breath, waiting for the door to open.
A man in his late twenties appeared in the doorway. His auburn hair grazed his chin, a few shorter pieces falling in front of his face. Sharp cheekbones rested beneath his hazel eyes. Adira did not like the way looking at him made her feel. Her mind was screaming danger.
The man stepped outside, closing the door to the warehouse behind him. Adira kept her face shrouded in the darkness of her hood as she spoke. "I'm here to pick up a package for Josiah," she said, reaching in her back pocket. She pulled out the slip of paper Josiah had given her, and placed it into the hands of the man in front of her.
His eyes roamed over whatever Josiah had written, a smirk tilting at the corner of his lips. "I'm Aeron," he said reaching out his empty hand to Adira.
"Adira," she replied, hesitantly shaking his hand.
"Enough with the mystery," he said, releasing her hand from his grip. "I like to see who I'm dealing with." With a flick of his fingers, a wisp of wind blew her hood back from her face. Wielder, she thought, her stomach falling to the ground. She had never been around a Wielder before. Did he have a death wish by using his magic in public?
The wind was familiar to her. The smell of pine that lingered in the air reminded her of a memory, a memory that she did not have. Adira rolled her shoulders back, trying to erase the chill that crept down her spine.
"Have we met before?" Aeron asked, squinting his eyes as he looked into hers. Her nerves clawed at her. She didn't know why, but something inside of her prayed that he didn't know her, that they had never seen each other before. Aeron leaned back, shaking his head. "No, surely not. I'd remember a pretty face like yours."
Adira hid her disgust from her face, not wanting to anger him. "Do you have the package? I'd like to make it back to Josiah and home before nightfall."
"A girl who knows what she wants," Aeron mused, opening and stepping back through the door of the warehouse. He turned his head back to Adira before he disappeared inside. "I like that." With a wink, he was gone.
Adira felt like gagging even though he wasn't bad looking. In fact, he was mysteriously handsome. However, he was probably a decade older than her. Something about him made her insides churn.
Aeron reappeared, holding a small box in his hands. "I'd be very careful with this if I were you," he warned, his flirtatious eyes turning serious. "If the authorities catch you with this, it's game over. I'd take the long way to Josiah's."
"Whatever you say," Adira replied, ignoring his advice. There was something about him, something that made her believe she couldn't trust a word he said. She tucked the package under her arm and pulled her hood back over her hair. "Thanks, Aeron." She turned around and began to walk back down the aisle of warehouses.
As Adira turned down the street to take the quickest way back to Josiah's, a burst of wind hit her from behind, circling her head, and making her stop in her tracks. The wind swirled a message into her ear."The pleasure is all mine," Aeron's voice whispered.
☆ ☆ ☆
Adira should have listened to Aeron's advice.
She took the quickest way back. Authorities doubled patrol at night and it was always a hassle to be stopped and questioned by them. Had she seen any suspicious Wielder activity? Did she know anyone who might in fact, be a Wielder? Question after question they asked anyone they stopped on the street. If she wanted a place to sleep on the coming cold night, she needed to get back to Josiah and Bea as soon as possible.
She could easily blend into the current of people moving down the sidewalks, no matter her clothes. What did Aeron know about surviving? About blending in? Nothing compared to her. No one on the whole island knew more about surviving than her. She had madea life for herself ever since she could remember.
"Stop, girl!" a man's voice boomed, freezing Adira in her tracks.
She suddenly cared very much what was in the package under her arm and if it would now be the death of her. Damn Josiah. Damn Aeron, and his creepy vibes.
"Turn around, slowly," the man said again.
Doing as she was told, Adria shifted her feet, turning to face the group of authorities watching her. There were five of them, all dressed in white from head to toe.
"What's a girl dressed like you, doing in a district like this?" a different man asked, his voice gruffer than the first. Her eyes flicked around her surroundings noticing that the dirt and grime from the squat buildings of the storage district had been wiped away and were replaced with pristine white towers. "And with a package no less? Did you steal something?"
"N—no, sir," she stuttered, her body quivering. Her feet wouldn't allow her to move.
"Let's just see what you've got there then," he demanded, closing the distance between them. The rest of the authorities stayed a few paces back as the man reached for Josiah's package.
When he tugged on the box, Adira's grip grew tighter. She didn't want to know what was in there and why Josiah was paying so much for it. She did not want to die just yet. She would rather take a beating first and prolong the inevitable.
With a sharp yank, the man ripped the package from her arm. Adira wrapped her empty arms around herself, trying to hold it together. She would not cry. She would not show them weakness. The Authorities fed off of it.
The man tore the box open, his eyes widening in shock when he saw what lay inside. His white gloved fingers dipped inside, pulling out a small triangular rock. The dark metallic substance looked familiar. Adira's eyes trailed to the towering Wall in the distance, making the connection between the two. Her stomach turned over as her face drained of warmth.
"Kraenite," the man said, turning to show his troop. Their faces matched the surprise of the man in front of her.
"Where did you get that, you little thief?" another man asked as he stepped forward, his voice angry.
A crowd swallowed the area, forming a circle around Adira and the authorities. Adira glanced around at the eyes watching her, judging her. They knew nothing about her, yet each pair of eyes she met were either cold, angry, or laced with fear.
"I didn't know—"she tried to beg.
"This is property of the Council," the guard holding the rock said, turning his attention back to her. "Stealing from The Council is punishable by death."
The crowd around them began to murmur.
"Please," Adira said, blinking away the tears that filled her eyes. "You don't understand. This is all wrong." She held out her hands in front of her, willing them to listen to her.
Adira scanned the crowd again, searching for someone, anyone that would help her. But no one was going to do anything for her, until new voices reached her ears.
"We have to do something, Marina," a man said. Adira tossed her head to the left, her eyes falling on the only two people who didn't have accusations written in their gaze.
The man who had spoken was tall and lean, his brown hair a mess on his head. His warm brown eyes pierced into hers, knowing that she wasn't guilty. Beside him was the one Adira guessed was Marina. Her blonde hair was swept up behind her, her ice blue eyes filled with sadness as she watched her.
"We can't," Marina replied to the man, speaking a silent apology to Adira.
"Alright," one of the authorities spoke up. "Let's take her in."
Adira whipped her head back to the group of men dressed in white. Her hair slapped her face, sticking to her lip as she took a step backwards.
Fear.
Fear swept through her like a blast of wind, and something else. Something familiar yet new and terrifying. A winter's cold swept through her bones, icing her blood. Her breath fogged, the tear that escaped down her cheek freezing to her skin. She could feel it in every part of her.
She was the cold, she was the ice.
As the authorities stepped towards her, she flung her arms out, meaning to beg them to stop. Whatever was inside of her had different plans. Ice shot out of her splayed hands, coating the street below the white dressed men.
They screamed as the fell hard to the ground, their shoes and hands slipping beneath them as they tried to stand up. The crowd surrounding them shifted away in fear, some pushing back to run away screaming.
Adira almost screamed herself. This wasn't her. She wasn't a wielder. She would have discovered her magic by now. She raised her hands in front of her in disbelief that the ice had come from her. She glanced around the crowd. Surely it must have come from someone else. Someone had decided she was worth saving.
Adira locked eyes with a startled, pale-faced Marina. She brought her own hands up, confused herself. Was she a Wielder? Was she the one who had thrown the ice?
The authorities had gotten up during Adira's shock and had closed in on her. Two of them grabbed her arms, almost ripping them out of their sockets when they pulled her backwards.
"You're going to the Pits, Wielder," one growled in her ear.
"No!" Adira screamed, her feet slipping on the ice as she tried to pull away. "I'm not a wielder!"
A new feeling spread through her, melting the ice within her, extinguishing the cold. Something blazed within her, burning her insides, scorching her veins. Cursing, the two authorities dropped her arms. Adira glanced at both of the men holding their red hands in front of them, smoke rising from their skin.
The fire and ice swirled inside of her, a tornado raging, making her knees start to shake. The amount of sheer power coursed through her, almost making her blind to her surroundings.
Then kraenite, the stone that suffocates Wielders' powers, cuffed around her wrists. All the power drained out of her like a faucet.
A/N: Thank you for reading Ch 3! I'm thrilled that you have decided to read up to this point so far.
Playlist ~ Blackbird Song by Lee DeWyze
Visual: Marina
What are your thoughts on Acadia? Who is your favorite character so far? What do you think is going on with Adira?