centuries, the Guardians have been an elite group bound to the same code on both sides, preventing people from shifting, under the Laws of Eversion after the Great Infection of 1927. They answer only to the Faction, a trio of leaders supposedly older than the monarchy of my world.
You evert, you die. It’s as simple as that. If the environmental differences don’t get you, the Guardians will.
Only with Caden, the Guardians had failed. Until recently, everyone thought that Caden was dead. But obviously, he isn’t dead… he is very much alive, a secret that Cale only revealed to me a few months ago when he mysteriously became sick. So, somehow, Caden has managed to outwit them and survive all this time. I can’t quite shake the feeling that there’s something more, something I am missing that’s right in front of my face… something essential to his survival here.
He told me that his mother had died here, from a seizure. She probably had the pills that my father had given her, but they didn’t help. My father warned that the pills with their brain stabilization agents wouldn’t work for everyone, and everting would only put more pressure on the body’s central nervous system. But the plain truth is that we don’t belong here, and the universe has its own way of righting wrongs, of fixing inconsistencies. Her seizure was just that… nature’s way of dealing with cheaters.
I take in a few deep breaths and complete a set of mental exercises to clear my head. A quick glance at my watch suggests that the meet should nearly be over, so I start to make my way across the quad. A part of me doesn’t want to watch Caden fence – I don’t want to see what a natural he is, just like Cale.
Cale .
For a second, I wonder how he’s doing. Whether he’s surviving in what has become a sea of snakes and traitors. They won’t kill him, that I am sure of, because they need his name too much to control the people of Neospes; loyalty to the monarchy was too hard-won to be usurped by a single coup. We were too careful, too suspicious of sudden changes.
People trusted Cale’s family. They trusted his father, and now he was dead… assassinated in cold blood by his half-brother, a bloodthirsty man greedy for power. Without a doubt, I know that Cale was next. His life is collateral for the moment… collateral for support. His uncle will keep him alive for as long as it suits his purpose. I have to trust that he is somehow holding on; otherwise, everything I’m doing will be for nothing.
Fear for Cale’s safety clouds my mind so much that I almost crash into a group of kids standing in a shadowy corner near the gym.
“Watch where you’re going!” shouts a slurred voice. A foul breath blows into my face, and I almost gag.
“Sorry,” I say, and then belatedly recognize one of the faces in the crowd: Charisma, the other girl from my physics discussion group. The slurred voice belongs to a dark-haired guy she’s leaning against… the one with the foul breath. He’s obviously drunk or high on something, and she looks dazed but doesn’t say anything.
“Hey, Charisma,” I say, but she won’t even meet my eyes, as if she’s staring right through me. Something about the way the guy’s arm is wrapped around her shoulders rubs me the wrong way and I hesitate.
It’s not your problem , my inner voice hisses. None of these people, other than Caden, are. Keep walking .
I listen, take two steps, and halt. Even though I’ve only had a few classes with Charisma, she’s grown on me with her upbeat personality and her willingness to help others. She’s one of those types of people I wish I could be more like – selfless and caring – but I am so far beyond that person, it’s not even funny. Hardness and cynicism drives me. With so much loss in my world, allowing myself to care about anything other than my own survival is a death sentence. I guess a part of me feels drawn to Charisma for that reason. She seems untouched
You evert, you die. It’s as simple as that. If the environmental differences don’t get you, the Guardians will.
Only with Caden, the Guardians had failed. Until recently, everyone thought that Caden was dead. But obviously, he isn’t dead… he is very much alive, a secret that Cale only revealed to me a few months ago when he mysteriously became sick. So, somehow, Caden has managed to outwit them and survive all this time. I can’t quite shake the feeling that there’s something more, something I am missing that’s right in front of my face… something essential to his survival here.
He told me that his mother had died here, from a seizure. She probably had the pills that my father had given her, but they didn’t help. My father warned that the pills with their brain stabilization agents wouldn’t work for everyone, and everting would only put more pressure on the body’s central nervous system. But the plain truth is that we don’t belong here, and the universe has its own way of righting wrongs, of fixing inconsistencies. Her seizure was just that… nature’s way of dealing with cheaters.
I take in a few deep breaths and complete a set of mental exercises to clear my head. A quick glance at my watch suggests that the meet should nearly be over, so I start to make my way across the quad. A part of me doesn’t want to watch Caden fence – I don’t want to see what a natural he is, just like Cale.
Cale .
For a second, I wonder how he’s doing. Whether he’s surviving in what has become a sea of snakes and traitors. They won’t kill him, that I am sure of, because they need his name too much to control the people of Neospes; loyalty to the monarchy was too hard-won to be usurped by a single coup. We were too careful, too suspicious of sudden changes.
People trusted Cale’s family. They trusted his father, and now he was dead… assassinated in cold blood by his half-brother, a bloodthirsty man greedy for power. Without a doubt, I know that Cale was next. His life is collateral for the moment… collateral for support. His uncle will keep him alive for as long as it suits his purpose. I have to trust that he is somehow holding on; otherwise, everything I’m doing will be for nothing.
Fear for Cale’s safety clouds my mind so much that I almost crash into a group of kids standing in a shadowy corner near the gym.
“Watch where you’re going!” shouts a slurred voice. A foul breath blows into my face, and I almost gag.
“Sorry,” I say, and then belatedly recognize one of the faces in the crowd: Charisma, the other girl from my physics discussion group. The slurred voice belongs to a dark-haired guy she’s leaning against… the one with the foul breath. He’s obviously drunk or high on something, and she looks dazed but doesn’t say anything.
“Hey, Charisma,” I say, but she won’t even meet my eyes, as if she’s staring right through me. Something about the way the guy’s arm is wrapped around her shoulders rubs me the wrong way and I hesitate.
It’s not your problem , my inner voice hisses. None of these people, other than Caden, are. Keep walking .
I listen, take two steps, and halt. Even though I’ve only had a few classes with Charisma, she’s grown on me with her upbeat personality and her willingness to help others. She’s one of those types of people I wish I could be more like – selfless and caring – but I am so far beyond that person, it’s not even funny. Hardness and cynicism drives me. With so much loss in my world, allowing myself to care about anything other than my own survival is a death sentence. I guess a part of me feels drawn to Charisma for that reason. She seems untouched
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