A Song of Shadows and Starlight

CHAPTER 2- FAYE'S POV

            CHAPTER 2- FAYE's POV

"Say that again?" I ask.
Metias' words to me are muffled by the screams coming from behind the glass panel in front of us.
"I said did you see that one of the streets in the Gem districts was placed under quarantine last night?"
I frown. That must mean the plague is spreading through the city faster than we thought.
"Any idea which district?"
I hope it's not the Opal District, where my brother Elias lives. If he's forced to quarantine and stay only inside our house, I won't be able to visit him anymore. Nor he I.
In The Black School, we're allowed two days of leave a month to visit family, as long as they're from the Gem Districts of course. Any Overseer in the school who comes from the Narrow Districts are barred from seeing their families ever again once they pass through the iron gates of separating us from the rest of Surcon. If my family was from the Narrows, I wouldn't want to see them again either I had always thought.
Metias had been my best friend since I'd arrived in this place when I was twelve years old. Most Overseers-in-training had to do at least a year in Drake University following a strong trial result to be considered for The Black School, the pride of Surcon. I'd done so well they'd invited me to the Trials of Aptitude two years early, and I'd been sent here. All I had been told was that I would be too young, too weak, too frail to succeed in such a hellish, brutal environment, but I wasn't labelled the prodigy of Surcon for nothing, and I was still here.
"You should be focusing, Faye. This will be us in less than a few months, leading these interrogations." Metias said, prodding me. He must have noticed I had drifted off again. He always noticed.

Metias was my best friend in this place, he had been from the day I had arrived. I remember waking up in a pen, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of other similarly young, terrified teenagers. I had been the only girl there, still was. The boy beside me, noticing my terror, had grabbed my hand and held on tightly, and we'd never left each other's sides since. We had both grown up since that day, but Metias' concerned green eyes and handsome face hadn't changed as far as I was concerned.

We're both standing in the lower dungeons of The Black School, watching the High Overseer work on a spy from the Narrows we had found spreading propaganda calling for an uprising against the Delegation of Surcon, and against the School. He had been caught by a Stadtwatch patrol. Spies and sympathisers are normally sent to Blackridge Prison, but this time we managed to grab him before he was shipped off. He's dangling upside down in the interrogation dungeon right now. High Overseer Ramsey has a scissors in his hand. I don't recognise him from the countless reports I had read on the Narrows, but I already hate him as much as I hate that hive of treachery and lawlessness. He's definitely not a member of one of the gangs in Surcon, like the Alleycats or the Harbringers, but that only makes him more of a coward in my eyes. (I know that because so far every member we've caught has killed themselves before we could bring them in.)

I watch as the spy before us thrashes in agony at Ramsey's ministrations.
"Do you really think they'll let us lead one of these by ourselves?" I ask Metias.
"Of course, Faye." He answers, an unusual gleam in his eyes. "This one of the most important parts of being an Overseer, protecting the city. If we can't do this, are we really cut out for this life?"
I watch as suddenly the spy lets out an ethereal scream at the High Overseer and begins to thrash violently. Without so much as a glance backward, he raises two fingers and motions us inside the room. Without a second hesitation, we rush inside, the steel gate creaking over the damp stone floor, and line up with our backs against the wall. I immediately notice how humid and damp the room is.
"What did you say to him, Sir." I ask.
"I said I'll hunt down his entire family and everyone he loves if he doesn't cooperate, and torture them in front of him until he can't bear to hear the screams of his loved ones any longer." He smiles sadistically, dragging the scissors across his face, leaving a blood-red slit just below his eye. "Isn't that right scum?"
The spy flares up again and spits a bloody globule at Ramsey's feet. Bad idea. Blood drips everywhere, from his mouth to his forehead and hair, coating the floor and making it slippery underfoot. Whenever he struggles, Ramsey yanks on the chain wrapping around his neck chaining him to the ceiling and chokes him till he stops. Now he continues to spit the blood coating his face and running from his mouth at his feet, making me wipe my boots on the wall in disgust.

Ramsey looks at us. His eyes are ice-cold. "My hands are tired."
Metias looks at me and dutifully steps forward.
"Now let's start again." Ramsey says, standing beside me. He looks even larger up close, a looming mass of muscle and power. His eyes look even more lifeless now he's beside me, and his hair is shaved down to stubble.
"What did you say your name was again?" he calls out.
The spy simply shakes his head.
Metias takes a deep breath and balls up his fist, punching the spy as hard as he can in the stomach. The spy wheezes, and begins to frantically cough up more blood.
"I'd appreciate if you didn't get blood on my boots." Metias snarls, punching him hard in the jaw, once, twice, three times until the spy's head sags lifelessly.
"Don't overdo it now, graduate." Ramsey says. "What's your name?"
The spy gulps. "Morris."
Metias grabs one of the spy's fingers and holds the dagger at his waist to it. "Be specific."
"Morris Pettywick."
"Morris Miles Pettywick, from the Narrows of course." Ramsey smiles triumphantly. "Now that you've told us what we already know, I'm sure you're ready to tell us what we don't."
He nods again at Metias, and he grimly begins working on the spy again. Not just a spy. His name is Morris. I try to ignore the fact he's not much younger than Metias, that his brown hair dark with sweat and blood isn't that much different to his. I try to distract myself by focusing on his uniform. (grey trousers, blue tunic. A brown belt wrapped around his waist. He's barefoot, so I assume his boots have been discarded. A blue pin on his lapel singling him out as a member of the Stadtwatch, but it's poorly stitched on and bent. A mistake only a rat from the Narrows would make.)
"Now if you will Mr Pettywick." Ramsey says in a light coaxing tone. "Tell me what you were doing in the Gem Districts spreading such lies. Hoping to incite a revolution? Steal from our great citizens? Destroy our great and powerful city?"
The spy lets out a weak laugh. "Great and powerful city? This city is falling apart, and the sooner the better. The Council has abandoned us for too long, and you kill us with impunity. What did you expect?"
Metias flips his knife and hits the spy across the face with the hilt of the knife. His bloody tooth skids across the floor, and the spy lets out a gurgling groan. There's an emotionless look to Metias' face, as if he doesn't even recognise what he's doing. It's a look I haven't seen on his face in a long time.
"Let the man speak, graduate. Let's hear his opinions on us."
"My opinions." The spy spits. "My opinions mean nothing to this city. You have done nothing but murder and rape and loot us, use us for your own gain and then abandoning us again. You torture your own citizens and murder those who once stood side-by-side with you?"
Of course he's talking about our secession from the Isles, and the resulting conflict with Euloth. I was nearly too young to remember, but it had apparently been one of the bloodiest wars in recent memory. The war was the very reason the Black School was created. So that the city would always have an army of vicious soldiers to call upon if war ever broke out again. Thankfully that hadn't happened yet, and so most Overseers were deployed as personal guards or watchmen, with a select few being lucky enough to join the Grand Guard or becoming ambassadors to the city for our relations with the other cities. A truce had eventually been called after both Surcon and Euloth had nearly been razed to the ground, but relations between us remained frosty. My brother, as the Bone Collector, had told me of his meetings with their Delegation. They weren't the type to be trifled with, and I still think they resent us for starting the war that nearly resulted in the Isles being plunged into chaos. It was in the rebuilding of the city when the first strain of bloodpox hit the city, and the divide between the Gem Districts and the Narrows only grew wider.
I scoff internally. Of course that's what this traitor wants us to think. As if we didn't do everything we could to welcome them back into the city. As if they didn't repay us by nearly plunging the city into pure chaos if not for the might of the Overseer's.
"I will tell you nothing. I'd rather die. Try all you want."
If he wasn't a traitorous piece of filth, I would almost admire his courage.
"You heard the man, graduate."
Metias gives me a glance. "Would you like a go at him." He asks, gently brushing his hand over the spy's blood-splattered face, before giving him a light slap.
I hesitate for a moment. "I'd rather not ruin my pretty little hands, I need them for graduation." I smile sweetly. "You're doing such an excellent job already." Ramsey shoots me a sideways glance. He can sense anything, and I know he's weighing up whether I'm telling the truth. Or if the man reminds too much of my own brother a year or two younger, and I can't bring myself to elicit those screams from him without thinking of Metias.
He studies me for a moment, before nodding at Metias. "Continue, graduate."
Metias nods, his jaw set, and turns to face the spy again. I force myself to listen to his wailing screams, to watch as Metias tortures him over and over again as he tries to pry information out of him. I need to be familiarised with this, to be comfortable with it. This is what life here entails, what needs to be done to be at the very top of the city. My ears ring from his agonised moans. I try to ignore the fact the spies hair is straight and brown like Metias', his eyes the same stormy grey as mine, his youthful features reminding me of summers spent with my family over and over again. In the end, this is what I signed up for after all.

That evening, I'm allowed one final visit to see my brother Elias before he begins overseeing the next shipment of plague vials to each house in the Gem District's, a task that will likely occupy him for months. As he collects me from the gate of the School, I'm grateful sometimes I'm one of only two girls in the School. Elias is tall, burly like most other Overseers. We have the same eyes, storm grey with a bespeckled silver glint, the same long lashes and ice-blond hair. The long lashes work particularly well for Elias, and I'm constantly treated to shy giggles every time we go out together.
"How's my favourite little Tiger." He grins at me, wrapping me into a hug once we're clear of the School gates. Such open shows of affection would be frowned upon in a School known for its power and reputation, but my brother was the Bone Collector, one of the most powerful men in the city. He could act as he pleased, and anyone with something to say about it wouldn't be speaking much longer.
"Not much has changed since the last time I saw you." I say cheerfully. "How's my favourite big brother."
"Staying busy Tiger." He smiles. His expression grows serious for a second. "The plague is only getting worse. Apparently, it might be spreading to the Gem Sectors soon if we don't get it under control. I've been called in to assist Congressman Albrecht tonight early. There's vials of a mutated strain of the virus being delivered apparently."
I can't hide my disappointment.
"You promised me Edame rolls from Mao's tonight Elias." I whine, clutching his arm in mock outrage. "After the swill from the School, I was looking forward to some real food."
"I loved that swill, Tiger." He jokes back. "It helps build character, or at least that's what the Cook would tell us every time we complained."
Metias had graduated top of class in The Black School a decade ago, and was considered one of the finest graduates they had ever seen. Well until I came along. He was now the Bone Collector, a position he had just recently been promoted to, and one of the most important men in the city. He still always made time for me though I thought. The plague must be even worse than I expected if it's forcing him to skip our night together.
Time seems to fade away as we talk, until before I know it we've arrived at the foot of our house in Waterway Avenue, one of the wealthiest streets in the Opal District, and indeed all of Surcon.
"I love you Tiger." Elias smiles down, wrapping his protective arms around me and kissing me delicately on the cheek.
"Love you too Elias." I murmur.
"Stay safe out there." But he's already gone, and I'm speaking to thin air.