In the City, it is widely known that free will does not exist. Instead, there is the Compound: a mysterious place where the Writers dictate the lives, loves and losses of everyone in the City. Little is known about them, except that they never enter...
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In the centre of the City, through doors locked with much more than a physical mechanism, lies the Compound.
The existence of the Compound is not a secret. In fact, it is impossible to find a soul in the City who is not aware of it; after all, it is inside those walls that the fates of every inhabitant are dictated. Its impenetrability is just an added precaution to the best security any facility could have: the fact that no one would dream of trying to break in.
In fact, the City's residents stay as far away from the Compound as they can. Its existence is a knowledge fundamental to their very being; there is no reason to make that awareness any more cutting, any more disturbing, than it already is.
The lifelong awareness that all that happens to you is simply a product of the Compound's whims is not a comfortable one, nor is it openly discussed. No, the knowledge of the City's residents that destiny is real - free will an illusion - is something much of their lives is spent avoiding.
At the discretion of the Writers, that is.
Even the highest-ranking in the City do not know who the Writers are or how they came to be. In fact, all that is known about them can be summarised in three simple sentences.
Number one: they are the reason for every event, decision and emotion in the lives of the City's inhabitants.
Number two: they have existed in this capacity for long beyond living memory.
And, most mysteriously of all, number three: they never enter or exit the Compound.
It does well to remember these facts as our own story begins. The questions of human nature, of destiny and free will, that their existence begs may never receive answers, but one thing is certain: there is one character determined to ask them.
Though whether that is an action of her own mind, or simply a channel for the Writers' decision to shake up the City's story, is yet to be determined.
