Adelaide

Chapter III

Adelaide DuPont

'The walls never stop talking,' I think to myself, while the whole citadel stills with sleepy inhabitants. Sapphire is asleep — has been for a few hours — yet I lie awake, trying to rid myself of memories of James. The summer night was cool when we first met, each of us wandering alone in the rain, searching for company until we happened upon each other. I squeeze my eyes shut as tightly as possible, as if by doing so I might block out all recollections of love.

The next morning, I awake at dawn and follow Sapphire and Ruby to breakfast. The cafeteria boasts just as much grandeur as anywhere else in the citadel, its chandeliers so high up that they appear to be a part of the sky itself. Polished mahogany tables shine brightly under the light, heaped with more than enough food for all the students. By the time I decide on something for breakfast, the other girls are rising to return to the dormitories and pick up their textbooks for class.

My schedule seems fairly mixed between Sapphire and Ruby, though I attend some hours with both girls at once. Overall, classes are tedious, so at least that much remains unchanged from schooling in France. By the conclusion of my second hour lecture, I feel myself growing restless, anxious to find something or anything to work off the day. Half of me longs for a return to the library, while the remainder holds my breath every time I pass it, the rows and rows of shelves spanning like a cemetery to my thoughts.

After a few minutes of wandering the halls, I find myself in an entirely new area of the citadel. Everything here is tinged a shade darker, the walls glazed in sallow gray and cast with strange shadows. Suits of armor lining the corridor shine with distinct markings carved into their metallic plates, but I can't read the language. Icy air chills my exposed skin, though I don't feel as afraid as I perhaps ought to.

Towards the end of the hallway, a seemingly ordinary door — or as ordinary as possible for something inside Soventi — stands unlit by sconces. Instinctively, I draw it open, and a cold draft splashes my face, raking shivers down my spine and stealing a faint gasp from my throat.

I stare into the depths of an unfinished tunnel.

Without thinking, I step inside, gingerly bracing the door as it falls closed behind me so that it rests against its frame without latching. I only walk around two bends in the path, however, before a murmured conversation ricocheting off the damp stone walls of the underpass prompts me to halt in my tracks.

"Those two girls are schooled heavily in academia and the arts, but not much else. Like common sense, for example," one voice mumbles grudgingly, "They are quite dependent on one another."

An affectionate laugh echoes towards me, vaguely familiar.

"Saints, Oz. You wouldn't understand the —"

The conversation cuts off abruptly when a pair of teenaged boys nearly collide with me in the dim sconce lighting. We all make brisk connections.

"Adelaide," Emerald hisses, "Who told you about these passages?"

Despite all the friendliness of his introductions yesterday, his earthy amber eyes narrow defensively as he scrutinizes me up and down. Surely, he doesn't know how his thoughts splay across his face. Without words, he tells me that these tunnels serve as his tetrad's clandestine hideout — exclusively. Then, Topaz's cinnamon gaze finds Emerald's, and they exchange mutual glances of agreement: the new girl is not nearly as naïve as those wide cervine eyes imply her to be. Yet, they won't act upon this realization.

"No one, but I would presume Saph and Ruby know of this place, too. When did you discover its existence?"

Emerald scoffs, incredulous as if he can't comprehend my audacity in pressing further questions.