The Sunless City

Two

Solstice Wardwelle

There was nothing about it in any book in the local library. I searched, read every chapter—twice.

And yet everything about the necklace seemed familiar. Like I've seen it before, felt it's smooth texture against my skin. Almost as if I have gazed at its pale yellow and orange colors countless times

I wonder if maybe I have, in another life.

Only one thing is for certain, it is mine.

For what seems like the hundredth time, I grazed my thumb over the stone, shivering when a slight electric zing shudders throughout my body.

"You're telling me," my older brother eyes the necklace that dangles from my neck. "That it just magically appeared?"

"Yes," I wrap my fingers around it protectively as it could be impacted by his harsh words.

"Well I think you need to stop wasting your time with a piece of jewelry and continue your studies." My mother chides from where she sits in the corner of the room, a sewing needle in hand. Rune, my youngest brother, ripped his trousers doing who knows what in the backyard.

Based on the additional frown lines he's managed to add to my mothers face over the years, I quite often wonder if he will be the death of her.

As if my thoughts summoned him, Rune scampers by, a bottle of bubbling liquid clenched in his little fist. He definitely shouldn't have that.

Rune might just be the death of me, too.

I pluck the bottle from his hands before he spilt whatever was contained within it. He began stamping his feet, whining to our mother of what I'd done.

"Rune, go play with your other sisters and stop bothering Solstice." He runs off, sniveling about how he never got his way as he returns to the outdoors where Arpina tossed a chunk of mud across the yard. Absentmindedly, my fingers drift back over the shockingly yellow gem. It hums gently to the touch, almost as if it were leaning into it.

"You know what I think you should do with it?" I arch my eyebrow, gazing back up at my older brother.

"What do you think I should do with this thing, Zyan? I'd love to hear your wise words." I give a tight smile as I hear my mother give a long sigh from the kitchen.

"You should sell it. Get some money so you can go to that school or wherever you want to go."

The offer was tempting, but something about getting rid of the necklace made me feel uneasy. "The Academy you mean?"

"Yeah, that place." Zyan waves the sentence off as if it had no importance to it. "What could the necklace possibly even offer? It's probably not worth much now that I think about it." I frown, returning my focus to the pile of books next to me.

I reach for one that's labeled The Art of Ancient History. I flip it open to a random page where the tool is called an ax. I had heard of it plenty of times from the human country, but no one in Oakenvale has found any use for these tools since we have the Green Witches.

I brush through the hundreds of pages until landing on one strange one in particular. It didn't seem like anything from Oakenvale or the humans.

Painted in a fading purple tinted silver is a rounded shape of a stone. It reminds me of a raindrop, the way it starts narrow before spreading into a more space consuming curve.

It reminds me of the jewel resting against my chest.

I graze my fingers along the inscriptions, tracing each foreign letter with a knowledge hungry hand. No matter how much I squint my eyes, boring them into the page, I can't even begin to decipher the unknown language.

Despair settles like a stone in my belly. It's not only frustrating, but taunting as well how close I am to solving the broken puzzle before me.

With ears reddened from embarrassment and defeat, I shut the book.

"Hey mom?" If I'm going to piece the clues together, I'll need help. Unfortunately. "How much do classes at The Academy cost?"

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　𖤓　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

Three thousand blixes.

How was I supposed to raise that much money? There's no way mother or father would ever lend me fifty blixes, let alone three thousand.

Groaning, I lay flat with my back pressed against the floor of my room, the rug cushioning my pounding head. Was Zyan right? Should I just sell the only possession I've ever truly felt belong to me?

I can't.

I can't, I can't, I can't.

It is mine.

Raking my gaze, I devour my surroundings, searching for anything of value that could even get me close to attending The Academy. The enrollment application clinging halfheartedly onto my bed seems to taunt me, its corners curling up from the amount of times I've toyed with the edges.

As I'm about to flop over onto my stomach, a miniature sized text sprinkled at the bottom of the parchment catches my eye.

Two week introductory summer classes for a fee of 300 blixes. We cannot wait for you to join The Academy!

Inhaling sharply, I scramble to my knees, giving them rug burn in the process. Two weeks.

I side eye the glass jar filled with rusty coins sitting on the lopsided desk in the corner of my room. Three hundred blixes.

Now that I can do.