UNALIGNED

Chapter 1

The beaming sunlight almost blinded her. It was warm today. Too warm. She could feel the drops of sweat gathered around her neck, some of which rolled down into the collar of her shirt. She found it difficult to bear the sun's heat, which was odd, considering who she was. What she found to be even more bothersome was the humidity; her frustration with the inescapable moisture in the air, however, was not surprising at all. She had to make peace with it regardless, the great Utluss river flowed through the district of Koyoun, so humidity was to be expected in such blistering heat. The only reason she had chanced a look upwards and dared to confront the blazing sun rays on such a day was to see if she could catch a glimpse of him. The lone other, besides the sun, who could reduce her to feeling blinded. What did that say about him? And what did it say about her? She who could stare unflinching into fires felt her eyes singeing at the mere sight of him. A psychophysiological response?

She was stood before the Etessa's main building, on the garden grounds that faced its grand, soaring facade. All around the garden were more buildings, built in the same austere, imposing style of the main one but all less impressive in height compared to it. Etessa, in its entirety stood as a stark collective structure; marked by tall pillars, uncompromising symmetry, pure geometric forms and a grandeur bequeathed by size. It sharply contrasted with the nature surrounding it, beyond the walls of Etessa were forests of the thickest foliage and hidden amongst them the most verdant of meadows and floral enclaves. Meandering its way through these, the ancient river of Utluss cut a course curved around Etessa. The softness of the surrounding nature ensured that the rigidity of the Etessan buildings made for an arresting figure for all those that beheld them.

These buildings reminded her of him too, her subject of query. She felt that he was very like them in some ways. He was tall, strikingly sharp featured and held himself up with a certain rigidness; not a militaristic staunchness, his form didn't feel like a product of deliberation to her. But it was rigid. What made it so? It seemed effortless on his part, like an internal aloofness or a sense of accepted stature conveyed through his posture and movement.

He had still not appeared in the wide balcony adorning the main building, usually he would be there by now, leaning against the ornate balustrade and surveying the world below it. His eyes never gloated, nor pitied as he gazed at all those who would inevitably be deemed lesser than him. Him and his friends or their wider circle were the only ones allowed on the balcony, Etessa's other students did not have the privilege. They came from a deeply hierarchical society, all of them. But Etessa's student populace was most markedly distinguished into two groups, the royalty and nobility of their race, and then the common folk. The people of their land were called the Khena. The Khena were a people blessed with the gifts of nature, each Khena child was born with the ability to harness and use the inherent power of one of the four main elements of nature: wind, water, fire and land. However, even though each child was so blessed, they were not blessed equally. Some amongst the Khena were powerful beyond all of the worldly measures that their society had created to quantify their abilities and others so little that their powers could barely bring any convenience to their everyday lives. So theirs was a society that resembled a ladder, they were divided into so many classes of the living kind, the customs of hierarchical living ingrained in them from birth.

But the Khenas like any other race were prone to certain pretensions too; and to her thinking, Etessa and all other Khena educational and vocational institutions were a result of these pretensions. Because although their society was so dependent upon class and rank, Khena governing bodies required that all Khena children and adults attend the same or at least the same kind of institutions. She had heard gossip through the grapevine of traders and travellers that in lands far away this was not always the case, in other divided societies people went to different institutions according to their ranks in society. These institutions could be run by their royalty, or their governing council or even common folk, these people did not seek to use their educational organisations to demonstrate a unity that had no existence in their actual society. Very unlike the Khena. The Khena people of the land of Khenawa went to almost all of the same institutions for their education and vocational training, no matter if they were the sheep herder's daughter or the councilman's son. Khenawa's rulers had ordained it so, the system was meant to demonstrate their benevolence to the lesser amongst their people. According to them, it was nature that had destined unequal lives for the Khena, and to rebel against nature was to blaspheme, but institutions like the Khenawa schools and Etessa were their rulers' benevolent attempts at sharing their good fortune with the less fortunate. To the unsuspecting, this may give the illusion that these institutions were places that provided some form of equal treatment, indifferent to rank, but that was not the case and a firm two tier system of hierarchy existed within their walls.

"Ayala!"

It was her friend, Hinyana, calling to her. She recognised her voice and now that she had been caught in the act, Ayala would need to make an excuse as to why she had been staring at the main building so intently. She turned to her left to see the dearest of her childhood friends running towards her. Ayala and Hinyana had been friends for as long as they had had their conscious memories. They had grown up together with their mothers being close friends and the families living in the same neighbourhood in Bihqa, a district north of Koyoun.

"Why... have you ... been stood frozen over here?" An out of breath Hinyana had finally caught up to where she stood.

The question was a surprise, Ayala had assumed she would be asked about her staring, but had thought that she had otherwise stood here quite casually, in her mind appearing inconspicuous to any passing glances. She had to acknowledge it now though, that just standing here in the middle of the garden, with nothing to do but stare at the main building may have looked quite odd. But then, Etessa's student populace wasn't known for its normalcy, all of them had their quirks. So, all was probably still fine. She would have to be careful, however. She didn't know what this was, why she was so desperate to catch a glimpse of him, why she spent so much time thinking about him; but she knew that it wouldn't do for people to find out. She didn't want to embarrass herself. He was too important a person and she... she just was.

"Hey Hinyana, why have you been running? Is everything okay?" Ayala asked in turn, hoping to divert attention from herself.

"Oh God, Ayala! You've got to hurry too, a fight's broken out in the Western wing's rear courtyard. We need to go, it's Vaajh and his cousin". With that short explanation, Hinyana grabbed Ayala's hand and they were off running again.

Vaajh? He was in a fight?

She realised that she didn't actually know him, but this seemed very unlike him. What was going on? A fight?

They were now approaching the commotion, a large crowd had gathered around what seemed to be two people stood facing each other in close proximity.  One of them was taller than the other, and his slightly shorter opponent held him by the collar of his shirt. She couldn't see them with total clarity yet because of the distance and the teeming crowd but it was enough for her to recognise him. Well, at least she now knew why he wasn't at the balcony like usual around this time.

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Author's note:

Thank you for reading! I would be grateful to hear of any feedback or thoughts that you might have for this chapter. And should you find the chapter worthy of a vote, please accept my thanks.