Mianite- Season 3

Chapter 12: Safire's Story

My story doesn't really have a beginning. Many things happened when I was about two or three, but I don't remember any of them. All I know, from the data I've gathered through my machines, is that I wasn't a normal baby. There was something weird about me that horrified the Galena leaders. They took me from my parents, who I never knew, and had me operated on at a very young age. That is supposed to be able to harm babies, since they have underdeveloped brains, but I guess they assumed that my case was desperate enough to go through with it anyway. 

One half of my operation didn't end up working. They brainwashed me, but it never took effect. The other half, where they took away whatever about me wasn't normal, did work. I'm still not sure what it is, before you ask. To keep me safe, I was never really allowed to have a normal life. I was raised in different homes, all of them the homes of Galena leaders. They forced their disgusting beliefs on me, but I was able to see through them when I got to a certain age. 

I saw something, one day, that would change me forever. I had to stay in the laboratory for a while, since no leaders were able to take me in for a month or two. I was told to sit and play with my toys, but, as kids often do, I got incredibly curious. I saw two guards dragging a screaming person into a room, so I decided to follow them. I had, until that point, thought the guards were kind protectors of Galena. I had never seen them do anything bad, so it came as a bit of a shock to me when the lady they were holding was shoved inside of a machine. 

I hid behind a corner for about half an hour, until she came out of the machine. She suddenly looked dazed, with a smile on her face, and did anything that the guards instructed her to. I had seen many citizens of Galena act this way, but I hadn't thought twice about them. Now I realized that this happiness was something caused by a machine.

I asked one of the leaders why people acted like that, dazed and happy for no reason, the next day. The leader put on a false smile and told me that that was normal. People acted that way because they were able to see what an amazing city Galena was. 

That was the day I stopped trusting the leaders. 

As I became a teenager, I became better at lying. I pretended to be more like the brainwashed people, so the Galena leaders would stop suspecting that the brainwashing hadn't worked on me. I lied to people about my happiness, and, best of all, I became better at sneaking. 

During the many days I spent in the laboratory, I would peer through windows and glass doors, or put an ear up to the thinnest walls. I discovered how the machines worked, and how they were made. If I found an empty room with a machine in it, I would play around with it, sometimes even taking it apart and putting it back together. I was fascinated by them. 

I would also listen in on the leaders' meetings. This was more difficult to do, but I found ways. Sometimes, if I was able, I would even slip a recording device in one of the corners of the room. This is how I found out about the things Galena didn't want the children of the city knowing. They hid the fact that Dioptase wasn't the only god, and the things that the other cities in Anatase were actually doing. I realized how beautiful Chrysoberyl and Zincite sounded, compared to the society I grew up in. 

One day, I went to live with a leader I barely knew. This would have been normal for me, except that this leader had something that none of the others I had lived with had. The leader had a son, and he was only a couple of years younger than me. His name was Gaines, and, I quickly discovered after moving in, he was brainwashed. 

I wasn't planning on telling him anything I had found out from living in the laboratory, but we grew very close, very quickly. I told him stories, about the places I had lived or the things I had heard from the leaders. He was shocked and horrified by some of the things I had seen the Galena leaders do. As I explained these things to him, he began to open up his mind a little bit more, which is something that brainwashed people aren't supposed to be able to do. He was starting to overcome the operation.

One day, he asked me if there was any way he could remove his brainwashing. At the time, I didn't know that there was a way to reverse the operation with a machine. And, even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to operate on him. So, I suggested something crazy and daring, that only an incredibly rebellious teenager would think to do. I told him that we would leave Galena, and we would do it in style. 

Now, I wasn't an idiot, so I was careful. When Gaines's parents were away for a weekend, we printed an entire stack of papers that said statements criticizing Galena's government. I explained the brainwashing, and some of the things I had seen while living in the laboratory. We put them in backpacks, and acted like we were just shopping in the city. We hung around the main area for a few hours, waiting for the fifteen minutes when there would be nobody at the visitation center. That was during the lunch break, when most of the citizens would be on the other side of town. 

Then, as you may have guessed, we tossed the papers everywhere. All over the newly deserted roads, some places in the main area, and in every corner of the visitation center. Once we had gotten rid of every single sheet, we ran. We knew there was a train station just outside of Galena, so we ran toward it. 

The people working there were slightly suspicious at first, but, as we were were about 16 or 17 and rather tall for our age, we told him that we were adults who had been visiting Galena for a weekend. They let us board the train to Chrysoberyl, and, just like that, we were gone. Easy. 

When we arrived there, we discovered that the city was in shambles. When we went to their visitation center, we confessed that we were runaways who realized the faults in Galena's system. They immediately took us to Iolite, who was incredibly impressed. They offered us a home in Zincite, and a job working with the gods. 

We stayed there for about half a decade. We were revered by the followers of Iolite and Molybdenite, since we carried so much information about Galena. We completely changed the city around, sharing the secrets of architecture and machinery that we had learned. Gaines and I both had a fascination with machines, so we worked on developing our own. We focused on contacting other realms, something that Iolite had introduced us to. Ruxomar was the first realm we got in contact with, and the first god we were able to reach was Mianite. 

He, it turns out, also loved machinery. He offered the two of us a position in his laboratory, to get away from Anatase. I turned Mianite down, knowing that Chrysoberyl and Zincite needed us more than that realm. But Gaines, to my disappointment, took the job. He abandoned his city, and his friends, and left us for good. I didn't think he would ever come back. 

Since then, I decided that the fate of Anatase was in my hands, and in my hands only. I had been working to improve Chrysoberyl and Zincite, but I began to see a greater goal. I wanted to take down Galena, and introduce the brainwashed citizens to Iolite and Molybdenite's teachings. I wanted to revolutionize the realm. 

The people of Galena called me a traitor, a liar, and a criminal, which I guess, in a way, I am. But I know that what I'm doing is the right thing, and I will forever fight for it. I don't care if that means risking my life. However, I did do a lot of research on Ruxomar and the Realm of Mianite, and discovered tons of information on the citizens in them. When I heard the news of your arrival, I knew I had to get you on my side.

You have the ability to change the world.