Chapter 1
I sit on the wooden chair my dad made when I was eight and stare blankly at the painting hanging on the wall in our living room with a bronze plaque beneath it, Whitehorn Academy, the school where my mom and dad fell in love and made successful careers. My mom was once a professor at a University in our district before she was assigned as a personal adviser of Kentron's queen, Queen Anne von Lough. My dad on the other hand became the first Sage to become a Royal guard. Both of them worked at the Diamond Castle because of their high credentials and a little help from the school's reputation.
"Keesha", I hear someone calling my name. It's low and trembling. It immediately breaks me from daydreaming about my future once I graduate in Whitehorn Academy. I look back but I don't see anyone. I follow where the voice is coming from and find my little brother hiding underneath the square table my dad made a few years ago. Actually, everything in our small house was either made or repaired by dad. He just stopped making things when mom died. He even stopped being a father to us and became a pathetic drunkard.
"Yeah?" I ask him. He doesn't respond. His hands are shaking badly. I can see through his eyes how nervous he is. "What is it George?"
My heart begins to pound fast. I've never seen George this terrified. Dad always scolds George every time he's drunk but he never got scared. Out of great anger and too much alcohol, dad sometimes beats George. There was this time when he almost killed George with bamboo sticks thankfully James, our older brother intervened.
I narrow my look at him and try to pull him away from the table. But I can't, he is so stiff. His short, white arm is gripping the table's stand tightly. I wonder if he's really six. "If you're not going to tell me what's wrong, I'll call dad." I say in a serious tone.
"You won't." He says with assurance. "You never talk to him." My little brother's deep blue eyes peek on the table's stand, looking directly at me.
"Okay. You win. Will you please tell me what's wrong?" I ask him nicely this time. Dad and I are not in the best situation either. I don't know when I started drifting apart from the man I look up to; it 'just happened'. He changed from being the most responsible, loving father into a jobless pathetic drunkard.
"Um..." He starts, crawling, moving closer to me. His wavy black hair falls into his shoulders. "I stole a loaf of bread from the bakery." He confesses. "I'm hungry Keesha, now the guards are looking for me" He says in a low voice.
"You what?!" I shout. I can't believe it! Who taught him how to steal? Obviously, it's not me. I pull his arm with force, putting my hands on his shoulders and sits on my knees. I can feel my eyebrows meeting each other, "We don't steal food, George."
He lowers his eyes, staring at our wooden floor. "But you did, once" He answers.
Oh, so it's my fault! I should be more careful next time, especially when he's around. I can't let him see the things I'm doing just to keep us alive. "Yeah" I start sheepishly. "Well at least it's not our district's food." I defend myself, "We don't steal each other's food. In here, we are all the same. We starve together; we rejoice together, we learn together." I add. "And it's not right to steal other districts' food either, but you know I have to." I say, stroking the hair on his back.
"I know you need to feed us." He answers. A little smile is on his cheek now. "Are they going to get me?" He asks.
I don't know what to say, I've never steal food from my own district. I've never been caught doing it outside Sapius either. What's going to happen to George? I pull him closer to me and hug him tightly that he groans. "It's going to be fine." I whisper on his tiny ear.
