White Shimmer

1] The Foolish Girl

"The Protectors know what you're doing," Maul spits the warning after me as I climb from our basement level apartment onto the vertical garden trellis, scaling it to reach the sand swept street.

"I just don't believe you," I turn to face Maul, my roommate and saviour of 6 months and sole acquaintance in a city I knew nothing about until I was forced to stay here.

"They will catch you," Maul advises me as she tugs at her dread locks with anxiety, using her best glare to try and convince me otherwise.

"They have never found me and they've forgotten all about me," I give her a wink and spin, standing tall to stroll down the busy south street of Settler City. Maul would simply have to find faith in my eventual return.

I fix my work belt tight and snug as I walk, as it's a bit loose over my baggy overalls and just snug shirt, stained with stone dust.

I was a stone mason, more specifically – a stone artist. It was a good disguise because such a profession took years of training in Settler City. It suggested I grew up here. It helped hide the fact I was from a remote village down south... where I had been forcefully taken from 6 months ago.

At random selection, girls who reached 18 were placed into a category of Jewels. If you were selected as a Jewel, you must be taken to the warm breezes of Settler City to be inspected by the Protectors.

You would be kept as 'company'. Yep, you know exactly what that means.

Seems barbaric? It is.

Right now, I head straight towards the very place I was told to avoid because it was the very place I had escaped.

I try not to think about it while I listen to the morning street thorough fare, the wheeling of carts, the clang of water buckets and the scolding of mothers over unruly wild children – I feel quite at home in the safest city in the Northern land. Everything was built with love, whether it be thatch roofing or some rich folks who could afford bricks and tiles.

I simply glow in the beauty of Settler City. The warmth of the people. The beauty of the wide roads, clean gutters and perfect warm to crispy hot air.

But despite it all, was the very looming structure of the paradox.

Paradox Palace.

It gleamed with a white shimmer, above all of Settler City – like a heaven on Earth.

Inside were the Protectors.

In exchange for ruling the people with generosity and kindness – they were allowed to do whatever they pleased within the structures of their palace.

There were no rules there.

It was why I escaped.

Protectors were feigns. They were not great. They were not admired.

They were simply feared because they were the ones who held the power over magic. They were all powerful in unique ways and they were often short tempered because of how entitled they were. Like selfish gods. They wanted to play in their world, so they did in their palace.

I walk to the paradox now with a false sense of safety.

Most would call me insane for agreeing to do a job there – but all I knew was I'd be insane to refuse.

I was avoiding suspicion at all costs.

Unfortunately my thinking may cost me the greatest gift of all – my eternal freedom.

For when I strolled back through those walls, the chances of leaving were slim.

But that was only if Maul was right.

And I was a fool to believe she was wrong.