Level Fourteen

Chapter Four: Arkin

When the morning sun began streaming through Arkin's bedchamber's windows; he reluctantly climbed from his comfortable pile of blankets. Grasping a robe to slip on over his nightclothes he stepped into the ornately decorated hallway, and made his way to their dining room.

His father was already there, sitting at the table with his data pad, no doubt already looking at the news on Level One today. He thought it his duty to see what each citizen in the Level saw on the news, so he could think from their perspective as well.

Arkin had just taken his seat when their cook, bustled in, distributing their breakfast onto their plates. Hotcakes; this morning, with a mashed grain. Energy drinks were poured into their cups, and then the room was silent again. Arkin could almost feel the tension between him and his father, but before he could even address him, his father stood.

"I'll take my meal in my chambers thank you." Without a second glance at his son, he walked out of the room, leaving his data pad behind.

One of the servants shot Arkin a sympathetic look, and hurried to obey his father's orders.

Arkin huffed, he and his father had had their disagreements before, but they always managed to resolve it. Somehow. Now his father wouldn't even address him, let alone the issue.

It unnerved Arkin, he understood his father was a very busy man and that his son, whom he'd been relying on, had let him down.

Arkin finished his breakfast, no longer enjoying the taste, and decided to go the place he felt the most at home, The Great Library.

He loved it there, with millions and millions of holocrons set out for him to read, and even a few actual books. Real ones, with paper and printed words, safely salvaged before the Failure.

He pushed open the wooden double doors, one of the few doors left on Earth without any technology advanced. Not many people visited the Great Library, it simply was a wast of time or held no interest for them. For Arkin though, it was a beautiful haven, an escape from the real world. From his problems. From his father.

He purged the aisles until he found one of his favorite holocrons, a detailed description and tour through Level Fourteen.

Yes, Arkin had an obsession. And he wasn't ashamed.

He began to read, of people commonly found there, rough characters, bounty hunters, murders, killers, assassins. How the light never shone there, how the streets were dark and dirty. Which clubs were dangerous more so than others, where the safest place was to stay? How not to be out on the streets after the dinner meal was finished.

For most normal people it would sound like a horrifying place to live and never to visit. For Arkin it sounded like an adventure waiting to happen, full of excitement and danger lurking around every corner.

Once again that longing filled him, so powerful. He wanted to see Level Fourteen for himself, visit the place. But he knew that was something he could never, ever do.

Ever.