The air used to be light, like a feather against the nose, gentle and thin, unobscured despite the darkness. It used to be warm like walnut butter on a summer day when the lights used to burn out from the heat and the overwork. A silky, smooth warmth.
But tonight, it was damp and clung to my skin as if it were a babe latched onto his mother’s breast. It was afraid of something. And Opal knew what it might have been.
The streets of Reniere were roads and sidewalks of cobble and brick, buildings plastered into the sky of raw steel, rusting at their foundations like a creeping disease that slowly ate away at its base. For a city made of neon, the buildings, the structures, and the potholed streets were not as beautiful.
Opal’s mind still stuck on that beam of golden light, however. The awe of the city that wondered her every morning did not wake this morning. It was consumed, drowned in the curiosity of what that beam was, what caused it, and what it meant for the city, because a flash of light like that, mysterious and wild, could not bring good news for the future Lightsmith.
As she ventured further into the city, footsteps beating to the questions thrumming in her mind, Opal weaved her way around the emerging citizens, swooping dodging, and dipping around them as if she already knew their patterns, where they were headed, every fall of their footsteps was a tune to her own drum and she had a plan to uncover what that light was.
“Opal!” Her name shrilled through the air and she whipped around to see a man with glowing makeup and a bright smile jogging towards her. Her own wide smile stretched over her face before she shook her head and kept walking. “I haven’t seen you in literally weeks and you walk away from me?” He shoved her gently when he reached her side. She nudged him back, her smile growing wider, cheekier.
“I’ve been--”
“Busy with Lightsmith stuff, I know. We all know. It’s all you ever do, girl. Take a break.” He finished her sentence and her smile quickly slipped away.
“Ivan, if I’m actually going to get the chance to work in the Forge, then I need to study. I gotta know this stuff.” Opal said, flatly. A bit of pain sat on her tongue. Opal knew her friend believed in her. She knew he would stand beside her, but it still hurt for some reason.
Her shoulders slouched and her steps began to lose their rhythm. “Liste, Opal, you’re beyond qualified. You know almost everything inside and out. And I doubt Jasper knew it all.”
She stayed silent. “If you take the exam now, you’ll pass, I know--”
“I don’t want to just pass!” Something burst through, “I want to be excellent. I want to be noticed by the Tester, I want them to see that I am beyond qualified. Only a few get to take the exam and if I get that chance, the testers should know that I have everything they wanted and more.” her voice boomed into the busy streets, drawing attention to the two. Ivan’s eyes scanned the city roads and the looks were not pleasant. They were painful to be at the end of.
But then he looked back at his friend, her face scowled but her eyes glossed over with a small pool of tears welling beneath them. He could see that something hurt her. He knew something was hanging on her shoulders. “...What did Jasper say to you?”
Opal remained silent, but the lights of the neon cast shadows down her face, scattering her features. Her breaths hitched and anger flurried inside her.
“Ass!” She cursed, shoving him and then sprinting off. The tears in her eyes flooded down her cheeks. Deep down, she knew she couldn’t blame Ivan, but it was easy. It wasn’t his fault that Jasper’s words hung so heavy on her. That the Lightsmith who cared for her, that the man who became her father tore her open. Told her she was not prepared. Ivan’s encouragement, his belief in her was not enough because no baker would understand the Smith Exam like an actual smith. His words could never hold as much weight.
And so, her feelings took over and she disappeared into the city, slipping around the neon that sprang up each building, the neon that hung low on the street lamps. The lights were nearly endless. They stretched along the streets, against the curbs, up buildings sides, and around every structure. It wasn’t seamless but they were endless. Noticeable enough for you to never forget that they were there.
But for Opal, she now forgot. With hot tears streaming down her face and the pain that unfortunately hung in her chest, the world disappeared, faded, and sunk below her feet, leaving her in darkness.
Until a wall came ramming into her, a wall she couldn’t see. She fell to the ground with a grunt, but when she rubbed her eyes and her head. The darkness remained. She stood in the blackness, scared, flurried by her emotions and sore.
“Hello?” She spoke into the shadows, but only her echo remained. She spoke again, “hello?!” This time louder with a twinge of anxiety in her voice.
Silence remained for a moment too long until, “hello, crybaby.” A silky voice said to her. She spun around but saw no one.
“Who are you?!” Opal shouted. Her chest was rising and falling fast, the anxiety turned into panic, a swirling storm of panic surrounded her until an auburn-haired woman and smooth brown skin stepped from the dark.
“I could ask you the same.” She leaned in close until her green eyes lit up. Opal swallowed before trying to push her away. The girl slipped out of her way before reaching around, grabbing Opal and pressing a knife to her neck.
“It was a nice try, but I can smell it on you.” She hissed in the panicked girl’s ear, “the panic, the anxiety, the dreams seemingly falling apart around you. You are an open book, Opal. Too naive and entranced by your own curiosities to know when to stop. How did you see it?” The last question she shouted in the poor girl’s ear. A yelp escaped Opal’s lips and she shuttered.
“I- I don’t know--”
“Opal, my beloved, I can see it all.” She waved her hand in the air and the shadows around them danced into a display of Opal’s memories. She on that rooftop, her eyes, her face, her everything, and that beam of light. “Did you know it was going to happen?”
“No!” Opal said too quickly, fear ripping through her as she shook violently, trying to contain herself against the knife, afraid of cutting herself before the girl holding it cut her. “I sit up on that roof every day before the lights come on. I just saw it! It just happened--” Before she could finish, the shadows disappeared, but the darkness remained.
There’s a flicker of the neon around them, but only a flicker. The lights do not come back.
Opal’s heart twisted. The lights were gone, but, as the girl behind her spoke one last time, there was a sense of wonder, awe, and pleasure in her tone. A tone that made Opal’s spine shrivel and a gasp escape her throat.
“Opal, I welcome you to the New Reniere.”
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