The Quiet Ones Don’t Break

Aria moves unseen in the shadows. She is quiet and unobtrusive, often overlooked and dismissed. But beneath her serene façade lies a mind with the precision of a scalpel and a determination as strong as steel. Aria doesn’t seek out conflict or make a fuss over herself. She doesn’t feel the need to comply with the mundane rules that govern everyday life. What she feels is the necessity to win, no matter what. And to achieve her objectives, Aria forces the world to obey her rules. Aria grew up realizing that the world preferred the brash, the brutal, and the violent. The meek were often walked over, while the irrelevant were ignored. But Aria had no intention of being one of those people. She meant to triumph and to endure. And if that required exploiting the most sordid aspects of humanity to her own ends, so be it. Her actions are never mindless. They are instead exact and purposeful. Every decision she makes is calculated, each step she takes is thought out, and each outcome she considers is anticipated. To the outside world, in which she dwells almost unconsciously, she is quiet, shy, and harmless. No one suspects that the calm exterior hides a restless mind that always looks ahead and reckons with all the possible risks and repercussions of her actions. No one realises that she plots her way through every conversation, through every decision and through every situation. And no one guesses that behind the mask of innocence and helplessness she plots her way towards her sole objective: remaining unbroken. Then there is him. Unpredictable, sharp as glass, exuding quiet confidence he believes is assurance. He’s an unravelling thread to the stitchwork that holds her world together and one she can’t manage to sew back up. Not yet, at any rate. Aria doesn’t fall in love easily. Perhaps she can’t or perhaps she refuses. The heart is a huge and ghastly and unnecessary vulnerability and Aria values none of those things. But even as she banishes him to the dark corners of her mind he persists there. Alone with her. In a world where conformity, submission and compliance are enforced by the State, Aria has grown up knowing only one way to live – a way that will one day see her in the inner circle. Born into a lower rank Aria knows more than she should, and has to fight for every small gain. Rivals constantly challenge her, strangers try to victimise her, and even those that appear to be friends can prove to be treacherous. The only way to survive is to prove yourself by outwitting all of those that want to do you harm. Aria's power plays are veiled, her deceitful lies go unseen, her plans are always strategic and she is constantly mindful of her own safety – all so that nothing can ever be traced back to her. Her gains are marginal, but they are also all her own. Stress and tension is everywhere in the world of Yelena. Externally, there's the magician Annandada Saodennea, the cruel Captain Maren, con artists, and numerous other people she must learn tretract