[Gloria Regali - Tommee Profitt, Fleurie 🎶]
Make no promises to the bluebird that you cannot keep, or it will tear off your sinful tongue with its beak.
*
Turkey had Istanbul; England had London. And Lighdark... Lighdark had Zehera.
The sun never rose in Zehera. It was a cage disguised as a city. The State claimed a plague ravaged the world beyond our borders, that leaving meant certain death. But looking around at the gloom, I often thought I'd rather face death out there than endure life in here.
Zehera was a city of prohibitions. Technology was a relic of the past; communication devices were things of myth, forbidden even in dreams. Everything was rationed. Everything was limited.
It was a wretched place, and I was utterly alone in it.
Most of Zehera's citizens possessed supernatural abilities, marking them for the Academy. I was one of them. Before sleep took me each night, I would lie awake dreaming of freedom. Even if it meant dying, I wanted to end my life in a place where I belonged only to myself. I longed to see the sun, to let it burn away my loneliness. But hope felt dangerous here.
Then came the night it all began.
The Headmaster woke us in a frenzy. Something was wrong; the air was thick with tension. By the time the students gathered in the main courtyard, the Soldiers had arrived. They stood like harbingers of doom, not the honorable warriors described in history books. They were the State's executioners, devoid of uniforms, unofficial, and lethal. They viewed us not as students, but as monstrosities—as Weapons to be harvested. They always wanted more of us.
I stood with my head bowed, staring at the dead grass, trying to make myself invisible. A sharp poke to my shoulder snapped me out of my trance.
"What is it?" I whispered, not bothering to look up. No answer.
"Reverie Alenas," a deep male voice commanded. "Look at me."
I looked up, startled. Looming over me was a man with eyes of dark green fire that seemed to glow in the eternal twilight. Dark brown hair fell over a furrowed brow. My instincts screamed: No. Don't choose me.
"You're coming with me."
He didn't wait for a response. He seized my wrist, yanking me against his chest. A scent filled my nose—captivating, despite the violence of his grip. For a second, I was stunned, my feet moving automatically. I shouldn't have allowed it.
Use your power, stupid!
The thought pierced my paralysis. I stopped dead, digging my fingernails into my palms. With my free hand, I tossed a lock of light brown hair from my face and thrust my palm upward.
Chaos erupted. Students screamed and scrambled back into the Academy as I telekinetically lifted a car nearby and crushed it instantly. I knew they feared me. Even the teachers walked on eggshells around me, never scolding, always terrified of the dormant power I possessed.
White energy surged from my hands, lifting me off the ground. I began to rise, hovering above the chaos. Below, the Soldiers drew their weapons, aiming at my floating form. I was done obeying.
But something was wrong. The man who had grabbed me... he was gone. He had been holding me just a second ago. Where did he go?
Terrified, I glanced down.
He hadn't let go. He was hanging onto my leg, looking up at me with an unnerving calmness. He wasn't a step away; he was part of my ascent. He shook his head in disapproval, then moved.
With impossible strength, he hauled himself up, climbing my body as if I were a ladder. He grasped me with clinical precision, unbothered by gravity. When he pulled himself level with me, our faces inches apart, he stopped. He frowned, and in his eyes, I saw a terrifying, raw power.
"Descend," he said. His voice was calm, authoritative.
My resistance crumbled under his gaze. I lowered us slowly. The moment my knees touched the grass, he tilted my chin up, kissed my forehead, and smiled—a jarring shift in demeanor.
"Well done, my girl."
Tears spilled down my cheeks. "Let me go," I pleaded, my voice breaking.
"Shh," he whispered, his face shifting again, darkening. He leaned closer. "Come on, Reverie... Come on, beautiful... Sleep now. Tomorrow will be a good day."
"You're lying!" A sob caught in my throat. My eyelids felt heavy, dragged down by an unnatural weight.
"Tch." He scooped me up, one arm under my neck, the other under my knees, cradling me against him. "I'm not lying. You will enjoy freedom when the time comes."
"Promise?" My consciousness was fading fast.
"Promise."
*
Dreams took me. I saw unloved kingdoms crumble and kings burn on their thrones. The past and future bled into one. And there was the sun—the star unseen for years—scorching the earth.
I looked up, desperate to see it. I had never known its warmth, never seen its light since birth.
But as I stared at the sky, I felt nothing. Around me, faceless voices cried out that the heat was unbearable, yet my skin remained freezing. The sun could not penetrate me.
Worse, the sun was black. It was a void in the sky, and I was drowning in its eternal darkness.
"I can't see the sun," I whispered in the dream, disappointed. "I can't feel it."
Suddenly, phantom fingers danced over my skin, startling me, but I was paralyzed. There was nowhere to run.
"The sun is invisible to your eyes, little girl," a voice echoed. "You crush the sun with your darkness. It fears you. Your skin is the cold of a bottomless winter night. What use is feeling the sun, if it cannot warm you?"