Rayne(5)

I can feel stress from Landon as I walk to the matchmaker’s room. I have to tell them about this. About Landon. I can not go through matching.

“Come in!” Ember yells when I knock on the wall next to the curtained doorway.

Walking into the room, I realize it is the first time I have been in it. She has a fire going in the middle of the room, embers sparking everywhere. There is some sort of pot hanging over it, filled with some kind of bluish liquid. Ember is hunched over it, stirring intently. I walk to stand in front of her. I have only seen her from afar in The Colony. Never up close.

She peers at me from under her eyelashes for a brief moment before dropping her gaze back to her concoction. In the brief moment though, it is apparent what she was named for. Her eyes are a deep orange with bright red flecks like embers in a fire.

“You have come here to be matched for it is the first day of your nineteenth year, correct?” she says in a slightly crackly voice that matches the fire’s sound.

“Yes,” I tell her.

“Why?” she asks, still not looking at me.

“What do you mean ‘why?’? It is the rule of The Colony to be matched on the day of 19 years for a girl,” I tell her confused.

“I am well aware of that rule, child! But you have something no one in this colony has had for more than 30 years! Who is it my dear? It is okay to talk about it in this room! This is the only safe place to talk about it in all of Moon Light!”

Now the old lady is really confusing me. She has been here her whole life, only born 2 years after the invasion. She was one of the first Children of the Air. That is what we call the first people that were obviously changed by the chemicals in the air from the aliens.

“What are you talking about?” I ask, Landon’s stress turning into my own. “Who is who? Talk about what? And what do you mean ‘in all of Moon Light’?”

“My dear, we have not been allowed to talk about love since Farah lost her love to a Wild. She had a great power, my dear. As do you and every woman in love. When a woman loses the man that they love, this power becomes free inside of them. It is a bit different for every woman. For Farah, it was the worst. Most women who had lost the man they loved used their power to either heal the man or kill themselves, depending on which kind of power they had. But Farah’s was nothing like that. She was so upset about her love dying that she unleashed her power on everyone around her, freezing everyone’s ability to love unless it was the absolute truest of loves. It is supposed to unfreeze within 40 years. So either you are the first to have the ability back or yours is a very true love. Now tell me dear, which boy is it?”

I pause, letting all of this new information sink in. So that’s why I have not heard of love in my colony.. I wonder if Landon’s colony was affected by Farah’s curse. I take a deep breathe and answer her question. “His name is Landon. He… is not from this colony.”

She nods understandingly. “Mmm… yes he is not from Moon Light. He is from Sun Light, no doubt. I can tell from the strain in your connection. It is not too bad of a strain though. I can sense the stress though. It is not yours correct? It is his?” I nod, surprised by how much this woman could sense and feel about someone in this way.

“I am wondering something though,” I say.

“Yes, child? What is it?”

“What do you call our colony Moon Light and Landon’s Sun Light?” I ask. The question had been buzzing around inside of my head since I first heard her say the strange names.

“That is a story for another time. You do not need to know that right now, for it has no significance at the moment. What you do need to know however, is that everyone is not trustworthy.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask, completely confused.

“Everyone is not trustworthy,” she repeats. “You must go now Rayne.”

What she tells me only confuses me, but I obey her orders and leave the room. What does she mean ‘Everyone is not trustworthy’?