Part One: R

I remembered the first time I walked through these doors. I was seven then, a child prodigy. I had been selected to be on the government council because I was more mature and intelligent than many adults, even at age seven. But this would be the last time I walked through these doors, though I didn’t know it at the time. I saw my little sister, Rialle, seated at the long table.

Hey, Ri, I said, flashing a brilliant white smile at her. She didn’t respond, which was quite unusual. She never missed a chance to talk with me, since I was almost always busy on government business. She turned her small head towards me and whispered my name. Ashton... As she said this word, a light went out behind her eyes. She slumped in her chair.

Rialle! Rialle! I screamed at her. No! She couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t.

A sound escaped from my lips. “No!” I was shocked, since only adults could speak out loud - most weren’t able to until they were at least sixty. But then, I was a prodigy, and proud of it. Somewhere I had heard that a long time ago, including the 21st century, everyone could speak out loud - even small children. But that couldn’t be right.

I screamed my defiance for all the world to hear. Rialle couldn’t be dead. She was all that I had left, since our father abandoned us when Rialle was born, and our mother had died a few years back.

As I stepped outside, I saw a man running across the pavilion. I recognized his gait. Master! I screamed in mind-speak. He turned towards me as he stumbled and fell. I ran towards him. He was the head of the government council. I had been serving under him for the past ten years, since I had first joined the council. When I reached him, his eyes were flickering just as Rialle’s had done. He grabbed my hand and shoved something wrapped in cloth into it. Take this, he managed to say to me, his eyes locked onto mine, just before he went still.