Part One

Rays of bright golden light flowed down over Caerulus tower that day seemingly just to wake me up. Maybe it was just because I was so excited for it, but I don’t know. The day seemed so unbelievably grand and even more so when I found the new issue of UNITE on my doorstep. I’d been waiting anxiously for that issue for a whole month. Well, even more so than usual. This one was special. Special because I was actually interviewed for it and I couldn't wait to see what it had to say.

Flipping through, I found the interview and started reading it, but before I could get past the first few lines, my holo went off across the room on my desk. It had that same generic little “beep” that they all had. The same sort that you never quite get used to. I went over to it and pressed the centered singular button on the flat, black, oval shape. It opened up like an eye and shot up a projection of light that looked like a fuzzy sepia-looking screen with the word “call” written across it with an answer and ignore button below. It didn’t say from who in specific, so it must have been a public booth. I touched the screen of hard, glass-like, light and answered the call.

Quickly, the image changed into the face of a black haired, gold eyed, commoner girl. The sight of her put an even bigger smile on my face than I had before.

“Hiver!” Yelled the girl with a smile on her face. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be in the zine!?”

“Heh, trust me, I wanted to.” I told her, rubbing the back of my head. It was true, I did want to tell her, but between the excitement of it and all, I never got to. Plus… “John made me promise to keep it a secret. Even from you, Elarin.” To that, Elarin just rolled her eyes.

“Oh screw him, he knows I wouldn’t have told anyone either.”

We talked quite a long while after that. About a lot of things. Her work, my family, the city. Everything. Nothing was off limits.

We went on for an hour and would have gone longer if the people waiting for the booth hadn’t  kicked Elarin out. Before they managed to do that though, she told me to meet her at the rat house.