Page 30 of Ocean of Silver

“Okay,” I swallowed as I watched her track the bob in my Adam’s apple along my throat. “I don’t agree with the ranking system.”

Silence followed as we stared at each other. I watched her face go through waves of emotion as she processed what I’d just revealed. I didn’t even have to use my abilities to know how she felt about it, it was written all over her face.

“Why?” she finally asked. Her voice was barely audible and came out breathy.

“It’s not right to judge someone’s worth based on a number. I believe that everyone in our society is important regardless of what is burned onto their wrists.”

She nervously looked down at her own wrists and started rubbing her zeroes as I continued, “I wish that our people could marry whoever they want to, that they can do anything they desire instead of being told what to do at some Trial. We have the Trials too, like Tennebris does. After graduation, everyone takes them, but the difference with ours is we don’t even get to decide what we want to try out for. We don’t have any say at all. We are just told, and we have to accept it. All the rank zeroes are servants no matter what. You will never see a zero rank do anything else here. It’s not right. I’ve known many rank zeroes who are just as talented and pivotal to our society as someone who is a five. If you’re a male who has a rank four or five, you are almost always placed into the army, even if you have no desire for bloodshed. There’s a rank four that I fight alongside with who is the strongest male I know, yet he doesn’t get the respect he deserves because, to Lux, he isn’t considered the best. He’s a four, not a five. Here, if you don’t have this on your wrist,” I lifted my arm, exposing my brand, “you don’t matter.”

I looked at her, meeting her gaze before continuing, “Did you know that back on Allium, it wasn’t like that? It was a free world. They didn’t have a ranking system until the very end. The ranking system was the catalyst that started the Ability War. Everyone worked and lived and loved alongside one another. It was free until the current bloodline took over the Luxian throne. They turned it into the dictatorship that it is now. That’s who caused the war that destroyed our planet. The current King that sits on our own throne, his prior bloodline, through greed and wanting control, caused a civil war that soon spiraled into the war against Tennebris as well.”

“I didn’t know,” she said quietly. “They told us about the war between the two Kingdoms, but they never went into detail. They just said that they fought for power, and I thought that meant land. I didn’t realize that they didn’t have a ranking system. I didn’t know things were ever different before.”

I shook my head, pissed at the manipulative way our school systems taught our history. “Tennebris fought back at first. They saw what Lux was doing. How they were controlling their people and manipulating them. They tried to fight for what was right. But it wasn’t enough and eventually Allium was destroyed, and we were forced to come here. And now, the same bloodline still rules in Lux.”

“Do you not like the current King? You talk of his bloodline with such hatred.”

“Is that your question for me?” When she nodded yes, I answered, “You’re right. I don’t like him, Rumor. Ihatehim.”

“Why did it matter if I was pregnant and if the blood bond took?” she asked after a moment. “I’m not so naive to think that the King was only concerned if I broke the rules. There had to be something else.”

“There’s a prophecy,” I said, deciding that she needed to know. It would be more dangerous for her if she didn’t. “Back when the Ability War started, this prophecy arose that a boy would be born of both races. Every Advenian that worshiped the Goddesses spoke of it until one day the King had their tongues cut from their throats. The boy is claimed to destroy the two current governing systems as they stand, bringing either complete annihilation or uniting our kind once again. How things pan out is still up to fate. The Lux King thought that you and Sie would fulfill it. That you would bear the child the prophecy spoke of. That’s why he wanted to know if you were pregnant.”

“But that’s impossible. Even if I did fall pregnant with Sie, a child wouldn’t survive. Everyone knows that any inter-kingdom offspring would die immediately.”

I shook my head. “Is it?” I questioned. “Our kind hasn’t tried to reproduce since on Allium, and the records dated back to that time are far and few between. They could have been tampered with. Plus, maybe Earth is different. Maybe a baby born from both would survive, could survive here. Or maybe that was all a lie to control us, so we obeyed and didn’t question the current governing system. Think about it, neither King would truly want the prophecy to come true. Either it will annihilate the Advenians completely, wiping us from existence, or destroy the Kingdoms’ two rulers. Neither of them would want that. They both want to keep their crowns.”

“What would the King do to such a child?” she asked.

“He would murder it without hesitation. And it wouldn’t matter if that child was born or still in the womb. If you were pregnant, Rumor, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill you.”

She shuddered. “Why are you telling me any of this anyway? I mean, I’m glad you are, but the prophecy clearly isn’t about Sie and me since we aren’t having a baby together. You saw for yourself that I’m not pregnant, so why tell me?”

“Yet. You and Sie didn’t produce an offspringyet. You could still fulfill the prophecy. And with the King now knowing that you are Sie’s weakness, I’m certain that you two will be forced to be together.”

“So,” she questioned, her voice starting to rise. I could sense that my words bothered her. She probably thought she’d never see the Dark Prince again. “I didn’t sleep with him while I was married to him. What makes you think that I would do it now that we aren’t together?”

“I’m not saying you will,” I struggled with my words again, trying to figure out how to explain this to her. “But even if there was suspicion that you did, the King would kill you for it. He won’t risk an offspring actually being born that would threaten his rule. I’m just warning you to stay clear of him. Plus, everyone in Tennebris thinks you two completed the blood bond. If they find you two in a room together, they would think it’s because of the side effect of the bond. Did your Dark Prince happen to mention that to you?”

Her cheeks grew redder, a shade so deep I didn’t know it was even possible, but I found myself memorized by it. It made her look alive, so unlike the skeleton she was when I first saw her. I also loved the fact that she couldn’t hide her emotions, that she wore them on her face without knowing it, despite the fact that I could smell them on her anyway. It made her seem more pure and honest.

Her now developing blush also told me that Sie did, in fact, tell her about that part of the oath, where the newly blood bound couple wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other.

“But Sie and I… we didn’t… the blood bond isn’t…”

“Rumor, I know now that you two didn’t fuck.” She cringed at the word, and I realized I probably shouldn’t have used that phrase. “You don’t need to beat around the bush. It’s just odd that Sie felt something toward you. I think that’s another reason the King believes you are the one in the prophecy because a blood bond has never occurred before between the two different Kingdoms. Sie said that his powers were stronger with you, so clearly you two are a match. Even if you didn’t consummate it, everyone still thinks you did. So you have to be careful. Don’t be alone with him, don’t do anything with him. No matter how you two might feel about one another.”

“I don’t…” she stopped mid thought and shrugged it off. “Fine. I won’t talk to him if I ever see him again.”

“Good. Now let’s get back in the water. We still have a couple more hours of daylight left, and I want to look at your markings.”

She nodded her head but didn’t get up yet. “Tezya, why did you tell me all of that?”

“I thought you deserved to know why those tests were done to you and why you need to stay away from the Dark Prince.”

She shook my head, cutting me off. “No, not that. About your feelings toward the ranking system and the King. That was…” She stopped mid sentence, but I could sense what she didn’t say. I revealed way more than one simple fact that no one knew about me. I revealed enough for her to blackmail me with. She could use it against me, but somehow I knew she wouldn’t.

I met her electric sapphire eyes and decided on the truth. “Because I thought that you would understand. I saw on those screens how you were treated because they thought you were a zero. I hoped maybe that you’d feel the same as me because you lived through it.”

---