Chapter 1: The derive

Winter 64

It's 8 a.m., but Kai can already hear the cries of a man in the distance. Probably another public execution in the neighboring square. He can't stand those piercing screams anymore. From his dark, run-down room, at the age of 17, he feels the pain of this poor man, someone he can't even see.

Those screams... They were always the same. Desperate, broken. Yet somehow, they still managed to twist his stomach every single morning. Kai turned his gaze toward the window, but the old sheet nailed to its frame blocked out the light. He didn't want to look. What was the point? It was always the same scene: a man or a woman, on their knees, beaten or hanged under the cold eyes of the Soldiers of Gold and the murmurs of a crowd that dared not look up. He couldn't take it anymore. He needed to leave, even if the air outside was just as suffocating as this life. I'll go find Corvian and Naelis at the Kazou, he thought, more to convince himself than out of real desire.

Kai pulled on a sweater far too big for his thin frame, a pair of worn jeans, and his battered clogs. His threadbare socks slipped slightly on his tired feet. He ran a hand through his short, curly brown hair absentmindedly before leaving his room. He decided to head to the Kazou, the covered market in the Derive. "The Derive" is what his dilapidated neighborhood in the suburbs of Oro, the capital, was called.

The kitchen-living room also served as a bedroom for his mother, a widow whose husband had been executed for refusing to report a homosexual neighbor hiding nearby. The floor tilted, and the front door didn't even close properly. Kai greeted his mother, who was busy washing the men's clothes from the neighborhood—the only way to earn some money, as women weren't allowed to work outside their homes.

His mother barely looked up from the basin of soapy water, her hands red from the cold as she scrubbed a worn pair of pants. Ever since his father's death, she had spent her days hunched over, washing clothes, her back bent, her eyes shadowed by exhaustion, her silence a shield against her own suffering. Kai knew she was doing all she could, but it was never enough. If only she could work like before, he thought, his throat tightening. But the Soldiers of Gold had taken everything. The right to leave. The right to dream. Even the air they breathed seemed to belong to them.

"Morning, Mom," Kai said.

"Good morning, Kai. Do you want me to give you a few aurums to get something for breakfast?"

"No, thanks. You should keep that money for later. I'm not hungry this morning."

"Alright, my son. Where are you going?"

"To the Kazou."

He slipped his feet into his battered clogs.

"You'll need money there."

"I'm not planning to buy anything. I'm just going to meet Corvian and Naelis."

"Alright, my son. Will you be back for lunch?"

"Yes, Mom."

"Have a good morning. Be careful—I heard that the soldiers' checkpoints are more frequent these days."

"I will, Mom."

Kai stepped outside. He had grown used to the ever-present stench. As always, he had to tie a wet scarf around his nose and mouth to avoid being poisoned by the thick fumes pouring from the nearby factories. He made his way through the street, jostled by the crowd and frequently swatting away the children begging him for money. Sorry, kids, we're all drowning in our own shit.

Suddenly, there was a commotion. A surge of movement in the crowd. Kai pushed forward to see what was happening, weaving through the chaos. He stood on his toes, craning his neck, and then he saw it: three soldiers beating a woman to death.

"Fucking dyke!" yelled one of them.

"A woman, and a dyke at that? You really are less than human," added the second.

"Go join your kind in death, animal!" snarled the last.

And then the screaming stopped. Nothing. No blinking. No spasms. She was dead, beaten to death by three Soldiers of Gold for kissing another woman.

"One less piece of trash," one of the soldiers muttered through his mask, the device distorting his voice into something deep and menacing.

Kai recognized the woman. She was the daughter of the neighborhood leader. He's probably going to be executed next. What a fucking government, Kai thought as he continued on his way.

He reached the central avenue, a wide street with a tram running down the middle. But no one here took it—it was too expensive. It was only for the rich people downtown, the descendants of the first members of the Soldiers of Gold, those who had participated in the coup in Year 4. Kai slipped through the crowd, pausing as a tram passed by—empty—and almost got shoved onto the tracks. But he didn't react. This was life in the Derive: live or die. He kept walking, cutting through a few more streets until he reached the ruins of an enormous tower that had collapsed during the war. The locals had managed to "renovate" the interior of the ruins into a market: the Kazou.

He entered through a massive breach in one of the tower's walls, now lying crumbled on the ground. Inside, the noise was overwhelming, and the mingling smells were sickening. The market sold everything: food, clothes, furniture, and more. But one thing tied it all together: everything was rundown and poor in quality.

Kai made his way to the back of the market, to the tattoo stall run by his two best friends, the siblings Corvian and Naelis.