Chapter 1: Prologue (1)

It'd be selfish for me to claim that my life was any harder than anyone else's in this country. Our cities infested with Ryka and our people protected by Shanes who value money over our lives, I don't think anyone can have it easier.

It's been 50 years since our country, if you can still call it that, last produced a Shane of its own. And even then, I bet the stories are just unfounded rumors. After all, who'd believe that there was a Shane capable of calling on the dead? That was native talk, and only those who still had any sort of hope believed in that.

"Reeve? You listening? Put away your gadgets and come inside. It's nearly dusk, you know that a few of them slip past the Shanes sometimes."

My father... he's one of them you know, those who still cling to hope. I think that old age does that, it makes you cling on to hope because it seems that all the old people here keep waiting for some messiah. They think that the Graveslinger... the Shane of Death, as they call it, will one day come back for our country.

"Reeve?"

But I don't think that's true. Tonight my girlfriend and I turn 20, and just like with my mother, the Shanes will come and take her from me. Women are different from men, when they turn 20 they always get Bullions, it's guaranteed. And even though it's unlikely they'll become Shanes, there's still money to be had from them.

"I'm... I'm not letting them take her dad," I reply. The gadget in my hand is a makeshift blaster, it's nothing arcane like the one the Shanes can create, but it's all I've got. If I don't get a Bullion tonight, then I'll have to use this to defend her.

"Reeve you know well what they'll do to you if you keep saying all this crazy stuff right? Canary will be okay, she'll head off to one of the sky cities and live a good life. If you're lucky th-"

"W-What's wrong with you, paps? Live a good life? We don't know what they do to them there... and I love her goddammit. You want me to allow them to take her like they did with mom?"

It doesn't make any sense. Was there some sort of meeting that I was not invited to? Where everyone decided that they'd be meek?

"Come on now, I'm just as worried as you are, but ain't nothing we can do. Now come inside, the Ryka will start storming soon," my father replies. But that's exactly what I'm waiting on. While the Shanes are distracted, I'll sneak Canary out of here. We've already decided.

"Leave him be. He'll come in," another voice interrupted in. It's Canary's brother, the man never liked her to begin with. I bet he's happy to be paid for the Shanes to take his sister. They took his girl last summer, man didn't do a thing to stop them.

"You guys can head on in," I say finally. Honestly, I'm scared, more scared than I've ever been. But this is it. If I don't change things tonight, I'll live just like everyone else in the undercity does... live waiting for death.

"He's a grown man now, ain't nothing we can say to him," Canary's brother says as he shuts the door to our house.

After a while, the arcane vapor of the Shanes begins to rise, and I can hear the sound of blasters being fired into the darkness of the night.

"They're here," I whisper under my breath. More to remind myself that this is not a dream than anything else. And dream of this moment I have. The day I get a Bullion, the day I become a Shane, the day I go to one of the sky cities... with Canary.

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Any moment now I'll begin to glow, just like the Shanes do. Any moment now, I'll gain my Bullion. A minute passes, then two, and after a while, it's been an hour.

Just as I'm about to lose hope something happens, a bright light... but it isn't coming from me.

"Canary!" I shout, running towards the house. After barging through the door I see her, a beautiful green luminescence lifting her into the air. A bolt of green light bursts from her body through the ceiling, and into the sky, alerting everyone that someone has gained a Bullion.

"What'd she get?" my father asks, unfamiliar with the Bullion colors.

"It's... it's the Scrye," I reply. I'd been so nervous that I studied every color, and this was one of the rare ones. My girlfriend was a Silver class Shane, my girlfriend was the first Shane in fifty years of our city's history.

Funny enough, all I felt was jealousy... envy. I'm a realist, but for some time I had hoped that I would be the one to be the first Shane. While my father and Canary's brother stared at her in awe, I stumbled backward.

"She, she's going to leave me," I realize. What use does a Shane have for someone without a Bullion? And then, it hits me, all at once. I had never once thought that Canary would be the one to save me, in my mind she had always been an accessory.

"Reeve, what are you doing boy?" my father asks, prompting Canary's brother to swing around as well. I have my blaster pointed toward her now, I don't know why I'm doing this, but I can tell it's the only way I'm going to be happy.

"Put that gun down. You know you ain't never gone shoot anyone," Carnary's brother says before looking back at his sister. He's right, I'd never shoot her. Besides, who's to say that she'd leave me? Me and her been close since we were babies.

**

Just last night, Canary dumped me and got with one of the Shanes. Isn't anything I hadn't expected. We decided on it me and her. After she gained her Bullion she was awarded a Shane job in one of the sky cities.

After all, scryes are future seers, bet those ministers were fighting for her the second they heard it. Anyway, we tried to make things work. But I just couldn't live with the fact, she was destined for something and I wasn't.

She never mentioned anything about me pointing my blaster at her, and her brother swears that he didn't tell. Though I can't be sure with those two, they've been distant ever since the rise to fame.

I'm not a weak man, I swear. But when you've been living in darkness, thinking you'd be the light, it hurts when you find out it's not you. Even more when the light is someone so close to you.

The country's named her the Shane of Estrelda, not quite the Shane of death, but close enough. She'll head up to the sky city of Lasperga, and negotiate better conditions for us. And even though we aren't dating anymore, we're still friends. She promised to write back to me.

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