Colours

“I saw a streak of Blue in the sky today,” I say.

Papa and Mama stiffen. They don’t say a word. I help myself to more potatoes and lower my eyes to the food in my bowl.

From the corner of my eye, I see Papa’s hand tremble. He chews on some stew slowly, deep in thought. “Are you sure?” he asks finally.

I hesitate. I set down my bowl and fold my hands under my chin. “Not entirely, no. I saw it during the thunderstorm this afternoon. The Blue was accompanied by lightning, and it was very brief. I could be mistaken.”

“Was anyone with you?” Mama asks.

She meant to ask if I told anyone else about it. I shake my head, averting my gaze.

Papa clears his throat. “Do you still remember your Colours?”

I give out an exasperated sigh. “Yes,” I groan. “Black gives you supernatural strength, White heals, Blue lets you control the ocean, Green gives you power over the trees, Brown gives you the power of the earth, Red makes you a pyrokinesis, while Gold – good old powerful Gold,” I grin mischievously, pausing for effect. “Gold wielders can absorb any other Colours and wield their power.”

Papa stares sternly at me. “This is a serious matter, Thalia.”

“I am taking it seriously, Papa!” I stalk to my room to retrieve the worn parchment on my bedside table. Waving it in his face, I couldn’t help raising my voice. “I have been memorising this since forever! I remember them! But I don’t understand why I could only see the Colours on this parchment, and I don’t know why they are so important to you.”

Papa heaves a long sigh. “They are important to you, Thalia. Your Mama and I,” he looks dejectedly at Mama, “we are Bleaks, we cannot see Colours. But you are different, Thalia.”

“Stop using that word, I hate it – you are not bleak,” I say softly.

I run my fingers over the Colours on the parchment; their hue faded with time. When I was young, Papa would hold me in his lap and teach me about the Colours. He chanted them with me, but our lessons always ended with Mama’s whispers that I should never, ever, tell anyone that I could see them.

**

Nothing interesting ever happens in our small town of Khazak. I once asked Mama why they chose to settle here, and she said not everyone has a choice. I have always wondered about the outside world, but over the years of wanting but not being able to explore, I began to think that maybe not having a choice is a blessing in disguise, because that constant wondering about where you are ‘supposed’ to be would never have been given a voice.

Amid the boredom of this small town, I find myself constantly wondering about Alek. It has been five days since the thunderstorm; the same number of days since I last saw Alek. I grow increasingly anxious about whether he was put off by my reaction towards the storm, and whether he caught on to anything, but no one has heard from him since. Mama abhors my unhealthy obsession over Alek, but I couldn’t help gravitating towards him, and this incomprehensible fear – that someday his tender gaze would fall on others as it does on me – keeps gnawing at me.

My reverie is broken by a succession of urgent knockings on my door. Papa pokes his head into my room, his expression urgent. I sit up as he quietly closes the door.

“I’ve got this from the mines. Can you see what Colour it is?” He rummages in his pockets and hands me a small piece of ore.

I gasp. “You stole that from the mines? It’s illegal, Papa! You could be killed for doing that!”

“Hush, keep your voice down!” He hisses at me. “I got suspicious after your questions the other day. I just need to know what we have been mining every day. It may be nothing. I-I will return it tomorrow, no one will suspect anything.”

As Papa’s intense and pleading gaze becomes unbearable, I avert my eyes and turn to scrutinise the ore he thrusts in my hand. It was cold and smooth with uneven edges. I turn it around in my hands. I furrow my brows. It is grey like everything else; it almost looks like a regular piece of rock. Almost. Except there’s a different hue underneath the usual grey that I’m used to. I bring it up to a candle and squint. Is that…

“What is it?” Papa prods impatiently.

I shake my head, “Impossible,” I mutter. I pick up the parchment on my bedside table for confirmation. “This…it looks like…underneath the grey, there – there is another Colour, it’s faint – but, it looks like…Gold?” As I stare in amazement at the ore in my hand, I feel a tug towards it; I feel elated somehow.

“Gold?” Papa says, shocked. He shakes his head in disbelief. “How would a small town like this have Gold ores? A ton of them as it is – we have been mining it for over ten years!” He starts to pace around my room frantically. “But if it’s true, why would the Royals keep it from us, and why would the Royal Guards hoard all the Gold? Are they feeding it to the Gold wielders in the Royal Guards? But why do they need so much Gold? What are they trying to do?”

I shake my head, lost like him. I hand the ore back to Papa, but as I do so, I can’t help but notice that the Gold underneath seems to have dulled a shade. “Wait, maybe –” I hesitate, confused. “– maybe I was mistaken, I don’t see the Gold now,” I say.

Papa takes the ore from me, his brows rumpled as he looks at me incomprehensibly.

**

Mondays are the most exciting days of the week for me, because there are more trades and demand for horses is higher, which means it is more likely that Alek will be working at the stables, and that I would likely bump into him on my way to work. I am searching for his silhouette amongst the crowd of stable boys and traders when his voice startles me from behind. My worries for the past week vanish as he approaches me with a smile.

“Hey, I haven’t seen you for some time,” I greet him.

He gives me a sheepish smile, responding that he was busy and was out of town.

His response sets me on edge, and my smile falters.

“Meet me at the meadow at dusk? I’ve got something for you,” he whispers.

Instantly, my mood lifts. I nod and hurry away towards the bakery where I work. My steps feel lighter, but I hate, hate, that I have given him free rein over my mood, that I am so easily influenced by his words and actions, and I can’t stop dreading the day when these small moments of hope and happiness would turn into the sharpest knife to my heart.

Dusk could not come sooner. And as soon as the warden at the bakery rings the bell signalling the end of the workday, I undo the apron, wash away the flour on my hands and redo my hair into a chic bun. And then I all but skip to the meadow to meet Alek.

He is waiting at our spot when I finally arrive. I deliberately soften my footsteps, but he turns at the last moment and gives me a playful scream of mockery. I settle beside him on the blanket he has put out on the grass.

“I saw this in another town and thought of you,” he says. He turns and opens his satchel, from which he retrieves a stem of rose. My eyes grow wide – from the gesture, and also because the rose is Red. I look around me, but everything is a drab of grey, there is not a hint of Colour, as I am accustomed to. Then why is the rose in his hand Red?

“You do not like it?” Alek asks with concern when he sees my hesitation.

“No, I love it! Just surprised, is all,” I say with a laugh. What does it mean that he gifts me a rose? Surely he does not give them to every woman he meets.

“Rumour has it that this is a stalk of rare White rose, meant to be given to the person you cherish the most,” he extends the rose to me, his eyes on me.

I can’t help but laugh. “That’s not Wh–“ I stop myself in time.

“That’s not what?” he asks.

“That’s surely not what people say,” I try to cover up my slip of tongue. I take the Red rose, feeling warmth spread over my cheeks and soon, over my entire body.

Alek tells me about his business in the next town and entertaining stories about his childhood friend. Soon, night has fallen.

“We should head back,” he says.

As he helps me up, his gaze falls on the rose in my hand. I follow his gaze. The Red rose is no longer Red, but the same drab grey all around me. A panic rise in my chest. What is happening to me?

I burst through the door into my house, and Papa and Mama are already seated at the dining table.

“What’s wrong?” Mama asks as she notices the fear on my face.

I stumble into the dining room and throw the rose on the table. “This,” I point to the rose. “Alek gave this to me just now. I swear it was Red when he gave it to me, but now, now it has turned grey! I couldn’t have imagined it!”

Mama gasps and covers her mouth. “How could he have gotten an object of Colour? I thought the Colours were lost.”

“Pack your bags, you need to go, Thalia,” Papa sounds frantic.

We both stare at him. Papa pushes up from the dining table and ushers me to my room. “Quick, it’s not safe for you. Alek must know something. You must leave now.”

I push away from him. “Know about what?” My voice shakes. My throat closes up, and my hands begin to tremble.

Papa starts to throw my clothes together in a satchel bag. “You are a Gold wielder, Thalia! You must have absorbed some of the Gold when I gave you the ore that day. So, you can absorb other Colours and absorbed the Red from the rose! That’s why the Gold ore and the Red rose turned grey after you touched them!”

“I-I-I’m not a Gold wielder!” I say in disbelief. “I-I-I’m me! Ordinary me, I am not a Gold wielder!”

Papa stops his hunt around my room and walks to me. He steadies me by my shoulder, stoops and looks me in the eye. “I’ve told you, Thalia. Colours are important to you. They are your destiny. I know you are a Colour wielder, but I did not guess that you are a Gold wielder. I had hoped that you would not be found out, that this small town would keep you safe. But not anymore, Thalia, you must leave now.”

Hooves and running steps of men sound from outside. Papa freezes. Mama goes white.

The door bangs open, and Royal Guards spill into our house. I count ten of them, and then, in strides…Alek?

My mouth falls open.

“Seize them!” he commands. The Royal Guards move into action immediately, holding us in tight grips.

“Wait!” I plead. “I don’t understand, what treason did we commit?”

Alek turns to me, his face cold and calculating. He narrows his eyes. “Well, since you asked, I will do you the honour and spell it out for you.” He flicks a knife in his hand and points it at Papa. “This man here, your father, has stolen from the Royal mines, an act punishable by law.”

Then he turns and walks towards me. He stops and bends so that we are eye-to-eye. “And you, my dear, your existence alone is treason. You, Thalia Zakam, are the lost heir of the former captain of the Royal Guards, a traitor to the country!”

I want to spit in his face.

“Captain Zakam was not a traitor! Your family is the traitor. They dethroned the rightful owner of the land by cunning ways and killed everyone related to the throne. Your family is the disgrace! Do not speak ill of the former captain.” Papa’s voice carries more weight and authority than I have ever heard of.

The Royal Guard holding him punches him in the gut, and Papa doubles over, wheezing with pain. My blood boils. I feel hatred so vicious it makes me hot all of a sudden.

Suddenly, the Royal Guard holding me yelps and releases me. I turn in astonishment to see his hands on fire. One by one, the Royal Guards start to burn, and even Alek is starting to burn. Panic shouts reverberate through my house.

Amidst the chaos, Papa grabs me and Mama and ushers us out of the house. We run towards the forest. At a fork in the road, he passes me my bag and urges me on. “We have to part here, Thalia. Go to the edge of the forest and keep walking until you feel an invisible barrier. Push on through and leave this town. Run far away, Thalia. I do not know if there are still Colours outside of the town. But you must go, follow the Colours. You are the daughter of Captain Zakam, and we had the honour of raising you. And now, you must heed your destiny.”

“What destiny?” I cry. “What can’t we leave together?”

“The barrier keeps us in; we Bleaks cannot leave this town, but you can.”

Mama pulls me into a fierce hug. “Be safe, my child.”

Urgent footsteps and shouts sound from the distance; the Royal Guards are catching up to us. Papa squeezes my shoulder and gently tugs me away from Mama. “Go,” he says in a strained voice.

Tears stream down my face as I run towards the thick forest. I keep running, drowning out all the voices behind me, praying that Papa and Mama won’t get caught. I run, and run, and run, until suddenly, a strong force of wind hits me. No, not wind. It is an invisible barrier, like Papa said. I grit my teeth and put one leg in front of the other. And suddenly, I fall on the ground.

I push myself up and look around. A strong earthly smell envelops me. I feel grounded and calm.

“Do you need help?”

I jump and turn around. But there is no one behind me.

“I’m over here, on your left.”

I jerk to my left. There is no one around, except a deer that is looking intently at me.

“Hi, that’s me talking to you.”

“What?” I exclaim. Since when could I talk to animals?

“I am guessing you absorbed some Brown magic when you fell just now.”

That’s news to me. I did not know Brown magic allows its wielder to communicate with animals. I narrow my eyes. Since when animals read minds?

“Well, we had to have some subtle ways of communicating. And besides, you are broadcasting your thoughts quite loudly.”

I clutch my head and stare at the deer. Could you please stay out of my head? I think.

The deer merely stares at me. “No,” it says after a beat of silence. “Are you running away? What is a Colour wielder like yourself doing in that town anyway? I haven’t seen any Colour wielder since the Royals leeched all Colours from that town. You have no business being in that town. It’s not safe for you there, and why do you smell important? Who are you?”

“Whoa, slow down, deer.” I hold up my hands to stop it.

Its ears perk up and it stares behind me. “Someone’s coming. Follow me,” it says and trots away.

I run for what seems like eternity to keep up with it. I lose all bearings of direction in the thick forest and trudge blindly after the deer. It comes to an abrupt halt and says, “Here, we are safe here. You can stay here. I have to convey about our meeting tonight to the forest. I will come collect you tomorrow, and you can tell me about your story.” With that, the deer runs away.

I sit against a large tree, loneliness and despair washing over me. I am all alone now. I don’t even know if Papa and Mama are alive and well. I look up to the night sky to stop the tears from falling. The sky looks a bit different out here; it looks almost…Black. Realisation hits me. I pluck a leaf from a nearby tree and hold it under the moonlight. I gasp. The leaf is not its usual drab grey, it’s Green. I turn in wonder. The world has not lost its Colour. “The Royals leeched all Colours from that town,” I recall the deer saying. My whole life is a lie. I sink to the ground, knees weak. “I wish I could tell you all about the Colours I see tomorrow, Papa and Mama,” I weep quietly.