Brilliance [fiction]
Trouble with stars is that you can only see them at early evening. It's just before all the street lamps begin to blaze, and the lights inside the apartments are not completely overshadowing the speckles of luminscence above. These harsh bulbs so intensely turn the entire city into a sickly carnival of unblinking clowns. They all insist on keeping every space in their flats lit, as though afraid of tumbling into a crevice that will emerge from nowhere underneath their very feet. A reasonable fear. There's a spine tap process before entering the city of the perpetually damned, otherwise known as the Eternal City. For security reasons, as they claim, you are required to become Balanced before gaining passage to this glorious haven. Balance is part of the great Dyries' promises. The promises of a devil no less ready to shove you down a metal stairway, hoping to claim your soul without reproach. So, this is the eternal city. and all that is left to be seen is obliterated in the moonless night of neverending brilliance...
Tearing my eyes away from the hypnotic twinkling of fluorescence, I step back into my living room. Assured by the spotless tabletop and the lingering bleach smell that I could taste in the back of my throat; Sanitation had swept through for the day, and I have two minutes to my own. I loiter about touching the counter and stools. The seats are made to resemble wood, but a solid rap with your knuckles proves otherwise. Nothing is as it looks here. A sudden buzz at my door slaps me from my reverie and I quickly straighten my figure as Anu glides inside for my weekly Quieting. Her irregular nose and wide mouth has become an affront to the Dyries, but her sly and probing manner of interrogation earned her a placing in the Market. Seating herself on the mock-wooden stool, Anu nods once and and then as always, raises the dreaded question.
"When will it be?"
I steady my shoulders while replying with the same. "I cannot say."
"It has become thirty rises now."
"It matters not." I say, before I can help myself, and I tremble at my slip.
Anu's eyes widen and flicker, revealing a tiny spark before she blinks it away.
"You know what they will do."
I know.
She reflects quietly. The beams outside are winking on and off unlike the eyelids of the Dyries. I feel a restlessness surging inside of me, and I tiredly shift myself onto the other foot subconsciously. Anu snaps her smolderings eyes onto my own averted ones. Then, placing both her hands on her lap, she signifies thhat she is to make a final statement before our weekly session is finished.
"Your inability to be of any service to the Market or the Dyries has become a hindrance to the city." She declares, with a hint of relish. "I will return in a week, at which time the Dyries will have announced their decision."
Anu glides away after my respective bow and the door shuts behind her. Instantly, I collapse with sheer exhaustion. Images of Anu and the Dyries prevent me from gaining a moment of release. Lying on the floor, I struggle to imagine my life a year ago; when the grounds were yet to be destroyed, the people yet to be burned alive for various definitions of treason, and the human soul yet to be reconstructed to benefit a darker creation. The Dyries had come so quickly, and the choice of life and death was held at the palm of their hands, only to be swept clear with the
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