January 1st, I was ten years old now. When the leadership asks how old I am, I can hold up all my fingers. That's pretty cool, right? 

It was the first day of the new year. 

Juday, Rylah, and I, we were all ten. 

There was no way of knowing which one of us was actually the oldest. Not anymore, at least. No one bothered memorizing the specific day we were born. That was far too complicated. There were too many important days in the year, imagine the chaos that would come if we all had to memorize everyone's birthdays on top of all the ceremonies. If we did, then maybe every day would be special, which would take away the meaning of "special." 

It didn't matter if someone was born on the first of January or the last day of December, every child born in the same year was the same age. Today was our transition day. Together. No one got individual birthdays, not even the leadership. The idea of someone gaining a year of age on one precise, specific day promoted the idea of individualism, which threw out the balance we worshipped so heavily. We were a group, so we all aged together as a group every January 1st.

Fresh morning dew settled over me as I stared. His body was suspended in the air, tied up so high that I could barely see him. The auditorium was tall, he was far out of reach. I couldn't take his hand, couldn't sit beside him and look down at our reflections in the river. He wasn't my friend anymore, just another example to the rest of us. 

He didn't look like himself. His skin was darker. Covered in dried blood, no doubt, but from my place on the ground, he looked so unlike himself. His body seemed to be stretched out of proportion, too. With the way the sun's rays hit his hair, he almost looked blonde. His eyes were open, but I could see no life in them anymore. They were still blue, but duller and empty now. They didn't look like his.

El wasn't my friend. He wasn't this year's newest adult. He wasn't the museau. He had been made into a warning to others, a warning to people like me. This is what happens when someone dares to disturb the universe. 

The ropes were stained red. He didn't struggle anymore. There was no way of telling how long he had been alive, struggling to break free from the chains that had been holding him down for ten years. No tears would fall from his dead eyes. I hoped he gave up on trying to stay alive quickly. Fighting a losing battle is brutal, the second he was put up there he must have known he was never going to be let down.  

I hadn't seen the fiddle player since that night. I usually didn't see him outside of ceremonies, but he had been on my mind. He's been on my mind a lot, actually. The way he and El looked at one another, the way the music stopped so suddenly. What happened?

Nothing. Nothing could have happened. If he broke a rule, then he'd be displayed up there right next to El. 

"Shylo?" Rylah asked from behind me. 

I didn't turn to face her. Instead, I hugged myself. The cuts from the thorns I fell into still stung. Most of them had begun to heal, but few would reopen whenever I moved too quickly. I hated that feeling most of all. The feeling of all my progress vanishing. Days of healing would be ruined by impatience.

I listened to the sound of her footsteps as she drew closer until she was sitting beside me. Her chin slowly raised as her eyes fell upon El's body. There was pure, horrid silence for a moment before a quiet sigh escaped her lips.

"My mama, she wanted me to give you this," she said.

She reached behind herself and held out a small box. It was old, the redwood looked like it was starting to rot. If someone stepped on it, the box would surely be crushed. 

I frowned, then slowly took it in my hands, careful not to get any splinters stuck in my hand. Some of my earliest memories were of the old counter using a needle to dig chips of wood out of my fingertips, nature's punishment for recklessness. The wood felt just as weak as it looked. 

Inside was a small yellow gem. Somehow it looked far less fragile than the protective box. I took it in my hands and held it in front of myself. Sunlight bounced off of it and made my eyes water.

"Why?" I asked. 

The gem was smooth. I had never seen anything so beautiful, so delicate. Was it made of gold? No, it couldn't have been. Someone as unimportant as Rylah's mother wouldn't have been able to get her hands on a precious metal like that. 

"Topaz," she said. "It's Topaz."

Topaz? What even was that?

"It's beautiful," I muttered. My voice felt slightly muddied, either with grief or confusion. "But... how did you know she wanted you to give it to me?"=

Rylah shrugged. Her gaze remained on El's body.

"Topaz is the birthstone for November," she said.

Birthstone? 

"What's a birthstone?" I asked. "How do you know that?"

"My mother told me."

"She what?!"

Rylah nodded. She started pressing her fingers together until they made a quiet snapping sound. 

"We talk with our hands," she said with a softer, lower tone. "Me and my mama. My dad, he doesn't know. I think. No one knows. I think she'd get in trouble if people found out."

Talk with their hands? What did that mean?

I brought my attention back to the small yellow gem. It wasn't heavy. 

Topaz, November's birthstone...

"That gem, it was something my mama and Luella's papa had. They had all kinds of gems. One for each of them. Amethyst, emerald, sapphire. They used to be friends before their silencing. Them, and the fiddle player. All in the same year. Then, their ceremony came, and a lot changed."

Amethyst, emerald, sapphire? What even were those? It sounded like Rylah was speaking to me in a whole other language.

"My mama, she saw the way you reacted to Luella's silencing," she continued. "So, she told me to give this to you. It's yours."

Told. That was a weird word to hear. What did that mean? And how could someone speak with their hands? Hands didn't have mouths or vocal cords. None of this made any sense. Was Rylah referring to some strange magic? 

Or had she made up her own language using hand signals? If she did, then what would the leaders make of it? That threw out the entire point of being silenced, right? Would they see this as an act of defiance? Would they find a discreet way to take care of the problem, or would they use her as an example, like they did with El?

And the fiddle player... he had a colored gem too?

"Anyway, I'm going to go back to her now," Rylah breathed. She stood up and quietly coughed. "I would appreciate it if you would keep quiet about my mama. I haven't told anyone else. I didn't want to tell you, but she wanted me to."

I nodded. I wasn't planning on ratting anyone out, anyway. I didn't want to see more people get the same treatment El got. 

I wished she hadn't told me, though. Holding a secret as big as this could put me in a bad place if the leadership were to find out. What if they punished me too for not coming clean?

"Oh, and... happy new year, Shylo," Rylah said. "We're ten now. It's... it's our year."

I nodded, briefly bringing my gaze from the gem to her. 

"Happy birthday," I whispered. 

She smiled slightly, then shook her head.

"My birthday is April 6th," she said. "And yours is November 9th."

. . .

As the sun set, I snuck back through the woods. This time, I made sure to watch the ground so I wouldn't be swallowed by sharp green shrubs once again. The less panicked I was, the less the branches and shrubs seemed to attack me. Maybe nature was harsher to me last time because I was overwhelmed and frightened. 

I carefully walked until I saw the yellow lights from the other village. I held the gem Rylah gifted me tightly to my chest. I didn't want to lose it, but leaving it at home wasn't an option. I wasn't sure why, but the idea of letting it go made me sick. 

Topaz, November's birthstone.

There were e a few different people wearing different colored cloaks walking and chattering all throughout the village. It was strange to see so many seemingly unimportant people with voices. None of them paid me any mind, luckily. 

They were all speaking with one another so casually. 

It was beautiful. 

I went up to the only building I recognized and used the back of my fist to knock four times. A few moments later, there was a flurry of creaking footsteps, and the door was thrown open.

"Shylo," Merlight breathed as he raised an eyebrow.

"Shylo!" Merloo chimed as he popped up from behind Merlight like a Jack in the Box toy.

"Shylo?" a different, soft-spoken voice questioned.

"Shylo," Merloo nodded as he grasped my arm and pulled me inside. There was a small table set up in the center of the room. On it were four cups of some strange drink. 

Chills ran down my spine as my body tensed.

Two women were seated at the table. Across from them were two empty seats, likely for Merlight and Merloo.

"Ah, Shylo," the soft-spoken voice breathed. It came from the girl on the right. She wore a purple cloak, a large purple hat, and had blue eyes that practically glowed. Her hair was long and silky, it reminded me of fresh soil, but in a good way. Her features were all soft. 

She didn't seem dangerous, just gentle. Still, she was new, so she was frightening.

"I was talking about you to the guys," Merloo explained as he led me to the small table. "Shylo, here's our tribe's leaders! Merlimbis is the pretty one and Merlumina is... here too!"

The other girl rolled her eyes, so I could only assume she was Merlumina. I frowned slightly, because in my eyes she looked to be the prettier of the two. She had long white hair, a beautiful blue dress, white eyes, and a large crown. She looked ethereal. Like how I always pictured Mother Nature to look, only blue instead of green. Was she a water spirit of some sort? Or maybe a siren. I used to hear stories about beautiful sirens during speech classes. The Counter loved to tell those ones.

She couldn't have been a siren, though. Those were fictional. Fictional, meaning they weren't real. Just made up, imagined. I learned what "fictional" meant recently during class with Rylah and Juday. It was quite a thinker. Now that El was gone, did that make him fictional too? 

"So... you're the leadership?" I quietly asked. "You're the most important people in your tribe?"

"Most important?" Merlight asked. "No, no."

"Everyone's equally as important. We just help oversee stuff. We have special roles to help our group continue to grow," Merloo explained cheerfully as he led me to the table and pulled out a chair. "Take a seat. I've been telling them all about you!"

"Where will you sit?" I asked.

"Next to you, of course," he chimed.

"Isn't that Merlight's seat?"

"Merlight will be fine," Merloo chuckled. 

Merlight crossed his arms and rolled his eyes slightly as he looked away.

He didn't seem fine, but I did as Merloo said and sat down. It was always better to just listen and do what adults asked of me. 

In front of me was a small drink. It wasn't red like the juice we were required to drink back home. 

The liquid rippled slightly as everyone spoke. It seemed strange. Thinner than the juice I was used to.

Would they make me drink it?

"But first, some introductions are in order," Merlimbis smiled. "I'm sure you're just as curious about us as we are about you."

I nodded and shifted slightly as Merlight dragged another chair over for himself. There was a slightly sour expression on his face. Was he disappointed in me already?!

This was my third time visiting this village. It was hard to sneak over, but Merloo thought it would be healthy for me. He said he wanted to "help" me. He called this place the Tribe of Ancients. 

I suppose I shouldn't have been coming back. If the leadership back home found out, they'd surely make an example out of me, too. But this was the only place I was allowed to show my emotions. Merloo let me cry over El, he let me feel afraid of my upcoming silencing. 

It felt nice. Well, it hurt, crying would always hurt, but it felt nice too.

"As Merloo said, I'm Merlimbis," Merlimbis explained. "I deal with light magic. So things like love and joy. It's my job to create. If powerful darkness comes, I create something of equal power in light so we can counter it."

"And I'm the writer!" Merloo chimed as he poured another cup of whatever drink they were all sharing. It was steaming slightly and smelled of mint plants. "There's a book out there called The Dark Prognosticus. It's in the Tribe of Darkness, with our rivals. So I'm writing, well, the opposite. I'm thinking of calling it the Light Prognosticus."

How creative.

"And, he's got the most powerful dimensional magic we've seen in years," Merlight breathed. "Hence why he was recruited to our cause at such a young age."

I blinked a few times. Young age? He looked to be fifteen. He was already an adult. That didn't seem young to me.

"Yeah, he's pretty great, but he'd be nothing without me," Merlumina giggled. "I'm co-writing the book. Well, he's writing about two-thirds of it, but I'm writing the rest. I also help Merlimbis with her light magic. I guess you can say I'm a bit of an all-around leader, which makes me the best."

"You spend most of your time flirting with strangers," Merlight huffed. "You lack focus and persistence. Don't take credit for Merloo's writings. You've only written a few pages."

"Aw, stop," Merloo chuckled as Merlumina's face turned a little red with annoyance. "Anyway. Merlight is the big dreamer. He's got this idea to build a town between dimensions. I'll be using my powers to assist him in building a place where everyone can come together and live in peace. Which is where you fit in, Shylo!"

I frowned slightly as Merloo stood up and turned to face me. He kneeled down and took my hands, smiling slightly. My body tensed, but I wasn't afraid. Just confused. What did he mean? I wasn't part of this group, how could I help?

"Shylo... you're like me," he explained. "I can sense it. There's power in you. Power like mine. Strong, dimensional magic. I could feel it from the moment we met. And... it took a lot of internal debate since you're from a tribe we know nothing about, but... I think I can train you. Only if that's what you want. And maybe together, we can unite more people. We can make a peaceful place, a world where anyone can come together and live happily! Merlight's dream can become a reality! I know you don't want to be silenced, and I know you only have a year, but I think... I think we can save you. And if we save you, then maybe we can save more people."

I looked at his hands and felt my pulse quicken. 

It was too late to save El, now. 

But... what if I could save Rylah? What if I could save myself?

"What if... what if people don't want to be saved?" I asked.

I was so much smaller than everyone else in that room, but I didn't feel as little as I did back home. I could speak here. I could question. 

I felt powerful. Still small, but bigger than before.

"We won't make them," Merlimbis assured me. "Something we've learned from the time wasted trying to make peace with the Tribe of Darkness is that you can't force people to accept help. Sometimes, it's cruel to keep trying. The best thing we can do is offer our help and support, but it's up to the individuals whether they take it. We're not trying to convert you to our tribe or our ways. We just want to offer people the chance to choose."

I nodded to myself. Merloo had explained their position with the Tribe of Darkness during my last visit. The two groups had been rivals ever since the Pixl War, which was something I had never heard of until a few days ago. Apparently, the Tribe of Darkness and the Tribe of Ancients were the two biggest tribes. Neither organization even knew of my tribe's existence. 

"And, Shylo," Merloo added. "You don't have to accept my training. You don't have to accept anything. But... if you want help or an escape, my door is always open. I'll keep you safe."

He placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled slightly. 

I looked at the drink in front of me. There was still steam coming from it.

"What kind of juice is that?" I quietly asked.

"Oh, herbal tea," Merlumina answered. She lifted her own cup to her mouth and quietly sipped from it. "Made by yours truly."

"Must I drink it?" I questioned.

"Um, no," Merlight muttered. His left eyebrow lifted. "Why would we force you to drink it?"

"Don't sass our guest," Merlimbis said with an eye roll. "Don't mind him, Shylo. He's the mean one."

Mean? Was that what that was? 

Did these people even know what "mean" meant?

"What Merlight means is no, we won't make you drink anything," Merloo chuckled. "If you want to, you can! But you don't need to."

I slowly nodded, then pushed the cup away from myself. 

I remembered El. The way blue lightning danced around his hand in a jagged pattern. Had Merloo really sensed magic in me too? Was someone as ordinary and insignificant as me really capable of being anything more?

Do I dare disturb the universe?

I grasped the Topaz tightly. 

November 9th...

"I think... I want to learn," I breathed. "I want to learn magic."