The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 6

ARKADIA
07.01.8462 - 2:58 AM

Charlotte was motionless, her face illuminated by the screen lit from a device in her hands, a rectangular board about four times the size of an MC. She faced the gigantic city from her balcony, the highest balcony in all of Arkadia. Located in the north of the town, which formed a perfect circle, cut by an isosceles triangle, The Crystal, as the royal building is known, as its name implies imitates the shape of a crystal, the tallest tower in the complex being twice as hight of the second tallest building in Arkadia.

Designed by thousands of architects a few hundred years ago and envisioned by Charlotte's father, who created the city to be the scene of all world politics, home to the Sovereign Supreme and most of the officials of the World Government. Arkadia is a city ​​full of theaters, cinemas, operas, art galleries, parks, museums, technological institutes, libraries, and technology in constant growth and development. Every newcomer would be amazed by the gigantic proportions of that city, strategically built between three rivers in a world geographic center.

Besides the grandeur of the city and the World Government, the balcony Charlotte stood on was part of what is the smallest royal residence in the world. The Royal Apartment is a regular size apartment located at the top of the tallest tower at the center of the eight buildings complex in the shape of a large crystal that houses the entire globe's political, cultural, and financial center. Most of the towers have more than six hundred floors, surpassing three thousand and four hundred meters in height. It is located in the extreme north of the city, in front of The Two Rivers Square, named after the two rivers that cut across the city from north to south and flank The Crystal.

Charlotte's top floor residence, the 842nd, had only seventy square meters plus a twenty square meters balcony that gave a privileged view of much of Arkadia. The place had only a tiny kitchen, where Charlotte, most of the time, prepared her meals, a large bedroom with a four-poster bed and a glass door that opened onto the balcony, a bathroom, plus a small room with four armchairs around a round table, a space that was the only connection to the Crystal and exit access from the Royal Apartment.

Arkadia is a city with more than six hundred million inhabitants, formed by forty-seven percent of government employees. The town is built on a plain occupying an urbanized area of ​​more than 16 thousand square kilometers. As all the avenues on the triangle sides were called, the side avenues have about 140 kilometers. A subway network consisting of almost 6,000 stations, impossible to remember, crossed the entire city, divided into a complex system.

Among the absurd numbers and records ​​of the World Capital, which has twelve interconnected airports to handle the daily traffic of people, was included the function of demonstrating power and intimidation. Many died in the construction of Arkadia. It was known that the large cement blocks that support the city buried bodies of builders in work accidents. Reports were that the building was taking place at such a fast pace, putting manual workers' safety aside, and fatalities occurred with a particular frequency.

Virtually all of the intellectual and creative force brought into the creation and construction of the city died before seeing the paving of the main roads, all prematurely due to constant stress and long hours of restless work. Even with a fast pace, the construction took almost a century to be inaugurated, and some aspects idealized centuries ago are still under construction.

The city now known for being the center of the world was once known for sucking the life of its builders and masterminds. Charlotte had been the first Queen of Arkadia and unique so far: her father had died a few years before the city's inauguration, and her older sister, Agatha, had also suffered a tragic death in one of the city's construction camps, the field where they were building The Crystal. Her body had been lost under the earth and cement as well as that of other workers. It was strange for Charlotte to imagine that she ruled the world over her older sister's remains.