Addie and Ciara: Forged in Light

Chapter 1: Lost and Found

Fables rarely describe just how cold a rusty old cargo ship feels when you're captured. Warnings never whisper of the clanking of eroded bolts ringing in your ears, or the rough metal seats that treat whatever occupies them with the disrespect of a lifeless object, carelessly tossing them about the cargo hold. And they especially don't warn you about the touchdown into a prison yard. Murderous, hate-fueled stares pierced through Addie's frail frame as her entire body trembled in fear. A cold, anxious nausea built in the back of her throat as her arms ached from the weight of the metal cuffs pulling at her wrists. Her only option was to stare down at the snow-covered ground, her chained-up arms in her peripheral. The chilling touch prison guard's hand on her shoulder only pulled her body further into shock as he lead her down the hall to her cell. Her damp, mud bespattered cell, had clearly been used and uncleaned.

Everything was cold. Though, the coldest thing in that damned prison was Addie's heart. It had never felt a weight this heavy before, not even when her brother left her. She couldn't feel a thing besides the frost-bitten chill that accompanied her. Her heart froze over as she curled up on the floor, her arms wrapping around her legs as she sat there. She couldn't even put the effort into crying, it was all too much. Regret and guilt filled her aching mind. If she just hadn't stolen those clothes. If she just hadn't saved Blaze. If she just hadn't gone after that soulless firebender. Even if she hadn't left the orphanage, and just stayed there, rotting in the bed she shared with- him, anything would be better than this. Then this cold, dead, emptiness encapsulating her soul. Maybe that's what the cold really was, emptiness—the absence of warmth.

Maybe if she was just good enough, just good enough for Dominic's mom's, none of this would have happened. How could she have been so blind before? So stupid, so dense, to have not seen before that this was all her fault. Every single thing that had happened to her was all her own doing. If she was smart, she wouldn't have followed Blaze. And if she was smart, she wouldn't be cold. And as day one came to an end, she fell asleep, trying to escape this hellish reality. Day two was no better than the first. During the day she could once again feel the ungodly stares from fellow cellmates digging into her skin, aching almost as much as the burn on her arm. She occasionally overheard the screaming matches between guards and inmates, but it was nothing of interest to her. Day three was inmate feeding day, which Addie could tell before the food was even made considering the ravenous salivating the other inmates occupied their time with. When the food was thrown into the cells through little tray slips, Addie was surprised a few of the inmates didn't eat the plates. She couldn't even stomach her tray of grey and blue sludge, so it sat in the opposing corner of her cell. She ended up pushing her tray a little too far, vaporizing half of it with the forcefield keeping her in. Day six was a whole lot of nothing. If Addie wasn't in such a depressive state, she would have found it ironic that even she could not find something to pass the time. As she watched the sunrise on day seven, she noticed a guard walking toward her cell. She shrunk away from the cell's entrance in fear as the guard pressed his hand to the lock, the force field fizzling out. He took the cuffs from his belt, roughly locking them around Addie's wrists and yanking her up, taking her by the wrists down the hall.

"Where...are- we going?" Addie attempted to ask, her throat croaking dryly from dehydration.

"Your bail has been paid," The guard replied, it practically echoing through the empty halls. Addie's brows furrowed in confusion. Who could have possibly known she was here? Hell, who would've even cared?

Could it be Dominic?

Addie shoved that thought down to the deepest depths of her mind. It was absolutely impossible, quite frankly improbable, that her brother was still on Vizelia, and that he knew or cared to save her. For all she knew, Dominic could be millions of lightyears away from this place.