The Elites

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Some may call it madness. Some may call it addiction.

My time with Iver is what I looked forward to each day. Every lesson I tried to focus only to find my thoughts wandering to Iver, the leader of The Intelligence. Was I taking liberties by being this close to him, communicating with him, teaching him?

Derrick, The Elders or anyone else would surely punish me if they were to find out but would they also punish Iver? Would they turn against him too? Was there loyalty amongst Elites? Loyalty or the lack thereof was a factor in the breakouts of war between the humans.

Betrayal led to war, to killings. I heard about jealousy on the human radio but I knew it was a feeling. Something the humans felt. The concept of it baffled me because even though the Elites had hierarchy, there was nothing to be jealous about. The Elders were Elders, the leaders were leaders and we followed them in order to maintain a semblance of peace.

Peace. Something the humans lacked and something I know they fought for. But sometimes I wondered what good was war for the sake of peace?

I found Iver standing with his back to me as I climbed onto the terrace, looking out at the horizon. A forest lied beyond the fence that surrounded us from all angles, and beyond you could glimpse diamonds on the floor. I figured it was the sea, with the Sun shining onto its depths.

"I have never seen anything like it," Iver said softly as I came to stand next to him. I agreed. There really was beauty out there, out there where the humans lived. But weren't we part of the same world? Did we not get to share that beauty?

"Do you ever wonder if anyone ever tried to make it over the fence?" I asked.

I saw Iver turn to look at me in surprise from the corner of my eyes. When he didn't respond, I turned to look at him. Just like each time I looked at him, his beauty made me catch my breath. Those sky blue eyes always seemed to linger on me for a beat too long. The heat I felt inside me burned hotter.

"You always ask the questions I have no answer to. It makes me wonder if I am even worthy of being the leader of The Intelligence when I have never even considered these questions, let alone have the answers for them."

I chuckled softly.

"Well, I cannot replace you if you are looking for someone who asks all the questions - all the wrong questions."

"And yet do you not wonder if those are just the right questions we should be asking?"

"Not if I want another punishment from Derrick."

Iver was quiet for a while.

"I truly am sorry about that day..."

"It's forgotten. If not that day, it would have been another day, another reason Derrick would have found to punish me."

"Why?" Iver seemed confused.

I shrugged. I wasn't sure of that myself. Derrick hated me but that was a feeling and I wasn't sure I wanted to talk about feelings with Iver. I wasn't sure if he would think those were truly the wrong kind of questions to ask.

"Let's practice some more. First let's see what you remember so far."

And so we practised some moves on the rooftop, in the glow of the dipping Sun. He was getting better at the moves I had taught him. There were different styles of fighting that came from the human world but Iver was doing well learning the basic moves. Today I was going to show him some more complex moves, ones The Force had come up with by combining the human's techniques.

"So you need to put your hand there and then your leg-"

Iver fumbled the step and gravity pulled him down but he had a hold of me so took me down with him. We both stared at each other wide-eyed, him on top of me, both of us breathing a little hard. Iver's blue gaze smouldered as scanned my face, from my eyes, my cheeks, my nose... coming to stop on my lips. The heat inside me started to burn again. Iver moved closer to my lips before his brow furrowed slightly and he gazed back up into my eyes. His eyes moved to my cheeks and widened slightly.

Was there something on my face?

Ever so slowly, Iver brought one hand up and touched the side of face, jolting me. I froze and stared at him and something inside me felt... Felt. Before I could give that any more thought, Iver's finger traced over my cheekbone, igniting a fire in its path.

"And here I thought I would never see anything like the horizon," he spoke softly.

"W-what do you mean?"

He traced another finger over my cheekbones.

"Your cheeks are red," he responded, almost in reverence.

My blood.

I quickly scrambled out from beneath him.

"I have to go," I muttered and with that, I ran down the spiral stairs, not even paying attention to see if there was anyone lurking about to see me emerge from 'the other side'.

When I was safely inside my room, I looked in the mirror and was astonished to find the redness staining my cheeks. My eyes were wide, alive, fearful. I know the blue blood of the Elites meant there could never be any redness. Any redness must come from the red tint in my blood. Iver had seen the redness. He would put two and two together and figure out my secret. He would find out about the red tainting my blood and then it would be all over.

I knew what I had to do.

I had to stay away from Iver.

And that to me sounded like madness.