HOW TO BE A QUEEN

ONE

The sun scorches the back of my neck, burning my flesh into a raw pink colour.

As I wipe a bead of sweat from my brow, I keep my gaze low to avoid any suspicious eyes. I can't have any wandering eyes now can I? Plus, the quarter is crawling with Sentinels—more than usual, it will be tricky business. My recipient lay on the other side of the gates but to get past the gates you have to show ID which isn't a problem, I have my ID but it would have been easier if I wasn't carrying the severed wings of a faerie in my back pocket. Sounds harmless right? It's not. It's illegal for a Mundane to possess anything magical or enchanted and particularly, it's illegal for us to practice magic.

I count five guards at the gate, all I have to do was show my ID and get into the market, simple right? I throw my hood over my head and venture towards the gates. It's never the same guards, they revolve around continuously and each day is a new face, sometimes when I'm lucky some of the guards work two days in a row which means it's easier for me to smuggle because they assume that I work every day. Now, if the guards are different, that's another story.

"ID please, Ma'am," a brown-haired guard says in a steady voice.

I pull from my fraying trousers a cream ID, a hideous picture in my opinion, I'm honestly surprised people recognize me with it. The guard snatches it from my hands and scrutinizes every inch of it, flicking back and forth from my card to my face. "What do you plan to do in the market?"

I keep my voice still, lying had become easy for me. I do it so often that sometimes I can trick myself into believing it was the truth "I work there. I'm employed by Calal Windsor, he owns a shoe shop" I am employed by Cal, that was the truth, whether or not I work in his shoe shop was debatable.

"And after your day of work?" He asks, his brown eyes gazing intently into mine.

"Collect my maintenance loan" I reply. It was the last day of the month, surely he knows this.

He hums a softly under his breath and continues to inspect my ID card, I am beginning to grow impatient and restless, I have a whole day's worth of work ahead of me but at this rate, I'll be stuck at the gate for hours. "Listen Mr. I'm eighteen, I'm not opening my legs for some rich merchants to earn a bit of cash if that's what you're worried about"

His face flushes bright red. Bingo. That is my tactic, it is effective and so far hasn't let me down. Growing up in a business like this wasn't easy, you have to make people trust you to avoid being caught. If someone became suspicious of my behaviour, I can make them feel stupid for questioning me and make myself sound innocent and genuine. They lose all suspicion. How can they be so foolish? How can they question an eighteen-year-old who just works at a shoe shop? The sentinel's eyes dance around, avoiding my stare completely. He is so embarrassed that he trips over his words and almost trips over himself entirely, my lies impress me sometimes. Finally, he handed me back my ID and opened the silver gate—a buzz sears through my ears as a green light flashes, "Iyai use'a sae sa zurr"

"Hanir iyai" I flash him a smile as slide past him, submerging myself among the bodies of other people who had also entered through the other gates. I follow the trail of people through the streets, keeping my gaze sharp on my surroundings and any lingering eyes. The market is congested today, swarming with everyone from the village because it's the last day of the month and that meant loans. Every month, on the last day, each family is supplied with a maintenance loan to get them through the next month but how much you get depends on your family circumstances.

As a daughter of a sick man and an alcoholic, the Government has been lenient to me. Neither parents work, I have a younger sister who's also too ill and too young to work so I took it upon myself to be the breadwinner. A cruel childhood to have been a part of, I could say it has made me angry and bitter but that's just life.

A piercing scream shatters my thoughts like glass. I slow down and glance around to see where the scream is coming from, those around me hear it too but they aren't as curious as me. To my right, two Sentinels push a middle aged man into the dirt. I hear him gasp for breath as he repeats over and over again "Kiav hudo karr no", he's begging them not to kill him.

"You are under arrest for the possession of a magical trinket, anything you say or do may harm your defence" I hear one say.

My stomach rolls several times.

The second Sentinel towers over the man, as he rubs his hands together, a bolt of electricity sparks from his fingers. It swirls, hisses and glows between his fingers but did no harm to his flesh. All sentinels are from Queensland but I've never seen their power up close before, I wonder whether the ring on his pinkie finger is his magical trinket—something to channel and control his power. The guard places his hands on the man's head and back and ignores his cries for mercy, I can't imagine the pain the man went through, who knows how many volts are in that surge of electricity. His eyes roll back into nothing and soon, he doesn't move.

They drag him away.

I turn my back on them quickly and hide amongst the crowd to blend in as much as possible. The Sentinels caught him with a trinket, trinkets are small ornaments such as a ring or a necklace that enables a person to channel their energy into physical power—magic. But it's illegal for a mundane, mostly because our bodies can't handle the surge of power because we are so malnourished and weak. The number one rule about smuggling magical items from Queensland into Tyron or Crait is that you shouldn't get caught.

I can't get caught.

~*~

[T R A N S L A T I O N S]

Iyai use'a sae sa zurr- you are free to enter (Velūsi)

Hanir iyai- thank you (Velūsi)

Kiav hudo karr no- please don't kill me (Velūsi)