CHAPTER SIXTEEN

There were a total of 28 elders in the grey layer.

In two weeks, they were all dead, and Heli had a bundle of strings around her wrist. Now she was back at the white layers in the building, and the cashier was looking curiously at her ace, still hidden by her short hair.

"Can't you show your face?" The cashier asked, and Heli put a single palm on her face. Adrian hadn't ever said anything about her burned face. Maybe this person wouldn't either… 

Then, 

"I burned it when I was smaller. You'll only frighten yourself." Heli said sheepishly, her hand back at her side and her other one leaning against the counter like usual. 

At this point, she knew much much better than to try anything funny. Anything she gained, she would lose in due time as well, so it was better to be alone. 

"Ah, alright, then. Let's get you that badge." The cashier said, untying Heli's strings from her wrist with a flurry of jabs and beckoning her down the same strange, long corridor. 

Heli entered a large conference room. The desks, chairs, and floors were all white, and the hoods of the elders stood out against them, startling black. Heli was quiet and everyone else was too. You could have heard a pin drop. 

"So, it's you."

The elder in the middle was speaking. Somehow the very essence of this person felt familiar to Heli - but she couldn't quite place where she had seen them before. Somewhere, somehow. And even if it had been someone familiar, she wouldn't have bee able to tell through the dark hood. 

"Yes, I'm the new elder. Or at least I hope to be." Heli said calmly. The elders now all started talking to eachother in hushed whispers, bending like willow trees to murmur about her. Everyone peeked sly glances through hooded faces to look at the bundle of strings the cashier was holding in her hand. Heli was standing in the middle of the room, waiting for a final statement. Finally, the elder in the middle held up a hand. everyone felt quiet again as the whispers slowly died out. 

"Everyone in agreement, hold up your candle. I believe this one should join us." the elder in the middle said, holding up a candle. It was the same white as the rooms. 

Everyone held up their candles almost instantly. Heli blinked, surprised, but portrayed no other audible reaction. 

"Alright, then. You. Work your way up from the black layer and join us soon." Heli couldn't see the Elder's face, but she imagined he was smiling as he said it. "Prove yourself worthy to us." Heli nodded and bowed, even though somewhere in her gut she was horrified. These people had taken everything she had ever loved, and she was… bowing? 

Oh, but this was just the start. 

With some patience, she'd take everything they had as well. Everything they had ever known. Heli, under her white hair, smiled. 

Her vengeance would come soon.