Chapter Four

It was none other then a servant of Nathaniel's, most likely just came to him from Slavalia. She had flowing brown hair with honeysuckle eyes. She had very nice cheekbones and her complexion was ivory. She wasn't drop dead gorgeous, seemings she did have a lot of dirt on her, but she wasn't horrible to look at. She wore the typical servant outfit: A brown push up bra with a  black crop top over it. A red collar was around her neck. The skirt was black and very very short. She wore combat boots that looked old and her lips were full and plump. I raised my eyebrows.

"And to whom do I owe this pleasure?" She smiled. 

"I'm Kalieth." I raised my eyebrows. 

"Well first of all, why Kalieth?" She shrugged. 

"They wanted to be unique." I nodded. 

"Well they should stop." She nodded. 

"I-I agree.." I looked up at her. 

"Anyway, what brings you here?" She bowed and I was confused. Why bow? Even though I had spent some time as a slave for missions before, I never understood why slaves had to bow to higher ups. I mean, I understood, because they are technically lower in society compared to higher ups, but I don't understand why society has made it that way. I mean, slaves are people, and people shouldn't subject themselves to letting other people's arrogance control them. 

"President Nathaniel has issued me to give you an assignment." I looked at her. 

"Why didn't he tell me himself?" She looked down shyly. 

"W-Well... He is at Muse taking care of the trading situation since Ada said he had a prior engagement." I shrugged as I mentally glared at my brother. 

"Why not just get someone else to do it." She shrugged. 

"Maybe it's something only Ada can do." I nodded. 

"Maybe so.. But still... That is too extreme. Why go himself? What if something goes wrong, like he gets assassinated?" She smiled. 

"W-Well I delivered the message s-so I'm gonna go now." I nodded. 

"Alright, bye." I heard an annoyed sigh. I looked up to see my brother in his blue robe with his slippers and a coffee in hand. One arm was crossed around his chest and his hip was stuck out. 

"Really? Goodbye?" I nod and giggle. 

"That is usually what you say to someone who is about to leave Ada." He shakes his head. 

"No even a 'hey my brother is mildly attractive'." I laugh aloud. 

"The day I think you are attractive is the day people actually care about what you think." Ada put his hand over his heart. 

"Many people care about what I think." He looked to Kalieth. 

"Do you care what I think?" She looked down, a bit flustered. 

"I-I am just a slave. My opinion shouldn't really count for anything." She looked down and then jumped up.  "I-I have to go!!" She quickly rushed down the hall and I had a face of sympathy. Ada looked like didn't care. I hit his shoulder. 

"You don't even care that she feels she is worthless?!" Ada put a hand on my shoulder. 

"Of course I doi Lightning, but she is a slave. As far as we are concerned, she is an object and nothing more. Society does not care about the well being or opinion of slaves; and they never will." I clench my fists. 

"That is not right. Slaves are people too!" Ada steered me over to the couch and shut the door. He kneeled in front of me. 

"Lightning, I agree with you, but saying things like that so openly can get you assassinated, especially with our jobs. As far as the rest of the world goes, we view slaves as inanimate objects, and nothing more. She learned her place, now you learn yours." My head snapped up at him. I stood up and he annoyingly groaned. 

"Ada! I can't believe what I'm hearing! You are saying, that you would rather succumb to what everyone expects, rather than fight for what you believe in!" Ada shook his head. 

"I didn't say that!" He reached for me and I backed up.

"You didn't have to Ada! Your actions say otherwise! You would let that innocent girl die just so you can be like everyone else! I thought so much better of you Ada." Ada shouted at me words that made me fear for him. 

"Lightning, in this world it is kill or be killed! I don't have time to worry about an insignificant nobody!" My jaw dropped open and my heart dropped. I narrowed my eyes at him. 

"You know Ada, I will never understand how you can be someone I love and hate, all at the same time." And I violently brushed past him to my room. I could feel the anger radiating off of him, something that has never surfaced before, and I knew that everything from now on was about to change in one way or another. 

I walked calmly into my room and shut the door silently, as if it would break. I locked it and then sunk down on the floor, kneading my hands through my hair. I let out a strained breath and tried to calm myself. If my adrenaline was too high, President Nathaniel's Droids would be able to sense it. 

President Nathaniel's droids constantly fly around the city and scan peoples adrenaline and majik pressure levels to see if they know something they shouldn't. When that happens, your majik usually becomes elevated and your adrenaline levels go up, causing the droids to sense when you know something. Seems suspicious right? That is because the real reason they can sense you is that secret chips are implanted in every place on Nabine. They can hear things up to a 50 mile radius, but only record the important things. My attire looked the best when I stood up. I wore a grey crop top that had two curved holes cut out of it on each side of me. The holes continued to be absent on my back. There wasn't any fabric there. My bottom half had blue jean shorts. I wore black combat boots and a white cardigan around my waist. My black hair was in ponytail and the bottom part of the ponytail was over my shoulder. My blue eyes were shut because I was crying. I heard a knock on my door. 

"Lightning.." I stared angrily at the ground. 

"I don't wanna talk to you." I could hear Ada sink against the door. 

"Firefly, I'm sorry..." My eyes widened. He hasn't called me firefly since we were little. He only called me that when mom was off on a mission; and even then, he only called me firefly when he was comforting me due to mom's absence during a storm. I am terrified of storms; because our dad died during a storm. He was going to find Ada because he had passed out drunk again after his classes at the senatorial college. The only ship left that dad could take was the one I had been working on, that still needed a lot of work. Dad could have just left Ada, but Dad never gave up on Ada. He always saw the potential in him, and was convinced that one day, he would turn himself around. 

He did, but Dad never got to see it. He died that night on his way to get Ada. We don't know how, but Ada was determined to find out, because he took it the hardest. Ada seriously shaped up after that. It surprised Grandma a lot, but also made her proud. 

But I remember what Dad said to me that night before he left, which is why Ada said that whenever he comforted me: 

I'll be back firefly. 

I smiled and opened the door to reveal Ada. He was against the door, but fell onto his back. I smiled down at him. 

"It's alright Chestnut." Ada got that name when he fell out of a chestnut tree while we were visiting Muse with Mom and Dad. He smiled genuinely and stood up, hugging me. I hugged back until he was squeezing really hard. I tried to breathe, but it came out in gasps. 

"A-da." He squeezed me one last time and threw me down. 

"Your a fool firefly." My eyes narrowed. 

"Ada, what the hell was that!" He smiled. 

"You don't know?" I shook my head violently. 

"Of course not. You just randomly squeezed the shit out of me." Ada laughed maniacally. 

"I played you." I laughed. 

"And how exactly did you 'play me' Ada?" He smirked. 

"You thought I was on your side. But I'm not." I shook my head.

"Yes you are! Of course you are!" He shook his head and pulled out a plurite knife that sucks up energy. 

"No firefly, I'm not." And he swung the knife down at me as I fell.