Chapter 1 | Ethan | Separation

Ethan covers his ears as soon as he wakes up, suppressing the sound of the explosion. He feels his breathing returning back to normal and opens his eyes when the sound of the explosion fades.

“Must be the 5th district again,” his mother says. “You should go back to sleep.”

He rubs his eyes and looks around the room, his vision shaky. It’s the cramped room that the Gorons have assigned to his family. It has four beds and four small desks. His mother, Melissa, sits on her bed and his elder sister Della rests her head on Melissa’s lap, looking up at the grey ceiling. “The Black Diamonds,” Ethan says, not seeing double anymore, “It’s been happening time and again now. I wonder what they did this time.”

Della yawns and tucks her brown hair behind her head. “I know that you two will never admit it, but they’ve doubtless been making a lot of progress. Why else would the Gorons waste so much time bombarding them?”

Their mother looks down at Della and shakes her head. “Don't be silly. What can they do to threaten Gorons? You have no clue what Gorons are capable of—” She gets interrupted by Della, who brings her right hand over Melissa’s mouth while still resting on her lap.

“You keep talking about that, Mum, but it’s almost been two decades since then. Things have changed,” Della says.

Melissa opens her mouth and closes it. A few moments pass away in the silence of the night before she opens her mouth again. “You need to grow up, Della. I genuinely don’t get how Ethan understands the situation better than you. How do you think we can beat those giant spaceships? ”

When Della doesn’t reply, Melissa continues, “Things have changed, indeed. They've taken away most of the land, electricity, and everything that operates on it. We have far fewer things than we had earlier. There's no use fighting them...but you will never accept that, will you?”

Della gets off Melissa’s lap and turns towards her, “They took so many things from us, and they even took Dad now—and—and you don't even—”

Another sound of explosion halts the argument between Della and Melissa, but it’s only a brief interlude, Ethan knows. He has never seen Della back off an argument unless she's convincingly won it or lost it. When the sound of the explosion fades away, she says, “The Black Diamonds are in the right, Mum.”

Melissa shrugs. “Are they, now? The Gorons don't treat us badly—and just last month we gained a lot of rights. Humans can finally take the Numen and join their empire...but because of their rebellious actions we might lose all these new privileges.”

“I don't want those privileges if they have to be given to us!” Della says, her voice loud. She shakes her head and turns away from them, walking away.

“Dell, stop. This isn't the time for this,” Ethan gets up and grabs Della’s arm, stopping her in place.

“You think the same way, huh?” She turns and shakes his hand away. “That we should just live our entire life caged in one of the districts that the Gorons created?”

Ethan clicks his tongue, “That's not what I said. It’s just...I just don't think rebelling is the best way to go about achieving freedom.”

As they argue, Ethan's mother moves to her desk, picking up a bottle. Ethan cannot read the label on the bottle because he is forbidden from speaking or writing any human language, but he knows that the bottle contains alcohol. Melissa has drunk away all but one of the many bottles that she has saved since her husband was taken away by them.

“There she goes again,” Della grimaces as Melissa sits down and opens the bottle. But as always, Della is quick to recover and argues back, “If rebelling isn’t the best way, what do you think is? Praying with Alfie, listening to his preachings? Somehow that’ll get our Earth back?”

Ethan groans, bringing his left hand over his forehead and pressing it. “Don’t bring him up, please. I just don’t think these rebels will do anything except endanger humanity.”

Della sneaks a glance at their mother as she says, “And you don’t dodge my question, please. I’m asking if there’s a better way.”

Ethan walks over to their father’s bed, on which there are still many belongings of his piled up. Ethan has dug all of them up, trying to find the reason behind the Goron Empire's sudden decision to take his father away. His father was a soldier of the United Kingdom...but both the occupation of a soldier and the United Kingdom no longer exists. He goes through the unsorted possessions. No, not the watch. Not his father’s military exercises book, either. Then he finds it under a folded parachute. It’s a small notebook with the front cover half ripped up. “Dad researched a lot about the Numen. I think it’s worth taking a shot at it.”

Della snatches the book out of Ethan’s hands and throws it at Melissa. “Do you have so little pride that you would betray humanity?” It falls a little short, near Melissa’s feet.

He looks at the fallen notebook and starts walking to it. “I can take the Numen in a few months. My 18th birthday is close.”

“Ethan! Don’t be stupid! You’ll be in service to Gorons if you pass,” she says and tries to snatch the book from Ethan’s hands again.

Ethan safeguards the notebook by hugging it. “If I can make Gorons realize that we’re useful, we might get treated similar to Krots—or even Kix. Why don’t you understand? Even Dad didn’t believe we had any choice. It’s just how it is...the Gorons are too powerful to fight.”

Della purses her lips for a moment. “You’re being illogical! What makes you think the Gorons will treat you well, even if you serve them?”

Ethan scowls, “Why won’t they? You’re being illogical. They promote the rest of the species just fine, don’t they? The Gorons care about the results."

Della laughs and says, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re still a—“ but is cut short by Ethan. “Are you going to treat me the same way Mum does, too?” he asks, and she looks away, averting her brown eyes.

He looks around the room in awkward silence, waiting for her to speak. The fourth room of the eleventh building in the 17th human district is the household of the Gray family. Household, since Gorons have taken over, refers to a single room with four beds and four desks in it with almost everything inside it supplied by Gorons. Before this room, the Gray family occupied a household in the 12th district, in which Ethan spent the earliest of his five years. Compared to that room, their current room is quite clean and its beige walls stand untainted, courtesy of Ethan and especially Della outgrowing their needs to scribble on the walls.

"I didn't mean to say it like that. You should do as you like,” Della says at long last, looking back at Ethan. “I just don’t want to be theirs. If you serve them, you’ll always be their slave, their servant, their plaything, their entertainment. Theirs.”

Ethan looks outside the window. “What you want can’t be done, Dell. We can't even get out of this district. The easiest way to earn their freedom is for us to serve them. That's what the Kixes, Krots, Ingrets, and every species under the Gorons realized—and it has been working for them.”

Della shakes her head and keeps walking around the room. Ethan knows that she has been obsessed with the rebellious 5th district—the so-called Black Diamonds—for a couple of years now. After ten minutes of restless walking, she says, “I suppose this is the night I leave, then. I’ve been prepared for this for a few months, but I just couldn’t bear leaving you all.”

Ethan runs and stands in front of the door, blocking her way. “You can't—you can't leave. How do you plan to make it to the fifth district from here?"

“The fifth district isn't far away,” Della sits on her bed, stretching her legs. “We can hear the bombings from here, and the fact that they have lived on for so many months despite frequent bombings shows that the Gorons aren't using very explosive bombs. Probably because they don't want the nearby districts to be harmed as collateral damage. Besides, you know how our old district turned out to be barely a day’s walk away when they shifted us here?”

“How are you planning to get out of our district?” Ethan asks, sneaking a glance at their mother, who is leaning forward, listening. He tries to look outside the window, but it’s dark outside. Even though he can’t see the giant black walls that surround his district in the darkness, he knows they exist. Of course they do. They have always existed ever since he can remember. “You can’t get outside the walls, and the gate is no doubt guarded by Krots from outside.”

“Leave that to me. You worry about yourself and Mum,” Della says.

“What do you mean?”

Della scratches her head and casts her eyes down to the ground. “It’s...well...once I’m found missing, I’ll be ruled out as a rebel...which means...they might consider you two to be potential threats and separate you two.”

The possibility dawns on Ethan and he kicks the leg of the bed. He only just manages to keep his anger out of his voice as he says, “You’ll go, even if you know that? You know Mum won’t be okay if we both leave.”

“...It’s something I must do,” she says and looks straight into his eyes. “Aunt Leora can take care of Mum.”

Ethan looks at her stern gaze and knows that he cannot change her mind. He never could. His breaths get shorter as he says, “Okay. Let’s talk to Mum.”

“No, you go back to sleep. I’ll talk to her, and...I’ll be gone by the time morning comes.”

“…I’ll come with you,” Ethan finds himself saying, despite knowing how illogical it is. He gasps and keeps a hand on his mouth, surprised.

Della furrows her eyebrows, then smiles. But then she drops her smile and says, “Don't be stupid. Didn't you just explain to me that you think what I'm doing isn't right? The last thing I want you to do is doing something wrong in your eyes...you don’t want to join the Black Diamonds, do you?”

Ethan shakes his head and blinks rapidly, tears in his eyes. Della wipes away his tears using her right hand, then says, “Good. I don’t want you coming with me, then. Now go back to sleep. It’ll be fine, Ethan. It’ll all be fine.”

Ethan isn't sure whether she repeats herself to reassure him or to reassure herself but he nods anyway, returning to his bed. Nothing can change her mind once she has decided that it is right. Just like the walls that surround them, that fact has also remained constant in his life.

Chapter 1 | Della | Patience

Della tiptoes through the empty corridor of her building, which is a hostel-like facility that Gorons have created. Twelve families—well, not always families—twelve groups of four people live in this building, adding to forty-eight people in total. The chances of her being discovered are quite low since the walls and doors that the Gorons provide are sturdy, even if nothing else is.

She has had a habit of sneaking away in the night for many years now, yet today she has sweat trickling down her face. Every small sound makes her turn her head and freeze for a few moments before continuing. She has a lot of luggage with her this time—two pairs of clothes and underwear, one-third of her mother's medicine pouch, one week's worth of bread, apples, some canned beans, peanuts, three filled water bottles, her father's parachute, compass and watch—all of it packed in one backpack and a large cloth bag.

She guesses most of the weight is the six litres of water that her mother insisted upon.

After a minute of careful tiptoeing in the dark, Della is outside of the eleventh building. Her destination is only fifteen minutes of walk away, but her feet start shaking out of exhaustion. She often joined her father in his exercises until a couple of years ago. Now she wishes that she never stopped.

She goes through the backsides of all buildings into the small portion of the uncultivated forest that lies in the 17th district. A little sunlight illuminates the district and Della smiles. Thin grass strikes her feet as she walks.

She avoids going close to tall black walls surrounding the district because she knows that the places near walls will be the first to be searched. Her destination is a place that she has been spending many of her nights at since the night she decided she would like to rebel against the Gorons. It is a small hole that she created just a few months ago, an effort that required nine nights. It is covered by a lazy camouflage of sticks and grass, and she quickly clears it.

She has everything ready now, she tells herself. No time to hesitate. She has dug a hundred small holes surrounding her hole, further concealing her true hiding place. It’s all coming to this, she tells herself, and puts her feet inside the hole, then covers the hole with camouflage again. She's not sure whether it would fool someone if they inspected the hole at length, but her plan doesn't expect people searching for her. The camouflage is just in case someone stumbles upon the area, she assures herself, trying not to think what would happen if someone somehow stumbled into the hole.

She leaves small openings around the camouflage to let air in the hole. After ensuring that she has everything inside the hole, she drops down in it and winces. Despite the small openings, it is hard to breathe and she feels hot and sweaty. It is completely dark inside and the fact that there might be bugs around does not comfort her. The Gorons often take out wild animals and most of the bugs from human districts and relocate them outside, but despite that, bugs always show up a few days later and quite often have the unfortunate fate of meeting with Della's scream and soon after, the bottom of her sandals.

She sighs, trying to read the time on the watch and failing. The Gorons have deprived humans of everything electric and electronic, and that includes digital watches and analogue watches that could glow in the dark.

She sits down against the wall of the hole she dug and begins to do what she has always hated the most—waiting.