The aurum workshop was a drab place. Her parents' workshop was the reason that Azalea wasn’t planning on college. She’d just go under her mother as an apprentice aurum technician and hopefully take over the shop since none of her siblings were around to do it. Of course, the shop has been doing poorly, and taking it over wasn’t the most appealing career path, but she did have a knack for gold working and distantly thought that she at least had a shot to turn the shop around.
Azalea took care of the shop on the weekend while her father did repair work in the back. Her mother did onsite repair work, mostly routine maintenance in homes and businesses.
Azalea sat with her schoolwork next to the register. Her mother would usually give her an earful for a lack of professionalism. Customers expect to be greeted when they enter, and having the only person and floor be otherwise preoccupied wasn’t the most inviting. Azalea did her school work on the clock anyway, seeing as the place was usually empty, and she wasn't one to sit twiddling her thumbs.
The front door swung open, letting in a draft and the tinkling of door chimes.
“Hello, welcome,” Azalea murmured, not looking up from her reading.
Woo-Jin tossed a pamphlet on the table.
“You’re free on the weekend, right?” he asked.
“I’m fine thanks, how are you?” Azalea said with an eye roll. “And, yeah, I’m free.”
“I thought we could check out this museum. We’ve been so busy, we should do something before midterms start up.”
Aza looked at the pamphlet. “This is in Assel. Couldn’t we go to the natural history museum instead? It’s a lot closer.” Azalea certainly didn’t find a hangout at any museum very interesting, but she didn’t want to turn down any invitation after Woo-Jin had made himself so scarce for the past few weeks.
“There’s an exhibit I want to see. There's some stuff about Jeongden and this scarab amulet I want to see.”
Woo-Jin had talked about this for a while, wanting to know more about where he was from. Stuff his parents, as well meaning as they were, just weren’t knowledgeable about.
And the long train ride to and from Assel would mean spending the whole day together. Something they hadn’t done in ages.
She turned to the back room, making sure her father wasn’t listening in on her. “Yeah, alright,” Azalea said. “It seems fun.”
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The train was cramped, but as cramped as they had expected for a weekend excursion. They shared a booth with a woman who slept the entire train ride, so the two spoke in hushed tones so as not to disturb her.
While Azalea had wanted to spend some time with Woo-Jin, she had no idea what he actually had in mind for this day trip. So she spent the long train ride listening to Woo-Jin eagerly explain.
“I was already looking for information about Jeongden,” he started, pulling a notepad from his pocket and starting to leaf through it. “And the more I learned about the place and about jewel beetles, the more I found beetle entomon in general. And beetle entomon seemed to always come back to this amulet.”
He showed her a sketch of a scarab amulet on tracer paper that had been taped in the notebook. “It went by different names, but the most common name was the Elytron Amulet. It functioned like aurum, but it had what seems to be limitless energy. And the amulet is actually part of a set of three other artifacts that function in the same way. The Honeybee Comb and the Diadem of Danaus. They've mostly been used separately, somewhat sporadically over the centuries—”
"Centuries?" Azalea cut in.
“Yes. Centuries,” Woo-Jin said. If he was eager to share before, he was now bursting at the seams to share the rest of what he’d managed to discover. “These things are older than Ora, way older than Silph. The most notable use in what he found was from four centuries before. The Honeybee Comb and the Diadem of Danaus were used together during the Daniad Revolution. After which Danaus gained its independence, and Nyuk began to form and gain its own territory from Silph. Both those artifacts were lost, and so were their paladins.”
He flipped through his notes again, looking for something.
“So is that what you’ve been up to lately?” Azalea asked as she looked at his pocket notebook. She could see this was important to him, and he was putting a lot of energy into it.
“Sorry,” Woo-Jin said sheepishly. “I just get sort of fixated.”
“No, it’s alright,” Azalea said too quickly. “It’s just that this stuff seems more like folklore. A wearable that doesn’t need to be recharged shouldn’t be possible with aurum.”
“Yeah, but this isn’t aurum.”
“It’s gold, isn’t it?”
“These things are way older than aurum tech.”
Azalea didn’t think any of this was possible, but decided not to ask too many questions. He was clearly passionate about it, and she liked seeing this spark in his eyes.
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Assel didn't have any of the polish of New Meli. None of the gilded edges or whitewashed walls. It had a lot more of the refineries and power-plant, facilities for mass production, and assembly lines.
While the country of Hicma was generally considered far ahead of the curve in terms of aurum tech, having more reliable power grids in major cities, the leader in newer technologies. Places like Ora made their money by extracting the raw materials used in arurm production. With control over some of the worlds richest quartz mines and gold deposits, Silph was able to expand into the empire it now was, stretching across oceans and continents. While Silph seemed to be aware that they couldn't catch up in the world of thaumaturgy, they didn't need to when they had control of the raw materials.
The model of exporting as many aurum products as possible of course made the colony of Ora nothing more than something to squeeze money out of. A territory of Silph, not technically part of the empire but still under their control. A lot of the people of Ora came to be citizens in name only, not afforded the same protections and rights as the rest of Silph. This was the cause of social unrest and the platform for the rebellion. If the people of Ora were having their labor exploited to profit the empire, they should be entitled to the same rights as of any other Silphion. And if they aren't entitled to that much, they should at least be able to have their independence and be able to function as a sovereign nation. Silph wasn't keen on giving in to their demands, but also would let the colony be independent, seeing as Silph would lose its golden goose.
Silph's response was to crack down hard on any opposition. Workers fighting for better pay or their right to unionize were labeled as rebel-affiliated and treated as such.
The Assel riots had occurred months before, but the event still left its imprint on the city, namely, the increase in wardens patrolling the streets. As soon as they got off the train, the warden's presence was almost as suffocating as the smog. Azalea thought the smog in New Meli she was used to was as bad as it got. The smog in Assel wasn't just an irritating and pervasive smell, but it irritated her lungs, making her cough a bit when first stepping out.
The museum was downtown, not too far from the train station, so luckily they didn't have to walk in the suffocating streets with the smog and wardens and people with empty eyes just trying to get through the day.
The Silphion history museum was a huge, towering building. The same white washed walls and gilded edges that were common back in Starton, like the place was embarrassed to be a part of Assel.
Being in the Museum itself wasn't the most interesting. Azalea had expected this, having not wanted to come in the first place.
They spend some time looking at the jewel beetle exhibits. They’re sparse, not much to say about them. They got frustrated at how haphazardly it was put together. A curator sees their interest in an exhibit, telling them about where it’s from. He said it was some painting that was a gift from a nobleman. Woo-Jin says this was taken after a hostile takeover of a palace, taken home by Silph as a trophy.
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They have a break for lunch. Azalea felt a little bad about having Woo-Jin pay for everything on this day trip, but she literally didn’t have the pocket money to pay for her train ticket, the museum date, and her lunch. Woo-Jin pays for them without even thinking about it.
Maybe he tries to bring up what happened with Maria. Aza says it was nothing. He doesn’t inquire any further, going back to talking about the exhibits he was looking for.
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Back at the museum, there are displays of older technologies, before the conveniences of aurum. Older forms of witchcraft from when witches weren't able to practice freely, plaques speculating on how much more they could know if they weren't suppressed for so long.
They ask a couple of people if they know anything about this ladybird charm that doesn’t look like a ladybird; none of them know anything. They find one curator who does know about it, saying it’s been in storage for a while.
Woo-Jin gave an exasperated groan at this. “This is going nowhere.”
“But we have some other things you could look at,” the curator added.
Woo-Jin taps out to use the bathroom. Azalea talks more with the curator, an older woman who had been working there for a while. She laments on the pruning of so many items and exhibits to make room for more stuff on the Silphion monarchy, as if that is the only thing worth preserving. They just don’t have the resources to take care of the older items they have, and they don’t have anywhere else to put them. Sooner or later, her job would likely be axed. But even so, she’s glad that young people are so interested in learning about history on their own.
The curator left, and Azalea felt a bit bad since she didn’t want to come in the first place.
Woo-Jin took his sweet time getting back, so Azalea looked at some other exhibits in the section while she waited. Actually reading the plaques under exhibits.
She came across a beautiful, deep blue shawl. It looked as though it was woven from the wings of a blue morpho butterfly. She looked down at the plaque.
The plaque said the shawl was made during Mellif’s occupation of Danaus. The poaching of blue morpho butterfly wings likely being the cause of their near extinction and the eradication of blue morpho entomon.
Azalea looked closer at the shawl. Dozens of small butterflies, real butterflies, were woven into the fabric. She was raised to always respect these insects, as they were seen as the ones who gave them the gift of flight. The fact that Mellif, another entomon, was unfathomable to her.
She felt a bit sick after seeing this one. She didn’t look at anything else.
Woo-Jin came back after some time being gone. Azalea didn’t question it, just asking if he was alright with leaving soon. Woo-Jin was about to say the same thing, and they left.
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Wings being ripped from someone’s back, bees swarming out of their mouth.
She jolted awake when Woo-Jin shook her. She realized that she had fallen asleep. Aza actually managed to nap, but her dream is disturbing.
“Do you want to come back to my place?” Woo-Jin asked. “I want to show you something.”
Azalea’s mind raced on what that could mean, but came along anyway. She couldn't help but think about the shawl again and again, maybe feeling a bit guilty about it. The Ora colony only existed because Silph swooped in to finish Mellif's dirty work. Didn't she benefit from these atrocities in some way? Didn't all of them living in Honeyoak? Sure, her family didn't always have much to spare, but they were still able to run their business, still able to put her through a private education. Honeyoak wasn't the ivory towers of Starton, but they weren't poor either. She spent so much of her time comparing herself to students who all had so much more, not taking the time to appreciate what she had. The grass is always greener on the other side.
On the walk there, Azalea realized she’d never been this deep into Starton. She didn’t have much reason to before. The grime of downtown disappeared there among all the white and gold. What also disappeared was the range of people she would see in Honeyoak. They were mostly all entomon, but they were from such vastly different places, the mixing of languages and cultures.
Starton was so homogeneous, so sterile, so Silphion. It was something out of a photograph, a strip of Meli ripped out of the ground and brought unchanged across the pond to New Meli.
Woo-Jin’s house was a quaint little townhouse, three stories smushed wall to wall between two identical shiny townhouses.
“Wait. If you live here, why do you come to school in Honeyoak?” Azalea asked. The question didn’t cross her mind before.
Woo-Jin walked up the steps. “Well, the story is my parents wanted me to go to school with other entomon. Kids I could relate to. Said it would be better for my development and stuff. But even in Honeyoak, I still sort of stick out.”
In Honeyoak, there were monarch butterflies, bees, and a handful of dragonflies. He was the only jewel beetle and, and the only student from Jeongden.
He fished his keys out of his pockets. “I went to primary school here for a while. The real reason I transferred was because enough parents complained about not wanting to send their children to school with one of ‘my kind’. But I think my parents want to sweep that under the rug.”
The living room was small, but still had that shiny look that Starton had. Crisp and clean and way too bright, the artificial light bounced off the amount of white, hurting Azalea’s eyes.
His mother is chipper, almost annoyingly so. How could a middle-aged woman have so much energy this late in the day? She said Jin never brings anyone over. Azalea playfully repeats the nickname, saying that Jin just doesn’t appreciate his friends like he should.
His mother asks if they’d like a snack or a drink, or something. Woo-Jin said they just ate (they didn’t), and they really need to look over some work for transmutations. Azalea is the one he mentioned was helping him with his work. She complimented Azalea on having such a good grasp on the subject at such a young age. Azalea's parents work with aurum, so she’s already been tinkering with gold working for years.
“Really? Well, if you're ever looking for an apprenticeship, I know—”
“Mother,” Woo-Jin called from the top of the stairs.
“Right, right. Don’t let me keep you. I’ll talk your ear off if you give me the chance,” she laughed.
Woo-Jin’s bedroom is more bearable. Cluttered bookshelves, trinkets scattered around. It was tidy, but it looked like someone actually lived there.
Up there with the door clicked shut, Azalea asked if this was really just for his homework. Papers were scattered on his desk.
“Alright. So don’t freak out.”
He pulled the amulet out of his pocket. Aza just started at it for a minute. “The amulet from the picture. But how did you—” she realized. “The museum,” she whispered. “Tell me you didn’t steal this.”
“I said, don’t freak out.”
“In broad daylight. And— holy shit, I’m your accomplice now.”
“No. no, listen—”
“Why are you telling me this? I’m an accessory to this; we're both going to jail.”
“No one is going to jail if you don’t say anything.” He unlocked the desk drawer. He put the amulet inside, next to a mess of books and stay papers and books and notepads filled with scrawl about the golden artifacts. “There are way too many accounts of these things for it to just be folktales. And now we have the real thing.”
“Whoa, we do not have anything. You just committed a robbery.”
“Oh, please. This thing was wedged under a box in a supply closet. Nobody will notice it’s gone. Bet they don’t even remember it was back there.”
Azalea started at the beetle. “Is that why you wanted me to come? You wanted a distraction, so you asked me to come? You wanted a distraction so you could root around in the back?”
“No, not— not intentionally. It just panned out that way.”
“And that woman. Could she get fired for this?”
“A lot of people could get fired if they found out two teenagers were able to get away with this. And trust me, no one will even know it’s gone. They don’t deserve it anyway, you see how they treat those exhibits.”
Aza paused. “But why are you telling me?”
“Because I trust you. And I know you saw that shawl. With the butterfly wings.”
Aza could feel the bile creeping in her throat just thinking about it.
“They didn’t use those butterflies just because they were pretty. Blue morpho entomon, they were seers. The Mellifera saw that as a threat when they first settled in Danaus. There weren’t that many blue morphos, so they decided the best way of dealing with them was to wipe them out. Systematically.”
“It’s awful, I know. But how does that justify you stealing?”
“This amulet. It’s a tool. A weapon that can be used to make sure that nothing like that can happen ever again.”
“A weapon? Don’t tell me you honestly believe all that crap. A scarab warrior? Really?”
“Look.” Woo-Jin reached deeper into his drawer, fishing out an aurum training wand. Something a student was not permitted to keep in his bedroom.
“Where did you—”
“Don’t worry about it.” He gave the wand a flick, tapping it to the amulet. It glowed; the shell of the beetle opened up, revealing a black stone set into the amulet. It shimmered, starting to float a bit.
“What is that? Jet?”
“Onyx, actually. And this wand,” he smacked the gold rod against his hand. “It was dead a moment ago. Now look.” The aurum wand glowed in his hand, indicating it was charged and ready to go.
Now that she thought about it, it was strange that this amulet, even golden, could have the energy to change a wand after sitting unused in a box for who knows how long. Could it really be creating energy? From nothing?
Azalea shook her head. “No, stop. That doesn’t prove anything. Maybe it’s just a good battery. Like, really good?”
“Aurum isn’t that good. And this isn’t aurum.”
The door handle jiggled. In a moment, Woo-Jin had the wand and amulet packed away in the drawer, shutting it closed in a practiced motion.
His mother came in with a letter in her hand. “So sorry, didn’t mean to butt in.” She clearly meant to butt in, coming in without knocking. “Couldn’t help but notice that the door was closed. But Jin, real quick, before I forget. I got a letter back from that friend of mine. He said if all goes well with the aptitude test, he’s more than happy to put in that recommendation letter for Aeola.”
“Aeola?” Azalea was taken aback.
“Alright, thank you.” Woo-Jin walked over to practically shoo his mother out of the room.
“Door open, though, please.”
Woo-Jin went back to the desk, looking it up again with the amulet inside.
“You shouldn’t keep that in there,” Azalea whispered.
“I’ll move it later.”
Pause.
"You’re going to Aeola?”
“Well, I’m hoping. It’s a long shot but—”
“You never said anything about it.”
“You didn’t expect I’d stay here in New Meli, did you?” he asked all too casually.
“No, but— that’s so far.” Aeola was all the way in Hicma. That wasn’t just another country. It was across the ocean, another country. “And you didn’t even think to tell me, did you?” She stared blankly at the cluttered desk. She could still taste the bile in the back of her throat, threatening to make its way back up.
She stepped back. “Actually, I think I need to go. My mother’s probably wondering where I am.” Her voice came out shaky. She felt ridiculous.
“Wait, are you mad at me?”
Azalea paused. “What are we, exactly?”
“What?”
“I mean, you said you didn’t want this to be serious, but we're still kind of dating, but kind of not. And I—” she was rambling now. “I feel like you only want me around when it’s convenient for you. When you need something.”
“What? No, of course not.”
“Then why are you trying to loop me into all of this?” She whispered, gesturing to the desk. “Why get me involved if you’re leaving next year. I’m not getting in trouble for you. This is serious. Like go-to-jail serious. And I'm not going to be a part of this.”
She took her coat and left.
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As she walked the streets of Starton, she realized she’d gotten lost. Being this deep in Starton, it started to make her uncomfortable. She didn’t belong here, that was clear.
She kept walking, knowing she had to get a little more studying done, hoping that she'd come across some sort of familiar landmark and avoid having to talk to anyone. Exams started the next day. Exams, working in the shop, then back to school.
She wasn’t looking forward to when she left the academy. She couldn’t go to college, not if they wanted the business to stay afloat. But being her mother’s apprentice wasn’t her first choice, having grown up around the shop. She probably knew enough to get an Aurum Tech certification right then, but she needed at least three years as an apprentice first.
So she was stuck. Stuck here in this shit city. Stuck here while her sisters had moved on, Lirio had moved on, her friends would be moving on. Everyone moves on, everyone eventually leaves. Was it just her lot in life, getting so incredibly unlucky? Or was she the common denominator here? Was she doing something wrong? Something that kept driving people away?
She stopped on the street corner, pressing her palms against her eyes. She really thought for a moment that Woo-Jin actually liked her. You’re just so different, you’re not like other girls. Of course, he would think that was a compliment.
“Stupid, stupid,” she muttered to herself, holding back tears. “You’re so stupid.”
She would kill to be like other girls.