The Rise Of The Consortium

She went to her room and plopped on her bed. Her back was hurt with all that time she had to stand. She took a deep breath, taking in all the smell of work and sweat. She doesn't like to get on the bed just like that, but she couldn't get up now. She felt tired to change into clean clothes. Her eyes were closed already. She just hoped her headache to go away before she wakes up again. She kept nursing her forehead as she was slipping into a deep sleep.

Just as her hand stopped moving, the device on her wrist vibrated, making her sit upright in an instant. Her head was banging with pain making her wince. There were many unread news articles she hadn't read. Frowning, she tapped on the first article that landed on the one she read in the morning. "Why am I reading this again?" said Rio to herself. But instead of showing her the article, it showed her the comment section, that had her name tagged. Suddenly she felt lucky that her device was not registered with that name. Else, people might have found easy to call her out.

'How dare she say that to our future chairman? I agree with Mrs. Maning, arrest her immediately.' the first comment said. She decided to read the comments that didn't have her name tagged. She thought those comments might have some content worth reading.

'She spoke that wretched language? Disgusting!' this comment sounded like the ones with her name tagged. Not only that, many comments had angry languages that made her heart stop for a while even if all she did was just skip those.

'Who knows, she might be an agent, sent by them to kill our people.' Agent? Who is the agent here? She? What's wrong with them? How could she become an agent when she doesn't have any talents the agents have? She went on reading many comments, skipping some that seemed irrelevant.

'Not to forget, last week she attacked our chairman's youngest son, just to save a Zolzein.' there it was. She started thinking where this comment was hidden. She wanted to laugh at this moment. But she realized her mother was snoring on the other side of the room, so she remained silent. Her mind drifted to that day when she had to make a mistake by following a voice. What did she get by saving that fine lady? Pay Rise? Praises? Anything? Nothing. Wrath of the only friend she ever had. The heartbreak of the innocent boy before his birthday. And the revenge of the public. The future knows what is to come.

'What! I'm so scared. No mercy on the youth! Shameless! Shameless!' this one was a reply to the previous. She felt bad reading this one. She could have gone easy with Kysop that day. But what did she do exactly? Gave out a word of warning. Was that the end? And since when the swords became legal in the city? But could she have gone easy with the boy? She couldn't come up with anything. She was scared at the sight of the sword. And shocked to find someone breaking the rules from whom she didn't expect. No mercy on the youth. Have they mercy over themselves by doing something they shouldn't? The question is, should she have shame warning someone for their wellbeing? These people know nothing. That's why she skipped most of the comments. Especially the ones which had her name tagged.

'I thought she was a mere mechanic, but never knew she could do this kind of thing.' She felt disappointed reading it. She read it again to understand what that meant. What had she done? There were many things she had done. Well, if it says about her work then he is underestimating her.

So utterance of that language posed a problem. What's with the language anyway? She wanted to know about it. She opened a quick search tab and typed, "What is wrong with the Zolzein language?" and saved that for later. She would want to read it in her spare time.

A mere mechanic? She? Who does he think is cleaning the stubborn dust? This Rionora Tarnilier. No one in this city dares to get their hands scarred and this one guy calls her a mere mechanic? Surely people do not know.

"Why am I even bothered by this?". Exactly. Why is she worried about something true? Isn't she a mere mechanic who cleans dust? Does she have any nice job that is less mere? But this is the only job she does and no one else, shouldn't that be enough? She thought to herself. But she scrolled more to read despite feeling salty looking at the dozen of mean comments.

'I know why there are fewer mechanics. She handed them to her Zolzein friend so that she could get all those jobs in her name and get rich.' she forgot to take a breath while reading this one. Did she send them to that lady? When? How? She very much wanted to yell at this point. She never saw her since that day, neither had that kind of talk, let alone handing over some people. What makes them think like that? She felt she heard it once before but couldn't recall it. She wanted to remember who said it but couldn't risk getting a headache. The one she got trying to remember her father's name wasn't over yet, instead, it got amplified by reading these comments. Inside her mind, she wanted to do something while reading those, but the other part of her mind was waiting for something. Her eyes were stuck on the phrase 'get rich'. Could she get rich? With her mechanic job? Looks interesting.

'Also she cleans the silver dust, I wonder why she never gets a slash. Cause she's indeed a secret agent.' Her mind gripped at the words silver dust. So getting slashes is legit. The images of dust turning into blood made her skin go cold. She looked at her hands. It looked lifeless. There were many tiny cuts around her fingertips.

Was it cause of the dust? No.

How did I get those? From work obviously.

I got it from work. I don't need to worry. That dust can't do anything to me.

She focused on the comments again. Her mind was begging her to sleep, but she wanted to know if she was so disastrous to everyone around her.

'But her hair is pale like us.' True that was. Pale lilac her hair, till the shoulder. But what does that have to do with it?

'So what? Anyone can get their hair dyed. Many live among us like that, secretly killing our people.' She gasped reading this one. People are getting killed? But why? Her eyes searched among the comments for reasons, but there were none. She swallowed thinking about the city that often looked deserted. The only day she found a lot of people was the second last day of the weekend. People chatting, people laughing, people being happy was something she loved to look at. But there were days when she couldn't find anyone in the marketplace. If the doctor is right that my mom got trailed after my dad then there might be people who are facing this. Who knows what this swirl does after people get dragged many times? On top of that, people are killed? This made her uneasy. She quickly wanted to finish this article to think about things.

'I think she is the one who sent her friend away to that wretched land.' Is the friend Sheime they're mentioning here? She doesn't know how she got to that country. Also, she doesn't know whether she's alive or not. She must have met her parents. Oh, how could she forget that?

She pitifully covered her face with her right hand. The news was out before a couple of days. And people think it's her who did this? She started sobbing. But pressed her mouth and nose so that her mother doesn't wake up from her sound. She was a nice friend, and she had no ill feelings about her neither Rio had any. Only a bit shocked by her almost impossible ambitions. But sending her to that place, she could never do that. Not even in her dreams.

But they say it's a wretched place. Is it? She thought to herself. What is there that makes it so wretched? Looking at the screen gloomily, she mindlessly opened another tab to search about Zolzeim. Before it could load the results she switched back to the comments section of the article.

'Doesn't the chairman know anything about it? How can he be silent like that?' The chairman. He's busy driving me out of his family. How would he get time for all these? Mused Rio feeling aggrieved.

'Are you idiot? He would do something after his family gets over this. Didn't you heard she threatened their son.' This was replied to the last one. This brought back to the first complaint, that she threatened their son. This is going too far. She never demanded anything. Only a job that is full of dignity. If she had known this would happen to her just to be alive, she would have rather died. Others must have got a work permit and their proper identity. They must be enjoying their life. It is understandable if she had got extra tasks to do to get her certificate. But what stopped him to give her that?