Chapter 1 - Part 1: The Girl with the Golden Gauntlet

A chatter of hushed voices woke her. An unfamiliar brightness assaulted her eyes, and she turned her head to avoid the glare. Grunting in displeasure, she opened her eyes again and found her surroundings blurred. It felt as if she had not used them in a long time.

Before her sight could adjust, she felt the restraints on her body as she sat on an uncomfortable wooden chair. That immediately woke her up, and she tried to struggle free. She looked up just in time for the glaring light to shine in her face again, blinding her temporarily.

"She's awake! Keep her restrained!" a boy's voice cautioned, and she felt several hands on her limbs, holding her down.

"Don't be so rough with her," a younger boy appealed in a compassionate tone.

"You saw what she did!" an indignant girl's voice argued back.

"What did I do?" she asked with worry flooding her mind, and a round of surprised gasps rang out. The light before her eyes disappeared, and she blinked a few times. Finally, she beheld her captors.

They were four children, two boys and two girls, in a cramped, dark room dominated by two bunk beds. The oldest, a red-haired boy, held a climbing pick in one hand, clearly intending to use it as a makeshift weapon in case a fight broke out. The younger girl with shoulder-length curly brown hair held the flashlight she had been blinded with earlier. The other two, an older girl and the youngest boy, each carried a shovel. Their expressions suggested they wanted no part in this, albeit for different reasons.

"Who are you?" the red-haired boy asked in a hushed tone, audibly gripping the climbing pick tighter in his hand.

"I'm-" she tried to respond but found only emptiness in her mind. Her eyes inadvertently began to wander, and she looked down. That's when she noticed that her left forearm ended in a golden gauntlet far too large to fit her hand. She could not feel her hand inside it, but the gauntlet moved according to her will.

"Don't move!" the younger girl with the flashlight hissed and shone it into her face again.

"Where am I?" she asked, turning her head away to avoid the light.

"We're asking the questions here," the boy declared in an authoritative tone, but he was clearly not used to speaking like this.

"Hey, I hear footsteps!" the youngest of the four raised his voice slightly, causing the others to go quiet and turn to him in shock. The clicking sound of high heels came down the corridor and approached their door.

"Oh no, it's Mistress Patch," the older girl turned her head left and right as if hoping to find a way out of this situation in the room, "we won't get off lightly like that time with the lake cat."

"Get her on the bed," the oldest pointed at the girl bound to the chair. He quickly hung his climbing pick on a rack among similar gear next to the bunk bed and tiptoed to the door. "I'll distract her."

"We can't untie her," the younger girl complained but knew there was no other way than to lift the chair with the person on it. With a silent look at the other two children, they raised her to the top bunk together. The oldest opened the door to their room and staggered outside before closing it behind him.

"Where are you going this late, Kilian?" came the matron's stern voice through the door, causing the children in the room to tense up.

"Just woke up... going to the toilet," the boy named Kilian responded in a feigned drowsy tone.

"Is that so? Then why are you not in your pajamas?" Mistress Patch asked in a biting tone. Before Kilian could even attempt to come up with an explanation, her high-heeled footsteps quickly bridged the distance to their door and pushed it open. In stepped a tall, middle-aged lady in a black mourning dress with graying hair tied back neatly except for a single white lock hanging from her forehead. Her hawkish eyes immediately fixated on the three children sitting on the floor between the bunk beds through her silver-rimmed glasses. "As I thought. The inhabitants of room twelve, up to no good again."

They were using a flashlight to play with a few lesser or broken fragments they had swiped during their work inside the otherwise dark room. Their shocked expressions showed they had been caught in the act. Kilian came in after her and joined his three roommates in silent guilt.

"You know the rules. All fragments you find, no matter how insignificant, belong to the orphanage," stepping up to them and glaring down at the children as they scrambled to their feet, Mistress Patch scolded them in a harsh tone. She then continued coldly, "I shall confiscate these. And you will all skip dinner tomorrow to write a letter of apology."

The four children lowered their heads before her, admitting their guilt. But in reality, they were hiding their terrified expressions so that she would not get suspicious and think of looking for anything else in the dark room. After all, there was a green-haired girl bound to a chair lying on top of the bunk bed right next to her, peeking out from underneath the blanket covering her. She did not speak up and ask for help from the matron because she instinctively felt she would face a fate worse than her current circumstances.

"No complaints? That is unusual," with an eyebrow raised behind her glasses, the matron bent down to pick up the fragments on the ground. In that same motion, she looked up into the older girl's face. "Why is that, Natalee?"

"We know that we made a mistake," the girl called Natalee responded while shaking her head to hide her expression.

"If you knew you made a mistake, why would you make it in the first place? That is why you need discipline," Mistress Patch stated while gathering up the scattered fragments on the floor into her arms. "Go to sleep now. You have work tomorrow."

With these words, the matron walked out the door without another glance back at the four young miscreants. Surely, she was fixated on the fragments she had collected from them, and in her greed, she could think of nothing else now. The children of room twelve breathed a sigh of relief only when the echoes of her high-heeled footsteps grew distant.

"That was too close for comfort," the younger girl whispered while slouching down on the lower bunk. Then she sat up again and glared at the youngest, "it better have been worth those fragments we gave up, Allen."

It had been Allen's idea to take out their stash of fragments and pretend to be secretly admiring them on the floor to distract from the bulging blanket on the upper bunk. With the flashlight illuminating only what they wanted her to see, Mistress Patch had been blind to the more damning situation.

"I'm certain it was worth it," Allen responded while climbing up the bunk bed and pulling the blanket off the bound girl. "This is perhaps the greatest fragment we will find before we're fully-fledged Aspirants. Possibly even ever."

"What makes you say that?" Natalee wondered, staring at the green-haired girl with a skeptical expression.

"That gauntlet is like a Power Loader, but better," the youngest pointed at the golden gauntlet with glittering eyes and declared. Power Loaders were tool-grade fragments more often found in the buried section of the Skypiercer than in its lofty heights. They were pairs of large gauntlets that allowed their wearer to lift objects as if their weight had been cut in half. "And it's indestructible. I tested it."

"You what?" Kilian raised his voice, then covered his mouth in shock. Quieter, he continued, "what did you do?"

"I tried carving it with a Steel Writer. Not only was there not a single scratch, but the Steel Writer's tip broke," Allen explained and pulled out a large nail-like object from his pocket. It was covered in a layer of rust and dirt, but the broken tip showed that it was made from a silvery metal on the inside.

The fragments known as Steel Writers had the uncanny ability to carve into any known metal as if it were butter, but always only up to two millimeters deep. They were one of the most common fragments found in the Skypiercer's depths, landing them the trinket-grade designation despite being somewhat useful tools. Since they were harmless and required no expertise to use, Base Camp exported them to many foreign countries.

"What if you had damaged the gauntlet?" the younger girl chided Allen with clear disapproval in her gaze.

"In the name of discovery, it was a price I was willing to pay," the boy replied with a self-important nod.

"Somebody should hit him," the bound girl on the bed commented, and the younger girl obliged, smacking Allen across the back of his head.

"Dyanna!" Natalee chastised the younger girl, but Allen seemed unfazed. Despite his young age, he never cried from painful experiences, and getting hit by Dyanna was a rather common occurrence anyway.

"Thank you for cooperating," Kilian climbed up the bunk bed and began to untie the girl.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? What if she gets violent again?" Natalee shied back from her with an apprehensive look.

"Again? What did I do?" The girl remained still, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.

"That gauntlet that is more powerful than the Power Loader. You tried to punch Natalee with it," Dyanna responded with an eyebrow raised. The girl stared at her in shock, then glanced down at the golden gauntlet.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. It was an unconscious reflex. She doesn't appear to be a violent person," Kilian reassured them and opened the last knot, loosening the rope around the girl, "I'll take full responsibility."

Finally, she was free. Slowly removing the rope with her non-gauntleted hand, she made sure not to startle anybody. Kilian, Dyanna, and Allen carefully watched her sit up on the top bunk but showed no fear. Only Natalee would not have any of that, picking up her shovel in anticipation of an attack.

The green-haired girl looked down at herself and slowly patted down her clothes with her right. The pajamas she wore were more patchwork than what remained of the original cloth, and she could feel underwear of a similar make underneath. Judging by the room, their clothes, and their climbing gear, it was clear that these four children had nothing.

Yet, they gave away the few possessions they had scrounged together and hidden from the matron to keep her from being discovered. That alone told her that it had been the right decision to cooperate with them rather than try to seek help. They were good people.

"So, who are you? Why were you floating on Lake Svarus?" Kilian tried asking while the girl climbed down from the top bunk and sat on the lower bed.

"What is Lake Svarus?" tilting her head, she returned the question with one of her own.

"Oh boy," was all that Allen could say.

"I don't remember... anything. Who I am, where I come from, why I have this..." the girl shook her head and looked down at her gauntlet. She then tried pulling on one of its oversized fingers to try and remove it. But no matter how much strength she mustered, her hand would not slip out of it. She could feel it tugging on her wrist as if it was connected to her very skin, so she gave up. Still, her mind was strangely calm despite the fact that her past had disappeared into a hazy mist.

"I'm sorry to hear. Umm, my name is Kilian. The scaredy-cat is Natalee, the sassy one is Dyanna, and the snot-nosed know-it-all is Allen," Kilian pointed at his friends one by one and introduced them to bridge the awkward silence, "maybe we could come up with a name for you? To make it easier to talk with you. You know, until you remember your real name."

"How about Margritte?" Allen spoke up and suggested first.

"That sounds awful," Dyanna looked down at their youngest from the corner of her eyes with a disgusted grimace.

"Thanks," Kilian shot her a sour look. His grandmother, an Ascendant-ranked Aspirant and his only living relative, was named Margritte. But his response only made her defensive.

"That name's ancient! Nobody calls their child Margritte these days!" Dyanna made a point that Kilian could not disagree with. Not only was it an old name, but it would also feel awkward when his grandmother returned. Turning to the green-haired girl, she looked at her closely and studied her features, "let's call you Evie."

"Like our lake cat that was found and got thrown out? You're treating her like a pet?" Natalee glared at the younger girl with a flabbergasted expression.

"Then how about Alice? Named after Alice the Wonder." Allen proposed with glittering eyes. When the green-haired girl heard the name, she broke out into a smile. She liked it. But her expression froze when Dyanna rebutted the boy.

"Another Aspirant's name..." She rolled her eyes at his fixation with legends, "and she doesn't look like an Alice."

And thus, a heated argument erupted among the children with no regard for their volume. The amnesiac girl only watched silently, unsure what to make of the situation.

"... Sanya." Kilian, who had remained quiet in his contemplations all this time, suddenly stated in a split second of coincidental perfect calm, during which everyone was catching their breaths or sorting their thoughts. The silence persisted as they carefully considered the suggestion.

"The Sundrop?" Dyanna was the first to speak up.

"That sounds like a great name! Let's go with that!" Natalee exclaimed and pointed at Kilian, who was startled by the loud voice directed at him, "then we will call you Sanya from now on."

"Sanya..." Repeating it quietly, the freshly-named girl looked at Kilian. It had a nostalgic feeling to it as if it touched upon her lost memories, but it was not enough to trigger any of them to resurface. Still, she smiled and looked across the four children's faces, "I like it."

"So, how does it feel to wear that gauntlet?" Allen changed the topic and asked while pointing at it with the flashlight Dyanna had carried earlier. He was far more interested in fragments and the Skypiercer than the mental state of this girl who had almost drowned earlier that day and lost all her memories.

"I don't know," Sanya muttered and moved the fingers of her left hand as a demonstration, giving off a metallic clicking sound. She had no sensation beyond where her wrist disappeared into the gauntlet. It was entirely possible that her flesh and blood hand no longer existed inside that metal encasing, but she did not want to think about it.

"Hm, what's this?" Dyanna appeared to have discovered something on the gauntlet as she squinted her eyes and moved her face closer to its underside, "hold the light like before. No, not like this. Give it to me."

The girl impatiently yanked the flashlight out of Allen's hand and pointed it at Sanya's gauntlet from a specific angle. Among the runes engraved across its surface was a set of tiny lines that only became visible now and stood out from the rest. The allegedly indestructible material had been scratched by something.

"Is this some carving?" the brown-haired girl ran her finger across the lines and felt their presence ever so slightly against her fingertips, "it's barely there."

"It wasn't me!" Allen immediately raised his hands to profess his innocence.

"Huh, what is it?" Kilian wondered and moved in closer.

"Are those words?" Natalee asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I think so," Dyanna squinted to see them better, but it was hard to tell.

"Here, let me see," Allen dug up a magnifying glass from a box stashed under the bed and grabbed the gauntlet to look at it closely, "it's not in the Skypiercer's runes... it says return..."

"Is there more?" the others asked impatiently.

"Don't rush me. These are really hard to make out," Allen rebuked them and adjusted his glasses. For a moment, there was breathless silence in the room. Sanya felt her heartbeat quicken at the prospect of perhaps finding a clue to her past. The youngest boy strained his eyes, then blinked in confusion, "huh?"

"What does it say?" Dyanna nudged him, perceiving his silence as deliberate stalling to build tension, "come on, tell us!"

"... return to apex," Allen looked up and shared a long look with Dyanna and the others before they all turned their heads toward Sanya.

"What does that-" but before the girl could finish her question, the four children flinched in terror and scrambled to their beds.

"Mistress Patch is coming back!" Natalee whispered in a hysterical tone and jumped onto her bed across from Sanya, who strained her ears but could only hear the children shuffling about.

"Help me take down the chair from my bed, Kilian!" Dyanna hissed when Kilian was about to climb up to his own bunk.

"Let me do it," Sanya stood up and instinctively used her gauntlet. With utter ease, she lifted the wooden chair off the top bunk with one hand and set it down on the floor next to the desk by the window. For a moment, the children stared at her in wonder, but the approaching Mistress Patch's footsteps became audible even to her, and she looked around in panic, "where do I hide?"

"With me. My crappy mattress only covers half the bed," Allen beckoned her to come in with his blanket raised. Meanwhile, Kilian and Dyanna quickly climbed up to their respective bunks and covered themselves up. Without wasting another moment, Sanya dove in and rolled into the gap between the mattress and the wall before Allen pulled the blanket over them.

"I heard you from downstairs. It's no use acting like you're asleep," the door flew open, and Mistress Patch declared in an annoyed tone. She then continued in a deeper, more threatening pitch, "you will write two letters of apology tomorrow. What is your answer, children?"

"Understood, Mistress Patch," the four answered in unison, grumbling at the unfair punishment. Sanya suppressed the urge to repeat after them and covered her mouth.

Finally, the matron closed the door again and walked away. Allen switched the flashlight on under his blanket and looked at the confounded Sanya hidden in the gap beside him. He snorted at her expression, then broke out into quiet laughter. The other children joined his mirth, well aware that the punishment they had received could not compare to the discovery they had made in the girl with the golden gauntlet.

Sanya soon felt herself swept along by their mood. Cracking up with laughter, her worries were washed away, even if only for the moment.