Chapter Text
The colours. They determined everything.
Everyone’s aura had a colour, and that colour decided your whole life. Each colour had their own place in society, and that was how they’d managed to survive for so long. There were the red warriors, the grey mediators, the blue innovators, the white healers, the purple engineers, and the green farmers. If everyone stayed in their place and did their designated job, life would go on.
What a boring life it was, though.
Rose was a healer. Her days were repetitive. See patient, heal patient, find new patient. Always the same things too – warriors who had made stupid decisions, farmers who never got their equipment checked, engineers who skipped safety protocols. You’d think this would all be better managed, but the Mediators were only interested in keeping colour order.
Villagers of different colour auras weren’t supposed to interact with each other more than what was absolutely necessary, either. There were stories – old folk tales – that told of how one’s aura could be affected if in the presence of another, stronger colour aura for too long. Because of that, Rose never saw the same patient twice.
While all the colours lived in their own separate village within the city, and were forbidden in other sections unless authorized by a Mediator, there was one place that was neutral and all colours gathered daily: the centre square.
Surrounded on all sides by high stone walls, the square was the place to be for the villagers. It was where the farmers came to trade their goods, the engineers showed off their work, the warriors showcased their ability, and the innovators announced their newest and biggest thing.
The idea of the centre square was exciting compared to everyday life in your village. Except that it was also packed with Mediators and heavily monitored.
That didn’t stop Rose from making a couple of friends during her trips, though.
“Minhyuk!” She smiled as she squeezed through the people bustling around her, reaching for her bag. The man looked up from his stall and returned the smile when he saw her. Of course, not before checking where the nearest mediator was.
“Good morning,” he said, as she placed her bag down in front of her. “Do you have more salves for me?”
“I do,” she said, pulling out a couple of jars. “I know you’re having trouble getting the engineers to repair your tools, so this should help with the little scratches and burns.” She handed them over, and he smiled warmly. Some said that Minhyuk’s livestock were ‘tainted’ by other colour aura’s because he mingled too much in the square, so it made it hard for him to make deals. His defence was that there was no harm in being nice, and he kept to his time limit, anyway.
“Thank you,” he said, taking the jars from her. “Oh! I have something for you, too.” Rose watched curiously as he started searching through his cart. When he found what he was after, he kept a cloth wrapped around it as he handed the small bundle to her. “If anybody asks, you didn’t get it from me,” he whispered with a wink.
Rose peeked under the cloth, before her eyes went wide, “Strawberries!” she said, before quickly putting them in her bag. “Nobody has been able to grow them! How did-”
“Wrap it up, healer.”
Rose jumped. She should have been used to it by now, but she didn’t like when people suddenly appeared behind her. The mediator had placed his hand on her shoulder.
She didn’t turn to look at him. “Of course, the code is law, after all.”
Minhyuk was looking down, as he was supposed to. The learnt phrase was repeated so much in this square, he could recite it in his sleep. As the Mediator moved to step away, he quickly whispered, “My gift is special.”
Rose chuckled quietly, and they finished their trade. As she turned to leave the square, she could feel the eyes of many mediators watching her. It always happened. But the punnet of strawberries in her bag and the sweet smile she always got from Minhyuk was well worth it.
Before she made it to the gates of the white village, she heard cheering coming from one of the other gates. It was the warriors. She hadn’t noticed the time, today was the parade. The most important part of a warrior’s life was their induction – the day when they graduated from their training ready to take on the world. They would parade around the centre square, and then send the trainees straight into the warrior’s chamber. Nobody but the warriors knew what happened inside, but all she knew was that it was intense. When they emerged, they looked invincible.
Dangerous as it may sound, their life seemed much more exciting. Rose stopped to watch the warriors and trainees enter the square, as drums played, and banners of red were waved around. All the trainees were buzzing with energy. Aware of her time limit, Rose slowly began to walk again, when her eyes landed on one particular trainee.
He didn’t look as excited as the others. As a healer, Rose was very in tune with people, both their bodies and auras. This boy was radiating fear. He looked up then, almost instinctively feeling her eyes on him.
Rose stopped.
Nobody could tell another person’s aura from so far away, usually they had to be right in front of you. And true to that, Rose couldn’t see his aura. But something about his eyes…she couldn’t quite pick it. It gave her a strange feeling.
“On your way, healer!”
Rose grunted as a hand shoved her in the back, that stern voice reminding her of her time limit. She barely had enough time to regain her footing before he shoved her again, and she stumbled out of the square, through the gates into the white village. She would have kept her footing had there not been a few steps outside the gates.
Her palms hit the ground first, and the contents of her bag all rolled out onto the concrete. Thankfully, the strawberries were still snugly wrapped and didn’t get squished in the process.
As she sat up, Rose glanced over her shoulder to see which one of the mediators had shoved her and recognised him immediately. This guy she did not like. He was kind of a big shot among the mediators, and he loved to remind everyone of that.
He had his arms folded, as he stared her down. “If I have to remove you from this square one more time you’ll be banned. You know the code.”
She didn’t flinch. “Yes. The code is law.”
The mediator turned and walked away, and Rose sighed as she looked at her stinging hands.
“You are too good at getting yourself into trouble,” a voice then said from beside her.
Rose almost squawked in surprise as she looked up to see someone had snuck up on her.
She let out a sigh at seeing the cheeky grin of her oldest friend. “By the code, Kyun, don’t scare me like that.”
He laughed as he grabbed her bag from the ground, gathering everything back into it. “But it’s fun sneaking up on you,” he said, before holding out his hand. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, letting him help her up. When he handed her bag back, she checked its contents. Everything seemed all right. “What are you doing here, anyway?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you be following your father around?” she nodded her head in the direction the mediator had gone.
Changkyun’s aura was a strong one. It was common for children to be born with a different aura to their parents, but the stories that flowed through the villages of his family were that they were generations of mediators.
He shrugged, “I’m ‘supervising’ the white village today,” he said, giving her a cheeky smile.
One of the benefits of being son of a big shot, he could do what he wanted. Lucky bastard. Those with a grey aura were also the only ones who could be around other villagers for longer periods of time, thus why they were the ones who kept order. That, and their gift was knowing when somebody was lying.
“Well you can supervise me eating my strawberries,” she said as she started walking again.
That got his attention, “Strawberries?! Where did you get those?” he ran after her, and Rose grinned.
“A very gifted farmer,” she said simply.
He knew who she meant straight away. “That damn Minhyuk, he never shares with me. I ought to have words with him.”
Rose gave him a look. “Maybe if you had words with the engineers who won’t fix his tractor, you’d be getting some too.”
Changkyun made a face, before he seemed to remember something, “Oh!” and reached into his pocket. “I have something for you,” he said, glancing around them, before handing over a small envelope. “From you know who,” he whispered.
Rose instantly smiled, “Thank you,” she said, quickly slipping it away in her bag. “You’re a legend, you know that?”
He grinned, “Always am.”
…
“There you are, what took you so long?”
Rose closed the door to their home and turned to her brother. “Got a bit caught up in the square, it was busy today because of the parade.”
Hyungwon gave her a look, knowing half of that meant she spent probably too much time talking to Minhyuk. “Well you missed Jooheon.”
She placed her bag down on the table, “What? He was here?”
“Yep,” Hyungwon walked over to see what she’d gotten, “I applied to get an Engineer to fix our roof, remember? He just left.”
Rose grumbled. Jooheon was another friend of hers, but since he was from the purple village, she barely ever saw him. He would have been accompanied by a mediator anyway so they wouldn’t have been able to talk much, but it still would have been nice to see him.
Jooheon had been one of her patients a couple of years back, after a freak accident during the construction of the Warrior’s hall. She’d been one of the only Healers at the sanctuary and had been rushed straight over to help. Ever since, Jooheon had sworn he was in debt to her.
Hyungwon then noticed something as he turned back to her, and his eyebrows creased unhappily.
“Relax,” she said straight away, “It’s nothing.”
“You call this nothing?” Hyungwon grabbed Rose’s wrist, showing the scrapes on her palms.
She rolled her eyes as he grabbed a bandage. “I got us strawberries.”
“You’re going to get yourself banned,” he said sternly. “And you can’t be seeing patients with bandaged hands.”
He had a point there, and she hated arguing with him, so she let him have it.
Hyungwon wasn’t her real brother, but she’d grown up with him. When a child was born a different aura to their parents, they were sent to the correct village and given a new family. Generally, nobody knew anything about their birth parents if this happened, because as far as the code went, their assigned family was their real family.
As it just so happened though, thanks to a certain Mediator, Rose had found out that she had a biological brother back in the blue village where she was born.
The Innovators were admired by a lot of people from all the villages. Their gift was of the mind, and all their technological advances had been because of the innovators. Whenever she received a letter from her brother in blue she was always in awe of whatever he had to say.
When Rose had arrived at the sanctuary, she’d had some spare time before her shift started, and decided to pull out the letter that Changkyun had given her. Despite the fact that she’d never met him, their letters to each other always had a warmth to their words, and he always asked how Hyungwon was going. It looked like he was currently working on another project, the details of which she didn’t understand at all, but would certainly praise when she had a chance to write back. She wondered what it was like to be able to think the way he did.
Hyungwon had been cleaning some of the supplies, and he noticed the letter when he walked over. “Kihyunnie?” he asked. Rose smiled and nodded. “Better put it away for now,” he suggested. “Kyun will be in a lot of trouble if anyone sees that.”
That was true. Following his advice, she pocketed the letter, and stood up to get ready for her shift.
When she set to work, she didn’t receive any comments on her bandaged palms, which was good. Thanks to her gift, the scrapes would be completely gone by midday, but until then it was a nuisance.
The sanctuary in which they worked was at the edge of the village, beside the centre square, which made it easy to access for the other villagers. There were mediators at the entrance to make sure only the injured entered, and that they went nowhere else.
The sanctuary was pretty quiet today, as the healers who weren’t rostered on would have been gathered by the gates trying to see how the warriors went. By mid-afternoon, Rose and Hyungwon were the only ones there.
Until there was shouting from just outside.
“Help!” a voice was calling. “Someone, please!”
Hyungwon jumped up, just as a warrior ran into the sanctuary, carrying a man in his arms. He was breathing heavily, covered in sweat, and there was blood all over the front of his shirt. She recognised this warrior, he’d been one of the best trainees – Shownu his name was.
The man in his arms was shaking.
“What happened?” Rose asked as he hurriedly placed his companion in front of her.
“I-I don’t know,” he said, “The initiation-it-he-”
When Rose looked at the patient, her eyes widened. It was the boy from the square. She took in all the details. His hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat, covering his eyes, and he was half conscious. His whole body was shaking, and judging from his red stained lips and chin, he’d been coughing up blood. He looked incredibly pale.
She’d never seen something like this before. In a moment of uncertainty, she looked up at Hyungwon. He was kneeling on the other side of the patient, looking at her steadily. “You’re the better one out of the two of us,” he said.
Brilliant. “Alright, get me some fluids and a lot of Hazel.” Hyungwon nodded and jumped up, as Rose tried to figure out what was causing such a reaction in this boy. “What’s his name?” she asked Shownu.
“Wonho,” he answered.
Rose leant over her newest patient, brushing the hair out of his half-lidded eyes. “Wonho,” she said steadily. “Can you hear me?”
He quickly nodded, before tensing up suddenly. Rose instantly knew why and helped him roll onto his side so he could cough more blood onto the floor. This was bad.
“Make it stop,” he rasped, shaking hands pulled into fists.
“Here,” Rose placed her hand on his forehead, “This will soothe you.” All healers could use this trick. It helped with panicky and fidgety patients. “Hyungwon will reduce the pain with Hazel, it’s a very fast and effective reliever. Where is your mark?”
Everyone had a marking on one of their wrists that showed the symbol of their aura. Pain relief was always most effective when applied to one’s mark.
He quickly shook his head, bringing his hands to his chest, as if trying to hide his mark. Hyungwon had returned with what she’d asked for, and they shared a confused look. “Wonho, we need your mark. Your body is rejecting something. Let us help you.”
Wonho squeezed his eyes shut then. “You can’t.”
He must have been delirious from all the blood loss. “It’s our gift, it’s what we do, now give me your mark,” Rose reached out and grabbed his wrist, and Wonho opened his eyes.
What she hadn’t realised during their interaction so far, was that she hadn’t been able to see his aura, despite how close they were. It wasn’t until she’d locked eyes with him that it hit her.
It felt like a slap in the face, the way it appeared out of nowhere. She’d been so shocked by it that she’d paused in her movements, still holding onto his wrist.
What was most shocking though, was that it wasn’t red.
She wrenched her hand back, staring at him wide-eyed. “You….you’re not-”
Before she could finish her sentence, a loud bang was heard from outside. Someone had just kicked open a door.
Shownu had jumped up in a panic, and instantly ran for the door, as a booming voice sounded from the entranceway, rattling everyone in the room.
“Where is he?!”