The Underground City of Aure

Ui tossed and turned in her bed until she eventually yawned and returned to consciousness.

“Ugh…” Her blankets felt five times heavier than usual, and she was too warm and too sweaty to go back to sleep. “Battles are really exhausting…” Her words broke up while yawning with her eyes barely open. “Aren’t they?”

Cro offered no response. Instead he closed his book with no hurry and stacked it with other literature he had indulged in, a lot more than Ui expected considering the dim lighting in the room.

“How long was I out, Cro?” Ui’s eyelids were sticky and hard to open.

“Two days.”

As if it helped, she rubbed her eyes. “My sleep is getting longer…”

“Is it getting longer? Or do you just not want to go out?”

She was still groggy, and barely internalized what Cro was asking. It was probably a hard question to answer, anyway. “Where are we?”

“Home.”

“Which one?”

“Look around, Ui.”

Ui sat up on her bed. She noticed the faint leaflights and the curved walls plastered with the clay mixture that only the Udari like her knew how to make. She stretched her hand to touch the smooth, colorful clay walls. With her palm on that clay, plastered over generations, she felt its history on her fingertips.

“So, we’re in Aure.” She lay back down in bed and exhaled loudly, revealing a mixture of relief and happiness. But that feeling didn’t last long. Could she really call that house she lived in long ago her home, if she was there only a few days every year?

Cro got up and handed her a piece of paper before calmly walking back to his chair. She looked at Cro as he sat down. His white hair and his height were typical for a Uman, even though it was still amusing for Ui to see him barely fit into the smaller Udari chairs and houses. What wasn’t ordinary was how well he maintained his hair and clothes during that vacation, especially if she had been asleep for two days. But that was something to think about some other time. She looked at the piece of paper he handed her.

Wanted. A criminal known as “Lullaby” or “Suinum”.

1,000 silver coins reward for any information.

Responsible for the illegal destruction of Uman mining equipment.

“One thousand silver? That’s not that much,” said Ui as she reviewed it.

“I know. If it had been a bit more, I would’ve turned you in myself. But I’m not sure that’s what you should be worried about…”

“You’re right…” Ui looked at the poster in more detail, and didn’t like what she saw. “This drawing looks nothing like me!” Ui was outraged by the older-looking, more threatening drawing of her wearing a hood.

On top of her pride being hurt, Cro smirked and started getting ready to leave the room. “Go take a bath before the festival. You remember why we’re here right?”

Ui’s expression twitched slightly. “Of course.”

“And wear your traditional dress, don’t forget.”

“Should I really be…” Ui looked over at the clothes Cro was pointing at, intimidated by the beautiful dress. It was way too much for someone like her, who wasn’t sure she could even call herself an Udari.

Cro shook his head.

“What? You’re wearing Uman noble fashion… and you tell me to wear a traditional Udari dress?” Cro always wore stylish clothes, but Uman fashion was too out of place in the underground city of Aure.

“I’m not Udari, and I’m not here to babysit you. How old are you now?”

“I’m sixteen.” Ui grinned, but the dark circles around her eyes betrayed her words, whether she wanted to or not.

“You’ve been saying that for almost three years… And I grew up with you, remember?”

She looked at Cro with a sour expression and pursed lips. “What happened to the sweet boy who took me in when he met me at the cliffs of Auremaru?”

“I got to know you better.” He was halfway out of the room when he stopped and looked back at her. “And take a bath before the festival. I know you don’t want to.”

“There’s just… too many people at the baths, you know?”

“You have a bath rotation for a reason. Use it.”

Ui disliked another chore being added to her list.

“And I left your white wig on the table, though I wish you just took the decolorizing potion.”

She reached for her long, layered, beautiful light pink hair, slightly oily from her extended slumber, and wrangled her bangs back in place. “My hair color is who I am.” She always said those words without hesitation, no matter how hard it was to maintain her secret identity. Ui looked at the white wig, the one she used to hide her colorful Udari hair, her true self. “It’s strange, isn’t it Cro? All it takes is that white hair and…” She looked at Cro, barely fitting in the room. “Maybe a little height, and Udari and Umans would be the same…”

Cro looked towards her for a few seconds, but instead of offering a response, he walked out of the house, carefully closing the door behind him. “Get ready, Ui.”

◆

With Cro gone, Ui wrapped her pink hair and head with a towel, and quietly snuck into the bath caverns. To her relief, Cro was right and the baths were empty at that time. She sat down next to the natural subterranean hot spring and slowly slid her feet inside. Once her thighs had dipped into the warm bath, a girl appeared from underwater.

“Suar!” The girl screamed, scaring Ui, who slipped into the bath, letting the towel on her head slide off as she plunged into the water. She took a few seconds to think about what to do underwater, scrambling with dread, flailing, but eventually managed to reach for her towel and cover her hair once more before emerging. The splashing of the water and the steam rising from the spring would surely conceal her hair’s color.

“Udari soum at?” The girl leaned her head, curiously looking at Ui, who was working hard to remain composed.

Ui remained silent for a few seconds, smiling. She wanted to answer, but she couldn’t.

She understood the language, but due to her unstable songmagic, she couldn’t speak it, not in that city. Any word she misspoke could harm the mountain, or its inhabitants.

“Oh, you can’t speak Udari. Don’t worry, I know Uman!” The girl’s Uman was not perfect, but it was rare enough that she spoke it so young.

“You really scared me,” said Ui as she concealed her relief, giggling along instead. The girl laughed with her, seemingly proud that she had scared someone. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“My parents wanted me to take a bath before the festival. I thought they were picking me up, and wanted to scare them. Sorry, big sis.”

Ui noticed the regret that children were unable to hide. “No worries.” She smiled as she patted the girl on the head.

“My dad is Uman too,” the girl said proudly.

“Huh?”

“You’re here for the festival, aren’t you? That’s why you don’t know Udari, you grew up somewhere else, like me.”

“Uh, right. Smart girl!”

The girl grinned, proud of herself. “Do you know about Lullaby? They say she might be at the festival! They say she made a whole town fall asleep with her songmagic all by herself!”

Ui’s legs lost all strength, and though she wished to relax, the girl caused the exact opposite. “Who… said that?”

“The other kids. She’s our heroine! I really wish to meet her.”

Ui couldn’t help but smile. “Maybe one day, you can be like her instead!”

The girl became saddened when she heard those words. “I don’t think so. I don’t think I’m able to become a songmage.”

“I see.” Ui paused, the thoughts of Udari society making her hesitate. “But there’s a lot of other things you might be able to do. You can be anything you want to be.” Ui could see from the girl’s face that her encouragement landed flat.

“But Lullaby will help all of us!” The thoughts of Lullaby were enough to quickly bring the girl’s happiness back. “What do you think she looks like? Do you think she’s pretty like you?”

“I’m sure she’s beautiful, just like you are.”

“Do you think she has pink hair like you?”

Ui froze at the mention of her hair’s color, but seeing the girl’s starry eyes thinking about Lullaby, she quickly changed her expression into a smile. “Can you keep a secret?”

The girl nodded enthusiastically as Ui whispered in her ear.

“No way! Really!?” Ui nodded in response. “I have to tell everyone, my parents, friends…”

“I thought you said you could keep a secret,” Ui reminded her.

“Oh, right.” The girl’s tone deflated. “But still!” The girl rushed out of the bath, accidentally splashing water on Ui’s smiling face on her way out.

The girl ran out of the hot spring cave to find her parents.

Ui had gone back home by the time the girl returned.