Built on smoke and mirrors

Chapter 1

I wake up as the sun pours into my small room. I stretch then take a deep breath in, not wanting to leave the warm bulky sheets my mother once made for me.

I pull them up around my ears and smile for a moment, taking in the morning's peace before my daily duties lumped up.

Milk the cow.

Take the butter I made yesterday into the market.

deliver bread to Mr. Green.

Study.

Cook Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

I knew these things would take all day. I hardly had time for myself. But the few moments I did, I knew exactly what I would do.

Winter had a death grip on my small town called Hell. Snow started falling last month, and it hadn't really stopped. I think at one point Motherwealth founders named the town Hell because they thought it would be funny to name such an inhospitable place, such a name, but now it was a joke. Have you heard of the saying, 'when hell freezes over'? Well, it does, every year, it does. But I like it. I like the cold. Always have. Something about the snow, the way it falls, the way it sound proofs everything. It is peaceful.

But the one thing I liked most about winter was how the ponds on the edge of town froze over. Frozen ponds meant skating, and that was really the only place that made me feel at home.

Knowing I was wasting time, I jumped out of bed, holding back a shiver that wanted to come. Getting out of bed was always the hardest when it was cold like this.

Quickly, I pulled on a pair of tights that had one too many holes in them, then a pair of black thermals that my brother, Kol, gave me the year before for my birthday. A black worn out sweater was what I picked for my base layer today. After I slipped it on, I grabbed a gray bag with my white figure skates in it, then left my room.

The small living space that held the kitchen and family room was quiet and cold, especially since the fire in the wood-burning fireplace died out. It probably had been out for hours. I told Kol to stoke it before he went to bed last night, but he probably forgot. He often did with things like this.

I knelt down on the stone hearth, then lit a small fire to get the stove going again. When Kol woke up, the place would be warm again. He wouldn't even know he forgot to stoke it.

I used to nag on him for not going about these small things. But I stopped that. He was busy working extended hours and came back late after working on the lakes. The last thing I wanted to do was make him realize that staying with his little sister was too much work for what it was worth.

"I forgot again, didn't I, Telvi?" Kol asked. His voice was rough and deep, but also comforting at the same time.

I looked up and met his soft gaze as he towered over me. Kol had to be one of the tallest men in the town, which made him nearly the most eligible bachelor, yet he had no girlfriend.

"It's no problem. I got it," I brushed him off.

"It was just another late night..." His voice trailed off.

Every night was late for him. He did his best to afford the taxes on this place, but he was only one person with a minimum wage job on the outskirts of the northern most Commonwealth. That was why I pitched in where I could by selling butter and baking bread.

"You don't have to explain yourself."

He nodded as he picked up my bag of skates. "Going out?" he questioned.

He never understood why I would bear the cold out of my own free will. 'This place is cold five months out of the year. Why go out in it for longer than you had to?' he would ask. But he didn't know that being on the ice was the one place that made me feel confident.