Year 833

Sunday night, May 16th

Karanese District (Wall Rose)

I don't want to go.

The crates are packed and our bags are ready, but I don't want to go.

I love Karanese. I love the calm of our house. I love the birdsong in the morning. I love taking walks with Maxine into the confines of Wall Rose in search of an adventure. I love the bustle of the market, the smell of parchment in my room and - most of all - , I love Max.

I love the way her dark hair turns glossy in the sunlight, and how her bright hazel eyes glitter with mischief. I love the way she giggles and teases me about being short. I love that she acts like my older sister, even though we're not related in the least.

If you're wondering, Max is my dearest friend.

She lives out of the district, just beyond the second gate to Wall Rose on a farm with her father and two older brothers – well, she has five older brothers, but three are in the army already. Her father's an ex-military man, but he was wounded in action and he doesn't have a left leg. He's terribly frightening. His eyes are all squinty and his face seems set in a permanent scowl ever since his wife died.

Oh, and he hates me and my family. One time he caught Max and I catching butterflies and he flogged her so hard that she couldn't walk for a week! We learnt not to get caught playing together after that. I guess his hatred is justified, though.

Both my parents are doctors, you see. We're quite well off and live in the heart of the town – we can even afford to move into Wall Sina! Not that I want to move further into this great big cage… but back to Max's mother.

The woman fell ill when I was six and Max was eight. I can still remember her pale face, her dry lips.

Mr Kauffman (Max's father) had been crippled for five years at that point, and their income was whatever the two eldest could send. My father was the one to check up on her, the one to tell Mr Kauffman the bad news and the cost of the treatment. When the struggling family couldn't come up with the funds, my parents refused to treat Mrs Kauffman, and she died.

Max didn't speak to me for weeks. When she did begin talking to me again, her father refused to let me set foot in the house and forbid his only daughter to have any interaction with me whatsoever. My hazel eyed friend always had a knack for being sneaky, however, and she managed to sneak over to my house several times a week.

My parents didn't like her much at first because she couldn't read, so I taught her how to read. When I told them of her progress and success, they told me she was a distraction from my studies in music, the arts – and of course, medicine.

As I mentioned before, both my parents are doctors – and legitimate genii. They met at a medical conference in Trost, and were married for many years before they decided to have me. Father was disappointed, he wanted a boy – but mother was happy. I came out with father's green eyes and her blonde hair, though neither of them passed their height on to me. Ever since I had the capacity to read at three, they've had me reading books on biology, learning about healing herbs and trauma and illness since before I knew how to tie my shoes.

To them everything was about hygiene - personal hygiene to prevent disease, hygiene around and preparing food, hygiene in terms of living and going about around town. Their distaste of anything unsterilized led them to make the decision to move to the district of Stohess, in Sina.

I still don't want to go, no matter how much they tell me to be grateful of the shift in class and status, no matter how much they brag of the best facilities and income for their line of work, no matter how they try and convince me otherwise.

I guess I should be happy they're taking me away, it does serve as an efficient distraction, after all. Even if I stayed in Karanese, I would be miserable. Next week Max is off to join the military (she's almost fourteen already!). I tried begging her not to go, but she told me she had no choice, telling me her father threatened to kick her out if she refused to join. I informed her she could come and live with me, but she had only laughed at my suggestion, "You sure are stupid for a genius, Heidi!" was what she told me.

I really hope she joins the Military Police so I can see her when she comes to Sina. I said that to her and she only patted me on the head, though I don't know why.

Mother's telling me to go to bed, and even though I can't sleep, I must turn the lamps off now.

Oh, and before I forget - my name is Adelheid Grünberg. I am eleven years old, and I live within the Walls that humanity has called home for almost a century now.

One day, I hope to make a difference in the world.

I want to see humanity at its strongest.