My name is Shin Aera.

Shin for God. Aera for love.

Now, one who would come across this name would think I was prim and proper—fluffy dresses and ballgowns while suiters bowed down to my feet, asking me for my hand in marriage but life wasn’t that easy for me. My father died when I was ten when my younger brother was first born; our little family living in isolation in a small shack on the Mountain of Eunice.

The death of my father had led us to the heart of N-CITY, the city where dreams came true if you worked hard enough. At ten, I had no concept of what a career was or what money was, my infant brother fresh out of my mother’s womb.

Aro, my mother named him, derived from Aaron.

A warrior, she told me.

A warrior he would be.

And like every good mother out there, she tried to find ways to keep a shelter above our head and keep food on a table.

I didn’t understand at first was a ‘courtesan’ was, but as I grew older, I slowly realized that it was just another word for a . My mother was selling her body for us while we lived at a house, a combination of moans from both genders going on throughout the whole day and louder at night.

How I hated her until the day she died and that left us without a mother and me, in fear that they would expect me to take her place.

And three weeks ago, was when I grabbed Aro and ran away, a small backpack with me.

How would we survive on the streets of N-CITY?

I didn’t know but I knew one thing—I would do my best to do so.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s been three weeks since we’ve been on the streets and I found myself turning into a con woman. A fortune teller one day, a shoe shiner the next.

Aro, I began to realize, was much wittier than I thought. My eight-year-old brother was a blast of energy and more often than not, he somehow brought food back to where we stayed—under a small bridge we called home.

I didn’t expect today to be different.

We had been living off one ration of bread the past few days and today was our last day.

Aro wasn’t happy. Aro wasn’t happy at all.

I stood in the middle of the street, hungry and cold, trying to find my next victim. Sometimes a fake fortune could be told, sometimes a wallet could be stolen. It was my eight-year-old brother who usually scouted the victims out. He could read people and since he was a child, they were naturally nicer to him than to me.

I didn’t expect a loud yell to come from down the road. Twenty minutes prior, Aro had told me that he would go and cry to a guard for a donut. It would at least last us until noon, wouldn’t it? All we were doing is trying to survive hour by hour.

“Noona!” My brother could be seen rushing past people that were crowded around each market stall. I narrowed my eyes at him, a hike in my blood pressure rising when I could see that he was being followed by city guards. “Noona! I got the bread!”

He also got five people trying to catch him.

“Hey! You! That was little kid from last week!”

Aro had stolen a bag of muffins the week before. I had berated him for being so impulsive but he assured me that he wasn’t impulsive. He simply lied to them that he would be pack to pay them. Little debts were going to the death of us and three weeks of us trying to cater to our empty stomachs had made me wary of even walking down the street.

I guessed today would be the day we would finally get to see how the Sooman prison would be like.

My thought didn’t linger, my brother squealing and shoving the bread into my arms.

“W-What—”

“I was so hungry! Run, Noona! Run!” Aro urged, pulling me along with him and I quickly pushed him forward. “Maybe you should put the bread under your cloak and pretend to be pregnant!”

“Aro—”

“Never mind, they won’t buy it.” He was quick to toss the idea out, my brother leading me down a dark alleyway. The houses were larger and we had more hope of hiding in the shadows than out under the bright light of N-CITY’s morning sun.

Our feet padded against the ground, both of us entering an almost forbidden part of N-CITY when my body slammed against a cloaked man… Four cloaked men; flashes of green, red, and blue from the edges of their cloak prominent, my body flying backward to a dead-end alley when a burst of energy could be felt from them.

“Oh. Johnny, did you just blast a commoner into an alley?” A grunt sounded and my brother screamed. I could hear him rushing to me, his icy hands going to feel my face when the sounds of guards catching up stopped right in front of me.

“Can one of you not be impulsive for once?” This voice was different, very demanding, and almost snotty. “Should we check on her?”

“Please, Doyoung. She probably is a criminal.” A drawl this time.

My eyes blurred and my lids flew open at the sound of Aro crying. I sat up, my brother trying to fight off city guards, the cloaked men at the side of the alley looking in like I was part of a circus.

“Noona!” Aro wailed and that was all it took for me to lift a hand up, a surge of energy coming from me when the panic began to arise. “Noona! They’re taking me away!”

A wave of a certain dark color flashed out of my hands towards the guards, my body levitating above the ground and through the midst of that, the voice of one of the cloaked men echoed through the alley.

“Johnny, I think something is happening.”

My body knocked back against the wall from a red energy shield and the last words I heard were.

“Oh, will you look at that? We found ourselves a Shield Bender.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There was a banging in my head and I could hear whispers when I first stirred. My body was out of energy and I could hardly move my fingers, my head lolling to the side.

“She’s awake! Jeno, help me with the containment spell,” a voice whispered out an order and a gust of wind blew past my body. “Slowly, Jeno. That’s it.”

“If she’s awake, why isn’t she talking?” Someone snapped and another voice hissed.

“Patience, Johnny. You Integritas are too damn impatient.” A woosh and my vision began to clear. I blinked rapidly, pushing myself up just to see that I was surrounded by a blue energy shield, my head whipping to the side to catch sight of five men staring at me. “Hello.”

“Aro,” I whispered, my hands feeling the table that I was laid on when the chains clanged against the metal. “My brother. Where is my brother?”

I knew who these people were. Everyone did.

Shield Benders were a special type of people, those who could manipulate energy. Being in the presence of a Shield Bender was enough to make me panic… Did they take my brother away? Did they want to execute him?

“Where am I?” The pain in my head dulled.

“Seems like she remembers nothing. Maybe we should blast her two more times. Third time’s a charm, they say,” one of them spoke. His eyes flashed green and my hands tightened into fists. He had silver hair and a smirk plastered on his features. “Maybe she’ll get her memory back.”

“Nakamoto Yuta, get out,” one of them snapped. He, unlike Nakamoto Yuta, had a blue coat.

“Don’t be salty, Doyoung. I found her.”

“No, all you did was say ‘Johnny. I think something is happening,’” the man replied, rolling his eyes. “Johnny was the one who stepped forward and Jaehyun was the one who blasted him. Who did the containment spell? Me. Now, all of you. Get out.”

“You blues just like to take all the credit, don’t you?” Yuta snarled back, reaching for the hood of his cloak to bring it over his head. “I’m out. Bask in your achievement of making a containment spell, Doyoung. We all know you’ll find another way to top it in less than a day.”

Doyoung seemed to ignore the green-eyed male, the man waving to another blue beside him.

“Jeno, go and call the Headmistress. Johnny, Jaehyun; we need no Integritas around here. You two might cause more damage than good.”

The two other red cloaked men didn’t put up a fight, giving me one final look when there was a swoosh and Doyoung walked through the shield. He had a rigid look on his face, like he was scared I would explode anytime soon.

“My name is Kim Doyoung. Headboy of the Verita House,” he introduced himself. A flash of confusion must have flittered through my features, the male’s eyes softening. “You must not know anything of the houses.”

He said the last line more to himself than to me, the doors opening.

“The Headmistress is here,” the other boy said.

“Thank you, Jeno. Headmistress Heize,” Doyoung greeted, a woman walking past the blue shield. She had dark eye liner and cat eyes, the woman looking incredibly young to be a Headmistress. She narrowed her eyes at me. “The Shield Bender we found on the streets.”

“Johnny said she had a brother.”

“He’s with the janitor, ma’am,” Doyoung spoke to the woman respectfully and she gave a quick nod before looking around what seemed like a chamber.

“You kicked the green and the reds out?”

“Yes, ma’am. They were being too much of a distraction.”

A pregnant pause.

“Good. I’ll take it from here. I have some energy replenishing potion with me. Head to The Great Hall, Doyoung. Your house needs you.” She patted Doyoung on the shoulder, the male stepping out and I saw him put an arm around the other blue cloaked man—Jeno, if I remembered correctly, both of them exiting the chamber.

“Drink.” A liquid was shoved into my hand and looked down to see that there were swirls of yellow in it. “You’ll feel so much better.”

A hand was placed on my forehead and the Headmistress squinted at me, her eyes shining a bright blue.

“Curious,” she murmured and I brought the drink up to my lips, the liquid tasting like sugar and water. My fatigue was immediately replaced with a burst of energy and with that, my heart beat faster and all I wanted to do was jump off the table and finally move. “Good. Come with me.”

She didn’t seem like a woman of much words, Headmistress Heize taking my hand gently and helping me off. She placed my hand at the crook of her arm to give me stability.

“The last time we found a Shield Bender on the streets, it was a red,” she told me, her lips pulling up into a smile. “Tell me. What do you know of our people?”

I opened my mouth to speak, the female bringing me down an abandoned hall.

“I… Just the rumors. Manipulators of energy," I told her, the female moving her fingers in front of me, a circular shield of energy flowing out of her fingertips. It was bright blue. “Am I at the Mountain of Serenity?”

The Mountain of Serenity was known to house Shield Benders, the energy of accumulated Shield Benders inhabiting the area had made the mountain float and it had been floating for generations. The school known to train Shield Benders was simply called SM. Shield Manipulators for short and I felt my arm tighten around her elbow, images of people on the walls.

“SM is a school of Shield Benders and it seems like you are one.” She patted my hand. “Tell me about yourself, child. Your name. Your brother’s name. Where you come from and why you were stealing bread.”

“Shin Aera,” I told her, and every time she looked at me, it felt like I was in a trance. She had such an alluring aura, the female nodding at my words. “My brother is Shin Aro. We lived on the streets.”

“Why?” She pressed and I blinked, not wanting to tell her why. “Being a Shield Bender must be passed down, Shin Aera. Who was it? Your father? Your mother?”

“My father passed away when I was ten. We lived on the Mountain of Eunice in isolation but moved because of his death.” I stopped there, not wanting to tell her more, the Headmistress looking deep in thought.

“I thought the Shin clan was extinct. Gods, they were called,” she murmured, her hand guiding me towards the front of what seemed like a throne room. “That throne is where the first Shield Bender sat. We have a long history before us but that will be for your history class—”

“And if I don’t stay?” I asked, my eyes running over the golden pillars with artistic carved people on them. I had every intention to stay. We would have shelter above our heads and food to eat. The idea of me being a Shield Bender surprisingly did not shock me, my mind going back to when my father would tell me that Aro and I were special.

And that we would always be different—A part of me wondered why he never told us.

“A Shield Bender who doesn’t know how to control her powers after her first breaking is very dangerous, Shin Aera," Headmistress Heize told me and when I remained quiet, she continued to speak. “A persons first breaking is when a person first gets their powers. Your ability to bring out an energy shield with come in bursts until you can control it. Female Shield Benders are rarer than men and I’m guessing that if you are one, your brother would be one, too.”

I didn’t say anything, Headmistress Heize motioning to the four colors against the wall.

“Red for Integrita, Blue for Verita, Green for Corsiva and Yellow for Justicia. Four colors that each Shield Bender is divided to depending on the nature of their soul. Integritas are passionate, Veritas are intellectual, Corsivas are cordial and Justicias are kind.” She paused. “Reds are the warriors of the benders, Blues are the scholars, Greens are the politicians and the Yellows are the caretakers. The question is, what are you and your brother?”

Headmistress Heize sighed.

“Behind every leading Red is a conniving Green, an advising Blue and a warm Yellow. Nothing beats the unity of these four colors together and that is why we have the Mountain of Serenity. To uphold peace. That is why you’ll be rooming with people of a different house.” She patted my cheek with her free hand. “Here are our notable members of this year. You’ll meet them soon enough.”

She motioned to the photos on the wall and I leaned forward to read them.

“Jung Jaehyun. Johnny Suh.” The two reds that were in the chamber with me.

“Kim Doyoung and Lee Jeno” The two blues.

“Nakamoto Yuta.” The green. Nakamoto Yuta’s eyes seemed to pierce through me despite it being a still photo, Headmistress Heize looking over at me and humming to herself.

“Yes. Nakamoto Yuta,” she mused. “He’s also a special one. We must get you sorted, child. The thing is, everyone is a different shade of red, blue, green and yellow. The darker your soul is, the darker your color is. You and your brother may be on the darker side, being out on the streets

“And my brother?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He’s with the Janitor Moon,” she told me, a smile travelling up her face. “But trust me, he’s not just a janitor.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The sounds of The Great Hall could be heard from the end of the hallway and I nervously tugged on my change of clothes. I was wearing a plain white cloak that Headmistress Heize had given me. I felt clean, something I haven’t felt in a long while and I stepped into The Great Hall to see all eyes on me.

The Justicias, the yellows, were the only table that were smiling at me. A few friendly waves and a twinkle in their eyes while some of them beamed at me, varied whispers of “Welcome to SM!”

“Na Jaemin, you’re goi