Aviana Violet < ORIGINAL 2027 >

Hundreds of people, scattered across the cliff, blinking and crying just like her. Children, elders, miners, mechanics. All of them had touched a flower. All of them had been forgotten by Veridian. All of them had the same look in their eyes: not fear, but recognition .

It was Kael. He wasn't grumbling. He was smiling, his weathered face wet with tears. In his hand, he held a single violet petal. aviana violet

Aviana looked back at the sunrise. The gold was spreading, chasing away the last of the night. Hundreds of people, scattered across the cliff, blinking

She was twelve, with storm-colored eyes and hair the shade of dried kelp, and she spent her days in the Hydroponic District, tending to the only living things that still remembered light: a row of struggling violet orchids. All of them had been forgotten by Veridian

She was not a bird in a cage.