Anthonel Agyapong

Theresia Pratiwi 0401

Workshop Story 01

Oculus

For the third time that day, in the comfort of her bedroom chair, Adelia scrolled

through the Oculus Opus looking for answers to questions she never had the answers to.

She did this almost everyday after her fieldwork. She practically knew the book by heart,

the laws and explanations were already stitched into the creases of her brain. Then why

was it that she returned to look for answers in a book that already clarified her doubts.

Adelia’s swift fingers stopped at page three, as she read out loud:

“The impeccable Oculus society is one that has never and can

never be emulated. This highly structured society over powers

the minuscule orders of life that lives outside of these white

walls. The society’s success is largely due its intelligent class

system. “Oculus”, Latin for “eye” is what separates the noble

people into unique classes. In simple terms, the lighter the eye

color, the higher the social standing.

Albus: Creater of Oculus society; the present and only leader of

the Oculus community. His wise words and rulings are what

make him the only leader suit to rule for an eternity. His light

eyes, so light they almost appear white, is the reason Albus was

selected as leader, for he is the only human in this society to

have eyes such as these.

 The Aer class encompasses light blue-eyed men and women who
are the government class. The oldest Aer members hold the
highest positions in the government. They pass all the laws
proposed by Albus. The Aer Class also holds trials in which the
accused are not given representatives and Albus is the only
judge.
Major Laws passed by the Aer:
Segment 1: Natural Rights
- All citizens of Oculus must relinquish their natural rights of
freedom of speech, press, and other opinion related assets to
Albus. Any personal concerns or problems should be immediately
brought to the attention of the Aer.

Segment 2: Property
- All forms of property, including business companies, homes, and
farming land belong to Albus. All homes people inhabit belong to
Albus. These homes are simply gifts given by Albus to the Aer
and Viridis Class. The forests and wood land areas, also owned
by Albus, are solely reserved for the Carinus Class.

Segment 3: Social Standings and Responsibilities

- Albus (White-Eyed Leader): Albus is the sole leader of Oculus.
No other in the nation has pure white eyes like his, dictating why
he is the chosen ruler of the nation. He is never wrong and his
word is the purest of all. No one disagrees with Albus, but if he or
she does, prosecution for treason is the result. Aside from being
the nation’s ruler, Albus is also the Chief Judge of the Aer Court,
the Commander of the Viridis Military, and the food distributer
for the Carinus Class. In total he rules everyone and everything.
- Aer Class (Blue-Eyed Class): The Aer class encompasses blue-
eyed men and women who pass laws proposed by Albus, and
hold trials for all violaters of the law. All Aer citizens attend
specialized schooling until the age of 25 when they are inducted
into the government. Once inducted, the job is for life.
- Viridis Class (Green-Eyed Class): The Viridis Class
encompasses green-eyed men and women. The men of this class
make up the Oculus military. These men attend a military
academy until the age of 18, in which they become full military
members. The Viridis men have the option of joining the
War/Defense portion of the military or the Business/Corporation
portion. Those apart of the War/Defense portion specialize in
 protecting Albus and all the citizens of Oculus. They fight both
internal and external disturbances. Viridis men apart of the
Business/Corporation portion run and supervise banking
corporations, textile industries, farming industries, and foreign
and domestic trade. These men never work these industries;
they only supervise and instruct them. The work is reserved for
the Carinus Class. The women of this class are responsible for
raising their children and being fertile wives.
- Carinus Class (Brown-Eyed Class): The Carinus Class
encompasses brown-eyed men and women. Both the men and
women of this class are the workers of society. The men work in
industries producing for Oculus, farming the fields, picking crops
and giving them to the government to distribute, and hunting
animals to be distributed as well. The women of the Carinus
Class have the responsibility of making clothes and shoes for the
society, making jewelry for Aer and Viridis women, packing
medicine, and making other products such as candles, lotions,
and soaps.

Segment 4: Consequences of Treason

- Those who go against Oculus laws are ultimately going against
Albus. Examples of treason includes interacting with members
outside of your own class, failure to complete responsibilities,
display of natural rights (speech, press, opinions), and opposing
the laws Albus proposes.
- Offenders are to be dealt with through a trail without a
representative. Offenders are presented in front of the Aer
government and judged by Albus, who makes the final decision.
Once convicted, offenders are either executed or exiled based on
the severity of the offense.

Beliefs of Oculus:
- In Oculus, you are born into your class, you do not work for your
social standing.
- The Carinus Class is viewed as the lowest class. People in this
class are often ignored and scorned upon in this society,
although they make up most of the population.
- Those a part of the Oculus society view themselves as a part of
the purest community in the world, and rarely come in contact
with those outside of the Oculus borders except to trade goods.
Those who do not have a distinct eye color, such as people with hazel
eyes, are believed to be a sign of evil within the society. People with
hazel eyes are believed to be the offspring of two classes
intermingling, which is illegal. Although it is not stated in the
Constitution, these people and their parents are exiled from the Oculus
society.

Adelia’s eyes began to sting. They always seem to burn with anguish whenever she

read the last pages of the Oculus Opus. The book fell off her bare lap with a light thud as

she slowly moved to the mirror across the attic room. She looked at herself in the mirror.

She looked passed her long legs coated with lean muscle, partly covered by thin brown

skirt cloth. Her eyes dragged over her sun kissed arms and stomach; pass her collared

bones protruding against her smooth olive skin. Her rosy lips twitched with resentment as

she looked pass her straight edged nose, reaching the area of her face that made her

stomach turn: her eyes. Two milky brown spheres of hatred stared back at Adelia. With a

hesitant finger, Adelia pushed back a fallen wave of dark brown hair and removed the

colored contact from her right eye, revealing a sphere of light brown and green streaks.

Nineteen years of holding such a secret on her shoulders was starting to weigh

heavier than any horse feed she had to carry across the fields. The only thing her heart

ached for was to be able to glance toward a person with her true eyes without them

repelling back in disgust, spitting words of humiliation and persecution at her. The only

people who knew and accepted the real her were her parents and two twin brothers,

Alexus and Alerio, not even the man who she loved knew who she really was. Adelia

knew they were not her real family, but they did an amazing job at making her forget the

fact that she was just a hazel-eyed 2-year-old left in the middle of their horse field

wrapped in thin sheep cloth.

“Adelia…” A hushed voice snatched her out of her morbid thoughts.

Adelia stared back at her mother in the mirror, embarrassed by the clear streaks tracing

down her cheeks. She quickly wiped her tears, drying them on her worn out two piece

work clothes.

“I’m sorry.” Adelia said bashfully

Her mother moved closer to her, wrapping her similarly olive toned arms around Adelia’s

bare stomach. Her truly brown eyes stared at Adelia’s in the mirror.

“You can’t keep doing this. One day when you think no one is looking, someone

will see you. You know what will happen if you are ever caught. I know it’s hard

right now, but when things get better here… when people are more accepting, you

can show them those beautiful eyes of yours” Carme said.

Adelia snorted “These are aren’t beautiful. All they cause is trouble and that’s all they’ll

ever cause.”

Adelia sniffed a little as she put her right contact in, as a feeling of normalcy grazed her

body.

“Contacts or not, I love you Adelia. Me, Cyrus, Alex, Al, we all love you so much.”

“Who are my real parents…or were my real parents?”

Carme’s face distorted with hurt.

“We…we don’t know.”

Adelia felt a ripple of guilt as she realized how she sounded

“No, Mother that’s not what I…”

Adelia’s apology was cut off as a surge of horse hooves and heavy boots could be heard

outside her bedroom window. Adelia’s heart began to flutter, her palms immediately

sweating.
Carme grabbed Adelia’s hand “They’re here. Let’s go.”

Everyone in Village B, one of the eight Caribus villages, stood holding their portion

of sliced meat, ripened fruit, roasted nuts, and purified water. God forbid someone did not

have sufficient portions, the consequences were severe. Fifty fierce men with piercing

green eyes walked passed the rows of raggedy brown clothed people, assessing each

person’s brown basket containing this week’s products. Never did these Viridis men look

the Carinus people in the eye, their grassland eyes just glance from basket to basket.

Adelia held her composure as she held out her weekly products to be assed by the

man in the dark green uniform, who assed her basket every other week. She heard his

footsteps coming closer, till his dark green uniform blocked her steady vision. She held

out her basket, as he assessed all the products in there. Everything needed was there for

him to take, including something that was invisible to everyone’s eyes but theirs: her

heart. Adelia tried to keep her breathing steady as she felt his green gaze almost burning

through her skin.

“Happy birthday beautiful” he said in a low murmur.

Every birthday of hers felt like a burden to the point where she purposely tried to forget

it. She’d become immune to the little “happy birthdays” she heard throughout today, but

this certain “happy birthday” left a ringing in her ears. She bit her lip to prevent from

smiling, as she finally looked up and met his gaze.

“Right… we’re in public. I almost forgot” he said grabbing Adelia’s basket.

“See you tonight” he said continuing onto the next person.

 Adelia lowered her face as she felt warmness spread across her cheeks and neck.

She kept her face lowered for fifteen minutes till the Viridis men finished collecting the

products and packed them onto their white horses draped with green silk. The fifty men

finally left the Carinus Courtyard, as Adelia released a long held breath, her heart beating

again. She felt something eerie, like she was being watched. She glanced around, until

she caught the gaze of her older brother, Alerio. He glared at her with an anger that spoke

volumes. His jaw twitched as he broke free of the row and headed towards the mud

houses with everyone else. Anxiety and nervousness took over Adelia’s mind. What did

Al just see? Or what does he “think” he just saw? The brother, who discovered Adelia as

a child in the horse field, just had a look on his face that made it seem as if he wished he

never saved her.

A misty breeze interrupted the peacefulness of the lake, releasing a shudder from

Adelia’s naked body. Darius immediately pulled her closer to him, wrapping the fur

blanket tightly around her, exposing a little more of his nakedness. Adelia stared at his

lazy smile, mirroring his face. His mesmerizing green eyes danced around the features of

her face, stopping at her full lips. He cupped her dimpled chin, lightly pressing his lips to

hers, hovering inches from her face, staring deeply into her eyes, as if trying to figure

something out. Panic immediately began to sink in, as Adelia forced her eyes closed,

moving her face away from Darius’.

“What’s wrong?’ he said grabbing her chin again.

Adelia’s eyes started to sting again. She wasn’t sure if it was from wearing her contacts

too long, or tears. She could never tell the difference. She slowly sat up, covering herself
with parts of the fur blanket. She looked everywhere except Darius’ questioning eyes.

She looked at the candlelight that gave her and Darius a little halo of a warm orange

glow. She picked up a couple of blueberries in the small silver bowl next to the candle,

plopping them in her mouth.

“At first I never understood why you never let me look into your eyes for too long.

But I think I’m slowly starting to understand.” Darius said as he slowly sat up

revealing his body of tanned, pulsing muscle. Another breeze rippled through the

lake atmosphere, rustling Darius’ light brown hair.

Adelia continued to stare into the glassy lake, slowly chewing her blueberries.

“They make it seem like it’s a curse to have. Albus, the Aer, the Viri, everyone

makes it seem like it’s something ugly or revolting to have, but I think their

beautiful Adelia. I think your brown eyes are stunning.” Darius said, pure genuine

in his voice.

Adelia let out a sad laugh, which soon turned into tears. She was tired of holding it in.

She wished she had brown eyes, over the ones she was born with. The contacts she put on

every morning before fieldwork grew tiresome, and almost shameful, like she was a liar

to every person she laid eyes on, especially Darius’.

Darius pulled her closer to him, making her cry harder.

“I wish I could show you how beautiful they really are Adelia. I wish you wouldn’t

let this society make you think you are a burden, because you are far from it.”

Adelia cried harder with every word Darius said. She pressed the gold band, with a

flowering pattern etched into it, into the palm of her hand. This birthday gift Darius just

gave her was something she would take care of with her soul. The ring burned in her
palm as she realized what she was about to do was harder than she ever thought. She

knew he would leave after what she was about to do, so she held onto the ring even

tighter.

She slowly pulled away from Darius’ embrace, taking her finger and removing the

two colored contacts from her eyes, looking Darius straight in the eyes. His eyebrows

furrowed as he assessed her eyes in the candlelight. He moved back a little. A wave of

emotions ran across his face, confusion, anger, sadness, and then finally understanding.

No words were said for some time. Adelia gazed at Darius for the first time, with her real

eyes that described the anger and embarrassment she had felt all her life, as he

surprisingly looked straight back at her.

“I still love you.”

“What…?” Adelia breathed. She was prepared for every reaction except this one.

“I still love you Adelia. I’m not in love with how you look. I’m in love with how

you smell like sun and rain all at the same time. I’m in love with how you walk like

you don’t have a single care in the world. I’m in love with how you laugh, and how

your collard bones look when you breathe in deeply while you’re asleep. I am in

love with you.”

Snapped twigs sliced through the peaceful lake music. Someone was there. Someone was

in the woods that surrounded the calming Oculus lake. It sounded like more than one

someone. Snapped twigs turned into multiple footsteps and racing horse hooves. Panic set

in as both Adelia and Darius grabbed their little clothes, hurriedly putting them on.

“The candle! Blow it out, quickly!” Darius whispered

Adelia turned around to blow out the candle, but not before she seeing the illuminated
face of her brother, Alerio, with a swarm of men in green.

Four glassy blue walls enveloped the twelve men and women in deep blue robes, seated

on both sides of Albus who was perched on an all white judicial bench. His snow-white

hair was wrapped in a tight bun on the highest peak of his head. His equally white beard,

smooth and long, draped the edge of the podium. His extremely pale skin seemed to

illuminate the room more than the glassy blue walls.

“Who hosted you all these years Ms. Adelia?” Albus’ sturdy but soothing voice

bounced from wall to wall.

“A family who was not aware of my deceit, Sir Albus. I wore contacts every

morning before they awoke. I came to them when I was very young, and they took

me in assuming I was a fellow Carinus who was abandoned.” Adelia shakily

croaked.

No way was she going to let Cryus, Carme and Alexus take the fall for her disorder.

Thinking of Alerio was the only thing provoking her to give up her family members’

names, but she thought against the sinister idea. In the end Alerio was just being a good

Oculus citizen, unlike her. The only thing on her mind was Darius’ well being. She

hadn’t seen him since they were taken two days ago from the lake. She prayed every

night as she was tortured, that he was not going through the same mental and physical

pain she encountered.

“Well then I have come to my final decision.” Albus said stroking his silky beard.

The Aer members sitting around him immediately gathered their blue pens to jot down

Albus’ wise and final decision.

 “Ms. Adelia, because of your many years of deceit not only to your host family but

the Oculus society as a whole, as well as your fornication with a member outside

your class, even though people like you do not have a set class, I sentence you to

death by the tree of deceit.”

Albus hit the gavel once, and green men surrounded Adelia, dragging her to her next and

last destination. Numbness was all she felt.

The black bag placed over her head was removed, as Adelia was pulled off the white

horse, surrounded by three Viri men. Once her eyes adjusted to the sun, vomit came deep

from her unfed stomach. There on the high, glorious Oculus cliffs, hung Darius from an

atrocious looking tree with black spiraling roots, and dried leaves holding on the braches

of the sinister tree. Adelia vomited until there was nothing left but a bottomless pit of

blackness in her stomach. Even with her eyes forced closed she couldn’t get Darius’

lifeless dangling body, etched with bloody welts and whip marks, from the creases of her

brain. The gold on her finger burned into her skin, causing Adelia to clench her fists. The

Viri men inched away from Adelia in case she had anything else she wanted to let out,

but mostly because they did not want to get anything on their shiny black boots.

With a force of adrenaline, without thinking, Adelia rose to her bony feet and sprinted

full force straight off the edge of the cliff. Before the Viri men could assess what just

happened or attempt to catch her, Adelia was falling effortless in the air, before being

enveloped in burning salt water. Her lungs burned but she kept swimming deep under,

giving the appearance that she had drowned, to those above her. He arms and legs burned

as she treaded through the water. She’d been cliff jumping here with Alexus and Alerio
once for her sixteenth birthday, against Carme and Cyrus’ wishes. She did not know

where she was going, but something kept motivating her to swim.

Adelia arose from the surface of the water surrounded by green pastures, and black

birds grazing the blue sky. Her eyes rested on a creature she had never seen before in

Oculus. It had twirling antlers, with hind legs and a little white tail. Something told her

she was no longer in Oculus. She dragged her weary body from the edge of a stream,

melting into the warm green grass. The foreign animal gave her a quizzical look and

lightly trotted away. Adelia lay looking at the sky, not sure where she would go from

here. She caressed her stomach. She wasn’t sure why but she felt like she and her

motivation, which lay growing in her belly, were safe now.