Beneath the Divine Tree

(This story has been abandoned.) The Divine Tree is more than just a tree.

At least, when you first see it in a textbook, it's printed as a tiny black-and-white illustration, with a line beneath it: "Nourished by blood, guided by duty, denied the light of day: this is the Divine Tree."

The year you turned eighteen, you presented as an Alpha. An ordinary rank, with pheromones that smelled of cedar mixed with a little fir. Neither good nor bad. On the day you presented, you sat in a hospital corridor for two hours, waiting for the doctor to send a vial of blood to the lab, then waiting for the results. A Beta girl sat nearby. She had presented three days earlier. After her results came in, her parents stood in the corridor for a long time. Her mother kept wiping away tears. You heard her father mutter, "How could she be a Beta?" His voice held both disappointment and exasperation.

You knew very well what being a Beta meant: you couldn't smell pheromones, you couldn't enter the top professions, and in certain situations people would treat you as a convenient tool, something they could use and then forget. It meant that on the day you presented, an invisible line divided your life in two.

Alphas were on the other side. Omegas were too, but they weren't quite the same as Alphas. Omegas were more likely to be treated as people to protect, and more likely to be treated as something else. Textbooks never said any of this. They only told you that secondary gender was inborn, a natural result of social divisions, part of the order. Everything else, they implied, was simply something you came to understand on your own.

Order. The first time you heard that word spoken with such solemnity was at a recruitment presentation for the Divine Tree.

It was an autumn afternoon, and the school auditorium was packed. A man in a dark uniform stood onstage. He didn't introduce himself, only saying that he was an operative of the Divine Tree. For forty minutes, he spoke about the Divine Tree's origins, the necessity of pheromone regulation, and the kinds of illegal acts. Some students took notes, some dozed, and some secretly checked their phones. You sat near the back, listening intently.

After he finished, he played a video. It showed a laboratory, where several people in white coats operated equipment as lines of data streamed across a screen. The narration said this was the latest research from the Fool's Department, and that a new generation of suppressants had entered clinical trials. The scene changed to an interrogation room, where a person handcuffed to a chair had their head bowed. The narrator said this was a criminal who had used pheromones to control others and had been dealt with according to the law. The scene changed again, this time to a distant mountain where nothing could be made out but fog. The narrator said that was where the Divine Tree was located, and that its exact position was classified.

After the presentation, you filled out an application form. It was simple: name, age, secondary gender, pheromone rank, and finally, "Are you willing to follow the Divine Tree's orders?" You checked "Yes."

Later, you stood outside the Divine Tree's building, waiting to report for duty.

It was overcast that day. The building was tall, and its glass curtain wall reflected the gray sky in a blur of cold light. People came and went through the entrance, all wearing dark uniforms and walking quickly. No one gave you a second look. You took a deep breath and smelled the faint cedar scent on your skin. The wind rushed through the gap between buildings, carrying a scent you couldn't name.

You pushed the door open and went inside.

From that moment on, your life began to slide beyond your control and into the abyss.

Theme: Does existing make something right?