The Emotion Trade:

Here’s a draft for the chapter “IV. The Resistance”:

IV. The Resistance

Alia followed the strange old man deeper into the twisting labyrinth of alleys and hovels that made up the underground of New Arcis. All around them, the city’s destitute crowded the narrow passages – those deemed unsafe consumers of pure unregulated emotion.

They passed haunted souls staring vacantly, emotionally depleted wrecks left in the wake of an ecstatic overload they couldn’t metabolize. Others sat raving, overwhelmed by psychic backlash from unstable homebrewed supplements. Everywhere, the psychic miasma of repressed emotion hung heavy in the air.

At last, they came to an ancient archway, its stone portal nearly consumed by the encroaching walls. The old man cast a wary look about before rapping out a staccato pattern against the weathered surface. After a pause, it groaned open, spilling dusty air outward.

“This way,” he beckoned, leading Alia into the darkened passage beyond. She followed, letting the door’s weight slowly seal them off from the outside world.

They descended a dizzying series of switchbacks deeper and deeper underground, the path illuminated only by guttering nanobeams. At last, they emerged into a massive cavernous space – a rough-hewn amphitheater dominated by a soaring domed ceiling.

Alia turned in wonderment to take in the incredible sight. Tiers of simple benches curved around a central pit, occupied by hundreds of silent, cross-legged individuals in meditative repose. A low thrum of psychic static filled the air, like rhythmic pulses within the earth itself.

“This is the heart of the Freefeelers,” the old man said reverently. “Those who have rejected the Emotion Traders’ alchemical lies and reclaimed the sacred fire of pure emotion within.”

He led Alia down towards the central pit, weaving between the concentric rings of seated meditators. As they neared the amphitheater’s heart, the psychic vibrations intensified, like a steadily rising orchestral swell.

Alia could make out individuals settled in trances, expressions of rapturous bliss and anguished torment alike painted across their features in stark polarity. Waves of emotion radiated outward, crashing against her consciousness in a dizzying onslaught.

In the exact center, a wizened figure sat cross-legged upon a raised dais, eyes closed and face creased in an inscrutable mask of serene control. Four small flames burned at the cardinal points surrounding him, their elemental flickers seeming to bend in subtle sync with the rising psychic resonance.

“Grand Master Ventus,” the old man intoned with reverence, bowing low in a sweep of tattered robes. “I bring before you a child who has glimpsed the true path and seeks its ways.”

The aged figure’s eyes opened, revealing orbs that appeared to smolder with inner light. He held out a withered hand, gesturing for Alia to approach. Though every instinct within her screamed to flee from the maelstrom of spiritually-charged energy thrumming all around, she found her feet propelling her inexorably forward.

As she neared the dais, the torrent of ambient emotion intensified a hundredfold – pure, prismic shards of every imaginable feeling lancing directly into Alia’s consciousness. She gasped, overwhelmed but still driven onward by that impossibly powerful presence.

At last she stood before Ventus, shaking and defenseless against the empathic tsunami crashing against her psyche. The ancient master reached out, gently cupping her face as his smoldering gaze delved into her very essence.

“I sense it within you, child,” he intoned in a voice resonating with profound depth. “The spark infinite…the spirit unbroken and untamed. You were meant for more than the emotional ashes the Traders have polluted this world with.”

He leaned closer, seeming to stoke those inner flames until Alia felt herself blazing in unity with the Grand Master’s transcendent state.

“If you wish to be forged anew in the sacred fires of pure emotion, place your fears and inhibitions at my feet. I shall rekindle your soul with the raging bonfires of unbound feeling – and in so doing, grant you the power to take your vindictive place among the ranks of the Freefeelers!”