Once, there were nine kingdoms.

They each rested upon their own cloud, stacked one atop the other like pancakes. And each was named One through Nine, with Nine residing on the top level and One at the very bottom.

The higher your kingdom was, the more well off you would be. Nine had all of the most powerful people: the king, dukes, earls, lords, and anyone who was deemed important enough to serve them. And at the very bottom, in the kingdom of One, were those who worked nearly every hour of the day for almost nothing in return.

The only way to rise is through special permission from the king himself.

Today, our story will follow Theodosia "Theo" Tempest, who was the very first to rise from One to Nine.

Theo works in the match factory. She has been a match girl for 15 years, since the day she turned 5. She has never complained, never so much as shown an ounce of anger for the situation she's been born into.

The other match girls thank her. Without Theo, the others would likely find themselves hopeless.

Theo walks into the factory each day with a smile on her face, and today is just the same. She smiles at all the girls, some of them old, most of them young, as she parades to her station.

When she looks down at her station, instead of finding a list of duties for the day, she finds a neat envelope with a deep red stamped seal. When she turns it over, it reads "Courtesy of the King". She looks around, expecting one of the girls to be covering up a giggle. Theo was the only one who could take this kind of joke, so she would almost definitely be the brunt of it had one of the younger girls come up with the cruel prank. But she doesn't see a single suppressed snicker.

She carefully peels back the seal, not wanting to ruin the beautiful wax imprint that depicts a joyfully fluffy cloud.

As she reads, a grin plasters itself across her face, unable to hide her own emotions at the contents of the envelope.

The king wants to invite her to Nine. The kingdom of Nine. Cloud Nine. Her, Theo, is going to go to Nine.

Somehow, the king had seen her bright positivity in the shadow of the miserable workers in One, and he wants her to work as her waitress, effective immediately. He wants to start his day with a little happiness, and he believes Theo is the perfect choice.

She clutches the letter to her heart, and when she walks out of the factory, she's never felt so thrilled.

As she enters the postal office---since she isn't quite sure where she's supposed to go---they're just as shocked as she was when she opened the letter. "Nine?" they say, "you're going to cloud Nine?"

Theo can only respond with a rapid nod.

She's brought to the back room, and she's presented with a lineup of chutes, each labeled with their respective kingdom. The workers take her to the chute labeled Nine, and they open the door, waving her in.

"This'll take you straight to Nine," they tell her.

She asks, "You have access to Nine?"

"Mail delivery. We're not allowed to stay, of course, but postal service is only a One job; the mail has to get places somehow."

Theo steps in, and instantly, wind picks her up, shooting her into the sky and up towards Nine.

When she finally stops flying, she opens the door to step out of the chute. She walks out of the postal office, and the sight she's greeted with is truly magnificent.

She hadn't expected it to be so bright in Nine.

A golden castle, larger than any building she's ever seen, even the enormous factory she'd worked in, reaches up into the sky. The sky is a bright, magnificent blue, unblocked by any cloud above. It's just... blue.

Surrounding the castle are golden towers in every range of height. And, unlike anything Theo's ever seen before, are thousands of bushels upon what look like wooden pillars, scattered across the warm green lawn of the castle grounds.

She's never seen so much life before.

It makes her giddy. She's here! She's on cloud Nine!