16 Changes (3)

It had been four days since Michael Caelum had seen 373.

With the date of 373's transfer getting closer by the day, the youth was getting more and more desperate to find 373 and get her out of Elisium. But the little girl was nowhere to be found. He had tried waiting for her at her classroom. He had tried looking for her in the library but she wasn't there. He couldn't find her in the places the other children frequented. He couldn't find her in the student's bedrooms. He was running out of ideas. He had even tried waiting outside the girl's washroom. Just how in the world was he supposed to find her?

A heavy slap on the back shook Michael from his thoughts and throttled him back to Earth. Jeorge Marcus Grin was flashing to him a suggestive smile. "Oh, nice meeting you again, Caelum! You looking for someone? Is it a girl?"

Michael opened his mouth to reply. But before he could say anything, Bob gave a hearty chuckle and wiggled his eyebrows. "Oh… Oh! Is it a tryst!? A secret rendezvous with a secret lover?!"

"Not really-"

"Oh ho ho ho," Bob interjected. "Don't be shy. The Great Apothecary doesn't really care about in-office romances. There are a lot of them here who managed to get hooked up with their co-workers. A lot of them broke up within in a few months though – oh, but don't let that discourage you! Do you want to know a secret? Let me tell you a secret. It may help you in the future."

Michael didn't really want to know. He was more concerned about finding Aria more than anything else. But his senior continued chattering on without giving Michael any space to retreat, his mouth firing off in maximum speed. "If your woman is hiding from you, let me give you advice on how to find her.

You see, I used to have a girlfriend once – the type that plays hard to get. She used to love playing hide and seek. If I didn't find her, she'd get all angry and pissed and say I didn't love her. But if I did find her, she would reward me with a bit of special service… You know- the kind that men and women do when they're in love? Or maybe not? Er…," Bob's face flushed several shades of red as he cleared his throat. "You probably know about the birds, the bees, and what happens at night. Although it doesn't always happen at night. It can also happen during noon! Anyway -!"

The older male paused for effect and folded his arms in front of his chest. His expression became serious – like he was a soldier returning to his homeland after fighting in the front lines of a bloody battlefield.

"In order to make sure I'd find her, I'd use a tracking spell," he stated with gusto.

Michael blinked a few times as the words sunk in. "A… tracking spell."

"Yup! Ingenious, isn't it? Persequor usually works. People would call it cheating, but she also cheated since every time we played the game she would use a concealment spell of some sort or erase her energy traces with a spell to make it hard for me. But since I stalked her before in order to figure out what she liked in order to increase my chances of getting a yes -," Jeorge Marcus coughed, "-don't tell anyone that I stalked someone, okay?"

"Moving on… Since I researched her patterns, I knew the places she usually went to and I could trace her using her spell's energy residues and the different disturbances in the energy in the environment," the researcher said proudly. "You should try it on your little lover. Understand her. Stalk her a bit. If you know where she's last been to and identify the spell she used, you can track her based on the energy traces of her spell rather than her own energy signature. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Michael nodded slowly. Bob flashed Michael a thumbs up sign. The bulky man ran off after the he realized he was late for a meeting. As the senior researcher's muscular figure disappeared into one of Elisium's hallways, Michael Caelum stood in the corridor in a daze and found himself heading towards Aria's empty classroom.

Michael could sense the different spells that had been used in the room. Most of the spells were basic – simple spells that he could make out just by spreading his senses inside the empty classroom. Although the remaining energy signatures in the room were fading, the young male could easily pick out the poorly cast spells from the stable and perfectly casted ones. But none of them caught Michael's attention. The young male walked toward a seat at the back of the room – to Aria's seat – and his lips quirked as he tried to sense the spells the little girl had cast.

There were none. Or rather, Michael Caelum couldn't sense anything. Her desk and her chair were wiped clean of her energy signature. There were no traces of her energy, no clues that she had been in the room. His heart started hammering in his chest as he felt his body grow cold. Did they take her away? Was she in Elisium's research facility at this very moment?

Jeorge Marcus's voice echoed in Michael's head and the young male took a deep breath to calm himself. As soon as he could feel his pulse slowing down, Michael cast persequor and focused on the energies that swirled around him. The energy signatures within the room became more distinct. The concentration of energy in the room felt denser. Color burst forth from the dark room. Each wisp of color was a spell. Beneath the kaleidoscopic sight, a faint almost indiscernible glimmer stretched from Aria's seat and continued past classroom's door. The traces of the spell were faint, but it was a spell Michael couldn't quite identify. It was a complex concealment spell that no one in the Aquarius class could cast or should even know about.

… All except the little girl who loved reading complicated books.

The red-haired male breathed a sigh of relief. The bitter feeling of helplessness in his gut slowly faded away. With resolute steps, he left the room and followed the traces of her spell. He concentrated on keeping himself hidden from the watchful gazes of Elisium's researchers while his head thought about Aria, about what he was supposed to do once he found her.

Michael's thoughts wandered to the concealment spell Aria had used. He knew that the female was a cautious person and that it was very likely for her to cover her tracks if she knew she was being followed. And as much as Michael didn't want to admit it, a concealment spell was something he should have expected the little girl to know. But the more he thought about the small female, the more he thought about how much he knew the little girl, the hotter his face became. He turned and stopped at a corner. The youth covered his face with his two hands.

Michael Caelum felt like a stalker. He felt like he was stalking the female eight-year-old child. It wasn't a welcome fact, but the male couldn't help but feel he was going down that direction.

The red-head ran his hands over his hair and shoved the thought to the darkest and deepest corner of his mind. He continued tracking her through her concealment spell, and found himself face to face to Elisium's library he had visited beforehand. The energy signature of her spell led him towards the numerous rows of bookshelves that cast tall eerie shadows over the room. Numerous children from the different zodiac classes were also visiting the common area in the library - for what reason, Michael didn't know.

But Aria's traces didn't stop at the common areas of the library that was available to the children of Elisium. Michael's feet stopped at a entryway that led to a restricted section of the library. In front of him, a golden chain with an 'Authorized People Only' sign hung between two metallic poles. An old wrinkled man guarded the entrance. The antique male nodded at the Michael and let him in without much ado, and unfastened the golden chain with a spell and a wave of his hand.

Michael's gaze found the familiar titles of the books the brown-haired girl had read behind the cover of her workbooks. He also found fresh traces of her concealment spell. This time, he could make out the characteristics of her spell. As he studied the spell, the corner of Michael's lips twitched. The spell was 'Celare', an intermediate concealment spell that used the laws of light refraction to hide a person or an object from sight.

However, Aria's celare was different from the spell Michael knew. It was a modified version – a version which lessened the stress on the caster's body and modified the spell's energy flow, making it harder to trace than the original spell. He couldn't help but feel astounded as he admire Aria's handiwork.

"...Genius," Michael whispered. He was jealous of her skill. But at the same time, it only made him want to find her sooner. He moved faster and weaved through the bookcases and display racks as his heart thumped in his chest. The young researcher found himself at a far corner of the restricted section that was concealed by rows and rows of towering shelves. This was where 373's tracks were the freshest. The trail of Aria's spell stopped behind a bookshelf. And at the foot of the shelf Michael Caelum could make out the glittering outline of a little child who was sitting on the floor with a book in her hands.