12 Numbers and Facts (1)

Silas Fidi stood at the Aircraft Control Room with his eyebrows knit. His eyes kept alternating between the Aircraft hatch and the silver watch that was fastened on his wrist. The more seconds passed, the more his forehead creased. When the hatch opened and allowed a single private helicopter inside the hangar, the muscles in his face relaxed. The Great Apothecary checked the time on his Rolex and his lips curved downward in displeasure.

A woman with short navy-blue hair climbed down the private helicopter and entered the Control Room with a huge smile on her face. Half of her face was concealed by the sunglasses she wore on her head. Asha Claire sported bangs along with her symmetrical bob cut that framed her oval-shaped face. Unlike Silas Fidi's black leather shoes, spotless white slacks and starched gray long-sleeved polo, the female wore red sneakers, shorts with torn edges that exposed her long legs, and a gaudy sleeveless shirt that had neon colored print under her laboratory coat. At the sight of her Master, Asha Claire's grinned widened as she opened her arms to hug the man.

"You are three minutes and twenty-nine seconds late," Silas Fidi declared and went past her towards the doors leading to Elisium's laboratories. "Hurry up. It's time for lunch."

Asha Claire wanted to cry. She pocketed her sunglasses and wore a pair of red trendy thick-rimmed glasses before hurrying after the man with blood-red hair.

The odd-looking pair passed by different security mechanisms and doors before they arrived inside clean corridors that were surrounded by thick white walls. Without sparing her a glance, Silas Fidi turned towards the cafeteria, picked up a box of spaghetti and proceeded to eat at a table in a corner.

The blue-haired girl took a box of Caesar salad with chicken bits and sat in front of the Great Apothecary. The moment she opened the food container, Silas Fidi's nose twitched as a smirk decorated his sharp features.

"Garlic and Neem oil insecticide," the man stated vaguely as his piercing orange eyes glared at the green mass in front of Asha Claire. The female could only gape at him. If she didn't know that Garlic and Neem oil were organic insecticide alternatives and not industry-grade chemicals, she would have lost her appetite. She ate the salad before talking her Master's head off about the adorable children in Elisium while the male in front of her proceeded to dissect his spaghetti.

"It's too bad that most of them are going to die..." Asha Claire's voice trailed off as she clicked her tongue thrice. "But well- only 78% of them are going to die based on previous statistics so I guess the remaining 22% are lucky, I guess?"

"Don't be too obsessed with numbers." Silas Fidi muttered crisply. "The qualitative results are best expressed and observed as is, and not as numeric figures."

"I know Master. It's just that my Talent revolves around calculations and variables so I tend to like numbers and quantity over quality." Asha Claire licked her fingers. Orange orbs shot her a glare.

"Unhygienic," the Great Apothecary said with a scowl. His sunken cheeks appeared deeper than they usually did. He cleaned his serving of spaghetti before setting his box away neatly at the side of the table and wiping his hands with tissue. The master handed his disciple a pack of tissues. As soon as he looked away, Asha Claire stuffed the pack inside her pocket without taking a single tissue out.

After their meal, they headed towards the different areas of Elisium that lied beyond the classrooms where the children were being housed. Asha Claire walked down the halls in a jittery manner while her eyes shone with excitement. It had been a while since she had last visited Elisium. The last time she had visited, she had managed to discover a Talent user who had the power to heal. Would she have another interesting development during her short stay at Elisium?

"Did you cover your tracks properly?"

Silas Fidi's flat voice interrupted her chain of thought. Asha Claire took off her huge shades and exchanged it for a pair of round gold-rimmed glasses. Eyes the same color as her hair glittered from behind the thick lenses of her eyewear. "Of course. My calls were made using an untraceable phone. I took a ten-hour flight and stopped by Salamanca, logged in to one of our laboratories and shut myself inside my room before sneaking out with an invisibility spell."

"Margin of error?" Silas Fidi asked.

"ZERO!" Asha Claire replied, a proud grin plastered on her face. The woman's hands were on her hips and every part of her screamed 'Praise Me'. Her smile only fell when she saw the Great Apothecary glaring at her. "Come on, Master. My Talent allows me to calculate the most possible outcome based on a given set of unknown factors and known variables. It might be mentally taxing, but I used my Talent for an entire day just to make sure my 'trip' wouldn't make it to the headlines! I'm sure I made no mistakes."

"I had to stay indoor for an entire day just for Elisium," the blue-haired female whined. "Master, don't you pity your disciple?"

"0.5% chance of error." Silas Fidi stated plainly.

"Fine. 0.5% chance of error. It's not as if something below one percent could possible cause something to go wrong." Asha Claire mumbled.

They turned towards a section of the Laboratory that was off limits to everyone but a select few of Silas Fidi's most trusted aides. Before they could enter, Asha Claire stopped in the middle of the hallway. She slowly faced the opposite direction and crouched on the floor. With a quick tap on the floor, her expression changed. Although a smile was still on her face, the ditzy air around her turned cold. She brought her hand close to her face to examine her fingertips. When she did, the smile on her face was replaced with a smirk that made Silas Fidi stop in his tracks.

The Great Apothecary faced his disciple with interest. "What."

Asha Claire stood and crossed her arms. "Master, you don't go around Elisium to personally check energy fluctuations and the like, do you?"

"I have no time for that nonsense," the man replied. "If the guards can't do it, they don't deserve to be here."

"Master, I'm afraid you might have a someone unauthorized that's sneaking around your beloved laboratory." The female walked towards him and tiptoed. She whispered something in his ears which made the man's eyebrows shoot up. She wove her fingers together and quickly turned towards the direction they were originally heading to. Asha Claire smiled. "Won't you praise me now?"

"Hmph." The man huffed. "Since you've pointed out the problem, then make yourself useful and solve it."

Asha Claire stopped in her steps and faced Silas Fidi with her mouth hanging open and her eyebrows slanting downwards. "Master! Can't you phrase it in a nicer way? Can't you at least say, 'Thank you Asha, you've been a help', 'Good Girl', or 'That's my Disciple'?!"

The Magno Deorum grunted before waving her off. "I have more important things to do. Don't touch my ongoing experiments."

"Don't go in my room."

"Don't alter the settings on the apparatus I've turned on in the 4th Basement."

"Don't forget to wash your hands with disinfectant."

"Don't forget to wipe your hands dry before you touch anything."

"If you can, don't touch anything-"

"-Just don't touch anything..."

The woman just stood rooted at the same spot as she watched Silas Fidi walking towards his room as he barked out things the female wasn't supposed to do. If she wasn't a grown woman, she would have cried and bawled her eyes out. Asha Claire shook her head. When she was sure that her master was out of earshot, she muttered under her breath.

"Master… you're really too single-minded. Can't you even show me to my room?"