8 The Greatest Mystery (2)

Electric blue eyes narrowed as the boy called Salamander stared at something in the darkness. There was an odd shift of energy at a corner of his cell. Just like the other children in Elisium, he had been taught how to sense energy signatures and cast spells. But the spell that was unfolding in front of his wasn't familiar. His muscles stiffened as he stayed vigilant.

The adults would sometimes play tricks on him and harass him while he was chained to the wall. As the space in front of him shifted, he expected to see the distasteful humans in white lab coats. But the space he was glaring at was empty. As soon as he shifted his gaze lower, he found himself staring at the short barefoot girl with brown hair and deep black eyes. His eyes were instantly drawn to the bread and jug of water in her arms. He didn't comment at how she appeared like a ghost, or how she had brought another complicated book to his cell. As soon as she handed him the bread, he happily gulped it down and ignored everything else just like he did in the last few days.

The golden-haired male choked after a few bites and the canteen of water was automatically shoved into his hands. He took a few sips and decided that he should probably slow down his eating pace. He studied the little girl who sat down cross-legged on the bare concrete floor.

Just how did she manage to magically appear in front of him this time?

"It's a space-manipulation spell called Adicio," she murmured without looking at him. The girl didn't catch how he was looking at her with a funny look. The boy who looked like a lion stopped chewing and the bread hung on his mouth. Before he could think about what she said, his stomach churned and complained that he wasn't eating fast enough.

So, he stuffed his face. The bread tasted wonderful and it reminded him of his meals before he became a living experiment. The food in Elisium had always been delicious. It made him wonder if the food came from her meals or if she managed to ask the cafeteria chefs to give it to her.

The girl's black eyes met his gaze from above her book. With a flippant tone, she said, "I stole it."

He choked. But when he remembered that the food in his mouth was precious, he coughed a few times before swallowing the bit of bread stuck in his throat and taking a huge gulp of water. His piercing blue eyes stared at her. He could feel the muscles on his face twitch as he spoke. "Stealing is bad."

Small hands closed the book with a complicated title and the girl with brown hair gave him a blank look. "I should stop bringing you food then."

"Ahem-", Salamander cleared his throat and swiftly finished the bread in his hands. "I guess there can be exceptions."

The young boy heard her huff. But for some reason, he felt that he had missed an important detail. Something about their conversation was off. He couldn't really place it. Was it because she was talkative today? Or was it because the bread today was extra delicious?

He looked at her again and realized she was staring at him with a curious gaze. She was saying nothing. He was also saying nothing. But the more he thought, the more intense her gaze became. Then, something in his head clicked.

Was she reading his mind?

She rolled her eyes at him. Her voice was low and flat but the boy with golden hair could make out the laughter that was hidden in her words. "Oh? So, you noticed."

"'So, you noticed' my ass!" Salamander grumbled under his breath. He didn't have any secrets but he felt like the girl in his cell would figure out something about him even he didn't know and then wave it around for the entire world to see.

"You're thinking too much," she murmured quietly.

Salamander snapped, "Stop it!"

In a blink of an eye, she appeared in front of him. Her face was a few centimeters away from his. There was a dangerous glint shining in her dark black eyes. Her small hand was pressed on his lips. She hissed, "Do you want us to get discovered?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and kept his mouth shut. She took back her hand and sat back down to read her book. He realized there was something different about her, that there was a spark of anger in the depths of her eyes. He recalled one of the lectures he had heard in Elisium – it was something about hormones and rebellious phases. In the silence of his cell, he couldn't help but ask her, "Are you going through puberty?"

Black eyes stared at him. Then, she smiled.

The boy felt shivers running through his spine as the hairs on his body stood on end. Her smile made the male feel an eerie kind of cold that reached into his heart. But since he was a child who didn't know that a female's mind wasn't something that could be understood, he decided to pry into her matters in an attempt to figure her out.

"I'm older than you," he pointed out. "- so maybe I might be able to give you some advice on the problem you're facing. It's part of growing up."

Brown eyebrows furrowed. Her dark eyes seemed to look straight into him as she spoke. "Then, should you trust a person you just met even when he has good intentions? Should you trust someone who is trying to do something good even when you know that person is hiding something?"

He blinked. Her response was unexpected. The number of words she said exceeded her usual limit of five to ten words. Her problem had nothing to do with puberty?

The corner of the girl's lips twitched. "Continue thinking along those lines. I dare you."

He coughed before answering. He tried sounding like one of the adults. "Of course not. Kids shouldn't talk to strangers."

The girl's gaze turned thoughtful. After a few moments, she said, "I won't talk to you, then."

Salamander was completely lost. "Huh?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You're a stranger."

The boy was completely lost for words. After thinking for a few moments, he realized he didn't know who she was. He didn't even know her name. It was his turn to furrow his eyebrows. "You're not suspicious, are you?"

The girl tilted her head to the side. With a breath, she looked at him like she was staring at an idiot as she replied, "Do I have to answer that?"

"Name?" Gulped the rest of the water down until there was nothing left.

She looked like she was considering something before she shook her head and spoke.

"373. Do you have a name?"

"No. They call me Salamander."

Her interest was piqued. Black eyes gazed at him intently. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Because I have the talent over healing and flames. Like the mythical Salamander."

Her eyebrows rose. "Flames?"

He felt his cheeks grow hot in embarrassment as he admitted the reason. "I can't control it yet."

She closed the book she was reading. Her eyes were staring at his hair. "Leon fits more, I think."

After a few breaths, he uttered a single syllable. "Why?"

"You look like a lion." Her gaze was oddly serious, as if saying, 'Isn't it obvious?'

He chose to keep quiet. The boy's left eye twitched ever so slightly.

She settled back into her book. The boy stared at the girl called 373 and thought back to how he had met the brown-haired girl. She knew a concealment spell. She knew how to dismantle walls and return them to their original state. Apparently, she had learned a teleportation spell called adicio and had used it to sneak inside his cell. She was smart and she knew more spells than most of the adults. Why wasn't she leaving Elisium?

He heard the female sigh from across him. "I can't."

"You can sneak inside here." The boy stated. "You should also be able to sneak outside."

She shook her head. "I don't know how big Elisium is yet. I'm also not strong enough."

He stared at her, still not comprehending how a girl who could use a concealing spell was not strong enough to escape.

373 shook her head for a second time before explaining. "I might have done something to force the adults to increase the number of powerful Spellcasters in Elisium."

He couldn't imagine how a single girl could manage to do that. He thought back to what happened to the research facility and tried to remember something that was outside the ordinary. He could only think of the power outage that happened more than a week ago. The electricity had gone haywire and the equipment had exploded. He remembered seeing a pair of black eyes staring at him. The young male froze. Blue eyes widened. "The thing that happened last week. That was you?"

She pouted and gave him a look that told him she didn't really want to explain. But she nodded anyway before resuming her reading.

"You should still escape. Before the adults figure it out." The boy said as he scratched his blonde head. The chains on his wrist clinked and clattered as he moved.

The female gazed at the metal that adorned his thin wrists. "I wouldn't be able to see you anymore."

The young boy tried to suppress the smile that was making its way to his face. But when he thought about where she came from, the other children in Elisium, the traces of his smile disappeared from his face.

"The other children… do they know about this place?"

Again, she shook her head. "I have no proof. They wouldn't believe me."

"Can't you bring them here with your concealment spell so that they could see what Elisium really is?"

She shot him a glare. "Do I look like an expert to you?"

"But you managed to master advanced spells," he pointed out.

"On myself," she stated, "-not on thirty people. If I do tell someone, and that person decides to tell on me, then what?"

"Then… what about the other children? The ones who were supposedly admitted to the Sanctuary?" He asked. "The children like me?"

The girl pursed her lips and her dark eyes stared at the ground. Her expression was crestfallen. She didn't look at him as she answered his question. "They're vegetative or they've passed away."

"Vegetative?" Salamander asked.

She kept her mouth closed. When she noticed that the confused look remained on his face, she sighed. "It means that their brains aren't working. They're brain dead – half-dead. They're alive… but at the same time, they're not."

It only made sense. Not all of the children had a special talent like his that healed his wounds and made him survive the endless torture the adults inflicted on him. Salamander was sure that his talent was a curse since he was still alive. But maybe he was also lucky – lucky enough to be spared from being half-dead.

They fell into an awkward silence. She had lost interest in her book and he couldn't find anything else to talk about. He took a glance at the water bottle 373 had handed to him. Clear blue eyes stared back at him from the metal surface of the container. His reflection on the bottle wasn't that clear. But with his unkempt golden mane, Salamander couldn't help but think that he really did look like a lion.

"Leon is a good name," he said. "You should also… pick a name for yourself."

"A name, huh?" She looked stoic. Her face was emotionless. But the depths of her black orbs were swirling with apprehension and resistance. She looked like she was considering something. The boy didn't know what she was thinking. All he knew was that when she released a sigh, she sounded less like a child and more like an adult – like a young lady trapped in a child's body.