Heart desired

//Chapter 64//

We went to a circular building as our first destination. Our tour guide was a woman named Sala, who looked like she was twenty years old. There was a look in her eyes that suggested she was more than that. She had a chubby face with a plump body. Her black cape somehow swayed left and right as she walked. I knew that mine was completely still unless I jumped around or ran in full speed, which made me wonder about the texture of her clothes though it looked identical to all of ours. She had a really nice way of talking, voice pitching up and down with each syllable, which was attractive and effective as a guide.

She first took us to a circular building, which had no roof and was open to out doors. It kind of made me wonder about the purpose of the curved walls. There were plants growing inside the building. It was a garden. Unlike the gardens at the palace here I could see flowers of all different colours. There were even benches for people to sit on and butterflies and some other insects like bees flew from one flower to another. We spent there about fifteen minutes. As much as I liked to sit on a bench and rest my sore butt from the carriage ride, I couldn't. I had a task to fullfill. So I gave her an illusion to tale us to the building Relach was staying.

The interier of the building was pristine white. There were glass doors everywhere, along with glass window displays. We could see the insides, where there were so many equipment I had never seen. The lights felt like extra bright in the corridors. Some glasses were pitch black and I could see various flashes of light from there. Curiosity was rising underneath my skin the more I saw these rooms on my both sides. We walked behind Sala, trying not to get too distracted from this awesome world.

There were no reactions from Bran so I figured we were going the right way. I noticed that the Elkelyns inside wore white cloaks instead of black capes, which I had never seen in anywhere here before. It was strange to see a person without a cape that came to their knees in length. I realized that I was truly adjusting to Elkelyn.

There were surveillance cameras everywhere in the corridors and rooms. I guessed they were sensoring our moments because yhey turned everytime we took a turn, monitoring our actions. It felt kind of uneasy to be watched like this, considering the fact that we did come to sneak around here. I figured that would be impossible. There was no bio electricity coming from these metalic things.

Why the Elkelyns did not thought of creating an army of controlled devices were beyond me, if they had this much technology in their hands.

Sala was explaining what kind of experiment each kind of rooms had. We had the permit to watch three of them, which was the limit of the visitor's pass we bought. I tried to listen as attentively as possible, also watching my surroundings like I never did before.

There were rooms without cameras. I noticed that all of them were laser related experiments for some reason. All the people inside there watched safety glasses on their eyes.I noted that the perfect place if I wanted to trap someone in to an illusion would be one of these laser rooms.

"Laser experiments are not for outsiders to see." Sala said. It was like she just read my mind. "We allowed it before, but it was too dangerous. Most of them went blind after that."

Well, that explained a lot of things. I suddenly lost all interest in going to that lab. But it was not that easy. If we had to go, we had to avoid those cameras.

We were just turning from a corner when Bran whimpered, his expression pained. Resh rushed to him in a second, worried as well. I could easily tell what this meant. Relach was hurt.

"It sounds like they are beating him up." Bran said. "I can here bones crunching."

Sala was alarmed. "Who?" She asked. "What is going on?"

I was thinking about an excuse to give. Whatever we said, we had to keep our purpose a secret. Thankfully, Bran himself thought of a one. "I occasionally have hallucinations." He said. "It's genetic. There is no cure."

I nodded, acting as a healer, fullfilling my role. "Yeah. His brother has it too."

Sala seemed to buy it. "If it get worse, I would have to take you out of this building. This is an area where some serious experiments are happening and disturbances can't be allowed."

"It's under control now." Bran said quickly. Sala surveyed him from head to toe for a moment and nodded. I decided to step in as well. "It only occurs once in a several months. Now that it had happened, it won't happen for another three to four months."

Resh and Bran pursued their lips while Sala nodded. I began to think. As awesome as it might be to see all these experiments, we could not afford to waste any time specially if Relach is getting beaten up to the point his bones were cracking.

"Can we watch this experiment?" I asked, randomly pointing to a glass door ahead of me. The glass was not tinted black, indicating that there was no laser. Resh looked at me, eyebrows raised in question.

I whispered to him. "First, it has to be normal. By the second time, it's an illusion."

"Sure." Sala said. I grimaced at the cameras again. Even our glamourd pointed ears would be no use here. We have to act fast.

The first thing I saw inside the room was a giant Coucumini. There were several wires attached to it and it was sleeping, curled in a huge cage. Two people inside greeted us, bowing their heads a little. After looking around, I noticed several other animals caged as well.

"This is an experiment to make these animals immortal by fusing with Elkelyn DNA." Sala explained. "This is our two hundred and seventy six attempt on doing this. We are sure that we would be successful this time. " She gestured around the room. "Feel free to see anything you want, but please don't touch anything for your own safety."

"It's okay." Resh said. "Let's get going. I don't like animals."

Sala and the others looked taken aback, but they gained their composure in a second. "Okay." She said. "Let's go this way."

She led us through another corridor. I patiently waited till I saw the next tinted glass.

There it was.

I let out a thread of my power into her mind. I should let them see this.

She went over and tapped her card on the door like she did on the previous room. The door opened and a surprised Elkelyn came out, looking at us. I turned to Resh and Bran and pretended to talk.

"This is an exception. They are to let in."

My power sneaked into the boy. "But... sure, let them in."

I led them inside. This was my choice. I wanted them to see the lasers. This was an experiment regarding ways to cut Perr using light and I want them to see it.

They are in. Let me describe.

That illusion will go on and on for a long time. There was nobody else inside, so it did not matter what would happen for a long time. At least for another our, they would help 'us' understand this experiment. This was illusion loop.

Bran led the way as soon as they went in and closed the door behind them. He led us on various paths. I was not sure if I could find my own way back. The only thing I noticed was that we were going deeper and deeper in to the building. And as well as lower and lower.

There were cameras everywhere. I had an ominous feeling that someone was watching us through them, monitoring and laughing at us. I tried my best to ignore them.

I checked the paths always before we went in. Sometimes, there were Elkelyns in corridoors. We hid when they came to avoid trouble for as long as we can. I was surprised that nobody came to catch us even though we had been sneaking around for a long time.

"What's happening now?" I asked Bran. "Can you still hear him?"

"Yeah." Bran said, his tone lowered to match mine as we descended downwards. "He is not getting beat up anymore. Those people are gone. There are lot of noises mixed in so I can't really hear where they are going. I'm not familiar with them to identify their sound habits in a crowd."

"It's okay." Resh said. "Don't push yourself."

Bran nodded. "This is nothing."

The scenerio had changed from the level we were in. Instead of glass doors and display windows, there were only metal doors, all of them marked storage.

Bran drew on a breath. "He is here." He said.