The worker looked around, confused.
Kaelen quickly moved past him. "Get back to work," he said, imitating a deep voice.
Kaelen searched for the cigarette, still in his pocket. It gave him relief, a strange one that didn't depend on meaning.
He lost control as soon as he opened the car door.
Rowan chose the main city path, as Kaelen had anticipated. It was shorter, too. Now it could mean only one thing. But why did Rowan show that to Kaelen?
Kaelen took control of his mouth. "I don't plan on saving those who can't fight for themselves. It is the entire purpose of their life to fuel the stronger. If there really is a god, then he had planned that. And if there isn't, then... why do I give a fuck?"
He had expected Rowan to say something. Nothing came. His grip tightened, and the car sped up. He took a strange turn. Probably just a shortcut.
The silence told him something words couldn't. The identity wasn't capable of making a decision on its own, only aiding Kaelen through assignments. After all, he was Ravus's friend. Maybe he didn't even possess his memories. Kaelen would never know. What a terrifying being it was. No brain, and yet it was smarter than Kaelen.
No, it wasn't just a shortcut. That place, Kaelen recognized it. He had been there many times, never physically though. The place had lived in his mind for years. The street that was supposed to be heaven for immigrants.
It was no heaven. It was quite the opposite. The outskirts weren't outskirts because of their location. If that was the truth, then Kaelen's eyes were lying. There was something more to this city. It couldn't be the poverty. It's expected to follow any city. The luxury hotels, cafes, and everything that the city sat on were the only things that constructed its economy. All of them were empty. Not empty in the sense of having no customers. Just empty, no employees, empty rooms. It made no sense. Where did the workers go to work? How were those inside the city surviving? But why would someone create this illusion?
Kaelen tried to take over many times throughout the drive. He couldn't. Rowan forced him to talk to himself. To not comfort himself by complaining.
The car was inside the main gate when Kaelen decided to stay and collect information until Zeph came.
Suddenly, Kaelen got control. The car was about to crash into a pillar. Kaelen only made it worse. He sped up the car. The car crashed even worse. Its trunk was destroyed. It burnt in a bright red fire. A fire that first burnt Rowan's ego. Which would go on to consume him whole.
Kaelen searched around the office. Some floors were completely empty while the first floor barely gave room to breathe. It was strange in every sense. Still, no information that would help.
Kaelen gave up and went to the second floor. Rowan took over again and entered the code. "222" shone bright again.
Kaelen took over again. He threw the file onto Ravus's desk.
"Ooh," Ravus murmured. He slid back into his chair. "Leave," he said, waving his hands towards the door.
"I understand your plan now," said Kaelen, as he grabbed the knife in his pocket.
"Sure," he replied, ripping the file and lighting it on fire by chanting strange words.
The knife slid back into its place.
"This city. It is the child you created to destroy the world. It didn't make sense at first. But the deception of this city. It must be for the ritual. And a ritual of the god of deception. You were very unlucky that I got into his ritual as well. I know where its heart belongs. And tomorrow I will kill you when you are at your peak," Kaelen said, leaving the room.
Kaelen walked at first, proud of himself. But his back began turning heavier with each step. The fear of Ravus chasing him had climbed onto his back. The next step came quick as Kaelen ran as fast as he could, turning only at the lift.
When he pressed the first-floor button, his eyes caught something at the end of the hall. Ravus. Walking on all four of his limbs. His back going higher than Kaelen. It walked back into its hall on its noodle-like limbs.
Kaelen waited outside the building. Maybe the courtyard wasn't so useless after all.
A little while later, Zeph came.
Kaelen opened the door. "I can see you have a lot to say. Wait for now. We will discuss it with everyone," said Zephyr immediately.
"Yes, but there's bad news. That you might need to address right now."
"What is it?"
"I had to fight a guy. And he managed to hit me with a shard." Kaelen opened the buttons of his coat and shirt. Revealing the purple lump that had formed on his chest.
Zeph's face tightened, his expression going blank. "Shh."
"That's bad," he added a second later. Zeph pushed the car to its max.
"There's no energy in it. Must have been a non-follower trying to gain you as his pawn. He must have been desperate."
It took them five minutes to reach home from there.
Everyone was waiting for them in the kitchen. Zeph took Aurelion to a corner and whispered to him.
"We will be back in a few minutes," said Kaelen.
They went inside the other end of the hall. A basement was right next to it.
The basement stretched longer than the house above. The place was filled with all sorts of tools, most of which Kaelen had never seen before.
"Do you wanna know what caused this? Or do I get straight to work?" asked Aurelion.
Kaelen nodded.
"It's a curse the man on the roof put on you. It makes you unable to use any god's power without getting yourself killed."
Kaelen nodded. "So how are you going to fix it?"
No reply came back.
Aurelion picked up a small drill.
"What is this?" Kaelen asked, his throat turning dry in an instant.
Zeph grabbed his shoulders and pulled them back.
"Zeph, listen to me," Kaelen shouted.
"Stay silent," said Aurelion, piercing Kaelen's chest with the drill.
Surprisingly, there was no pain. Though that wasn't a good sign either.
Aurelion took a step back. "The hole might be a bit bigger than intended."
Kaelen looked at his chest. He was ready to scream.
But before he did, he remembered that he had already agreed to this. "Can you leave?" Kaelen asked.
They left without a word.
The wound didn't bleed. Or reveal the insides of his body. Yet his skin burnt.
Kaelen fell on his knees. He passed his hand through his chest. Empty, just like how he felt. All he could do was imagine himself doing better than this. Minutes passed in complete silence. No one peeked or came inside.
Kaelen stood up, without knowing he was going to. He opened the door to the hall. Silent. The kitchen just appealed to him. Kaelen followed it, his body running solely on instinct.
He grabbed the pan, took out the eggs and veggies. It took him a while to find the chopping board and bowl. His hands flowed in a way his normally overstimulated brain never could. The texture and smell of it were as complete as his movement. Or maybe Kaelen had appreciated it for the first time. "Maybe this is my favorite dish," he mumbled to himself. The flow broke, and slowly the eggs lost both.
"Still my favorite," he said, plating the eggs.
The first bite was refreshing. His brain's engine turned on. The next ones polished the taste on his tongue.
It was only eight, and he had nothing to do. He returned to his room, expecting something new. Mainly his stuff back home. Or anything that would stop him from self-sabotaging and keep himself away.
Nevyziel sat on a chair in front of a table. "Yo," she said, pulling out Kaelen's book.
Kaelen sighed. That was his teenage memory that made him Kaelen, but it was too embarrassing.
"I read it, it's good for a thirteen-year-old. You tried to force your ideology into it. Did you never have someone to talk to?"
"Maybe. Actually, I had a lot of people to talk to." Kaelen thought for a moment. "But I could never talk to them. Pretending to be someone else always angered me. Probably hiding myself was also pretending. So I never truly had someone I could talk to."
"What were you? A secret genius?" She chuckled. "If you don't accept yourself, people won't either. It always scared me as well. And to be real, it might have been better if I had stayed silent. Still, I never hid from myself. You have to put it out there."
"Maybe you are right, maybe you are not."
"So what happened down there?"
"I am sure you already know. It feels so weird. But what are they gonna do with it? Add chains in it like what they did with prisoners in Avarith?"
"Yes," she replied.
"What do you mean by just yes?" said Kaelen, his pitch extremely high.