The boy had lost consciousness due to the grim sight he had seen. He had fallen beside the now broken Kagi.
The boy, in his dreams, heard the screams of Kagi before he passed out. They played over and over in his mind, growing increasingly loud. Until he shot up from his nightmare. He was in the same room, but it had been cleaned up. It was empty. All the flesh and blood that had been spilt had now disappeared.
A dream?
No. The skin and stitches remained. The boy, in a panic, began to undo the poor stitching and peeled the skin of his body. His stomach had been tying knots, and his head was spinning as he did.
As he uncovered his own skin, however, he did not see his old mutilated body. Instead, his body had fully healed. His skin was now actually skin. The boy continued, faster now. Until nearly all of Emmy's skin was off. As the boy removed the last large patch of skin, he noticed strange engravings on his arm underneath the skin. Some symbols had been carved into his body, though no pain had been felt by the boy, and blood did not flow out from them.
The boy was confused. He had never seen such symbols. He slowly approached the door and began to bang on it. He had hoped to draw attention to himself. Eventually, someone had come to see him. He had lifted his right arm to show the markings to the person. They had told the boy to follow - obviously panicked. They both rushed to Lord Desmund's quarters.
The man had hesitantly knocked on his door. When it opened, Lord Desmund had stood tall and with an angry look on his face.
"I told you not to interrupt me, did I not?" he said, trying to suppress his fury.
The man nodded timidly and pointed to the boy's arm. Lord Desmund looked over and paused for a moment. The anger that was so fierce-fully moulding his face had been washed away in an instant. He had - without saying anything - grabbed the boy's arm and walked him speedily down endless halls. Then, they stopped at a large door. It was much larger than the rest of them. He scanned his hand on the door, and it opened. The door itself was intimidating to the boy.
In the room was what seemed to be a woman. She was floating. By now, Lord Desmund had let go of the boy and was talking to some people in the corner. The boy slowly approached the beautiful woman. Though her skin was blue, he could not take his eyes off her. He reached out his hand to touch her when - it passed through. The woman became distorted and pixilated.
"It's a hologram, boy, now come here", Lord Desmund said impatiently.
He had once again grabbed the boy's arm, but this time he had placed it in a hole in the wall. Bright blue lights had switched on and began moving up and down the boy's arm - scanning it.
On a screen beside the boy, the symbols had appeared.
"Scanning the symbols," the hologram said, its voice so real and soft the boy felt he could trust her with his life.
Then, it began to translate the symbols and compile them in order. The whole process had stunned the boy, who was captivated by symbols almost dancing on the screen.
"Finished, here is what it says," the voice had said.
"You who crave power and you who fear it,
A place called Ind awaits.
Whether you wish it or wish it gone,
Simply be here at dawn.
Come now or in any era,
We await your arrival, Ʃ⌧ล▐ቲల𝛛 ⊝𝟆ల. "
Incomprehensible. Nobody can understand the last part of the message. Lord Desmund had gathered that whoever this is, wants to meet the boy in Ind. The boy is told he should head back to his room.
As the boy walks to that white room, once again a man calls out as he passes the cafeteria.
"You want a burger?!" he asks.
The boy glances over, unsure if they meant him. The man waves at him cheerfully. The boy was very confused. Unsure, he slowly approaches the man. He introduces himself as Dean. He works at the cafeteria. As he hands the boy the burger, the man asks the boy a strange question.
"Where are your parents?"
The boy was visibly confused. He knew what a parent was, of course, but he was confused by the man.
What a strange thing to ask a stranger
The boy takes the burger and walks away to take a seat. He sits at the same window as before. He was not particularly sentimental - he wanted to see the planet once again. Although some things were more important to him than others. As he stared at the surface, which was now engulfed in the darkness of night, he could make out the bright lights of cities. He began to try to match the lights to where he had learnt the cities were. He could clearly point out Marantel and Porden as well as Fulath, but he could not make out any more than that.
The boy admired the planet. He had wondered what life was truly like down there. He had learnt this but was sceptical of the textbooks' accuracy. After all, the boy thought that they would most likely favour a certain lifestyle.
The boy was not uneducated but simply oblivious to many social cues. He had never truly interacted with people; therefore, he could not grasp many of them.
He had savoured every bite of the burger. He felt the crisp of the bun around his lips as he bit down. He felt the crunch of the lettuce as well as the juiciness of the tomato. The many different textures and flavours of the food blew him away. The perfectly seasoned patty seemed to melt in the boy's mouth. He did not know what the perfect amount of seasoning was, but he knew - at least for him - it was perfect.
Suddenly, a man had tapped him on the shoulder. The boy did not hear the man approaching, so he was startled and jumped from his seat. The burger he had almost finished had fallen from the boy's hands. The boy looked up at the man, but he couldn't see his face. It was covered by a peculiar-looking mask resembling an insect's face. The boy found this strange, but he dared not say anything. He was rather scared of the mask because he had a fear of bugs and the like.
It reminded the boy of when he had many different insects crawl around on his body as a method of torture.
The masked man had indicated to the boy to follow him. The boy nodded timidly and followed. They went back to the room Lord Desmund had taken him to previously. This time, many more people had gathered in the room. As if an important meeting was being held. As the boy walked into the room with the man, all eyes instantly locked onto the boy. The boy was now nervous. He had no idea why he was there.
Lord Desmund waved his hand, and all the whisperers were silenced immediately.
"Boy, you have a task," Lord Desmund had spoken, his voice echoing throughout the room, " You will do exactly as the messages on your arm have told you".
Nobody had reacted except the boy, who was confused. He knew what the message had said. What he couldn't understand, however, was why he was given this task.
"You will go to Marantel to meet up with a partner, you could say," Lord Desmund begins to explain, "You will then travel to Ind together. It is far, but you should be able to make it there within half an hour on my personal transport."
The boy was now visibly confused. He understood what was being told, but why him? They had used him as a lab rat until now, and all of a sudden, he is being entrusted with a mission like this. He had no choice, it seemed.
"For the record, boy, I do not trust you; I trust the other one."
He was then hurried out of the room by that same strange man. They walked for quite some time through endlessly long corridors and large steel doors. The man had stopped suddenly, and the boy had nearly bumped into him as he was lost in thought about why he was doing something like this.
The man had inserted a key into the door and opened it, and they walked inside. The boy saw a rather peculiar-looking seat in the middle of the room. The man had indicated for the boy to sit on it. He did it hesitantly. The strange man now stood behind a console and pressed a few buttons and switches. Suddenly, the room came to life.
The walls came apart to reveal mechanical arms which held large pieces of metal and machinery. The boy's seat also came to life as it strapped him down and secured his head with a belt across the forehead. The mechanical arms started to build around the boy. Walls of metal now surrounded the boy. A metallic box had now trapped the boy.
The boy fell into complete darkness. He could not see nor move.
Suddenly, the floor beneath this metal tomb had vanished. And the box had fallen into space.