Dena went quiet for a long time. "Why did you go silent all of a sudden?" Elyas asked and her low, shaking voice answered, "I turned it off. I turned the faucet off…"
All of Elyas' hairs began to stand up as a bad feeling crept up his stomach. "You mean… something is mimicking the sound of running water?"
"Yes."
Both of them turned quiet. Standing in the darkness of the office with the faint, distant sound of running water, only made the tension intensify.
After a long silent minute, Elyas spoke. "Okay, no need to worry, all we have to do is find the big guy watching guard, and then we can think of something."
Seeing that she didn't object, He grabbed her hand and went to search for Raaz. But as soon as he took his first step, he stopped, turned around, and looked at Dena's hand.
The hand… it felt normal.
So why did he suddenly feel like a beast was breathing down his neck? He let go of her, and the feeling vanished almost instantly.
What the…
"What are you doing? Why did you stop?"
Elyas couldn't answer, he too didn't know. He was scrambling to figure out what was going on. So, to get a grip on the situation, he rummaged through his memories.
He searched through everything he had learned in these past few weeks. From what he learned from experience, in class, or from his friends. But… who were his friends again?
He could swear he had a few, but he couldn't remember anything about them.
Did he have friends?
The more Elyas tried to remember, the more confused he felt. The more pressure he exerted on his mind, the worse the feeling of creeping dread in his stomach became. He tried to remember, but just like sand running through his fingers, his memories slipped away one after another.
Elyas suddenly found himself sitting on a soft red sofa. The walls were bright red and yellow, and so were the employees serving the customers. Their faces were blurry, but the people in front and beside him weren't. They were familiar… familiar.
He had found a memory!
One was a giant with braids and tanned skin, the other, a young looking man clad in nothing but black. At this moment, the giant spoke "You can't do shit in combat but your sensitivity to Artifacts is high… not bad." After that, this memory too slipped away, leaving Elyas with the giant's words.
Artifact sensitivity…
Those words held importance to Elyas. It was faint, but when he thought of that phrase he felt accomplished for some reason.
But it didn't matter.
Elyas had instinctively opened his mouth the moment he remembered that phrase and uttered a single question: "Do you have an Artifact with you?"
Dena stopped her movements. "Yes. How did you know?"
"I… don't know. To be honest I just assumed you used the water pipes of the office to shower. I don't know why I got the urge to ask that question… Anyway, why do you have an Artifact, aren't our powers suppressed? What use do they have now?"
Dena seemed to have remembered something important because her tone immediately shifted from one of confusion, to that of sudden realization. "Oh! Yes, Yes I forgot. I wanted to say this whenever everyone woke up, Artifacts haven't lost their potency."
That's great! It makes sense too, the anomalies we are facing are Artifacts themselves. Elyas was delighted by the news. So much so, that he almost forgot the faint sound of running water.
"That's great to hear, but we have to go."
He grabbed her hand, making his stomach churn with primal dread. But he didn't pay it any attention. Elyas had a feeling that it wasn't harmful. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he did.
They walked from one wall to the other, having decided that the best approach would be to walk in a straight line, from one side of the office to the other. That way, they wouldn't get lost in the darkness of the office and become easy prey for the shapeshifter.
Soon enough, their efforts paid off as they hit a big, hard and warm object.
Elyas and Dena both stepped back, and so did the hard thing. After an all too pregnant pause, the hard thing spoke, "Who are you?"
Thankfully, the voice was familiar to both Dena and Elyas. It was the burly man who had accepted to watch guard, Raaz. "Oh thank goodness, we finally found you." Dena said with a sigh of relief.
"I woke up to the sound of running water, so I went to investigate. That was when I stumbled onto her and as it turned out, she had decided to take a shower. But as you can hear—"
"The sound is still there." Raaz, having heard the peculiar sound himself, made the connection.
"Exactly. We came to find you and group up to go take a look. If this continues, when the rest wake up and see that the power went out plus an anomaly is mimicking random sounds at our doorstep… Only god knows what they'll do this time."
Elyas said with a grim tone. Remembering how drastic of an effect a single death had on these people, he could only imagine what they'll do now.
Raaz didn't say anything, only bent down and reached for something. Elyas only heard the sound of a zip and the crackle of a lighter. Just as he heard those things, an abrupt flash of radiance assaulted his eyes. "Oh—sorry." Raaz lowered the lantern.
Elyas' eyes slowly adjusted, allowing him to see once more. By his side, Dena was covering her face with one of her elbows, parts of her clothes and hair were still wet, sticking to her skin. Raaz was kneeling beside a duffle bag under one of the desks, his eyes reddened due to a lack of rest.
He got up and closed the lid of the lantern, dampening the light to a great degree. He didn't want the intense light to wake the others. "Here, take it." Raaz said, handing over the lantern as he took out another one.
After receiving it, Elyas pointed it in different directions, trying to spot anyone who might be awake to help them. Barely through the parting gloom, he could see people laying on the ground near the file cabinets.
Between the sleeping bunch was a young man sitting on the ground with his back against the wall.
At least Elyas thought it was a young man.
The man's frame was lanky for his small stature and most of his body, including his face, was engulfed in shadows. Despite this, the man's brown eyes seem to pierce the darkness occupying the room, watching.
Those eyes shifted with each of Raaz or Dena's movements, examining them with attentive curiosity.
"Hey, what are you looking at?" Elyas shouted, trying to catch the attention of the individual. But as he moved closer and the shadows retreated behind the man, Elyas' brows furrowed.
It wasn't a young man at all.
In front of him, sitting on the ground and staring up at Elyas with shining brown eyes was a girl. A small, lanky girl with hair as pale as the uniform she wore.
...Do they not have any laws against child labor? It's the second time I've seen literal children working a government job…
"At them." She finally answered his question, raising one of her hands to gesture at the approaching Raaz and Dena.
"What are you doing—Oh, so you were here. Good thing then, we can start sooner." Raaz said while looking down at the girl.
"Start what?" Dena, who had been given a lantern of her own asked as she walked closer. Indirectly, she positioned the light source in the girl's line of sight.
"Can you put that away?" She asked while covering her face with her hands.
Dena lowered her lantern. "Sorry, kid." She then turned to face Raaz. "You didn't answer me, big guy, start what?"
"With her help, we can find the anomaly that's making this sound and potentially the shapeshifter as well."
That statement of his only raised eyebrows. "So you're telling me a small malnourished girl can help us? How? We don't have our powers, remember?"
Raaz looked surprised by Dena's words. "Him I get," he said, pointing at Elyas, "he's a civilian, but how do you not know?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he asked a follow up question. "Did you even read the office survival manual?" Looking at Dena's confused expression, it finally began to make sense why she didn't know.
"It comes with the uniform…how did you not read it? It's a mandatory read that teaches you all the required information about breakouts and how to contain them, for what reason you decided that it was a good idea to skip it?"
"I must have lost it then… I don't remember seeing a manual…" Dena muttered in a low voice.
"But what does that have to do with the girl?" It was Elyas' turn to ask questions. But instead of the burly man, he got his answer from the albino girl herself.
"I can use my Wish"
...What?
Dena, sharing the same exasperated face as Elyas asked, "And why is that, kid? What makes you any different from us?"
The malnourished girl looked up at her, clearly displeased by some part of Dena's statement. "I'm not different. My Wish is suppressed like all of you. It's just that I don't require my Wish to use my powers."
Raaz elaborated, "Asper deals with shadows. She doesn't control them like most Shadow Benders, she makes pacts, meaning her thralls don't vanish—"
"They're not thralls!" Asper said while standing up, her tone raised in anger.
She then turned away from Raaz and towards Elyas and Dena. "Even if I can't use my Wish like the rest of you, I still have control over my companions." She raised her hand, tugging at the stretched shadow of Elyas casted by the shaky light of their lanterns.
Suddenly, Elyas felt stiff and encumbered. As soon as her hand was directed at his shadow, he felt submerged. It was like he was diving in a vast, dense ocean. Every muscle, every single movement no matter how small, slowed down all at once, as if struggling against invisible currents.
But as soon as it started, the dampening pressure disappeared. In an instant, Elyas regained the ability to move his neck, arms and legs. In that moment, looking down at the small, frail girl half engulfed in darkness, only one thought passed through his head.
How is this fair?!
A girl who looked barely a day older than seven was stronger than him!
What kind of bullshit is this?! …Let's look at the bright side, alright? If I'm the weakest Dreamer, which based of what I've seen might not be too far off, that just means my rise to power will be just as magnificent! …Yea. Probably.
As much as it was demoralizing to keep stumbling onto strong individuals, In his eyes, he saw just as much potential in Asper. Even with the little he had observed from her capabilities, it was obvious to him that if allowed to grow, this girl could become monstrously strong.
Not being affected by power suppression and being able to control shadows of people… and this isn't even all of the things she's capable of…
He needed to get close to this child!
On second thought, maybe I shouldn't phrase it that way. Making acquaintances is much better.
As Elyas' senses returned fully, no longer dampened by Asper's control, an ever present sound slithered in his ears.
The sound of running water.
Reminded of their circumstances, glancing at the still darkness of the office, he decided to cut the questions and act. "So, are we going to look for the source of the sound or not?"