Children of Elisium
Chapter 14: Their Promises

Leon thought he was going to die from surprise after everything that had happened during the morning.

He was already in the operating theater when he felt a strange uncommon presence in the operating room. Unlike energy signatures, a person’s presence was something even expert Spellcasters and fighters couldn’t explain. All the boy with blonde hair and electric blue eyes knew was that he had memorized how his surrounding felt whenever 373 would visit him. She had visited him almost every day for nearly a month, while frequently popping out from thin air, so it only made sense to him that he could sense her from a mile away.

There was no mistaking it – the girl was in the room. She was perched on top of a pile of containers. But for some reason, Leon could also feel someone else right beside her. Before he could process what had happened, her presence disappeared as quickly as it arrived.

A few breaths later, she was back. This time she was bringing someone else along. If it weren’t for the electricity zapping him back into reality, he would have forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to stare at her location. She appeared and disappeared from the hallway too many times Leon lost count. And whenever she did, she was with a different person each time. He was more shocked by her going in and out of a lion’s den than he was by the metallic rods that were giving him high doses of electricity.

What exactly was going on?!

After a few more tests, the researchers dumped him back in his cell with the chains and fetters holding him back. The usual harassment occurred, although he paid less attention to the researchers than he usually did. He sat upright and became busy preparing his questions once 373 visited his cell. She didn’t visit him yesterday and today she was bringing other people inside Elisium’s so-called Sanctuary. He had too many things he wanted to know. But the moment 373 had reappeared in front of him with four pieces of bread in tow, he had forgotten half of what he wanted to ask and greedily gobbled on one piece of bread that was filled with custard filling.

It was only after he had finished the pastry that he remembered her daring actions this afternoon. “You… came here with people? Who were they?”

“Classmates,” she replied. She tossed him another piece of bread, placed two thick books beside her, and sat down on the concrete floor before she continued. “I promised Zain Amina I would tell them about Elisium’s Sanctuary.”

Leon gratefully took the bread but didn’t start eating. “Zain… Amina? A girl? A classmate of yours?”

“The day I didn’t visit you, they brought her down here.” She muttered the words lifelessly. Before he could ask about what had happened to the girl, 373 said, “She’s dead.”

The boy looked away from her solitary figure. It really bothered him when wasn’t her usual spiteful and sarcastic self. He changed the topic. “Did they believe you? Your classmates, I mean.”

She nodded. “Seeing is believing. But I might bring a few back here tomorrow.”

“Are they… going with you when you escape?”

She shrugged. “We’re thinking about it.”

She narrated how Michael had told her they were leaving in three days, how she had suggested bringing the entire class of Aquarius along when they escaped. The female also told Leon about the plans she and her classmates had managed to create after much brainstorming. But the flat tone in her voice told Leon something 373 didn’t voice – escaping with a large group was going to be impossible.

“Are there really too many skilled Spellcasters in this place? Aren’t they just a group of researchers?” Leon asked. He couldn’t really imagine the adults of Elisium as ranked Spellcasters. They all looked… weak – like people who couldn’t butcher a chicken.

Black eyes blinked at him a few times. The look 373 shot him made him feel like an idiot. “What,” he interjected. “They really are just researchers!”

“They’re all ranked Spellcasters. All 200 plus of them.” She muttered. “Besides… this place is also a maze.”

Leon had a brilliant idea. He grinned and pointed at her. “But with that Talent of yours… if you can replace someone who knows all the passageways in Elisium, you can read his or her mind and use it to escape Elisium undetected!”

“Who?”

Leon was caught off guard with the question. He scratched his head. “Um… the owner?”

“…is a Magno Deorum,” 373 murmured. The boy shot her a blank stare. After giving him a look of pure dismay, she took the liberty of briefly explaining what kind of people the Magno Deorum were to enlighten him.

“So, the owner is a powerful guy,” Leon said.

373 nodded.

“And he’s really powerful?”

The little girl nodded again.

“More powerful than you?” Leon inquired.

The girl exhaled. “More powerful than all of Elisium’s researchers combined.”

Leon still couldn’t believe it. “Are you sure? Really really sure?”

373 kept her lips pursed. Then, she rolled her eyes. In a fit of irritation, he chucked the piece of bread in his hand at her. She dodged it and allowed the pastry to fall on the floor. Leon tried to reach for the morsel with his hands but the chains held him back and he couldn’t reach. His bright blue eyes turned glum as regret flashed in his eyes. His stomach rumbled in response. The girl saw it all and clicked her tongue. She picked up the piece of bread and tossed it back to him.

“If you’re going to regret it, then don’t do it in the first place,” she mumbled. Leon instantly shoved the bread in his hands and finished it quickly before 373 changed her mind.

“You said… you have a Talent, right?” Her voice was quiet, almost inaudible. But Leon heard her question in the silence of his cell.

He nodded, before asking, “Why do you want to know?”

She ignored his question and asked another one. “Why haven’t you tamed your power over flames?”

Leon found himself unable to reply. Or rather, he didn’t want to. He cleared his throat and gave her a vague answer. “Talents are unexplainable, you know? They can turn dangerous if you don’t know how to control your power.”

373’s stared at him like an all-knowing sage. “Why are you afraid of it?”

The boy huffed. “I’m not! Who told you that?”

She simply pointed at her head and shot him a threatening gaze which told the young boy that if he wasn’t going to answer, then she was going to pry into his head and get the answers herself.

“I almost…” Leon nervously shifted his position and swallowed the saliva in his mouth. “I almost killed someone when I last used my power over flames.”

The girl must have seen the guilt in his eyes since she didn’t pry into the matter about the child he had almost killed, but instead asked him if he had tried controlling the flames before.

The young male shook his head. “What’s the use? I’m trapped here. Can’t use the Talent anyway.”

The female’s mood turned sober. “I promised to come back for you, didn’t I?”

Leon froze. He took a few breaths to steady his emotions and laughed. The sound was hollow and flat and every bit forced.

“Yeah, but what if you don’t? What if you can’t?” the boy replied. He knew he had been the one who asked 373 to make the promise but still – he didn’t want to hope for something that was impossible. He shook his head. “Some promises… are meant to be broken. Hasn’t anyone told you that?”

This time, it was her turn to throw a piece of bread his way. He automatically made a move to catch it and missed the angry look that was plastered on her face. She stood up, her back facing him, and began to cast Adicio.

“I’m going,” she said. And with a drop of a hat, she was gone.

Leon stared at the piece of bread of his hands in silence. He tore one piece from bread and munched on it. If he ate like this, he could savor the taste of the bread on his tongue. He didn’t finish the thing in one gulp. If 373 was going to be gone in a few days, he might as well enjoy each meal as his last. He was going to miss eating the delicious snacks from Elisium’s kitchens.

But he was going to miss the little girl most of all.

Golden eyes followed the movements of a certain brown-haired girl who was busy reading from a book entitled ’Pentagarams, Seals and Demons’. When 373 wasn’t reading about pentagrams, she was reading the other book, ’The Complete Demon Encyclopdia’. Unlike the little girl who was oblivious to the rest of Elisium, Astaroth had long become sensitive to the movement of people and fluctuation of energy in the entire research facility. The demon had felt a shift of energy – a change in the strings of fate. The Duke of Hell had the power to see events from the past, the future, and the present. And he could clearly feel that something in Elisium had changed and the change was going to affect the fate of the girl called 373.

The girl with no name was immersed in her own world, muttering here and there about the seals on the floor. The demon was quite familiar with the inscriptions and drawings. Among them were the Grand Pentacle of Solomon, the First Pentacle of Saturn and the Fifth Pentacle of Mars - pentacles commonly used to force spirits into submission. She was focusing her research on the three seals on the floor. She pointed to a point on the floor where the pentacles intersected.

“All I have to do is create a weakness in the seal by altering one of the symbols and it’ll become unstable,” She muttered to herself as she nodded. The petite female didn’t wait for Astaroth’s input. However, the demon knew that she was on the right track. It was now a matter of whether she had the skill to execute what she had come to do.

“Are you in a hurry, pueri?” The demon said softly. His voice was smooth and velvety, almost sing-song. However, the child didn’t turn.

“I might leave Elisium in three days,” she replied, her eyes still glued to the floor.

“Or I might die. Whichever…,” she flippantly added.

Golden orbs stared at the Doors of Destiny before returning to the girl whose back was still turned against him. Perfectly shaped eyebrows rose. Death wasn’t a light topic, yet the female could talk about it like it was an unimportant thing. He tried to coax her out of her concentration and asked another question.

“Are you not afraid of death?”

The girl gave a start. Her eyes widened and it took her a few moments to regain the same serious air she had before. She looked like she was seriously considering the question. This time, she focused her attention at him.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t thought about it.”

She dropped the topic and continued studying the seals on the floor. The demon continued observing her in silence as she used her own energy to feel the flow of energy of the seal. A few seconds later, the deep furrow between her eyebrows lightened.

“Ah..!” Her small shoe-less feet scurried on the tiled floor and she almost slipped because of her sudden movement. The child acted like nothing happened and sped towards a pile of artifacts on one side of the room. The ends of Astaroth’s lips quirked up in a faint smile as 373 maneuvered through a stack of weapons and other items. She found herself a sword, an axe, and an enchanted mirror which she all tossed aside.

Finally, she stopped searching. In her hand was a silver signet ring with six-pointed star engraved on it. The ring was too big for her fingers. The Duke of Hell recognized the ring. It was a magical artifact he had last seen in the hands of a human king named Solomon who was rumored to have tamed a number of demons. Astaroth’s eyes glimmered.

“It was there all along,” He whispered and concealed the mirth from his face. She whipped her head at his words. She was every bit curious about the ring. If she had ears and a tail, Astaroth could imagine that she would look like an excited pup – ears perked up, tail wagging, mouth open in a smile, and all.

“What does it do?” the little girl inquired while shuffling back to her books.

“Anyone who wishes to conjure and control me must possess a magical ring so that they might be spared from my poisonous breath,” he answered.

A minute of silence passed by them while the brown-haired female read her book. Her black eyes looked at him doubtfully as her eyebrows knitted.

“It says you have bad breath.” 373 narrowed her eyes. A complicated expression was on her face but to Astaroth, it just looked plain silly.

The demon exhaled. “Child, a demon’s breath is composed of miasma. Demons do not have foul breath. It is the miasma that our breath carries which acts as poison to human like you.”

The girl tilted her head to the side. “Really? But why can’t I feel the effects of the miasma?”

Astaroth’s golden orbs turned mischievous. Out of curiosity, he had expended a good amount of energy to look at the girl’s past. He knew something about her that the little girl didn’t know. But that was something he was going to save for later. His lips curved up into a smile which could sweep any woman off her feet. Yet the girl with the deep dark unfathomable gaze was unconvinced.

She placed the ring in her pocket. Then, the female went off and used the chains hanging down the wall to climb up the cross plastered on the wall. A while ago, she was like an adventurous puppy. Now, she was like a little monkey swinging on a vine. She went up and crawled on the cross’s horizontal bar until her face was only a few inches away from his face. She took a deep breath. Astaroth closed his eyes and smirked. This girl actually went ahead and took a whiff of his scent just to verify what was written on the book.

She shimmied down the chains and looked up at his form. A disappointed look was on her face. “You really don’t have bad breath.”

“Oh?” a playful smile tugged at the demon’s lips. “Then what does this demon smell like?”

373 appeared to choose her word carefully before settling with the word, “Good” and returned to studying the ring.

Astaroth nodded and summoned a small dark wisp from his shadow and used it to point to a particular direction.

“There is a thin chain within that pile of artifacts that you can use to tie the ring around your neck.”

The girl headed towards the direction the shadow was pointing to and started searching. “What does it look like? Is it sturdy?”

“It should be as thin and light as spider’s silk, yet as strong as creation itself – although it cannot compare to the real Gleipnir that could hold and bind even the child of a god.” When the girl flashed him a confused look, he chuckled. “It is a thin chain, probably as thin as the strands of your hair. And yes, it is quite durable.”

She fished out a long thin chain from the floor and looked at him curiously. When he nodded in affirmation, the girl strung the ring on the chain. 373 didn’t even have to cut the chain. The artifact in her hands shrunk to the length of a long necklace which allowed her to hide the ring in her shirt.

Astaroth stared at the Doors of Destiny then at the small female with obsidian orbs. The girl truly had incredible luck with replaceing treasure. Maybe this was all part of Fate’s grand designs?

She wore the signet ring like a necklace’s pendant and the energy in the room shifted. Both the child and the Demon felt how the flow of energy had changed to merge towards the ring. Even the Doors of Destiny stirred. 373’s somber air returned, and she headed for a part of the seal where the three pentagrams converged. She knelt on the floor and pressed her two small palms on the cold tiled surface. The ring dangling above her chest glowed faintly as she began gathering the throes of magic to her hands.

“Implicata.”

Unravel.

The room became enveloped in a soft white light that began from her hands and traced the seals that marked the floor. Gravity seemed to abandon the room as her hair danced about her face and artifacts slowly lifted from the floor. Her face was an image of absolute focus, yet a hint of a smile was on her lips. Excitement was glimmering in her eyes. Her hair flew and danced about her, like the wind was playing with her brown tresses. It was a sight that stirred the Demon’s heart. The light slowly died and the objects on the floor descended like feathers and returned to the floor. Nevertheless, Astaroth felt he was going to remember the scene for a very long time.

373’s complexion was ashen, but the smile on her lips brightened up her face. She had managed to weaken a point of the seals on the floor by disrupting the flow of energy. The effects of the seal was fading. Astaroth calculated the seal’s effects to wear off after three days. She dusted her hands by clapping them repeatedly. She beamed at the Duke of Hell who looked at her with an appreciate gaze.

“Done!” Her voice was unusually loud and filled with energy.

“Impressive.” Astaroth didn’t hide his adoration from his tone.

She nodded. “I’ll be going now.”

The Duke of Hell chuckled. The girl really didn’t like wasting time and loved appearing and disappearing whenever she pleased.

But the girl didn’t leave immediately. Astaroth found her black orbs studying his dark imposing wings before staring at his face. After a few seconds, she opened her mouth and said, “I don’t need a contract. Can’t we just be friends?”

“I have already promised to be yours once you fulfill your end of the contract,” Astaroth replied, a smirk playing on his lips. “Friendship is naturally part of that.”

“But aren’t promises… meant to be broken?” She asked.

The demon was tempted to ask her why she mentioned such a thing. Instead, he lowered his eyelids so that half of his golden orbs were hidden by his long lashes. It was a beautiful sight. If he had taken the shape of a woman, he would have been possessed an unmatched beauty that would render people speechless.

“Child, I am a Duke of Hell,” Astaroth began. “I am not someone who breaks his promises.”

The lone black wisp he had summoned waved the child over. 373 stood right in front of it and watched the black tendril wrap itself around her little finger. “The promises I make, I will keep.”

His golden orbs met her probing gaze. He recalled the shift of fate he had sensed and left her with a few words of advise. “Per Angusta, Ad Augusta. Do you understand what that means, pueri?”

“Through difficulties, to honors,” 373 replied. The odd connection between her and the demon allowed her to understand what he had said even though she had never learned to speak Latin.

“You will be able to escape Elisium in three days. But the end result will be far from the result you have envisioned,” Astaroth said. “And your victory – your honor, can only be attained if you choose to fight your battles.”

“Do not let your pain and suffering hinder you from your desires. Great glory often comes with great struggles.” His lofty gaze turned serious.

“Remember that, Pueri.”

373 had a fitful sleep yet woke up the next day a bit earlier than she usually did. At the end of her classes, she stayed a bit longer in their Aquarius with a few children, took a handful of her classmates to Elisium’s laboratories, before heading off to the library’s Restricted Section. She was on edge the entire day, like something was amiss. But she pushed the thought to the back of her head and patiently waited for Michael with a book in tow.

She flicked the pages of the book listlessly. The girl couldn’t concentrate on a single word on the book’s pages. Small hands quietly shut the volume and secretly returned it to one of the shelves. 373 took a few moments to stroll around the Restricted Section in hopes of replaceing a book that would catch her interest. Thirty minutes later, she was still hanging around deserted shelves without a book in her hands and Michael Caelum still hadn’t arrived.

373 exited the library and peeked at the hallways. She passed by her classroom, circled back to the library and went back to the restricted section. There were no signs of the amber-haired boy. It had been an hour since their agreed upon time. For some reason, she recalled Astaroth’s somber gaze and the words the demon had left her. The girl’s body grew cold. The hairs on her skin stood on end. A heavy and disgusting feeling settled in her stomach. Her intuition told her something was wrong.

Did something happen to Michael Caelum?