The Golden Children - Chapter 5

Cleo sat in the common room, swinging her feet beneath the chair she was seated on. As usual she was alone. When she and the other two golden children of the Ignis clan had arrived they immediately notified everyone that she was persona-non-grata, and everyone quickly stopped showing any form of friendliness towards her. All golden children knew what being a fourth child in one of the clans of Chaos meant.

That said, she was not the only child exiled by the rest. There was one other child who no one would go near, simply because he was so creepy. His name was Peter and he was obsessed with the the Book of Death. He was an odd looking boy with sunken blue eyes and light brown hair, people said he looked like a ghoul and his almost translucent skin did not dissuade anyone from their view. The other children felt uncomfortable whenever he was around so they steered clear of him even more than of Cleo. It made her happy to think that she was not the worst off here.

The children had been told that all participants would be taken to the testing and instruction room early next morning. Including the thirty six golden children there would be around ten thousand people in this particular class. It was the biggest class in weeks so Cleo hoped she would meet someone who would not snub her based on what her peers said about her.

She looked around the room at the children there. Some were playing, some were practising their family martial arts and a few were reading the books they had been lent. None were willing to even acknowledge Cleo, but she was happy to ignore them. At least they were not trying to attack her as the other children her age in the Ignis clan were likely to do. In the end she decided to explore the other rooms and hallways within the floor. She would bump into less people from the great clans that way. She could not help but hope that she might even meet someone who she could become friends with.

I guess miss never-born is too good to be in our presence! Sniped a girl from the Briar clan called Rose. She was by far the worst person to Cleo out of all the other children. For some reason Cleos continued existence seemed to irritate her.

Ahh Rose, please caress my ear drums with your melodious voice. Said Peter, interrupting Rose. His voice was sickly and it felt like it stained anything it mentioned. You sound so pretty I just want to cut your vocal chords out and keep them in a jar, just for me. Rose shuddered and shut up, not even daring to look at the boy who had just stood up to her. The most subtle reason for people not liking Peter was that he did not blink often enough, it made even the haughtiest member of the briar clan unable to look at him. Everything about him was just odd.

Cleo silently thanked the odd boy, taking the chance Peter gave her to leave the area and explore. The whole domain was an odd one, everywhere was a sort of grey white that was easy upon the eye. It stretched for as far as the eye could see in either direction, but Cleo was not sure if that was an optical illusion or actuality. She walked around the hallways for a while, making sure to remember how many steps she had taken and came across several smaller rooms. Looking in each room she found they were in various states of disrepair, but each one was fundamentally exactly the same. As she looked into a room which seemed to have had all the books taken from it she heard someone talking. They were being quite loud but Cleo was not supposed to be where she was so it made sense that her target was not aware of their volume.

Of course I remember the plan Declan. I made it with you remember? You do not need to lecture me on the intricacies of a two thousand year man-hunt gone awry. The voice sounded quite stressed but Cleo recognised it as Tony, the first Adjudicator in the tower.

Who are they hunting? She thought as she tried to edge closer to the room. This had piqued her interest for the first time since she had been surrounded by the other children.

I have been waiting too long for this, said the second voice. We messed up with the Hephaista clan, so this next arrangement must come off exactly as planned. It was a gravelly voice, similar to Tonys but deeper. Cleo thought they might be from the same clan as they pronounced things in the same way.

Dont worry, Tony replied, I have men placed on every rest floor. They are checking the compiled stories and paths of the passers-by. Soon someone will find him and we will know within two years. He paused as if waiting for something and then continued, I also bribed the Adjudicator for the fourth floor. You should be able to pull the results from your position in the fifth floor with ease. Everything else you set up is still in place. One person in three will still be going on the route nearby where we last heard about him. There should be enough failure and variance that no one gets suspicious.

Good. Once we find him we can begin enacting phase three through to five. Remember Tony, this is all for the clan. For the Lupe.

For two thousand years hard work and for the clan. For the Lupe, Tony replied bitterly.

Cleo felt a pulse of magical energy and then realised something, Tony was an immortal, which meant he might know she was there, or would soon. She pulled back quietly, hoping that the urban legend about immortal super-hearing was just that, an urban legend. After about two minutes of creeping away Cleo assumed she was clear of him and began walking briskly back to her bed space, only stopping to breathe properly once she was inside.

She could not believe she had gotten away, it was incredible to her that Tony had not heard her heart because it was beating so loudly. She only began to feel safe when she actually reached her bed and crawled under the covers with some of her favourite books. She had to tell someone about the plot, mainly because it had something to do with the fallen Hephaista clan, but no one would accept her words as truth. Perhaps there would be a person who she could tell about the plot, about Declan Lupe and his plans to help the Lupe clan. It was then that it dawned on Cleo that she did not actually know much about the plot. She knew there was one, and that it had involved the Hephaista clan, perhaps leading to the fall of the clan in general. She also knew that there were five stages to the plan, and that something went wrong with stage one. But in all honesty she had no idea about the plan at all.

The night went by uneventfully and Cleo went through the motions of going to the testing area as sandy eyed as the rest of the children. Most of them had stayed awake until they literally could not keep their eyes open anymore. Generally speaking Golden Children were spoiled, but they were still young and needed sleep. They may have been the most important and talented children in the clans, but each one was only allowed to become a Saint in the first room of Babel. It was said that if the children did this then they would become far more powerful than they would by just forming their mana reservoirs in the clans personal realm. No one knew if this was truly the case, but the tradition had been set aeons ago. It was not something that anyone would break willingly.

As usual Tony set up shop in the big hall. It was absolutely packed with participants but the thirty six golden children were seated in the front. Tony began his usual spiel about the dangers and nature of the tower. At the point where he began discussing mana and the breathing techniques all the children began pulling in as much mana as they could handle. All three breathing techniques were used and soon enough there were bursts of light from across the front row as each successive child achieved sainthood. There was a faint outline of each childs mana reservoir floating above their head, some wings, forms of nature, a few armours, and some weapons. Each one an odd or different shape, but no bizarre or archaic manifestations.

As they completely filled their mana reservoir, some got up and left, while about ten children stayed behind and let their inner flames ignite. Once that happened they, including Cleo, left the testing area with ease. There was a sigh amongst the crowd after they left because of how easily almost forty children put all the other challengers, most of whom were adults, to shame. It was a truly eye opening experience for some people there who had been trying for months that children, none older than eight, would pass in moments where they failed.

Cleo was happy, she was one of the fair few who had the chance to cultivate an inner Heavenly Flame. Less than thirty percent of all saints gained a heavenly flame and it was a true gift, because there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to who the flames were given to. She examined the flame as she walked up the long and winding staircase to the exit. It was a pure flame, a white flame, the one gifted to chaos practitioners. The flame would allow Cleo to control the temperature and humidity of her spells to much greater effect.

Finally Cleo arrived on the first floor. Below her stood a forest stretching miles both in height and in length. The forest was truly primeval. The young girl could hear sounds of animals fighting, dying and mating as she made her way towards where her pointer stone showed her.

She walked all day, avoiding as much as she could. Anything that truly stood out would likely present her to more of her peers, which was something she would rather avoid. Near the end of the day she found a campsite. The area looked like it had not been used in a while and that the creator of the camp left in a hurry. Perhaps there were some unseen dangers hiding in the shadows of this great forest, just waiting to come out and eat up a small girl. Cleo decided to set up camp anyway.

The night passed by rather uneventfully, the jungle stayed loud and Cleo did not get much sleep, but she was fine the next morning. Once she had fed herself with the fish in the lake next to her, she washed, dressed and moved into the thicker parts of the jungle, following the path of the camp sites previous tenant.

After about four hours she came across a large open area within the trees. It looked like some time back someone or something had become very angry with something they were hunting and tried to destroy all the trees between them and it. She followed the destruction and by sundown it had led to the hollow of a tree. All that was inside the tree was another camp site and an incredibly mangled skeleton.