The Lost Paradise

Chapter 35

I reached the plain white room again. One by one my friends started arriving too. They all looked like a mess and I hoped that they were all fine. Passing in two faction tests at the same time was like a bonus, something that we did not expect, but it wasn't easy. It had a big emotional toll on me, I believed it took off a lot for the others too, looking at their faces.

The gem that we had collected individually now slipped from our fingers and flew out, stopping in the air just before our eye level. It then got split into two. My flocc members looked at it with amusement. One turned into green and the other one into blue. The blue one was slightly different than the green one, as it had rough projections out like streaks. Once they got completely split, they moved towards the zarkis got embellished around the magenta stone right next to the flower of love symbol. So now we had three symbols around it. Three symbols, symbolizing three factions. Urich, allorn, and the merms. Two more left, I thought looking at my zarkis in satisfaction.

We did not socialize much that day after the test. We straight lead ourselves to our faction houses, after we left the white room. Vanya was not present when I reached my room, but instead, Stephan was waiting for me there. I raised a brow at him, puzzled. "Did you pass?" he asked me curiously. "Yes, I did", I told him with a small smile. "Ohh, good", he said but for some reason, he looked like he was disappointed.

I stared at his face for a second, trying to get a hold of what he truly meant, but then I forgot everything when he approached me and took me by surprise, kissing me. I went blank suddenly, just like every other time he did that. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me towards him. His scent made me yearn for him more. He brushed his lips against mine softly at the beginning, but then soon it got wild as I started taking charge of him. I pushed him against the closet, which caught him off-guard, but he didn't complain. I ran my fingers around his hair and kissed him back passionately. At that moment, a knock at the door brought us back and apart.

"Damn, you are irresistible", he placed a small kiss on my neck before going to answer the door. It was Stela and Vanya. "We can continue it in my room", he said before kissing me again. Vanya and Stela threw a knowing smile at me. "Noo...No", I started to protest, but it came out awkwardly. "I am tired. I'll meet you later", I told him. "No problem, I'll be waiting", he smiled and left us. I closed the door behind him and sat down on my chair, with a sigh.

"Wow", Stela said after some time. "He seems crazy about you", she added. "I don't know", I told her. "I don't know anything about him though", I told her. "What?", she asked me, perplexed. "Don't you guys talk?", she asked me eagerly. "We used to", I said thoughtfully, "About random, crazy things, but he never spoke about himself", I told her. "Did you try to speak about yourself ever Eliza?", Vanya asked me, and I shook my head negatively. "You both are like closed quarters. Maybe you try speaking your heart first, then maybe he will open up too", she suggested, I gave her advice a thought and nodded. "Yes, I'll do that", I said. "Good", she looked satisfied.

I didn't have much to do after that that day, so I decided to wander around in the library for a bit. I had carried my diary along with me and started filling it with some recent events of my life. I was feeling light and relieved after the test. I felt like a burden lift off my shoulders suddenly. I smiled to myself, thinking how these tests were pushing me to do things that I never thought I would do. 'They were helping us grow', I wrote in my diary.

I was about to leave when I saw someone I haven't seen for a long time walk past me. Reek. Reek had left the room that he and Stela shared and shifted to somewhere else a month back. I hadn't seen him since then. He seemed like he was in a hurry. For a second, I thought of just leaving him out of my mind and going back to my room, but then something stopped me from doing that, my curiosity. I followed him, taking soft steps behind him. I knew that what I was doing was wrong. I justified my actions by telling myself that he was hiding something huge. I just couldn't take my mind off it, until I knew what it was.

He seemed very angry today. His strides were longer and harder. I had to try hard to keep up with him. He entered through the staff section of the library and disappeared inside. I stood outside trying to eavesdrop, I hated doing it, but I did it anyway.

"I hope you have a satisfactory answer this time. I do not have time. Three faction tests are already over", Reek told the other person. "I managed to find something", the other person replied calmly, ignoring Reek's harsh tone. "One of Giggi's classmates is on active field duty now, in the Xuis clan", he told him. Xuis clan was Vanya's clan, I wondered.

"He was one of the close associates of Giggi. He said that Giggi didn't leave Welcimson that day, nor did she leave the faction house", he told Reek. "How is he so sure of that?", Reek questioned him. "The faction house has the details of the log ins and the log outs. He said one of the staff helped him get the details, but he won't say who helped him", he said. There was a deep silence from the other side. "Does that mean...that...my sister...got lost...inside the faction house itself?", Reek asked him, his words shaking. "Do...they have any secret hallways here?", He asked him slowly. "None that I know of", the other person added.

"Okay, thank you", Reek said and started to leave, suddenly pushing through the door behind which I was standing. He saw me and got stunned. Before I could even realize it, he was coming at me, furiously.