September in Salus

September 5th

Caelum glanced at Dom's open laptop. It was the night after Caelum had made his promise to Dr. Nichols, and it already felt like something was pressing down on his chest. He was starting to struggle under the weight of an agreement that had seemed so right only a day ago. He still wasn't sure what investigating Dom entailed, but Dr. Nichols had mentioned trying to read his emails if Caelum got the chance. That had seemed incredibly sleazy, but he'd decided that he would try if he had the opportunity. The opportunity had come sooner than expected.

Looking from the laptop to the bathroom door, Caelum tried to talk himself out of what he was going to do. He only had a minute, but he knew he had to take the chance. He perched on the edge of Dom's bed and opened a new tab, clicking quickly to Dom's email account. He scanned the few emails in the inbox. It seemed as though Dom had cleared out a large portion of his inbox, perhaps to try to erase the memories of the friends he couldn't contact. The few remaining were innocuous- messages from colleges, mailing-list emails, and a couple of personal messages. Caelum was about to look more closely at them when the bathroom door opened. Caelum leaped up and snapped the laptop shut.

Dom's eyebrows jumped almost as high as Caelum had. "What were you doing?"

"Nothing! I-"

"Were you reading my emails or something?" Dom didn't bother listening to Caelum's fumbling reply. "Why were you on my computer?"

"I was just... Dr. Nichols..." Crap. He shouldn't have mentioned Dr. Nichols. It was too close to revealing what Dr. Nichols had asked him to do.

"What about Dr. Nichols?" Dom gave him a hard look, and Caelum knew he was waiting for an answer.

"He, uh-" One day and he'd already messed up his assignment. "Listen, I'm just doing what he asked me to do."

Glaring at Caelum, Dom picked up his laptop and set it on his desk. He lifted the cover. "You were looking at my emails! Are you serious? What, does Dr. Nichols think I'm a spy?"

"No!" That was a lie, but even in Dr. Nichols didn't trust Dom, Caelum did.

Dom sighed and sat down on his bed next to Caelum. "He doesn't trust me at all."

"That's not true," Caelum said. "Besides, even if he doesn't trust you much now, once he gets to know you he'll trust you."

"Yeah, sure." Dom rolled his eyes. "I know there's a lot you aren't telling me."

"Like what?"

"Like whatever happened with you and Eli. Why do you guys hate each other so much? I bet you won't answer that."

Caelum didn't want to answer that, but he seized upon the opportunity to distract Dom from his snooping. "I'll answer that."

Dom stared at him. "You will?"

"Yeah. Come with me."

***

Caelum strode purposefully down the hallway. Dom hurried to follow him. They walked to the Osbourn building. The fall air was bracing, but Caelum didn't seem to notice the brisk breeze, or the leaves that blew along the path. They went into the building and up to the third floor where there was a door labeled Archives.

"Here we are," Caelum said, pushing the door open. The room was full of filing cabinets. Caelum headed across the room, all the way to the back, where there was another door labeled Security Recordings. He opened the door and followed Dom inside.

Dom examined the room, utterly confused. The walls were lined with cabinets full of tiny drawers, each one carefully labeled. "What are these?"

"Just a minute," Caelum said. "I'll show you." He flexed his fingers, steeling himself for what he was going to say. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out something that looked like a flash drive. He cleared his throat.

"Eli and I used to be best friends," Caelum started. "Back when we were young enough to have best friends. He came to Salus when he was five, because his brother Will's powers manifested. Will was thirteen. They came with their parents and lived here. We hit it off. We... I don't know. We did little-kid things. We played in the dirt. We caught toads. When I was eight, my... My parents were killed." He stopped. "They... just vanished. My mom disappeared on a mission, and a few weeks after her funeral, so did my dad." Tears crept into his voice. He tried to steady his breathing. After a minute he continued. "Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery offered for me to live with them, but I ended up staying with my aunt. Eli was really supportive. As supportive as an eight-year-old boy could be. He helped make things seem normal."

"When I was nine, my powers manifested. It was pretty early. The council was surprised, but they said my magical education had to start. After about a year I was good enough that they thought I could start going on missions." He stopped and gave a bitter laugh.

"Sending a ten-year-old to fight monsters. Great idea. But the first few missions went okay. Mostly I just watched."

Caelum's voice took on a deeper, serious tone. "By this time, Will Montgomery was really good at magic. He was eighteen, and they'd been sending him on missions for years. They decided to send me on one with him. We got suited up to go, and he relocated us. We ended up somewhere on a street in Denver. And then... I don't know. I don't remember what happened next, and I beat myself up for it every day of my life!" He stopped abruptly and took more deep breaths. "I must've been knocked unconscious, because the next thing I remember is waking up on the street. No one was there. I relocated back to Salus, into Dr. Nichols' office. He wasn't in charge yet, but he was there on the council."

Caelum lifted the hand holding the tiny device. He concentrated, and suddenly a picture shone on the blank wall of the room. The device was a tiny projector, showing a scene taken years ago from a security camera. It was slightly blurry and black and white. The council was sitting in the office, as Dom had seen them do when he came to Salus. The next moment a much younger Caelum appeared in the room. There was no audio, but Dom could see Caelum crying and trying to say something. A minute later, several of the council members vanished. "They never found his body, either," Caelum said. "They grilled me so hard, but I truly don't remember what happened that day. I don't know if I repressed the memory or what, but it's gone." He held up the projector. "This is called a chip. We wear them on every mission we go on, and Will was wearing the one for that mission. We have no idea what went down there."

Dom was speechless. Caelum sighed. "Eli was... devastated. Obviously. Will was... I don't even know. Will was the sun, moon, and stars to him. Eli blamed me for what had happened. We were younger, and he was grieving, but after that we stopped being friends. He refused to talk to me. To this day he hates me, and I think there's still a small part- or maybe a big part- of him that thinks it was my fault, because I panicked and couldn't help Will with... Whatever happened. Oh, and after Will died his parents were so torn up that they left Salus. They moved home, but they had to leave Eli here because his powers had just manifested. They come to visit sometimes, but it's not nearly enough. It's been years since they last came."

Caelum coughed. His throat was dry. Dom finally piped up. "Have you tried to be friends with him again?"

"I... I have. Sometimes. He isn't nice to me. It's like he wants to isolate himself."

Dom was pensive. "That's horrible," he said. "All of it. That's so messed up."

"Yeah." Caelum turned the lights on and put the chip away. "Well, now you know."