The practice at Jo's house went fine and Jo was glad to have Aaron as her guest too. Ven wasn't able to come with us due to band practice, he plays the violin and sometimes he does the vocals too. We are now back at my dormitory, I'm helping Aaron fix his bed. Luckily, I bought a bed that has a pull-out bed underneath when I first moved into the dormitory because Jo sometimes stays at my place too.
"Here's your pillows and blanket."
Aaron took everything from my hand and helped himself to bed. "Are you not going to sleep yet?" he asked.
I shook my head, "I have to wait until the school band practice from outside ends."
"Band practice where?"
"You will not hear it. Told you, supersonic hearing wave." I placed my hands on my ears mocking an elephant. He just looked at me, not amused. I put them down and groaned.
"It's too hard to make you laugh," I comb my hair in front of my mirror still pondering at the thought that I'm in my pajamas and there's a guy in my room. My parents didn't raise me this way. They'll kill him if they discover. The sudden loud bass from the drum hit my ear really loud. "Ouch," I covered my ears as if it's going to help.
"Are you alright?" Aaron asked. To my surprise, he stood up from the bed and placed his hands on my cheeks. He looks really worried. I tried not to feel anything from that but I did.
"Yeah, don't worry," I rubbed my temples.
"We need to work on your talent," he took his hands back to himself.
"Curse. It's a curse. Talent doesn't hurt you this way." I closed the lights and lay on my bed covering my ears with some pillows. "Goodnight," I bid. I just heard an "Ah" from Aaron and slept.
I overslept again. It took me some time to sleep again last night like the usual days. I sat up on my bed and checked my phone in case there are some changes of schedule announced by our president and luckily, there is.
I bent myself a little to see Aaron at the side but the bed was already kept properly under and he is nowhere to be found. "Where did he go?"
I heard a loud splash of water from the shower. Ah, I better make some breakfast then. I stood up and went to my small kitchen. Took some eggs and scrambled it.
"Are you not getting ready yet?" I heard Aaron ask from the bathroom. He must have felt that I was awake.
"No, the class is canceled today," I informed. The bathroom door opened just right after I cooked the eggs. "Here," I placed the food on the table and saw Aaron standing right in front of me with a towel over his wet hair. "I hope that's enough. If you want bread I have some in here." I took it from the counter and dropped it at the dining table. "Sorry, I'm not as fancy as you are." Remembering what I ate the other day from their place made me embarrassed about what I'm serving him today and yesterday's ramen. I slapped myself on my face trying to contain the embarrassment.
He sat on a chair and took a piece of bread and placed some scrambled eggs on it.
"Soo…are there any agenda for today? I'm not free tomorrow and next Saturday. Wedding and performance." I prepared myself breakfast too. Maybe I should give this Artisan thing a try. Maybe I could finally find a place I could properly belong. But do I?
"We could go to the HQ and have someone teach you to control your talent." He chewed the bread.
"That's fine with me," I took a bite from the bread.
It was peacefully quiet that whole morning. I couldn't hear anything, I'm just focused on us; here eating at this cheap plastic white table in my dormitory. It was like heaven all of a sudden but I know sooner or later hell will rise again. It made me sad and made breakfast unbearable in a not so good way anymore. I ignored the thought and tried to go back to the nice phase. I should cherish the moment while I still can and be able to.
Aaron drove us to the HQ and bid our presence to the Commander. Aaron guided me towards the training grounds. We went straight from the lobby and went straight to the glass door which automatically opened sideways revealing another different world.
In front of me is a huge garden and on the sides are different buildings.
"Medical facility," Aaron pointed at the left. "In front is the Military Facility, on the right is the training grounds. Below this ground is a connection between the Military facility and the Commander's office, again, you're not allowed to come there unless you're part of the circle."
"Even at the Military base?"
"Unless you're called. You'll go there sometime later, they need to interrogate you to make you an official part of this community."
"I see." Somehow, it made me excited.
"Behind that Military facility is also our airport. Well, their airport."
"This is such a huge place. Another world within a world. Are there other communities like this around the world?"
We continued to walk towards our right to head to the training grounds.
"Yes, but currently, we are one of the biggest."
"I could see that."
We are now in the training grounds. Aaron introduced me to the guy I met the other night and then left. The one with long maroon hair.
"Hi, Sapphire. Nice to see you again." he handed his hand.
O god, he knows my name and I don't know his.
"Nice to meet you too." I shook it and smiled at him.
He has long maroon hair, sharp eyes, pointy nose, and slim figure. =I noticed that he loves wearing long and loose fitting clothes. He looks like he's almost wearing a dress.
"What is your problem with your talent?" he placed his hands at his back ready to listen to whatever I said.
"Well, I can't control it. No, wait. I could but it's quite hard. I can let myself focus on one particular noise that I want to hear but I can't shun it completely when I want to. I have a hard time sleeping because of it. I could hear anything that is meters away if I try but it gives me an extreme headache afterward. It's troublesome. Makes me eavesdrop even though I don't want to," I explained.
He brushes his chin while thinking what he could do with me. He attended to teach me to control my talent. Aaron said that this person used to have the opposite problem that I have. He is a shield to our mind just in case someone trespasses. He didn't discover his talent until it was too late. He discovered it after a tragic event but even after discovering that he's a shield he can't control it to let others be shielded too. It caused the death of his family since someone trespassed their mind and somehow poisoned it.
Aaron told me that there's actually a theory that we develop our talents when we are just young when we are experiencing an extreme or rather unforeseen event and trigger that part of our brain to help us.
But I don't remember wanting to eavesdrop although I do remember always listening to my parents' conversation to know what they are planning for me and my siblings. Maybe that's what made my brain enhance my hearing. And maybe that's why this person became a shield because he wanted to become a shield to his family that time during the tragic event.
"Huh, weird, it shouldn't be like that. Did you do something to yourself before?"
"By means?"
"The Commander said that you weren't familiar with your talent until the other day."
"Ah." I brushed my palms on my lap, "My parents put me on medication when I was younger. I always cry because of the pain I experienced from the sound waves. My doctor let me drink medicine, a lot of them, to at least cure me. They even thought I was insane, or maybe until now, but it didn't do me any good. It only worsened my state. I stopped drinking the meds secretly years ago."
"The medication might have altered your brain," he looked at me. "Instead of fixing you it damages you."
"That makes sense."
"We need to go to the Medical Facility then." He stood up and I followed him to the Medical facility.
I looked at the building. Just like the others, it doesn't have a name but just a signage saying it's a Medical facility. I wonder if this whole community actually has a name or it's just simply a nameless special intelligence.
The facility looks like a fancy hospital, wooden chairs and tables, even the lobby looks like an entrance for a hotel. Everyone is treated like a VIP and everyone is taken care of. I'm pretty sure that not everyone here is an Artisan like us and some doctors and nurses are normal humans too by the looks of how they do things.
"You work with normal people too?" I asked.
"Yes. They are paid properly to keep the secret. The patients are not always Artisans; normal people or civilians as we call them have separate quarters and whenever they are being cured by Artisans they make sure that they are dosed at least enough to make things seem hallucinations—they are soldiers. But the service is not going to last forever. The government hates us," he added.
We entered another room which I guess is the Artisan's quarters. Things are just flying around, at least the sharp things are still properly handled by people. There are not many people here, I guess Artisans are actually better at taking care of themselves plus they have talents.
In the middle of the room I saw a familiar face. Stif was there helping a wounded patient lying on the bed. She's wearing a doctor's coat and her hair is in a ponytail. Something white was coming out of her hand as she pressed her palm on the wound.
"There, it should be better." Stif said while the wound immediately disappeared.
"Stif," the person beside me called.
She swiftly turned around to face us and smiled at us brightly. "Hi, Ulysses and Sapphire." She smiled sweetly.
Ulysses! That's his name!
Ulysses started explaining everything to Stif , "her doctor might have given her a heavy dosage of medicine to destroy the part of her brain that was supposed to help her talent grow normally."
"I see," nodded Stif who was glad to help me. She placed her hand over my head as she examined it. "Hmmm, I see, the medicines somehow clogged some part of her brain that is supposed to help her control her talent. What you did was right. Stop drinking it. The blockage is somehow draining away now but I'll help fasten the result."
Something cold went through my head. No, mint. It's minty. It's a nice feeling; my brain feels so relaxed right now.
"You should try practicing your talent in three days or so. But this should do it," she placed her hand inside her lab coat.
"I feel quite lighter. Thanks." I'm jealous of you because you're so pretty and perfect for Aaron. And is actually useful unlike me. Hearing? Of all the things I could wish to have, that's having a loud hearing? Ridiculous.
"Yeah. Anytime. I have to go. I have other patients." She bid goodbye and left.