"And you accepted!?" Mana asked, ready to throw a tantrum on Kara.
Mana had left for two weeks, and this happens. She had come to the conclusion that her absence brings a lot of things. She closed her eyes and taking a deep breath, prayed for some help to arrive, she knew things wouldn't turn out very well.
"Well, so did the New-Gal," Kara said sipping water from a glass calmly, taking Mana's little tantrum lightly.
"Even Tacy and Magpie…?" Mana asked.
"Yeah, they were very excited than the New-Gal," Kara said.
"Oh and you didn't find the joy in getting experimented on?" Mana asked.
"Yeah," Kara said, rather calmly.
"I mean… why did you just leave them alone?" Mana asked trying to make her point clear.
"They still are three people and Harun is with them too," Kara said.
"Yeah… and New-Gal said she doubts Harun," Mana said.
"So we both have established calling her as New-Gal without talking on it? Nice," Kara said, jerking her head down and up instantly.
"I'm making a point here Kara. What if Harun actually can't be trusted?" Mana asked.
"He is one person I would trust my life with, ok? Just… believe it," Kara said.
"Well, what if they can't bear it? The powers they are given?" Mana asked.
"Harun will be there," Kara said.
"Yeah, let Harun not be the solution to everything here. Besides that there are other things too," Mana said.
"Like what…?" Kara asked.
"What if they get somehow out of control or something? You don't know if they can control it," Mana said.
"They can and I know," Kara said.
"You say that as if… you are…" Mana paused realising of her own words and looked Kara in the eye. "Wait… you are?"
"Yeah… fine I'm," Kara sighed.
"What…? How and since when? They did that first on you?" Mana asked, doubting her whole reality in seconds.
"Technically it was Psycho's work. The queen found me and they had already 'given me powers'. The queen didn't feel like wanting to still keep me, seeing the dangers. But, Harun was the one who asked her to still try and he wanted to be the one responsible for me I guess and, you know the rest," Kara said stuttering.
"What…? That was all this was about all this time?" Mana seemed shocked.
"Nearly… and Harun was the one who made me better at it. But, didn't want anyone to know, sorry," Kara said, gazing at the royal floor.
"And none of that seems suspicious…?" Mana asked.
"What do you mean….? He… wanted me to be better… and stronger," Kara found realisation lying on the royal floor.
"And why didn't he want you to be there?" Mana asked.
"He said I might intervene and stop it which could cause much more damage," Kara said, searching more on the floor.
"Kara… all of that, seems pretty suspicious to me."
"It could be," Kara said getting up.
"And…?"
"You need to go in," Kara sighed.
"Oh wow… can't we just stop it all together?" Mana sighed, face palming herself.
"Well, I'm not the queen yet and people would trust Harun more unless we have some kind of proof."
"And what can I do…?"
"Ask yourself science nerd," Kara said and started walking away quickly.
"Oh… of course. Make it work you mean," Mana said and ran to catch up to Kara.
*
Mana sneaked into the lab and no one seemed to flinch at her presence. She couldn't find Harun and took a sigh of relief. She went about, searching for where her friends could be and was unsure if she could even find them in the first place.
"Hey, you!" a sharp voice came from behind Mana.
"Oh god," Mana sighed and turned around.
"You are a scientist, aren't you?" the guy asked.
"Um… yes, just reached I guess," Mana tried to fit in, in a rather dumb way.
"Yeah, I heard. They were talking about a lazy lady who would come. You are supposed to be taking care of one whole candidate, which is very important," the guy said looking straight into Mana's eyes.
"Yeah…? Yeah! I mean… of course! That is why I showed up late, silly. I had to practice every skill I had… you know what I mean," Mana said, confused by herself of what she was blabbering.
"Oh like we guards practice fighting…? Didn't know that was a stick of you scientists too. Is 'stick' inappropriate?" he asked.
"I… don't know," Mana said shaking her head.
"Oh great, I was testing you of course. One thing which I practice too," the guy winked to Mana.
"Okay," Mana said letting out a hard breath, this somehow worked.
"Your name is Larion right? My name is Lanthalos… I'll get you to the specimen girls and will fill you on things, in case you got questions," Lanthalos said.
"Yeah, who are these 'specimen girls' though?" Mana asked trying to get information.
"Oh, of course you wouldn't know, as you missed even that," Lanthalos chuckled. "So, these are like the princesses of this planet. I never saw them because I usually just am right around here all the time. By the way, I'm from Monsteruin, where you from?"
"Ah well, Leishank."
"Right, so basically Psycho and you got the same traits or something. Don't worry, our people are called as monsters too you know," Lanthalos winked at Mana.
"Huh…? Cool," Mana said, weirded out. "The girls…"
"Oh right, so we are of course trying to bring out the powers in them, which could be hidden or something I was told."
"Right, forced evolution."
"Yes… that thing. But we are not sure how to do it and are testing on them."
"So… what if it fails?" Mana asked without showing any worry or concern.
"Well, it's not like those lives are important to us anyways. The people would try to save the girls and if failed, they will just escape, they have a way. Besides, this is not the first time they did this. So not our first causality," Lanthalos scoffed.
"Did that when…?"
"With the previous princess actually, she died however and the queen was full angry on Mr. Psycho. And hence we know the current princess is actually a fake one, unless the queen actually married another man, as the rumours go. That queen… is the reason Mr. Psycho is not here with us currently!" Lanthalos said, frustrated.
"Oh, then wouldn't it be a failure if we do these things without him?"
"Yeah… I don't know if I'm supposed to talk of that. But all I can tell you is, he asked us to do this, so don't worry. He always knows what he's doing. As for you, you just better be at your project, that one girl out of three. She is asleep so no problem of you getting hurt."
"And the other two girls…?"
"Oh they are asleep too, just rooms away though."
"Well, I can help with all three though," Mana said, enthusiastically.
"Oh, that you can, they said. But, no… you concentrate on yours and we protect you from the outside, deal?" the guy asked and waited for Mana to hi-fi him.
"Yeah, yeah," Mana said, ignoring the guy's inviting hand.
They reached a room and Mana could see Magpie lying down on a bed inside. Lanthalos unlocked the door and let Mana go in, Mana couldn't react suspiciously so she just sat on a nearby chair to the bed. Lanthalos waited just near the door and watched Mana.
"Are you… going to watch me do this?" Mana asked, staring at Lanthalos without showing any animosity.
"Well, if that creeps you out, I'll leave. But the doors stay closed and I'll keep a watch of that."
"I have nowhere to go," Mana said smiling.
"You better," Lanthalos said and walked away by closing the door.
"But I must go places, sorry for that weird guy," Mana scoffed and turned towards Magpie. "You aren't awake are you?"
Mana checked the screen of a tab which showed Magpie's vitals.
"Tranquilized of course. This one otherwise would have killed everyone with her long, wolf-like nails. I never was ready to learn this concept, but sure it must be related somehow to what I know… hopefully. Let's do something and make sure I don't harm you, huh Magpie?"
***
"Harun, buddy," Kara said with her arms wide open towards Harun.
Kara was at the lab's entrance and Harun was just a few steps away from her. Harun stared at Kara blankly as wind gushed from between them cinematically.
"Yes, my lady?" Harun asked without accepting the hug.
"So, I just wanted to know how things are going with my friends," Kara said, lowering her arms.
"Well, it is not an easy job to start with."
"Yes, I know. That is why I'm here to help you of course. I could look after one of them, you one and Mana one, deal?"
"Oh, Lady Mana returned?"
"Yeah, she just did and now is in the castle of course. She might be interested if the experiment works, cautious one she is," Kara giggled lightly.
"I can understand, but it is safe, I give you my word yet again." Harun said and bowed lightly, politely.
"But, how can you look after all three together?"
"Oh, no worries, we have an order by which I can be at the sides of all three."
"Oh, who goes first I wonder," Kara asked in a casual-tone.
"Lady Tacy."
"Harun… sir!" a guy approached.
"What is it Lanthalos?" Harun asked.
"The one scientist for Project C has come," Lanthalos said.
"I've never seen this guy before," Kara pointed out.
"He is from Monsteruin, a great guard," Harun said.
"Well, don't mind how they call us as monsters," Lanthalos snickered and winked at Kara.
"Don't mind how they call me the polite young queen," Kara sighed looking straight at Harun.
"That wasn't a pickup line, was it?" Lanthalos seemed confused.
"Oh I assure you, it wasn't," Kara said.
"Ok, I must go Lady Kara, you better be at the castle, it will be fine really," Harun said, Kara just faintly smiled at him. "Come on, let us go now Lanthalos."
"Yes sir," Lanthalos said.
The two walked away from Kara's sight, right as she left the lab.
"I dearly hope you get there in time Mana," Kara sighed.
***
Mana was in a very dark place, crawling straight forward into the darkness ahead of her, she was surely unsure of where she was exactly in the building.
"The one place I don't want to ever be again… vents. Let that be a note to self," Mana sighed.
There were openings in each room below her and she tried to find Tacy or New-Gal's faces, below in the rooms.
Finally after some more crawling, she could see the New-Gal lying on a similar bed as Magpie, with no one around her. Mana opened the opening slowly and put her head out to confirm if anyone was hiding in the corners somehow… she was clear luckily.
Mana slowly jumped out to near the bed and confirmed if the New-Gal was awake or not, looking at the tab.
"This one has literally so many different machines around her. Where and how did they make this? Sagarika would be jealous of all of this. Hopefully before reaching Tacy, my help comes to me," Mana sighed.
The tab showed different chemicals used on the specimen New-Gal, just like Magpie's tab did. Everything seemed fine enough but the amount of Anigon used, made Mana flinch with goose-bumps down her spine.
"Huh, it looks like they actually want to kill us, looking at the Anigon* usage here. Someone uses this… the Primevel warriors or something. Or maybe it was Attear's flesh I guess, no blood. Human science and the outside one is surely confusing and different."
Mana was consumed in modifying the usage of chemicals and didn't concentrate on the footsteps approaching the room.
+++
Chapter footnotes:-
1. Anigon:- Bi-product of Primevel blood and Trigon*. Even when blood of a Primevel varies, person-to-person, the Bi-product is roughly the same, with barely differentiable variations.
2. Trigon:- A blue chemical produced by Attears*. Every Primevel warrior goes through a test: defeating an Attear. And whoever completed it, Attears bless them with Trigon. This basically is the reason of heightened senses and strength, in Primevel warriors. There has been zero samples of Trigon, ever obtained, hence it can't be recreated or experimented on.
3. Attear:- A werewolf like creature. Ten feet tall at max. Black-grey hairs and brown eyes, with barely in variations. Four-toed/ four-fingered. Omnivorous. They bleed out Trigon to whoever they find worthy, but their classification of the worthy is unknown.