"I'm going to turn you into an evolver."
Kian's eyes widened, it was as if his mind refused to process the words. His mouth opened slightly, but no sound came out. He tried to speak but failed to remember how. Even if he could respond to the man, he would not know what to say.
He analysed the man's face as if searching for some indication that this was all just a cruel joke. His hands quivered at his sides and his fingers twitched uncontrollably as if reaching for something to grab onto.
He thought of his dream. His dream was to give his sister a better life, a life that she deserved. To become an evolver and join the COE. That dream felt so far away from him now.
He took a long, deep breath and responded. "I'm sorry but I will have to decline."
The man tilted his head sideways, his joyful expression never leaving his face.
Kian took another breath and continued. "I'm still not sure what's happening right now and I also don't know who... or even what you are, but i just..."
Kian frowned and glanced at his feet in thought as if trying to find what to say.
"I-I just don't want to become like them. The COE I mean. If what you said is true, and If I really do become an evolver, what's even the point anymore? After what happened to me, after what they did to my sister. Hell, I don't even know if she is alive right now. How can I possibly even think to associate with the COE. I'm sorry..."
He glanced back up at the man, expecting to see his once cheerful expression forever replaced by that of outrage or detestation. But the man's smile did not sway.
"Sigh. You assume that one must join the COE just because they are an evolver, but you're wrong." The man let out a slight chuckle and continued, "I mean... do you seriously think that I'm part of the COE?"
"Wait, you're a human?"
"..."
"..."
"You're an idiot, aren't you?"
Kian was yet again in disbelief. He shook his head and changed the subject in order to avoid the embarrassment from the man's insult and asked a question he ha dbeen dying to know since he arrived in this void-like location. "What actually is this place Mr... erm. I dont know your name, sorry."
The man looked at Kian as if he had just heard someone say the dumbest thing ever and responded. "What the hell are you talking about? You're the one who made this place."
"What?! Hold on. Who the hell are yo-"
The man cut him off as he suddenly glanced in a specific direction, his head moved faster than Kian's eyes could register. What he was looking at? Kian did not know. "Seems like you need to go back now. Sorry kid, looking back on it I probably shouldn't have asked you if you wanted to become an evolver because if I'm being honest... I already did it. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
As the man laughed, Kian felt himself start to fade out of this void. He didn't even have time to protest against the man's words as the peaceful and detached feeling he had been experiencing in this void disappeared. It was replaced by anger, guilt, and drive.
As he was vanishing from this place, the man spoke again, this time with a more serious tone. "Look kid I'll explain everything soon. Once you wake up you may feel... a bit different, strange even."
As the familiar sensation of my vision fading yet again came back to me, I saw the man's smile again. It was one of those smiles with a quality of endless reassurance in it, a smile that you may come across only four or five times in life. He continued, this time his joyful tone was back.
"But worry not kid, you will still be able to hear me. Just listen to what I say and you'll be all good. BYE!"
As Kian had faded out of this void, the man, Rohan let out a small chuckle. "Fiat iustitia, ruat caelum. 'Let justice be done, though the heavens fall'."
--------
Back in the slums of Veyros, the COE officer was finishing the restorations of the apartment. She was making it look like the brother and sister who previously lived there had vanished without a trace.
The time it took from when the flame silently entered the boy that the officer presumed dead, to now had only been 10 seconds.
She carried herself with the utmost elegancy, an almost laughable contrast from the previous acts she had committed. She took her phone out of her pocket and dialed a number.
The phone rang a few times before the receiver answered, "Is it done?"
The officer answered immediately, her tone carried vast amounts of respect and formality. "Yes Captain. The boy is dead and there is no trace of us left in the apartment. Jayson took the girl and should be arriving with you shortly."
"Witnesses?"
"No Captain. Rorin informed me before you called that he had executed anyone nearby who may have heard the commotion."
"Good work Sashar."
Click.
As the receiver hung up Sashar, the COE officer let out an audible sigh. Her well-kept and elegant demeanor was still present but her voice and language returned back to her previous tone. "Talking to him is too damn exhausting."
Suddenly, she was pulled from her exhaustion as she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. Without hesitation, she turned her body to face the disturbance.
A glowing silver light was pulsing uncontrollably around the boy she believed was dead.
She squinted her eyes and took a step onwards, attempting to get a better look at what was transpiring. The light was thumping faster and faster around the boy. His once ebony hair that possessed barely observable platinum highlights was transforming. It was becoming white, almost translucent.
The wounds on his body were healing at a perceptible rate, including old scars he had obtained from spending the majority of his life on the streets. His skin, which was once tainted and grime-filled, was becoming clearer and smoother. In terms of evolver standards, he looked average at best, however in slum standards he probably would have been a celebrity, or more realistically been forced into male prostitution.
The COE officer's eyes widened in shock as she came to a sudden realisation. "Wait... No way. He is fucking evolving!"
Her expression turned vulgar and rage-filled as she, without a moment of indecisiveness, reached for the dagger that was strapped to the left side of her midsection, and dashed at the silver glow that was enveloping Kian. Her movement was so rapid, that a small crater was left in place of where she had previously stood.
"HOW FUCKING DARE YOU TRY BECOME LIKE US YOU FILTHY RAT." As she shouted in a rage-filled trance. She lifted her dagger into the air, echoing her previous attack that she believed had killed this boy, and with one swift motion she planted her feet, halting her fast dash across the corridor, and swung her weapon down with all of her might and experience.
Just as her attack seemingly landed on her opponent, the radiant silver light exploded outwards, sending her hurtling backward where she crashed into the wall at the other end of the apartment.
She stood up shakily, her immaculate white clothes had been sullied by splinters and fragments of the wooden walls that she had collided with.
"What on Terran is this? I have witnessed people evolve before my very eyes, but this... This is on a different level."
Her demeanor then changed from shock to pure, untamed rage as she felt the familiar sensation of blood trickling down her forehead, staining a few strands of her hair to a deep red in the process.
"YOU DARE!" She began walking forward heavily with purpose in the direction of Kian while various other daggers of a similar style emerged from inside of her white coat.
"I AM SAHAR VI DRODAS. 20TH OF MY CLASS IN THE ACADEMY AND AN OFFICER OF THE COALITION OF THE EVOLVED." She was getting nearer to the silver light that was obscuring her from seeing the boy.
7 daggers of stunning craftsmanship hovered and hummed in the air around her. The silver glow reflected off each of the blades.
"I am going to put you in the ground once and for all you persistent scum. You may be evolved now but you will always be powerless and pathetic." She paused for a second and whispered with a sickening grin on her face.
"Just like your father."