Arc jumped in place, trying to shake off the nervous energy, and vigorously shook his hands to clear his mind and steady his breathing.
"Just like when you were a child, Arc, come on, you can do it. What is the worst that can happen..."
Arc could still vividly recall the countless attempts to stealthily sneak out of the territory, only to be met with the disapproving gaze of the old man who never failed to block his escapes.
"Child, do you really think you can get away from me? You're a thousand years too young?"
"Shut it, old man!"
"You know, child, I am beginning to think that you just like the taste of this dirt."
Arc pulled himself out of his memories and refocused on the present task. He reasoned that being so far from his territory made it unlikely for the old man to exert any influence here. Arc kept justifying his actions. Although he wasn't scared of being caught, he didn't want that old man to know.
When most of the lights of the orphanage began to dim, Arc jumped into action. Unlike the useless Seedlings that controlled space as cowards scared of their powers, the Nineteenth Family of Feyrish excelled at all applications of space. It was their lifeblood and their one obsession.
Arc could hear the faint murmurs of conversations as caretakers moved around inside one of the buildings, but he remained unfazed. He knew that he could influence their perceptions using his Path, but he was also aware of the limitations of his power - he could only do so with one or two individuals at a time.
Arc moved cautiously through the narrow window he had just managed to pry open, allowing himself into the quiet dormitory building. His footsteps echoed softly in the empty corridors as he made his way to the center of the building, where an old abandoned storage room was. Despite its central location and large size, this strange room was left alone for over two years; it was weird and shrouded in an air of mystery, just like several other locations on the premises.
The sound of footsteps echoed through the desolate halls; Arc could only click his tongue at his bad luck. When Arc peaked his head around the corner, he could see one of the caretakers with an alchemic lantern slowly putting out the lights around the halls, and they slowly made their way toward him.
"Great," Arc complained.
Arc stood in the dimly lit hallway, observing as the caretaker meticulously extinguished the flickering light just around the corner he peaked around. As they drew nearer and nearer, he held his breath, waiting until they were just a few steps around the corner before making his move. As soon as the caretaker was close enough, Arc jumped out, his index finger lifted to head height and moved slightly toward the wall, and the caretaker's head jerked to the side in the direction that Arc's hand moved. In a swift motion, Arc threw his elbow into their head, sending them backward. There, the caretaker lay unconscious, and Arc sighed and began to move again. This event happened several times as Arc went to the supply room.
***
Carter pressed his ear against the wooden door, straining to hear any sound beyond it. He held his breath as he listened intently for any sign of footsteps approaching his room. Gradually, the faint sound of footsteps grew closer, but unlike the lower floors where the lights were put out, these upper floors were left undisturbed. The reason for this was straightforward: Aster occupied a room just a few doors down from Carter's.
As the footsteps slowly passed by, Carter couldn't help but smirk and let out a quiet laugh. He carefully opened his door and slid into the hallway, glancing around with a broad smile as he walked past Aster's room. With a big grin and a chuckle, he began to jog down the hall, feeling confident that Aster wouldn't be able to bother him. Before leaving Aster's room earlier, he locked the door, and as he glanced back, it seemed to be still locked. It appeared that the caretaker, who had just passed, was less observant than Carter had originally thought them to be
"Now, to scratch the itch," Carter said
***
Arc grumbled as another caretaker lay unconscious just behind him. He was beyond annoyed at the number of caretakers who walked the halls so late at night; not even the village guards were this dedicated. It didn't matter anymore as he had finally arrived at the supply room.
"What a barbaric lock... Ironic,"
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The sneer on his lips slowly turned into a smirk at his unintentional joke.
Arc kneeled so he could see into the lock, as he needed to see what he was using his Path on for it to work. As he looked inside the lock, he lifted and lowered his fingers individually, and finally, the lock clicked. Arc pushed the door open but was immediately disappointed by the emptiness.
"Nothing! Really?" Arc said in disappointment
Arc wandered around the barren room. There was literally nothing there, not even dust. He kept pacing around, looking for something. His instincts and curiosity were yelling at him, telling him that there was more to this room than what he could see, but there were no clues as to what that could be.
His fingers moved cautiously over the wall's surface, gently and deliberately tracing the rough edges and smooth curves.
"There has to be something here!"
but his movements were for naught as nothing happened. Frustrated, Arc was about to leave when he thought of something. He began to knock on the walls until he heard a strange echo from behind one of the walls, and a smile grew on his face.
"I knew it! But how do I..."
Arc acted on instinct, swiftly lifting his foot and thrusting it towards the wall. His foot effortlessly punched through the wall with a thud, creating a hole.
"Haha, now that there is a hole... how do I get my foot out..."
As he struggled to free his foot from the wall, he chipped away at the wall until he had created enough space to peek into the hidden room. However, his hopes were crushed when he saw that the room was just as vacant and clean as the one he was currently in.
"How dull..."
Arc's head slowly twisted as his eyes grew wide, and his ears caught the subtle sound of small footsteps drawing nearer.
"No one should be patrolling with the lights out!"
In a panic, Arc bolted out of the room, his hearts pounding as he fled as swiftly as his legs could carry him.
***
Carter moved cautiously, the soles of his feet barely making a sound against the floor. The night was pitch-black, making it difficult to distinguish his surroundings, but faint glimmers of light from a few rooms cast a subtle glow, guiding him as he made his way down to the ground floor, where the storage room was.
When he finally arrived at the door, he noticed something strange about it. He turned the knob and noticed it was already unlocked. The key he had gone through so much trouble to get while spending time in Istina's office with Priya had been wasted.
It was strange, though, the door being opened. When did someone come to this room? In the two months that Carter had been here, not a single Seedling had even glanced at the door, let alone approached it, so who and when?
Carter mulled over the questions as he walked into the room, leaving the door open so the faint glow from outside could bring a small amount of light into it. He glanced around the empty room with squinted eyes, trying to see anything. With a groan, he began to stumble around until he saw a hole as big as his head in one of the walls. It was dark and hard to see anything on the other side, so he stepped back. If he wanted to see what was on the other side of the hole, he would have to make it bigger, bring in a light, or find a way into whatever space was back there.
He once again stumbled around the room, but his eyes always seemed to be pulled to one of the corners where the wall with a hole met another. Something about that corner just pulled him there as if it held the answer, but no matter how he studied the corner, it seemed ordinary. His feet pulled him as if by instinct and pushed against the bottom of the wall, pressing a hidden button, and with a soft click, the wall of the supply room began to sink slowly.
Carter stared at the slowly descending wall with awe. This simple action made him remember something that he thought he had forgotten, but now that memory seemed so long ago that it was just snippets of images in his mind, not even a coherent memory.
As the wall finally came to rest flush with the ground, Carter made his way into the empty room, a little upset at the wasted time and the zero return for his investment. With a sigh, he could only decide to leave the empty room. At first, he thought of trying to raise the wall again, but after thinking about it, he decided it was not his problem.
***
Arc sat quietly just outside the dormitory, concealed behind a cluster of dense shrubs. He studied a roughly drawn map he had crudely sketched during his visits. The map had little to it, just squares marking buildings, lines showing the guard's estimated paths, and other simple details. Others might look and laugh at his crude drawings, but Arc was quite proud of his masterpiece.
"It seems the old dean's building is the most interesting location I can 'inspect' now. I had wanted to save it for last, but after the fiasco that was the supply room, I think it best to go for something much more interesting, or else I will come out of this empty-handed."
Arc knew there was no guarantee that something would be in that old building, but his instincts and curiosity told him that it would be fun and interesting to search it, and those instincts have never steered him wrong.
***
Carter grumbled as he sneaked out of the dormitory window. He was upset at the time he wasted searching the room. Even though he technically discovered something, it ended up being a waste. There were so many other places that he wanted to explore to quench his curiosity, but he knew that he didn't have time to look at all of them tonight, so he needed to decide where he was going next. He sat under the window and began to think, but one place kept popping into his head: the scary old building on the opposite side of the premises where children were too scared to go anywhere near. Something about it told Carter that he would find something there, something a lot more interesting than an empty secret room.