Caden was taken to one of the warden's secret facilities. The hunters dragged him through a large corridor and steel gate to a small corridor, several other boys were standing in front of him, and advancing in the queue, the woman in the alcove was barking their names. "Caden Snead! Here are your clothes, get dressed in the cabin, and then continue into the inner complex," she told him annoyedly, handing him over his white clothes and letting him go through the door, to the booth on the side, Caden changed his clothes, took his old clothes into his hands and went down the hall to several wardens who searched him and took his old clothes.
Caden then walked into a large dining room. In a moment, a thicker boy stuck on him. "Hi, I'm Tom, you are new here, aren't you? I'm not here too long, at least I think. You don't know if it's day or night, the strange white lights are still on."
"I... I'm Caden."
"That's a great name, I haven't heard that before. What's your ability? I mean magical ability," Tom spoke and led Caden across the complex.
"I don't have one," Caden replied.
"Yeah, that's what everyone here is thinking. They'll let you get used to the environment for a while, and then they'll interrogate you. You should tell them about your ability if you know it. You know… I saw a few guys who resisted for long and... you wouldn't want to end up like them, they didn't look good."
"Boys...?" Caden asked.
"Of course. Girls aren't here, they'll probably be in another complex or wing. Oh, you mean it like that, yeah, the age group is ten to eighteen years," Tom explained.
"What are those dangerously looking green containers on the ceilings?" Caden asked.
"Haha, you got it, because they are fucking dangerous. Em... forgive my dictionary. Those are containers filled with something... eh, I don't remember the name anymore. Have you heard about the attacks on these facilities?"
"No, I haven't," Caden said.
"Well, the cult of the darkness was able to breach into similar facilities a few times and give these bastards a good kickass, and also free the magicians inside. This is a new defence mechanism. In fact, it works like that, at the moment when the wardens would think that they're losing, they will release the content of the containers, and all magicians in the complex would die within a few minutes."
"It would kill only mages?" Caden asked.
"Clearly. Normals can easily put their hands or legs into it, and nothing would happen to them. It works the way, that it burns the magical energy that wardens call a maga. That's what allows us to cast spells. So it actually burns you alive from the inside, great isn't it?" Tom laughed.
"Yeah... maga..."
"It's funny, we call it mana to confuse the wardens. Do you know the table game War Art? It's often played in cities."
"No, I'm from the village," Caden replied.
"It doesn't matter, there is something similar in the game and they call it mana, so mana. But shh… do you see those guys in uniforms? The eye logo in the triangle, and above it another small eye marks the guardians of the wardens, they have these centres in charge. I know, they have confusing ranks, but I didn't think that out!"
"And where am I going to sleep?" Caden asked as he tried to get all the information's Tom told him.
"You have a number on the rags. Look! 68! That's great, I have it too. It's fate, bro, come on, I'll take you to the room. It was empty for a long time," Tom smiled and led Caden through the hallway.
"Those bastards did this to me on purpose..." Caden muttered.
They reached the room with two bunk beds.
"I have the left one, but I'll exchange it with you if you want," Tom said enthusiastically.
"Are we just two here?" Caden asked.
"Yes, we are."
"Great..." Caden murmured.
"Sleep, you're definitely tired of all this, buddy. Tomorrow I'll show you the local gangs," Tom said, swinging to his upper bed and falling asleep.
"Perhaps he won't even talk in sleep," Caden thought, climbed onto the upper bed of the bunk bed on his right and fell asleep.
The next day, Caden and Tom went out to the dining room. They took food at the counter, sat down at a lonely table in the corner, and Tom began to explain. "Over there, you those who are warming up the porridge with their hands. These are fire mages, if you'll ever want to get a warm meal, you should start building good relationships with them. There are frost mages, healers, there are mages of nature. They have no power here. There are all sorts of mages here, and every week we're growing up."
"And what about some brawlers?" Caden asked.
Tom laughed. "This is not a classic prison, dude. Fortunately for us, anger strengthens most of the magical abilities. So the task of guardians is not just to hold us here, but to keep us calm. Every hint of aggression is severely punished. Soon..." Tom was interrupted by the arriving guardians.
"Mr Caden Snead?"
"Yes."
"Come with us."
"Tell them your ability right away," Tom whispered when Caden was taken away.
They led him into the room and sat in a chair. There was a table in front of Caden, and behind him was a woman dressed in plain clothes.
"Hi, Caden. I'm Kate. I'm here to help you," the woman smiled.
"Help me with what?" Caden asked.
"Manage your magical abilities."
"But I have no magical abilities," Caden replied.
A warden with a file entered the room and handed it to the woman.
"This one is special," the warden whispered to her and left the room.
"Hmm... so you can stop the arrows in the air, and you even were at the city guard," Kate said excitedly.
"That some murderers told it to you, doesn't mean it's true," Caden said.
"Caden... Can I call you Caden, right?"
"Call me however you want," Caden replied insulted.
"Um... well, Caden. You know, we work on trust here. We're not like those outside, Caden. But we have to trust them, we have no other option. If you trust us, we will help you."
"And how exactly do you want to help me?" Caden asked.
"To handle your abilities."
"But how?"
"We have our methods, Caden. Just trust us," Kate smiled.
"I have nothing to tell you," Caden answered
Kate's smile fell off. "You know, Caden, the main difference is if you really don't know what your abilities are, or you're deliberately lying to us."
"And what are the procedures in both cases?" Caden asked defiantly.
"If you don't know your ability, we'll do some simple tests to find out. But if you are lying to us, we will have to approach somewhat... unorthodox methods," Kate explained.
"So torture?" Caden laughed.
"Caden, we're not primitives. I would rather call it... Discovery."
"So torture codenamed discovery. Well, I can't wait because I don't have any ability," Caden smiled.
"Caden, don't make fun of us, it's not worth it," Kate told him.
"Do I look like I do? I've been to several interrogations, on the other side of the table, Kate... I'm not afraid of any of your discoveries," Caden replied.
"As you wish, Caden!" Kate stepped up.
"I tried! I'll leave you to others now," Kate left the room.
Two guardians entered the room and Caden was taken back to the dining room.
"What's going on?" Caden asked in confusion.
"You're lucky, lad. The new batch is quite rebellious, but don't worry. The time for you will come too," guardian told him.
Caden returned to the room where Tom sat impatiently on the bed.
"Caden! So what happened?" Tom asked.
"Nothing."
"What? How nothing? Do they already know your ability?" Tom asked.
"I have no ability."
"And they just let you go?" Tom didn't understand.
"Probably not. Listen, when does the school start?" Caden changed the subject.
Tom laughed. "What? What school?"
"Well, it's called a school of magic here, isn't it?"
Tom didn't understand for a moment, and then he started. "Life in here is suffering, you cannot get out, and you will not learn anything needed to live there. But that's the only similarity with the school."
"So there isn't magic learning?" Caden said uncomprehendingly.
"The only ones who learn something here are the wardens, they are learning more about us. It's called like that for the public, so that people won't get so offended. It works the other way, the wardens are trying to limit our magical abilities as much as possible, it's said they give us something to our food," Tom explained.
"Where do you get this information?"
"You have to know how to find them, buddy. Now get some sleep, what awaits you is not really nice," Tom said, and they got into beds.537Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡta2aDa4s46
