After explaining to Gabriel what had happened during the period he was unconscious, his current state, and why he couldn’t leave, Gabriel’s suspicious expression eased slightly and he seemed to reluctantly buy Kain’s story…for now.
However, Gabriel’s pale, piercing eyes—the eyes of someone who had seen far too much and lost far too much faith in the world—seemed to still indicate that he didn’t have much trust in Kain. Whether that mistrust stemmed from not believing Kain was who he said, or that Kain could actually find a solution, he didn’t know.
“I know it will be difficult for you to trust someone that you’ve never met before, but if you want to leave this room and confirm for yourself that what I say is true, and get your freedom back, we need you to be stable enough to leave the confines of this barrier. So Gabriel… do you want to help me think of a solution?” Kain said while tentatively holding up some of the research papers that Kain had already gone through—after all, it always helps to have another look from a different perspective.
Gabriel’s gaze shifted between Kain’s face and the stack of research papers he was holding. After a long moment, he nodded slowly, his hands trembling slightly as he reached out to take one of the papers.
“Fine,” Gabriel murmured, his voice still hoarse but steadying. “But I doubt I’d be of much help…”
Kain smiled faintly, lowering the stack onto the edge of the cot. “A second set of eyes is all that I need for now. Maybe see if anything triggers a memory about something the Doctor said.”
Kain had already had Bea go through Gabriel’s and the other children’s memories, but it’s not as though significant information is tagged within their minds. Bea needed to go through each memory and use her own judgment to determine if the information was important or not.
Therefore, a one-off comment from the members of the organization that Bea may have discarded as insignificant, might suddenly come to Gabriel’s mind when reading the notes.
Gabriel picked up a sheet and scanned it, his brow furrowing. Kain noticed his hands were still shaking, whether, from weakness or residual fear, he wasn’t sure. He refrained from offering assistance, giving Gabriel space to assert himself.
“What exactly am I looking for?” Gabriel asked after a pause, his tone flat but his eyes sharp.
“Anything that may hint at a solution. Your current state could be theoretically solved if you were able to awaken an affinity and bind to a spiritual creature—the feedback due to the contract should be enough to prevent you from essentially exploding due to the excessive amount of energy in your body that is currently being suppressed.
“Unfortunately, only artificial star spaces are implanted into people young individuals who have formed their first star space yet have been successful—the younger the better. Unfortunately, the younger they are the less likely they are to survive the Awakening Ceremony due to the fragility of their souls…there is a reason why the ceremony isn’t conducted until students are at least 17 to 18 years old. Each attempt is a huge strain on the soul, and that is the youngest age where it is considered safe. But after 3 failed attempts the damage to the soul is typically bad enough to instantly cause death.
“You…we can try to have you undergo the Awakening Ceremony, but you are only 11, and likely won’t survive.”
Gabriel nodded in understanding. He remembered overhearing that all of the previous attempts by the organization to have children implanted with the artificial star space awaken an affinity, had ended with their souls, already fragile from prolonged torture, collapsing.
“I vaguely remember something…they said at one point that the solution may come from Series X…but I’m not sure what that means.”
Kain went silent as he pondered that information. The goal of Series X was to eliminate the restriction of affinities entirely…Did they want to bypass the dangers of the Awakening Ceremony by just having the children bind to spiritual creatures without an affinity? But that’s impossible.
Still, Kain decided to shift much of his focus to the research results from Series X, although the information on this series was quite limited.
Seeing Kain’s focused and tired expression, clearly having spent all of his free time on finding a solution for him while he was unconscious, Gabriel couldn’t help asking, “Why do you even care? You don’t know me. You’re not one of their victims. Nor can you even benefit from this research, you’re…” He trailed off, as though realizing he didn’t know enough about Kain to finish the sentence.
Kain hesitated before his voice softened. “Because I have a gut feeling that I can help. And because people like you and my sister, another of the victims, didn’t deserve what happened to you.” Experience new tales on empire
Gabriel’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing, his eyes returning to the papers.
Kain also didn’t mention the less noble reason about the great fame and national power increase to the empire that would result from developing a method capable of allowing all the citizens of the country, most of whom were ordinary, to awaken an affinity. He also wouldn’t have to worry about his own family members not having affinities in the future…
The hours ticked by as they continued to sift through the notes, exchanging the occasional comment or observation. Gabriel’s insights, though sparse, proved valuable. His unique perspective—shaped by firsthand experience as a victim of the experiments—highlighted flaws and inconsistencies Kain hadn’t noticed. It seemed like certain information was intentionally left out of the notes to make it difficult for unrelated individuals to decipher the true results and intentions of the various experiments.
At one point, Kain placed a sheet with an intricate diagram of the artificial star space and the human body in front of Gabriel. “This is part of the E-Series. You were subjected to this one, right? Does any of this seem familiar?”
Gabriel stared at the diagram for a long moment, his pale eyes narrowing. “Some of it… They mentioned things like ‘remapping affinity nodes’ and ‘stabilizing spiritual influx.’ But…” He hesitated, his fingers brushing the edge of the paper. “There was something else. A term they used. ‘Heaven’s Will.'”
“Heaven’s Will…” This was the first time that Kain had come across this term and it wasn’t in any of the notes. However, when looking through the Series X, he did see some mention of a “strong will,” but he’d thought that they were talking about one of their subjects with a particularly strong willpower.
“‘It was determined that the affinity is based on the strong will of H, which is impossible to resist…'”
Kain had interpreted this sentence to mean that the ultimate affinity that one awakens may be dependent on the strong will of a person…but is this “Subject H” actually Heaven? In which case, are all affinities actually dependent on some abstract entity called Heaven? Kain found it difficult to believe.
