The exam hall was big enough to fit a thousand people or more. It was more like an arena. Sagiri's feet echoed as he walked into the arena. Sits were arranged three feet apart in each direction. No one else was sitting in the exam hall, and no one welcomed sagiri as he entered. His steps, though silent as he walks down the space between the seats, echoed loudly, filling the empty room.
The silence, however, was much welcomed, and the turmoil stirring in his chest calmed down. It was as if the room was made to silence every outside noise and even the inner turmoil. He could have sat at the front, but he kept walking, covering the room halfway. He sank slowly into a chair and faced the front. The room is square with barren stone walls on all sides. Nothing happens for another half an hour, and sagiri falls into a premeditative sleep. His back was straight, and his hands perfectly resting on his lap.
"Your exam starts now." A voice said next to him, and his eyes snapped open instantly. It was the first time he did not perceive someone approaching. A middle-aged young woman was standing in front of him with an exam paper.
"You have two hours," she said, handing Sagiri an exam paper with his name seal on it. He laid it gently on the desk before raising his head again. When he lifted his head again to ask for a pen, however, the woman was already gone, and a pen was perfectly laid out in front of him. His brows furrowed in astonishment. He had never encountered anyone whose steps he could hear or whose presence he could not perceive.
Her clan or secret tribal art must have been in his locked part of the archive. She bore no tribe tattoo on her skin. For the first time in his life, he felt powerless. Perhaps he had been wrong to think he could perceive everyone's presence.
The room was back to silence again, and he focused his eyes on the question paper. It was questions about history, political strategies, and tribal traditions, all written in the five national languages of Tagayia. Having lived in a small village, if he were a normal kid, he could have only been able to speak at least two languages. Rusha taught him the eastern tribe's Sulari tongue, and Bakuru taught him that the central plains tongue is the Keshu dialect. He already understood both languages long before they could teach him, but he acted as if he didn't know them already to avoid making them worry. They always acted more and more worried every time he developed a new sense.
He answered the questions in Sulari tongue and Keshu dialect perfectly, but wrote half bad and half good in the Tagayia language, which was derived from all tribes and used in all high schools more than the other four. For the questions asked in the western tribes, Wenji's speech was below average, pretending to only understand basic sentences, and for the questions written in the northern Korun tongue, he left them open. He did not want to appear too smart or too stupid, either. When the two hours elapsed, the woman appeared again to pick the answer sheet, and again sagiri couldn't perceive her arrival.
"What are you?!" He snapped when she stood in front of him. Her hair was cleanly shaved, and she wore a flowing garment that swept behind her. Sagiri could not hide the fact that she made him uncomfortable. What is so special about her that I can't hear her movements and perceive her emotions? Her eyes also seemed empty, and Sagiri could not hear any form of life coming from her.
"Your next exam is in the silent room." She said as if she hadn't heard him at all.
"You are not alive…?!" Sagiri went to ask, but she was already gone. That is the strangest thing he had ever experienced in his life. A human without life. What is she? He was still wondering when a direction marshal came to show him to the silent exam room. The one he was just in was already silent, and he wondered how silent an arena had to be to be called silent. His question was answered soon after when he was shown to a small cubicle. It was 10 square feet on all sides and painted black.
Only a table sat in front of him, and two sitting mats on both sides. The same girl from before was sitting on the opposite side, staring at what was on the table. Two glasses were laid out, and a colorless liquid was filled half full in each one. The door shut behind him, and he soon understood why it was called a silent room. Noise was completely cut out, and no air could come in or flow outside. It was a small airtight prison, and the archive inside of him did not like it at all. The fire somewhere behind his chest circled dangerously, hating being caged.
"Sit," his voice said, looking at him as empty as before.
"Let me out!" he snapped, losing control. He had thought that outside noise was overwhelming, but the artificial silence in the small room was even worse than the noise. His pupils dilated, the whites disappearing rapidly. They always went all black with no whites when he was in distress or lost control, and he was close to losing it. He shut his eyes, but that made it worse.
"This exam is short," the woman started, and he regained control for a second, her voice filling the silent void. "I am Kiana." She continued with the same tone, pointing to the other mat. Sagiri looked at her warily for a second before moving to sit his nerves on edge, and he glared at her. She, however, seemed unaffected, waiting for him to sit.
"In front of you are two glasses with different fluids. One is lethal poison, and the other is water. You only have to pick one first, and I pick the remaining to drink. After we drink, the door will open automatically," she explained as if she were describing the weather. It was as if she did not understand that a lethal poison was in one of the glasses, and they all could die.
"What?!" Sagiri snapped, standing to his feet. The ancient power inside him was burning uneasily. It hated being confined in the small space. With every second that passed, the whispers in his head grew louder, whispering things he could not understand. He could feel the marks on his body slithering under his skin, and he hissed, smashing his fists into the wall. It did not dent, however, and instead his fists bled. It was truly a prison.
"The air in the room is also limited to ten minutes, and four have gone by already. If you don't pick a cup at the end of the ten minutes, we all die," she added the last piece of information calmly, still sitting as poised as from the start. Her mouth opened again, and Sagiri wondered if it could get any worse. "This room is also made from the hardest stone to exist, and it can not be forced open. It can only be opened from the outside."
It did get worse than he thought.
The last piece of information hit him like a punch to the gut, and he froze. He did not understand the intention of the test or what it required from him, or if the person behind the scenes who brought him to the city wanted him dead, but one thing was for sure, if he did not choose one drink, they would all die from suffocation, and if he did chose a drink, one of them could surely die.
There was no easy way out. It was a choice between killing them both or killing one of them. Sagiri thought he understood the world from what he knew from the archive inside of him, yet in that moment, he felt so naive. On the other hand, he could unleash what was inside of him and see if it could break the door, but if it was a plan devised by the person hunting him, then he could fall right into his plan.
He sank down to the mat slowly, his eyes shut tight. He could pick one drink and hope it's water, but that meant killing an innocent girl. He might not sensed life from her, but he had smelled death on her, either. Maybe she just had a way to conceal her presence. On top of that, if he failed to choose before time ran out, they would both die. He had to pick first according to the requirements, and that meant her life was in his hands, whatever choice he made. He had never killed a person before, and the ancient power inside of him raged harder responding to his distress.
'Think! Think sagiri! Think! What could Rusha or Bakuru do in this situation? What can you do!' he chanted in his head like a mantra. "Sometimes you don't have to think too much before you act, just act." Rusha's words came rushing to his mind, and it was too late to stop the stupid idea that struck his mind. His hands moved fast as the last minute ticked down. They moved fast, not allowing him to think. In a moment, he grabbed both the drinks, poured them into one, and chugged them down. He just hoped the water could neutralize the poison, or else his life, his so far blind life he had led, had come to an end.
The girl gasped as she watched him drink them both in horror. It was the only reaction she gave since they met. The moment Sagiri jugged the two liquids, it didn't take long for his muscles to lose control, and he fell to the ground with a thud, and everything went dark.