"That's excellent news, Gharnem!" Kulibren responds excitedly; Gharnem notices an air of relief in Kulibren's statement.
"So is there anything else I need?" Gharnem asks, seemingly taking her new role in stride.
Kulibren looks around, trying to answer Gharnem's question,
"Sadly, this is all we have; she doesn't want to give us anything."
The beeping, whirring noise of floor zero is all Gharnem can think of; not wanting to seem out of place as the only guard who wasn't specifically selected for work on floor zero, Gharnem had been trying to piece together what little information she was given clearance to in an attempt to construct a narrative that would allow her to continue working on floor zero in good conscience. However, the repeated human rights violations she had witnessed would, if she had the ability, provide her with sufficient reason to leave the occupation she had found herself in.
Returning to the present, Gharnem rushes to break the awkward pause, "Well then, looks like we have everything figured out. If you could just give me, a what's it called, you know, just like tell me what to figure out and I'll try my best to figure it out for you." Immediately after forcing that sentence out, Gharnem drops her head into her arms, believing she is not up to any leadership role.
"Well, just do what you usually see other people doing, figure out how her miracle works, and its weaknesses." Kulibren responds,
Gharnem looks at the empty file on the desk in front of her, "Well, now that you bring it up, I do have a question regarding the actual point of our mission?"
"Go on," he replies,
"Well, you know how earlier you said that our mission is to find a way to weaponize or, as you put it, control the miracles of the prisoners?"
"Yes?"
"Well,l we- or at least, I haven't been doing much of that-, how exactly does knowing the weakness of an individual's miracles allow us, or you, to control them?" Gharnem asks, watching Kulibren get up from his table.
"Please walk with me; we have already spent far too much time on such formalities."
Gharnem stands up as well, watching Kulibren enter the monumental underground complex they call floor zero.
Kulibren starts talking, surprising Gharnem, who had assumed she had upset him,
"Our mission is really quite simple when you get down to it."
Gharnem watches the dozens of researchers and guards working in tandem like the microscopic parts in a watch.
Kulibren continues, "The reason you were given such an important role isn't in any way because of your mental capacity or work ethic."
Gharnem rolls her eyes, trying not to display her annoyance at Kulibren's tone-deaf statement.
Kulibren carries on his explanation, "Well, what you first must come to understand is that while seemingly similar, a miracle has almost nothing to do with any other miracle; in fact, people such as myself get paid a living to try and prove that different miracles are even connected. Understand?"
Gharnem nods, waiting for Kulibren to continue, as they navigate themselves around a couple of highly specialized prisons, or Black Boxes.
"This is where they got the names miracles. If there weren't so many people like you- miracles, I mean- like if only let's say ten miracle-born existed, there would be no reason to look for any connection between them; they would simply be seen as superheroes or-."
"God-given miracles," Gharnem buts in,
"But wait, that still doesn't explain what I have to do with this."
"Well, shocking as it may seem, their is only two researched similarities between all miracles," Kulibren answers.
"That being?" Gharnem inquires
"Well, one being the strange yet consistent pattern of miracles remembering some sort of past life, and the related similarity of miracles gaining an increase of power when coming in contact with something related to their past lives, and the other being the reason you are here: every single miracle-born has some sort of limitation to their miracle, which may seem coincidental but proves that they aren't just, well, miracles."
"Sorry?" Gharnem questions,
"Well, the very fact that your miracle can find weaknesses in other people's miracles may imply that there is some thing giving people miracles, then giving them limitations to stop the abuse of their powers.
Kulibren and Gharnem stop in front of the seventh black box,
"The invisible girl's prison, well,l it's just a box right now because we don't know how exactly her invisibility works just yet. Well, ll that's your job now." Kulibren turns his back and starts walking back to where he and Gharnem had just come from.
Gharnem yells out as soon as she notices Kulibren leaving, "Wait!"
Kulibren looks back at her, "There's nothing to wait for; get to interrogating!"
Gharnem continues, "You didn't finish your explanation on what it is we are doing here"
Gharnem notices Kulibren looking unentertained, stopping in the middle of a suspended bridge on the centre of floor zero, he turns around to face Gharnem, now the two being four meters apart, "I've already told you more than your clearance should get you, if you want to find out everything find it out for yourself, or work hard enough for me to trust you with more then what I have given you."
Before Gharnem can complain, Kulibren continues, There'ss a lot of people who, like you, are working because of their curiosity towards our business, a lot of people who work much harder than you, so please, do what is asked of you and keep your questions to yourself."
Gharnem just watches as Kulibren confidently walks away, getting out of Gharnem's sight before Gharnem can come to terms with Kulibren's words.
"Business, this is a prison; he shouldn't look at it as a business, or anything to make money," Gharnem says to herself.
"This shouldn't bother me like it is; I knew what Kulibren was like before I started working here." Gharnem looks around, wishing there was someone to whom she could air her grievances. However, there is no one, not a soul, working with Gharnem,
"As if the invisible girl has no value to the 'business '." Gharnem wonders.
Gharnem steps into the research room, where empty tables surround the second internal black box. As she investigates the room, Gharnem feels as if she is an archaeologist, sifting through the ruins of a fallen city. A few scattered papers filled with crossed-off methods of investigation were in a corner of the floor, so isolated that Gharnem had begun to stop hearing the screams of the other tortured inmates. The only other person in the room is a guard whom the invisible girl agreed to keep around, only if she agrees to stay silent. Gharnem signals the guard to open the door to the illuminated, empty black room.
Gharnem steps inside and makes her way to a concrete table, which is the only object in the room. The door closes behind her, the guard keeping a close eye out to ensure the invisible girl doesn't slip out undetected.
Gharnem takes a deep breath and starts talking to herself, "What does he, Kulibren, even want from me? I'm not a researcher; I'm just a guard who happens to be a-"
Gharnem stops mid-sentence as she hears a voice behind her,
"So that man's name was Kulibren, and you are who he sent."
"This must be the girl," Gharnem thinks to herself,
The invisible girl's voice started soft and almost innocent; Gharnem lowered her guard for a fraction of a second; however, Gharnem's entire body tensed up in stress as the girl's voice changed, changed into
"My voice?"
Gharnem is completely shocked; she feels as if she is listening to an old voice recording,
"Yes, your voice," The invisible voice replies,
Gharnem's stomach knots; she is afraid to turn around, yet she desperately wants to quell her fear.
She decides to turn around.
"You're supposed to be invisible"
Gharnem says as her head starts to pulse out of sheer terror. She had expected to be blankly staring at a wall; however, turning around, instead of seeing nothing at all, she sees a mirror,
"No."
She sees herself.
"Yes, your eyes are telling the truth; I am you, only in looks and voice; however, I am you, just like how right now, you are me, Silia."