The Radiants Chronicons : Vol. I & II Of The Radiants Duology Series

Radiant (Vol. I) - Chapter thirteen

Chapter 13

I let Oge lead me to the left wing of the Clandestine. I hadn't even reached any of these sides before and it took a long time getting there. When we eventually got to the place, I couldn't help but feel amazed. The mechanics domain looked like a world of its own. Words couldn't describe how enthralling the enormous room looked, as I watched how different people helped to build different things.

Oge finally entered a smaller room inside the mechanics domain, where a group of guys were working on a gun pile. "Hey Kóre. Get your ass here."

The first thing I noticed on the person coming forward was a robotic left arm. Bronze coated parts made up the robotic arm and it left me in awe. I turned my head back to the direction of the person's face and realized how very handsome he was. Coral coloured eyes had an amused glint in it and his medium skin tone gave a vigor to it. He smiled widely when he saw Oge. "If it isn't my brilliant friend, Chichi. What's up?"

Oge joked. "Call me Chichi again and I'll break your robotic arm in two."

Kóre answered, in mock-horror. His thick eyebrows wriggling mischievously. "Oh no. Not my prized possession. Break anything else but that."

Oge punched his arm playfully. "Jackass. But seriously, I'd like you to meet Tamar. My new cool friend. She's Levi's new trainee and I'd love you to teach her a thing or two around here, till she becomes a full fighter."

Kóre turned his head to me. "So you're the girl everyone can't stop talking about. Levi's new trainee. I'm Kóre Abayomi. One of the many mechanics around here. My speciality is gun repair and I occasionally make gun powder for you fighters. I'm 16 and I created my own robotic arm. It's dope, Isn't it? They call me the human calculator cause that's my exception. That's pretty much all about me."

I smiled. He had a friendly demeanor and found myself warming up to him. "Tamar Adu. I have an eidetic memory. Also 16 and it's nice to meet you."

Kóre grinned. "A fellow sixteen year old. Cool. I've never had a trainee before, so you'd forgive me if I suck at teaching you. I'm extremely busy tomorrow, so we can start training the day after that. What time would you be free?"

"1 till 4. I guess. My schedule with Levi isn't really specific. He told me that he'd usually be away on meetings, so I can't say. Or can I just come anytime I'm free?"

"I can work with that. Just get prepared to know a lot about guns. Cause that's where I'm amazing at. I've been told."

I chuckled. "I can work with that too."

Oge's voice perched up. "Great. Now that you two have finally met, I need to disappear. I have a meeting that's going to start any minute from now and I've got to go. Later."

Before I could open up mouth to say anything, she had darted off. "Damn, that girl is so fast. Has she forgotten that I don't know my way out of here? She even owes me a damn tour."

Kóre shrugged. "I can do both. Show you the way out and give you the tour."

"You could do that? Thanks."

"You're welcome. Besides, I don't mind. You and I are friends now and I understand how busy Oge always is, so I'm ready to be of help. Follow me."

...
Kóre droned on, while he showed me around. Talking about this place on and on. I could see the passion in his eyes when he spoke. Everything about this Clandestine seemed to light up his face, as he spoke "Look around you. If you look closely, you would see vents all around this place. That's where renewable energy passes through for us to use. That way, it would be impossible to even run out of energy because we have excess amount available. These vents were created by the mechanics domain. I'm not involved in any of that, but it's something I'm proud of talking about."

"I really is impressive. This whole place is incredible. I wish I could see how it looks on the outside. I'd love to see the complete structure."

Kóre's face held an amused look. "You've been living here and you don't realize that it's an underground house? Why else are the windows blocked?"

"I know it's underground. I'd just love to see how it looks. Especially at the top."

"Well, this whole place is underground. None of us are allowed to be at the surface, except foreign representatives and fighters. We can't risk letting anyone seeing any one of us or we'd all go to jail."

"Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"Being on the surface. Seeing humans."

His face scrunched up, as if he was disgusted by the thought. "Why would I miss that? Humans did nothing, but treat me like crap. I grew up as an orphan who lived on the streets. I had no family, so there's nothing to MISS. This is my home. It's all I have."

I couldn't say anything back. I honestly didn't know how growing up for him would have felt like. I had no idea how it was like to have no one to miss. I wanted to tell him something uplifting. To tell him that there was someone out there who would have missed him, but I couldn't. What if no one really cared? Living as an one-armed orphan kid on the streets would have been too much for anyone to bear. But I did tell him the truth. "I have no idea what you went through but I'm glad I met you. You're my only friend, aside from Oge, right now and adapting here is hard enough for me."

"How come?"

"I'm used to being invisible. Staying at the background. I've lived that way all my life, but around here, I have to be more than that. The only way I know how to do so, is to fight. Even that, I suck at it. I don't know how to be like everyone else around here. I don't know how to make myself known."

"Then don't be like everyone else around here. Be you. Cause that's what matters. If you want to fight, then fight. And if you want to be alone, be alone. Everything takes time. All that matters is that you're trying."