[TW/Graphic Warning: very brief description of violence]
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At the young age of twenty, a scholarly woman had been invited to join a society of underground secret scientists consisting of both demons and elves. Her knowledge in spellcasting and her ability to learn, understand, and innovate had impressed those in higher positions. Maybe, finally, she would be able to bring success to their most mind-bending experiment.
A feather tip pen dipped fresh in ink tapped onto an empty page, a dot of black spreading wider and wider. With a sigh, the woman turned to the previous page, skimming through the sentences, scrambled, and written without flow.
Precision with ice, increased.
Fire, same color.
Elemental harmony, increased.
No new symptoms.
Tilting her head to the right and then the left, her stiff neck stretched. The pen was set off to the side on a quill holder, and she closed the stack of papers, the wind rushing, making the nearby candle light dance.
She stared at the cover on the pile of data. In big letters, with the clearest handwriting, the words wrote:
Angel Experiment 001
"What do you think?" A familiar voice rang beside her ear.
"Honestly? I think it's pretty dumb. Are they seriously hoping that a creature that has yet to be proven to exist can be created? On what basis? Because it can control all four elements? It seems like it's just some weird mutation, not a precursor to a mythical being. I can't believe scientists of all people believe in this bullshit. Or maybe the elves are delusional because they don't have wings."
The other voice would have laughed given the opportunity, but that person was not one to show big displays of emotion. Instead, she sufficed with a smile. "Illogical, perhaps. But to test the limits of its magic is enticing, wouldn't you agree, Vrona?"
Vrona smirked. "I suppose that part is true, Mon."
Not long after her entry into the underground system, Vrona was quick to be acquainted with Mon, another demon only a couple years older than her, and shared her interest in research. The two of them had been the team's most valuable additions, their young innovative minds, moldable to their agenda.
When Vrona joined the team with an oath of secrecy, she was flooded with reports about this curious elf: Angel Experiment 001, or, AE001. There were results of distress put onto the elf, information about its skills, abilities. What it ate, the result of its diet. Poison and its effect, which were none.
Background: The subject had murdered its parents and as a result had been taken in, and then handed off to the secret society with promises of containment.
And by containment, they'd meant contained and protected experimentation. Because a threat to society was degraded into just a tool.
Theory: If enough pressure was put onto an elf attuned to four elements, then it would awaken the deep rooted powers of an Angel.
Angel: A mythical being of elements, one much like an elf, but stronger, with wings.
It turned out that this branch of the underground society had been investigating proof of Angels. And when they learned of AE001's existence, it was as if a beacon of hope had struck them.
But to Vrona, it was, as she had called it, bullshit. Older scientists just stuck in their hopes stubbornly without realizing their own stupidity.
However, the unique subject of the experiment still intrigued her, so she willingly took on the task. Not in hopes of some fantasy come true, but just pure curiosity with the unusual.
Only a year into reviewing the data, her remarkable analysis to the subject's response data permitted her viewing of the subject, even before Mon. Now, she was allowed to observe the experiments as they happened instead of being stuck in her lab-provided room, working from a distance.
And that was their first mistake.
Vrona didn't know what to expect during their meeting. Perhaps, just a subject on a table with tubes attached. And, well, she was right. It had just been that. There was nothing special on the first day, as the subject had only remained asleep. Blood was drawn at set intervals, and in another set of internals, sedation was injected in.
However, an odd sensation washed over her seeing the subject, the age nearing of her brother's, lay with a loose definition of living. Quickly discarding any thoughts, she straightened herself, for the elf was an object and nothing more.
For the next couple of weeks, she did not visit again. Working on other projects simultaneously and refining her own spells, she was easily distracted as the time passed by.
The next time she went to observe,
Chills shocked through her spine.
The elf was chained to a metal table in an anti-magic chamber. Its eyes were open, but no life caught its sight. Nerves bulged in its temples, neck, and arms. But no other visible symptom showed.
Vrona stepped to the side to peek from a different angle to make sure she had seen correctly. And to her dread, she had. The elf, its arm to the side, bruised in the forearm, crushed, as if with a mallet. She looked around to the faces of the other scientists and lab attendants. All were unfazed. It started to make sense exactly what the data had meant by, "testing the limits." Her heart beat faster and her fists clenched.
In the end, the subject was a murderer. A threat to society. What was done to it was the result of its own actions.
And right in front of her, again, a lab attendant took a hammer and a stake and broke the bone on the other arm.
Vrona did not say a word of protest as the brutal experiments continued to take place in front of her eyes. Following what the others expected of her, she wrote down its reactions, or lack thereof. She wrote down its magical and physical abilities before and after each abuse.
Very quickly, the desensitized lab attendants praised Vrona for her maturity. A demon with no sympathy for elves, they said, as if it was a merit, a thing of gratitude for it was one thing they did not have to worry about with her.
Within a month, she was granted direct contact with AE001.
Their second mistake.
It was lunch time when she had come to observe one day. With a chocolate filled pastry, she wandered in. Holding it to bite in one hand, she used her other hand to grab a notepad with the most recent blood test checks written down.
Reading through the recent procedure performed, she turned to the subject. To her surprise, it was looking at her, and at her met gaze, it looked away.
An object doesn't have interest.
Taking a deep breath in, she used the notepad to lightly tap its thigh, which was covered by a loose linen cloth that had been draped over the subject. "Do you not feel pain? Is that a part of your abilities?"
The elf did not answer, but strangely, its face contorted slightly as if her question was painted with unfamiliarity. Then, its eyes looked to her side and then darted away as quickly as they came.
"Can you talk?"
There was no answer.
"Are you not going to answer me?"
There was still no answer, but its brows twitched and lips pursed slightly, as if preparing for something to happen.
Understanding came to the demoness, having observed more than the others about its barely visible gestures. She set the notepad back down on a table beside them and faced the elf. "I'm not going to shock you for not answering. I don't do that."
Its eyes moved to look at her questionably, eyes empty, distrusting.
But, her precise observance caught another quick dart of the eye from the subject. With scrunched brows, she looked to the direction of its interest, her hand. Or more precisely—
"Are you... interested in this?" Vrona said, eyes wide, holding out the pastry she had in her hand. She thought about the diet the subject was fed, the bland, colorless meals forced down its throat to make sure it was alive and sustainable for the experiments.
Subconsciously, she ripped off a piece and handed it to the subject, to which she was met with a glare. Blinking, she turned her arm around and ate the piece first. "See, no poison. It's safe. Uhm. Normal." She ripped off another piece and brought it to its mouth. This time, it opened confidently. Probably not because it had trusted her. But rather because the elf realized that even if it were poison, it would have been no different from the norm.
The moment the piece was placed on its tongue and it bit into the sweetness, a faintest bit of a glimmer dashed across its eyes.
And something crumbled inside the demoness. Truly realizing, for the first time, that it— that he was just a being like her.