ii. unmarked

In his surprise, Kris pressed the knot on the wood a little bit harder than usual that it and spat them out quite violently from the Portal into their world. It was a good thing there weren't any Djinns present when they landed on a clump of bushes. Kris was about to open his mouth and ask Changmin about what the other has noticed when the person he had mentioned not too long ago appeared in front of them.

For a Whisperer, Bhafa Soumm was rather short and kind-looking. But then again, this might be credited to the fact that he had passed the prime years of his life. Perhaps time had already out the charisma and brazened appeal along as he aged. Nevertheless, one can still observe the hints of charm and spunk from his prosperous youth. His thinning hair was the color of ebony wood and his gleaming smile still shone brightly no matter how gray the weather may be. It was this same smile that he welcomed them as he walked towards their direction.

“Bhafa.” they bowed in unison as a sign of respect and the old man acknowledged them with a flick of his hand.

“Kris, may I borrow Changmin for a while?”

The questioned one looked surprised at the statement. “Bhafa may do anything he pleases if it is for the safety and accord of Dunya.” he answered with a bow.

“I was only expecting a yes or no answer, Kris.” the elderly man smiled. “But the words you've said are more pleasing to an old man's ear.” He patted the younger man's shoulder and faced Changmin afterward.

“Changmin, I am highly pleased that you are performing your duties well as Khaka Sahl-angun. Perhaps, it is now time for you to undergo the Final Trial. I believe it is time that you come with me to the Jurist.”

The tall man said nothing and instead bowed his head in approval. Soumm faced the youngest Whisperer again, “Kris, you may go now.”

The young man bowed once more before walking off towards where he was heading. He silently trod the pathway going to the Cloister yet his mind was still trying to make sense of what his friend has said.

“No Mark? How could that possibly be and why haven't I noticed it immediately?”

He was still lost in thoughts even when he reached the marvelous doors of the Cathedral-like structure that he hadn't even noticed the presence of a tall, beautiful girl walking towards him.

“You seem preoccupied, Kris.”

He cast his eyes on the face of the speaker and spoke nothing.

“Lunch is already served. Go take your fill.” Her voice was gentle; a contrast to her lovely but sharp features. She had a soft look in her eyes yet her facade was still of collected solemnness.

“I'll leave the younger ones to you. I still have something to do.” They exchanged bows as a sign of understanding.

The girl was of fair distance already when Kris looked back and called her name. “Nana.”

She stopped on her tracks and turned around; her long, ash-colored cloak billowing in the wind.

“Thank you.”

“Changmin,” Soumm's voice was mild, “do you wish to visit your mother?”

They were on the hallway of the huge building that was the Jurist Hall when Soumm asked him the question. In the dimly-lit hallway, one could not observe the sudden tightening of his features.

“I will visit her once the Trial is done.” He said directly. Soumm gave him a gentle look but the old man didn't press on. He understood what the young man felt.

“Do you know what the Final Trial is all about, Changmin?” He moved on to another topic.

They turned left on a small corridor and the once dimly-lit hallway dimmed more. The echo of their footsteps against the cold brick floor echoed into the spacy and hollow foyer.

“Yilmu. The most arduous training a Whisperer could undergo. They will be trained how to move from one place to another without walking or without the use of any portal, how to Whisper without moving near the subject, how to block their dreams and,” his voice fell into a soft whisper but it still resonated all over the narrow hallway, “how to conceal themselves from the Djinn and Taginep'n.”

“You are truly a brilliant child. I would not be surprised if you pass the trial.” There is a hint of pride in the elderly man's voice. “If what I had expected will happen, you will be the youngest Whisperer to pass the said test.”

Silence enveloped them once more.

“Bhafa...” Changmin started. “This morning, when Kris and I were on our mission,” he paused and tried to sense the interest of his senior, “we observed something peculiar.”

They turned right on another corridor.

“We saw a girl who does not---” Changmin noticed that the hallway was getting narrower.

“Bhafa, I think we took the wrong turn. The Court is on the left part of the Hall.”

The old man said nothing and continued walking. Changmin followed him nervously, his thoughts about the Girl Without A Mark pushed off from his head. They halted in front of a small door. The young Whisperer looked at his mentor confusedly. The aged man pushed open the door and the younger one didn't notice the tears that formed in his eyes when he finally recognized who was inside the room.

“Ina.”

Kris crept in silently and observed the huge room for a moment. The library was a vacuous room with soaring ceilings and sloping floor. Looking straight, he can see the wide blank wall on the northern side of the room. The entire space was filled with nothing except dank air trapped between seemingly endless walls of cold stone.

He walked towards the center of the room, stretched his arms wide open, and looked up to the aphotic ceiling.

“S'nangi ka tahmpar sha.” He chanted in his mind, and like a broken dam, white rays burst from the towering heights of the room and bathe the entire area in a warm light.

His steps echoed as he traversed the empty space towards the east wall. He placed his hand atop the clear surface, very much like what he did on the tree, and searched on until he found a distinct bump. He enclosed his palm around the tiny knob and, as if slashed by a sword, cracks suddenly appeared on the walls of the room. Bright lights emanated from each fissure as the lines connected with one another. The cracks crawled continuously across the stone surface, lines meeting with each other and forming web-like shapes, until the blinding light started to fade and disappear. Kris stepped closer to the walls and noted the seemingly uniformed patterns etched on the surface. A thin smile formed on his lips as he walked around and read the symbols carved on the stone wall.

"Khaka!"

He paused from what he was reading and took a glance at the person who called him. A young boy who looked not a day older than thirteen was panting and catching his breath as he bowed at him. He addressed it with a wave of his hand and the boy continued.

“The troublemaker Djinn is outside the Cloister.”

Kris glare hardened and the newcomer swallowed nervously. “Khaka, we tried to ward him off but he won't go.”

The young Whisperer was still panting and holding on the wall for dear life when he noticed the symbols on the library wall his senior was reading. Kris walked towards the newcomer wordlessly. With a snap of his finger, the light enveloping the room went off and the runes on the wall slowly melted back to form the solid, clear stone wall it once was.

The younger Whisperer gulped; a look of fear evident on his face. In his restiveness, he ended up following his senior to where the chaos was happening instead of leading him.

A crowd was already forming at the foot of the Cloister when Kris emerged from the building. Like an army of soldiers upon the presence of their leader, a hush fell to the crowd. Nobody spoke; all the Whisperers present took a bow but, perhaps out of nervousness, it wasn't in unison. Kris clenched his jaw as he looked at them. He acknowledged the action with a halfhearted wave before finally facing the cause of the ruckus.

The sun has started to dip low into the horizon, painting long shadows across the courtyard. It was almost sundown, he noticed.

“What brought you here, Djinn?”

His voice was quiet but there was a sharp edge in his tone.

Somebody stepped out of the crowd. It was a marvel how he seemed to blend with the white and ash-colored robes of the Whisperers despite his all-black garb. The creature was tall and willowy. His coal-black hair shimmered under the light of the late afternoon sun. He did not look quite different to the person who called him; yet his sinister smile and deep, dark eyes with its big, black pupils were enough to say that he was of a different kind.

“Krease.” The Djinn bowed in a mocking manner. “Are little Whisperers not allowed to play with lonely and friendless Djinns anymore?” He frowned like a lost puppy but his dark eyes glinted maliciously of something else.

A muscle twitched in the Whisperer's face.

“Not if said Djinns were your kind, Tao.” He said quietly. “And these little Whisperers,” he sent a hot glare at the group of young Whisperers, “are supposed to be studying their lessons at this very hour,” his voice dropped into a low hiss sending the younger ones cowering deeper into the shadows, “and not roam around the Cloister like a bunch of freed buffaloes.”

The boy who fetched him from the Library got the message and ushered the younger ones back into the building, leaving the two alone in the courtyard.

“Ah, you are scaring me. It's like we're not friends.” Tao made a move as if to sling his arm over Kris' shoulders but the latter took a step back to avoid it.

“Our friendship ended after what you did, Tao.”

Tao's face darkened and his black pupils grew larger, swallowing the remaining white part of his eyes.

“You are the Whisperer, Kris.” He hissed. “It was you who did it. Not me.”

“I was not supposed to do it!” The tone of his voice rose. “But you made me!”

Tao's angry expression faded into a sly one.

“Ah, but it isn't my fault, Kris. Not my fault that you are gullible.” He smirked and walked around him. “But you are eventually going to do it, yes. You are eventually going to be a Whisperer. What we did is called practicing.” Tao stopped walking and faced Kris. “But it was still you who did it. It was still your voice...” his sadistic sneer mirrored in his eyes. “It was your Whisper which started that girl's miserable life.”

Kris raised his right hand as if to attack Tao but the latter stepped back gracefully, a steady leer etched on his face.

“Don't worry, Kris, old friend. I still haven't told the Jurist about your crime.” He walked backwards with his eyes still pegged on him. “I still haven't told them how you forgot to Mark the girl,” he was already at a far distance but his words still rang clear in Kris' ears, “and how you blew her a Whisper that will change her world and Dunya forever.”

// Sooyoung, Auntie's gone. :'( //

Sooyoung kept reading the message Jessica sent her as if the words would change any moment. She did not know what to answer because she knew that on situations like these, words of empathy, no matter how profound, are of no use. Losing somebody you love is painful but it isn't a disease that one needs to attend to so the pain would immediately disappear. At times, one must feel the pain; get used to it, so it wouldn't hurt anymore. Only time will heal the wound and time is something nobody fully owns in this world.

There she was, sitting on the floor with her head leaning against the side of her bed. She had been praying even before she received the message; hoping that it would prepare her in case the dreaded news arrives. Still, the pain came sharp and forceful. She buried her head on her arms and cried once more.

In her misery, she hadn't realized that she was not alone in the room. Kris silently observed the girl who had been crying nonstop for hours.

As if foreboding something, his encounter with Tao made him rethink back of a mistake he has long tried forgetting. He immediately left Dunya after their confrontation and went straightaway to the University where he and Changmin had been that morning. He looked for the Unmarked Girl through the throngs of people and followed her silently into her house.

Remembering what happened to his senior when he tried to walk towards the girl, Kris was silently grateful that the girl was too deep in her thoughts that she didn’t feel his presence. It was not only when her phone beeped and she started crying that he realized that it may have something to do with the Whisper her friend received that morning.

On the course of his life as a Whisperer, Kris was aware the he should be used for such circumstances. But then again, despite the number of people who have received his Whisper, there was never a time that he stayed behind to observe their reactions. To bring the message, the omen of misfortune, that was what his task is all about; and that was why he could not help but be curious at the unusual scene that he was witnessing.

“Ah, so this is how Humans react to misfortune.” He was watching her intently when the girl stood up and opened her bedroom window.

“Oh, it's almost sundown.” Sooyoung sniffed. She looked down and frowned. “I'm still on my university clothes.”

It took him a while to understand what she just said. She turned away from the window and faced the direction where he sat. Sooyoung started ing her blouse and Kris felt a loud banging in his chest. He immediately busied himself observing the strawberry patterns of her study table lamp; his cold features a deep color of crimson.

The girl had already changed into a sleeveless shirt and shorts when he finally had the courage to look at her direction again. His face was still flushed from the scene he had almost observed. Sooyoung then laid down on the bed with her arms spread-eagled; her long limbs bare for the Whisperer to see.

His cheeks were still red as his gaze traveled all over her body but he had a serious look on his face. "Khaka is right. She does not have a Mark.”

He was immersed in his thoughts once again. “What does it mean to not have a Mark?” He tried to remember what he read in the Library. He already found the chapter on Marks when the young Whisperer disturbed him. His expression tightened as Tao's words played on his mind.

He went on with his monolog. “But every Human is born with a Mark. The Mark we Whisperers leave is simply imprinted beside the Original Mark as a sign that the Human already received a premonition.” He combed a hand through his hair in his frustration.

He tried to remember that long-forgotten memory in search for an answer but it only succeeded in making him lose patience with himself. “My problem was that I didn't know I need to leave a Mark back then so I didn't bother looking for the Original Mark.” His gaze shifted back to the girl lying on the bed. “But she doesn't look like the girl I once Whispered at.” A cold gust of wind blew from the open window and he sighed in despair. “Where is Khaka Changmin when you need him?”

He jerked in surprise when Sooyoung walked towards the study table where was sitting. He jumped just in time before she slumped on the study chair and took out sheets of stationery from the drawer. The girl tucked strands of her hair behind the shell of her ear and started writing.

Something about the way her ears were displayed lured the Whisperer. Kris swallowed a lump on his throat as he fought the dodgy thought that crossed his mind.

“Come on, just a Rustle,” his mind spoke to him, “just to make sure that she is not your first mistake. And then you can go.”

As if in a trance, he could see himself leaning closer towards her, blowing inaudible words in her ear. Sooyoung's pen dropped to the floor and a smirk passed on his face.

He turned around to leave the room, glad of finally being able to calm his inner demons, when her words forced him frozen on the spot.

“WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?”

A/N: OYEAAA Kris-pairings galore! :)) At this point, I suggest some to start taking down notes if the words are getting more confusing for you. ^^;