“Name.” one of the guards asked with a heavy Chinese accent as we approach the gate dividing us. If they thought the group was exceptionally large, they didn’t say anything.

“Trevor Holland.” Trevor replied and the guard pulled out a device from his pocket and proceeded to scan his eyes. The device made a bleeping sound and flashed green afterwards and the guard nodded to his comrade who pressed a button on the wall.

The gate rose up quickly and Trevor stepped through swiftly. The rest of us followed quickly and I tried to act as natural as possible. The gate closed after us almost immediately, causing Oscar at the back to jump away a little in fright.

“How come you have such a large group?” The guard asked just as we were approaching the door that lead to the outside world. My heart froze and my hands started to sweat.  I had never been more annoyed at myself with all my stupid physical reactions under emotional stresses. Seriously. Look at Oscar; he looked perfectly at ease, like he does this kind of thing every day.

“We ran into each other on the way in.” Trevor lied convincingly, then turned to look at Tom. The guard followed his line of vision and eyed Tom up for a while.

“Next time come in separately.” The guard said before resuming whatever it was he was doing before we arrived and the other one did the same. I breathed a silent sigh of relieve and followed the others out the door.

The moment I stepped outside the door a wave of sound, noise and smell hit me. It felt weird and yet familiar. Although truth be told I had never experienced a crowd like this before; Yunan Citybase was packed with people. Stalls were set up either side of the streets each selling different things; pedestrians had only a narrow gap to squeeze through and there were an awful lot of bantering going on. It was so different to London Citybase that I felt like I was transported into another universe. The fact that they were yelling a completely different language added to the effect.

Although English was supposed to be the main language used worldwide, the UGE never enforced it. Partly because of political reasons, but also to avoid a loss of culture; however with the new schooling systems everyone should be able to speak English fluently.

“Follow us. Try not to get lost.” Trevor said and started worming his way down the street. No one seemed to had paid any attention to us even though we had just walked out of a tiny house; however we did got a few extra glances due to the fact that we were predominantly white.

Afraid to loose someone in this narrow street I instinctively grab Natalie’s hand, who was  in front and reached  my hand out to the person behind me. ther person behind me hesitated for a few seconds before taking my hand; curious I turned around to see.

My eyes widened when I saw that it was Tom. He was purposefully looking away from me to the right; a blush made its way to my cheek and the warmth from his hand made my palm tingled. I turned back around and felt my stomach fluttered nervously. Shut up hormones! This is Tom!

We carried on walking in a chain, meandering through the Citybase. The stone paved streets and houses all looked older than the Citybase itself, with numerous monuments scattered in between. This must be one of those Citybase that was built on the old city itself.

After ten minutes or so we reached a little alley way that I would have totally missed if we weren’t following them. Squeezing through the narrow entrance the noise level had suddenly dropped and the air around us cooled under the shadowed path.

“Come in.” Patrick was holding the door for us. I looked up and saw an ordinary house that looked identical to the one either side of it. Before I could take a better look of my surrounding I was ushered inside the room.

It was dark inside; I couldn’t make out anything at first. I instinctively tightened my hands and then remembered belatedly that Tom was behind me. I hope he wouldn’t burn my hand.

However, instead of a burning sensation, what I received was a reassuring squeezed. For a moment I thought it must have been Natalie. But no, it was from Tom.

A giddy smile made its way to my cheek, but I was quickly snapped back to reality when the door slammed behind us and our source of light vanished. I heard some mumblings and someone reprimanding another for not turning on the lights before closing the door.

“There we go.” Trevor said, and light flooded the room. I blinked quickly as my eyes adjusted, raising my right hand to shield the light.

“Trevor!” an excited voice squealed and a Chinese woman appeared from the corridor opposite the door and jumped onto Trevor. Everyone tried not to laugh as Trevor tried to pry off the woman’s arm with no success.

“Mei, there are people here.” He whispered furiously, looking embarrassed and avoid looking in our direction. The woman made some incoherent noises and attached herself tighter on Trevor by wrapping her legs around his waist.

Everyone’s face started turning red from restraining their laughter and Mei seemed to finally realize there were more people in the room than normal.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry.” Mei’s eyes widened when she saw us and literally leaped off Trevor. She had a slight Chinese accent when she spoke which made her voice sounded gentler.

“We have found Abigail, is Nirmal here?” Trevor said to Mei, whose eyes widened even more than I thought was humanly possible. She scanned our faces and finally rests her glaze on my face.

“She just got back from the north; I will inform her right away.” Mei said, before exiting the room swiftly. My friends started to throw me worried glances; why was it so important that they have to find me? Who is this Nirmal person?

“Nirmal? Nirmal Ganesh?” Fred suddenly asked, as though something suddenly clicked inside his brain. Trevor seemed to be relieved by the question and gave Fred and smile and a nod.

“You mean Ganesh as in Yasim Ganesh?” Nate asked, his jaw slacked open in shock. Even though there were Legacy families appearing in POE Academy every now and then – never had they retain the same last name; because that would mean they were a direct descendant.

“Yes.” Trevor said, one of his eyebrows rose. Then he seemed to remember something and exchanged a look with Fred.

“I had forgotten about the code, but no worries, Nirmal will explain everything.” Trevor said.  I bite my lips; an explanation, that sounds like something that we desperately needed. But would it be the answer that we were looking for? Or would it be unwelcome news?

“Hi! Follow me please!” Mei returned moments later and gestured for us to follow her.  Natalie nudged me from the side and I realized I was sort of in a trance and quickly followed behind everyone.

We walked briskly down the corridor behind Mei; the air grew significantly cooler as we walked down and there was barely enough light to see. I was slightly disorientated by the numbers of turn and stairs we had taken, however the journey itself wasn’t very long at all.

“Nirmal, they are here.” Mei knocked on a wooden door and a woman’s voice shouted from inside for us to come in.

The door opened to a surprisingly spacious office and a woman who looked to be in her early twenties stood up behind an overflowing desk to greet us. She had tanned skin and dark hair, probably a mixed race. She smiled at each of us in turns and brightened when she saw me.

“You must be Abigail!” She exclaimed, walking around the desk to me and shook my hand. “I have heard a lot about you. I was hoping you would come soon before I have to go; I would hate it if I missed you.”

“Thanks…” I said, trailing off.  How come everyone knows who I am? This is just strange. As if sensing my question, she released my hand and took a step back to address us all.

“Sit down!” She said, gesturing to the sofa behind us; as we sat down she nodded at Mei who scurried out of the room with speed of light, presumably to see Trevor. A smile made its way to my face at the funny scene earlier. They are adorable.

“You probably have a lot of question, I am afraid I don’t have the answer to all of them.” Nirmal said, leaning on the table and crossed her arms against her chest.

“Who are you? How do you know about me?” I asked, Nirmal smiled as if she was expecting this to come first.

“Katarina told me you would come.” She said, my eyes widened in shock. Katarina Falcon? As if the original prophet? It makes sense that she would know where I end up, but why would she tell this woman about it?

“And for the first question, my name is Nirmal Ganesh.” She said, then turned to look at a portrait behind her – an brown-skinned young man with handsome features and a kind smile. “This is my ancestor Yasim Ganesh. I am the Eastern Citybase manager of the Ganesh family.”

Hey everyone, sorry for the short chapter! It felt like a good place to stop and also I was running out of time - I am leaving tmr at 3 am for my field trip so still need to pack etc!

I haven't done any proof-reading or editing on this at all, so it'll be worst than normal, please bear with me!

Also for those who haven't read my status - I was thinking that Saoirse Ronan would make a better Gail than Shayleen Woodley :) Not all of you are into the whole casting thing, but I kindof like it, it makes wattpad unique in some sense - and i makes me feel like I am actually making a movie!

Anyways let me know how you feel about that.

A lot of you wanted to see a fantasy novel from me :) I am trying to plan it in as much details as possible! Creating a whole new 'nation' of people with the own set of dates, customs and traditions are so exciting and fun :D

the next 2 most voted is HP fan fic and paranormal, I might try to write all 3 together and post two together depending on Progress. Of course, this will all go on after I finish Selection. There is a THIRD book in POE chronicles for sure. And i am toying with the idea of writing one for the Originals.

Anyway I will be gone till next Sunday (24th) so I won't be writing till then :( forgive me x

Comment and vote please x