Cipher Code {complete}

BONUS CHAPTER ii. the orphanage.

†〰†

Davina's Orphan Asylum was the only running children's home in over ten districts. The city it was located in, Shangina, was one of the lucky areas to remain untouched by the attacks that ravished North.

Nestled between two mountains, the institution sat on a high valley. Shielded by the mountain peaks and high cloud cover, no one could find it unless they knew where to look and the right path to take. This was the reason it was one of the most secure orphanages in the nation.

The security of the next generation was it's top priority, and that, in fact, was it's motto. And as a result of that, out of it's three hundred inhabitants, only one-third of the children were orphans.

Due to the high level of education provided by the teaching personnel, influential parents had extended their resources to obtain spots for their children in the institution-but of course, orphans got in for free.

Davina's Orphan Asylum was a steady placer in the top ten most successful learning institutions ranking. It was one of the main producers of North's most prestigious cadets.

Looking prim and proper, and dressed in the crisp uniform of the Asylum, three students with apparently nothing to do sat sprawled around a table among the many in one of the several cafeterias that littered the third level of the orphanage.

"What is he doing? And why is it taking so long?" One of them groaned, hopping off the table and stumbling into an empty chair while ignoring the curious looks thrown his way from the other tables. "I've been watching him for hours now."

"Twenty minutes, Keith," the other boy answered, his arms crossed as he corrected his fellow student's exaggeration. "And Eddy is doing our homework."

Keith raised an eyebrow, sending a playful bow to the girls passing by their table. The flock of females giggled and curtsied before straightening up, smoothing their turquoise skirts and scampering off to occupy one of the numerous tables that took up space in the large hall.

"Really, Esau?" Keith clicked his tongue in disapproval. "That's low."

Esau crossed his legs and shrugged, still seating on the table and watching Edythe scribble away. He could tell that she was hating every minute of the conversation.

He looked up at Keith and grinned, pushing his fingers through the short crop of hair that all male students of the Asylum wore. The same style that Edythe wore. "They can't prove anything."

By 'they' he meant Sister Agnes, president of the disciplinary board and a former high ranking member of the Order before it collapsed.

"They could recover this very conversation. I could be a spy," Keith argued, then as though remembering something, added, "and call me Key. All my friends call me Key."

At this point, Edythe raised her head, setting a glare on the boy. "We are not friends."

She lifted up the two hologram tablets she had been writing on. They were paper thin, transparent and solid. "I'm done."

Esau watched his sister with an dispassionate gaze, eying the time stamp above the assessments. "Barely in time."

Keith let out a quiet laugh. "Your twin is getting red, Esau."

Dressed in the uniform meant for boys and with her hair styled to match Esau's, Edythe looked almost identical to her brother. Their resemblance was to the point that it would be almost impossible to different them if Edythe decided to dye her hair blonde. And she had.

Her fiery locks had been hidden beneath a layer of technological cloaking that could be reversed at anytime she chose.

When they had stumbled into the orphanage three months ago, she had been mistaken as a boy and led into the same dressing room as Esau. Since every process was mechanized, after being cleaned up they had been left alone with the computer. The AI had judged Edythe as Esau's twin, and that was correct, but it had dressed her as a boy since that was what it was programmed to do. The clothes and haircut were preset and could not be altered but it was an easy affair to change something as simple as hair color.