The sky was still tinged with orange when dawn caressed the rooftops of Atokanayah.
The air was fresh, charged with a peculiar silence—the silence of great departures.
In front of the DioAngelo house, Ruggero Martinez stood, arms crossed, in the rising sun.
Usually relaxed, even mocking, he had lost all his charisma.
For right in front of him, in the shade of the veranda, stood Aurona.
Motionless.
Upright.
Silent.
And worse yet… smiling.
But that smile didn't reach her eyes.
Ruggero attempted an awkward wave.
"Nice morning, huh? Hehe..."
Aurona didn't answer. She tilted her head slightly.
"You're the one leaving with my son."
"Yes, exactly. Just to keep watch, eh?" He'll be very well looked after. And I'm an excellent—"
"—"Guide? Protector?" she interrupted. "The one who almost killed him in a courtyard?"
Ruggero swallowed hard.
—"It was… to test his potential. A sort of rite of passage, see? Very common among—"
—"I destroyed a rock yesterday. With a slap."
Silence.
Ruggero didn't react.
Aurona took a step forward.
—"If anything happens to him, Ruggero Martinez… Even if the underworld itself hides you, I'll come for you. And I'll tear every bone from your body, one by one, with my hand alone."
Ruggero blanched.
He murmured a prayer to Attira, his eyes unfocused.
— "Beloved Goddess, guide me away from this celestial fury..."
The door opened behind them.
Leo, wearing his brown coat and carrying his satchel over his shoulder, descended the steps with a calm smile.
— "Ready."
Aurona turned immediately, all smiles, all light.
— "My darling! Haven't you forgotten anything? Your scarf? Your talismans? Your itchy but warm northern socks?"
— "Mom... I'm not on an expedition to the tundra."
— "Mijo..."
She hugged him.
A gentle hug. Long.
Then... one last look at Ruggero.
Cold. Icy.
A finger extended... then a gesture of a slit throat.
Slow. Silent. Without a word.
Ruggero felt a drop of sweat trickle down his back.
Aurona gently kissed her son's forehead.
"I trust you. I've seen you grow. I've seen you mature. Now... it's up to you to prove I was right."
Leo smiled, his eyes shining.
"I'll be back. I promise."
Aurona nodded, her heart pounding.
"In a week... mi niño Leíto."
And she stood there, alone on the doorstep, watching him walk away.
The son.
The memory of the father.
And the one that bound them together.
The road stretched out before them like a long serpent of dust and light.
Leo moved slowly along on his horse—an old brown palfrey he'd managed to rent for 750 Celis, all he could afford.
Beside him, Ruggero, relaxed, almost strolling, aboard a white mount with a leisurely gait, his arms crossed in his black cloak.
After several minutes of silence, Ruggero turned his head.
"Is that a sword? On your hip."
Leo nodded, instinctively placing a hand on the hilt.
"Yeah. It belonged to my father."
Ruggero raised an eyebrow.
"Isn't it too heavy for you?"
Leo smiled slightly.
"It's the only one he had that wasn't too heavy. It's called Hastatum." »
Ruggero repeated the name thoughtfully.
— "Hastatum… a thin, handy, well-balanced blade. One of the first he used, back when we were still going on local missions. Before he wielded weapons twice my size."
Leo remained silent, his eyes lost in the regular movement of the landscape.
Ruggero continued, calmer.
— "The journey will take a day and a half. If the sky stays clear, we'll sleep under the stars tonight."
He glanced at Leo.
— "Have you ever tried it?"
— "Sleeping outside? Once… in the courtyard. To avoid hearing Mom cry."
A silence fell.
Ruggero didn't answer right away.
— "It's… not the same."
He looked at the horizon. The distant hills, the sparse trees, the tall grass.
— "Tonight will be the real test. Not a fight. Not a provocation. Just... the cold. The emptiness. And what your mind does with it."
Leo tightened the reins, staring down the road.
— "As long as I can move forward, I'm fine."
Ruggero smiled.
— "You sound like him."
— "Rowan?"
— "Your father."
He nodded.
— "He always said that: as long as I can move forward, I'm still alive."
And in that breath, carried by the hooves and the wind, the past seemed to walk right beside them.
Night had fallen, vast and deep.
The sky stretched above them, dotted with pale stars, like a silent sea.
The tall grass rustled gently, caressed by the night wind.
Leo sat on a flat stone, his coat rolled behind his head.
Ruggero, on the other side of the small fire, had reached out, creating an invisible sphere that seemed to ripple in the air around them.
A barrier of air, stable, gentle, but firm.
"You activated it again..." Leo said, his eyes narrowing.
"Hm. To keep out critters... or peeping Toms," Ruggero replied nonchalantly, biting into a dried fruit.
Leo straightened slightly.
"By the way... what exactly is your damned ability?"
Ruggero gave a small smile.
"Ah." Finally, the question."
He cracked his fingers and pointed at the barrier with the tip of his shoe.
— "I can lock magical attacks or elements around me."
— "Lock?"
— "Let's say I choose an area, and I freeze it in its current state. The air becomes solid. Flames stop. Even rain stops there."
Leo's eyes widened slightly.
— "Is it like stopping time?"
— "Not exactly. The world around me continues. It's just the interior of the area that's locked. Like a frozen tableau."
He sighed.
— "It's this power that allowed me to become number two in the Cattleya Guild. Right after Maria Cruz."
Leo straightened up a little more.
— "Maria Cruz... the manticore heroine?"
Ruggero nodded.
— "Herself. A real tornado with a sword."
— "She fought with my father, didn't she?"
— "Several times."
A silence.
— "They said he was as strong as her, with the Typhon fragment."
Ruggero slowly turned his head towards the stars.
— "True. He didn't have her rank, nor her titles, but... in the shadows, Rowan was a legend. An unshakable wall."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
— "And you inherited that, kid. You strike like him. You doubt like him. You want to protect, no matter the cost."
Leo looked away, touched.
— "...And you?"
— "Me?"
— "You never say why you do all this."
Ruggero shrugged.
— "Because one day, I believed I could save the world with a prayer to Attira and a little logic. And because... when your father died..."
A silence. He gently rekindled the fire.
— "...I don't want you to disappear too."
Leo lowered his eyes.
— "Don't worry. I'll come back. And I'll find him."
Ruggero nodded slowly.
And for a long moment, they gazed at the stars together, without speaking.
The morning sun filtered through the denser, drier southern foliage.
The heat wasn't oppressive, but it weighed like a silent reminder of the desert of memories Leo was about to cross.
The ground became rockier. The trees fewer.
And suddenly, the landscape opened up.
A ravaged field.
A vast area deformed by time and violence.
Frozen crevices. Split stone slabs. Traces of fire and magic embedded in the earth like scars.
In the center, the rockslide.
A pile of heavy black rocks, covered with moss and dust.
Ruggero stopped.
He looked at the place, arms crossed.
"It's here."
His voice had changed. Less casual. Almost weary.
— "Last time, we stopped here. Your father. Maria. Me. And a few other warriors from the Guild."
He took a few steps in the dry earth, his gaze lost.
— "Maria and Rowan were on the front line. I was in charge of protecting the civilians, further back. The abomination we were facing was a giant chimera. A horror... an S-rank creature."
Leo said nothing. He was listening.
Ruggero continued.
— "At one point, I left the line to guide the last villagers further away.
And that's when I heard it."
He closed his eyes.
— "An explosion. Powerful. Perhaps a combined attack by Maria and Rowan.
And right after... a rockfall. A long, deep rumble. As if the mountain had decided to fall."
He pointed at the pile.
— "When I came back, Maria was on her knees. She was screaming. The mages were trying to lift the rock. But... we couldn't see anything. No trace.
We dug for days, Leo. Days. And nothing."
Leo dismounted. He moved slowly.
He stared at the rocks, the dust, the frozen ground.
Are you down there, Dad?
He placed his hand on a stone.
— "Do you think... he's been stuck down there all this time?"
Ruggero didn't answer right away.
Then he whispered:
— "He's dead, Leo. Under this rubble."
But Leo didn't move.
He squinted. Something caught his attention a little further away.
— "Over there..."
He pointed.
Beyond the rocks, behind a slight slope... there were fields.
And a modest wooden house, almost invisible among the trees.
Ruggero followed his gaze.
— "...Far enough away not to have been affected by the landslide.
But close enough... to have seen what happened."
Leo stepped forward, his gaze harder.
— "Let's go see."
And this time, it wasn't the ground he was questioning... but the survivors.
The small house looked peaceful from the outside.
Tools leaned against the facade. An old hanging lantern. A few pots of dried herbs.
But as soon as Leo and Ruggero knocked, the raspy, suspicious voice that answered suggested a completely different atmosphere.
"What do you want?"
The door slowly opened.
A gray-bearded man, with sun-beaten skin and calloused hands, was staring at them suspiciously. His dark eyes moved cautiously from Leo to Ruggero.
"Who are you?"
"We just want to ask you one question," Leo replied.
"If this is to make me testify before an archivist again, I've already said no."
Leo took 500 Celis from his satchel and slowly placed them in the man's hand.
— "I just want to know what you saw in particular about a red-haired man, my father. No court. No records. Just between us."
The man looked at the documents for a long time. Then he sighed.
— "Okay. But what I'm about to tell you... you don't tell anyone. I've never seen you."
Ruggero narrowed his eyes, already sensing this was no ordinary story.
The man sat down on a stump near the field and lit a pipe.
— "I saw the whole battle from here. I was hidden, wounded, too far away to run. But I saw it. The abomination, the black gates, the screams..."
He looked Leo in the eyes.
— "And I saw him, your father. That red-haired guy... he fought like a monster. He was the one who struck the last blow." And the Netherworld portal was starting to close…
A silence.
— "And that's when I saw something unusual."
Leo held his breath.
— "Right after the explosion, while everyone was cheering for victory… someone pushed him. Your father.
On purpose."
Ruggero's eyes narrowed.
— "What?"
— "I don't know who. I didn't see his face. But it was one of his allies. He was right behind him. And he threw him into the portal before it closed."
Leo clenched his fists.
— "Are you sure?"
— "As sure as day. The portal was unstable. It slammed shut. Then the rockfall followed. But before all that… someone wanted this guy gone."
A crushing silence fell.
The old man sucked on his pipe.
— "And I didn't say anything to the guild. Because I don't want to end up buried in his place."
Ruggero took a step back.
Leo stared into space.
— "My father didn't disappear.
He was made to disappear."
And now, it wasn't a mission anymore.
It was a conspiracy.
To be continued