Veridis Quo

A boy and a girl around 16 years old are lying quietly under a tree. The branches shelter them from the sun as they are shaken by a light breeze.

«Atalanta, Nikola, your father has returned!» A woman's voice in the distance calls to them.

They both jump up, joyful. Quickly, Atalanta gathers the flock and, together with Nikola, leads them back to the stable. They run into the house excitedly and embrace the man.

He gently strokes the wavy hair of the two. «How nice to see you again, it seems like a month ago!»

«What are you talking about father? You only came down two days ago!»

Nikola turns to her to correct her. «Don't talk nonsense! You know that time is a relative concept.»

«Quiet, kids. Can't you see that your father is tired?» their mother intervenes.

The father turns to her. «Never mind. Getting out of town has given me my energy back.» He turns back to the youngsters. «Rather tell me, how did it go these days?»

As soon as they start talking, the father automatically strokes his long beard gathered in a braid.

«Quietly, as usual. We practiced in the morning with mum.» The girl answers first. «I finished reading Frankenstein and the Symposium, then yesterday I caught a boar with my bare hands.»

«I, however, continued my studies on strange matter and how we can replace the energy we get for the house from antimatter, with dark energy using dark matter as a conductor!»

The man runs a hand through his thick hair. «Man, you don't even look like my children by how gifted you are.»

The woman puts a hand on his shoulder. «Darling, we'd better get going before it gets dark.»

He turns to her with a slight note of sadness. «You’re right…»

All four of them set off. Entering the forest, they immediately encounter three bears. Atalanta runs towards them hugging them and climbs onto the back of one of them.

After an hour uphill, the forest ends and they arrive at a clearing before a ravine. They sit down on a couple of logs and light a fire.

While the stone slab placed on top of the fire heats up, the man begins to stare at the flames dancing grimly.

***

Slowly, I recover. I have pains all over my body. I open my eyes. I take off my helmet and stagger to my feet. Everything around us is incinerated.

Bea! Seneca! Where are they?

My eyes roam the room. Something moves. The helmet comes off. It is Seneca!

I run towards them, stumbling a couple of times.

«Seneca, how are you?»

She coughs. «I'm fine, but she doesn't know how long she has left to live.»

«What?!»

I kneel down, Seneca gently handing Bea's body to me. The gash in her chest has healed superficially and her arms have not grown back.

I place a hand on her cheek, stroking it gently. My vision begins to blur, my eyes are filling with tears.

«Bea… Please, hold on…» My voice barely sustains itself.

«Ah, Dango… Don't cry, please…»

«How could I?»

«Mh… You're right… But try to be strong. For me, for Pierrot, for Scares… You helped us all… You are our hero.»

«What kind of hero is one who lets his friends die?»

«One who goes on in spite of everything… One who lives every day with a smile…»

My lips tremble. Tears start to fall. I can't stop them.

«I have a favor to ask you.»

«Tell me…»

«I'm sorry to burden you with tasks before I die…» Her breathing begins to get heavier and slower. «My arms, are they intact?»

«Yes.» Seneca replies in a hushed voice, taking her into her arms.

«Please... take them to Vincent.»

«Why?»

She manages to hint a smile. «The explanation will come on its own…» Her eyes squint.

«I will…» I say barely sobbing.

Seneca wraps an arm around me and leans in.

«Do you think she heard me?»

She hesitates a moment. I feel her pull up her nose. «… Yes… I'm sure she heard you…»

We stay crying for a long time.

…

…

I find in Bea's pockets the diskette. I insert it into my helmet to see what it contained.

«Hello, Dango!»

«Pierrot…»

«This is a recording in my internal system while we're fighting Zanni. I probably died proudly, like a Viking, or a Spartan! There are so many things I would like to tell you, but one message would not be enough. Therefore, I leave you all my remembrance. All that I have experienced can be found in this diskette. Please make good use of it for one of your books, I am counting on it!»

«You jerk… How am I supposed to watch months of non-stop filming?»I say with a heavy smile and my eyes wet again.

I take off my helmet. I take Scares's body, Bea's body and the various fragments of Pierrot without leaving one out. Seneca gives me a hand without saying a word.

Finished, we head to the server room and with the help of some scientists, we use Pierrot and Mamuthones' code to insert it into the network and give free will to all the androids coming from the Muràn factories.

We then head into the laboratories and free anyone imprisoned for the experiments. With more than a thousand people in our wake, we leave the city using barges.

As Seneca and I disembark, we hear the cries of two newborn babies. We look around, but no one seems to have any. From exhaustion, we didn't realise that she had them in her arms the whole time. Bea's arms have become twins.

Seneca and I look at them touched. A couple of ladies, to thank us for our help, use their mutant powers to create threads and weave them into cloths with which to shelter the little ones from the cold.

Grateful, we thank them in turn.

At that moment, it occurs to me that Bea has lost another arm. As soon as I tell Seneca, we get a vehicle and quickly drive to the place marked in Seneca's suit of travel chronology.

As soon as we arrive, we are immediately drawn in by the screams of the newborn. It is not where the arm had been left. Fortunately, she has been taken to shelter by a bear and fed together with her cubs. Had it not been for her, the baby would probably have died. It was difficult to approach the bear at first, but eventually, she must have recognised the scent of the other two baby cubs and allowed us to take her with us. Out of gratitude, we left her a few pieces of meat that we had brought with us.

…

As soon as we arrived in Bergem, we went straight to Vincent.

«Are you sure this is a good idea?» Seneca asks me sceptically.

«Don't worry.»

With the two girls in my arms, I climb over the gate without a problem. After a few moments of hesitation, Seneca joins me.

As soon as I put in the code to open the door, I freeze for a moment. «Seneca, give me the child.»

«Why?»

«Just give her to me.»

She doesn't stop looking at me sceptically, but finally puts her in my arms. As soon as we get inside, I exclaim, «Get down!»

She looks at me confused. «What?»

The next instant, a chair plummets into her face, landing her.

I leap to my feet as if nothing had happened. «Hi, Vincent! Long time no see!»

«We just saw each other three days ago. And would you stop sneaking in like a thief?!»

Seneca stands up.

Vincent looks at her confused. «Who are you?» Then he looks at the three little babies in my arms. «Why did you kidnap newborns?»

«I didn't kidnap them!» I exclaim agitatedly. «They… They are Bea's daughters.»

«Really?!» he asks surprised. «Oh! What joyous news! And where is she now?»

«Truly, she…» I don't have the courage to tell him, nor to look him in the eye.

Vincent changes expression. He wears his hands in his hair. He bows his head. His breathing becomes heavy.

I try to look him in the eyes. «She… would have liked you to take care of them…»

He slowly lifts his face, meeting his tear-filled gaze with mine.

«Knowing what you went through… And what you would have gone through later knowing about her… She wanted you not to get lost…»

He brings his gaze to the girls. With his hands shaking, he slowly reaches out and, gently, takes them in his arms. He does not look away from them for a moment. His eyes do not stop watering with pain and joy. His trembling lips barely form a smile.

«But…» Vincent's smile fades. «I can't take care of all three. But I don't want to separate them.»

Seneca and I exchange a smiling glance. She approaches him, placing a hand on his shoulder. «Don't worry. We can take care of one of them.»

«Are you sure?»

She looks intensely into his eyes. In a calm, light voice she answers him with a simple «Yes.»

Vincent takes a deep breath. «All right.»

Seneca lovingly takes the little one wrapped in the sleeve of my old sweatshirt. I walk up to her, hugging her from behind.

«How will you name her?» Vincent asks us.

Without even thinking twice, we answer together, «Atalanta.»

«What about you? How do you plan to name them?» I ask curiously.

He looks at them lovingly for a moment. «Emily and Victoria»

«Vincent…»

He looks at me happily. «Tell me!»

«We also brought you the pendant you gave Bea.»

«It doesn't matter. I want Atalanta to keep it. In fact, I will have others made for them. One on a waning moon and one on a full moon. That way they will be forever connected.»

We stopped briefly for tea. We told Vincent what had happened the previous days and stayed for some more talk. Before leaving, I told him that I would return as soon as I finished writing the novel about what happened to us.

With a bitter smile, we part.

Seneca and I return to the vehicle.

«What are we going to do?» she asks me.

«There is a place I would have liked to stop.»

***

Nikola and Atalanta sit on either side of their father.

«Dad, could you tell us how you met our mother?» the girl asks.

Dango smiles faintly. He directs his gaze to three graves in front of them. To the left is a slaver stuck in the ground, the middle one has a protective helmet resting on it, and to the left one with three red bracelets encircling three stones stuck in the ground standing up.

«One day, I was walking peacefully through the streets of Bergem. I met an android as smart as you, Nikola… He was dumber at some things, though, come to think of it.»

«Dad, couldn't you skip to the moment when you met her?»

«Before you get to the finish line, you have to go all the way, Nikola.» Seneca replies.

Dango resumes telling the long story while the family, together with the bears, enjoy dinner. The sun sets behind the graves and night, not long in coming.