Four days.That was the deadline.Rowan DioAngelo had to return.And so far, the clock was still ticking.
Leo, backpack on his back, wandered the sacred streets of Atokanayah, leaving the Spanish class held in the ancient solar pyramid.The engraved steps, the walls painted with ancient spirits, everything breathed the memory of the gods.
He understood Spanish well—his mother, originally from the northern continent, had taught it to him early on. At home, words traveled between languages like perfumes.A mestizo, born between the songs of Aztlán and the wisdom of the ancient Greeks.
But today… he listened to nothing.
Rumors flowed from mouth to mouth.
> "The expedition would have gone wrong…""They defeated the creature, the Husk… but at what cost?""Casualties? You bet, carnage.""A knight would have been buried under the rubble…"
Leo, looking down, clutched his wrist.
The watch.
Still there. Still beating. Tick… tock…
He looked at it almost every five minutes.And by doing so, he could almost believe it was beating like a heart.
But at an intersection, right in the middle of the return…the ticking stopped.
Abruptly.
A shiver crept up his spine. His heart contracted. His breath caught.
"…No."
He started to run. Dropping his bag, his things, his class.He ran faster than he had ever run. All the way home.
---
When he walked through the front door, he first heard silence.
Then... muffled sobs.
And in the living room, his mother, on her knees, held a bloodstained cloak against her. Rowan's. The fabric still impregnated with dust and the smell of ashes.
Facing her, a man. A knight, dressed in torn attire. His leg bandaged. His eyes filled with unshed tears.
"I'm sorry..."Her voice trembled."He's the one... who saved us. If he hadn't intervened... We wouldn't be here."
Aurona was trembling.She couldn't speak.She cried silently, as if her cries were locked away in her soul.
Leo, at the door, didn't move.He listened.He saw.
And his legs gave way.
He collapsed, without a word. Tears gushed out suddenly, without him knowing how to hold them back.
He wanted to scream.He wanted to shout that it wasn't possible.But he was crying. Just crying.
The knight knelt down, wanted to lay a hand on him.But Leo curled up, his head in his arms.
— "The body... hasn't been found."— "Too much rubble... too many collapses."— "He disappeared in the final explosion."
Words.Attempts at consolation.But for Leo, everything rang hollow.
---
Night fell.
In his room, Leo stared at the watch.He hadn't eaten.He hadn't spoken.He hadn't moved.
He stared at this thing that had represented hope. The bond.Her father.
She was motionless.Dead.
But as midnight approached...the hands moved.
A movement.Slow.Tiny.But real.
They weren't really turning.They were oscillating, as if the watch were ticking again.
Leo sat up slowly, his eyes wide open.He didn't dare speak.He didn't dare smile.
But deep inside him... something awakened.
The days passed.
But Leo no longer listened to anything.
Not to the words of compassion.Not to the priests who spoke of "accepting the cycle."Not to the comrades who asked him if he was "all right."
He didn't answer.Because he knew.
People could speak of "probable death."The authorities could declare the "loss of the body."The elders could erect steles.But he had the watch.
And the watch had moved.
No one would believe that an object could be linked to a person, to their aura, to their life.
But he didn't need anyone to believe it.
He felt it.
---
One night, while he was still staring at the watch on his desk, it shone.A pale, bluish glow, almost soft.Not an aggressive light. Not magical in the traditional sense.
Just… alive.
— "What…?"
His eyes closed unintentionally.His body grew heavy.And the world tilted.
He was floating.In a bottomless black sea.A sky without stars.No time, no direction.
And then, he saw him.
Rowan.
Standing. Untouched. Smiling.
His red hair floated as if in water. His violet eyes shone with a warm glow.
— "Dad…?"
— "I'm here, Leo."
— "Are you… alive?! Where are you?! Tell me!"
Rowan knelt down and placed a hand on his shoulder.
— "I'm alive. But far away. Very far away. And held back." »
— "By what?! By whom?!"
— "It's not time to know yet."
Leo felt his fists clench.
— "I... I'll come! I'll find you, I promise!"
A silence. Then Rowan smiled.
— "I'll wait for you. And above all... protect your mother. She'll need you."
The world faded away.The black sea collapsed.And Rowan's voice disappeared with the wind.
— "I believe in you."
---
Leo woke with a start, gasping.
His face was wet with tears.But he wasn't sad.He was determined.
He clutched the watch to his heart.
— "I'll find you. No matter where you are."
---
The following days, the funeral ceremony took place. No coffin.No body.No truth.
Aurona, in a dark dress, wept silently before the altar. The symbol of chivalry shone on it, surrounded by white flowers.
But Leo didn't shed a tear.He watched the scene calmly.Not because he was insensitive.But because he knew.
His father wasn't dead.
---
Back home, as the light fell softly on the walls, Leo approached his mother, who stood alone in the room.
— "Mom... I dreamt about him."
Aurona turned her head, her eyes reddening.
— "...About whom?"
— "Dad. And it wasn't a normal dream. He spoke to me. He told me he was alive. And that I had to protect you."
She remained silent.
He held up the watch.
"It moved. I swear it moved. And it shone. I saw it."
Aurona knelt before him, looking at him for a long time.
She placed her hand on his face.
"I don't know if it was a dream... or a miracle. But I believe you."
Leo nodded.And in her eyes, there was no more childishness.Only a promise.
In his room, lying on the bed, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, Léo could still see his mother's eyes that night. When he'd told her about the dream. When he'd handed her the watch.
> "I believe you."
But... had she really believed him?
He sighed, turned his head toward the bedside table where the watch lay. It shone faintly in the darkness, a reflection of the neighborhood's meager lanterns.
"It doesn't matter..." he murmured.
The goal wasn't for her to believe him.But for her to doubt.For her to hope.Even just a little. Even if she did everything she could to smother it afterward.
He just wanted a spark to remain, somewhere inside her.A tiny fire, lurking in the corner of her heart.Like his own.
---
Months passed. And every day, Leo trained.
Before school.After classes.Late into the night.He practiced sequences, postures, channeling meditations. He read old manuals. Reproduced the combat movements he had seen from his father.
His goal was clear: to awaken his aura.He needed it. He had to become strong.Not to earn respect.But to find his father.And protect the one who remained.
---
But while he dreamed of aura and power...Daily life was falling apart.
Meals became smaller.Bread, harder.Meat, rarer.
One day, the incense radio, a souvenir of their trip to the North, was gone.
Another day, the sacred mirror in the entrance. Then a shelf of antique weapons, which Rowan had restored himself.Then the ceremonial clothes.
Aurona was selling.Discreetly.Silently.
She still smiled.But Leo saw her dark circles, her worn fingers, her hair untied more often than before.
The expedition fund, paid by the Order in case of loss, had helped them for a while.But it hadn't lasted.And now... they were slowly sliding.
Toward poverty.
--Leo, at twelve, understood this better than he should have.And it was eating away at him.
He redoubled his efforts.Hours and hours, fighting against the void. Meditating underwater. Trying to feel what he didn't yet have.
— "Come on... wake up..."He placed his hand against his chest. But nothing.
Not yet.
And yet, he persisted.
Because he had to.
---
One evening, he came home from school earlier than expected.
He heard his mother crying in the bathroom, thinking she was alone.
He didn't go in.He didn't make a noise.He just stood there, on the other side of the door.
And swore, once again, that he would get her out of there.
To be continued
Please log in to leave a comment.