What It Meant to Be a Hero

Pain came first. A deep ache pulsed through Nino's entire body before he could even open his eyes. His head felt impossibly heavy, and every breath dragged something sharp across his ribs. Then came the cold. Stone pressed against his back. Somewhere nearby, water dripped at a slow, irritating rhythm.

Nino opened his eyes.

For several seconds, the world remained little more than blurred shapes and pale light. He blinked until the ceiling above him slowly came into focus — rough stone, crossed by narrow veins of golden mineral that reflected the glow of a lantern somewhere beyond his reach.

He tried to move. Metal answered.

Nino's gaze immediately dropped to his wrists. Thick black shackles enclosed them, connected by a short length of chain that disappeared into the wall behind him. Faint lines of golden Pulse moved across the metal in regular intervals. His eyes narrowed.

Noctrium.

Not ordinary restraints, then. He flexed his fingers and felt the familiar presence of Pulse somewhere deep inside himself, but the moment he tried to draw on it, pain burned through his veins.

Nino stopped.

His clothes were torn and stained dark with dried blood. Bandages wrapped his abdomen and disappeared beneath what remained of his shirt, while another crossed his shoulder and part of his chest. His hair fell messily over his face, and even breathing made the wounds beneath the cloth throb.

Something else was missing. His eyes moved across the cell. No sword.

"Looking for something?"

Nino's head lifted. Someone was sitting beyond the bars.

Until then, the man had been little more than a silhouette against the lantern behind him, seated comfortably on a wooden chair with one leg crossed over the other. As Nino's vision cleared, amber eyes became visible beneath short dark-brown hair, studying him with an almost unsettling calm.

Nino recognized him: The Hero of Solvar.

"So the greatest Hero of the Four Nations finally wakes."

Nino said nothing.

The Hero leaned back slightly. Unlike Nino, there wasn't a single piece of armor on him now. He wore a dark shirt beneath the same heavy coat Nino remembered from the Four Nations Hero's Tournament years ago, its collar open around his neck. Even seated, his broad frame made the cheap wooden chair look strangely small beneath him.

"We've heard a lot about your achievements, Hero of Mezi."

Silence.

"Most of it wasn't flattering."

Nino's expression didn't change. The Hero watched him for another moment before a faint smile touched the corner of his mouth.

"Not much of a talker, are you?"

"Where's my sword?"

There was a brief pause. Then the Hero laughed.

"That's your first question?"

"Where is it?"

"Somewhere you can't reach it."

Nino stared at him.

"Relax. No one has touched it. Considering what I saw you do with that thing, however, you'll forgive us for deciding that letting you wake up with it beside you might not be our brightest idea."

Nino looked down at the restraints again.

"And those?"

The Hero followed his gaze.

"Pure Noctrium, reinforced with Pulse by three of our best soldiers."

"Expensive."

"Very." The Hero smiled. "You should feel honored."

Nino didn't respond. He rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to organize the fragments inside his mind.

The Heart. The falling mountain. Arvendel. His sword buried into the side of the Colossus. Alicia's voice.

You're... my hero!

His eyes opened. The mountain had moved. Then, the enormous dead arm falling toward the gates. After that… Nothing. The Hero's voice pulled him back.

"There's something I've been trying to understand."

Nino looked toward him.

"What exactly was someone like you doing there?"

Nino remained silent. The Hero uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, resting his forearms against his knees.

"You're not exactly difficult to recognize. Violet Pulse. The Dark sword. That ridiculous coat." His amber eyes briefly moved over what remained of Nino's clothes. "Even before seeing your face, I had a fairly good idea of who I was looking at."

Nino's gaze remained fixed on him.

"The Hero of Mezi: Zero. The man commonly regarded as the strongest Hero among the Four Nations."

Something in Nino's expression hardened at the second name. The Hero noticed.

"But here's what bothers me." His tone changed slightly. "From everything I've heard, you aren't the sort of man who appears somewhere because people need help."

“...”

"Mezi doesn't send its Hero across borders out of kindness. Someone requests assistance. Agreements are made. Gold changes hands. Your kingdom gets something in return." He tilted his head. "Solvar requested nothing."

“...”

"Mezi received nothing." The Hero paused. "And yet there you were."

Nino's fingers moved slightly against the chain.

"On top of the largest Colossus I've ever seen, heading straight toward that small village." The faint amusement had disappeared from the Hero's face now. "No orders that I know of. No payment. No diplomatic request. You weren't even supposed to be in Solvar."

Nino looked away.

"So you'll understand why I'm curious."

Silence filled the corridor again. The Hero studied him.

"What happened out there?"

Nino's eyes remained lowered.

Images returned in fragments. Number Two touching the Heart. The violet light. The mountain awakening. Three. The children. Nino's head snapped up.

Alicia.

His body moved before thought could catch up. The chains went taut.

CLANK!

The entire section of wall behind him trembled as Nino pulled forward, cracks appearing around the iron fixture anchoring the Noctrium chain into the stone. Pain immediately tore through his body. Nino ignored it.

"Where are they?"

The Hero's eyebrows rose.

"What?"

"The children."

Nino pulled against the chains again.

"And the girl. Where are they?"

The Hero stared at him.

"What children?"

Nino froze.

For the first time since waking, something close to fear appeared in his eyes. The Hero stood.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Nino's breathing grew heavier as he searched his memories. The battle. Three disappearing. The hollow eye. Then he saw it again: A violet streak descending along the body of the Colossus; Alicia on Three's back; Cael and the other kids.

Thank you, Three.

His grip on the chains slowly loosened. Three had taken them away from the Colossus. Away from Arvendel. But why?

"Hey."

Nino looked up. The Hero was standing directly in front of the bars now. Up close, he seemed even larger than he had from a distance, though the calm in his amber eyes remained unchanged.

"Who are you looking for?"

Nino hesitated.

"A girl."

"The blind one?"

Nino's eyes sharpened.

"You saw her?"

"No."

The answer came immediately. Nino's expression darkened.

“But I received a letter from your Shadow friends. Or former friends, from what I can tell.” The Hero stepped away from the bars. “Apparently, she was traveling with you before all of this started. Are you an enemy of your own Nation?"

"Where is she?"

"I don't know."

Nino pulled himself upright despite the pain.

"I need to leave."

The Hero stared at him for a second. Then laughed. Not mockingly. If anything, he sounded genuinely surprised.

“You really are insane. You're lucky I decided not to tell anyone about that letter. Apparently, your Shadows want you back.”

Nino ignored him and tested the chains again.

"Sit down before you tear yourself open. You have poison in your body. One that we couldn’t remove."

"I need to find her."

"And I need you to understand the situation you're in."

Nino looked at him. The Hero's smile disappeared.

"Do you have any idea what happened after you destroyed that Colossus?"

Nino's eyes moved toward him. For several seconds, neither spoke. Then the Hero exhaled and returned to the chair, though this time he didn't sit as casually.

"Arvendel survived."

Nino stopped moving. Almost imperceptibly, the tension in his shoulders eased.

"The edge of the village took some damage. A few buildings collapsed from the shock waves. Plenty of injuries." The Hero paused. "But no one died when the Colossus fell."

Nino lowered his eyes. For a moment, the cell disappeared. He saw sunlight returning between the houses. He heard Alicia.

My hero.

His fingers slowly unclenched.

"You saved them," the Hero said.

Nino looked up.

"Every last one."

The words hung between them. The Hero studied Nino's reaction before continuing.

"And that's where things become complicated."

Nino's expression returned to its usual stillness.

"In Arvendel, they're calling you a hero."

“...”

"I don't mean that ridiculous title the kingdoms give people like us." That caught his attention. The Hero leaned forward. "I mean what the word was supposed to mean."

Nino stared at him.

"To those people, you're not Zero. You're not Mezi's greatest weapon. They don't care how many battles you've won or what your kingdom calls you." His amber eyes remained fixed on Nino. "You're the man who stood against a falling mountain and moved it because their families were underneath."

Something tightened inside Nino's chest. Not pain. Something worse. The Hero continued before he could dwell on it.

"But the ministers of Solvar saw something very different." His voice hardened. "They saw the Hero of another nation appear without permission, destroy a Colossus on our border and send millions of tons of stone crashing directly into the passage protecting our kingdom."

Nino remembered the arm descending toward the gates.

"What happened to the passage?"

"Still standing." A pause. "Mostly."

Nino looked at him. The Hero gave him a dry smile.

"You destroyed a significant portion of our outer fortifications. One of the main gates is gone, two towers collapsed, and several mountain routes are buried beneath enough stone to keep our engineers occupied for months."

"Were there casualties?"

The question came immediately. The Hero went quiet. Nino waited.

"Soldiers were injured."

"Deaths?"

Another pause.

"No."

Nino exhaled through his nose. The Hero noticed.

"Interesting."

"What?"

"Nothing." His gaze lingered on Nino for another second. "For the past few days, I've been trying to convince the ministers that what happened wasn't an attack."

Nino's eyes narrowed.

"The more nervous among them would already have troops marching toward Mezi if I hadn't intervened."

Nino became completely still.

"A Colossus destroys one of the entrances to Solvar while the Hero of Mezi is standing on it. You can imagine how that looks."

"I wasn't sent by Mezi."

"I assumed as much."

"Then tell them."

"I have."

The Hero's expression darkened.

"They want to hear it from you."

Nino stared at him.

"And even that might not be enough. Borders have been reinforced. Commanders are moving troops. The other Nations would love to start a war against Mezi, knowing that you are here in this situation. Messages have already been sent deeper into Solvar." He rested his elbows against his knees. "If this is handled badly, what happened at Arvendel won't be remembered as the day you saved a village." His amber eyes hardened. "It'll be remembered as the day the next war began."

Silence returned.

Nino looked toward the narrow opening near the ceiling of his cell. There was no way to see outside from where he sat, only a thin strip of pale daylight. Something the Hero had said bothered him.

"For the past few days?"

The Hero looked at him. Nino slowly turned.

"How long was I unconscious?"

For once, there was no humor in the man's expression.

"Four days."

Nino stared at him. Four days. His heartbeat accelerated. Alicia had been somewhere out there for four days. Three had taken her, but where? Was she still with the children? Had the Shadows found them? Had One survived? Two… Nino's eyes moved rapidly around the cell.

"I need to leave."

The Hero blinked. Then a disbelieving smile slowly appeared across his face.

"You just woke up after being unconscious for four days."

Nino pushed himself to his feet. His legs nearly failed beneath him, but he caught himself against the wall.

"You have wounds that should still have you in bed, you're chained in Noctrium, half my government thinks you may have committed an act of war..."

Nino straightened as much as his battered body allowed. Dried blood stained the bandages beneath his torn black clothing, but his violet eyes remained fixed on the Hero.

"...and your first thought is to leave?"

"Yes."

The Hero stared at him. A short laugh escaped his mouth.

"I think I'm starting to understand why everyone I've met who knows you looks exhausted."

Nino pulled once against the restraints. The Noctrium chain groaned. The Hero's smile faded.

"Don't."

Nino looked at him.

"I know you can probably break them."

That made him stop. The Hero stood and adjusted the heavy coat around his shoulders.

"I didn't put those chains on you because I believe they can keep the Hero of Mezi in that cell forever." He walked toward the corridor. "I put them there because the ministers needed to believe they could."

Nino watched him.

"Your sword will remain where it is. You'll get it back when I decide giving it to you won't cause an international incident."

"I need to find Alicia."

So that was her name. The Hero paused but didn't turn.

"Then help me make sure you still have a country to search from."

Nino's jaw tightened. The Hero glanced back over his shoulder.

"Now that you're awake, the ministers will want to see you immediately. I'll have everyone assembled in two hours."

"Two hours?"

"They've waited four days." A faint smile returned. "You can survive another two." He started walking away. "One more thing."

Nino watched him stop.

"A delegation from Mezi arrives tomorrow."

That changed everything. Nino's expression hardened.

"Why?"

"Officially?" The Hero looked back at him. "To clarify whether your presence in Solvar was sanctioned by the Crown and determine Mezi's position regarding the destruction of our border."

Nino stared at him.

"And unofficially?"

For the first time, the Hero's smile contained no amusement.

"That's what worries me."

His footsteps disappeared down the stone corridor. Nino remained standing until silence returned. Then his strength gave slightly and he leaned against the wall.