No Turning Back

For a few seconds, Nino tried to understand what was wrong.

A sweet smell filled the air, completely different from the scent of blood, damp stone, and smoke that seemed to have followed him for days. He remained still as he tried to understand where he was. There was something soft beneath his body, a blanket over his chest, and light streaming through a small wooden window beside the bed. Outside, the wind blew against the walls of the house, but the air inside remained warm.

Then he heard a voice from behind a wooden partition.

“Come on! He should be waking up soon!”

Nino opened his eyes.

“Calm down!”

The second voice brought him fully awake before his mind could catch up. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, recognizing it. His last memory was of the sword slipping from his hand, the ground of Veyra rushing toward him, and Tenshi shouting his name as everything disappeared.

Nino moved his fingers beneath the blanket. No pain. That made him stop.

He focused and allowed a small amount of Pulse to flow through his arm. Violet energy appeared easily over his skin, following the channels that, for the past several days, had seemed lined with blades whenever he tried to use them. He waited for the burning. The pressure in his chest. The sensation of the poison spreading along with his own energy.

Nothing happened.

Nino increased the flow. The Pulse reached his shoulder and crossed his chest without resistance, as naturally as it had before Five opened that cut on his body.

The poison was gone.

He pushed the blanket aside and placed his feet on the floor. His body still carried the exhaustion accumulated over the past few days. Beside the bed, his clothes had been folded over a chair, cleaned of the blood and dirt from the journey. His sword, however, was nowhere in the room.

Another impatient voice came from the other side of the partition.

“Is this enough?”

“If you put any more on it, you won’t be able to eat it.”

“I can.”

“With you, I don’t doubt it.”

Nino recognized the amused tone in the response. He got dressed without making a sound and crossed the small room toward the partition. The sweet smell grew stronger on the other side. He took hold of the wooden edge and opened it.

For a few seconds, he simply watched.

Alicia stood in front of a low table, her sleeves rolled up and her hands covered in flour. She still wore a blindfold around her eyes. On the table was a tray of small cookies in different shapes, although some required a certain amount of imagination to recognize. The girl held one of them with extreme care as she tried to decorate its surface by following the instructions of the woman sitting beside her.

It took Nino a little longer to recognize her.

Three was not wearing the black mask that concealed part of her face, nor the Shadow cloak he had grown accustomed to seeing her carry. She wore simple village clothes, and her hair fell loose over her shoulders. Her ruby eyes, once almost always seen through shadows or in the middle of battle, were now completely exposed, along with the small beauty mark near the corner of her mouth. Without the uniform, the weapons, or the symbol of the Shadows, she was another person. Or perhaps this was simply the person who had always existed beneath all of it.

Three noticed his presence first.

Her eyes met his. A faint smile appeared on her face before Alicia tilted her head slightly.

The girl froze.

“Nino?”

He didn’t have time to answer.

“NINO!”

Alicia dropped the cookie onto the table and ran toward his voice. Nino barely managed to open his arms before she threw herself against him. The impact made him take half a step back, and for a moment he remained completely still, looking down at the girl clinging to his waist without knowing exactly what to do.

Then he wrapped one arm around her. Alicia tightened the hug.

“You took forever!”

“I was unconscious.”

“I know!”

“Then it wasn’t exactly my choice.”

“How did you recognize me without me saying anything?”

A laugh came from the table.

Nino looked up. Three was trying to hide her smile as she went back to arranging the cookies on the tray.

“Don’t laugh.”

“I’m not laughing.”

“You are.”

“Maybe a little.”

Nino looked at Alicia again before turning his attention back to Three.

“And how did you get rid of the poison?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“The Arvendel kids?”

“They’re with their family in Arvendel. The King won’t look for them.”

“I hope so...”

Alicia finally released Nino, but continued holding onto part of his shirt, as if she needed to make sure he wouldn’t disappear again. Nino looked at her for a moment before turning his attention back to Three.

“You look different.”

Three raised an eyebrow.

“Was that a compliment?”

“...” He looked away. “Of course.”

She wiped the flour from her fingers with a cloth and stood. Without the cloak, Nino noticed that even her posture seemed different. There was still something of the Shadow in every movement, a precision that years of training would hardly erase, but the need to hide her face or keep one hand close to her weapons at all times was gone.

Nino gestured lightly toward her clothes.

“No mask. No cloak.”

Three opened her arms and looked down at herself.

“Do you prefer the black outfit?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Good. Because officially, I’m not Number Three anymore. I’m an enemy of the kingdom, just like you.”

The humor disappeared from Nino’s face for a moment. Three noticed, but her own smile remained.

“There’s no going back.”

He studied the ruby eyes in front of him. For years, those numbers had been all that mattered. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Zero. Names replaced by positions, people reduced to functions and kept within them until nothing remained except what the King had decided they should be.

Now, standing in front of him, Three was covered in flour and teaching a child how to make cookies.

“Then what am I supposed to call you?” Nino asked.

She remained silent for a moment. Her smile faded slightly, and her expression became a little awkward.

“Three still works for now.”

Nino tilted his head.

“Contradictory.”

“I said I can be myself. I didn’t say I’ve figured out who that person is yet.” She looked at him. “You, on the other hand, seem to have found yourself a name, haven’t you?”

He didn’t answer immediately. For some reason, he understood that better than he would have liked.

Alicia tugged on his shirt again.

“Nino.”

“What?”

She pointed toward the table.

“We made cookies.”

Nino looked at the tray. Some were burned around the edges. Others had absurd amounts of icing, and one of them looked as though it had been crushed and reconstructed somewhere along the way.

“I can see that.”

Alicia smiled.

“I made one for you.”

Three crossed her arms.

“You made six for him.”

“He was sleeping for a long time.”

Nino looked at the tray again, then at Alicia, who was still holding his shirt with one hand as she waited for his reaction.

He let out a small sigh.

“Then I hope they’re good.”

“They are!”

Three picked up one of the cookies and handed it to him.

“Good luck.”

Alicia’s mouth fell open in indignation.

“Three!”

Nino stared at the cookie for a moment before taking a bite.

They both waited. He chewed slowly.

“Well?” Three asked.

Nino looked at Alicia.

“I’ve eaten worse.”

Three started laughing again.

“Nino!”

This time, even he let out a small smile.

The smile was still on his face when footsteps approached from outside the house. Nino recognized the rhythm before the door even opened, and Tenshi stepped inside carrying several pieces of wood in his arms.

“You’re awake.”

“Apparently.”

Tenshi set the wood down beside the wall and exhaled, visibly relieved.

“I thought you were going to sleep for another day.”

Alicia, still standing beside Nino, frowned when she heard the voice. The hand holding his shirt slowly loosened.

“Tenshi!”

She ran toward him. The young man caught her in his arms and spun the little girl through the air. They both laughed as the game continued.

Nino remained beside the table.

Three moved closer to him without saying anything at first. Together, they simply watched.

“When you got here a few days ago, she spent the whole day crying in her brother’s arms,” Three said.

“Apparently, sleeping for days is becoming a habit.”

“I noticed...”

“Now we’re going to find Mom,” Alicia interrupted.

Tenshi looked at Nino before answering. Alicia noticed the silence and turned her face in the same direction.

“Nino?”

He already knew what that question meant.

For weeks, Alicia had been torn away from everything she knew. From her home, her family, even the name she was supposed to have in that world. Nino couldn’t give back the time she had lost, nor could he erase what had happened before he saved her.

But he could do something.

His gaze returned to the siblings embracing in the middle of that small house. Since finding Alicia, Nino had finally managed to give back a part of the family that had been taken from her.

There was still someone missing.

“We’re going to Lumeris,” he said.

Alicia remained silent for a moment. Then she smiled and threw her arms into the air with excitement.

“Yes! We’re adventurers!”

Three glanced sideways at Nino, hiding a sarcastic smile behind the hand resting against her chin.

Nino remained where he was, watching the two siblings. Their family still needed to be reunited, and the Nations needed to know the truth. There was still much to be done.

But looking at Alicia smiling in her brother’s arms, it already felt like a beginning.