Side Story 1: The Magic of Klein

Cristina discovered that Klein was literally a magical city. One day after arriving in town, she and Margarita left the hotel to look for food. For the older woman, it was much easier to search for ingredients than to keep visiting cafes or restaurants. Besides, the room she had came with a kitchen, which made the task much simpler.

The weather was pleasant and warm, carrying a faint scent of pine. The sky was clear, without a single cloud, and Cristina was running—or trying to. She wanted to see everything: every shop, every tree, every parked car. Margarita let her enjoy the day, the excitement, and the games.

"Grandma!" shouted the little girl, pointing at everything that caught her eye. "Did you see that dog?"

Margarita turned to look where her granddaughter was pointing. The dog looked a bit strange. It looked more like a toy, one of those new plushies with an internal mechanism powered by batteries that made them move. The toy's movement mimicked that of a real dog almost to perfection.

"I want one like that," Cristina continued saying pointing to the strange toy. "Will you buy it for me, Grandma? Please!”

"We'll see," Margarita replied, looking at the toy. It was fun just watching it, and she wished she had extra money for something like that for her granddaughter. "First, let's go buy what we need."

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the market. It was located on a wide street where every storefront was a different business: a butcher shop, a vegetable market, a grocery store, among many others that, to little Cristina, seemed cool, huge, and fun.

"Look, Grandma!" shouted Cristina, eager to run over to a candy shop.

There was every kind of sweet: candies wrapped in transparent cellophane envelope that revealed what was inside —from soft, rectangular two-toned chews to chocolates promising a caramel filling. There were small bags of multi-colored candy-coated pieces and even bags of gummy candies shaped like fruits like apples and pears. Margarita bought her a chocolate bar then and there to keep her quiet for a while.

The day passed peacefully. Margarita bought some food, fruit, and even a small tres leches cake. They returned to the hotel, and immediately, Margarita started cooking. It was the first moment in days that both women shared in peace. Cristina helped chop the vegetables, and Margarita was responsible of making the stew.

When night fell after dinner, Margarita and her granddaughter went out for a walk at the little girl's request. The spring breeze cleared away the clouds, allowing one of Algebar's two moons, called Lyra, to shine with intensity.

Its pale blue color set it apart from its twin: Noctyra, a smaller, more discreet moon that was hard to spot in Algebar's sky because it usually "hides" behind Lyra.

"Lyra won't let me see the Golden Gem constellation..." Cristina complained. "And the houses here are too big. I can't see all the stars."

Cristina began to walk forward to see if she could get a better view. Margarita simply followed her without a word. Moments later, they arrived at a park filled with several families, young couples, and children of all ages enjoying themselves.

Cristina was amazed when she saw the place. It looked like something out of a dream: the trees seemed to glow with a some kind of white or maybe yellow color. Lights. They looked like lights, but at the same time, they weren't. They also weren’t fireflies.

Margarita was astonished by the lights. They weren’t just the trees. Those white-yellowish lights were also placed in strategic areas of the park—flower beds, pathways—and sometimes they seemed to float, following certain people. Upon getting closer and looking at them intently, the lights looked more like crosses than spheres.

Like her granddaughter, the woman tried to touch one of those spheres. She felt a strange electrical shock. It didn't hurt her, but it served as a warning telling her not to do it again.

"Don't touch the spheres of light!" someone shouted. A man, at least 10 years younger than Margarita, began walking toward them. "Please, don't touch them."

"My apologies," Margarita said. "I just wanted to see if they were some kind of new lamps..."

"Lamps?" the man said with a mocking chuckle. This made Cristina turn to look at him. "They are spheres of light. A vulgar imitation of the warmth and luminosity of my mother star."

"Are you... a witch?" Margarita asked with a hint of fear. She hadn't expected to encounter a witch in Klein. Her question made the little girl step closer.

"A witch?" Cristina repeted, looking at the man, who greeted her with a friendly smile.

"Yes, I am a witch. I can do magic," he said in an amused voice. He had realized that these two persons were truly unfamiliar with magic. "My name is Carlos de Imai."

"I'm Cristina Fablet!" the girl said, extending her hand. Carlos shook it in return.
It had been a while since she had interacted with any witch. That man, Carlos, seemed like a good person. He even explained a bit of his magic to Cristina and let her touch the lights. Soon, other children of various ages joined. As a group all played all along

It was a peaceful place, Margarita concluded. That was her first impression, her final verdict. It was a shame that Klein had never been part of her son's plans.

That night, in total silence and with the girl now asleep, Margarita thought of her son. She wept, wondering if he had survived, if he had recovered from the illness, and if anyone had helped him. She began to regret having fled.
"Mom!" Cristina cried out in her sleep. "Mom, come!"

The girl woke up from her nightmares, yet she kept calling for her mother's presence. Margarita sat beside her, taking her hand to calm her down.

"Where is my mom?" Cristina asked, still crying and looking around the room, thinking perhaps her mother was hiding. "And dad?"

"Cristy..." Margarita whispered. For the first time, she didn't want to lie to her granddaughter about what had happened. "Do you remember what happened in Sweet Scent before we left?"

The girl shook her head and kept asking for her mother. She wanted to tell her what she had seen in the park that day and how much fun she had had with the other children.

"Magic isn't bad, Grandma," Cristina explained. "I want to show Dad that magic isn't dangerous like he always said."

"Cristy..." Margarita insisted. "You know your dad and mom got sick. Remember."

The girl started crying again, denying what had happened. It wasn't just that her parents had fallen ill; it was that she had watched the disease worsen and cause people to die. Children like her were asking why the doctors weren't coming to help. Most of the children that were healthy were begging for a cure. No one listened.

One night, her father talked about fleeing, about leving Sweet Scent. Camila and Margarita listened in silence.

"We can't escape now," Camila said. For months, she had been enjoying her work in Sweet Scent.

She had started seeing an older man who was promising her that if she stayed on that ranch, he would make her his wife. From time to time, he gave her extra money and some jewelry. Margarita had noticed how, on certain nights, she would sneak out without being able to clearly explain where she was going.

"Of course we're going to escape. I'm not staying here," John explained. He stood up, took some gold and silver objects from one of the drawers where he kept his clothes; then he threw them to his wife. "If we sell these trinkets, we can go to a nearby town."

Camila said nothing about that discovery. No one shouted, no one complained. In total silence, they had decided to say nothing, for Cristina's sake. It was then that Camila agreed to flee, there is no other option. She didn’t even know where to go.

When Cristina's family had decided when and how to flee, the first symptoms of the illness appeared in John and Camila. Two days after both took to their beds because of the sickness, John told his mother:

"Take the girl," he ordered one morning. Fever had already invaded both of Cristina's parents' bodies. "Take the savings and the jewelry."

"John... I couldn't..."

"Just do it!" John shouted her son, which surprised Margarita.

Camila slept beside John. Her fever was close to 40 degrees, and she couldn't even move. Someone knocked on the bedroom door. It was Cristina. Only then did Margarita snap back to reality and make the decision to leave Sweet Scent. She took the savings and the jewelry—things she had always considered dirty, obtained through the dirty work of a whore who never felt guilty.

Cristina cried in silence. Her tears fell; she understood that she would never see her parents again and that she would never return to Sweet Scent. Margarita hugged her granddaughter and began to sing:

“The stars shine in the sky...
They watch over us and care for us.
Have faith in the night,
and do not forget who loves you.”

Both women remained silent once Margarita stopped singing. They cried quietly..

"Grandma... tell me a story," Cristina whispered.

Both were no longer crying. The day is hours appart. Neither of them wished to sleep—Cristina because the nightmares would return making her think she would see her mother again, and Margarita because she was terrified that if she fell asleep, something would happen to her granddaughter.