⚠️ WARNING ⚠️
This chapter contains images and themes that may be
sensitive for some readers.
Everything here is fiction; the author seeks no shock
value at any moment.
Reader discretion is advised. 🫣📚💥
🖋️ AUTHOR'S NOTE 😵💫🫠💛
Sorry, guys. I know I'm taking a while to upload chapters.
I'm one week away from finishing my term 🎓⏳, so after
that I'll be posting more often ✍️🔥
(though they'll still take effort, not gonna lie 😮💨).
Thanks for the patience, really. 🫂💖✨
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In the forests of Vermont lay a secluded place.
A place where the laws of physics seemed to lose their
meaning.
Or if they had any, it wasn't the same one that ruled the
known world.
It was a strange realm, of ineffable beauty and deep
mystery.
In the cabin, Adelaida and Dánae spoke quietly.
Dánae played with her feet, staring at the ceiling in
boredom.
Suddenly, she turned toward Adelaida.
"Adelaida, why did we let Nuriel go off alone?
We should go get him."
"No, Dánae. I think that… I can't believe I'm saying
this, but I don't want to see him for a while."
"Why?" asked Dánae.
"He's been acting very strange. I think letting him walk
around looking for minerals and stones is the healthiest
thing.
Lately I don't know what's happening to him… or how to
understand him.
Maybe giving him space is best."
Adelaida sighed, looking toward the window.
"Or maybe it's because it irritates me to see him always
shut in.
He closes his door, and sometimes he doesn't even want to
eat."
"Well, it's not like you were the first one," replied
Dánae.
"What do you mean?"
"I tried many times. Would you believe that once I dropped
a battery by accident and he got mad at me?
He made a whole scene, and if it weren't for Jack…"
Dánae began to laugh, remembering the moment.
"Jack laughed so hard. He grabbed Nuriel's nose and said
something that left him speechless. Oh my God... "you should
have seen his face". He shut the door, and we kept laughing.
Jack apologized, but Nuriel didn't even hear him. He only
said: "They mess everything up."
The silence that followed was heavy and awkward. The laughter
faded from Dánae's face, replaced by an empty expression.
"We have to go find Nuriel," she finally said.
"You're right," Adelaida nodded. "Come on, Dánae. I
can't cook knowing Nuriel is still outside."
Both closed the cabin and walked into the woods.
"Where do you think he is?" Dánae asked.
"I don't think he went northeast," Adelaida replied.
"How do you know?"
"I don't know... superstition, I guess. You've got to lear—"
Adelaida didn't even finish her sentence when a silhouette
emerged between the trees. As soon as it crossed the light, she
recognized who it was.
"Look! He's there. He's coming back! Nuriel!" Dánae said
with excitement.
Adelaida froze. Nuriel was carrying heavy sacks on his
back—thirty-three in total—filled with coal, copper, iron,
magnetite, pyrite, marcasite, and other minerals.
Seeing him, Adelaida and Dánae ran to help, but Nuriel
raised his voice:
"Don't help me, relax! I'll take them to the storage."
Nuriel's body swayed under the weight; he was exhausted.
"Easy," Dánae said, "you must be tired. Let me help with a
few..."
"Dánae, don't touch those sacks! Move!"
Adelaida looked at him, annoyed.
"Why are you talking to her like that? We just want to help
you. Those sacks must weigh a ton."
"No. This is my job. Just leave me alone, please."
Nuriel kept walking slowly toward the cabin. The girls stayed
still, confused. "I don't understand why he reacts like this,"
thought Dánae.
"I didn't mean to be rude," she said softly. "He's carrying far
too much. Where did he even bring all that from?"
"Leave him," Adelaida replied, arms crossed. "I won't serve
him food this time. I don't know what's going on with him
lately, but at least it calms me that he's home."
"Hey, can I ask you something, Adelaida?"
Adelaida looked at her with one eyebrow raised, waiting with
curiosity for the question.
"Why do you care so much about Nuriel?"
Adelaida smiled softly. "He's my brother."
"But you don't look alike at all," Dánae said. "You're blonde,
and he has dark, curly hair. Your hair looks like braided
threads, and his… it looks like an old worn-out broom."
"There's no resemblance, not even in the nose. I've seen
siblings who look similar, but you two don't..."
Adelaida looked at her seriously, making her stance clear.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that..."
Adelaida interrupted her gently. "It's okay, Dánae."
She came closer, hugged her, and kissed her cheek. "He's my
brother because I chose him as one. He rescued me in
Greenland, and I rescued him from Dresden, Buchenwald, the
Harz Mountains... even Norway and Iceland."
"We've protected each other. And even if I don't understand
what's wrong with him, I could never hate him. Our peoples
have been in conflict, but he has never looked at me that
way."
A couple of hours passed. Adelaida prepared the meal while
Dánae rested, not doing much.
Then she remembered something Jack had told her a long
time ago.
"Jack, where do you come from? I'm from Stalingrad, Russia,"
Dánae said.
Jack looked toward the horizon, letting the wind try to
soothe the memories he still carried in his heart. He still
didn't know how to handle everything he felt.
Jack smiled. "All I know is that there was a lake in my
village. I don't really know where I come from. I heard people
talk about God before arriving here, but I don't know if we
mean the same one."
He ruffled her hair with his fist, smiling.
"Don't worry about that, Dánae."
"I shouldn't belong anywhere except here with all of you."
"Adelaida, Kamei-san, Nuriel and you... you're my
family. I don't care where I come from, I only care about
being with you."
"You are my home, and the place where I belong."
Jack pushed her playfully and said with a light laugh:
"And let me tell you one stupid thing: I'm going to stay here
forever, for you. Because you're my favorite sister."
The memory faded slowly. Dánae sat in front of a small
path, next to the entrance of the cave.
Darkness stretched before her—silent, still, almost alive. She
waited, with a hope that hurt, to see even the silhouette of
Jack returning.
The memories came in bursts. Fragments of the past mixed like
lost echoes in the wind: her childhood, the games with the
neighbors when she still lived in Stalingrad, and that time
with Kamei-san and Jack.
She was only fifteen.
She was still recovering from Galton's blow,
yet she laughed without fear as they lifted her.
Jack held her by the legs,
Kamei-san by the arms,
and between laughter they tossed her into the air
as if the sky could still hold her joy.
In those days, Dánae felt alive.
The world hurt less, or maybe nothing mattered.
Her father figure and her brother were gone,
and she carried an emotional disconnection
that not even time could heal.
It wasn't a lack of love toward Adelaida,
but she never quite felt present.
"I know Adelaida. She loves me,
but I don't feel the same love she shows
for Kamei-san."
"Maybe she worries so much
about Kamei-san noticing
that she forgot about us..."
Dánae clenched her fists, trembling.
Her voice broke in the dimness.
"No... no, calm down, calm down...
They're going to return.
They have to return.
They won't die..."
"They won't leave me," Dánae said, and as if guided
by her subconscious, she slapped herself.
"Calm down," she forced herself to say. "You've waited
for Kamei-san almost a year, you can wait longer..."
Silence devoured the last words she spoke,
and the emptiness answered with the echo of her
own voice, overwhelming in its intensity.
No matter how much she tried to think calmly,
her mind pushed her toward worry and anguish.
She wasn't an adult… but not a child either, and still
she seemed to be neither.
She stepped out of the cave, every heartbeat loaded
with thoughts, feeling her existence and her
consciousness vibrate as one.
She looked toward the cabin on the horizon,
her resolve burning bright.
"You know what I'm going to do?" she whispered,
more to herself than to anyone else.
"I'm going down to the cabin and getting Nuriel and
Adelaida out of here. We're going to play, even if it's
just for a little while."
"It's been so long since I played with Nuriel," she
murmured. "He's played only a few times, but now it's
time. I can't keep ignoring him; I gave him his space,
yes, but he can't stay shut away forever."
"If he isolates himself more, then I won't be able to
reach him," she repeated. "He's my brother too, I want
us to have something like what I have with Jack," she
said quietly, trying to convince herself, to gather her
courage. The phrase became a trembling mantra.
Then it happened: a rock slipped at the entrance.
The crack echoed in her chest; something lit up.
That small sound triggered in Dánae a mix of alarm
and memory. The first name that left her mouth was:
"Jack!"
She turned with hope, but reality stopped her cold:
she was just dissociating, and it was happening more
often. She remembered what Jack had told her
about solitude:
"When you shut yourself away, you invent voices so
you don't lose your sanity."
"Jack, tell me the truth, I never asked you,"
Dánae murmured through tears. "How long were you
alone… to tell me something like that?"
With those thoughts, she forced herself to stand.
"Let's go, let's go play."
She headed toward the cabin, straight to Nuriel's
room, with the joy that always followed her.
She reached the cabin with the little hops that
defined her. She climbed through her window to
startle him, but just at the decisive jump, she
realized he wasn't there.
That's when she noticed something: papers and notes,
almost all packed. Some useless, others carefully
stored; everything neatly arranged.
She called Adelaida from the room:
"Adelaida! Where is Nuriel? He's not in his room!"
"Why isn't he in his room?" Dánae asked.
"He's in the stable," Adelaida replied from the
kitchen. "I think he's going to melt what he brought,
because I hear the forge and the furnace."
Dánae put on an expression that showed just how mischievous
she was. She rubbed her hands together and murmured:
"Perfect… this makes it easier for me."
Moving quietly, she headed to the garage, ready to tease him
as a prank. Upon entering, she found Nuriel completely
focused, mapping out a mental blueprint.
He noted the metal base, how to compress it into sheets, the
tubes; planning without industrial machines: mills, river
current.
His notes sounded like an invention taking shape, almost
absurd: a plan to generate electricity and forge tools from
scratch.
Nuriel seemed to be rediscovering principles long known to
others. But Dánae wasn't thinking about metallurgy; her
plan was simpler: play.
She approached quietly and surprised him with a playful
shout:
"Today we're going to play, Nuriel! Get ready!"
The scare worked, but what followed was nothing she expected.
Nuriel jolted; buried memories surged back with force.
Something ancient lit up in his face: anger, fear, memory.
He turned with a speed that froze Dánae; tension spiked.
His hands began to spark, charging as if filled with volts.
In an instant, his palms glowed, lit from within.
Three types of light burst from him: blue, yellow, and red.
Each tone pulsed with a different, intense, overflowing
emotion. His mind hadn't processed what was happening; his
body acted on instinct. He whipped around, trying to defend
himself from his own confusion.
Nuriel's palms struck Dánae's chest and abdomen. The
contact unleashed a divine, uncontrolled force. He almost
never used his gift of creation together with that energy.
But this time, the impulse was so brutal it hurled her
through the air.
Dánae was flung away, light as paper, hitting the wooden
frame before crashing to the floor. She rolled down the hill,
ending eight meters below, motionless, dazed. The echo of the
impact sliced the air like thunder.
Nuriel froze as he realized what he had done. He had never
meant to hurt her; his body had reacted on its own. For a
moment, he thought he saw a German uniform, a soldier. His
mind blurred the present with the memory of fear.
He stood still, trembling, before running toward Dánae.
She cried, doubled over in pain, while Adelaida watched
from a distance. She heard the crash and descended
immediately, using her wind-gift to reach them with maternal
urgency.
Upon seeing her lying there, Adelaida's heart tightened.
Dánae cried uncontrollably; pain tore through her chest.
Breathing hurt, dragging back another wound from the past.
The impact brought back Galton's kick from that day.
That time, it had kept her in bed for four months.
Now, the burning in her abdomen was identical, unbearable.
Tears blurred her vision, and she could barely speak.
She was hyperventilating, unable to think, unable to calm.
Adelaida knelt beside her and hugged her tightly.
"Why are you crying?" she asked, desperate.
Nuriel approached too, guilt carved into his gaze.
"I… I didn't know you were behind me," he stammered.
"It was a reflex."
Adelaida then noticed Dánae's clothes were scorched.
The charred fabric, the smell of ozone... she understood
instantly.
"What did you do, Nuriel?" she shouted with restrained
fury.
"You threw her!"
"No!" he replied, voice breaking. "I didn't see her. It was
an accident."
But Dánae cut in with a strangled cry.
"Enough!" she said through sobs. "Both of you, stop! Please…
I just wanted to play with Nuriel. That's all."
She tried to stand, trembling, pain gripping every breath.
"It doesn't matter anymore," she whispered. "I'm going to my
room."
Her steps were unsteady, her breath ragged.
She cried silently, trying not to fall apart completely.
"Dánae, wait…" said Nuriel, stepping forward in guilt.
But she stopped him with a scream that shook the ground.
"Stay away! … Just… leave me alone."
Dánae walked in pain, barely visible, heading toward the
cabin limping.
She climbed the hill alone, without looking back, her chest
burning.
Adelaida, frowning, looked at Nuriel in silence.
"What did you do?" she asked, her voice shaking with anger.
"You threw her from that height? Are you aware of that?"
Her tone was more of a wounded mother than mere reproach.
Nuriel raised his gaze, confused, searching for words.
"No… well, yes, but it's not what you think, okay?
I was focused on my work… she appeared out of nowhere…
I got scared and I just reacted. I didn't mean…"
His words broke before they finished.
The excuses, however, held no weight before Adelaida.
Her cutting gaze pierced him like a silent sentence.
There was no justification for what he had done.
"Nuriel, I don't know what's happening to you," she said
firmly.
"I don't know what's been going on these days, but listen
carefully:
if I ever see you do something like that again, I won't stay
quiet.
And if she really got hit by lightning, I'm surprised it didn't
kill her."
Silence fell between them like lead.
Adelaida breathed deeply, holding back her anger.
"I don't know why you're so unsettled or what's happening to
you.
But if you're going to keep doing your experiments, do them
far away."
She pointed toward the forest, her voice firm and wounded.
"Do them on the other side of the river, where you won't
bother anyone.
Dánae has been having a hard time since Jack and
Kamei-san left.
And you… you don't even notice, because you don't spend time
with her."
"Sometimes I do," she continued. "But you, Nuriel, don't.
I don't know why Dánae came to you today… maybe she
wanted to play,
maybe she just wanted a little of you."
She inhaled deeply, then exhaled.
"It doesn't matter anymore.
Right now, I don't want to see your face."
Her words sliced through the air like blades.
Adelaida turned around and walked toward the cabin.
Her steps echoed cold against the damp earth.
Only silence stayed with Nuriel in that moment.
He stood still, unable to lift his gaze.
His thoughts were a knot, a maze with no exit.
Maybe I'm doing everything wrong… he thought bitterly.
He didn't know what he was doing or what he was becoming.
He lifted his eyes to the sky, gray and heavy as remorse.
Lord… what is happening to me?
The wind answered with a muted whisper.
And Nuriel felt, for the first time—
True fear of himself.