That morning the sun never rose.
Not because of rain. Not because of clouds. The sky was as dark as when I woke up two hours. Thick gray covered the village from east to west. It was strange.. No one talked about it. Like everyone had agreed not to look.
I sat among the ruins of my grandfathers house. My back was against what remained of the wall. My head still hurt. My mouth tasted bitter like I had swallowed something I shouldn't have.
The scar on my hand still went from the back of my wrist to my elbow. It was deep red. Contrasted with my pale skin. It didn't hurt.. It felt warm. Like a current was flowing just beneath the surface.
"Not finished yet."
I turned left and right. Lina was sorting through rubble a meters away. She wasn't talking.
"This is the beginning."
The voice wasn't from outside. It was from inside. From something that had taken up residence in my chest since that black fire entered night.
I clenched my fist. My nails pressed into my palm. The pain helped. It reminded me I was still here. Still whole.
"Kael?"
Lina stood in front of me. Her face was tired. Her eyes were puffy like she had been crying for a time.. She smiled. A small smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"You heard that?" I asked.
"Heard what?"
I looked at her. Lina had never lied to me. Since we were kids she had always been honest. When the truth hurt.
"Nothing " I said.
We had been clearing rubble since dawn.. What should have been dawn. The sky was still dark gray when I lifted the wooden plank from the pile that used to be the living room. The plank was heavy. It was teak wood that had kept out cold and heat for decades. Now it was cracked in the middle, broken like a bone.
I set it aside.
Lina picked up pieces of roof tile one by one. She moved slowly. Her hands warm now looked pale. Maybe from holding me night.. Maybe from something she had seen while I was unconscious. Something she hadn't told me about yet.
"What are we looking for exactly?" she asked without stopping.
"I don't know."
That was honest. I didn't know.. Something in my chest was pushing me to keep moving the rubble. Like a whisper: "Here. There's more."
We worked in silence. The sound of tiles scraping. Wood creaking. Wind slipping through holes in the walls whistling softly.
Then my hand stopped at one spot.
A crack in the living room wall. Not from nights explosion. This crack was different. Older. Deeper.. Through the narrow gap I saw something that shouldn't be inside a village house wall.
Paper. Yellow. Old.
I slipped my fingers into the gap. The paper was brittle.. When I pulled it out slowly what came out wasn't just a sheet.
A box. Wooden. Plain. No carvings. No decorations. Just a square box neatly hidden behind a wall.
Lina stopped working. Her eyes fixed on the box in my hand.
"What is that?"
"I don't know."
I turned the box over. No lock. No keyhole.. On the lid writing in black marker. My grandfathers handwriting. Slanted left. Hurried.
"For after I'm gone."
We opened it together.
Lina sat beside me on the floor still scattered with rubble. Her cold hand touched the back of mine for a moment then pulled back. Like she was unsure. Like she was afraid of what might come out of the box.
I lifted the lid.
Three envelopes.
First envelope. Brown paper. On the front: "For Kael if I don't get to speak."
Second envelope. Yellow paper. "For Lina forgive me."
Third envelope. White paper. No name. Only black scribbles covering the front. Crossed out so many times the ink had bled through to the paper underneath.
I reached for the envelope.
"Wait." Lina grabbed my wrist. "Lets open them together. One at a time."
I nodded.
I opened the envelope carefully. Inside thin paper folded into three parts. My hands trembled as I unfolded it.
My grandfathers writing. Long. Dense.
"Kael
I won't apologize again. There have been many apologies that were never enough.
The Ember Core is not the one. There are artifacts. I don't know how many. Maybe twelve. Maybe more. What I know is this—if all of them are gathered something will happen. Something that cannot be undone.
I never told anyone about the artifacts.. Ouroboros knows. They always know.
My death wasn't age, Kael. I could feel it—something inside me had been dead for a time. My body was just following.
Kael if you're reading this I know you won't stop. You're stubborn like your father. Like I used to be.
So at least—find Professor Aldo at Nusantara Academy. He's the one left who can be trusted.
— Grandfather"
I lowered the letter. My face felt hot.. Cold. I couldn't tell anymore.
"Nusantara Academy?" Lina frowned. "That's... That hero school?"
"My grandfather always said I didn't need to go there." My voice was hoarse. "He said I didn't need power to be a person."
Lina bit her lip. ". Now hes telling you to go there."
"To Aldo. Not to the Academy." I read the sentence again. "He said Aldo can be trusted. Not the Academy."
Lina didn't answer. Her hand reached for the envelope. The one for her.
"My turn " she said.
The yellow envelope opened with the sound of peeling paper.
Lina pulled out what was inside.
Not a letter.
A photograph.
Small. Wallet-sized. The edges were blurred, like they had been touched times. A photo of a baby. A girl. Maybe a weeks old. Wrapped in cloth. No writing on the front.
Lina turned the photo over.
On the back my grandfathers writing. Smaller than usual. Like he wanted to write something he didn't want others to see.
"Lina. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you.. You are not human. You are—"
The paper was torn.
Right at the important sentence.
The tear wasn't neat. Like it was done in a hurry.. Like someone had torn it before my grandfather could finish.
Lina stared at the photo. Her hands trembled. I saw her chest rising and falling fast. Her breathing was uneven.
"This... Is me?" Her voice was barely audible.
I didn't know what to say.
Lina grew up in an orphanage. No one knew who her parents were. No one knew where she came from. All she knew was that one day an old man came to the orphanage and said, "I'll take care of her."
That old man was my grandfather.
"Until now " Lina said quietly "I never knew why my grandfather wanted to adopt me. He never told me. I thought he was just kind."
She looked at the photo again.
"But this... This means he knew who I was. From the beginning."
She didn't cry.. Her eyes were empty. Like she was trying to process something big to process alone.
I reached for her hand. Her hand was cold. Lina was never cold.
"We'll find out " I said. "I promise."
She nodded slowly.. She didn't let go of the photo.
The third envelope.
White paper. Black scribbles covering whatever was written on the front. Crossed out hard. Like my grandfather didn't want anyone to read that name.
I picked it up. Turned it over. Nothing was readable.
I tried to open it.. The envelope was sealed very tightly. Like it had been resealed times.. Like my grandfather didn't want even himself to open it again.
"Can't open it " I said, frustrated.
Lina took the envelope. Examined it carefully. "Maybe there's a key.. A clue."
I shook my head. There was nothing left in the box. Three envelopes.
I stood up. Walked to the wall where the box had been hidden. Maybe I had missed something. Maybe there was another note. Maybe—
My hand touched the wall.
Something happened.
The scar on my hand pulsed. Harder, than before. Like something was calling. Like something was responding.
I looked at the scar. Still spiraling. Still deep red.. Now something was moving beneath my skin. Like a current flowing toward my fingertips.
I accidentally touched the envelope with that hand.
My warm fingertips touched the paper.
The paper changed.
The black scribbles on the envelope began to fade. It was like when you heat up ink and it starts to disappear. Like something hidden underneath was starting to show.
Lina stared at it with eyes.
"Kael... Thats..."
I couldn't stop it. The scar on my hand kept sending something to my fingertips. It felt warm, but not hot. Like river water in the season.
The scribbles kept fading.. Beneath them a name appeared.
My grandfathers handwriting. It was neat and clear. Not crossed out. Erased.
Bayu.
I stared at that name. I had never seen it before. My grandfather had never mentioned it to me. Not in any note or story.
Lina froze.
"Kael " she said softly. She didn't take her eyes off the name. "When did your grandfather write these envelopes?"
I checked the letter from the envelope. There was no date on it.. The paper had turned yellow. The ink had faded. It looked like it was written decades ago.
"Maybe twenty years " I said. ". More."
Lina lifted up her baby photo. She looked at it at the name on the third envelope.
"Kael " she whispered. "I was born nineteen years ago."
I waited.
". My name was already in this envelope. Before I was born."
The wind came through the hole in the wall. It was cold and carried dust and the smell of earth.
Lina looked at me. Her eyes were wet. Not crying,. There was something there. Something like fear.. Maybe not fear. Something deeper than that.
"Kael your grandfather knew I would exist. Before I was born. He knew."
I didn't know what to say.
The third envelope was still in my hand. Still sealed tightly.. Now on its front a name we didn't recognize.
Bayu.
Who was Bayu?
Why did my grandfather hide his name?
We didn't open the envelope. Lina decided. "Later " she said. "We'll keep it for now. Until we know more."
She put her baby photo in her jacket pocket. The third envelope went back into the box. The box felt heavier than before. Like something was left inside. Something I couldn't see but could feel.
Lina stood up. Her cold hand reached for mine.
"We need to leave this place " she said. "The house isn't safe.. They—Ouroboros—might come back."
I nodded.. My eyes were still on the small map I had taken from the first envelope. A map drawn by my grandfathers hand. With one spot marked on the coast.
"Before the Academy before everything—I found it here."
"We'll go to Nusantara Academy " I said.
Lina looked at me. "Your grandfather said not to trust the Academy."
". He told us to find Aldo. And this map..." I showed her the map. "This doesn't point to the Academy. It points else. In the south. On the coast."
Lina read the writing on the edge of the map. It was small and almost unreadable.
"Before the Academy before everything—I found it here."
She looked at me. "What do you think he found there?"
"I don't know.. I have to find out."
I folded the map. Put it in my pocket.
"We'll go to the Academy. Not to study. To find Aldo.. After that..."
I stopped. I looked at the ruins of my grandfathers house. The house that used to be warm. The house that used to be safe. The house that was now a tomb, for secrets heavy to carry alone.
"After that we'll find out who Bayu is.. Why my grandfather was afraid of that name."
Lina didn't answer. She just held my hand.
In the distance beyond the hills that bordered the village the gray sky began to show a thin crack. Orange slipped between the clouds. The sun was about to rise.
The day after my grandfather left. The first day of something
I felt the whisper in my chest again.
"Good. You made the choice."
I ignored it.
I knew, someday I would have to listen to that voice. The voice that came from a flame that never ignited. The voice that now lived inside me.