By 8:30, the last local had gone home. Bando and Zuri shut the doors together, their timing so perfect it was almost comic. At once, Freddy and Ferd shuffled in wearing animal-print pajamas, straining under the weight of a couch dragged from backstage with Vana on top already in her nightgown, collapsing onto the cushions with a groan of relief as her waist-trainer popped open.
"Prepareeee the coouuuunnntttt!!!!" she sang while holding a can of beer in her left hand and a cigar in her right.
Another guy, who looked to be in his early to mid-forties, also came from the back. He wore a grey buttoned shirt with heavy duty pants, boots and dark leather gloves. His pale skin, and long, dark brown hair was far from well kept. The face was that of a handsome middle aged man, who didn't care about keeping it clean shaven at all times, but his eyes, carrying an almost impossible shade of sapphire, have seen a lot, maybe too much.
The "roundtable" gathered. The man dropped a bulging sack onto the table, and coins, bills, even the occasional sock and used gum spilled across it.
"SO MANY YAMS!!!"
Yam bills manifested in Zuri's eyes as she counted them. Freddy's saliva had almost completely covered his side of the table when he looked at the enormous amount of money.
"Today was by far our best day we've ever had...," said Ferd as he looked at the pile of cash with a frightened face.
"One hundred thousand yams. That will not only cover our debt, but will leave enough for all of us to get a little something ♪♫♪," sung Vana, but two out of the six people were neither sad, nor extremely happy.
Laughter and chatter filled the room. Bando sat quietly, content with their joy even if he didn't really care about the money. Kazan smoked in silence, untouched by the excitement.
"♪♫♪Knock, knock-knock knock_knock...KNOCK-KNOCK♪♫♪"
"Open the door Bando it's me,"
said Kazan from the other side of the table, furthest away from the entrance."
As he opened the door, another Kazan walked through.
"The locals are safely home now."
He looked at the happy family gathering, gazed at the huge sum of Yams on the table and returned his gaze back to the actual Kazan with a gentle smile.
"I'm proud of you guys,"
he said as he tossed an insignia of something to Kazan and vanished into golden shimmer.
"Thank you for your service, 'greater-nicer-Kazan', " they said, as they clasped their hands together, mocking the real Kazan.
As the others argued over what to do with the money, Bando kept his hand on the doorframe. His gaze turned outward, into the void beyond.
The voice was back.
Faint. Static. Distorted.
"G... i..."
His most precious sense faltered. The soundscape around him crumbled into static, every vibration dulling as numbness spread through his body.
"Go... i... d..."
"Goo... iiiihhh..."
The female voice cut sharper now, almost within reach. The words were twisted, fractured—until, just before he slipped into nothingness:
"There you go, Bando!"
...He snapped back. His family stared at him with wide smiles, the table glowing with laughter and light. A heap of cash had been pushed before him — far more than the rest.
"Your performances deserve it, at least by our standards."
"You made this night a movie, bro!"
"...And you never spend a cent on yourself..."
Vana, Freddy, and Zuri showered him in praise. Even Ferd and Kazan gave a nod of respect.
Bando smiled faintly. "Thank you. But I don't deserve any of this."
Groans circled the table.
"Just take the money for once, kid," Ferd grumbled.
"I swear, it'll just end up in the savings account again," Zuri sighed.
The voices blurred. Bando felt something else beneath the pile — not coin, not bill, but... calling him. His fingers moved before he thought.
"Wait—he's actually going for it!" Vanessa cried.
Everyone leaned in. The coins clattered and spilled as Bando pulled out a strange piece of metal.
Silence fell. Disappointment circled the table, once again.
It was round, jagged with spikes, with a long stem tapering down and spreading like roots. He traced its ridges, reading its shape with his hands.
"...An insignia," he murmured. "What colors does it carry?"
"Green and purple," Ferd said quickly.
Smack! Freddy yelped as his brother cuffed him.
"There's black at the center," Vanessa added calmly. "With shades of yellow circling it. Almost like... rays."
Bando pressed the insignia against his chest, positioning it carefully. "Like this? With the spiked circle on top, the stem downward?"
They tilted their heads, then nodded.
He hesitated before asking the last question. "...Have I seen this before?"
The table fell quiet. Uncertain looks passed between them.
"...The top part looks like a sun," Zuri offered.
"Yeah," Freddy leaned dangerously close to examine it. "And the bottom's like... pouring light."
Ferd yanked him back. "Too close, idiot."
"But the middle—it's just a black circle..." Ferd frowned.
Now they all leaned in.
"...It's like an eclipse," Vana whispered. "The black circle weeping light, like tears falling downward."
The family murmured in agreement.
"Eclipse," they said together.
"ECLIPSE???" Their voices rang with disbelief.
Their scream was so loud that all of the neighbouring stray cats jumped at once.
"How the hell did an Eclipse insignia find its way inside a random building all the way down the bottom of the world?!"
Vanessa was beyond baffled.
After a beat of silence, the whole family burst out laughing.
The table shook as they doubled over, treating the moment like an elaborate prank, too absurd to be anything but a joke.
"...And even if it was a real Eclipse Corps insignia," Zuri cackled, tears running down her face, "wouldn't you have known, Kazan?"
"You're right." Kazan exhaled smoke, his chuckle dry. "It is real."
The laughter died instantly.
The room fell flat. Faces drained of expression, as if the words themselves had stolen the air.
Kazan waved it off with a veteran's indifference. "An old piece, nothing more. Its value's long gone." His tone was dismissive, but his eyes flicked toward Bando.
"Your echolocation's sharper than I thought. To sense something that small, down to its design—" He allowed himself the ghost of a smile. "Well done."
For the second time that night, Bando smiled too. Small, quiet, but genuine.
"Oh no..." Zuri whispered, dread slipping into her tone.
Freddy shrieked, Ferd slapped his forehead, and Vana looked ready to tear her hair out.
"You know we love you, Bando," Zuri groaned, "but we never underst—"
"You're exactly right, Kazan! My echolocation's gotten sharper since the last time we talked, about a month ago. Remember our expedition in the northern sectors of Belburg? We found those old Hamurian inscriptions, the mural carved near the edge of the Realm. You told me more about Aura there — how traces of it are woven into murals and engravings, right?"
"Right..." they all muttered, following along half-heartedly.
"And you said Aura was one of the five pillars of Solotesque — the unseen."
Bando pointed toward a sign on the wall.
"Imagine these coins are Aura. If you can control it, you can coat objects with it." He flicked his hand, and the coins scattered through the air, clinking onto the sign's engraved letters.
"Now, sound is everywhere — footsteps, voices, even breath. When those waves bounce off my Aura, I—"
"Please, cut it short, bro."
The others groaned, except Kazan.
Bando grinned. "I can read."
"That's insane—what the—" Freddy blurted.
The others swarmed him with hugs and praise. But Kazan stayed still. His expression remained stern.
"...Are you proud?" Bando asked, hesitant.
The room fell quiet. The others exchanged gentle looks, recognizing the courage it took for him to ask. Kazan rose slowly and placed a heavy hand on Bando's shoulder.
"The knowledge of magic is meant to be had, not applied."
His raspy voice carried the scent of coffee and cigarettes. It wasn't advice, but a warning — a code written in blood.
Fear flickered across Bando's face. He hadn't expected such a response to a question so simple and innocent. Quickly, he buried it beneath a smile.
"After all," he whispered, "a smile is all you guys can see, right?"
He meant it for himself, but Kazan heard.
Zuri suddenly stepped forward and slapped Kazan across the face. The twins rushed to hold her back, but she pushed past them, shouting through faint tears:
"Don't you dare ruin his mood again, not this close to his birthday and the new year, Kazan!"
Her hysteria threw the room's atmosphere into chaos. Vanessa, sensing the change, urged everyone to sleep. But by the time her words left her mouth, Bando was already gone.
"Bando's mood was abnormally good today, don't you guys think? But Kazan had to ruin it again..."
Zuri muttered, frowning as she left with Freddy and Ferd. Ferd crouched so she could ride on his shoulders, and the three disappeared into the corridor.
Only Kazan and Vanessa remained in the dining hall. Silence hung between them until Vanessa finally looked at him, her expression twisting with disgust.
"You're the only one he looks up to," she hissed, "and you're the only one who'd crush his dreams — just to force him into your version of a 'normal life.'"
Kazan's reply came steady, unshaken.
"I believe survival is paramount. That boy doesn't dream, and he'll die trying to chase a hollow self. That's the difference between you and me."
His words struck deep. Vanessa flinched, then bared her teeth.
"Where has your pride gone? Did the sun at the Top blind you? Did it flash you so badly that you've gone blind?"
Tears welled in her eyes. With a cry, she hurled her beer can at him, then lunged, gripping his collar with trembling hands. Kazan rose, towering over her. His gravel-rough voice rolled low and certain.
"My wisdom has shown me the horrors bound by the truth of Solotesque's legacies."
He grasped her wrist and peeled her hand away, firm yet calm, his presence filling the room like an iron wall. Their eyes locked. Vanessa's resolve broke; tears streamed down her face, spilling like rivers she could no longer contain. Her sorrow for him, for what he had become, overwhelmed her.
Kazan's gaze, however, was cold and steady. Unmoved. Convicted.
They carried not doubt, nor regret — but the certainty of a knight.
"The others are already talking about it," Vanessa said quietly. "You know... the 'last day' phenomenon."
Kazan gave no reply.
"No matter how often he tries, he can't do it," she went on, her voice dropping to a whisper. "But it's only a matter of time before the others notice."
"It's too early, Vanessa."
He stood, slipped into his jacket, and headed for the door.
"Bando has suffered the lowest life has to offer ever since the day he awakened," she pressed, her tone breaking into a plea. "If you won't let him live to the fullest now, you'll be like a fool teaching a bird who spent a lifetime in a cage how to fly—by the time it's free, it'll be too late."
For a moment, Kazan paused at the threshold. His voice came back hard, edged with disdain.
"Don't twist the gifts I entrusted to you into delusions you feed the boy, Vana."
Her eyes dropped instinctively to the Eclipse insignia at the table, the mark of that very gift.
Then, without looking back, Kazan pulled the door shut. From his right eye flared a brief, searing blue glow — like fire held in check.
And he was gone.
***
It was about 10pm when Bando took one last breath at the top of an abandoned building the size of a skyscraper. The open air in the area was bad, the smell reeked of piss, alcohol and the dead animals that inhabited the building, and it had essentially created an entire ecosystem with plant and animal life that had taken advantage of its state.
He used one of the big vines as a rope to tie around his neck, while thinking about his piano performance earlier. His song wasn't meant to be laughed and loved to, nor was it meant as a symbol for the arrival of some new era.
He'd wake up, go outside for a while, eat drink and sleep, with the occasional fun of exhibition and archaeology. He'd maybe learn a thing or two about fighting and knights from Kazan but he'd only rarely get to use it against the occasional tomb raider who threatened the preservation of ancient history.
He'd play some music in the Garden and spend time with the family if he wasn't outside but, as fun and fulfilling as it sounds, the lack of memory made his whole existence feel hollow, in a way.
His legs were crumbling, not because of fear, but because that's what and who he was.
To wake up and witness the same thing, over and over again, without reason or purpose made everything seem valueless.
Even the situation he is in right now wasn't a new experience.
His entire existence was confined to a body that wasn't free in the slightest, but chained to the ground with no way to escape.
The mellow melody in the end served as a backdrop to the monotony of his life.
But there is no doubt that the life he lived so far would have been one of his dreams, if he were capable of dreaming.
"Bando isn't even my name,"
He whispered, as he walked off.
The seemingly infallibly little voice in his head had gotten louder, and this time, clear as day.
There was no mistaking the words, nor the authority behind that female voice.
"God is dead."