That morning we left the village. The sun was just coming up when we passed the house. Behind us the houses got smaller and smaller, then disappeared behind the banana trees by the road. Nobody came to say goodbye. Nobody watched us leave.
Maybe that was for the best.
The bag on my back felt really heavy. It was not because of what was inside. Some clothes, a wooden box with two letters, my grandfather's map and a little bit of money. Something was weighing me down. Something I could feel but not see.
Lina was walking ahead of me. She was walking slowly and steadily. Every now and then she would look back to make sure I was still following her.
She had not said much since that morning.
I did not blame her. She still had that baby photo in her pocket. I could see the edge of the paper sticking out every time she took a step.
I caught up to her. "Are you sure you are okay?" I asked.
She did not answer away. She just kept looking ahead. "I am just thinking," she said.
"About the photo?" I asked.
She nodded. "About what your grandfather said. 'You are not human.' What did he mean?"
I did not know what to say. Because I did not understand it either.
"Maybe it meant something," I said finally. "Maybe it was a way of speaking."
Lina smiled. It was not a real smile. "Kael, you have never been good at lying," she said.
She started walking. I let her go ahead.
The path from the village to the city usually takes half a day. Today the sky felt really close. The clouds were low and heavy. The air felt thick and hard to breathe.
Every few steps I felt like someone was watching us from behind the trees.
I looked to my left. There was nobody.
I looked to my right. There were shadows. They were too long for this time of day.
"Do not look back," a voice said.
That voice again. I clenched my fist. The scar on my hand felt warm. It did not hurt.
"Did you hear that?" I asked Lina.
She. Turned around. "Hear what?" she asked.
I looked into her eyes. Lina had never lied to me.
"Nothing," I said.
We kept walking. The voice did not stop.
"She is ahead of you," it said.
I looked at Linas's back. Her hair was swaying gently as she walked. There was nothing about her.
"Not her. The other one," the voice said.
I walked faster. I caught up to Lina. "Let us rest," I said.
She looked at me confused. "We have only been walking for two hours," she said.
"I need to rest," I said.
I sat down by the road under a tree. Lina sat down beside me without saying anything. She just took out her water bottle. Gave it to me.
The water was cold and refreshing. It was not enough to make the strange feeling in my chest go away.
"You are afraid," Lina said.
"No," I whispered.
Lina turned to me. "What?" she asked.
"Not you," I said quickly. "I was just thinking."
She did not say anything. She just sat beside me quietly like she always did.
We started walking after half an hour. The sky was still grey. The clouds were still low. At least the voice in my head had stopped.
Until we reached the bend in the road that turned east.
There in the middle of the path four men were standing.
They were big and strong. They were wearing clothes. Some of them had iron clubs; one of them had an axe. What stopped me was the way they were standing. They looked too relaxed like they had done this before.
"Two kids," the man in front said. His arms were covered in tattoos. His voice was heavy and rough. "They probably do not have anything… You never know."
Lina stepped back. Her cold hand grabbed my arm.
"We do not have anything," I said. My voice was calmer than I felt.
The man with tattoos laughed. It sounded like breaking wood.
"Everyone says that," he said.
He took a step forward. As he did, his skin changed.
It turned grey and hard, like stone.
I had seen people with powers like this on the news. They could make their skin as hard as granite. They could hit like hammers.
Seeing it up close was different.
"You, kid," the man said. He was staring at me. His eyes were narrowed. "There is something in your eyes. I like a challenge."
Something in my chest moved. It was not the voice. It was like something was pushing me forward.
"Lina, step," I said.
"Kael, you still cannot control—" she started to say.
"I know. But I cannot run," I said.
I did not know why I said that. When the words came out, I knew they were true. Not because I was proud. Not because I felt strong.
Because something in my chest would not let me run.
The man attacked faster than I expected.
His fist flew toward my face. I saw it coming. I saw his grey skin moving and saw the veins in his arm tightening.
My body did not move fast enough.
His fist hit my arm. It hurt. It was not pain. It was like my bone was being crushed against stone. I stumbled backward, almost falling. My arm burnt, went cold, then went numb.
"Kael!" Lina shouted.
She ran to me. Her cold hand touched my arm. The pain started to fade. Slowly. Like water draining from my wound.
Not fast enough.
The man laughed again. "A. A healer? That is cute… It is not enough."
He attacked again. This time I did not try to dodge.
I let his fist come. I let his grey skin get closer. At the last moment I grabbed his wrist.
As soon as my skin touched his, something happened.
It was not like night, when the black fire entered my chest. This time something left my body. It flowed to my fingertips. It entered the man's body.
The man froze.
His eyes widened. His mouth opened. No sound came out. His grey skin cracked in places. It was like earth that had never been watered.
I saw something.
A flash. Like a spark of light in a room.
Someone in a robe. A plain white mask. It was the same as the one who came to my grandfather's house.
A voice. The same voice. Calm. Too calm.
"Bayu. You know what you have to do."
That name again. Bayu.
The flash disappeared. I let go of the man's wrist. The man fell to his knees gasping. His grey skin returned to normal. His power was gone. Maybe he had just let it go. Out of fear.
"What... What are you?" he whispered.
I did not answer. My own hands were shaking. Not from fear. From something that had just happened. Something I did not understand.
The man and his group ran away. None of them dared to look at me.
We did not make it to the city that night.
We had to spend the night on the roadside. We found a hut that farmers used to store tools. Its walls were made of bamboo; its roof was made of tin. At least it protected us from the wind.
Lina was already asleep in the corner. Her body was curled up small under a jacket. Her cold hand was reaching out in her sleep like she was searching for something. Someone.
I sat at the doorway. I was looking at the sky.
The stars were clear here from the village lights. They were not in the right places. The constellations I had known since I was a kid. Orion, the Big Dipper, and Scorpio. Were all shifted. Like the sky itself had changed.
Like my eyes had changed.
"You are beginning to see," a voice said.
It was the voice that had greeted me tonight. The voice that claimed it had been waiting for me since I was born.
"What are you?" I whispered. I did not want to wake Lina up.
"I am what your grandfather stole… What he passed down to you."
"My grandfather did not steal anything," I said.
"He stole us. From where we were meant to be. From what we were meant for."
I clenched my fist. "You are not answering my question. What are you?"
There was silence. Then the voice laughed. Soft. Cold. Like something that had never truly felt happy.
"I am the Ember Core, Kael. I am the flame that never ignited… One day you will light me… When that day comes—"
The voice stopped.
I waited for a time. There was no more voice coming from anywhere.
I looked up at the sky. The stars were still not in the places. It was like nothing was normal anymore.
In the corner of the hut Lina stirred in her sleep. Her cold hand reached out again, feeling around in the air for something.
I got up. Walked to her. I sat down beside her. Let her hand find my arm.
She didn't wake up. Her hand stopped moving around. Her fingers gripped the sleeve of my shirt gently like a child holding onto something.
I knew I wouldn't sleep that night. At least Lina could rest now.
---
The sun came up in the morning just like it always does.
The sky was blue. The clouds were white. Birds were singing in the trees by the road. For a moment I thought maybe night was just a bad dream.
Lina walked beside me. Her hand wasn't cold anymore. It was not as warm as it used to be. It was better than yesterday.
"Kael," she said, after we had walked enough that our village was hidden behind the hills. "What happened yesterday when you touched that man, Bara?"
I didn't say anything about it.
"I saw something," I said finally. "A flash of a man in a mask. The same mask that the man who came to my grandfather's house was wearing… I heard a voice. The voice said the name Bayu."
Lina stopped walking. "Bayu?" she repeated.
"That's the name that was on the envelope," I said.
She bit her lip. "Kael, your grandfather said if someone with that name shows up, you should run away… You saw that name in a flash from that man's memory."
"I know," I said.
"That means the name Bayu was already around before the envelope was written," Lina said. "Before you were even born. Maybe even before I was born."
I nodded.
"It also means," Lina continued, her voice softer, "that the man who attacked us yesterday is connected to all of this. To Ouroboros. To Bayu."
I didn't know what to say. Because she was right.
"We need to be more careful," I said finally.
Lina didn't say anything. She just walked closer to me.
---
We entered the city when the sun was above us.
This city was a lot bigger than my village. The roads were. There were shops on both sides. People were walking around in clothes. That's not what caught my attention.
At the end of the road on a hill overlooking the sea, there was a black iron gate.
It was large and tall, like two hands holding up the sky. Above it there were big letters that said NUSANTARA ACADEMY.
Beyond the gate there were stone buildings. The tower in the middle was the tallest thing I had ever seen. At the top of the tower there was a statue of a person with their arms outstretched holding something that shone in the sunlight.
I stopped in front of the gate.
I felt something in my chest like it was vibrating.
Not a voice, not a whisper. Just a vibration. Like my heart was beating again. Like this gate knew something about me.
"Welcome home, Kael," a voice said.
This voice was different. Not the cold voice I heard before. This one was older. Sounded tired.
For the first time I wondered if I should go inside.
Lina stood beside me. Her hand, which was warm now, took mine.
"We don't have to go if you're not ready," she said.
I looked at the gate. I looked at the statue on top of the tower. I looked at the sky, which was normal again.
"We have to," I said. "My grandfather told us to find Aldo… The map he gave us..."
I felt my jacket pocket. The map was still there. It felt warm like it had just been in the sun.
"The map shows something in the south… We can't go there without knowing what we're looking for."
I took a step forward. Then another.
When my foot crossed the gate, the vibration in my chest got stronger. Like something was answering me. Like the gate itself was responding to me.
Lina didn't feel anything. She just walked beside me looking at the buildings.
I knew something had just happened.
The statue, at the top of the tower with its arms outstretched—
I could swear it was looking at me.