Kiara's expression softened.
Her lips curved into a sad smile.
"Forgive me."
Her voice was low, weighted.
Something I knew well.
"I promised Maia I would protect you above all else, and I failed.
With her. With you."
My heart beat with a new ache.
Maia's childhood weighed on me, just as it weighed on Kiara.
Tears came freely.
A sob escaped me.
Even in pain, I forced myself upright.
I hugged her.
"N-no… please."
Words failed me.
The pain was immeasurable.
I tried to stay steady.
"It is a pain that belongs to all of us.
But we will overcome it together."
Kiara lifted me from the bath, sat me in the chair, and wrapped me in a towel.
"I-I knew the risks.
Being tortured was the consequence of a choice I made.
Deep down, I always felt I would be caught."
My voice wavered, but I continued.
"You did everything to protect me.
Wherever Maia is, she—"
A searing pain split through my head.
I grew dizzy.
The world spun.
Kiara caught me before I collapsed.
White flashes flooded my vision.
The edges of everything lit up.
My mouth opened.
I murmured disconnected phrases.
And then…
Darkness.
I came back.
Consciousness returned.
My eyes felt heavy.
My body, numb.
I was dressed. Lying down.
The view was still blurred, though stable.
Kiara was working on a holoscreen.
She closed it, then came over to me.
"You're burning with fever."
She placed a pill in my hand.
"Here. Take it."
I swallowed the medicine.
My head was still spinning.
"What was that?"
Kiara watched me carefully.
Her gaze serious.
"I resisted an extremely aggressive induction.
I think I may be beyond recovery."
My chest tightened.
"If this continues for another half lunation…"
I hesitated.
"It means my brain has suffered permanent damage."
I rubbed my temples.
The pain felt like claws digging into my mind.
"Permanent damage?"
"Yes. In the hippocampus."
The way I said it was clinical. Cold.
"If it takes too long for me to recover, I'll suffer hallucinations and psychosis."
My muscles tightened.
"Buy an antipsychotic.
That will help reduce the effect.
With luck, make it disappear."
Kiara held my gaze.
Truthfully, I already knew.
I had no hope of getting better.
Even if the pain stopped, something inside me had already been altered.
S-2879 • L9 Fluxluna • D13–D15
"Fluxluna opens the current in high brightness.Tramabe weaves a sign in the open sky.Irrali radiates gold in living silver.Irrasi seals fullness in a wide song."
In the middle of the night, I woke drenched in sweat.
The voices still whispered.
The chains still weighed on me.
The screams still echoed, but when I opened my eyes, everything was silent.
Only my own heart beating.
Too fast.
Too hard.
Between days and nights, reality dissolved.
Resisting and existing blended into an endless cycle of exhaustion.
The world turned, but I remained trapped.
Relentless nightmares.
Awake, panic attacks dragged me back to that place.
The smell. The cold. The voices.
The memories of torture repeated themselves.
So vivid. So real.
I woke with nosebleeds.
A weak body.
A shattered mind.
Overwhelming stress.
The Maiden's strength helped me fight each day to stay in control.
To preserve what was left of me.
The attacks lessened little by little.
Kiara's help and the nanomedicine were essential to my recovery.
The hallucinatory episodes still came between the trimoons.
I took Bacopa Monnieri, enhanced with nanotechnology, which acted on the hippocampus.
The memory disturbances and mental fatigue decreased.
My weight returned.
My hair grew back.
The swelling disappeared.
My organs regenerated.
The wounds healed.
I could have removed them.
Aesthetic treatments.
Regenerative tissue.
New skin.
But I accepted them.
Now they were part of my story.
I used the love within the Mother phase to welcome them.
Inside me, the fresher wounds followed the rhythm of their own healing.
A broken flow that changed my inner waters forever.
Kiara and I spoke little.
Most of the time, I slept or fought against my own mind.
The exhaustion of always being alert consumed me.
Our few interactions were silent.
She helped me with bathing, medication, and food.
Few questions.
Mutual understanding.
Only presence.
S-2879 • L10 Tramaluna • D07 Abeli
"Tramaluna weaves the sky in a clear thread.
Abeli ignites a sprout of brightness above.
The tide draws signs in living silver.
The story moves forward firmly, in growing light."
I was almost healed.
Kiara came closer.
Renewed by the Maiden, I spoke first.
"Can I ask you something?
W-why did that girl die in Nobody's Land?"
My voice faltered.
"Why didn't she go to…"
I swallowed hard.
My fingers tightened around the blanket.
I closed my eyes.
The blood.
The stained ground.
The thought of someone so small suffering like that hurt me deeply.
My stomach twisted.
She could have survived, if—
Kiara looked away.
"Because there is a hierarchy."
Her voice was neutral. Calculated.
"After someone goes through the chamber and still rebels against the order…"
She paused.
A dense silence.
"That day, I knew the girl would die."
Her gaze remained steady.
"I hastened the inevitable."
My heart tightened, but I stayed centered.
The truth was…
I already knew.
I relaxed my hands.
Searched for the words inside the uncertainty.
"Why did Maia have a different fate?"
Kiara ran a hand through her hair.
"Because she could make them doubt themselves."
She placed her hand over mine.
An unexpected touch.
"You're almost recovered, right?"
A sideways smile.
Even though she still withheld everything, I understood.
Certain truths, certain revelations, could only be unveiled in the rhythm of the universe.
I had to be patient.
I pushed those thoughts aside.
Nodded.
"Good."
Kiara watched me carefully.
That sharp, inquisitive look.
She knew what was coming next.
"I know what you're going to say."
I took a deep breath.
"Is it about the mission in Moscow?"
Her look confirmed it.
"I'm going."
I spoke firmly.
"Regardless of what happened.
I still feel the same."
I burned with determination.
The android raised an eyebrow.
"You're sure?"
Kiara watched me as though she were engraving that moment into memory.
As though she were silently promising she would prevent it from happening again.
"If you think you need to stop, if—"
"No. Don't say that."
My voice came quickly.
"What I feel is still the same.
What I feel for her…
I mean…"
I smiled.
This time, with tenderness.
"Now that I know her a little more, I'm only more certain of my feelings."
Kiara smiled knowingly.
It was the first time I had seen Kiara smile like that.
Because, for the first time since everything happened, there was a spark of hope.
"Then let's go to Russia."