The three days Bayu gave me felt long, like three years.
I couldn't sleep. Every night I closed my eyes. Saw my grandfather's face in that photo. He looked young. Smiling. Not yet burdened. Then that image would shift into the grandfather I knew—a man with tired eyes who carried secrets that seemed too heavy for him.
"Your grandfather never came back as a human."
What did that even mean?
I sat on my bed staring at the ceiling. Lina was already asleep beside me. Her warm hand lay open beside her face like always. I wanted to ask her about stuff. About the basket on my grandfather's doorstep. About what he hid about her.
I couldn't.
Not because I was scared. Because if I asked, I would have to tell her about the photo. About the writing on its back. About what Bayu said about her.
"Lina is—"
I closed my eyes.
Sleep didn't come.
The day of prep, Bayu didn't show up.
I searched the training rooms where instructors usually were. He wasn't there. I asked Aldo. He just shook his head.
"He needs time. The story of the Mariana Trench is one to tell."
I sat on a bench in the garden staring at the sky. In the distance Maya and Lina were walking together. Maya was talking; Lina was listening carefully.
I wanted to go. My feet wouldn't move.
"You're afraid."
The Ember Core's voice. I ignored it.
"Not afraid of Maya. Afraid of what you might find if you ask Lina."
I clenched my fist. "Be quiet."
The voice laughed. Then faded.
The day Bayu called for me.
The message was delivered by a janitor I didn't recognise. "Commander Bayu wants you to come to the training room. End of the building. Now."
I walked down a hallway I rarely used. At the end of the building there was an iron door with no name. I knocked.
"Come in."
I opened the door.
The room was small. Smaller than a classroom. The walls were stone, like Room 13. There were no chairs. No table. Only one empty. One small window in the ceiling showing the sky.
Bayu stood in the centre of the room. He wasn't wearing his robe. For the time I saw his body without it.
He had shoulders and muscular arms. That wasn't what caught my attention.
On his chest is a scar.
It was spiralling. The same as the scar on my hand. Larger. Deeper. Much deeper. Like something had tried to tear him open from the inside. The scar ran from his shoulder to his right hip, spiralling around his heart.
Ouroboros.
"You see it," he said. His voice was flat.
I nodded.
"I got this in the Mariana Trench." He closed his shirt. "Twenty years"
He sat on the floor. Crossed his legs. Looked at me.
"Sit. This will take a while."
I sat across from him.
"Your grandfather led the expedition," Bayu began. "Not a scientific one. No one knew about it. Just the five of us."
"Five?"
"Your grandfather. Me. Three others. Their names don't matter. They're dead."
His voice didn't change when he said that. I saw his hands clench in his lap.
"We were searching for the artefact, Aegis. A shield said to withstand any attack. Your grandfather had spent ten years searching for clues… Finally he found it."
"In the Mariana Trench?"
Bayu nodded. "The ocean floor. Eleven thousand meters deep. A place humans were never meant to enter."
He paused. Took a breath.
"We found Aegis… We also found something else."
"What?"
Bayu looked at me. His yellow eyes—I saw fear there. For the first time, I saw Bayu afraid.
"Something alive at the bottom of the sea. Not a creature. Not a machine. Something in between. Something that existed before humans. Before the artefacts. Before everything."
He opened his shirt again. Pointed to the scar on his chest.
"This came from its touch. One touch… I almost died."
". My grandfather—"
"Your grandfather survived… He was never the same." Bayu looked at me. "He brought something out of there. Something that changed him. Something that made his eyes no longer look human."
I felt cold. "What did he bring?"
"I don't know… After that he was never the same person again. He withdrew from everyone. Hid the Ember Core. Hid the artifacts…" Bayu stopped. ". He wrote those envelopes. For you. For Lina. For me."
"For you?"
"The envelope. With my name." Bayu smiled. A smile that didn't reach his eyes. "He knew I would come looking for him… He didn't want to be found."
Bayu was silent for a time.
I waited.
"Aegis is no longer in the Mariana Trench," he said finally. "Your grandfather moved it. I don't know where… He left something there."
"What?"
"Answers." Bayu looked at me. "About what happened at the bottom of the sea. About why he chose you. About what he saw."
He stood.
"You have to go to the Mariana Trench, Kael. Not to take Aegis—to take those answers. Once you know the answers, you'll know where Aegis is hidden."
"When do I go?"
"Not yet. There's something you need to learn."
He walked to the door. Opened it.
"Aldo will teach you. About the stars. About the door. About how to find what only the same blood can see."
He looked at me one time.
"Rest. Tomorrow you begin learning."
The day Aldo came to my room.
I had just woken up. Lina had already gone to the cafeteria. Aldo stood at the doorway, his long black robe almost touching the floor.
"Take a walk with me," he said.
We walked to the garden behind the academy. The grass was still wet with dew. The morning air was cold against my skin.
Aldo stopped under the banyan tree—the same tree where Maya and I had sat a few days ago.
"Look up," he said.
I looked. The sky was still dark. Stars still visible.
"What do you see?"
"Stars."
"What stars?"
I frowned. "Orion. The Big Dipper. Scorpio."
Aldo shook his head. "That's what ordinary people see… You are not ordinary, Kael. Your blood is not ordinary."
He raised his hand. Pointed to one spot in the sky.
"Look again. Not with your eyes. With something. With what's in your chest."
I stared at the spot he pointed to. The scar on my hand pulsed softly.
The sky changed.
Not truly changed. Like a layer had been lifted. Between the stars I knew there were stars. Faint. Almost invisible. There.
"That," Aldo said. "That is what your grandfather saw. That is what only someone with the blood can see."
"What is it?"
"A map, Kael. A map to the door. A door that only opens when those stars are in the position."
I stared at those stars. The scar on my hand pulsed harder.
"When does the door open?"
Aldo smiled. The same tired smile.
"Three months from now. Exactly at the equinox. When day and night are equal. When the world is in balance."
He looked at me.
"You have three months to learn, Kael. About the stars. About the sea. About what your grandfather saw at the bottom of the Mariana Trench."
"After that?"
Aldo walked away. His voice came from a distance.
"After that you will face what your grandfather tried to run from for twenty years."