Two days after I met with the headmaster, I barely had time to open my grandfather's journal.
Bayu was being really tough on me. My training started before the sun came up. I spent my mornings in the pool trying to hold my breath for a time and feeling the water pressure trying to crush my bones. My afternoons were spent in the weight room lifting and pushing and pulling until my muscles hurt a lot. My evenings were spent on the simulation field facing targets that just kept coming and coming.
I went back to my room when the sky was already dark. My body felt like it had been ground down. My hands were shaking as I opened the door.
Lina was already waiting for me. My grandfather's journal was lying open on the table in the corner of the room. It was open to the page. My grandfather's handwriting was slanted to the left. It looked like he was in a hurry, just like when he wrote those letters to me.
"I cannot read it," I said. "I am too tired."
Lina closed the book. She put her hand on my cold one.
"Tomorrow", she said. "Rest first."
I fell onto the bed. I did not have time to answer her. I fell asleep before my eyes were even closed.
---
The morning I woke up early.
It was not because my body had recovered from the training. It was because of something else. Something I could not explain. It was like something was calling to me from outside the window. It was like something was getting impatient.
I opened my grandfather's journal on the table. It was still open to the page. My hands were still shaking. This time it was not because I was tired.
"If you are reading this, Kael, it means you have come this far," my grandfather wrote. "Further than I hoped. Further than I feared."
I read the journal, word by word, line by line.
My grandfather wrote about the Genesis artefacts. The twelve Genesis artefacts that are scattered over the world. He wrote about their power, which's not ordinary power but the power to change reality. He wrote about what would happen if all of the Genesis artefacts were gathered together: the Genesis Protocol. The ability to erase the existing world and create a new one.
The next pages were different. They were not about the Genesis artefacts. They were about the Mariana Trench.
"We went down to the ocean floor on a night when there was no moon," my grandfather wrote. "Bayu was with me. Reno was behind us. The other three people were waiting on the ship."
Reno, the headmaster, was my grandfather's friend.
"We found the door," my grandfather wrote. "It was not a door made by humans. It was not a door made by anything we know. Behind that door –"
The writing just stopped. The next page was blank. There was nothing written on it. It was like my grandfather could not continue writing. It was like something had stopped him before he could.
I turned the page. The next page was also blank. The next one. Until the end of the book.
There was nothing.
---
I found Raka in the training room.
It was still early in the morning. The sun had just come up. Raka was already there, standing in the centre of the empty room with small flames coming out of his hands. The flames were shifting from red to blue. Then back again.
"You could not sleep either?" he asked, without turning around.
"I was reading my grandfather's journal," I said. It stopped in the middle. There was nothing written after that."
Raka put out the flames. He turned around. "Maybe my grandfather did not want me to know everything at once."
"Or maybe he could not write it," I said.
Raka did not answer. He sat down on the floor with his back against the wall. I sat down beside him.
"I never asked you," I said. "Why do you want to be strong?"
Raka looked at me. His eyes, which were usually full of challenge, were different now. They were deeper. They were heavier.
"Because I do not want to lose anyone," he said.
I waited for him to say more.
He took a breath. His hands, which had produced fire a moment before, were now cold. They were clenched in his lap.
"I had a sister," he said. "Her name was Sari. She was two years younger than me." He stopped. He swallowed. "Five years ago Ouroboros attacked my city. It was not a city. It was a small town by the sea. It was not important. It was not protected."
His voice changed. It became softer. It became more fragile.
"I was outside the city at the time," he said. "I was coming home from school. I saw smoke in the distance. I ran… I was not fast enough."
He clenched his fists. Small flames appeared between his fingers. He did not mean to do it.
"I found her in the ruins of our house," he said. "She was still alive. She was still breathing…" He stopped. His eyes became empty. "I could not do anything. My power had only appeared a month before. I could produce fire… I could not heal. I could not protect myself. I could only stand there watching her slowly slip away."
The flames in his hands died.
"Since then I made a promise," he said. "I would become strong. Not to become a hero… To make sure no one else loses someone like I lost Sari."
He looked at me. His empty eyes slowly came back. Not completely. Enough.
"That is why I am here, Kael," he said. "That is why I am going to the Mariana Trench. Not for you. Not for your grandfather… To make sure no one dies there who should have lived."
I did not know what to say. I just sat beside him silently.
Kirana appeared in the corner of the room. No one had heard her coming. She stood there with her back against the wall watching us both with her eyes.
"I did not mean to eavesdrop," she said. "The door was open."
Raka was not angry. He just nodded. "Sit down if you want to."
Kirana sat down on the floor a distance away from us. She was silent. She did not leave.
"Why are you here?" Raka asked her.
Kirana looked at him for a moment. Her cold eyes, which were usually unreadable, seemed deeper now. It was like something was hidden beneath the ice.
"I want to know the truth," she said finally.
"The truth about what?" Raka asked.
"About the Genesis artefacts", she said. "About Ouroboros. About why this world's falling apart. No one is doing anything about it." She clasped her hands together. "I grew up in a family of heroes. My grandfather, my father, and my mother. They all fought; they all died. After they died, the world stayed the same. People still suffered. Nothing changed."
Her voice did not tremble. There was something there. Something colder than the ice she could create.
"I do not believe in heroes," she said. "I do not believe in your grandfather. I do not believe in Aldo. I do not believe in anyone."
She looked at me.
"But I believe in one thing," she said. "You will go to the Mariana Trench. You will open that door… Behind that door maybe there is the truth that has been hidden from all of us."
"If there is not?" I asked.
Kirana smiled. It was a smile that did not reach her eyes.
"Then at least I will know," she said. ". I can stop searching."
---
We did not talk after that.
Raka went back to his training. Kirana left quietly the way she had come. I sat in that room thinking about what I had just heard.
Sari, Rakas's sister, who died in an Ouroboros attack.
Kiran's family, heroes who died without changing anything.
Each of them had a reason. Not to become heroes. To find something. Strength. Truth. Answers.
I stood up. I walked to the door. Outside the sun had risen higher. The sky was blue. The clouds were white. It was like nothing had changed.
I knew something had changed.
I was not alone.