"Hello?"
"Good morning, sir. I came to inform you that I am ready to attack IceStorm at any moment."
"... Not yet. They have a powerful army and that thing... have patience. Return to Libretãnhya immediately."
"What thing, sir?"
"It is a secret among the most powerful in that region. It is something that can eliminate our men if it is freed. We will talk in person, because that thing may be listening to our conversation."
"That thing? Rito, what do you mean by 'that thing'?"
"... Meet me in Libretãnhya."
The sound disappeared from his ears. He looked at the phone without any expression. His soldiers, motionless, carried their weapons. Hite marched in the recommended direction.
"Follow me, men! For we will leave this kingdom in a temporary period of peace!"
In the kingdom, Gyne took his sister to the indicated place. Carolina looked at the floor with a closed face, her fingers squeezing the arm of the chair. The boy touched his sister's hair, caressing the strands with his fingers.
"Are you okay, my sister?"
"I'm great! It's just that, now that I'm weak, they want to dominate the kingdom that I fought to take from the claws of that dictator..."
"Dictator?"
"Ah, yes, you were very young to know, my brother."
Then her hand turned the wheel, taking them to the library. He followed the instructions until the queen picked up a book and placed it on a table.
"This is a book written a long time ago. Please, read it."
"What does it say?"
"It's short. It talks about the queen who dominated this kingdom with the hands of a Destroyer. About her fall, the battle I fought and about the people I met at the time."
Gyne nodded, sat in the chair next to her and opened the pages. Names that were familiar to him, descriptions that reminded him of a not-so-distant past, and drawings and photos of those who suffered and fought so much.
"Carlos Rezon... I've heard this name somewhere. Do you know anything about him, sister?"
"Carlos... yes, I remember him..."
Her eyes fixed on her lap with a short smile. Her nails slid over the wood of the chair.
"He was my friend. We had different paths during life. But, in the end, we managed to get close for a short time."
"Short time? Did he die?"
There was no answer. Gyne held his sister's hand, squeezing her fingers.
During the rest of the day, between moments of reflection on the current state of the world, both visited pasts that one had lived and the other did not know. The woman explained in a calm voice, guiding his fingers to the images. The boy rested his head on her shoulder while learning about the past he had not lived.
At night, the woman, free from the chair, rested in her bed. Breathing slow, uniform. The boy watched the snow fall from the sky. People walked covered by their long garments. Their voices trembled when talking, not only from the cold... and they gathered in taverns that, in a past explored through history, had already been reduced to ashes.
But, far from the walls, he saw a silhouette dragging itself across the soft white ground. A shine reflected the moonlight in his direction. He covered himself, left the castle and walked hurriedly. The governess, who was drinking tea in her room, watched the boy run through the streets.
The people did not see him, and if they did, they did not recognize him. The cape flew with every step and then, outside the wall, he found a figure with gray hair thrown on the ground.
He slowed his pace, crouched and touched the shoulder. Hard as iron. When he slid the white garment aside, he saw metal. And the female head rose, with eyes shining against his. Then she touched his hand and pulled it away from her shoulder, squeezing with a low snap escaping from her palm.
"Didn't your sister teach you not to touch ladies?"