Due to the bizarre circumstances that brought them together, they unanimously decided to reveal their names and get to know each other better, since their goals were also the same: to kill Cream and get on with their lives.
The man reading the book was called Victor Shaman, he was raised in an orphanage and no one ever adopted him, so at the age of 18 he had to leave. Shaman was very interested in the Affinity, so he went after understanding it. He lived with a nomadic tribe lost in the mountains of Transylvania until he was 22. There he learned a lot from them, and managed to become a Tuned in the Black powers. He went through the initiation rituals - celibacy, studies and the first trade - and soon became a Darkmancer. He went away and got a job cleaning sewers from darkling infestation. From this job he learned tactics and strategies for killing the Outcomes. He then decided to do a ritual exchange to get information about his mother, traded the touch of his left toe and got only the name William. After extensive research he found out about the Black Mountain, Cream's private lands on a mountain surrounded by a deep cliff. Shaman is a surname he made up himself.
The man near the window was Alvares Viratempo, raised only by his father in Paris. All his progenitors' family was dead, so his only relative was his dad. From the time he was a child he had seen his father searching for information and clues about his mother's whereabouts, why she would have sent only his son back, and what might have really happened to her. When Alvares finished school, his father died of a heart attack, and the only thing he left Viratempo was a letter, with the name Cream written on it. He thus decided to study about the black affinity, as he was afraid to try the blood one.
The woman by the fireplace was named Makalister Renton. She was raised by her aunts, grandfathers, and grandmothers, all of whom had always said that her mother had run away, that she had given up on life. When she was 15, however, she discovered that they knew nothing and that her mother had disappeared, chances were she was still out there somewhere with the answer to everything. Renton felt horrible that she wasn't powerful enough to look for her mother, and with a mild curiosity, she started reading and finding out about Blood Affinity. During her high school years she performed her first ritual - she convinced a friend to have sex with her over a summoning symbol - and her first exchange using blood from rats she hunted, with which she could create sparks with the snap of her fingers. After graduation, she ran away from home, went through all the wild rituals - open-air orgies, nights of carnal pleasures, trips on hallucinogenic drugs and exchanges of blood or body parts - and became a Bloodmancer, so she could have the power to find her mother... but the most she could find were Cream and her home.
And the last - and the one that had come last too - was Black Sabbath. He had no last name in the orphanage because they never found his family, until the rich and powerful Sabbath adopted him, and he grew up with all the good and the best. The family's blood heir considered him a true brother, until the day secret threats fell upon them, and Black had to flee to seek power, thus living in Africa as a mercenary for a few years. He returned to his country and discovered that his half-brother was the only legible heir of the Sabbath family left, after a bombing at a business meeting. He made sure that they would never get in the Sabbath family's way again and almost inadvertently discovered a clue about his real mother, the name William Cream. To put an end to the mystery, he went after Black Mountain.
- So - Sabbath said, crossing his arms to think - We have three people versed in affinity, two with military knowledge, a mountain to climb, a mystery to unravel, and possible enemies ahead.
- Enemies? - said Shaman - What happened?
- When I was coming here - continued Black - a Bloodmancer destroyed the bridge, I didn't see who it was because it was too far away, and I'm sure it wasn't Renton, otherwise she would still be recovering from an Affinity like that. There is someone else besides us on this mountain, more than one probably.
- The bridge was destroyed? - said Makalister - Then the only way to leave is...
- By the cable car - said Alvares - at the top of the mountain - pointing out the window they see, the winds had stopped and the sun now reflected its rays on the snow. They realized that this would be a long day, too long. At the top, a large Victorian mansion seemed to look down on them, revealing the journey it would take to reach it.
- If we're going to work as a team - Renton said - we have to check the post, there may be something here.
Sabbath gathered his backpack and those of the others in front of the fireplace while they investigated the small post.
The walls were a faint faded blue and besides the main room, there were two more rooms, a small bathroom, and a kitchen with a refrigerator, a small stove, and a manual coffee pot. Viratempo saw that there was a freshly brewed coffee, but that it was already cold.
- Did anyone here make coffee? - he asked.
- I didn't know there was a kitchen here, I came in and stayed by the fireplace because I don't like the cold and because I didn't know who you were, so you were enemies at that moment - said Renton sitting in front of the fireplace again.
- It's the beginning of winter - added Shaman to Makalister - the cold gets much worse in the coming months.
He opened the refrigerator and found nothing, whoever was there had taken what he ate away, but left a cold coffee as a courtesy. Whoever it was, they were an enemy. He turned on the stove and let the coffee warm up.
- Did you find anything there? - said Viratempo.
- An amateur radio - answered Shaman - but it's not working.
Near one of the walls was a table with an old radio, probably used for communication between the post and the peak. It was old, from the 130's. The chances of it working were low, so they left it in the background.
- Hey - Makalister, with his hands close to the fire began to look inside the fireplace. Behind the flames was something. A line, she followed it and found another line that intersected with this one. Further down a name: Old Villa Ramones.
- There is something behind the fire.
Renton closed his eyes. When he opened them, the color of her left eye was now an unimaginable red, a four-sided star twirled in her iris. Her right arm became black as coal and she put her hand through the fire, reached behind her for the paper and quickly pulled it out. Sabbath picked up the paper from the floor and Renton recovered, amidst some of the winking, her brown eye returned, and her arm slowly regained the white coloration it had.
- It's a map - she spoke, getting up - a map of the Mountain.
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