Marina's attention was caught by a blond boy who was crossing the previous path backwards. After sharpening her eyes she recognized the rather erratic gait of her dear half-brother, who always kept a smile on his face. Michela gave him a look and started waving at him until he noticed her. Lorenzo approached quickly.

“Hi girls, I was looking for you. Lilia, it's nice to see you again.”

“Thanks Lorenzo, how did you find us?”

“I texted Michela earlier”, he showed the lit phone, “I wanted to talk to you about what happened two days ago, if you don't know yet.”

Marina looked at the cell phone screen with adversity. A few years before, the use of technological objects had been allowed within the park and, although some of them served as an enormous help in her research and in her work in general, the idea of having a telephone and being able to message instead of meeting outside their homes was unacceptable. Her choice seemed to be shared by the majority of demigods, yet they all had total freedom regarding that topic. The Lilies Park was the only place in the Otherworld that was as developed as the mortal world and the credit was all to the former representative of the house of the children of Corgu.

She had often happened to peek while Michela was on GodTok, a social application exclusively for demigods, and the latter had always laughed at the expression she made

It was the young demigoddess herself who encouraged her half-brother, “Now Lore explains well, detail by detail. I'm curious.”

“Okay, another scandal?” Lilia asked, "I'll check if there are no paparazzi around...”

It was at that moment that Shirei suddenly materialized among them. Everyone present screamed in fear, but the purple-eyed boy remained rather impassive and simply commented: “You got me.”

“Hollow!” Marina jumped and quickly stepped back before calming down, “I mean, Shirei.”

“Good morning.”

Lilia remained still and moved her gaze from the boy to the girl, astonished. Marina noticed both a flicker of terror on her face and a glint of pure hatred. Torari's daughter, and everyone present with her, ended up calming down after a while. The brunette glared at Ien's daughter and Marina understood that look as a clear message of disdain. Lilia had never appreciated her friendship with Dalia due to the bad reputation that characterized the children of Cragar, she certainly would not have accepted Shirei. Michela had kept it hidden from her and it would have been better if she had never found out, perhaps. That simple feeling of contempt was then amplified by her descent from the goddess of vengeance, so Marina simply glossed over the topic to avoid the argument.

“These are my sister Michela and my friend Lilia.” Ien's daughter hastened to add.

Shirei waved to the girls, then turned to Lorenzo. “Go on. You mean the case of the son of Tefine, right?”

“You already know?” the blond asked.

“I heard just a little bit about it.”

Marina narrowed her eyes, confused by that statement. From what she had deduced, Shirei wasn't exactly a very sociable person, on the contrary he preferred to keep to himself. It therefore naturally arose to ask how he had managed to obtain information from others. For the umpteenth time, Marina had to sigh and surrender to the mystery.

Lorenzo decided to begin his story: “So, I was talking to a daughter of Corgi and he told me that he had heard some noises near the hut on the beach”, he said pointing in the direction of the sea, “She went to check and, once arrived, she found some guys talking to a certain Salix. One looked like he was about to faint as Salix babbled something about how he couldn't stay long, that his services were required by someone important. She tried to get him to calm down, but he was out of his mind.”

“And who would this be now?” Lilia exclaimed.

“Tefine is the goddess of sleep, and Salix like her son definitely has the ability to put people to sleep, which was probably why the demigod was about to faint.” Marina reasoned.

Shirei narrowed his eyes slightly when Lorenzo mentioned the mysterious figure, “Continue.”

“At a certain point he conjured a strange chain that went around him with a blade at the end, he wanted to attack them...”

“Like that character from Mortal Kombat then”, said Michela after deciding to take off her headphones and concentrate on the story, Shirei continued to listen in silence.

“Worse. Salix has even begun to transform into a monstrous creature.”

“Monstrous?” Lilia asked almost in disbelief.

“Yes. Apparently, he's not a simple demigod like us.” Lorenzo declared.

Silence fell. Everyone present stopped talking, probably lost in formulating their own ideas about the news, with only the noise of the wind filling the moment. Marina glanced at Shirei and noticed the boy staring into nothing, as if he had heard something terrible, he seemed really upset. “Shirei, is everything okay?”

“It's dangerous for the Lilies Park,” replied the boy.

“We are all walking dangers, after all.”

Cragar's son did not respond and implied that he knew more information.

“This story is starting to worry me,” Lilia said with a grimace.

“It's very strange...” Marina replied and glanced at the violet-eyed demigod.

Shirei closed his eyelids, “We have to kill him.”

Marina stood still for a second, thinking she had heard wrong. She turned to Shirei and, hesitating, replied: “Take it easy!”

“Why?” the demigod looked seriously confused, “Did I go too far?”

“Well ... yes?! We must warn Mr. D'Agostini and the goddess Aena, but we definitely cannot kill him!”

“First we have to understand why he did it,” Lorenzo assessed, “It could be revenge, Lilia, what do you think?”

“I have to meet him first to know.”

“You guys are already on a war footing... look at the cards on the table”, advised the young demigoddess, daughter of Ien.

Shirei looked down at the cloth, his frowning face suggesting that he didn't understand what Michela meant.

“It was a figure of speech,” Marina told him softly, trying to keep from shouting at him again.

Normally he would have managed to make her smile, but not after what he had said.

“We know practically nothing about him. We should wait for another misstep, then it will be time to worry” Marina paused, “For now we should just report the news to the Great Mansion.”

“You know very well that I'm with you,” Lilia replied with a smile.

Lorenzo nodded, “Then I'll go to Lyceum to tell everything.”

Michela leaned over slightly to better observe Cragar's son, “Shirei, right?”, she asked, “You're very quiet.”

“He always seems to be”, Marina replied for him, partly trying to provoke a response from him.

Shirei simply sighed and kept a calm expression, “Maybe you're right, it's better to do it this way.”

Cragar's son stood up, intending to walk away. Marina stared at him dumbfounded, aware that there was more behind his words. Her role was clear, she had to know what he was plotting and, even though she didn't like the idea, she had to try to deceive him to obtain new information. She didn't want to take advantage of him, but the situation made it necessary. Marina steeled herself and, with a brief goodbye to her friends, followed Shirei. The girls laughed and greeted her back, with the promise of seeing each other again at lunchtime. Lorenzo instead headed towards the Great Mansion.

Marina reached Shirei after a few seconds, “Hey, Hollow!”

The purple-eyed demigod turned around, he had his usual calm expression on his face.

“Yes?”

“I'm sorry if I reacted that way”, she referred to a few moments earlier, “I didn't want to seem unpleasant but you took me by surprise, it's really wrong and... it wasn't an idea I had considered among the options. We don't kill anyone here, I just wanted you to understand that first.”

“You don't need to apologize, I understood it. There's more?”

This was her chance, “I was wondering...” the girl looked away slightly with embarrassment, “Tomorrow morning there will be a lesson on the children of the six of the pact, the deities I mean. You and Dalia are the only ones in the park here-“

“Do you need help?” Shirei interrupted.

“Yes,” she confirmed, “It would be a great help if you could come too and show us what the children of Cragar can actually do. Dalia can't control herself very much, but you already know that.”

The boy looked up slightly and weighed the idea before replying, “Okay, see you tomorrow outside the seventh house.”

“There's no need! I can also come and get you...”

Marina's words were lost as she observed a slight change in expression on the demigod's part. It was strange, she still felt the mysterious aura that had made her skin crawl the day before, but the sensation that came from it no longer oppressed her. Calm and tranquility were the first words that popped into his mind. Without hesitation, she also widened his mouth into a smile.

“Thank you. See you tomorrow then, Hollow!”