Fayn Itagral

Many questions ran through my mind; none of them seemed right to ask. One word echoed inside my head like thunder: Itagral. This information had only been revealed to me just before starting the release route.

Violet looked at me with contained excitement; it was clear she wanted to approach, standing there with a smile on her face. Her flux was no longer accelerated, but she didn't lower her fluctuation.

Her eternum emitted a faint glow, forming a bubble around her. The bubble wasn't a construct like a barrier—I could only see it because I was enhancing my eyes—but it prevented the hot air from getting close.

How? How did she still maintain so much eternum? All captains received the same files I did, focused on each of their prisoners. Yet, Estela didn't tell me this woman was an Itagral, let alone Dália's sister. A simple text message would have sufficed. My father didn't tell me either, but that was expected of him. Hogan might have silenced her.

"You seem to have many questions. Would you like to ask something?"

"Itagral."

"Ah, yes. That must have created many doubts."

Her dark gaze fell, then rose.

"Well, I really am an Itagral. Hogan ended up taking that surname. He must have given you that name as a way to continue Dália's legacy."

I felt the muscles in my face tighten. Violet's head tilted to the side for a moment before she raised her eyebrows and returned to normal.

"The dates, of course. Dália's pregnancy showed no signs. That's all I can say."

"The Itagral surname was never used, nor publicized, to refer to you. Why?"

"A request from Dália herself. She wanted our names kept secret."

"Was it also her who asked to keep our connection a secret?"

She watched me in silence like a statue with violet eyes. Her head tilted again as the melodious voice echoed once more, each syllable spoken with calm and precision.

"You only ask about her, why?"

"I want to understand the reason my origin was hidden from me."

"Your origin? What an interesting word."

My reflection in her eyes showed a firm scowl on my face. Violet let out a laugh and once again looked me up and down. This time, she didn't say anything immediately.

"Did you kill her?"

The woman froze like a toy without batteries. Her face closed off as if I had uttered the greatest possible offense. The bubble of opaque eternum around her darkened; the entire environment darkened as if the light was refusing to be present. The only things still clear were me and Violet.

I began preparing a defense, just in case. My whole body turned icy when the melodious and rhythmic sound gave way to a shrill, sharp one.

"I didn't kill my sister! Don't try to put that weight on my shoulders!"

"I didn't, I just asked."

"Don't try to act like her! You're just a brat, a brat who thinks he knows anything!"

"What do you know about me to talk like that?"

Faster than the blink of an eye, Violet approached and hit the transparent wall separating us. I felt the vibration of the impact run beneath my feet and spread through the prison's structure. My heart raced instinctively as the cold on my skin became as real as the woman staring at me.

Clasping my hands behind my back, I let a smile appear on my face.

"You could have broken free at any moment, it seems. What stopped you?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, her fists clenched, and the world regained some of its color. The grip of cold on my neck loosened slowly, in time with Violet's steps.

The youthful-looking woman walked backward, looking at the sides and corners of the room. She let out a scream that scratched the depths of my ears as she bent forward and held her own head. I could see the eternum flux inside her accelerate; the more she screamed, the faster it became.

Even so, the opaque bubble around her remained as stable as the prison walls. I took a step forward. Violet moved away without looking at me; she had stopped screaming, though she continued to look into every corner.

The violet eyes locked onto mine. They were wide, frightened, and seemed confused. Her head tilted back as if hearing something she didn't understand. Little by little, her hands released her head and her posture returned to normal. She murmured something to herself, looking at the floor.

Jader's case was much simpler; he just had a broken sense of reality, and Helena's presence was enough. This one was far more complicated. There was no way to let her have direct contact with her colleagues in such an unstable state. The information in the file was the absolute truth: Violet Itagral had gone mad. The key was knowing how to treat this madness.

She looked at her own hands, then at the destroyed chains, and finally at me. Her expression was twisted in confusion.

"What happened?"

Huh?

"What are you talking about?"

As she answered me in a faltering voice, she leaned against the back wall, feeling her way as if blind.

"When did you get here? Wha... what's your name?"

"Fayn Itagral, I already told you that."

"You are real... right?"

Now it was my turn to twist my face in confusion. I certainly wasn't expecting something like this. Was she deciding to make a joke?

"As far as I know, I'm quite real."

"Itagral... You're Dália's son?"

Her tone changed drastically. It was neither melodious nor shrill. She spoke like any other normal person, without theatrics, without pronouncing each syllable individually. It was just... normal. And that was exactly what made me raise my guard.

Nothing about this woman was normal, literally nothing about her, from her skin tone to her posture, was normal. What caused such a sudden change? This trait of madness wasn't described in the file…

"You said you were my aunt. Unless you're not Dália's sister, she is my mother."

"I am her sister." The purple in her eyes darkened a little; the bubble around her also seemed to lose what little color it had left. "I am... her sister."

I could almost hear the gears turning in her head to form a thought. She stared at me as if she had never seen another human in her life. Unlike Helena, she didn't look away at all.

I took a deep breath. Things had gone off plan, so it was better to wrap this up. But I couldn't do it carelessly.

"I'll start over. My name is Fayn Itagral, High Commander of the Capital. Identify yourself."

Once again, the violet eyes scanned the cell. At times she seemed to remember something. She chose to remain silent and keep her distance.

"Well, since you don't want to talk, I'll continue. My mission is to get the War Lords out of prison, but I'm giving you a choice. If you choose to come with me, you must wear this bracelet, follow my orders, and be under my care. You can make one request, any request. I will do my best to fulfill it as soon as possible. You can also save the request for later."

The woman with dark purple hair averted her gaze from me and stared down the corridor, focusing on a point above and to the right of my head.

"Have you spoken with Helena and Jader?"

"Yes."

"And Kusog?"

"He will be next. After that, we return to the Capital."

Her expression twisted in pain, and she pressed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. Her breathing came heavy, laden. She seemed to be fighting something inside her own head. She looked so tired that even I felt disheartened.

"Can I ask for anything?"

"You can."

"I want you to help me with two things: regain my sanity and..."

Violet groaned in pain and shook her head, her eyes still closed and pressing the bridge of her nose. It was truly impressive how she seemed to feel pain without the bubble around her showing any instability. Even as her breathing grew heavy and her legs gave way, her control over the eternum didn't falter.

Violet let out a sigh before opening her eyes; she seemed even more tired than moments before.

"I want you to help me regain my sanity and understand better what this is." The hand that was massaging her nose gestured to indicate the air around her. "You must see it too, the bubble."

I nodded, touching the palm of my hand to the transparent wall.

"I can do that, but it will take some time."

"The mission you're recruiting me for probably won't be resolved in a few days."

"It seems stating the obvious as a joke is a genetic trait."

"The Itagral curse."

We both laughed in amusement.

From the center of my hand touching the transparent wall, the eternum running through me was emitted and entered the wall itself. In an instant, the wall began to glow and exploded into millions of pieces, all connected by a white, shining web formed by my eternum. I placed all the pieces on the floor, waiting and watching Violet approach.

Her change was too drastic, especially considering the time since we started talking. Anyway, she seemed to have acquired a moment of sanity.

"I seem like a different person, I know."

I neither agreed nor disagreed as I watched her put on the bracelet. The bubble around her was still there even after the bracelet began its containment. Her internal flux wasn't altered either. Besides that, the environment seemed to cool down as she approached.

I started leading the way to the exit; from the fluctuations in the air, the fight between those two was still going on. Helena was in better shape than I had imagined. Of course, it didn't compare to the woman beside me.

"It seems we have a lot to study."

Violet raised an eyebrow and punched me lightly on the shoulder.

"I'm still your aunt, brat, not a lab rat."

From her tone, her mood had shifted again. Should I hire a psychologist to help me?

I bowed with one hand on my chest and raised my tone of voice, not to an angry one, but a humorous one.

"My apologies. I shall remember our blood relation in future interactions."

Violet stopped for a moment, checking everything around her, before letting out a series of laughs, covering her mouth with one hand.

"Just like your mother, to the bone."

"Is that a compliment?"

She continued walking, holding her chin, her brow furrowed as if formulating a complicated answer. After thirty seconds, she answered me with a shrug.

"Depends on your point of view."

"Being... eccentric, is it an innate characteristic for an Itagral?"

"Good question. Pity I can't give a proper answer."

"Any reason?"

"The Itagral are the Itagral. Nothing more, nothing less."

It was with this master-wizard's answer that she fell silent. Like it or not, I had just found the greatest source of information about my origins. Like it or not, my source of information was suffering from serious mental problems and powers she didn't even understand.

My mind clicked.

"You don't understand your own powers?"

When she turned to look at me, the bubble dissolved as if it had never existed. The cold also vanished. In an instant, all of her seemed to gain more color and become sharper in my vision.

"I understand, a little, but most of it is almost automatic."

I just kept walking, trying to gather all the information I had managed to get. In the end, it all boiled down to a single word: Itagral.