He was lying on one knee on the ice bed, which was almost as long as he was tall, facing a beautiful moon-faced woman with long blue hair that flowed in waves from her shoulders to her dress. The young man was blond, tall, with a muscular physique and a handsome face with sharp features, but the most striking feature was that both arms were artificial from the shoulder. His mechanical arms were covered with a golden yellow coating and the symbol of a snake wrapped in a pen above his shoulders was faintly visible.

As the young man in his mid-twenties stood there with his eyes closed, he heard the voice of a girl not yet twenty behind him.

"How long are you going to pray, Brother Jerome?"

Jerome opened his eyes and turned around with brown eyes to see his sister, who looked very much like the woman lying across from him. She had a faint smile on her face, but the bruised bags under her eyes screamed that she too was not in the best of health.

"I wasn't praying," Jerome confessed as he stood up. "It's only when I'm with him that I can think more clearly."

"I understand, but it's bad for your health too. Let's get out of this ice cave and let my sister rest."

Jerome, obeying the sister of the woman he loved, emerged from the cave and feasted his eyes on the view of the forest in the hazy and stormy white that he was used to seeing.

"Vanessa," Jerome said. "You take care of your health too, okay? You look so tired."

"Yes," the young girl said with a heartwarming smile. "But let's leave this for now and go inside. The soup won't get cold, will it?"

"You made soup? You've grown so big, little one."

"Don't treat me like a child," Vanessa said, sobbing. "Come on, let's go inside!"

Vanessa took him by the arm and they went to their little hut built at the foot of the cliff on the left, just outside the cave, and sat down to their soup at a table for two, looking out of the window at the view.

After taking a few spoonfuls of the food, Vanessa took a piece of fresh bread from the oven and handed it to Jerome.

"Here you go. I'm being crafty again."

"Can you not praise yourself?" Jerome asked with a sigh. But with a piece of bread in his mouth, he could only agree with her.

"What happened? You've gone quiet. I made a commendable bread, didn't I?"

Jerome nodded and took another spoonful of soup.

"I miss spending time with you more and more every time, Vanessa."

Suddenly, the young girl did not know what to say to the young man's words. She swallowed as she looked at Jerome with surprised eyes.

"Or..."

Jerome nodded, unable to look at her.

"I'm sorry, but this time I'm going to the Zone of No Rules."

"No!" the girl slammed her hand hard on the table and stormed to her feet. "What do you mean I'm going to the Zone of No Rules? Didn't you just go to the Forest of Dreams last week? You're going to get yourself killed."

Jerome took another spoonful of his soup.

"I know, but..." she took another spoonful as tears ran down the sides of her nose and dripped into her soup. "I have no other choice. I have to wake her up somehow. And I... I don't know the slightest thing about her illness!"

Suddenly the room fell silent as the young man shouted. Vanessa and Jerome looked at each other for a few seconds and then said, "If you wanted to cure my sister, you would have started your search here." "Tell the truth Jerome, do you want to save my sister or make her suffer? Why are you still stubborn? My sister is not like this because of you. You can't be responsible for everything." She moved closer to him, cupping his cheeks with her hands and lifting his head slightly. "Maybe my sister just needs time. Aren't you tired too? It must be hell to weather this storm every time. Come on, Jerome. Now get yourself together and relax."

The youth could not think of any words to say. He just grabbed her wrists with his hands, pulled her cheeks and stood up. Then he walked out of the hut without even making eye contact.

Once outside, he immediately looked at his left palm, touched the center of it with the index finger of his right hand, and the palm opened to form a round hole. Then the blue beams of light emanating from the hole came together to form a hologram of a list of several people. He could move the pages in the hologram just by thinking, and after about fifteen minutes of reading the information noted about a dozen or so people in the file, he closed the hologram with the power of his mind and the hole in his palm immediately closed.

"I understand Vanessa's worries. She's all alone because of me. It must be hard living in this mountain without seeing a human face. After all, she's a young girl. She wants to travel, have fun. But... she can't leave her sister's side because of my stupidity."

"I wish I hadn't loved you so much, Linael," he said with a deep "sigh" as he looked at the vast, shuddering landscape before him.

"So, are you done grunting?"

"It's over," Jerome said, turning around to see a frowning Vanessa with her arms folded across her chest.

"Good. Go inside and get some rest. If you don't leave early tomorrow, you'll be caught in the height of the storm."

The young man nodded and walked back to the hut without saying anything. Vanessa just stared after him.