It was still night when Ava made the decision not to leave headquarters. Instead, she decided to go to the young men's room, where Koji and Saik were. As she approached the door, she hesitated for a moment, feeling a slight tremor of anxiety in her chest.
"Come in!" Koji shouted.
With permission granted, she carefully opened the door, finding Koji and Saik in the middle of their nighttime routine, both preparing for bed.
"Is something wrong?" Koji asked, sitting on the edge of his bed.
"The workday is over," Saik said as he wrapped himself in his blankets.
"Good night, boys."
Still hesitant, Ava closed the door behind her and took a few steps into the room, holding an envelope firmly in her hands.
"Sorry to bother you at this hour," she said in a serious tone, "but I needed to give this to you, Koji."
She extended the envelope toward him, her fingers trembling slightly as she did so. Koji frowned, intrigued, but took the envelope without questioning.
The tense atmosphere around Ava was palpable to Koji, who looked at her with concern. Carefully, he opened the envelope.
Inside were two papers, folded meticulously. Koji slowly unfolded the first one, as if he feared what he might find. At the top of the page, it read, "From Sam to Koji."
"Sam?"
Koji's expression changed immediately; he hadn't expected this.
Sam, the guardian who had raised and cared for him for five years after his parents' death, was someone Koji had always trusted. Sam had been a father figure to him, guiding him through his tumultuous childhood, and even recently, during the chaos in Dynami, Sam, along with S. James, had led the resistance that forced the Foundation's enforcers out of the city.
With slightly trembling hands, Koji began to read the contents of the first letter.
"Koji, there's something I need to tell you, something I've kept hidden for a long time. I knew your father, Norman Fuller, years before he… well, before he took his own life. We became very close, to the point where Norman trusted me with a dark secret, a plan he had devised, a suicidal plan. I know this may be hard to understand, but he believed it was necessary, and somehow, I understood his reasons. From the beginning, I knew Norman would eventually carry out what he had planned, so I prepared for what was to come. It was that preparation that allowed me to arrive so quickly on the night of the incident, to take care of you. I knew that when the time came, my duty would be to protect and raise you, as he would have wanted."
Next, Koji took the second letter and read it.
"I know this is a lot to take in, but I need to ask you something important: don't harbor anger or any negative feelings about what your father did. Norman had his honorable reasons. He was fighting against threats that tormented him deeply, and everything he did was with you in mind. Before he left, he entrusted me with crucial information, things he asked me to keep and reveal to you only now, more than a decade after his death. Now that the time has come, you have the chance to follow the path your father was on before he died. This path, Koji, will lead you to the answers you've been seeking—the truth about the failed pact and Norman's story. And this path leads to one place: Aurora. It's there that you'll find the truth about your father and the solution to the pact."
As he finished reading, Koji felt a wave of emotion sweep through him. For the first time, he had a clear lead on his past and what he needed to do next. His face, once filled with uncertainty, now lit up with renewed determination.
He lifted his head, gazing at Ava with a new light in his eyes.
"I have to go!" Koji exclaimed, with a subtle but unmistakable excitement.
"Where is Aurora?" Ava, however, stepped in front of him, trying to maintain order.
Saik, who had remained silent until then, frowned thoughtfully.
"I think it's a metaphor," he ventured, trying to decipher the hidden meaning behind Sam's words.
Koji shook his head, a faint but resolute smile forming on his lips.
"Aurora is a metaphor, yes, but it's also a real place," he explained urgently. "It's on the peak of White Mountain in the central region of Wüst state. And I have to go there."
Ava crossed her arms and, looking intently at Koji, tried to find a way to persuade him not to leave so hastily.
"You can't just leave like this, Koji. You have a collaboration agreement with the Tower."
"This is my chance to discover the truth about my father and fix my pact. I can't ignore it."
Koji's voice had risen slightly, his eagerness to leave was clear. However, Ava remained calm and thought carefully.
"Convincing him to stay will be nearly impossible, but I can't ignore what he's trying to do… I need to keep him here, at least to have him on our side for something."
After a moment of silence, she finally conceded.
"Okay, you can go. But first, I need you to do me a favor."
"What favor?" Koji raised an eyebrow, feeling a bit suspicious.
Ava took a step forward and said, "There's a group of foreign and criminal enforcers called the Conclave. They're acting as terrorists and imperialists in the central-western region of the country. I need your help dealing with them."
"Hmmm…"
Koji glanced over at Saik, who was now distractedly fiddling with the room's TV remote. Despite the urgency he felt to leave, Koji thought it over.
"I can't leave without doing something for them; I guess that's what they want from me."
And he responded to Ava's request.
"Alright, I'll help."
He then looked back at Saik, who seemed more interested in finding a decent channel on TV than in the conversation.
"So, are you in?" Koji asked, a slight smile on his face.
Saik looked up, with a lazy smile and a sleepy expression, and replied, "Why not?"