With a jolt, Arada woke up.

  Where am I?

  She immediately sat up straight and looked around.

  Oh right, Aplin's bunker.

  A dim light was burning on the ceiling. On the other side of the room, she saw Irgos and Aplin busy with something in the 'kitchen area.'

  She threw the bnket off herself and tossed it on the mattress.

  How long have I been out?

  Her head felt light. But it was a huge difference from yesterday when she had colpsed, completely exhausted. Now it felt...

  Wait a minute. The wound.

  Immediately, she took off her jacket and looked at her stomach. The bandage Aplin had applied yesterday was still in pce. But it felt different.

  Carefully, she peeled off the linen.

  What?

  Where there had been a stab wound yesterday, now there was almost nothing left. The skin had nearly completely healed. Only a bit of pus remained, where some mysterious leaves were still stuck.

  "Ah, I see the Sea Goddess has done her work."

  Arada looked up. Aplin was approaching, along with her brother. They were each holding a bowl. Judging by the smell, it was food.

  "Sea Goddess?"

  Aplin pointed to the leaves. "An exotic pnt that only grows locally. Extremely medicinal."

  Arada couldn't believe it. Even the pain was gone. "But... but that's not possible. A body c-can't heal that fast—"

  Her mouth hung open midway through her sentence. She was speechless.

  "You're living proof otherwise," Aplin said with a grin. He set one of the bowls down in front of her and sat across from her. Irgos plopped down next to her on the other half of the rge mattress.

  Arada wrinkled her nose when she saw what was inside.

  Ugh, meat again. What is it this time?

  "Yesterday, we caught a pigeon," Irgos said. "Please eat; you need it."

  Arada sniffed again. She really didn't want it, but she knew darn well that she could use the nourishment. She grabbed the bowl and, in a few bites, swallowed down the piece of pigeon. Her hunger won over her aversion to eating animals.

  "So, how long was I asleep?" she asked after she'd finished. "The st thing I remember is you two leaving the bunker."

  Aplin rolled his eyes upward. "Uh... it's nearly evening now. I'd say, about twenty hours or so."

  Twenty!

  "I only woke up around noon too," Irgos said. "Apparently, we really needed that sleep." A cautious smile appeared on his face.

  Suddenly, Arada felt tears well up. Not from sadness, but from relief. She felt so... well. The wound was gone, and she had slept perfectly. She wasn't as tired as before. And she was so grateful to Aplin for knowing about this 'Sea Goddess' pnt.

  Irgos took her hand.

  "Hey, are you okay?"

  Arada nodded, sniffling. "Yes..." she said. "It's just..." She looked at him, then at Aplin. "Guys, really... thank you. Without you... I don't know if..." Her voice caught. She couldn't finish her sentence.

  "Oh, come on," Aplin said, almost angrily. "Did you really think we'd leave you behind?" He took a big bite of his piece of meat. "‘Cawrs nawt," he said with his mouth full.

  She focused on how Irgos's hand felt. Warm and kind. She noticed her heart beating faster because of his touch. It felt nice. She couldn't have wished for a better younger half-brother.

  A little ter, he let go of her hand. All three of them finished their piece of pigeon. Then, a silence fell over them.

  "Arada," Irgos said after a while. "There's something I wanted to ask you. I wanted to do it yesterday, but everything went by so fast I didn't have the time to think about it."

  Arada turned her head toward him.

  "Do you remember the 'elixir' Culex mentioned yesterday?"

  She felt a wave of heat.

  Here we go.

  "I assume he meant your father's vial," he continued. "Do you know why it wasn't in the backpack? I was sure we put it in."

  Arada thought about an answer that would satisfy him. But she couldn't think of one.

  I can't tell him the truth. Imagine if Culex ever got hold of him and... converted him? No, that mustn't happen.

  Irgos kept looking at her intently.

  Argh, those eyes...

  In the end, she had no choice but to py along.

  "I... I thought it was really s-strange too," she managed as steadily as possible. "It really should've been there... I honestly don't know where it could have gone."

  Irgos squinted his eyes.

  "But how? We didn't take it out at any point, did we?"

  "Not that I know of."

  She saw panic creeping over Irgos's face. "But... t-that means it's l-lost," he said in horror. "That elixir seemed imporant to Cura. It is our reason for going to Aquinox. The entire point of our mission. Gone."

  Arada thought of something. "Maybe the zipper was still open? Maybe it fell out and we lost it along the way?"

  Irgos sank even deeper into despair. "If that's the case, it could be anywhere. That's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Who knows, maybe Culex has already found it."

  Good. I think he believes me.

  It didn't feel right lying to him like that. But it was for a good cause. For now, the elixir was safe.

  Once we're in Aquinox, I'll tell him the truth.

  "Cura said that elixir is the only thing that can stop him," Irgos murmured desperately. "If we don't have it, then everything is pointless."

  "Not entirely," Arada said. "We still have the half-amulet."

  "But Culex took that from us too, didn't he?"

  "Yeah, but at least now we know who to look for—the one with the other half."

  Irgos stayed silent and pulled his hand away from hers.

  "We have no choice but to go to Aquinox," she continued. "With or without the elixir. We need that person for answers, okay? And we just have to hope there's another way to defeat Culex." Arada said it with all the determination she could muster.

  "If we even get there alive," Irgos added.

  Aplin rubbed his curls and squinted his eyes. "Of course we'll make it. We won't let ourselves be beaten."

  We?

  Irgos and Arada looked at each other. He'd noticed the plural too.

  "Do you mean…?" her brother began.

  "I'm going to help you," Aplin said. "I'm done hiding underground from jelly monsters and Culex. They've taken everyone I loved from me. The least I can do is make sure we find our person there, so we can put an end to that monster of a Culex." He spat the st word.

  "But—" Arada protested.

  "No buts!" He suddenly sounded strict. "Do you really think I'll rot away in this hole alone? That I'll bow to the demons ruling our world today?" His face turned red as he emphasized his words. "To live another day as a coward in this miserable pce? No, there's only one thing left that matters. Culex must PAY for what he's done."

  He shouted the st part. Saliva dripped from his chin.

  "I mean," Arada said, once she was sure he'd finished. "We're really, truly grateful that you want to help us."

  Aplin raised an eyebrow. "But?"

  "No 'but.' We want nothing more than revenge on Culex ourselves." She said it without any aggression.

  When no one spoke, Aplin continued.

  "Listen. Like I said, we can't stay here much longer. Culex will tear apart the whole sewer to find us eventually. Moreover, all three of us are very likely already infected by that jelly monster from yesterday, and it won't be long until the first symptoms appear. It's a race against the clock. I suggest we leave tonight."

  "Tonight?" Arada blurted out.

  "I have a pn." He grabbed his bag and pulled out a small piece of paper, ying it on the mattress for the two of them to see. It was about the same size as the paper of the Catsroes ndscape that was wrapped around the elixir's vial.

  "In the Old World, they called this a map" Aplin said. "A schematic representation of the world around us. This is a yout of Ebrotown from about twenty years ago."

  Irgos gave her a quick look. "Just like ours," he said.

  Aplin looked surprised. "You know what this is?"

  "Cura gave us something simir," she expined. "But the paper was in our backpack, which Culex took from us. It had a lot on it. Aquinox, Ebrotown, the border with Asroes, the Atra Sea..."

  Aplin froze, a deep frown on his face.

  "The Atra Sea? You mean…"

  "The Atra Sea was at the bottom of the map. Everything above it was on there."

  Aplin's frown grew even deeper.

  Did I say something wrong?

  "But that can't be," Aplin muttered to himself.

  "What's the problem?"

  "The Atra Sea was formed after the 2023 flood, when the whole Atra River overflowed and conquered all nd to the south. So that would mean your map was made after that. But that's unlikely, considering society had colpsed at that point."

  An eerie silence fell over them.

  Why did Dad never tell us what he knew all along? Arada thought, frustrated.

  "Anyway," Aplin finally said. "That's a mystery for ter." He fttened the map a bit more. "Here's my pn." He pointed at the map. "This bridge here was destroyed a year after the flood. But ter, Culex rebuilt a wooden version. It's the only thing connecting Catsroes's east isnd with the mainnd."

  Arada nodded. She could remember the bridge from their own map.

  "The picture is a bit misleading," he said. "The flood widened the Ebros River significantly. But here's the idea: we'll cross this bridge tonight."

  "Yeah, right," Irgos said sarcastically. "That's exactly what Culex expects us to do. He'll have the whole bridge guarded."

  Aplin smiled. "Exactly. That's why we'll make sure we get to the other side before he does."

  "And then?" Irgos asked bluntly.

  "Then we set the bridge on fire."