The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.

Milo was living her life in bliss with the ignorance of a five year old, she wasn’t waiting for her life to start. It had already begun when she found Zane as her brother.

But the Emberlord ordered Kairon to fetch Milo from the room and just as the doors of the Cathedral went shut, Kairon mouthed the words:

"Consider her dead."

THUD!

The doors finally closed and Zane’s entire body itched as if ants crawled all over his skin.

———

After stepping out, Kairon wasted no time and walked to the building that had the Dorms for the Students.

He saw the reception desks and since he knew where the lady with the glasses sat, he went to that table right away.

The table at the corner.

There was no one present in the Citadel at the moment.

It was empty.

The air itself had gone to attend the prayer of the First Flame.

Nevertheless, Kairon was familiar with the emptiness so he simply looked for the register with the name of the students.

He knew where he had to look so he shoved his hand inside the table.

Whatever paper he got his hands on, he took them out.

He took out all the registers he could find but to make the search easier, the registers had dates written on it considering which candidates awakened their Skills in which cycle of the awakening ceremony.

Kairon knew that Zane had come yesterday so he looked for that date.

In no time he found it.

2026 A.R-1-1.

The format followed year, month and date.

After the opening of the rifts, Dwarkam had undergone the change in their calenders.

The time was divided in two eras.

B.R.—Before Riftcataclysm.

A.R.—After Riftcataclysm.

There were 13 months in total and each month had 28 days in them. 7 days a week and 26 hours a day. The sun stayed for 11 hours and the two moons, Maaya and Riveth, hung in the sky for 13 hours.

Zane had touched the slab on 1st Jinn 225 A.R. He had just become eighteen that day. It was his birthday of some sort but for the gutterborns, they only celebrate on the occasion of their deaths. That was the only thing that liberated them from the suffering. Birthdays, they abhorred.

Kairon found the date he was looking for and wasted no time opening the register.

He went straight to the last of the pages as the names were allocated in alphabetical orders.

He found many people with Z in their names but after twelve names, he finally saw what he was looking for.

"Emberlord should have asked that woman the room number directly instead of making me a detective."

Kairon shook his head and read the room number.

"786. A lucky number for someone born as filth. The irony."

Kairon laughed and climbed the stairs.

He also figured the Emberlord didn’t wait to ask Zane’s room number from the woman as the gutterborn would have spoken another thing to divert the topic.

"You will unleash hell on me? Where do you think I live, little shit?"

Kairon fists trembled at the insolence of Zane.

"I will make sure you beg for your sister. Your rebellion is nothing but a skirmish. Just you wait."

Kairon constantly mumbled hatred and curses for Zane as he crossed the third floor.

He reached the second floor and with long strides, he crossed that as well.

Finally, he found himself on the first floor and in front of room number seven hundred.

But that wasn’t his destination.

His destination was the lucky number.

786.

———

Milo had drenched herself in hot and cold water both.

She had never seen and felt anything like that.

In one button or motion, hot water was coming and in another button, cold water sprinkled.

Clean water.

She could actually see through the liquid that dripped from the magical machine with small holes in it.

She played with both types of water before she sneezed two times back to back.

She also shivered, hugging her own body.

And in this cold, the first thought that came to her was...

"Brother will worry now. I should lie down before he sees me. The water will dry off on its own. Yes."

She used her own logic and while drenched, she went inside the big comfortable bed.

She wrapped herself around the white thick blanket and her face melted.

The warmth...

"This is like mumma’s lap and my brother’s hands."

She hugged the blanket tighter as her little body hid under the covers of bed and the past.

"When are you coming back, brother?"

She missed Zane as the silence around her evoked some kind of dread she couldn’t name.

The silence was louder than the silence inside the hole she used to hide in her slum.

However, she didn’t know the silence was about to break.

It was near the point of breaking as each second passed by.

Just when she was missing her brother, just when she was waiting for Zane to arrive and play with her...

THUK!

A knock arrived on the door.

Milo beamed.

Her eyes lit up as she let go of the blanket and ran towards the door.

The running made her cough but she did her best to suppress the sound for Zane to not hear it.

She reached the door and she had seen how Zane opened it.

So she also held the knob and twisted it.

But she stopped midway.

She let go of the knob.

She stepped back from the door.

The door was only knocked once.

And before opening it, she remembered something.

"He has the key. So why is he knocking? And why only one knock?"

Milo might not know many things but she always watched Zane closely. She had seen Zane putting the key inside his shirt’s pocket before leaving the room.

She used her little mind more and assumed that Zane might have lost the key that’s why he had to knock.

But if that was the case, then why only one knock?

"He said he will knock three times. There is only one knock."

Milo’s entire body trembled and this time, it was not because of the cold.

Her lips shivered, as clutching her chest, she gathered the courage to ask:

"Who are you?"