Faïz! Without waiting, I got back on my feet, taking the blade, which had fallen from Zerkô's hands a few moments earlier, and started to walk with great difficulty. My head was pounding, and as the adrenaline faded, my emotions took over.
The bounds broke down without difficulty. I realized the gravity of things by observing the bruised and lifeless body of Faïz, whose shirt and the sand under him were stained with blood.
"Come on! Wake up," I begged, my voice full of sobs.
Sitting, I held his head against me.
"I didn't do this for nothing, wake up! NOW! You need to be healed."
The sound of my voice was only despair. My hand got lost in his hair. This gesture that I had repressed so many times seemed to me so natural at the time.
"Faïz," I whispered, letting my tears flow, "don't leave me. Victoria, then you… I won't survive this time."
My lips came to rest gently on his forehead, then I pressed my wet cheek against his. Suddenly, I felt his heavy hand land on my head.
"It would take more than that to overcome a Leviathan," he said with difficulty.
I straightened up, wiping my face with my hands, relieved and worried at the same time.
"I know, I'm the only one capable of beating you up."
A small laugh escaped from him, but the pain on his face quickly took over. His wounds must have made him suffer excruciatingly.
"I'll help you," I said, passing his arm over my neck. "Lean on me."
While Faïz got up painfully, a terrifying thought took hold of me.
"What is it?"
"Asarys and Ray! Their guides have also been changed."
"I know. Let's hope they got away, too. I don't want to imagine the worst. Our satellite phones are down. We need to get to the inn as soon as possible before being attacked again."
Day was beginning to break when we walked through the doors of the inn.
"Wait for me here," I said to Faïz, indicating one of the armchairs in the hall. "I will warn the staff to alert them of your condition."
"No! Let's go to HQ directly. I want to know about Ray and Asarys."
"You're losing blood. We need—"
"Zoe, I'm not asking for your opinion," he replied abruptly, leaving to head for the long corridor that led to the conference room.
Lexy jumped on me as soon as we crossed the threshold, followed by Asarys. Thank goodness they were alive. Their faces froze when they saw the alarming state of Faïz, as well as me.
"You have to be taken right away to the nearest hospital," cried Lexy.
"Impossible," replied Inspector Barthey, who approached us. "It would be too risky. Our cover has fallen. Now, there's a price on our heads by a group of people who don't want us to recover the stone."
"Someone must be brought in to treat them! There's no way we're leaving them like that."
Ray, swollen face, emerged from behind my friends next to William. We could easily read the relief on his face.
"Zoe, you're safe," said William with a heartbreaking sigh, taking my wrist to draw me to him.
At that moment, Faïz grabbed his T-shirt and pressed him violently against the wall, putting his elbow on his neck in order to hold him.
"You bastard! What are these damn guides that you found for us?"
I rushed, with the help of my friends, to the rescue of William, who refused to fight.
"You almost got us killed!" screamed Faïz, his features distorted by anger.
"Leave him alone! He had nothing to do with it," I cried in my turn, trying to repel Faïz who, despite the gravity of his injuries, was stronger than all of us gathered here.
"I know all that!" William defended himself, not wavering at the aggressiveness of the young man in front of him. "You know as well as I do that I would give until my last breath to save any of you."
He eased free from Faïz's elbow and pushed him away effortlessly.
"I don't want to hurt you, so stay away from me! I feel guilty to a point that you can't even imagine."
"Faïz, please stop," I begged. "You have to get healed."
I put my hands gently on his chest. The rhythm of his breathing slowed down immediately and the rage in his eyes dissipated when he finally laid his eyes on me.
"Faïz, come on, come with me!" the inspector ordered, taking his arm to force him to follow him.
"Yes, I'm coming."
He pressed his forehead briefly against mine. I closed my eyes and let him go with regret.
It had been over an hour since we'd met, with the exception of Faïz, in the conference room. William and the others were talking via videoconference on large screens with the senior leaders of the two nations, who were concerned by the situation, as well as with David, Julio, and Kayla.
"There is no information in our files about this Brotherhood," a man on the other side of the screen said. His hair almost completely covered his eyes.
Meanwhile, I found it hard to focus on the interrogation of Dewei, who was sitting across from me. Kushisake's face in this desert kept coming back to me. The hubbub around me didn't help. Everyone was talking to each other, looking for clues to put together the pieces of the puzzle, to analyze every detail that had escaped us. Watching all these people in turmoil, I realized that no one was in control.
"…which makes two."
My attention returned to the Prime Minister when he said these last words.
"I… Please excuse me, my mind is elsewhere, I won't be of much use to you this morning, I think."
I got up from my chair. Dewei didn't try to hold me back. Then I scanned the room for Lexy and Asarys. I saw Ray standing there, his face in his hands. He talked with Julio and William, who carefully collected his testimony, taking care to note the details of his story. Finally, my eyes found the girls, a little further away in an adjoining room, sheltered from all this mess.
Lexy gave me a small smile, happy to find me, while Asarys, leaning against the wall and staring into space, still seemed shocked by what she had experienced a few hours before. This little room, quieter and more subdued, gave the mind some rest. I immediately took Asarys in my arms, hoping that my gesture comforted her a little.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked her, moving away from her.
She shook her head vigorously, as if to chase from her mind images that were too unbearable for her.
"A nightmare, Zoe. I saw death. I mean, I REALLY saw death," she said, her voice trembling.
"Kushisake?"
Asarys nodded before resuming.
"Not only… Everything is blurred. The attack came when we were on the big mountain. Two men threw themselves on Ray while our guide held me back. They…they went after him over and over again. I can still hear the sounds of the rain beating on his body. Suddenly, blue and gray light spread all around us, an indescribable glare because of its intensity. It was then that I passed out. I don't remember what happened next. I woke up in the car taking us back to the inn. Ray had alerted me with my satellite phone."
I turned my gaze to him, still in discussion with William in the distance. A strange feeling took hold of me.
"What did he tell you when you woke up?" I asked Asarys, continuing to stare, puzzled, at the young man.
"Nothing! Exactly. It's like, all of a sudden, he's changed. He became distant and avoids the subject."
"It's because of the shock," Lexy reassured her. "Give him some time. In addition to you, he thought he was also losing Faïz."
I turned to Lexy.
"And you too, Zoe," she added, shrugging her shoulders and looking sorry.
"Why us?" asked Asarys. "Faïz and you? Ray and me?"
"Don't get it twisted," said Lexy. "Our guide almost got replaced, too. Anyway, that's what she told us when we were in the huge birdhouse. She refused to leave her job and turned down a superb job opportunity in the field she had applied for a few weeks earlier. It was important for her to complete this mission with us. Her decision saved us, Barthey, William
, and me. It was not seeing you come back for dinner that we realized that something serious had happened. It was the longest hours of my life."
I went to open my mouth when suddenly a voice behind me called out to me.
"Zoe, can I see you for a few moments?"
Absorbed in the confidences of my friend, I hadn't heard William approach us. The girls nodded to encourage me to speak to him and hurried out of the room to give us a little more privacy. William stared at me, looking tortured, noticing all the wounds on my body, then looked away to see the agitation in the distance. He then cleared his throat, as if it were burning, before adding,
"I'm sorry for everything. I was in charge of recruiting your guides and I wasn't able to do my duty properly."
He then looked up at me, his eyes full of all the anguish and fear he had felt for the past few hours. My heart, at that moment, broke.
"Will, you had nothing to do with it, anyone would have—"
"No! Faïz was right. I would have reacted the same, or even worse, if I had been in his place."
His flow accelerated under emotion. An immense pain could be read behind his blue eyes, which consumed me slowly.
"I couldn't protect you."
My desire to stay away from him flew away in front of his great despair. I took him in my arms to comfort him. Immediately, his heart raced.
"You can't imagine the darkness I was in," he whispered, running his hands through my hair.
"The eyes get used to everything, even the deepest cloud."
"Zoe?" Lexy called out from the other room. "David has something new!"
William released me from his grip and walked past me to join the others, who had already gathered in front of the screen to listen to the precious information that my friend was to give us.
"Okay…and Faïz?" asked David, who was looking for him.
"He's with the doctors to get healed," Barthey said.
"Is it bad?"
"He's going to make it. We are listening to you."
David nervously shook his head and looked at his notes. Everyone in front of him, watching him silently, seemed to intimidate him.
"Yes… Uh… All right. In the part that I managed to translate, the Callis refers to the law of laws. That is to say, that of the universe."
"What is that again? For God's sake!" whispered Barthey, fists clenched.
Each of us held our breath. The anxiety of knowing what followed was confused with the desire to know what it was. I could feel the beating of my heart ringing in my temples.
"Since the dawn of time," continued David, "the law of the universe has been known and taught by all people here on Earth. It is universal, above everything, even the Callis itself. It is a precise, perfect law, which you will have to follow from now on if…"
David's words were hanging in the air, but we already knew the end of his sentence.
"…if you want a chance to save this world."
FAÏZ
Sitting on the bed in a room transformed into a hospital room, Faïz recognized the sound of hurried steps. Ray stepped through the door behind him.
"How long have you known?" he cried in an icy voice to Faïz.
The nurse quickly finished bandaging the young man's chest, feeling a palpable tension between the two friends.
"A few weeks before we left," Faïz admitted calmly without bothering to glance at Ray. "David told me."
"Fucking shit!" swore Ray, furious, clutching his head between his hands.
Faïz, with a gesture, stopped the movement of the nurse, who was checking if the bandage was correctly placed around his waist. She understood her patient's expectations and took her leave. When the door closed behind her, Faïz stood up, suppressing a frown. His wounds made him suffer terribly.
"I couldn't tell you."
"You should have! What do I do now?" Ray roared, pointing his finger at his friend.
"We will find a solution," declared Faïz, trying to believe this lie himself.
"Is Zoe…?"
"No! She isn't, and no one else should know," the young man said while buttoning up his shirt.
"Yes, for now!"
Before crossing the door, he turned one last time towards Faïz and added,
"Do as you please, but there's no way I'm losing her, and if this day shall come, then may your soul rest in peace."
Without giving his friend time to reply, he disappeared from the room, leaving Faïz alone, shot down by these words, which had just consumed him from the inside like acid.
7
When I woke up, I noticed that I was alone in the dormitory. As I approached the terrace, I watched the fog slowly dissipating over the island in the distance, indicating that night was approaching. I then wondered how long I had been asleep. I didn't have time to remember my last hours spent in the conference room, because there was a soft knock on my door.
"I didn't know if you were awake," said Lexy, whose head appeared in the doorway. "The doctors want to see you."
My friend, embarrassed, waited for my agreement, which I gave her without delay with a nod. It was then that a man of medium height with a brush cut and a woman, much older, who had the most austere look on her face and with hair pulled back, appeared. Their basic clothing didn't suggest their profession. My gaze fell again on Lexy, who signaled to me that she would wait outside the room during my consultation.
"Good morning, Miss Reyes!" started the woman roughly. "So far your test results are quite good."
Then she turned to her colleague to let him speak. He immediately consulted a file he was holding.
"Apart from bruises, which are mostly on your upper body and on your back, you have nothing broken, which is a miracle when you see the multitude of bruises on your skin and the trace of strangulation around your neck. These traces give an idea of the violence and shock of the blows received."
The doctor paused and hesitated for a moment before continuing. As he opened his mouth to speak, the woman cut him off.
"You are therefore able to go wherever you want!" she affirmed, scowling at her colleague.
I thanked them politely. Before they left, I hastened to ask them for news of Faïz. The two doctors looked at each other, visibly overpowered.
"He was less lucky than you," the woman said without emotion in her voice. "His condition is much more critical, but we can't tell you anything more about it at this time."
I watched them walk away, running a hand over my face, turned upside down by the news. A ball of anxiety was now squeezing my throat. My only desire at that moment was to go find him.
We were alone with my friends in the refectory. The atmosphere around the table had changed. Lexy seemed anxious for the continuation of the events and tried to understand the David's words while not ceasing to rephrase her own words in loop, as if a revelation were going to hatch from her mind.
"A perfect law? Anyway, nothing is perfect! Everything can be modified. Maybe we should just find the person who wrote it?"
"The dawn of time, Lexy! They have existed since the dawn of time, these laws," specified Asarys, annoyed by her monologue. "And you, Zoe! Stop staring at the damn door hoping to see him appear!"
I shrugged as the only answer to my friend's hurtful thought before I answered,
"I'm worried about him and they won't let me go see him. And the others? Damn it! What are they doing?"
"The group is still in the conference room," replied Lexy. "They're setting the schedule for tomorrow. I ran into Madame Min in the halls when I was on my way here with the meal trays."
"Yet again we aren't part of the planning!"
"They probably wanted to spare you all that," declared Asarys while crunching on her apple. "You come back from a lot."
"In short," interrupted Lexy, "Barthey and the rest of the team are giving you a few hours to breathe."
"Yes," Asarys added. "Take the opportunity to regain some strength and rest a little. The only positive thing in all of this is that Malika's
classes are canceled for tonight."
She slowly pushed her tray away, then added sullenly,
"There's no way I'm dying here without having bitten one last time into a good prime rib!"
"I'm going to the dorm," Lexy suddenly exclaimed, getting up from the table. "I slept very little last night, and something tells me that there are still surprises in store for tomorrow."
"I'll join you," I replied in a low voice, staring into space. "I just need to go breathe some fresh air."
"Do you want me to accompany you to the courtyard?" Asarys asked, worried.
"I won't be long," I reassured her. "Go, I'll join you right away."
The warm air gently caressed my skin. The inn was a few meters behind me. I dared not venture further, although the paths were well lit by a superb crescent moon. Unlike Los Angeles, the city lights didn't pollute the view of this eternal starry sky. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This is where I felt him, behind my back, very close to me. I hadn't heard him arrive, but I recognized his intoxicating smell, the one that had contaminated me since the first day I met him.
"I'm watching the stars," I answered, his question not yet asked.
His figure appeared in front of me. A smile split his lips, which made his pale face radiate. Then he became serious again, rolling his eyes.
"I have the impression that they are so close," he whispered as if not to disturb the night.
"When I was young, my mother explained to me that the stars die one day, that they were like us, not immortal, and that when we look at them, we actually observe their past. This story of the speed of light must have taken me a good decade before I understood it."
I shook my head, smiling, happy to revive this memory. Faïz stared at me with great tenderness then he brought his hand to my face to move some hair. His fingers on my skin sent a slight shiver through me.
DARK FAÏZ Book 2: Nothing will ever be the same again Page 7