Epilogue

The end at the beginning

Tuesday, April 3rd.

Somewhere to the west of the Canary Islands archipelago.

The high speed boat that had left from the Raven Fortress was finally arriving at its destination. The noonday sun was felt on the deck and those who had boarded the ship could already see the mirage they were approaching in that sector. The distortion created a kind of optical illusion that distorted the image in a westerly direction, although this only happened when approaching and it was very rare for such distortion to be seen from far away. The few times that this had happened in the past was what had created the legend of the place that had been known by many names in old times.

San Borondon, La Non Trubada, Inaccessible Island, Aproxitus, La Novena Encantada, La Isla Sirena, among many other names.

The ship's pilot informed the island's checkpoints that they were entering the place. The ship looked for a minute as if it had entered a soap bubble. The air around the ship distorted into iridescent colors. Then it disappeared completely from view from the outer side of the distortion.

On the other side the ship had crossed the distortion and a vast expanse of land had appeared. Ships and other vehicles could be seen in the surrounding area at a distance of about two kilometers on the boat. It was as if everything had materialized out of nowhere.

As if everything had materialized out of nothing, beyond it had appeared the coast with its small docks, plants, hills and small mountains. A vast extension of land that covered from north to south.

Next to the ship at that moment several drones approached and scanned it from various directions. At the same time next to the ship a group of women emerged from the water. The women were wearing what looked like tactical gear with weapons and matched the part of the clothing that covered their breasts. After a few seconds they sank again and the low part of the body, that until then had been hidden by the water, appeared. Mermaid tails appeared and two others had a body that almost looked like a dress instead of legs as it moved in the water with the consistency of some kind of jellyfish.

The security drones continued their work and scanned the deck.

Sitting in the bow were four people.

"We're home!" shouted Lizbeth, getting up from her seat and walking forward as she looked at the scenery in front of the ship. She was wearing an open jacket, but was dressed in a gold-colored bikini that matched her hair. It was still a couple of miles to shore, but the island was so huge that it stretched so far that it completely covered her eyes from north to south.

Siren Island, also known as La Isla Sirena today by the islanders of the archipelago.

One of the few evanescent islands that had managed to anchor itself to a defined geographic space.

With 120 kilometers from north to south and 50 kilometers in its widest part from east to west, that island was a small paradise where feys from all over the world could go to live if they wished. A small space achieved with decades of effort, although if it were only by size it would be the largest of the islands of the Canary archipelago. What was unknown about the island was that to the east there were other smaller islands that formed their own evanescent archipelago with a total area of one thousand kilometers.

There were five million people between feys, humans and aeon living on the island. Nearly 90 percent of the population was located to the north of the main island, where the main city was located while there were small settlements in the rest. Nevermore occupied the south of the island, however most of the territory was virgin due to the species that lived in the forests, lakes, mountains and small deserts of the islands.

Mai closed the book she was reading and sighed.

She got up and walked carefully. She was dressed in a sailor dress and sandals. Mai had spent most of the trip seated or in the cabin. The sea was still her weakness even though she was slowly getting over her trauma.

"Are you okay?" Shin asked and he and Carissia got up to help Mai in case she fell. The two of them were going in a more discreet manner, simply shorts and T-shirts with the SID emblem on the chest.

"I'm fine," she reassured them. "It's just been so quiet the whole time."

"We're home," Lizbeth looked at her and smiled. "A little more and we're on dry land."

Mai nodded with a smile and approached the guard rail next to Lizbeth.

After a few minutes the group watched as the small harbor of the residential area in that sector grew before their eyes. There were several boats and small ships moored at the two docks.

Several houses and small buildings stood amidst the greenery of the palm trees and plants of the island. They were a little far from their real destination in south, but they had chosen that spot by telling the captain, when a certain person had informed them that she was in that part of the island for training for the Police Academy of the city.

That person was on the dock where the ship was heading, waiting for them a little nervous.

Violet hair and eyes of the same color.

She was Kotori. She was sitting on the edge of the dock in training clothes. She looked a little shy and flushed.

"We didn't give her time to get ready," Lizbeth said looking at the girl, waving her hand from a distance. Kotori responded in kind.

Mai sighed nervously and looked at Shin. Lizbeth had also turned to look at him. Shin's already serious face looked like stone at that moment.

"Hey," said Lizbeth poking him with a finger on the cheek. "At least try to look happier. You look like a moai from Easter Island."

"I am, it's just that I have other things on my mind too."

Mai sighed in relief as the boat pulled into the dock and spoke. "There are many things we have to do, but for now try to relax."

"I will. It's just that I still have a lot of doubts. With what happened. With what Azusa told you. With what might happen. And especially with what happened at the lake."

"Whatever it is we're going to find out." Carissia said. "At least try to relax now." Shin looked at her and Carissia motioned with her eyes to Mai and Lizbeth's face.

Shin sighed. It was true, enough things had happened, but it was better to think things through after a break. Kotori was there too and he was nervous about the step they were about to take in their relationship.

He didn't want his worries to ruin the reunion.

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At that moment Shin knew what he had to do. Try to give the girls as much rest as possible and he also had work to do. Exams for the science officer's license at the university, analyze evidence from past cases, resolve doubts, and to top it all off, there would be an important meeting in the next few days on the island to discuss the sudden drop in Dark Events cases.

Also the four of them, accompanied by Carissia, would try a dangerous experiment. But that would be later. They had two months of rest ahead of them.

However, it was some doubts that crossed Shin's mind.

What was that thing at the end of the battle at the lake?

Why couldn't he stop thinking about Komarov's words in Kolsay and Ivraeva's?

And also. Who had taken the fragment of that fractus to the past? Janus, or someone else?

All those doubts were storm clouds in his head that at that moment contrasted with the paradisiacal view in front of him.

Finally he put his arms around Mai and Lizbeth shoulders. It was useless to worry in that moment that seemed more than a desired reunion. It seemed like years rather than weeks since he had been there.

Inwardly Shin smiled. It had been years after all, if he considered what had happened.

Yes, it was better to relax at the moment.

He would have time for his doubts later.

***

March 15th. Thursday 8.28 A.M. S.A.125.

Kolsay Lake, Kazakhstan.

The group of about seven deer was eating from the bushes in the snowy forest. The gray, cloud-filled sky was merging with the white blanket over the region and nearby mountains. The cold morning wind did not seem to matter much to the animals. There was plenty of vegetation despite the snow. It would be only matter of days, or maybe a couple weeks, before the final spring thaw would begin.

Slowly the animals had even started to change their fur for the spring season, even though the snow was still around.

That day looked like it would be another gray day and so the carefree animals reckoned. They had no worries that morning.

So they were more than surprised when a wind blew over them, right over the branches of the trees. And suddenly it was as if everything was silent. The wind stopped rushing, not even the sound of a bird could be heard.

Above the deer, at a distance of five or six meters in the air, a distortion had just formed in space. The distortion lasted less than a second and was first black, the size of a soccer ball. Around it were two glowing rings of an incandescent blue color. That distortion emitted a more increasing glow and on the branches of the trees landed a girl with a young face carrying that dark sphere in her hand. That sphere and the rings suddenly disappeared and took the shape of a small crystal marble that the girl squeezed in her hand. The girl had appeared out of that dark distortion as if her entire body had been unfolded from that distortion.

That girl was a fey with very long black hair that reached almost to her shins, although at that moment the hair almost seemed as weightless as her own figure, which seemed as light as a snowflake. She had long eyelashes and lively lemon yellow eyes. She wore a dark colored tight-fitting suit that almost made her look like she was wearing a plug suit.

She swayed a little on the branch and the snow that was on the tree fell on the deer that were eating below. The animals, surprised by the sudden fall of snow, took flight. As they fled, some of them almost disappeared from sight. Their fur became invisible and almost acquiring the texture as if it were a kind of glass that distorted the light. But the landscape being so white almost made them disappear completely.

The animals fled and soon reached a military housing trailer. Several of them hit the trailer in the corners violently as they fled.

Inside the trailer at that moment an insult was heard. Whoever it was, had just been awakened by the sudden sound, but the animals, passing unseen, only left their paw prints in the snow.

The animals hopped across the snow-covered road and crossed to the other side of the forest. That was one of the entrances to Kolsay National Park.

The girl meanwhile, almost as if she were weightless, had also crossed to the other side of the forest, but she had done it over the trees, jumping the road from side to side smoothly, almost moving like a kind of ninja and blending into the thicket.

She went about fifteen meters and stood still on a thick branch while looking towards the road she had crossed.

A moment later a soldier with a rifle came out of the trailer.

He had scoured the trailer looking for those who had struck, but had found only footprints, but no animals.

He had moved to the middle of the road and looked puzzled, as if he had noticed the lack of sound all of a sudden.

He pointed around him as if looking for someone invisible. The girl crouched low and stuck against the branch without a sound, almost as if she were a cat.

After a moment the soldier seemed to calm down. Possibly it was because the sound had come back around.

But he was soon startled again.

In the distance a vehicle could be heard approaching on the snowy, muddy road.

The vehicle soon came to where the surprised soldier was standing.

From that dark vehicle stepped out a red-haired fey girl accompanied by a tall man.

The hidden fey girl smiled calmly at the sight of them and listened to the talk those two were having with the soldier. As the girl and the man talked, the hidden girl almost put a longing smile on her face and a tear ran down her left cheek. She wiped it away with her hand and just listened to the conversation, which on the other hand was not very long either.

Then the moment the car started again, so did she.

She took the marble again and that black sphere like a black hole in miniature made her move at an unusual speed through the place, passing near the vehicle but none of its occupants noticed her. In less than a second she had traveled several kilometers. It had moved through trees and snow like the wind.

As if one with the natural elements.

She glided across the surface of the lake water and crossed to the other side of the forest like the wind coming down the slopes of the nearby hills. She only stopped at the branches of the trees to make sure her path was correct and to continue her journey.

She entered the forest and slid through the trees until she suddenly stopped on a branch again. But it didn't feel like a rest.

The smile had disappeared from her face. She had a serious expression but at the same time as if she had a sadness of an origin difficult to express with mere words.

She reached a part of the forest where there were four thick fir trees. Those trees were surrounded by a ring of old, destroyed stumps. The four standing firs, on the contrary, stood firm but exuded an age that could even be more than five hundred years old. On those four trees there was a thin film of a fungus that was growing around them, but in addition to that it was something else that was striking. That was that those trees had engravings, three in low relief, and one in high relief.

Each one was different and three had their gazes fixed towards the forest while the one in the west, in high relief, looked towards the lake. The northern tree's face showed some rough feline features, the western one was a horned animal and the southern one was a bird stabbing its own chest with its beak.

The girl pressed her lips together and nodded as if to give herself strength and jumping from branch to branch in the surrounding trees she jumped into the circle of fir trees and stood on one in particular. The one with the high relief engraving facing the lake.

The strange ominous carved creature was surrounded by a film of some kind of fungus.

But the girl's eyes were on something else.

A little above that relief there was something embedded in the bark of that tree.

It was a dark-colored rock.

The girl sighed deeply and approached through the branches to the place where the rock was. Then with a serious gesture, and at the same time with some sadness, she extended her hand to pull it out of the hole where it was deposited.

And, in that way, her journey was just beginning.

But that was a different story.

Volume 5 - The End

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