Aethelos Pain and Blood

Brock and Violeta crossed the gates of Solaris in silence. The weight of what they had seen still walked with them. · They found Joseph in the main corridor. Brock did not wait. · “Joseph. We have a report for you. From a mission Violeta and I carried out.” · The tutor turned slowly. His face hardened. · “You carried out a mission without authorization. That is dangerous. And it is illegal. You know that.” · Violeta lowered her gaze, uncomfortable. · “You’re right… forget what we were going to say.” · “No.” Brock interrupted her at once. “Violeta, this cannot be ignored. · Joseph… Nayb is a double agent.” · The silence that followed was dry. Joseph went visibly pale. For a second, the mask of control cracked. · “Brock. We have to be careful with accusations like these.” · “I saw him.” Brock’s voice came out low and firm. “I saw him kissing the girl who appears in almost every attack. Eliana.” · Joseph stood still. His eyes narrowed, perplexed, processing the information like someone taking an unexpected blow. · “I will speak with him when he returns. · We will try to understand what he is doing. Alright?” · Brock did not answer. Neither did Violeta. The two of them only nodded, still tense, and walked away. · Joseph was left alone. · That night, he did not sleep. He spent hours standing by the window of his office, watching the academy’s entrance path. Every moving shadow made him lift his head. Every sound made him wait. · Nayb did not return. · Joseph rested his forehead against the cold glass and murmured, almost without voice: · “Nayb… what are you doing with your life?” · In Aldiana, the night passed differently. · Nayb remained with Eliana until the early hours. There were no great speeches. Only each other’s presence and the weight of everything he had seen — the babies, the people, the oath used against him, the idea that he might have spent his life serving the right tool on the wrong side. · At dawn, he stood up. · “I have to go.” · Eliana did not look surprised. She only watched him in silence for a second and then spoke quietly, almost pleading: · “I know… · Nayb, please. After what I showed you… don’t use it against us.” · He hesitated on the threshold. The soldier inside him was already calculating return routes and reports. The man inside him still felt the taste of the kiss and the smell of the nursery. · He promised nothing. · He only nodded once, without looking back, and left Aldiana toward Solaris — without knowing that, on the other side, his name had already stopped being only that of a prodigy. · It had become that of a suspect.