I

Early in the morning, when the sun was yet to show its face on the small patch of land near the cursed belt, William and Maya walked out of Auntie Sophia's house and headed toward the place- the lake mentioned by Sophia.

Rita agreed on staying at home with Sophia. The car Maya had bought from the small town drove away from the place and Rita walked back inside the barn. She rested herself on the bed, inside the barn and removed some pieces of paper from her bag.

"Rita."

Rita was startled and looked ahead. "Good god! That was terrifying. Auntie Sophia, when did you come here?" She said, looking at Sophia, who was sitting on the bed opposite to her.

"Just now." Sophia smiled. "When you were busy reading those papers."

Rita kept the papers in her hand aside and dragged herself forward on the bed, smiled and said, "I was just having a look at some Eva legal documents I asked for earlier. About William working with his free will."

"Intriguing." Sophia nodded. "You know, Mary used to tell me so many things about you. And you are as sweet as she described."

"That's really kind of you."

"So you've known William since his childhood."

Rita smiled again and nodded.

"So, were you there with William when he went through all those unnatural things? Like, the incident in Zora and the capital."

"I was in Zora, yes," Rita replied. "But you should thank George Watson more. You might not know him but he was always with William. I never thought he would make it but, he literally fought to the death while saving William"

"Oh, I sure know about George Watson. Ex-military doctor, an assassin and occasionally served as a spy."

"That's... actually accurate." Rita shot a surprised glance at her. "How do you know about him? Did Maya tell you?"

"Oh of course not," Sophia chuckled. "You know Mary, for some reason, always feared to show herself to William or you. But she had a really good eye on you both. She observed you and William grow and volunteer for many tasks. She mentioned George."

"Fine if not me but, why did she fear to show herself to William?"

"Well, trust me. I asked her many times in many ways." Sophia said. "But she really never told me. She just used to say - 'It's not the right time.'" Sophia paused for a moment and looked down. "Until whatever happened in Zora, some weeks ago."

"Well, Mary was a nice person, it was not her fault," Rita said in a convincing tone. "I still remember, my energies were manifested when I was six. The orphanage where I lived saw these energies as a threat to other people and threw me out of their place. I had no one... but Mary took me in. That's where I met my first real friend - William."

Sophia had a smile of satisfaction. "She sure was nothing less than a gem." She shook tears from the corner of her eye.

"Rita," She looked back at Rita. "Don't get this in a wrong way, but, If you don't mind. Can you tell me what happened to William before you all arrived here?"

"Everything?"

"Yeah," Sophia nodded. "Everything."

"Well, I did not accompany him to the capital so I know very little about it." Rita said, "but, I can tell you about Zora."

Sophia nodded in approval.

"Where should I begin," Rita nodded back. "It was just another evening for me when I was informed, the mayor of Zora had asked William and George to visit his mansion..."

"Next day William and George visited the mayor." Rita started explaining. "That was the place where they were asked to investigate the unusual incidents observed near the old noble's mansion in the town. Mayor tried to pretend but still failed to hide the fear in his eyes. You see, in past-"

"I actually know about that mansion and its past," Sophia said, interrupting her.

Rita nodded and continued. "That day, William and George had visited the mansion before meeting the Mayor. And William already felt a peculiar sense of connection to the place. Well, of course, he had a childhood there so he should remember, but in the last twelve years, he didn't care to even visit or mention that place. Not once."

Sophia casually smiled, for some reason.

"That day, William decided to spend a night in that house," Rita said. "George tried to object to him, but he was William after all. The same day, I still warned George to get him out of the house, but he was not expecting that matter to spread so big."

Rita extended her hand toward the small table nearby and grabbed a glass jar half filled with water. She tilted the whole glass jar near her mouth and poured some portion of the water down her throat. After drinking directly through the jar. She kept the container aside and looked back at Sophia. Sophia looked like she was enjoying the way Rita talks and her nature.

"So... What happened next?"

"Well, as per William, that evening he saw a small child silently standing near Mary's grave." Rita wiped the water on her lips and continued. "He said, the child felt cold as ice and had no life force. As he walked closer to him, asking the child questions, the child glitched and disappeared in front of his eyes."

Sophia back seated herself and rested her back on the cushion of the bed. "I bet, William took that really seriously and accelerated his investigation pace?"

"He sure did." Rita nodded. "He hastily walked inside the mansion and looked to see if he could find anything unusual. Anything out of the place or eerily strange. His search ended at the locked door at the end of the mansion on the first floor. He said when the room opened there was a piano inside. The whole room was covered in dust, but this instrument and a book of music notes were untouched by any particle of dust."

"If I had not witnessed so many of the stranger situations before," Sophia smiled. "I would have said this sounds strange."

"It was strange yet not surprising for William," Rita said. "In contrast, instead of leaving the room, this person-William thought to play one of the highlighted tracks on the piano and that was the time when he lost control over his body. Again, sounds strange but I'm sure you witnessed many unnatural situations."

Sophia nodded. "So then, George Watson and you saved him from that possession?"

"We kind of did... or maybe he saved himself and saved us from his possession," Rita said in a tone and laughter escaped from Sophia. Sophia laughed, wiping off some tears in the corner of her eyes while looking at Rita.

"What happened?" Rita asked. "What's so funny about it?"

"Oh, it is nothing." Sophia pressed her laughter inside. "It's just your tone, the way you speak."

"That's not fair, everyone has a tone of speaking."

"I'm sorry I truly am," Sophia said. "Sometimes you sound really serious. Like a businesswoman who cares nothing but her work, you resemble Charlotte. And sometimes you're more on a casual side with that tone, just like William. If I hadn't known you before, I'd think of you as William's and Charlotte's love child or something."

"Auntie Sophia!"

"I'm sorry okay?" Sophia apologized again, trying not to laugh. "I just couldn't help myself."

"William is not big enough for having a child anyways"

"In a way you're right," said Sophia. "But he's not as small as you think. You know that old saying right?" She looked at Rita. "Some live for days, some for decades, some for centuries and some for ages." Sophia said and in no time, her face showed expressions of 'I was not supposed to say that.'

"What does that have to do with William?"

"Oh... um... nothing actually. It's about his consciousness," she said, revealing as less as possible. "And trust me, the memory seal is one big pain in the A. It does more than just sealing the past memories. And it's hard to deal with."

"Well, fine. You want me to help you with household chores?"

"I think we are still left with the mind, or as people nowadays say, the conscious dimension part of the incident."

"You know about the conscious dimension?"

"Vaguely," Sophia replied. "That's why I'm asking you about the details of the Zora incident."

"The Conscious realm which first was created by Mary, when she possessed William, was where George and I confronted her. George tried to explain and convince her but her mind was in control of the higher power, and she was obsessed with the thought of reuniting with William, which Valefor planted in her mind."

Sophia shot a questioning look. "So that's why you took her down?"

"We didn't take her down. We could have barely survived against her." Rita shook her head in denial. "It was William who created another layer of his Conscious dimension inside Mary's dimension space."

"A three-tier consciousness system?" Sophia asked with curiosity. "A layer of consciousness inside an already formed layer of consciousness?"

"Yes, a three-tier system," Rita confirmed. "Steve, the director of Eva in Lydia, assumed this layered consciousness system was too complex for his mind to control and that's why at the end when he confronted Valefor and released Mary from his control, he was left with less strength."

"So... Mary was released, and not killed?"

"George broke her core after our body was released from the motion fracture. There was a clear sound of a crystal cracking into pieces and her body glowed white, brightly like some sort of divine angel, and her physical form was disintegrated."

"So. . . she did not survive?" Sophia asked again.

"I... I tried-" tears came down her face as she remembered that scene. "I tried, but I honestly don't know if she's still here or she's gone."

Sophia looked at her and stood up from her place. She walked closer to Rita, sat beside her and wrapped her in a warm, calming hug. Her hands wrapped around Rita like a warm comforting blanket and she patted her head.

"It's okay sweetie. I'm sure you did the right thing," Sophia said, caressing her head. "William, Maya, Mary, you... everything is fine. Don't worry."

II

The car they bought from the small town they visited earlier was parked some distance away from the valley and William and Maya walked ahead on foot. The valleys were widespread and massive, having around a kilometre of the distance between the two mountain ranges around them. Maya guided their way through the trees and bushes, which got denser as they descended deeper toward the foot of the valley, and they walked down the valley, carefully checking the stones before placing their feet.

"Stay away from those leaves." Maya strictly said, looking at William too close to the climber whose leaves simultaneously emitted a faint golden and purple glow. Like, the veins and the many cells of the climber and its leaves had small lights fitted in them.

William pulled his arms away from the glowing plants. "You can say it in a calm tone, sister."

"I thought you were used to my tone?" She glanced toward him with a smile.

William replied, smiling back. "And I thought you were used to me complaining about your tone."

"This flora, especially the veins around the trees and the climber plants," Maya explained while guiding William through the dense woods. "These plants had gone through mutation... due to being located so close to the cursed belt. The glow they emit is more like a warning for other lifeforms to not come closer. If one touches them, they would wrap around their body and consume their natural energies."

"How did you know it?"

Maya went silent for a moment and replied. "I saw it with my eyes. And, people do not survive in this place after their natural energies are drained out of their body."

"Do not survive," William said with a questioning face. "What does that mean?"

Maya jumped into a pit nearby which had decent depth but an opening of a wide radius. The opening was as big as the area of the base of Eva's main building. William perfectly jumped down in the pit using his feet like shock absorbers and walked toward Maya.

"This pit," He said, looking around the area. "This looks grander than these mountains and the valley. How was this even formed... Meteor or somethin'?"

"Some people say they are footprints," Maya said, looking toward the pit walls. "There are many of these found in this valley and the Scythian mountains, though other pits are a bit smaller compared to this one. If watched from above, they look like a pattern." She looked back at William. "Footprints of the older civilisation, as they say. A first civilisation, before us humans or even before the civilisation before the 'first great impact'."

"You believe that calamity really happened around five hundred years ago?"

A gust of wind flew across the area making their hairs dance in the flow of air. Maya managed her hair, tied them together and answered. "I don't see any reason to not believe. There are old records and papers which match the stories that the ancestors told us. Come on," She waved her hand. "We are close, let's move."

Maya walked ahead and William followed her. The whole area, formed due to the depression on the surface, was a piece of barren land with not even small plants. Like a surface stone floor, except it had a layer of wet soil due to the rainfall which occurred often in the valley.

At the end of the pit, there was a group of strong, broad-width veins tangled together forming a strong green wall. Maya walked closer to the veins and waved the finger of her hand. Soon enough, the same dark blade was manifested in her hand-which William remembered from earlier when he was rescued-and her hand swivelled, slashing away the group of strong veins, revealing a cave, a pathway inside the surface.

William looked at Maya walking inside the cave and followed her inside.

"You can handle this sorcery thing really well, huh?" William asked.

"Who said it's sorcery?"

William paused for a while, still walking behind her. "I mean... um... manifesting the things from thin air, boosting our physique using the techniques and those energies running and floating around our limbs when we manipulate the energies." William looked at Maya. "Sorcery. Isn't that the only logical conclusion?"

"What if I say it's science? Physics, chemistry and biology?"

"I would say you are joking."

Maya gave a genuine smile and walked forward. "Well, it is science. In fact, science is the explanation for literally everything around us. The new traits and mutation are related to biology and the energies inside us and the way we manipulate it, including object manifestation, is related to physics and chemistry."

"And the existence of those dark entities, the ranks. How can you explain that?"

"Oh there's a large explanation for all that," Maya said in a humorous tone. "But it will be hard for you to understand if I dumped all the science terms at the same time. Maybe I can explain to you later?"

William said nothing and followed Maya toward the end of the passage. The brightness inside the cave, the underground passage, didn't reduce the whole time and they were able to navigate their way.

They reached the end of the underground passage and William witnessed the eye-shocking scenery of the area. The place was like a big hollow space inside the surface, the wall of which could be around 70 feet tall and it had some more openings, and other pathways, from different sides.

In the very middle of the area was a small lake with water so clear that the bed of the lake was clearly visible. And a circular opening above the lake which was a source of light. The white light rays descended from the opening like they descended from the doors of heaven- bright rays, just above the lake which made the water shine when seen from different angles.

"We've arrived." Maya said, glancing toward him. "that is the lake Auntie Sophia was talking about."

William's eyes were wide open, amused at the beauty of the place. "How is this place real?"

"You're literally standing in front of it," Maya said in a comical tone. "I guess that makes it real and answers the question."

William squeezed his eyes. "You know that was rhetorical alright?"

Maya chuckled a little and walked down the slope which led to the lake in the middle. William followed her down the slope and soon they both were standing on the border of the lake.

"You said people do not survive in this place when their natural energies are drained out," William asked, looking toward the gorgeous water body. "What does that mean?"

"This place," Maya said. "The whole area after we descended the valley. Being located so close to the cursed belt, this place has a higher concentration of toxicity which led to the human mutation. The energies we naturally possess work more like a shield against this toxicity-"

"On other hand," William continued with a curious expression. "If someone like George, who doesn't possess any natural energy enters the place... there's no way the person can survive the pressure of toxicity."

Maya nodded. "You're catching up, I see."

"There was no other explanation."

William removed his shoes and walked a step forward inside the water body. Observed, as his feets moved inside the water displacing the flow of water in the lake, some of the displaced water particles emitted a silver-white glow. It looked like there were stars submerged, floating inside the lake.

"William," Maya said from the back, with a new expression. "Your hair."

William glanced at Maya to see her amused and shocked face. He looked down at his reflection inside the water. Noticed no difference.

"My hair what?"

Maya noticed and said. "Move again inside the water and look at your hair when the water emits a glow."

William, with a confused face, looked back at his reflection in the water and moved around, displacing the water particles. He noticed, with his movement in the water as the displaced particles of water emitted a silver-white glow, his silver-white hairs responded to the flow of energy and every hair on his head emitted the same glow as the water particle.

As the displacement stopped, the glow faded and the water particles turned back to normal and so did the hairs. William, noticing this peculiar phenomenon, again moved himself in a pattern inside the shallow water of the lake, making the particles glow again. His silver-white hairs responded again, emitting the glow in them.

William looked at Maya with an amused face. "Now how does your science explain this situation, sweet sister?"

"The glow of the water particles and the sand inside the water can be explained. The phenomenon can be related to the bioluminescence of the microorganisms inside the particles emitting the glow due to the disturbance."

Maya paused for a while. "As for your hairs responding to the glow inside the water," she said. "I admit, there are things science can't explain. . . can't explain yet."

'Is this a coincidence?' William asked himself. 'Or there's some kind of connection?'

"William," Maya said, grabbing William's attention. "When I first met you after decades-when I saved you-I sensed a difference in the way the natural energies flow inside your body. Your life force was distinguishable from the normal one. I sensed a second life force."

"What does this have to do with this situation?"

"Let me complete," Maya continued. "The night before, just to confirm my suspicion, I asked Auntie Sophia to scan your energy flow and the life force when you were asleep. She was able to connect and manipulate your energy so it could increase its intensity."

"What did you find?"

"Back at Zora, when you were possessed and trapped inside the conscious dimension." Maya calmly said. "At the end when Mary's core was destroyed by George... Rita attempted to transfer, or if you may, preserve Mary's consciousness before her life force dropped to zero. At that moment, Rita, George and your consciousness were the only ones present in that place. Rita might have subconsciously transferred, or preserved, her consciousness inside you. Auntie Sophia and I felt her inside you the night before."

"You mean..." William's eyes widened. "She's still here... she's still living?"

Maya kept looking into William's eyes and didn't respond.

"Tell me, is she still here?"

"Maybe she is," Maya said. "Or maybe just her consciousness. This lake, you're standing inside right now, was said to have many... peculiar, unnatural properties. And as Auntie Sophia assumed, your body responded to the natural flow of energy inside this lake. This might just be a way to wake her back, if she even is there."

William gave a questioning look. "Is it practically possible?"

"If considered the relation between molecular mass and the emission of energy. If a nearly infinite amount of energy is released at a single point in time. There's a chance of you... us, manifesting her consciousness in a partial-physical form."

William felt a sense of excitement inside him. Listening to Maya's assumption that Mary, his mother, might still be with them, he felt a bit restless. He looked back at her. "How does this work? What do I have to do?"