It was late at night when everyone had finally eaten, were clean and had their bandages in place. Miko only had a few scratches, Daena needed a headband and Katarina had at least two gauze wrapped around each arm, mainly on her right hand where half of her ring finger was now missing. She hadn't woken up yet, and rested as if she hadn't slept in years. Darka was almost unharmed, as his wounds closed quickly, except for the hand burned by the sword which was still a redish hue and hurt.

— Is your hand still bad? — Daena observed Darka poking his palm. — That idea of ​​throwing the sword in the river was just like you.

— Is this a praise? Because I think it was a stupid idea.

— Exactly. And don't wrap the gauze tightly around the burn, you idiot. — She scolded when she saw her friend trying to bandage it.

Giving up on the gauze, Darka stared at the palm for a few seconds before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, thinking that if he concentrated a little more of his power on his hand, the wound would heal quickly like the others. The marks on his skin lit up and the magic accumulated in his burned hand, taking almost five minutes to begin to heal the affected area.

— Wow, so you heal that quickly? — Jean asked, being the most impressed one there. — Are you immortal or something? Is your mother also immortal? Did you inherit this from the great witch?

Darka was still a little distracted looking at his hand and responded without looking at her.

— Firstly, I'm not immortal, secondly, Yrina is not my real mother.

The answer made everyone's attention turn to him. It was very rare for him to say anything about Yrina other than "I don't want to bring her back", so it was a very curious statement for everyone there.

— What?

— Yrina. The great witch, devastator of worlds, the great spawn of chaos, etc... — Darka used a somewhat sarcastic tone. — She's not my real mother.

Sitting at his desk, Amara cast a curious look at Darka. Miko took over from Jean and started to question too.

— How come?! But you use magic too! — Miko did some mental math with their fingers. — And you're about 500 years old!

— Look, first of all, I'm 122 and that doesn't mean anything. We don't even look alike! Have you read her description? She has long green hair and ruby ​​eyes, you know?

— Okay, but... you have some relationship with her, don't you? — This time it was Daena who asked.

Darka took a deep breath. In her past life, Lauren had already discovered and connected almost every available story in the game, including her own character's past and Yrina's true motivations. All that was left was to close some points that would come in updates that would never happen. But beyond that, during the last few weeks that she lived as Darka, Lauren discovered that she "synchronized" with his existence and saw the lost memories of the past, including feeling the emotions related to them. Happy and sad, dark and cozy memories... it was as if it had happened to herself. In these memories, details that the game didn't show filled in many gaps, and also answered questions like that.

— I don't remember my parents very well. They died when I was around ten years old and I was left in the care of Yrina, who was a very good friend of theirs. She didn't exactly treat me like a son and I didn't see her as a mother either, but she was always very kind and fun, like a strange and funny aunt, you know? She even used to make sweets for me, which always looked horrible, but the taste was incredible. And on the nights I missed my parents, she would hug me until I stopped crying. When I turned 14 she started teaching me the magical arts she did, saying that if I trained enough I would even be able to live forever like her. She said that I had a natural talent for both manipulating magic and attracting trouble, and she was right on target, apparently.

The people in that room would never have imagined that Yrina's image was so distorted from reality.

— What really happened when she was sealed in the mountain? — Daena asked, kind of missing her own mother. — And what happened to you too?

Darka's face darkened. A part of this memory was in the game, another was blank and the beginning of it was in his memory. The emotions in this memory were very strong, and left his heart heavy.

— In fact, that day I was dead.

Miko, Daena and Jean were scared by the information. Darka continued to speak, ignoring their reaction.

— Yrina was being pursued by agents from the Ingrena government, who secretly wanted to start a war with the other provinces and heard about her power. They wanted to use it as a weapon or something. They were after her since she arrived in Argrene, before we even met.

Daena frowned. She had studied the political feuds of the three provinces and knew that Ingrena was the most problematic. With a government that bordered on tyranny, rumors were common that they were secretly causing internal problems in other provinces to weaken and eventually conquer them. She didn't doubt that they had their hand in whatever historical beef was going on.

— One day, when they were after her in the forest on the border of Ingrena and Ninell, I tried to stop them... — Darka continued. — Although I think I just wanted to serve as a distraction for her to escape, there was no way I could stop an entire troop of soldiers. I was hit by some kind of projectile that lacerated my chest, it was scary.

Darka lifted his shirt, showing a huge scar above his belly button that was covered in several circles and writing. All the marks on his body were linked to this symbol.

— I just know that I died at that moment. What happened next was that Yrina became infuriated by this and devastated a village on the edge of Ingrena that served as a camp for the soldiers. Then they tried to take advantage of this and attacked areas on the borders of Oenith and Ninell, placing the blame on her. But the truth is that right after she attacked the village in Ingrena, Yrina tried to resurrect me. For this she needed a source of natural magic that exists in the world, which flows underground like a river of magical energy. And its source was right in the middle of Jhotar, the capital of Ninell. She walked for days carrying my body there.

There was a dead silence in the workshop, with everyone very attentive to the young man's explanation.

— So the incident in the central square of Jhotar... — Daena commented.

— Yes. Yrina was making her way through the city, making people flee while the guard tried to get to her. Her magic was strong enough to put up a shield around us, so they couldn't even scratch her. When the process of extracting energy from the spring began, Angelus appeared. It was difficult to fight him while she was doing the scheme to revive me, but she was extremely powerful and managed to at least start the ritual. Angelus had to use his divine blessing to literally turn the entire city upside down and seal Yrina using the same energy source that she was trying to use to resurrect me. That's how the city was buried and turned into a mountain.

Darka looked lost as he spoke. His friends couldn't help but notice the tone of sadness in his voice.

— Anyway, the process of reviving me was more or less successful, but it took me a century to recover. When I woke up, I was in a cave and had no memory, but after wandering around for the last two years I managed to join the dots and remembered everything. I don't remember seeing Yrina inside the cave with me, so I don't even know if she's really there.

— This... I don't even know what to say. — Jean was shocked by the biggest gossip she had ever heard. — Amara, did you know all this? That's why you became friends with him??

— No, I became friends with him because unlike you, he helped me with my tasks. — Getting up from the chair, Amara stretched. Darka swore he saw a small smile escape his mouth. — I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. I set up the bunk bed in the storage room for you to rest, if you don't mind.

— I do mind. — Jean got up too. — I want to sleep on your sofa bed.

— As far as I know, you do have a house.

Jean pouted and headed towards the exit door, saying she would come back tomorrow. She was mentally going over everything she had heard to spread the next day to anyone who wanted to believe. Miko nudged Daena saying "I knew it, I knew it!", and the girl just agreed, a little embarrassed. The two headed towards the warehouse, followed by Darka, but he was stopped by Amara holding his arm. The boy's sudden touch startled him, but he remained calm.

— Amara? What's wrong?

— We need to talk.

Ever since they met, Darka was completely at a loss for what to do or say. At the same time as he felt like he knew Amara, he also felt like he had never seen him in his life.

— Do you know who those two were in Caadis? The ones who blew up a street.

The question caught Darka by surprise. He expected the conversation to be about why he stopped visiting or something.

— Are you talking about the twins?? Did you see them?!

— Miko told me about them when we went after you. That they're trying to harm you reputation or something like this.

— Yes... Apparently they were the ones who manipulated everything to revive Yrina in recent years. I was just the scapegoat.

Amara was thoughtful for a few moments, making him nervous. Darka tried to think of something to say, but he didn't even had time.

— You said you don't want to resurrect Yrina. Why?

— I... uh, because... — No matter how much he tried to explain, Darka couldn't think of a simple reason.

Since waking up in that world, Lauren just wanted to see Amara, afraid that she would never have another chance like that again. Yrina's story was just something imposed on her character that she had every right to ignore, but being confronted now by Amara put a whole scenario and Darka's own feelings to consider. She was no longer playing a game, she was living in the game world, and ignoring the main quest to complete a side quest was starting to show the consequences. Thinking that what she felt in those memories was hers now, not just her character, made the guilt over having been selfish most of the time start to surface.

— Darka?

— Because I don't care about that. Or at least I didn't care, until you made it seem like it was a big deal... — He flinched. — I just wanted to see you in person.

— See me? — This time, Amara was the one who seemed surprised.

— Yes. You may have no idea, but you are a very important person to me. — Darka smiled, a little embarrassed. — Even more important than Yrina.

Staring at her friend with some curiosity for a few seconds, Amara held Darka's face with both hands. He immediately became nervous about the boy's gesture, and couldn't even move.

— Amara? What...

— Lauren...?