FSE

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'Nihil, how many secret tunnels does this place have? Which of them lead to a place near the castle?' Kodu asked, getting closer to the arctic fox. 'We're probably looking for a tunnel that communicates the palace with one of the caves out there.'

It took Nihil a few seconds to process the question; then, he shook his head and answered:

'There are twelve tunnels that we know. Four of them lead to the surroundings of the palace. Two are linked with the household of the Barkinclouds and the rest go even further.'

'Why would they take one of those?' Bal asked. 'If they were planning to take us by surprise, why would they choose a tunnel that started not far from here? They risked being seen by our guards.'

Kodu thought just for an instant.

'They probably didn't know where exactly they were going. I bet they've been following us since we started this journey, knowing that we would eventually find a refugee camp.' He stopped there, suddenly remembering the one they had come across in the Strait of Tarcha. The cat ignored that memory; it was probably too late for them, anyway. 'When they saw us going into this place, they might have guessed what was going on. They didn't know where we were going until then; otherwise, they would have probably taken one of the most remote tunnels and taken us completely off guard.'

'And will they risk attacking even though we might know they're coming?' Gaman asked, genuinely surprised.

Kodu gave him a bitter smile.

'They're fehlar. They don't need to take you by surprise. They have far more soldiers than you, better equipped and ready to fight. They know they will capture this palace.'

A heavy silence followed those words.

'You know them better than we do. And you know what they'll do if they get in here' Nihil said then, turning to the cat. His contentious attitude seemed to have disappeared; instead, now he seemed to be begging for Kodu's help. 'If you're with us...'

The cat shook his head, thinking frantically.

'I'm with you.' He stopped for a few seconds, wondering if that was the right time to explain his reasons to the group of kane, but he decided to remain silent on the subject. Instead, he asked 'Which of those four tunnels is wider, Nihil? They'll take the one which lets them move faster.'

'The one in the kitchen,' the arctic fox replied.

Kodu nodded.

'Okay. Gather as many kane as you can and block the entrance to that one. We should also block the rest of the tunnels to ensure that we're safe, but focus on that one.' Then, he stopped and gave a nervous smile to the kane in front of him. 'It may be impossible to win this battle, but we could still avoid it.'

'What have you done...?'

The words echoed in the theatre, floating through the dust and fading into the half-light. Under the crackling light of the torches, Ike could see the faint, innocent smile of his sister, as if she had not done anything wrong.

He knew that smile perfectly well. It had haunted his worst dreams for a long time, reminding him of a terrible day dyed in red, of the first moment in which he had truly discovered his sister's wicked personality. Of a silent murder that had been made his own. That smile... it used to frighten him, but now the only thing he could feel was an utter disbelief, and a growing hatred for it.

It no longer scared him. Rather, he wondered why he had not noticed that nothing had changed in all those years.

Then, in a flash of the torches, the smile was gone and his sister was looking at him with the most serious expression he had ever seen in her face.

'Look,' she said, in a voice so calm that the contrast with the still-warm body on the floor almost hurt. 'I know that you don't like this. I know that you have your aspirations and your own ideas, that are totally different from those of our father and the rest of the fehlar.' She paused for a few seconds. 'But we cannot have our own ideas. You cannot do what you believe in. We are the Embertooths, Ali. And as such, we do not live for ourselves. We live for the fehlar.'

'You...' the lion whispered, so low that the lioness thought she had imagined it.

'And I know you don't believe me, but this is all for your own good,' she said, taking a step closer to his brother. 'You know what will happen if you get to the throne like this. So many rumors. So many... people willing to look for your slightest error in order to make you fall. You know how it's like. You've seen what it's done to our father, even though he was always supported by most of the fehlar. Now, imagine what might happen if you are made the king... after having disappeared for more than a year. After... all those rumors, that said you had escaped with the kane! They would kill you. And you know that.'

The lion did not say a thing. He just stood there, looking at his sister as if he could see right through her. For the first time, the presence of the lioness did not look imposing at all; she did not even look like another person. She was just... annoying, somehow. He could feel all that annoyance building up, burning inside him, driving him mad, like a slow but constant illness.

'Our father is dying, Ali,' Kathreen continued, however. She shifted her weight from one leg to another, nervous. 'He won't live much after we return. He wanted you to have something to hold onto whenever you became king, something that would make things easier for you and the fehlar. And so did I. That's why we planned this, together. Being the conqueror of Northundra... sounded like something that would justify by all means your position in the throne...'

The lion shivered, and then another whispered came from his muzzle.

'How could you...'

'Because I love you,' Kathreen replied immediately, and her eyes seemed to shine in the middle of the half-light, as her voice trembled and shook like the flames of the torches. She then stepped closer to Ike, hesitantly. 'I love you and I want you to live as long as you can, as the king you deserve to be and the king the fehlar deserve to have. All I've done, I've done for you. You know I would have killed our father if that had made things easier. The lives of a few kane mean nothing to me. And that fox of yours definitely can't stay at our...'

'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE...!?' roared the lion then, interrupting his sister in the middle of the sentence. He stomped angrily towards the lioness, who tried to step back, looking so frightened that in any other circumstances Ike would have probably stopped right there.

But he kept moving, and his sister kept moving back until her back hit one of the walls.

'Ali...' she started, but before that word had even left her lips the lion had already grabbed her shoulders violently and shoved her against the wall. The pain surprised her more than hurt her, and she looked up only to find the furious gaze of the lion, whose eyes seemed to burn with a fire that Kathreen had never seen before.

'Why did you do that!?' the lion asked, with a voice so full of hatred and rage that the lioness shivered. 'I was going to save him! I WAS GOING TO SAVE HIM AT LAST!'

Kathreen opened her mouth to reply, but the lion pushed her with every single word and the only sound that she could emit was a hurt moan.

'A-Ali...!'

'Shut up!! You kill everything that I appreciate! Everything I care for, you just kill it! Over, and over, and OVER!!' he roared, 'I'm TIRED of you two telling me who I can love or who I can hate! I'm TIRED of you KILLING EVERYTHING!!'

And then, just as suddenly as it had started, his fury seemed to vanish. Ike just stood there, looking at his sister, breathing heavily and still with a look of pure hatred in his eyes.

'You have no right...' he said. 'You have no right to kill people on my behalf.'

Kathreen stood there, looking at his brother with an expression so full of fear and shock that the lion thought it might as well be the first time she had actually experienced it. Then, she slowly slid to the floor, falling on her knees with a blank look on his face. Ike looked away.

Only the whispering sound of the torches broke the silence. Beyond the walls of the theatre, Ike thought he could hear people shouting warnings and orders, but he simply did not care. He just stood there, looking at the wall, his sister on his feet as he just slowly felt all the anger inside him grow cold like lava after an eruption.

Somehow, it felt right, his sister shivering there, down on the floor. But somehow, it felt wrong too; terribly wrong.

'I... I would kill anyone for you...' she said, then. For the trembling in her voice, he could know that she was sobbing. 'I... I...'

'I would die for any of them,' Ike interrupted her, without hesitation. His voice also shook a bit, as if the previous outburst had left it tired and broken. 'And if I had to choose between your life and theirs, my decision would be clear.'

A sob broke the silence in the room, but Ike did not look down to his sister. He was afraid that if he looked her in the eye, he would somehow develop some compassion for her. And he knew, deep inside, that she did not deserve it.

'I... see...' Kathreen said, after a silence that could have lasted months or years. 'That's how it is, then.'

Ike was startled by the sudden movement at his feet and quickly moved away from the wall. For a second, he had forgotten how lethal his sister was, and the fact that she probably hid more knives under her sleeves. He turned to her, with all his muscles tensed and ready to fight his sister if necessary.

However, no knives flew towards him. Kathreen had just stood up and turned her back to his brother. Her long sleeves hung down at both sides of her body, unmoving, as the rest of her body. Ike remained there, in tension, waiting for his sister's first movement, in case she was still willing to kill.

However, she just walked away towards the door of the theatre, slowly but steadily.

'Wait!' Ike called, a bit confused, and wondering whether he should follow the lioness or not. 'What are you going to do?'

However, in a whisper of the torches and with just a few steps more, Kathreen disappeared through the doors.

Wardrobes, beds and all that the refugees had found had been used to build an improvised barricade that blocked the kitchen's passage entrance. There was not much that the kane could use after the previous fehlar invasion, which had left the building pretty much empty, but at least the barrier they had just built would contain the fehlar tropes for a while.

A short while, Nihil thought.

From time to time, he swore he could hear the fehlar coming, but at that point he could not tell if it was his own nervousness messing up with his senses or the real soldiers coming for them. He had been holding his bow so tightly that at that point his fingers hurt, but it did not matter. <<I should have killed those fehlar when I could>> he thought, for the umpteenth time that day. <<None of this would have happened>>.

And however, he was entirely sure that, just like that barrier, killing the three fehlar they had met in the wilderness would have only gained them some time. It was always like that with the invaders. It always felt as if they could only hide, run, resist... but never fight back.

They had been doomed for the very beginning; born to be chased, hunted and killed. They would never be free. Something inside him knew that truth, knew that it would not change while he was alive and it made him sick.

A slow movement at his back caught his attention and he turned, more brusquely than he would have liked, to the new visitor. It was the lioness who had come with the other two fehlar, the one who looked absolutely untrustworthy. He frowned, relaxing his grip on the bow. He had not heard her coming and that made him uneasy.

'What is it?' he asked, glancing at the rest of the kane that were there in the kitchen with him. In the event that the fehlar wanted to start a fight, she would be quickly reduced by the rest of refugees.

The lioness did not answer right away. There was something strange in her face. Somehow, she looked a bit... disconnected. And even then, Nihil could smell the wiped tears that had left an invisible trace on her face.

'I'm going out,' she said, calmly. Something about that confidence infuriated Nihil. It was not a question; it was an order. 'Open that door for me.'

'There's no way we are letting you go out, fehlar,' Nihil said, squinting. 'I think we both know why.'

'It is your only chance,' the lioness replied, still as cold and impersonal as if that moment had nothing to do with her. 'I'm Alekai's daughter. The tropes will leave this place immediately if I say it's my father who orders it.'

'How can we know?' another kane asked, suspiciously.

'You cannot,' the lioness answered. 'But there is no other thing you can do. The fehlar will go through that lame barricade of yours and break into your hideout anyway. I'm offering you a way of getting out of this alive.'

'Why should we trust you?' Nihil asked. There was something about that lioness that he did not like at all.

'Why would I like to go out now? Even if I was a traitor, I would join the fehlar tropes after they had killed you all. The only thing that can come out of me going out right now is asking them to leave. You know that.'

Nihil hesitated.

He could tell there was another reason why the lioness was so eager to leave, but her words made complete sense. And unless they killed her right then, it was true that she would join the tropes sooner or later. Why had her come there to ask them to let her go, then, if she knew she would be safe either way?

He shook her head. Either way, he could tell that the lioness was dangerous. Maybe keep her out of sight would be best for everyone... although he was not entirely sure. That fehlar made no sense to him.

'Okay,' he said, after a few seconds. 'You can leave.'

'But Nihil...!' started another kane.

'As she says, it is our only option,' Nihil interrupted him, with a sigh. 'We're doomed anyway. It doesn't mind if she's in or out this castle. And as soon as she's out, we'll build the barricade again. It won't take that much.'

'Clever boy,' the lioness said. For an instant, it almost seemed as if she were going to smile at him, but in the end she didn't and Nihil thought he had imagined it.

She just walked towards the door slowly, calculating every single move. The arctic fox could feel her whole body was in tension, ready for any attack in case they tried to kill her.

'You,' Nihil said, looking at two kane. 'Help her move the barricade. Let's let her out.'

He decided that it was better to hide his true intentions, however: in case the lioness tried to do something weird, he would be ready to shoot an arrow at her throat before she could even take one of those knives of her. Clenching his paw around his bow, Nihil frowned and never lose sight of the mysterious fehlar as the rest of the kane started dismantling the barricade.

She just stood there, waiting... calmly. For some reason, her apparent calmness made Nihil angry.

Once the kane had moved all the tables, furniture and rubble they had used to build the barrier, Nihil made an impatient gesture with his bow towards the wall in which the hidden passage was.

'Leave at once,' he said, sharply. 'I don't want that tunnel to be unblocked more time than strictly necessary,' he said, sharply.

The lioness nodded, walking towards the now naked wall. One of the fehlar opened the passage's door for her; a hidden entry that was normally behind a cupboard and that only opened when pushed to the left.

A cold breeze came from the secret tunnel, and the arctic fox's ears twitched; he swore he could really hear the fehlar coming this time. His impatience was about to make him push the lioness towards the tunnel, but he finally managed to contain himself. He did not want to have physical contact with that fehlar; after all, his only weapon was his bow, and he still did not trust her completely. If the fehlar was thinking of doing something weird, that was the right moment to do it.

However, she just walked through the open wall and disappeared through the tunnel, carrying no torch or anything to guide her. She did not even say goodbye, and as soon as the kane pushed the wall back to its place, darkness seemed to swallow her. Even then, Nihil could not help feeling uneasy, and for a long while after the lioness had left, he kept thinking about her and how strange everything that surrounded her was.

That was how Bal found him an hour later when he went down to the kitchen; arms crossed on his chest and tail swaying nervously behind his back, as he just kept waiting before the wall, thinking of the lioness that had just disappeared in the dark.

'What are you doing here?' asked the arctic wolf with a bit of surprise, when he found the fox guarding the hidden tunnel, so still that he might have been mistaken with a statue.

'I was feeling hungry and wanted to have a snack,' Nihil replied, wryly. 'What do you think?'

Bal looked at him for a few seconds, as if he could not fully understand the joke. Then, he smiled.

'Ah, of course. You don't know.'

'Know what?' asked the arctic fox, feeling increasingly annoyed for some reason.

'The fehlar. They've retreated. For some reason, they have left the tunnels. We spotted them going to the South.'

The arctic fox shook his head, still angry. The fehlar never left. They always found new hideouts where the kane sought shelter and destroyed them. That's what they did, and that's what they were going to do with Northundra in time.

He was pretty sure of that.

'We shouldn't raise the guard just yet,' he said, frowning. 'There are tunnels in the South. Tunnels that lead to this castle. We must be ready in case they want to come back. Now they know we're hiding here.'

'But why would they change their mind?' Bal asked. He looked a bit excited, which somehow only aggravated Nihil's anger. 'Why would they leave us alone?'

The arctic fox turned back to the barricade that hid the secret tunnel and remained silent for a few seconds, pondering. The image of the lioness leaving the place came back to his mind. That weird lioness, drowning in the dark.

He snorted.

'They haven't left us alone. They will come back.' He loosened his grip on the bow, and then added 'They always come back.'

Kodu let out a long sigh, resting his arms on the balustrade as he looked down at the hall of the castle.

Many kane came and went from the adjoining rooms and corridors, carrying furniture, piece of wood or rock, and even snow. They were gathering all they had in the castle in order to make new barricades; barricades that would block the entry from the not-so-secret tunnels that were all over the castle.

Kodu could not help looking at their faces and studying their expressions, which in many cases showed the same feeling. They all seemed to be relieved to some extent, but the cat knew deep inside that it was only momentary. All of them knew that the fehlar had been about to find their hideout... and that could only mean that they would come back sooner or later, in order to crush their resistance. Those people, men and women, cubs and adults -their lives were lived day by day, in a constant tension, and they knew that every single minute could be their last. That's why all of them knew that their resistance was not definitive.

They had just been granted more time to live.

In silence, Kodu wished he could do more to help them.

'Hey,' he heard them behind him.

He turned to find Ike, who gave him a gentle smile. Kodu greeted him with a nod and the lion walked near the balustrade, standing by him. They did not say much for a few minutes, their eyes following the constant flow of kane on the lower floor.

'I guess... it's over,' Ike said finally.

'It seems like it is,' Kodu replied, tilting his head. 'It's not over for them, though.'

'Yeah, I... I know,' the lion whispered, with a long sigh.

Another heavy silence followed those words, and both stood there in the balustrade, lost in their thoughts.

'You couldn't figure out the fox's name, right?' Kodu asked after a while, gently.

Ike shook his head.

'My sister... Kathreen... killed the only one that might have known Zèon's family in the past. The rest were killed long ago.'

'How can a name get lost so easily?' the cat asked, genuinely surprised. 'Our race has made a lot of terrible things in the past, but wiping out a whole culture so... quickly. It just gives me shivers.'

Ike hesitated.

'Kodu,' he started, a after a few seconds. 'I... I know you understand what is going on. I know whose side you're on.'

'Look at these people,' the cat replied, pointing at them with a movement of his paw. 'They might have not seen their families for years. They might not even know if they're still alive. And they don't even know if they'll be alive tomorrow! Can you really tell me there are any sides on this?'

'I know,' Ike replied, softly. 'What I mean is... I want to change things. And I know you want, too. I just wanted to let you know...' He paused for a short while, hesitantly. 'I trust you. During this journey, you have been the only one I have trusted. Thanks for being there.'

Kodu smiled.

'You're welcome. I owed you that favor from a long time ago,' and then, when he noticed that the lion did not know what he meant, he added. 'Remember when you decided to hang out with a cat without noble class?'

Ike laughed a bit, nervously.

'Well... things were different then.'

'They were,' Kodu agreed.

'So, would you be willing to change things? With me and... with Krysha?'

'Hey, hey, stop right there. Earning Krysha's trust isn't as easy as earning yours!' Kodu answered, with a smile.

Ike laughed again, thinking of the tigress for the first time in a while.

'Yeah, I... I hope she is alright,' he found himself saying. 'I hope they all are. Specially Zèon, even though...'

He never finished the sentence, but his mind was already thinking what his mouth would not say. Since he had not found the arctic fox's name there, the chances that he managed to find another way to wake him up were... few. Not to mention the fact that he did not even know if the arctic fox was still alive, or how longer would he resist in that state. <<I'm sorry, Zèon>> he thought, looking at the ceiling. <<I came so far... only to find that no one remembers you. I'm sorry>>.

However, Ike did not want to give up. There were still many places in which someone might remember the arctic fox's name, including the camp where he had lived with Luca for many years. What about the kane in the Box? Would have some of those lived at that camp too? Ike wished he had known about the importance of names before separating from them. He might have asked someone...

'Hey, Ike,' Kodu called him then, tapping his arm. 'I think Nihil wants us to go down.'

The lion came back to the real world and saw the arctic fox standing on the lower floor, looking up and staring at them with his usual grumpy face. He sighed and turned back, heading to the staircase.

'Time to leave, I guess,' he said, feeling a bit sad.

He had been trying to delay that moment as much as possible, but he was well aware that they could not stay with the kane refugees forever. Kathreen had said his father was dying. Maybe the time of change was not as far as he thought...

'Here you are,' the arctic fox said, looking at the two fehlar when they got to the lower floor. 'Your provisions are next to the gate. They should be enough for two or three weeks, but after that you'll need to hunt if you want to stay alive. That's all we can do for you.'

'Thank you,' Ike replied, sincerely. In spite of all the struggles of those war refugees, they had managed to gather some food for them. <<I hope I can give something back to you soon>> he thought.

'Leave now,' the arctic fox said, pointing to the gates. His face would not allow a negative reply. 'And be careful where you put your feet. Both out there and in here.'

The warning had a strange sound for the lion, who immediately felt the need to ask about it. However, the arctic fox had already turned his back to them.

'Don't come back,' he said as he walked away. 'And make sure you send the Frostpaw here once you save him. You owe us that much.'

Ike did not answer. He was not sure if he was brave enough to tell the arctic fox that, despite all the time they had been there and the troubles they had caused to their refugee camp, they had not been able to find Zèon's name.

They started walking towards the gate, the old woolen carpet, brown and dusty due to all the kane carrying the rubble, muting their steps. Ike could feel Nihil's piercing glare on his neck, but he never turned back. There was still something weird about his words that kept circling in his head, much like the spiraling patterns of the carpet under their feet.

<<Be careful where you put your feet. Both out there and in here>>.

Why would the arctic fox give them such a weird advice?

He suddenly stopped in place and turn to look at the arctic fox, who was looking at them from the same balustrade they had been minutes later. Nihil's face showed no expression, but Ike could have sworn... that he seemed to be expecting something intently.

He looked at his feet. The weird patterns of the carpet caught his attention again; swirling, almost hypnotic. There was something about the red, brown color that seemed to fill everything... something strange. It looked as if, decades ago, that had not been the real color of the carpet. As if years of dirt and blood had taken their toll on the wool it was made of.

It took Ike a while to figure out what the strange patterns in the carpet were. He fell to his knees, letting out a loud laugh, and started following them with a paw, as his heart started to beat fast.

'Ike?' Kodu asked, a bit confused. 'Are you okay?'

'Y-yeah!' the lion replied, moving on his knees as he followed the patterns of the carpet down towards the gates, getting his legs dirty with dust and blood in the process. 'This... this is amazing!'

'What is amazing? Is everything okay?'

Ike did not answer and instead stopped to rub a part of the carpet in which dirt seemed to be easier to wipe away with his paw. After he had got rid of all that prevented them from seeing the real color of the carpet, the wool had acquired a new tone.

It was almost as if, sometime, it had been white.

'Can't you see?' Ike asked, excitedly. 'This whole carpet! I don't know why we didn't pay attention to it when we came... it's all here!'

'What is in the carpet, Ike?' Kodu asked, still amazed. He sounded worried enough to call someone for help.

'It's not a simple carpet. Look! This is an arctic fox!' the lion said, pointing at some of the apparently chaotic spirals.

Kodu bent towards the carpet and tilted his head, curious. He had to admit once you had gotten rid of the red color that seemed to have dyed the wool, the swirling patterns of the carpet looked like a very stylized portrayal of arctic foxes.

'And this, next to him... Lita... it must have been their name! This carpet is a register of the Frostpaw family, Kodu!'

The cat understood and could not help but let out an exclamation of surprise.

Ike, however, did not stand up. He kept searching, going down in the carpet, looking through the different generations of Frostpaws. Marcus, Gaius, Galeria... all of those should have been Zèon's ancestors in the past. But he was looking for an specific name: the last one.

The name of the last Frostpaw.

Ike found it almost at the end of the carpet. When he realized the impact of what was happening, the fact that the name before him was real and that he was not dreaming, he had to contain his tears. He stood there for a few seconds, frozen, and then breathed deeply, too moved to even react. He finally raised his head, looking for Nihil in order to thank him.

However, the arctic fox was nowhere to be seen.