Eventually, Nero finally turned to leave the ceiling. He didn’t like the idea of his wheelchair being carried down, but he forced himself to remain silent as they did, taking it in. This was the consequence of being weak.
It wasn’t like he was blaming himself. He was doing the best he could, and his opponent was literally some ancient Aetherkin - an animal that could use aether, with unsurpassed skill and power at that. As if that was not enough, it could talk and clearly had advanced mental faculties.
Nero was outmatched in every way, so even surviving was an incredible achievement. This was not him admonishing himself. No, this was a reminder that he possibly couldn’t slow down, or waste time on distractions such as love and romance. The cost of weakness was too great, and the more he distracted himself with such things, the more he would actually stand to lose.
Up on the roof, Nero had lost himself in contemplating his life, his decisions, and the decisions he needed to make from now on. There were too many things that were outside his control, so he needed to be even more purposeful in the things he could control. More importantly, Vanessa was right. He needed to reflect on some things. He was not a thirteen year old kid anymore, and soon he would be heading off to KMA. He needed to sort through some things for himself.
For the first time in a long time, Nero did not spend every waking moment training, studying or researching. Instead, he allowed himself to rest and recover while he thought about things.
Previously, Nero used to spend some time reflecting on his actions, thinking about how he could have improved or done better. Now, Nero thought about the motivations behind his actions.
As he reflected on his life, scrutinizing in greater detail than he had ever before, he noticed a few things which should have been obvious. First was his inclination to keep secrets. It should have been fairly apparent, but only now was he realising that the reason he kept so many secrets was because he was influenced by his father.
Edward Grant was a secretive man, possibly due to the fact that he was in Whisper Guard. He kept so many secrets that it was tough to tell what wasn’t a mere decoy or distraction. Nero had naturally picked up the habit from him, but he realised that perhaps he didn’t need to be so secretive.
Only a few things deserved to be actual secrets, such as the vault discovered in Lumina, or his second innate ability.
If that was the case, was it even possible that his father hadn’t caught on to what was happening with Patrick? Maybe his father had allowed Patrick to be taken so that he could rescue him later. But that was mere speculation, and without any evidence it was pointless to speculate.
What was more important was the knowledge that his father might be more influential than Nero had assumed.
There was also his mothers decision. After healing up, instead of rejoining the army, she had entered into a civilian office. Even if it was as big as the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was a fact that it was civil rather than military.
Nero didn’t understand that choice. It was obvious that the army had more power and prestige. The civil government was, basically, only in place to handle the administration, management and logistics of the country effectively and efficiently. Such tasks were not suited for the military.
In essence, the civil government was directly below the army, so why would she choose to go there?
Only now was Nero beginning to realise that he, perhaps, didn’t know Kolar as well, or as in depth as he thought he did. There might actually be many facets of it he was entirely unaware of, or had misconceptions about. Now that was dangerous.
Nero made a mental note to increase his study into Kolar, but later. For now, he continued his introspections. The process was not quick or simple.
In fact, two days went by while Nero was entirely lost in thought. During that time, numerous doctors checked up on him, and he began rounds of physiotherapy as well as trauma counselling. The physiotherapy was needed, he could see that, but Nero did not feel like he needed to be counselled. Even so, it was not like he had a choice in the matter.
The only choice he had was how truthful he was going to be. After some consideration, he decided to adopt Vanessa’s advice, and began to open up. He kept fewer secrets, and became more honest in his answers.
For some reason that Nero could not understand, he felt lighter, as if a certain burden had silently dissipated. That was good - with a lighter burden, he could pay greater attention to improving himself.
It was halfway through the second day that Nero heard the news. The caravan that was supposed to take Dave away had left the base - the one that the public knew about. He showed no reaction, nor did he comment on it excessively.
When his counsellor asked him about it, Nero answered honestly. He said that he hoped the army was able to find out who was behind Dave so that they could be punished. The lives of the soldiers lost under his command... a mere Dave was not enough to answer for them.
Underneath his shirt, Nero felt the light touch of a simple, silver chain with a metallic button at its end. It was the button he had taken from Shawn Grindel’s body.
Nero found out later, once she had already left, that Vanessa had the button processed and purified, so as to ensure no curse would form on it, and then had paid for the chain of silver that was used to pass through one of the holes in the button. She had left it for Nero, but hadn’t so much as mentioned it.
Nero wondered what she was thinking when she did that, but could not find an answer. Clearly, she was a lot more thoughtful and considerate than she appeared to be. That much was apparent when he handed over the letter she had given to him. Nero had handed the letter to corporal Thomas, since technically Nero was now back to being under his command.
The reaction Nero got from the corporal was surprising. It seemed that the offers Vanessa put in the letter were especially tempting, but Nero didn’t bother to ask what they were, nor did he look at them himself. The more it was like this, the more he would appear determined about his future in Kolar, which was, incidentally, true.
The second day passed without event, and on the third day Nero underwent further detailed examinations to ensure that his recovery was progressing well.
It was only at the end of the third day, a full entire day after Noman’s caravan had left, that Nero finally did something other than contemplate.
In the middle of the night when he opened his eyes, he first studied his surroundings to ensure that there was no one around. He needed to update his cards, but until that happened, he would have to make do as he was.
Yet instead of doing anything after ensuring he was alone, Nero closed his eyes back and seemed to go to sleep, as if he had only momentarily woken from a dream.
In truth, he activated the card Flickering Lantern, which he had taken the opportunity to hide inside his shirt earlier during the day. For all intents and purposes, it was a very simple card.
Name: Flickering lantern
Image: A white candle, nearly used up entirely, inside a glass lantern
Type: Illusion.
Star rank: 0
Ability: [ Disperse the darkness of ignorance with the light of knowledge ]
Flavour text: "As I sate my greed for knowledge, my power grows," - Iskunder Macedon
The true purpose of the card, as that remained unclear in its vague ability description, was to contact Flintlock, Nero’s contact in Unity. Of course, Nero did not expect Flintlock to come to his room.
Instead, a meeting within their dreams was much more likely. Thus, after using the card, he went to sleep.
Yet instead of the clandestine meeting within his dreams that Nero was expecting, he had an uneventful night, and woke up fully rested in the morning. Instead of appearing confused, or spending any time wondering what happened, Nero continued his day as if it were normal, and made no further attempts to contact Flintlock. It wasn’t as if there was a time limit on his completion of his mission after all.