The Hearth-Bringers walked silently towards the staging area. While June was genuinely afraid of what just happened, Calaren was burning with fury, but both of them kept quiet on Leo’s signal. Looking around, Leo gulped down the fruits he had taken from the tent. From every corner, he could feel eyes on them. Some were watching them while pretending to do work, and others were just plain staring openly.


    It will be really hard to explain everything to Ma and Pa with everyone’s attention on us. But we’ll have some privacy once we reach backstage. That’ll be the time I can tell them why I said all that, thought Leo.


    “There you are, Calaren!” shouted the Anon Rosen, a middle-aged balding white man with black eyes and a considerable amount of belly fat, his father’s boss. “What took you so long? We have been waiting for a long while, and now there isn’t much time before the event starts. You know yours is the first act, right? So, you need to be well prepared,” Rosen continued as he jogged over to Cal. However, he took one look at June and stopped abruptly. “Your wife doesn’t look so good. Is everything ok?” Rosen asked with genuine concern, while being out of breath.


    “Everything is fine! We just need a few minutes to ourselves before the event. I know that’ll leave us no room for any last-minute practice runs, but trust me, I will still give a stellar performance, as we’ve practiced a lot beforehand,” said Calaren pleadingly.


    “Fine. Just sit your wife down in my office. It should be private, as everyone knows to find me out here looking over the final touches before the event,” said Rosen, pointing towards his office.


    “Thanks a lot, Rosen. I appreciate it,” Calaren said gratefully.


    “Don’t mention it. I’ll come to get you when it’s time for your performance. Just try to relax a little before then,” said Rosen.


    “Will do, boss,” replied Calaren, forcing a smile.


    The Hearth-Bringers crossed the rest of the way to Rosen’s office speedily. As soon as they entered the office space, Leo closed the door then turned towards his parents, put his hands up, and said, “I can explain everything.”


    “You better, young man. Do you even know what you have done? We have tried so hard to stay out of their traitorous dealings for so long, and now you just volunteered our services? How could you do that, Leo? You have no idea how much we have lost and how much we have suffered to achieve the small amounts of peace and freedoms that we have today. So, how can you throw all that away?” asked Calaren while finally expressing his shock and anger at what had transpired.


    “Anyways, it won’t work. They won’t honor their end of the deal. We are going to lose another child, Cal. We can’t let that happen. Do something to stop them. Please do something!” begged June while holding on to Calaren for dear life with shaky hands.


    “Explain yourself, Leon Hearth-Bringer. Now!” said Calaren, his voice low but frightening.


    “I did what I did because it was the right path to choose,” Leo said earnestly.


    “You are just ten years old. All you know is what we told you before, which was the bare minimum! So, you have no qualifications to choose any kind of path. All you did was just waste our years of sacrifices with your over-smartness,” said Calaren in an utterly frustrated tone.


    “No, Pa and Ma. I know this is the right choice, the right path, because in addition to my Hearth-Bringer healing powers being completely activated, my Pathfinder powers just fully activated as well,” said Leo, taking off his t-shirt and turning his back towards his parents while also showing the back of his right hand to them. There on his back was the symbol of the Pathfinders; the nine-pointed star was glowing red, and on the back of his hand, the circle denoting the Hearth-Bringer mark was glowing white.


    “All of the Veiled Ones, in general, are losing our powers at an alarming rate. It is not only limited to the Gainsworths and the Cursebinders. What once happened to the Pathfinders is happening to all Veiled Ones now. However, I know that I can help them. But don’t worry; we won’t need to team up with Edwin Gainsworth and Emanuel Cursebinder to do so. Something will happen during this event that will give us the chance to get away to a safe place. So, we won’t even need to go back and negotiate the rest of the deal with them,” said Leo enthusiastically while putting his t-shirt back on.


    June and Calaren looked at their son’s completely healed face and thought of the activated Pathfinder and Hearth-Bringer marks in awestruck quietness until finally an astonished June spoke up. “Please start making some sense, boy! I don’t know what your newly activated powers are telling you, but I can tell you this: no matter where we run off to, that Edwin Gainsworth will find us. He always finds his prey. There is no escaping him,” said June as she rocked herself in an attempt to calm her fears.


    “No, he won’t. None of them will be able to reach us where we will be going. I can guarantee that,” said Leo confidently.


    “How are you so sure, and where exactly is this place that is safe from the Anons? You just activated your powers. As it is, there isn’t much information about Pathfinders and how their powers work in the first place. So, how are we supposed to trust you in this?” asked an irritably confused Calaren as he started pacing throughout the space.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    “Pa, it’s this feeling in the gut. The same subconscious prompting you get when you use your Hearth-Bringer powers. Trust me. All we have to do is wait for that right moment during the ceremony to slip away,” said Leo.


    “Slip away to where?” Calaren asked again. “Do you even have an inkling about this safe heaven we are running away to, or does this mythical place only exist in your imagination?”


    “What are our other choices? You tried running all this time, and look where it landed us. We cannot just keep running away. Think about it logically. The Elementals were born on Ragonia, the Anons on Harbor, and the Veiled Ones on Yonder. Solem, though, is a world that was supposed to belong to all. You once told me, Pa, that you came here because this place was relatively safer for Veiled Ones. However, even here we Veiled Ones suffer humiliations, violent beatings, and killings every single day. So, it’s time we leave in search of a better place to recuperate and plan our strike back,” Leo said with conviction.


    Leo took his parents’ silence as an invitation to continue. “The sanctuary we are escaping to won’t be our permanent destination either, but it will be a resting place where we can prepare our counterattack safely. We just need to listen to my instinct and follow where it leads us. Also, even in the worst-case scenario where we don’t make it out, we’ll still have the option to join the high ranks of the Anon forces where we can dismantle them from the inside.”


    “What are you saying, child? Are you out of your mind? Stop with this nonsense of fighting back. The Elementals, strongest of all the primordial races, lost to the Anons. We Veiled Ones are barely surviving even after accepting all of their demands, and now you think you can somehow defeat them. Ridiculous!” said a terrified June.


    “I’m not the only one who thinks this way, Mother. Goddess Anorea must believe this to be possible too; otherwise, she wouldn’t have helped me activate my powers and know all these things. So, no matter how ludicrous this seems, just trust me. Everything will be fine as long as we take the opportunity presented to us in today’s event to run away from here,” Leo said earnestly.


    “Fine. Let’s say for a moment we believe you. However, you are so sketchy on the details that we are sure to miss this precious opportunity you speak of. I mean, how will we even know when it is the right time?” asked Calaren, finally giving into his son’s plan.


    “I don’t know of all the details either. However, I know that something big will happen during today’s event that’ll create havoc. We just need to use that chaos to get inside the Mother’s Womb, and once we get inside, what to do next will become clear. So, just go on stage and perform like you were originally supposed to, Pa. Ma and I will watch you from the audience. Then when mayhem ensues you will head straight for the womb on your own, and Ma and I’ll make our way to the womb separately from you as well,” explained Leo.


    “No, no, no! This is not going to work. There will be guards and traps everywhere. We won’t be able to get away from here alive,” said June while clasping Calaren’s hand tightly.


    “We will get outta here and no one, and I mean no one, will be able to stop us. Trust me, Ma, please,” Leo pleaded confidently.


    Calaren signaled Leo with his eyes toward the water jug resting on the table behind them alongside a couple of empty glasses. Leo nodded, grabbed an empty glass, filled it with water, then walked up to a June and held the glass to June’s lips. Leo urged her to drink the water to calm herself, which she did. “We have to believe in what he says, love. There must be a reason why both of his powers are fully activated today. There must be a reason for us to remain unscathed even after Leo stood up to both Edwin and Emanuel. There must be a reason we are sitting in this damp, dark, cramped room and plotting our escape from the clutches of the Anons and their loyalists. Also, at this point, if what Leo said doesn’t happen, we still have the backup plan,” said Calaren while caressing June’s cheek with his one free hand.


    “The backup plan of betraying the Anons after joining their ranks? Don’t be ridiculous. Leo is a child, Cal. He doesn’t know what the Anons and their followers are capable of, but you and I do. Have you forgotten about the Amassings? If they ever get a hint of our true intentions, they’ll make us fodder to that. Do you want us to end our lives that way?” asked June with tears in her eyes.


    “Amassing? What is this Amassing?” asked a confused Leo.


    “It is not easy to maintain a curse, especially a curse put on the primordial races. So, Amassing is the ritual that provides the necessary energy in maintaining the power draining curse put on us Veiled Ones. However, the sacrifices needed to perform this ritual are horrifying,” said Calaren while growing pale.


    “Why? What sacrifices are part of this Amassing ritual?” Leo asked suspiciously, his curiosity growing.


    June and Calaren looked at each other with fear and extreme discomfort before glancing back at their son to answer his question. However, before they could say anything, someone knocked on the door.


    “Cal, are you guys done yet? We are out of time. The performance arena is already open to the public. The King and his party have also arrived and are taking their seats as I speak. So, you have five to ten minutes at most before your performance begins. I need you backstage right now,” said Rosen hurriedly from the other side of the door.


    “We don’t have any more time. I have to go. We’ll answer all your questions about the Amassing another time. Meanwhile, just know that it is a horrible thing, and hope you never have to come across it,” whispered Calaren before heading to the door and opening it. “Hey, Rosen, I’ll go backstage right away. Umm, but can you make sure to grab some seats for my wife and kid please?” asked Calaren as soon as he opened the door.


    “Well ok, but they need to hurry. I need to open the ceremony ASAP,” said Rosen before briskly walking away.


    Calaren turned to Leo. “Follow him quickly. We’ll go by what you said. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s all we got. So, for all our sakes, I hope it works.”


    Leo nodded. He put away the half-full glass of water he was still holding and grabbed June’s hand.


    “Let’s go, Ma,” said Leo, pulling June’s hand to make her get up. June looked at Calaren for one last look of assurance before getting up and following quickly behind Rosen with Leo as Calaren strode off towards the backstage.