Raid woke suddenly, as he always did. One moment he was deep in sleep, the next he was completely alert, his heart beating fast in his chest for no apparent reason. It was an old habit, the kind the body keeps even when the mind has forgotten why.
The room was silent in that strange hour of the early morning, when the night stubbornly refuses to leave, but you can already feel the day arriving through the cracks in the window.
He lay still for a moment, letting his eyes adjust. Aldric's room was small but cozy, with walls of dark wood polished by time and the soft smell of dried herbs mixed with something sweet he did not recognize. Through the thick window curtain, a thin line of deep blue light announced that dawn was not far off.
A few meters away, Keiko slept deeply on her makeshift mattress, lying on her side with her long hair spread like a dark curtain around her face. Her breathing was deep and regular, her expression finally relaxed. All the fierce determination from the previous day had dissolved, leaving behind just an exhausted girl.
But the third mattress was empty.
Constant was not there. The blankets, thrown aside, still held the approximate shape of where he had lain, but now they were empty.
A familiar pang of anxiety tightened Raid's chest. His fingers interlaced in an automatic motion, squeezing, releasing, squeezing again, while his mind raced through possibilities. Where had he gone? Why would he leave? What if...
He cut off the thought. No. Constant would not run away. They had an agreement. Together. The three of them.
But the thought did not completely settle.
Raid got up carefully, feeling the cold of the wooden floor under his bare feet. He slid silently to the bedroom door, which Aldric had purposely left ajar so they would not feel locked in, and stepped out into the dark hallway.
The entire house slept around him, wrapped in that deep, living silence that only old dwellings possess in the heart of the night. His light steps led him past Aldric's room, past the living room cluttered with books and strange artifacts, until he spotted the front door. Slightly ajar. Just a crack, but more than enough space.
He went out.
Raid approached and pushed the door with a slow motion. The night air, icy, hit his face like a severe reminder, forcing him to blink. The village before him lay in silence and darkness, its houses nothing but dark shapes silhouetted against a sky that stubbornly began to lighten.
And then he saw.
Constant was sitting on the wooden steps of the entrance, turned slightly to the side, his face raised to the sky. Above him, the stars of Excelsior shone with impossible intensity, much brighter and more numerous than any sky Raid had ever seen. They pulsed softly, like giant fireflies dispersing the darkness, each one breathing its own light against the black velvet of the night.
Constant just looked at them. Motionless. Silent.
Raid took a step outside, about to call him, but then stopped.
Because even in the faint light, he saw the line of moisture running down Constant's face. Glinting slightly as it caught the starlight. Tears. Falling silently, one after another, wetting his cheeks and disappearing into the dark fabric of his t-shirt.
And the expression on his face...
Throughout the previous day, that one impossible day that changed everything, Raid had looked at Constant as a pillar. Something fixed. Unshakable. When Keiko screamed and he himself could barely breathe, there was Constant. Calm. Firm. Deciding. Protecting.
Raid had genuinely begun to think that Constant was different. Stronger and more prepared. As if nothing could really shake him.
But there, alone in the early morning, crying with that expression of raw anguish that he clearly never showed during the day...
He is just like us.
The realization came clear and sharp. He does not know what to do. He is as lost as we are. Just as scared. But he keeps going... he keeps steady. For us. Even though he has known us for less than a day.
Something burned in Raid's chest. It was not pain, it was not discomfort. It was something else, warm, tight, important. It made his eyes sting and he blinked quickly to ward off the moisture.
He had no name for that feeling, but he knew it changed something fundamental.
We have to look after him too. Somehow.
Raid stood there a moment longer, just watching. Recording that scene somewhere deep the silhouette of Constant against the impossible sky, the pulsing stars, the falling tears, the pain he carried alone when no one was watching.
I will remember this.
Then, as quietly as he had come, Raid retreated inside. He closed the door back to its original position, slightly ajar, and returned through the dark hallway to the room.
Keiko was still asleep. Constant's mattress still empty.
Raid lay back down on his own mattress, pulling the covers over himself. The warmth returned, but that feeling in his chest remained. Burning softly. Pulsing.
He closed his eyes, knowing he would not be able to sleep again so soon. His mind was processing too much, feeling too much.
We are in this together. The three of us. And that means looking after each other. Truly.
It was a fragile promise, made in silence, without witnesses. But it was real. And as he lay there looking at the darkness of the ceiling, that warmth in his chest began to transform into something more defined.
Determination.
Small, faint, but definitely there.