I don't remember exactly when we left the Vayegi base.
Only the constant movement of the transport and the sound of the wind hitting the metal. Nothing else. There were no words, no orders, no dramatic checks. We simply left.
I leaned back against the seat harness and closed my eyes for a moment, while the constant vibration of the helicopter ran through my body. When I breathed in, I felt pain in my chest. Not enough to worry me, but enough not to forget it.
The relic felt cold against my wrist.
At some point during the flight, Eleonor sat across from me. She didn't speak right away.
"You're not asleep," she said at last.
I opened my eyes.
"No," I replied. "I was just… still."
She nodded, as if that were explanation enough.
The trip ended without incident. When we arrived at the main mansion, no one rushed. There were no alarms, no urgency. Just people moving with the calm efficiency of those who knew that, for now, the worst was over.
They left me in a small but comfortable room; its walls were painted white. It was fairly suitable, so to speak.
I sat on the edge of the cot and looked at my hands. They were still trembling slightly. Not from fear. More from accumulated exhaustion.
Eleven minutes.
That was how long it had all lasted.
Looked at that way, it almost seemed short.
The door opened and Mikhail came in. He wasn't in a hurry.
"Tomorrow you'll rest," he said, as if he were talking about the weather.
"Rest?" I asked. "Just like that?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.
"Your body is almost wrecked on the inside," he explained. "Nothing serious, but you used too much power in too little time. You need at least one day for the magical pulses to settle."
I nodded.
"Makes sense."
Mikhail watched me for a second longer than necessary and then left.
The next morning I woke up with my body still heavy.
Not unbearable pain. More a persistent stiffness, as if every muscle remembered what had happened before I did. I went to the bathroom and washed my face. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw someone who was still trying to process what had happened.
Eleonor knocked on the door.
"Noah, are you awake?"
"Yes," I replied. "Give me a few minutes."
"We'll be waiting for you for breakfast. Hurry up. Sophia has something to tell us."
Five minutes later I reached the hall.
Sergei was standing by the window. Anton was leaning against the table, checking something on his communicator. Irina was sitting with her arms crossed, watching the room with quiet attention.
Sophia was at the far end, holding a tablet.
I greeted them with a nod. Almost in unison, they returned the gesture.
Sophia didn't wait.
"Something very strange happened at the Warsaw base."
"What do you mean?" Anton asked.
"I received the official report this morning," she continued. "The base was completely destroyed."
She paused briefly.
"But there were no survivors. No bodies either."
The silence grew heavier.
"Nothing?" Irina asked.
"Nothing," Sophia confirmed. "No personnel. No records. No computers. No remains."
"You mean they took everything?" Irina said, her voice lower this time.
Sophia nodded.
"As if it had never been there."
Sophia shook her head.
"I don't like this. We already have too many problems, and if your suspicions are correct, someone has just obtained an amount of information that could put us at a massive disadvantage."
She turned and looked at me.
"Noah, I'm sorry, but today you won't be able to rest."
"What?" I asked.
"We don't have time anymore. We're going to talk to my grandfather so he can open the Chamber of Memory."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's a chamber where ambient magic converges," she explained. "It can help stabilize the flow in your body."
She paused.
"It's risky. I won't lie to you."
"Seriously?" I said. "Didn't they try that years ago at the academy?"
Sophia looked me up and down.
"You really didn't do any of your training, did you? I'm surprised your body didn't explode when you put the bracelet on for the first time."
"That doesn't matter anymore," Eleonor intervened. "Let's go. There's no time to waste."
And just like that, without any ceremony, I was preparing to take up something I had left behind.
The end of a training I had abandoned.
Something fate was now returning to me, without asking whether I was ready.