The shrill alarms of the KryoWatch woke Brando for the third time that day. The pale light of level -13 filtered through his half-closed eyelids as he tried to ignore the pain permeating every fiber of his body. It was the third day of intensive training, and by now the pain had become such a constant companion that he almost didn't notice it anymore.

  "Get up," Sara Esposito said. "The fourth session of the day starts in five minutes."

  Brando slowly pulled himself up from the cot, feeling like overloaded electric wires under his skin. It was his Cold Veins pulsing. Beside him, Giordano wasn't in much better shape. The bastard scion of the Volpes' face was a mix of bluish bruises and deep dark circles as he slowly ran a hand through his greasy red hair.

  "We're dying," Giordano muttered in a hoarse voice. "We're literally dying. I've even started pissing blue, Sara. Should that worry me?"

  Sara shrugged casually while checking their data on the KryoWatch. "It's a side effect. The Cold Veins are eliminating residue from accelerated expansion." Then she added with a smirk: "As long as it doesn't turn red, there's nothing to worry about."

  Brando passed a hand over his face, feeling his cracked skin. Twelve Tairyū sessions in three days. Thirty-six hours of concentrated agony while alien energy was pumped directly into their Cold Veins. The progress had been immediate: he had reached [Violet Two], while Giordano had, in the last session, touched [Violet Four], a progression that under normal circumstances would have required months of training. But it wasn't enough.

  Rust approached Brando, rubbing his snout against his hand. Even the puppy showed clear signs of the treatment: he had grown almost twice his size, with thicker fur and defined muscles under his coat. The third eye glowed with greater intensity.

  The room door opened silently and Folgore entered with urgency. "Sara, the results?"

  "We're at a plateau. Their Cold Veins aren't responding to the treatment with the same effectiveness anymore. In the last session, the growth rate decreased by 47% for Brando and 33% for Giordano."

  Folgore pressed her lips together. "It's not enough. At this rate we won't make it in time."

  "We only have three days left," Sara reminded her, lowering her voice.

  "Three days to do what, exactly?" Brando interrupted, standing despite his protesting muscles. "You talk about Bianca like she's dying, but you've never explained what will happen after this time."

  Folgore stared at him, evaluating the question. Then she sighed.

  "After seven days from the beginning of transformation, a Deviant reaches the point of no return," she explained. "The Cold Veins completely merge with the central nervous system, permanently altering brain structure. Human consciousness gets overwritten by Glacial nature. Bianca will cease to exist, replaced by a predator with her memories and nothing else."

  A heavy silence fell over the room.

  "And that's what was happening in the Pit," Brando murmured. "She started transforming, but still had some consciousness. A part of her managed to escape instead of killing us all."

  Sara cleared her throat, exchanging a meaningful look with Folgore. "She has less than 72 hours before the change becomes irreversible. There is an alternative though. But it's drastic."

  "More drastic than this?" Giordano asked, indicating the bruises on his body. "Because if it involves literally tearing the Cold Veins from my body, I'd prefer advance notice."

  "It's called Neural Cryogenic Immersion," Folgore replied, ignoring the sarcasm. "An experimental technology dating back to the early years after the Cooling Down."

  "Discontinued twenty-five years ago, after the incident of the seventy-five," Sara added, visibly disturbed.

  Brando and Giordano exchanged a confused look.

  "The seventy-five?" Brando asked. "What the hell happened?"

  Sara sighed, sitting down. "In 2070, the Academy was looking for more efficient ways to train Bearers. The shortage of Cold Soldiers was critical, the Glacials were becoming increasingly organized and attacking the Great Dome with growing frequency."

  "Traditional methods took too long," Folgore continued. "So the Cryogenic Research Department developed the Immersion, a system to exponentially accelerate Cold Veins evolution. Seventy-five cadets volunteered for the first large-scale test."

  "How many survived?" Giordano asked, unusually serious.

  "Forty-two of them died in the first hours of simulation," Sara answered dryly. "Their Cold Veins collapsed simultaneously, causing instant necrosis of brain tissue. In the end, three emerged."

  Brando felt a shiver run down his spine that had nothing to do with his Cold Veins.

  "They emerged from the simulation completely transformed," Folgore continued. "They had made progress that normally would have required years. The most incredible of them went directly from [Violet One] to [Green Three] in less than 72 hours."

  "The biggest jump ever recorded," Sara commented. "He later became one of the Four Aces. The one you now know as GIS."

  Giordano's eyes widened. "You're saying that guy went from beginner to almost elite in three days? That's impossible."

  "If it weren't for the human cost," Folgore replied, "the Immersion would have become the norm. But seventy-two dead cadets all at once, with their families screaming for vengeance... it was too much even for the Protector. The technology was officially discontinued and every document related to it classified."

  "Officially," Brando emphasized, catching the nuance.

  Folgore nodded slowly. "Officially. Unofficially, research continued in secret. The machine was improved, made more stable, but even though twenty-five years have passed, it's still not safe enough to be approved for general use."

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  "Sounds like a perfect way to commit suicide," Giordano said with a bitter smile. Then he walked slowly toward Folgore. "Look, I understand that Bianca is your daughter and all that. I also understand that she's a super important Deviant for some top-secret project. But why should I risk my life like this? I've already had my bones broken with your infernal Tairyū. I don't even have a connection to Bianca and I don't even care to have one."

  Brando observed Giordano with surprise. It was the first time he'd seen his friend openly question the mission. And he had to admit, he had a point.

  Silence fell over the room like a blanket of snow. Folgore studied Giordano with a different look than usual, no longer cold and detached, but penetrating and calculating. When she spoke, her voice was strangely gentle.

  "Have you wondered why I chose you for this mission, Giordano Volpe?"

  Giordano snorted. "Because I'm an Omega, I guess. And because I'm Brando's friend and I saw things I shouldn't have seen." He gestured toward Brando with his hand. "Pure coincidence."

  Folgore slowly shook her head. "Coincidences are much rarer than you think."

  She approached a console and typed a brief command sequence. A holographic screen materialized in the air.

  On the display appeared the image of a young woman in medical uniform, with red hair pulled back in a ponytail and eyes that, despite their different shape, had that same intensity Brando saw daily in Giordano.

  "Who is she?" Giordano asked, scrutinizing the image with curiosity he couldn't mask.

  "Lara Mazzone," Folgore replied, studying Giordano's face with clinical attention. "She dealt with accidents caused by Glacial incursions. Not a Bearer, but braver than many others. When I met her, she worked as a nurse in the eastern sector of the Polis, the one closest to the Great Dome. It was a job few would have accepted considering the risks."

  Something clicked in Giordano's eyes and a strange tension stiffened his entire body.

  "Why are you showing me this woman?"

  Folgore maintained silence for several seconds, letting the question hang in the icy air of the room.

  "Because she's your mother, Giordano."

  Brando saw the effect of those words on his friend. It was as if the ground had just given way beneath his feet. The usual bravado, irony, and even relaxed posture had all vanished in an instant.

  "My... mother?" His eyes wouldn't leave the image on the screen, as if he were trying to memorize every detail. "My father never even told me her name. He always spoke of her as a low-class commoner, a woman who prostituted herself for him."

  "The Volpes have always been good at manipulating reality to their liking," Folgore said with a veil of contempt. "Lara Mazzone was anything but an ordinary woman. She was intelligent, courageous, and possessed something rare: a natural affinity with cryogenic energy, even without being a Bearer. An affinity she passed to you. It's true that under normal conditions illegitimate children tend to have lower ranks, but in your case it was a precious gift, not a defect."

  Giordano stared at the image, as if hypnotized. "Is that why I'm an Omega? Because of this... affinity?"

  Folgore nodded slowly. "And that's why you're fundamental to the mission. Your blood has a natural resistance to cryogenic pressure that few possess. If there's someone who can survive the Immersion alongside Brando, it's you."

  A heavy silence descended on the room. Giordano seemed to struggle against something inside himself, while he began to clench his fists tighter and tighter.

  "Is she..." he hesitated, as if afraid to formulate the question, "...still...?"

  The question remained suspended. Folgore closed the screen with a fluid movement of her hand and Lara Mazzone's image vanished.

  "I have a lot of information about Lara Mazzone," Folgore said in a tone that betrayed no emotion. "Information I'll give you, but only when we've completed the mission."

  "It's not the time?" Giordano suddenly activated. "You tell me you know my mother, the woman I've been searching for my whole life, and then you tell me it's not the time?"

  "There are things you have to earn," Folgore replied, firm but not cold as usual. "This is information that has a cost."

  "What kind of cost?" Giordano asked, with eyes shining with feverish light.

  "Help me save my daughter," Folgore said. "Survive the immersion, bring Bianca back together with Brando, and I promise I'll provide the answers you seek."

  Giordano gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Folgore was challenging him, which didn't make him very happy. "It's blackmail," he murmured in a hoarse voice.

  "It's an offer," Folgore corrected. "One that respects the value of what we both want. You want to know your mother, I want to save my daughter. Nothing out of the ordinary."

  "Fine, fine. I'm in, damn it. But I want every single detail, clear? Every damn detail."

  "Naturally," Folgore replied with a nod.

  "Don't look at me like that," Giordano turned toward Brando even though Brando wasn't looking at him 'like that' at all, trying to recover some of his usual irony. "I get bought easily when it comes to my family." He was trying to mask emotion with sarcasm, but Brando knew his friend well enough to see how much the possibility of knowing about his mother meant to him.

  "And you, Brando?" Folgore asked, turning toward him. "Why should you risk your life for Bianca?"

  Brando reflected for a moment. "Because she helped me when no one else would have," he replied simply. "And because if we don't do it, who else can? Besides..."

  "Besides?" Folgore pressed, raising an eyebrow.

  "Besides, if you're going to reveal the truth about his mother to Giordano, I want to know everything you know about Karanti and Khepera." Brando crossed his arms. "Everything. No omissions, no half-truths. Who am I really? Why are my Cold Veins different? What's my connection to Bianca?"

  Folgore sighed, passing a hand over her face.

  "I can't tell you much, Brando," she admitted, "not because I don't want to, but because I don't know everything. I was just a small pawn in a much bigger game."

  "You're an Ace and the game was bigger than you?" Brando asked, very skeptical. "Who knows everything, then?"

  "The Protector, obviously," Folgore replied. "He was the head of the Deviation Project. But you can forget about it, he'll never tell you anything."

  "So what?" Brando raised his arms in exasperation. "Should I just trust you, risk my life and continue groping in the dark?"

  Folgore remained silent for several moments, as if carefully considering her next words.

  "Not necessarily. You can find your answers at Meteora, in Greece."

  "Meteora?" Giordano almost shouted. "In Greece? On the other side of the Mediterranean? In the fucking outside world full of Glacials?"

  "Exactly," Folgore confirmed. "Professor Aetos worked there, a physicist who studied a strange phenomenon twenty-five years before the Artifact appeared here."

  "What phenomenon?" Brando asked.

  "The appearance of an Artifact fragment," Folgore replied. "Much smaller, briefly appeared near the monasteries. Aetos studied it and wrote everything in his diaries. He was the first to theorize the concepts of Karanti and Khepera. In his old laboratory among the monasteries you'll find his diaries."

  "How can I trust that these diaries are still there?" Brando asked.

  "Because I found them, just before returning to the Academy for my daughter's situation," Folgore replied. "But Aetos protected them with a system that responds only to specific Cold Veins sequences."

  "Sequences like mine," Brando concluded.

  "Exactly. The diaries will only open for Karanti or Khepera."

  "And why should I risk my life to cross the Mediterranean?" Brando pressed.

  "Because those diaries contain answers that even I don't have," Folgore replied. "About the Artifact. About the red eye you saw. About why your Cold Veins are unique. Everything you're looking for, you'll find there."

  Brando studied her carefully. "How am I supposed to get there?"

  "You don't need to worry about that," Folgore replied, "You'll come with me, or are you afraid to cross the Mediterranean in my presence?"

  Brando looked at Giordano, then back at Folgore. "Agreed. I accept. But I want it to be clear: I'm not doing this for Bianca. I'm doing it for myself, to discover who I really am."

  "Right," Giordano added with a tense smile. "I'm doing it for my mother, Brando for himself, and you for your daughter. Everyone has their own motivation."

  Folgore nodded, as if she had received the answer she expected.

  "Good," she finally said. "Follow me."