76°00’S 53°43’E – Nuevo Trujillo, Spanish Antarctic Colonies

  21.05.2024- 15:00 UTC +3.00

  A hand touched my shoulder, stiffening as it held me. I felt it grabbing me, not just with care, but with an inconspicuous malice.

  “The Prince! The Prince! Somebody, bring the doctor!”

  A disembodied voice yelled as I was spinning. And then I was outside of my body. But this body – this was not it? My brain tried to reconcile the out-of-body experience, slowing down time.

  I was not with the Escapadas anymore. I was somewhere outside; there was wind, and sun. Around me tall buildings revealed a landscape that was not Nuevo Trujillo. I was in a much bigger city, floating at the top of the roof of a very familiar building. One of the Santiago Towers. Bright lights blinded me from the balcony.

  It was her suns, I thought. I remembered now: I was earlier watching this from the television. The Queen had summoned her suns to show her might. And then what?

  Drones buzzed around me as they flew away, turning their lights off. On the balcony at the top of the tower, a man was fainting right next to the Queen – it was the Prince, right? Someone had just explained me.

  A man held the Prince, holding him up from his armpits and shoulders. He was wearing a long dark blue robe, with the Trastamara insignia embroidered on it. He yelled for medical assistance.

  The scene was getting slower and slower as the air and the time around me felt like a maleable jelly. That gave me time to see everything. The Queen was turning startled to her right, calling her son’s name. Two bodyguards appeared out of the shadows, at the back of the podium, rushing to the Queen.

  I floated closer to the Queen, changing my point of view.

  M-a-r-c-e… she was yelling, in slow motion.

  Another robed man appeared behind the bodyguards, coming to the Queen. In contrast with the other one, he was much older, fifty or sixty perhaps, with a dark grey beard.

  Did I cause this commotion? Or am I simply witnessing it?

  The Prince started shaking, his arms and body claiming abnormal positions. As the media drones flew away, the light dimmed.

  It was not just the drones. The suns the Queen had summoned were also shutting down, as the bodyguards grabbed her violently, with the robed man right behind them.

  N-o-o… the Queen screamed again, as she was tackled down.

  The bearded robed man was looking at her- no. He was looking right above her. He was looking at… me?

  Whatever was happening, I had made the assumption I was either dead and became a ghost or invisible. But the man’s ominous glare shook my self-consciousness. I was there, somehow. I could not see or feel myself, I was nothing but floating eyes, but that man could somehow see me.

  I panicked and flailed backward, hoping to take a higher point of view. The bearded man in robes started whispering fast, every word a nail hammered right at the back of my mind.

  …you-belong-you-owe-you-submit-surrender-disperse-from-this-domain…

  If I could scream, I would. I tried to fly further from the scene, and although I could not take my eyes off the chanting man, something was tethering me to the scene, pulling me closer to the Queen and the Prince.

  The scene slowed down as the suns had now completely gone out, leaving only the light of actual sunshine to peek through the clouds and let me witness more.

  The Queen was being tied up by the bodyguards, and the Prince was shaking terribly. The robed man that was holding him now had one of his hands on top of his head, also chanting. I tried to fly as far as I could from the bearded man, somehow sensing that I had to go near the Prince.

  The bearded man stepped forward as he chanted in my direction, not letting me hear a thing.

  …you-belong-you-owe-you-submit-you-SURRENDER…

  The last word made an unseen cord snap. I flew right onto his extended hand, and, although I could see no body of mine, I could feel his fingers tightening around my neck.

  Something was off. I could see the malice in the man’s eyes, he certainly had no benign intentions. And – rationally speaking – I could sense the danger. But my body did not, even if it felt like I was being strangled. It felt like my body recognised no danger.

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  …you-belong-you-owe-you-submit-you-SURRENDER…

  The man kept repeating fast, a grin forming as he dragged me in slow motion. The words should have meant something but sounded like gibberish to me.

  And then the most unexpected thing happened: I started laughing. It was embarassing at first, but also empowering that I could not take him seriously. Here he was, chanting fast while everything else moved in slow motion. My brain had only one explanation at the ready: he must have been chanting so ridiculously fast in real-time. How ridiculous would that look? I imagined him doing this. I really bursted into laughter.

  The man’s grin froze, and that’s how I knew he could hear me. I tried to compose my laughter – I couldn’t fight him, but I couldn’t not insult him:

  “You must sound so stupid right now!” my incorporeal self said between struggling with his grip.

  The more I spoke, I realized that whatever he was trying to do had no outcome. His words were a mantra that meant to harm me, and the more I saw throught them the more it felt like decoding a secret message, and realizing there was nothing there.

  That realization fueled me. I was not going to die there. This guy had nothing on me.

  “What domain are you talking about?” I asked, ramming right at him. In my imagination, I was going for a headbutt, but being nothing but an invisible blob, I just smacked at his head awkwardly. He started waving his hands around in slow motion. “Submit that!” I insisted on smacking as the man turned around and called for help. My third smack was when I got the hang of it and went right for his head.

  He dropped unconscious instantly, and as he did, the room’s lamp flickered.

  Wait, I was not indoors, there was no lamp here. I was at the top of the Santiago Towers, on its balcony.

  I remembered how it felt when I would be a little kid, and my father would turn off the lamp of my room before going to bed. Light to darkness in a second, and I would cry scared.

  This was a similar feeling. Was this the Queen’s work? I looked back to check.

  No, she was now being dragged to the floor by the two thugs who still ignored me.

  I turned then to the Prince, being handled by the other robed man, shaking in his hands. The lights had completely gone out, leaving only one explanation. I finally gazed up to the sky to a terrifying sight: the Sun was gone.

  Dread overcame me. What was the meaning of this?

  Did I do this?

  Stars appeared in the sky as if it were the deepest of midnights. Their light was soft, but the absence of sun revolted me as my stomach churned. I was going to puke.

  “Ela, I need your help!” I yelled.

  “The fuck is Ela?” I heard a woman’s voice. It was familiar, I had just met her.

  I opened my eyes and tried to jump up before I got dizzy.

  “Easy man,” I heard Oriol’s voice.

  I turned to look around slowly. I was in a living room full of candles. It was night.

  “Where is the sun?” I asked.

  “Take it easy,” I heard Salva’s soothing voice.

  I breathed in and out. In and out.

  “What the hell is happening,” I asked putting my hands on top of my head. I knew puberty was supposed to suck, but it felt like mine was about to bring down the world.

  “You are back with us,” Salva said, “I managed to pull you back, but it must have been a terrible experience doing that. I apologize.”

  “The boy is making good points though,” I heard the woman again. It was Cecilia, “where is the sun, and what the hell is happening?”

  “I am sure he knows more than we do,” Salva said.

  “And what if he does, he needs to rest,” Hanying said. I tried to stand up, but everything was tilting by this annoying vertigo. Was that what Salva meant by ‘terrible experience’?

  Hanying was in the far corner of the room. Oriol and Salva were by my side, and Cecilia was standing next to the TV. Another two young men sat on the couch, trying not to look too curious. They waved at me. They looked similar, but I could not guess if they were related. Both had dark eyes and light brown skin, and one looked particularly buff through his jacket. I noticed their jackets had a similar style, and they had a painted B letter on them.

  I sensed everyone’s curiosity weighing on me.

  “I was there. On top of the Tower. With the Queen and everyone… I saw everything. There were some men in robes,” I raised my hand to my throat, checking to see if the man’s fingers were still there strangling me, “but they couldn’t hurt me.”

  I looked at Salva.

  “Ok, so you are a seer. That was quick to figure out,” said one of the two young men to Cecilia. She clicked her teeth in response.

  “Some form of it at least,” Salva concurred.

  “This does not explain the night outside,” Oriol.

  “The Queen must have panicked,” Hanying said, “Lost control during ángel’s meddling. And part of her domain collapsed again.” I could not tell if she believed these things, or if she tried to prevent me from answering.

  No, that was simply what made the most sense to Hanying. But that’s not what I had seen: the Queen was tackled and roughhandled by bodyguards. The sun vanished when I dropped the bearded robbed man unconscious. This made even less sense.

  “I did not mean to attack anyone…” I said.

  “Regardless of what the boy did. Why is she not bringing the sun back?” Cecilia asked.

  No one had an answer. I looked at Salva. The only theory that I could come up with was that his guess was right: I could break this Domain, and I had done it again. I did not break the Paseo keeping the Antarctic cold out this time, but the Sun.

  “That is the wrong question. The question is,” Salva concluded, “why is there no sun when the domain collapses?”

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