The Academy Of Space And Time

"It's because my wife is Eingana," Josephine replied. "She is the person who can travel through worlds."

Raegan's mouth was wide open. "Eingana... the goddess?"

I found a little sad how there were, apparently, so many humans who took the godly powers for themselves. And how people like the Circle were still keeping it a secret, even though there were those who knew, and profited from it.

"And because of this," she added. "I am able to let you contact Vitaly. I know he's reaching out to you with the last straw of his powers as Jophiel... Not that he's having less magic, it's just that he wants to use less of it."

"He told us," I confirmed.

Josephine smiled, and on the ground we found a portal waiting for us in the middle of a small pond of water, sand all around it like it was a very little oasis.

"Is this from Vitaly?" I asked. I hoped I didn't show the hope I had, for one moment, on my face. Portals always reminded me of Edgar.

"Yes," the woman simply replied.

When we entered the portal, we ended up in a room that looked very much like the one where we met the Awakened, but this time they weren't there.

With his eyes open, but his body in complete white, Vitaly was creating the Void.

Since he could decide how he looked to us, his hair was long and wavy like it was when he was young. The only difference was that it wasn't reddish brown — the spell made it white like the rest of his body.

"You look like a printer running out of ink," Raegan said.

Vitaly scoffed.

"Why did you contact us?" Jeff asked.

Vitaly looked concerned. "I felt like you should know the truth before you completed the quest. Congratulations, by the way. I didn't want you to find out the truth in a hard way, and I figure oaths of secrecy matter less in a war of those proportions. I didn't know the goddess would take Edgar hostage. So, I'm here to tell you everything I can."

After weeks where nobody would tell us what was going on, this was enough to shut us up.

"So, I'll tell the story from the start.

As you know, I have been a friend of Samuel ever since I was a little kid. But I was also a friend of his brother Nathan.

Nathan was Sam's older brother and he got along very well with their father. He was basically the perfect son. He didn't play with us most of the time, but I knew him very well.

Then, I turned twelve. I was kicked out of my house and started living with my aunt and uncle. Which meant that, really, I always stayed at the Winter's. Daniel Winter didn't like me. Once, he caught me while I was trying on makeup and from that moment on he started liking me less and less. The same thing happened when I started wearing women's clothes.

Samuel accepted me the way I was and often fought with his father about it. Mister Winter also understood that I saw Sam as more than a friend, while to him I was a little brother. He already had an older brother who was better than him at everything, he wanted a younger one who admired him.

When Sam and I became well known and started hanging out with Brady, Nathan started becoming famous for his talent as well. He was older than us, but he was also more gifted."

"But this doesn't make any sense!" Jeff yelled. "My grandfather never mentioned another son! I can't have an uncle I know nothing about! He's not even in the book Famous Enchanters."

"No, he isn't," Vitaly confirmed bitterly. "He wasn't that famous back then. But he's in many other books, in your grandfather's private collections. That's why they're private.