The two brothers meditated in silence for an unknown period of time. Since they sat in the dark, Alex didn’t even try to open eyes and inspect their surroundings. He concentrated on the force of nature, especially focusing on guiding it trough his hands and palms in order to ‘fix’ his two broken thumbs sooner. He had a lot to think about, but for now he put all thoughts aside.

Alex couldn’t know what went on in Bill’s head, but at some point he suddenly felt his brothers big palm awkwardly slapping his face and then finding and covering his moth. Obviously the big guy wanted to make sure Alex wouldn’t start talking.

Acknowledging that, Alex slightly patted brother’s arm and held breath trying to focus on his hearing. For a while there was a complete silence followed by a loud bang of a stone shattering. The best guess was that someone destroyed the stone Bill covered the first tunnel with.

Alex instinctively glanced to the side where his brother sat even though he couldn’t see anything. How in the world did he hear them approaching?

Finally, after a couple of minutes Alex discerned few inconspicuous sounds followed by a weak light shining through the tunnel they came from. He could finally discern his brother in the dark, but notice him slowly shaking his head. Alex nodded – he understood that just because they found this place, it didn’t mean they could reach their spot.

“Sigh, another false trail.” Alex heard a man say, “This is already the third! That damned kid!”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll find them. In fact, I bet we’ll find Bond’s amputated arms first, otherwise he would be completely paralyzed by now.” Another one in a cheery voice replied. He even seemed to be happy, “But I don’t understand, why we don’t have any information about Bill Stone possessing such remarkable skills? We should’ve recruited him long ago!”

“Doesn’t matter – too late for it anyway.” The first voice said, “I must give it to him, this one is made almost like a piece of art! Look, they even left three, no – four tiny drops of blood as if inviting us to follow further. He knew very well that if we tried to pass there, we would need a day or two to cut through.”

Before the two brothers could rejoice, the second man said, “But it doesn’t feel right. How did he put that stone in place?”

“Let’s ask after we catch them!” The first one said and it could be even heard in his voice he was smiling.

“Sure, but let’s close this thing down, just to be sure.” The second one said, “I don’t like surprises.”

‘F*ck! I don’t like surprises either!’ Alex inwardly screamed.

The second worst scenario he imagined happened after all. If the tunnels were collapsed, they would run out of air within hours. But when he glanced over at his brother, or rather his outline, Alex noticed his brother slowly shaking his head again.

‘Oh, well.’ Alex thought to himself, ‘Maybe the big lump has a plan. Or maybe I can use him as a living spade and he could dig us out within a month or two. His hands are like oars and we do have a water.’

Bill did have an idea where he led them to. When they arrived, Alex heard a stream of water gurgling nearby from time to time and a minute earlier he saw the light reflecting in it and could finally observe it. It was a quick underground brook, around one meter wide and maximum three meters long – exactly from one wall to the other.

Actually the view was bizarre how an underground river began in a wall just to disappear in another. In addition the water seemed to flow incredibly fast and almost silent.

For the next half an hour Alex could hear someone doing their best to crush their hopes of escape. When the ruckus died down, the air in the cave room they were in was full of dust particles.

Holding back the itch to sneeze, Alex asked, “They made us, didn’t they?”

“Mhm. I’m almost certain.” Bill replied, “There are some people with abilities to sense living beings within ten to fifteen meters and we were not much further. Our hearts beat like drums in their ears and our breaths are like loud gusts of wind during the storm.”

“So all that talk was only to make fun of us. Not bad, I can respect that.” Alex smiled and said, “But they made a mistake.”

“And what would that be?” Bill sounded annoyed.

“Hahaha!.We aren’t injured anymore!” Alex laughed back.

“You do realize it might be possible to hear you, right?” Bill asked, still upset.

“I don’t think so. Except if one of them stayed back in the previous room.” Alex answered with a wide grin. Bill couldn’t see, but imagined his teeth shining in the darkness.

“Alright, since we are already conversing, tell me – how did you put that stone there? I mean, not this time, but before. I didn’t see it up close, but it felt like you have to put a lot of effort to remove it by pushing, so how it is possible to put it there by pulling?.” Alex said.

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“It’s not.” Bill said.

A strange silence filled the room. Alex was curious, but since his brother was in a bad mood, he decided to let him be. Just as he was about to start cultivate, Bill spoke.

“It was Chucky. He put it there.” He said.

“Who’s Chucky?” Alex asked, “You said he was dead …”

Bill fell silent for a moment, then sighed and continued, “He was my friend … back then. We used this place as our hideout, well, for fun, but then … he disappeared. I came looking for him, but the stone barred the way and I couldn’t move it. He was few years older than I … and stronger … so … Anyway, hunters found him further down the river, drowned. My guess is that he fell it the stream over there and hit the head or something … and then … few days later you were born ...”

“So that is why!” Alex finally understood, “Thank god you were not an idiot back then! You didn’t hate the newborn for nothing! You hated the world for trying to replace your friend with me.”

“You remember?” Bill exclaimed in surprise.

“Hahaha! I wish I wouldn’t!” Alex laughed back, “You scared me to death! Understanding the world from the moment you are born might not be the best thing. The only thing you do is just lie there, helpless … No wonder everyone forgets their early childhood. I wish I could as well.”

“So that’s why! You hate mom because she abandoned you!” Bill stated.

“What? No!” It caught Alex by surprise, but then he started to laugh, “Hahaha! Hell no. I don’t have problem with that. I just don’t like her because she’s a tr… Truth to be said, you don’t want to know.”

“It’s not like we are busy. Just tell me.” Bill said.

Alex thought for a bit and then said, “Sigh, alright. It’s not like it would change anything. Do you know what a ‘blessing’ is? And how the higher clergy ‘blesses’ the common people?”

Not waiting for his brother to reply, Alex continued, “They just f*ck them! And our dearest mother … she asked for this blessing as a reward for bringing me to the capital. And the bishop f*cked her right in front of me! And she was happy and thankful!

“She … she was probably brainwashed …” Bill weakly tried to defend Elsa.

“Ye, right. I don’t think you believe that.” Alex sarcastically retorted, “Let me tell you, they taught how to ‘brainwash’ in the college, but all of it was only mindf*ck. Of course, they taught how to ‘bless’ people as well. Those motherf*ckers were kidnapping girls from who knows where and gang raped them. The girls were immobilized by a special technique and then couple dozen the so called ‘chosen’ did her over and over until their penises were covered in warts!”

Alex shuddered remembering his days as the doctor’s assistant and then continued, “But it’s not all bad. I managed to kill around thirty of them … sigh … unfortunately it’s still not enough. Currently they are bringing a terrible disaster in the name of imagined deity to the west … arhhh! Damned religions! I dislike them even more than baseball!”

In the end Alex punched ground in anger.

Bill wanted to ask ‘what’s baseball’ when what Alex said completely registered in his brain.

“So you were the one who did it? I understand you got some of the missing Lord’s seeds, but to kill tens of chosen …” He said.

“What do you mean ‘some’? I took them all! Hahaha!” Alex laughed back.

Finally Bill was struck speechless.

They sat in silence for almost half an hour when Bill finally spoke, “Ok. How in the world did you do it? Do you even realize what kind of storm you created around the whole empire!? Even now hundreds of people are looking for … sigh … to steal a decade worth of Lord’s seeds … Honestly, brother, sometimes I just don’t know what to think of you.”

“Then don’t think about it.” Alex shrugged.

He was quite proud with himself for what he did, but hearing he caused a big loss to the empire even warmed his heart. Although the part ‘decade worth of Lord’s seeds’ didn’t make sense.

“Ok, tell me, how did you do it?” Bill pried.

“Ah, it’s a long story.” Back in the day Alex didn’t like to discuss his jobs and it felt weird to begin now.

“It’s not like we are going anywhere.” Bill pointed out.

Alex stared at the spot in the darkness Bill spoke from, then smiled and scratched his head.

“Alright!” He finally said, “I learned about the seeds when I arrived at the college – the bishop Phelippe gave me one. At that moment the project ‘Sunflower seed halva’ was born.”

“What’s ‘halva’?” Bill asked.

“It’s a kind of a sweet food. Anyway. I decided to steal all the seeds they had, but I had no idea where they were and how many they had. It took me almost four years to prepare for the theft, find the treasury and ways to access it and secure a safe way of bringing the seeds out.”

Alex paused for a moment and then continued, “The hardest part was to find the location. In order to do that I began working as a janitor around the college. Luckily I was able to narrow it down to our church. By pretending to be a religious fanatic I began to hang around the church as much as possible without raising suspicion. I swept floors observing few of the important people when they were present, trying to see any reaction showing if I came too close to the safe or the secret storage room.”

“When I finally got few clues, unnoticed I put thin spider silk around spots that could serve as secret levers or switches. Of course, I had to repeat it multiple times to verify in case the silk was torn on accident. As I said, it took me around four years. Meanwhile for one whole summer I worked as our gardener’s apprentice. Under my initiative we planted a ton of shrubs that helped me to cover my tracks. Then I also worked as the apprentice of the village’s blacksmith – I made this staff there. In fact, I made three different staffs – two with the secret compartments and hidden blade and one fake that actually got destroyed during the investigation.”

“Of course, the best and hardest part was to create a diversion. I discovered a peculiar stone, or rather ore that was highly flammable and burned with extremely high temperature. It took mes several month to amass a huge amount of it in a powder form and later, working as assistant to the college’s handyman, filled with it the floors and walls of two buildings. All I needed was to make an inconspicuous fuse and light it up at the appropriate moment. That’s basically it. It did take a long-ass time, but I didn’t have anything else to do anyway.”

After a brief silence, Bill asked, “Let me guess – the theft was discovered long after it actually occurred, right?”

“Yup!” Alex smiled back, “Although not everything went as planned. I didn’t realize the power of the seeds and made one the scapegoat to be a bit unbelievable. Probably that was the reason why everyone was brought to the fortress where you found me.”