Catching up with the details of a Redemption ritual is the worst experience for any Heleian Encanto and Water's Son Aiden Maris learned it in the most dreadful way. The communal bonfire is lit for rituals because every occurrence is absorbed by its flames, ready to be projected on the command of the Iqniq; the flame guardian. As such, Aiden had to sit with the members of the Vatra Family, where most Iqniqs come from, in the graveled area, watching the flickering flames as it showed and roared the information it absorbed.

Much of the images in the fire were blurry and garbled for young Aiden Maris. The bonfire was showing the initial songs of praises and Aiden felt the need to sleep already. Unfortunately, nobody can skip past what the bonfire collected. Ancient tradition forbids so. Aiden groaned in helplessness and sat through the whole process and despite whispers of a terrible experience, the Water's Son left the graveled area just after high noon, lost in thought.

"The Unknown Child." Aiden repeated softly to himself as he paced on the path away from the bonfire.

It has been a couple of weeks since he met the boy with ebony hair, yet it didn't sink in his mind how much of a mystery the boy is to him and to Hele. From what he understood in the flames of the bonfire, Rai Juni, the Lightning's Mistress, the Council Member Aiden adored, began an expedition of the Northern Canyons in the name of the Intellectual Society of Solferino and failed.

Aiden arrived in his family tent and retrieved his academic notes on expeditions. "The Northern Canyons, more famously known as the 'Jigsaw Canyon' due to its perfectly interlocking ridges, is one of the few locations in the country of CANDEMARO that no one has ever set foot on, due to its," Aiden pulled the scroll on the side to reveal the next information on the next page. "alleged mysterious and deadly powers."

Many contemporary intellectuals, like Rai, wished to disprove this claim and proposed an expedition composing of the greatest Usor Sorcerers and Encanto Elemental Fighters who all have the same desire to unlock the secrets of the ancient tribes. When they arrived at the Canyon, things were normal for the first two weeks and they were making progress with small excavations rendering big revelations. One night during their third week, however, an Encanto and a Usor Sorcerer got into an argument when they unearthed a small opening by the bottom of a nearby ravine. The opening was carved out with ornate symbols, which reminded the Encantos on the team of their family crests.

Aiden shifted his eyes around his tent at the thought of the Encantos' sentiment. Much of the designs he saw across the household; in the cloths, pottery, even in his own wool poncho that he is wearing, hold meaning despite being simple combinations of color, lines, and swirls. He even saw Rai in the flames of the bonfire wholeheartedly agreeing that these symbols must have been an important indication. The Usor Sorcerers wish to chisel out the carvings to make the opening larger, thinking some artifact is stuck in the end of the hole. The Encantos disagreed, but the Usors did what they wanted and the action triggered what Rai mentioned that is similar to a tremendous earthquake. The ground above them collapsed and almost buried them. Luckily, the members of the team were skilled in their crafts and has avoided the calamity. The quake buried the opening they discovered and Rai, as leader of the expedition, decided that they will leave for a different location the next day. However, the Usors refused to listen and sneaked in the middle of the night to dig past the debris.

The next few moments made Aiden hug his knees close. Even as the flames' images flashed before his mind, he felt as if he was in the moment experiencing the Lightning's Mistress' terror.

The Encantos woke up to another trembling. This time, however, they found a mysterious form donned in a starry blanket violently attacking the Usor Sorcerers. They did not comprehend what exactly it was, but the Encantos knew that it bore eyes that glowed with the heat of the sun and it stretched across the length of the ravine, shaking the rocks and stones mightily with every roar.

As the other Encantos tried stopping its rampage and rescue their team members, Rai pushed her way to where they found the opening and discovered that the ornate carvings had disappeared and it had been perforated for at least one person to crawl into. That's where Rai said she found a mummified remains of what seemed to be a human hybrid. Fearing its hideous appearance, Rai left it momentarily as the screams of her fellow team members resonated through the night sky. She fought the creature as best as she could, but it knocked the rocks again, this time, burying all of them down.

Whimpering at the thought, Aiden shook his limbs sideways, trying to get the creeping sensation out of his system. As much as this detail caught his attention in his recap earlier, it is certainly horrifying to think about alone. The Water's Son stood up and rushed out of the family tent, past the wooden fences bordering Hele, and towards the tall grasses, trying to find a spot to peacefully ponder.

As he pushed past the green blades, Aiden recalled that Rai did regained consciousness afterwards, but found all of her team members dead. She was unsure if it was because of the combat with the creature or because of the creature's rampage, but she was the only survivor of the expedition. Distraught at the outcome, she spent the next month in the same location, excavating the debris to recover her team members' bodies and lamenting her losses. As she buried them in the nearby grounds, Rai remembered about the artifact she saw that dreadful night and decided to return to the hole. She said that she was horrified at how the mummified remain reminded her of her loss, but still took it in custody and left the Canyons the same day. She wandered to the Undocumented part of the Beda Rainforest that connects to the Canyons; which many Heleians considered the dangerous parts of the Rainforest due to the teeming wild animals roaming it.

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According to Rai, she was unaware of how many days she wandered across the woods, given that it carries the conditions of the Beda Rainforest being wretchedly dark and enchanted. However, she did arrive to the Old Balete Tree, where she constructed a little shrine mirroring the opening where her team found the mummy and buried it in the soft ground. She passed out right afterwards, and she remembered being in her family tent. From that moment on until Redemption, she didn't talk about the details of the expedition, but Aiden found the Lightning's Mistress' courage commendable at that point.

Noticing the shade of a large tree, Aiden skipped to hide under it, reclining by the bark and sighing as soon as he settled down. The next information that Rai had revealed after the telling is even more mysterious. The bonfire's flames showed Rai presenting the boy with the ebony hair to every Heleian Encanto present in Redemption.

'Awa'a.' Rai's voice echoed in Aiden's ears and his eyes twitch with mild discomfort. 'That was Mirano's first words to me when I found him. He must be the child I found and buried in the Old Balete tree.'

Aiden's face contorted at the recollection of the claim. He scratched his head. "But how? That's highly impossible, right?" He asked no one in particular.

The flames showed that even the members of the Sequoia Council expressed their doubts.

'There is no record—across CANDEMARO—that a phenomenon can cause the rebirth of a dead individual.'

'The child must have gotten lost and miraculously survived in our holy Rainforest. Truly, his complexion is similar to that of the Usors in the North.'

For each doubt, Rai had rebuttals: As much as half of CANDEMARO's early past was lost to history due to an unknown catastrophe... or some event! No one can remember what it was or why it happened, so what are the odds of an ancient power giving life to the dead? Next, even if Mirano is only a lost child, signs of survival such as malnutrition and scars would have been evident, but the child, despite being thin, lacked the impression that he has been surviving off of the Beda Rainforest. Rai added that lost and unwanted individuals will have been devoured by the Rainforest in a short amount of time. That's one of the reasons why them, the Heleian Encantos; despite being dubbed the "Forest's Keepers", cannot rescue any missing vagrants who accidentally wandered in those wretched woods.

"Those are sound arguments, until it is not," Aiden muttered, his brows furrowing as he tried to rake his head for possible agreements or rebuttals. He dug his fingers across his sea hair, groaning as he jumped from one side of the argument to the other. With a frustrated groan of finality, Aiden threw his head backwards, accidentally going to much that he bumped his head on the tree's trunk and his groan turned to a yelp.

As he tries soothing the shock with a few taps, Aiden heard the grass rustle in front of him, along with a gentle voice that spoke: "Aiden... confuse."

The lack of proper grammar stung Aiden for some reasons, but one of it was because it is a familiar speaking pattern that he immediately recognized. He looked up, brows knitted in irritation. "Aren't you a genius for noticing, Ran-Ran?"

Aiden watched the boy tilt his head and point a finger to his own chest.

"Mirano."

The boy's dense nature had Aiden even more annoyed. What infuriated Aiden the most is how Mirano pointed back to him and repeated, "Aiden... confuse."

"Oh, okay, fine! I'm confused about you!" Aiden shouted as he pointed a finger to the boy with the ebony hair. "What are you? Where did you come from!"

Mirano's unfazed demeanor didn't help Aiden in calming down. In fact, staring into his bloodshot round eyes had him more stumped than before. Aiden didn't see the smile coming, though.

"Alike." Mirano said with a big grin.

"...Huh?" was all Aiden managed to say.

"Alike." Mirano repeated, pointing to him and Aiden. "Aiden, Mirano. Alike. Confuse." Then bursting to a soft, innocent giggle.

It took Aiden a heartbeat to pull down his arm, for at that moment, he realized that Mirano is very much like a child... like him. There's too many things that he cannot understand now and Mirano is the same as he is. He found his initial annoyance embarrassing.

The Water's Son cleared his throat and pouted. "... I-I guess... we are kind of alike..." he looked down to the ground as he admitted that. Looking back up to Mirano, he found the boy peeking at him, still had that grin on his face. Leaning away, Aiden composed his posture with another clear of his throat and again pointed a finger to Mirano. "Do-do-don't get me wro-wrong..! I'm still way, way better than you, you know! I can speak better than you, yes!"

Mirano replied with another giggle and mirrored Aiden's posture. "Speak alike Aiden!" he hollered.

Nodding as if to convince that he is right, Aiden proudly hummed. "Yes, and be thankful because I'm willing to impart my unique diction and verbal skills to you, Ran-Ran! Prepare yourself!" he ended the declaration with a confident laugh, which Mirano happily mimicked.

That late afternoon, the Heleian Encantos noticed how the boy with the ebony hair, clad in a blanket from the Juni family, followed the Water's Son wherever he went and whatever he did. They did not point out the strange event, but rather, kept it amongst themselves, hiding smiles behind their hands as they found the interaction adorable. When Loire pointed out in a later time if Aiden finds it uncomfortable, Aiden quipped the strangest, but equally fascinating answer:

"Mimicry is the first step to learning, mother."

And he was correct. Mirano Suri, the boy which the Encantos dubbed as "The Unknown Child", formed an unusual tie with Water's Son Aiden Maris that will last for a lifetime.

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To be Continued...