The agents of IAO and the Saliscreacist were still on their way to Darape's east coast, where the dragon's heart is stored. They had swapped from Staker's coupe to Olinia's minivan. Within ten minutes, they would arrive at their destination. Staker was now lying on the back seats, contacting the military with his voice as low as possible. He repeatedly rubbed his forehead in dizziness. It would eventually fade away, according to Olinia. In the second row, Adea Haki looked out the window with her chin propped on her palm. She constantly glanced over her shoulder and seat to check out Staker's situation. Haston was probably the only one who noticed her action. In the driver's seat, Olinia was driving her car with her nose in its original place. A pink teddy bear was in front of the gear stick with a small blue rabbit doll in its arms. The cartoonish-heart sticker on the steering wheel was old and yellowed. Cello tapes fixed a picture of about twenty people on the curved part of the dashtop. In the group photo, Poe was standing in the middle of the crowd.

Haston glanced at Olinia's depressed face through the inner rear view. Their eyes met each other, and they moved away. Haston peeked back immediately. He saw nothing on Olinia's face. He knew what it was like to lose loved ones. Although Aumon and Poe's deaths were totally their own fault, Haston still felt sorry. He looked back at the Book of Furnace on his lap. He flipped forward a few pages and flipped back a few more. Haston could not focus on this right now.

"Mr. Tale," Olinia suddenly called Haston by his surname. Her voice was soft and flat.

"Yes?" Haston moved his eyes away from the book and met Olinia's eyes again in the rearview mirror.

"You don't need to be sorry." Olinia's eyes left the mirror to look at the round.

"I'm not," Haston instinctively denied the girl's point. He did not really think about it. It was just his first reaction.

"You can't lie about your feelings to a Saliscreacist."

Haston did not answer. He did not know what to reply, so he glanced at Adea, who was still staring out the window.

"Feel sorry when anyone dies but Saliscreacists. We know we are going to a good place after death. We need no mourning."

Haston's natural skepticism appeared again. He thought about not asking. Then he asked, "If that's the case, why did you cry when Aumon said his last words."

"I did not cry because he was about to cease to exist. I cried because I would never see him again before entering paradise."

"You can always commit suicide."

"But my mission on this materialistic earth has not been done yet."

Eager to defeat Olinia in this conversation, Haston kept pushing from a different angle, "You know there is not any physical proof of your paradise, right?"

"I know it exists, and that's it."

"Things don't exist because you 'know' they do," Haston said with a slightly fast speed. He even used his hands to make quotation marks on the word "know."

"You won't understand."

"Of course you said it." Haston got his anger wholly drawn out, "All you pagans are the same," he forced down his scream from coming out of his throat, "Believing bullshits without evidence and forcing them on others." Haston sat up and lay back on the leather seat. All the memories of his parents were coming out of his seal.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Finally, turning away from the window, Adea stared at Haston with her eyebrows slightly lifted in softness. She faintly opened her lips but said nothing.

Eventually, Olinia asked, "What's your story? It would feel better if you weren't the only one carrying it."

"Why don't you tell us yours first?"

After a brief silence, the girl started, "I was a drug-addicted 13-year-old. No surprise that I ended up in juvenile jail. Then, I met a bunch of Saliscreacists. They cured my addiction and gave me a job in their community—"

Haston interrupted, "So, you weren't a spell caster then?"

"No, I wasn't. I only joined them after six months of deciding if I should. And another six months later, I was the top caster among them. Then, I met Aumon. At first, he was obsessed with math. He just stayed in his room, working on math all day. Then, we interacted. I could still remember that day." Olinia smiled unconsciously, "Long story short: we became close."

"Did you two…" Adea did not finish her question.

"No, I was a minor. Besides, Saliscreace's power is much better than sex." Olinia's eyes landed on the group photo, explicitly focusing on Poe.

Noticing it through the rearview mirror, Haston said, "I guess I know the rest, except…"

"Well, that's nothing new. Poe," Olinia paused for a second, "Was just a normal boy. Prodigy, adopted, nothing else."

Silence again filled the room. Haston turned back to his book, yet his mind was not on it. The old man and the boy's deaths hit him differently after hearing a tiny bit of their story. Haston saw a part of himself in the girl who just lost her founded family. He felt the guilt coming to his head. His rage clashed with his guilt. His eyes were wet.

"So, what's your story?"

"My parents were pagans," Haston said with a shaking voice. All the stress, wrath, and sadness were toppling his mind. He could not take anymore but to release.

"They were occultist pagans. They were quite famous when they were young," Haston wiped his tears away before they could drop on his book.

"They just went insane when they got old." Haston's voice shook and faded into a short whimper of sadness.

Adea put a hand on his shoulder as Haston kept going, "They didn't fucking want to die. They were addicted to life. They wanted some fucking symbols of themselves to live forever!" Haston's voice raised a little.

He threw his face to the window, avoiding anyone from seeing his visage, "And they decided to fucking forge my youngest sister and oldest brother into a monster. So, I called the police. Agents came… And they died…" Again, his voice faded. The end of his sentence was almost silent.

"No one wants to cease existing—" Olinia said and got stopped.

"Not at the expense of your own children!" Haston scolded her with nothing but rampaging wrath. He threw the Book of Furnace on the ground and continued, "Their discovery is recorded. Their action is written down on the news. The name Anthroplas is carved into human history, but they are still dead! No matter how many people remember them, they are still dead. They are dead! They still will be after humans die out!" Haston buried his face into his palms as he whimpered.

"Haston…" Adea said in a thin and light voice.

"Haston." Staker also put his hands atop Adea's. It caused a momentary surprise and blush on Adea's face. Haston also turned his head a bit to see Staker sidelong. No one knew when Staker finished his call with the military, but it did not matter.

"You are Haston Tale, not Haston Anthroplas. Your relationship with those crazy scientists has ended since the day they died."

Haston stacked his own hand on the two hands and nodded in tears. The muscles around his eyes were shivering. All his discomfort dimmed. It did feel better after speaking it out. Haston turned to Olinia, who secretly peeked at them through the rearview.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, and here we are."