Heat and pain, that's what I feel as I walk, the rotten smell of hydrogen sulfide gas attacks my nose, my eyes were covered by a dark cloud of dense smoke, my lungs aching with every breath and every step I take forward, my feet burning, the skin blending with the rubber of my shoes and the fabric of my sock due to the temperature from where I walk, turning what was supposed to protect my feet into another means of hurting me, leaning on me was a small body, an unconscious boy who was two years younger than me, my beloved brother, Seth.

"It hurts, it hurts a lot, but I am the older sister, I must put up with it," I thought. I didn't try to speak, I couldn't cover my mouth because my hands held my brother, I didn't try to wake the boy either, any movement caused pain due to the smoke in my lungs, all I could do was move on, we were already close to the exit, the exit of our house on fire, our dear abode, turned into hell by the acts of a single person, we could only hope for help when we reached the front door.

The sound of the embers around me drove my ears crazy, the wood burning and becoming fuel for the fires of hell. "One more step, and then one more, almost there", I thought. I was already near the exit, but the pain, the pain was too much, I lost the strength in my legs and fell to the ground, my dear brother feel lying next to me, the smoke filled my lungs, I was blacking out, I tried to reach my brother with my right hand as my eyes closed, my last sight being the flesh of my fingertips wrapped in ashes, and so, I collapsed.

The sound of the wind hit the glass of my bedroom window and the chirping of birds invaded my ears, the dark interior of the bedroom ceiling was now visible to my gaze, next to that, my right arm extended to the ceiling, burn marks spread over my arm, the skin of my fingers slightly dark, but intact.

I paused to breathe for three seconds, calming my mind while sat on my bed as I pushed aside the light sheet, my crimson hair falling back as I raised my left hand to my neck, grabbing from inside my robes an icy piece of metal, a golden cross which I brought to my forehead using my left hand.

"One more day, I pray to thee for protection and guidance"—I then let the cross fall from my hand and turned to the right, my feet being uncovered from the sheet and touching the ground, dark stains marking the soles of my feet, the result of the night I remembered.

I moved my right hand to a small dresser next to the bed and grabbed an orange glass located next to a white-bound book, stared at the glass and read aloud its label.

"Baku extract, another failure" - I threw the glass into a trash can next to the bed and stood up, moved my right hand to my face, removing the bangs from the front of my eye and then moved to the bedroom bathroom, grabbing a black jacket lying on the floor halfway.

After entering the bathroom, I threw the jacket on top of the toilet and turned to the mirror, moved my right hand to it and opened it, revealing some of the stored medicines, it took me a few moments to find what I was looking for, an eye drop flask, I took it and closed the mirror.

Staring at the mirror I moved my left hand to my face and removed my hair from the front, allowing me to see my own face, my right eye was normal as always, my pupil was in its natural brown, my left eye was gray though, a sigh escaped my lips.

Using the mirror as guide, I raised my head and positioned the bottle of eye drops above my left eye, squeezing the bottle I released a drop that fell to my eye, I blinked for a few seconds and released a second, I closed my left eye and lowered my head, I opened the mirror and put the bottle away, after that I removed several bottles from inside the mirror, sleeping pills that failed, I threw them all in the trash, then closed the mirror.

"Waste of money" - I mumbled as I grabbed the jacket and put it over my shirt, the short sleeve allowing me to see my skin, i looked down and grabbed the edge of the garment, a yellow stain on the shirt, mentally cursed myself for not changing before going to sleep, closed the jacket to cover the shirt and left the bathroom.

I walked to an armchair next to the bedroom window with a suitcase on top of it, i put it on the floor and sat down. I moved my right hand to the window and opened it. Along with that, I opened my left eye, the effect of the eye drops was already in effect, the sunlight hit my face as I looked outside the room, in front of where I was staying, a small sidewalk existed and, just ahead, a river ran through a channel between two sides, a canoe crossing the water, two people sitting in the canoe while a third was guiding.

Venice, the city of waters, a beautiful city, unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it, we were there for work, I opened the suitcase and took a pair of blue jeans, put them on quickly and got up, going immediately to the exit of the room.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw two small clay humanoid beings in front of the door, holding a tray together.

"Seth already made the breakfast, apparently?" - I asked the two small golems, who confirmed with their heads, I took the tray and headed to the living room, the place where we stayed was a small two-story house, this on the outside, on the inside was much larger, all the rooms of the house were on the second floor, the first was just to come and go, when i arrived in the room i saw a man way taller than me sitting in a chair in front of the table, his hair was brown and his skin was light, in front of him was a brown plate with two pieces of bread, an omelette and a piece of sausage, I feared for a moment what was in my covered tray, Still, I forced a smile and sat down in the chair in front, placing the tray on the table.

"You didn't need to make your golems bring me food, I was already leaving the room, Seth" - that's what I told him, but I was grateful inside.

"Sometimes you take a long time in the room, I just wanted to be considerate of my sister, by the way, did you change before going to sleep?" - He stared at me when he asked, taking the focus off the plate.

"Why the question?" - I failed to try to disguise it, I took off the lid covering the plate, my fears proved real, two omelettes and a whole sausage, he always puts more food on my plate, idiot.

"Because you stink, you didn't even take a shower yesterday, did you? The extract must have worked" - he smiled as he spoke, always attentive this brother of mine.

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"A complete failure, same dream" - I ignored the comment about my smell, it's not like we were going to receive someone today, I calmly cut the food with the knife and brought a piece to my mouth.

"Allow me to guess," Seth said as he brought a loaf of bread to his mouth. "You forgot what day it is" - I stared at him, thinking for a few moments, it wasn't his birthday, mine or any relative's, we were in February.

"Wait, February..." - I thought as I moved my head to a nearby wall where it had a calendar. It was the thirteenth, nothing came to mind, I chewed the food again, a small golem finally brought a pot of butter and put it on the table.

"Sister, the seventh comes today, Saul is the name" - Seth said this while buttering one of the loaves, which I gently took from his hand.

"Oh yes, our next student, haven't they learned not to put a young man under the tutelage of a Baptizer and an Exorcist?" - I bit the bread when I finished speaking - "How do you always make such soft bread?"

"Just because the last four died, it doesn't change that the other two are doing well, one of them even passed us and became a Knight, and bread is a secret" - Seth was really a pit of patience. Instead of scolding me for taking the bread, he just buttered the other one.

"That young man only passed us because they still haven't approved my promotion, and you should spend less time in the kitchen and more time studying, you've already missed the promotion exam once" - When I finished speaking, I moved another piece of food to my mouth.

"Speaking of them" - I moved my attention to Seth again, calmly chewing the food until I saw him placing a stack of letters on the table, throwing the one from the top to the side of my plate, a red seal with the mark of a cross holding the envelope closed.

I put down the cutlery, picked up the letter and opened it slowly. A red stamp represented an urgent work, what wonderful timing, the first class of the seventh will be an urgent task. I read the letter calmly while Seth ate.

"Very well" - I broke the silence after a few minutes - "Two bodies found floating in the small port of the old Fort of Malamocco, two men, one found without eyes and the other without part of the thigh muscle."

"Sun, Moon and Saturn are the stellar bodies corresponding to the taken parts of the body" - Seth spoke and then clapped his hands. Two golems came to the table, one of them came to my side and handed me my boots and a distinctive, the same happened to Seth.

"I'll go straight there, you'll pick up the boy and we'll meet at the scene to investigate, I'll inform..." - the name of the chief of police escaped my mind, I got up from my chair to go look for my notepad in the office.

"Alessandro Bonanno, you should pay more attention to people's names, you won't be able to use your notes in a conversation on the street" - Seth stared at me as he got up from his chair and took a cell phone from his pocket.

"Not everyone remembers names so well, Seth, I even think it's strange that you do" - a bad answer, I sat back in the chair and put on my boots.

"I must remember, after all, you only remember the things at work and completely forget the rest, remember when you let that pasta burn?" - Seth went to his own room to get ready, I didn't answer, the package said five minutes, but I forgot to pay attention to the clock, and the pasta.

I returned to my room, leaving the food on the table for the little golems to clean up. In the bedroom, the first thing I did was close the bedroom window and lock it, after that, I started looking for my gloves.

I looked in the bathroom, in the closet, under the bed, I didn't find anything, I took the suitcase and threw all the clothes out, it wasn't there either, I looked at the bed, put the clothes back in the suitcase so Seth wouldn't scold me and walked to the small dresser next to the bed, I looked at the white-covered book.

"Seth complains, but if I don't read the laws from where we go, I am a dead weight" - I said to myself in thought, I took the white book, a copy of the laws of Italy, under the book i found my gloves, I took the gloves and put the book back away, then put on the fingerless gloves, I faced my hands, looking at the burn marks on my fingertips, a feeling of envy directed at Seth invaded my mind for a few moments.

Unlike me, Seth didn't suffer many burns that night, the few he suffered were repairable, I slapped my face twice to drive away those thoughts and headed back to the open door of the room to leave.

After leaving the room, I immediately went to the office, there were two small tables in the center of the place, one for me and one for Seth, one facing the other, we used this to delimit the side of each one in the room, Seth had the table closest to the door and consequently the entrance side.

"Messy" - I thought, it was a terrible idea for me to accept this, the small office was a mess on his side and it get in the way when entering, large pieces of clay and tools lying on the floor so he could make golems, he also drew on the floor a large image, ten spheres interconnected in a large tree, a Sefirot, a golem head was in the sphere at the top, I think the name was Kether.

In comparison, my side of the office was well organized, there were some bookshelves on the wall with few books, all being books containing the laws of several countries, Italy, France, England, Egypt, Russia, among many others, I raised my face with a little pride that it was not a mess.

I moved to my desk and sat down in the chair. The table had only a few objects on top of it, the opposite of Seth's that was full of tools. Mine had only a small black book that was a copy of the Bible, a pencil, a pen and a telephone. I moved my hand to one of the drawers of the table and opened it, taking a small silver object from inside, and rested it on the table while holding it, a lighter.

"Face your demons for your spirit to be strengthened" - these words returned to my mind, I pressed the trigger of the lighter once, twice, three times until the fire lit, I raised the object to the level of my eyes and stared at the fire.

My eyes focused on the flame of the lighter, a flame smaller than my finger came out of the object, still, it was something dangerous, a small flame is capable of generating the biggest of fires, the heat of the lighter spread through my marked fingers, my mind returned to the dream.

I was once again standing in the midst of the fire on the second floor of the house, but this time it was the me of now, not the me of before. The flames in the house burned and spread, I moved my left hand to my throat, it was as if I could feel the smoke of that day, as if I was still there, I started to walk.

I walked through the burning house, reviewing in my memory where we lived, I passed by my room, the door was already destroyed, I looked inside and saw my bed reduced to ashes, children's books burning and turning to dust, I continued walking until I reached the stairs.

The stairs had already fallen, I looked from above at two children fleeing the fire, it was me, the me from before, of only twelve years old, carrying my brother Seth, he had turned ten last week, we celebrated in a dinner he loved with our mother and stepfather.

I saw the twelve-year-old me fall to the ground next to Seth, her hand reaching out to him, I did the same without noticing and then I heard - "Cassiel! Seth!" - a man ran into the flames, my stepfather, his hair was blond and he had a small beard, he wore a protective vest, similar to that of firefighters. He picked us up both and took us outside.

"Cassiel! Cassel!" - Why did I still hear my name being called? Wait, where was I again?

My mind returned from its wandering, the lighter was no longer in my hand, Seth picked it up and put it off on the table, he was shaking my right shoulder while repeating my name.

My first impulse was to hug my brother, my hands wrapped around his big back, almost not being able to go around him, I closed my eyes and smiled.

"I'm sorry, I've failed again" – what followed was a slap in my face.