Nico was lying down with Leo in a secluded area of the large gardens of the Pilastro di Archivum. The sun was high in the clear sky. In the center of the garden, a large fountain was gushing, and the light breeze carried fine spray toward them.

  “Thank goodness for the game,” Leo was saying as Nico's eyelids slowly closed. " I asked my mother to go on vacation anyway: me, my father, and the others. The sea during the day and the connection in the evening. But nothing. ‘Your brother is about to have a baby,’“ he said, imitating his mother's voice.

  ”‘You have to be there for the family. 'The family is everything. ’ Deadly boring."

  Nico nodded, letting himself go, tired from the night before.

  “She screamed so much that I got a terrible headache. I barely had the strength to connect and fell asleep right away. I mean, as soon as I logged in. I was already in bed,” Leo concluded with a chuckle.

  “Hey, Leo, did this mess tell you what happened yesterday?” Peter's ringing voice made Nico jump.

  Leo sat up and looked first at him, then at Peter, who had arrived from the Pillar, then back at him, frowning.

  “Yeah,” Peter said, laughing. “That misfit was there too,” Peter concluded, pointing to Gareth, not far away.

  Nico, his heart pounding and dizzy from being torn from the torpor that precedes sleep, sat up and squinted against the sun, looking for Gareth. He had managed to get hold of a training sword and was stubbornly repeating a sequence of movements.

  Nico recognized some of them: some came naturally just by watching them, others seemed foreign to him, as if he were seeing them for the first time.

  He clenched his teeth, thinking that he probably already knew how to do many of those positions but had forgotten them, devoured by the corruption of Erebos.

  Gareth did not turn toward them, continuing instead with his forms, but the way he clenched his jaw betrayed that he had heard everything.

  Leo turned abruptly toward Nico.

  “What did you do yesterday? Holy salami, I get a migraine one night and you decide to go wild?”

  Nico shook his head, half-smiling. “It's not that we didn't think to call you... I mean... it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

  Peter interrupted him. He grabbed Leo by the shoulders and began shaking him while Leo stared at him wide-eyed.

  “Do you realize we've entered the Waiting Room? I mean, I've wanted to go in there for ages.” Peter sighed contentedly, then continued, “There was everything in there. Animals that talked like people, people that behaved like animals. One guy had a hat with a fish floating inside it. Total madness.”

  Leo recoiled.

  “What are you talking about? And what's so strange about that? You turn into an animal whenever you want and talk like a human.”

  Peter laughed again.

  “That's right, my friend, but what about a man walking upside down on the ceiling or a giant sword trying to stab its rider? There was even a pointed hat shouting advice to anyone who passed by.” Peter sighed again, his eyes bright and his gaze languid: “Spectacular. You had to be there.”

  Leo looked back at Nico, frowning.

  “Where the heck did you go?”

  Nico shrugged: “It was Peter's idea. I didn't even know where we were going.” He paused, then smiled: “But I have to admit, it was fun.”

  “Funny?” Peter continued, slapping Nico on the shoulder, his eyes shining feverishly with excitement. “This guy here won a drinking contest. In the Waiting Room. Can you believe it?”

  Gareth stopped and lowered his training sword, taking a few steps closer. “Yeah,” he said, staring at Nico, “I really wanted to ask you... how did you drink that stuff? It was burnt oil.”

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  Nico nodded, remembering the liquid in the mug, the strong, pungent smell that had slid down his throat. He shrugged. “I think it depends on the place. At first it tasted horrible, then suddenly it was just beer.”

  Gareth grunted, staring at him with narrowed eyes.

  “But what does it matter how he did it?” Peter interjected. “He was competing against a bathtub with brass feet! A bathtub!”

  Leo blurted out, raising his voice.

  “Can you explain what you're talking about? For heaven's sake, I want to understand! Did it really happen, or are you just messing with me?”

  Nico shook his head with a half-smile on his face. “Yes, it really happened, but you didn't miss much,” Nico lied. “We just... wasted some time.”

  At that moment, he saw Kiah arrive with one of her followers. Her chocolate-colored curls fell over her shoulders, moved by the breeze. She was smiling.

  Nico took the opportunity to change the subject: “So? Did you do it?”

  Her eyes sparkled, then she jumped up and down a little. “Yes! I can access the Pillar library, everything that's been archived since the game began!” She spoke without waiting, the words bursting out of her like a burst of gunfire, without her having to take a breath. “I could find information about Erebos, or even the programmers. Do you realize how important that is?”

  Leo waved his hand in the air. “Yes, yes, okay. But there are more pressing issues here. These three went off to have fun behind our backs.”

  Kiah frowned and a faint smile touched her lips, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

  " What are you talking about?“ she asked, her gaze becoming tense, her lips tightening. ”Nico, you should rest. You know what's happening today, right?"

  Kiah asked apprehensively.

  Nico's smile faded slightly as a tightening in his stomach took his breath away. The Archivist's face and the words ‘integrity check’ came back to him.

  He nodded sadly. “I think they'll be coming for me soon.”

  Kiah gave him a more serious look. “If you need anything, just ask.” Then her smile returned. “You'll find me in the library.”

  She waved goodbye and headed toward the building with one of the Archivist's followers.

  Nico rolled his eyes, thinking back to the Archivist. When he looked down at the gardens, he saw Nadia not far away, talking to someone who looked like a less faded copy of the Archivist.

  “I swear,” Peter was saying to Leo, sitting cross-legged on the grass, "there was a guy with three noses. Three. And he was sniffing the food of a skinny lady who was carrying it around."

  Leo stared at him, eyebrows raised, mouth twisted into a curious smile.

  "She would hold out a piece on a fork, he would sniff it, nod... and she, very seriously, would throw it on the ground. Maybe she thought it was poisoned. I don't know. But it was hilarious."

  Peter laughed.

  Nico listened half-heartedly, looking away.

  Nadia stood in front of one of the followers, speaking in a low voice, her hands moving quickly. The follower, arms crossed, watched her without interrupting. Then he shook his head and turned to leave, turning his back on her.

  Peter burst out laughing. “And then a woman came in with a cage, and do you know what was inside?!”

  Nico didn't hear the rest.

  Nadia grabbed the follower by the arm, leaned down a little, and whispered something in his ear. The follower stiffened.

  “...and the stool challenged the bathtub to some kind of duel, where the bathtub had to beat Nico in a fight or something!” Peter was saying triumphantly.

  Leo ran a hand over his face. “No. You're making that up.”

  Further away, Gareth had lowered his sword. He was no longer training. He was looking in the same direction as Nico: Nadia.

  Nico's mind returned to the previous evening: to Gareth's despair and Nadia's stubbornness.

  The way Nadia moved, her gaze focused on the follower, sent a shiver down his spine, even though he didn't really know why.

  Nadia continued to speak, close to her interlocutor's ear. The follower looked over his shoulder, then pointed to the central structure of the Pillar.

  Nadia let go of the follower's arm, nodding, then together they walked towards the structure.

  Gareth followed her with his eyes, then slowly, his gaze met Nico's.

  For a moment, they stood still, staring at each other, then Gareth returned to his usual self.

  “Anyway,” Peter was saying, “the best thing was when...”

  “Subject N_01.”

  The dry, toneless voice cut through the air.

  An adept stood on the gravel path, her hands clasped in front of her, looking at him.

  “The Archivist is waiting for you,” added the flat voice.

  A painful spasm contracted his stomach, he swallowed, his jaw stiff.

  Leo turned to him, his eyes as big as saucers. “Oh.” He looked back at the adept. “Is it time already?”

  Nico inhaled slowly through his nose, then pushed himself up with his palms. With a slow movement, he looked at his hands: there were blades of grass stuck to his sweaty palms. He wiped his hands on his pants with two sharp strokes on his thighs.

  Peter nodded to him. Gareth barely lifted his chin.

  Leo ran a hand down the back of his neck. “See you later, okay?”

  Nico nodded.

  The adept turned and walked toward the central building.

  Nico followed her.