Inside one of the guest rooms on the second floor of a mansion, illuminated by the almost gray sunlight that marked the coming of another cold night, the window that allowed this little of light reach the room was rectangular in shape and had pretty simple details, well-cut wood held together the glass in a design of four equally sized squares, the door to enter the room also had the four square design, but the inside of each square was simply a depression on the wood of the door and the squares only occupied the upper-half of it.

Perfect symmetry screamed all over the room, even more so for the red couches in the middle of the room, the identical pair of sofas were facing each other while separated by a small, rectangular table that had a silver candlestick - providing most of the light inside the guest room at the end of the afternoon - and two pairs of silver plates on top of it, one pair of plates for each side of the table with a couch in it.

Eyes traveling all across the visible room, he would always fail at seeing something out of form or place; he would question himself about the tastes of the long-dead founder of this mansion, did that person see any charm in this labyrinth or did he just made this house with price and practicality in mind? The latter would be in accord with merchants views of things.

But alas, this useless line of thought could not take his tired mind away from the task at hand. Sitting on one of the red couches, he looked to his side to see his father, Trevor; his face revealed that he was deep in thought about the situation, perhaps his father was even more solemn than he was when this all started. It's a pity that different from his father, he was now full of anxiety; worry being the least of things that pressured him, no, the inquietude that he felt was brought by - above anything else that he felt these few last years - guilt.

While Andrew expertly managed to fake a calm and pensive look, his father appeared to have it on his face by instinct, not much different than breathing, but it was more close to how one can smile when seeing something nice.

He and his father were facing two men whose solemn expressions seemed to paint the will of a warrior from the ancient tales. As if they - who were making the most important decision of their lives - were trying to implant their patriotic thoughts inside of both his and Trevor's minds. After a few seconds, Andrew withdrew his thoughtful face and showed one that was as solemn as the people facing him and spoke.

"Although with the way things are going it's just a matter of time until we succeed, it's better to finish this as fast as we can, so to avoid unexpected complications in the future. But to do this, we'll have even more blood spilled, also, we should find any support we can get."

"But where we can find more help? At this point, everyone has already picked their side and will not change no matter what happens." Said one of the men, clearly worried as much as they were serious about this discussion.

"The help I'm talking about does not come from people, we need weapons to fight against that traitor of a king. And to get them we need to steal them from him, for that end, I suggest we siege Lugubre."

"Are you saying that we should finally act?" The other man hid only enough of his excitement to not appear disrespectful when Andrew answered by nodding.

Trevor took the situation of the common people in mind, after making a crude plan on that same instant, he voiced his opinion. "But our people may not be ready to fight until the end yet, we should make sure that what we're doing is worth them risking their lives for. It should be better to change the objective of our speeches and wait for two or three more months before moving forward with this plan, this way we'll also have time to find whatever we need to siege that excuse of a jail."

Everyone in the room replied with an "Agreed" and kept going with their discussion about the matter for another hour or so before the two men said their goodbyes and exited the mansion, leaving Andrew and his father alone at the entrance of their home.

The mansion was three stories high, each window was identical to one another and were divided by equal length of wall between them, a small length of stairs led to the entrance of said mansion, the single door that had basically the same design as seen in the guest room before had a small roof for itself, protecting it from the rain that would come in a few hours, probably at the dead of the night. The steeply sloping roof had several windows peeking through it that were also present at the sides of the mansion, this was a mansard roof.

While looking at this beautiful home, - which he had other opinions about - which his grandfather had conquered through the blood and tears from both the deceased merchant himself and some other unlucky people, Andrew could only sigh and look back to his father, who was still watching the backs of those men that had just left the manor.

He knew from the start what the real intentions of that person who'd agreed to help with this seemingly suicidal quest were, the blood of a merchant - as he decides to call it - searches for power and nothing more; money being the easiest way to it, while the lives of people were nothing more than property adorned with a metaphorical pricetag.

Andrew didn't hate Trevor, though. He didn't like his ways and would stop them if he ever thinks that they would harm more than help, but he - who took part on this bloodshed only because he thought that it was for the greater good - now realized that, unlike his father, he didn't have a path to follow, he was lost without any means to find himself; he decided - at least he did - that the only person that had the right to stop him was someone that had chosen a path that crossed with his, only this kind of clash had the right to not be called hypocrisy. A pity that it rarely happened.

"Is there something worrying you, Father?" He decided to ask, finally.

"No, it's just... am I the only one?... Ah, it's nothing." He mumbles a little to himself before answering. Then proceeded to inform Andrew instead of heading back to the manor.

"I will need to see a few friends, you can go back inside and see Julie and little Anna. Be well, son.

"I see... Goodbye, Father." Andrew enters the mansion after saying this, closing the door after seeing Trevor heading to a carriage of the family.

After closing the door and turning to look at the central stair of the entrance hall, he lifts his arm to his eye level and clenches his fist. His arm shaking uncontrollably because of the strength he used, he wanted to punch something, preferably his own face.

The guilt of playing with the lives of hundreds of thousands of people struck at his heart, tearing at his sanity from somewhere he couldn't reach. He felt his teeth, clenching and grinding at each other; the rest of his face was showing unreserved frustration and masking an anger that had nowhere to go, twisting and deforming him in such a painful way that if his heart decided to just give into the cold and stillness, he would not be impressed.

His moment of self-suffering, however, was stopped when his eyes that were focused on looking at his arm suddenly faced upwards after seeing some movement at the corner of their vision. The strange thing was, the candelabrum that illuminated the entire hall was totally out of his view, so how could he possibly notice something he didn't even see?

His answer came just as his eyes stared at the bewitching flames arising from the dozens of candles that lay hanging across the sparkling chain of glass that looked just like the shiniest of diamonds, making the entire thing look like one single piece of large jewel when all the candles were lit. Facing the candelabrum, Andrew noticed a silhouette sitting on it, but the candelabrum should not be able to simply ignore the weight of a person. No, for starters, how could someone even climb up there by himself?

He realized the answer to this after feeling sweat going down from his back and forehead even though he was not that scared by the strange sight. He was going crazy again, wasn't he?

Although something inside of him screamed at his mind to just run away from there, Andrew didn't move a single step. He gazed at that shadow that gained a new image by the second, at times it was an old man in ragged clothing, looking at him with a pleading face, his unnourished body told Andrew everything that man wanted; sometimes it was a young man, that had barely reached 20, confusion was the only thing present on his face when he faced Andrew with a hand grasping tightly at the bullet hole in his chest; and finally, possibly being the worst scene of all, was the woman, tightly holding a blanket enveloping what was most obviously a baby, she glared at Andrew, as if blaming him for everything that was happening.

Although all of this was happening on the ceiling way high up, for Andrew, it felt like everything was happening in front of him. The walls - once a strangely beautiful and perfect imitation of one another - seemed to have turned into monsters that were hungry for his soul and approached ever so threateningly, the claustrophobic feeling struck at his lungs without his knowledge, he had only realized it after his breath had become so heavy that he had almost fainted, his body felt heavy and his legs started shaking somewhat while he held his back against the door behind him.

A headache assaulted him and the guilt gripping at his heart from before became stronger as a desperate need to scream at the top of his lungs suddenly made its presence known, he held his mouth shut with gritted teeth, his right hand gripping tightly at his chest while his eyes were closed.

He had to see his wife, but he could not show himself in front of her like this. He was not a madman, at least not with her here. He was on the right way, he was not wrong, she told him so, after all. He could not give up, not when she needed him here.

As thoughts of her arrive inside his mind, Andrew manages to contain his crazed and melancholic mood, wondering if he could avoid having these spikes of anger and madness by always having some company. He instantly reached the conclusion that stuffing this unease inside of himself and never letting it out would just make him crazier.

After breathing in and out in an attempt to calm, Andrew straightens his posture, lowers his arm that had blue veins bulging out of it already and heads upstairs, first to clean himself of the sweat sticking to his clothes, then to the third floor, where his wife was taking care of his daughter. Perhaps they could reassure him that he was not doing the wrong thing.

As she was trying to teach Anna to speak without curling her tongue, Julie took this precious time to commit her size to memory. Avoid making the same mistake of thinking that her baby would forever stay small, so small that one arm would be enough to hold her whole body.

'It's such a wonder how little time passes before your child grows to be taller than you.' She thinks while marveling at her daughter that would soon reach her waist. She lets out a small laugh after hearing Anne say "Sank yu".

"Try again, precious. Thaank yooou." Julie says, making a clear and slow motion with her lips so that Anne could imitate her movements and speak properly. She makes a bright smile after remembering that the only words Anne could say without a curl of the tongue were 'Mommy' and 'Daddy', she realizes that Anne is starting to get bored and decides to stop with this two-hour lesson filled to the brim with breaks in between.

"Okay then little one, now let's take another break again and wait for your father to come from work." Anne puts both of her arms up and screams a silent "Yay" in order to not bother her father, that was taking care of his work with some friends of his.

Julie almost lets out an "Awww" after seeing that her cute daughter was already this smart. Instead, she manages to smile and turns to the door to exit the room, before saying to her daughter to wait for her, however, she sees her husband opening the door and calmly heading inside. After he closes the door tilts her head a bit and letting out a small breath, revealing a smile full of love, her charming eyes focused on the man in front of her, as if hypnotized, she says.

"Hello, dear."