Sergei’s PoV

  "There is nothing. Guys at the doors did not see anyone suspicious enter or leave. No one saw or heard anything suspicious. We found no traces of brake in. Frankly, it could have been one of ours.”

  They were sitting in Sergei's office. His castle, as he liked to call it to himself. This was his home and pride. He lightly rapped his fingers on the expensive wooden table he had inherited from his te father.

  Across from him sat Dirk and Saluman. His most trusted sons. He trusted them enough to let them see what was hidden in the basement. Both now had a downcast look on their faces.

  Sergei kept listening to Dirk's report, but none of what he said came as a surprise. Someone who could take a key without waking him up was a professional. It would be a miracle if there was anything out of the norm. He even found the key simply dropped on the ground in the basement.

  Dirk was a dependable man. One of many he had taken under his wing. Sergei did not doubt his effort to find the culprit who had entered his sanctuary. But he doubted his children would have any success no matter how hard they worked. Still, they had to try.

  It had been two hours already since Sergei woke up from the sudden signal. It was not the first time he had gotten a warning or a hint in his dreams, but it was the first time it had been so vivid, so urgent…

  There was one more thing that had been different. Sergei had not seen what he had to vary of or what danger was there. Only a shadow, but…. His gaze turned to the man sitting next to Dirk.

  Saluman had not said a word after greeting him. Tonight’s guard had been someone he had recommended and vouched for. The boy was probably bming himself, but how could he have known?

  “They both are taking this too hard. It was not their fault.” Sergei shook his head. “In a way, this was inevitable... How could we afford proper security measures? Too poor, too poor... We even had to take a contract from the Minsrel family.” Sergei frowned. It was a dark day when they were forced to invite Minsrel ckeys to this pce for negotiations.

  It could not be helped either. They had been forced into this situation in an attempt to avoid escating things any further.

  Those who stayed here had nothing else. Sergei was their soce. He had taken it upon himself to help these lost souls. They were a rough bunch. They got into trouble frequently even before he gathered them up and beat some sense into them.

  Ex-convicts, runaways and misfits. They were people who had made mistakes and needed a pce to call home.

  Expenses added up quickly, and Sergei often had to make tough decisions. He could not be picky when it came to sources of money. He would sacrifice anything to keep this pce afloat - even his pride.

  Sergei kept rapping on the table, deep in thought. Now, it was the only sound in the room. His sons were waiting for his decision. "Nothing much we can do." His thoughts grim, Sergei finally came to a decision.

  "Dirk, see what is new on the streets, see if some big shot has come to Oldsteel or there are new rumours about you know what. Have some of the men double-check if anything is missing. Saluman, you are responsible for checking nearby cameras. There are a few I know which could have picked the culprit. Be forceful if necessary when asking for the recordings. If you find anything, contact me immediately. Also, find out if any of the boys know something about locks… No, forget it. Find out who knows the most."

  “Yes, Father.” Both of them nodded and got ready to leave.

  Sergei sighed. Hearing the moniker he had gotten was always uncomfortable for him. He did not feel worthy of it, but his men, no his family, had insisted. And he did everything to help them and be worthy of their affection. But it was hard and tiring.

  With the most urgent matters done, Sergei zily scanned his room. He made sure that nothing was out of pce before making another decision.

  Standing up, he retrieved the key, which was once again hidden under his clothes. He would not get any sleep tonight, so he headed to the basement. Sergei knew he had to calm down. There was a surefire way to do so.

  Sergei had spent countless hours just sitting before The Divine Star – as he called it. ‘Divine’ as it was showing its compassion by blessing him. ‘Star’ because it was guiding his path forward in the dark far out of his reach. And to be fair, it also looked like a start to him.

  Sergei did not know what this object really was. It did not matter. He knew it had saved his life and led him to where he was now.

  How long had it been now since he started to follow The Divine Star? Many years now. And he would continue to do so until his time came to an end.

  Soon, Sergei stepped before ‘The Divine Star’ and sat on the ground, watching the blue liquid dripping down. He had a habit of coming here when his heart was turbulent. This light soothed and cleared his mind. He barely could remember how he had lived before he had found it. Back then, he had been but a boy who knew nothing of life.

  Sergei had found ‘The Divine Star’ by accident, really. Being young and rash, he had frequently argued with his parents, bless their souls.

  No day went by in peace. Sergei had thought that the world would bow before his ambitions. He had expected his father and mother to support his decisions. “How old was I back then? Fifteen? Sixteen?” He reminisced. “A young fool…”

  Back then, the world was different. The city was still recovering after the unrest that came after the government fell for the third time in five years. Turbulent times when who you knew was more important than what you knew.

  Some argued that it was still that way, but Sergei thought of them as ignorant. Nowadays, you can get a degree and make something out of yourself. If you had a talent, you could change the world.

  When he was young, he saw countless promising young men and women ground into dust by the machine that was society.

  No time or money for education. No chances to do what you want. All they could do was to struggle or die. And many did not make it. Yes, back then, just to survive another day was a blessing.

  Sergei’s parents had given him a chance to learn. He had a pte full of food and a warm pce to sleep. But that was not what he had wanted. He had watched his friends become part of local gangs that had taken over the broken city. They had the power he had thought. They were respected. They could live as they wanted while he had to go to sleep by ten and wake up with the morning sun before spending the whole day learning. He had resented it.

  And then he had done the stupidest thing in his life. He had run away from his, in retrospect, comfortable life. He had left his home to strike out on his own.

  A friend had introduced him to a man who was ‘guarding’ the street he was living on. The guarding was simple extortion, but he had felt it was only right that they got money to defend them from gangs.

  It had sted for a month.

  Only a month and all of his illusions of grandeur he could gain were lost. Sergei was just another henchman. His job was to beat up anyone who would not pay, and even at that, he was no good.

  Too soft-hearted, he had been told. They never injured workers or business owners. They had to work to bring in the money.

  That only left their families. But how could he hit a kid much younger than he was? How could he abuse a housewife crying for forgiveness? He could not, but others could. It was a despicable way to live.

  He wanted out, but he had no pce to return to. Back then, Sergei had been too proud to go back to his father and lick his boots.

  No, he gathered some of his friends who wanted more and hatched a pn. A simple heist, but they had thought it to be brilliant. A way to get ahead of their peers.

  The pn was truly simple. If the city would not give them a chance - they would find another.

  All they needed was money to start over. Their boss had an iron way of doing things. It allowed no mistakes but was predictable. They found out the route that one of the collectors took and ambushed him before he could empty his coffers. The pn worked fwlessly until the collector got killed.

  It was the first time Sergei had seen a person die before his eyes, and it was not the st. Danny, one of his supposed friends, had stabbed the man after he did not comply with their demands.

  Right through the ribs. A long and sharp dagger. Sergei still recalled how red the blood had looked at that time.

  But they had reached success. All they had to do was to get out. Unfortunately, they had not agreed on how exactly to proceed.

  Danny wanted to go to the capital, but Sergei could not trust him. No, not after what he had done. But they could not split now. The whole neighbourhood was after them, and they only had a single car they had stolen to get out with.

  Mark did not make it out of the city. They had gotten as far as the fringes of the pce when a shot came from a chasing car, catching Mark in the back. He bled out in Sergei’s arms. Before death, he apologised to his mother. It left four of them. Danny, Niko, Virm and him.

  In the end, they lost the pursuers on the windy mountain roads. The high-strung nerves made the silence that lingered between them tense. They were hungry, were lost, it had gotten dark, and one of their friends had died. They had not even given him a proper burial, leaving him to lie on the ground between two rge boulders.

  Back then, Sergei had been lucky. In the heat of the moment, he had demanded his share of the money. He had not wanted to go with the rest. And for that, he had gotten beaten and left behind.

  Only ter did he find out that the trio had not made it out of the mountains. They had gotten caught and lynched. Only Sergei had survived in the end.

  And after all that, Sergei could not go back. He could not return.

  Instead, he started to walk in the opposite direction -away from the failure that had been his life.

  He had not cried for many years, but he did then. The previous tie had been back when his mother had sung for him to calm him before sleep. But now he was alone.

  There was rarely anyone travelling these roads. No one saw Sergei stumbling and falling. For hours, he had wandered with no destination in sight.

  After he had run out of tears, Sergei screamed with anger and desperation. When his throat failed him, he kicked pebbles thrown about the road.

  Sergei had even found a pebble he hatted more than any other. He called it Danny. He kicked and kicked it until the pebble tried to run by ricocheting into the nearby ravine.

  Of course, he had chased it. Danny would not escape, but instead of finding Danny, he had found his future light.

  A blue shimmer, barely visible in the morning sunlight. It was feeble and soothing light that healed Sergei’s wounded heart. When he let the blue hue shine upon him, he felt like he could fight on. That everything would be all right, that he had a future.

  Sergei took the ‘Divine Star’ with him. It became his driving force. He could not return back home to his parents, but he could still write to them. With this goal in mind, his pace had gotten brisker.

  That was already forty-something years ago. Those events changed Sergei’s life and changed him.

  In a way, in the span of a couple days, his future was decided for him. Soon after, he found a job as a loader in a local Oldsteel factory. What he earned, he spent on education. His parents never visited him. Nor did he visit them. All of their communication happened through letters.

  Sergei’s parents had died when he was 28, first his mother, and a half a year ter his father. They left everything they owned to him. He sold everything but some of the more intimate belongings and bought an old warehouse. A pce where he pnned to make a shelter for those simir to him.

  Somehow, Sergei found himself as the head of a family. Family of rowdy and disobedient children, but they were his children. And as the head, he had his duty to protect them.

  All through his years, The Divine Star had accompanied him on his journey. And now, someone had stumbled upon his greatest secret.

  For what purpose had they come to this pce? Did they know? Will they reveal this information to others? How will this impact their home?

  Life was rough for the kind of men they were, and The Divine Star was what guided them through the perils. For the first time since he was a teen, he again felt a bloodlust bubbling in the back of his mind.

  Back then, it was against Danny, a clear target, but now it was against an unknown.

  “We have to find them. No matter what it takes... No one will endanger my family!” Sergei clenched his fists in anger. He felt helpless, but maybe there was a way for him to change it. He did not know what he needed or what to do, but in front of him was something that always had helped in the worst moments of his life.

  Sergei bowed his head. In front of The Divine Star, he felt insignificant. He had never asked for anything more than it gave. But today would be different. With his sincerity, he will reach for the divine and wait for its judgement, and if The Divine Star asked for his soul, he would gdly give it.

  It was small at first, but there was a change in the air. Sergei did not move and kept waiting. He had no doubts that his patience would be rewarded, and raising his head now would be an insult to the Divine Star.

  The connection he had forged over the years had brought an unexpected boon to Sergei. This small tether underwent growth. In his mind, he could feel the Divine Star more clearly. His bond with it grew heavier and more distinct.

  The Divine Star was rooted in pce now. No person could move it. Sergei had suspected it before, but now he knew it. It would not leave this pce until its goal is achieved, and he would become Its most useful believer. He would become Its arms and legs. It’s eyes and mouth.

  Sergei had made his sacrifice and received what he had asked for. “No, it is even more than I asked for…”

  Before opening his eyes, Sergei offered another prayer to his god. He thanked It for the guidance, hope and blessing. Then, he swiftly stood up and left the room. It was now time for him to be the one doing the guiding. There was much to do, and he would not let his God wait in vain.

  Enkiari