The tears clouded his vision while he observed the person he loved most move away forever.
Only a few days later, the body of Vanessa appeared lifeless, abandoned like waste against the cracked wall of a nameless house. No trace of her remained in that mass of flesh: only a broken form, stripped of identity, converted into object.
The eyes, open, did not look; they were two dry holes, empty of soul, as if the world had torn away everything that once shined in them. The body, mutilated with a cruelty that defied language, no longer belonged to anyone.
Not to her. Not to those who loved her.
That day impotence paralyzed him. He felt that the world burned in front of him, and he could only observe it from a wheelchair.
The pain in his chest became unbearable.
Everything was too real. Too cruel.
Vanessa was not well in health.
For Percy, getting rid of her resulted more convenient than investing in her recovery.
Repairing the body of a sick slave made no sense. It was like getting rid of a broken toy.
If she no longer served, she did not deserve attention.
Atom remained trapped in the memory. He did not hear the wind. He did not feel the ground. He did not see Mavis or the creatures that still turned over him.
Only the past existed. Only the destroyed body of his mother existed. Only Aurore crying in his arms existed.
"No... I refuse!"
The voice of Atom came out raspy, broken by pain and indignation. By then, the pain in his back intensified.
The present reclaimed him without delicacy.
The air returned to enter his lungs with violence, as if he had been holding his breath for minutes.
"What? I am selling it to you at an extremely cheap price. It is a special price! Your life cannot even compare to the value of this gem!"
The voice of Mavis became icy.
She showed no surprise. She showed no disappointment. It seemed that she had been waiting in silence.
The sky, covered by the silhouettes of the alaplagas, seemed to hold its breath. The creatures did not descend. They waited for Mavis to leave. They waited for Atom to remain alone.
"If you want to stay there and die, then go ahead! But when you do, your bones will disappear in the earth!"
Mavis turned around.
She seemed to be at a point of leaving, and the moment she did, Atom would be devoured alive, without witnesses, without story.
Atom closed his eyes with force. He pressed his lips. His chest contracted. He was between the sword and the wall. The question that pierced him had no easy answer.
Was there really no other alternative?
Did he have to sell himself to this woman to survive one more day?
Did he have to throw into the trash everything he had fought for years just to achieve his freedom?
"I ask you again!" said Mavis, turning with an expression that showed no compassion. "Why do you not pay for this gem? You are the only one who has the power to choose! Is it because... you were a slave?"
The word struck him with more force than any shot. Mavis knew it. She had known it from the beginning.
Anyone would have noticed just by looking at his clothes, just by observing his posture. And even so, she had led him to that point.
She had not chained him.
She had not forced him.
She had not marked him as property.
She had pushed him to choose.
That was the most terrifying thing.
The freedom that Atom had defended with tooth and nail was not being snatched away. It was being offered as currency of exchange.
Mavis did not want to enslave him.
She wanted him to enslave himself.
She wanted him to sign his own condemnation.
She wanted him to say "yes" of his own will.
In the end, the decision would be his. And both options were equally unpleasant.
He knew he had no other alternative.
Atom clenched his hands.
He did not do it out of fear. He did not do it out of pain. But out of a burning rage that impelled him to rise, to escape from that place and rescue his younger sister, Aurore, from the claws of the Holy Church.
He knew that the mission was suicidal. He recognized that truth with bitterness. His body, weakened by hunger and exhaustion, barely supported its own weight.
The Holy Church rose over him like Mount Olympus on Mars, a colossal structure, twice larger than Everest, that dominated the horizon with its imposing presence.
No, not even that comparison captured its magnitude. Before the Holy Church, Atom was no more than a firefly before the gigantic sun, an insignificant spark before an immense power.
A single Inquisitor had made him tremble with terror to desperation. The Holy Church counted with hundreds of thousands of them, an army that inspired panic, a force that crushed its enemies without mercy.
Atom did not want to continue bowing his head. He did not want to embrace his knees. He was decided.
He would face the world if that meant recovering Aurore. He preferred to die before feeling that impotence again.
Not out of weakness. Not out of ignorance. But out of necessity.
He nodded with his head. He said nothing. The tears descended down his face without resistance. He did not try to hide them. He did not try to stop them. He no longer had energy to feign strength.
"Deal completed."
Mavis approached. She extended her right arm in front of him. She offered no comfort. She offered no hope. Only fulfillment.
Atom knew what he had to do.
He raised his hand slowly. He extended it toward that scarlet gem for which he had sold his freedom. The moment he held it, a blinding light flooded his vision.
It was brighter and purer than any sun he had ever contemplated.
And the world dissolved in white light.