I sat in a coach, along with Diego and Bernardo, which rode up to what Diego called his hacienda. We rode through what looked like a desert, with few bushes, and even less animals. Most people would have enjoyed the landscape, and tried to describe inside their heads just how beautiful everything looked. But I had other things to think about. And even though I tried to enjoy the view, our couch wasn't the only thing that was riding through this desert. With us were two men in blue suits, following Garcia's orders to guard us. To guard me. This kept me thinking about my three friends. Where were Saya and Merlin? What happened to them? What happened to Kyrano? And what about Murphy? Didn't he see or hear anything? Why hadn't I heard back from him?
"You are worried about your friends, aren't you?" Diego asked me.
As an answer, I sighed.
"I am sure they are all right." he said, "You need not worry at all."
Easy for him to say.
"If they were my friends, I wouldn't worry at all." he further said.
I shifted my head in his direction, brows raised. How could he say such a thing?
"Saya looks like a woman who can take care of herself, and Merlin is wise enough to handle any sort of situation." he explained, "So I would know they will be all right, no matter what the situation."
Why he would say what he did about Saya, I kind of understood, but why did he talk that way about Merlin? He almost sounded like he knew him. Come to think of it, didn't something like this happen before?

We arrived at the hacienda before I could think more about what Diego told me. As he and I got out of the coach, a man with long hair and white rags approached us. Diego told him to take care of the coach, then signaled Bernardo to go get something to drink. As Bernardo got inside, Diego turned to the two guards.
"Do you two know what you're supposed to do?"
"Of course we do." one of them replied, "We're supposed to guard you, in case something happens."
"The Sergeant was surprisingly specific in his orders." the other replied.
"Maybe he's just getting wiser." Diego explained.
Both men laughed.
"I'll tell him this is your reaction." Diego added, to which the two men abruptly stopped laughing.
Diego laughed himself, as he opened the door for me to enter.

We didn't enter the house yet. When I walked through the door, we were on a courtyard, where I saw not only a small table with two chairs, but there was also a flight of stairs, leading to an upper floor. So if somebody wanted to go to an upstairs room, they had to go up? What if it were raining when that happened? Who designed this house, I could hear myself wonder.
"This way to the living room." Diego pointed to me, and I followed his direction.
I walked toward another door, through which I entered. Inside, there was a large room. It had one long table, with several chairs, a number of cupboards, showing off a few artworks. The way this man spends his money, it surprised me to hear he's still rich. As soon as I noticed Bernardo, standing at the table, he waved at me. When he lowered his hands again, only then did I see the tray with a wine bottle and two glasses.
"Drink?" he asked, "It should calm your nerves."
I looked at him again, frowning.
"We're not at the tavern." Diego assured me, "This house has different rules."
I shrugged, and sat myself where the bottle was.
"It's getting dark already?" Diego said, "I'd better get ready for bed."
I saw him motioning toward Bernardo to follow him. Does he need him to get ready for bed? Either he was that lazy, or there was something else going on. In either case, they both went out the door. Through the window, I saw them heading toward that flight of stairs. So his bedroom can only be reached by going outside? Just how topsy-turvy is this world, I kept wondering.

With him going up to his room, I tried to think of something to do. Then I remembered, I still had those goggles around my neck. Since there was nothing else to do, I decided to put them on, and to try some of its functions. As before, its first setting was night-vision, but all it showed me was everything in green, so I switched to heat-vision. It showed me that Saya wasn't exaggerating when she said the air smelled like it was burning. It wasn't dangerously warm, but wasn't as blue as the inside of Murphy's ship. But as I looked, I noticed some blue spots around something square-shaped. I took off my goggles, and where there were blue spots before, I found a cupboard. I walked toward it, opened its doors, and found... a few shelves, with more artwork. I put the goggles back on, but the blue spots were still there. I reached out for those spots, and felt a drought. I pushed the wall behind the shelves, and... either to my complete surprise or horror, but I found a secret door. Wanting to know what this was about, I stepped through that door. Where I ended up, was a place that was much cooler than the hacienda, or anywhere else I've been since I entered this world. I sighed of relief, but as my head turned, I saw two red spots, in the upper corner of my eye. I looked up. Would those spots be Diego and Bernardo? I switched the heat-vision to night-vision. I found a spiral staircase, which I used to go up. As I got higher, I could hear Diego's voice.
"... that, because the truth may be too complicated for him to comprehend."
A pause followed, probably from Bernardo replying.
"I don't know." Diego said, "But I'm sure it has something to do with why the lancers have been behaving so strangely."
As I reached the top of the stairs, I could only just see Bernardo pretending to hold a gun to his shoulder, than hold up his thumb.
"Because they at least had a sense of humor, and feared the Sergeant." Diego answered, "Or at least as much as anyone should."
Bernardo held his hand to his mouth, to stop himself from laughing.
Somewhere beside the two, there was a light, which somehow made it unclear what Diego was doing. I switched off the night-vision. What I saw then, was Diego, wearing a black suit, and putting a sword to his belt.
"In any case, those guards are giving us, and our young friend an alibi." Diego further explained, "So Zorro, can now move freely."
Zorro? As soon as I wondered how he could be connected to any of this, I saw Diego wrap something around his head, while Bernardo put a cape on Diego's shoulders. Could it be...?
"M, move away from there."
I could hear Murphy talk to me.
"No time to explain, just go."
As fast as I could, as quietly as I could, I ran down again. I returned to that door I found, stepped through it, but only kept it ajar, so I could still see what was going to happen. And as I thought, Diego was running down the stairs, dressed entirely in black, even putting on a black hat, but without Bernardo this time.
"Follow him." Murphy told me, "If there's a secret exit, I'll be waiting for you there."

I did exactly that. I followed Diego into an underground cavern, that was lit only by this one lantern he carried. Somewhere at the far end of the cavern, there was a dark horse, which he saddled up as fast as he could. So busy was he with that, he didn't even notice me. Once his horse was saddled, he ran to the far end, where he lowered a bar, ran back to the horse, mounted it, and rode outside.