Chapter 1

Original story and characters set in universe by Square Enix. No for-profit ownership is claimed over any of them.

Sweat beaded down the boy's forehead as his eyes suddenly opened. Reality easily brought much more acceptable surroundings than his recent nightmare.

He found himself sitting up on a bed, gasping for breath. The fire that baked his body suddenly dissipated, replaced by cool air conditioning. The skies lit up - and closed up - into the ceiling of an off-white hotel room with a single source of light to his side in the form of the bedside lamp.

A hotel room bed was much, much more preferable to being burned alive and pinned under rubble, although the lingering memories were much harder to disperse.

"Aless? You awake yet?" the female voice, sounding more exasperated than sinister, called from the bathroom.

"Yeah. I'm awake..." Alessio Gianetti groaned between gasps, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head.

His wavy brown had been jostled by his bodily machinations during his dream. He ran a hand through it in a quick yet futile effort to keep it down. At least he was sure he was in reality, and specifically in his room at the Viola Hotel along the river in Dorter City. Outside the window, night had already fallen on the old trade city, and the city lights rendered the sky practically starless.

The source of the voice stepped out of the bathroom. Her blonde hair was already bound in a ponytail as neat as her business suit. She did not seem too concerned about her companion's mental state as much as the fact that he hadn't completely finished dressing. His scrawny chest had started to shine a bit from the sweat that started soaking into his undershirt.

Rebecca Carver simply sighed. "You should stop taking naps before big occasions like this," she said as she picked up her purse from the bedside table, "The stress can give you nightmares."

Aless stretched his arms and yawned, muttering "Sorry..." as he recoiled. He squirmed toward the edge of the bed, putting one sock-clad foot down, then the other onto the carpeted floor.

"Just get dressed. The Cardinal might be a patient man," Rebecca replied in an almost matronly tone as she applied lipstick in the mirror, "But he'd prefer the exhibit to open on schedule as well."

"Okay, okay..."

Aless slowly trudged to the bathroom almost like a member of the undead, and closed the door behind him. He leaned forward onto the sink, looking into his own brown eyes through the mirror before opening the tap and splashing his face with cold water to really wake himself up.

Working to the early hours had become habit for the two archaeologists, but one mystery he had yet to solve was how Becca never seemed to run out of energy. Maybe he really just couldn't handle all the stress, at least not in public view. As he reached for his suit, hanging from the curtain pole above the shower stall, he started to think about how much time he would get to relax once the exhibit was wrapped up.

He emerged a few minutes later in his business suit, looking cheerier and neater than when he'd woken up, although his eyes still had visible bags.

"All right, I'm ready to go when you are!" he said to Becca, forcing a soft smile.

Rebecca almost raised an eyebrow at Aless' attempts to hide his anxiety, but decided not to say anything else as she withdrew a VIP ID card to the Dorter Metropolitan Museum of Art and slung the lanyard around her head.

Although they had known each other long enough to be mistaken for siblings, there were times when she felt like his babysitter when their mutual career choices in archaeology took them into more hazardous environments. It was perhaps her adaptable adherence to routine and ritual, something others considered "old-fashioned," that she believed helped her maintain her calm.

Aless simply stared at his own ID for a few moments, identical in every way to hers save for their photos, on the bedside table. He stretched out his arms one more time before clipping it to his suit's front pocket.

A faint chime went off, causing Aless to flinch mildly before he noticed it was the smartphone that Rebecca had already withdrawn from her purse.

"We'd better hurry," Rebecca said as she opened the door, "Our ride's already here."

The entire room went dark as Aless removed the hotel keycard that also acted as the power switch from the entry hall and followed her out.

Chapter 1 End