"Our mother had magical powers!" Inata exclaimed after the Golem finished his story.
"And our father was ultra-powerful," Hichy added. "But we're normal, aren't we?"
"That's hard to say," Golock replied. "I'm not the most qualified to distinguish what is normal from what isn't. And since I don't recognise myself in the standards set by the Celestial Authority, it seems perfectly normal to me not to be normal."
"That could explain…" Inata began.
"Explain what?" her brother asked.
"The fact that you can jump so far and that I can move objects. Golock, do you think it's possible that our mother passed on her magical powers to us?"
"That is indeed quite possible. The problem is that the large quantities of Timagic that surrounded you during your childhood most likely prevented your powers from developing. Show me a little of what you can do."
Inata began the demonstration by moving her fork half a centimetre across the table. When she finished, one would have thought she had just run a hundred-metre sprint. She was flushed and out of breath. Then Hichy jumped onto the table, sending a number of objects crashing to the floor, including the fork Inata had just moved from a distance.
"So you can move objects too," Golock mocked. "Almost as well as your sister. If this is what you call magical powers, then let me reassure you: you have absolutely none. Perhaps they will reveal themselves in a few years. Keep trying."
Hichy picked up what had fallen to the floor and sat back down on his chair. It was already pitch-dark outside. They were not used to staying up so late, but one does not turn thirteen every day. While Golock should have sent them to bed hours earlier, he was the one who resumed the conversation.
"So, what do you decide, children?" he asked. "Do you wish to claim your inheritance, or would you rather renounce it?"
"That's a completely messed-up question!" Hichy exclaimed. "You said yourself we'd be burned alive, and you told us we had no choice."
"Where did you find that utterly stupid expression?" his sister asked.
"In a book."
"That expression makes no sense whatsoever," the Golem intervened.
"'Messed-up,' then," Hichy corrected.
"Suit yourself, but I cannot prejudge your choice. Some prefer to die for a matter of honour, and you are old enough to have the right to stop following my advice."
"I'm not renouncing it!" Inata protested.
"Are you completely insane or what?!" her twin shouted.
"Not at all. I couldn't care less about this house or those gold coins. I'm not renouncing our parents' inheritance because it isn't in bits of metal and stone walls. What matters most is the blood flowing through our veins and the education they passed on to us through Golock. Now let's go to bed, because we leave tomorrow morning."
"So early!" Hichy exclaimed, incredulous. "Why do you want to leave so quickly?"
"She's right," the Golem explained. "The house no longer belongs to you, and you cannot stay here."
"That assumes we even can!" Hichy objected. "If I understand correctly, we can't stay because the house no longer belongs to us. But we can't leave either, since the forest is impassable and we're trapped here."
"There are, however, two ways out," Golock said. "The first is to fly over the forest as I often do, but gravity acts too strongly on your bodily envelopes for that."
"And the second?" Hichy asked.
"The second is a secret passage that only I can open and close."
"But where are we going?"
"To the great city at the centre," his sister replied. "I want to see what it looks like and, above all, meet other children our age."
"What for?"
"How crude you can be! Because life is there, and I want to meet people, talk to girls and boys who are like me. I want to go to middle school."
"Are you coming with us?" Hichy asked Golock.
"I cannot. I have been bound to this place forever, and I will remain here for eternity."
"That makes no sense," Inata remarked.
"Perhaps not for you, who are prisoners of time because of your human condition. But for me, who comes from a place outside this universe, it is the notion of time that makes no sense. I try to adapt to it so that you can understand me, but I am not subject to it."
"So we have to go alone?" the sister asked, disappointed.
"Of course, since you have reached early adulthood. It is time for you to spread your own wings and leave your cosy little nest. Now, off to bed! This is the last time in your life that you have to obey me, even though you will soon discover that the number of laws you will have to submit to is far greater than with the one who raised you."
The twins went to bed, realising that they would soon miss their soft mattress and the comfort of their room. Sadness filled their hearts at the thought of leaving this place where they had lived happily despite the absence of their true parents. Why must all good things inevitably come to an end? Who would take care of Gaspard, Inata's favourite sheep?
When they were awakened by the rooster's crow and the rising sun, they had slept no more than two hours, having spent the rest of the night tossing and turning in their beds. Anxiety welled up inside them, and they felt like two condemned prisoners living their final hours before the scaffold. With dry mouths and drawn faces, they made their way down to the dining room.
The table was covered with a veritable feast. There was bacon and scrambled eggs, thick slices of bread, and the first basket of strawberries of the season. A large bowl of steaming goat's milk awaited them for their last breakfast in the company of the only being they had ever known outside their twin cell.
"You need to build up your strength," the Golem said.
It was only when their stomachs were full that they noticed the two backpacks placed on chairs. They had never needed such an item, since they had never crossed the edge of the clearing.
"We're not going on ponies?" Hichy asked.
"Of course not, since it's on foot," his sister mocked.
"You will have to walk," Golock explained. "And don't forget that even your ponies no longer belong to you. Celestial law states that you may keep your clothes and take with you everything you are able to carry. Gold and silver coins alone are excluded. The mistake would be to overload yourselves. That is why you must limit yourselves to the bare minimum. In your packs, I have placed a water flask and enough food for three days if you manage your supplies well. You also each have a blanket, a few spare clothes, a knife, and of course your toothbrush. Three minutes morning, noon, and night—it's important."
The two children looked at the Golem, wondering whether he was making fun of them.
"And that?" Inata asked, pointing to two wooden poles and a large piece of cloth.
"That's to help you walk. You will take turns carrying the canvas. In the evening, the poles will turn into stakes and the cloth into a tent to provide you with shelter from rain and cold."
"Super comfortable!" Hichy scoffed. "I can tell we're really going to live the high life. And we can't take our bows?"
"Absolutely not! That would be a trap. It's a natural reflex to want to take everything you can, but you would regret it very quickly."
"Still—"
"No!" the giant snapped. "Nothing more. The rest, you will have to make yourselves according to your needs."
The children put on the shoes the Golem had prepared for them and slung their packs over their shoulders. Hichy had barely walked ten metres before he already found it too heavy. He dragged his feet behind his sister, leaning on the long wooden staff that encumbered him more than anything else.
Melio, his little ginger cat, came to rub against his legs. Its squirrel-like tail, as thick as its body, formed a question mark, as if asking the reason for the large drops that began to roll down his cheeks. The animal followed him, hopping along, unaware of the dreadful pain tearing at his master's heart, at whose feet it would never sleep again.
Hichy picked up Melio to sniff him one last time, his tears soaking the kitten's fur, softer than the softest plush toy. Then he threw him as far away as he could and ran after his sister to catch up with her.
"It's here," Golock said as they reached the edge of the forest. "Above all, never stray from the path."
"How many days of walking are there?" Inata asked.
"Three hundred and sixty-five, if you insist on counting in days, but I find it simpler to say one year."
"What! A year!" Hichy protested, for whom walking more than an hour was already an achievement.
"If you walk quickly, you can hope to arrive in twelve months, or even in fifty-two weeks."
The Golem made a brief motion with his hand, and the forest vanished before them. It was neither a hole nor an opening, but a place where there was nothing, like the back of one's head and like their mother's eyes. It was an empty place that was not even black, that did not exist, and into which Golock invited them to step.
"My Golock, you're going to…" Inata began, stretching out her arms to embrace the Golem.
She did not have time to finish her sentence. Where part of the scenery had been missing, trees once again stretched as far as the eye could see. Their only landmark was the small dirt path winding between the moss-covered trunks.
"And now?"
"Uh… we go that way."