His response was not at all what I expected.
He began to laugh out loud.
My face filled with blood and my mind with outrage.
'What's so funny?' I couldn't help but ask.
What did I care that he thought I was disrespecting him when he was making fun of me himself.
The laughter stopped when he saw my expression.
'Is it for real?' he asked with concern.
'Yes, of course it's for real. I left my Kingdom, the people I love, and came to this corner of the world to find you. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for real.'
He tapped his fingers against the table.
'Look, I don't know who gave you the idea that the Tree is real, but whoever it was played a pretty bad joke on you.' He got up and fixed his jacket again. He had an obsession with looking good.
I got up too, but with no intention whatsoever of leaving.
'I fully trust whoever sent me. Believe me, otherwise I wouldn't be here, in this place.'
He took a few steps towards me, lowering his gaze.
'There it is, that condescending tone again. That royal undertone that is so distinctive. You think because you have royal blood you're better than everyone else. I kept this Kingdom afloat for almost fifteen years and no one, none of the kings or queens who boast of power, dared to set foot on my territory,' he came until he stood in front of me. 'Not until you.'
I wasn't going to let him intimidate me. I had more to lose if I let him get to me. I wasn't afraid of him hurting me, because something told me he didn't want to. Otherwise he would have let his friend do his dirty work for him, like he had done with Rayn before.
So I kept my gaze fixed on his blue eyes, to show him that no matter how much he threatened me, no matter how much he used all his mental weapons, he would not defeat me.
I don't know who he thought I was, but I wasn't like any of the other kings and queens.
'I am not looking down on you or your people. On the contrary, I feel for you all. Do you know whom I despise? I despise those who put you here, those who took your lives away from you and forced you to start all over again. Those who, while we're speaking and arguing like children, are enjoying their victory and are about to unleash hell on this world.'
For the first time, up to that point, I managed to completely baffle him. At least it seemed that way. However, for some reason, he still didn't move from in front of me.
'What do you mean by that?'
Apparently his little birds hadn't quite informed him.
'Prince Jonah, along with his father Lucius,' as I spoke those names, he clenched his fists, finally something we agreed on, 'poisoned the Kingdom of Bieno with a kind of dark magic. They turned them into beasts.'
He was hanging on my every word. Suddenly, I didn't feel mocked by him, but respected. Which was really confusing. Did he hate me or did he like me? I couldn't tell for sure which it was.
'What do I care? I don't see how it harms or benefits me.'
And he was back to being the same heartless person he had shown me he was.
'It harms you because all those people are suffering.'
He raised his eyebrows and his hands went wide. He really didn't care about anyone but himself and ways to get money. Money, for what? To keep it all on this ship?
'And because I was able to hold them in a dome, but it won't hold for long. For some reason, my magic doesn't appease them. It's like, I can't control the darkness. Darkness must be stronger than light.'
I was talking more than I meant to, I was thinking out loud and I forgot I was in front of him, who was standing thoughtfully in that short distance to me.
'I still don't understand why you want to go in search of a legend and how that should matter to me.' He finally turned around and decided to sit back down. I felt like I could rest my gaze.
'I have no idea why it has to be you, but Syform...'
'Wait. Syform sent you?'
Now the puzzled one was me. Not only did he seem to know Syform, but he seemed to understand why Syform's words were important.
'Yes. Do you know him?' I asked knowing he wouldn't answer.
'I can tell you're inexperienced at negotiating, because that was the first thing you should have told me, not tried to come on strong to me, as if you could stand up to me. Syform... bloody Syform.'
He got up and went to one of the pieces of furniture behind him. He opened a drawer and took out two glasses, then reached for a bottle, which rested on a shelf.
He uncorked the bottle with his mouth, tossing the cork in the direction away from him and poured the contents of the bottle into both glasses. He tossed one of the two across the table, pretending that I should catch it, which I did, but I had no intention of drinking whatever he had given me.
He, seeming to ignore my attitude, sat down again, but this time, he put his feet up on the table and began to drink the contents of his glass.
I sat down and smelled the drink he had offered me. I didn't know what kind of alcohol it was, but I was sure it was alcohol. It was the same smell my father would come back with after a bad day at work.
The same smell my dear brother Marco reeked of. I didn't know what was left of the boy who was once my brother, but I suspected it wouldn't be much.
All that hatred he had lived with for me all my life had stemmed from the fact that he knew who I was, that he blamed me for the death of our mother Elina. That hatred had carried him too far. I no longer knew if I could ever bring him back from that kind of darkness.
After he had drunk all his beverage, and proved it by sighing widely, he decided to speak to me again.
'Good, now I want you to tell me in detail what Syform told you. With him you can't take shortcuts, you must follow step by step what he dictates.'
He actually knew him.
'He told me to come to this Kingdom and ask you to come with me to find the tree, that if you refused, I would not leave until I convinced you.'
The last thing Caelus was, however, was convinced. Though in truth he had not given me time to persuade him.
'Was that all he told you?'
Of course not, he had said a few words in my ear, words I was trying to remember at that very moment, because he had been very clear, I had to deliver them perfectly.
No pressure.
Caelus began to grow impatient, as if he didn't believe I was telling the truth. It was at that instant that the words replayed in my head one by one and so came out through my lips, not knowing the weight they would carry for him.
'He told me to tell you this as it is: the root of all evil will be uprooted by prophecy, the answer to the question that was imbued in the cell of shadows lies in who opened the door and let the light in, only one step to take to find liberty from the beast that lies within.'
As if time had stopped, Caelus stood frozen before me. Not even the hairs on his head moved, he remained static, as if I had told him I had found the recipe for immortality.
His eyes seemed gone, he had gone from himself to I don't know exactly where, to his memories perhaps, or to his future. I just hoped that future included me, you know, to go with me of course.
After a few never-ending seconds, Caelus came to himself and stoned me with a single sentence.
'I'd help you, but the Tree doesn't exist.'
'How can you be so sure?'
He picked up the glass in front of him and threw it towards the other side of the room. The action and the explosion the glass made as it hit the wall made me jump in my chair.
'Because I've been looking for it for fifteen years, and I've never found it, the only thing you made clear to me is that my only hope doesn't exist.'
His only hope?
Maybe I wasn't the only one looking for the Tree out of sheer desperation. Apparently I had found the other person who was just as desperate as I was.
But desperation wasn't going to be enough.
If the Tree didn't exist, what were we supposed to do?