21st Century – Florence – Italy
Phillip, an impetuous young man, was learning, at a high price, that courage should walk hand in hand with wisdom. After all, he had lost all those that he loved. Verena, his true love whom he would never meet again; Juan, the mentor that saved him in the very last moment, and whose life was taken by the hands of the vicious Klaus Rizoni right before Phillip's eyes. Indeed, Phillip was an insufficiently experienced young man, therefore unable to put up a fight with the evil. He felt guilty for both deaths. He realized he was on his own from that moment on.
His greatest wish was to meet again his loved one and his master, even if it could only take place within the spiritual realm. Phillip had the gift to cross the thin line that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. With such a power, he knew he could help people the same way he had helped Laigner by saving her baby brother. The desire to do the good would bring peace to the young man's soul and fulfill his soul.
His greatest wish was to meet again his loved one, and his master, even if it could only take place within the spiritual realm. Phillip was born with the gift of crossing the thin line that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead.
With such a power, he knew he could help people the same way he had helped Laigner by saving her baby brother. The desire to do the good would bring peace to the young man's soul and make him feel fulfilled.
Lost and lonely, Phillip wanted to know in which era he had arrived. He lifted his arms and got scared at the view of the handcuffs that shackled his hands.
He looked around and was impressed by the way the world had changed. He wondered if his master had sent him to some place in the future time. Things looked quite odd. Would he ever adapt to this new life?
The wizard had warned him to go slow during the confrontation with Klaus. Phillip learned the hard way that courage sometimes may cause a great loss. With teary eyes, he recalled the words of his wise mentor. And then he thought of his human parents.
"God, how I miss my mother and my father. They were so good and so concerned about my future. I hope they lived a happy life..."
Phillip thought of his sword. With a snap of his fingers, he made Night's Fury disappear from the police officer's hands. The object had been wrapped in cloth, and was being taken to inspection in order to confirm the suspicion that it was an antique stolen from the museum collection by the young man that they were conducting now.
Phillip also had with him a small bag full of valuable coins. He needed to hide them somewhere. The coins should be saved for later use. The precious sword was placed in the hands of a Viking warrior's statue inside the museum. Having hidden the blade so carefully, he would retrieve it later. As to the bag of coins, it was placed inside Houdini's pocket, where they would be kept safely.
The next day, during a school visitation to the museum, one teenaged student pointed towards the sword at the Viking warrior's hand, and said marveled: "Look at that! That sword looks like the one I saw in the movies."
The teacher used the opportunity to explain a bit more about that society of warriors: "Good point, Carlos. The Vikings were extraordinary warriors and seamen. Some believe that they landed in the Americas long before the Spanish did."
"Cool! I wish I could get inside that glass box and take the swords with my own hands. Look at those engravings... They're awesome!" the boy said, excited.
The other students stared at Night's Fury and the statues with sheer admiration.
"Don't even think about that... All things here are to be admired from a distance. Let's get back to our visiting," the teacher replied, and then led the students to another exhibition.
While the teacher and the students continued their visitation to the museum, and observed every piece with great interest; somewhere else where there was an ancient collection, in Phillip's mind, the young man was trying to figure out a way to escape from the mess he had gotten into.
Phillip was having a hard time trying to understand what had happened to him. However, he decided that the best for now was to let the officers take him, and avoid getting anyone hurt. This time he would get things done by using a sense of wisdom. He couldn't let anyone know his true identity before he knew who his enemies were.
Once inside the police car, sadness got the best of Phillip. He sank into a feeling of solitude for being away from his family and friends.
"Verena, my love. You lost your life because of me... and of that bastard Klaus! Master Juan... You were so nice! You didn't deserve to die. My dear father and mother, I will never see you again, thanks to that scum of a warlock," he thought.
Even though Phillip had the opportunity to meet his real parents one night at the royal library, he had doubts concerning being their son, so he still considered King Albert and Queen Mariele as his genuine parents. Phillip missed them so much!
He focused his thoughts on the present moment, and heard the officers talking in Italian. Since a very early age, Phillip had been trained to speak various European languages, such as Latin, French, and English. As a monarch, he was supposed to negotiate with many nations. The royal family had at their disposal a team of idiom teachers. However, at the current situation, besides the fact that Phillip could not be considered a Germanic prince anymore, he wasn't aware of where he was or what era Juan had sent him to.
"Pardon me, could you please let me know what year are we now?"
"What a stupid question! Aren't you aware of the current year? What do you think, Giuseppe? Is he some kind of loony? Oh, I think we should beware of him, maybe he is a magician... Did you notice that he was a different man when we arrested him? White hair, golden eyes... Did you notice that?"
"Enrico, that was nothing but an illusion. The lights above him made the trick. Take a good look at the boy. He is nothing but ordinary. Maybe he had a museum's mask on his face and got rid of it as soon as we got him busted." The police officer turned himself towards the young man. "This is 2025. You look a little confused and lost. What were you doing inside the museum?"
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
"Then I'm afraid you'll have to tell your story to the detectives. Otherwise, you'll have to sleep behind the bars for a few nights. Trespassing is felony. The museum is state property."
"Where did you get those medieval clothes?" Enrico asked with curiosity.
"Of course, he took them from the museum. No one wears that kind of clothes nowadays," Giuseppe said, full of certainty. "You'll have to give them back, but first we'll take you to the inspector of Florence's Police Department."
"It's no use trying to answer your questions, anyway. I'd rather keep my mouth shut as you ordered me to do when I was arrested."
"Wise decision, young man," Enrico said, and wrapped up the conversation.
Ignoring what those words meant exactly, Phillip decided to be quiet and think about the things he had left behind.
Even though Phillip was clueless about what was going on, he allowed the officers to take him to a precinct. As soon as they arrived, Phillip's fingerprints were scanned and his picture taken, both front and profile. Finally, the officers left him in the inspector's room. The inspector introduced himself and then started to ask some warm-up questions.
"Phillip, that's the name registered at you record, right? What the hell were you doing in the museum at night? Are you a burglar, by any chance?"
Noticing that that man was a kind of local authority, the young man answered: "Sir, actually I don't belong here. I come from a faraway land, and I don't have any idea how I ended up here."
"Inspector, he was in the possession of a weapon that looked like a Viking sword. We apprehended the item to present it as evidence of robbery, but inexplicably it disappeared from our hands. For this reason, we suspect that this individual may be a magician."
"Don't bullshit me, Enrico! Do you really want me to believe that a handcuffed boy can make an object disappear right before your own eyes?" The inspector looked again at Phillip and then continued: "In order to refresh your memory and help you remind the place where you come from, you will spend the night behind the bars. We shall talk again later. Before you are dismissed, I have one more question: are you some kind of circus magician capable of making things disappear?"
"I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand your question."
"Can we take him now?" the detective on duty asked.
"Yes, you can. Don't forget to notify the public defender office asap. Otherwise, the inspector general will be on our backs."
"Yes, sir. I'm on it."
Phillip was put in jail with the right to have a public lawyer. He was lucky to be permitted to have one, since he didn't know a soul at that place. He decided not to use his magic until he understood better how the legal system worked in that country.
Once in the prison cell, the other prisoners began to observe Phillip. One of them approached him.
"Hey, beautiful boy, what's your story? Robbery, killing or what?"
"I've done nothing. There must be a huge mistake."
Another guy said right away: "Yeah, yeah, that's the same old lame excuse. Nobody here has ever done a thing. But there's always a reason for an arrest."
"I'd rather be quiet. Time heals everything," said Phillip.
He shut his mouth and decided to get some rest. It didn't last long. A bulky guy approached Phillip, squeezed his cheek, and then began to intimidate him.
"You know what, man? I don't like your face. If you want to get along with us, you'll have to follow my rules. I'm the one who call the shots here! Capisce?"
The man had head shaved and arms totally inked with the symbols of the criminal gang he belonged to. His cellmates laughed loudly and got ready to watch another beating. The inked skinhead never lost a chance to impose his rules to the new incomers.
He pushed Phillip against the bars, causing him to bruise his nape. Phillip looked at him with anger. That situation had gotten on his nerves. All he wanted was to stay quietly on his own...
Suddenly, the man began to rise to the point that his head was pressed against the ceiling. His eyes were absolutely scared while his neck was twisted and his body rotated to horizontal position in a way that he levitated above the heads of the other prisoners. Everyone in jail was horrified by the way the newbie confronted the skinhead. Phillip noticed their fear, and, out of the blue, decided to let the man fall onto the floor. His name was Geovani.
"Hey, bald head, leave the kid alone. Can't you see that this one has part with the devil? Or maybe he is possessed by a demon... You're better off leaving him alone."
Geovani stood off from Phillip without a word as soon as he heard the cellmate's advice. The others preferred not to talk or to bother Phillip at all from that moment on.
The young wizard was exhausted. He laid down in a corner and shut his eyes in order to regain his forces. Gradually, the Phantom Man realized that he bore huge powers, and that was just the beginning of his learning. He finally got some sleep.
Very early in the morning, the jailer called Phillip's name.
"You have visit. Your lawyer is here."
"What is that? Who can it be? Nobody knows I'm here," he asked, full of curiosity.
"The State appointed a public defender to take care of your case. That's the rule. Follow me."
Phillip was taken to a room where he found a woman dressed in black blazer, white blouse, and skirt. He noticed she was a gorgeous woman. Not only that, but also that she had something remarkable on her face a scar that was very much like the one Verena got when Klaus' Doppelgänger slashed her in the face.
The gorgeous well-dressed lawyer stared at Phillip. She had the feeling she met him before. "Would it be possible?", she thought. "Where do I possibly know him from?" She put those thoughts in the back of her mind for a while, and resumed to her professional behavior.
"It's a pleasure do meet you, Phillip. I've been appointed to work at your case as your public defender. My name is Alexia, and I'd like you to tell me everything that happened so that I can help you get past this situation."
At once, the defendant remembered where he had seen that face before. How could he forget something that had rooted so deeply in his life? Could anyone on Earth resemble so much his dear Verena? It couldn't be real... Was fate trying to make him go crazy?
For a long time, something mysterious had haunted Alexia's life. Since a young girl, she used to have a recurring dream in which she was walking towards an old castle. When she would be about to reach it, she felt a pain on her chest. Then she would look down, and see claws slashing her body. She would wake up screaming desperately. As she was looking at the man before her, telling his story, his lips clearly elucidated where she had seen him before.
She was surprised to realize that the man at the precinct was the same man in her dreams. The memory was getting clearer in her mind. It was way more than a mere coincidence to be true.
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