On the Path of Eternal Strength.

Chapter 125: Chapter 123 The First Course

The room still had no name, and that absence seemed more visible now that the four of them were gathered around one of the tables. Outside, the afternoon was descending over the sea. The light passed through the reinforced windows with an increasingly oblique glow and left long pale strips across the floor, as though the day were beginning to withdraw without making a sound.

Sebastián placed before him the five proposals he had reviewed throughout the day. Óscar did the same with the other five and, between them, they spread the ten sheets out until they occupied a large portion of the surface. They did not form a simple collection of titles. Each proposal contained different sections, objectives, participation requirements, and a specific number of merits. Comparing them required more than a quick reading.

Virka approached the table together with Valentina. The girl left the backpack within reach of her leg before sitting down. Narka remained inside, reduced and hidden, without disturbing the stillness of the luggage.

Valentina observed the sheets as though someone had taken apart a single message in front of her and divided it into ten different paths. First, she followed the lines with her eyes. Then she placed her fingertips on the edge of a page and pulled it toward herself, also moving another one that rested partially on top of it. Sebastián and Óscar did not stop her. Both continued examining the documents, allowing her to search through them in her own way.

The girl recognized some words. She read the shorter ones silently and barely moved her lips when facing the longer ones. When a sentence became too complex, she tilted the sheet toward Virka.

—What does “requirements” mean?

Virka held the paper so it would not bend and followed the indicated place with her eyes.

—They are the things we must fulfill before carrying out the activity —she explained calmly—. If we do not have them, we still cannot choose it.

Valentina looked at the paragraph again. Her finger moved to the next section and stopped there.

—And this?

—The merits the club would receive if we complete the proposal.

The explanation continued in a low voice. Virka did not simplify the words until they were emptied of meaning; she offered them to her one by one, with the patience necessary for Valentina to recognize them the next time. She showed her where one condition ended and another began, which part described the activity, and which indicated the merits. The girl listened attentively, changing sheets each time something new attracted her curiosity.

On the other side of the table, Sebastián reviewed the five proposals Óscar had brought. Then he returned to two of his own and compared their demands. For several minutes, he did not speak. Neither did Óscar. Between them, only the rustling of paper could be heard, the occasional taps of a sheet being adjusted and, a little farther away, Virka’s serene voice answering Valentina’s questions.

The nearly empty room was beginning to take on a different shape around them. It still had no plaque, no proper name, and no signs of ever having belonged to anyone. There were only the tables, the chairs, the sea behind the windows, and ten possibilities spread out between four people. For the moment, that was enough for the club to exist.

Óscar finished reading one of the pages, held his gaze on it for a few seconds, and then let the small group of sheets he held in his hand fall. He did not do it abruptly, but with the calculated abandonment of someone who had been waiting for a while for someone to notice his dissatisfaction. He exhaled slowly and leaned his body back slightly in the chair.

—There is something I cannot get out of my head.

Sebastián did not look up. He finished reading the condition in front of him and ran his thumb along the lower edge of the sheet.

—What is it that you cannot get out of your head?

Óscar rested one hand on the table. He tapped twice softly with his fingertips, separated by a pause that made it difficult to know whether he was truly concerned or whether he had already prepared the entire conversation.

—Zaira, obviously. Or, to be more exact, why Zaira is not here with us.

Sebastián moved one proposal to the side and picked up the next.

—I cannot find a reason to include her. The fact that she participates with us in the Rakzar does not mean that she must also belong to the club.

—She is not merely someone who participates with us in the Rakzar —Óscar replied, with that calmness of his that never quite revealed how seriously he was speaking—. She is our teammate. And, even though the word seems to cause her a certain distrust, she is also a new friend. She should be part of this.

Sebastián then raised his gaze.

Óscar was no longer looking at him. He had turned his face toward the other end of the table, searching for the member whose opinion he usually presented as the definitive proof of his arguments.

—Valentina, don’t you think that...?

He did not manage to finish.

Virka had removed both hands from the documents and was covering Valentina’s ears with them. She had done it before Óscar pronounced her name, as though she had recognized his intention from the very moment he began speaking about Zaira. The girl remained still for a moment, confused by the sudden silence imposed on her.

Then she raised her face toward her and asked more loudly than necessary:

—Mom, why are you covering my ears?

Virka offered her a small smile. She did not answer. She slowly removed her hands and, when Valentina could once again hear the murmur of the room, she directed a serene gaze toward Óscar, charged with an irony so cold that it did not need to become a threat to stop him.

Óscar opened one hand over the table.

—That is not fair. Valentina is also part of the group. Her opinion should count.

—We already expected you to try to use her again —Sebastián said.

Óscar looked back at him, without showing the slightest regret.

Sebastián finally set down the sheet he was holding and placed both hands beside the proposals. He still did not see a sufficient reason to expand the group. Coinciding in the Rakzar was not enough, and calling someone a friend did not explain what place she should occupy within a club that was only just beginning to take shape.

However, Óscar had insisted too much to settle for a superficial answer. If he intended to take that idea any further, he would have to prove that there was something behind his apparent lightness.

—You will have to try something else —he continued—. If you truly believe Zaira should be here, explain to me why. Not because of the Rakzar or merely because you consider her a friend. Tell me what place she would have in the club and why it would be worth including her.

The light from the sea remained over the ten proposals while Óscar stayed silent. The conversation had stopped being a passing thought thrown onto the table.

Now he had to defend it.

Óscar kept his gaze on the spread-out documents. The carefree expression that usually accompanied him did not disappear completely, but it stopped seeming like an easy way out. Sebastián had not asked him for another passing thought or a defense built around friendship. He had demanded a reason that justified Zaira’s place within the club, and Óscar understood that he could only achieve it if he spoke with the same seriousness with which they were both evaluating him.

Virka remained behind Valentina. The girl watched her with a mixture of patience and confusion, still trying to understand why she had covered her ears. Narka remained reduced inside the backpack, hidden as he had been throughout the rest of the day.

Óscar rested one forearm on the table and looked first at Sebastián, then at Virka. He knew it was not enough to convince only the first. When a decision involved his family, Sebastián did not treat Virka as someone who should limit herself to following him. She occupied the same place before the decision, even though she had not yet spoken a single word.

—All right. Let us set aside the fact that Zaira is our friend and that we want to have her close.

Sebastián did not change his posture.

—That is what I asked you to do.

Óscar nodded slowly.

—I do not know why you two are still in the Rakzar. And, before you answer me, I am not asking either.

The clarification stopped any possible hardening of the atmosphere. There was no curiosity in his voice, nor an attempt to push them toward an explanation they did not wish to give him. Óscar had spent enough time beside them to recognize that there were boundaries he should not cross. He had also learned something simpler: Sebastián and Virka did not remain in a place out of habit.

—You could have withdrawn after the selection —he continued—. You did not. You returned to training, agreed to continue practicing with us, and each time you act less like two people who only entered to try it. I do not have to know the reason to understand that you intend to stay.

Sebastián held his gaze without confirming it. One of his hands remained beside the proposals, motionless on the wood.

Óscar gave a light tap with his fingers on the table.

—And, if you are going to stay, sooner or later you will have to think about the Rakzar beyond the next training sessions. I am not saying that you should make it the center of your lives. I am saying that you are already building something within that sport, even if you do not want to tell me for what purpose.

The final sentence did not carry the weight of an accusation. Óscar left it there and did not try to go any further. It was enough for him to point out the obvious.

Sebastián lowered his gaze toward the documents. Óscar did not know about Helena’s request, the drug distributed among the students, or the clues that had led them to the Blacksmiths, even though they still did not have the necessary evidence to act against them. However, he had reached a correct conclusion on his own: Sebastián and Virka would not abandon the Rakzar as long as it continued offering them a natural entry into the environment they had to investigate.

—And what does that have to do with including Zaira? —Sebastián asked.

Óscar took a few seconds before responding. He was not trying to prolong the conversation, but to organize what he had thought enough not to reduce it once again to a matter of closeness.

—Zaira is the only one among us who already knows where she wants to take the Rakzar. For her, it is not an Institute activity or something she will do while it continues to seem entertaining. She wants to compete, improve, and reach the professional level.

His gaze shifted briefly toward Virka before returning to Sebastián.

—If we are going to continue as a team, having someone close who thinks in the long term does not harm us. Zaira knows the sport better than we do, understands what a real competition demands, and works with her ARMEX like someone who intends to depend on it for many years. She can see things the rest of us still do not know how to recognize.

Virka spoke for the first time.

—That explains her usefulness within the Rakzar. Sebastián asked you what place she would have in this club.

Óscar accepted the clarification without arguing.

—The same place, but applied to what we do here. Luciana was clear: the investigations, outings, documentation, and reports will have to be divided. If any activity is related to the Rakzar, its history, or the ARMEX, Zaira can take charge of the part she knows. She would not be here only because we like her. She would have a function that none of us can cover in the same way.

The answer remained suspended between the four of them.

Outside the room, the light of sunset had begun to lose intensity. The glow of the sea passed through the windows and spread over the ten proposals, making the edges of each sheet visible while the shadows of the chairs slowly advanced across the floor. Valentina did not completely understand the conversation, but she did understand the seriousness that had settled around the table.

Óscar had not finished yet.

—Besides, if we are truly going to continue together in the Rakzar, it makes no sense to treat Zaira as someone who only happens to be with us during training. She is already part of the team. The club can give us a reason to maintain that bond outside the field and build something that does not disappear when the school year ends.

He did not embellish the argument or promise that Zaira would solve problems that did not yet exist. He presented only what he knew about her and what he had observed about Sebastián and Virka. Nor did he resort to Valentina again, even though the girl was less than an arm’s length away and would have agreed without demanding any explanation from him.

Sebastián examined him in silence. By allowing him to defend the proposal, he had expected to discover whether there was something behind his insistence other than the desire to bring together the people he considered close.

The answer was not perfect, but it was sufficient.

Óscar had found a concrete use for Zaira, had respected what was not his place to know and, without intending to, had described a continuity that also benefited the secret mission.

During that time, Sebastián had not stopped evaluating the sheets spread out before him. His eyes went over one of the proposals one last time before separating it slightly from the rest. Then he released the documents and directed his gaze toward Virka.

He did not have to formulate the question.

She understood that he was not seeking silent obedience, but her decision. Virka first looked at Óscar, then at the proposal Sebastián had set aside, and finally at Valentina, who waited beside her while the conversation approached a conclusion.

—Óscar is right —she said—. If we are going to continue in the Rakzar, we must consider what we will build around it. Zaira possesses knowledge we do not have and can assume a real function within the club. I agree with including her.

She had not accepted because Sebastián seemed willing to do so. She had listened to the argument, measured its usefulness, and reached the same decision on her own.

Sebastián turned back toward Óscar.

—Then we agree to allow Zaira to join.

Satisfaction immediately returned to Óscar’s face, but Sebastián continued before allowing him to celebrate it.

—As long as she wants to do it. We decided to admit her; we cannot decide in her place.

Óscar leaned back slightly in the chair, now much closer to his usual attitude.

—Convincing the two of you was the difficult part.

—That does not mean you will convince Zaira.

—No, but she wants to remain close to the team, advance in the Rakzar, and learn everything she can to compete professionally. If we show her that the club can also help her with that, I do not think we will have any problem.

Sebastián kept his eyes on him for a few moments. Óscar’s confidence did not amount to an answer from Zaira, but there was also no reason to reject her inclusion before proposing it to her.

The sound of the room returned all at once for the girl. She blinked, looked at Virka, and then at the two young men on the other side of the table, trying to deduce how much had happened while she remained excluded from the conversation.

—Zaira will also be part of the club, if she accepts.

Valentina’s eyes opened immediately.

—Really?

—Really.

The girl sought Sebastián’s confirmation. When he nodded, a warm smile appeared on her face and finally broke the tension that still remained among the proposals.

—I like it. I want Zaira to be with us. She is also my new friend.

For Valentina, there was no need for functions, long-term plans, or reasons to justify that presence. The possibility of sharing the place with someone she had begun to appreciate was enough for her. Her joy softened the atmosphere with a naturalness that none of the others could have deliberately imitated.

Óscar looked at Virka.

—See? I knew she would agree.

Virka returned a serene look. There was no threat in it, but there was the reminder that the result did not justify having tried to use Valentina’s opinion before presenting a real argument. Óscar understood the message and decided not to add anything else.

Sebastián took the sheet he had separated while listening to the explanation and placed it in the center of the table.

—I also chose a first activity for the club.

The others directed their attention toward the document.

The proposal set out an investigation in the north of the continent. Its purpose was to gather information directly in the region, study part of its folklore, and record the transformations several of its traditions had undergone over time. The route also included one of the first regional Rakzar circuits and the centers where old ARMEX models were preserved, which would make it possible to analyze the evolution of that technology within the sport.

The Rakzar had not been born from the legends of the north. However, that region had been one of the first to adopt it and had incorporated its own symbols, ceremonies, and forms of representation into the competition. The investigation would make it possible to study the encounter between an ancient culture and a discipline born from technology, without confusing the origin of either one.

Sebastián slid the sheet a little farther toward the center so that everyone could read it.

—It brings together the club’s main purposes: cultural research, folklore, travel to another region, and direct documentation. It also includes the history of the Rakzar in the north and the evolution of the ARMEX. If Zaira agrees to join, she will have a function from our very first activity.

Óscar went over the contents of the document. His expression brightened as he progressed through the different sections.

—This will also help convince her. A trip related to the Rakzar and old ARMEX models is much better than inviting her only to write reports.

—First we will have to present it to Luciana —Sebastián clarified—. The activity is chosen by us, but the trip will require her approval and the corresponding authorizations.

Óscar placed the sheet back on the table.

—I have no problem with it. I would rather investigate a place after getting to know it than fill pages repeating what someone else wrote.

Sebastián looked at Virka.

—I have no objections either —she replied—. It fulfills what Luciana asked for and distributes enough topics for all of us to participate.

Valentina pulled the sheet toward herself. Her eyes moved slowly across the lines, stopping on the few words she could recognize without help. Then she raised her face.

—I did not understand much.

Virka leaned beside her and explained that they would travel north to learn about its stories, its customs, and the particular way in which the Rakzar was practiced there. Valentina listened attentively, alternating her gaze between the proposal and her mother’s face.

—Then I do not have a problem either —she said at last—. If Dad chose it, I am sure we are going to have a lot of fun there.

The last strip of sunset light crossed the windows and came to rest over the sheet set apart. They still had to speak with Zaira, present the proposal to Luciana, and obtain the necessary permissions. None of that was guaranteed. However, for the first time since they had entered the room, the club possessed something more than an assigned space and a table covered with possibilities.

It possessed a direction.

Sebastián gathered the nine remaining proposals and left the chosen one in front of everyone.

—Then it is decided. This will be the club’s first formal activity.

________________________________________

END OF Chapter 123 The path continues...

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