Kafft's Tower - The heir of "The Valley"

One of lime and one of sand

I remain at the door of my father's office, bewildered by what my eyes have just seen, frozen and trying to focus to react to what has just happened to me. Now thousands of things are running through my mind at a thousand miles per second, but time doesn't seem to pass, time seems not to move forward, and I have time to converse with myself and wonder if what I saw is real or just an illusion of my subconscious. I gather my courage and enter the code again, the door opens again, and I still can't believe what my eyes behold. It can't be true, but his face, his eyes, his mouth, and his hair are the same, somewhat more worn by the passage of years, his wrinkles and gray hair show signs of pain, agony, and sorrow, but his eyes look at me with affection and tenderness. I begin to walk slowly into the room without uttering a word, measuring my steps, Traind and my father look at me fixedly with a look of happiness, something I hadn't seen on their faces in a long time. It's not normal to see that happiness and brightness on the faces of the two people in the room; I don't recognize them.

Traind looks at me, closes his eyes, nods, and my gaze turns to that third person standing between my father and Traind. That woman standing in the center of the room dressed in Kairgans attire, although light gray, that uniform color belongs to ranks lower than General Traind's. She has curly, grayish hair hanging on the right side in a ponytail that looks very well groomed. Tears begin to flow from my eyes because for a moment I think I'm going to wake up, and right now I don't want to. I stand face to face and ask.

Mom?

The woman reaches out, caresses my cheek, and replies.

Darling, I'm home.

At that moment everything seems like a dream to me, my vision blurs but I manage to hug that strange woman with the face of my late mother, somewhat more aged. I can't believe everything that is happening; my mother is alive, and she is embracing me with her arms. She cries as much as I do, but you can see that in her excitement at our reunion, she maintains her composure in front of me, something I can't do because it's unbelievable.

I arrived at the office with such anger and pain that upon seeing my mother, everything I felt had disappeared in an instant, that very moment when my mind believed for a moment to be dreaming, to be experiencing something I could never imagine. I have so many things to ask her, so many things to experience with her from now on that, at this moment, I don't feel like arguing with my father, who is standing leaning on his desk.

Kónaff, the director of this prison, is smiling, and it's the first time I've seen him like this. His grumpy appearance, chubby, tall, with his white goatee and the rest of his beard brown, and his eyes as clear as mine, are shining for the first time.

I'm thinking that within that half-bald, bearded, and ill-tempered man, there is something more than resentment and hatred towards people; perhaps he will start to change now that we are starting to be a family again, now that we are all together once more.

After that moment, my mother and I take some time to go to the rest area to talk since we have many things to tell each other and confess. The rest area is a spacious place with views of the sea on the inner part of the prison. The views are not the best thing about the room. We walk through the inside of the room where a lot of light enters since all the walls are translucent to give amplitude to the space. The room is quite busy today, some workers lying down, others entertained with some weird virtual games that I have never played since I prefer to waste time on other activities.

My mother steps away from me and heads towards the wall where she stands with a lost gaze. Leaning her hand on it, she looks carefully at the center of the prison, the tube-shaped interior, its windows, and its hanging vegetation that still gives it a lazy look, and I suppose that's the image that is intended to be conveyed from here to the entire nation, as its crasil walls show nothing of what is inside. An intimidating place is intended to be portrayed to deter future criminals, and yet, there are people who do not fear ending up inside this place.