At dawn, they all departed. As he sped across the sky, Xin couldn't stop thinking about how much his life had changed since the journey to Iran had begun, but when a sudden wind blew through his bones, his mind spat out an overwhelming truth. The truth was that everything had already changed long before....

«Everything's changed since Dad's death...» he thought and hid behind Arash's back.

"The world is a cruel enough place without us making it easier for him, Xin."

Arash's voice rang out loud and deep, even above the roar of the wind. The three of them were mounted on the back of a huge, beastly, orange-eyed eagle that heeded the archer's orders. They were on their way to Hashtrud, but not before flying over the Damavand for the sheer pleasure of memories, from where, more than two and a half thousand years ago, Arash shot the arrow that brought peace back to his people.

"I confess I never thought I would make the same journey in the opposite direction again," Arash said, smiling. "Remember that once you and I were one..."

"Were you afraid?" asked Xin without missing a beat of what Arash was telling him.

The archer, sensing the direction of his words, stepped forward to ask:

"Of course, young Xin, why do you ask, is that what you are feeling?"

"It's just that," Xin said suddenly as tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think I'm the best person to help you, sir. I don't want to fail you, and I'm not the arrow you made me. I don't — I don't know what I'm supposed to do or what I'm doing here — I should..."

"You should breathe," the archer interjected gently. "Breathe calmly, not like you're running away from life. Come on, breathe. Take advantage of the fresh air Altair allows us to feel..."

Xin obeyed and took a deep breath of the cool mountain air.

"That's it, very good," Arash encouraged him. "Of course you're not just an arrow, Xin, and the truth is, you stopped being one a long time ago. You don't have to follow any direction but your own..."

"Wh-what does that mean?"

Arash smiled warmly at him.

"I've seen you from afar, and just as you've seen my memories, I've seen yours," he murmured. "Ever since you shot out of my fingers, you haven't stopped for a second, and with each life you lived, the further you drifted away, until one day, I could no longer keep track of you. I'm sorry if because of the distance, we got lost. Do you forgive me?"

Xin could only nod as he received a fatherly smile from Arash's lips.

"You've never been just a tool, and I'm not asking you to be one now, Xin. I'm just asking you to be with me as I conclude this last chapter of my life, and we both, as we once did, put an end to so much suffering once and for all. Perhaps you will gain momentum again, or perhaps this will be no more than a strange memory for you. Either way, I want you to trust me one last time. Do you think you could do that?"

"I think so," Xin nodded. "I'd like that..."

That was enough for the old man, who released a hand from the eagle's feathers to stroke Xin's hair. They could both notice how the sun travelled almost side by side with them in its race to leave the sky. In little more than a couple of hours, the sun would set and darkness would swallow them up, a portent that the end of the adventure was near.

And though Arash's words had calmed him somewhat, now that he could only listen to the deafening wind, his mind had been isolated to a new wave of bitter memories starring his father: «If you fail, you are destroying me, your mother, and all of our ancestors with your mistake...»

However, the cold eyes of his father's memory were gently replaced by those of a brown-skinned woman with eyes that calmly shone as she hummed a lullaby for the baby in her arms.

«Hurry up and open your eyes, baby. I want you to meet your daddy already...»

Her voice was sweet and filled with such deep love that Xin couldn't help but feel his own heart warm and his eyes filled with tears. Arash noticed how Xin's heart throbbed with pain, and lovingly, he turned to look at him once more.

"Some demons aren't so easy to scare away, Xin," the archer said as the image of Shirin faded from the boy's mind, and they finally neared their destination. "Look, the tomb is that way..."

The winged beast on which they rode began to descend gracefully until its legs were anchored upon a green hill, somewhat dry, but beautifully viewed, with an ancient, crumbling structure.

"Thank you very much, Altair," Arash said as he stroked the side of the animal's enormous beak.

The animal closed his eyes with pleasure.

「 心 」

Reaching Sphendadates' body lay was not easy. Inside the crypt were a series of traps set along a labyrinth of corridors that seemed to penetrate deep into the earth, forming a strange skeleton of sorts within the mountain.

The ground collapsed with every step they took without warning, revealing deep pits filled with stakes, poisonous insects, or rivers of snakes. Meanwhile, the demon's energy grew more and more intense with every step they took. Finally, after working together to reach the bottom, a huge red-eyed creature greeted the intruders with attention.

"I must say, time has not been so kind to you, Zahhak," Arash commented grimly. "If my old enemy could see how old and weak you are, I think he would weep."

The beast kept stirring painfully on the ground, struggling in vain, as tears began to well up in its red eyes.

"In the end I could not save you. I'm sorry," said Arash, also overcome with tears.

Arash carefully stroked the demon's feathered head before noticing the bones in the tomb beside him. The mummy of Sphendadates, draped in ceremonial robes and with a huge hoard of jewels and gold around him, lay there, staring at them with a dead face disfigured by terror or pain.

"And now, what should we do?" asked Xin to Arash.

"Now it is time to say goodbye, and to lay all the dead to rest."

"Will you go too?" Xin's voice was a sigh.

His heart squeezed in his chest in pain.

"Yes," Arash replied. "It's time for me too. But I'm glad I got to meet you, Xin, and see with my own eyes all that you've done."

"But I've never done anything, I can barely live the life I want."

"That's the key," Arash agreed with a smile. "All a father could ever want from a son is to see him live, and from that river where you found me, where I spent so much time waiting to meet you again someday, I dreamed every night of enjoying your memories, those of a meaningful life, untethered, like the arrow that once flew through the wind with the purpose of achieving peace. Truth is I couldn't be prouder of you."

"Arash," Xin started to say, but the man surprised him by grabbing his hands out of the blue.

"I cannot end suffering, Xin, for the simple fact that I no longer have a heart that can beat more than memories. But your heart does. Your heart is full of life, and the love of many people who care about you. So don't be afraid..."

Xin fell silent as he watched Arash's eyes ignite in a flame of orange light that blurred the surrounding grave.

"I-I..."

"Never forget that demons come in many forms, Xin," the hunter continued. "Mine may be the dragon in front of your eyes, but look at him... He's old, and he's afraid. So much so that he's crying."

Xin looked at the demon and noticed its tears. And when the beast's red eyes looked at him, a shiver ran through his body. "Dad..." he gasped inwardly. It was the same look of fear and frustration that Xin last saw in his father's eyes. While one look was red from magic, the other was red from blood; still, the two were exactly the same.

"Let all the hatred and bitterness melt away, dear Xin," Arash told him as he saw Xin begin to cry as well. "Let the anger go, and let both our demons die in this grave, today. Let us achieve the peace we have fought so hard for..."

Suddenly, Arash's voice came again, like a whisper, as the light in his eyes blinded Xin, and a warm weight in his hands made him clench his fists.

"How proud you made me, Xin... I love you. Thank you for everything."

The archer's voice bounced through the air, off the walls of the tomb, inside his head, and throughout his body as well, until at last... his image was gone.

"Xin," called Amir, who looked perplexed. "Xin, what happened? Where is Arash?"

But the boy, unable to articulate a word because of the lump in his throat, merely raised the dagger that had materialised in his hands. Immediately, Xin turned to look the demon in the eye, and it tried to run away from him. But the boy, true to his promise to the archer's spirit, crouched down beside the dragon's head, and simply hugged it.

Amir watched it all with eyes as disbelieving as they were moved. Xin could not help but hear his father's voice frightening him, but he knew those words were neither the cause nor the pain he truly felt....

«XIN! This is not your way! I know what's best for you!» his father shouted again in his deepest memories, but Xin ignored the memory; the truth was that his father had been dead for weeks, and if he didn't put those memories to rest himself, he would never be able to sleep again without fear of nightmares, remorse, or guilt, whatever, for things that were never said.

"It wasn't just Arash, Dad," Xin sobbed, his face bathed in tears. "That's true. It was also you..."

Slowly, the boy clutched at the dragon's head, and wrapped in the feeling of catharsis, he drove the silver blade of the dagger Arash had become through the creature's head.

The demon let out a pitiful, horrified shriek as the blade plunged into its skull. Its whole body convulsed, as Xin hugged it by the neck tightly so that the dagger hand would not tremble, and so, perhaps, he thought, even the demon would know that it had not died alone.

A minute later, Zahhak released his last breath and there was no body left; he simply vanished in a cloud of black smoke, leaving Xin on his knees with his hands on the ground, crying like a child in the middle of the grave.

"I love you... Dad... Rest in peace..."