From the way Babara asked the question, Armad felt there was a hidden meaning to it. It was either the healer already knew, or maybe his Bending allowed him to see it, or maybe something else entirely which Armad couldn't even imagine gave him away. Either way, it was a trap, and he couldn't escape it by lying.

"The latter: Armad Wilberforce," Armad said.

Babara stared at him for a long moment. He was furious.

Armad's heart pounded. He had made a mistake. And now Babara had every right to send him away and refused to treat his mother. If she were to die because of that then he couldn't forgive himself. He sweated, and in a few seconds, his shirt was drenched.

But the next thing that came from Babara was a smile.

"Now the second and final condition," Babara said. He ignored what just happened as if it didn't happen at all. "Unlike the first condition, this is not a question. It's a quest. I want you to travel to the lower worlds and find a man who goes by the name Triple Factor. If you find him, then I promise you will come back and find your mother healed."

Armad raised his brows and looked at the healer with mouth wide open. "Triple Factor?" He asked in disbelief.

What surprised Armad was that his mother had recently told him that she and her men were looking for a man named Triple Factor.

And she told him that anything related to Triple Factor was either forbidden or treated as a top-secret in the third world, so the name wasn't known at all in their village, but the answer that would lead to finding the man wasn't in the third world, so she traveled in the lower worlds in search of the man.

Two months ago, Armad and his mother had talked about this man just before she left for the war. She told him that they were on the verge of achieving their goal and that the final step depended entirely on the war, so she needed to contribute.

Armad had for long wanted to accompany his mother in her adventures, but she gave him the same excuse every time: grow up first and finish your books.

One of her most memorable statements was: "I'm sorry, I can't take you with me now. But if I can't find him then it will be up to you."

These offhand statements that he used to hear from his mother when he was young and the way he grew up seeing her struggling about it, made him think as if he was meant to find Triple Factor, whoever he was and wherever he was.

When Armad was younger, he just wanted to finish all his books so he could learn Bending to help his mother find Triple Factor. The name had become some kind of idol to him.

He was a much older man now but he still wanted to find Triple Factor even just to know why his mother was obsessed with the man. So when he heard the name from the healer, he was both astonished and confused.

Babara interrupted his musings. "Armad Wilberforce, do you think you can do it?"

What Babara didn't know was, even without his condition, Armad had already decided to find the Triple Factor for himself. All he needed was his mother's go-ahead. So as far as Armad was concerned, this was the situation where he could kill two birds with one stone.

But first, there was something that stopped Armad from agreeing to this condition. He didn't feel comfortable with leaving his mother alone with the mysterious healer. The problem was his grandfather had been away and out of contact for four years now and there was no one at home. He also couldn't keep running around with her on his back. So it was either that or this...

"I accept the quest," he said.

Babara smiled in silence. He took a few steps forward and joined his hands together, causing a powerful wind to blow in the area. He released his hands and the wind disappeared. A door appeared where there was nothing before. The door was completely green. So green that not only its vicinity but the entire area had turned green despite the sun already coming up.

It was narrow, and if you were to measure it, it was exactly at Babara's height. Armad would have to bend to enter.

Babara turned to Armad. "I can't hold it for more than a hundred seconds," he said hurriedly. "If you enter, the door will take you to another world, saving you the trouble of border patrol. It hasn't been easy on travelers ever since the war. But you should hurry if you want to go.

"As for treating your mother, you don't have to worry about that, a real healer won't cheat a patient. Though, you should always remember our promise: Triple Factor for your mother's health."

The door blurred as if it would disappear. It seemed like it wasn't corporeal despite its convincing looks.

Armad strode to the door which shone brightly as soon as he was close enough to enter. Then he turned around hurriedly, something that caused Babara to flinched and opened his mouth to complain, but then he realized what Armad intended to do and shut off.

Ignoring Babara, Armad ran to his mother. He knelt in front of her and closed his eyes. His lips moved but he spoke no word. After several seconds, he stood up and untied the sword on her back. He put it around his left arm and ran back to the door which was about to fade out.

Just a step away from the magical door and he heard an androgynous voice in his ears. "Watch out for Ururu."

Armad hurriedly turned around in the direction of the voice, but there was no one there. It wasn't Babara's voice, and he had no memory of anyone with that voice in his life. For a second, he thought it was just in his head, but he doubted it for the word 'Ururu' had stuck with him.

Babara, who didn't hear anything, shouted at him, pointing at the door which was now barely visible. Armad looked around the area for the second time and when he couldn't find anything, he pushed the thoughts out of his mind and stepped into the doorway.

The first thing that greeted him as he entered the door was darkness, but that didn't stop him. He didn't want to leave his mother with Babara, but he didn't have any other option either. He could either do this or watch as she died like everyone else in the village. His gut told him to continue forward and he did without looking back. The door closed behind him and later disappeared completely.

Once the door disappeared, Armad felt light-headed as if he was falling from a rooftop. The darkness around him swirled and his vision blurred. Moments later, he felt so dizzy that he couldn't even stand.

He didn't know how long he had been in that state before his vision returned to normal. It could have been a second, an hour, or even a day. The first thing he saw after he regained his senses was a field of trees. Each tree was as thick as baobab and even looked similar in the trunk and branches, but instead of leaves, these trees had thorns.

There was no one in sight, human or otherwise, and there was no building nearby, not even a ruin. He was all alone.

As he stood there, he heard footsteps approaching him from a distance, in the southeast direction.

He waited patiently. After several seconds, he saw a shadow of a man approaching him. The person behind the shadow exerted their pol on the surroundings, so Armad quickly put his hands on the hilt of his sword in defense.