Oriented Growth › Next Gen › Volume II
The Sextant Pact
An Inheritance Beyond Numbers
Illustrated tale for teenage readers — English edition
“The Sextant is not for looking at where you are, but for understanding where to go by looking at the stars.”
The story
Two sisters, a family inheritance, and a measure that can save or crush.
Sia believes in numbers. Francesca listens to the heartbeat of people. When their father Alberto hands them a Walkman, a Moka and a sextant — three apparently useless objects — the two sisters discover that leading a holding does not mean governing funds, but managing balances.
From Paris to Brussels, from Tirana to the port of Durrës, The Sextant Pact tells the choice that every organisation must face sooner or later: measure to control, or measure to understand.
Excerpt
Illustration 1
Paris smelled of old paper and imminent rain. Sia and Francesca, back from their universities in Harvard and Oxford, were walking through the Jardin des Tuileries. In Francesca's hands was an old green Walkman: a relic of the past that their father, Alberto, had given them. “Listen”, he had said. But Sia sought the precision of numbers, while Francesca sought the heartbeat among the hiss of the tape. That analog hum was their first bond with an inheritance they did not yet know they possessed.
Illustration 2
In an office overlooking Place Vendôme, Alberto showed them two identical folders. “Our family does not only manage funds, it manages balances”, he explained. He introduced the concept of the “Two Bodies”: PINE, the government that decides, and KINTEL, the measure that observes. Sia looked at KINTEL's charts with admiration; for her, the truth resided in satellite telemetry. Alberto smiled, but in his eyes there was a warning: measurement is perfect only if the one who uses it knows when to stop measuring.
Illustration 3
That evening they met Mapi, the keeper of the family's pragmatism. While Paris lit up with geometric lights, Mapi handed Francesca an old Moka. “Transformation is not instantaneous”, said Mapi. “It is like coffee: it needs pressure, heat and time. If you force the process, the flavour is lost.” Francesca held the cold metal of the coffee pot, sensing that her education at Oxford had prepared her to read texts, but not yet to handle that invisible pressure.
Illustration 4
The journey continued towards Brussels, the heart of treaties and rules. Here the atmosphere was grey and solemn. Sia and Francesca watched officials discussing the “Rules of Push”. Sia felt at home among the corridors of power, understanding the need for rigorous standards. But during a break, Francesca noticed a small flaw in a calculation that ignored the wellbeing of the dock workers. The tension between the two sisters began to grow: precision against empathy.
[The excerpt stops at the fourth illustration. The tale continues through the ten illustrations of the volume.]
The author
Antonino Fischetti lives between Tirana and Brussels. For fifteen years he has sat at the tables of European family businesses at the most fragile moment of their history: the moment when the founder makes way for those who come next.
The Sextant Pact grew out of his Opera Omnia: nine business novels collected in three trilogies, and Growing for Generations, the handbook in which the Walkman, the Moka and the Sextant find their applied form for European family businesses.
Note on this edition
The Sextant Pact — An Inheritance Beyond Numbers is an illustrated tale in ten illustrations, conceived for teenage readers. This edition is printed on demand.
The illustrations accompanying the text were created with the support of artificial intelligence tools and were adapted to the layout of this edition.
First edition: September 2026. Graphic design and layout: Genspark. Publisher: Energy Circle Publishing. Series: Oriented Growth. Typefaces: EB Garamond and Cinzel.
© Antonino Fischetti, 2026. Energy Circle Publishing.