Fortune-telling

It was the end of the year. Students were very busy, passing examinations. Lica also swirled, poring over books. For a time the Kingdom of Night fell by the wayside. In addition, she was very afraid of Swein's stormy reaction on her extraordinary behavior - stiletto stealing. At first after she returned home, the girl would wait that the mirror in her room suddenly get muddy, and the angry Goblins' King would jump out of the mirror. But the days passed, and Swein did not appear. Angelica little by little calmed down and lived her regular routine – training and revising for exams.

She did not notice how one month passed, the exams were left behind, and it was Christmas holidays.

"Do you know anything about Christmas and Twelfth Day?" Lica was asked by her friend Sveta one day. "It is time for fortune-telling! My brother gifted me a wonderful crystal ball! What about trying it!"

"We're not fortune tellers!" Lica grinned.

"Well, I think together we can read fortune or something like that!" her friend said confidentially. "Come on, come to me tomorrow night, we'll try some spirit rapping!"

And Svetlana burst of laughing.

The next evening, Angelica came to Sveta's house. They locked in the room, lit candles and placed them in the corners. They moved the desk to the middle of the room, covered it with a bright tablecloth with fringe and put the crystal ball in the center. The ball was really wonderful! Lica never had seen such a large crystal ball before! It was a little smaller than a soccer ball.

"It's not a ball!" Angelica noticed. "It rather looks like a small screen!"

"That's good!" Sveta smiled. "I hope that this screen will show us something interesting today! By the way, my brother claimed that he had bought this ball not just in the simple gift shop but at the real witch."

"Cool!" Lica admired.

The girls sat down opposite each other and began to look at the crystal surface.

"Can you see anything?" whispered Svetlana by some reason.

"Not yet! Perhaps later."

And the girls began to stare wide-eyed at the ball again. Twenty minutes later Sveta gasped:

"That's it for me, I can't look anymore! It has made my eyes tear. Now I will not see anything. We'd better go to sleep now!"

"Let's stay up a little bit more!" Lica tried to convince her friend.

But she refused.

"Okay, now we go to bed, but you will give me the ball for one day, won't you?" Angelica asked Svetlana.

"If you think that you are a little witch, of course, I will! And now – bed time!"

The girls got into the sofa together, but still could not sleep for a long time. They chatted and laughed, remembering their last exams.

The next day, Sveta, as promised, gave Lica the crystal ball. The girl wrapped it in a scarf and went home, afraid to stumble and fall somewhere.

At home, she hid the ball under her table until the evening.

"How was your fortune-telling?" Angelica's Mom asked her.

"Yeah, no way!" the girl shrugged her shoulders. "We were staring at it almost all night but could see nothing!"

"I think you didn't stare enough!" her Mom joked. "You should have stayed up all night – if so you would see everything!"

"Are you putting me on!" waved Lica.

She got dressed and went to college to check the timetable for the new semester.

In the evening, when Angelica stayed alone, she placed candles as they did with Sveta and moved the table into the middle of the room. Then she took the crystal ball and put it in the center of the table.

"Well, that's it!" satisfied she sat down opposite the ball.

She remembered Sveta's words that you need to look at the center of the ball. Lica tried to do that and felt that her eyes were moving down somewhere to the bridge.

"My Mom was right about squinting," she smiled.

Angelica looked to the far corner of the room at the candle, and when her eyes rested a bit, again began to look at the ball. An hour later, her Mom came to say her goodnight.

"How long are you going to practice obi?" she asked.

"Just a little more!"

"Okay! Be careful with your eyes!"

And her Mom went to bed.

Lica looked at the ball. All the objects in the room, reflected in it upside down. It seemed terribly funny, and she began to giggle quietly, trying not to attract the attention of her parents. She laughed until cry.

"A little witch!" Angelica told herself. "Laughed until cry!"

She began to wipe her eyes, and then it seemed to her that the ball moved. Lica looked about... She immediately blinked and looked what was going on!

The ball dimmed as it once happened with her mirror, then the picture became clearer and she saw a familiar face. Angelica looked more and more closely and then exclaimed:

"Margo?!"

"I am, my dear! And who did you expect to see?"

"Honestly, anyone else, but not you!"

"I hope you did not mean to hurt me," the witch laughed.

"No, of course not! I just wanted to read my fortune..."

"Well, consider you did! I've been trying to contact you, but after your sudden disappearance, I have lost all the threads leading to you."

"You know, it just happened..." the girl started to mumble. "I had to go back home."

"So urgent that you could not even say goodbye? Edward and Swein then were riding for hours in the mountains, looking for you!"

"Yes; it was so urgent that I couldn't wait a minute!" Lica said firmly.

"Well, well!" Margo smiled. "But we have not finished our conversation. I told Prince Edward everything what happened since he had given his soul for a potion for a princess. I told him that you and Swein had found the Book of Destiny, killed the sorcerer, who lived in the caves and released the evil!"

"But if we had not killed him, he would have killed us!" Angelica cried and looked with horror at the door of her room – been afraid that her mother could hear it?!

But it was silence.

"I see," the witch nodded. "But, as it turned out, the sorcerer's life was a kind of seal, closing the evil here - in our world! And having killed him, you broke that seal and opened the way to another world. At first I did not realized it and tried to fight using the usual magic to restrain the evil. For a few days, I succeeded, but then I understood that our forces are unequal. I have read a lot of magical books before finding out with what we are faced. They are not the usual creatures of the other world! It is very old magic. The sorcerer was a pagan and managed to contact with the terrible spirits. He stamped them with his soul. And while he was alive, the spirits obeyed him; but now they are out of control. I'm still trying to restrain them, but I feel that soon they will slice through defence and then our kingdom and many others won't find it funny. I told everything to the Prince Night. Edward decided to raise an army and go to the mountains to give a battle. But usual weapon won't help in this case. Worse the evil has a material embodiment, and can take any image of the terrible monsters if they want. Moreover, even if his army beat all the monsters, one cannot be sure that you will bag the spirits back - into the abyss! I explained that to Edward. We need other warriors, who are able to fight in the material and other world."

"Are you talking about vampires?"

"Yes, my dear! About vampires!"

"But why are you looking for me?" said Lica, blushing.

"Remember you said that you and the Prince of Vampires were not just friends."

"It's not your busyness!" the girl flushed with anger.

"I don't argue the point," Margo smiled. "I need you to go to the Prince and convince him to fight against the evil!"

"But why..."

"Why don't I or Prince Edward go to him? You know, because we are afraid of him. The Prince won't even talk to us! Only once I did with him: he needed a magic potion... I barely escaped with my life!"

The witch laughed.

"You're the only girl I know who have been safe and sound after meeting him. That's why I am looking for you."

"But I promised the Prince my appreciation in return of Edward's soul. And now I have to keep my promise. And I am still thinking about it."

"You're such a randy!" Margo smiled. "Okay, I'll give you a talisman. The Vampire will not be able to do anything with you until you are wearing my talisman. But remember, so ever you have to convince him to join the war against the evil, otherwise we all will die! And so will them, by the way! Spirits do not strain at vampires as well!"

Angelica thought a little then said:

"Okay, I'll go to the Prince and talk to him! Now, Margo, tell me what Swein and Edward are doing now?"

"Edward has returned to his castle and started to put things in order. Now he is gathering army to march. Swein went back to the city of Goblins. I told his father that the soul of the King was returned to his body, and on this occasion happy goblins are preparing for the grand ball. However, Swein stopped preparation, saying that he was going to join Edward's campaign against the evil. He has gathered his bodyguards and at this moment spends time training. I and his father tried to talk him out of doing that, because the ritual has not completed yet, but Swein did not even want to listen to us!"

"And how did the Prince Night and the Goblins' King react to my sudden departure?" Lica asked softly.

"Edward was very upset, and Swein was furious about it. Actually, he told us about your "disappearance". They ransacked everything for lost Angelica. But, alas... And tell me, why you ran away?"

"I stole one thing from Swein, which he wanted to pick up," said the girl. "With this I can enter the Kingdom of Night when I need it. And Swein wanted to deprive me this."

"Oh, he is wretch!" Margo exclaimed. "It's probably a stiletto?!"

Angelica nodded.

"Yes, I gave him a stiletto and a magic mirror using them he could enter your world. So, that means that now you have the stiletto? That's why Swein could not explain anything to me, when I asked him to find you. He said that he had left the knife somewhere, and lost touch with your world. And the magic mirror... Where is it?"

"At the Prince Edward's castle. With the help of the stiletto I can go through the magic mirror in one of the rooms of the castle."

"Oh, I see. Excellent! I will bring the mirror to my cave in order to avoid unnecessary meetings with your Prince or Goblins' King. You will be in touch directly with me. Agreed?"

"Brilliant!" said the girl full of mirth. "When do I have to come?"

"Give me a couple of days. I'll take the mirror and prepare a talisman for you. So come on the third night."

"So, see you there," said Angelica.

"Bye!" Margo smiled.

The crystal ball got dark, and when it cleared, all pictures disappeared.

"Well, thank God!" thought Lica.

She was very tired, and she could barely hold her eyes open. As soon as the girl got to bed she fell asleep...