Half-step Purgatory

Durin stroked the black cat on the armrest of his chair, sitting on the black leather sofa. Through the glasses perched on his nose, his gaze passed over the long table in front of him and settled on the man kneeling on the carpet:
"I understand, you've made money in Naples, your business has been very successful, and you've led a happy life. You've had those secret police, friends in both the law and the underground, and even the Royal Family speaking on your behalf."
"You don't need a friend like me, I know that. You're afraid of owing me a favor, and you don't want to get involved in troubles."
"But now you come to me and say, 'I beg you, Mr. Durin of the Corleon family, please help me seek justice, so that my life and my family will not suffer and sink into despair.'
Yet, in your eyes, I was nothing more than a second-rate artist involved in movies and music. Even at the brink of death, you still show me such disrespect, not even willing to call me by my title... Keeper of Secrets."

Durin's Diary

Minnie Shivas woke up once again from her soft bed.


The girl with red eyes stared at the ceiling for a long while, finally glancing at her hand raised in front of her face.


She had a lengthy dream, in that dream a great tree was burning, its flames illuminating the night sky from afar.


In the dream, she turned into a twisted monster, wailing day and night in the Great Wilderness, ruling over an endless tide of Otherkind, devouring all life upon the land.


The tide of Otherkind swept through Venice, Austria was burning, until the military reached Lublin.


How strange, in that world the Duke of Lublin was another young Grassland Elf, not Sir Durin; he and his defensive lines were ultimately shattered by the Otherkind, the earth was bleeding, lives were dying, and all things were withering.


In Minnie's dream, the Otherkind she turned into ultimately destroyed everything, only a very few escaped by boat.


Chapter 318: Transformation