Chapter 7.2 Reflections

M-yes. Matriarchs live in luxury. Oh well, now I can live like that too. The huge luxurious waiting room didn't impress me much - well, it was an ordinary earthly ballroom with cozy niches, in which there were soft black sofas with shiny gold legs. Between the niches stood beautiful black statues depicting the priestesses of the Atars.

Beyond the waiting room was a large reception room, looking as if it had just been abandoned. The furnishings were similar to those in the matriarch's office, only the room was three times longer. Almost the same black soft chair with a high back, but behind it stood a low, but wide and long sofa, similar to those in the waiting room. There were many more chairs than in the mother's, and they were all in rows. A small lamp on the table illuminated everything with a bluish light. Because of this, it seemed that the doors would swing open and a majestic and beautiful matriarch would enter the room, suppressing the will with her appearance and sense of power alone. There were three more doors leading into the reception room, in addition to the one through which we entered. Two were narrow and hidden behind the columns on either side of the table, and one, a double-leaf door and also decorated with carvings and gold, was directly behind the sofa. The statues depicted athars armed with scythes and ready to attack. They were so beautifully made that I seriously doubted that they were actually carved from stone. Behind the side doors were passage rooms with small sofas and tables. Apparently, the guards and servants with food and drinks were here during the reception. Behind the back door was a large courtyard covered with transparent material, more than a hundred meters long and about forty meters wide. Almost its entire area was occupied by a large beautiful pool. It was surrounded by a corridor separated from it by a colonnade. Unfortunately, the impression of this was spoiled by the devastation happening here. One transparent plate, farthest from us, fell. Although it did not break, but having fallen, it opened the way for strange bats, whose dried out carcasses were lying everywhere. In addition, these creatures fouled everything they could, and because of this there was a thick stench in the air. The two changed ones moved their hands in unison, weaving and activating a magic knot, and the air began to quickly clear of stench. After just a couple of breaths, it smelled fresh. Looking at the damage with disappointment, I thought that cleaning all this would take at least a few days. That is if mother does not hold back the servants, otherwise she will give ten, and the restoration will take a month. Plus, we urgently need to restore or close the roof with some kind of spell, otherwise these creatures can visit again. But that was the only unpleasantness - everything else was beyond praise. The matriarch's enormous bedroom was even frightening in its size and wide bed, on which the same twenty atretases in a row could easily fit, and there would still be room left for my beloved me. There were also twelve more bedrooms - as I understood, for the matriarch's personal retinue. All the bedrooms had empty boudoirs, closets and small rooms for personal belongings, weapons and equipment. There were also four empty square stepped pools measuring fifteen by fifteen steps, decorated along the perimeter with naked translucent statues of ataras of both sexes. The library, unlike the main one, was small - only a dozen low and narrow bookcases with quite ordinary books.Some of them were written in the runic script of the Ancients, some in a modern, much simplified dialect. On their spines, just like on Earth, were written ornate titles.

The barracks for the atretases did not impress me much – the apartments were exactly the same as the ones I lived in. They were located in a long corridor, similar to a regular hotel. I did not inspect the rooms for the orins – I had to go down the wide, decorated staircase to the floor below. We returned to the reception room, where I ordered a chair with a table to be moved to the wall, and a small sofa to be pulled out to the front, on which I was seated. The sofa was very soft and pleasant to the touch. I lay down on it, pulling my feet in boots onto it. They were clean anyway – I had not even stepped on the floor once today. One of the changed ones carefully covered me with a silk blanket. Well, the goddess's gifts are magnificent. All that remains is to live up to her expectations. I am afraid that the gifts are as beautiful as the punishment is terrible. The goddess inside laughed a cheerful, ringing laugh. There was nothing to hide anymore. Soon they will laugh at what and how I do in the toilet. In revenge, I decided to fall asleep and said, opening my eyes:

- When the Orins come, wake me up.

I stand on the shore and look at my feet. There is white coarse-grained sand under my feet. I raise my eyes and see black water-mist advancing on the shore. Monstrous black clouds cover half the sky with a swirling wall. I look to the left - an endless white shore, I can see how darkness is capturing it. I look to the right - there stands, with her back to the darkness, a beautiful woman dressed in black silk. She turns her face in my direction - this is the goddess Elos. She frowns and points her hand at something behind me. Turning around, I see a white-haired Atar. She is very thin and exhausted. She is trying to break free from the tentacles of strange creatures holding her. She screams and beats something, trying to reach the darkness that saves her, but the creatures hold her tightly and even rejoice at her resistance. The goddess hisses in impotence. I start to move to help the Atar, but the sand binds my feet, and to my horror I realize that I am beginning to be sucked in. But the saving darkness is nearby, and, rushing towards it, I am immersed in the saving warmth. Only now do I realize how frozen I am.

Through the darkness comes the voice of the changed one:

- Asheras, wake up, the matriarch has arrived.

Damn, I haven't had nightmares in a long time. It's so cold. I opened my eyes with difficulty:

- How long did I sleep?

- Two hours, Asheras.

The mother's voice was heard nearby:

"I see you're already settling in, Asheras."

I turned my head towards the sound and saw my mother looking at me approvingly.

- I hope you don't mind?

– No, no. This is a magnificent place, and it is extremely sad that it is empty. My mother's sister, Elviaran, ruled from here. You have probably been told that the Border of Darkness was abandoned because of the high costs of its maintenance and, in addition, the key was lost a hundred years ago… But that is not the whole truth. I will tell you all what happened more than eighty years ago, so that you know what to fear and why I am so happy about the favor of the gods. You should have been told this in eight or nine years during the course on the history of the house. But because you are Reborn and the day after tomorrow you will have a blade to blade conversation with the Supreme Arir, I will tell you everything now. So, first of all, I will explain who the Supreme Arir are. Arir in ancient times is a religious minister or ministeress. When talking to an Arir, you should know that the fact that a priest is important to his god does not mean that he is a good manager or politician. Therefore, it is not uncommon to meet a priestess who is favored by divine attention, but occupies a very low position in the temple of her god. Which, however, does not prevent the six temples from spending considerable funds on such "those close to god" and creating a number of high-profile positions that have no power within the temple. Well, like the Chief Candle Blower or the Supreme Tester of Soft Chairs. This concerns you. In a sense, you, although not a member of any temple, are an ariry. However, know that the supreme ariry are made of a completely different darkness. Do not be confused by softness and compliance. The supreme ariry Akrist has terrible power, and even the goddess may not dare to take you away from her temple. Why? Understand me correctly, if you put the will of a thousand ariry and your life on the scales - it is still unknown which will outweigh. You, I hope, understand that you are not the only chosen one of the goddess? Perhaps the most beloved, but not the only one. All the Arir of the Sixth Temple are Atretas, and they, as you know, have a completely different concept of honor than we do. The Supreme Arir, all six of them, are well over two thousand years old. - The Matriarch's face became like a mask. - Eighty years ago, the Council of Supreme Arir decided that House Y'si'tor was gaining strength and power too quickly. The four Great Houses united and in one blow killed all the Athar, except for the five of us and the Matriarch. Our Mariarch, my mother's sister Elviaran, was sold alive, practically given away for nothing, to the illithids, and ordered to torture her for a thousand years... - Not a single muscle moved on my mother's face when she said this. It seemed as if her face had turned into a rubber mask. - They were about to execute us, but the guard intervened and said that with the death of the last of the I'si'tor, he would be freed from the oath and the first thing he would do would be to burn the Sixth Temple into fine ash, and then attack the four houses... So we stayed alive. We hate the illithids, the four Great Houses and the supreme Arirs. The most vile thing about all this is that the I'si'tor was not the strongest house at that time, but we were always envied because of our strength and connection with the goddess.I know what you want to ask – why didn't the goddess intervene? Should gods intervene in a civil war? Not a single Atretas took part in that strange war. We were simply overwhelmed by numbers. For every Athar, including children, there were twelve or thirteen Athars from four houses. You see, all these attempts on our lives are reminiscent of the persecution that took place back then. Be very careful, Asheras, when talking to the Supreme One. It seems that we no longer pose any threat. But still – be careful, the goddess's intercession is an empty phrase for them. No, don't worry, they won't do anything directly. But hiring someone, like those same vampires or a shapeshifter, is easy.

Mother rose from her deep armchair and was about to leave when I finally came to my senses and said:

"Taenori, the roof has collapsed in the courtyard, and some creatures have fouled the entire pool. Could you spare forty or fifty orins for repairs and cleaning? Add some servants and food to that as well."

The mother turned around in the doorway:

- It's not a problem – our house can easily support such a small number of ataras…

The mother opened the door and left the reception room.

After she left, I couldn't get a wink of sleep. And when the servants arrived, I couldn't sleep. Watching them, I thought about my nightmare. It hinted at my grandmother's fate. The situation with the goddess resembles Earth. It's the moment when a bull pulls a cart up a mountain, and from the mountain she pushes the bull down the slope. Only ahead is an abyss… And how come the highly wise Arirs don't understand this? Well, they will rule the gods, but what next? There is only one answer – war. But with whom? I remembered Ehayalin. Now our agreement appeared in a different light. Of course, of course – just live! I almost spat on the stone floor. I'm only a year old, and there have already been two assassination attempts. I'm lucky that I wasn't attacked in the cradle. So, in order to "just live", I will need to destroy all enemies. Both external and internal. And they don't sit around polishing swords either. But never mind, they woke up too late. I have the knowledge of the ritual, and the giant storage device too. The only question is, is it worth starting this red tape? The day after tomorrow, the Supreme Arir will arrive, look at the changed ones - I am confused, like, a goddess, the Eternal and all that... There are witnesses. And what they saw... I will somehow get out of it. It was right that my mother came and enlightened me. Otherwise, I would have blurted out - like, I know the secret of how to make an apple out of a fig! And tomorrow morning, I will already be on the rack in the temple... So we sit quietly. I am simply sure that someone in the house is knocking on the temple door, and as soon as I move to stamp out atar from atretases, I am finished. And when I grow up, gain knowledge, then I will have to take on the Supreme Arir. And Elviaran will have to endure...

Orin started turning on the small subsystems of the Border of Darkness - water, heating, sewage. The kitchen started working, and the first thing they did was feed me. Orin, in crowds, started to tidy up the pool and the courtyard. They did it so quickly that by evening everything should have been cleaned. As the white-haired Orin reported to me, they would fix the roof tomorrow. Surprisingly, it turns out that the Border of Darkness will meet the Supreme in all its glory. I chuckled. I hope the Supreme will not take this as a restoration of our power... My teeth gritted... The time of reckoning will come...

That night I could hardly close my eyes, lying on the matriarch's huge bed. And only after I had spread the ters around me and fed them with Darkness from the source, I was able to fall asleep.

I had the same nightmare again. Only the feeling of cold didn't go away, and when I woke up, I was shaking terribly. The thin black silk blanket didn't warm me at all. Having somehow wrapped myself in it, I managed to fall asleep again.

I woke up myself and, judging by the column-shaped chronometer, quite early. I felt much better than yesterday, and without waiting for the servants, I dressed myself and went to look for the priestesses changed by Darkness. Oddly enough, they were found in the same bed, and looking at the intricacy of their naked bodies, I decided where I would warm up after another nightmare. Without waiting for them to wake up and get warmed up, after a short search I went down to the kitchen, where, causing a real furor among the Orins, I demanded food. In the midst of my feeding, worried and fully equipped Darkness-changed Ataras appeared. Seeing me, they also began to quickly satiate themselves. Looking at the variety of what they ate, all that was left for me was to eat my porridge and wash it down with a milkshake.

When I came out into the courtyard later, I didn't recognize it – the Orin had completely cleaned it, and now about twenty servants were trying to put the transparent slab back in place using some artifact. Frankly speaking, it wasn't working out very well. It strongly reminded me of the joke about the Armenians and the light bulb. When it dawned on me that in a little while the courtyard with the pool would have to be washed again, but this time from the blood and remains of the crushed servants, I called the changed one and ordered her to help them. Together they put the slab in place and secured it in about five minutes. A white-haired Orin materialized next to me and began to shower me with gratitude. I interrupted his speech and asked-ordered to fill the pools and call the maid-keykeeper from the matriarch's retinue. Looking at the black stepped pool decorated with gold slowly filling with transparent water, I thought about where the water in the complex comes from and what the filtration system looks like. So much needs to be sorted out... My thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of the housekeeper.

- You called, Atar?

- Yes, I am interested in the active part of the complex's security system. Specifically, the combat spell systems capable of destruction. Is it possible to turn off the system? I would not like to die in my sleep. Leave only the protective fields. Or remove them too.

- Yes, atar. But you must understand: everything that is turned off with a key can be turned on with a key.

- So the priority of keys is absolute?

- Yes, Atar. With the key, you can access any system of the Border of Darkness.

- Let's approach it from the other side. How many security system access terminals are there?

- Two, atar. One at the entrance and one at the exit. You see, according to ancient documents, during construction it was laid down that on the lower level, through sacrifices and other things, it would be possible to open not only distant, but also interworld portals. And the defense system would not only isolate possible breakthroughs of creatures from the planes and worlds, but would also destroy them. But the first war of the peoples turned everything upside down. Along with the system, keys were also created. Five were created in case of loss. No one assumed then that the Border systems would be used by enemies. But I would like to say that there is a way out of this situation - you need to discharge the main accumulator. Having discharged it, we will turn off the defense systems.

- But the Border of Darkness will be defenseless.

- It's a small price to pay, unless you want to never wake up one day.

- Will another Atar be able to charge the accumulator? And are there portable accumulators with which a possible saboteur could charge it?

- I would like to note, Atar Asheras, that you are extremely powerful and are an exception to the rules and laws. To give out fifty thousand ergs of Darkness in ten minutes is, I tell you, something incredible. In any case, I have seen this for the first time in fifteen hundred years. The Darkness Border was always charged by a group of four or five great priestesses of the house, and after that they perceived the world from the position of "lying on the bed" for the whole day. One charge in standby mode was enough for about a year. And about the accumulators... if the Atar wishes, he can come with me - I will show him the central accumulator of the complex and continue answering questions.

I didn't think long and looked at the changed one. She understood me at one glance and took me in her arms. Turning my gaze to Orin, I commanded:

- Lead the way.

We went down in the elevator. Orin said:

- Atar, you haven't seen the sacrificial altar and the sanctuaries of the gods yet. We're on the same path anyway, and if you want, I can show them to you.

Waiting for my nod, she led us down a wide corridor lit by rare blue lamps. After walking thirty steps, we found ourselves in a pentagonal room with a low truncated pyramid in the center. In each corner stood a tall statue, about ten meters high. One of them depicted the haughty Ehayalin in her risky clothing made of ribbons, and I saw the other four for the first time. I could still guess who the statue of a stately Atar depicted, dressed in loose clothing and with long claws on his hands. Since there was only one man among the gods, it was clearly Ihitos. The other images of the gods were unfamiliar to me, and I turned to the Arin for clarification.

"I understand that with all this fuss you were never introduced to our gods," said the maid and approached the statue of Ichitos. "Well, let's start with the eldest son of Elos – Ichitos. He was the firstborn of Asheret A'troth and even began to study with his father, but, as you know, death cut short these undertakings. He inherited greater power than his sisters, and perhaps because of this he became a little mentally unstable. It got to the point that he and his followers forgot themselves in battle and, throwing down their weapons, tearing off their clothes, fought with their bare hands, not distinguishing between enemies and allies. However, later he managed to figure out his power. And his Arir became much more controllable on the battlefield. In exchange for the faith of his Arir, he gave them enormous physical strength. Naturally, the more faith, the more power, but also less control. Those who went mad on the battlefield threw down their weapons and grew claws on their hands. By the way, in my opinion, the matriarch's brother, Areshtar, occupies a fairly high position in the hierarchy of the temple of Ihitos. Well, don't accidentally slip up in the presence of his arirs, saying Ihitos instead of Ihitos. A fight will follow. A fight, not a duel. So, next in line is Rea, the eldest daughter. She is depicted with two combat crescents in her hands. Only her followers can fight with this weapon. It is great for close combat, in addition, her arirs can throw them, spinning them - they always return to their owner. The clothes, as you can see, are ordinary from a modern perspective, but it was at the suggestion of her arirs that they became common for all priestesses of the goddess. Let's move on to the next statue. This is the oldest surviving image of Akrio. As you can see, she is naked. She patronizes love passion. Her arirs often beat their lovers to death on the bed of love, but at the same time they are capable of delivering great pleasure. They love torture and bloody battles. They have a very flexible body and are able to dodge even a crossbow bolt. They fight dressed in the bare minimum of clothing or without any at all. Next we have Ehayalin. The goddess of fear and horror. A very contradictory, even for us, essence. Her arirs sense the fears of others and are able not only to control them, but also to materialize them. Ehayalin came very close to the power of her mother Elos. The most balanced of all the gods of the dark eldar ... Here we come to the youngest daughter of Elos - Kriata. She was born after the death of her father and therefore never saw him. After realizing her power, she went to the Bottom of the Worlds in the hope of finding him there, but after a thousand years of searching, she returned without finding him. The only Eldar goddess who has an affinity for the power of Death and gives her arirs a affinity for it. But the price is high. Kriata needs almost no faith, but sacrifices. Even more than our other gods. In fact, the more sacrifices there are, the more power her arirs will receive. She is depicted as thin, even for you, Atar, with a hood thrown over her face with slits for the ears. In addition,her clothes are similar to those of her eldest sister. As you can see, in her right hand she holds a curved ritual dagger in a reverse grip, its blade almost hidden in her sleeve. Be careful when hugging the arira of this goddess in bed - because, according to their worldview, the more precious the victim is to this arira, the more power he will receive... Don't be so surprised. Yes, in the moment of ecstasy they cut their lovers or mistresses. You want to ask why our people have not disappeared yet? Well, not all are arira of the children of Elos! And forewarned is forearmed... Well, and here's some advice for the future: before dragging any priestess into bed, completely disarm her... - Orin thought about something, probably about how difficult it is to disarm the arira of Kriata.

Without wasting any time, I asked my question:

- Where is the statue of the goddess Elos?

"She doesn't need statues – we are all her images anyway… She doesn't need the prayers of the Arirs and doesn't need followers – we are all conductors of her will and belong to her… Well, if you are ready, then let's continue our journey – it's not far from here." Orin looked at me expectantly and, after waiting for a nod, approached a barely noticeable niche in the wall opposite the entrance.

She touched the wall with the key and stepped aside. The wall changed and sank, taking on the appearance of a spiral staircase. Orin began to descend it, and we followed. When we found ourselves in a room on the tier below, the first thing I saw was a huge, murky-dark stone hanging in the middle of a small round room. The stone was a simple geometric shape, I think on Earth it was called pointed. It was about two meters high.

Orin walked up to him and turned to us and said:

- This stone is the main accumulator of the Border of Darkness. It is an artificial diamond grown with given parameters and very small cavities inside. It is in these cavities that the energy of Darkness accumulates, and in all of them at once. That is why the accumulator has a uniform color. Fully charged, it will be absolutely black. Now let's return to your question, Asheras. This accumulator has a borderline ideal size. By this I mean that when charging, the ratio of stored and spent energy is one to one. But the smaller the accumulator, the worse this ratio will be. For example, if the accumulator is a hundred times smaller, then not only will it store less energy, but it will also require an order of magnitude more energy to charge it than it stores. Where will the rest go? It will dissipate. You can understand that charging such small accumulators will be very slow. Otherwise, the priestesses pumping it may die. Therefore, I would advise you not to be too afraid of such a development of events. But I would like to say that it is possible to discharge the defense only by using all its energy or by pumping it into your gift. But the second will be very unpleasant.

- What needs to be done?

Orin sighed and held out the key:

- Take the key and, just as you pumped it, pump the energy into your gift.

Easy for her to say. I unraveled my teras, stuck one of them into the diamond and turned on my magical vision. Suddenly the Darkness began to flow inside me, generously pouring it into the ball of the gift. It began to seem to me that I was being inflated like a balloon. Fearing that I would burst, I began to pour the Darkness into the teras, which, under the influence of the force, began to fill with darkness until they became oil-black. The energy ran out when my teras began to look like giant black shiny snakes. The sensation was unusual. I turned off my magical vision and stared at my coal-black teras, which were not going to become invisible. I moved them - well, just like snakes. Even a little scary and disgusting. Somehow I did not want to pull them back in. I looked around for Orin and found her frightened, pressed against the wall.

- Is the storage device empty?

The maid, without taking her eyes off my ters, whispered:

- Yes, lord...

I was suddenly overcome with rage. I instantly wrapped my terami around the orin and brought it to the accumulator.

- Look there!

"Yes, yes, yes, Atar, it's empty!" she began to say.

I calmed down just as quickly and, putting the maid on the floor, said:

- Then let's go. Close it here.

When we got to the elevator, my ters still hadn't returned to normal. I even had a fear that they wouldn't come. The six of us barely fit in the elevator because of my inflated ego. I moved them all to the back of my body so that they wouldn't interfere with looking around. But my fears were groundless – when we reached the top floor, I noticed that the ters seemed to be smoking, emitting the energy of force. Having let go of the frightened housekeeper, the changed priestesses and I went back to the chambers. Watching with languid interest the ritual of opening the doors performed by the changed one, I thought about the fact that I would have to sleep again, spreading my ters like an octopus spreads its tentacles. At least I wouldn't blurt out something to the Supreme One tomorrow in conversation…

I woke up the next morning again before my guards. The first thing I noticed was that my ters had completely cleared themselves of dark energy. Having dressed myself, I looked into the priestesses' room, went down to the kitchen and had breakfast under the surprised looks of the servants. When I was finishing eating, the sleepy but fully equipped changed ones appeared. In order not to see their happy faces during breakfast, I turned away and watched how and from what the Orin were preparing food.

They cooked not on fire, but on hot square black plates, which in effect were similar to electric stoves. Everything else was not much different from what was on Earth: mushrooms and other vegetables were cut with kitchen knives, and one of the maids took a live, ugly and large shrimp-crab from a basket and with two quick movements - chik-chik - removed the still living shell, and then, having killed it, began to cut it up. In general, the cooking method was very similar to the Eastern one: something very similar to sushi was made from the shrimp, and from the mushrooms and vegetables there would obviously be soup.

While I was watching the servants' actions, the changed ones finished eating and lined up behind me. Leading my small squad, I went down to the large pool and, sitting near its edge in the lotus position, closed my eyes and began to meditate, examining and warming up my gift. Time passed unnoticed. From meditation, I slipped into a half-sleep, from which I was pulled out by the voice of the changed one. Opening my eyes, I saw a gray-haired servant with new black silk clothes. I decided not to go anywhere and changed my clothes right there. The Eldar had a careless attitude towards the naked body. And here, on Earth, you can often see naked little children in the summer. Having quickly changed, I went to the reception room and lay down on a low sofa. Orin, before leaving, informed me that the supreme Arir would arrive soon. And again the wait dragged on. Five minutes later he returned and said:

- The Supreme Arir of the Great Goddess of Darkness, Elos Akrista, awaits.

My God, no one bothered to teach me etiquette! I hope I'll be forgiven if I make a mistake. I stood upright and looked back at the frozen changed.

- I'm ready. Invite her.

Orin came out and, opening the door, made an inviting gesture. A second later, the priestess of the Atretases, the supreme Arir, appeared in the doorway. Her clothes were striking in the number of jewels. Looking at them in my magical vision, I saw that there was not a single one of them that did not carry some kind of charge. I splashed a little energy into my teras and literally felt the teras of the changed and the priestess who entered. She did not have many of them - only ten, but compared to the other Atretases I had seen, she was amazingly strong. I looked up and looked into her eyes, seeing only slight self-confidence in them. Stubbornness rose inside. We will see, we will see. Four other Arir, the guards, followed her into the reception room. Doesn't she really feel safe here? What was the point of taking guards from the Atretases? I, with my guards, will demolish all their defense in a second. Although, if you consider the dedication to certain gods… At the sight of them, my two guards took three steps forward, ending up between me and the Arir. While Akrista walked to the chair in front of me, I glanced at the figures of the changed priestesses and saw that the ends of their hair were dyed red and black. Well, finally I can somehow tell them apart. Meanwhile, the Supreme Arir sat down in the black chair and, crossing her legs, said:

- Greetings, Asheras at I'si'tor.

- And I greet you, Supreme Arir of the Great Goddess of Darkness, Elos Akrista. May I ask what has attracted your attention?

- I have come to witness the will of the goddess - the conversion of four priestesses of Atretas into Atar. This is a unique case. In all of history, something like this has only happened twice. And the first time was in ancient times, before the first war of the peoples. I see that you are a Reborn, which is also not a frequent occurrence in our history. And almost all Reborn were born in the house of Y'si'tor.

- Oh, you must understand that in connection with the weakening of the Great House of Y'si'tor, the gods are making serious efforts to increase and restore its power. - At the word "Great", Akrista slightly twisted. - As you see, it even came to such a radical decision as changing the priestesses of Atretas. In fact, they are flesh of my flesh. - Let me throw a touchstone into her clouded mind. - The goddess even fears that if this is not enough and the house continues to weaken, she will have to directly intervene ... - Did it seem to me or did fear flash across the face of the Supreme Arir?

- I hope it won't come to that.

- Me too. - Quite the opposite. The goddess would bring order here. Although I need time to grow up.

- We've heard some interesting rumors. It seems that the Crimson Flame was used in the last assassination attempt?

- Yes... - If only I knew where these "rumors" came from. Read - reports from the priestesses recruited during the capture of the house. I'll throw another stone into the pool and see what kind of waves come. - The Eternal says that they attempted not on the matriarch, but on me. What do you think about this?

Akrista narrowed her eyes just a little:

- Well, you're not that important a person...

- On the scale of the city, perhaps, but on the scale of the house, I am already a significant figure. In addition, the illithids are involved in the assassination attempts, which clearly indicates an external threat. What position will the temples take regarding all this?

The Supreme Arir grinned defiantly:

- Waiting.

My patience snapped. I felt the pointlessness of the conversation - as the matriarch said, the temples are pursuing their own policy.

- Let's get back to the purpose of your visit. What do you want?

- We need to know the names of the new priestesses of the Athar House of Y'si'tor.

- The Eternal did not tell them. She handed them over to me in complete subordination. As soon as there is a need to emphasize their individuality, they will receive names. - Putting on a good face in a bad game. I really need to do this.

- Then I suggest you let us know when this happens. Have we reached an agreement?

- Naturally, Supreme Arir.

- Well, I bid you farewell. Unfortunately, I have a tightly scheduled day. Yes, the procedure for receiving a name will be the usual one. When the names are chosen, do not forget to come to the temple of the Supreme Goddess for a blessing.

- I also say goodbye to you. I will make every effort to fulfill your will.

The Supreme Arir stood up and walked out of the reception room.

A hundred out of a hundred that on the way to the temple they will try to remove me from the board again. I will demand five hundred or six hundred atretases from the matriarch for protection, and I will leave her in the house. I looked thoughtfully at the white-haired servant closing the door behind the Supreme. Here they would let me completely recover, otherwise I look like a dried-out mummy. And this training. Yeah. I remembered. I will have to drag out the names until the last minute. The Supreme did not name a deadline - that's good. I need to find out from the matriarch how to drag them out. Akrista clearly did not come for names, but for reconnaissance. She completed the task and left...

I looked at the white-haired servant and said:

- Tell the matriarch that I have recovered enough to continue my studies. Although no, I will talk to her myself. Is the matriarch in the house now?

- Yes, atar.

- I need to talk to her.

- She will return to her chambers in an hour. Should I inform her?

- Yes. And we will wait for her.

- Yes, atar.

The servant disappeared into the doorway. I turned to the changed ones:

- Do you remember the way?

The changed nodded. I turned my gaze to the nearest priestess.

- You will carry me.

And so we arrived at the mother's chambers. Orin the housekeeper opened the office for us and asked us to wait. I ordered my porter to sit in the chair opposite the matriarch's desk. It felt so good in her arms - soft, warm, cozy, safe... Relaxing, I remembered something.

- You dyed the ends of your hair, I see? And what colors did you choose?

- Red, blue, purple and black.

Maybe we should call them that? In the ancient Eldar dialect, red is "kerat", blue is "hetahi", purple is "ashri", black is "tashi"... By the way, white is pronounced as "ak'tashi", in common parlance - "the opposite of black". In general, the Eldar language, and especially the ancient dialect, is very "cheerful". For example, the word "torture" has twenty synonyms, but the word "friendship" does not. It is replaced by a phrase meaning "temporary ally". The word "love" is also missing, but the word "passion" can be pronounced in as many as thirty variations. In general, the ancient Eldar were real inventors. You have to come up with as many as three completely different languages ​​​​that were supposed to be used in different circumstances. The first of them is high speech. Impossibly florid and high-flown. The words spoken in it can have many interpretations - the final version will depend on the intonation and "singing" of the sentences. Speaking it is sheer madness - a pronunciation error ends in a duel. Meeting an Atretas speaking high speech is incredible luck. The second is the speech of children. The difference between them is like the difference between Old Russian and modern Russian. The name "speech of children" does not mean that it is spoken by small children, but that it is spoken by Atretases - almost children for Atars. The third is the language of death. It is used on the battlefield, during raids and war. Includes signs and signals. Allows for abbreviations and abruptness. Convenient and unambiguous. So far, I have only mastered the speech of children and have only just moved on to high speech. They will not teach me the language of death for a very long time ... Knowing the language of death means that you are already ready for military action. I had a feeling that they wouldn't teach me that. So that, God forbid, I wouldn't die on the battlefield. I'm too valuable. No way, I won't sit in my apartment – ​​I'll die of boredom there. And the goddess has already outlined the targets. On the other hand – the Six Temples, the illithids… Until I gain strength, I won't go outside the house. Although it's not particularly safe here either… I wonder if the Supreme One understood my signals and hints? Maybe at least the Six Temples won't dig my grave? Approaching footsteps were heard, and my mother opened the door. Looking around at our company, she said with a sigh:

- Greetings, Asheras.

- And I greet the matriarch. I need to talk to you. The conversation is very important, and not a single sound should reach strangers' ears. Otherwise, I will be killed, and our house will not outlive me for long... I even think that what I say should remain only between us.

The matriarch raised a skeptical eyebrow.

- And what do you want to tell me?

I looked at the door with emphasis. Mother sighed and, going to the table, took a black cylinder out of the top drawer and placed it on the table. As soon as the cylinder touched the table, it immediately began to shimmer with a bluish color and released from its insides a multitude of black threads that formed a cocoon around us. The center of the cocoon was the cylinder, and its diameter was about six meters, but where the cocoon encountered a wall or other surface, it covered it with a moving layer of black threads. The Matriarch said:

- This old Ancient object was created to prevent eavesdropping. What did you want to talk about, Asheras?

I looked up at her and spoke:

"I tried to convey to the Supreme the idea that Elos decided to directly intervene in what was happening.

My mother interrupted me:

- And how?

- Well, there were four changed people standing in front of her, so she had no doubts about this point. I also threw out to her the idea that the next time the goddess's intervention could be much larger. Yes, during the conversation I had the feeling that the Six Temples knew nothing about the assassination attempts, but it was just a feeling. And now about what I kept silent about in the conversation.

The mother raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I can transform Atretases into Athars using a ritual imprinted in my memory by the Eternal. Each transformation requires about five hundred thousand ergs of Darkness. This is one of the reasons why I occupied the Border of Darkness. So, in principle, I can do one transformation per day. The only question is whether it should be done now or in twenty years, when I am strong enough. There is another problem: it is that the Six Temples have spies in our house, and it may happen that less than three days from the beginning, we will be stormed again, and I will end up in the torture chamber. And finally, Elos sends me dreams in which some creatures similar to Eldar with tentacles torture a thin and emaciated priestess of the Athars. " I fell silent, and the matriarch looked at me thoughtfully. I didn't bother her and sat on her hands in the lotus position, but I didn't have time to meditate. Mother chuckled and said:

- You are right in everything, we will not start all this with transformations yet. Indeed, it is the same as pulling a dragon by the tail. We will prepare, develop a plan and, when you grow up, we will take revenge. Time is still patient. Regarding Elviaran... We are unlikely to be able to do anything. Her torment will only grow all the time... We have already tried to fight her off several times, but - unsuccessfully... The last attempt was forty-two years ago. Ehaer gathered a large detachment of our children who were not born as athars, you should know that they are especially loyal to us and especially gifted, one could say - a guard within a guard. That campaign was not only unsuccessful - Ehaer ran into a defense of illithid slaves, but on their retreat they were caught up with and some demon from the lower worlds was set on them. He possessed an eldar and took his body under absolute control, gradually eating him from the inside. Then he changed the host. There were forty-six dancers and priestesses in the detachment. Before anyone suspected anything, four died. The creature was identified and killed along with the body it was in, but it was too late. With enough "food", the creature multiplied and shortly before death, it laid several embryos in the bodies of soldiers. Just three marches before the outpost of the Deep Guard of our house, almost all the male soldiers were under control... and suddenly attacked. In order to get rid of the creatures, the priestesses had to use astral spells from the Higher Annals of Darkness. Only ten priestesses survived. You did not see despair in their eyes, but I did... Even Ehaer, having returned from the ill-fated campaign, changed. Previously, even preparing for death, he never stopped joking, there was not a night that he spent alone, and now... he either trains or just sleeps. "He used to look like Sariyeharna, always disheveled and hung with weapons that jingled like five hundred gold pieces when he walked, and now?" Mother's voice was anxious and sad. "We assume that there is no point in attacking the illithids until we deal with the spies. Sariyeharna and Ehaer believe that the Six Temples share information with the illithids, and in exchange receive their services or ideal slaves.

- To be honest, Elviaran looked very exhausted. How did you know that she would be tortured for exactly a thousand years?

"We were told during the liberation. Wait, you mean to tell me that was a lie?" Mother gritted her teeth. "It's possible, but it doesn't change much. The illithids will know about any sortie from the house and be prepared."

- Have you tried to bribe them?

- We have nothing to offer them. Four houses will give more anyway... Besides, we don't have much money - when the house was taken, the treasury was almost empty.

- Well, that means she'll have to endure it. And what are these illithids anyway?

- They look like Eldar with many tentacles. They feed on finely chopped meat. They have amazing psychic power. They can unite minds for greater efficiency. They can manipulate memories, erasing unnecessary ones and giving completely different ones. In a sense, they are immortal... hmm... How can I explain? The mechanism itself is unknown, but those who have reached a certain level of mastery can rewrite their consciousness and memory into a newborn. Such people are called "illiti" and their status among their people is equal to ours. They have few specific combat skills, and almost no magic, but with the power of their minds they are able to bend matter, space and even time. Their vision is not very developed, but their hearing is on the level of ours. Look. - Mother moved her hand over the table, and a three-dimensional, half-meter high image of a familiar creature appeared above the tabletop. Looking at it, I remembered that I had seen them not only in my dreams, but also on the street. Now I could see the illithid better. Mother moved her hand, and a naked figure of an Eldar appeared next to the creature. The illithid was slightly taller. Its smooth face had large, cloudy eyes, instead of a nose there were two small oval holes, and its lipless mouth looked like a horizontal slit. Numerous thin tentacles grew from the back of its head, similar to those of an octopus. Its arms, past the elbow, also ended in four tentacles. As far as I could tell, it was either sexless or had internal genitals. Its legs were like normal ones, only each had two big toes. - Yes, their strength decreases with distance, and there has never been a single one of them who could take control at a distance higher than fifty meters. Even among the illithid. And so - from twenty meters we shoot with crossbows and bows. And even if you are a weak magician, then they are finished.

- Is it really that simple?

The matriarch started to laugh, but then stopped laughing and her face darkened.

- If only, if only... You will never see an illithid without a guard of slaves. Among the slaves you can meet not only dark eldar, but also representatives of other peoples. Even dwarves.

What other gnomes, besides Santa Claus? Although the housekeeper mentioned them, but I was looking around my home and didn't pay much attention to her words. We also have a lot of things mentioned in our legends, so what?

- But they are famous for their resistance to any magic. But the whole point is that the power of the illithids originates in Order and Chaos, and these are not some elements or even forces. Sometimes among the slaves of the illithids there are even strong magicians. So an illithid alone is pathetic, but an illithid with slaves can become a very serious opponent. And he can sacrifice his puppets and retreat at any moment. - Taenori fell silent, looking at the translucent figure of the illithid hanging above the table.

- How many intelligent races are there in this world?

- Do you mean the number of intelligent species?

- Well, yes…

- Five hundred years ago there were twenty, but now, maybe someone was crushed, or maybe someone new appeared, and having realized where he ended up, sits somewhere, huddled in a hole, and dreams of dying of old age, and not going to be used as grease for swords or into slavery...

The realization of the meaning of the phrase spoken by my mother left me stunned.

"So much?" I exclaimed.

- Well, yes... Only our house has six different representatives of the nations as slaves. Fortunately, their diets are not particularly different...

- Can you show me what other nations there are?

The mother looked at the anti-spy cylinder standing at the edge of the table.

- We won't discuss anything serious anymore?

- No.

The matriarch removed the cylinder from the table. As soon as she removed it from the table, it turned off. Putting it back in the drawer, the mother sighed and began:

- We, the Dark Eldar, live underground. I will tell you about the races that we border and interact with - the dwarves, the Acherez, the Nagas, the Goblins and the Illithids. Well, you have seen the latter. Let's start with the dwarves. - Mother waved her hand over the figurine of the Illithid, and it turned into a stocky bearded figure, which was two heads shorter than the Eldar, but just as broad in the shoulders, the legs seemed a bit short, and the long muscular arms almost reached the knees. - They live a little deeper than us, excellent craftsmen and artefact makers. As for magic, they are even worse than the Illithids - those born with a weak gift over the last century can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Nevertheless, they replace ordinary magic with runic magic in everyday life. Runes are the writings of the gods. How can I explain this more simply? Well, to put it simply: if you take an ordinary stone and write on it in runes that it is a diamond, it will become a diamond. This is a very simplified example, but it conveys the whole essence of runic writing. Runes can even be spoken, but put the slightest bit of power into a word, and that's it – you are a corpse. Because of this, the self-name of the language of the gods was lost, only transcriptions and designations of five thousand runes remained. Ask your teachers for more details. Next we have the Akheres. - Mother moved her hand over the figurine of the gnome, and it obediently changed, becoming shorter and even broader-shouldered. The facial features changed – the nose became smaller, and the beard became curly. The skin darkened, becoming a little chocolate. - The Akheres are distant relatives of the gnomes, but there is a long-standing feud between them, just like we have with the light ones. Almost everything is the same as with the dwarves, but the Aherez have more gifted people, a longer lifespan and a lower birth rate, which balances these two peoples. Well, for example, dwarves can sometimes give birth to twins, and for the Aherez this is such a rare occurrence that ... - The Matriarch waved her hand expressively. - Yes, the dwarves call themselves dwarves, and the Aherez call themselves dwarves. - Taenori waved her hand over the figurine of a bearded dwarf, and it obediently began to change, turning into a creepy cross between a man and a snake. - Snakemen, or nagas ... On average, three to four times heavier than the Eldar. Strong, fast, even more ruthless than us. Their people are very similar to ours in their heterogeneity and internal structure. But they have two classes - rulers and warriors. Moreover, the rulers - they are called exsess - are also very gifted magically, reminiscent of the athar in this, and the warriors - sheksassy - are deprived of the gift, just like the orin. But the sheksassy have a high birth rate, and the exsess - on the contrary, have a very low one. There is an opinion that the exsess are also immortal, like the eldar. They live quite far away and much lower than us, as a result of which border skirmishes occur no more than once a century ... Perhaps the only race with which we have a common view of the world and relations with it ... Once we were even briefly in alliance with them against the illithids ... But, unfortunately, those times are in the past. - Taenori fell silent, thoughtfully looking at the image of the naga. I also greedily looked at the figurine of potential allies. Having come to, my mother passed her hand over it,and it obediently flowed into a thin, big-eared, lop-eared, slightly hunchbacked and disgusting figure of the color of a swamp. The face was vaguely similar to a human, only without lips and with a large nose. The mother said in an even voice: - Goblins. If all the ugliness and stupidity of the Eldar were collected in one body, you would get a goblin ... I don't even know how to describe them. Vile, stupid, greedy, cruel ... They breed like mice. They take numbers. The gifted are outside the system - they eat better, are better dressed, but they are not the leaders of the tribe. Short-lived - the average lifespan is ten years. Asheras, look in the library for more details. I don't remember some things anymore. Well, it seems we have dealt with our immediate neighbors, and the plane dwellers are not as important to us as we would like ... - The Matriarch fell silent again, looking at the goblin figure.

- When will my training start again?

- Even tomorrow, it depends on your wishes.

- I have recovered enough. Tomorrow we must begin... I almost forgot! The Supreme Arir is requesting new names for the changed priestesses, wants it to be done according to the usual ritual. But what does it include?

- Well, a name is chosen, an arbitrary one. It is desirable that it reflects the essence of the one being named. Then the Elos temple is notified by an official letter, and the Arirs enter it into the lists. Well, and then the Arirs set a date for the visit to the temple, usually every other day.

– Are there any possibilities to delay this process as much as possible?

- Hmm, are you afraid that you will be attacked again on the way?

- Yes...

- In principle, if you follow the letter, you can't have children until you reach adulthood. Therefore, I think there is no need to give names yet. And then we'll see. And how do you tell them apart? They are very similar in body and gift.

– I told them to dye the tips of their hair different colors. Red, blue, purple and black. I even thought about giving them names related to this…

- And what kind?

- Well, from the language of the Ancients - Kerat, Hetahi, Ashri, Tashi.

- The idea is good. And considering that they are essentially your children, it is up to you to come up with names for them... So you will receive my approval for these names.

- Well, since we've resolved the main issues, I'll go back. Oh yeah, let someone instruct the changed ones about the start of classes.

- Yes, Asheras, I will send one of the servants.

I turned my head to the changed one:

- Let's go back.

I spent the end of the day meditating by the pool.

The next day began with my now-habitual habit of getting up early and having breakfast in the kitchen. My security, as usual, burst in when I was already finishing my meal. By the way, I found out what kind of "milk" it was. It was the blood of a large freshwater snail. To be honest, I had to eat worse in the special forces, and once I even ate Chinese food. So I just asked for more and with a gloomy expression began to watch the priestesses gobbling up the same mollusk, only fried.

When they had finished eating, we went up to the pool, where I waited patiently for a messenger from the teachers. But instead, a white-haired atretas appeared, dressed in a cloak with a hood pulled down over most of his face.

"My name is Atere," he introduced himself. "I am the commander of two dozen dancers and the ariry of Ihitos. I will be your teacher in the forces. The training will take place on the magical training ground. Do you need time to pack? No? Then follow me, I beg you."

I asked to be picked up by the changed one, and we followed the magician. After walking through long corridors, we came out into a part of the house where I had never been before. After going down a long and wide staircase, we found ourselves in a huge underground hall, also shaped like an elongated rhombus. The walls were about twenty-five meters high, and the rhombus was more than three hundred meters long. The floor was also sprinkled with white sand, but its layer was very thin. Atere turned around and said, looking at me:

- Well, let's begin the introductory lesson. This is a magical training ground designed to teach and train atara in using their potential. There are three such training grounds in our house. Specially designed protection does not allow even the most powerful spells to escape the premises. So, let's start with the theory. What is magical potential? This is the maximum amount of mana that a magician can replenish and store in his gift. Magicians are those creatures who can operate their gift and create spells. What is mana? It is the energy contained not only in the gift, but also around us. Nodes, rituals, spells - all this requires mana. Even an appeal to the gods requires mana. Mana is measured in ergs. One erg is the amount of mana required for the minimum filling and subsequent activation of the elemental node known as a "fireball". – Arir almost instantly created a slightly burning translucent sphere in his hand and, turning around, threw it towards the center of the training ground. Upon touching the floor, it burst loudly, scattering sand in all directions. – My magical potential is equal to five thousand five hundred fifty three. This does not mean that I, if such a need arises, will be able to create the same number of "fireballs". The gift is divided by filling from sources outside of it. For example, my elemental source of Fire fills only one sixth of the gift. This means that I will be able to create about eight hundred "fireballs". But this would be outright stupidity. The fact is that a "fireball" with a charge of one erg is one of the weakest elemental nodes, in addition, it can be charged with a much larger amount of energy and not only equipped with homing blocks, but also made two- or even three-layered, like an egg in an egg. Each magician has his own such spells, and many of them are extremely effective. Most of them are usually built on the simplest nodes, such as the "fireball", but are made multi-layered and pumped with mana. Now I will show you a two-layer "fireball" with each layer filled with fifty ergs of the Fire element. - The magician closed his eyes, and a haze of hot air appeared above the right palm of his bent hand. I turned on my magic vision and began to watch in surprise as the orange teras belonging to Atera very quickly touched the surface of a clearly distinguishable sphere. It seemed that the teras consisted of some kind of gel and with each touch transferred part of their flesh to the increasingly clearly manifested sphere. The sphere gradually filled with orange light. The bright threads of the frame covering it became increasingly clear on it. At some point, I realized that the frame was complete and the teras of my new teacher penetrated inside the frame, creating another layer there, but much simpler. Having completed the creation of the two-layer "fireball", the magician turned his back to us, and the "fireball" itself broke away from his hand and flew to the opposite side of the polygon. While it was flying, Atere moved his left hand in front of him, folding his fingers into a strange combination, and a convex transparent semicircular shield, about ten meters wide, formed in front of us.The next second, a huge ball of fire suddenly swelled up at a distance of a hundred meters, and a moment later it was blown up again from the inside. The explosion created a powerful shock wave that raised all the sand from the far part of the training ground, but unexpectedly for me, having traveled only half the distance to us, it fizzled out - only rare grains of sand reached us, which were stopped by the defense.

The fiery cloud of the explosion rose very slowly, as if unwillingly, and went out, flattening itself against the ceiling. The teacher turned to me and continued his explanation:

– Such knots are used to break through or exhaust the defense of enemy mages. The number of spells, knots of the elements is counted in the hundreds and is divided into defensive, offensive and summoning or creation. I will teach you how to work with the elements, and the athar Isites will teach you powers. Yes, I was told that you, Asheras, have an elemental of the element of Fire? This simplifies matters. I will explain to you what an elemental is. There are two levels of elemental creations – spirits and elementals proper. Let's start with spirits. Elemental spirits are immortal entities with a certain degree of intelligence that can exist only in the element that gave birth to them. Alone, they are not particularly strong, and each priestess can repel their attack and put them to flight, but, uniting in groups, they can create the most powerful elemental effects: hurricanes, landslides, floods, extensive fires, and even awaken powerful eruptions of long-extinct volcanoes. The more elemental spirits unite, the stronger and faster the effect. Elementals... Very strong. Only high priestesses or ataras can calm a raging elemental. They are capable of existing even in hostile elements and forces. Throughout history, there has not been a single case of two elementals, even from the same element, joining forces. What can an elemental do? Local, limited to one or two thousand steps of distance from it, influence. But the power over its element in this zone is all-encompassing for an elemental - the spirits of the element are not able to resist the elemental. Even very large unions of them are only able to limit the elemental's zone of influence. In addition, an elemental can and does influence other elements and even forces bordering its element. It is believed that the most powerful elementals may be immune to the influence of boundary protoforces. Elementals, unlike spirits, have a certain intelligence in themselves, which has long raised certain questions about the participation of Order in their creation. You should know that our house has always gravitated towards the element of Fire and we have many methods of teaching how to work with it and spirits, elementals, creatures, and incarnations based on it. I have given orders to deliver certain books from the library to your apartments. Try to devote as much free time to them as possible. These are reprints in a common language, so I do not see any difficulties in comprehending the information provided in them. Read the first chapter of the book "Basics of Weaving the Element of Fire with the Help of Ters", since at the next lesson, which will take place in five days, we will analyze the first and simplest weaving of the "fireball". I consider this introductory lesson complete. Other teachers are already waiting for you. The next lesson will take place right here. Until next time, Atar Ashe-ras," he said, bowing his head.

- Until next time, teacher Atere.

Atretas quickly passed me, and I, turning around, saw how he briefly greeted Isites entering the training ground. My sister was dressed in complex laced armor made of black leather, similar to snakeskin. The jacket had beautiful buttons-fasteners depicting screaming, distorted in agony faces. A high soft collar completely covered her neck. Her gray hair was gathered, as usual, in a tight ponytail, pulled together with black ribbons, at the end of which hung beautiful black bells in the shape of a house sign, when moving they barely audibly jingled in time with her steps. The only weapons were hip swords and a pair of predatory curved booties. On her chest lay a white athar mask, fastened to a ring on the collar with a white chain. In her hands, my sister held a meter-long, transparent, as if made of glass, half-meter-long cane. What can I say, a magnificent representative of our house. Personally, I believe that when the Creator created man and woman, he started with men for a reason. It's simple - he honed his art on us. It's not for nothing that his latest creation is much more beautiful than a man. Meanwhile, Isites approached and said:

- I greet you, Asheras, and you, priestesses.

In response, we suddenly shouted in unison:

- We greet you, Isites!

The sister narrowed her eyes prettily, but, not noticing the mockery, continued:

– I will teach you how to handle the forces, but since this is the first lesson, I will simply tell you about each of them. When you address any force, know: even in Light there is Darkness, even in Darkness there is Light, even in Death there is Life, even in Life there is Death… When addressing any force, you must know and never forget one thing – all forces, unlike the elements, are intelligent in themselves. There is an opinion that the Creator created them this way. So, let's start with Darkness. For our people, directing the gift into this force is common. The minimum filling of the weakest node of any force is ten ergs, respectively. Darkness mixes best with the element of Water, but does not disdain other elements. This is the only force that can do this. Darkness is universal – it can attack and defend, heal and kill, destroy and create, summon and create. It has only one drawback - it has a certain static nature, and its weaves are formed on average slower than those of other forces, but the more static it is, the more destructive it is. When mixed with the element of Fire, it forms the Crimson Flame - a proto-force devoid of all the shortcomings of pure Darkness. The Crimson Flame took the best from its parents: from Fire - speed, and from Darkness - power. Only one proto-force rose to the same level as it, but we will talk about it a little later. Next, let's take Death. The destiny of this force is creation, embodiment. Attacking Death directly is like throwing a crossbow when you have bolts to the demons. No, don't get me wrong, Death has attacking weaves, but they are more likely to be used out of desperation or with obvious superiority over the enemy. Death is great and powerful ... Creatures based on it are extremely hardy and, as stupid as it sounds, deadly. There are known facts in history when powerful necromancers, these are magicians who use Death where necessary and where not, created entire empires from the dead. Their legacy has reached our times in the form of vampires, liches and black knights. Necromancers cast a soul-holding seal on themselves during life and after death they turn into liches - revived magicians. Liches lose all focus of the gift to other forces and elements. Only Death remains. But an ordinary lich spends only a quarter less than the usual expenditure of Death mana on spells. Everything would be fine, but there is always the other side of the coin ... Liches, if they do not have time to move on to the next level, eventually lose their minds ... The goddess of Death Ahesh often acts in alliance with Elos, so our city is full of necromancers and even liches, and the Great Houses of R'eanre and Sath, respectively the Third and Fourth House, are famous for their necromancer priestesses. – Isites's beautiful face was distorted with disdain for a moment. – Death also mixes well with Fire and Air, forming the Ice Flame and the Breath of Death. Moreover, the first is the proto-force that stands next to the Crimson Flame. Death mixes well with Water, forming another powerful proto-force – Ice. Ice is capable of creation, but has a relatively weak ability to destroy.The Earth element simply absorbs Death. But enough about Death, let's talk about its antagonist - Life. The goddess of Death Ahesh and the goddess of Life Eliez are sisters, which does not prevent them from hating each other, but as great is their hatred, so great is their love. Therefore, it is no coincidence that at the junction of these two forces a special protoforce was formed - Blood. Blood cannot be described without seeing it. The only protoforce capable of healing. The only protoforce that is capable of creating incarnations on its own... There is no one in our house and there has never been anyone who could feel it. There are only a couple of recorded memories in the archive. They were written by those who encountered the protoforce called Blood. If you are interested, you can read it yourself. I will only say that Blood can be solid and liquid and flows in all races living in this world, which means it is very easy to kill with it. But let's return to the power of Life. The situation with the combat use of this power is the same as with Death. There is an opinion that these forces, Death-Life, are a single whole, a reflection of the eternal pair Order-Chaos. Even the external effects of using combat spells of these forces are almost the same. Only Death can heal only the dead, and Life - only the living. I'll tell you this: those who underestimate Death or Life are fools. The last force we will analyze, but not the least powerful, is Light. Extremely high speed of spell activation, pinpoint or mass impact. Light is proud and arrogant - it does not merge well with anything except its antagonist - Darkness, forming the strangest protoforce, which is called Shadow. Even less is known about Shadow than about Blood. You are unlikely to find a mention of it in the archive at home. The Shadow is extremely rare – only defectors from the Light Eldar with a great gift for Light and Darkness can master it. You must understand that there are very few of them among the living. Sariharna's father was such, but his death at the hands of an assassin dashed all hopes. And Sariharna was not born as strong as he was. So in a way, you, Asheras, are a quadroon of the Light Eldar. – The sister smiled sadly. – There are two more forces, if you can call them that, this is an eternal pair – Order and Chaos. Only the Creator possessed these forces in full measure. Everyone has a gift for them – every intelligent being has the opportunity to develop a gift in this direction. It does not matter whether the intelligent being has a gift at all and mana in him. The influence of these forces depends on faith in one's abilities, as strange as it may sound. Will is the determining factor. Fear and confusion, on the contrary, can weaken those who operate these forces. I will say one thing - once a goblin believed in his power so much that before my eyes he broke an adamant blade with his hands. Order is a creative force. Chaos is destructive. At the moment, the gods and rulers are of the opinion that the Creator created diversity from emptiness, universes, worlds and planes simply appeared from nothing. Certain abilities of various creatures originate in these two forces. Order is owned to a certain extent by the gods, Chaos - by the rulers.The rest are just pitiful crumbs. Illithids and gnomes should be mentioned here - their "magic", if what they use can be called that, originates from Chaos and Order respectively. - Isites raised the glass cane, which she held in her hand like a pointer. She looked at it and said, turning her gaze back to me: - This is an indicator of the mage's potential. Now you must pump all your mana into it, I repeat, all. The indicator will change color depending on what mana it is filled with. This is a very old model, and its accuracy is not great. I had to take it - all the others are not so clear and less capacious. Try to pump out the mana in a jerk, so as not to capture the one that has time to restore itself from the sources. Oh, I forgot to say - this can hurt, and, Asheras, try not to do anything. Take this seriously - your training will be based on these results.

Looking at the changed one holding me in her arms, I commanded:

- Put me down on the floor.

Touching the sand with my feet, I felt its slight movement - it was tightening the trace of the explosion of the two-layer "fireball". I switched to magic vision and saw the already familiar gray energy saturating every grain of sand. The matriarch's lecture surfaced in my memory. Is the sand really saturated with Death? Looking up at the glass pointer, I loosened the ters and stuck everything into its end at once. With a sharp jerk to the side, I pulled the artifact out of my sister's hand, which, however, she took calmly and began to move sideways to the side. My ters intertwined into a thick rope. I dived into my gift and with one movement tore the entire sphere of energy out of it, lifting it above the source system, and began to push it into all the ter tunnels at once. It worked out well and, most importantly, not difficult and fast. Well, that's all. When I emerged from the magical vision, the mana had already poured into the glass rod, filling it. My teras were visible, but quickly losing their colors. Having pulled them all back, except for one, I was the last to wrap myself around the pointer and handed it to my sister. Isites intercepted the artifact, came up to me, sat down next to me on the sand. Holding the pointer at the level of my face, she began to speak excitedly, pointing with a finger with a well-groomed nail at the multi-colored segments, divisions and numbers glowing blue:

- Look, Asheras, it turns out you have a full gift, which is very rare even for our house. Oh, goddess, we will do such things with your training! You have all the makings to become the most powerful universal magician of our entire people. And you, Ichitos, will become one! I am telling you this, the great priestess of the house! Look for yourself - your gift contains about twenty-five thousand ergs of Dark mana alone! You simply do not understand how powerful that is! And also two thousand of Death, a thousand of Life and four hundred of Light! And there are elements - a thousand of Fire and Air, and six hundred and five hundred of Water and Earth. Ha! To be honest, I was afraid that your gift consisted only of Darkness and Fire... But look, a full universal! The first case in the last two thousand years. A couple more tests will need to be carried out to restore the gift and to improve the accuracy of individual components. But this can wait. And it's not that important. – Isites tucked the artifact into her belt and again hid her emotions behind a serene and imperturbable mask. Only the feverish gleam in her eyes still betrayed her mood. – So, for now we'll focus on studying the weaves of Darkness – after all, this is the main focus of your gift. Then we'll move on to the other powers. As for the elements… Atere will teach you Fire, and the other elements – if he has time. Study diligently, Asheras. Your life will depend on your knowledge of magic in the future. Okay, that's all for today, go to the library, your teachers are probably already waiting for you.

Isites rose to her feet and ran towards the exit. I noticed that not a single grain of sand had stuck to her clothes, and the traces of her steps were healing before my eyes. Interesting sand, nothing to say.

Well, my sister didn't tell me anything about my gift that I didn't already know. Except maybe its size in ergs. Well, everything else is more interesting.

The following lessons were rather boring in studying high speech. The teachers, however, praised me, but I was dissatisfied with my progress.

* * *

The Matriarch held a transparent indicator of magical potential in her hands and looked at it in amazement. A jamming artifact was working on the table. In front of her, Ehaer and Isites were sitting in chairs. Ehaer had a frozen expression of surprise on his face. Taenori looked up at them, and Isites saw that despair was splashing in her eyes. Noticing this, Ehaer finally got control of his face and "hung" an indifferent expression. The Matriarch said in a tired voice:

- Don't you understand? If this information leaves the house, Asheras will be hunted again! Or us! If he is untouchable, it does not mean that we are immortal! Oh, demons! His value is constantly growing, but we resemble a beggar with a diamond the size of a head in his hands. Okay, listen! We need time, time and more time. Therefore, do not involve anyone in the details of the baby's magic training. Teach him the basic facets of his gift, and that's it! Then let him study on his own using books and methods, and when he grows up, let him train outside the home. No, that's also bad... Oh! We will violate the teaching methods and teach him the powers one by one - first Darkness, then Life and Death, and we will send him to study Light and the elements with people in the Academy of the Kingdom of Alasri.

- And what protopower should I start teaching? He can, in principle, choose any... - Ehaer narrowed his eyes.

- He still has a long way to go to grow and learn. And then - let him choose for himself. He may have a full choice, but he has little to choose from... He's not going to mix Light with Darkness in the Shadow, is he?

* * *

A large hall in one of the castles on the eastern coast of the Boundary River. Magical lamps glow yellow in the walls of the hall. There is a slight impression that the light is a little lacking for such a room, but a brightly burning large fireplace in one of the walls of the hall slightly corrects this. Silent and motionless guards lurk in the shadows. Near the fireplace there is a large table, covered with food and unopened bottles of wine. From the dryness and cleanliness of the glasses, it was clear that not a drop had been drunk from them yet.

An interesting couple gathered at one table - a man and an orc.

The man was a middle-aged brunette with a small, well-groomed beard and moustache. His figure gave off a strange feeling of heaviness and power - it was obvious that its owner had not been shy with a sword in his youth, but had long since abandoned this business and began to spend a lot of time at the table. His clothes were beautiful and so rich that they seemed to be strewn with jewels. However, it was noticeable that the man did not feel any kind of reverence for them, but treated them as everyday wear.

The orc was muscular and tall. A tall, muscle-covered figure. Slightly greenish skin, rough facial features, reminiscent of a caveman with brow ridges. His head was not completely shaved - a short tail of stiff and unruly hair was left on the back of his head, fixed with a leather strap. Despite his large muscle mass, the orc moved softly like a cat, and his movements were precise and even careful. He was dressed in a leather vest and the same leather pants with a soft insert on the inside. Looking at his simple, neat clothes, one could say that he did not occupy such a high position in the horde. But this impression immediately dissipated after the glance fell on his weapons and amulets, and if you understood tattoos, then one glance at the muscular shoulders could show that in front of you was one of the leaders of the Steppe tribes.

At the moment, the two were screaming at each other with abandon.

- Ha-ha-ha, each of us is worth ten of these white-maned devils, fit only to continue our lineage! - roared the tall orc.

- No wonder only six hundred of the dark guard of the Great Houses passed in a dense ridge for two weeks of travel into the depths of the steppes a hundred years ago. Oh Great Light, they suffered practically no losses!

– The steppe is not what it was then!

- Yes, not that one. But there wasn't a single Athar with them either! Have you ever seen an Athar in battle? If you had, this conversation wouldn't be happening! Because you'd be a corpse! And do you know that one average Athar is equal to a human magister in battle? And have you seen even one of the Great Houses in person? Do you know that an Athar from the Great Houses can kill a dragon in battle and not even notice? - the figure suddenly calmed down. - Why am I going on and on here, trying to explain to an Orc that you can't kill the sun with a spear...

- I heard your words, human, but I still think that we will gather enough forces to gain the upper hand. We also have a couple of swords buried - just in case. - The Orc also calmed down. - The White-Manes are strong, but what is the point of fighting weaklings? Yes, many will die - you are right about that, but there is no war without losses... And the Athars... We already have something to keep them busy. - The Orc smiled, looking into the fire. - Those who return from this war will bring priceless loot and will become the fathers of a new generation. Half-orcs-half-elves... Our fury and the endless life of the dark ones... The dark women will give birth as long as they can, and in a couple of decades we will redistribute the entire world. You, imperials, must decide who you are with - and quickly... The bloodsuckers and ogres are with us, and even the gnomes promised me support... The Forest Ones will not help the Dark Ones, even if the sky falls to the earth, and then we will destroy them too.

- Hmm. So you came to us last? By the way, what is the weather like in the kingdoms? What did they answer?

"Has the Empire really started looking back at the kingdoms?" the old orc looked at the man in amazement.

- They are not as simple as you think, orc. And they can easily spoil our blood when they understand which way the wind is blowing. Just look at the recent war for this damned Krenton. Having united, in the main battle they defeated three legions, and we had to abandon further expansion. Moreover, according to the terms of the Treaty of Braigrum, we rolled back practically to the same borders where we were fifty years ago.

"If they are so strong in the pack, then they need to be divided," said the orc, "or their attention distracted."

The man walked up to the map hanging on the wall and, looking at it, grinned:

- I've already thought of something... It's time to make some bookmarks for the future. How much time will it take you with our support to unite the Steppe?

"I'm thinking about a period of five to eight years…" The Orc looked into the flames, and the reflections of the tongues of fire in his eyes created an eerie impression.

- And Qin?

- What - Qin? We don't attack - they don't attack. It's simple... Just in case, we'll retreat deep into the Steppe - let them think that we're preparing to march on them.

- You speak as if the entire Steppe is already in your fist.

- Everything is already planned, Rion, and the first steps have been taken. Soon new grass will grow, and it will all be mine...

When the orc left, Rion sat down in the chair and also began to look into the flames that were drying up the wood. For a moment, it seemed that his eyes were filled with blood, but the next moment they were normal.