Chapter 9.2

Lea looked at the short, white-haired atar in a black mask and felt an incredible, piercing delight inside her. It was incredible! The presence of the goddess was constantly felt next to him. Even the aura of the Ari would ripple from time to time from the power spilled around. What was the recent battle worth! To defeat a full, reinforced by six atar of Khitan tatrett! Having lost only four! Realizing this, Lea cast greedy glances at the prisoners, who shuddered from this, as if from a whiplash. The young boy with whom she and her sister had recently played, did not take his eyes off her in horror. Lea even licked him promisingly, from which he lost consciousness. Weakling! Not a warrior at all, but an initiate during the ritual of acceptance into the Ariry of Akrio. The power of the Supreme Goddess! Oh, how Lea wanted to feel her presence around her again! How she wanted to feel this power again! Tear your opponents to pieces and see despair and doom in their eyes! Lea exchanged glances with her sister and understood without words that she was experiencing the same feelings. The next battle would be even bloodier! Together they would once again sow chaos and the will of the dark gods in the enemy ranks…

Lea thought back to what the Reborn had said, going over his words in her mind, weighing everything again. Exchanging glances with the other Arirs, she felt no support from them. Weaklings! Their will is not enough to make the right decision… Atar Asheras said that they would lose their individuality? So what? The will of the goddess is everything! And if they have to sacrifice such a trifle as memory and appearance, they will be first in line! Isn't that right, Seah, my sister?

* * *

We suffered for another two hours, healing our own and treating the prisoners. The problem was that we couldn't leave wounds open - the smell of blood in the caves did not disappear for a long time. After that, we spent another hour wrapping my prisoners in blue silk, embroidered with the Khitan sign, reminiscent of a wavy crimson tongue of fire. All this time, there was a real debate on the topic of "what to do with the dozen badly battered hisn that joined us and the huge mountain of things, armor, clothes, weapons and various potions?" A variety of suggestions were made: from slaughtering the hisn and throwing the things into a crevice (the arirs of Kriata), to running to the capital and selling everything quickly (the arirs of Rea). After thinking it over, my sister and I decided to drag the things to Iestret, and hide the dozen captured hisn along with the reconnaissance arek somewhere nearby. After all, after the change, the newly-minted atars will need to be dressed in something and armed somehow... Miss assured me with a nod in response to my question that in the fort-fortress there would easily be three dozen hisnas to seat the new horsemen.

Well, according to the legend, we came across a large formation of goblins. Some of them were captured, and half of our squad was sent to spy on them. A complex system of illusion and distraction spells was cast on the silk. By the end of this monotonous procedure, I had the feeling that even if I were woken up in the middle of the night and asked to cast these spells, I would do it without hesitation or mistakes. Then they spent a long time trying to disguise the traces of the battle - sometimes even a couple of extra hours make a big difference. Of course, the melted entrance to the cave on one side with the remains of flesh and armor fused into the walls cannot be hidden anywhere. Therefore, we had to cast a powerful spell of concealment of the visible. But this could only help against simple scouts - serious mages of the level of the senior priestess would easily notice the difference in the surrounding magical background. In addition, Arir Ehayalin, having prayed, cast a seal of fear, which was supposed to scare away all creatures that fell into its zone of influence. In general, they did what they could and, having loaded the hisn to the teeth, they headed back to Iestret.

Time, time... I could almost physically feel it slipping through my fingers... Holding three bundles of bodies with my ters, I tried to at least roughly plan my future. It was going frankly badly... Well, I was lucky - Elviaran was recaptured, what next? With her in my arms, I arrived back at home. And?.. And what if the Khitans or all five houses and the Six Temples meet me? What then? Retreat? Where? To the surface? They'll get me there too. Hmm... There must be some way out. What does it say about the illithids? Surrounded by slaves, can bend space... And you can't ask Arisna or Ehaer. But there is Atere... It seems he spent half his life fighting them...

In order to speed up the movement, we seriously halved our potion supplies. And, having found our way around the labyrinth with difficulty, we found one of the dead-end galleries, where we placed the captured hisn and a mountain of weapons and supplies. Having left with them the battered arek of the reconnaissance and senior priestesses (at least someone would not need to be watched upon arrival at the place), we, being loaded only with prisoners, entered Iestret. Fortunately for us, inside the cave-fort itself it was, as usual, deserted. Here, having exchanged glances with my sister, we parted ways - she ran to the portal, and I, together with the arirs and my priestesses, quickly unsaddled the hisn, carried the bandaged prisoners to the storage.

The storage facility was guarded by two guard posts, each consisting of a full arek of atretases, led by senior priestesses. If they had been led by a high priestess, there might have been problems. As it was, the guards merely stood at attention when we approached, and the senior priestesses merely asked us to lift our masks.

The main disappointment was waiting for me inside – the storage device was only half full. This was clear from one glance at its murky gray color. It was also four times smaller in volume than what remained in the Border of Darkness… What's the point of stamping my feet? I wonder what the losses will be when charging it? They must be huge. Having touched the knowledge of the ritual with my mind, I fell out of reality for a few seconds. How difficult it will be! And how did the goddess and the Eternal do all this? Although, as I understand, for these entities it's a piece of cake to bypass the laws… However, the ritual itself can be considered one of the most powerful in terms of complexity. What is it called? Oh yeah… The Higher Annals… Yes, the ritual will rightfully take one of the first places in complexity and minimal pumping… But I will never reveal its secret – it will give too much power to any house. And so it's not far to mutual destruction. Looking back at the Ariris huddled behind me and my priestesses holding the wrapped figures of the captives, I began to give instructions:

- Five-pointed Star of Holding Power, with the center in this accumulator. One body at a time in the points. Then close the points so that you get a rhombus. Once you have laid it down, everyone leave. You should not see what will happen here. Do not let strangers in. Questions?

There were no questions, so that was great. I made sure everything was done as it should be and escorted them out into the hallway.

Let's begin. I pumped my teras with Darkness and began to write out the signs of the Ancients. I drew another Star on top of this one. And I enclosed all this in a pentagon. There was barely enough space in this room. Having checked all the lines, I began to build a real three-dimensional pentagonal pyramid of "at". It was large and enclosed the accumulator inside itself. Well, well ... More than five thousand "at" in one structure ... I always knew that it is much more difficult to create than to destroy, but not to this extent! One mistake - and this fort will be no more ... We are checking. Everything seems to be in order. Now we need to fill this figure with Darkness mana from the accumulator. So, these will differ from the previous four. The faces will only change slightly, I will make their hair ... golden? Yes, that will be good! But we will trim their height. The Gift will be standardly strengthened in the direction of Darkness. Well, that seems to be all. I listened to myself - the Darkness is silent. Yes, these will also become my daughters. I'll get fed up with names! Hmm, so we don't erase the memories completely. Where is the block responsible for the memories? Here it is! And what is this? A soul imprint?! So that's where the memories come from! Memory erasure levels... Let's raise them by one... This "at" and this one... Well, goddess, help me... Well, I activate the seal first, and then, sharply inhaling and exhaling, I go up to the pyramid and touch the matte black surface with my open palm. The activation of the "at" system, which my tongue can't bring itself to call a "spell", occurs at that very moment.

For long seconds nothing happens – the Darkness, as usual, sways for a long time. And then the absolutely black pyramid suddenly flattens, losing its geometric correctness, and stretches into five tentacles, which begin to retract into the lying, wrapped bodies. My palm is also pierced through by a small black probe. It wriggles for a couple of seconds and retracts back. Immediately after that, the huge tentacles, writhing like worms, retract into the lying bodies – and the ritual is complete.

There is an incredible emptiness inside me. I don't even have the strength to stand. Swaying, I fall on my butt. And then on my back, my head hitting the stone painfully. The pain from the blow drives away the drowsiness that had arisen. Well, it seems to have worked. My gift is quickly restored. With the first crumbs of Life mana, I cast a light restoration spell on myself. It immediately becomes easier. I get up and call the changed ones. Everyone is tumbling in here. Yeah-yeah. You won't see anything, arirs. In terms of energy, everything here is licked and depleted so much that you can only see that something was there. If only there was someone more helpful here… I command Tashi, one of my guards:

- "Cure" on me.

She nods and casts a spell on me that has unrolled like a skein. How good… I go to the nearest body and begin to unwind it. The priestesses help me. Well, that's it. I look at my creation – a young, fair-skinned Atar with slightly golden hair. It worked! I touch his face. My face automatically stretches into a smile. Atar opens his eyes and looks at me. A surprised and puzzled expression flashes in his eyes. First of all, I ask a question:

- What is your name?

A moment of confusion.

– Achetos.

- From which house?

– Is'si'tor?..

- Yes, you are from the house of I'si'tor! Remember this! If they tell you that you are from another house - do not believe them! They are trying to confuse your mind.

- I understand.

I turned to the Arirs and saw their astonished faces. After giving them a second to come to their senses, I commanded:

- Get some clothes, at least for the first time. Hurry! We don't have much time.

Without waiting for a reaction to my words, I went to wake up the others.

In this party there was one priest and four priestesses. But what was especially pleasing was that they were quite independent, very different from each other in appearance and knew their names. That was where their differences in knowledge about themselves and their capabilities from the four priestesses of my guard, created by the Eternal, ended. Having quickly dealt with them, I commanded all my atars:

– Start charging the drive.

He himself sat in the lotus position and, having stuck his teras into the crystal, began to push energy into it.

Now, working with the small accumulator, I realized the whole difference between it and the accumulator in the Border of Darkness. It was a nightmare - about a quarter of all the energy flowing out of our ters dissolved into the air.

In five hours, the ten of us pumped up only a million. Spitting on everything, I immediately changed two more, drawing a narrow diamond instead of a star. The next time we already gained the same amount a little faster. Another ritual - two more priests. Seizing the moment, I dressed the new changed ones. Another ritual. The time to gain a million ergs was reduced to four hours. Ritual. Three and a half hours. I doze off while pumping the accumulator with mana. This is just some kind of nightmare, not an accumulator! Meditating, I already came up with a name for the new atars. Golden guard. Sounds good. I like it. On the last seven prisoners, I am going to change the settings and cook up something completely different. Another ritual. I am already doing it almost automatically. Just a little more than three hours, one more ritual - and the first day will be over.

A continuous series of rituals. By the end of the eighteenth hour of the second day, exactly thirty captives had been changed. I decided to change the ritual settings for the remaining ones. And, having ordered the accumulator to be charged to capacity, I dozed off. Waking up exactly two and a half hours later, I looked at the seven captives laid down and thought about what I wanted to change. This would take a third more Dark Mana, but the gift to the power of Darkness would be almost a third stronger than mine. Their height would be half a head taller than the gold ones. The face would be narrower. Shorter ears. And make the eyes with a sapphire-blue iris and with normal whites. The hair would be traditionally white.

Watching the five priestesses and two priests come to their senses, I sighed and stated that these were my best creations, at least in appearance… I had made it in two days. Soon, in a couple of hours, Isites would arrive, and it would be possible to perform. I closed my eyes and even thought of taking a nap, but I was not allowed to dive into the saving darkness of sleep. One of the priests of the Golden Guard touched me, returning me to reality:

- Atar Asheras, two Ari wish to have an audience with you.

Oh goddess! What else?

– Let me in…

Overcoming myself, I turned towards the exit. Those same two Ari Akrio were entering the room. What did they even want?

"Yes," I said languidly.

"We agree!" they said in a duet.

- For what? - I didn't understand.

"To the ritual!" they answered in chorus.

My eye twitched. But then… Why not? There's still time. Even this little bit could give us an advantage. I clapped my hands, getting attention.

- We're pumping up the storage again!

Before I could connect, I noticed that the drive was rapidly turning black. Well, my help was not needed. I turned to the Arirs and said:

- Who do you want to become? Them... - I pointed at the golden ones, - or them? - I pointed at the blue-eyed ones.

- Blue-eyed! - again a duet answer.

"I can make you look almost any way you want," I said generously. Why not?

- Scarlet eyes and hair the color of aeoea!

My eye started twitching. Aeoea is black-black-red in the language of the Ancients. The color of dried blood. Crazy. Screw you: the owner is the master. I was distracted from looking at them by the voice of the blue-eyed priest:

- The storage tank is full, Atar Asheras.

- A-a-a... - was all I could say. And I smiled - well, I'm going to do something naughty now! I quickly drew the narrow rhombus I had already tried and said, pointing to it at the Ariram: - Lie down!

I didn't have to repeat it. Well, I turned the settings to the maximum, and didn't erase the memory at all. I only made sure that the imprint of the soul was imposed on them more strongly. Well, ancient Xerox, don't let me down. And I poked the anthracite-black monolith of the pyramid with my palm.

I was even afraid to look at them. But I overcame myself and approached. They stirred and sat up at the same time. Then they looked at each other, jumped up and began to look at each other with delight, quickly chirping something and feeling their arms, legs, chest. Well, like children, by God... I sighed and turned to my atars.

- Fill the accumulator halfway, erase all the signs on the floor. Then let the Arirs in here and wrap them back in the silk of the Golden Guards.

The Arira who entered the room half an hour later looked at the gold and blue-eyed ones with amazement and admiration, and especially stared at the pair of scarlet ones. By the way, I finally learned their names - Seah and Leah. They were twin sisters, which was incredibly rare among the Dark Eldar. But if before their similarity was not so striking - after all, the past two centuries of their lives had left their mark on them in different ways, now they again became as similar as two scarlet drops of water. And their magical power was amazing. They had more than one and a half hundred ters in ear. Eh-h ... If only I had such power ... Maybe I can remake the ritual for myself? Yeah. And who will you trust the secret of the ritual to? The changed ones? The devil knows what will come of it ... Like a son of a daughter ... Better not to risk it ... In any case, for now ... And in the future too ... I have already riveted two supermages ... Power is not everything. Now I need to master all the spells of the Dark Force, and in the long term, all the elements and powers. Am I a universalist or not? Ehaer, although two and a half times weaker than me, will roll me into a thin pancake if I can't get close to melee... He wanted one hundred and fifty ters... I want to be a deity... Something carried me away...

- Get ready! If Isites doesn't arrive in an hour and a half, we'll leave without them! I'll take a nap. If anything happens, wake me up...