POV Main

I was back in the pub. My group wasn’t first to come back. People from Diana’s and Vivaldi’s group were back already. Paladin was playing darts with himself. He looked for a moment at us and started to throwing again. Diana and one of her goons was not at the table. Vivaldi acted quite happily.

-= Everything alright? – He asked. – You look a little angry.

He was smiling widely. He must have known.

-= Where’s Diana? – I asked.

-= She’s somewhere near, just wait a minute. – He didn’t stop smiling at me.

I waited at the table. Talked with people, but these from other groups were tricked into fast completion of ritual. Some of them were even idolizing Diana and Vivaldi.

Then Mirror came with her group and almost at the same moment appeared Diana.

-= Let’s sit at the table. – Said Mirror. – I have something important to say.

So I waited to hear her. Even Paladin came to the table.

-= There was accident in my group. – She started after we were ready. – Girl, Viki, was stubbornly trying to find another solution, than combining her fate with stone. She broke herself and refused ritual. We tried to reason with her. She saw others doing ritual and feeling refreshed. Nothing was working.

There was this moment, when she looked at other girls with her group. They were nodding in acknowledgement.

-= Then she broke completely and started to cry. My sister had mercy on her, she offered, that she would do ritual instead of her.

Vivaldi laughed shortly. It was not in the serious mood of monolog. He covered his mouth with hand.

-= Sorry, - He said. – I remembered some funny, a little associated circumstances.

-= But this ritual was not like the others. It went slow, took a lot of strength from my sister. During it Viki got seizures. It looked terrible, as if something was wrested from her. At the end of ritual she lost consciousness, but was breathing.

We saw her pale sister at the table. She was obviously not all right.

-= We called ambulance. Viki should be in hospital right now. Paramedic said, that there was no danger for her life. I wanted you all to know that. I hope that Viki will heal herself.

There was long moment of silence. I thought, that all high levels were consulting their stones.

-= Diana? – Vivaldi wanted her to say something.

-= You didn’t do anything wrong Mirror. There were twenty stones at the beginning of our meeting. Twelve were disconnected but fated. Twelve of you had unpossessed fate. One of you, Viki, refused her glory. It wouldn’t end for her any better, if your sister didn’t intercept this fate. – She looked seriously at the people. – Viki was punished by fate itself.

-= How can you said something like that? You’re heartless. – One of girls reposted. – What if I will let someone repeat ritual on my stone? Will you condemn me too?

-= You would die, if you do this. – Said Diana. – After you are possessed… you have possessed fate, linked stone, repeating ritual would kill you and most likely person, who would try to link too.

-= But Mary is alive and Viki’s alive too?

-= My patience is at its end, so stop asking more. Viki was unpossessed, unlinked. Stone was unlinked, but fated Viki. Now link with Mary will be unstable for some time, which will hurt her mentally and physically. And Viki will be hurt much more. You should be happy, you didn’t do anything such stupid as she did.

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Diana looked as on the verge of explosion. Girl which attacked her, whispered something and bite her mouth. She didn’t provoke any longer.

-= We did, what we should. – Said Vivaldi. - We should talk about positive sides of experience too and separate as friends with similar roads ahead of us.

-= Right. – Someone confirmed.

Loose talks started.

I went straight for Diana. We moved some distance from the table.

-= Hey Diana, I want to leave immediately. Me and my group.

-= Oh, why is that?

-= You know why. – I breathed. – Your influence is slowing and blocking absorption of snippets. At this rate we will be able to absorb two with effort.

-= What do you mean “we”?

-= My stone and me.

She laughed.

-= We did tonight some great things. You know, for Ahriman’s sake. And you made me smile, when you said “we” talking about you and your stone. As you too were close to each other.

Not so close as you and your stone, I thought, but didn’t said that loud.

-= I would do some problems to you tonight, if I was not amused by you now. So go.

I was ready to go.

-= One more thing. – She said. – My influence should weaken itself with time and disappear completely after five days naturally. Vivaldi’s influence even faster.

-= I have some means to make influence disappear faster.

-= Oh, bloodbath won’t be so efficient as you think.

I stood in silence for a moment.

-= Thank you. – I said slowly. – I will go now.

POV Lynx

Nameless came and took us, his group, for short talk.

-= I talked with Diana and we can go home earlier than rest. You should go too. – There was urgency in his voice.

Mike wanted to talk with some friend and Anna with girls, but they were convinced to put it down till tomorrow. Nameless had short talk with Mirror and we left pub. He asked, if we booked some rooms already online, then advised, that there were some hotels in center opened twenty four hours. We asked, why he was so nervous, when he should be happy. Were we at fault? No, we weren’t. There were some cursed influence, which he would try to get rid of. Faster the better. We talked a little more and he went in another direction.

POV Anna

We decided to not splitting. We found hotel in the center, where reception was open and took three rooms. In my mind I was still experiencing sadness and shock over Viki’s case. We ate late dinner and went to sleep. It should be our first good sleep since long. Still, I read notes and set alarm clock in the middle of the night. I didn’t use strange liquid to get rid of influence, because I didn’t feel it.

I was wake up by clock alarm. I remembered my dream. I was talking with some entity closed in stone. There were some disturbances. The voice, she, told me that she needed my help. And some blood to better connection among us. I didn’t understand all because of noises.

But sleep was great. You cannot tell how good is sleep, until you get some sleep problems. So better enjoy your good nights.

I went to Mike’s room. He was awake too. Then we went to Lynx. He was pale and with reluctance let us in. There was something different there.

We started to talk about dreams. Mike wanted to use bathroom, but Lynx said, that bathroom is off limits. We pressured him a little about what was going on.

-= I will show you. – He said. – You’re my friends.

In his bathroom, at sink, was glass bowl with stone swimming in blood. He showed his cut wrist.

-= I couldn’t use one liter all at once. – He said. – It’s too dangerous.

I fainted.

POV Main

I gave Mirror some of anti-stone liquid, maybe it would help her sister to put herself together faster. Or just help them against high level bullies.

I went with people from my group. It seemed that we had positive relationships building. After I was sure that they were heading to some hotel, I focused on myself.

Dee said, that we had three memory snippets. To get them, Dee needed to put more effort and mental energy, that it should take normally. And after he got them they were, as he compared, like snippets in some dirty oil, hindering absorption. This hinderance came from higher levels influence. I could accept it as natural occurrence from stronger stones. But it seemed that snippets would decay with time. We could absorb only two without drastic measures. So we decided, me and Dee, on taking drastic measures.

Before meeting I was suspecting conflict and fight. On the border of Mokotov field I prepared countermeasures. In some unremarkable corner was big locked crate. Inside I put one machete, many knives, homemade spears, homemade Molotov’s cocktails, gas, lights, homemade shieldlike thing, some food, medicines, lots and lots of anti-stone liquid, as it was easy to make, healing mixture and some clothes and towels. It costed me time and money. I was almost sure that during the weekend nobody would move crate, but someone could force in and steal things. Luckily for me, it was intact.

It was middle of the night and I was taking bath in garlic, onion liquid. I put some essential oils in it too, but it didn’t help much. Dee was wrapped in towel soaked with it.

That was some strange way to clean myself. Strange cleaning, but better than bloodbath, I thought.

Afterwards I carried some things from crate and hid them in some hole. I put fresh clothes on myself. Took important stuff. My old clothes and crate with the rest of things were poured with gas and burned.

Only then I felt better and went home.