Chapter 26

Silva's question reached its intended target. The surrounding air started to twist and change. It seemingly moved in strange ways.

What had changed was the aura saturating the room. The subtle feeling that Silva had felt before had a new meaning. After a short moment of hesitation, she rushed to translate it to her friends. But Mika already knew and voiced it out.

“Silva, I can kind of tell what ‘It’ wants…” Mika whispered. “It wants our blood.”

That’s how it was. Silva had realized it as well. She had known it even before Mika. Just afraid to say it and hoping that she was wrong. But now even Mika could clearly read the mood in the air, making it useless to try and mitigate the severity of the request.

They did not know the implications this request could have. For all Silva knew it could be a horrific ritual that could awaken a demon king… But she will still do it. She had already resolved herself, there was no point in backing down now.

“It’s… It is only a drop…”

“Can’t we choose anything else?” Mika aimed the question at the object.

Silva heard soft apologies coming from Steven, but it was not his fault. They had agreed to this together, even if this decision was forced by circumstances.

There were no changes. It was blood or nothing was how Silva interpreted it.

“I-, I will go first, but I need something to prick myself with…”

“No!” Steven’s voice regained its usual clarity. “I’ll go first. If we are going to do it I’ll be the first.”

“We… We can still leave.” Mika made an argument. “Steven, your condition, it’s… Not perfect, but… It is better. I would need a long time, but I could do it. I can heal you.”

To his credit, Steven seemed to consider the option, but in the end, he declined.

“Benjamin’s father will look for me. My family will look for me and yours will look for you too. There is no place for us to go.”

“So we make another gamble.” Mika frowned. “Just like your father?”

“I am NOTHING-,” Steven shouted but was forced to stop when he started coughing.

“Sorry, I did not… No, sorry, I knew, but…”

“No, sorry for being that loud...”

“Um, Mika… As you said it is another gamble, but… If we leave without gaining anything, we may have lost when we made the first one.” Silva thoughtfully added. “Well, you know, Aramaleo said that we will have to give or do something in return... We just don’t know when…”

“That is true, but he also said that we can refuse. And it wouldn’t have to be now.” Mika remembered.

“I-, I don’t think that would be a good idea. He avoided saying what would happen if we did, but…” Silva left the sentence unfinished.

“I… Hate this…” Mika spitefully ended as she started to rummage in her pockets. “I have watched enough movies to know that giving something blood is not a good choice. The fucking thing is probably evil. What would it even do with our blood? Probably feed its spawns or something.”

“So, uh, are we doing it?” Silva wanted to clarify.

"No way to prick our skin," Mika answered with anger in her voice, but Silva could tell that this anger was aimed at the situation they were in and not at her. “And because of Steven's loud mouth, we have to hurry."

Silva watched in horror as Steven unceremoniously pulled the fabric that covered his wound away and showed a finger in it. All three of them winced and when he pulled the finger out it was bloody with his wound reopened somewhat.

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“You idiot!” Mika almost shouted.

“Just scratch your skin, Mika will fix it afterwards.” Steven smeared his blood on Mika’s hand. “And put my juice on that bead if it wants it so bad.”

Silva listened to Steven’s advice and started to scratch where the nail met the skin on her index finger. Mika followed after her example, but only after she dripped Steven's blood on the bead.

After Mika made a small wound on her hand, she squeezed out a small drop of blood and proceeded to drip it on the bead the same way she had Steven’s.

Silva almost interfered when Mika did so. Silva had, after all, volunteered to go first. But what was done was done. With a sickening feeling, she felt the skin give and a small droplet formed on her fingernail. She did not look down at her finger and raised her hand to follow her friend examples.

Hers was the third and last droplet and as it fell Silva felt a sense of loosing. They could have done many things differently. They could have been more careful. They could have done more training, been in better touch with each other.

The droplet hit the bead and the air froze. Silva thought of million different things, but all it came down to, was that whatever would happen next, would be a turning point in their lives. Then everything became dark.

---

The change was so sudden it took Silva a few seconds to register what had happened. There was only darkness, no sound, no feeling of touch, no sense of smell. Her soundless scream reached nothing.

Silva felt trapped in her own body, and only one thing still indicated that she was not entirely unfeeling. The feeling of her moving. She was moving in a direction she could not describe. Wildly she tried to flail her limbs around. It was how Silva imagined falling from great height felt like, only there was no sensation of movement beside those made by herself.

For a long time, there was only the desperation that stretched around her. Then the moment passed. She had not been so scared ever before and doubted that she would ever.

Now there was a change. There had been nothing, and now there was… Well, still nothing.

Nothing as far as objects went. The same blue-ish light that the bead had shone in now encompassed Silva. Only the light at first and then the same intangible presence returned to her making itself be known. Its character. It felt like it had a personality. There was still only light but it scrutinized and evaluated her.

Silva noticed her friends next to her. Just a bit more than a meter away. If she were to stretch her hand and reached out, she could almost touch Mika. Steven was a little bit more further away to that side.

When they had appeared or how she did not know. Their faces, no doubt, were mirroring her own expression. Fear, uncertainty, regret and determination…

To be fair she was not all that determined. Fear was the emotion that ruled over her, but seeing her friends next to her helped. At least she managed to regain some self-control.

Now that she had calmed down a bit she started to inspect the surrounding paying more attention to every little detail. There was still hope that they could get out of this predicament. And…

There was not much else she could do. Despite her efforts, she still could not produce a sound. It made talking impossible, and neither of them knew any sign languages.

The world around them was still and unnerving, but at least the light had stopped 'looking' at them. The emptiness made her feel like she was an image posted on a blue page. Only she was able to move, so maybe it was more like a green-screen.

The world around them was still and unnerving, but at least the light had stopped ‘looking’ at them. The emptiness made her feel like she was an image posted on a blue page, apart from her moving, so maybe it was more like a green-screen.

Then they arrived. Now they were standing in the middle of a barren wasteland. Or what Silva thought was a barren wasteland.

Right now she could not raise her eyes to take a closer look around her. All she could see was a cracked ground scorched by flames and brown dried liquid that had dried out. Silva tried her best to ignore how similar those stains were to splatters of dried up blood.

Inside Silva, a placating feeling overtook her emotions as it forcibly calmed her down. The very next moment she felt herself fall on her knees. She made a gesture unfamiliar to her, only to forget it right after. Her struggles to regain control over herself were ineffective and felt pointless.

Eyes pointed downwards and her being immobile it should have been a horrific experience. Instead, she felt solemnity and deference. It was like an instinct she never had before, and while her mind understood the wrongness her very being obeyed.

Something or someone gave them a question. At first, Silva thought it to be similar to the emotions in the air they had felt before only to hear an actual voice. She could not understand it. To her, it was only a cacophony of sounds. Even the knowledge that it was a question at all was coming from nowhere.

Something or someone gave them a question. At first, Silva thought it to be similar to the emotions in the air they had felt before only to hear an actual voice. She could not understand it. To her, it was only a cacophony of sounds. Even the knowledge that it was a question at all was coming from nowhere.

Still, Silva knew. No matter what it was, that brought them here... It understood them. Maybe even more than they themselves did.

By gathering all of her courage Silva prepared to try and speak. But no sound came. All she managed was to open her mouth, only to realize that she had not taken a breath for a long time now.

Again Silva felt panic waves rising inside her. Only for those waves to be forcibly dispersed a moment later. The voice kept talking posing more questions and there was a rising demand in its tone. Silva feared that their inability to speak would anger the being. Then their end would inevitably come. She wanted to fear such end but was unable to.

Somehow Silva managed to answer. The ongoing discussion in front of them continued. Many words were said and a decision was made and she had heard nothing.

A realization hit Silva that there were memories missing. Any details of the discussion were gone. The decision that was made had suffered the same fate. She did not remember it.

The surrounding world became blurry for a moment. The voice that had spoken had left.

Before Silva could relief the world bound them once again. Again they were given a choice.

"Yes!" Silva's voice mixed with Steven's and Mika's. All of them had given the answer.

Part of Silva's memories were once again gone. She remembered making a decision and it not being influenced by anything. Just a moment ago she was herself and free.

There would be no mourning over this decision as it had come from her. From the truest her. Their friends were the same. This decision was made by all three of them. When they had agreed they knew what the consequences were, but not anymore.