The darkness was unimaginably thick. He couldn't move for a long time. The feeling of immobility was akin to nighttime numbness. Lying on the cold floor, he tried to open his eyes, but, as before, he could not see anything.

Not immediately, but he managed to separate his fingers and feel for the pouches at his waist. A magical firefly dispersed the darkness. Launching it, Tant went cold. He saw a stunted stream of a waterfall and a bas-relief with a triangle. At the top behind the stairs was a black door with an outlandish lock. Kord lay nearby. Tantus scooped up water from the lake and splashed it in his face.

" Master, are we alive?" Kord whispered, raising his head. - It's hard to breathe ... Oh, I dreamed that I was at sea with my father and the boat capsized.

Taking a deep breath, Tant called Taur and Engure, but no one answered. Kord gave a strangled cough, tugging at his bandage. The cough made sense. Tanta followed his gaze and froze. An eyeless woman stared at them from the gloom. The stranger stood in the very place where the witch's mirror had denounced her.

" They're all dead," she explained, and tilted her head, letting the black strands fall over her shoulder. You shouldn't have brought them. Metriya's crown went into full effect because of you. If you had listened to me, they would not have had to be executed.

Her voice sounded softer, as if she was talking after a long silence:

I remember when the first snow fell. I remember the first ships off these shores. I remember how the cities in the north were deserted, and I remember you, son of Estebas of Sindelin. Fifteen years is a long road for a man. I remember the day you found the Letterbiter. One day you fell asleep with him and had a dream.

In order to give weight to her words, she raised her hand and circled the hall, holding her finger on the massive door with a lock.

“ You ended up in Tentalco Meru. This is my home. Mirai was here too.

– Who is he?

“ Mirai was a scientist, just like you. One of the six high priests of the forgotten people, which you call "creators".

The woman fell silent, looking sideways at Kord.

“ These priests wore amulets with magic stones. Each was a reservoir of energy. Your Letter Gnaw is a stone of will and a symbol of knowledge. - Pale said, stubbornly continuing to look at the boy. “Thousands of years the amulets of the priests helped people by sending them visions in their dreams, but none of the bearers tried to find the place in which they were created.

What about Wistan ? Renier squad? Infert, finally?

Only he and Wistan remembered the latter. At the end of the second century, Infert wandered around the island, studying the caverns and valleys in which the temples stood. It is not known who this curious Nismant was, but it was from his diaries that the order learned about the creators.

“ Plunderers often look for treasure in ruins,” the woman said, raising her eyebrows over what she had instead of eyes. None of them have gone that far. Thanks to me.

She turned into smoke and in a moment was already standing nearby. There was a rustle behind him. This frightened Kord crawled away.

“ Only you interested me, Tantabus. It was I who opened the door to the sanctuary and left the stone in the hall with the crown in order to meet you alone that night.

The bone dagger pointed at Kord.

- Spare the boy! He's just a ragamuffin from the slums. Who will believe him?

Tant covered Kord with himself, feeling him wrap his arms around his shoulders. The woman lowered the blade, turning the black holes on it, and softly said:

- Good. The boy will live, but he will not become a nismant.

" It's easy to arrange," Tant replied without hesitation, helping the young man to his feet.

– Just like you.

He wanted to remind her that the pale woman was three years late with this, but then he remembered that she already knew everything.

“ This boy can be useful,” the woman said in thought, and, placing her skinny hand on his shoulder, she whispered: “He will live ...

– Thank you.

“ It will…until you regret it.”

The pale woman smiled coldly, turning two seething clots in her eye sockets at him. Kord opened his mouth, but did not dare to speak. Instead, he said:

“ Did you say that this temple is your home?” So you are some kind of god?

The woman nodded languidly.

Why then all these sacrifices? Why didn't she come when I was alone?

“ I don't belong to this world. The full moon gives me the strength to appear every month for just one night.

But why kill? Was it easier to put everyone to sleep like in kenovia?

“ I am not omnipotent, Tantabas. In kenovia, your brothers were already asleep. It is easier for me to keep a dream than to plunge into it.

Tant did not ask her name. All these questions could wait. Only one was important, which he had long dreamed of asking.

“ Three years, every full moon I have nightmares. Do you send them?

“ These are not dreams. I show you what I see myself.

She took a deep breath as she walked over to the water. Tantus tensed; looked at Cord. The boy stood swaying like a mast, casting timid glances at the pale one.

- So is it true? Will it all be over soon? Answer! I'm only here for this reason.

“ I’ll say yes, and you won’t believe it,” the goddess said evasively, watching half-turned. “I’ll say no, you still won’t calm down.

- The truth! I want to know the truth!

Even though pale and was a goddess, she loved to chat, like any mortal woman. Tanta has always irritated people. As a child, the disease burned dry out of him craving for communication. He was used to talking to the point and did not like games.

“ The truth is that you don’t have to be afraid of the snow,” she said more angrily than before. - Live as you lived, Tantabas, and you will see the day of the last light. Earth and water will burn, and people will turn into ash on hot stones. So it was foretold in the holy book you call the "Fire Scripture." And so it will be if nothing is done.

Tant pushed Kord away from him and wrapped his arms around himself. The pale one was right. He did not believe, but he could not forget what he saw. Tant himself did not notice how he began to walk back and forth, like a thinker in a library, and almost fell when she appeared from the fog opposite.

“ Your skin is so white,” the stranger said solicitously, stroking his cheek. “You and I are alike, Master Tant. You just chose the wrong path. Why serve Nismass? He was cruel to you from a young age.

Looking at her pale skin, Tant thought. By the power of the sun, Nismass kept Gamelan alive. It prevented him from breathing for many years, and now it even threatened to destroy him. Should he serve the one who dooms him to death?

“ Nismass created the celestial sphere, but he has no right to dispose of its insides,” the woman explained and extended both limbs with her wrists forward, depicting the canonical pose of the bound statues. The gods are omnipotent as long as people don't stop praying to them. Once I could return life and control the course of heavenly bodies. Now I can't even move the tavern.

" Then how can you help?"

I will regain my former strength. It's not hard if you do it right.

- And what is needed for this?

“ I must become the first deity of Gamelan.

Tante almost laughed. He expected anything but this. Many peoples, communities and clans lived on the mainland, which only outwardly looked alike and were ruled by single leaders. All these people and even demi-humans prayed to the three deities. They had never heard of any pale women from the moon and would have killed anyone who dared to claim that such an effigy was capable of ruling the world.

The pale one read these thoughts and smiled sparingly.

“ I have many supporters, Tantabus. The time will come when they will all come to you.

- Why to me?

“ You are a learned man, you know how to conjure, and you are connected with the order. You will be more useful.

She disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared on the mossy slope by the waterfall.

“ Nine years ago the great war began. It will be long and at its end the heavens will open.

Are you talking about the Fourth Gothamelan War ?

The Northern Nikts lived in Tantalia for thousands of years, during which time they often attacked the southern valleys. New clashes between the Magors and them have begun recently. The bestial warriors took the watch-fortresses of Eridor and Crag Bal in three years, after which they bogged down at the River Thelma. The two duchies that the Nikts were trying to capture easily repulsed them. Maybe everything was just beginning, but the invasion did not seem great to him.

“ But what am I to do? I am a Nismant,” he said, regretting it for the first time. - I have responsibilities. You can't just leave the order as a practitioner.

- You will be expelled.

The pale lady's voice grew heavy. That it was a statement, and not an assumption, he did not doubt. There was an undercurrent of certainty in her tone that was gradually transferred to him.

- Do you see the future?

- I predict. Time and events are cyclical. Many symbols are woven into them,” the woman said, after which her outlines began to weaken. – I can read them and compare events. Our story begins when a doomed maiden with the body of a snake comes to the island. Six stones will find their owners, and Mirkhold will plunge into chaos under the banners of knights.

“ That doesn't tell me anything.

- Signs are always vague, but the closer the event, the easier it is to interpret. You found the first stone and opened the door, now find me supporters.

The outlines of the figure became thinner than her airy dress. The woman turned into a disembodied phantom, but for some time a hollow voice still sounded from the depths of the hall.

“ Get used to death, Tantabus, and don't regret anything. Ralin's sword hangs over everyone's head. There's a lot to be done before he falls.

The phantom pointed to a bas-relief with an inverted triangle and three blade-like appendages, but neither Tant nor Kord had time to figure out which one. Mirage thinned out. They were left alone in the gloomy sanctuary, in complete bewilderment - the teacher and his first student. The pale lady left their world with the moon, which waned, as did the night.