ightly awkward gait, inherent, probably, to many pregnant women, Dony slowly walked along the coast of the calm silver sea, wrapped from above, like a blanket, with a whitish fog. From time to time she bent down to pick up a shell or pebble she liked from the sand. And, when she looked a bit at it, she threw it back into the water with careless ease. Lazy waves barely licked the edge of the shore. But this was not always the case; lumps of seaweed and piles of broken shells thrown ashore reminded of this. Dony picked up a smooth matte pebble, it was green. She stroked its rounded edges and slightly rough surface:
“You were once a shard of glass,” Dony said. “Bright, transparent, with sharp dangerous edges, which could easy injure.”
She smiled a little sadly:
“How the sea rolled over you with its waves! You are no longer a sharp shard. You are now a harmless pebble. Like many others. And only your color reminds of your past.”
And, unlike all her other finds, she didn’t throw it away, but put it in her pocket. And she turned towards a house on a high hill.
At home, she put the green stone on the table.
“What is it?” Her husband asked.
“The sea gave me such an unusual stone today. A former shard of glass from a green bottle,” Dony replied. “You will bring me luck, right?” She smiled at the pebble. She opened her notebook:
“So… where did I stop?” She thought for a second. “Yeah…”
And, bending over the notebook, she quickly began to write. The words from under her hand folded into lines. She wrote as if someone was dictating to her, almost without crossing anything out. Page by page.
Chapter one. The rite
“Where is Karina? Where is this bitch?! This fucking creature!!!” Prince Arel shouted like mad. He literally flew into Lis’ room, and he could not answer him with a crippled tongue, only rolled his eyes in incomprehension and shook his head.
“I'll kill her! I will kill her! Do you know where she is?”
Lis shook his head negatively and, quickly fingering with two fingers, showed movement.
“Escaped? No such luck! She's at the old woman’s! At the witch's, I tell you!”
And seeing the lack of understanding in the eyes of Lis, who because of his swollen tongue could not utter a word, Arel grabbed him by the hand and dragged him along.
“Let's go! Now you will see everything! Now you will understand what she did!”
They burst into the prince's room and saw Nikto sitting on the bed. And Nikto looked at them and past.
“They banished the Demon to save the brother. Now he is worth nothing! Now he's just a piece of meat! He doesn't see anything! He is blind and dumb. Bring the Demon back! Bring back my Demon!!!” Arel shouted, and tears gushed from his eyes. “I will not survive this! I will not survive!” He literally sobbed. “I can't lose him again! I don't need anyone but him! And you,” he turned to Lis, who was standing in some kind of stupor. “You can forget about the crown! Now we will not be able to beat the Reds, and you will not become king!”
Lis looked at him in horror.
“Lis. If my Demon doesn’t return, I will commit suicide,” Arel suddenly said very calmly and simply. “I’m warning you. I cannot live without him. Sorry. And I warn you,” he looked at Lis seriously, as if he had already decided everything. “I warn you: first I will kill Karina, and then I will commit suicide. And maybe at least so I will go to Hell and meet him there!” Unable to control himself, he screamed again, his face was pale, and tears flowed from his eyes.
Lis shook his head with all his might and tried to say something, it turned out badly, and he covered his mouth with his hand, wincing in pain.
“Lis, you will be left alone. You can live here. In my Estate.”
Lis nevertheless pulled himself together and said very slowly, but clearly:
“No. Deal with it.”
“What?! To accept it?” Arel jumped up. “You were almost king over the reds and lost everything! Are you resigned?”
And Lis nodded sadly.
“And now you've lost your second chance! And again because of her! Her father and she are the cause of all troubles!”
And then Karina rushed into the room, with a drawn sword she rushed to Nikto, protecting him:
“Don’t touch him!” She shouted to Arel. “Kill the body – and the Demon will never return!”
“Give him back!” He shouted back. “What have you done?! You fucking fool! Have you thought about others?! All ours rest on the power of the Demon! How do we defeat the Reds now?! You ruined everything! You ruined the life of me, Lis, Vil and everyone else!”
“What do they have to do with it?” Asked Karina. She still stood alert, clutching a sword in her hand and not leaving the rack, although she saw that Arel was all in tears and snot and didn’t seem to be trying to nail her on the spot.
“Have you been to the old woman’s?”
“Yes!”
“Did you exorcise the Demon?”
“Yes.”
“How did it come to your mind? What for?!”
“I was afraid of you! I was afraid that you were going to cut me! Not only can you cut my hair!”
“I don’t fucking need you! I wasn't going to do anything to you! Did I do something to you ?! Did I?!”
“No.” Karina lowered her sword.
“Nobody needs you! Nik rather checked me what I would do!”
“And Lis? You're torturing him!”
“Are you protecting Lis? Wow! Do you think he can't cope without you?! Can't stand up for himself?”
Arel turned to Lis:
“Look, Lis, what a protector you have! We offend you, can't you fight back? Legendary Commander of the Reds, Sigmer Death!”
Lis clasped his head in his hands; if his face had not been covered with a white layer of dye, they would have seen his cheeks turn red. He turned away from them, trying not to meet the eyes of either Arel or Karina. Karina also looked away in embarrassment, she felt uncomfortable.
“Lis had a Contract with Nik,” continued Arel, “do you think it was so easy for him to let him damage his tongue?! Nik would have led our people further and made Lis king of the reds!”
“What?!”
“And my Castle? Now everything will collapse without support and guidance for Vil and Talas. And the Lower?! The unclean won't help us anymore! Vil will lose the Castle! Tol will lose the Lower! I will lose everything!!!”
“How would he make Lis the king? Are you out of your mind? And you've already lost the Castle and the Lower!”
But Arel didn’t seem to hear her, he rushed around the room in despair, and it was terrible to look at him.
“I wanted to go
