[written down by Johana Passerin]

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“Run! Run away!” shouted the chaplain.

Itraniel Vedrax did not move at first. In the midst of the ensuing rage, his eyes carefully studied the situation with a strange calmness: he saw the undulating walls, the stone of which turned into a body with black feathers, saw ravens born from the walls, saw a mysterious woman whose skin began to sprout white feathers. He saw that he was trapped. Through the bars of the cell he saw the unbelieving eyes of the knights staring at him. He saw how they understood each other with a weapon, standing on the alert, whispering protective incantations. He saw the auras of magical power gather around the chaplain and sinistra. It was clear to him that he had to act quickly. He grabbed the woman and dragged her to the latticed door. The chaplain detached himself from the preparation of the spells and slammed the door of the cell in front of him with an awkward expression.

“Open!” Verdax shouted.

But he called to his closed ears. As soon as his advance stopped, the ravens pounced on him from everywhere. So far, there were only a few of them in the cell, but every moment more of them were born from the feathered areas on both originally stone walls of the cell. He placed the woman on the ground and drew the sword. He was knocking down flying birds and slashing into the walls that were puffing up and bubbling like a kind of monstrous surface made of black oil with feathered patterns. Whenever he slashed into the wall, the black feathers parted for a moment and the velvet unknown could be seen behind him.

Sinister Vemirith himself appeared at the bars.

‘Are you crazy? Vedrax! Why are you reaching for that woman!’ Then he turned to the other knights: ‘Step away from the bars and engage the Lamerten formation.’ The knights surrounded the chaplain and he surrounded them with a sphere in which the air swept.

‘Open, sir! We must save her!’ Vedrax exclaimed as he had room to breathe between the raven attacks.

Vemirith Zar-Kaorth shook his head. He spoke calmly, in plain sentences. His voice sounded clear even in the midst of the beating of the wings and the screams of the birds. ‘Touch is forbidden, umbbrifer. There’s a reason. You see what happened to her. The same is probably waiting for you now. A monstrous death – but in vain! This sacrifice won’t help anyone!’

Then he spoke more quietly, it seemed more for himself – ‘If you survive this, you will get your own cell. I’m sorry.’

Vedrax looked at the woman at his feet. She shrunk, her face stretched, and the feathers sprang on her faster than before – the long, white quills first emerged in the form of elongated leathery pimples, which cracked under internal pressure and blew out from the inside, almost finished quill. Vedrax shuddered, but another attack by Raven’s Claws and Beaks led him out of his dark thoughts. There were more birds and the situation in the cell became more futile from time to time. Although most of Vedrax’s body was covered with Xalgoninian armor, his face was exposed, and the predatory beaks came closer to his eyes with each attack.

He thrust his face between the two iron rods of the cell, where the birds could not reach it for a while, towards his commander, and exclaimed with the fateful pathos, which the Xalgon Knights learn as thoroughly as the armed struggle: “Sinister, if you don’t want to Saving me or the woman, I have only one way left! The way to the darkness!” He turned to one of those holes he had previously cut in the wall.

A few younger knights screamed, their voices sounding admiring and encouraging, as if they could appreciate proper self-sacrifice.

‘Wait, Umbrifer, when we find out if you’re infected. If you jump, you’ll die!’ cried his commander with a similar melodramatic tone in his voice, but it was never spoiled by the Xalgon’s touch with irony.

Vedrax laughed bitterly. He just somehow covered up the attack of another of the ravens, which was aiming straight into his eye with his beak. ‘But how long should I wait, my lord? I stand against the odds, my fate is sealed!’ He took advantage of the rare moment when no new ravens took off, he picked up the woman, tucked the amulet with the three foxes behind the chest armor and stretched through one of the crevices in the raven surface. Before diving, he caught the eyes of his comrades behind bars. There was a mixture of wonder, admiration and emotion in them. The proud faces of the Dark Knights were dripped with tears of deep emotion over the fate of Umbrifer Vedrax.

Itraniel felt as if he were making his way through the water, but he could still breathe. Suddenly he was briefly surrounded by a rotting rainbow, from which his stomach turned. It was a strange place of the glittery smell from which icicles of disparate tastes grew. His eyes bent to the creaking pressure, the tongue became heaven.

Then he fell out into the gray misty space. He looked at the woman in his arms. She was getting smaller and smaller, she was shrinking with feathers, until finally a small white crow sat on his forearm. He was no longer surprised by anything. He preferred to look around. It seemed to him that the fog was lighter in one direction, and at the same time there was a muffled rumble, like a beating of a steel heart. He went there.

After a while he saw a light source in front of him in the fog. He walked on and soon stood in front of the glowing bubble. She was small, regularly spherical, reaching his chest at most. The crow flapped its wings on his hand and took off. He would like to go to the bubble, he realized. He grabbed her leg firmly and wouldn’t let her disappear. He approached the ball closer, noting that it was shining with a warm light, which at the top acquires a bluish tinge and a greenish in the lower part. He looked inside without touching the surface of the ball. It seemed to him as if he were looking from a great height into the landscape hidden inside the sphere. Everything was still foggy and unclear. After a moment’s hesitation, he let go of the tossing crow and she made her way through the membrane into the ovoid formation. There she appeared as a figure of more or less human shapes. He stepped closer and pushed his head into the ball. A membrane still remained around his face, which did not allow him to enter the space completely, but now he could see quite clearly. He saw the picturesque scenery of a forest clearing overgrown with flowering raspberry and meadow flowers in the middle. On the horizon rose pointed mountains with peaks covered with snow. The light was golden in the evening, but the sun was not visible. The woman in her original human form sat huddled in the middle of the field. She was naked.

He called out to her, but she didn’t even move. He tried to enter the bubble, but the membrane increased the resistance along with the increasing pressure. He pushed his head even deeper, and then the membrane was completely pressed against his ears. Suddenly he heard the rustle of leaves on the sacrum and the woman’s voice. She had a strange expression on her face. Knight Vedrax felt like he was recognizing the expression. Those who reached the highest initiation in the order of the Xalgonin in the priestly line, those who were called Pontifex Tremendus Maximus, those who saw the real faces of the deep guarantors of the knightly order, used to have a similar one shortly after their initiation expression. It was no ordinary madness born from illness or difficult life circumstances. It was astonishment and confusion stemming from the mind being exposed to something much more than what it could hold.

‘Too many eyes, too many eyes!’ the woman whispered to herself. ‘They have too many eyes! Who counts them? No need, no need.’

Itraniel felt as if he were only a few steps away from the woman, albeit separated by a interworld’s membrane. He couldn’t touch her, but he at least tried to look her in the eye. Their eyes touched briefly. He still couldn’t guess whether her soul was completely fragmented or not.

“Deer?” She asked him, ‘why do they have ghost pantries?’

The knight did not understand. But soothsayers are also not easy to understand.

‘He’s tied up in a bike, but he won’t be for a long time,’ she said suddenly in a clearer voice. It seemed to Itraniel that she stopped speaking to herself and the words really belonged to him.

“Who’s tied up?” he asked.

‘Many-eyed brother after all!’ She said as if asking for a matter of course. ‘Many eyes left on you with runes. You fought for me. Thank you.’

‘I see you’re a little better,’ said the young knight.

‘Stars spin like a wheel, only one doesn’t move, it’s not a star,’ she said, as if answering his words.

‘What happened to you? What actually happened?’ asked Itraniel, even though he suspected that he would not understand the answer again.

The woman did not look up this time, but sighed in his direction. ‘The elixir thins the wall. The dose makes the poison.’ She finally said as if she were reciting a children’s nursery rhyme. The knight tried to remember the words. He felt that they really were some kind of answer. Did I thin out the wall by giving it an elixir? But it immediately raised more questions. But he didn’t like how they were separated from each other.

“Can you come back to me?” He spoke up at the end.

The woman frowned, huddled more tightly into herself so that he could not see her nudity, and then told him ‘they were torn the pythons of the female roars. I only have air vomit in the pieces on the world’s hooves.’

The knight didn’t understand anything she said, but felt rejected.

‘Okay then,’ he finally guessed, ‘tell me why you came to Xalgon?’

‘The crack is in heaven. No one knows!’ the woman shouted suddenly. It’s more like something in her screamed. Even the expression on her face indicated that she herself was surprised by what she said. Another piece of rhyme.

“Does the name Talantius call you anything?” the knight Vedrax asked about the person he was told by his comrades Klaes.

“Yes!” Her eyes suddenly cleared. ‘Talantius warns! That was her job. The error is in the recipe. The dose makes poison. It thins the wall. It sets behind the mountains, like the sun.’

‘He fell? Where is he now?’ Inquired by Vedrax.

‘Talantius is calling for help,’ the woman stood up and stared at the direction the golden light was coming from on the field. She waved her hand. Her speech was suddenly clear. As if a piece of her original personality was floating to the surface of her mind. ‘He fell north of Svittynis. Fifty miles north. In the middle of the wilderness. His tower fell from the heavens.’

‘How do you know? Were you there?’ A knight rushed in with the question, excited to receive meaningful answers.

The woman’s question was apparently hit in the painful area. She curled up on the ground again, closed her eyes and began to sway back and forth. ‘Does it grow in the belly, hohororo? No one knows. Does it grow in the belly, hohororo? He touched the barrier, fell behind the mountains.’

It seemed to Vedrax that even these incomprehensible pieces were some kind of answer, and he tried to remember everything.

“Lady, please tell me, Talantius sent you?” He tried again.

The name Talantius brightened her eyes again. She turned to the knight and said: ‘Yes. He sent me to Nazqawn. He is sick, he fell into his own pit. He dug deep, he flew high. I will fly now too,’ she said.

“Join me, we’ll find Nazqawn together.”

‘Without throat gold, my dear knight. You saved me, but I’m not anymore,’ she said.

Then she flew out – again like a white crow – with the top of the ball, and settled on his shoulders and shoulders. She fluffed her feathers. The interview was over.

So Vedrax moved on. He walked through that dreamy misty world for a sound that reminded him of a metal heartbeat. After a while he also heard the sound of merriment and fun. giggles and hindrance. He walked on. And then another ball slowly emerged from the fog in front of him, this time bigger. It was slightly exceeding two swords in height. Something was spinning and rocking in it. He approached and looked inside. He dreamed he was seeing a spinning amusement bike from Lunapark. He tried to squeeze in, but he didn’t succeed this time either. He remained surrounded by a membrane, people inside were passing him, no one even noticed him.

The sleepers around the space-time crack to the amusement park woke up. Loverd was slightly disappointed that they didn’t get anywhere. The fox slept very badly and was not in her own skin. Throughout the night, it was as if something was pushing her in her dreams and demanding entry, but they were no paintings, nor did she really have any dreams. She was sure that she would definitely be able to establish a connection with the woman, but nothing like that happened. 

The crack was already healed, and it could be perceived as a scar. The coins remained lying on the ground.

‘Then we should finally go there,’ said Loverd, scooping up a handful of chips. They shone nicely and the moons winked at them.

‘If Vedrax was successful, the coaster is delivered at the moment and we should try to contact the messenger. Lunapark is an ideal place for that. There we can immerse ourselves in dreams and you will then take us to the inn. run us Space-time magic wouldn’t be wise here,’ he addressed Liška.

‘Lunapark is related to the pub How?’ the fox grunted grumpily.

‘So that at the moment it’s probably the only way to get to the inn,’ Klaes answered her.

The fox sighed and whimpered: ‘The amusement park. At first I liked the idea with the amusement park, but then, after I covered the scrolls and looked at the pictures, it started to scare me. Everything is terribly mixed here. I don’t understand it anymore. I can’t dream normally as I used to.”

‘We’ll just go see it,’ Klaes decided. ‘Look around. Maybe we’ll find something you’ll like there.’

The fox snorted. ‘All the signs point to the fact that we have to go there. But it just doesn’t smell to me.’

‘I’ll take you in my arms and hug you so you don’t have to be afraid,’ suggested Klaes, not knowing how to deal with the absurd fears of a fox. In the first days of our stay here, as soon as she heard about the amusement park, she couldn’t wait to go there. And then her interest suddenly turned into an incomprehensible resistance. Who knows what’s gone over her nose.

The fox looked up at Klaes and nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said, climbing onto the couch, where she curled up into a ball and watched their preparations.

For now, Loverd collected the chips from the floor and put them in the bag. ‘It’s great that we have something to pay in the amusement park. We can enjoy it.’

The gate of the amusement park had a festive effect. It was assembled from a number of mirrors and decorated with filigree, giving the impression that they were walking towards themselves. Behind the gate were houses where visitors could buy tokens. White-clad figures with white masks peered in the visitors. Loverd showed the pouch and the white mask bowed slightly. Another character handed Klaes a leaflet with an inscription Is there truth or just a shared dream? Get to know yourself in the house of the moon. A signpost stood not far from where they were standing.

Klaes read the names of the houses they could go to. ‘Heavenly Wheel – Touch the Stars. The House of the Infinite Moon – Who’s Watching Who? The House of the Moon – Know the Truth Through Your Dreaming.  House of Scarlet Dreams: Remember How Long Have You Danced? House of Hollow Children – Who Pulls the Strings marionette?boards that mean the world.”

In the end, they chose the house of Luna. They paid nine tokens – three for each including the fox, and went through the silver arc of the entrance. A huge hall opened in front of them, in the middle of which was a calm lake, where the reflection of the moon trembled on the surface. The reflections waved across the walls and the glittering lights slowly floated through, as if someone were turning the beauty. There were sunbeds in the shape of crystals, on which individuals and entire groups rested here and there.

‘Welcome to the Moon,’ said the figure in the white mask that accompanied them here. ‘You want to dream together or separately.’

‘Together, please,’ Klaes said.

‘Follow me,’ said the guide, leading them to the trio of interconnected sunbeds. Klaes and Loverd lay on them. The fox crawled under Klaes’ lounger. Their guide noticed this and politely explained to the fox that you needed to lie on the lounger to dream. The fox reluctantly obeyed.

‘Would you like to make a record of your dream?’ their guide asked.

“How is the recording taken?” Klaes asked, who had heard something like this for the first time.

‘For an additional fee, our employee would dream with us and make a recording. So that you can enjoy your dreams again and again,’ explained the guide.

‘Thank you, we won’t use it this time. Maybe next time,’ Klaes politely refused.

‘It’s nice here, clean,’ Loverd remarked encouragingly as he made himself comfortable on the lounger.

“Where shall we focus?” Klaes asked.

‘We want to find a messenger with a coaster,’ Loverd said.

“And why?” said the fox.

‘Because he has messages from Talantio,’ Loverd patiently explained, trying not to show that Lišča’s pessimistic mood is getting on his nerves.

‘And why not straight away with him?’

‘Unfortunately, we don’t have any contact with him and we don’t know where he is. And you probably don’t even know him. These are the basic principles of space-time magic – in order to connect with someone in a dream, it is necessary to know the person in question, or at least have some clue. The messenger has a coaster And perhaps the instruction that we are trying to contact her.’

Then they lay down on the sunbeds. Klaes put his hand on the fox’s paw and closed his eyes. Everyone felt the calm pouring into them. The sunbeds were shaking pleasantly, and this harmonious resonance, along with the intensified sound of the gurgling of water, shingles and splashing, soon drew them into the dream.

A white glitter butterfly flew in from somewhere and sat on the fox’s head. 

They felt excitement and peace.

They flew up, through the dome into the air. They saw the whole of Xalgon under them. In the east, the sun rose and in its light they saw river ribbons, thick curls of forests, rising mountains, mountain ranges, mountains, continents. High above the clouds and floated a shiny metallic shape. They flew into it through one of its windows and found themselves in the cozy wooden corridors and rooms of the U Tří fox inn. When they looked out of one of the windows, they saw the Ninth Tower of Sairis hover over its city and the citadel above the Adamant. A whirlwind like smoke still revolved over the free land, and something strange emerged from chaos, contradicting the familiar time-space rules. A little north of this vortex, the Maghon burned as the Talantiona tower rose to the sky. Klaes saw himself running towards the silver mines. His view was shot by the smoke from the fires, and Talantio’s tower rising to the heavens. There was a dark mirror hovering. Before the tower noticed the obstacle, she hit him and began to spiral back to Qurand. After a while, she stopped the fall and took the course. They watched her landing northwest of Xalgon near the lake called the White Sea. However, they did not see the exact location, they remained hidden behind the clouds.

Captivated by those looks, they went back; They were falling, but they were not afraid.

The white butterfly flew over Klaes. They fell into Yller, into a large hall where a tall gray-haired woman stood behind Pulpit. She lectured, waved her hands. Klaes did not understand her words, but he knew that it was his professor and her lecture on ignotium. Listeners exchanged horrified looks. After the lecture, the dean went to see the woman. He reprimanded her. Not long after that, the woman died of mysterious poisoning. Klaes felt longing and sad. 

The white butterfly headed towards Loveverd. He too was flooded with strong emotions – sadness, love, beauty, strength. Then he saw a figure in a red cloak. He was a Gandharan with sharply cut features, a short beard and a hair interwoven with silver, and eyes as black as the night sky. He was not a mortal. He sat and meditated surrounded by demons from the eternal battle. Loverd saw himself  – He was menacing and tall, he was getting bigger. He opened his mouth and spoke. 

Then he realized that this was another vision that broke into their dreams in the house of the moon. He stretched his mind to that figure and said: We greet you and hear you. 

He felt that he had made contact with the imprint left here, not the real figure.

‘Stop it! Stop saving the disease from treatment! The new age is supposed to rejuvenate the world and that means a necessary loss, there is no way forward without loss! Sairis is mold, Garion is an inflammation, Xalgon is cancer. You at all You don’t know who and why the new age began and you blindly follow the efforts of the old people to save what must die. If you don’t let the world die, it will not be able to be revived! Your efforts are already disrupting the process. You must know the causes! Who and why decided Change!? Look for it. Do you even know that you are on the side of illness and evil? Look around you!”

Then the image disappeared.

They were surrounded by misty darkness. Not far from them, someone was standing, peering into a kind of ball, emitting a dull light.

“Vedrax!” Klaes exclaimed and the figure turned. It was indeed Vedrax and a white crow was sitting on his shoulder.

“Knights Vedrax!” exclaimed Loverd happily.

Vedrax looked surprised. ‘Nice to see you. I have many messages for you!’

‘Was your mission a success? How did you get here?’ Loved asked.

‘How? I have the same question for you. Where did you get married here?’ He shrugged Vedrax.

‘We went to the amusement park and we surrendered to dreaming. So we are looking for a connection with the messenger you were supposed to deliver the coaster.’

‘There will be no need for that anymore. You can say that I got rid of the infection. I have news from her,’ said Vedrax.

“Did you get to her?” Klaes asked. 

Vedrax nodded his head hesitantly: ‘Hm. Experiment with elixir treatment was going in an unexpected direction. But I managed to bring the woman all the way here. It really came from Talantia. Her messages are not encouraging. Apparently there was some in the elixir error. The elixir thins the wall. The dose is poison. That’s how she said it. She also told me where Talantius was. He landed north of Svittynis.”

‘We also saw the tower falling,’ Loverd said thoughtfully.

‘The woman was sent to Mrs. Nazwaqn asking for help. And she was also supposed to report that the elixir contained an error,’ summed up Vedrax.

Loverd sighed, ‘All bad news. But at least we know where to look for Talantia.’

‘And the woman? Where is she now? How is she doing?’ asked Klaes.

Vedrax glanced at the crow. ‘She didn’t die. I wrested her from the black ravens.’

Klaes peeked into the ball. He saw an amusement park in me. ‘I wonder how we met you here.’ 

He looked at Vedrax. They were like spirits, he was a substance. He wanted to touch him, but it was not possible.

Vedrax motioned to the ball and said, ‘I couldn’t get there.’

‘Would you like because you didn’t pay?’ Loverd pitched. 

Klaes thought and then said:  “Do you have a coaster?” 

“Yes, do you want him back?” 

Klaes shook his head and said: ‘It probably won’t work. Keep it. Whoever has it can get to a safe place. Maybe you could find a pub U Tří lišek where you could rest. Talisman will take you there. From that pub, then he would There should have been a way back to Qurand. The three of us just wake up in the amusement park.”

‘I would prefer to go back to Xalgon,’ Vedrax said sadly.

‘I’m not sure that the pub has a branch in Xalgon, but maybe there will be one somewhere nearby. Try it. You don’t want to wander here in the fog forever.’

They stood there for a while and then the ball started to pull them in. They flew happily. They circled around the dome of the moonroom and returned to their bodies, which rested on the sunbeds.

Knight Vedrax was left alone in the gray fog. He heard the beating of a metal heart and noise. The ball hovered a few feet above the ground in front of him, and there was no indication that his companions had been drawn into it a few moments ago. He took out his coaster and examined it. On one side, three animals were depicted, reminiscent of the creature that Klaes had with him. One was held by a tankard, the second by a writing quill and the third by a key. On the reverse of the coaster was a circle around which there were some signs. He puzzled them for a while – it wasn’t a font, commonly used in Xalgon, but some older version – before he understood what they were prompting for. He wrote his finger in a circle of runes referring to Xalgon. They sparkled and soaked into the coaster, but otherwise nothing happened.

He moved on aimlessly. He followed the sound of beating. As he walked past another bubble, he looked into it. The vague scene he saw there scared him: he saw his father hanging over the sacrificial site at the moment of the sacrifice. Blood kept gushing out of his throat, again and again. The dying, bleeding person spoke: ‘Nice to see you, son. Perhaps you are still alive, even if you come from a special side.’

“Father, is it you?” cried Vedrax.

“Yes!”

Vedrax leaned into the bubble. He came within reach but could not touch his father.

‘Oh Father! Why am I not in your place!’ he exclaimed.

‘It was my choice. Don’t regret anything. I gave my life for something meaningful. I stand now as a protection against the destruction of Xalgon,’ said the dying man.

“What destruction?” exclaimed Vedrax.

‘You could already know. The horology holds the prisoners in itself and demands the blood of the heroes not to escape and destroy Qurand. They came from far away from the interstellars, they ride on the cracks of the world. They are not like the naive lords of the Sairis or Xalgon. They have Order on the heart, but these uninvited guests are just madness. We must keep him here. The other is out and wants to free him. Don’t let it happen!”

‘Yes, I’ll do that if I’m able,’ Vedrax swore.

‘Yes, you will,’ said the father, closing his eyes. Vedrax held out his hand to touch the blood stream, which he succeeded in doing, but there was still a membrane between the blood and his hand. Blood flowed and flowed.

The sound of the steel heart intensified. Vedrax continued on his way until he reached the biggest bubble. It was immense, larger than the massive buildings of Xalgon. Inside her he saw the gears of horology. Something was bumping and pounding there, but the horology held tight. Vedrax saw the precise gears of the piston and springs, heard the viscous dripping of oil. There were instructions and lists on the walls. These are spaces that no one has ever seen – except for the guards and administrators! Realizing Vedrax, he felt certain remorse that he was looking somewhere he shouldn’t be looking. But then he remembered – a coaster. Am I going somewhere? Where? The crow on his shoulder shook. A pilgrim by sitting on the spot will not find the way. Vedrax turned and headed back. He missed all three balls, never looking into any of them. He went and went. Finally, the front door emerged from the fog in front of him. He did not see the house itself, it was lost in the fog. Above the entrance hung a signboard with the image of the same animals that were on the coaster. The golden light of the fire passed through the crack in the door. He heard music and cheerful voices pouring out of there.

He took the handle and entered. A bright glow dazzled him for a moment. He looked into the light. As his eyes got used to the dazzling lighting, he found himself on the resting place of the stairs. Stairs led up and down. He went down the stairs and peered into one of the doors. The room was illuminated by many candles and lanterns. He sat down at the brewhouse and ordered a drink. They brought him a glass in which gold, raspberry red and sunflower yellow liquids alternated in layers. He sipped. It was good. A releasing heat spread over his body. He took the glass and sat down in the padded chair, which he had already spotted. It was in the corner, a bit in the shade. He buried himself in the pillows and drank deeply again. The raven took off and settled on the backrest.