Above the Port of Mali, hundreds of kilometers away from Emelka, the sun was rising, and night life was disappearing under pressure of day life. All suspicious sellers of illegal potions, lethal poisons, or powerful artifacts have swapped places with suspicious sellers dealing with stale fish, ruffled fabrics, and ancient artifacts created fifteen minutes earlier. Not without reason Port Mali was called the coastal Brakkmar.

A small tofu bird woke up as the sunlight illuminated its nest and immediately set off for a search for food or a partner. It flew over the red roofs of the city contented with life, when suddenly it saw an open window into the attic room. A folded window at this time usually meant that someone had breakfast and could leave some tasty remnants, so the bird flew in and sat on the headboard of the bunk bed.

Little tofu looked around at the messy apartment; There were clothes, dirty dishes and books everywhere, and its inhabitants were sleeping deeply, so a small bird opened its beak and began to sing as loud as it could. Then a thin, pale hand with black nails jumped from under the duvet, caught the creature, and simply threw it out the window to port.

"And never come back, pest" Yaga grumbled, exposing her face under the duvet. "Damn it, too much light.

"It was mean" Kira said sleepily on the bottom of bed. About two hours ago, she came back from her night watch fulfillment of her duty to worship god Sram and was jiggered "You should stun it with a frying pan and take it outside, the bow meows would be have a breakfast."

Then a loud 'MREOW' sounded outside.

"I don't think any bow meow will fill itself eating tofu, these little shits are more feathers than meat, I checked" Yaga took a few dark strands of her hair from her face "What time is it?"

"Late," Kira hid her head under her pillow, "Goodday"

And after a while the apartment filled snoring.

"Wow, thanks," snapped the dark-haired jumping on the floor. Not expecting much she looked into the pantry. As she suspected: empty. And even more than empty, because even the spiders and mice got out of here. So she has to replenish stocks. So she could'nt sleep all day long. "Damn"

Master Joris Jurgen, Bonta's ambassador, didn't like to being seen too much. And in Port Mali, however, he was caught in the eye. Not so much by his height, but how much by dress. The coat of Bonta's ambassador and representative and his hammer stood out against the fashion of the coastal Brakkmar. Those who worked at sea, smiths, or fabric dyers obviously didn't wear anything sophisticated to not destroy clothing at work, but everyone tried to look pretty colorful as if they were some sea creatures that came out on a shore. They wore feathers, scales, sea glass, shells, pearls, shards of coral and so on. Everyone wore some decoration, or had richly embroidered clothes. And the weapon used by the locals always had a blade. It's logical that Ambassador Bonty in modest costume and with a great hammer at his side did not fit in here.

But he did not come here to compare the contents of his wardrobe with the costumes of the coastal population. Since Adamai had disappeared, and Yugo started to fall ill, Master Joris tried to track down Brotherhood of the Forgotten and find out more. And he was very effective in his action. He even managed to find someone in the ranks of the group who started giving him information. He learned that the Brotherhood consists not only of the demigods and dragons's offspring but also of ordinary people who turned away from the gods, who lost all their faith in them. He also learned that Lady Echo was not the only leader of the Brotherhood, but in contrast to the other one she was a bit more understanding. And constantly recruited new people.

According to the informant, most efforts now focused on finding a girl who came out from nowhere, pretty literaly. It seems nothing, but supposedly she possesed extraordinary ability that could support the Case. And she was very difficult to capture, always when the Brotherhood managed to find her, the girl slipped away, and Echo's agents, who were sent after the target, ended in nursing home with broken limbs, damaged spines, wrenched off jaws and many other similar souvenirs.

But now it was supposed to change; Allegedly, Echo planned to send to her several demigods plus a new acquisition. A few hours ago Alibert contacted Joris and told him that Qilby was temporarily released from the White Dimension. And almost a moment later the old Eliatrop disappeared from the inn. Not good.

For an additional fee, Joris received the location of the wanted girl and her portrait. Nothing special, she wasn't an extraordinary beauty, but she wasn't ugly either. Pretty nice face, brown eyes, slightly raised nose, long brown hair...

Ah, here she is. She walked toward the market with a basket in her hand. Brown trousers, black slippers and blue blouse. She did not notice him or pretended not to see him. Anyway, it was necessary to warn her against the imminent threat. Ambassador of Bonta took a deep breath and rushed to the girl quickly.

"Excuse me, miss..." he began as politely as possible.

"I do not provide such services" was a cold answer.

Oops.

Not the best start to the conversation.

Yaga has heard about Master Joris of Bonta before, he wasn't some "hero" on a quest, but a true warrior. The problem was that she never saw him, nor even heard any exact description of Bontarian Ambassador. Therefore, when some stranger accosted her, she immediately assumed that it was a seducer hunting for girls from the province (maybe she was prejudiced, but usually foreigners from another bigger cities were guys who thought they can harass every girl in Port Mali, no matter in what district they met her, and she will gladly go to bed with them) Well, do not trust the first impressions. At least do not trust them too much.

Luckily, Master Joris quickly explained the mistake, before things turn in nasty direction. The only thing he wanted from her was to warn her against someone who hunted her. Yes, she had met a bunch of morons before, who were trying to catch her and bring her to some Lady Echo, but they were usually normal people. The demigods were something new.

"Who is this Lady Echo by the way?" Yaga cocked her head as she and Master Jurgen walked through the market. She was shopping, he was observing the environment. "I asked the people she was sending after me, but they were never open to honest talk."

"She's a pretty mysterious person" Joris sighed, "I don't think her soldiers know anything about her, and only thing I know she's fond for demigods of all kinds, but she doesn't tolerate the gods"

"Somehow I'm not very surprised," muttered the girl, frowning with disdain. "The gods can be extremely assholes, and they don't care about their children."

"You speak as if you knew them," said the little warrior.

"Who knows, maybe I know?" the girl smiled enigmatic "Master Joris, I appreciate your concern for my existence of dubious value and the effort you have put yourself to find me, but unfortunately you tired yourself unnecessarily. I met many unusual beings on my way and if Lady Echo is going to use more powerful cards, I'm gonna do the same thing. Anyway, you can stop worrying about me and come back to your wonderful lifepartner."

"How do you... ?!" Master Joris jumped in terror. After all, no one knew...!

"I bluffed," the girl laughed and started walking toward her. "Goodbye, Master Joris"

"Hey, miss, wait!" Jurgen wanted to stop her, but Yaga had already vanished into the crowd "Damn it"

Meanwhile, Masqueraider, watching them from a distance, followed the girl. He had to know where she was going, or his lady would be very unpleased.