Chapter 3
Alan Scott and the servant of Morpheus keeping him company came back to the place in which the rest of the team were awaiting them. Clothes bought in not very honest way were handed out to everyone who needed them. GL, avoiding the contact with Corinthian told his group what he learnt in the nearby town.
"People are really hospitable here. One of local peasants offered us spending the time in the inn. I think that we should go there".
"Of course". Matts replied.
"That's good news. Everyone got hungry". Mint said.
"I've learnt something more". Alan directed his words at the Master of Dreams.
"Yes, Alan Scott?"
"There is some tower inside which the man looking after this village used to live in the past. He was called Zibo and he died, because people discovered that he had been associated with black magic usage".
"This information can be particularly essential, Green Lantern of Earth. When you refresh yourselves in the tavern, some of us will go to this place under the cover of the night. Perhaps the magic have not disappear from here entirely." Morpheus announced. The group set off into the route to the village.
In the same time, another couple of travellers came out of hiding in the forest thicket - the woman and the man who followed tracks of the team gathered by Morpheus from the beginning of their unusual expedition. Their faces covered hoods and clothes were covered by capes.
"Could you hear their conversation?" The bearded man asked.
"Yes, every detail". The girl replied.
"The tower of the magic belonging to this Zibo at one time. There, the quest for ancient artefacts stolen and maybe lost from worlds of Endless will begin. Exactly as my golden globe sleeping in the Chamber of Twilight foretold. Bright lines will led us to this place, we will find there what is so important for you, my beloved".
"I didn't want this thing so much to expose you to the perilous travel". The girl answered looking at the face of her companion.
"The mechanism of our travel started moving at the moment, when I asked the golden globe for an advice. Nothing can stop its motion now, we must travel our road until the end." The bearded man replied. Two of travellers followed the path toward the village.
Morpheus' group found the tavern being one of the first buildings of the village. As it turned out there was no large crowd inside, probably because there was still a day outside and such places were usually coming to life after duskfall. Everyone was differently admiring views inside the inn. Jessica never had the custom to walk to pubs and discos, therefore she wanted to consume something as soon as possible and go to more private and desolate place. Matts Sunder concurred with her. Rann Shanner visited a lot of suspected places full of beings from the deepest nooks of the galaxy in his life, therefore a few cutpurses' eyes did no impression on him. Narea preferred silence and the solitude but Mint was interested in everything which surrounded her and she was looking all around with the curiosity. Alan tried to protect all members of the team particularly the youngest people. Sakiko Hayasu was horrified with the fact that she was in a place in which she could become the victim of her hunger of blood again. It turned out that messages were spreading all over the village unusually fast, because the innkeeper knew about the meeting of Alan with Tomus and that Scott had disguised himself as the travelling merchant, whose caravan was attacked by highland robbers. Bearded fat man after having a word with Green Lantern, ordered his companions to take the place at the table and he prepared the warm food for them, of course at his own expense, because he dreamt that when the travelling merchants visit his home areas next time, they will certainly repay him. Sakiko was the only person who didn't take the place by the table. The girl asked the owner of the inn to show her the room in which she could spend the next night as soon as possible. She knew that she would have to isolate herself from the rest of the group once again, her hunger for blood grew larger with approaching of the dusk. Behavior of the young female vampire surprised Mint who wanted to learn what was going on and help the girl somehow.
"Perhaps I'll go to her?" She asked Narea sitting by her.
"Leave her alone, if she wants the help she will ask for it". Matts answered her.
"She cannot cope with what happened to her so far. We also have a hard time acepting it, but we are pulling ourselves together just by being together, right?" Narea replied.
"Perhaps she prefers to fight with her internal demons in a solitude". She added after a moment.
"Do you know what we're going to find inside the tower of that magus?" Alan asked Morpheus sitting close by.
"I don't know, Alan Scott. When I am inside the Tower, I will perhaps sense calling of some artefact forgotten a long time ago, perhaps not all of them died in this world. If some of them still lives, it means that its creator or the owner is alive also. We will go to him and we will ask for help."
"I have one question..." Matts butted in.
"Yes? What do you want to know, Matts Sunder?"
"You kidnapped us from different worlds, diffeent Universes... I can't embrace it by my own mind... you have large powers, divine powers... why we're going to some village, we're sitting in the inn... we're supposed to search ruins for some rubbish. You cannot, for example, snap your fingers and move us to some other world, where somebody who can help us lives?"
"If this was so simple... as the Master of Dreams, during my journeys through waked worlds I am using the bodily coating which everyone can see with their own senses, can communicate with it in the way familiar to themselves. Simultaneously I have the continuous contact with my land, I can sense every, even the smallest, change in its internal and external structure. When the Awakening attacked us during the journey, her attack made something much worse than just tearing me out from my own kingdom. Her power deprived me of the contact with my world. I cannot draw the power from the never ending imagination of beings of entire multiverse, I am not having access to the magic which comes from deep subconsciouses of every thinking being. My body is becoming more and more material with every moment spend in this world and I am becoming the same as mortal beings inhabiting this land. I am not the Master of Dreams but only a traveller who must accomplish the mission entrusted him by the fate. And if I do not find my home in time, I will never come back to my palace". Everyone were touched by Morpheus' story, but some of them could not believe the truth of his words. They were sceptical, they were afraid that they had been used by him, or could not comprehend the complexity of reality embodied by the pale man with the eyes as black as the night. At the same the short guy who earlier had noticed the ring sparking with green glow on the finger of Alan Scott entered the inn. The man found the table by which strangers sat and ran up to them seeking the ones who he remembered from the marketplace.
"I welcome strangers, I welcome travellers..." He said nodding before everyone.
"I don't like this guy". Matts told Jessica to the ear.
"He's most probably some local idiot".The girl quietly commented.
"I welcome you all..." he replied coming up to Alan Scott. He touched his hand with the ring and he made a gesture as if he wanted to kiss it. Green Lantern seeing it concealed the hand under the table. "I've heard...I've heard.." He said looking all around. His goggled eyes were spinning there and back looking at faces of each team's member.
"Say what you have to or go away!" Rann shouted.
"Be calm... be calm... I have the offer for you".
"What is it about, man?" Alan was upset with the intrusive individual.
"I know, that you, my men..." he said looking at women from the group who he specially ignored.
"You're interested in the magic..." He completed. Everyone felt unsteadily, since they remembered very well what Morpheus had told them about the magic and how it was treated in the land which they visited.
"I think that some misunderstanding took place, I don't know what you are talking about..." Scott said. "It's not true!" The short man screamed.
"I know that you're searching for the Tower..." He added very loudly. After a moment he put his finger on his lips and he announced very quietly.
"... Zibo's house. I can help you". He smiled widely.
"I know about this place..."
"Perhaps we're able to reach an agreement somehow". GL looked at his group examining their facial expressions to find their approval for the cooperation with the intrusive stranger. Nobody opposed, the man continued.
"How can you help us, assuming that indeed we need to reach the Zibo Tower...?"
"I know how to reach it, I have the map!" He replied looking for something under his coat.
"I could see that unusual things were happening there! Very unusual! One day when I had strolled in the forest I could see spectral horses running through the meadow, how beautiful! And all of them got away from stables which Zibo had at one time. Other day I could see bird with fiery feathers which had rested on the branch of the tree growing right by the old tower. And the best of it all!" He announced taking the gold ball from under the coat. He moved it closer to Green Lantern's head and stopped talking. The ball opened as some mechanical flower and red flashes of light started whirling around it. When Alan wanted to touch the object, small man violently withdrew his hand putting his treasure deep in his pocket.
"Okay, we believe that you know the way... what do you want in exchange for the map?" Morpheus asked.
"I want more toys from this Tower! As many as you will manage to carry! You're supposed to bring me something from it!" The little shrimp answered rolling his eyes.
"Ok". Alan announced. The man caught his hand, trying to touch the green ring again.
"Today at night! Today at night!" The stranger said walking away from the table.
"What do you think about him?" GL asked his companions, when the intruder had disappeared from view.
"He is off his head". Jessica said.
"But the ball was probably real, so it's worthwhile checking this map". Rann added.
"Madmen can see things indiscernible for others, their minds carved a lot of lands in my kingdom". Lord of the sleeping armies added.
"I think, that everyone should rest before the next trip." Matts offered.
"I agree." Narea informed.
"Perhaps we'll manage to talk with Sakiko..." Mint interjected sadly.
The short man walked away from the inn and he found his way to the route leading beyond the village. In his head a plan was formed which could make him rich and by which he could get the respect of all inmates of the small town. He noticed the high building, the black tower raising behind the hill. He smiled widely, simultaneously quickening the pace. Breathless, he ran up to the steel door of the tower, which was guarded by two men dressed in black, steel armours and steel helmets with the visor made from the dark, dimwit glassware. Soldiers assumed a defensive position seeing the peasant approaching them.
"Calmly... calmly... I have the latest news for your commander!"
"Our lord gave the direct order not to let you into the watchtower! Go away or else we will chase you away! With swords!" One of the guards said.
"I have the gift for him! Very important news! Somebody in my village is practising magic!" The little shrimp said swallowing nervously.
"Well... you can enter... but if you are lying again, our lord will order us to behead you! Do you understand it?" The other warrior standing near the gate asked.
"I understand, I understand... I'm not lying, really!" The small man said nodding to soldiers. When the gate was opened, the man from the village moved through it to the inside of the watchtower like a rat escaping from the predator. He went the second floor of the building up along winding stairs cautiously searching the room occupied by the person sought by him. He knocked at the wooden door with gilded door handles expecting the reply with an anxiety.
"Enter!" The shout sounded from behind the door.
The village fool entered the interior of the chamber. His eyesight came across the quite big room, with green carpet on the floor and intricately woven kilim carpets hung on all walls. Opposite the big, oval window the oaken table, with maps and a few candles on it, stood and a few metres farther a wardrobe was placed, on which shelves rolls and books bound in leather were exhibited. The man dressed in dark purple suit with the cape resting on his back was sitting in the armchair. His hair was long and brown and beard graced his face. Seeing the local dope standing in the doorway, the owner of the watchtower got up from the table simultaneously reaching for the sword lying close by.
"You come here again you carrion! Will you be talking nonsense again?" He said with a distinct dissatisfaction.
"No my lord! I wouldn't dare. This time I'm bringing the sincere truth, the honest truth! In our village something unusual happened!" The small man tried to defend himself against the anger of the soldier. "Chat quickly and get out of my sight, you fool!" The bearded man was losing his patience more and more.
"I was strolling around a marketplace and I was a witness of the magic! The most real magic! I could see when two men had bought clothes and took them not paying the seller a single one piece of gold! That's true! The honest truth! They had to cast a spell on these poor women! They cheated them with treacherous magic! These rogues! But it's not the end..." The bearded warrior sat down on the armchair. He decided to listen to what the guest had to say.
"I tracked these two guys, because as the law-abiding citizen of our land I have the duty to report to authorities every sign of the magic... at some point this two quarrelled, I don't know why but it's not significant, such scoundrels can hit each other for nothing... they quarrelled and one of them forgot himself and took advantage of the magic, the ring on his hand shone with green glitter. It wasn't glitter of fire or lamp... no..."
"And how I am supposed to know whether what you are saying isn't your whim, or the delirium which you got coming back from the inn after the night of the drunkenness?"
"I have the evidence!" The guy said with huge satisfaction.
"I tracked those villains... and what turned out? It turned out there were more people with them, women and men of different ages. I learnt from peasants that they were interested in the magic and more specifically it the ruins of the tower in which old Zibo lived at one time. They asked about it even our good-natured Tomus, they were so insolent! I impersonated somebody who was also interested in secrets and I promised them that I would lead them to the ruins, where they'll be able to find magic artefacts! Am I not a wisdom incarnated? I fulfilled my duty to our master!"
"Talk man! Where is this evidence about which you are prattling on all the time!" The bearded man screamed simultaneously banging his fist on the table. The frightened peasant jumped away a few strides and cautiously came up to the angry soldier.
"Here! I managed to steal something what belonged to them!" He took out the ball, which he had shown Alan earlier in the inn, from behind the coat. The commander of the watchtower tore the artefact out from his hand and threw it against the stone floor. The device shattered intto few parts lighting with colourful glitter for the last time.
"Lead me to this marketplace!" Long-haired man ordered with a firm voice. His companion bowed before him and then he ran up to the door. The commander left to the corridor and he ordered the young soldier going close by to prepare the armour for him.
In the same moment two travellers who had been tracking Morpheus' team from the beginning of their travel stood on a hill looking at ruins of the tower surrounded with little stone wall, destroyed in a few places, laid in the distance.
"They can have grave trouble. Temporal lines from the past and the future are in this place in a jumble. When I'm closing my eyes I can see under my eyelids beautiful garden in which the old man with white beard is walking amongst flowers. But I can see also Morpheus and his team, cornered, cut off from world without the possibility of the escape". The girl said.
"I said, the Tower will be a point in which their real journey will start. The greatest trial so far is awaiting them there. Do you remember what the Golden Globe showed us when asked for the prediction?"
"Yes." black-haired girl replied closing her lilac eyes.
"Card from the Book of the Destiny, Symbol of the Life worn by the Woman of the Night, Stray Dream, Sword of Destruction, Mirror of Despair, Flame of Passion and something, which I'm not even able to name. " She added.
"Come to the Tower. We do not have much time and we must create the homunculus." The man suggested gripping his partner's hand.
"Of course." They both went down the grassy hillside straight into stone ruins of the tower.
Drales, it was the name of long-haired commander of soldiers stationed in the watchtower near the village and Fiflet, peasant who sold the team of the Master of Dreams to the local powers to satisfy his own greed, were walking around the market. Drales had the black armour, the same one as men guarding the gate to his stronghold, however he didn't dress the helmet. When the short man showed the stall on which Alan and Corinthian had bought clothes for their squad, Drales immediately ran up to it. Women confused by the view of the black armour stopped gossiping and prepared to greet their guest.
"What do you wish for yourself? We have here the selected fabric for so important person... " They said one after the other. The man hushed them up with one move of the hand.
"I have the question to you, women! Were here a foreigner, merchant from distant sides who bought clothes from you?" He asked simultaneously looking at Fiflet.
"Yes, two men were here, but we aren't looking at people". The fatter woman announced.
" Did they pay you properly?" Drales asked.
"Of course! He was so generous! He paid more than all these rags were worth! But after all it isn't an offence, yes?" The second woman, thinner and without teeth joined the conversation.
"Can I see gold which he left behind?" The soldier continued.
"But here you are, we have nothing to conceal!" The fat woman informed pointing at the box on which according to her the sack with gold stood. It stood, but only in front of eyes and in dreams of sellers from the stall. Drales and Fiflet could see only the empty space.
"Just as I said! Precisely the way I said!" The self-satisfied peasant screamed. Long-haired man fell into a pensive mood, he looked at the sky kind like he tried to look for an answer to questions tormenting him there.
He disregarded irritating Fiflet's voices all the time seeking the solution. In the end he broke the silence, immediately turning to the village idiot.
"Are you sure that they will come to the place of appointment?" He asked looking down at him.
"Yes, yes! They are so greedy for the magic and the wealth!"
"Very well. In that case I am gathering the team of liquidators but you prepare well, man, because the Oficium Antimagicum will arrive at your village". The bearded man enquired calmly.
At the same time, in the completely different part of the land, the young girl with auburn hair tied into the plait was escaping from somebody or something as quickly as she was able. She was dirty, muddied, her knees ached her from repeated falls onto hard stones protruding from the road. She knew that she could not stop, they were too close. She was holding the locket with the symbol of the Sun or star from which light rays were emerging. The girl was knocked on the root stickin out of the road and fell down landing in the puddle. She felt great pain in the leg, she probably broke her tendon. She curled up like a ball and at that very moment two men ran up to her. They was wearing black armours and their faces were covered by helmets with visors made of black glass.
"It's not as yout think! It's my family memento, nothing more!" The horrified woman screamed.
"For practising magic..." One of assailants said.
"You're arrested and you will stand up before the Officium"! His companion finished.
"No! I beg you!" Brown haired girl tried to defend herself. She covered her face with hands, she cried but she didn't want her torturers to have satisfaction seeing her in such a bad state. Suddenly the sky was incised with the purple lightning which hit two armed men reducing their bodies to ashes in the split of second. The girl was horrified, she was more afraid then earlier when two soldiers had chased her. She could not utter quietest sound. The tall man covered by the cape was standing over her. He bent over her, gently touched her face and then he took locket hanging on her neck.
"Who are you? What's going on here?" The woman whispered fixing her eyes on the face of the man who rescued her a moment ago.
"Don not be afraid. Your god has returned!" Fallax said smiling widely. His eyes were covered with the blindfold.
A night dawned over the lands, residents of the village disappeared from roads and fields and the inn filled up with guests expecting victuals and liquors after the long day of the hard work. Alan, Corinthian and Morpheus from the Endless Family stayed in the inn waiting for the appointment with Fiflet while other members of the team went to the floor, where residential lodgings were located. Matts Sunder was strolling around the dark corridor, when he noticed the opened door to one of rooms and glitter of the lamp cast on the wall opposite it. Cautiously, he looked inside and his eyes spotted a figure of Jessie Vale, plunged into darkness, sitting on the chair nearby the bed. The boy crossed the threshold of the room and stopped being unsure of his next step. There was a night and he was in a room of stranger woman and what's more the one coming from the reality completely different from his own. He has always thought that his dreams were bizarre, all the way to the moment when had met with the real master of dreaming and people gathered by him. Jessica turned her head sensing his presence.
"Come here. I know for sure, that today I won't fall asleep, so a company will be useful to me". She said smiling.
"Well." The satisfied boy came inside, closing the door. He sat down on the bed beside young mutant.
"How are you?" He asked.
"Fine. Many people from my school have seen unusual things and they travelled to faraway corners of the world, but this is probably even bigger than their most daring ideas". The girl replied.
"Exactly... I still don't believe that it's really happening. It's so different from my entire life".
"Matts... do you remember what we talked about earlier? Your dreams, this guy carrying the travelling bundle, can you tell me something more about them?" Jessica asked stopping the momentary silence. "Yes... I have strange, incredibly real dreams for as long as I can remember. They all have the similar course, similar scenery, I'm meeting with the same people in them. These are dreams about the destruction, about the end of the world, different disasters."
"Interesting." The girl interrupted his statement.
"In these dreams, I... and a few other people... we're hiding in some old, wooden house. I don't remember names of these people, their face or anything associated with them. I know that they're women and men of different ages. I also know that I know them very well. Later the worst is starting, everyone feel the approaching destruction, we're looking out of the window and we can see what is threatening us. And here each of dreams is different, one time it's airplane flying high and then great explosion of the atomic bomb on the horizon and the approaching shock wave, or great hurricane, a whirlwind coming closer and closer to our small cottage, sometimes it's some kind of cyclone, but built out of the light or darkness instead the air. Sometimes it's army of flying vehicles sent by the extraterrestrial civilization searching the area with the help of beams of the light. One day they were insanely powerful beings, equal to gods with their power who fought with the Earth using the weapon which could literally rewrote the laws of physics, they changed them so that the planet could not keep its mass and it collapsed into the black hole. It's horrible, to experience on your own skin when in the space in which you are the physics is starting to lose its meaning. I never know, what would happen if some of these threats affected me or somebody else from my dream, because I always wake up earlier and my dream ends."
"Ok, if you dreaming about something like that every night, it's really the crap... but what it has to do with this ginger man with the bundle?"
"He's turning up in dreams of the second type which I have equally often. I can see some road, I'm looking out of the window from my flat... and this ginger guy is going along the middle of the road immersed in the night and he sometimes turns to me and waves his hand at me. When I try to answer him somehow, he disappears or I wake up. Strange balls of light hovering above the asphalt of the street like the will o' the wisps above bogs sometimes accompany the walk of this guy. It's so bizzare, to see something like that..."
"Have you ever talked with this ginger bearded man?"
"Never... but in the night, when I had turned up in the inn and I met you and everyone else, I was dreaming one of my bizarre dreams. And this time maybe it wasn't a dream, perhaps this time it really happened? I was standing at the window again and strange things were happening outside, but this time I managed to go out and run after the bearded man. I didn't meet him, but I found myself here instead."
"Perhaps these dreams were an announcement of what was going to happened? Or prophecy about what can happen to us in the future?"
"Perhaps you're right. And what about you? You told me that you had seen something in the forest? Do you often have such hallucinations?"
"These were not hallucinations! It's all right with my head... namely I'm within the limits of the normality, if it's possible to set such limits." The girl answered disagreeing with the Matts' statement.
"I was born with strange abilities... I could predict the future, I had prophetic visions which were coming to me chaotically and most of them came true... I had big trouble with myself and everyone else, but I don't want to talk about it. At least not now..." Jessica stopped. Matts interested with topic decided to continue.
"You had them. Namely don't you have them now?"
"Yes and no. As it turned out, my abilities acted in completely different way and after my certain experiences, they changed even more. Now I don't even know what their true nature is. I have glimmers, visions, but they're much more incoherent than before, they concern the past and the future as well as completely abstract things. For example I can trigger them touching different objects."
"Do you want to try these abilities on me?" Matts offered. He put his hand on the hand of the black-haired girl. He gripped it gently.
"Can you see something? Will you see my past and maybe something waiting for us in the future?" He asked. Jessica was silent for a moment, but she answered him in the end.
"No. I told you that my abilities had become completely unpredictable".
Matts moved his hand from the girl's arm.
"Perhaps we can try other day".
"Perhaps". Jessie replied.
"I should go now. Maybe I can fall asleep and tomorrow I'll be able to tell you about my new dream". He announced rising from the bed.
"You should lie down too. Nobody knows how far we have to travel tomorrow". He added coming up to the door.
"Goodnight." He said disappearing behind the door.
"Goodnight." Jessica answered moving from the chair to the bed.
Sakiko couldn't fall asleep. She was looking at the opened window behind which the big, silver moon reigned, triggering in her soul strange, difficult for explicit classification longing for something fleeting, for something what was beyond her reach. It wasn't the hunger for blood which she felt the previous night, or the feeling of loneliness which accompaniedr her from the very moment she joined the team of strange persons in the world quite alien to her. She felt like talking with somebody, to be close the ones who worried about her and wished her well, but she could not. She didn't want anybody from the team to get used to her and got to like her. She didn't know, whether she turn against them in the future, therefore she had to remain completely stranger, emotionally bound with nobody from them. The door to her room opened with a bang destroying the harmony of quiet hours and Rann Shanner turned up inside. The girl moved to his side.
"What are you doing here? I wished myself no company!" She replied roughly.
"You don't have to play in front of me the same way you're playing in front of everybody else. You're at the moment as unnatural as some android sold by scrap dealers on Wildernesses".
"How can you know my true self? You know nothing about me!" The girl involuntarily joined in the conversation. Rann stood up opposite the window and the silver moonlight fell on his face.
"I know very well that you carry some dark secret, some terrible secret. Something that would cause that everyone would turn their back on you if they heard about it. I'm reading you like the open book and you know why?" He asked looking at the eyes of black-haired girl. Sakiko didn't say a word.
"Because I can see that we're the same. We aren't like the rest of this group. They're heroes, defenders, or ordinary nonentities. We're something completely different. We're warriors, hunters striding proudly in the darkness, hunting for victims afraid of us with no remorse. Am I wrong?"
"Perhaps there's some truth in your words..." The female vampire replied lowering the head.
"We must remember that a success of this mission can at one time depend on us. We must be able to act, when others will hesitate, we must be able to cross lines which others won't dare to cross."
"Why are you telling me all of this, why are you invading me here at night, when I want to be alone with my own thoughts?"
"I have to remind you who we really are. Warriors, hunters, murderers..." Shanner looked at the girl with his hypnotic eyesight.
"I don't think that I like your company any longer". The girl clenched fists. Rann turned and set off to the exit. Sakiko clenched her teeth simultaneously looking out of the window at some point of the space existing only in her imagination.
"You're wrong. I'm not a murderer... I'm not..." Black-haired girl repeated these words in her thoughts like some kind of mantra.
Narea and Mint booked one of guest rooms together. Girls were talikng to each other, because they wanted to spend the evening and the night in the way they were taught in their home worlds. Mint was sitting on the sill of the wide opened window, looking at the large Moon gleaming in the dark blue sky and the sea of twinkling stars. The wind blowing above the village brought the smell of forests from the distance, it carried sounds of animals setting off on night hunts and the murmur of stream invisible to the eyes. Elf girl fell into a pensive mood recalling the land of her childhood and evenings spent on listening to sounds of the forest thicket. It was something natural for her, something which she couldn't imagine her life without. When she was little girl she used to lay on boughs of the tree waiting for the sleep, she was thinking about what was outside limits set by the Forest, she dreamt about all the experiences and peculiarities about which she learnt from legends and stories passed on amongst her race from the generation to the generation. When her dream came true, she wasn't happy as much as she imagined. Her travel outside the Forest, in the World began with such threats as the Awakening, power which she wasn't able to understand, or Fallax overfilled with hate. The first place she saw after leaving her homeland, was hostile for beings like her, she had to hide who she really was. However the girl hoped that next lands which she'll see during the journey would be safe and full of wonderfulnesses she dreamt of when she was a little girl living between the limbs of trees of the Forest. Elf's companion, Narea was also preparing for the sleep, verging on odd meditation. The black-haired girl had been doing this every evening since she found her way to the church and decided to become the minder of Crystal Gardens, when was young acolythe helping older friends, when she was preparing for her journey, she when returned from it and received rights to learn about the Magic of Crystals. She was sitting in a Turkish manner on the floor and black, purple and blue crystal placed in circular formation surrounded her. Narea had closed eyes and her body was emitting the pale glow. Stones returned her callings, and they all started phosphorescing in the darkness. Soon one of them uttered one-tone sound, and right away their companions joined it, every one of them was transmitting its characteristic frequency. A sound wave overlapped each other creating the peculiar music, like clear jingling of small, silver bells. Mint interested with the phenomenon turned away her head toward the room. She was glad when her eyes met the light display created by her friend and her ears could be filled with the cosmic melody. Narea submerged in meditation was thinking, like every other day about her brother and about what happened to him in the past. Two tears flowed down form her eyes.
Meanwhile Alan, Corinthian and Morpheus were waiting for Fiflet's visit. The short guy bowed several times in front of his new acquaintances and then he sat down at the table. He rummaged about in his bag until he took out the rolled up map out of it. He laid the plan out on the table top with shivering hands.
"It's your map! The way I promised! I'm a man of honour and I always keep my promise!" He said rolling his eyes.
"Where is the tower about which you told us located?" Alan asked.
"Here, here!" Fiflet pointed his finger several times at the point on the map in which the emphasized symbol of some building was stenciled.
"Only a few steps behind the village! It'll be enough to go around two hills!" He added showing the village and curves symbolizing hills on the plan.
"Will you be keeping us company in our walk?" GL asked. Man waved hands signalling disagreement and announced all over:
"No, no, no! I won't go there! If I was brave enough to walk there I would go myself, I'm not an idiot!" "Very well. We can start our travel". The Master of Dreams announced.
"But remember about our agreement! I am a man of honour! I want to have the treasure that cursed place is hiding!" He added with shrill voice simultaneously sweating on the face.
"You will get your reward, Fiflet. We will remember about you". Morpheus calmed him.
"And what guarantee I have that you won't run off with my treasure?" Fiflet added after a moment of thought.
"The part of our group will stay in the inn. They will be your guarantee that you will not be cheated by us." The lord of sleeping armies said calmly.
"Thank you, Thank you". Fiflet replied kissing hands of Morpheus and then reaching for Alan Scott's hands, but the one didn't let him touch himself. The short man came up to Corinthian, but one look of the nightmare effectively dampened his enthusiasm. Fiflet ran out of the inn leaving all men alone. "Are we going there? Can we trust what he's saying?" Alan asked.
"No. This man is not as honest as he is talking about himself and his dreams are filled by reveries about wealth. Unfortunately we can not be too careful now. The existence of all the reality is in danger. I propose that only Sakiko Hayasu joins us. The rest will stay here so that in case of unexpected adversities they can perform the task entrusted them."
"Yes. If this is your will." Corinthian said.
"Mathew, fly to the girl!" He added looking at the bird sitting on his shoulder. The raven soared towards the opened window and then he headed to the upper deck searching for the room inside which young female vampire was sleeping.
Fiflet ran toward the centre of the village where liquidators hidden in the darkness were waiting for him. A dozen men dressed in black armours and helmets with visors made of black glass, gathered by the long-haired Drales, were waiting for orders in the deep concentration.
"They were fooled! They were fooled!" The excited man said.
"Are they going to the Tower?" The bearded man asked.
"Yes, yes. They're going. But not everyone were at the table, some of them must be in the inn, most probably they're sleeping!" Fiflet said rolling his eyes in all directions.
"Well. I'll divide the team in two. We'll catch all of them simultenaously. Do you know which way they'll be going?"
"Yes, I showed them only one road! Through hills! We'll catch them behind the second hill. As soon as they'll reach these cursed wrecks." The guy announced spitting at the very mention about ruins of the magus' tower.
"You heard him, men! We must accomplish our bounden duty. We're moving to capture criminals against the nature!" Drales ordered liquidators to start the mission of capturing Morpheus' team.
Alan, Dream, Corinthian and Sakiko were walking through meadow covered with grass, whipped by breezes of the nightly, warm wind. After a dozen minutes of the hiking the group reached to the forest clearing on which ruins of the Tower left by owner a long time ago stood.
"This place is depressing, like some old graveyard". Sakiko communicated the remark to the rest.
"We must go there. What are we supposed to look for?" Alan asked.
"Something what will be trying to find us, what will want to be found. Magic artefacts created by the hand of the man have the life of their own, they have fragment of the soul, of energy of their creator. If at least one of them is still alive, it means that its owner also did not depart from this world. Any such an object will be a signpost which will show us the path to somebody who will be able to help us."
"I think that my ring will be useful in our search". Alan announced going toward the entry to the Tower.
Jessica Vale was lying on the bed and her mind was slowly swimming away into the dreamland. The girl felt that her next vision was going to come into her mind. She could see the marching army of black clothed soldiers going through the street. She compared them with the view of Nazis whom she knew from historical films, she knew that she had to hide out from them. When the dark march was very close, Jessie noticed that one of them was holding Alan Scott's ring and few others were leading her companions from the team. Alan hit by the spear fell down on the road and soon Morpheus and Corinthian joined him. The girl woke up violently, she knew that she would have to act swiftly otherwise she could never escape from the world and her acquaintances could lose their lives. Jessica ran to the Matts' room. She prodded him several times to wake him up. The boy opened his eyes, he turned to the girl very dissatisfied.
"What are you doing... what do you want?" He asked.
"Get up! I had the vision! Somebody is hunting for Alan and the rest, they're threatened! We must warn them!" Black-haired girl said quickly, but simultaneously she tried not to raise her voice as if she didn't want to be eavesdropped.
"Okay, we're going." Matts replied. At the same time the group of armed liquidators accessed the tavern. One of them raised his hand ordering the drunk company to remain seated and continue to deal with their own, down-to-earth matters. Armed men headed for rooms occupied by guests. Jessica and Matts were walking along the corridor bathed in the darkness. Their intention was to reach the room of two girls and warn them against the threat hanging above their heads. At one point they heard the sound of shoes hitting steps of stairway. Jessica was poured by the cold sweat, the thuds were the same as in her vision. She stopped, she didn't know what to do next. She felt someone's touch and the strong pull into the part of the corridor sloshed with darkness. Matts was also pushed into the shadows by the mysterious individual. When the girl freed herself from the hug, she noticed that Rann Shaner dressed in his black costume, in which they had met him the first day, was standing near her and the boy. Black-haired man ordered them to keep quiet with a gesture of the hand and explained the seriousness of the situation they were in.
"You cannot go there, there's too many of them and they are armed. I don't know who they are, but they have already taken Narea and Mint, this idiot from the village probably sold us out to them." The man informed.
"What are we doing?" Matts asked.
"Come with me." Rann showed the door to one of rooms. He kicked it so firmly that wood didn't withstand and the gate were opened. The man ran up to the window, immediately looking outside.
"We must escape from here. There!" He showed the wooden roof placed right under the opened window of the room.
"Are we supposed to jump?" Jessica was surprised.
"Yes, it's quite near to the ground here, so nothing will happen to you. My sensors takes no signs of life beneath the building, nobody should betray our position."
"Yeah okay, if it's the only exit." The girl agreed quickly, because the latest premonition was filling the considerable part of her thoughts. Rann jumped out of the window, landing on the small roof below and he quickly hopped from there on the ground.
Jessica and Matts followed his example and everyone escaped from the tavern, and found themselves close to the part of a building which had no doors leading to its interior. Rann had stopped his two companions again ordering them to hide behind the wall of the house. Liquidators were leading Mint and Narea chained by black cuffs on hands and legs. One of soldiers was carrying the bag of the young priestess filled with colourful crystal.
"What are we doing?" Matts asked.
"We should help them!" Jessica was horrified with fate of her acquaintances.
"No, you are no threat for these knights and what's more there's too many of them even for my technology. Only Green Lantern's ring could help us now." Rann stopped her before any action was taken.
"Are we going to let them take girls?" Jessie wasn't satisfied by his statement.
"We'll go after them, we'll find their weak points out and we'll hit them in the moment the most unexpected for them.
Alan, Morpheus, Corinthian and Sakiko were in the interior of the mage's destroyed Tower. There was extremely dark there, because the building didn't have a single window. Alan used his ring in order to lighten up the dark interior of cold walls built from stones. There was nothing interesting in the first chamber, no artefacts or other objects riveting the attention. Alan noticed the door leading to the stairwell from which it was possible to get to higher storeys of tower or to its underground. Saiko felt something like being struck by a cold and she realized that somebody or something had come near to her, something which was a great threat for her. She shared her observation with other members of the team immediately.
"Something or somebody is approaching, something not very good." She announced heading for the exit. She noticed the group of people attired in black armours going down the hill in direction of the stone tower. Some of them were holding torches, the others were armed in swords. The girl came back to the interior of the building.
"Listen, some people are coming here. They're armed and it isn't looking too good." Alan ran out outside and using the ring he created the telescope, thanks to which he could watch figures going after the hill. He saw that one of the people had long hair and beard and in the second, shorter man he recognised Fiflet. He clenched fists feeling great fury.
"Fiflet is with them, he probably cheated us and he sold us out". He said coming back to others. Corinthian took the knife out from behind the belt.
"He'll get what he deserves!" He shouted.
"No, Corinthian. We can not act this way, because our presence in other worlds should be limited to the minimum. We already did a lot of bad deeds contacting residents of this village, changing the natural order of things of this land. The more intervention will only aggravate the situation. Sakiko Hayasu..." Dream turned to the black-haired female vampire.
"Yes?"
"You will continue the mission. Fiflet did not see you with us in the inn and perhaps liquidators do not know about your existance. Enter the interior of the stronghold and search the artefact which wants to be found."
"But what about you? How will I find you?" The surprised girl asked.
"The artefact will take you by the hand, if you open your heart for it. You will find the reply there."
"Yeah okay, I'm going." Sakiko replied disappearing in the darkness waiting behind the door leading to the stairs. Mathew flew after the girl.
"Do not use your magic. Perhaps a chance to clear up a misunderstanding with authorities of this land exists. These are people who also want peace and order they built by centuries." All three men left outside the tower, where Drales, Fiflet and liquidators were waiting for them. The short man smiled seeing faces familiar to him.
"I told you so! I told you so!" He said rolling his eyes back and forth.
"They are, they are practising magic!" he screamed excited.
"I don't know what this man is talking about, we're gold seekers. We heard there is a plenty of valuable things in these areas." Alan tried to defend himself.
"Be silent!" Drales shouted.
"You'll be defending yourselves before the Great Oficium Antimagicum! Take them!" He added. Liquidators came up to three men and chained them. Corinthian passsing by Fiflet looked at him smiling widely.
"See you later". He said with a voice which chilled blood in veins of the peasant.