The bay horse crashed against an invisible barrier – for the duration of the ritual, the circle of the Mirror is not in the world of the living, but on the Edge, where there is no place for mortals with a still beating heart. It burst out and, as if the meeting with an otherworldly obstacle was the last straw, it slowly fell onto the black stones. Marius even shuddered from a surge of necroemanations, much more powerful than from deer killed in a hunt. The maiden flew out of the saddle with a desperate squeal, head over heels, over the head of the falling bay. Straight into the circle made by the death of the horse! And it would be okay to just join a circle, although this would not lead to anything good, but! This… shriek! She somersaulted right to the center of the Mirror, knocked Master Turvon off his feet and fell straight on top of him! And she froze, because now, in the midst of the activated ritual, her soul was guaranteed to go to the same place where the soul of the master necromancer wandered.

And what, one wonders, could a person who is not completely ignorant, but a categorical dropout, do in this difficult situation?!

First of all, don’t panic. This rule, true for any sudden problems, was hammered into the student not only by Master Turvon, but also by his father before him, from early childhood. And Marius, fully aware that he did not know what was “right,” instantly decided to do the only thing he could and that seemed to suggest itself. He continued to pour power into the thread that connected him with the master, preventing it from breaking and the necromancer’s soul from getting lost without a return path to the world. The connection, however, after the girl’s spectacular fall across the teacher’s body, behaved strangely. It twitched and tossed around, like an angry huge fish caught on a fishing rod that was too weak – it was about to break, but it didn’t break, it would tangle the tackle, hook it on a snag and… and still break. It became more and more difficult to hold on, not to let go, at some point Marius even imagined that at the other end there had happened, no less than, a fight, as if two hungry greedy fish were grappling with a tasty worm. Oh, if only he wasn’t that worm himself! How can creatures from the dark world, for whom there is nothing more desirable than warm human blood, get through the connection? How bad it is to be a dropout; he doesn’t even know what to expect, what to be afraid of, what can happen and what won’t happen for sure! And the master is also good, if only he could explain in detail all the dangers of broken or disrupted rituals, and how to deal with them! And he only said once, at the very beginning:

– If you make a mistake, the world may not collapse, but you risk not knowing about it.

But it can’t be that nothing can be done and there’s no way to save the situation? Here are two bodies without souls lying on sparkling black stones, but it’s too early for souls to cross the Brink, which means they should return? This means that he feels them through the connection, and all these twitchings are because instead of one soul, two went through the Mirror. Right?

Marius nodded to himself: the explanation seemed consistent, and most importantly, reassuring. You just need to not miss the connection, and the mentor will return. But then it’s time to demand that all the subtleties be properly explained! Otherwise – “ignoramus, ignoramus”… Let him teach! And at the same time explain to the girl that it is inappropriate to interfere with the rituals of necromancers. And if you are not sure that you can cope with a restive horse, then it is better not to ride alone. Especially in Oleniy Log. Especially at night. What kind of demons brought her here anyway?! I would sit at home, have fun with embroidery or something else appropriate…