It was rainy. Again. El looked out of the window and sighed. When she moved to this country, to this city, she imagined life here being slightly different. Namely, she left her cold and rainy home country looking for a warmer place. Now it was pretty much clear, she made a mistake. The girl considered moving again a couple of times but on the other hand, she already settled here, started her master's at the university, and absolutely didn’t want to go through all the nine circles of bureaucratic hell while changing country again.

In the end, El just decided to enjoy the best this country could give here and then leave when she is done with her degree. And there were indeed many nice things this country could offer here – mostly food. There was an outlet of a famous luxury chocolate brand not far from El’s place and after a year sellers in this shop knew this short redhead as their best regular customer.

Yes, it had been already a year since she moved. To be honest, El didn’t even notice how the time went by…It had been almost a year since the day when her new neighbors Luisa and Finn knocked on her door for the first time. They both saw how El played football with their sons on the playground recently and since both boys enjoyed her company a lot, their parents asked El to babysit them sometimes for some payment. This was a good suggestion since El was looking for a part-time job.

That was how their friendship started. Even though El was significantly older than both boys, she was already 23, she could switch between her serious and childish moods easily, so those three always had things to talk about and to do. Shortly after meeting them, El noticed that both brothers had some potential for magic. Nevertheless, she decided not to do anything. Boys were already pretty extraordinary for humans: very smart and talented. But as potential magicians? That was a doubtful question. El didn’t see much power in them. “Let them have a normal human life” – she thought many times.

Now El was sitting in her bed in some oversized T-shirt that was lent forever from some of her ex-boyfriends. She saw from her window how the brothers left for school, and she knew that when they return back, some difficult and unpleasant talk was going to take place. In fact, the whole day was going to be full of unpleasant talks. The girl was still struggling with the topic for her course work and after discussing it with her teacher she planned to visit another teacher of hers.

The second teacher, who was already looking forward to meeting his disobedient ward, taught El almost everything she knew about magic. Arcada found El when she was only 4 years old and was mentoring her ever since. He was a powerful but old magician. Way too old.

Arcada considered El to be his perfect successor at the council of elders. Maybe. Some day. So far, the redhead was just skipping almost every meeting of the council and paying as much attention to their assignments as she paid to her master’s degree. In other words, she had a special talent to be always busy with the most insignificant things instead of actually important ones.

Arcada moved some books on his table. Everything in this room smelled of antiquity. Spacious parlor furnished in a gothic style. Massive cupboards were filled with books and artifacts of different kinds. The setting sun lit up some old portrays with the red-orange light. Portrays of Arcada’s past.

Here, at the Nulla Meridianus, one could never see the daylight. It was either night or sunset. Arcada came from a dimension called Terra Solis. His homeworld was a hot desert and no matter how impossible surviving there was, Arcada still missed it, missed sunlight. He hadn’t been there for ages, namely for 138 years and 26 days. A huge, dark-skinned figure sank into a chair. Despite his age, and over 300 years is a pretty decent age for a wizard of his kind, Arcada was still huge and muscular. Only his gray hair and few wrinkles could give his real age away.

Clocks stroke twelve. A flash of lightning appeared in the middle of the room and the next second El stepped out of the portal. Right on time today.

- I’ll be honest, there is no valid excuse, I just didn’t want to come to this meeting. -

El pressed her head into her shoulders and closed her eyes expecting to hear a couple of unpleasant words from her teacher now. Arcada sighed.

- Well, actually it was really boring yesterday. You wouldn’t have enjoyed hearing the discussion.

- Iduna was talking about HIM again? – El rolled her eyes.

- Yes, both Iduna and Ephir. They believe HE is going to invade new Terras. Some of Iduna’s spies said HE is gathering his supporters at Terra Terrorem.

- Sure, some of Iduna’s spies managed to go to Terra Terrorem and get back without being noticed. I bet HE laughed a lot at those guys.

- Well, Iduna is still the head of the council; she has enough powers to cover up her spies.

El gave her teacher a very derogatory look.

- And what did her hand luggage say? – El settled down on the sofa.

- Ephir? Agitating for the creation of a new legion. He is convinced; we can’t avoid a new war with Terra Terrorem. The council also doesn’t want to risk anymore, if HE is going to keep violating neutrality with other Terras, the council will do everything necessary to kill “The Monster above all monsters”.

El shivered, she didn’t like that nickname. “The Monster above all monsters” – wasn’t it a bit too much? She would call her ex like that for not having a teapot and owning this little constantly trembling mistake of a dog. But the man they were talking about now? Maybe still no.

- By the way, I was attacked by a couple of trashers yesterday evening. –mumbled El starring at a huge crystal chandelier.

- Where?

- Home, at Terra Maria. That was weird; they don’t live there and don’t have the powers to open portals between dimensions. Somebody brought them.

- And you think it wasn’t HIM?

- Yes. I’m quite sure it wasn’t him. Which leaves us with an unpleasant question: who then?

Arcada closed his eyes. He remembered the first war with Terra Terrorem. He was so young back then when he saw HIM for the first time. Deas Dalias. He was a monster indeed: powerful and horrifying. With one glance he could make one turn insane. It was him. At least it definitely could be him.

- Ok, if you are not going to spoon out my brain today, I’ll go –El’s low voice got her teacher out of the trance – see you soon, big man! Next time I will come to the meeting. Though, I don’t promise.

The next flash of lightning brought El back home. The doorbell was already ringing as crazy. The redhead ticked off in her mind two previous unpleasant conversations and prepared to start the last one.

- You promised to talk to us today! – El had heard the demanding voices of brothers even before she managed to fully open the door.

- Well, we all sometimes give promises, we later regret…- she said slowly.