Each step required tremendous effort, he was tired, perspiration could be seen on his forehead. His body was numb from the weight of the iron chains and handcuffs. Eyes were twofold. Chest, sides, and neck all ached as if he'd been beaten for hours. He couldn't remember anything, he could only vaguely see the torches, the corridor, and the dark shapes of the two inquisitors beside him.

"Here we are," one of them said.

His voice carried to Egon as if he was talking from afar, but not a few dozen meters away. Egon did not perceive the words, he was guided only by instincts; he took a breath and felt the heavy smell of death that permeated every corner of the prison, felt the humidity, the cold, and the faint wind blowing at his back. He was turned toward a wooden door, securely fastened with iron plates. The iron flap for observing the prisoners was right in front of his eyes.

A few moments later, Egon was led inside the torture chamber, where he saw Metyr, half lit by candle, half hidden in the darkness. He was sitting on a chair, looking at him with his one eye, and the prisoner's robe was visible on his body, dirty and ragged. He said something, but Egon didn't hear any of it. Like he was in the vacuum of some foreign realm. Metyr kept moving his lips, but he couldn't shout over the silence. In the blackness, Thomas stood against the far wall, his hands clasped in a lock. He took a few steps forward, walked over to Egon, and punched him in the gut. The next blow was an elbow to the jaw, and the third to the kidneys.

Egon fell. His senses came back to his tormented body. He felt a new wave of pain, heard the wind, the crackle of torches, Metyr's cry, and felt Thomas smile.

"You've finally come to your senses," he said.

"Egon, my boy! Hold on!"

"Metyr, what are you doing here?"

"It doesn't matter what he's doing here," Thomas began, " it matters what I'm doing here, and what I want."

Thomas raised his head and looked at the two inquisitors, tired and indifferent to what was happening. He asked them to bring an extra chair. They did so. Thirty seconds later, there was a rotten wooden chair in the prison cell, the back of which had absorbed so much blood that the smell, like the fumes of toxic smoke, filled the air with a stench in the same second. Thomas took Egon by the throat, dragged him to a chair, sat him directly across from Metyr, and asked the two inquisitors to leave. They bowed, went out, and closed the door behind them.

"Well, well, well. So, friends, let's get started?"

"What do you want?" Metyr asked.

Thomas said nothing. Egon grunted, fighting the dull throbbing pain in his body. He looked at his wrists, saw his own blood, then suddenly received another blow, this time to the head. Egon, completely disoriented, fell from the chair right at the Metyr’s feet, who overcame the pain, fell to his knees and hugged Egon with his chained hands, imperceptibly placing a note on him. Thomas, like Egon, didn't notice, and he quickly separated the prisoners and put them both back in their seats.

“Metyr,” Thomas said, “tell me, do you want to live?”

He didn’t answer.

Thomas folded his hands, cast a spell, and a strange human eye appeared in the torture chamber, hovering in the air in the lighted space.

"What is it?" Egon asked.

"Good question. It projects what the second eye sees."

"Where is the other eye?" Metyr asked.

"You'll find out soon enough." Thomas laughed. "I didn't just become «number two», comrade."

"You need me!" Metyr shouted. "Let Egon go. Do what Gennox told you to do?"

"Gennox?" Egon asked, and felt as if his heart was beating several times faster. "Did you say Gennox?"

"They ordered my death, not someone else's."

"Who is Gennox, Metyr!?"

"And you don't know anything at all!" Thomas laughed. "Your mentor really knows how to keep his mouth shut!"

Egon tried to shout at Metyr, but Metyr pretended he wasn't there. He did not take his eyes off Thomas, who looked at the two prisoners and laughed again, and after a few seconds continued:

"The Gennox are stupid. They have the power, the power to kill traitors with a snap of their fingers. But they are short-sighted, guided by straightforward logic, you know? They're not like you, like me. We know how to think, calculate a few steps ahead. If I'd killed you right away, I wouldn't have been able to figure out what kind of game the man that started the «Great Metentis War» was playing."

"What is he talking about, Metyr? What is he talking about!? What kind of war did you start?"

"I wasn't alone…"

"Yes! The only surviving traitor besides you is Alba. Our «number one»."

"So, you want to get to him through me?"

"You expect me to believe you're doing something for nothing? All alone!? Nooooo. That would be very stupid. You're up to something, you're always up to something. Gennox thinks that Alba will come to your rescue when he'll know you're here. But we both know that he ain’t fool, he'll stay at the frontlines. You've been playing your game all your life, but now you're going to have to play mine."

"I doubt it very much, Thomas."

"Ten minutes left, we'll have to play and make our choice."

"A choice?"

"When you left the Inquisition and gave up all your experiments, I thought, is this really the first time he's fallen in love?"

Metyr began to shake violently in his chair.

"Esme's pretty, isn't she?"

"Don't touch them, you bastard!"

"And Enkelin? Just like her father."

The eye turned toward the lighted wall and showed a square where two men were tied to poles and firewood was thrown at their feet.

"Trying to blackmail me? Сurse you."

"I'm already cursed, just like you, actually."

"What's he talking about?" Egon asked. "What's going on here?"

"I want to stimulate you, my dear friend! I planned it all out. You will make a speech to all the people of Agernox. Tell them that your disciple Egon is a terrible and very-very-very dangerous metentis. And we'll kill him, of course. We'll burn him at the stake or throw him in the crematorium. Nobody cares about him. He was alone from the first moment of his birth. In addition, he began to do his dark deeds behind our backs. He deserves his predicament."

Egon's eyes widened. Thomas continued:

"After that, you will tell me your plan, and you will turn in your friend Alba. Gennox will break the contract with him and kill the traitor, as they wanted, you and your family will live as you wanted, and I will become number one, as I wanted. Everyone will be happy! How do you like my plan, huh?"

Egon shook with fear. He could not keep silent and kept repeating the same questions: "Who are the Gennox? Why are you cursed? What kind of contract? And what kind of «Great Metentis War» is Thomas talking about?" His mind was filled with the horror of not knowing. His nose was bleeding. He coughed, and when he realized that there would be no answer, he said with tears in his eyes:

"I want to live, please."

Metyr looked at the projection and saw the soldiers guarding the square. Along the fence, onlookers were already gathering to watch the next execution. A guard of several military and combat inquisitors stood around Esme and Enkelin.

"The sermon will begin soon," Thomas said.

"Please, Metyr, save me, I beg you."

However, Metyr kept his eyes fixed on the preparations for his family's execution and didn't hear anything around him. He stared as intently as only a small child who has seen a puppet show for the first time can stare. His hands were shaking. Blood flowed from the wounded eye, running down along the cheek, then along the edge of the lip, along the chin, and finally falling in small drops on the floor.

"As a bonus," Thomas continued, "I'll turn a blind eye to the people you killed."

"Metyr!" Egon shouted. "Who did you kill?"

"He killed a lot of people. He killed before you were even in your parents' plans, Egon. Metyr is the slaughterer and a metentis. I'm surprised you never noticed."

Egon looked from one to the other. Thomas and Metyr stood in silence, shrouded in darkness and light, like ancient gods in a forgotten temple. Thomas cast a new spell, and a paper appeared in his hands. He held it out to Metyr, who finally tore his gaze from the projection on the wall.

"You know what that is, don't you?"

Metyr looked at the paper and said, "This is a contract created with the help of metovis, which says that either I and my family or Egon will survive."

"You fucking bastard!" Egon shouted, trying to get out of his shackles. "You don't have the right to do that to him!"

"I can do as I please, lad. I'm an inquisitor. And you're going to die soon."

"Metyr, don't say or sign anything, we'll get out of here and save your family!" Egon shouted through his tears.

Metyr looked at the projection. The priest had already closed the prayer book and closed his hands. There was a minute of silence. There were more people in the square. Esme was trying to get out, and Enkelin was screaming and crying. He didn't hear it, but he could see it in their faces, in their eyes.

"You're missing something, Thomas."

"What?"

"Do you know why metentises with the dark element defeated metentises of light in the war?"

Thomas looked at him questioningly.

"Because we can passively recover vitavis from the dark without any VV crystals."

After that, Metyr cast a spell and the chains broke. He leapt towards Thomas, covered in metovis all over his body, making himself immune to spells. Metyr swung and hit Thomas with all his strength, and Thomas hit his head against the wall, fell, and started laughing.

"Cancel the contract, you bastard!"

"So that's why you were «number one»!" Thomas said, still laughing.

Metyr continued to punch and kick him, but Thomas didn't resist.

"Cancel the contract!"

"Killing me is also an option."

Metyr made a few more blows to the face. Egon tried to break free of the shackles, but in vain, all he could do was watch.

"You know that a contract made with the help of metovis can't be canceled! You'll have to make a choice!"

Metyr slapped him across the face so hard that Thomas couldn't get up, but he kept talking.

"Your time is running out! You were invulnerable in the past, when you were alone by yourself and metovis. But not now. You've lost to me, Metyr, you've lost! You have no power now!"

As Thomas burst out laughing, Egon said:

"Release me, Metyr, we'll still have time to save your family."

He looked at Egon, who was completely illuminated by the candlelight, and said:

"No. Thomas won. It's either me or you who will come out of this chamber."

"We'll think of something, we've always thought of something!"

"You weren't listening to what we were talking about? There is no way out. Nothing to think about… Not this time…"

Metyr took a pen from Thomas' pocket and read the entire contract. Then he looked at Egon one last time and said:

"Do you remember what we discussed yesterday?"

"Metyr!" Egon shouted frantically, still trying in vain to get out of the shackles and handcuffs. "Thomas, you bitch, let us go! Let's make a deal."

"We've already made a deal, Egon. Can't you see the contract?" Thomas said, and laughed.

"Metyr... don't sign... please."

"I never told you what I wanted. Maybe you should find out before this will end."

"Metyr… Don't, fight, don't give up."

"I wanted this world to be free."

"We'll make it like this, I'll do anything, just don't kill me."

Metyr paused, looked at the projection on the wall. It was difficult for him to make out exactly what was going on there, for his one eye was filled with tears. He rubbed it with his shoulder joint and saw the executioners with torches standing next to Esme and Enkelin.

"You don't have much time left; I'd say about ten seconds. Otherwise, they will be burned alive and the contract time will run out. In that case, you will all die together. Egon," Thomas turned to him, "you're going to die, too. Basically, you're going to die anyway. Sign it, Metyr."

"Please let us go, I'll do whatever you say!"

Metyr ticked the box and signed. The contract lit up and then burned down.

"Metyr! Oh, my God!" Egon shouted in tears.

"Goodbye Egon. You were the light of my life, and I'm glad we shared so much together..."

"What a drama! You miss tragedy masks!" Thomas laughed.

Egon shook with fear and started to vomit. He began to feel his body could not stand the strain…