Roderick and the other prisoner - a half-dead inquisitor - were sitting in a darkened room, hearing only each other's breathing and a slight noise from the street. They didn't talk, they didn't move. The inquisitor prayed without words, trying to confess all his sins. And the old man realized that he would soon die of starvation or exhaustion, and that no one would come to his rescue: not his son, not his wife, not his relatives. They will not come to visit him by chance and will not even remember about his existence. Roderick felt uneasy. He began to think about how little he had done in his entire life and how many mistakes he had made, while also thinking that this was probably what everyone thought in situations similar to this.

When he had finished praying, the inquisitor became morally ready to accept his own fate, he stretched out one leg forward and accidentally touched a glass of water, but did not drop it. He reached out with trembling hands and groped in the darkness for his treasure, picked it up and tried to drink it, but because the two prisoners' hands were tied together with the same rope, he could not bring the water to his mouth. Roderick realized it and moved closer, and the man emptied the glass in two gulps, tossed it away, and then said thank you in a low voice. Roderick decided to look for a similar glass for himself, guided solely by the hope of the humanity of those who had captured him in his own home. His theory was confirmed when, after a few minutes of climbing on the floor, he found a glass prepared for him, took a few sips, and placed it on his right.

Roderick didn't know what time of the day it was, whether it was day, night, or early morning, and he didn't even know why he was even thinking about it. And at some point, he heard the front door of his house open, followed by the sound of many footsteps. The wooden floor was squeezed under the weight of the guests, making an unpleasant creak, but it was impossible to understand how many of them were there, the only thing they could do was to wait. A minute later, he heard someone take out a key, after a short suspension, the door to his parlor opened. A black figure appeared in the doorway, and he could not see its face, only the blinding light of the living room behind.

"Roderick," the figure said, "is the Inquisitor still alive?"

"Yes," he stammered a little.

The figure paused for a few seconds and then said:

"You will both answer my questions."

The figure turned to the light and ordered the old man to be brought into the living room for questioning.

***

Mazeppa was standing in the middle of a dark room, next to a round table. She was surrounded by about ten people, listening to her talk about her theory that the Inquisition actually kills innocent people, among whom there are no metentises.

"Judge for yourself," she concluded, "why would thousands of metentises come to our country, where metovis is forbidden? It doesn't make any sense. They could live in another country where metovis is allowed, or if there are so many of them, create their own state."

"It means, that Rufus - my husband is not guilty of anything?" a thin human woman in leather clothes, with googles on her head and two gold front teeth, said with relief. "I knew it!"

"Boadicea, I am absolutely certain that Rufus is innocent."

"Why did you decide to tell us all this?"

"Something happened today..."

"What did happen today, honey?"

Mazeppa took a handkerchief from her pocket, blew her nose loudly, then took out a second handkerchief and wiped her tears. Cleared her throat.

"This morning, the family of my dear and beloved boss was burned at the stake as traitors. It's not my job to investigate the burned-out metentises, but today I decided to attend this event for the first time... um... for my own reasons. And coincidentally, I saw people I've known for years. A terrible, terrible event!"

"I am very sorry, Mazeppa, that you have lost your dear friends."

"That's not all. Metyr - my boss, the one who did so much for me, he was also killed. Today, his tortured body will be shown in public not far from the forbidden city, ostensibly as a warning to other metentises. Except it wasn't his fault! Of all people Metyr is the most human person and not a metentis at all! Apparently, he did not please Thomas, and he decided to kill him and his family in revenge."

Boadicea bared her teeth and said:

"Your words give me strength. It pains me to hear that you are the indirect victim of all the horrors that the Inquisition does with impunity, but I am glad that you have come to us. Your words fuel our confidence. The revolution is coming today ..." She paused, exhaled, and continued, "My husband was the leader of our movement until recently. He didn't want a bloody revolution. But they killed him, told everyone that he was a metentis, blackened his bright name! Those who kill with the sword, die by the sword! Our time has come!"

Boadicea looked at her companions, slammed her fist down on the table, stood up, and shouted:

"Gather everyone. We will kill Constar today, and then we will kill the saints one by one!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Mazeppa, what time does it start?"

"In two hours."

"When the fighting ends today, and we'll win our first victory, we'll make a speech in the square, we’ll gather as many people as we can, and you, Mazeppa, will tell the people the truth in front of everyone."

"Yes, Boadicea, I'm with you."

"God is on our side. He gave me you, honey. We missed such an important person who works at our shadow government, if it exists at all, and who isn’t afraid! I wouldn't be surprised if the real Metentises are Thomas, Alba, Atilla, and all their elite warriors. I was born, these bastards were in power, now I'm forty, they're still in power. They haven't aged a day! If it's not metovis, then I don't know how they live so long!"

"The shadow government really exists," Mazeppa said in a trembling voice.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. You've never been to a forbidden city, have you? I've been there a lot. In the northernmost part of this impregnable fortress, there is another fortress. Only Thomas, Alba, or Atilla are allowed in. This was told to me by the guard who guards the entrance. He's so cute, by the way! Whoever is sitting there, they definitely have something to hide."

"We'll find out soon enough. I'll take you to a safe place for now, your husband is already there."

***

The three of them walked down the street, where more and more people were gathering. A zeppelin flew overhead with an advertising banner that read: "Agernox's army under Commander-in-Chief Alba, captured another village without losing a single soldier, praise our great country, praise our invincible army!" At every intersection, there were touts shouting through a megaphone that the show would soon begin! Guillotine stopped Ofir by pulling him by the shoulder and said:

"Maybe you'll stop and take a minute of your precious time to explain to us what's going on."

The noise of people gathering for a grand event carried through the area. Everyone was trying to get a seat in the front row and rushing headlong to the temporary fence placed at the edges of the roadway. Several of the workers nearly knocked Homer down, and without excusing themselves, ran forward without looking back. Ofir had to ask Guillotine several times to wait in order to hear what he wanted from him. After that, he asked to turn into the local courtyard, which was located behind the first line of houses to their right. So, the friends did. When they found themselves in a green garden, with a beautiful and smooth lawn, with trimmed and well-kept trees, and a small playground around which yellow and red leaves were flying in a delicate dance, Ofir said:

"Remember what Roderick told us. The crystals we stole were prepared for the Inquisition and the preachers to protect their lives from surprise attacks. These crystals are activated in the event of an attack or a threat to life. If I were in Egon's place, I would take the chance to kill two birds with one stone. Namely, to destroy the reputation of the Inquisitors and avenge the death of Metyr."

"What do you mean?"

"There will be inquisitors and a preacher in the square, right? This is a common practice. The Inquisitors will protect the prisoner, and the preacher will say a prayer for the repose of the soul. I think Egon will shoot the saint in front of everyone in the crowd and his VV crystals will activate the protective metovis. If this happens, the Inquisition will no longer be able to hide this secret and its reputation will immediately fall in the eyes of all people."

"I doubt Egon is that crazy. Everything will have its consequences. If the first time he managed to escape from the clutches of Thomas alive, then the second time no one will save him," said Guillotine.

"I suppose Ofir may be right. I know personally that when you lose a loved one, the first day, you have absolutely no control over yourself and your emotions. Especially if that person died in your presence. And apparently that's what happened," Homer said.

Ofir nodded in agreement and added:

"We need to find Egon before he does something stupid that will shorten his life."

They went back to the main street. It was getting very stuffy, and the air was thick with smoke, sweat, and the smell of death. But no one paid any attention to it. People were having fun, chatting, and gathering more and more tightly around the fence.

They decided to split up and search for Egon. Homer was left alone and noticed that there were too many people coming from one street. He went up to a guy his age and asked where so many people were coming from, and he said that an hour ago some family was burned at the stake there. Homer asked if he'd seen a guy with short hair, probably dirty clothes, blue eyes.

"Every fourth person here fits that description," the guy laughed back. "Does your friend have any distinguishing features?"

"I don't know…"

"Something that makes him stand out from the crowd."

"He has a strange tattoo on his palm! I completely forgot about it! Have you seen anyone with a tattoo on his palm?"

"No, I'm sorry, bro, I can't help you, I have to run, I don't want to watch the show standing at the end."

Homer continued to question the people, while Ofir paused for a moment and tried to remember the last details. Find some clue in his memory.

We parted in the Agernox, and Egon went to look for Metyr, but he was caught. Something happened in the forbidden city, and he went here to the square, presumably to take revenge, but he definitely won't attack with his bare hands, he needs a weapon. Did he have a weapon! Remember! No, he definitely didn't have anything on him. And even if he did, the weapon was most likely seized during the arrest.

Ofir ran up to the man standing next to him and asked him if there was a weapon shop nearby where you could buy a crossbow or a bow? He was told that there was one two kilometers away, on the opposite street, near the ministry building. Ofir ran there, and in less than ten minutes he found what he was looking for. The weapon shop was located on the entire first floor of a gray, residential building. There was an open sign on the door. A crossbow shone silver from above. Ofir went inside, and the bell rang. Behind the counter stood a tall man, with goggles on his eyes, and an iron hand. He was re-soldering something right behind the bar and humming his favorite song with a mumble and a change of key. When he noticed the visitor, he looked up from his work and scratched his pilot hat.

"What are you looking for?" he asked in a low voice, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Did a guy about my age come by?"

"I've had a lot of visitors about your age, boy."

"This one must have looked very shabby, nervous, and had a strange black tattoo on the palm of his hand."

"You do realize that the first rule of the store is to leave your customers incognito, don't you?"

"This is my friend, he might do something very stupid any minute now, I have to stop him."

"Guys like you come in three times a day, boy. You think I don't understand that you're just another Inquisition spy?"

Ofir looked at him in surprise and could only repeat the last three words:

"Another inquisition spy?"

"Yes."

"But I'm not a spy."

"Oh, I think that's what you are, besides, you're pretty clueless."

The man took a long steam crossbow from under the counter and pointed it straight at Ofir.

Classic steam crossbow

The concept of the inventor of Heron

"Get out of here."

"Tell me what this guy bought from you! Otherwise, he'll do something stupid! This is my friend!"

The man shook his head and took out a first-rank fire crystal from the pocket of his dirty apron. There were two cylinders under the barrel of the crossbow, and he opened the lid of the first one, placed the crystal in it, and closed it.

"The fire crystal in the right cylinder vaporizes water from the left cylinder. In the sighting bar is a steam compartment, which creates pressure. In the stock, I have a loaded magazine of 8 bolts. With every second the pressure gets stronger, which means that the shot will be stronger, which will pierce you through and even the door behind you will blow apart. And trust me, it'll fucking hurt."

Ofir stood and stared at the man. He looked at the pressure gauge, which showed three colors, green, yellow, and red. The needle was moving toward the yellow color, and the owner of the armory knew a few more seconds and there would be no time to wait.

"I don't have anyone else to ask. Tell me what he bought from you and what the range of the weapon is. I won't be in debt!"

The man sighed, lowered the rifle, and released the accumulated steam from the compartment where the pressure was created.

"Fuck, it'll backfire, but they're definitely not one of those... too stupid and naive," man said in an inaudible voice, then looked up and said louder, "Okay, you won. Perhaps the boy you're looking for bought a cheap crossbow from me half an hour ago, or even earlier. He also has a big black eye. Anyway, such weapons are sold without a license, because they’re too weakly, and the maximum effective range of the shot is five meters, and to kill somebody with it, well... you need to try very hard."

Ofir thanked the man and handed him some gold coins, but the man refused to accept them and asked him to leave the store, and so he did.

Guillotine was looking at the very beginning of the street, pushing through the crowds of people, looking around. He hoped to meet a familiar face among the throng, but nothing came out of it. Then the sound of bugles thundered from the roofs of nearby houses. There were several dozen musicians standing there, thus notifying everyone that the event had begun. The crowd quieted. At the head of the street, a cart appeared with the Iron Maiden and several battle inquisitors and supreme generals. They walked at a slow pace, surrounding it on all sides.

The weather was getting worse by the minute. The blue sky was filled with thick, dark blue clouds. In the distance, deafening thunder sounded and lightning flashed. However, the rain had not yet fallen on the ground, as if it was lurking with the others, waiting for more.

Homer was at the end of the street at the time, still interviewing people, but no one was paying any attention to him. One man did not even listen, he pushed Homer to the ground with all his strength and threatened that if he continued to distract him, he would break his head in front of everyone. Homer got up and continued to search, but no one gave him any new information. Suddenly, a preacher in a white robe with encrusted VV crystals appeared on the street. He immediately recognized them by their distinctive blue glow. Then he made his way through the dense crowd of onlookers, to the very first row and saw the cart with the iron maiden on the other side of the street, determined where they would roughly meet, got out of the crowd and ran to the very center.

Two minutes later, Homer and Ofir met at the center of the street and shared information.

"Where's Guillotine?" Ofir asked.

"I don't know. We don't have time to look for him. If you're right, and Egon is planning to attack the preacher, then it's going to happen somewhere in the front row."

They plunged back into the waters of the endless crowd, looking at everyone's faces. The preacher has already met with the Inquisition and started to climb on the cart. Homer made his way to the front row, half-climbed over the fence, and saw Egon's distraught face. He was standing about twenty meters away. Homer tried to yell at him, but in vain. He tried to fight his way to him, but people were not happy with this behavior and constantly pushed, kicked and swore at him. Only Homer didn't care at all. When he stopped two meters away from Egon, he heard the crowd shout at the same time. A downpour began.

Homer looked down the road and saw the preacher Constar with an arrow in his leg, he saw the terrified inquisitors looking around, trying to figure out where the shot had come from and whether there would be a second one, and most importantly, the metovis that Egon had counted on had not revealed itself to the people of Agernox. The panic and confusion began. Everyone rushed from the scene like a crowd of frightened sheep. Egon was lost somewhere among them.

Ofir tried to call out to his friends, shouting everyone's names, but to no avail. He ran in the direction where Egon could potentially go. Then he stopped and decided to turn into the courtyard, where he was telling the plan to Guillotine and Homer, and by chance, there he met them.

"If we won't find Egon now, we'll never find him alive for sure."

They came back together, and ran after the crowd from one street to another. Several squads of police and military forces ran past them into the square. The aerostat with the sign of the Inquisition hovered in the air.

"Look!" Guillotine shouted to the others and pointed to the end of the street.

About three hundred meters away, about a thousand armed men and women were running down the street. They carried steam crossbows (Ofir recognized them immediately, the same weapon the weapon shop owner had aimed at him), their faces hidden by goggles and balaclavas. They opened fire on the passing police officers, who immediately fell dead. The group then headed towards the square.

"Who the fuck are they?" Ofir asked.

"Apparently some kind of revolutionary movement."

"God bless my balls! What the fuck has started! We need to find Egon before it's too late and before we get killed."

They came out on a long avenue, two dozen kilometers long to the south and ending only two kilometers from the storage facilities. They ran forward, but after twenty minutes, Homer noticed a strange man, who was all dirty, covered in blood, and trying to catch his breath. He came closer to him and recognized the man as Egon, completely detached from reality. One of his eyes had been smashed by a heavy blow, and in the other, Homer could read madness, completely detached from reality. Guillotine and Ofir ran up to them, and together they dragged Egon into a very narrow street between two houses.

The four of them stood there, and no one said a word. No one knew where to start the conversation. Until Guillotine hit Egon in the face with all his might. He fell, then got up, dusted himself off, and hit Guillotine back.

"Thank you."

"For the fuck’s sake, why did you hit me, huh? I'm in my right mind unlike you."

"I don't know, sorry, but it helped."

"Why didn't Constar's VV crystals work?" Ofir asked.

Egon looked up, still trying to catch his breath, and said he didn't know.

"I'm sorry, guys. I was impulsive."

"It seems that for your sake, and for our good fortune, no one saw you, you crazy dumbass."

"Metyr was killed."

"We know."

"He was killed in front of me with metovis. Thomas - the head of the Inquisition is a metentis. Metyr – a metentis, too. How could I be so blind! For twenty six fucking years I've not noticed that my almost father is the mighty metentis! Fuck!"

"Perhaps," Homer began, "we can find the answers to all the questions that have accumulated."

"What do you mean?"

"The Inquisitor that Ofir took to Roderick's house is alive, but completely exhausted. Maybe he can tell us what the connection is between the metentises and the inquisitors. And Roderick will find us a book in which he read about the triggering of VV crystals."

Egon looked at his friends and said that he was glad to see them. Then about a hundred more armed insurgents ran from the direction of the avenue.

"Who's that?" Egon asked.

"Some sort of revolutionary movement," Ofir said, "and it looks like your trick has called them to a revolution or something."

"And it also looks like that the Inquisition was immediately distracted by them. So, we're relatively safe."

Egon looked at him questioningly and said in a barely audible voice:

"It can't be."

"It can be. Let's go to Roderick," Guillotine said.

Homer handed Egon a canteen of water.

"Have a drink."

Egon took a couple of sips, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Better?”

“No.”

"Whatever. Come quickly, while some fucked-in-the-head people are killing other fucked-in-the-head people," Ofir said.

A couple of hours later, the four of them went into Roderick's house, walked down the hall to the living room, and then opened the door to the parlor.

"Roderick," Egon said, "is the Inquisitor still alive?"

"Yes," he stammered a little.

Egon was silent for a few seconds and then said:

"You will both answer my questions."

"Get Roderick out! We'll talk to him first."