No one enters this world as a good or an evil being, despite what the Path wants to make you believe, Jaél. Qalian rang the bell again, just as agreed upon with Konthis. But this time, there also was something else in his gaze: anticipation.įootsteps came closer, and I noticed how Qalian slightly bent his knees. His eyes glowed, like on the evening when he had first told me about the fire. He had only nodded affirmatively in response to my insecure gaze, like a gleeman who encouraged his son before his first performance. It was of much higher quality and was easier to handle than my old iron blade. Qalian had given me a precious dagger before. The girls were still asleep in the wide bed, rigid and unmoving. Thirty minutes later, which seemed like an eternity to me, Qalian rang the room's bell. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and began to explain it all to me. “I do not understand.” I sounded broken and dull. “Qalian, I …” - I made a tired, all-embracing gesture with my right hand. All of a sudden I felt unbearably stupid. “The goods?”, I replied after a long pause, more statement than question. “They do not want the goods to be able to resist.” “A droplet puts even a rabid boar to sleep.” For a moment a hint of grief - or was it rage? - overshadowed his gaze.
The eyes of the other one were still wide open and stared at the wall with the same dead gaze with which she had mustered Qalian and me when we had entered the room. Now both girls lay side by side under a heavy woolen blanket. Then, I noticed a change in the room: The fetters had been removed from the two girls. Without further thought I took his hand and let him raise me up. Instead, he kneeled and held out his right hand towards me. The second thing was that Qalian - who by some unholy magic had had enough breath for laughter even after one minute of being strangled - could have let me die a thousand deaths already. The first thing that I thought when I saw him kneeling over me was that my pathetic life was over. I do not know how long I had been away from the world of the living yet judging by the fact that Qalian's neck still showed imprints of my fingertips, it could only have been a few minutes.
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