Silva's question reached its intended target. The surrounding air started to twist and change. It seemingly moved in strange ways.

  What had changed was the aura saturating the room. The subtle feeling that Silva had felt before had a new meaning. After a short moment of hesitation, she rushed to transte it to her friends. But Mika already knew and voiced it out.

  “Silva, I can kind of tell what ‘It’ wants…” Mika whispered. “It wants our blood.”

  That’s how it was. Silva had realised it as well. She had known it even before Mika. Just afraid to say it and hoping that she was wrong. But now, even Mika could clearly read the mood in the air, making it useless to try and mitigate the severity of the request.

  They did not know the implications this request could have. For all Silva knew, it could be a horrific ritual that could awaken a demon king… But she will still do it. She had already resolved herself. There was no point in backing down now.

  “It’s… It is only a drop…”

  “Can’t we choose anything else?” Mika aimed the question at the object.

  Silva heard soft apologies from Steven, but it was not his fault. They had agreed to this together, even if this decision was forced by circumstances.

  There were no changes. It was blood or nothing - was how Silva interpreted it.

  “I—I will go first, but I need something to prick myself with…”

  “No!” Steven’s voice regained its usual crity. “I’ll go first. If we are going to do it, I’ll be the first.”

  “We… We can still leave.” Mika made an argument. “Steven, your condition, it’s… Not perfect, but… It is better. I would need a long time, but I could do it. I can heal you.”

  To his credit, Steven seemed to consider the option, but in the end, he declined.

  “Benjamin’s father will look for me. My family will look for me, and yours will look for you, too. There is no pce for us to go.”

  “So we make another gamble.” Mika frowned. “Just like your father?”

  “I am NOTHING—” Steven shouted but was forced to stop when he started coughing.

  “Sorry, I did not… No, sorry, I knew, but…”

  “No, sorry for being that loud...”

  “Um, Mika… As you said, it is another gamble, but… If we leave without gaining anything, we may have lost when we made the first one.” Silva thoughtfully added. “Well, you know, Aramaleo said that we will have to give or do something in return... We just don’t know when…”

  “That is true, but he also said that we can refuse. And it wouldn’t have to be now.” Mika remembered.

  “I—I don’t think that would be a good idea. Aramaleo avoided saying what would happen if we did, but…” Silva left the sentence unfinished.

  “I… Hate this…” Mika spat out as she started to rummage in her pockets. “I have watched enough movies to know that giving something blood is not a good choice. The fucking thing is probably evil. What would it even do with our blood? Probably feed its spawns or something.”

  “So, uh, are we doing it?” Silva wanted to crify.

  "No way to prick our skin," Mika answered with anger in her voice. But Silva could tell that this anger was aimed at the situation. “And because of Steven's loud mouth, we have to hurry."

  Silva watched in horror as Steven unceremoniously pulled the fabric that covered his wound away and showed a finger in it. All three of them winced, and when he pulled the finger out, it was bloody, with his wound reopened somewhat.

  “You idiot!” Mika almost shouted.

  “Just scratch your skin; Mika will fix it afterwards.” Steven smeared his blood on Mika’s hand. “And put my juice on that bead if it wants it so bad.”

  Silva listened to Steven’s advice and started to scratch where the nail met the skin on her index finger. Mika followed her example. But only after she dripped Steven's blood on the bead.

  After Mika made a small wound on her hand, she squeezed out a small drop of blood and proceeded to drip it on the bead the same way she had Steven’s.

  Silva almost interfered when Mika did so. She had, after all, volunteered to go first. But what was done was done.

  With a sickening feeling, she felt the skin give, and a small droplet formed on her fingernail. She did not look down at her finger and raised her hand to follow her friend's example.

  Hers was the third and st droplet. As it fell, Silva felt a sense of losing. They could have done many things differently. They could have been more careful. They could have done more training and been in touch with each other.

  The droplet hit the bead, and the air froze. Silva thought of a million different things, but it came down to whatever would happen next. It would be a turning point in their lives.

  Then everything became dark.

  ---

  The change was too sudden! It took Silva a few seconds to register what had happened.

  There was only darkness, no sound, no feeling of touch, no sense of smell. Her soundless scream reached nothing.

  Silva felt trapped in her own body, and only one thing still indicated that she was not entirely unfeeling—the sense of her moving. She was moving in a direction she could not describe.

  Wildly, she tried to fil her limbs around. It was how Silva imagined falling from a great height felt like, only there was no sensation of movement besides those made by herself.

  For a long time, there was only the desperation stretching around her. Then, the moment passed. Silva had not been so scared ever before. And she doubted she would ever be in the future.

  Now, there was a change. There had been nothing, and now there was… Well, still nothing as far as objects went.

  The same bluish light that the bead had shone in now encompassed Silva. Only the light at first.

  Then, the same intangible presence returned to her, making itself known. It's character. It felt like it had a personality. There was still only light, but it scrutinised and evaluated her.

  Silva noticed her friends next to her. Just a bit more than a meter away. Mika was just an arm's stretch distance away. Steven was a little bit further away to that side.

  When they had appeared or how—she did not know. Their faces, no doubt, were mirroring her own expression. Fear, uncertainty, regret, and determination…

  To be fair, Silva was not all that determined. Fear was the emotion that ruled over her, but seeing her friends next to her helped. At least she managed to regain some self-control.

  Now that she had calmed down a bit, she started to inspect the surroundings, paying more attention to every little detail. There was still hope that they could get out of this predicament. And…

  There was not much else she could do. Despite her efforts, she still could not produce a sound. It made talking impossible, and neither of them knew any sign nguage.

  The world around them was still and unnerving, but at least the light had stopped ‘looking’ at them. The emptiness made Silva feel like she was an image posted on a blue page, apart from her moving, so maybe it was more like a green screen.

  Then they arrived. Now, they were standing in the middle of a barren wastend. Or what Silva thought was a barren wastend.

  Right now, she could not raise her eyes to take a closer look at the surroundings. All she could see was a cracked ground scorched by fmes and brown dried liquid that had dried out.

  Silva tried her best to ignore how simir those stains were to sptters of dried-up blood.Inside her, a pcating feeling overtook her emotions as it forcibly calmed her down.

  The very next moment, Silva felt herself fall on her knees. She made a gesture unfamiliar to her—only to forget it right after. Her struggles to regain control over herself were ineffective and felt pointless.

  Their eyes pointed downwards, and her being immobile—it should have been a horrific experience. Instead, she felt solemnity and deference.

  It was like an instinct she never had before, and while her mind understood the wrongness, her very being obeyed.

  Something or someone gave them a question. At first, Silva thought it to be simir to the emotions in the air they had felt before, only to hear an actual voice. She could not understand it. To her, it was only a cacophony of sounds. Even the knowledge that it was a question at all was coming from nowhere.

  Still, Silva knew. No matter what it was, it had brought them here... It understood them. Maybe even more than they did.

  By gathering all of her courage, Silva prepared to try and speak. But no sound came. All she managed was to open her mouth, only to realise that she had not taken a breath for a long time now.

  Again, Silva felt panic waves rising inside her. Only for those waves to be forcibly dispersed a moment ter.

  The voice kept talking, posing more questions, and there was a rising demand in its tone.

  Silva feared that their inability to speak would anger the being. Then, their end would inevitably come. She wanted to fear such an end but was unable to.

  Somehow, Silva managed to answer. The ongoing discussion in front of them continued. Many words were said. A decision was made, and she had heard nothing.

  A realisation hit Silva that memories were missing. Any details of the discussion were gone. The decision that was made had suffered the same fate. She did not remember it.

  The surrounding world became blurry for a moment. The voice that had spoken had left.

  Before Silva could feel relief, the world bound them once again. Again, they were given a choice.

  "Yes!" Silva's voice mixed with Steven's and Mika's. All of them had given the answer.

  Part of Silva's memories were once again gone. She remembered making a decision and not being influenced by anything. Just a moment ago, she was herself and free.

  There would be no mourning over this decision as it had come from her—from the very deepest parts of her.

  And her friends were the same. This decision was made by the three of them together. They knew what the consequences were when they agreed—but not anymore.

  Enkiari