When walking down the narrow and dark streets of Tevel, I tried to conceal my worry and my disappointment but I thought I was doing a poor job of it. It didn't help that Roman, by now, knew me too well.

"It's true what they say," the Prophet commented. "There's a first time for everything."

"It's indeed the first time that a woman calls me misshapen and a waste of material," I mused. "A double-headed woman at that. Though it will make a fine story, won't it, someday? How we met this woman, in Hell, who wouldn't let us go after we drank her soup. Because she wanted our bodies. And every bit of it is true."

"I imagine it's something the stories you tell usually don't have in common," Roman said, but not mocking. His tone was light, on purpose.

I didn't have anything to say to that. But I replied, for good measure, "They are mostly true. Where would the fun be if they weren't at all? Life is like a sordid affair, Roman. Exciting at first, terrible when you're going through it, and only fun when it gets told, later."

Roman tried very visibly not to roll his eyes, though he didn't seem to disagree with the description.

"Some things, however, just cannot be fun," he said then. "Doesn't matter how you spin them."

"You're still thinking about the poison, aren't you? I'll be sure to tell Athanasios he did a good job next time I see him. You see it's difficult to pay him a compliment --- he loves flattery but hates the flatterers..."

"See? This is what I mean!"

"We should really stop bickering now," I conceded. "Before someone hears us and tries to sew us back together."

While we were talking, we found ourselves in front of a palace, which was where the man Delilah and Judith called their leader must have lived. I was about to turn around, when I was stopped by a man's voice.

"I have found something that belongs to you," he said.

I didn't dare look at him, but as far as faces go, I could see that he had only one. This was interesting enough to keep my feet locked in place.

"Nice jacket," the man said, showing me the dark red jacket I'd left on the shores of the Waters of Okeanos. "I can understand many things about objects just by touching them. It's a real army jacket, from the war of Meglenia against Russania."

The man turned it around in his hands. He showed Roman how one of the sleeves was a little torn around the elbow, and there were tears in the fabric of the back.

"Bullet holes," Roman pointed out.

"Yes," I replied. I wondered if the jacket said a lot about me, as a person. It was elegant enough to contribute to make me look charming, but it had belonged to a soldier who was shot while wearing it. This was the detail that had made me buy it --- I felt a connection towards items that had belonged to people like me, people who had a great purpose and wanted to fight to make the world a different place.

Still, one wouldn't see the bullet holes unless one could pass the jacket through their hands the way that man was doing.

"I'd hate to be awfully rude to a stranger in a foreign land but how did you get my jacket?" I asked.

"And how come do you have only one head?" Roman wanted to know.

"The answer to both questions is one and the same," the man replied. "I have powers beyond any imagining of the people in Tevel. That is why I am the one they call Leader. I can sense everything that's happening here, and I noticed two strangers arriving on the shore. I decided to retrieve your jacket so that I could have a chance to talk to you..."

"It turns out," he added with a gravely voice. "That I didn't need that. I understand that you've been awfully rude, as you would say, swordsman, to a woman in town."

"This is not the first time this misunderstanding reach my ears, but I assure you it is what it is, a misunderstanding..."

"The woman wanted to saw us in half and put us back together and then she wanted to have children with the result, whatever it was!" Roman explained with a certain fierceness. It seemed the advances of Delilah and Judith had disturbed him.

As much as I pretended not to, I'd been a little fazed too.

I took a closer look at the Leader, who was pondering our fate. He was tall, shorter than Roman but taller than me, with black hair and a black moustache. His eyes were a brownish dark red, and they seemed to be burning from the inside. I hoped the incensed look wasn't meant for us.

"My name is Alefpeneash," he said. "And..."

"You haven't told us yet how come you only have one head," Roman pointed out. He looked wary, as if he expected Alefpeneash to sprout another head at any moment, even though he didn't have the four limbs required to be a citizen of Tevel as well.

"I shouldn't waste my time in the city centre," Alefpeneash mused. "I never leave the palace. Seeing my misshapen form would upset greatly the good citizens of this town. You see, I look different from them because I'm their creator, their father. And you will have to be punished for your crimes against the entity of Judith Delilah."

I looked at Roman. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't find a brave word or shrug it off. Alefpeneash had been a calm person so far but he had a ruthless face. And we knew nothing of the punishments that they gave in this universe. I could only hope the Leader would go easy on us.

Alefpeneash led us into the palace. The exterior was smaller than the King's castle but thrice the size of the houses, and the palace was black with dark red statues of animals that resembled little dragons. The interior wasn't much different --- the long aisle we were walking across consisted of a black floor that seemed to be made of some kind of precious stone and a long black velvety carpet. At the end of the aisle there was a black throne.

"Black on black," Roman smirked. "On black."

"The very same could be said about you," Alefpeneash bit back, clearly offended. I, with my white shirt, still in disarray after our adventures and my bronze sword in its oxblood scabbard stuck out like a sore thumb.

I cleared my throat. "You see, I've been thinking about it. The way I see it, it would have been much worse if we had actually engaged in activities with Judith Delilah. You see, even if she had a child with our genes, it would only mean the offspring had fifty percent of possibilities of being born with just one head..."

"In fact, it would be physically impossible for you to have mated with the woman," Alefpeneash stopped me. "The citizens of Tevel are sterile."

Roman and I exchanged a puzzled glance.

"Then we're free to go?" Roman asked.

Alefpeneash laughed. His laughter was cold and emotionless and by far the most dangerous thing about him. "Excuse me. Go where? Back to your realm? No one who journeyed to the Other Side ever made it back. What is your purpose?"

"Didn't you know everything?" Roman wondered aloud.

"Our purpose is to close the first of the five seals that close off the ward between our home dimension and the Chaos Realm," I replied. "We heard from a very reputable source that the first seal is here, as this is a point of contact between our realm, yours and the Chaos Realm."

"It happens, sometimes, with seals, as worlds can be slightly knotted in some places," Alefpeneash nodded. "I concede this is a good reason. We don't have Creatures here, never had them, and so we don't have the need for Watchers. I wouldn't want that to change."

"Who exactly are you?" I asked him. "How do you know so much?"

Alefpeneash did not reply. He chuckled to himself. "Good reason or not, even if you close the seal you will not make it back to your home dimension. I could let you look for it, as you'll probably be killed off during the journey. In fact, I might just do that. But before, why can't I have a little fun with you? If word ever gets out that the Leader didn't punish the men who offended Judith Delilah, my children will become restless."

I did not have time to point out how creepy it was that he'd just called the citizen his 'children'. Alefpeneash took off his black cloak and with a formal gesture and I feared he'd offer to us the same deal the woman had offered before. Only he was dressed underneath and he was wearing a complicated bust made of what looked like human bones, but I tried to tell myself it was just a cheap imitation.

"If we die," Roman had to ask. "Do we make it into your collection of bones?"

"No, your bones are too long, Prophet, to be of any trendy use, but I could always use them for black magic... It's bone magic, you know. I will come to collect your corpses, in fact, when you die here."

It didn't sound very compelling, but I didn't see how we could defeat him if he hadn't asked us formally to duel. Then I decided to put all the gentleman's rules aside and I unsheated my sword. With a swift move, I passed it through his chest. 

Alefpeneash didn't bleed. He didn't look like he had a heart that could be pierced. Whatever this bone magician was, it wasn't exactly human.

"Oh what a very bad choice of actions," he chided me. "I am afraid you won't like one bit what I'll put you through."

Roman was about to bit back, but he couldn't find words, as if he'd become suddenly mute. Something seized him, and he threw himself down on the ground with the force of a possessed person. He was foaming at the mouth and grinding his teeth. When I knelt closer to him and tried to help him, though I was too panicked to be of much help, he went rigid under my touch.

"What did you do to him?" I growled. "Is this part of your bone magic? I'm glad I couldn't run you through --- were I to kill you now, I wouldn't do it as fast. I'd take my time."

"This time it was a bad choice of words," Alefpeneash sounded amused. "It's part of my magic. It lets me control bodies and create make-believe people..."

"The citizens of Tevel are not real," I exclaimed. "They're like Golems. You make them with your black magic. And you're punishing us for something we've done to one of your make believe creatures!"

"My make believe creatures are not just that! They have a sliver of a consciousness, thoughts of their own. They are the proof that I, just like the Endless One, have the ability to give life! And they are my experiment. They populate a whole town and they aren't aware that there are countless other beings on the Other Side who don't look like them at all."

I tried to not let this last sentence get my hopes up. Perhaps we would find someone able to help us down the road, admitting we left the palace alive. Roman was still on the ground, and Alefpeneash looked at me with a chilling look that made me understand something was about to happen. Before I noticed, I find myself trashing around, too. Unlike Roman, the energy did not seem to leave my body, if anything, I felt as if I had a hurricane inside. I tried to bind my hands, unsteadily, with the sleeves of my jacket, but my body jerked and reacted violently. I shook so harshly I tore apart the sleeves and my whole body twitched.

"Let me help you," Alefpeneash told me smoothly. He took chains from somewhere behind his throne, a place that looked like a closet turned armoury, and bound them with the chains.

Being locked up felt nice, compared to the sensation I'd been feeling before. I was just in time to see that Roman had woken up and seen everything, and now he was trying to crawl in my direction, but he started convulsing along the way.

As for me, I had a moment of respite before my body jerked again and I broke free of the chains. It hurt greatly, to have my body shake and twitch like that. It seemed to give Alefpeneash a great pleasure to see us struggle. I noticed that the shackles had been torn to pieces. I felt so much pain that I started crying out, and I tried to end the suffering pointing the tip of my sword on my wrists. Just as I was about to slash, Roman said, "Stop."

His eyes were furious now, almost matching Alefpeneash. "Make it stop, or no one will close the seal. Didn't you already have fun enough?"

"You... you were supposed to be mute," Alefpeneash replied.

"You can't make everyone and everything your plaything, I am a Prophet. I have counter-attacks," Roman's mouth was bloody around the edges. I realised it was because he was trying to use his inner magic to fight against the black magic. He looked like he was in the same amount of pain I was.

And then suddently, it stopped. I crawled on the floor, as I couldn't feel my legs anymore. My white shirt was torn in a few places and I was bleeding. Roman, mouth bleeding and body still in pain, managed to make his way to me.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't know if my healing powers work here just as well. But I have something to tell you..."

"Next time someone wants to take your life," he added. "Do not make the job easier for them." He pointed to my wrists, before he fell to the pavement, exhausted and pale.

"He isn't dead, just passed out," Alefpeneash commented. "I am, of course, immortal. If you are worthy of your Skill, Watcher, you might have understood why I know so much and I am so different from you."

"I'm starting to understand," I pondered. "See, we already met a Dybbuk and we knew this was the realm it came from. However, until now, I was convinced this dimension wasn't inhabitated only by demonic beings. Instead, here, you're all demons, simply of different shapes and sizes."

"That's correct," Alefpeneash replied. "Have you ever wondered why the traditional folk tales said demons came from the place they called Hell?"

"So, you'll simply let us go?" I asked. "Now that you had your fun. After all, you said it yourself that you need us to complete our quest."

"I am letting you go in the hope that we'll see each other again soon, and I can play with you again," Alefpeneash said. 

"What makes you think that we'd come back here willingly?" I defied him. "After everything that you've done to us."

"Because I am not completely evil. I am willing to offer you free advice. Though it makes one wonder --- if I am giving it just because I want you to come back, isn't it selfish on my part? And of course, you don't know yet whether it would be wise to take it."

Since there weren't many other sentient creatures on the Other Side, not that we'd already met, at any rate, I nodded. I hoped Roman would be okay with me asking for the piece of advice but it was not like I could ask him.

"I thought so," Alefpeneash smiled coldly. "It is true that no one ever left this place. However, if it's help you're looking for, whether help to leave or help in your quest, if I were you I'd keep walking until I reach the Isle of the Blessed. It's near the place where the three realms converge and, as in every one of the knot between universes, it also makes for a connection with the departed. You can ask spirits for advice there."

"I'd say thank you," I replied. "But I won't thank you just yet. This was the bare minimum and I know you're only saying it so we can come back again, and beg and grovel for another piece of information."

"You forget how much I can see," Alefpeneash tried to cut me in two with his gaze. "I am almost as perceptive as your friend the Prophet. I see this is not the first time in your life, Jonathan Loreta, that you've been at the mercy of men who were your superior. Call it a throwback, if you'd like."

I helped Roman up, and, thankfully, he woke up before I could throw him over my shoulders. While I had more muscles, I wasn't sure I could make it.

Alefpeneash's words had hurt me, so I was still a little stiff when I told Roman everything about the Isle of the Blessed. He didn't seem convinced that the Leader was someone we could trust.

"Even though I've never touched him, when he used his powers on me I couldn't help but read him," he revealed. "And I think we've seen only part of what he can do. If he wasn't so caught up in his experiments in black magic, and if he didn't need us alive, I shudder at the thought of what he would have done to us."

I couldn't help but shiver, too. But before we were back on the street, we heard footsteps behind us. I tensed. It was no doubt that it was Alefpeneash --- he looked like the sole inhabitant of his palace.

"Wait," he called after us. "If you need directions, do not ask any of my children. They think Tevel is the only city here. But if you walk out of here and always go straight, you should reach the capital."

"The capital?" Roman asked, unable to conceal the anger in his voice.

"Yes, the capital. It's a city called Solima."