The patio was illuminated by little lights hanging from the ceiling. King Abraham seemed more relaxed than he was before. The air was static and electric, as it is after a storm and, often, before an announcement that changed lives.

Or perhaps I was feeling that way because Mira had accepted to marry Minx, and I could see how happy she was. It hadn't often occured to me how much I cared for her and I wanted to see her thrive, but when we were on the Other Side, she was the person I missed the most from our home dimension.

And being there with Roman was easy. I felt as if I could have told him everything, something I didn't experience very often. I was often undecided whether to be serious and speak my mind like I had done in my nightmare, or keep him at length and joke around. The thing was, by now we knew the other so well, it wouldn't be the same as when I'd kept away other people before. He would, somehow, get it. Even all my oldest jokes, the ones that often bored me too, would appear new.

"In a way," Minx told us. "My research has something to do with the project, the one I was telling you about when we met. So, tonight everything will come full circle and you'll get a great reward for helping me out."

I didn't want a reward. Having found a place to stay where I fit in and a friend in which to confide my secrets in the Prophet was enough. Before, I shared my time between the Ducas' and the apartment I got in Solima, but the first option was hard on everyone involved and the second was lonely. Besides I had Mira, Minx and Aurora as friends and allies and for the first time in my life I saw a common ground between the freedom I always craved and my dreams for a political, better future.

But I didn't tell Minx any of that. He was very theatrical and I was afraid it would have rather spoiled the moment.

Minx clinked his spoon against his glass of champagne. "What I come here to tell you is not only my research," he announced out loud, to everyone this time. "But also a special project my team and I have been working on. I know King Abraham does not wish to hear about more secret plans tonight, but when I'll get to the bottom of it, you'll understand why it was something that we couldn't tell the Court nor the King! It's a special research I'd been conducting and that has something to do with the murders..."

Something flashed in Minx' eyes. "But enough with the chatter. A few words can speak volumes if they convey the message. And actions speak louder. I will show you."

I glanced at Roman. I couldn't tell if he was thinking what I was thinking. Minx' words were strange, and not in the usual way. We'd never talked of his secret project with him, believing the time would come when he told us all of it. But now he was claiming his personal research was completed and he was ready to show it to the King, and he also mentioned our names.

Roman seemed to guess my preoccupations. "I'm sure Minx, Aurora and Atticus heard about it all the time while we were away. It's not our fault if we were on the Other Side and we couldn't take part in the project."

He was, of course, right. What bothered me was that Minx' project had something to do with saving the world, helping the common people. Those were my dreams too. And at the moment I couldn't begin to guess what it was that he could have figured out while we were away.

"I'm just restless because Minx is... Well, he's Minx. He's well natured but people think him eccentric. Who knows how the Court will react to the project," I whispered back. "If we knew more of it, we could have helped, and now I would have something to say, to back him up..."

Roman, who weeks ago would have rolled his eyes, gave me a steady glance instead. "You can't work your charm on the people in the Court."

"I believe I should have the chance to try, at least."

In the meantime, Minx was talking to the members of the Court and asking them if he could use the table to showcase his project. I heard Tori mutter a few words of assent, but Naftali wondered aloud why Minx couldn't just stick to words.

"Sticking to words is not my style," he grinned in repy. "Besides, the thing I want to show you is very forward-thinking and you might not believe me when I tell you it can be done..."

"Let's not waste any more time," Bertha said very loudly. "I believe your research had something to do with the murders, Morris. We should be out there catching the culprits instead of playing theatre here."

"The culprits?" Roman wondered aloud.

"A few people have been spotted near the crime scenes," Mira replied tersely. "A man in his fifties was seen leaving the doctor's house. As for the next two victims, the only people reported near the scene were an old lady and a young man about your age. We do not have enough proof to identify them as the murderers, let alone catching them and hanging them."

Minx cleared his throat. "Alright," he said. "I'll start then. My story has its origin in Càd Irr, the place where I was born. While most of the population started believing in the Endless One during the dark ages, as they call the world before Watchers, we still have myths pertaining the legends the people believed in before."

I was convinced, now, Minx would show us proofs of some kind of cult. So was the Court. Everyone was watching, raptured, his outline in the dark, the bright red hair a flash of color in the darkness.

"And you might wonder, dear audience, in which ways the legends were different from ours. Well, they believed in multiple gods, for starters! And one of those stories say their main god mixed his blood with honey and created a drink capable of making him all-powerful. Can you guess what the story stays? Whomever drinks is able to recite any information and solve any question. Does it remind you of something?"

The Court, except for User, turned their heads to look at me. Knowledge. This was what we were all thinking about. I couldn't tell whether Roman wasn't looking out of kindness, or because he refused to associate me with the blood drinking monsters.

"Blood was a common denominator in stories," Minx continued. "Do you know what humans gave their gods as sacrifice? The answer is blood. Both animal blood and human blood alike. It was commonly believed to be what gods took their powers from. Blood in exchange for a wish, blood in exchange for protection of the humankind. And there are such stories in our mythology, too. No one sacrificed other people here, but sprinkling blood was a symbol of purification. Do you recall the legend of that one patriarch who sprinkled blood upon his people as a symbol of covenant between his people and the Endless One?"

"What are you trying to tell us?" Chae-Won raised her voice. "That those were sacrificial killings?"

"Here's a gold star," Minx replied. "But you'll never know until I tell you just how deep the lore goes. A blood ritual, between two people, usually male warriors, to strengthen both each other and their union. Blood means strength in every ancient culture. In Izkunia, centuries ago, human sacrifice was common, even. They believed blood was an offering to the gods. And all those people... they never shared their information with one another. They just knew something that we didn't."

"Dominic," Mira interceded. "You're scaring them. Try explaining it a little less like you're on a stage..."

"My dear future wife does not understand the point I'm trying to make," Minx smiled innocently. "I'm not saying those people were murdered so their blood could be offered to the Endless One. There has never been the need for sacrifices in our creed. I'm just saying that the victims were drained because someone understood blood had real powers, as a source of energy. It works, for Watchers. It expands ones' Skills and give almost unlimited vitality."

The members of the Court looked at one another, because that was the special way they trusted each other.

"Mira, Atticus, Aurora, Jonathan and Roman," Minx called us. "Come here. These people are my team, the ones who helped me in the project. Atticus is a skillful Watcher and a good friend. He and I share inside jokes and secrets I don't share with anyone else." Minx winked. "Aurora is Atticus' girlfriend! Which is saying something. He would never settle down, not a type like him. She's good at cooking too. Mira is my future wife, a beautiful woman and a fierce Watcher and researcher. Even the King has put his trust in her. As for Jonathan and Roman, they are the heroes who journeyed to the Other Side. Jonathan is a Watcher with a rare Skill and good family connections, and Roman one of the rare Prophets!"

Roman and I exchanged a quick glance. Aurora looked strangely chastised. Minx was not usually like that. Why was he putting down the women in the team and reducing Roman and I to our set of skills? His words didn't sound very different from the days when Athanasios used to parade me around like an expensive item he'd bought.

Still, we reached Minx and we stood in front of the Court. Atticus was smiling, so I tried to imitate him. I wanted to make the best impression when Minx would finally talk about the project.

"So, I believe Mister Morris, theatricality aside, that you're here to tell us that you found a cult that believed in the power of blood, seeing as the bodies were drained, and you managed to find a way to stop them," Tori said, tossing her red hair back. It fell in ringlets over her shoulder.

"Stop them?" Minx asked, with a very innocent expression on his face. "No, Tori, you still do not know what I'm talking about. There isn't a group of people behind this. There is not a cult. Come, I will show you. Atticus, the body."

It was a very eery thing to say. We all looked mesmerized at Atticus, who took a dead body from the Endless One knows where and put it on the table. No one questioned his motives, and he had, in his eyes, the look of a soldier.

Except that the body was not dead. Just by looking at it I could tell that it wasn't moving, as if he'd been put to sleep, probably with some kind of drug. But the man still had a heartbeat, and his face still looked rosey.

"I brought this man here in hopes that he might become the next victim. Or should I say sacrifice?"

"What are you saying, Minx?" Mira asked. She suddenly was very pale.

"The bodies someone drank from," Minx continued, almost in a murmur. "They have been drained for the greater good. I told you, those men back then knew something that we did not know. But I tested it myself. Blood helps your Skill and gives you energy. It's the definitive proof that Watchers are a different breed from humans and that the ancient ones were right. Can you imagine how that could propel us forward, as a race?"

There were a lot of things to say. Many of them were burning on my tongue. But Mira spoke first, and louder, than any of us.

"I do not understand, Dominic," she was enraged. "Are you telling us... you drank from those bodies?"

"Honestly I imagined you a great deal smarter than that, Mira," Minx smiled. "After all, you are going to marry me. That was a clever choice --- especially on my part. Everyone knows that the wedded couple of Watchers whose souls are knit together in the ceremony is stronger in body and mind at the end of the job. The only side effect of human blood is that, while it makes you stronger, it makes you lose your mind little by little. I haven't experimented yet, but I have this theory that, in weaker men than me, it could probably impair your brain permanently. I actually did study some of the common side effects..."

"Stop," I pleaded, like snapping out of a nightmare. "Just stop, please. We did not agree to this. We did not know this. Watchers swore to protect humanity not to make it become part of their food chain..."

"But you did agree to all of this, just following my footsteps, living in my house and accepting I worked on my project," Minx reminded us. "If you speak of someone to blame, the dead bodies are as much your fault as they are mine. But, instead, I will not mention guilt, for I feel none. We are the gods, and they pray to us everyday to save their lives. It is only fair we get our share, from them."

I knew the effect these words would have on the Court. I wasn't simply horrified --- my fear ran deeper. I was afraid we would really be tried for our crimes as if we'd helped Minx, and I started to imagine we would be hang.

Of course, I still believed in my innocence, for if I hadn't, I would be fine with being punished.

"The bodies," Roman said all of a sudden. "Who killed those people? The people on the crime scene weren't you, nor any of us. The young man was spotted when we were on the Other Side and people would have recognised Atticus. As for the old woman and the middle-aged man, there is no one applying to that description in our team..."

Minx started chuckling. I didn't take it as a good sign. "Have you ever wondered why those people weren't caught? Why the witnesses took a look at their faces and yet no one could claim they looked like anyone they knew? That's because those were not real citizens. All of those people, they were all me."

I thought about the demonic Minx with his room full of make-up and clothing from theatre. However, what the citizens of Solima had seen were not disguises. "How?"

"My Skill is Changing. I can become whomever I wish, even people who look nothing like me. Of course, it's a very draining Skill. It used to make me feel very tired and almost pass out each time I used it. Well, that was before the human blood, of course. Ever since I started drinking from the sacrifices, my Skill has increased at least tenfold."

"Mira, you seriously cannot think we believe you did not know your future husband's Skill," Chae-Won said, her face pale and gaunt. There was a certain firmness in her eyes, as if she was looking at us and finding us guilty.

"That, I can swear myself," Minx said. "And as you know, I do not think of myself as a criminal and I have absolutely nothing against telling you what I've done. But for all of my life I kept my Skill a secret. And that was not because it could come in handy. It was because the first people I told had different and terrible reactions. Can you imagine how much of a freak people consider you if you tell them that you could be anybody? They take it as if it means that you're no one at all. I didn't want anyone I met in my adult years to know."

I thought about his words. Can you imagine how much of a freak people consider you? Looking at the Court, suddenly I could see how they used to look ten years before, the horrible expressions on their faces when they saw me spread my wings for the first time.

"You never told anyone because you wanted the people you met to trust you," Roman guessed. His voice was hoarse. I'd never heard it like that. "And we did. And now you've gone and ruined it, and it will not happen anymore."

"Of course it will not happen," Naftali exploded. "Dominic Morris is the murderer! He needs to be hanged, and as soon as possible before he escapes. Chae-Won, go to our private meeting room and see if you can find those pills I refined the other day, the ones that should stop your Skill from showing for a couple of hours."

Those pills were usually given to the few Watchers who'd been arrested or sent to hang. Not everyone would tell the police force their real Skill, and so there was no way to know if one of them had Force and could break out the prison. Or, even worse, if there was someone who had Hiding. Or Changing.

Of course, it almost never happened. Except for a few nights I'd spent in jail, and those were just for disorderly conduct, Watchers were usually very serious and dutiful, making it almost impossible to have a criminal in their midst.

Chae-Won started running for the pills. Mira started sobbing, as if it was hitting her for the first time that Minx could be dead in a matter of hours, and that, even if he managed to escape, he wasn't the man she'd agreed to marry.

"Everyone, stop," Minx said. He smiled like a shark. His voice was so charming, at the moment, that even Chae-Won stopped in his tracks. Or perhaps, they were all afraid of him.

"I believe things have gotten way out of hand," he continued. "But you cannot hang me until you don't know if I'm right about the blood or now. Why, if I'm wrong about the blood..."

He tapped a finger against his chin, in thought. "That could mean that I'm crazy, and therefore I might be saying nonsense and might not even be guilty. But if I'm right about the blood, well, that could change everything, couldn't it?"

"Stop acting as if we want nothing more than to try this... monstrous thing!" Naftali exclaimed. But I could see the curiosity in his deep brown eyes.

Minx shrugged. "This man on the table, he will die either way. I gave him too much laudanum. Which means that there's no issue feeding, first."

I imagined Minx taking out a knife and wounding the man, but he didn't.

"Team," he turned around to look at us. "I would like for this to be initiation rite of one of you. Who is going to drink from this man?"