The mood was lousy from the very morning, because lack of sleep always had a terrible effect on my internal self-control. All night I dreamed that a dark force was consuming Venira and driving her crazy. What she turned into after that did not even remotely resemble my friend, it was a monster woven from my childhood fears of the Darkness.

None of the calming techniques helped me come to a complete balance, but still, having calmed down a little, I recovered for the first session.

- Attention! Important announcement! croaked the history teacher, Asmus of Rinia. At first glance, he was about a hundred years old, and at the...