Veselina could not join her. She only caught Leudora by the sleeve before her departure to Bulgaria.

"Leu, you should ask Szemere to send his pet turul with you. After all, the Cinnamon-bird can protect you from any other assassination attempts. They are tied to the Veil... like time-masters." The wind blew through Veselina's hair, and Leudora smiled against her will. Veselina sighed.

"Leu, we must be careful. We don't have enough gliders and slippers. If we collect enough knowledge and reach enlightenment, maybe we can escape the dissolution of the Veil..."

"Escape?" Leudora shook her head apprehensively. "Have you ever thought that certain people would want us to reach that very enlightenment – the state when none of us would care?"

Veselina frowned.

"Everyone knows you are a heretic."

The park behind the university library in Sofia branched into several picturesque streets, one of which hosted an abandoned manor separated from the street by rusted hinges and a heavy lock hanging on the gates. Neither the fence nor the lock stopped Sava and Leudora from reaching the Gurovs and the Seliminskis.

"Do you think they will listen?" Sava asked Leudora, his voice suddenly hopeful.

"Possibly," Leudora shrugged, approaching the gates, "It will be difficult to talk to the Bulgarian energy-twisters without Veselina and Professor Asenova. Their recent troubles with the Spy Guild light-benders may sway them to the wrong side."

"Everyone knows Lady Asenova respects and trusts you greatly. And Veselina is your most faithful supporter." Sava assurance did not inspire her. She smirked and stepped forward, destroying the lock with a braceter shot. Then she lifted her long velvet skirt and proceeded to the manor.

"Professor Asenova is the only one who can keep Calimachi and my mother busy. Besides that, she can keep an eye on Kira Rankova." Leudora snorted, "She is torn between Romania and Poland. She will not be returning to Bulgaria any time soon."

Leudora's public, as she had expected, was stiff and unresponsive. Even Kostadin Gurov was predictably skeptical.

"What else do you want from us, Lady Galbur?" He winced, turning to the light and allowing Leudora to notice the dark circles under his tired eyes. "The light moths killed my wife, destroyed my house and almost pushed me out of Bulgaria. We could barely remain in Sofia... Who can guarantee our safety if the new Council eats from Arta Rinari's palm?"

"I can." Leudora's voice shook the stale air in the hall of crumbling marble and dust. But Gurov only laughed.

"How? You may be able to take down a hundred gravity-switchers, but you will never get rid of the Dalmatian Serpent. If we fight, we can still regain our freedom. It's time we understood that."

"We cannot regain anything if we fight," Leudora spat out nonchalantly. Sava's hand reached his face, and he rubbed his forehead, looking away. Leudora ignored his dissatisfaction.

"Now they are afraid. For the first time in three years they are truly terrified. Because I let them taste their own blood. They have rarely seen us achieve our destructive potential... Now they know it can turn ugly." Her voice filled the air of the large hall as if it were the intestines of a balloon. Leudora's words occupied the entire space, pushing all other noises out. She lifted an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side; Viktor Seliminski and Kostadin Gurov exchanged suspicious glances.

"How did you reach Predrag and Tijana if you were injured? It is hard to believe the gravity-switchers let you go?" Seliminski asked. Leudora approached him quickly, hovering over his head. Her piercing look startled him, but he did not move.

"They let me go." She pursed her lips. "They saw me as a monster. And they see that potential in all Psychics."

"That is what the Alka believes, isn't it? That you are a sort of a weapon...?"

"Am I not?" She smiled devilishly.

"We are Byzantine Bloods!" Seliminski scoffed. "We see and feel more than they do. That is why they are afraid of us. But there's not much else to it. After all, we are artificially created..."

"We have enough tricks up our sleeves to drive them mad," Leudora interrupted him. Before she could continue, Sava stepped out of the shadows.

"It is our chance to consolidate our forces. We won't have another. Leudora is right: she has changed the rules. Now, when they look upon us, they see our potential. It instills fear and it gives us time."

"If you can't beat people to death, you have no other choice but to bide your time," Leudora said.

She knew they did not truly appreciate her rhetoric, but the losses of war made them vulnerable and they listened. They had to. And she promised them she would defeat the Dalmatian Serpent.

Grand Magister Blažetin's light message reached Leudora Galbur in Veselina Gurova's apartment in Sofia: the leader of the Alka invited her to the Tower, but it was not Blažetin's voice that surged through the gleaming letters of the light projector. Leudora pursed her lips, almost hearing the quiet and low voice of the Dalmatian Serpent - the man, whom nobody had ever liked and whom everybody had feared: "...Magister Drašković wishes to discuss certain important matters with you in person." Was he a Magister now? Leudora had expected his promotion, yet it came as a surprise.

She frowned, scrutinizing the letters: "Why would the Serpent ask Blažetin to send a message, when he is perfectly capable of doing it himself? It doesn't make sense, unless he wants to demonstrate his loyalty to Blažetin and alert every Alkar of my visit. Either way, I will accept the invitation. There will be no other chance to approach the Serpent discreetly."

She travelled to Zagreb with a glider provided to her by her suddenly agreeable kinsmen: time was of essence, and Leudora could easily meet the Alkari at the Tower, but they decided to pick her up at the railway station instead. Ten well-armed Alkari waited for her arrival, standing in front of the long neoclassical building in a neat line. One of these brick-faced soldiers stirred Leudora's curiosity - a tall woman with ash-blond hair. Primed up, Leudora raised an eyebrow and nodded to her. The woman responded without either fear or enthusiasm. Adhering to the conditions of their arrangement, she drove Leudora to Maksimir park in an old car that kept careening out of control and squeaking as if it was in pain.