"I remember I said don't tell stories. Drinkward said.

"You call that a story?" said Nancy, "just cleared my throat and stirred up everyone's emotions to listen to you." Now go up and shake them off. ”

Drinkward stepped out and stood in the firelight. He looked like nothing more than a tall old man in a gray suit and an old Armani coat. He stood there, staring at the people sitting on the wooden benches, and did not speak for a long time, so long that Ashu began to feel uncomfortable. Finally, he spoke.

"You know me," he said, "and you all know me, and some of you don't even like me very much." But like me or not, you all know me. ”

The man on the bench let out a rustling whisper.

"I've been here longer than most of you. Like you, I thought that we could move on with the old roots. It's not enough to make us happy, but it's still going to get by.

"But that's probably not the case now. A storm is coming, and it is not a storm caused by us. ”

He stopped, took a step forward, and folded his hands over his chest.

"When people came to England, it was a barren place, with primitive shamans ruling the island. Why we chose this place, the relics of antiquity, I think you already know the secret. Among the twelve megaliths, there are all kinds of miracles about ancient times. ”

"The island looks very small now, but before the Antiquity Wars, it was connected to the mainland. At that time, the land was very vast. But soon after, a war between the ancient ancestors ruined everything. Muggles only remember a hundred years of history, they don't care about anything else, but we are different. Originally, all this did not change, and the fate of wizards would gradually weaken and lose their magic power, like fish without water, until one day, they would become a pile of bones on a dry riverbed, giving up the world to Muggles or something.

"This is our future, the future of wizards, struggling on the margins of society, where no one cares about our existence. Fend for yourself...."Ashur saw tears welling up in the corners of Gatler Drinkward's eyes.

"Let's admit the reality and put it bluntly: we are not much more advanced than Muggles, we do not have an advantage, and the only thing that is magical is that we are dwarfed by the rapid development of Muggle technology, and we are rapidly dying. But we still fantasize about relying only on magic to feed and survive, and get what we need from magic. We live day by day, we steal, we rob, we try to prove our influence, we wander the world, we use magic to control the stupid people in power, we terrorize them, we survive on the margins of society. In the old world, we were demon gods on high. But in this new world, there is no place for us wizards. ”

Drinkward paused, looking at his audience one by one, with a serious expression like a statesman. They met his gaze indifferently, as if they were wearing masks on their faces, and they could not read any expression. Drinkward cleared his throat and spat heavily at the fire. The flames leaped violently, illuminating the entire interior of the temple.

"All of you have seen with your own eyes that now, in the UK, a new generation of Muggles has grown. People believe only in themselves, in their god of technology, and even some of us wizards have come to think that the future of the world lies in those formulas and currents. As long as they have enough energy, as long as they have enough machines, they can do anything, including things that magic can't. Those arrogant Muggles are actually a bunch of arrogant and stupid guys who are constantly inflated simply because they have taken a different path from us and are practical in this era. ”

"They are unaware of our existence --- treat us as false beings, and every time real magic appears, there are always a hundred more exaggerated, more distorted magic tricks to cover it up. The people in power are afraid of us, they hate us, but they have the initiative!" Drinkward continued, like a thunderbolt, "and if you don't believe that, you're deceiving yourself. If they have the ability, they will surely destroy us. It's time for all of us to join forces, it's time for us to act!"

The old woman in the red Indian sari walked into the firelight, and she had a small dark blue gem on her forehead. "You called us here just to listen to your nonsense?" she said, "She snorted, her voice mixed with mockery and anger.

Drinkward's face sank. "I summoned you, yes, but it makes sense, Karma, not any nonsense. Even a child can see it. ”

"You're saying I'm an ignorant child, are you?" she shook her finger at him, "I have a long history among Indian shamans, much older than you, I existed long before you were imagined, you idiot. I'm a kid, well, even if I'm a kid, I don't hear anything meaningful in your idiot speech anyway. ”

This time, two overlapping images appeared in front of Ah Xiu at the same time: he saw an old woman with a wrinkled face and a disapproving expression. But behind her, he saw something of great proportion, a naked woman, her skin as dark and shiny as a new coat of leather, and her lips and tongue a bright blood-red. She wore a necklace of skulls around her neck, and countless pairs of arms held daggers, swords, and severed human heads.

"I didn't say you were a child, Karma. "But, obviously, it's self-evident—"

"The only thing that goes without saying," said the old woman, pointing at him, behind her back, in her body, above her, a finger with black nails as sharp as a claw, pointing at him in the same way, "is your own desire for glory. We have lived peacefully in this country for a long time. I'll admit that some of us did a great job. I'm having a good time. In India, my other incarnation is doing better. But it's nothing, I'm not jealous. I've watched generations of life grow and watch them decline. Her hand dropped. Ah Xiu noticed that everyone else was looking at her, with a mixture of different expressions in their eyes—respect, ridicule, and embarrassment. "It's in this land, not so long ago, they worshipped the railroad. But now, those Magneto wizards have been forgotten, just like the ridiculous X-Warriors......"

"Say what you think, Karma. Drinkward said.

"What do I think?" her nostrils opened in anger, the corners of her mouth twitching down. "I—I'm obviously just an ignorant child? I said we should wait and see and do nothing. We don't know if they really want to deal with us. ”

"So, you're going to keep watching and waiting until one night they break in and kill you, or take you away forever?"

Her expression was contemptuous, and at the same time she seemed amused by the words. Her expression was limited to her lips and eyebrows, as well as a slight frown of her nose. "If they really plan to do that," she said, "they'll find it hard for me to catch, and even harder to kill." ”

A stocky young man sitting on the bench behind her booed, drawing everyone's attention. He began to speak, with a deep, nasal voice that boomed. "European rulers, my people live quite comfortably, and do their best to live as well as possible under the existing conditions. If this war of yours does not go well, we will lose everything. ”

Drinkward said, "You've lost everything. I'm giving you a chance now that you can take something back. ”

As he spoke, flames rose high and lit up the faces of his listeners.

I didn't actually believe it, Ah Xiu thought to himself, not believing what was happening in front of me. Maybe I'm fifteen years old now, my mom is still alive, and I haven't met Laura yet. None of this has happened yet, it's just a very real dream. But he didn't believe in his own idea either. We must trust our perceptual faculties: our sights, our sense of touch and our memories, which are our tools to perceive the world. If you lie to yourself about your own perception, there is nothing left to trust in this world. Even if we don't believe it, we still can't get out of the direction that our perception directs, and we have to follow the path that our perception directs.

The flames were suddenly extinguished. Magnificent palaces, supernatural fantasies, plunged into darkness.

"What now?" asked Ah Xiu quietly.

"Now let's go back to the carousel. Mr. Nancy whispered, "Old One-Eye, invite us all to dinner, bribe certain people, and have a relationship with certain people, and stop magic." ”

"Magic?"

"Just don't talk about wizards anymore. What did you do on the day you distributed your brains?"

"It was just in time for someone to tell a story about how to steal a tiger's eggs, so I didn't go to the place where I distributed my brains and listened intently to the story. ”

Mr. Nancy chuckled.

"At the end of the day, nothing has been resolved, and no consensus has been reached. Ah Xiu said.

"He's slowly working on them. He will convince them one by one. Look, in the end, they'll turn the corner. ”

Ah Xiu felt a wind blowing from nowhere. The wind ruffled his hair, blew his face, and pushed and pulled him hard.

In a blink of an eye, they were back in the room of the world's largest merry-go-round, listening to the "Emperor Waltz" dance music.

There was also a group of people in the room, who looked like tourists, talking to Drinkward at the other end of the room. Count the number of people, as many as the shadowy figures seen in the halls of Drinkward. "Come this way. Drinkward said loudly, leading the group through the only exit. The exit was made into a behemoth monster's gaping mouth, its fangs as if ready to tear everyone to pieces. Drinkward stood in the middle of the crowd, like a standard politician, full of sweet words, sometimes encouraging, sometimes smiling, gently disagreeing, patiently soothing the emotions of others.

"Did it really happen?" Ashu asked.

"What happened, brainless fool?" asked Mr. Nancy rhetorically.

"Temples, campfires, tigers, rides on merry-go-rounds. ”

"Gee, there's no merry-go-round here. Don't you see the warning signs? Don't be stupid. ”

The monster's mouth leads to the organ room. Ah Xiu was confused—didn't they come in this way?But how could they be so strange when they walked through it a second time?Drinkward led the group up several flights of steps, past life-size statues of four riders hanging from the rooftop, and followed the signs to find the exit.

Ah Xiu and Nancy walked at the back of the line. They walked out of the cliff stone house with the others, passed the gift shop, and walked in the direction of the parking lot.

"It's a pity that I have to leave before closing," said Mr. Nancy lamentingly, "and I'd love to see the biggest orchestra in the world." ”

"I've seen it," said Norberg suddenly, "not very well." ”

The restaurant is about ten minutes away. Drinkward told each of the guests he invited that he was in for dinner tonight, and arranged for a few people who didn't have their own cars to take them to the restaurant.

Ah Xiu thought it was strange. How could these people get to the cliff hut without a car, and how were they going to get out of here? But he didn't say anything. At this time, the smartest choice is not to say anything.

Ah Xiu drove a carload of Drin Ward's guests to the restaurant: a woman in a red Indian sari sat in the assistant's seat, and there were two men in the back seat: the strange-looking short, stout young man, whose name Ah Xiu couldn't spell out exactly, was a little close to the hero King Svein, and the other man in a black suit, whose name Ah Xiu no longer remembered.

When the man got into the car, Ah Xiu stood next to him, and opened and closed the car door for him, but now he didn't remember what he looked like at all. Once in the driver's seat, he turned to look at him, memorizing his facial features, hairstyle, and clothes so that he could recognize him the next time he saw him. But when he turned around and started the car, he found that the man's appearance had disappeared from his memory again, and he remembered nothing but vaguely remembering that he seemed to be richer.

I'm so tired. Ah Xiu thought to himself. He glanced to the right and stole at the Indian woman. He noticed that around her neck was a silver necklace made up of tiny skulls, and on the bracelet hung a charm in the shape of a skull and a severed hand. As soon as she moved, the little charms jingled like tiny bells. A dark blue gemstone hung from her forehead. She smelled of curry, cardamom, nutmeg, and flowers, and her hair had long since turned gray. She noticed him peeking at her and smiled.