Selwyn inhaled, moved his fingers, and closed his eyes, hoping that he would wake up from this terrible dream. But in the end he had to walk to where Farrow's body was, he had to bear its weight with his hands, he had to pick it up - even though it was crumbling.

"Don't worry," Ellswyss said, "he won't start to break down in a few days." ”

Selwyn began to gag, even though he hadn't eaten since the early morning of the day and a half.

Ellswis pointed to another body, resting on the wall, lying on a stretcher. "Get me some wood from the man's coffin."

Protests are useless. The dried fragments easily broke in Selwyn's hands - the body had been lying here for a long time. In any case, Selwyn whispered an apology to it.

"Get on your knees," Ellswyss said, "don't break this circle. ”

"What circle?" Selwyn began to ask, but Ellswys had already marked the rock floor with a gleaming stone she had gotten from her backpack, a circle large enough to enclose her, Selwin and Farrow, and the wood he had brought. Next, she neatly stacked the wood in small piles and began to try to make sparks out of flint, steel, and a bit of flax.

"Can't you use magic to make a fire?" Selwyn asked.

"One can't make magic out of magic," Ellswyes told him. "And every time you speak, you drain energy and make the spell weak."

Selwyn didn't believe she didn't say that to quiet him, but he stopped asking, just in case.

Elswyes lit a fire, she took a small clay pot from her backpack and placed it on the fire. She poured two vials into the pot: one was a clear, bright red liquid—like a melted ruby, Selwyn thought; The other was a clear, bright red liquid—Selwyn thought; The other was a thick, black-purple substance, which she had to shake out of the container. It makes a rude sucking sound when it finally squirms, followed by a noisy plopping sound in the already boiling red ingredients. A loud hiss, a cloud of blue smoke, and a foul smell made Selwyn forget for a moment what he was in.

Ellswis untied Farrow's blanket again and cut off another strand of his hair.

His skin was a horribly green glow. Selwyn didn't even realize it, falling to his knees. Ellswis glared angrily and grabbed his wrist before he could break the circle. She had said that the dead would be willing to return, and Selwyn was surprised, assuming that any deceased would be happy to be alive again, even temporarily. Now, seeing the physical state of their request for Farrow's return, Selwyn is not so sure.

Ellswyes put Farrow's hair into the pot, along with the various leaves and powders in her backpack. Finally, she took out a piece of human leg bone from her backpack, which was dry and white. She waved this, and pale blue smoke floated out of the clay pot to the top of Farrow's head, and began calling Farrow's name.

Selwyn was dizzy, even when he wasn't smoking.

She apologized in a deep singing voice for disturbing Farrow's rest, and told him that his friend—Selwyn had never been—needed him. "You died too soon," she shouted, "interrupted, unfair, unfair." Your grieving friend seeks your help to uncover the murderer's mask. ”

She tilted Selwyn's head, forcing him to look at Farrow, whom he had been trying to avoid. She handed him the bone and placed the other end on Farrow's forehead. "Come back," she said, and as she looked at him, Selwyn guessed she was speaking to Farrow. She made a gesture, and he realized he was going to repeat her words.

"Come back," he screamed.

"Using these ingredients......" Ellswyes said, smoke wafting from it.

"'Use these ingredients ......,'" Selwyn echoed.

"And my strength......"

That explains why she asked him for help. But Selwyn repeats the phrase: "'And my strength ......'" Was this his hallucination, or did he really suddenly feel weak? There was no choice, he reminded himself.

"Then enter this body," Ellswys said, gesturing for him to make sure the bones were in contact with Farrow.

"And then into this body."

But just as Selwyn spoke, there was a sudden commotion and commotion in the cave. His body shuddered involuntarily, ready to fend off the attack.

Only bats, as the daylight outside fades and night falls, come alive again. After a while, Selwyn recovered from the way he started, but one of the bats—so smart and agile the night before—fell into his lap.

"Ahh Farrow's voice screamed, small and many octaves higher. "What did you do?"

Selwyn looked down at the bone that Ellswys had handed him, and he had inadvertently lifted it from Farrow's forehead, and—even now—straight up, pointing upwards at the swarms of bats above that swooped, swarmed, and flew over the curves. corridor, into the depths of the cavern. Leave one.

Ellswis reached over Farrow's motionless corpse, over the bat, flapping, furious, trying to regain its original form without success. She slapped Selwyn hard. "Fool!" She cried.