“I see,” I sighed and turned to the Light. - Yes, honey, Anilur is my paternal brother, and Nastya, that is, Lady Anastasia, who, by the way, did not appear at a dinner party in my father's house, his mother. Accordingly, you and Enilur have the same brother and sister. But Anastasia, besides the fact that she is the mother of Enilur, is also the daughter of our great-great-grandfather. That is, she has to all of us a great-great-aunt. So you're my second cousin grandmother.

“But ... Shane, I'm not older than you ...” Tears appeared in her eyes.

“Darling,” my grandfather beat me, “I, too, are not older than Shane, but I come to him as a grandfather.” Do not worry. My brothers are married to our aunts and nothing, everyone is happy.

- Yeah, and your wife is older than you ... how old is she now? - I laughed.

“I never asked about her true age,” he grinned. - For myself, I have always believed that she is no more than three hundred years old, although I have information that only under the guise of Ranita she lives for more than a thousand ...

- Thousands years? - Sveta's eyes instantly dried up and rounded.

“Yes, baby,” said the grandfather, “although I know that she is much older.” I know that she was familiar with Sweyville when he was not yet a king ...

“And he was crowned nearly five thousand years ago,” I added.

The grandfather glanced at me reproachfully and remarked:

- It is, by the way, tactless, to remind the lady of her age.

I sighed. I completely forgot that there is a special connection between grandfather and grandmother. In fact, they are always together. She may not be present in person, but some part of her accompanies him everywhere.

- I wonder, will Sveta and I ever reach such closeness that we will even be apart? - I dreamily said.

- Everything depends on you, baby, - the grandfather grinned. “If you don’t walk right and left, if you don’t squander your spiritual warmth, but keep it only for Sveta, then maybe someday you will become as close as Ranita and Trent and Nyx.”

“Come on, father and mother haven’t been talking for a year,” I muttered darkly.

“They communicate,” he nodded, “just during their life together they managed to hurt each other so much that they now look at each other only through this facet of a prism.” And it costs them a little to turn this very prism, and their love will sparkle with new colors ... The pain can not be forgotten - it makes us who we are. But to live, remembering only about her, is also impossible. It is a pity that they can not explain it. They themselves must feel and understand this simple, in general, truth.

- You tell us this, so that we know how to behave in the future? - I grinned.

“And for that too,” he nodded. - You will also have a lot of pain ahead. Do not think, Sveta, that Shane took it and changed it immediately. He will leave you on assignments, he will need to relieve tension, so I guarantee you that he will sleep with other women, perhaps even with men. And you will also have to have sex with other people from time to time, - Sveta started again. - Unfortunately, this is not going anywhere. Only you need to remember, with whom he would not sleep, with whom you would not sleep, all this is only part of the work, no more. The real pleasure of sex you will receive only with each other. And yet - no matter what bad things he tells you, no matter how evil he returns, keep your promise. Forgive him everything except that you can not forgive. And you will be happy, Sveta. This I say to you as a god.Like the happiest god in the world.

- A very heartfelt speech, grandfather, - I smiled, - only you do not think that you have gone too far with morals?

“No, just right,” he smiled and started down the stairs. “Actually,” he said after the third turn, “I am not saying all this in order to prepare you for family life.” Svetochka, you have a difficult and dangerous test. In order to forgive a person, you need to have enormous power. And in order to pass this test, you also need to possess great power. To make your family life unclouded, you should not look back, regret the lost opportunities and go from the chosen path. On the Labyrinth, the rules are the same - do not look back, go only forward and only once and for all laid down in your genes path. But if in family life the punishment for weakness is pain and disappointment, then in the Labyrinth your punishment is death.

“Actually,” I intervened, “it's not so scary.” You just need to trust your instincts and show the maximum concentration of willpower. He is scared, he is crushing, he is trying to remake you, but in fact he is no less interested in your passing. The more people pass him, the stronger he becomes, the greater his influence in the universe ...

“The labyrinth,” the grandfather interrupted me, “is the embodiment of a rational order, an absolute of the mind, pure intelligence, separated from feelings and emotions.” But emotions are interesting to him. When a person passes through it, he studies it, memorizes it, fits it into his matrix and fits himself into the matrix of a person. Therefore, with each step he tries to penetrate as deeply as possible into the very essence of the personality. It is difficult and painful, but if you stand this test, it will give you power over the Shadows. More precisely, it is not his power. It is your own will power, and he will just teach you how to use it.

“Have you all been through this?” - Light asked quietly, and I did not hear the echo of her voice.

- Yes, - but the voice of his grandfather echoed through the cave hollow and loud. - Personally, I went through the Maze three times.

“I went through the Maze twice,” I nodded, “and every time I thought I wouldn’t get there.”

“But ... you are stronger than me,” she said plaintively.

“He is stronger only because he knows how to control his power,” the grandfather explained. - That is, just because the Maze has already passed.

Sveta said nothing more, only squeezed my elbow more tightly.

We descended lower and lower, the darkness around us was thickening, and the torches that burned along the stairs did not dispel the darkness, but seemed to make it more dense and tangible. At one point, I even began to feel that the darkness around us was moving and taking shape. I peered into it almost all the way to the last step in the desperate hope that Sach from the darkness would have a pale face of her mother. But the darkness continued to swirl silently and indifferently around us. And again I sighed bitterly.

The grandfather walked calmly and even decorously, dispelling darkness with the light of his aura. Sveta and I, without saying a word, tried to keep up with him and keep up with him by more than two steps.

But below the light appeared. So, the goal of our journey is already close.

We approached the guard post where a lone lantern was burning. There was no guard on the spot.

Grandfather passed by and walked down the corridor. Its light dispersed the darkness much better than a lantern would have done.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” came a small female voice from the third corridor on the left.

The bluish light of his grandfather's aura snatched out of the dark a gaunt, but beautiful face with regular features and a fragile girlish figure. She was wearing a simple print dress and soft, light-colored shoes, and her short-cropped blond hair ridiculously bristled over her ears.

- Good morning, Elena, how did you sleep? - grandfather stopped near her.

“Thank you, all is well,” she bowed her head.

- Do you or your ward need anything? - the grandfather inquired.

“No, thanks, we have everything we need,” answered the doll without raising its head. - True, recently he increasingly complains of weakness and dampness.

“Hm,” the grandfather put a finger to his chin and frowned. - I will order him to double the ration of milk and provide dry linen and bed .... Read more →