The referee, Sigmund, put the bullet into the cylinder of the revolver, and made it roll several times. When he placed the gun on the table Astrid's heart accelerated for a moment. In front of her Gustavsson smiled, sure that Astrid would back down. She wouldn't. She had made a great effort searching for that man, a stranger in her own country but a well known war criminal in Africa. Then she had to win his trust enough to be able to participate in his poker games. At last she had had to bet a good amount of money to incite him to play the russian roulette. It was time.

She grabbed the gun and aimed it at her head. Then pulled the trigger. As the bullet didn't fire, she then ought to pass the gun to Gustavsson so he could do the same. Then he would die or pass the gun again. Instead Astrid kept the gun aimed against her head. And she pressed the trigger four more times. Both Gustavsson and his friend, the referee, gulped down and paled. The other men around them that were watching the spectacle had similar reactions. Some of them even cheered. Then she passed the gun. The revolver had six slots and she had fired five times. Either the bullet was fake or Gustavsson was about to blow up his head. Of course he could always forfeit but in that case he would lose both the money bet and the respect of his peers. Even war criminals had to be true to their word sometimes. Even more pale than usual his shaky hand grabbed the gun and aimed it at his head. The referee lowered his gaze, aware of the impending death of his friend.

-Double or nothing!- Gustavsson suddenly came with a cunning proposal.

-Two bullets?- Astrid joked.

-Magic.

-Excuse me?

The referee made a gesture and the audience scattered. As soon as they three were alone he explained his idea. He knew of a place, a nearby house in a posh neighborhood, where a ritual would be made that same night. The spell, or rather the people doing the spell, promised a prize for the worthy and death for all the rest. So far nobody had dared go with him. He offered to pay twice the promised amount of money if she accepted. That made her spine shiver. She knew well that magic rarely, but still sometimes, was real. She had seen it and felt it on her own body. She accepted.

Gustavsson, followed along by Sigmund, guided her out of the tabern, and into one of those recently invented, awkward, noisy, oil consuming cars. The trip wasn't long, as at those hours, late at night, the streets were empty, aside from a few carriages. The trio arrived to a four stores house, the first of which was well lit, different to all the other houses of the street. Even more, soft piano music and chatter could be heard from outside.

Gustavsson made a short tune, hitting on the front door with his fist. Astrid guessed that it was some sort of password because immediately a man, dressed in a tuxedo and with his face covered by a venecian style mask, opened the door. Astrid felt way out of place when she got in the house, as everybody, at least twenty people, were wearing masks and elegant dresses. Lots of silk, satin and gold, different to her wool jacket and skirt.

Gustavsson shook hands and exchanged jokes with a few of the partygoers. A woman engaged Astrid in conversation. She happened to be a distant cousin of hers, whose name or face she didn't remember. Sigmund didn't talk to anybody, and seemed more uncomfortable. Probably not the kind of party he was used to. He didn't seem to be a talkative person anyways.

After the appropriate amount of socialization, Gustavsson led the other two upstairs. In front of a door there were a man armed with a rifle, and a scared looking kid. Gutavsson had with the rifle man a short conversation thanks to which Astrid learned that he was the owner of the house, that the kid's parents were already inside and that the ritual was about to start. Sigmund leaned against the wall, next to the kid, while the rifle man, by the name Helmut frisked Astrid and Gustavsson. On him he found the gun used earlier fo the russian roulette, and a short knife on her boot, that seemed to surprise the men.

Once in the room Gustavsson and Astrid sat in a chair each, respectively next to a man young man and woman, probably the kid's parents. All four chairs did a circle. In the middle, laying on the floor, there was a dirty, old looking stone, with a symbol carved that Astrid deemed celtic. Curiously these two people weren't dressed in expensive clothes. Another woman, that happened to be Helmut's wife, Irina, prepared the last details of the ritual. That included locking closed the cuffs on both arms of each chair, trapping the participants' wrists, as well as apparently advising, but actually ordering them to keep their mouths shut. The advise was of course followed by disturbingly graphic threats, things that nobody would expect in such an elegant lady's mouth. At last she blew out the candles and making a small cut on the palm of her hand, she poured a few drops of blood on the carved stone. Astrid's guess proved right when Irina uttered a letany in that odd language still used in the mountains of Wales.

The stone started to emit a dark purple smoke, that rose up to the ceiling. The column grew up to more than two metters tall. Then it started to shrink, forming the silhouette of a tall, winged woman. The entity had no recognizable features, aside from a pair of yellow glowing eyes, but merely a smoky silhouette. The winged whatever looked at Irina, who uttered another letany in a more humble tone. Astrid felt more scared than ever before.

The entity looked at the kid's father for a few seconds. In a sudden his body got transformed into thousands of black feathers that fell on the chair and floor. His wife started to cry. Irina uttered another letany. Gustavsson showed a cruel smile. Astrid sweared to herself that as soon as she had dealt with him, she would investigate the mythological wonder in front of her. The entity looked at the crying woman for a moment and the same happened, she got transformed into feathers. Then it was Astrid's turn. The entity looked at her. Nothing happened, it just kept staring for so long that both Irina and Gustavsson started to worry.

“What are you?”- The entity asked Astrid, not with audible words, but in her head. It was the second ime in her life that a mythical entity intruded in her mind, so it didn't surprise her as much as the first time, in which she had assumed that the loss of blood was muddling her senses.

“Me? A regular, boring human. What are you?”

“You should be dead. Zarrakaga protects you. Why?”- That musted be the name of the mythical white elephant she might or might not have interacted with five years ago. It was a whole story. Assuming as true that there was a smoky magical thing in front of her, since there where two bunchs of feathers on the floor, and two scared people in the room, she at last had to accept that Zarrakaga was real too.

“A favor for a favor, we shall guess. Why have you kill those two? Why not me?”- As the entity was in a talkative mood, Astrid used the opportunity to satiate her intellectual curiosity.

“You are worthy. They weren't.”

”Worthy? How do you know?”

“Knowing things is my burden, human. Will you sare it with me?”

“Sure!”- Astrid got excited. Knowing things was good. Mostly. Sometimes. Maybe. She was expecting a huge dump of information that her curious mind would relish. She got something else.

The entity placed her etereal hand on Astrid's forehead. Its eyes glowed for a second. Astrid didn't feel anything, not even the entity's touch. Looking around see saw only one difference. Gustavsson was emiting a very subtle purple smoke, similar to the entity's, but lesser in quantity. Astrid blinked several times with both eyes and also each one separately. She kept seeing the smoke. Even when her good eye was closed and the other one open, the one she had lost due to a bullet passing upwards across her face, she kept seeing it, and therefor the silhouettes of both the entity and Gustavsson, but nothing else. On the other hand, Irina had no smoke.

“Now you see what I see. The truth that the humans around you try to hide so poorly.”- The entity explained briefly and cryptically.

Still confused and with even more questions than before, Astrid watched how the entity turned its head towards Gustavsson and transformed him in yet another pile of feathers without hesitation. Irina repeated again the litany for the dead, followed by a new one. Immediately after the entity was rapidly absorved back into the carved stone.

Soon after Astrid heard Irina open the door, letting the light of the corridor enter in the formerly pitch black room. Irina explained Sigmund that Gustavsson had died. He briefly entered in the room and told Astrid that he would send her the money that his friend, Gustavsson, had promised. Then he left, not bothering to release her manacles. Astrid noticed that he also showed the purple smoke.

In the corridor Irina told the kid about his parents' death. He started to cry and ran away. Then Astrid heard her explaining her husband what the entity had done, specially its interaction with Astrid. Goddess Morrana, she called it. From her pespective the entity had stared at Astrid for several minutes and then touched her forehead, meaning that she hadn't heard the short and confusing conversation, and it had been telepathic.

Mid conversation they closed the door and locked it with a key. Astrid was left alone in the darkness. She yelled a few times asking for help but nobody came. Neither could she heard the music and chatter of the floor below, so she guessed that the room was somehow soundproof. She waited there for an hour at the least, time that she used to try to unravel the mysteries she had whitnessed, with little success.

At last Irina and Helmut came back carrying a bunch of chains. Even worse, they were naked except for a flimsy silk robe with no belt to hold it closed. While Helmut held Astrid's hands, after freeing them from the chair, Irina applied the new manacles, and then a second pair between her ankles. About twenty inches of chain separated her legs and five between her wrists. An excessively long chain joined both sets of cuffs.

-So... Are you going to eat me?- Astrid joked, nervous and scared.

-Only with your permission.- Was Irina's enigmatic answer.

Pulling on the vertical chain, Helmut guided Astrid to the ground floor and then into the basement, while Irina followed behind. They arrived to an ample room, lit with many candles, where other three couples were awaiting dressed in the same manner. Dozens of cushions were scattered around the floor. Helmut took Astrid to a wall where another chair was waiting for her, albeit heavier and padded. Her chains were again replaced by the two manacles on the arms of the chair.

At that point Astrid was sure that Morrana's gift had replaced Zarrakaga's and she was going to die, even though none of the eight people had purple smoke, whatever that meant. What happened was much more fun, but still disturbing. They got naked and started to engage in sexual activities. Not each couple separately, but all of them together.

Man with man, woman with woman, man with two women, two men with one women, four together, and so on. Astrid whitnessed all combinations possible. She was aware of the existence of gay people but she had never seen a man sucking a cock, with a smile, while another man penetrated his ass. She had never seen a woman licking a pussy while another woman fingered her. After a while watching her fear was replaced by curiosity, mixed with thankfulness for all the tricks she was learning. Later she started to feel something else. A wetness along with an intense heat in her loins. She came to wish participating, if only to get some practical understanding. If only half of the joy and bliss she was seeing were true, she would probably be able to enjoy it too.

After about two hours, long after the last erection, when all of them had gotten bored of licking, sucking, kissing and caressing, they gathered their robes and went upstairs, leaving Astrid with Irina. The still naked woman placed a cuchion in front of Astrid, knelt down, and gently lowered her bloomers.

-How does it feel? The goddess' touch?- Irina asked as she softly started to kiss Astrid's inner thighs.

-I'm seeing weird things.- Astrid was so astonished by Irina's behavior, that at the moment she found no reason to lie. Also the wetness and heat in her loins returned.

-The goddess has blessed you!- In a sudden outburst Irina kissed Astrid's clitoris, provoking a sincere and shamefully strong moan. Nobody had kissed her there before. She wasn't married and had very little first hand experience in sexual matters. On the other hand she had masturbated quite a lot following the advises of an indian book she had read.- Now you can see the evil that people hide!

-Evil...- She had seen smoke on Gustavsson and Sigmund, but not the people of the orgy. If Morrana could see evil it could explain why she was killng people, and why she talked about humans with such despise.- Can you see it too?

-No...- Irina kissed Astrid's pussy a couple more times.- The goddess hasn't blessed us in that way. You are very special to us.

Astrid was going to ask another question but Irina's kisses felt too good to distract herself with menial shit. Instead she just enjoyed herself, as unorthodox as the situation could be. Aside from kisses other more intense things happened. Irina penetrated her with her tongue and a couple of fingers. Licked and sucked the clitoris. Nibbled her lips. In the apex of her pleasure, she nibbled the clitoris, and Astrid enjoyed a strong orgasm that she would remember forever.

-Is this the prize you promised?- Astrid managed to ask a while later, when the rush of the orgasm subsided. Gustavsson had talked about a prize earlier.

-The prize is our friendship. You are welcome in my home whenever you want. If you need anything just ask away.- Irina kissed Astrid's clitoris again.

-Should I do this to you?

-None of us will force you to do anything.

-But I'm chained.

-So you wouldn't run away and tell our neighbors, or the authorities, about us. So you would see the pleasures that await you. We won't hurt you. Don't hurt us, please.

Astrid nodded and Irina unchained her. If the goddess had blessed her musted be a reason, and Irina for certain was a person of faith. To win the goddess' approval Astrid musted have something. Musted be worthy.

In her way up Astrid met Helmut and he again begged her to keep the secret and offered his friendship. Astrid had had too many emotions for a day and needed to think. She didn't like the goddess' solution to the bad deeds of people, but it wasn't like she was wandering around killing. The goddess was trapped in a rock waiting to be summoned. People went there willingly, seeking a prize, and nobody had forced them.

Astrid closed the door to the dark street. It wasn't a particularly cold day, but too chill to be comfortable. Perhaps she could go back inside and ask for a bed to spend the night. She was considering it when she heard sobs. She went towards the noise and behind a tree she found the kid from earlier, whose parents had been killed by a bitter goddess.

-It's cold here. Have you been three hours here alone?

-This street is safer than my neighborhood at night.

-Come.- She offered her hand and he took it, hoping that somebody would care enough to help, in his worst day.- Irina and Helmut's house is very big, they surely can host us tonight.- Astrid nocked on the door, repeating the sequence that Gustavsson had used earlier. Helmut opened still half naked.- Do you happen to have available rooms for a pair of strays?- Happy to help, and ashamed for having forgotten about the orphan kid, he let them in. The goddess seemed to be right again, she was worthy.