That same evening Rumara came to Tim.

  "It's time for us to resume classes."

  "I don't mind, but what about the others?"

  "That's my concern. Whoever needs it will come."

  "If you say so, there's nothing to worry about. When?"

  "Tomorrow, when the yellow eye lights up."

  "Okay. I hope nothing gets in our way."

  "And I hope so," said the orc girl in all seriousness.

  That was the end of the conversation - Rumara was not a person who liked to discuss things in great detail, preferring a terse style of speaking. But it was easier that way, since Tim didn't like idle chit chat, either.

  The 'grammar lesson' was unexpectedly well attended - in addition to orcs and tilfings, there were lycoses (all but Ivliar), three elves - Iwiel, Yumial, and Gillmir, and even his neighbor gaarsh. Tim had nothing against it in principle, though he was a little surprised. But he didn't ask about the reasons: if they came, it means they need it.

  However, everything was clarified when Rumara asked for the floor before the start of the class and offered to discuss the situation at school.

  "I'll tell you honestly, I didn't have to study anywhere before I came here, because we orcs have no educational institutions. But I've learned something from talking to people from other worlds: in normal schools, everyone is educated equally, without dividing them into favorites and outcasts. And no squad allegedly to help teachers do not organize. And those who curry favor with elders and snitch on their comrades are simply beaten in the face. Am I right?"

  "That's it!" the orcs cackled.

  "We lycoses don't have many schools, and the same short conversation with snoopers and eavesdroppers," Yantau supported.

  "Not as bluntly, but we don't like that sort of thing, too," said Yumial for the Elves.

  "As well as on Earth," Tim did not stay away.

  "It's good that you understand me correctly. So it makes sense to talk about things that are not intended for the ears of outsiders. I hope there are none of you who would run to tell anzimars or drowes about it."

  "Certainly not!" Yantau assured, with the enthusiastic support of the others.

  Ri-Bo was silent. Of course, he was not going to report it to Germeht, but if he happened to find out what they were talking about in 'grammar class', this could be a big trouble for the tilfing. By the law of meanness he would find out, not this time, but next time. What to do in such a situation? Well, sooner or later something will come up.

  "We have to learn to stand up to them."

  "It's a sensible idea, but how?" Gillmir protested. "They continuously have the ghosts on their side. It's almost as if one of the squad members has learned to summon them. They always appear at the most inopportune moment!"

  "Yeah, just when you want to fight back, they're right there!" Shugiz was indignant. "And on top of that, you're the one who's to blame!"

  "Isn't there any magic that can scatter them in the wind?" Meikli asked rhetorically.

  "Even if there is, there isn't one of us who could work it."

  "How about all together? Remember that wonderful air current we made in the woods the other day?"

  "That's when Kunfor blew right into Drega?"

  "Yeah!"

  But Rumara was skeptical.

  "Even if we succeeded in destroying one of the transparent ones, the others would know about it right away. And they'll work their nasty magic on all of us - I still can't forget how I lost control of my own body under its influence. And it bowed obsequiously to the goblin, though in my heart I was ready to tear him apart."

  "Then why are we even having this conversation if we can't do anything?" Iwiel said ironically.

  "We can do something. Our disconnect is their strength, but standing up for one another as often as we can would discourage anzimars from picking on the other pupils. In that fight in the ground tier, with some of us present (Gillmir and Shugiz grinned and glanced at each other), it was the arrival of the ghosts that decided the outcome. Without them, the blue-eyes would not have won."

  "They would never win!" Shugiz got heated. "There were five of us and only three of them!"

  "That's it. And if there had been five of you at once, they wouldn't have come close. I agree, we can't always wander in large crowds, and that's why we need to learn mental communication: if one of us gets in trouble, he can tell the others. And then we will all rush to help. The main thing is to learn how to use magic to signal distress."

  "Are you talking about Directed Thought?" Za-Zu guessed.

  "Sort of. It's a simple spell, even Urgrot could do it.

  "Why me?" Urgrot took umbrage. "I bet I could do it before Gmuruk could, huh?"

  "You can't even memorize the formula," said Shugiz with a chuckle.

  "We'll learn, no problem! What is there to learn, three words in total!"

  "But not the way that you'll memorize them and then forget them. You have to remember the words all the time, because you never know when you'll need them," said Rumara instructively.

  "The most important thing - it should work properly!"

  And then Ashshaat asked for the floor. Everyone was so used to his silence that they were surprised to hear him speak.

  "I think you should try your hand at telepathic communication, the way we communicate with dragons and sometimes with each other when we have important news to pass on to someone who's too far away..."

  "But we're not gaarshes, we can't do that!" Gmuruk interrupted him.

  "We're not born with it, either," Ashshaat continued patiently, without a single gesture of displeasure. - We train the skill of mental communication with the help of a special phrase - essentially a variant of the telepathy formula. It consumes less mana, and therefore has a greater chance of successful application. Another thing is that I haven't tried to communicate in this way with any non-gaarshes yet. But it's worth a try."

  "Definitely!" Rumara lit up. "We must seize every opportunity to improve ourselves. Will you teach us?"

  "Have him show us how it works by example first," Gmuruk said stubbornly. " If he can get one of his own people to come here, then it's worth it!"

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "I'll try," Ashshaat didn't argue.

  And, after a moment's self-absorption,

  "Miinash promised to come here. But not right now, after a while."

  "Then let the lesson begin. Why are we dragging ruzug's tail?"

  In a wave of general enthusiasm, Tim wrote on the blackboard a few particularly meaningful words and phrases: "friends," "stick together," "mutual support," "loyalty," "honor," "common cause," "we are not slaves" (Rumara especially liked it), "enemy," "traitor" (Ri-Bo shivered but tried not to give away his excitement), "not to retreat and not to give up." Then he was about to move on to the most common punctuation marks - the comma, the question mark, and the exclamation mark - but at that moment Miinash showed up on the doorstep.

  "Oh, so many of you! Is something wrong? Ashshaat, if you called me, tell me!"

  "Nothing much, we were just interested in communicating telepathically with each other," Gillmir explained.

  "Would you like to learn it?"

  -Something like that. It's a bit annoying, when you want to tell a mate something important and someone from the squad clings to you on the way. And with the ghosts you do not always want to meet."

  "Particularly when a clever idea comes up at night!" Gmuruk added, to everyone's laughter.

  "Well, we've been thinking..." Iwiel began, and then stumbled when she saw the door of the auditorium open again.

  Virda was the unexpected guest.

  "I should have had a sentry," Rumara said disappointedly, not addressing anyone in particular.

  Anzimar girl looked around in surprise.

  "Do we have a class on a schedule?"

  "What business is it of yours?" Shugiz answered with a rough straightforwardness.

  "I was just surprised to see Miinash going up to the second tier because there wasn't supposed to be any class until the end of the tournament. I'm sorry to bother you, I see I'm not wanted here. Now I'll go and never come back."

  And she turned to leave.

  "Wait a minute," Tim called out to her. "We're not really doing anything forbidden, it's just that not everyone at school knows how to write and so they want to learn."

  "I could help!" Virda was excited.

  "Thank you, we already have a teacher," Za-Zu refused coldly.

  "Then I apologize again. And please do not hold a grudge against my countrymen. Anzimars were once all good and kind, but there are few who still adhere to the True Way."

  "While you were talking loudly among yourselves, I happened to hear about the Great Service," Tim noted cautiously.

  "Yes, that's exactly what I meant. When Inhis the Most Wise created our people, he commanded them..."

  "Created?" Gillmir clarified mockingly.

  "It is written in the sacred books, and there are a lot of allegories there, and not everything is clear to me. In short, Inhis taught the Anzimars a lot and gave them ships that can travel between the stars, so that our people can come to the aid of anyone who needs it. At first it was so, but as the centuries passed, Inhis and his teachings began to be forgotten, and the supreme rulers decided: why give and help when you can take and enslave? From then on, the arrival of the Anzimar ships was seen as a natural disaster. And those who could not resist - and most often did - ran away and hid. Or they obeyed in an effort to survive, though they harbored no warm feelings toward the conquerors."

  "You bet they don't," Zhu-Fi snorted.

  "Yeah, and the tilfings don't like us, either. Alas, I can only apologize on my own behalf, though I've never done them any harm."

  "So, if I understand correctly, some of the Anzimars have remained faithful to the precepts of your... the Most Wise one," Tim concluded.

  "Yes, my family has always tried to follow them. The more so that there is a prophecy: the day will come when Inhis will return and generously reward those who have remained faithful to him. And at the same time he will punish the renegades for all their evil deeds."

  "Well, it's nice to know that not all anzimars are scoundrels," Rumara nodded approvingly. "Then I guess we should apologize for being rude, too. Hey, you, why the sudden silence? Shugiz, this applies to you in the first place!

  "Why me, it wasn't my fault," Shugiz fussed, and the other orcs chimed in:

  "We didn't know that!"

  "Well, at least some of the anzimars won't have to be avoided," Meikli added.

  "Thank you. And so you don't think I'm rubbing off on you and actually working for the squad, I'll let you in on a little secret: Drega has a kriurik, so be careful!"

  "What the hell is that?" Urgrot frowned.

  "I thought I heard that word somewhere before," Ri-Bo wrinkled his forehead.

  "It looks like a little silvery blue stone, but it has hypnotic properties: anyone who is under his influence can be asked any question, and he will truthfully answer it. And then he will remember nothing."

  "That's what happened to me a few days ago!" Gillmir exclaimed. "I wondered why all of a sudden Drega was smiling at me and trying to show me some strange stone. I didn't even notice where she disappeared afterwards..."

  The insult with which the last phrase was uttered brought smiles to the faces of those present, and the atmosphere in the audience eased slightly. Only Ri-Bo wasn't laughing: he understood at once why it happened to Gillmir. Germeht and his company are looking for an elf who draws caricatures! And when they don't find him, they'll go after him and Zur'U'Fes. That's when everything will be revealed, and it's scary to think about the consequences.

  "That's the way women are. They'll cheat you in a heartbeat." Yantau said with the aplomb of an old womanizer.

  "There are men even worse than women," Meikli retorted, her nose wrinkling amusingly.

  "Bad news," Rumara remained serious.

  And, turning to a slightly tense Virda,

  "Don't take it personally, on the contrary, thank you for it. Forewarned is forearmed. Is there any way to counteract the stone's influence?"

  "The easiest way is not to look at it. Or have time to recite the formula for protection against Mind magic."

  "By the time we've mastered that skill, they'll have dug up all our secrets!" Yumial was indignant.

  "I can reassure you a bit: the hypnotic influence of kriurik won't allow you to lie, but it also doesn't oblige you to talk about everything in a row. In other words, if you don't know what to ask, you won't get a sensible answer. That is why our interrogators, when using the kriurik, construct questions so that they can be answered with simple phrases such as "yes", "no'', "I don't know", "yesterday", "in such a place".

  "But what did Drega want to find out from me?" Gillmir continued to be puzzled. "What do I eat for breakfast or when I go to bed?"

  "Or do you like her," Iwiel giggled.

  "Such an ugly thing ? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean appearance, but character," he corrected himself, glancing back at Virda.

  "That's all right," she smiled. "We all look unusual to each other, which does not prevent us from finding common ground."

  "Good words!" Rumara said with admiration.

  And, a moment later, she asked:

  "How many people are affected by this stone at once?"

  "Only one. It is impossible to hypnotize a crowd, though some of our scientists were working on it. And another thing: after the 'session of hypnosis' it takes some time for the kriurik to be able to use it again."

  "So you can't use it twice in a row, and that's good. Although it would be even better if there were no such stones at all. Well, thank you for the information!"

  After that, Virda said a friendly goodbye to the others and left. Miinash, after a little hesitation, decided to stay and sat through the rest of the lesson, though she didn't take any notes. Afterward, everyone went about their business: most people took a walk in the forest, some, like Rumara, stayed to practice mental communication with the gaarshes, and Tim went to the library.

  Khalid-amga seemed to be expecting his arrival and immediately led him to the room where he had met the drow teacher the last time. This time the room was tidy, not a trace of dust anywhere, and both tables were literally littered with manuscripts.

  "That's how much I've seen!" the old man said not without pride. "Unfortunately, Colorless magic is hardly mentioned anywhere. Not even in reference books! One book called "colorless magic" the ability to travel through the astral, but a later edition of the same book disproved that - the appropriate magic belongs to the occultism and has a light gray hue. True Colorless magic not only has no color, but also cannot be caught by mag-detectors. Unfortunately, the author didn't bother to give a more detailed explanation.

  "So we have nothing to please Master Ven'A'Sash yet."

  "Alas, it is so! But here," Khalid-amga pointed to the third volume of "The Complete Collection of Myths and Legends of the Peoples of the Known Worlds," it states literally as follows: '...by means of magic, invisible and intangible, the Lord of Genesis created our world. And when the work was completed, he retired into Silence, leaving the Lords of Fire, Water, Space, Life, and Knowledge to watch over it...'."

  Tim had heard of the Lords of Fire and Water before, but the others were a mystery. Of course, he couldn't refrain from asking a related question.

  "This legend is actually many millions of years old," the librarian said solemnly. "It belongs to the Eazens, the most enigmatic beings in the Universe, who lived long before the first elves, peirots, or us, ngwares. Traces of their presence can still be found on many planets, but no one knows where they came from and where they disappeared afterwards. Maybe they've been to your world, too.

  "Probably," Tim agreed eagerly, remembering the article he had read on the Internet about the findings of metal objects of clearly artificial origin in the thickness of the coal deposits. The article was presented more as a curiosity - but what if in the era of the dinosaurs aliens from other planets really visited Earth?

  "The Eazens were a great people who left behind a huge legacy of millions of stone-metal plates with writings. The best minds of ngwares still struggle to decipher them, but alas, only a very small part of them has been read and understood. We do not even know what the Eazens looked like - for some unknown reason, they did not like to portray themselves. Some of my colleagues therefore believe that they were metamorphs, capable of taking on any appearance. Or even shapeless entities, looking different depending on the circumstances. Alas, which of us is given to go back to the heyday of their civilization to see firsthand what they were like?"

  "Does the library have any literature about them? Maybe there's something else there that might interest us?"

  "There is!" said Khalid-amga, brightly. "I even remember the title and where it is! I'll get it for you!"