"Broker activity has been slowing lately, especially in your area, Estelle.
I've heard of your recent successes and I wanted to congratulate you. "
There was an unusually strong light in the huge hall, which seemed to have no walls and to the naked eye only consisted of ceiling and floor.
Estelle could not make out the old man sitting on a throne made of white marble, his features were so distorted by the glaring light that she could not possibly tell what the old man looked like, but his strong and impressive voice echoed all the more clearly through the hall.
"But that is not the reason why I came in contact with you! Do you guess what the reason is then?"
At this question, Estelle's head turned, she was not used to communicating in white and it was difficult for her to think.
"Maybe it's the problem with the ASCs. They've gotten quite active at the moment, considering that they've only managed to catch two warriors and one broker in the last five years. That was no feat, but now ..."
"Yes? What is it now?" Asked the echoing voice.
"Well. They have already caught seven warriors this year and from what I've heard some brokers too.
In addition, our agent who supplied us with information has been discovered.
For three months we have hardly had any information about the ASC.
There are rumors that they have developed a technology that will help distinguish us from normal people. They couldn't do that until now, so they couldn't do anything until they knew exactly who a person was and who wasn't.
If the rumors are true then the first druid could soon be captured by the ASC. "
"That has already happened."
"I beg your pardon?"
She didn't know anything about it until now.
"Last month, an ASC intervention force surprised and overwhelmed one of our people, allegedly helped by a warrior."
Estelle shook her head and immediately regretted it, she got a hell of a headache.
"I don't think you can hold out much longer, Estelle. We should break up now."
"One more question!"
Estelle tried to suppress the pain, but the more she concentrated on it, the stronger it got.
"Good. Ask me one more question."
The echoing voice faded and the hall began to fade.
"Why does a warrior work for the ASC?"
"Who knows!?"
With these last words, the last detail in the hall also faded. The only thing that remained was the bright light.
With a painful jerk, Estelle was thrown back into reality.


The narrow alley stank terribly, and although the moon was full today and there were no clouds in the sky, its light was not enough to provide brightness. At least not here.The man faced by Nathanaël was barely as tall as he was. Still, he seemed to feel superior.
"What do you want?"
Nathaniel didn't really expect a decent answer, but one was better than none.
"Then it's not possible."
Nathaniel made a dismissive wave of the hand and was about to go.
"Are you Nathanaël Levi, the broker with the book of a thousand verses?"
"Oh, so you can talk after all."
With a swift, lame movement that expressed Nat's little interest in the man, he turned back to him.
"And if I am that Nathanaël Levi, what is it?"
Nathanael wasn't entirely sure and didn't care, but he thought he saw a smile on the man's face. It was hard to see anything in this alley, and Nat didn't bother either.
"If you are that person then I'll give you this."
With one sweeping motion the man tossed a little thing through the air.
Nat took it out of the air and looked at it briefly.
"An egg?"
When he turned back to the man, he was already gone.
"Shit! Just when I got curious."
Nathanaël put the black egg in his jacket pocket and set off. He still needed shelter. Who knows how long he stayed in this town.


The ants formed a small road and carried small leaves, chopped up mushrooms and killed prey to their burrow.
Max was always fascinated by these little fellows, he had read once that ants can carry more than they weigh themselves. Amazing, isn't it?
"Here, then you don't have to walk that far."
Max put the rest of his ice cream cone next to the little street of black ants and watched as the first ones got on with it.
"You're already lively little fellows."
For a brief moment he let his gaze slide over the park and looked at the small trees and the small lake that was near him, then he looked back at the ants.
He watched the little crawling animals for a while, then an unfriendly voice made him sit up and take notice.
"Hey, little one! You have no business here, get out of here!"
The first thing Max did was pull out his earplugs and turn off the Discman. Then he asked:
"Why? I thought it was a public park."
Admittedly it was already night, but a boy his age who is up so late is no longer uncommon.
"Just get out of here boy! Come on."
Max now turned to his interlocutor and looked at him. A man in his mid-thirties, dark hair, light skin, a suit like you might wear in the military and a helmet with a strange glass lens attached. There were three big letters on the helmet: ASC.
"Damn shit, the brat is an abnormal one!"
The soldier instantly reached for his weapon and simultaneously pressed a button on a strange wristwatch.Max didn't have time to think about how the guy knew he wasn't human, but that didn't really matter at the moment.

"First line - left
Second line - front
Third line - right
Fourth line - back
Construction!"

The soldier pulled the trigger just as Max finished the verse.
Although some of the bullets pierced the energy cube that Max had erected around him, they were deflected so that no bullet even brushed against it.
The man's weapon was a modern assault rifle.
With a quick movement of his hand, Max created an energy cube around his opponent and made it so narrow that the man could no longer move, but he still pulled the trigger of his weapon through. He only ended his useless hustle and bustle when he ran out of ammunition.
Max dissolved the cube around himself and stepped over to the man.
"I'm really sorry, but I have to get rid of you."
Then Max took a knife out of his jacket pocket, opened the energy cube at one point and rammed his knife into the soldier's chest. He only dissolved the cube when he was sure that the man was dead.
With a determined movement he turned and started to leave, but then stopped abruptly.
A man was standing less than five meters from him. He couldn't see exactly what it looked like, even though it was shining directly into the moonlight. For Max it was just a completely black outline that had the outline of a person.
"Who..?"
"Are you Maximilian Brecher?"
At first Max didn't know whether to answer him, after all, he was just interrupted by the guy rather rudely. But then he did it anyway.
"Yes. And who are they?"
No matter how hard he tried, Max could only see a black shadow. Maybe an illusionary verse?
"Noir. I have something here for you."
The man's shadow threw something in the air and then disappeared. He wasn't just walking away, no. He was simply no longer there.
Max was so taken aback that he almost didn't catch the little thing that was flying towards him.
When he looked at the present he had received from the shadow, he was even more perplexed than before.
"A black egg?"


The guy had struggled to the end, and for that reason alone earned Carolin's respect.
She liked nothing better than a decent chase with a final fight at the end, and considering the casualties on her side, it was definitely a real fight.
The warrior ran away first, they had to chase him halfway across town. Three times they had lost his trail and three times she managed to take them back. Every time the warrior managed to get a head start and although he was faster than a normal person, they had finally caught up with him in this park and circled him.
When he realized that he could no longer escape, he got ready to fight. He only had a simple kitchen knife that he picked up on his escape, but that's enough for a warrior!The first of his attacks was the worst. Even Carolin hadn't noticed how close he had come to them. It is true as if he was in front of them for a moment, only to suddenly appear behind them.
Three of the hunters died before the rest of them could even turn around and shoot into space, because by the time they started shooting the warrior had already disappeared into the bushes.
Then things went very quickly, one attack followed the next, and each time Carolin's people became fewer.
At such moments she got goose bumps, not because she was afraid, but because she was so happy. She loved such opponents. Surely that was one of the reasons she'd joined the ASC, if not the only real reason.
She went to the park with almost thirty other ASC hunters, only twelve came out, three died afterwards of their injuries.
Maybe she should have believed it herself if the reinforcements hadn't arrived.
One man, Daniel Kreuzberger.
But even a warrior could be killed by another warrior and Kreuzberger noticed that. The hunted had slit his throat. The cut was barely deep enough to kill him, but he lost a lot of blood.
If Kreuzberger hadn't managed to injure the hunted warrior in the leg, probably none of them would have survived.
In the next attack, Carolin was able to keep up with the speed of the Warrior and gave him a decorative hole on the head and a second in the heart area.
When he was on the floor, she took his kitchen knife and cut off his head. In doing so, she had to pull and tear so seriously that she wondered in all seriousness whether blades cut better than usual in the hands of Warriors.
When she finally managed to separate the head from the torso, she calmed down a little and allowed the pleasant exhaustion that one always felt after a strenuous but satisfactory job to take hold of her.
For a while she just stood there, staring at the sky and looking at the moon. Then