Tom Kaulitz

The day began with a fall. Not a physical one, no, but a fall into the sticky, viscous abyss of someone else's dream. Student Dia, your friend, volunteered to be your "victim," allowing you to see her dream, but you tried so hard to penetrate that you fell asleep.

You woke up from a sharp slap.

"Ah, there you are!" Dia's voice rang with a mixture of relief and amusement. "You were snoring! I've been shaking you for ages."

The mocking voice of Reims, sprawled on a mat at the entrance, completed the picture:
"The great sorceress, the conqueror of dreams, has fallen victim to her own gift. Remmao will be delighted."

The mentor was far from delighted. His face, like a sun-scorched clay mask, expressed nothing but weary disappointment.
"You're too frivolous," he said, without even glancing at you. His gaze was fixed somewhere through the temple walls, toward the eternal desert beyond the horizon.
"Magic isn't a game of house and home, or a way to peek into other people's dreams for fun. Today, you'll clean. Papyri, ink, brushes. The entire temple. So that by evening there won't be a speck of dust left here."

All day long, bent over, you sorted through scrolls, scraped ink stains from stone slabs, and collected fragments of reed sticks. Your fingers ached, your back burned. Only at lunchtime, when the sun was at its zenith, casting short, sharp shadows, were you able to join Dia and Reimss in the courtyard.

You sat at a low table, hurriedly slurping barley stew and washing it down with sour beer. Reims was saying something, gesturing with a piece of flatbread, and Dia, propping her head on her hand, listened, occasionally casting sympathetic glances at you. You were beginning to relax, feeling safe within the familiar walls of the temple, when suddenly the silence in the courtyard became unnaturally thick.

The laughter died down. The conversations ceased, as if someone had cut an invisible thread. From the main gate came the heavy, rhythmic clatter of hooves and the clang of metal. They marched into the temple courtyard. Hunters. Medjay.