Mike got to the house when the sun had already begun to set and the street lamps had already begun to light up. Along the way, he also stopped at a cafe for a bite to eat. To his slight surprise, through the window, he could see that a light was on in the house in the hall on the first floor.

Mike quickly entered the house. An elderly woman, tall and plump in a long dress, was waiting for him in the hall.

"Good evening young master," she said and bowed.

"Good evening Martha," Mike greeted her.

Martha is a housekeeper who kept the house clean and tidy in Mike's absence. And when Mike stayed in the house for a long time, she acted as majordomo and managed the servants. Of the servants, more were usually hired: a cook, a cab driver, a stoker, and one or two maids.

 Mike put down the leather bag with the magazines, Efi needed them more than he did anyway, and walked over to the woman.

"Long time no see," he told her and hugged her warmly, in a friendly way.

"You haven't changed, young master," she said, almost bursting into tears. "I thought you weren't coming back here."

"I have nowhere to go. This is my home," Mike said and then added. "I didn't expect you so soon, I just got back yesterday afternoon and didn't have time to tell you."

"I was informed this morning from the very residence of the lady matriarch," Martha answered him, finally freeing herself from his embrace. "But when I came early in the morning, you were already gone."

"Yeah, I left for work early this morning," Mike told her.

"Oh, you must be hungry," she started up. "I'll cook late dinner for you right now. Almost everything is ready there."

"Martha, you can take your time. I popped into a cafe on the way home and had a little refreshment."

"But will you still have late dinner?" Martha asked with hope in her voice. "I cooked your favorite."

"Okay," Mike agreed with a sigh. Since childhood, he could not refuse this sweet woman. Considering that his parents were constantly busy with work, Martha became practically his second mother.

After changing into comfortable home clothes - loose trousers, a shirt, and a sweater, he then went down to the dining room, where Marta had already served him dinner.

"Thanks, Martha," Mike said as he sat down at the table. Then he handed her a small purse. "This is for your current expenses."

Martha took it and then opened it.

"Young master, there's too much here," she said, looking at Mike.

"Martha, it's for the next 10 days," she was about to protest, but Mike stopped her with a gesture. "Then I will leave for a new assignment. Perhaps for several months. Whatever is left of the money, you can spend it on anything."

When Mike was in the capital, he paid an extra salary to Marta in addition to the standard that the clan paid her.

"Young master, Doran will arrive tomorrow morning with a carriage and will be at your complete disposal."

Mike nodded approvingly. Although he did not live on the outskirts, even rather in a prosperous area, but in the morning it was not always possible to catch an empty carriage, and it took about twenty minutes to get to the public line on foot.

"I see you haven't set the table for yourself," he asked her.

“Young master, I will have my portion after you,” she replied with a smile.

Mike sighed and started eating his late dinner.

 

"Efi. I'm back,” Mike said as he transfer and was met by the familiar translucent shield.

A few seconds later, the shield fell.

"I brought you presents," he said turning to her and setting down a leather bag full of journals.

Efi slowly flew up to the bag, took it, and went to the nearest table.

"You're kind of quiet today."

"I didn’t sleep well, I didn’t get enough sleep," she answered, turning around.

Mike raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation, but none came. Efi turned back and went to the table, where she quickly spread out the contents of the leather bag and began to study it. Mike did not distract her and began to wait patiently.

He didn't have to wait long. No more than a couple of minutes. Efi finished looking at the magazines and turned to Mike, but didn't say anything.

"And?" he asked impatiently.

"That'll be enough for me for a while," she replied.

"And?" Mike repeated his question.

"What?" Efi did not understand the question and looked him straight in the eyes.

Mike also looked directly into her black bottomless eyes.

"What's bothering you?" he finally asked.

For a while there was silence. Efi was in no hurry to answer, and Mike was in no hurry to push her towards him. He carefully studied her face, trying to catch the slightest emotion. And it seemed to him that he saw a slight touch of sadness on her face, but he could not swear for sure. Finally, Efi sighed.

"I don't want to be alone," she said, and then after a pause she added, "Again."

"I…" Mike started to say, “I understand you”, but he couldn't, the words got stuck in his throat. Even now, after years of knowing her, and some information about her and observations, he couldn't imagine how it would be to be in her place.

During his life, Mike several times encountered demons, usually of low rank and made of flesh and blood, as well as incorporeal entities, elemental spirits, and ghosts of human souls. But none of them looked like Efi in any way.

Demons did not officially inhabit this continent. And those who nevertheless met with great intelligence were not endowed primarily because of their low rank. Mike knew about high-ranking demons only from old books and a little from Efi. Although she did not willingly talk about them, and about everything that happened during her lifetime.

But as far as Mike understood, all the demons had one thing in common - overflowing with emotions ranging from anger to insatiable thirst. And mild sadness was not one of them.

The situation is similar with elemental spirits. Spirits of low rank often met and originated in places of accumulation of magical power. And if the cluster was dominated by water magic, for example, then the spirits were of water magic. Spirits of low rank are completely devoid of emotions. Spirits of a higher rank could show some emotions. But they were much rarer.

Ghosts appeared only after the death of living beings. The more amount of instant deaths and the higher the rank of these beings, the more powerful the ghost appeared. But they have practically no intelligence, they are always evil and full of hatred. They usually do not last long, up to several years.

Finally, Mike gathered his thoughts.

"I remember Efi… And… I can promise you that I will try not to leave you alone. I hope that in the future not only I will be able to be here, but also other people. But you have to understand that I'm not ready for this yet. It could be dangerous for me."

Mike was about to say something else, but Efi interrupted him.

"Mike, how are you doing with your weapons?" she suddenly asked.

"What?" he did not understand. Mood swings were common for Efi, but Mike couldn't get used to them.

"What weapon have you used in the last year. You had to use it, didn't you?"

"Yes," Mike replied without hesitation.

"So?"

"What?" Mike was surprised. "Everything is the same as before – a one-handed sword and a carpal shield. Plus a mechanical "revolver" if necessary. And, well, my magic."

"Good. What about hidden weapons? Efi asked him.

Mike raised his left hand and showed her the black obsidian ring on his finger.

"Yeah, quite hidden," Efi said sarcastically. "And not noticeable at all."

"Sorry, there's no other."

"Besides, it's just a storage of magical energy."

"Well, not only," Mike disagreed with her. "If necessary, it is also a shield for the amount of accumulated energy."

After carefully looking at the ring, Efi nevertheless agreed.

"I see, but what about a hidden attack weapon?" she asked.

"Sorry, I don’t have hairpins or a combat deck of cards."

"Ha..." Efi breathed out. "For some reason, I thought so. Follow me."

Efi proceeded to one of the corridors on the first floor of the base. Mike followed her. Soon she stopped outside the training room. The training room was large, occupying an entire sector of the base with almost circular proportions, with an average diameter of 20 meters and a height of two floors. There were porthole windows on the outer wall, but nothing could be seen through them, it was pitch black outside, without air or any stars.

When they entered, they made their way to the nearest table near the entrance.

"This is for you," Efi pointed to a silver metal bracelet on the table.

Mike took the bracelet. Surprisingly, it was not heavy, but it was definitely large in size.

"He's big in size," Mike was surprised.

"You put it on your hand and add some energy to it, and you will see," Efi answered.

Mike did as she said, put the bracelet on his right-hand wrist, and then gave a small pulse of magical energy into it. He was surprised when the bracelet suddenly began to decrease in size and soon began to fit quite tightly around the wrist.

"Amazing," Mike said as he twirled his wrist with the bracelet. “Is that really metal, Efi?”

"Lunar stone," she replied.

"Lunar," he wondered. "I have not come across such a name."

"Doesn't matter," Efi said with a sigh. "It doesn't really matter."

"Okay, whatever you say," Mike agreed with her. “The bracelet is beautiful. Thank you. But can you tell me what it is for and how to use it?"

"Well, part of it you should have figured out by now."

"Well, I already understood that this is a large storage of magical energy," Mike told her.

"In this case, it's just a necessity," Efi said. "You first transfer some energy from the ring to the moonstone and then scan the insides, just be careful for the first time."

 Mike slowly began to pour energy from the ring into the bracelet through his body. After some time, the silvery color of the lunar stone acquired a barely noticeable bluish overflow.

"Enough energy, now scan."

Mike stopped the flow of energy and then carefully began to "probe" the insides of the bracelet with his inner magical power.

"What?" Mike was surprised. "How can it be? And why?"

Then he stared at Efi.

“Looks like a demonstration is needed,” she said and took from the table an inconspicuous tube 20 centimeters long and with a large crystal at one end.

"It's a prototype," she pointed to the wand. "It contains 10 meters of a monocrystalline thread a quarter of a hair thick. Well, and small drive, so that everything would work. One thread can withstand the energy equivalent to the fifth rank of strength. So now we need a dummy."

Efi went to the far end of the room where there were a couple of mannequins and then dragged him to the center of the room after her. The mannequin itself was a simple wooden cruciform structure, remotely resembling a living creature with its shape. After putting the mannequin in the center, Efi returned to Mike.

"Now watch carefully," she said and raised her wand.

"There is a distance of 7 meters. See what happens next." And she moved her hand as if she was throwing a noose on a far-standing mannequin.

After her words, a thin fiery thread from the wand to the mannequin flared up sharply. And then the mannequin lost its “head”. And at the same time, Efi gathered back the noose and extinguished the thread.

"Ha…" was all Mike could say.

"There are already 30 meters of thread in your bracelet. The thread is not so simple but consists of four monocrystalline threads soldered together. Each thread also individually can withstand the fifth rank of strength. All together will withstand the sixth rank. Physical movements of the hand are not necessary, this is all my old habit. The thread is perfectly controlled by magic control alone. Threads are not fragile. Withstand up to half a ton of weight without magic. With magic, I don't know."

"How did you think of that?" Mike asked after a pause.

"The favorite weapon of high-ranking demons is a 10-15 meter whip with very similar properties. So it's more like nostalgia. And, growing crystals, that's what your family was doing gave me an additional idea."

"Ok."

"By the way, I made a trial installation for growing thread for this. Now almost half a meter a day."

"Why didn’t you say it earlier and why wasn’t it in the report?" Mike asked her.

"Well, a girl needs to have her little secrets," she said playfully, sticking out her tongue.