- Morrigan, such a kindness is not to face a woman with such a name.

"Do you think she I ? "

- Yes, do not fret yourself. He laughed. "You see, the name devotes us to this or that um, a supernatural being. Astrologers and other mystics call it an egregor, it is engendered by our thoughts and emotions about it. Initiation establishes a connection between this being and man. As a result, a person begins to acquire the positive and negative properties of the one to whom it is dedicated. Of course, in a weakened form. And here there is some cunning - the stronger the egregor, that is, the more people think about it and experience emotions in this regard, the stronger the influence on the initiated. However, the more initiated, the weaker the influence, since the forces of this being are not unlimited. Understood what I mean?

Yes! It turns out that I was dedicated to the goddess of war and death on the battlefields?

"She was not a goddess. "

- Why?

- Morrigan became a goddess only with the advent of Christianity, which her so christened. Before that, she was a bath, that is, an ancient, wise being. Who she really was and whether it was at all, no one knows. Perhaps she was a strong and wise woman, perhaps a creation of the imagination of excited scribes. It does not matter, it's important that now it is what we think about and feel about it, because the material shell of this being, if it was, is now completely destroyed, which means that the opinion about it is exclusively in the hands of people.

- A strong and wise woman do you mean the tales of ancient, wise ancestors?

Yes! Which throughout the world acted as teachers and judges. But these are all trifles. If you talk about the case, then you are devoted to a very unmerciful egregor. And, apparently, very weak, since I do not think that many women in this world, bear a similar name. Why your parents did this, I do not understand, because if he was strong, then you would only bring death and battles to those around you.

" Eric, but that's it. "All my close people are dead, everyone who tried to protect me, died, and now those who hurt me also began to die.

" Hmm that's right. "So, we will assume that you are into the taste. The main thing now do not crash your own, try to focus on your enemies. I'll cover you with a shield, and you'll kill them with the eyes of your beautiful gray eyes. Or no, better than screaming that the Morrigan orders them to die, so you will not even have to look out for the shield.

"Mister Baron, stop talking nonsense. "

" Why are you so tense? "Remember - the influence of the egregor is very weak and can not kill people. It can not even cause diarrhea. And it affects only the character of a person. Okay, drove, and then with your sense of humor, not long and from a heart attack die.

Because of what?

" Hmmm heart stops. " - Erik made a clever face, rightly perplexed by her ignorance, then turned away, and they drove on. Well, do not tell my companion in real fact that nobody uses such word, because the phenomenon that it describes is not yet known to medicine.

And now, after so much toil in front of our travelers, a view of the glorious city of Vienna opened. When entering the city, the cat with the cross, which was worn on Erica, had a very great advantage. He just politely greeted him, was asked to introduce himself and quietly passed on. It turns out that there were decent institutions here, serving as a base for the crusaders, both moving to the Holy Land, and vice versa. Plus, in the city there was a large farmstead of the Templars. So the city guard was already accustomed to a large number of guests and was not surprised even by such strange caravans. Moreover, the young baron had everything neatly packed, tied up, there were no traces of blood on the property, and he himself, with his companion, inspired confidence with his neatness.

To begin with, we settled down in a small inn in the depths of the city. Discharged, ate. After that, leaving the Morrigan to guard things, the young von Lenzburg went to look for the famous smith master, of whom he had heard so much. Masters Gottfried could not be found right away, had to stray. There was a very bad knowledge of the ancient version of the German language that surrounded him in the last few months. He has already learned to understand more or less what he is told and even tolerated to explain (albeit with a notable accent), as being in the language environment is the most effective language teacher. But it concerned a simple language, but all sorts of jokes, built on the game context, and word games, in the spirit of the ancient skalds, he was completely incomprehensible. Alas, but they liked to joke like that, it was even considered to be quite fashionable, so regularly he just did not understand what they were talking about. Spending two hours on wandering and having accumulated a barely restrained desire to give a pumpkin to anyone who once again tries to flash a beautiful allegorical speech, our hero, has reached the required farmstead. There he found two guys behind the process of drawing wire for chain mail from small strips of iron. More precisely one forged these strips, and the second stretched out a wire. They were glad to take a break and enjoyed talking to a curious guest. The result of the conversation was encouraging - the Honorable Gottfried could easily take a student, by itself for a fee, and acted this way more than once. Moreover, one of the apprentices, who now spoke to him, was his disciple. True, the prices for studies were palpable. For example, working in favor of the farmstead, Ulrich paid a silver denomination every third Sunday, which allowed him to study for another three weeks. The young baron, conversing with the boys, walked around the smithy, examining and evaluating it. Nothing special could not be found, more precisely to say a lot of things, from the usual equipment, he did not find. In comparison with the university, the workshop of the extreme economy class, there was nothing at all. A hike, only having looked with own eyes on that in what conditions, experts worked in former years it is possible to start to appreciate modern conveniences. For an hour Erik spent at the farmstead, but, since the venerable Gottfried arrives only tomorrow, then it's time for him to move on. It's not good, you know, to tear off honest people from hard and tedious work for a long time.

The next few hours our traveler had a self-guided tour of the city. Once, even in that life, he was in Vienna, but they are incomparable. The ancient version looked somehow incredibly flawed, and only very remotely resembling that well-groomed pearl of German culture that he remembered. Dimensions, of course, he did not take into account, but he estimated the qualitative component. Visited earlier cities told him that here he was waiting for the same cesspool behind the fence, but he, nevertheless, cherished the hope in the soul for something more neat and stone. Yes yes " You are not mistaken. Except for a few public and ritual buildings, everything was wooden, though it was densely built up and often two-storyed. Stone-stoned streets were not everywhere, often there was an ordinary primer. The streets themselves are flooded with slops and heaps of rotting debris, especially closer to the city walls. There are very few trees. And the smell! Everything mixed here - from the fragrance of fresh stools and decaying remains to the smoke and the killer ambergris of horse sweat in the heat. It remains only to add a touch on public toilets, or rather their complete absence. Now our hero finally realized what exactly modern Moscow is trying to imitate the European metropolises. So, the people recovered right on the street did not bother him. Only occasionally do some of them retreat into the gateway, and even then, not out of shame, but that some joker of the kick does not hang out during the mystery of defecation. In general - there is something to see, impressions will be unforgettable. Sorry for the camera at hand there.