Later that evening, Elisa, in a perfectly cut evening black satin two-piece outfit was leaving the manor in the limo. John got himself busy giving the butler his night off and dismissing the rest of the house staff. Once they all left, he started arranging the living room, pushing the couches towards the walls and leaving only a big chair in the middle, and covered it with a rich black and gold brocade. He brought from the music room two tall candleholders and fitted them with black candles, and set on the coffee tables around the walls big incense burners. On the bar, near the crystal decanter, twelve black pillar candles were neatly arranged.

He went to open the entrance door when he heard the creaking of the gravel under the tires of a silent car. A tall, thin man and a petite woman emerged from the car, swiftly entering the house. Both dressed in long black robes and wearing cowled black cloaks, their chins were the only parts of their faces to be seen under the shadow of the hoods. They walked briskly to the living room and there, lowering his hood, the man called Raven turned eyes blazing with barely contained fury to John. "So, what made you wake me up in the middle of the night, this time, Mr. Moneybags? Did you buy again at the black market some cursed ritual tool? And crying for Raven to help you again?". "Oh common Raven, you don’t have to be so upset. You know you like it when I find something worth your trouble, don’t you? Here, do you want a Bourbon?’ "Maybe later, John" said Raven, starting to mollify. "Tell me what is this time". "Well, follow me and I shall show you". The woman sat quietly on the chair in the middle of the room and gave all the signs that she won’t bother following them.

Once in the hidden chamber, Raven hissed like an angry serpent and drew back a step, his eyes fixed on the golden bracelets on the small ebony table. "John, my crazy rich friend, I’m afraid this time you got more than you bargained for. I have strong doubts this is something that can be in any way banished, commanded or anything. Let’s get out of here first". When they got back in the living room where Nyda waited, Raven started pacing back and forth. "I shall try. I shall try at least to see what we are dealing with, but we will need lots and lots of protection. Also, I need a big standing mirror, do you have anything of the sort in the house?" "I think my wife has one in her bedroom, but you will have to help me carry it down here".

The setting done, the tall standing mirror near the chair on which Nyda was sitting, heavy incense burning on all the tables around the room, making the air thick with smoke, Raven started lighting the big black pillar candles arranged in a circle around them. Whispering incantations, he drew from his belt a long thin dagger, and raised a circle of power around them as well, then turned towards the chair on which the woman sat. Putting his dagger away, with both hands he pushed back her hood, revealing a perfect young face with eyes like two pools of darkness, and set his thumbs on her forehead and his forefingers on both her temples. "Now Nyda, I want you to go deep, as deep as you can. " The woman sighed, her eyelids closed, her head bent slowly backwards until it rested on the tall back of the chair. Raven waited one more minute to make sure her breath was getting shallower, then raised his hands and spoke loudly words of power. "I summon the entities guarding the bracelets. There is a human vessel here you can use to speak to us. Show yourselves! Speak to us!".

In the tall mirror, like a smoke, two ghostly silhouettes started forming, holding hands, a young, tall, strong man, wearing a helmet made out of a wolf’s head, bronze bracelets around his strong arms and a slender young woman, in white robes, wearing a gold circlet on her long blonde braids. "Who are you? What do you want?" Raven commanded. "Speak!" The resting form of Nyda jerked, her eyes opened wide, and a deep, growling voice came from her throat, impossibly deep for her slender appearance "Bring us back home. Or you all die. Bring us back to our lands." In the following second, where the young man in the mirror stood, now was crouching like ready to attack, a big grey wolf. Nyda jerked again, and this time spoke with a feminine voice like a crystal bell "You have to bring us back to our land, or else you will die. Your whole family will die, you will lose everything and you will die in pains." Then the ghostly figures in the mirror faded and Nyda fell back against the back of the chair. Frowning, Raven woke Nyda from her trance and did his closing ritual.

"So, who are they? Why are they torturing me? Raven" asked John impatiently, after watching Raven pace for a good few minutes along the living-room. "Mr. Moneybags, you’re deep. Those are some kind of Guardians of the Land, I do not know of which land, but it’s the most ancient form of magic, and so powerful, they can’t be controlled, they can’t be banished, they can’t be contained. You need to bring those bracelets to their land, and I am fairly sure you know where that land is." John erupted "Man, you are crazy?!? Those are Dacian bracelets. Gold Dacian bracelets. Only the king and the highest priesthood wore gold, and only in the very ancient times. There are only so many pieces that you can count them on the fingers of your hands known. I got them on the black market for two million, they are worth at least ten time those money. You have to do something to get me rid of them!" Raven stopped his pacing. "John, I consider you a friend. With all our bantering, I still consider you a friend. There is nothing I can do to help you. If you care about your life, send them back where they belong. Come on, Nyda, let’s go."

After Raven and Nyda left, John, in frustration, kicked at the chair in the middle of the room. In the silence, the phone ringing startled him. Who the heck would call him at this hour? "Yes. Yes, Mr. Dunbarry speaking. Highway patrol of where? What? No, it can’t be. What?!?" He dropped the phone and stumbled to the couch near the wall. Elisa was dead. Weirdest car accident, they said. A deep growl behind him made him jump off the chair. Of course, there was nothing to be seen around. His eyes fell on the photos on the mantelpiece, his beautiful children, Rose and Arthur, out skying somewhere in Switzerland. He grabbed the phone again and dialed in a fury. "Raven? Raven listen to me. Listen what I want you to do. No, it’s not that, I understand you can’t do nothing like that. Something else. You got half a million if you do this for me. Yes, I want you to do it now."

A week later, up in the Carpathian mountains, on the shores of lake St. Anne, a tall thin man wearing tall mountain boots over dark jeans and a black jacket was rowing a boat towards the middle of the lake. He stopped and undid the ties of an old backpack, taking out a small parcel wrapped in newspaper. With a fast motion, he threw it in the dark waters. Obviously heavier than it looked, the parcel sank fast. The man started rowing back to the shore, towards the small chalet where the doc was. As he was looking towards the mountains, he stopped rowing. The misty shapes of a young woman and a wolf were running, playfully, towards the peak.