I was the most ordinary thug and a random warlock who’d flunked his admission and became an adept no worse than anyone else—a trainee-healer and a scout in the Dead Infantry. But the most important thing was that I was forever indebted to someone. First to the senior ones of the Rotting House and the bosses of the Zarechnaya side, then to the leadership of the Fire Burdock school, and afterward to the merchant employers. As far as I could remember, there was always some debt hanging over me—and with the breakthrough to become an acolyte, everything seemed to remain the same. Only it wasn’t—no, no, and again no. Soon everything will change in the most decisive way. Soon I’ll pay off all my debts, and for some of them I’ll even get even. I won’t forget anyone, not decisively at all.