She opened her eyes.
The brightness blinded her.
Blurred, she realised that she was no longer in the forest clearing.
She lay on a bed in a room.
She sat up carefully.
The stench grew.
Laila looked down.
God, what stank that, that was her.
The curdled Aries blood had turned a dark brown color and stuck to her body as a stinking crust.
Over the narrow strip of pubic hair, three fiery red interlaced 6s stood out.
The symbol of Symbolia.
The injured skin shone.
Apparently it had been burned.
The consecration was successful.
Laila felt like a marked piece of cattle.
Angry, she looked around.
Laila was startled.
In the corner by the door Atibor sat on the only piece of furniture, a heavy wing chair, in that bare room.
He had leaned forward.
The fingertips lined up and looked at Laila seriously.
"Welcome to our farm, welcome to the circle of Symbolia."
He got up and walked to her bed.
Laila sat up.
She felt a painful tug in her abdomen.
Atibor looked at her understandingly.
"Go to the infirmary, get a painkiller, tomorrow you'll feel better."
Laila looked around inquiringly.
"Where am I?"
"On our farm, you're with your new family, she'll never disappoint or cheat you, how was your consecration?"
Laila looked at the door.
In her mind's eye the ram man appeared.
"Painful."
Atibor smiled understandingly.
"Yes, pain and pleasure - the pillars of our faith, it is powerful, is not it?"
"Who the hell was that?"
Atibor let his deep, cultivated laugh sound.
"Lola told me he blessed you three times with his seed, which is very rare, the likelihood of you carrying his brood is high."
In Laila everything cramped.
"I take the pill." she blurted out.
Atibor looked at her indulgently.
"If you're worthy, it's his will, do you really think he's going to let it go, you'll do a test in three days, then we'll know."
"Who was he?"
"The one."
"The devil, you do not really believe that?"
"Did not he fuck you really devilishly?" Atibor beamed at her.
"He almost knocked me to pieces."
"He has consecrated you."
He pointed to the door.
"Opposite is a bathroom, clean yourself and put on the things we've got ready for you, you know, you smell a little strict."
Angrily, Laila walked to the door.
Atibor called after her in the corridor.
"Use the wound plaster before you shower."
Laila closed the bathroom door and leaned against it, exhausted.
Pregnant, that would have just been missing.
Defiant, she shook her head.
That was not the devil and she was not pregnant.
Again and again she mumbled these sentences as if she could summon the truth with them.
She was exactly where she wanted to be, in the middle of Symbolia.
She had an assignment.
Laila turned the tap on, the warm water washing the stinking mass and her nervous thoughts.
She spent two days on the farm.
The days were marked by talks and joint ventures.
On the third day, they accompanied Lola and Atibor to the infirmary.
Symbolia seemed to have unlimited funds and members that were valuable to the community.
A gaunt doctor, whose neck bore the same brand as her lower abdomen, gave her a pregnancy test and sent her to the bathroom.
Laila wondered how the one had consecrated him.
Lola accompanied her.
When Lola followed her into the narrow cabin, Laila was more than annoyed.
"You can not be serious?"
"We have to be sure that you do not manipulate, it's for your own protection."
Reluctantly, Laila pulled down her pants and squatted across the ceramic bowl, legs apart.
Lola held out her white stick.
Laila snapped it angrily and held it between her legs.
Nothing happened.
"I can not do that." Laila was totally unnerved.
Unmoved, Lola opened the door, went to the sink and opened the faucet.
Laila heard the sound of the water.
Lola looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Come on, princess."
Laila closed his eyes and focused on the sound of the running water.
That helped.
Relieved, she felt a little urine flow out of her cramped bladder.
Lola grabbed the stick and put it in the white plastic sleeve.
Spellbound, she stared at the small window with the blue line.
Laila pulled up her pants, stepped to the pool and washed her hands.
She wiped her wet hands on her pants.
"I told you that I take the pill." Lola mumbled something incomprehensible.
"I've been taking this stuff since I was 14. Probably I'm even barren."
Lola continued to stare at the tiny window.
"And I was not a virgin either, does not he need a maiden to reproduce?"
Laila realised that she was babbling around rather nervously and decided to shut up.
Suddenly Lola dropped to her knees in front of her and started to kiss her shoes.
Laila stared at Lola's red hair.
"Tell me, is not it? Are you totally crazy?"
Stunned, she looked at the otherwise cool and controlled woman.
Lola silently held out the plastic tube to Laila.
With trembling fingers, Laila reached for it and looked at the two blue lines in the tiny window.
An iron fist closed around her heart.
She was pregnant.