Shock, hanging in the room, was broken by a loud knock on the door.
Without waiting for an answer, the door opened slightly. A black-haired girl's face appeared in the doorway. She hesitated but was literally cared into the room by a shifter and others, which pushed from behind, trying to see better inside.
"Leader, we are sorry to be breaking in. But we wanted only to check. These little humans do not tell us anything. So we decided..."
Cali smiled slightly at the uninvited guests. She jumped off the bed and walked briskly to her comrades.
"Are you guys all right?" - She asked looking around them.
"We are okay. Though I have no idea why. And how are you? Where are we anyway?" - Farukh answered for all. His voice was rumbling, with interesting purring notes.
"We are now in Arilla, in my father's house," - answered Cali, stepping aside and introducing everyone who had gathered to each other. While Calisto was talking to her friends. Her relatives began to recover slowly.
"You have very unusual friends, Cali," - Lestor finally said, inspecting a strange bunch.
"This is my squad, Dad. They are not just friends. We are bound by the Gorgon."
"Cali, baby, wait a second. You can't start this conversation without me." - The old doctor squeezed into the room with a beaming smile. His eyes burned with irrepressible curiosity.
Still, the Stone Beasts were his secret passion. He collected all the little bit important pieces of information about them. And he was ecstatic from such a chance.
"Gerard, how can you? All this is a real tragedy, and you act like a child in a candy shop." - Valeria threw up her hands. It was difficult for her to digest everything heard at once, so as a true lady, she nevertheless decided to turn her attention to more pressing problems.
"Valeria, darling, of course, I sympathize with all of them. But please understand, if we now do not sort it all out, what will happen next?"
" What do you mean? Cali is now at home in the family. She can now start a new life. If her friends want to stay, we'll think of something."
The Duchess spoke with enthusiasm. In her head, she had already turned a thousand plans about how to return her niece to society.
"Aunty," - Cali called her, cutting off the vision of the shopping list in Valery's mind.
"We are no longer humans." - she quietly dropped.
The silence hanged in the room once again. Lestor was only able to cover his face with his hands, there was enough news for him. Paris came to the rescue this time.
"I don't care who you are now, sister, you are here, and you are my sister. No more no less. And if you want to stay here with us, I'll go to any extent to make it possible!" - stated Paris with determination.
"Well, technically, you are wrong. You are who you are just with a small addition." - added Gerard. - "And if my data does not deceive me. You have nowhere to go now."
The doctor used the kind of a strange way to defuse the situation. Thought the other Stone Beasts didn't really look offended or sad by his words.
"What do you mean, Gerard?" - Lester asked, slightly coming to himself.
"They really are no longer normal humans, but not the Stone Beasts also. Judging by the fact that you are all here now and quite alive. Cali managed to restrain the source, the main gorgon in your group. You all gradually begin to show emotions, and at the same time, it does not bring you much discomfort. So you are no longer the servants of the stone, but rather its masters. How do you think Amford will react to this?"
Stone Warriors, and now perhaps former Stone Warriors, exchanged glances.
"The elders will not be happy," - began Farukh.
"I would even say that we'll definitely be executed," - Karo said too calmly.
"We also did not fulfill the order, so yes. It will be good if we are executed quickly ..." - Borgis continued hopelessly.
"But maybe if we explain everything to them ...," - ten pairs of blank eyes forced Paris to shut up.
"And if you do not return, they will search for you?" - offered Lastor.
"Most likely not," - Cali shrugged. - "Even if Walner turns out to be so stupid and will report to his uncle about our betrayal. His uncle Parsif is no fool. A little investigation, and it'll be apparent that his nephew himself in every way prevented us from executing the order. Amford is receiving payment only after the assignment. The task is not fulfilled - it means that Parsif does not need to pay. Plus, in Amford, no one will cry about us. Every year dies at least two to three units. We may be tough, but even the hardest stone can also be split, just need to try."
"Besides, no one holds Stone Beasts there. We, like everyone else, just had nowhere to go." - Chris dropped.
"You mean, you never wanted to go home?" - Lester asked puzzled.
"Dad, I didn't want anything. We didn't want anything at all. We weren't happy, we weren't sad. No feelings. We just existed. Day after day. We did what we were told, went where they ordered. Stone Beast does not violate the order, because there is no reason to do so."
"But now everything has changed. Now, you do feel?" - with hope in his voice asked Paris.
Cali and her friends looked at each other.
"Definitely something has changed. Farukh didn't seem so ugly before." - Chris drawled thoughtfully. For that, he got a loud slap on the head from Borgis.
"Look whos talking, butterface." - Farukh mumbled under his breath and instantly got a punch in the ribs already from Anita.
"In any case, Lady Valeria is right, we are really attracting too much attention," - Borgis said seriously, waiting for everyone to calm down.
"Even if they would not look for us, rumors of such a flashy group quickly spread around the city. We are also well known in certain circles. It won't take even a month for Amford to hear about where we are."
The words of Borgis definitely made sense. Though it was difficult for Cali to admit it. Here in the capital, and even in the house of the head of the Green Castle, with dozens of servants coming and going every day. They would undoubtedly attract curious glances. Noticing that the words of Borgis upset their leader, Chris stepped forward.
"Leader, you rightly said that we had nowhere to go before because we didn't want anything. But honestly, now I want to visit one place."
Everyone stared at him in surprise. Without waiting for the protests, Borgis came forward too. He gently took Cali's palms into his massive hand.
"Calisto, you know all our stories. It was you who once saved our worthless lives. We did not have anything good then. The stone heart helped to look at the past without bitterness, anger, and regret. But now I understood something else. I still have debts that I did not pay in full. There in the Khail-hold Fortress, you taught us to fight to the end, not for victory, but for what we deem as right. And now I feel that I may have not done enough back then. And maybe I will be able to fix it somehow now."
Borgis hugged the girl tightly. And she did not know what to do.
"But you just started to feel. You said you want to know each other better. We are ..."
"That's right, Cali. But do not forget, we are forever connected. Even if we leave now, we will definitely return. It is not so difficult to find us." - Farukh rumbled, coming closer and also hugging his leader.
"You are our champion, leader. You only need to whisper our names, and we will come running." - Said Chris, coming up next. Behind him stood Lance, Anita, and Karo.
Cali began to feel tingling in her eyes. She wasn't ready to say goodbye again so soon. But she understood perfectly well that she could not hide them from life here forever.
Valeria, with tears in her eyes, was watching the conversation of her niece and her friends. On the one hand, when she saw who Paris brought to them for the first time, the duchess was horrified. A freak show would give anything to have such an odd bunch for themselves.
But now Dutchess finally saw that under all this flashy facade were people who were with Cali in the most challenging moments. They were more to her than friends. Ten wounded, bitter people found each other at the very bottom and gave each other a shoulder to survive and continue to go on no matter what.
Suddenly, her eyes fell on two such different figures in the corner. They were a little behind, and it was difficult to read something on their faces, but for some reason, it seemed to Valeria that they were at a loss.
Orc Mark frightened her even now, though he stood hunched over and pressed into the wall behind, it was still difficult to look at him without a shudder. But if you peer and try not to notice the sharp fangs, gray-green skin, and mountains of muscles, you could see the lost brown eyes with sadness looking at the friends and defeated shoulders.
Now for some reason, he seemed to Valerie terribly like a huge lost dog on the sidewalk.
Next to him stood a small figure of a boy, making the orc behind him even more impressive. When Paris arrived with Cali, Valeria did not immediately notice a child among such a diverse group. But the maids did not shut up about it for a long time.
No one knew how to behave with him. The terrible wounds on the boy's body forced even the hardened heart to shrink, but the knowledge that he was not an ordinary kid, but a stone beast, frightened the maids.
When he woke up, the maidservants began to bypass him at all. From the morning watching him from afar, Valeria did not cease to wonder how quiet he was. Only when one of his friends addressed him, he seemed to begin to revive a little, but as soon as he was left alone, he seemed to fade again.
Now it might seem that there were no emotions on his face. But the duchess's sharp gaze immediately noticed the small hands, which were tugging at the already wrinkled shirt and the same shoulders, like those of an Orc.
Suddenly, Valerie had an idea, everything fell into place.
"Cali, baby, I understand if your friends have their own thing to do. And they need to leave now. But maybe among you, there are those who would like to stay? I think Cali would be delighted if those who do not have urgent business could stay with us for some time."
She spoke without taking her eyes off the pair against the wall. Cali first threw a questioning look at her aunt, but then noticing who she was looking at, the girl immediately confirmed.
"Of course, aunt, so much time has passed, and I don't even know how to get used to everything here."
"Niels, Mark, could we ask you to linger here for a while with the commander? I think, nevertheless, it is worthwhile to figure out what happened to the Gorgon and Cali can use some help in this." - picked up Borgis immediately getting the situation.
The boy and the orc stared in surprise at their friends and the Duchess.
"Unless, of course, you have any urgent plans...? " - added Farukh, pushing them a bit in the right direction.
"I have nowhere to go anyway. If I am not a bother ..." - The orc muttered slightly lisping, not trying to hide his disorder anymore. Niels only sighed and shrugged.
Cali felt so much lighter. No matter how hard it was to say goodbye to friends, and how scary it was to look into the future, the thought has warmed her up that at least a couple of her companions would be around for some time.
Besides, all this time Konrad, who did not utter a single word, as silently as all these years, stood behind her back, giving her confidence just by his presence alone.