When they finally returned, Wenzel told the others that he was going up to the next floor to take a bath. It was only afternoon, so it was probably a bit early for that, but washing himself wasn’t the reason for him doing that anyway. His headache had become very bad already. Taking a bath now would not alleviate the usual symptoms of his separation from the pendant, but at least it would take his mind off it a little. Wenzel wanted to hold out until he would be back at school to have "his hour" with the stone. The reason for this was, that Aurel would have to keep an eye on him for a whole hour, which would be extremely annoying for him, as he would not be able to leave his room, due to the house servants not being allowed to know the truth about Wenzel's circumstances. Besides, Wenzel didn't want his brother to see, that he was almost in complete control when he was with the pendant now. The boy told himself that he would be able to last today and tomorrow, even though he clearly had already reached the limit of what he could bear.

  He climbed the stairs and headed straight for the bathroom. But then he remembered that, in his thoughtlessness, he had forgotten to tell the servants to heat the water for him. He made up for this immediately and while the water was being heated, he quickly went to drink a glass of water and took the opportunity to look around his parents' house a little. Hardly anything had changed in the last six months, when he hadn’t been here. A few maids and a butler bustled past him as he stood in the hallway. His parents and Aurel were still standing in the reception room, chatting about something. Then Mrs Wolke came down and informed him that his bath was ready. Wenzel went upstairs and entered the bathroom. As he was undressing, however, he remembered that he liked his own washing sponge better than the one that was here, and he quickly got dressed again to go get it from his bag, which was in his room. Wenzel ran over and went into his room by the right-hand door. His brother's room was to the left. He rummaged through his bag and retrieved the desired object from its depths.

  But as he stepped out into the corridor again, he heard his parents' voices from Aurel's room: "......irthday!" When Wenzel heard this, his curiosity got the better of him and he cautiously approached the door to listen. What he overheard, however, made him jealous of his brother and angry at his parents! He heard them giving Aurel his belated birthday present. It had been his birthday a fortnight ago. Thereby, the boy's headache began to get even more intense than it already was. Why was he getting riled up over his brother having been given a present? Because Wenzel hadn't received any presents for his birthday since he'd been at boarding school for the last three years, not even after the fact! And now they were giving their 'favourite son' something behind his back. They had even waited until Wenzel had gone to the bathroom! He heard the three of them talking, but didn't know what Aurel had received, only that he thanked them. "Thank you very much, dearest parents! But that wouldn't have been necessary!", he could be heard saying from the other side. At that moment, Wenzel saw Mrs Wolke coming around the corner, stopping short when she saw him at the door. In that moment, Wenzel thought he had been busted, but the lady winked at him with a smile, turned around and disappeared down the same corridor she had come from. What a good soul she was!

  He continued his spying. "What about Wenzel's circumstances? You know what I mean," his mother asked him for once. "He's become a little bit more defiant, but everything else is the same. Mrs Adele also says that he's generally behaving himself," came as a reply. "Good, and you always have the stone with you, don't you?" - "Yes, Father!" Then he heard them say their goodbyes. At that moment, Wenzel jumped up and ran to his room as quickly as possible to avoid being discovered. Mission accomplished! He wasn’t discovered.

  Nevertheless, one thing had now become unavoidable: He would have to burden his brother with the pendant. He now realised that he wouldn't be able to hold out until tomorrow. Perhaps that was just an excuse the lad was making for himself, so that he could go over to Aurel and see the birthday present he was so curious about. Be that as it may, five minutes later he knocked on his brother's door and entered without waiting for an answer. The latter, who was sitting on the bed, jumped up startled when Wenzel came in and turned his back to him. He obviously didn't want to show Wenzel what he had received. The present was in a wooden box, which Aurel now was holding close to him so that Wenzel couldn't look inside. "What do you want this time?" he hissed at him. I'm here for my soul. I can't stand it until tomorrow,' Wenzel replied curtly. The older sibling had a look on his face, that made his annoyance with this very obvious from the outset. "Really, Wimpel? Does it have to be right now?" An exasperated sigh escaped him. "Come back in an hour, okay."

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  This time, however, Wenzel countered: "Why? So that you can play with your birthday present in the meantime?" Aurel was surprised for a moment and then got really angry: "Oh, that's how it is, you little waster! We’ve been spying, haven’t we?" - "And that makes it okay, that you're always favoured? Am I worth nothing? Is it, because you're the older one? Or is it because of my curse? Come on, tell me!" Aurel averted his eyes briefly. For a moment, it looked as if he was about to say something, but then nothing came from him. Hence, Wenzel continued: "At least show me what present they gave you." He reached for the wooden box, but Aurel clutched at it with all his might. Now Wenzel's pent-up emotions were finally boiling over. He pulled at the box and tried to snatch it from his brother with all his might. He repositioned his feet to get a better foothold, tried to pull on it in batches to develop more momentum and even tried to knock Aurel over by kicking him in the shins. But it was no use! Aurel was much stronger and won the fight. He pushed Wenzel so that he fell to the ground in front of him. It then escaped the furious Aurel: "It's because you're not their real son, boy!"

  Wenzel was thunderstruck. For a while, he just blankly stared into space. Now it all made sense. After all, he also looked completely different than his parents. They didn't even have the same hair colour. Aurel instantly regretted what he had said, one could tell by the look on his face. But the damage had already been done. The die had been cast. Wenzel hated his brother and he hated his parents. And they hated him. Now he understood why. Who would love a cursed child that wasn't even their own?

  When they left the next day, Wenzel didn't even say goodbye to his parents! And on the coach journey home, the two brothers didn't speak a single word to each other. A lot in their relationship had now been broken. The thought of running away for good was now very much on Wenzel's mind. He was living a life he didn't want, with people who didn't like him. This was on his mind the whole next day. However, he reminded himself of what Peter had told him. He had no place to go. Simply setting off into the unknown was too risky for him. Wenzel would stay. At least for the time being. That night, however, he stole Aurel's pendant again. And then the visions began once more:

  Wenzel was flying through a cloudless sky. Below him, he suddenly saw a chessboard. It did not have the usual number of pieces. There was only the black queen with five black knights on one side and a white king with a white knight on the other. "What an unusual deployment," Wenzel thought to himself. But he soon flew through a thick cloud. Everything around him went dark and when he regained his senses, he was suddenly somewhere else.

  Wenzel stood amidst the ruins of houses. Screams and whimpers could be heard in the distance. He turned round and stepped in a puddle with his left foot as he turned round. All around him was destruction. Wenzel knew this scene. He walked between debris and climbed over piles of rubble. There were a lot of crows sitting on the ruins, which he simply walked past. But then he suddenly saw a huge pillar on the ground in front of him, its individual parts scattered along its length. It had obviously fallen over and at its former top intricate ornaments could be seen. Wenzel immediately understood which kind of pillar this was. When he realised this, he hurdled this destroyed thing and ran onto the wide street next to it. From here he could see towards the city centre. Yes, even the great Cathedral of the Annunciation seemed to have suffered massive destruction! Its main tower had collapsed. Big and small fires could be seen all around. What a catastrophe! But before the boy could think about all this, he suddenly heard an unknown voice in his head:

  "So, you're here, old man. Do you like my work?"

  With these words, Wenzel abruptly snapped out of his trance and the dream ended. He had a very bad feeling about having foreseen the destruction of Meglarsbruck. When would it happen? Why would it happen? Did it even have to happen, or could it just be a warning, a warning of a POTENTIAL future? He had no idea. But so far, his visions had always been spot on! This greatly concerned him.