“Blessed is our God, always, now and forever and unto ages of ages. Amen.” The hymn was just beginning. The celebration would be completed tomorrow with the great water blessing in the Euboean Sea, honoring the baptism of Jesus Christ and the revelation of the Holy and Co-equal and Undivided Trinity. The hymn continued as the faithful took their seats again in the pews. His heart had gradually begun to find its normal rhythm. He had succeeded. He was now the first clergyman in the new chapel of the workers' community. The first to see them leave together. A few seconds earlier, a gust of wind entered through the small opening of the door, passed over the heads of the faithful, and whipped his forehead. The flames of the candles in the lamps flickered. The priest noticed the two human figures leaving the hymn service before it ended. Dione and Korso silently slipped outside, walking on the freshly laid marble courtyard of the church. Night had fallen. The dense fog created an illusion of smoke reaching up to the cross on the roof.
“Satisfied?” “Too many people came,” answered the man quietly, with a hint of restrained satisfaction. Her eyes looked up at his face. Her eyebrows formed two arches that smiled at him. The man had learned to recognize that look. Two hundred meters from where he stood, a cigarette ember burned in the forest. He shouldn’t increase the dose. What he had injected into his blood half an hour ago was too strong. It had messed him up. His legs were trembling, and in his state, he wouldn’t risk entering the church. He shouldn’t be seen. He shouldn’t cause comments. The last drags of nicotine slowly flowed into his blood. He felt himself calming down. He took out the yellow lighter from his jacket and prepared for another cigarette before finishing the previous one. The wind that had been howling a few minutes ago had started to die down.