The Core of ...

"You were never the first to talk about the past, as well as the future. I've always been amazed at how you managed to get topics out of the air... the grass, the bottom of a stream, from behind the clouds, from under the fallen leaves, from the cries of birds, from the words spoken."

Oh, she had been developing these abilities since childhood while her foster family were living in a hamlet consisting of no more than ten houses scattered among fields surrounded by wasteland. The fields were intersected by streams - thin arms of a nearby river along which a grove extended. There were not many people in the village, and there was no one her age or close, so her main entertainment was to roam about the neighbourhood and observe nature: to look closely, to hearken. A variety of sounds filled the space, sometimes forming into a melody not devoid of rhythm, or male and female voices standing out from the monotonous murmur of a brook and starting a leisurely conversation. Shadows from driftwood and rocks, in which the shapes of unusual creatures were guessed, could come to life and accompany her on her prolonged hikes. Flowers could bloom or wither depending on her mood. The girl was told that all of these were just her imagination. One day, making her way through bushes, she saw a fox and a capercaillie glowing with silver light. They were peacefully walking through the fringe, side by side, heading to the thickets. The girl was told that all of these must have been games of the sun's rays filtering through the leaves and the fumes emanating from the earth. Then it turned out that they were the headmaster's people too. Another time she settled down on the ground and, enjoying the smell of herbs and mosses, shut her eyes for a second. Having opened them, she found herself among the clouds, the boundless and bottomless blue sky hanging over her. The girl was told that she must have dreamed it. And once, lifting her head up, she discerned that a cloud stretching across the whole sky had formed the figure of an angel. He stood with his back to her, and she could behold his huge closed wings and the hem of his clothes cascaded down in picturesque folds. He turned to her with his beautiful tranquil face framed by flowing hair. The sun was shining in his eyes, and a tear was rolling down his cheek. It fell off his chin and landed on her cheek. The cloud dissipated. The girl didn't tell anyone about this vision. Shortly after this occasion, the white sorcerer arrived for the first time.

"You told me your dreams: funny, scary, crazy. And how did you memorise them in such detail? Most of it was just talking about nothing, but it was almost impossible to talk about something. About the future - only to tempt fate. About the past - I already had too much of it back then. It was only after the trial was over and we were acquitted that I started talking about it myself. Once I promised to show you the lights on the forest lake, and finally, the time had come when they appeared there."

"It happens every year on the night of the summer solstice eve - the stream brings wreaths to the lake. However, only in clear weather, when the moon rises above the peaks, do the lights come on. Although there won't be much moonlight today, we have a chance to see them."

The young couple sat on the dilapidated arcade spanning the lake, facing the cascade, and, while waiting, tuned their senses to perceive the miracle. A warm wind blew from the gorge. The whistling with which it passed between the stones, merging with the rustle of the leaves it set in motion, reminded of a chorus of male and female voices singing somewhere in the distance. Soon, on the stream, in addition to the brilliance of its jets, colorful lights began to flash here and there and immediately go out. When their carriers reached the waters, which were completely exposed to the gaze of the thin crescent hovering high in the sky, the flames began to burn steadily, albeit dimly. There were more and more wreaths; periodically captured by small whirlpools they slowly moved towards the shore, floating under the arches of the arcade. As they approached, the voices grew louder.

"It's so beautiful. Do you come here every year?"

"Almost."

"And you've never wanted to find out who runs them?"

"I've always wanted to. As well as the one who takes them. But I was afraid to interrupt the ritual. My father always taught me that it is dangerous to interrupt rituals."

The girl pressed her stomach to the stone floor and began to look at strange objects.

"It's a fern!" She stretched out her hand to the floating wreath, but the young man stopped her.

"You shouldn't do that. Who knows who it's meant for."

"People say that one who sees a fern blooming will be happy. And if you pick its flower, then all the stashes of the place will be revealed to you. I saw a similar wreath in your room, dried."

"Yes..." the enthusiasm on his face did not increase, "one day I caught one of them. That night, the moon had already outgrown the first quarter and shone ten times stronger than today. And the flames on the wreaths burned brighter. I couldn't resist, I was mesmerised by them. As soon as the moonlight stopped falling on the leaves, the lights went out. I knew this would happen, but I still wanted to keep one for myself. 'One will be happy'," he repeated thoughtfully, "that year I met you."

"I'm sorry. And I'm sorry to say this, but I told you I wouldn't bring you happiness."

"But it's not true! I'm happy! Insanely happy! Because you understood me, accepted me, chose me, and didn't turn away."

("Do you remember your questions about the chosen ones? You asked who chose them and for what purpose. I finally understood what you meant. And I finally became one." He turned away from the window, curtain of which he's just lowered along with the door's one, rolled up the left sleeve of his shirt and she saw on his hand what she was always so scared to see on her own. The girl was startled and speechless, then she began to burst with increasing rage. "I warned them, I told them we could lose him. They did nothing to prevent it, and we've lost. I told them something dreadful was going to happen. They didn't do anything again, and it's happened. No one can make it undone now. What's the purpose?" He did not reply. "Wrong question... What do you want me to do? Help you... or stop you?" He broke through. "I don't know!! I... If I can do what he demands, it will be terrible! I don't even dare to envision how terrible it will be! And then only worse... I didn't ask for it! But I had no choice. Otherwise he would kill me! And if I fail, he'll punish my father! And it also will be death!!... Eve... I don't know..." She listened to the scared boy, and her heart was bleeding for him. Children should not face such dilemmas, as well as parents. What kind of monster could do that? She didn't know what to do either but she had to make a decision right then and there. What could be his mission? Should this intelligence have influenced her judgement? Did she even have the right to balance his life, or his parents lives, versus some others? Should have she persuaded him to give up and tell the headmaster everything on his own? But she believed that no one would lift a finger to save his family. "I can't help you to carry it out, you're aware of it. And I can't stop you either. I don't have the answer." She approached him, took his hand and covered this black mark with her palm, putting a spell on it, making it invisible, at least, as long as he wanted it would not exist. "But I'm going to be near you, and for you. If you need me.")

"Then why is the face so sad?"

"Because I'm afraid that you will leave me. Because I know that you will leave me. And it's not because I haven't completed the rite. It's because I've violated your will, put you in a desperate situation wanting to possess something that 'belongs' not to me."

"And if you had a chance to fix everything, would you act differently?"

"No. In that case, you wouldn't be sitting next to me right now, and I wouldn't be so blissful, albeit being unfortunate at the same time. Technically, there was already such a chance, and I got you out of the other world again. Because I want you to be alive, so that you know, so that you can feel how much I want to be with you before you make a choice. It's a weakness, and I can't fight it. Your father was right - it would be much better without it, but I don't want to be without it. And the worst part is that I've created a weakness in you. When you needed power the most."

"Silly. My father wasn't right at all, he had no idea what he was talking about. It's a weakness for the weak, but it's a strength for the strong. And everything was exactly the opposite, remember? It was you who understood, accepted, and chose me even before I did it to you."

How else to explain his persistent annual appearance in her compartment? In the first year, of course, it was an accident - everything was already occupied ("I absolutely don't understand how the Board could put up with such humiliation. Not only is it simply unworthy of a sorcerer to use machines to travel, but this one also does not meet such elementary requirements as capacity, let alone comfort or elegance."). Let's say his goal in the second year was to make fun of her ("It's your problem that you're feeble.") that he didn't achieve. Despite the fact that both times their conversations involved hysteria on his part, they were very entertaining for both of them, like the third one, which happened on Christmas Day. That year, they actually began to communicate, although she never liked his attitude towards others.

("They're sort of weird today, don't you think?" The girl remarked, yet standing at a distance.

"Indeed... One puts on glasses like a fool, another goes into convulsions all the time. Brought the chamber and the heir topic up, asked about who it could be, despite I have already told them more than once that I don't have any notion..." He pursed his lips in annoyance and hit his knee with his fist. "Where did they go so fast? And anyway, since when are they interested in anything other than food?!" That's right, however, this was not the only thing that stopped her while entering the living room of their house and forced her to look for a way to justify herself, and then hide in a high-backed armchair.

"Probably, something was added to the cupcakes for the feast day... I can't believe you know absolutely nothing about this case."

"About cupcakes?"

"No," she laughed amiably "about the chamber!"

"What do you mean by 'absolutely nothing'? I know a lot. But I can't know everything, can I? And why exactly should I?!"

The girl walked around the sofa and sat down on the table directly in front of the boy. "Come on! This is the history of our house, its heritage! Who better than its hereditary representatives to study the first and preserve the second?" He gave her a surprised look. She was counting on her words to amuse his ego. Like it was on the train when she congratulated him on joining the team and noted that he was really good at flying. "Only the heir can unlock the chamber. But what kind of inheritance is implied? Ideological beliefs?"

"We have an entire house with such." The boy spread his hands.

"Yes, but are any of us ready for decisive action? Ha? Magical abilities?" He got who the girl was referring to, and his eyes flashed with fury. She was sure that envy was hiding behind it. In any case, she didn't mean to develop this idea. "Blood relationship?" But after this option, she paused. "We can guess who the last one was and that the wrong one left the school in the end... You told me yourself that he was a descendant of the founder of our house. Now he's gone, but the chamber is open. How is this possible? Has he left someone after himself?"

The changes on the boy's face indicated that the girl managed to intrigue him. He mused, lowered his eyes, and then his face lit up. "You are damn right... I think I know something about it." The voice dropped to a whisper. "Lord has left not someone - something after himself. I have heard about the existence of certain objects bearing a potent imprint of his magical power, will, even his personality. He deliberately created them during his life for some purposes of his own and hid them from everyone..."

"That is, theoretically, if one of these objects was hidden in the castle and someone found it..."

"Or someone brought it here with them... Then, this 'someone' could use this object to open the chamber!" Incredible. She had never seen him so... happy, or something, before. Without a doubt, like most boys of that age, he was inspired by secrets, liked to puzzle over riddles, to feel the adrenaline in his blood, and craved to be a part of real important events. His lips broke into a wide smile, the eyes shone with a spark of excitement. Whatever the girl's face was saying, but for a second his cheeks flushed and he looked away, and then... Then he tensed up and she saw a barely noticeable tremor went through his body. When he appealed to her again, his posture, sight and voice expressed the habitual haughtiness. "That's all I can tell you. The rest is not for everyone's ears. And you bet I'm not going to reveal my sources to you."

"Ha, I can presume... Oh that's it..." The girl made a serious expression to assure him of her intentions. "Then I won't ask. Thank you for a pleasant conversation.")

Even after the scene in the woods, he wanted to join her on the train for the fourth time, but he read her facial expression correctly and made a sound decision not to take risks. And how else to explain what he did for her there, at the train station, despite the fact that at that very moment she officially rejected him.

("Listen, you're overdramatising the situation. I'm okay. I don't love you. Sorry." Contrary to her expectations, it turned out to be easy.

"Don't love me?" But for the young man it was not. "Don't love? I don't believe you! I've offended you, and you're upset. You have all the reasons for this. You can come up with any punishment for me, but don't say you don't love me." He was trying to see resentment, anger, mockery, anything in the girl's eyes, but not indifference. "So you're telling the truth. Just like that, went ahead and fell out of love with me." He was starting to lose his temper. "And who do you love now? Him?" His gaze darted somewhere above her head.

"Whom?!" Intrigued, she turned around. "Oh!" A tall, slender, blond-haired lad stood behind her. By all accounts, he had been standing there for a long time and was now waiting for a response. The girl inspected his face for a couple of moments - it was uncommonly calm - and shook her head guiltily. "No, I'm sorry." Not a muscle twitched, only his gaze dropped to the floor.

"No? Maybe you've never loved me either? Maybe you're not capable of love at all? And how can you know anything about this feeling?!" She didn't look at him anymore, she didn't want to see his face when he said such words, even if he was right in some ways. She wanted to retain only his cheerful, happy face. "The daughter of the monster. You're a monster yourself!"

That was too much. Rage burned in the girl's eyes as she put them on him again. He tensed but didn't leave. What was he waiting for? Farther to the side, a man with a camera leaped to her eye. Was it a coincidence or did someone need to provoke her and capture the proof that she was evil in the flesh? The girl was in despair at the thought of that possibility but continued to stand at the spot - as long as her step-parents were not there, she had nowhere to go. Someone put their arms around her shoulders and pulled her back to the cars.

"Come on, there's nothing for you to do here."

It could only be one person. She did not resist - now, only he did not elicit disgust. How she longed to maintain her faith that he didn't speak his mind, that he said these words out of frustration, rather than he did think so.

"Maybe he is right? Maybe I am what everyone claims I am? It's fair to say that I'm not fond of anyone. Don't understand what it is, how it is. Anger is the only emotion I can't contain, whether it's good or bad one. I don't seek to form close relations with people, and end up hurting them. After all, all I felt having read his letter was... relief. Well, yes, I was also upset. Objectively, there was nothing unexpected about what happened - everyone likes to divide the world into black and white, as if this conception was justified at least once; the four previous years seemed to have been erased from the memory of the universe, and after that unfortunate lesson on defence and the events and rumors that followed, everyone started to perceive me as though we had only met this year. 'The daughter of the monster'.

'I saw how he stretched his fingers to you, saw how his eyes glistened! And you like it - you run to him every day! And he is always hanging around you! Do you think it's unnoticeable? What do you do in his office in the evenings? It's not hard to guess...'

There was so much venom in her voice, and what she said was so abominably, so false, that the fury that rose in me swallowed up the last endeavour of my wits to persuade me to retreat otherwise it would be even worse.

'Shut - your stinking - mouth!' I counted the steps in her direction with each word. With the last one, I sharply lifted my head up and captured her gaze; she flew the rest of the distance between us, dragging the toes of her shoes on the floor. Her widely open eyes were exactly across mine. The whites in them spun from side to side, and the pupils widened, then narrowed back. I was watching them closely. I was reading her. I wanted to see her whole, to see how dark her soul was. And she was living anew everything she showed me at an accelerated pace. Oh, she didn't like it - she was whining and crying. I wasn't going to let her go.

'What are you doing?! Leave her alone! Everyone knows that she's head over heels in love with the professor, so she's talking all sorts of nonsense! No one listens to her! Stop it!'

But I had already seen it. She also added her fantasies about him to these memories. It was disgusting! At some point, the man in these scenes changed. Someone else took the professor's place. And finally it hit me: the dreams were not the ones at all, but also flashbacks, only she had preferred to correct them. What a nightmare! Not dark - broken!

She flattened herself at my feet, then crawled several feet away, and fixed me with a look full of fear, hatred and pleading. I looked at her with horror and begging too, but not with enmity - with compassion. Tears welled up in my eyes. What have I done...

'Sorry. I'm sorry. Please. I am so sorry.' I babbled apologies and shook my head. It was my plea to her that I couldn't say out loud, to see that I would never share her secret with anyone.

'What's going on here?'

Hearing a familiar voice, the girl darted a glance up, screeched and rushed away. I would also prefer to disappear, but there was no point - sooner or later, I would have to explain myself to the head. The one who admonished me was reporting to him as I resignedly rotated myself to them. The head took points off me, and he rarely took them off his house. I didn't dare to look him in the eye - I let him down, again.

I was sick of what I had seen, and I was scared of what I had done. I wanted to be as far away as possible from where all this happened, so I ran along a corridor selected at random. It set a distinct direction, creating an illusion of a solution - the existence of a place where I could get better... As if you can run away from yourself... I was definitely sorted to this house by right, and not on a whim.

'The daughter of the monster'. But still, it was nice with him - sunny. He could, albeit unconsciously, get me out of the depths of my dark thoughts and transfer me to his bright world. The twins also could do this. That's what their house offered me, and I rejected it. For what? And I knew for a fact that none of the words in the letter belonged to him, only the handwriting, therefore, he still agreed to write it for some reasons. He never talked to me about love before the second letter arrived, now a speaking one, and shouted at the whole library; perhaps he considered it self-implied. We had never even kissed, maybe he was waiting for me to be ready. As for me, I had never thought about love. Why? He was much older... No... No, I always thought that he just found ears in me, which he began to lack. That's how, within five minutes, someone confessed his affection to me and broke up with me for the first time in my life. The sequence, however, was violated. Thus, only relief. A monster myself..."

"Listen to me, you're not a monster, you're not your father... I saw the monster, stood in front of him. Trust me, you're not him." The girl raised her eyes full of amazement. He sat across from her and kept holding her shoulders. Periodically, he briefly looked around but all the time got back to her. "Pay no heed to this moron. He doesn't have a notion of what he is talking about. He didn't see him and doesn't know you, but I know... I know that it hurts you when it hurts others... I also know that you never skip breakfast, that you don't like to bother with your hair, and it's so thick and unruly. I know that anger leaves your face quickly, but joy lingers for a long time... I know that you can forgive. I know and..." He fixed his sight on her face for a while one more time, and then repeated that action once again. This time his eyes stopped on someone and he shook his head slightly.

The lad's behaviour alarmed her, and for the first time, the girl became concerned about where they were. Holding her head motionless, she looked around with just eyes and discovered themselves sitting alone on the platform bench on the other side of the railway, where neither arrivals nor greeters came. The train had not left, and therefore, no one could see what was happening there. And most likely, no one saw where she went. Anxiety began to grow actively in her chest.

"Is your father there?" He nodded affirmatively. Exhaling nervously, the girl dropped her head. She was ready to cry out of disappointment and shame. "How foolish of me... To allow myself to be deceived so easily! What if he had arranged this performance to make me lose vigilance and bring me here, where no one would see them taking me away?"

"Eve, please, come with us." He read the hatred in her eyes correctly and was scared. His hands left her shoulders and squeezed the hands tightly. To hinder her defence? "No one will harm you here, you will finally be in the place you belong to, you have nothing to be afraid of."

"I doubt it very much." The words trickled through clenched teeth. He signalled his father to wait and spoke very quietly and fast.

"I know what you go to the head for. He trains you, develops your abilities. And the headmaster's interest is to restrain them and subdue them. No one will restrain you here. Father will complete your education and you will be able to use your power against anyone... You hear me? Anyone."

"Is my hearing failing me?! What is this? A conspiracy against my father?! How does he know so much? Does his father know about the head?! And... How does he know me so well?" The madness went away; the girl even had an impulse to go with him. To her fortune, it passed quickly. She realised that it was stupid, that the time had not yet come, that she was not ready yet - she was just at the beginning, that they would not be able to provide her with a competent teacher, that she had already done a lot of reckless things, and after her father's return she needed to be controlled, so the headmaster had long subordinated her to himself. She didn't want to lie to the guy, but she couldn't describe the whole picture to him either.

"I... I've heard you... It's just... The time hasn't come. You see? Listen," the girl leaned forward and looked the lad in the eyes with all gravity, "I will go with you, I promise, but when the time comes. Please, believe me."

"Son, why are you freezing the girl? It's impolite." The girl's heart clenched with fear, but she made an effort to keep herself natural. They got up from the bench and greeted the man. "Have you given Miss Greenwood my engagement to a festive dinner at our mansion?"

"That was the plan. He should have gained my confidence and imposed their hospitality. I should've come to them myself. That man knows absolutely nothing about me. How come?"

"Yes, father. Unfortunately, she has already been invited, and it would be rude of her to withdraw her consent after it has been given." She almost sat down again.

"I'm sorry to hear that." She felt tension in the air and prepared to fend off. "May I ask by whom?"

"By the headmaster!" she blurted out. "Sir." The girl quickly considered that the figure of the headmaster was appropriate on all points. He would not be asked to confirm her words. He would not be blackmailed. She would not be able to refuse him, and if she hadn't come to him at the appointed time, he would have started taking action. Besides, since they decided to compete for her, it would be fairly logical to assume that the headmaster was doing the same.

"Honey, what are you doing here? We've run our legs off looking for you! If you hadn't been seen from the carriage window..." Fosters. The girl half exhaled, hoping they didn't need witnesses... even dead or disappeared. "What are you doing here with these people?"

"Good evening, Mr. Greenwood, Mrs. Greenwood. I was assuring your daughter that she is always welcome in our house. It is time for the girl belonging to such a privileged part of society to go out, and I claim it is irresponsible of you not to follow up on this."

"Thank you for your involvement, it's very noble of you. I regret that I have to decline the offer. Perhaps some other time. It was a pleasure to meet you."

Standing between him and her folks, she tried not to chatter - it went so-so. Then she came to the lad, hugged him, kissed on the cheek and wished happy holidays to both. Facing her fosters, who watched everything in total perplexity, the girl turned them around and, being ready to put up a shield at any time, led them to the exit.)

"Every time you came back to me, despite the difference in worldviews, refuses, betrayals..."

"You didn't betray me! It wasn't a betrayal. And I..."

"What are you saying?! All I've done is betray you! You just don't want to recognise it."

For three months after that case on the station, she had avoided any kind of contact with him in every manner. Even after the release of the article accusing his father, she didn't say a word to him. And to top it all off, he found her in the company of his foe, the enemy, under those circumstances. What was it if not a betrayal?

("What were you doing there?"

"It's hard to say. Probably it's called communication."

"Communication?! I don't understand you!" It was as if he had seen a hitherto unknown beast. "You shun him all the time, while starting a relationship with his friends. You don't judge my clashes with him, but never take my side. At the beginning of the year you mock him, and at the end you help him."

"Help? How?"

"Did you come there with them?"

"No."

"Then how did you get to them?"

"You won't believe - by chance."

"I won't. There is no way to get into such rooms by chance. You knew what type of refuge it was and that they were there at that point. Explain this!"

"No, I didn't have a notion of their schedule."

"Hold on. So you could've entered their hideout at any time and not told me a word about it?!"

Oh, she could easily guess what their hideout was - by that time she had been using the same room for the same purpose for five years, so it was only a matter of time before she met the army.

Fully immersed in her thoughts, the girl walked along the corridor to the section of the wall that she could find with her eyes shut. A hurricane of destructive force raved in her soul after another contact with the black book, and the process was so familiar to her brain that she entered without even realising it. The hum of excited voices brought her back to reality. Raising her head, the girl saw galloping hares, frolicking dogs, prancing horses, soaring birds... The chamber was filled with shimmering silver light and an indescribable sense of joy. A little longer, the cheerful bustle was carrying on. Then the animals woven from the light began to lose shape one by one and dissolve in the air, taking with them particles of this felicity - their owners started to notice her. It was a pity, she had never felt so nice before. Now she was surrounded by astonished, concerned and in some places frightened faces of a couple of dozen students from various years and various houses.

"Hi there! ... Ummm... I'll come later... Yeah. Sorry." She started spinning around in heels to leave, but someone managed to overcome the stupor.

"How did you get here?"

"Just like you... It's a strange question. Is there any other way to get here?"

"Yes, but... How did you find out about this room?"

"Oh, it was shown to me."

"By whom?!" "When?!"

"Long time ago. Back in the first year."

"What for?"

"Here we go again. We are in the same environment, which implies that our needs are the same."

"She comes here to train, to... not lag behind."

"To not lag behind?! Who? Have you seen what she's doing?"

("Is it true?! Are you his daughter?! No, this is just kinda nonsense! Stop and answer me! Now!" - "What are you doing? Stop it. Put down your wand. Put it down, now, or I'll have to penalise you." - "She's right, buddy, cool it, this is too much." - "No! This is not! She wanted to learn how to defend herself from people like me. Well, I'm ready to give her the first lesson. So is it true?! ...Turn to me!" - "No!!!" As soon as the boy began to pronounce the words of the spell, the girl halted, gathered all her consciousness and energy into one tiny point in the centre of her chest and blew it up with an exhalation, surrounding herself with a protective shell that dissipated in the air along with the red ray that flew into it. Silence rang out. After waiting a bit, the girl proceeded on her way.)

"And why did I have to tell anyone about it?"

"Anyone?!"

"Excuse me?!" His complaints began to piss the girl off. "Why all this interrogation? What's your problem, exactly?" He stopped abruptly, so she also had to, and gave her a look of an insulted man.

"You know perfectly well what." He threw it and quickly left, ignoring the exclamations of his fellows.

"That's really bad..." Only she turned to move on, when bumped into an inquisitor witch. She looked as if she had started the cunning of the century.

"Oh no, darling, I don't need you this time. I'm not imposing any detention on you."

"How's that?"

"You're not on the list of participants." She rolled a piece of parchment had taken from the wall in the room.

"But I was there..."

"Excellent. You will be punished by your own housemates when they find out that you helped the enemies of the school. And also by those you helped for not sharing the detention with them." And she giggled with her high, nasty laughter.)

She apologized and just kept going.

("You will leave the school immediately... Right now, from this office. Without saying goodbye to anyone... You won't come home. You will spend the whole summer in another place that neither they nor the Ministry would ever think of. Once you almost ended up with them, we can't take any chances. You won't be dating anyone, you won't correspond with anyone. You'll sit there quietly and not give yourself away. Your things will be delivered there." The old sorcerer walked back and forth along his desk. It was obvious that he was alarmed, but his voice sounded even, clear, affirmative, not allowing any objections. "Go ahead. This gentleman will escort you out."

He pointed to one of those standing next to him. In the memory of the student, so many people had never been called to talk to her before. Except for the headmaster, her and her head, with whom they came together, there was another head and trio, two of whom she had seen before. Fairly odd, they were from the Ministry. The first one came to arrest the headmaster two months ago. With the second one, 'this gentleman', she practically was acquainted personally. He nearly got killed in the hall with crystal balls - the twins' father.

"So, he saw me. When my father gave up the boy's feelings, lunged to the side and dissolved in the air, and there was no one between me and the headmaster, when looking up from the floor, I met his astonished gaze... he saw me."

(The head entered the lounge of his house swiftly but did not go deeper into it. He was as reserved as ever, as strained as ever. He halted, scanning the faces of the students in the room. His gaze lingered on one of them briefly before moving on. As if he hadn't found who he was looking for, he also quickly pivoted and left the hall. The students shrugged and resumed their activities, all of them. It was a prearranged signal, according to which the girl had to wait five minutes minimum and only then go after him.

"Have you had any more visions, Miss Greenwood?" Her mentor spoke calmly, as ever, but the notes of agitation in his voice did not escape her.

"No... Why?"

"No premonitions about any onslaughts or kidnappings?" She swayed her head negatively. "Perhaps, not about people? It could have been a dog: a big black dog."

"No, there was nothing." He looked aside and thought. His thoughts did not bring him pleasure.

"Did he have one again?" The teacher nodded positively. "He had, and I didn't... Do you suspect it was created artificially, exceptionally for him?"

"Perhaps..."

"That could mean... Who was it about?"

"Go back to the others."

It was foolish to count on the professor's loquacity. The girl obediently walked back. However, after passing through the living room, she headed to the bedrooms, climbed onto her bed and lowered the canopy. She intended to get into the boy's brain. She had never done this with waking consciousness on purpose, but everyone has to start somewhere.)

"But... the school year hasn't..."

"It doesn't matter, and you've already passed the exams."

"No, no, no, no, no!" It was beginning to come to her... The girl was ready to cry from the doom of the situation. "Why have I come here! It's vital to convince him somehow! I need him to let me go! At least for a while! But... if I vanish like this, without farewells..."

"On a family emergency."

"...on the contrary, it might raise suspicion. ... Neither my father nor the Ministry are even seeking me! They deny my existence as such! That time was just an initiative on the ground, otherwise they wouldn't have let me go so easily. I can't imagine why they needed me."

"I'm not saying that I'm striving to stop them." The headmaster halted, leaned his fists on the edge of the table and addressed to the girl an accusing look. It felt as if not only the people in the room were tense, but also the air per se. Everything inside her got cold.

"How does he know?" She glanced at the head. "Did he cope with reading it? He saw everything and told the headmaster? But when?" His face, which usually did a nice work of hiding his true state, contorted. "So not."

"Why would you do that?"

Anger at the insult rose in the girl's throat. "How dare he ask me that?! You know perfectly well why. Tell me, is the boy aware?" She also had something to indict him. His face cramped, and he straightened up slowly. Regret flashed in his eyes, which fully confirmed her assumptions, "Unthinkable!", but the voice remained firm.

"But it's not time yet."

"I don't care!! About your time!" As always, she could not contain the rage that was tearing her apart. "I'm ready! I can confront him! He has no need to kill me, I'm not in danger! ... I have to go with him, I promised him!" The girl shouted the last sentence, begging.

The people around them were not able to immerse themselves in their debate. With their eyes wide open, they stood immobilised, and only looked from one to the other, as if they were watching a duel.

"I don't understand you. Why did you get involved with this boy? You're not like him, I can see that. Can you give me at least one reason why you should be so worried about him?" She heard a note of contempt in his voice and didn't like it... The truth was, he got involved with her, not the other way around; she just decided not to say 'no'. Regardless, the subtleties of their relationship did not concern them, so she made an effort to find the most capacious expression describing her conception, and such one that the old wizard would embrace.

"How about: keep your friends close and your enemies even closer?..." She used a common phrase that he himself had once used in relation to her in a conversation with a professor werewolf, and she accidentally overheard when she was called on the carpet by the headmaster (she could swear she saw him bare his teeth and the hair on his neck lifted when he crossed paths with her leaving the office). It didn't work. For a while he stood erect, hands behind his back, looking at her incredulously and thoughtfully in the meantime.

"You're not going with him." The words sounded tranquil, but there was no doubt in them. The hope had been lost, but she still had one more argument.

"How can't you see?" The eyes of those gathered rolling to the ceiling in anticipation of a youthful drama as the denouement of this story came into view. "We can't turn away from him now, from them. If we do that, we will lose them. And we can't afford to scatter the figures. You've almost lost one with such an attitude. Don't repeat your mistake." The eyes left the ceiling and went back to the girl in an attempt to comprehend what she was talking about. And only those who had any odds of that, headed towards the headmaster.

"Evelyn, my dear, please understand, your figure is much more important than his."

"Not now..." He didn't heed her words. 'I saw a monster, stood in front of him...' "How did I not think of this a year ago! We can offer them protection, all of them, or at least... What's going to happen to these guys?"

"Depends on what their choice will be."

"Their choice? You don't mean it." The girl examined the face of the wizard wise for years, craving to make sure that he himself did not credit those words. "Kidnap them too! Hide them away from him, as you are going to hide me! Why make an exception?! Why limit yourself in..."

"That's enough, Evelyn, this is too much!"

"Come on! Tell me that you can't just kidnap children, that they actually have parents, whilst I belong to you. That people will figure out whose handiwork it is, and you may lose their trust again." But the headmaster was silent, his face and eyes were devoid of emotion.

She had accepted her defeat. There was no point in seeking support among the others. They were just beaters. Her body shuddered with a mix of fatigue, resentment, malice, sorrow. She was approached by the man who was instructed to escort her to where she would have to spend the summer, like in prison. He gently put his hand on her shoulder and said softly that it was high time for them to go.

"And that's all I had done for him - left him alone. I should've fought, I could, the headmaster was ready for it.")

More was yet to come. After her disappearance, he met her twice in the company of the same foes. For the first time at the end of summer in the atelier. The nightmarish state unambiguously linked to him resurfaced within her. She was about to go up to him, explain her disappearance, and inquire after him, if nothing had happened. She even took a step forward to him but stopped, realising in what company he found her. Also the smile caused by someone's joke did not have time to leave her face when he appeared... And his look obliterated her. The second time at the station before the train departs. Then she even let herself get between these two guys.

(She elbowed her way through the crowded station. Once they stepped onto the platform she started looking for him, and having found, she didn't let him out of her sight. This time, she decided to do what she hadn't ventured to do last time. When he saw her heading towards him, excitement flashed across his face, only to give way to haughty coldness. She always noticed these rapid alterations in his emotions, they always alarmed and intrigued her.

"Hi!... How are you?"

"Don't you read papers?"

"I do, I saw." The girl felt guilty and didn't hide it, willing to show him her concern. "I'm sorry. But I'm not about that... Hasn't he... my father... hasn't he done anything to you... during this summer?" A cramp passed through the lad's left hand. "Has he?!"

"Where have you been?"

Everyone whom she came to the station with hunted her down: "Are you going?" And another storm, even more ferocious, was about to break out.

"How are they not tired of it yet? Just walk past," she got between two boys and she was persistent, "please." They were gone.

"It's true!"

The look that the girl managed to catch then, in the store, came back and slapped her face. It was absolutely true. At the end of the summer, the headmaster gave the order to move her to another house. On the main market street she was met by the former professor werewolf, and when she came near, he beckoned her to the shop window and said that she would make purchases in the company of these people, and then spend the rest of the summer with them. The girl peered into the faces of the visitors blurred by the dim, warm light and recoiled from the glass, not giving credence to her eyes and ears.

"Is this a joke?!" The man shook his head sympathetically. "But I can't be near this person for more than five minutes!"

"Why is that?" He enquired, hiding his irritation.

"Ask your boss!" she blurted out after a short pause.

"Well, my 'boss' assigned me to tell you not to forget his instructions and recall everything that you were taught all previous year in extracurricular classes." Her eyebrows went up. "Whatever it was." He muttered to himself.

"He doesn't know about it. This man saw the prison guard fly past me without 'touching' me, and he knew my fear, even though he assumed its temporariness, but he does not know the reasons for all this. No one knows, not even my foster parents, not even the 'old warrior'. The headmaster never shares information, only collects it, and we all supply it to him. I reported to him about everything, directly or through his people: about the snake, about the unicorns, about the diary (This was the second source of a doubled dose of her usual anxiety caused by the boy's presence. "What's the matter with you?" - "Nothing, I just didn't think boys kept diaries."), about the chamber... He received information and paid for it only with thanks.

(Instead of the usual light-flooded space with bookcases, podiums for duels and mannequins as opponents, the girl found herself in a deserted cold stone hall with columns extending into the darkness of the ceiling. It was illuminated by a greenish light, the source of which was indeterminate. Snakes were expertly carved on the columns, a large round hole gaped in one of the walls, and a statue of an old man in a cloak towered at the other. "What were my thoughts when I walked into the room?... It just can't be!! So, I was able to do it any day!" It was as unbelievable as an inability to believe in anything else, since all the way through one corridor of the castle after another and all that time she was walking back and forth in front of the bare wall, all her thoughts were focused only on one thing. Without questions, she was not exactly in it - only in its representation, and not even at the moment. When the shock passed, the girl uttered a shout and bolted out of the hall. It was self-evident to try her luck again, and to think not about the chamber itself, but about the entrance to it. The result of her experiment was extremely strange. "Restroom?? I don't need to..." She was about to make a full rotation and go out when something creaked and grated behind her back - it was one of the sinks moving out, revealing a well in the floor under it. Speechless, the girl stood and pondered about what to do next. "Go for a walk through all the school lavatories? Or directly to the headmaster... he's not there, so to..." Her contemplation was interrupted by the squawk of a bird. A huge fiery-coloured bird flew over her head, made several circles around the room, then began to fly above the black hole, as if waiting for something. "Of course! How could I not have guessed right away! Female! On the second floor!"

The bird flew out of the open door. The girl ran after it and it led her to the headmaster's office. To her astonishment, the old wizard was occupying it again. His bird grabbed the hat in its paws and flew away promptly, and the student was left to stay nonplussed.

"Thank you, Evelyn, for continuing to share your discoveries with me. I appreciate it, I do. Everything will be fine now, I'm sure of it. Go back to the dormitory.")

About the dreams, the fake professor, my father returning, murder I committed... He received information and made destinies."

"We need to talk." She said these words to the blond lad very seriously to avoid any stupid 'There's nothing to speak about'.)

She did not tell him about the presence of the stranger in their compartment, who was brought by a member of the newly formed club of particular outstanding in a rather broad sense of the word to which, to the surprise of some and the gloating of others, she was not invited. She restrained herself with an effort, so as not to give the appearance and not to betray both of them. Nevertheless, she regarded his act as insulting to all of the gathering and responded by not shutting down and not making it easier for the dearing boy to avoid exposing himself. But when the train stopped she left it without any remorse giving two boys to each other since she saw no intention to kill on her father's newly minted servant mind ("I will catch up." - "Alright.").

("A tall cliff covered with grass... 'You shouldn't' Damn! The ocean beats in furious waves... 'You shouldn't' Damn! Damn!! A tall cliff covered with grass. The wind rushes in the air... 'You shouldn't' Aaaaaaaa!!!" Everything ended with a prolonged embittered scream of impotence - the only thing the girl could fill her consciousness with and force out the memory.

"Not anger! Calmness! Only calmness can help."

The professor was disappointed, he was running out of patience. They had been struggling with this for several hours, and every time at first everything went like clockwork. But as soon as they got to this point, his student's attention started to wander, she had to resort to blocking, but even this didn't help. The girl was on the verge of depression. She almost completely abandoned her studies, concentrating only on what she considered essential - the head's classes and extracurriculars. Everything else was deteriorating day by day, as it became increasingly difficult for her to make sense of anything. When in the previous year she was telling the guy about the time that would only come, and after reading the black book, about the inevitability of just such an end ("But, I don't understand why you should... no, it can't be..." - "It can. People die, even sorcerers, it's normal."), and even when she was posing the headmaster a provocative question, it was no more than some distant and vague legend to her ("How do you even know about this? Is there some sort of prophecy involved?" The young man was still trying to understand. "No. There is no prophecy involved. There could've been one, but it has been fulfilled."). It was only in the summer, in the silence of solitude, that it really began to dawn on her that the selection of a future career, grades for exams, the next two academic years - all of this had nothing to do with her. The estrangement of the old wizard only further convinced her of the correctness of her conclusions. So... "If I fail here too!"

"I know, I'm sorry. I know." She sighed wearily and guiltily.

"Let's take a break." He went back to his desk and sat down, leaning on it and folding his fingers into a lock. The girl fell into the chair opposite. The office was quiet for a couple of minutes. Periodically, she felt his gaze on her. "Do you help him?" He asked his question, eventually.

"No. He doesn't even know that I'm aware of what his assignment is."

"I reckoned you and him were... close."

They didn't act like a couple, the girl herself wasn't sure they were one. They didn't hold hands, they didn't sit in an embrace, in fact, they didn't have much time for that; they were just near each other. It's just, when she went into the lounge, hall, library, or auditorium where the subjects that they both studied were held, she always searched for him and sat down beside him. He did the same. They didn't hesitate to ask someone to move over or inform them that the seats were taken. Eventually, a vacant seat next to one of them began to appear on its own. There were various rumours about what connected them. None of them were entirely correct.

"Nevertheless. He didn't want to tell me. He probably deemed I would dissuade him."

"But you don't dissuade..."

"And you don't help..." The student turned to him.

"He rejects my help." The head fixed an irritated look at the flasks on the shelves, as if he wanted to blast them with just this.

"My support as well. Indeed, there is too little of it... You see, what you saw, after that he cut ties with me. And it happened back in early March. I don't understand why. There was something troubling in these words and actions. It was as if he was replying to the question that hadn't been uttered."

Steadily gaining strength, fear progressively brought the girl out of the dream state. It crept up from the legs and crawled along the body in a cold dense fog, similar to the one coming from swamps, enveloping it, seeping through it. When it reached the heart, wrapping it in a sticky shroud, she opened her eyes. The fear did not let her go. Through the throat, which was scratchy from the dampness, it rose to the head and broke out on the forehead with the same cold sweat. She got out of bed, put on a robe, and walked along the bedrooms to the lounge area. She knew, that night, it wasn't hers. A blond-haired young man sat on the entrance steps, hanging his hands from the knees. His face bore no emotion, and his faded gaze was fixed on the void in front of him. It reflected emptiness. The girl went over and knelt down, catching up with him with her eyes - he didn't see her. How much time had he been dwelling in such condition? After monitoring him for a while, she softly touched his lips with hers: "Come back". There was no reaction. She kissed him again: "Don't stay there too long". Consciousness passed through his eyes, and they focused on her face.

"Did you call me?"

"It's good that you heard."

The fear was still there when he put his hands on her neck, ran his thumbs over her cheeks and started kissing her lips. As she responded to him, his faith in himself grew. His hands slid down, lingering momentarily at her waist before ending up on her back, pulling the girl tightly to him. Obediently following his lead, she wrapped her arms around him: one stopped on his shoulder, another - in his hair. His breathing and the beating of his heart reverberated in her body. The fear began to go away, further and further, until it finally found a hideout somewhere in the depths of his soul. "So, it is all to save his soul. Well, is it rescued? Here it is, standing in front of me, bleeding, realising the consequences of its mistakes, which have already come and which are yet to come. It hasn't killed anyone, but that, per se, entails death." Anger began to rise in her own soul. "Is there such a substantial distinction between killing and causing someone's death, actively or passively? Everything can be justified. I have done the first and been in the role of the second. There is no point saving my soul. Maybe I should do it? An old man won't live anyway..." At this thought, the anger subsided. A very strange feeling came instead - a pleasantly tickling the chest anticipation that something would take place shortly, something that would make her free. "And he accepted this, just decided to teach the guy a lesson, putting others at risk. After all, the fact that no one has died so far is a freak of chance. I can do it: I know the spell, I know how it works - what to do, what to wish for. I have access to him." The anticipation grew, flaring up like a star and dazzling her wit with its light. "And I hate him. For believing that he knows how everything should be. For the way he treats people. How he torments them, manipulates them, driving them to do what he needs, but even after that does not let them go. I can do it because I want it... with all my heart... What?! What am I thinking about!!"

"Did I frighten you?" The girl's wide-open, terrified eyes were looking, as he might suppose, at him. But they were looking at her.

"How can I want to kill someone?! Also with all my soul! After I learned what it's like! This has never happened before. No... not you... But if I do, they both will escape..."

"You shouldn't." His embrace was strong, but at the same time very careful, as though he was afraid of breaking her.

After that incident, he started avoiding her. He neither sat down with her at the table nor did homework together. If she tried to engage him, he just kept going about his business as if she wasn't there. He stopped discussing even the most ordinary matters with her. He conducted himself as if she never existed. There were various rumours about what was going on between them, but the girl herself didn't understand what had gone wrong. His last actions and words that night gave her no peace. One evening, in a deserted corridor, she came face to face with the headmaster. They stood and mutely looked at each other. "Is this my chance?" Wrath started to form in her chest again. She replayed the words and movements of the incantation over and over in her head, waiting for the necessary mood. However, it was never achieved. Her attitude towards the wizard hadn't changed at all, but something was missing to arouse hatred, to wish to kill him. The headmaster nodded mildly and, without saying a word, skirted around the girl, walking away. She remained standing where she was, fruitlessly figuring out the nature of the problem. "What was not the same that night?" Recognising her own uselessness caused abhorrence directed solely at herself. "What sort of person am I? Someone who is inactive due to the unwillingness to hurt anyone, or only excusing own inaction with this? I blamed the old sorcerer for letting this matter take its course, but I did exactly the same myself, just explaining it with other goals. Why is this lad so worried about me? I'm not worth it.")