And the lanterns themselves were strange. I didnt even immediately understand why. Only then did I realize: the light was not like what I was used to, it gave off a cold blueness and something otherworldly. Is it also magic?
Theres your house, Charlotte waved her ghostly hand. Somewhere towards a whole street of identical brick cottages. That is I dont know, can a house be called a street if even the most seedy road does not lead to it? Neither to the teaching village, nor to the dormitories. It's like they're flying on broomsticks here! What is magic?
Charlotte, hearing about brooms, explained:
There is a portal network. You need to learn how to open portals everyone can do it, even children. It's simple.
Oh yes, I forgot to say Im not a magician. Although no. She spoke.
Now a magician. Charlotte didnt seem to hear my irony. Her chilling, otherworldly emotionlessness was beginning to frighten me. It would be better if she screamed and became hysterical, like at the very beginning! You got the body of a sorceress. It remembers, it needs you to remember too.
Translating body memory into conscious knowledge is a wow task! How?!"
Charlotte's ghostly body suddenly enveloped me, embraced me in a sticky, chilling way. The hand went up on its own, as if pulling back a curtain. Behind the curtain a piece of the living room was revealed: a bright green armchair, a glass table, on the table there was a teapot, a cup, an open packet of cookies and an open magazine turned upside down. On the cover, a doll-like blonde in a short flared fuchsia dress smiled invitingly. The trends of the season are brightness! shouted large letters over the blonde.
I stepped there somehow I stepped in a special way, fully aware that this step would eat up at least half an hour of walking, at least half a day on the plane. The curtain gently fell behind him, cutting off the path. Charlotte hung next to me, and I was finally able to breathe in normal air, and not the cold of the grave.
Very simple. Do you remember?
I wanted to say that I didnt even understand anything, but Well, yes, I didnt understand. But I can repeat it, I felt it.
? how to determine where to go? Only to familiar places?
I will take you everywhere. Until you get the hang of it. And for public portals, it is not necessary to know what the exit looks like. If you want some tea, the kitchen is to the left. Did it seem, or did she actually sigh? I hope you like cupcakes. This body loves them.
Cupcakes, tea and a story. Detailed, but not too clear. To begin with, this is actually Earth, really England, but magic is the order of the day here. Instead of the metro, buses and trains a public portal network. Chemistry is the one that I now, in theory, must know at least at the bachelors level, and not a long-forgotten school course! is divided not only into organic and inorganic, but also into magical and not. Healers this is generally a special conversation, because they master magic at a very high level. ? They are trained in this very academy with a teeth-breaking abbreviation instead of a name.
Panacea Armoran Academy of Applied Healing and Chemical Biological Research, Charlotte said. And she added: Everyone just says Panacea Academy. And Dr. Norwood's department is of potions and elixirs. Magical pharmacology is this name easier for you to understand?
Its much simpler
Dont be afraid, you wont have to do anything complicated. Especially with Dr. Dougal I myself, dont touch, dont touch! The assistant is doing the paperwork can you really understand the papers? Registers mail, receives and sends. The professor has an extensive correspondence, he is a world-class luminary, she explained with unexpected pride, as if she had lit this luminary herself. We'll have to control the class schedule. Make sure there are no overlaps. It happens that he is called to a conference or an urgent consultation. Then everything needs to be adjusted and replacements arranged. And if he has an important phase of the experiment, he gives an unscheduled control. Then youll just sit in the audience and make sure they dont cheat. He even makes his own coffee.
In general, something like a secretary. Okay, I can handle it. Maybe. You know, friend, it seems to me that you are still in love with him. At least a little.
Do you think that a rather frivolous and selfish girl can fall in love with a man who, instead of hello, says you look disgusting. If you collect your hair, you will ruin the potion, and instead of goodbye And finally disappear from my sight?
Do you think that I will fall in love with him? And in just a week.
Are you frivolous and selfish? Charlotte asked, but did not expect an answer, as if she already knew him. Although, to be honest, I wouldnt be able to answer. We are all selfish and frivolous we happen. And we are also different. And with different people different. Look, the same Mrs. Wilburn thinks Im sweet and sympathetic, and our production editor thinks Im a notorious bitch. How can I know what I will be like next to the unknown Dr. Norwood?
A heart-rending ringing sound came from somewhere above.
Alarm clock, Charlottes ghostly face rippled: she was probably wincing like that. Still, if there is something constant in all worlds, it is alarm clocks and a general dislike for them There is a bedroom. In an hour you should be at the department.
Did we talk all night? I was amazed.
Almost. ? now you have to get yourself in order, change clothes, comb your hair
Collect your hair so as not to spoil the potions, yes, I understand. By the way, thanks for reminding me where is your mirror? I want to finally see who I have turned into.
Well, it could be worse, I thought, looking at the huge wall-length mirror in the bathroom. Okay, much worse. Nature did not deprive Charlotte. Perhaps this body would be called luxurious by those who are not delighted with modern fashion trends. Thin waist, steep hips, defiantly high voluminous breasts. It was heavy, I felt it very well already, having walked with her for only a few hours. Hello, Barbie, I thought gloomily. ?except maybe not blonde. A shiny mop of chestnut curled in unruly curls. How long does it take to style such hair? Horror. In an hour at the department?! This is clearly not enough to wash, dry and give at least some kind of sane appearance.
I do not like? Charlotte asked, floating into the bathroom. I liked that one.
Maybe I should get a haircut? I thoughtfully tugged at the wavy strand. I dont see a hairdryer or electricity here at all. By the way, where does the light come from? the chandelier in the living room and the ceiling lamp in the bathroom were burning quite as usual, brightly. Not as deathly as street lights. But no sockets, no switches.
Magic. Let me show.
Again, the almost familiar feeling of a slimy cold jellyfish swallowing you and your hands shot up, making passes. R-time a hot wave passed over my head, my hair shone and lay hair-to-hair. Two the unruly hair is arranged in a high, strict hairstyle. Tr-ri the traces of a sleepless night and a difficult conversation disappeared from the face, the cheeks softly flushed, the eyes sparkled fervently. Gorgeous!
Its impossible to fall in love with such an assistant your Dougal is definitely a cracker, I voiced the logical conclusion.
Charlotte waved my hand again, turning off the light in the bathroom.
And now to the kitchen. Ill teach you how to quickly prepare breakfast and make coffee.
To the pulpit Charlotte me or us? delivered five minutes before the start of the working day. Dougal was already here, and I stared with greedy curiosity at my intended betrothed. He, however, was almost entirely hiding behind an unfolded newspaper it seemed German. All she could see was the burning black top of her head and her long, ringless fingers. Moreover, Charlotte immediately retorted:
Don't look so closely. Say hello and run to sort out the mail. Come on, "good morning, Professor Norwood"!
Good morning, Professor Norwood, I repeated like a parrot and ran to the table on which was piled an uneven stack of newspapers, letters and parcels. If this is mail in one day, how does he still manage to teach?!
Suspicious punctuality, this doctor-professor muttered under his breath. He didnt even raise his head from the newspaper. I'm waiting for a package from the Munich Academy, look.
Look, Charlotte ordered. -Can you identify the German?
I
Answer mentally.
I know a little German.
Fine. Search.
The voluminous package was found in the very middle of the stack judging by the weight and format, two or three rather thick magazines. Under Charlotte's guidance, she also selected several letters from regular correspondents. I put it on the professor's desk. She paused slightly now, although from an unfortunate angle, it was possible to see her face.
Well, nothing special. A man is like a man. About thirty years old, probably. Too pale to be a hot brunette maybe he doesnt stick his nose out at all? Clean shaven, neat and I already imagined a classic mad genius, always disheveled and unkempt. He suddenly looked up from the newspaper and looked up at me. Dark, even scary.
If you need something, tell me quickly. Don't loom.
Zar-r-raza!
I wanted to remind you that the first couple Charlotte! Who is our first couple? Fast!" Healers, first course, she prompted. I picked up: Healers, first year. If you have something important
When I fall into insanity, you will be the first to know about it. In the meantime, please get down to business.
"Hopelessly!" I said with feeling, almost shying away from his table. Contrary to my expectations, Charlotte remained silent.
Until the end of the working day and this, by the way, is four couples, plus a long lunch break, and several hours of consultations after! I heard exactly three more phrases from him. Send this by express mail. No, and stop distracting me already! in response to the offered coffee. And Dont forget to close the door, to my Goodbye, Professor Norwood.
What was that all about? I asked Charlotte, going out into the street and exposing my face to the cold evening wind. Something like Get out of my sight? Or a hint that without direct instructions Im not even able to close the door?
He doesn't like open doors. And that Charlotte didnt like closed ones. Well she seemed to think, sometimes its better to have at least some kind of reaction than total indifference. That's what it seemed to me.
I'm sorry, friend. About indifference. Familiar." I tried to let my hair down, but the hairstyle, held together by magic, did not budge.
Dont think, prompted Charlotte, Just believe that it will work out.
I wanted to say that its not so easy to believe if you never but while I was looking for words, suddenly it really happened. As if by itself.
The wind caught the freed strands and tangled them. Fine! How tired your head is from pulled hair! And why was it necessary to collect them in a bundle if throughout the whole day I didnt even see a single potion that I could hypothetically ruin?
You'll see again. You have not yet been to his personal academic laboratory, nor to the general student laboratory.
I've never been anywhere before! The first day of seven passed it was like falling into an abyss. Into the abyss. I sat with my nose in the mail, again running through the mail and the schedule. At lunch, when the professor had gone somewhere, I secretly looked at the magazine he had left on the table. The same one from Munich. A bunch of chemical formulas, half a page each. I very hesitantly identified the simplest of them as some kind of horror from organic chemistry, but mostly there was some kind of basically unknowable horror.
A couple of dozen people in the world will fully understand this, said Charlotte. Not more. Higher magic applied to elixirs.
A day to nowhere. A day in which there was not even time to think about the almost hopeless quest mutual love in a week. And its good that it wasnt found. Because now I understand very clearly that I want to live. I want it unbearably. Much stronger than I thought before. After all, what really matters is not that the only thing waiting at home is the neighbors cat! But this wind, which Charlotte probably no longer feels. Distant Sydney, which seems to remain an unfulfilled dream. A million everyday unnoticed little things that turn out to be significant when you lose them. A life where you can dream about the future, plan or just wait, knowing for sure that you have it. A present, long and preferably happy future, not a measly six days and one evening!
And a new world, full of wonders Ive only, one might say, looked through a crack, I havent seen anything yet, but I already want to get comfortable here and figure it out! Magic. Real magic, not faked by scammers. One step and you are even in another city, even on the other side of the world! No crowding in the subway, no fear of plane crashes. A couple of waves of your hand and order is in your head and in your house. What then can be created with really serious effort?!
The snatches of conversations that were snatched out of my ear at lunch, in the dining room, and between couples while I was running around changing the schedule turned out to be almost completely incomprehensible to me. They discussed the features of some phases in some rituals, and whether they change when Latin is replaced by Greek or Sanskrit. They complained about the failure of the harvest of some creeping rotten plants honestly, I would not be upset about the failure of something with such an unappetizing name! They complained about Professor Krushanski, who failed almost the entire group in the test this misfortune would have been quite understandable if not for the topic of the test: The influence of seismic activity of magical territories on the development of the population of ordinary sensoria. What is this sensory? Does it have anything to do with sensors or just sounds similar? Charlotte, overhearing my bewilderment, explained mysteriously:
Dr. Krushanski is a leading expert on population dynamics, but his theory of seismic stability control is considered by many to be unproven.
You have a medical academy? I was surprised. What does population and especially seismic activity have to do with it?
Sensory, Charlotte explained. A rare and valuable ingredient, found only in seismically unstable areas. Foretells earthquakes, eruptions and other cataclysms by explosive reproduction. That is, Krushanski thinks so. He invites all those who disagree to settle somewhere on the slope of Krakatoa or Mauna Loa and check it out personally.
In short, there would be enough new interesting topics in this world for me to last for years and years. ? here
Stop. I dont even know for sure
Charlotte, listen! Did you say a week?
Yes. Do you have memory problems?
Happy calendar! I snapped. How is this week counted? Since this morning? Since the beginning of the day? How much time do I have, exactly?
Charlotte didn't answer right away. She hung there, swaying in the wind, like a translucent wet sheet, and was silent. I waited, getting more and more nervous. Did she just now think about it and decide to count? Or doesn't she know?
Finally she answered:
Everything went wrong from the second phase of the ritual. The second phase necessarily begins exactly at midnight. But I remembered it well. This means from midnight or a little later, when this body was left without a soul.