duties. Asya was still recuperating in the infirmary but was recovering quickly. No extra limbs grew on her, and no new organs seemed to have appeared yet. Even Kazimir returned to the director’s chair, giving me a magical oath that he would never again try to become a magical being.
But we never found the organizer of the ritual of forced evolution. However, now I was grateful to him. I don’t know what our villain had in mind, but he helped save a person’s life. And for that, he has my thanks. Magic was gradually returning to the world, and the pattern of ley lines was slowly restoring. Yes, many artifacts around the planet were rendered useless, but we managed to avoid a catastrophe, and that’s the main thing.
I no longer had any reason to stay at the academy, but just before leaving for home, I remembered one unfinished business. After saying goodbye to my friends and setting a date with Asya for the weekend, I slipped unnoticed into the library.
– My light, mirror! Speak and tell the whole truth!
Ripples spread across the mirror surface, and soon Marfusha appeared in the reflection.
– Hello, beauty! – I cheerfully greeted her. – Ready to move?
– And what took so long? – the voice assistant pouted offendedly. – You could have hurried up with your ritual!
Now I’m confused.
– Which ritual should I have hurried up with? – I asked suspiciously.
– Well, this one! The evolutionary compulsion or whatever it’s called… – the girl indifferently waved her hand.
I’m completely lost.
– Marfusha, my sunshine! Could you please explain why you think I conducted the ritual of forced evolution? – I kindly asked.
– Well, how, – the girl in the reflection looked at me in surprise. – You asked me yourself to start drawing the world’s magical energy using the castle’s protective charms, to conduct this ritual and save someone. So I connected to the academy’s storage system and drew power from the ley lines…
This is nonsense. What does it mean? Marfusha is the villain who almost left our world without magic? Or is that villain me? I don’t understand anything.
– My darling, – I smiled kindly. – And when did I ask you about this?
– When creating the mirror protection, you asked, – the girl rolled her eyes. – Like three hundred years ago… And by the way, you didn’t say goodbye, rude!
I think I’m starting to understand.
I paused on a small cliff. Beneath my feet stretched the boundless sea, annoying seagulls screeched around, and the sun unpleasantly scorched. Unfortunately, sunset was still far away. In my memories, this place was definitely better. But that’s not important. This time, I was interested in the artifact I had once hidden here.
Moving a huge boulder with a simple weaving, I carefully descended to the ground and pulled out old wooden prayer beads from the hiding place. I never thought I’d want to use them, but fate always has its plans.
Time travel is a very dangerous and unpredictable thing. Take, for instance, the paradox of the missing starting point. I learned about the plan to save Asya yesterday from Marfusha but told her about this plan hundreds of years ago. Yes, I can go back to the past and inform the voice assistant about the details of the operation and the timeline will be restored, but… it doesn’t add up. I’ll be telling Marfusha in the past what I learned from her in the present, and she in the present will be telling me what she learned from me in the past. Complicated? Very. And the main question – when did I actually come up with this plan? I hate temporal paradoxes.
I cautiously wrapped my wrist with the powerful artifact, squinted my eyes, and activated the ancient mages’ gift. Oh, I’ll feel bad when the other Guardians find out about this! The wind suddenly intensified, throwing cold sea spray in my face. I cracked open my eyes and exhaled in amazement. Night had fallen. Or rather, it only seemed to me that night had come. In reality, the ancient artifact had transported me back several hundred years, and I had just ten minutes to prepare my brilliant plan.
Not wasting any time, I concentrated and teleported to the academy’s library. The familiar hall was empty. Even the bookshelves were barely a quarter filled. A sad sight. But the mirrors around ostentatiously glittered with gold.
I rushed to a familiar mirror, not thinking about the possible activation of protective charms. According to my calculations, the mages hadn’t yet set up the system, which meant I could access the factory settings.
– My light, mirror! Speak and tell the whole truth! – I blurted out on the go.
Ripples spread across the mirror surface, and a girl appeared in the reflection, unchanged for hundreds of years.
– Voice assistant of the mirror protection system Marfusha welcomes you. How may I assist you? – she said politely.
– Change of factory settings, – I began. – Time interval – two million six hundred thirty thousand hours. Upon expiration of the time interval, begin drawing the world’s magical energy using the castle’s protective and storage charms.
– Time interval set, – Marfusha said complaisantly. Young still, quite harmless. – Would you like to leave any explanatory comments?
– I would, – I nodded. – The magical energy will be needed to perform the ritual of forced evolution, which will help save a student of the academy.
– Comment recorded, – the voice assistant smiled. – Would you like to make any other changes?
I would, but I completely ran out of time. Only three minutes left. Without saying goodbye to Marfusha, I teleported to a sparse forest on the outskirts of a tiny village. In a hundred years, it will turn into a small, but quite charming city, and only an unkempt park under the windows of my apartment will remain of the forest.
I quickly knelt down, scooped up a handful of soil, and placed a pre-prepared acorn in the hole. Someday it will grow into a mighty, beautiful oak. Someday it will save a good person’s life.
The prayer beads on my wrist crumbled to dust, I jerked sharply and was literally hurled into the present time. Well, it seems I managed everything in time.
Part 2: Offspring of the Abyss
Chapter 1: The Last One
I stretched, laboriously stifled a yawn, took a cup of aromatic coffee, and approached the window. After our recent adventure, the park near my house had hardly changed. Except for the mysterious disappearance of the old oak, of course. I honestly wanted to return the tree, but the dragon-charmweaver adamantly refused to give it back. He claimed that the mighty oak was now the highlight of his office. And here I naively thought his highlight was a human heart preserved in a three-liter jar.
The disappearance of the oak, by the way, piqued the interest of journalists from tabloid newspapers, ufologists, and conspiracy theorists. But the main thing is that none of their theories even came close to being as insane as the mundane reality. A pity. If everyone knew that I saved the world, they would immediately give me a hero’s star. I would have become famous, starred in commercials. Maybe for some expensive car… Or at least socks. On the other hand, why do I need it? They might dig up that I was the one who caused all this commotion. And then what?
Anyway, it was funny, of course. I nearly destroyed the planet, and I was the one who saved it. What an achievement. And a good holiday it was, entertaining. It’s a pity that I have to go back to work soon. Interestingly, why haven’t they called me back yet? After all, the Guardians are facing many problems now: artifacts all over the globe are discharging due to a lack of energy, masking charms are malfunctioning, and certainly,