Guardian Angel. 3. 6. The Mages Lair

"A GUARDIAN ANGEL"
a mistical novel
by Alexandra Kryuchkova

PART III. 7 SECONDS

3.6. The Mage’s Lair

19:32:06
the 53rd km of Moscow Ring Road


The car, dancing its first and now, quite obviously, the last dance with Death, found itself on the third line, exactly in the position it had originally been driven, and moved forward by inertia. There were unpleasant sounds of abrupt braking, and it stopped. Forever.


***
Library of the Universe


I was standing at the Window into the World. My mental body was gradually clearing up, and the astral body felt no pain at all. I repainted my dress — the bloodstains on the one I was wearing right there in the car made me nervous.

«Where did the other cars disappear?» I asked, remembering that I had been driving in heavy traffic.

The Nun sitting on the windowsill grinned, «Cars? They can’t disappear anywhere on their own! They can be moved to a neighboring Space of Options where you are not, for example. Or, on the contrary, you can be transferred to the option where there is no one else. The latter is less energy consuming. But in a second, both you and your car will be back in the flow. Or not you, but your earthly body.»

«Alice, you have no right to remain here,» the Green-eyed said.

«Why? It’s one of the options,» I said calmly, having resigned with all bodies, except for the physical one, to the thought that the silver thread, completely blackened at the moment, would dissolve as a must in a second.

«The man you can’t forgive has to repay you his debts before his own thread breaks.»

«He doesn’t owe me anything,» I said categorically and turned away from the Window.

«You both owe each other. If you remain here now, he won’t be able to pay you back in the current life. Do you know how difficult it is to find debtors in the next one? Don’t spoil your and his karma.»

I chuckled, but having remembered something, I headed to the shelf with my books. The Green-eyed woman followed me in surprise. I peered into the spines of my future books, barely visible even to the astral eye, and asked, «Two books, „A Guardian“ and „A Dreams Trap“, should be here, I want to read them both now.»

«You won’t make it in time,» the Green-eyed stated.

«That’s how I feel. There are signs from my Angel in the „Guardian“, but I couldn’t decipher them.»

«Have you seen your guardian? Isn’t he under arrest?»

«I’ve met him in the House of Life, in the Future, in London. He was clearly hinting at something and told me about karma, too. I want to know also what will happen next if I come back today.»

«You can’t come back unless you forgive the man who…»

«The Man Who Was Not… Perhaps, after reading my Future in the „Guardian“ and in the „Dreams Trap“ I’ll know I’m about to meet another man who will make me happy. Then this knowledge…»

I hadn’t time to finish the phrase. One of the ghostly books instantly flew off the shelf and clung to my equally ghostly hands. I took it gently and read the letters appearing on the cover, «A Guardian». Yes, some pages were blank, but some lines were clearly visible. However, from the scrolled through it became obvious, the next summer wouldn’t be more fun than the current one. I would have to dance with Death once more, but the expectation of the appearance of the Man in White, the help of the guardians and the trip to Elabuga to Marina Tsvetaeva on my birthday would drive Death away from me. The Man in White would never appear there, but instead of him…

«That’s right, Alice!» exclaimed the Green-eyed, glancing at the clock above the portal at the same time. «In London, the guardian will bump you into the Man Who Was Not three times in one day! Because you should make a settlement! What you’ve seen in the Tablets will come true. You’ll climb the staircase, become the winner of the competitions the «Kings of poets’ and the «Heritage», and the Man Who Was Not…»

«It’s unreal,» I sighed, getting up from my chair and coming up to the shelf to put back the «Guardian», as the ghostly «Dreams Trap» flew into my hand from the same shelf.

«Leave it, Alice! Don’t waste precious time!»

However, I was already flipping through the pages of my «Dream». It featured the strange story of the Man in White and the mysterious Man in Black who would bury me in Venice telling someone about my death in my sleep.

«Alice, you have no time to think about the Man in Black! Think of the Man Who Was Not! You need to come back! Give him a chance!»

«But in the „Dreams Trap“, written after the „Guardian“, there is no Man Who Was Not! It’s the Man in Black burying me!» I started to lose my temper at the obvious confusion.

«Alice! You must listen to what I’m telling you! That’s what your guardian would say if he were here now!»

«Have you read the last chapter of the „Dreams Trap“? It describes fragments of the meditation, including my wedding with the Man in Black. And during the wedding you came up to me and said, „You need him!“ Or wasn’t it you?» I exclaimed in bewilderment.

«It was me,» she sighed heavily and darkened.

«What will happen in Venice? You know! Something bad, isn’t it?» I asked already foreseeing some tragedy, but the Green-eyed silently walked away from me to the Window into the World.

I ran up to her and deafened the afterlife silence of the Library with the cry of my thought, «WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ME IN VENICE?»

The Green-eyed kept silent. I took a step towards the Window and disappeared into it.


***
the mage’s lair,
the Old Arbat street


I flew into Ray’s flat, where, judging by what I had seen, I could actually find myself for the first time only a week later, if… He was sitting in a rocking chair, immersed in a trance state. His glass-like eyes were wide open, but his gaze was turned into the depths of Another Reality.

«Ray!» I shouted mentally, and he instantly looked at me.

«Alice… How are you?»

«I’m dying, Ray. A car accident on the 53rd kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road. Please help me!!! I don’t have much time!»

«Are you stuck There and can’t get back?»

«Yes, and probably, I won’t be back. I need to know the truth!»

«Always at your disposal, Alice.»

«I leafed through two of my future books, „A Guardian“ and „A Dreams Trap“.»

«About your Venetian dream?»

«Yes. In the last chapter of the „Dreams Trap“, there are fragments of the distant Future, including the Man in Black burying me in Venice, but I can’t see his face and don’t understand how I ended up there, why I died. Judging by what he says to people calling me on the day of my funeral, I arrived in Venice for a short period of time and suddenly died in my sleep. A fragment of my wedding with the Man in Black is also described there, but there are present only ghosts, my parents and inhabitants of the Library of the Universe, including Marina, who says, „You need him!“ Then I walk in a black dress along the edge of the abyss until Marina and Pluto, the lord of the Kingdom of the Dead, take me to Eternity. In the last chapter, I pull out three tarot cards, „Death“, „The Sun“ and „Love“, but I don’t know how to interpret them. Logically, the „Death“ card, according to the chain of events, should fall out last. Today in the Library of the Universe, I asked what would happen to me in Venice, but Marina stopped talking. Moreover, she turned black, telling me to think not about the Man in Black, but about the Man Who Was Not. And here, Ray, the strangest things arise. There is no MWWN in the „Dreams Trap“. He is mentioned in the „Guardian“, written before. My guardian angel bumps me into the MWWN in London and tells me to consider the Man in Black as the personification of my fear of life and men in general. Like Marina, the guardian told me to think about the MWWN. But I’m much more concerned about my death in Venice! Something terrible is going to happen there! That’s why they hide the truth from me, and I’m scared of the Man in Black because of the way I would die.»

«So now you can’t make a decision: is it worth for you to return? It turns out that the guardian is right. You are scared of the Future, of life and men in general. Not just scared, you are fixed on your fear.»

«Ray, I just want to know the truth! Why do they keep telling me about the Man Who Was Not? Like, I must forgive him, otherwise, I won’t come back! How many people on Earth live without forgiving someone for something? Or has everyone around, except me, become a saint? Those ghosts in the Library seem to be in cahoots to keep me away from what really matters to me! I don’t want to go back unless I know the truth about my death in Venice!»

«I’m sure, your death in Venice is just an option for your Future! But if both books are based on real events from the life of one and the same person, that’s you, then they are somehow interconnected.»

«Ray, but how to connect two parallel chains into a single whole? In the „Guardian“, there is the Man Who Was Not, while the Man in White, who looks like a virtual Man in Black, is present in the „Dreams Trap“. These chains don’t even intersect! Why connect them?»

«To know the truth, Alice. If you really want to know it. The answers are usually hidden in what you aren’t shown, in the supposedly missing links, in the places where different fragments join into a single picture. Why do you categorically refuse to think about the Man Who Was Not, but who will obviously appear in your life, and not by chance, more than once?»

«I’m afraid of him.»

«Afraid of being hurt by him again?»

«Yes,» I sighed heavily.

«It turns out that you are afraid of the Man in Black, the Man Who Was Not, and the Man in White. At least, you have one link in those unrelated fragments. What else did you see there today?»

«Everything is mixed-up in my mind. I remember the astrologer in India. We were discussing the options for my death, a whole bouquet of them. A blade in the bathroom, but that’s impossible, Ray, the most I would dare is going out the window. A violent death. An invasion of a metal object into my body. A plane crashed into the sea. A car accident, happening to me now. Death during a surgery. A sudden cardiac arrest in my sleep…»

«Did the astrologer say that your death is related to a man?»

«Oh, yes, he did! How could I forget that! He can be nearby or kill me. He can indirectly push me to the window, for example. He can accidentally do something so that I die, or we’ll hold the keys to each other’s death. To be honest, I didn’t understand what that meant.»

«You’ll be his guardian and he’ll be yours. Both deaths are interconnected. Rarely, but it happens.»

«My death is also connected with water or liquid, like death on the water. It’ll be under mystical circumstances, in isolation, in emigration, abroad… Oh, Ray! I’ve seen myself at my Teacher erasing a piece of memory about the MWWN. The Teacher said that I would have died if I had been with the Man Who Was Not, since the word „death“ came to him. That’s nonsense! Anyway, there was only the Man in Black at my funeral in Venice, and the Man Who Was Not really wasn’t and never will be there!»

«Well, what else have you seen, besides Venice?»

«Staircase, but it’s about my literature. Not one staircase, two of them! As the ghosts in the Library explained to me, the first one is about the „King of Poets“ competition. The second is about the „Heritage“ competition organized by the Imperial House of Romanovs. It’s unrealistic to win any, Ray, but I saw myself on the stage with the Empress Alexandra, who once had been called Alice, like me. She kissed me three times. And after each staircase, the phantom of the Man in White appeared.»

«It’s bad,» Ray said thoughtfully.

«Is it bad that it was the Man in White?»

«No. It’s bad that it was just a phantom. It’s not clear whether two different men will appear or one and the same. Okay, so what’s next about the phantom-like Man in White?»

«He takes me away on a boat somewhere towards the mountains. And Venice appears then… Ray, you always see and know more than I do! You are such a strong mage! I want to know the truth here and now! I’ll forget everything if I come back! What happened to me in Venice?»

I began to cry from my helplessness, sinking onto the chessboard floor in the black flat, the lair of a true mage. Ray sat down next to me. He couldn’t hug me to calm me down, because he was in his earthly body, while I was out of mine one, but he sighed and said, «Alice, you’ll be the most beautiful bride! That’s the truth I guarantee you…»