Edgars ņš - Fall in love in a weekwe get by

Dougal's support? We swore an oath of secrecy – Mr Blair, Maskelyne, myself and Dougal. I received new documents, I don’t know how Mr. Blair got them, and Charlotte received a different fate, about which I know nothing.

– She is alive. The rest doesn’t concern you,” he said, and I, of course, did not object.

That evening, Dougal and I spontaneously, without saying a word, reached out to each other, as if we both needed a good dose of human warmth and affection. As a cure for the chilling cold that reigned in my soul after meeting Charlotte’s father and the headmistress. But the “medicine” very quickly turned into pleasure, and that night was the first of many – we felt good together, very good. It was then that the fear that now, freed from the curse, we would look at each other differently disappeared. And the last doubts disappeared.

And two weeks later there was a wedding. Quiet, chamber ceremony: Dougal said that the noise around his name would be enough for him for several years to come, and I knew almost no one here at all. Chester is the best man, Elsa is the bridesmaid, and the only spectator is Sabella. The ring on my finger felt… strange. Finally, but not as “it’s all over”, but as “now it all begins.” Happiness with a taste of anticipation…

No, everything did not become easy, simple and wonderful, as if by magic. But Dougal and I wouldn’t want to end up in a cloudless fairy tale. Is it possible to enjoy the sun if it shines around the clock?

“Dougal and I”… Yes, with him it was easy and natural to move from “mine” and “yours” to “we” and “ours”. Not in everything, of course – it’s still “your work and mine”, but this does not interfere with anything. Quite the contrary.

Mrs Freya Norwood has not yet made a name for herself as a journalist. It doesn't happen that quickly. I get to know the world, gain impressions, and at the same time explore interesting topics. Honestly, it’s much more difficult than it was at home, because here I’m interested in everything. Even alchemy conferences, which I went to several times with Dougal. And even though I still only understand prepositions and individual words in reports, conversations on the sidelines are something! You won’t hear anything there, from debates about the advisability of creating the philosopher’s stone (here, by the way, it is considered not a legend of alchemy, but a paradoxical scientific curiosity) to a caustic discussion of the unforgettable “tidal pebbles.”

And Dougal Norwood is a world-famous scientist, one of the leading experts of the Patent Commission, the inventor of one and a half dozen fundamentally new potions and one and a half hundred successful modifications of well-known recipes. Honorary member of five Academies, which does not include the Panacea Academy. Maskelyne bites his elbows in frustration, but cannot do anything. She has no access to Sabella’s house, much less to our London apartment. And when they happen to meet in public, Dougal only bows to her mockingly and politely and suppresses any attempts to start a conversation.

Here is the lake – a magically blue surface under a cloudy sky, a sunny glare, although the sun is not visible behind the clouds. Kels is curious and has already sensed my presence. We still have to wait out his usual water show with special effects, but I know how to speed up the conversation. It is enough to recall the incident that I want to talk about.

I was looking for something unusual as a gift for Sabella. As light, sonorous and magical as she herself. I don’t know how I ended up in an art gallery—a painting would have been the last option I thought of. If only because I don’t understand painting at all.

There I saw… him.

The same portrait.

She froze, clenching her fists painfully, convincing herself that it seemed to me, I imagined it. This is not a dream… not that creepy dream with the “portrait in blue.” But when I managed to breathe and take a step, I saw it myself – and the portrait was not the same. Not so…otherworldly. Without the frightening landscape of the astral world, without ghostliness in the image. Just the face of a girl, very similar to Charlotte and slightly like Sally, in the bluish moonlight, on the ocean shore. Disturbing, yes – but nothing more.

"Jacob Hughes. “The echo of someone else’s fate,” I read and closed my eyes. Jacob. Jake. The same artist and drunken Australian night that I dreamed about. Just a dream. Does this even happen? At least in the magical world, at least not?

Kels's mocking neigh jerked him out of his memories. Kels communicated with Dougal in colorful, visible images, but more often he sent me phrases, spoken in Dougal’s voice and with his most poisonous intonations. I suspect this is one of the kelpies' ways of brightening up eternity by having fun with people.

“You have already been answered. Some bipeds are given the ability to see and know more than others. If they also understood what exactly they see and know, I wouldn’t have to explain the obvious.”

And it’s true… when I showed the purchased portrait to Dougal and Sabella and told about that dream, Dougal just shrugged and replied:

– Inspiration. The thing is extremely unscientific because it is inexplicable. But it happens to some.

“It happens to everyone,” Sabella smiled. – Especially often with creative people. Ideas, pictures, words just come. And no one knows where. Doesn't that happen to you, Freya?

“Probably,” I admitted. – Sometimes.

Kels suddenly appeared very close, snorted in the face, splashing him with cold spray. The purple eyes sparkled with fire.

“You were one step away from the Brink. A pitiful, lost, loving creature who wanted to live, but did not believe in life. “He did show me an image, probably the same one that so amused Dougal a year ago: a young, sickly pale mermaid sobbing bitterly, irritably scraping faded scales from her tail and sobbing again. – Eternity watched over you, the curse pushed you in the back. If it weren’t for the connection that had managed to form… – the picture changed, now I saw Dougal and myself, sheets of paper with a field for a “naval battle”, myself on the floor of the buffet and later, in the evening, in Dougal’s arms. – You could have left at any moment. You people are funny. One touch of your consciousness was enough for me to understand. And for some reason you waited until the last minute. You love to suffer too much. “He snorted again, and a cold wave washed over my feet. “Sit down, I’ll take you for a ride.”

– To the middle of the lake? – I dried myself off and cast a warming charm. – Thank you, Kels, I definitely don’t like suffering in icy water. Let's wait for summer. But still, what does Jake have to do with it? How did he know? How can you meet a real person in a dream?

“How can you inhabit someone else’s body?”

“There are many things in the world, friend Horatio,” I chuckled.

“Kels, this is my wife.” Find yours and talk half to death as much as you like.

– Dougal! – I threw myself on his neck, he grabbed me by the waist, lifted me, pressing me tighter. It's good that I came back earlier today!

Against the background of my laughter, Kels’s intonations suddenly seemed not sarcastic, but grumpily sad:

“Wives don’t fly to me from other worlds. But this one is boring.”

–You're too old to have fun. And envy is a bad feeling.

“Get out. Both. And don’t even think about returning without foals. Stupid people, you always waste time on things that are not really important.”

Well, of course, Kels always has the last word. Although he usually turns out to be right.

End

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