Fall in love in a weekwe get by

–Did he forget again? Let me guess,” she recalled her assumptions. -Did you get on him so much that he ran away in horror? With parting words to think about studying, and not dream about beaches and mojitos?

– And textured girls. But seriously, I had no time for parting words after your spectacular suicide attempt. And Mr. Applestone, impressed to the ends of his hair, has no time for alchemy. So, just in case, you knew about the renovation of the protective dome with a rickety barrier in the area of our department.

I stared at Dougal in complete… stun – just like Applestone, probably also to the ends of my hair – there’s no other way to put it.

– Is that what it looked like? Suicide attempt?!

– Exactly. True, it immediately became clear that it didn’t work out for you,” he chuckled, “but, you must admit, when such a disgrace is happening before your eyes for no apparent reason, it is quite difficult to remain impassive. I don't like problems without solutions and questions without answers. They violate the logic of space.

– ? I still couldn’t understand why the hell brought you to my home. It’s not like you forgot to bring in a bag, really!

– The bag played its role. From it, in fact, it was clear that you were not carried further than home and that you were still alive.

Now I chuckled.

– Don't tell me. A woman out of her mind can be carried away anywhere, with or without a purse. For example, that evening, and not only that evening, I almost drifted to Sydney.

“This is again one of the things Miss Blair didn’t see fit to enlighten you about.” From an item belonging to a magician, you can learn a lot about the magician himself. So in this case, women's habits or extravagances do not matter. But Sydney… Yes, you just have to be glad that you didn’t have enough time, courage, inclination to madness or anything else, otherwise the first suicide attempt would have been followed by a second. Probably successful.

– I assumed something similar. Well, that is, when I first learned about the portals, it dawned on me that Sydney was not half a day by plane, but one step. That there must probably be some kind of borders and border control, and visas, and something else that I don’t know about. And to meddle like this on the fly is dangerous and stupid – it will smear somewhere else between Paris and Tokyo… But nothing like that even came to mind about the Academy.

Dougal shrugged his shoulders expressively.

“So, reason won after all.” Or what was left of him at that moment. Maybe even a self-preservation instinct.

– Why didn’t you ask directly? Well, when were you with me? About the dome and how stupid I was to portal straight from the pulpit?

“In the state in which I found you, it was absolutely pointless.” You couldn’t even concentrate on the direct order to drink tea. We were in subtle matters known only to you. But using simple inferences, I received an answer to one of the questions – you did not intend to take your own life. On the contrary, you were haunted by exclusively positive things. Cherished dreams, for example. Which for some mysterious reasons cannot be fulfilled. But you want it passionately.

– And you concluded that I am not Charlotte. And all the other conclusions that were talked about yesterday: not a hoax, not cloning, not… what else was there? You know, I still couldn’t understand whether I dreamed about your “Miss not-Blair” or not. Until that very flower bed with phlox, near which the moment of truth overtook us.

“I came to the conclusion that you are not Miss Blair much earlier.” But yes, then the fallacy of the idea with hoaxes of any kind was finally confirmed.

I shook my head.

“I shouldn’t have been so afraid to open up to you.” Now understand. Sorry.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he stood up. “Come on, it’s time, if you haven’t yet decided to attend a lecture in which you will only understand prepositions.”

“It’s all my bad luck with men,” I muttered under my breath.

– Another point on which you are fixated and which, I confess, interests me. Let's return to it at a more appropriate time and place. Certainly not at the Academy.

“And if we have time,” I did not voice this thought. As Dhugala had already learned, such an objection would only embolden him. I would organize a session of digging into my past at the first opportunity. And I wasn’t at all sure that I was ready to tell… him. It was easier with Sabella: after all, there are “purely feminine” themes. But I didn’t tell her everything, and she didn’t ask. Only about the last one…

But still, why didn’t Sabella tell him – about the curse, the remaining week, about everything? Was it a mistake to remain silent and hide the truth? After all, she understood, she could not help but understand how her son would react to such information… or to the fact that they were silent about it.

In front of Sabella, I didn’t dare ask, but now curiosity has won.