“I am very sorry, esteemed Miss Arina. But a prophecy that has reached humans always comes true. The only thing that can be done is to postpone it by destroying the shortest and most obvious route to its realization. But a prophecy that has not been realized in its own time will only accumulate power and strike again, with even graver consequences. I am very sorry.”

Arina’s eyelid twitched. Then red patches appeared on her cheeks.

“That’s nonsense!”

“I am afraid not, Miss Arina. As you can understand, I studied this matter very closely at one time. And what’s more, I continued studying it later. For eighty years I have been collecting all the information I can find about prophecies, the Tiger, the possibility of changing the outcomes of prophecies . . .”

“You can’t know everything!” Arina cried: it was almost the only time I had seen her lose her self-control. “You don’t know my case! The prophecy didn’t happen and it won’t happen.”

“I do not know what it was that you heard in your time and what you did,” said Fan, bowing his head. “And I do not dare to ask, although if you share it with me, I shall be grateful. But ask yourself—is what you tried to avert possible today?”

The only sounds in the silence that followed were the chirping of birds and the chattering of insects in the park. I remembered what Arina had told me.

To be honest, the only thing that raised any doubts was the “tsar.”

But then, prophecies are always allegorical, they are transmitted through the consciousness of the prophet. Arina’s friend who liked rhyming her prophecies couldn’t have said “president,” could she? Or “general secretary”?

“But could the prophecy already have come true?” I asked. “Arina, some things could quite easily be regarded—”

“Shut up!” Arina growled. “Fan, how can the Tiger be killed?”

“He cannot be killed,” Fan said, shrugging again. “The Tiger is the embodiment of the Twilight in the real world. Can you kill the Twilight, Witch?”

“I’m an Enchantress!”

“You have changed your color, but you were, are, and always will be a Witch,” Fan replied calmly. “There is no insult in my words. Let me ask again: can you kill the Twilight?”

“Why does he come, Fan?” I asked quickly, to get in before Arina.

I didn’t think he would answer. But Fan did begin to answer, and with obvious enjoyment—he had probably not had such interested listeners very often.