“Anton . . . Anton, we have to follow this path right to the end. Where’s that recording, Anton? Where’s the prophecy? If we don’t like it, we’ll . . . we’ll do what Fan and Li did. You’ll kill me and the Tiger will calm down . . .”

“He won’t calm down,” I said, shoving Arina away. “Because you’re not my best friend and your death won’t prove a thing to the Tiger! You calm down. There’s no need to hurry, no need to do anything hasty and ill-considered.”

“Do you realize what I did?” Arina whined. “Do you realize that? I destroyed our homeland, Anton! We ought to have died and not let the prophecy out into the world, or let it come true . . . but I put it off! And it turns out that I just stretched the spring tighter! I was blinded by my self-assurance, by my faith in myself . . . I decided to fight. And now everything will be even worse, do you understand that, even worse!”

“Arina, we don’t know anything yet,” I said. “Perhaps your prophecy was actuated in the 1940s. Remember? ‘Little Russia is German land.’ That was what it said, right?”

The insanity in Arina’s eyes faded for a second.

“Yes . . . no . . . But the rest of it hasn’t happened . . . Anton . . .” Her voice became wheedling. “You know I managed to restore a few things from the Fuaran . . . I can increase the powers of Others—that’s very important—and there are lots of other things in there that nobody knows about . . .”

Poor Fan Wen-yan’s eyebrows climbed up onto his forehead. He had only just shared with us his own experiences and his opinion of the Twilight, which contradicted all the fundamental theories of the Others.

And in return he had heard a fragment of an old “postponed” prophecy and learned that the legendary Fuaran was in the possession of a Witch, who had even managed to restore it, and that it could increase an Other’s Power. (I could imagine how he felt hearing that, when it had taken him three hundred years to reach the Fourth-Level!)

“Anton . . . darling . . . you have no idea of what I can do—I can do things for you that no one else can . . .” Arina’s hands were pressed against my chest and she leaned her head to one side, looking into my eyes. “Anton . . . dearest . . . you did keep the prophecy, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding while gazing into Arina’s eyes.

“Anton,” Fan said very calmly and politely. “I’d like to point out that—”

“Anton, how did you keep it?” Arina went on.