“Why do you think our Watch bank cards don’t have any limit?” I asked in amazement.

“I checked it,” Las chuckled. “Seems like you try to live within the pay that’s supposed to be transferred to your account. Count it all up some time, out of curiosity—you’ll soon see that you’ve been spending two or three times as much as you earn for a long time! The only limit is your internal sense of measure . . . and that has a way of getting stretched. So, Anton, if you behave like those people who are used to thinking of themselves as above everyone else you’re absolutely no different from them.”

“I don’t drive through red lights with a flashing beacon!” I growled.

“Of course not. You drive through the crossroads in the Twilight, or you apply a Sphere of Inattention to your car, so that everyone brakes without even knowing why. What’s the difference between your magic and a flashing light? There isn’t any! You think of yourself as a member of a higher race too—only, of course, with greater reason. You are a member of a higher race! You’re an Other. A Light Other. So you wish people well. But it’s a long, long time since you lived the life of ordinary people and you couldn’t live that way. You wouldn’t last even a single day.”

“I would,” I said stubbornly.

“That’s what you think,” said Las, frowning. “Anyway . . . I like humans, I wish them well. But I don’t idealize them. And since they behave like cattle, that’s the way I have to relate to them. No way am I going to pretend that there’s no difference between me and Vasya the yard-keeper.”

“There isn’t any difference, except that we have magical abilities,” I said. “Absolutely none. We have the same morality, the same dreams . . . the whole kit and caboodle!” I raised my hands, touched the Twilight, and felt for my own aura. “Block for twenty-four hours.”

“I was absolutely certain you would do that,” Las said. “Well, go on, try it. Only twenty-four hours is too ambitious to start with. A couple of hours would have been enough for you.”

“I queued for passport control in the airport for an hour,” I said. “It was okay, not a peep out of me.”

“A pity it wasn’t two,” Las sighed. “Then you would have been more careful now . . . Right, then, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Right, then,” I said, and nodded.

“Shall I give you a lift home?” Las asked.

I just snorted disdainfully and headed for the exit.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3