About thirty years ago.The girl was walking along a dimly lit corridor which was filled with the smells of paint and glue. The workshops of the students of the Royal College of Art could be felt even on the way to the campus. The characteristic smell inherent in the studios of young artists was spreading over several yards ahead. However, this did not bother any local inhabitants, since what could be more pleasant for an artist than the smell of paint just applied to the canvas with his own hand?
She turned the doork.n.o.b of one of the studios and opened the door. The s.p.a.cious room was lined with paintings, crumpled sheets of paper, brushes and paints lay on the floor in different places. In a word, despite the beauty of the works which were made by the inhabitant of this workshop, there was the most ordinary mess there.
But the girl"s attention was attracted not by this, but by a huge picture standing in the center of the room on an easel. The bright and vivid colors previously applied to the canvas were roughly smeared with gray and black as if the author had vented all his anger and frustration on them.
"Hmmm, if you wanted to try yourself in the style of Malevich, then you had to cover the entire canvas with black. However, the second "Black Square" is unlikely to bring you the same fame as the first to its author," the girl answered in a calm voice, examining the fragile and miniature back of her friend, bent over with a drooping head opposite the smeared picture.
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The young artist turned her head and looked at her guest. With tears in her eyes, she immediately jumped up and threw herself on the neck of her friend, "amelia!!! Ahh! What should I do?! They don"t even want to listen to me!" Interrupting the speech with loud sobs, she said indistinctly, wiping her soiled face on her friend"s jacket.
"Liu Yang, calm down and explain to me in an understandable way," Amelia stroked the girl on the back, not paying attention to the fact that she herself was now in this paint. Oh, this little Chinese princess, whatever happens, she bursts into tears. She clasped her hands around the artist"s face and squeezed her cheeks, making the latter look like a fish with bulging lips.
"Hmm, I don"t understand why such lip grimacing will be popular in the future? Anyway, people are strange creatures," Amelia thought to herself and smirked, looking at a friend who had calmed down a bit and was ready to share what made her spoil the picture, which took three days to paint.
Liu Yang nodded her head in the affirmative, took Amelia by the hand and led her to the far corner of the studio, where there was the cleanest place and where they could sit down and discuss everything.
"I spoke to my parents yesterday. They demand that after the exhibition I withdraw from college and return to Beijing. They want to hold a ceremony to introduce families to my future husband," the girl lowered her head and began to wipe away the tears that silently rolled down her cheeks.
"He is ten years older than me, he is the son of one of my father"s acquaintances, so they want to legitimize our relationship so that the business flourishes even better. But how can that be? I haven"t even graduated from college, I still have the last semester! And I do not know this person at all! Mom sent me his picture, and I didn"t like him at all!" The girl was ready to burst into tears again but restrained herself at her last strength.
She understood that her parents wanted the best for her and the family, and according to rumors, that man was not a bad person, but deep down in her heart, something tormented her, something told her that by agreeing to this proposal, she will lose the opportunity to become happy.
Amelia stroked her friend"s head and tucked a strand of hair out of the girl"s ear, "YangYang, listen, sometimes, what seems wrong to us may turn out to be the most reasonable decision in our life in the future. Not everything is so simple in the world, and you never know where the path you decided to take will lead you, but that does not mean that you need to stop, right? What you fear may actually be your salvation," Amelia replied.
She already knew what was going to be discussed when she had just crossed the threshold of this room. And she also knew about the decision of her best friend, but she hoped that the impossible would happen and fate would go a different way. Then her path will take a different direction as well.
But people themselves make their fate, and Amelia could not influence Liu Yang"s life, guided only by her selfish desires. This girl was her only and true friend, a friend who loved her simply as Amelia, and not as a descendant of a powerful family with a mystical past. Therefore, whatever decision YangYang makes, Amelia will accept it as it is.
"Lia, I know that I have said many times how I hate these moneybags who use you and your abilities for their own benefit, but can you fulfill my request not as my girlfriend, but as a member of the Teser family?" Liu Yang looked at the girl sitting next to her with uncertainty. She knew that her request was selfish, but Amelia was the only person to whom she could entrust her feelings and her fate.
Amelia"s gaze was serious and motionless, after which the girl smirked and shook the hair on her friend"s head, "Hey, why are you so hesitant? Are you and I friends or what? Do you think I"ll eat you for such a request?"
Liu Yang smiled back, mentally tapping herself on the head for her own stupidity. She knew well about the mystical abilities of her friend, but it only now did it occur to her that Amelia most likely already understood everything and even knew how their conversation would end.
"Heh, after all, I will never grow up like you. You are just amazing," the girl whispered, sincerely admiring her friend.
Amelia lifted her nose, imitating the pretense of importance, "Yes, I am like that," she laughed, and then added, "But you know, possessing different wisdom and secrets of the universe does not make a person happy. The real joy is just living. To be happy, just when you wake up."
She took Liu Yang"s palm and covered it with her hand. YangYang felt the warmth spreading through her body as if Amelia had cast some enchanting spell on her.
"I, Amelia Lucia Teser, as your direct descendant, appeal to you, Great ancestor, King Ziusudra. Open the time gate and let me direct the fate of this person along the channel that she herself will choose. I promise to remain only a guide and not to use this agreement for personal gain. For violation of this condition I charge - my life."
Liu Yang felt her palm become hot, but when she looked at it, she saw nothing. Although, at the same time, the feeling that something had burned her skin remained in place.
"Give me your hand and close your eyes," Amelia commanded, and YangYang obediently fulfilled her request.
The whole body of the artist became weightless as if she was floating in the air. She could imagine herself standing in a large and s.p.a.cious meadow, and like a warm wind was blowing around her from all sides. This went on for some time, after which everything calmed down.
A second later, the girl was covered by a wave of previously unexplored emotions. Joy, happiness, bliss, tenderness, warmth, caring, love... All the best that a person could feel in this life seized power over her body with an irrepressible whirlpool, preventing her from even breathing.
Beneath her abdomen there was a pleasant tension, which was spreading by electric discharges over her, causing her toes to bend with pleasure, which she had never felt before. It was something new that her body had not yet known, but genetic memory took for granted.
Pleasure was replaced by sharp and short pain, after which a new wave of happiness swept over her with even greater force.
And suddenly everything broke off.
The girl felt herself falling into some deep hole, so deep that it was impossible to reach its bottom, and from which she could never get out again. And the deeper she fell into it, the more her chest was torn with pain and helplessness.
Liu Yang opened her eyes and realized that she had not even noticed how she began to cry. "Wh-what, what was that?" she asked Amelia in a slightly hoa.r.s.e voice.
"It was your life," the girl answered quietly, "If you agree to marry that man, your life will be long and calm, like a light breeze or water surface. You will not have love and children, but there will be deep mutual respect, you will support each other and grow old together as good and close friends."
"If," Amelia paused a little and sighed, "If you refuse, then you will meet another person on your way, next to whom you will feel love and happiness, but it is likely that in seven years, you and your child will die."
The last words made Liu Yang"s heart go cold. Seventy years of a quiet life with an unloved person and not having children against seven years of happiness with a loved one, so that in the end you lose not only your life but also the life of your child? That was the price for her choice.
"You said it was very likely that my child and I would die, right? But this means that there is little chance that this will not happen, right?" YangYang clutched at this tiny hope as the last straw.
Amelia frowned slightly, already aware of her friend"s future decision. However, knowing YangYang, she would be surprised if she did otherwise. In any case, Amelia did not have the right to intervene, and the fact that Liu Yang"s decision at that moment radically influenced the future of Amelia herself she could not tell about this either.
The thing that she has been told so many time since childhood, it seems, with every month found more and more confirmation. Even the descendant of Teser was not in control of the pa.s.sage of time, inexorably striving for its goal, like sand falling to the bottom in an hourgla.s.s.
But Amelia was not one of those who would just sit and silently watch. And if fate took away from her this opportunity to change everything, she would go further and find another one. As long as she was alive, she was not going to so easily submit to her fate.
"Yes, you are right. There is a chance, but it is minimal. And to realize it, you will need a certain chain of events that have not yet occurred, so I can"t promise you anything," she explained to her friend.
"I agree," Liu Yang answered confidently, "I agree to seven years of life and when they expire, I will do my best to find this minimum chance."
"I didn"t expect anything else from you," Amelia smiled. The girl closed her palms again and said, "I, Amelia Lucia Teser, act as a conductor in the time corridor to this person and confirm her choice. The agreement will be paid for seven years of silence, life will be paid for the violation of the contract."
A yellow light appeared between the hands of the girls, and Liu Yang screamed in pain but did not grab her hand.
"Yes, it hurts," Amelia grinned, watching her friend grimacing, trying to endure the pain. She released the girl"s hand, and Liu Yang immediately checked it, but again did not notice anything.
"Hey, shouldn"t there be-"
"Burns?" Amelia asked again and explained, "I put an invisible rune on your palm. It is called Gyfu and means "gift" or "gift of time". This is proof of my agreement with you. You will feel its presence at those moments when you need to do something important, and after seven years it will disappear."
"I-I got it," Liu Yang said thoughtfully and ran her fingertips over her palm, she clearly felt a symbol in the shape of the letter "X" on her skin. "And what should I do now? To call my parents and say that I refuse to return to Beijing?"
"Don"t worry, you won"t have to do this. So, how"s everything with your exhibition? Everything is going according to plan?" Amelia asked and looked around.
"Um, in three days."
"And what kind of paintings will you exhibit?" Amelia picked up one of her friend"s brushes, Liu Yang pointed her finger at several paintings standing along the wall.
"What are you doing?" YangYang asked with interest, watching her best friend paint some strange squiggles on top of the canvases that she had been working on for the past month.
"Here"s what you"ll do," Amelia straightened up and clapped her hands, finishing the incomprehensible that she was doing. "You leave these pictures for later, put them out in five years, and after the exhibition, you will hang them at home."
"What?! B-but... this is my final graduation a.s.signment! What should I go to the exhibition with? You know, the professor will beat me if I do nothing! Three days are left, and I have no more ideas!" Liu Yang pleaded. Of course, she trusted the decision of her friend, but this decision was like a knife in her creative heart.
"Do you know sign language?" Amelia asked, dramatically changing the subject.
"Yes, a little. But what does it have to do with my situation?" YangYang asked her in bewilderment.
Amelia smirked and winked, "Just nothing, I have one little idea here."