Iryna came back to reality, her racing heartbeat echoing in her ears. She could still smell that summer night, her throat dry and aching from her screams, her wrists numb from the stranger’s grasp.

Bewildered, she took in the room. The wizard stood by the wall, cup in hand, peering closely at her.

Did he hypnotize me? Oh, wow.

“Are you all right?” Valery asked, taking a sip of his cold tea.

“Um…yes. I am,” Iryna said hesitantly.

Nodding, the wizard went to the coffee table and put his cup down on the saucer before speaking. “Iryna. I brought this memory up not in order to reopen your old wound. I just wanted you to realize that this whole situation is very, very serious.”

She curled up on the sofa, looking up at him helplessly.

Rubbing his chin, Valery continued. “I used the chess game language to explain the basics. Now it is time to get a bit more specific.”

As he paced side to side over the carpet (probably hiding a Kabbalist seal painted on the floor beneath), Iryna couldn’t help but think, His face is made up of two different halves. The right half was intact except for a few pale scars crossing the cheek down to the chin. But the left half was in ruins, disfigured by sprawling burns. When he turned his head, the glossy, wax-like skin on his neck folded heavily.

At last, he stopped in front of her and spoke. “Your daughter is a regular teenager; her head is filled with normal teenager stuff. Just like what you or I used to think about at fourteen.” Pausing for a moment and looking at her face, he added, “An encounter like the one you had that night twenty-seven years ago...tomorrow Anya will have a similar one.

Iryna felt like the floor had fallen out from under her feet. Resting both hands on the sofa, she was struggling to make sense of what she’d just heard when Valery continued. “Tomorrow, your daughter will come face to face with a potential murderer.”

“Oh my goodness! I won’t let her leave the house.”

“No, Iryna. Facing him is but a single move in a game we can’t prevent. You can’t protect your daughter by grounding her or by any other means try to stop this encounter from happening. Anya is doomed to meet him. All we can do is prepare her.”

Iryna searched the room with desperate eyes as though looking for the answer scribbled somewhere on the wall. Then her face lit up with a sudden insight. “Wait. If you know this man is a murderer, why can’t we just report him to the police?”

“He’s not a murderer yet. No reason to lock him up. His worst crime was scaring a twelve-year-old badly last summer—but there’s no proof for that case. But tomorrow…tomorrow he’s determined to go much farther than just scaring Anya. And he will do it. I can’t see anything that will stop him.”

Iryna’s eyes darkened at these words. With drooping shoulders, she asked, “What can we do?”

“We still have some time to prepare Anya for this encounter.”

“But how?” she asked, with a glimmer of hope.

“To continue with the chess metaphor, we need to turn our pawn into a stronger piece. As I’ve told you before, the other side made its first move last night. This scary and precarious experience has initiated Anya’s transformation, burning away all the false ideas in her mind. But to complete this transformation, she must journey to another reality. She is still a child: open-hearted, naïve, and a romantic. That’s exactly what this transition takes.”

Looking up from the flowery teapot, Iryna stared at him with tired eyes. “I’m afraid I don’t understand you. What transition? Some kind of hypnosis? You say she’ll be attacked tomorrow. What can we possibly do in less than twenty-four hours?”

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A small smile cracked the burned half of the wizard’s face. “I see you’re very concerned and stressed about what has happened to Anya. I can’t blame you for not rushing to trust a stranger. Especially when they look like Freddy Krueger and talk some esoteric nonsense.”

“No, no,” Iryna objected hastily. “Please. I don't think that at all. It’s me who came to you to ask for help, after all. But what you say is…a bit too much. That’s all.”

“I see,” Valery said, smiling a bit wider. “You should know, Anya gave her consent to join this game, although she didn’t fully realize what she was agreeing to.”

“Oh goodness. How? When?”

“Last night. When making her birthday wish. What’s happening now is basically her wish coming true.”

“Oh my God. No, no, no,” Iryna whispered, taking a deep breath. Exhaling loudly and massaging her eyes, she asked in a weary voice, “What can I do?”

“Look,” Valery said.

She looked up at him sitting on the stool next to the coffee table, on which there was now an additional item alongside the sugar bowl and their two teacups.

He slid this new item across the table to Iryna. It was a tiny, leather snake coiling into a ring, as thick as her little finger.

“What’s that?” Iryna asked.

“The guide. Take it.”

Iryna reached out to touch the tiny, crimson scales with her fingertips. They were smooth. And warm. As if the snake were alive. What a funny thing. It reminded Iryna of the touring circus she’d seen two months ago while walking in the old city park with Anya.

That day had been extremely hot, even for late August. When they approached the bright, pointed tent baking in the sun, such a strong smell of animals, rotten sawdust, urine, and manure came from beneath its faded canvas that they decided not to enter.

Once they turned away onto the dry dirt path, out of the blue popped a lean, heavily tanned man with cold wolf’s eyes and a camera in his hand. Before long, he convinced them to take a memorable photo with the small, sleepy python—or boa constrictor, Iryna wasn’t sure which—that he’d retrieved from his basket.

A minute later, the snake coiled around Iryna’s neck like a choker necklace. Anya shifted her feet awkwardly, standing slightly off to the side, wary of approaching the reptile. But as the photographer gave them directions—Move closer, girl. Half a step ahead, Ma’am. Now, look up—Anya gradually grew braver, to the point of poking the snake with her finger, withdrawing it quickly every time as though from a hot kettle.

Contrary to Iryna’s idea of snakes as cold and slithery creatures, the photographer’s python-or-boa had been dry and warm—and much heavier than she expected.

This is what one feels like? she had thought.

Now, Iryna cautiously put the tiny snake on her palm. The toy reptile felt rather heavy for such a small thing. It looks alive. Sleeping peacefully.

“Put your hair up, Iryna,” the wizard said.

She looked up with surprise. “My hair?”

“Yes. Put it up and fix it with the snake. Its teeth clasp around the tail.”

Staring at the tiny thing with bewilderment, Iryna put her hair up obediently and wrapped the leather snake around it. Making the last coil, she heard the snake’s teeth click into the tail. It’s like it did it all on its own.

“Great. Looks like you are making friends with Asp. Anya will have to befriend him, too.”

“Asp?”

“This is a magic amulet. He has a name,” Valery explained in his usual dull voice which was as flat as if he were talking about a completely mundane thing, like a house key.

“It is a key, by the way. You are right,” he added as though overhearing her thoughts.

Iryna smiled faintly. She seemed to be getting a feel for whatever crazy game this man was playing.

“Asp will help us transport Anya to another world to prepare her for tomorrow’s encounter. Time flows differently there, on the other side of the chessboard. Anya will have enough time to become anything other than a helpless victim.”

“Can you tell me,” Iryna asked, peering closely into the wizard’s eyes, “who started this game? Who needs it and why?”

After a pause, Valery replied. “I can see a bit more than you, yes. But I’m still just a piece on this board. By the rules of the game, I can’t see anything beyond the few adjacent squares…and there’s very little that I’m allowed to disclose to you.”

Iryna sighed. “Oh, I see.”

“By the way, you’re already in the game.”

She arched her brows in surprise. “I am?”

“Of course. By calling Marina in the morning and arriving here, you’ve made your first move.”

Iryna squirmed on the sofa, feeling anxious. Valery resumed his pacing across the room. “The game has begun. We can’t stop it. I don’t yet know which side will prevail, but I know what I must do.” He turned to Iryna. “Would you mind a late visit?”

“What kind of visit?”

“The kind where I’ll come to see you around midnight. I hope you won’t mind me dropping by.”

“Why?”

“To assist Anya’s transition and prevent any…any…You have a gas stove in your apartment, don’t you?”

“A gas stove?” Iryna frowned in confusion, wondering what in the world it could matter.