Chapter 31

The first thing Konstantin saw were the walls of the old synagogue. Then before his gaze stood two demons—the one on the left now appeared to be a reflection. When the reflection nodded in response to the nod of the more real one, it vanished.

"I despise such moments," Konstantin heard the familiar words. "I think there is no need to explain where we are or what time this is. Therefore, let us proceed directly to the matter at hand," spoke Astaroth, standing opposite him. "And do stop looking around."

Kostya already understood what was what, yet still could not believe his eyes. "I am the Magister of the OPZS?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yes, you are still the Magister for now," answered Astaroth.

"And Elizabeth..." Kostya began.

"And your Elizabeth is getting married. Is that all? May we proceed to business now?" asked the demon, and continued, pointing to a scroll lying on the ground. "Do you see this scroll?" It was the scroll with which Konstantin had summoned him.

"How did it come to be here?" Kostya asked, still in a state of shock.

"What difference does it make? You are beginning to weary me—perhaps I erred in my choice? It has always been here. Time is far more complex than you mortals can conceive," Astaroth spoke mysteriously, and continued. "So then... this scroll is the only thing that binds me to your reality. I cannot destroy it, but you can. There are other scrolls as well—seventy-two in total, one for each inhabitant of my world. You have everything necessary to find them and destroy them."

"What do you need this for?" Konstantin asked in surprise, having now fully recovered from the shock.

"I could have refrained from telling you. But so be it..." the demon conceded. "Your world dishonors us, if one may put it thus. We are more perfect than you, yet others conduct themselves like base creatures. First they dance to the tune of humans, then they make marionettes of them. They make sport of that which demeans them, and any cooperation with you demeans them. I have descended to this level in order to put an end to it. As I see, you do not quite understand what I am speaking of, do you?"

"That is so. To control humans is a manifestation of power and strength. The shame is rather ours than yours. You ought to triumph," Kostya reasoned.

"It is you humans who have such distorted notions. We are not you. You would do well to grasp this," Astaroth advised. "Perhaps it will be clearer to you put differently. Let us suppose you have caught a worthless, pitiful, helpless animal in a cage and make sport of it. If you did this merely for your own pleasure, that would be one thing—but no, you go to others of your kind and begin to boast of your achievements. And everyone knows that beforehand, because of this scroll, you first had to grovel before this pitiful animal."

"But humans are not animals," Kostya objected. "Humans are full of lofty feelings and aspirations. They are endowed with free will, and their reason prevails over animal instincts."

"Do you yourself believe the drivel you spout?" the fallen one posed the rhetorical question. "In sum, I personally—the fourth prince among the eight archdemons—have grown weary of observing this. And all your so-called lofty aspirations are manifestations of our intervention. There is nothing in your history in which we have not participated. All your history is, in truth, our history."

"You mean Nero, Caligula, Napoleon, Hitler?" Konstantin asked with interest.

"If it were only them—I speak of nearly all the renowned ones of your kind," the demon confirmed. "They simply wanted different things. Many of those who aided them—something entirely incomprehensible to me—all but identify themselves with them. Is it not abhorrent to identify oneself with beings of lower rank? Moreover, I have grown weary of cleaning up after everyone from time to time."

"What do you mean by that?" Konstantin posed his next question.

"If only you knew how many times in the future there would already have been nuclear war, famine, pestilence. How many times humanity could have vanished from the face of the earth, had I not set things right in time. It is not that I pity you. I pity you no more than a heap of cockroaches. It is simply that everything must proceed according to the rules—one must not interfere with the natural course of things," the demon repeated the familiar words once more.

"So I must find and destroy all the parchments?" Konstantin asked again.

"Precisely so—otherwise I have wasted my time with all this demagoguery," Astaroth affirmed.

"How am I to search for them?"

"That will not be the difficulty. Destroy my scroll last, or else..." the fallen one paused, "or else things will not go very well... or rather, very badly indeed. Not to mention that you will have to search for the scrolls yourself, and you will not find them. Here is something else," the demon extended a worn book to Kostya. "In it you will find something of interest. Do not bungle things again—I am not your nursemaid to clean up after you," he added in his customary manner.

Kostya looked at the book. It was old, bound in leather, with yellowed pages. When Kostya raised his eyes, no one was there. He stood alone in the abandoned synagogue in the late hour. He gathered his belongings, recalling that somehow he had done this before.

Konstantin did not go home at once—he wandered through the cemetery. All of this was strange to him: this time, he a Magister, Elizabeth getting married. Now he did not suffer but contemplated everything with extraordinary calm. "Liza will be happy in marriage. She will love me as a friend and will no longer hate me," Kostya said to himself. Only today, after all that had happened, did Konstantin understand that precisely now, in wishing Elizabeth happiness, he truly loved her and not himself.

He walked about a while longer, choosing the words he would write to Elizabeth. But as soon as he reached his dwelling and lay down upon the sofa, overcome by weariness, he sank into the abyss of sleep.