Finally, holding Astrid's hand, he spoke loudly and smiled. When he saw me, he stopped and looked at me for some time, without saying hello. I was embarrassed and felt that I was red.
- Ah, as you can see, that will be it, my dear. - He said, with his decided and straightforward way, opening his arms and approaching me.
- In such an abbreviated time, how you've changed. - He said.
- As my darling has grown! - He said.
- So, look at that, it was a Suyane! It turned into a full rose.
With his big hand, he took mine and squeezed so hard, so frankly, it nearly hurt. I thought he was going to kiss my hand and I started to bow to him, but he squeezed my hand again and looked me straight in the eye with his steady, happy gaze.
I hadn't seen him for six years. It had changed a lot; he had grown older, darker, and had grown some sideburns that didn't suit him; but it was the same simple manners, the same open, honest, broad-featured face, bright intelligent eyes, and fond smile, with something childlike about it.
A few minutes later, he ceased to be a visitor and became a household member for all of us, even the staff, who, as was evident from his solicitude, were quite happy with his arrival.
He was not at all like the neighbors who arrived after his mother died and who found it necessary to be silent and cry while sitting with us; on the contrary.
He was one of the representatives of the temple, for someone who worked with the city's dead and zombies, he was talkative, cheerful, and didn't say a word about Mother, so that indifference at first struck me as strange and even inappropriate.
Even from someone so close. However, later I understood that this was not indifference, but sincerity, and I was grateful for that.
At dusk, when Astrid sat down in the drawing room to serve tea, the place where we had tea in the old days, in Mother's time, when Sonia and I sat next to her.
Since the elder of the council, called Heinrich, brought Sergei Harald a pipe that had belonged to Papa and him, as in the old days, when he began to walk around the room, to one side and to the other.
- How many horrible things happened here since the last time I was here. – He said, as he stopped towards the center of the room.
- For sure. - Astrid said, with a sigh and, putting the lid on the samovar, she looked at him, already preparing to cry.
- My dear, do you still remember your father? – He questioned her.
- He was taken many years ago to the realms of the dead. - She said. – That was when I was little, I have vague memories. - She said.
- He is missed, how nice it would be if he returned or was still here. - He exclaimed, in a muffled voice, looking thoughtfully at my head, above my eyes.
- As much as your mother, I loved him too. - He said, when he added the last sentence in a lower voice, in which he was still, and it seemed to me that his eyes got brighter.
- This spectral pandemic wave is taking the sorcerers; the curse of Faust is still here. Astrid exclaimed.
- I know that even thousands of years ago, zombies and demons, even wizards, couldn't lift the curse. - He said.
At the same time, he put a napkin over the kettle, took a handkerchief and started to cry.
- Yes, I know, there have been terrible changes in this city. - He said.
When he repeated, averting his eyes. — Sonia, show me your artifacts, you're learning, right? - He exclaimed thinking
At that time, he added after a few moments, and left for the hall.
So, I looked at Astrid with teary eyes as he left.
- He is a wonderful friend and advisor. - She said.
And actually, in a way, I felt good and warmed by the compassion of this good, strange man.
Sonia's giggles could be heard in the living room, and he was joking with her.
It was at that time, when I asked them to bring him his tea and it was heard that he had sat down at the piano and started hitting the keys, with
– Dear Anelise Schiller! – We hear your voice.
- Come on, come join us, play your nice piano, your music will bring joy. - He said.
I found it pleasing that he treated me in such a friendly and imperative manner; I got up and went to meet him.
- See, my dear, try to play this one. – He said, opening a Beethoven score, in the adagio of the famous sister sonata, "the Moonlight Sonata
- My dear, let's see you play. - He said, adding the last note, as he walked away with the glass to the corner of the hall.
For some reason, I felt that I couldn't refuse and make the excuse that I played badly.
Even though I was under her orders, more than apathetic and under her authority, when I sat down in front of the piano, in which I was next to her, I began to accompany, using the violin, in which I began to play as I knew how. , despite fearing judgment, knowing that he liked music and understood the subject.
Even under the mood of the adagio it matched the feeling of the memories awakened by the teatime conversation and, it seems, I played reasonably. But he wouldn't let me play the scherzo.
- This one you don't have much affinity. - That's when he said, approaching me.
- We'll leave that for another time, but the first one wasn't bad.
- You seem to be a great pianist, you understand the score very well, you seem to understand the music. - He said.
This moderate compliment made me so happy that I even blushed.
Even for me, it was very pleasant news that he, my father's friend, and partner, was talking to me seriously and as an equal.
It was strange to talk about a man who tried to cause a revolution of monsters, by facing a demon, which he himself had summoned, when he tried to outsmart the demon, in question, he used zombies as a Lich mage, even though he knew that his father died a long time ago, he didn't accept his age well.
Still, be that as it may, his father lost the war, for another mage, even if his mother secretly betrayed him, it was essential for him to lose, being trapped in the dark world, in the fief of the demon in question, so , being like in the old days and not how you talk to a child, as you used to do. Astrid went upstairs to put Sonia to sleep and the two of us stayed in the hall.
He told me about my father, he told me how they met, how they lived happily in the time when I still had my Kindle and my toys; and, in his accounts, my father appeared to me for the first time as a simple and affectionate person, even if he was a benefactor, he was one of the magicians of Um-Mu society, as I had not known him until then.
This fed my curiosity, in which he also asked what I liked, what I read, what I intended to do, and he gave me advice, even if I wanted to follow in the same footsteps, I didn't want to have the same fate, nowhere did he was.