Praecantatio

      Morning twilight. The sky is vivid blue, but the sun has not yet come out; the shadows are hard, deep and black.         A dark figure stands at the foot of the bed. Its eyes are long; its pupils are narrow, no — spreading all over its face; its eyes stretch, and the shadow itself stretches until it hovers over the one lying in bed, not moving.         Alex can’t move, no matter what effort she makes. She can’t close her eyes either, can't even look away; she is forced to look at what is standing next to her — sideways, in front and above at the same time — and continues to stretch until the bloodthirsty eyes are hidden behind her head.         No rustle, no movement, no knocking. The air is still, the shadow still stretches behind the headboard. A crescent of teeth is spreading across its face, growing sharp edges to the corners of its eyes… Into the eyes themselves… How can she still see them?.. Teeth, snow-white and growing, appear one after another, little white stones clump right on the weightless mask of the monster.         Alex sat up abruptly, with a strangled cry. Her heart was pounding somewhere in her throat, echoing with a low rumble in her ears. Echoes of fear made her turn around convulsively — what if the shadow lurked behind the headboard and looked at her with toothy eyes? — but the fears weren't confirmed.         A colorful dawn was blooming outside the window. Alex put her hand on the pillow and ran her palm over the slightly damp cloth.         It was happening in reality. Yes, the shadows were still imaginary, but Alex saw them not in a dream, while she was actually sleeping sweetly, but awake, pressing into bed, panicking, sobbing and staring into the void, while the void was grinning with more and more teeth.         Surely there must be a way to stop these headaches...    

   ***

        Alex considered herself to be a good thaumaturge — maybe even one of the best, because no one could comprehend the secrets of Thaumcraft so quickly. Her intuition led her to the threshold of important discoveries… and deceived her with an irrational sense of danger.         The further she progressed in the study of sacred magic, the more often her perception failed. The anxiety increased from day to day, but Alex found solace in a strong armor made of thauminium — a magical iron stronger than diamonds.         But her most important invention was… a magic soap.         As the dirt was washed off the skin with sanitizing soap foam, the creepy visions at the border of vision were erased by magic that skillfully interfered with the composition. Alex was washing her hair when she caught a tremor of light through her closed eyelids: a shadow covered her. Instantly she washed the soap off her eyelashes and opened her eyes, which immediately lit up from pinching.         One of her gardening golems was standing by the bath, staring at her.         Malevolent intent was splashing in its reddish eyes. Alex shivered from the cold, even though she was in a hot bath. It wasn't a very pleasant sight: it was one of several of her golems that she had sewn brains into their heads, and these brains peeked out of their tiny cranium.         The brain made them smarter. With it, the golems moved more confidently, looked thoughtfully into the distance in their free time, and a conscious rhythm was manifested in the clicking of their mechanisms. It was stupid to avoid such a great opportunity to advance them; it’s like using only an iron pickaxe because diamonds are in pain when they are being digging a stone with.         Alex believed that she gave her golems intelligence — the greatest invention of nature, the biggest achievement of evolution. But the golems seemed to be unhappy about it for some reason. Did they really consider themselves too smart to harvest wheat?         She poked the golem in the shoulder; it recovered and went to the garden to wait for the new harvest. Why did it even come here?..         Alex watched it leave, and then dived into the water and immediately surfaced, feeling much better.