Бесплатный фрагмент - A Thousand Years of Infinity

From the Author

Dear Friends.

I’m pleased to introduce you to my new fantasy short story, A Thousand Years of Infinity.

Over the past year, I have given several presentations at various conferences on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.

Yes, I really like this topic, I like the different research directions in this field, and of course I like solving new applications with AI.

In terms of science and application problem solving, I am actively working in the field of industrial automation. One of my priority research areas is to investigate the possibility of using artificial intelligence to implement algorithms for mismatch negativity potential in industrial automated predictive and prescriptive maintenance systems. Besides science, I am passionate about generative artificial intelligence. I spend a lot of time studying and improving the operation of application software solutions.

In 2024 I wrote and in early 2025 I published my book “Generative Artificial Intelligence #Forge&flux”. This book is a textbook for high school and college students who want to learn about advanced generative artificial intelligence technologies. In it, I explain AI approaches in simple and accessible language, making them understandable to those who do not have deep theoretical and practical knowledge. The book emphasizes the FLUX.1 model, which was a breakthrough in generative AI, and the possibilities of working with the Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge system, which provides a free but powerful tool for creating unique images.

Using the Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge generative artificial intelligence system, I’ve created a huge number of images, including the ones you’ll find in this book.

Another hobby of mine is writing fairy tales and fantasy stories.

My first story was “Robot Roma: Humanity’s Last Hope”, which I wrote in the year 2024.

In my opinion, this is a deep and emotionally rich science fiction story that explores the boundaries between man and machine, as well as the ethical aspects of AI technologies and issues of self-awareness. The unique world of the future created in this story will not leave the reader indifferent, immersing him in an atmosphere of suspense and anticipation. The story of the robot Roma IA 661125 makes the reader think about the future, where technology can be both a blessing and a curse for all humanity. I will say this: if you are a fan of Isaac Asimov’s work, you should enjoy this story.

Today I present to you my new sci-fi short story “A Thousand Years of Infinity”. In it, I carefully and unobtrusively present my version of time travel, which I think is interesting, and which is also based on the most important provisions of the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics and the latest scientific discoveries, which in turn makes this story interesting for the reader. In any case, only time will tell how true it really is…

Enjoy reading and positive vibes!

Yours Alexander Chesalov.

March 29, 2025

Chapter 1. The Old House at the Edge of the Forest

The snow fell silently. Sometimes the wind would suddenly appear and lift thousands of snowflakes high into the air, and then shadows would flicker between the trees, shadows too tall, too thin, with branchy shapes that resembled the branchy horns of mythical creatures. The trees creaked, as if whispering in a forgotten language, warning of something unseen. The air was thick with the smell of pine needles, frost, and something ancient — perhaps a memory of the past, perhaps a premonition of the future.

In the midst of this silence, at the edge of the snow-covered forest, where the forest parted, stood an old house. Like a lonely guardian, forgotten and abandoned by all, it still guarded the peace of the night forest. Its walls, made of blackened logs that had lost their shape, seemed to be part of the forest itself — thick, impenetrable, full of the secrets of the old world. The roof, covered with a fluffy blanket of snow, merged with the shadows of the trees, and the tall windows looked out into the darkness like eyes. The house was old, but strong, as if the earth itself held it up, not allowing time to destroy it.

Inside the house it was half dark. The only source of light was the great stone fireplace where the smoldering wood sang its crackling song in a dance of mesmerizing flames. The fire from the fireplace cast bizarre shadows on the walls of the house, dancing like ancient spirits. The wooden floor was covered with carpets, faded with time, but still bearing traces of former luxury. On the walls hung old paintings of strange crystal castles, serpent dragons, and other unseen places and creatures that seemed to come alive in the flickering firelight.

Two armchairs stood in the middle of the room. Large, high-backed, upholstered in dark green leather, covered with a web of small cracks of time. A man sat in one of the chairs. His name was Ivan. He was thirty-one years old, but there was a certain weariness in his eyes from the burden of life that was not typical of youth. He was tall, thin, with dark hair that had already been touched by the frosty breath of change. His face was pale, as if he had rarely been out in the sun, and there was a lingering sadness in the corners of his eyes.

Ivan lived alone in that house. He didn’t really want to remember the reasons why he had moved from the big city to a remote, abandoned village. He did not even remember how long it had been. Time passed differently in this house — slowly and almost imperceptibly. He had grown accustomed to the silence, to the sound of the winter wind outside the window, to the creaking of the old floorboards and the crackling of the fire in the fireplace. He had stopped thinking about the fear of loneliness and had long since come to feel himself a big part of this small, civilization-forgotten world. Once it had seemed to him that life had thrown him overboard and sent him here in exile. Over the years, he had forgotten that as well. Now he felt only harmony and peace in his soul. He was grateful that fate had found him this island, where he felt at home.

The moon hung low that night, huge and blue, like a frozen flame. Its light did not illuminate, but distorted: the snow beneath it sparkled like a scattering of hundreds of thousands of precious stones. Through the blue of the winter night, through the whirlwinds of the blizzard that sometimes tossed the snow in a mad dance, the road was visible. Narrow. Almost invisible.

Someone was walking down the road. The figure, barely recognizable in the blizzard, moved slowly but inexorably toward the house at the edge of the forest. Its silhouette trembled like a mirage, blurred in the snow, then clear again in the stillness of the snow swirl. Sometimes it seemed that the traveler was not a shadow, but echoes of other times — fragments of voices, footsteps, groans. He was carrying something that would change Ivan’s fate forever tonight.

Chapter 2. The Wanderer

The knock at the door sounded like thunder. Ivan shuddered, put down the book he was holding, and walked uncertainly to the door. His heart beat faster. He hadn’t expected visitors. No one had been here for years.

He opened the door. A tall man with dark but graying hair that fell to his shoulders stood on the threshold. The stranger’s eyes seemed to glow like two coals in the dark. His face was lined with wrinkles, but they showed not age but wisdom, as if he had lived more than one life. The stranger wore a long cloak and carried a large, dark brown, well-worn leather pack.

— Good evening,” said the guest with a smile. — May I come in?

Ivan looked at the stranger as if considering whether to let him in or not. He could not understand if he could trust this man. Something in his face was both familiar and repulsive. He hesitated for a moment, but then made up his mind.

— Come in,” Ivan said, though there was still an undercurrent of uncertainty in his voice.

The traveler stepped over the threshold. He looked around and his face became even more serious.

— It’s been years, and it’s still the same,” he said in a low voice. — It’s the same as it was then.

— What’s the same? — Ivan asked, looking around and feeling a shiver run down his spine, as if he were not at home. It was as if he was visiting someone himself.

— At home. At home. This fireplace. The same old Chesterfield chairs. Those paintings. This silence. I used to… I used to live here.

Ivan stared at him, stunned, trying to figure out if this was happening at all — a joke, a dream, or something more — Who are you? — Frowning, Ivan asked.

— Me?” The traveler stepped into the firelight from the hallway and approached Ivan. — Take a closer look. What do you see?

Ivan took a step towards the stranger and looked into his face. If before he could not understand what it was that made him so suspicious, now it was as if he had been electrocuted. He looked into the face of a man in his early thirties. Blue eyes. Unseasonably tanned and weathered skin. Teeth as white as snow and hair as white as a February snowstorm at his temples, the tips of which dripped drops of melted snowflakes onto the wooden floor of the house.

The guest stood silently in the hall. Still silent, but with a smile on his face, he looked at Ivan, waiting for his host to realize what was going on and invite him into the house.

Ivan slowly raised his right hand and, pointing at his guest, said uncertainly, “I — I know you. I’ve seen you somewhere before.

— Yes. I’ve seen you,” the traveler replied confidently. — Not only have you seen me, but you see me every morning in the mirror. Haven’t you noticed? I you!

Ivan felt the ground give way under his feet. He took a few steps back, his fingers gripping the wooden beam that held up the ceiling — “I… is that you? Ivan said softly, his voice trembling like a leaf in the wind. His face paled and his mind refused to believe what was happening.

The traveler took off his wet coat and, without even looking at it, hung it on the coat rack, the same one made of old elk antlers that Ivan had found not far from the house shortly after he had bought it. He wiped his boots, wet from the melted snow, on the mat.

— Yes, that’s it,” the guest replied, entering the room. His footsteps were the same as Ivan’s — a firm, confident step. The muffled clatter of heavy boots on the wooden floor. — Only I am from your past. Or rather, I am you, but in a way of another version and from another time.

The guest entered the room on heavy heels. He sat down in the armchair by the fireplace — his favorite, the one with the stitched upholstery in the shape of a long scar, where Ivan sat every evening.

The traveler reached over to the book table and picked up a book — a collection of Alexei Reznik’s fantasy stories, tattered, with bent corners of yellowed pages.

— Do you remember how the author gave it to you when you worked at Kominterna in Moscow? — he asked, turning the pages. — Yes, and I remember that day well. It was late. It was time to go home, and I had a lot of work to do. And the weather was bad. Late fall. It was raining and you, I mean me, didn’t have an umbrella. You were soaked to the skin, but you hid the book under your jacket.

Ivan slowly lowered himself onto the second chair. It seemed as if his whole body turned to cotton, and he felt a cold shiver in his hands.

— How… how can you know that? — Ivan, who no longer doubted that he was looking at himself, could not quite believe that what was happening now was real.

The traveler put down the book, looked directly into Ivan’s eyes and said: “Because it was me. At that time, Alexei and I had been working together for almost half a year on a science fiction novel called "#Digital_economy.NET”. I have to say that the idea for the title of the novel was mine personally. Well, or yours. Well, ours.

The silence hung between them, thick as a winter snowstorm outside the window. Only the crackling of the logs in the fireplace broke it.

— You came… uh… why are you here? — Ivan finally squeezed out.

The traveler sighed. His face grew older for a moment, the wrinkles deepened.

— To meet you and tell you the truth. About the house. About the forest. About you and what awaits you beyond the threshold tonight.

He leaned forward, and the same strange light flashed in his eyes that Ivan had noticed from the threshold.

— How old are you now? — asked the traveler with a smile. — Thirty-one?

Ivan looked at his guest and nodded silently, while the traveler continued his monologue — Here I am now thirty-one. In this time. But when I left this house, I was thirty years old, and that was, strange as it may sound, a long time ago… only one year in this time, and fifty in the other,” he said thoughtfully, looking intently into the darkness of the frost-covered window.

Chapter 3. Getting to Know Each Other

They sat in silence by the fire for a while. The fire crackled, casting the same dancing shadows on the walls.

The traveler stood up and walked around the chair. He leaned against its large back and began his story. His voice was soft, but each word sounded as if it had been etched in Ivan’s memory forever.

— Once upon a time, many years ago, I was just like you. I was thirty years old and I lived here in this house. I guess my story of moving to this wilderness is no different from yours. I remember my first impression when I saw this abandoned house. What can I say, but the musty smell when I first walked in, I still can’t forget. It took me almost three weeks to clean and scrub it. It was early spring. The windows were open all day. And the musty smell of the old room just wouldn’t leave the house. I spent a few more weeks scrubbing and painting. The old carpets were washed in the river. They hung in the yard in the early sun for almost a month. I replaced all the window frames. I put in a bio toilet and a shower. Installed gas. I took down all the partitions and made one big room — a studio on the first floor. I remember how long it took the men from the neighboring village to fix that fireplace. And I’m not talking about the fact that I didn’t tidy up the property until just before autumn. So much effort and care I put into this place that I now call home.

I’ve lived here for almost four years now. It’s good to be a programmer, there are always clients and remote work. Communication is not great here. But you can work. Once a week I went to the nearest village, connected to the Internet and synchronized my repository with my programs. I sent reports to my employers, and once a month I got paid for my work. The pay was reasonable. I had enough to live on and a little more. In general, it was like everyone else’s.

But then one day, in the longest December night, quite unexpectedly, a stranger came to me, just as I am to you now. He said he was me, only from my past. He told me that in this place and at this time there is a certain anomaly that manifests itself only once a year, only in this place and at this time. This anomaly, like an invisible force, sends one of us to another world, and the other of us, who fell into it a year ago, comes back and stays in this world, in this time dimension. And this has been happening every year since my thirtieth birthday. In your case, from the age of thirty-one. In general, we can say that you and I are really just at the beginning of a recurring cycle of events. It turns out that the anomaly will throw one of us into a different world every year, and some of us will be brought back. So today it’s your turn to travel, to a world you’ve never explored, but that I know well — a world both more beautiful and more terrifying than anything you can imagine. A world where time flows differently, where every day is an eternity filled with incredible events.

Ivan listened to his guest without interrupting. His heart was beating faster and in his head he had only one thought: “This is impossible. What kind of delusional fairy tale is this? What another world? What anomaly? He must be crazy…”

It seems only a year ago that I left this house,” the wanderer continued. — Believe me, I didn’t intend or want to go anywhere, but I decided to go and traveled to that very world. I lived there for fifty years. I saw cities that float in the clouds, forests where trees sing, and oceans whose waves glow in the dark. I’ve loved, I’ve suffered, I’ve rejoiced. I lived a full life in this world and breathed fully. But one day I realized that I had to go back. It was inevitable. The loop of time anomaly has once again crossed the straight line of our time. And now I’m here to keep the balance and give you a chance.

— Balance? — Ivan asked, confused by the traveler’s story.

— Yes,’ the traveler nodded. — Everything in this world is connected. And what happens to us is not in vain. For some incredible reason, you and I, and all the others who will live in this house in a year, two, three, and so on up to fifty-five years from now, have been given the unique opportunity to live what I call ‘a thousand years of infinity. None of us can change or influence this anomaly. It is and will be active for quite some time. We can only keep the balance between the worlds by following one rule: it is obligatory, after making a decision and leaving this house, to come back here, to the present, in one year, after having lived in the other world for a different period of time for each of us. For you it is exactly forty-nine years. The other you, whom you will meet in this house when you return, will be only one year older than you in the present, and he will have to repeat our journey with you, having lived there for exactly forty-eight years, and then come back again. The next one of us will travel forty-six years, and so on, until one of us is fifty-five years old in this world.

— Wait. — Ivan, slightly recovered from the shock, felt a surge of power. — I didn’t really understand anything about the anomaly, about time and cycles. How does it even work?

— I didn’t understand everything at first,” the traveler replied. — But then I had a lot of time to think about it and figure it all out. In order for you to somehow understand what and how, you must begin with an axiom. As you know, modern scientists consider time to have a fourth dimension. According to the theory of relativity, we live in a four-dimensional space. Our time is the fourth dimension. And all of modern science revolves around that claim. But the point is that there is an alternative view which says that time is not an additional dimension, but is itself three-dimensional. This very three-dimensional time fits harmoniously into our three-dimensional space, as if it stabilizes it and makes this world the way we see it. But that is not all. It is three-dimensional time that makes this world multivariant.

— So what? — Ivan asked, interrupting his interlocutor, showing genuine interest in his story. — Can you travel back in time?

— Well, no, of course not. You can’t travel back in time,” the guest replied thoughtfully. — Although all of us on this and other worlds are in a sense living in the past for all beings in the universe who live on other inhabited worlds and watch us from infinite distances. But time travel is not possible. Even if a highly advanced civilization were to travel to us. It will not come to us in the present, but to our descendants from our future.

— Wait a minute,” Ivan asked curiously. — Didn’t you come back?

— Yes, back to my timeline,” the guest replied. — But note: not to the past or to the moment when I left. I went back one year ahead. When I left my branch of time, I was thirty years old. I came back in this time, too, and now I am exactly thirty-one years old here, even though I lived fifty years in the time anomaly. And if you pay attention, I am eighty years old in total.

— Wow! — Goose bumps ran down Ivan’s back again. — So you’re saying that when I come back, I’ll be eighty years old in total? That’s why I have to live there for forty-nine years?

— Yes, that’s important,” the traveler explained. — It must always add up to eighty. According to my calculations, that moment will come when one of us reaches eighty. Well… well, we will cease to exist. But I don’t know that for sure. It’s just my hypothesis.

— Then it turns out that you can travel until you are old,” Ivan suggested. — Or not?

— That’s the point, no. — Guest frowned. — I think that living in a world created by a temporal anomaly leaves a certain mark on every version of you and me. I think there is some limit to our inner capabilities. But then again, I could be wrong.…

— Wait, where did you get the confidence to live for a thousand years? — Ivan moved closer to his interlocutor, forgetting all his recent worries, fears and emotions. — If you travel after fifty-six, you’ll be able to live longer in the world you’re talking about?

The traveler’s face became serious. He took off his sweater and hung it beside him on the back of an old leather chair. He wore a long-sleeved black buttonless shirt. The traveler was silent for a while, and then he said, “I haven’t been home in a long time. It feels like a lifetime,” he said, looking around again. — Please make some strong, sweet tea and sandwiches, and we’ll continue our fascinating conversation.

Chapter 4. A Thousand Years of Infinity

Ivan stood up, feeling a strange lightness in his body, as if the boundaries of reality had become thinner. He went to the kitchen, his movements automatic: the kettle, the glass of fragrant Turkish tea, the boiling water. His hands barely shook as he sliced bread, spread butter, and placed thin slices of packaged sausage on it.

— You never answered! — he called over his shoulder. — Why exactly a thousand years?

From the living room came the sound of a chair being moved. The Traveler stepped away from it and went to the bookcase. His fingers slid over the spines of the books that lined the shelves in tight rows.

— Because that’s the limit,” his voice sounded hoarse. — Forty-nine years there… plus forty-eight… forty-seven… — He turned around and the flames from the fireplace flickered in his eyes again as he looked at Ivan. — If you add up the time spent in all the cycles of the anomaly, you get exactly one thousand years and the time from the beginning of the journey to its end. That’s, as I told you, if you travel for up to fifty-five years. It is this time that I call “a thousand years of infinity”.

Ivan turned to his conversation partner. He held cutlery in one hand and a plate of sandwiches in the other.

— Are you saying… that I… that we’re going to live… for a thousand years?

— Well, no, of course not. You and I will bear the burden of a wanderer who goes away and comes back. Another will take your place. In his place will come a fourth, and so on. Just as I have taken your place. None of us will live a thousand years. Each version of us will live our own life plus some more in the temporal anomaly. — The traveler walked to the window. Outside the glass, a snowstorm drew fanciful patterns. — I didn’t promise you a thousand years, but I can promise you a long, incredible, fascinating and unique life. See these snowflakes? Each one is unique. And so are you and I. We’re the same, but we’re unique in our own way.

— Wait a minute, wait a minute, stop. — Ivan’s face showed serious concern. He put the cutlery on the table and held out his hand. — Let’s talk about everything in order. What is an anomaly? Where does it come from?

The guest looked at Ivan with undisguised surprise. He moved away from the window and went to the table. He took a piece of paper and a pen and started to write something…

— Okay, let me explain this to you. It’s really not as complicated and inexplicable as it seems at first glance. — The stranger wrote four rows of numbers and slid the sheet of paper over to Ivan. — Look, do you see these numbers?

Ivan approached the table and leaned over a piece of paper.

— The top line is your age. — The guest began to run his finger along the paper. — Right now your age is thirty-one. One year from now, thirty-two, and so on. This is the time, the reality, the chronology you are living in now. I have labeled it for you, as we used to learn in school, with the time symbol “t1”. The next line represents the number of years that each of us, and the next of us in the present tense, will spend in the anomaly. I spent fifty. You will spend forty-nine years. The next one will spend one year less than the previous one, and so on down to the last one, who will spend twenty-five years in it. The third line sums up all the time we have spent in the anomaly over the entire twenty-five years. As you can see, the last of us, who will be fifty-five years old, will be able to make the final journey of twenty-five years, and it is he who will reach the total time spent in the anomaly of one thousand years, taking into account the time lived in the present from the beginning of the journey to its end. This is a total of one thousand years. But the most interesting numbers are below. The last, fourth line is the time of existence of the time loop, i.e. the anomaly. It appears and disappears on Earth every twenty-five or twenty-six years. This is a somewhat controversial point. Some scientists say every twenty-four years, some say every twenty years. But in our case the approximate number is twenty-five or, the wanderer thought, twenty-six years. I can’t be more precise, but time will tell.…

Ivan stood there for a while, thinking about the numbers, and then he said: “You said that scientists know about this anomaly, but I’ve never heard of it. I’ve never heard about it on the news or read about it on the Internet. What do scientists know about it, can you tell me?

— Yes, it is possible. — The guest moved away from the table and sat back in the old chair by the fireplace. — It seems to me that there is not a person on earth who does not know that our planet Earth rotates on its axis. During this rotation, the Earth’s axis wobbles and makes its own rotation due to the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon. This effect is called the precession of the Earth. This effect was discovered by Hipparchus in the 2nd century B.C. Over the centuries, many scientists have studied this phenomenon and its effect on our planet. In recent years, scientists have begun to argue that the fluctuations of the Earth’s rotational axis are particularly influenced by the movement of the Earth’s masses. These masses are moving due to the destructive effects of humans on our nature. Well, you’ve heard it, due to the deterioration of the overall environment and climate change. — The hiker stopped and looked at Ivan carefully. Ivan sat with his eyes wide open, looking at his guest and continuing to listen attentively. — Well, if you do not want to go into the maze of mathematics and long scientific explanations about precession, then scientists have noticed that these fluctuations stopped completely at some point in the last century, and now they not only reappeared, but became even more intense. They later found out that these oscillations are affected by the gravitational forces not only of the sun and moon, but of all the planets in the solar system, as well as objects that appear in it. I’m sure you’ve heard about the asteroid Oumuamua, which came very close to Earth and then accelerated out of the solar system. — The traveler looked at Ivan again and he nodded. — Yes, it was all over the news. And what’s even more interesting is that the appearance of the anomalies depends directly on the rotation speed of our planet. I don’t know if you’re aware of the fact that the Earth sometimes speeds up and sometimes slows down on its axis. But here’s the interesting thing: after the asteroid Oumuamua passed through our solar system, the Earth started to retract again. There were strong deviations in the oscillations of the axis of rotation, and all this provoked the appearance of temporal anomalies. Yes, I forgot to say that the period of change in the Earth’s rotation rate alone is about twenty-five years. In other words, it accelerates every twenty-five years. And this, in turn, directly affects the time when new anomalies appear and when they disappear.

— So, wait,” Ivan jumped up. — If the anomaly is disintegrating, then the reality it created is also disintegrating?

— No. It’s not like that at all. — The traveler rubbed his forehead. — An anomaly is just a window of opportunity, or you could say a door to another world, that opens for someone on Earth and then closes. And so on ad infinitum. It has been that way since the moment our planet came into existence, and it will be that way until the moment it ceases to exist. That’s why I added the word “infinity” to “millennium. That’s “a thousand years of infinity.

— I would answer you this way: everything in this world is relative. Place and time are fundamental to you. And for some probabilistic events, especially temporal anomalies, there are no such categories. They occur wherever they go. They can be at two or three points in space at the same time and still have the same properties. For them, distance or position in the system of three-dimensional coordinates, as we understand these terms, does not matter. And according to which laws they exist in our space, perhaps forming a time loop, is unknown to all people. Some people perceive time as a horizontal line drawn on paper, and others perceive time as a sequence of events. For me personally, time is a certain force that holds the past, present, and future in our three-dimensional world in a stable state.

— The only thing that’s clear is that it’s not quite clear to me yet,” Ivan joked awkwardly. — I’ve figured it out a bit. Can you explain how this anomaly works, how we get into the time loop and how we get out?

— Hooray! At last!” exclaimed the traveler with a smile on his face. — Now we are closer to the heart of the matter.

He took some more blank sheets of paper from the table and began to draw something intensely.

— Ivan, come to the table. Look. — The traveler stretched out his hand and pointed with his index finger to several pictures lying on the table. — Here is the first picture.

Look, from left to right is a line of our time. This line represents our present chronology. The point where I started my journey is marked “30 years”. I have drawn a little man next to it to help you understand my drawings. Above the point is a time loop in which I found myself at that point in time when I was thirty years old. In fact, I thought it was a loop until I saw you. I thought I’d spend some time in the anomaly and come out. It turned out to be just like that, except I came back to a point in time where I’m thirty-one years old. And what surprised me was that at that point in time I met you, well, or myself. Believe me, I was as surprised as you were, because I hadn’t planned to see anything but my beloved home. — The traveler looked around the room, glanced at the fireplace, and after a moment continued: “The exact time where you and I are right now is marked with the dot “31 years”. Now see what you get. — The guest took a pen and drew an arrow from the loop to the point “31 years”. — Now it turns out that I entered the anomaly at the point “30 years” and returned to the point “31 years” where I met you. — The traveler drew two other men with numbers. — That’s the picture we get. The strange thing is that now there are two of us in one point. There seems to be a contradiction. But there isn’t, and there can’t be, and here’s why.

The wanderer drew the arrow down again from the point “31 years”.

— The point is that, as far as I’m concerned, at some point in time I will cease to exist, not in our reality, but, let’s say conditionally, in an “alternative” timeline that is perpendicular to our temporal chronology. In this line, I am now thirty-one years old and I will continue to live in my house and, I would like to believe, for a very long time.

— And what about me? — Ivan asked. — We are in the same room now, aren’t we?

— Ivan, please pay attention to my words “sometime”. At that moment, when it comes, you will make a decision and travel to another world. At that moment, our realities will separate. — The traveler took the pen again and drew a time loop, but at the “31 years” point.

— Look, the moment you go on your journey, I will be in the past for you in my alternate reality, and you will travel forty-nine years through the time loop until you emerge at the point “32 years old”. At that point you will meet yourself, but one year older. You will convince your other self to go on a “journey” in the same way, you will draw him the same pictures. And as for you — the wanderer drew another arrow down from the point “31 years old” — you will go, just like me now, to live a full life in your favorite house in an alternate reality — an alternate time dimension. Do you understand?

Ivan stood at the table with a frown on his face. His right hand was rubbing his chin. His left hand gripped the armrest of the chair.

— Yes, I more or less understood everything,” Ivan replied thoughtfully. — That is, after the moment that “I” who will go on a new journey, I will really continue my life in another branch of time that does not intersect with all the others. I understand that. And what will happen next?

— And then it will repeat itself every year, time after time, according to my calculations, until one of us is fifty-five years old. At that moment, the life cycle of the temporal anomaly will end, the gates to the other world will close, and it will disintegrate. And for each of us, the chain of travel in the temporal anomaly will be broken. — The guest took the drawing and drew a small explosion at the “55 years” point. — That’s it. Shall we summarize?

— Wait!” Ivan shouted. — I found an important omission in your story. Where does the “other self” in our timeline come from? You will go into your reality, I will go into a loop that is not a loop at all. From your drawings it looks more like a time spiral stretching along our timeline. Where will the “other self” come from to continue the loop of travel?

— Great! — The guest took another bite of the sandwich with obvious appetite and drank his tea. — That’s good. Now I see: you are fully immersed in the essence of what is happening. There is no contradiction, no mistake. If we don’t go into general relativity and quantum mechanics, remember what I said about a moment in time? Well, that’s the moment when everything falls into place. An anomaly is created and one of us has been living in our time and will continue to do so. He has never seen any of us before and will never see any of us again until that exact moment in his time. You will go to another world and I will go to my reality. And note that there is no time travel into the past or parallel realities. There are no time contradictions associated with time travel. Everything that happens to us is not just fantasy, it’s pure physics.

The traveler finished his story. There was silence in the air, and they finished their tea in silence. Then Ivan went to the kitchen to boil another kettle.

Chapter 5. Three Moons in a Purple Pendant

The kettle hissed.

Ivan poured the boiling water into cups and watched the teas dance a waltz, forming a magical pattern at the bottom — almost like snowflakes outside the window, only smiling with warmth.

— What’s in there? — He asked, placing the tray of cups on the table. — In this world. Is it really incredibly beautiful?

The traveler took a cup of hot tea. He brought it to his face, but did not drink it immediately, because he was thinking about something. The steam enveloped his face and turned him into a kind of ghost for a moment. Then the wanderer said thoughtfully:

— Imagine a place where all the things you have seen here, all the things you have believed in, all your fears, all your worries, your dreams, don’t matter. No, of course they matter, but in this world they don’t. In it.

He took a deep sip, set the cup down, and his fingers touched the shirt on his chest, where the outline of an object could be seen.

— You see, it’s not like that and it’s different. What’s more, I want to tell you that in the years I spent there, everything in this strange world became infinitely dear to me. — He pulled out a metal hourglass pendant from under his shirt. Inside the pendant, a translucent purple substance flowed like oil along with the golden sand. — One turn of this clock here equals one year. And there… — He shook the pendant and turned it sharply. A golden “grain of sand” floated in the middle…

At that moment, the fire suddenly went out. An unnatural silence enveloped the room — even the crackling of the burning logs stopped. Ivan felt that the air became thick, as if filled with liquid glass. Everything around him froze.

— Look,” the wanderer whispered, his voice suddenly coming from all sides at once. — Feel it and inhale it.

The violet substance in the pendant began to pulsate, emitting a cold light. The golden sand grains swirled like tea flakes, forming a miniature galaxy inside the glass capsule. Suddenly, one of the grains of sand flashed white, and the room disappeared.

Instead, they were surrounded by an endless garden of crystal trees. Their branches were intertwined in complex fractal patterns, and instead of leaves there were living gems whispering in forgotten languages. The air was filled with music that no one played — it was born of itself from the vibrations of space.

— This is only a precursor,” said the wanderer, and Ivan was surprised to notice that his companion looked different now — his features were clearer, his eyes glowed with an inner light, and his hair shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow. — Where you are going, there are no familiar shapes and sensations. For the first time you will perceive everything through the filter of earthly images, everything around you will seem either madness or magic, but gradually…

He didn’t finish. One of the crystal branches reached out to Ivan, and at its tip a flower of pure light bloomed. A tiny universe pulsed at its core.

— New worlds are being born here every moment. Some live for a fraction of a second, others for eternity. You’ll learn to feel their birth and death like the beating of your own heart. And if you’ve ever thought about death, this is just the beginning.…

Suddenly, everything around him shook and began to disintegrate into geometric fragments. Ivan felt his consciousness stretch into an endless string…

He woke up in the chair by the fireplace. The tea in his cup was hot, and the wanderer looked at him with interest and a faint smile.

— Are you ready to see more? — he asked, holding the mysterious pendant in his hand. — Are you ready to prepare for the journey?

Without waiting for Ivan’s answer, he shook the pendant again and turned it sharply. The golden “grain of sand” disappeared, and in its place a new one appeared, flashing with violet light…

At that moment, the entire room was filled with a bright light bursting from the pendant. Golden sparks danced in the air, and in front of Ivan, in all their splendor, appeared the crystal towers of a castle of white stone, reaching up to the sky where, instead of the sun, three moons shone. The castle stood in the middle of a vast lake, and the lake itself was surrounded by a vast city built long before humans appeared on this world.