Monster Like You

Chapter 3

Over the years of working in the Cerberus Corps, I have learned one thing: the impossible does not exist.

From the moment I was born, I knew about the existence of magic and saw the miracles that technology creates, but still everyday life is far from real miracles. There were always few gifted magicians in London, and the trained ones did not reach any significant heights. This made the city and the lands united around it vulnerable and dependent on neighbors, where a lot of strong magicians were born.

Even before I was born, Great Britain was formed, which said its firm "no" to the flows of invisible energy and miracles that only a select few could create. London proclaimed the primacy of technology half a century ago and during this time has made an unprecedented technological breakthrough in history. What used to be handmade artifacts, in each of which magicians invested a piece of power inaccessible to mere mortals, progress allowed them to be turned into devices and produced in a streaming manner, making them cheap and accessible.

Of course, science and technology developed earlier, but magicians slowed down these processes as best they could so as not to lose control. When we went into open conflict with them, progress became an essential condition for our survival, and this served as an unprecedented incentive. We have learned how to get energy from the depths and transform it, we have created wireless means of communication and ways to transmit information over vast distances in seconds. We record sound and image and broadcast them on the air. We have created a weapon that is almost equal to the power of combat magicians. We have not yet learned how to do everything that magic allows us to do, but Cerberus Corps also exists in order to eliminate this backlog as soon as possible.

Cerberus. Freedom. Freedom from the whims of fate and the gods, who endow people with magical power randomly. Freedom from those whom nature has made stronger than us, from their arbitrariness. We do not seek to destroy them, but we want to protect ourselves. We have created laws that everyone now obeys. Those who disagreed with them left the lands of Great Britain. Whoever violates them is dealing with us.

Corps is not limited to investigation, prosecution and punishment. We're studying. We learn from magicians as well. We look at what they do and look for a way to do it through the achievements of the sciences. Yes, we are still catching up, but one day we will be ahead.

But that day, when I entered a small library-like room in a country mansion, I realized that this moment had not yet come.

"Hi, Vel!"

I broke out in a cold sweat; my head was slightly dizzy. No one has addressed me like that since I was twelve. At twelve, I decided that this name was too short and frivolous. I chose the "Vet" option and taught everyone to call themselves that. Only my parents and a few childhood friends knew that my name was once Vel.

And she. A girl who looks like me as a twin sister. Almost. Only the elongated vertical pupils, giving out a chameleon in her, distinguished her. Yes, a shorter haircut.

It was impossible. Chameleons were able to take human form, but not the appearance of a specific person! Just as they did not acquire human intelligence at that moment. And even more so, they could not possess other people's memories. This. It was. Impossible!

But the impossible does not exist.

And in front of me, bound by a spell, sat my copy with vertical pupils. She didn't just know my baby's name. She knew everything about me. I remembered episodes of my life that I had almost forgotten myself.

I don't know where I got the strength to talk to her for fifteen whole minutes. Probably, the first shock drowned out all feelings, as pain is sometimes muffled in emergency situations. And only after a quarter of an hour, the realization fell on me like a granite slab. I felt sick, and I hurriedly rushed out of the room, cutting off the interlocutor in mid-sentence.