- You don't remember what you look like, leia?

  Immediately my interlocutor understood what I was talking about. I had no choice but to nod in agreement. The thought that I was going crazy worried me a lot. And that's putting it mildly. That's why it was so important for me to see my reflection. See yourself.

  I don’t know what the sorceress read on my face, only her look immediately became pitiful, and her hand, dropping on my head, began to gently stroke my hair.

   “Don’t worry so much, girl,” hearing the old woman address me once again, I tensed up again. - Sometimes this happens to those who have been unconscious for several days or tossed about from the heat. They do not recognize loved ones, do not remember their name, or forget what happened in the last few days before their illness. This is especially true for those who have experienced grief or danger. And you had that, and another, and even a third. I hardly kept your soul on the very edge. Since she always tried to go beyond the edge, into the halls of the gods. But you're too young for that. You still live and live. And the memory will return, it is worth getting stronger and remembering everything right away.

   The more the woman talked, the more I wanted to scream. What's there, I could hardly resist, so as not to push her away from me.

  - Please give me a mirror. I ask you to.

 I filtered my request through clenched teeth, but due to the fact that my voice was soft and gentle, it sounded not rude, but rather annoyed.

   - Fine.

   The old woman left the room, leaving me alone, which I immediately took advantage of and threw the blanket aside. It was not difficult for me to guess what exactly I would see, but still the thin, frail body of a teenage girl, dressed in a long shirt, to the very heels, shocked me. Just in case, I even felt myself, making sure that this was true.

  - Here. It is small, but I think you, lea, will be enough of this size to see your face.

  Bending my arms and legs in turn, I missed the moment when my nurse returned. She carried in her hands a small oval mirror, no larger than two of my palms, framed in silver and with a comfortable handle by which to hold it. But before looking into it, I closed my eyes for a few seconds. I was frankly scared. But don't be afraid, but I wanted to see the truth. Gathering up all the same courage, I brought the mirror to my face and opened my eyes, glaring at my reflection. And yes, it wasn't me. I'm not the age I remember myself. Not me in my youth or youth. In the reflection, I did not find a single common feature with me. It was someone else's face. The alien young face of a girl of fifteen or sixteen, no older.

   - Well, do you recognize yourself?

  The old woman stood next to my bed, carefully watching my actions. I'm sure she noticed my disappointment, so it was pointless to lie.

  - No.

  “And you don’t remember your family name?”

  - No.

  - What gift do you have?

  - I don't even understand what you're talking about.

  Answering questions, I carefully examined the features of my face. I tried to understand how it happened and why I consider myself one person, but in the reflection I see a completely different one. And I remember everything very well. And who I am, where I came from, where I was born and studied, and how I lived my life. Where have you been to. Who was my husband, and how she gave birth to a son. That's just the girl that I now see in the reflection, with all the desire, cannot have a thirty-year-old son. And she can't be a teacher at the university. But I remember my subject very well. Ask me about any topic about geology, about rocks, about ores and minerals. With all the desire, a person cannot think up and think over the world so carefully or see it while lying unconscious. What then happened? Am I dead and reborn? But then I should be a baby, not a teenager.

 - Just don't worry, lea, not today, tomorrow, but everything will be fine with you. We can find out who you are and find your relatives. And once you get home, in a familiar environment, you will immediately remember everything.   

   Hearing the last remark, I couldn't help but smile sadly. That smile reminded me of someone. That's just who? I continued to peer into the features of the pale face, examining a small straight nose, somewhat thin lips, beautiful neat eyebrows and brown almond-shaped eyes framed by medium-length black lashes. Exactly, I know those eyes.

  Squinting, I looked suspiciously at my reflection, and I immediately realized who exactly I was seeing. After all, it is with such suspicion that Lentil always looks at Tikhonov's antics. And just like that, he can smile with only one side of his lips. I did not immediately recognize her, since the girl's hair is much shorter, somewhere to the shoulders and dyed in bright colors. Also, her makeup is always catchy to match her hair. On the same girl there was not a single gram of cosmetics, plus, due to the illness or whatever happened to her, she became very thin. Her cheeks were sunken and there were dark circles around her eyes. But this did not change the fact that the reflection looked like Svetlana Lentchichnaya. And we again return to the question of how this is possible.

    Putting aside the mirror, I began to remember everything that had happened recently. So, Svetlana discovered a cave that shouldn't be there. I was 100% certain of this. And all because that slope, in seven years, and my students and I climbed a hundred to five hundred times. Well, there was nothing there and could not suddenly appear. 

    But that's not all. In this cave, she found simply incredible deposits of gold, which also cannot be in the mountains of Zyuratkul. And as soon as this happens, as on a long-dormant foothill, seismic activity begins, unexpectedly, as a result of which I fall under a collapse and find myself in the water in the inner lake and begin to sink.

So what was the old woman talking about? I was taken out by an underground river to the surface and pulled through the rapids? And I also remember a bright point and how, having bound my arms and legs, I was drawn to it against my will. Could this be the same tunnel that those who were dying talk about? But I am an avid atheist and never believed in something that could not be explained or felt. But that doesn't change what happened to me.

   Mentally building a chain of what happened, I once again looked at myself in the mirror, making sure that all this was true and I, no longer me, but a completely different person. And that made it uncomfortable. Yes, what is there. I have to admit, at least to myself, I was confused and on the verge of hysteria. And only my sanity and iron restraint (without which you can’t go to the students in the audience) kept me from both rash acts and from not saying anything superfluous.    

     Well, from all of the above, two conclusions can be drawn. Either I still went crazy and am now in the hospital, or I died, and I was transferred to someone else's body. But, judging by the reflection, another soul should have been inside this shell. But Sveta almost fell down. And if not for me, then it is quite possible that she would be here today. And I even admit, no matter how incredible and fantastic it sounds, that he and a local girl would have changed places. I just stepped in and everything changed. Svetlana, I hope, is safe, alive and well, remained there, but I was thrown here. It remains only to understand where exactly and what happened to my body. 

    Having once more carefully looked around the room in which I was, I began to notice new details, which now had a plausible explanation. But I'm not sure that it suited me, like everything that happened. And I also didn’t understand how I should do it and what they would do to me if, or rather when, they found out about the substitution that had taken place. After all, if there is a chance, for some time, to lead strangers by the nose, pretending to be who I am not, then, sooner or later, relatives of the girl in whose body I ended up will appear, and then the deception will be quickly revealed. In addition, a natural question arises. And where is the mistress of the body now? I doubt she was happy with the exchange. After all, here she was just beginning her life, while mine was already rolling towards sunset there. And not the fact that they could save me. And that means that soon the hostess may return and demand to vacate the premises? And then...  

   What would happen then, I could not even imagine, only realizing that all this would not end with anything good for me.