Meeting with Zabulon

Zabulon, the head of Moscow's Day Watch, enters Anton Gorodetsky's apartment without invitation, an act that would normally trigger the Night Watch agent's sentry systems and constitute a violation of the Treaty. The Dark Magician reveals that the vampire Kostya, a neighbor and friend of Anton's, helped him gain entry, exploiting the access Anton had once granted. Zabulon assures Anton that he has temporarily disabled all observation devices, including those of the Inquisition, so that their conversation will remain secret. He insists he has come not as an enemy but as someone who shares a common problem with Anton, one that has reached critical proportions.

The Dark Magician's Warning

Zabulon argues that the forces of Light have launched three global experiments in the last hundred years: the Russian Revolution, the Second World War, and the current project involving Svetlana. He claims these are attempts to create an ideal society through massive upheaval and bloodshed, and that when the Light's experiments fail or get out of control, the Light simply wipes the slate clean and starts again. Zabulon admits that the Dark Ones sabotage these projects out of self-preservation, but he insists that the Light's methods are far more cruel than anything the Darkness does. He tells Anton that the courier from Samarkand, Alisher Ganiev, brought a piece of chalk to Moscow, an artifact that can only be used by a female Light Sorceress of great power. In her hands, the chalk can rewrite a human destiny from the Book of Destiny, and Zabulon reveals that this is what Gesar intends for Svetlana.

The Nature of the Chalk and the Plan

Zabulon describes the Chalk of Destiny as a small, worn-down stub that has been used several times before, each time causing empires to rise and fall, shepherds to become prophets, and sergeants to become emperors. He explains that the artifact is useless to Dark Ones and that only a Great Sorceress can wield it. Anton realizes that Gesar's plan is to have Svetlana use the chalk to rewrite the destiny of the boy Egor, whose future is still undetermined, thereby creating a new leader who will change the course of human history. Zabulon's revelation confirms Anton's worst fears: the Night Watch's highest operation is not about maintaining balance but about engineering a new social order, repeating the mistakes of the past.

Anton's Response and the Aftermath

Anton, wearing the protective ivory medallion Zabulon had given him months earlier, formally declares that Zabulon no longer has power over him. He listens to the Dark Magician's entire argument without interrupting, but he does not agree to collaborate. Zabulon leaves, stating that he will be glad to eliminate Anton at some later time but that for now he wishes him good luck. The moment Zabulon departs, the apartment's sentry system howls back to life, confirming that the Dark Magician had indeed suppressed it. Anton immediately summons Gesar through the Twilight, demanding to know if Zabulon lied. Gesar confirms that the Dark Magician told the truth. Anton then demands that Gesar stop the plan, but the head of the Night Watch tells him it is too late and that everything is going the way it is supposed to go. The meeting gives Anton the crucial knowledge he needs: the nature of the artifact, the identity of the target, and the timing of the operation, all of which he will use to confront Gesar and Svetlana on the roof.