Amafis

He met her on a Monday. The previous Sunday he had returned from Samarkand, where he was collaborating with Nikolay Veselovsky on the excavations. By a blessed chance, the train had stopped overnight due to heavy snowfall, and that circumstance had forced travelers to spend the night in a decaying and cold station.

A few months earlier, amid of discovery fever, Nikolay asked him to accompany him. He wanted his opinion on the murals and paintings found in the strata dated to the 7th century AD. Following Nikolay’s explanations, he carefully observed the murals and for a moment, it seemed to him that one of the figures represented on the mural, in which she appeared accompanying the King of Samarkand, was following him with her eyes. She was a very beautiful woman. Black eyes, like her hair, jet-black, sensual lips, and a luminous, unforgettable face. He asked Nikolay about that lady but her presence in the mural was a mystery. In ancient texts, she was not referred to and no scholar could explain its origin.

He asked at the station for a hotel where he could spend the night. An employee at the station provided him with an address. He walked for ten minutes and when he was about to enter, a female voice spoke his name:

“Hi Mikhail. It’s me. Amafis. I have escaped my confinement just to be with you tonight”.

Those hours were the happiest of his life.

A few days later, she received a telegram from Nikolay in which she explained an unprecedented fact. For a few hours, the lady in the mural had…