Sergei Lukyanenko’s "Twilight Watch," a summary

This book is the third installment in the cult series about the confrontation between Light and Dark Others, published in 2003. The main conflict revolves around the search for a lost tome capable of transforming ordinary people into mages. The author explores the philosophical questions of good and evil, forcing the reader to take a fresh look at conventional moral dogmas.

In 2004, the novel received prestigious literary awards, including first place at the Star Bridge and Portal science fiction festivals, as well as the Silver ROSKON award.

Nobody’s time

Light mage Anton Gorodetsky interrupts his vacation due to an urgent summons from Gesar, the head of the Moscow Night Watch. The unknown mage sent an anonymous letter to both Watches and the Inquisition. The author of the letter states that he promised to perform an initiation for an ordinary person. Such magical intervention has always been considered completely impossible. The Watch leaders suspect a large-scale provocation. The Inquisition begins an investigation into the incident.

Anton receives an unofficial order to go undercover in the elite residential complex "Assol." The letter was sent from the post office in this gated community. Gorodetsky meets Las, an eccentric and cheerful neighbor. Las writes ridiculous songs and smokes cigarettes constantly, despite having no magical abilities. The neighbor’s sincerity captivates the Light Mage.

Gorodetsky reviews surveillance footage and meets with his colleagues. A parallel investigation is being conducted by Dark Inquisitor Edgar, Prague’s Higher Vampire Vitezslav, and the vampire Kostya Saushkin. The latter officially represents the Day Watch. Anton studies the dossiers of the complex’s residents. The Light Mage is on the trail of the likely mastermind.

Businessman Timur Borisovich turns out to be the biological son of Gesar and the Great Sorceress Olga. During the war, the Higher Mages lost track of him, mistakenly believing him dead. An ordinary man, Timur grew up in an orphanage. Recently, a secret guest disguised as a Soviet actor revealed the truth about magic to him. Gesar’s son took the guest at his word and categorically demanded that he be made an Other.

Anton uses cunning to gain entry to the businessman’s luxurious apartment. Gorodetsky convinces Timur to abandon his absurd demands. The magician explains that an impossible initiation will simply kill his elderly father. The Inquisitors appear. An irritated Vitezslav uses will-suppressing magic on the old man. Sensing a powerful surge of magic, Geser materializes in the bathroom.

The head of the Night Watch skillfully exploits a European vampire’s mistake. The Inquisition arbitrarily cast a combat spell on an innocent man. An aura scan reveals the old man has weak magical potential. Gesar aggressively demands that Vitezslav grant him the legal right to take his own son under his wing and turn him to the Light. The conflict is temporarily resolved. The sender of the letter remains unknown.

No one’s space

Anton leaves for a village near Moscow to be with his wife, Svetlana, and daughter, Nadya. Svetlana tells her husband some terrifying news: Two neighbor children got lost in a dense forest. They were chased for a long time by a ferocious wolf, who led them straight to its puppies. The children were saved by a lonely woman named Arina, who claimed to be a botanist. She recited an ancient poem to the wolf, and the beast cowardly retreated.

After searching the forest, Anton finds Arina’s house. The lonely woman turns out to be a powerful old witch. In the 1930s, she went into voluntary hibernation, hiding from the secret services and the vigilant Inquisition. Gorodetsky searches the witch’s library. The magician notices an old book titled "Fuaran." Ancient legends say this treatise contains the recipe for transforming an ordinary person into a full-fledged Other. Arina hands over the forgery, but Anton suspects deception.

Anton is joined by Inquisitor Edgar. The agency is searching for Arina for an old crime against the state. In 1931, the Watch officially sanctioned a large-scale ideological experiment on Muscovites. Arina secretly mixed a potion into flour at a Moscow bakery. The potion took effect immediately, resulting in mass deaths and the complete failure of the experiment. The Inquisition believes the incident to be sabotage by the Light Forces.

Upon hearing the official accusations, the cunning witch retreats into the deep layers of the Twilight. Anton and Edgar, with enormous difficulty, pursue her to the fourth layer. There, the twilight world takes on unprecedented new colors, but Arina deftly escapes her exhausted pursuers.

A fierce witch takes Nadya hostage. Arina demands safe passage through the Inquisition’s tight cordon. The werewolves that frightened the children in the forest appear. The frightened wolves offer Anton help in exchange for an official pardon. Gorodetsky and his pack attack Arina. Svetlana enters the fray. She uses colossal Light magic, defeats the witch, and regains control of the situation.

Arina gives up. Svetlana realizes the old witch’s true motives. The good sorceress extracts an unbreakable promise from the old hag not to kill anyone for a hundred years. Arina carefully returns Nadushka, sincerely blesses the little girl, and disappears without a trace.

Draw’s Strength

In a secret hiding place in Arina’s hut, the duty mages find a pile of gray ash and the empty clothes of the Higher Vampire Vitezslav. The original magical treatise, "Fuaran," has been stolen without a trace. Anton, Kostya, and Edgar are urgently tasked with tracking down the thief. Svetlana creates a magical compass that is sensitive to the aura of the lost book. The trembling needle clearly points to the train station and a passenger train heading to Kazakhstan.

Three Others board a moving train. In the narrow corridor of the car, Anton accidentally encounters Las, his former neighbor from the Assol complex. The man confesses: an unknown melody inspired in him a sudden desire to travel to wild Asia. Gorodetsky recalls that such a hypnotic effect is unique to vampires. Putting the facts together, Anton deduces: Vitezslav’s killer is Kostya Saushkin.

A young vampire used the donated blood of twelve people for a complex recipe from a book. He recited an ancient spell and became an absolutely powerful Other, far superior to any known mage on the planet. A brief, brutal battle ensues in a cramped compartment. Anton uses ordinary alcohol and powerful combat spells, distracting his distraught former friend. Kostya scatters the Inquisitors and performs an unimaginable feat of physics — leaping through the sturdy glass of a moving train into the frigid Twilight.

The High Mages arrive at the destroyed train car through a portal. Geser explains to Anton in detail the escaped vampire’s ultimate goal. Kostya heads to the famous Baikonur Cosmodrome. The young man plans to enter low Earth orbit in a lightweight spacesuit. From there, he plans to cast a spell, instantly transforming every single person on the planet into powerful Others. The vampire believes that universal magical equality will inevitably bring eternal happiness to our world.

Anton urgently flies to Saratov airport, taking his random companion, Las, with him. Kostya already has total control over the personnel on the runway. The vampire is preparing to open a direct magical portal to the space station. Geser, Zavulon, and the Inquisitors remotely transmit to Anton a tremendous magical energy collected from all the mages in Moscow. Kostya invites Anton to join the just new world. Gorodetsky refuses and attacks.

Having used the borrowed energy, Anton doesn’t strike the vampire with a deadly spell. The mage creates an absolute protective dome around himself. Realizing that the Light mage cannot be persuaded, a frustrated Kostya opens a portal and departs forever into orbit. Gorodetsky realizes the cruel irony of the harsh universe. The magical power of the Others is always drawn from the background emotional radiation of ordinary people. In the empty, cold space, the vampire is instantly deprived of all magic. Kostya’s grandiose plan fails. The Higher Vampire perishes in the dense layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, along with his spacesuit and the Fuaran treatise.

Svetlana reveals to her husband the bitter truth about the parasitic nature of the Others. Powerful mages feed on the living energy of others. The Watches conceal their existence. Ordinary people will never forgive the mages for their genetic superiority. Anton Gorodetsky struggles to accept his bleak fate. In the epilogue, Las, accidentally initiated by Kostya at the airport, works as an intern in the Moscow Night Watch.