Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
"Trust me, I can do it," Akula tells the doll, Anushka, as he threatens (though lying) to kill Natasha Massovska.
Suddenly the dolls head snaps up and it looks directly at Akula. "No thou willst not kill Natasha, Vodyanye!" it says in very archaic-sounding Russian. Akula yelps, drops the doll to the floor and leaps backwards.
"Nor shall the fire demon, nor the Queen Bear, nor all the witches and wizards in this city of false wonders," it continues, from the snow.
Akula and Napalm try to reason with the doll for a while, explaining that they cannot let it kill children just because they taunt Natasha. It claims that it must protect its charge, regardless.
Father Brencis stands back and observes.
Meanwhile, back in the park on Nakhimovskiy Prospekt, Ludmilla, Laika, and Natasha and Marina Massovska decide to return to the Massov's apartment. Laika uses her psychic powers on Varinka, the concierge of Building 50, so that she is not see in the no-pets apartment building.
As they approach the Massov's apartment Laika can smell burning furniture and toxic fumes, and growls a warning.
Marina ignores this and opens the door - toxic smoke roils out, though a lot of it has dispersed through the still-open window inside. They rush in, Ludmilla feigning surprise. "Oh My, what has happened?" she exclaims.
The chair where Natasha left Anushka is a burnt and melted wreck, there are char marks around it and on the ceiling, and the carpet under it is melted into oblivion too, although the rest of the room is fairly untouched.
Natasha looks concerned, then points at Ludmilla. "You! Your friends did this! I thought you were my friend," she cries. Then she bursts into tears.
"Well, much as I would like to deny it, the evidence does suggest that it may be so," says Ludmilla.
"What are you talking about?" Says Marina. Of course, she does not know about the super heroes. "What do you mean?"
"Well, err, let me make a phone call," Ludmilla says evasively and steps outside into the hallway.
Marina follows to keep an eye on her.
Back in the Bittsevskiy Lesopark, Napalm is challenging the dolls ethical approach to protecting her charge, in a very coherent way, which Akula finds rather surprising.
At this point Akula's phone rings.
It is Ludmilla, who explains that they have returned and found what has happened. She wants to reassure Natasha that the doll is all right.
Akula explains that Napalm is negotiating with the doll and that "she is doing surprisingly well actually!"
They conclude that, if negotiations go well, they may return to the flat so that Natasha can put her own point of view.
Ludmilla then rings off and goes back into the Massov's apartment under the watchful gaze of Marina. She explains to Natasha that Anushka was taken by her friends. "And yes, during the course of this your chair was, err, burned," she finishes.
Natasha and Marina are surprised that Anushka can speak. They ask to talk to her, so Ludmilla phones Akula again.
Anushka appears to be relenting. "Perhaps I could change, if my charge wanted me to," it says.
At this stage Ludmilla rings again, and asks Akula to put Anushka on the phone so that Marina can talk to her.
There is some confusion with the phone. Then someone changes their mind and rings off, only for someone else to change their mind again and ring them back...
Eventually Akula holds the phone up to Anushka and Marina speaks to her for some time. The doll, however, is not convinced about the 'magic box' - it wants to talk to Marina, not a box. Anushka now wants to return to the flat and speak to Natasha and Marina. This is agreed and they return to the flat.
Napalm flies them, but takes her time to give Ludmilla some time to talk to Natasha.
En route the negotiations continue.
Anushka explains that it was created by Baba Yaga, for Prince Rurik of Novgorod to protect the princesses of the royal line, and that it has done so for sixty-two generations.
"These are your friends?!?!" Marina exclaims as Napalm arrives carrying Akula, Father Brencis and Anushka. "Ludmilla?"
Ludmilla avoids the subject
"Did you do that?" asks Marina, pointing at the chair and looking at Napalm.
"What do you think," replies the flaming apparition.
Ludmilla offers to replace the chair and carpet.
"People have been killed by the doll!" Akula points out.
"I suppose so," says Marina unhappily.
Natasha also reprimands Napalm about attacking Anushka, and gets a similar frosty reply.
"I would like to remind people that one of my friends was killed too!" says Napalm coldly.
More talking takes place. In particular the doll and Natasha talk for the first time ever.
We suggest to Anushka that one way to stop it would be to end the line of its charges by not killing Natasha but sterilising her so will have no children. Anushka denies that this will ever happen. We wonder what that means. Is it some kind of fate, or destiny?
Eventually, Ludmilla puts three alternatives to Anushka and Natasha. "Return to the village, become separated permanently or control Anushka's overreactions in some manner."
Napalm does not like the first alternative. "It would not be fair on the people of the village, they were probably happy to see the back of the doll!" she says.
We talk around the third option. But Anushka's opinion that it has done nothing 'evil' and that its charge is "more important" than it's victims does not encourage us to trust it.
At one stage Laika questions the doll directly, broadcasting telepathically to it and Ludmilla, Akula and Napalm. The doll is surprised, but answers. Akula is stunned into silence by this voice in his head.
Ludmilla's conclusion is that Anushka cannot be trusted but also that it would be unfair to place the burden of life and death onto Natasha. She also concludes that Anushka is already harming Natasha by putting her into this position. "Quick, defend her from yourself," she says.
Anushka does not rise to this bait...
Akula concludes that the doll is not 'human' after all, but more like a machine. If it has feelings, which Anushka protests that it does, that they are "twisted to its single minded aim."
Napalm gets bored.
Marina offers refreshments. Napalm asks for a vodka, which is quickly supplied.
As the talking continues, Anushka describes its power. The curse will take effect once or twice and then cease, whether or not the cursed person survives. It does have levels of curse that it can utilise, from lethal to maiming to injurious to merely nuisance value. It claims that it can also remove curses, but has never done so.
We also worry about what Anushka would do when Natasha becomes old enough to no longer need it, and if Natasha ever has a daughter to whom Anushka would pass. Anushka says that it would continue to abide by the orders of its former charge until its new charge was old enough to decide for herself.
Eventually, after a lot of talking, a proposal is drawn up:
There is, however, some discussion about the second item. Akula does not want the lethal curse to appear on the list at all.
Ludmilla believes that it should be there.
Finally Natasha breaks the deadlock by holding the doll up and saying "Anushka, you are not to use your powers to kill anyone."
Further to this Napalm suggests that Anushka is left at home more often, in particular when going to school. She suggests to Natasha that she will make friends more easily if she leaves the doll and its powers at home.
Natasha sounds unconvinced but agrees to try this.
The proposal is agreed by all. A probation period - during which we will continue to monitor the situation - is agreed. We will drop in regularly to visit.
Anushka looks at each party member in turn - when it gets to Akula he feels something happening - as if that feeling he felt whenever she cursed him was being taken away.
"Right, well then," says Ludmilla. "I have a family to go home to. I hope all goes well. Goodbye."
Natasha and Marina bid the team and the Father farewell and we leave, Napalm and Father Brencis by the window, Akula by the water system, and Ludmilla and Laika by the stairs. We reconvene outside Building 50.
There is a brief conversation between Akula and Laika. "Are you really a talking dog?" he asks.
"I can't talk, I am just telepathic," she replies telepathically.
Father Brencis is further confused by this apparently one-sided conversation, but is given no explanation.
The Father checks us all for residual curses - and finds nothing. He is flown back to the Monastery of the Sign by Napalm. Everyone else goes their separate ways and heads for their various homes.
On arrival at the Monastery of the Sign, Napalm thanks the Father for his help. He apologises for not being as much help as they had hoped but offers to assist us again in future if we think we can use him. He also offers his assistance if other, more spiritual, help is ever needed.
Napalm says that they will take him up on that, and flies off.
Ludmilla arrives home and is greeted by her husband Vladimir. All of the children other than Nina are there too.
She recounts the tale of Natasha and Anushka to him as she cooks their evening meal. She also tells her children not to be horrible to Natasha at school. They are initially reluctant but do agree to do what she says when she threatens them!
Laika hops on a bus to the University, the driver feeling an overwhelming urge to stop at the appropriate bus stops and strangely never noticing the little dog getting on and off.
She trots back to the professor's apartment on the campus and lets herself in using her telekinetic powers. She organises herself some food and curls up in her basket by the fire.
Akula turns back into Vladimir and finds his way back to his apartment.
Napalm flies off to Phillipov's apartment. She changes back into Ana and goes into his apartment. Alexi Phillipov, however, is not there. He is probably on duty.
She helps herself to some food and makes herself at home in front of the TV.
Laika talks to Professor Agafia about her experiments and about the Moscow Super Heroes and Anushka.
The professor taps the details into a Braille laptop for her records. She points out that Prince Rurik was the first legendary Varangian ruler of Novgorod.
On Sunday, Ludmilla and Laika return to the Massov's to go shopping in the flea market as arranged. Marina's husband Ruslan accompanies them, but is very suspicious.
They find a nice armchair, better than the one that Napalm destroyed, and some carpet. The charge for these items goes indirectly (by way of Ludmilla's bank account) to the Moscow Super Heroes account.
Ana and Officer Phillipov (whose full name, it turns out, is Alexi Alexievitch Phillipov) continue their relationship. Such as it is.
Phillipov buys more food to accommodate Ana's appetite, and does not try to get her into bed or any such thing. She rummages through his stuff again while he is out at work, searching more thoroughly this time, but again finds no alcohol and no evidence of a life outside the police force or before he arrived in this apartment a couple of months ago.
She quizzes him about his family, but he says that he has none and would rather not talk about it. On friends, he says he has a few down at the station, and on pass-times that he watches TV and walks the streets of the city. He claims not to believe in booze - strange (at least as far as Napalm is concerned)!
Ana invites Ludmilla and her husband Vladimir to visit Phillipov's apartment - Ana is slightly worried about Phillipov and wants a second opinion of him. They come bringing beer, which Phillipov does not drink, though he does not object to the others doing so.
Phillipov serves them a pleasant, if rather bland, dinner and a pleasant, if relatively sober, evening is had. During the evening they discuss his career (collage, national service, then the police force), family (same answers as before), ice hockey, American soap operas, and so on... He feigns interest in ice hockey and soap operas, but not very well.
So Ludmilla concludes that she can see nothing wrong with Phillipov, though he is a bit strange. She considers warning him about Ana, given Ana's history, then decides not to...
Vladimir returns to work and begins to assist the Director of the Research Reactor Facility in the selection of a new reactor technician to replace Fyodor. He also spends more time at work to help compensate for the lack of Fyodor and keep the reactor in a safe condition, but this does not bother him too much, as he gets paid overtime.
After a few days the nuclear safety people complete their investigation. They give the research reactor a clean bill of health, concluding that Fyodor was killed by a 'freak accident'.
In the middle of the morning, everyone's mobile phone (apart from Laika, who does not have such a phone) rings...