34
"Guys whats wrong?"
I raised an eyebrow.
Lazy and Sleazy stood frozen, staring at the floor.
Small tremors ran through both of them. Sleazy even had one hand pressed to his chest, like his heart had tried to quit on him.
I had never seen either of them look so…
Off.
Whatever happened while I was gone had hit them hard.
Too bad I had bigger problems.
Namely, an entire year's worth of information hiding somewhere inside my skull.
"Alright, guys, enough of this. I gotta…"
Crash.
No other word fit.
One moment, my head felt empty.
The next, everything poured in.
"Ghk!"
I grabbed my skull and rolled straight off the bed.
Conversations.
Feelings.
Faces.
Movements.
Achievements.
Failures.
Places.
Names.
Thousands of tiny moments slammed into me at once, stacking over each other faster than I had any hope of understanding.
It felt like someone had cracked my head open and started stuffing another life into the gap.
But this time…
I endured it.
Barely.
For one thing, I sensed an end.
This was not some endless flood stretching past comprehension. I had only searched through the first year, and beneath the avalanche, I felt the edges of it.
More important, this was not the worst pain I had ever felt.
Not even close.
Compared to the white void from my first Soul Dive, this was almost reasonable.
Almost.
Another wave tore through my skull.
I curled up on the floor.
Eventually, after seconds, minutes, or however long I spent wishing someone would remove my brain, the agony began to fade.
The pain dulled.
Then dulled again.
Until all I had left was a vicious headache pounding behind my eyes.
"Uhhhhhh…"
I groaned into the carpet.
"Gods… this is worse than a hangover."
"Nothing is worse than a hangover, Seer."
I opened one eye.
Sleazy stood nearby.
He looked normal again. His usual cheerful expression had returned, along with his usual coating of sleaziness.
Whatever had happened to him earlier might as well have never happened.
Might as well.
Because when I looked closer, I noticed it.
His eyes were trembling.
Barely.
So little I would have missed it if I had not been staring right at him.
Everything else looked perfect.
The smile.
The posture.
The relaxed shoulders.
But around his eyes, a tiny tremor remained, like every nerve in his body had been forced still except for those few.
It was creepy.
I squinted at him.
His smile stayed in place.
Whatever.
My exploding skull came first.
If I remembered later, I would ask him what the hell happened.
Lazy had vanished somewhere, which was unfortunate, because I needed him right now.
But once again…
Whatever.
I winced and pushed myself upright.
Memories kept pouring in.
A conversation.
A movement.
The food served in the cafeteria two months from now.
A staircase.
Someone complaining about an assignment.
Three students arguing beside a fountain.
How many pigeons sat on said fountain.
Why did I know that?
Who needed to know how many pigeons would sit on a fountain months from now?
Nobody.
Nobody needed that.
I stumbled around the room until I found a notebook one of the maids must have left behind before I moved in.
"Okay… notebook. Notebook is good."
Another memory slammed into me.
I hissed through my teeth.
"Fuck."
I found a pen.
Good.
Future events.
Constants.
Deaths.
Important conversations.
Anything useful for stopping the end of the world.
I lowered the pen toward the page.
Then I stopped.
Did I even need to write this down?
I stared at the blank paper.
Ever since awakening my Origin Spell, my memory had improved.
No.
Improved was too weak.
My memory had changed.
Things which should have faded stayed clear. After this latest dive, it felt stranger.
The memories were not sitting in my head as one giant mess.
I was able to sort through them.
I focused.
The cafeteria meal surfaced at once.
Then the fountain.
Then the exact number of pigeons.
I pushed those memories away.
They receded.
I reached for something else.
A conversation.
It came forward.
Clear.
Detailed.
Almost perfectly preserved.
I blinked.
Was I organizing this now?
Keeping what mattered and letting the useless fragments fade?
Had I become a machine?
I rubbed my temple.
Maybe this was another side effect of whatever happened when I awakened.
The silver eyes.
The changes to Soul Diver.
Now this.
Wonderful.
I set the notebook aside and turned toward Sleazy, who still wore his perfectly rebuilt smile.
"I'm going to meditate through this, okay?"
He tilted his head.
"I need to sift through these memories. Get rid of the useless ones and keep anything tied to the Constants or major future events."
For once, Sleazy's confusion looked real.
"You're able to do that?"
I waved him off.
"Yes, apparently. Now don't wake me."
My gaze drifted toward the window.
I stopped.
I remembered looking outside before entering Soul Diver.
The headache had buried the thought under everything else, but now, with my eyes on the sky, something felt wrong.
A chill slid down my spine.
"Hey."
Sleazy raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, hey, Sleazy."
"Yes, Seer?"
"How much time passed?"
I stepped toward the window.
"The sun only moved a little."
"Because it has."
The voice came from directly behind me.
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Fuck!"
Lazy floated there.
"When did you get back?"
"A moment ago."
"Stop doing that!"
He stared at me.
I rubbed my face.
"Whatever. What do you mean, because it has?"
Lazy drifted beside me, much more composed than he had been before I entered Soul Diver.
"The sun hasn't moved."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"Not in any meaningful way."
I looked toward the window again.
The sun sat almost exactly where I remembered it.
No.
I frowned.
"How long was I out?"
Sleazy scratched the side of his face.
"A few minutes."
Silence.
I turned toward him slowly.
"A few… minutes?"
"Give or take."
"No."
Sleazy's smile widened.
"I assure you, Seer, I have not gained the ability to stop the sun."
I ignored him and looked at Lazy.
He gave a small nod.
"Approximately ten minutes."
My mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Ten minutes?
Impossible.
I went through the first layer.
Then the pain.
Then the nothingness.
Then whatever rage-filled nightmare came after.
Then I reached the cracks, crossed into the silver pool, and spent what felt like an eternity digging through an entire year of memories.
Ten minutes made no sense.
"I was down there way longer than that."
Lazy's eyes sharpened.
"How long did it feel?"
"I don't know. Hours?"
I rubbed my forehead.
"Maybe longer. Time gets strange inside Soul Diver."
Sleazy leaned closer.
"Apparently much stranger than usual."
I frowned.
"Last time it took until sunrise."
"Exactly."
Lazy folded his arms.
"That is the problem."
Of course he called it a problem.
"What problem?"
"Your Origin Spell has changed."
I blinked.
"Changed how?"
"I don't know."
"You said that with a lot of confidence for someone who doesn't know."
"I said it changed. I did not say I understood the change."
Fair.
Lazy's gaze moved over me.
"Origin Spells improve as their mage advances. Higher mana density. Better efficiency. Finer control. That much is normal."
"Right."
"But what you described sounds more significant."
Sleazy tilted his head.
"Evolution?"
Lazy paused.
"Possibly."
I stared at him.
"Already?"
"That is why I said possibly."
I raised both hands.
"I'm tier two."
"Exactly."
Origin Spells evolving was rare, but not unheard of.
The problem was, a mage usually needed time to grow before their spell had anything worth evolving from.
I had been a mage for what?
A week?
Maybe a little longer?
"Tier three would make more sense," I muttered.
"At minimum."
Sleazy glanced between us.
"So either our Seer is exceptionally talented…"
"No."
I pointed at him.
"Don't start."
"Or something else is influencing Soul Diver."
That shut me up.
Lazy looked at him.
Then back at me.
"What happened inside?"
I hesitated.
The ghosts knew what Soul Diver did. They knew I entered memories.
They did not know what it looked like.
None of them had ever followed me in.
"It's hard to explain."
Lazy's expression stayed flat.
"Try."
I sighed.
"There's an ocean."
Sleazy blinked.
"An ocean?"
"Yes."
"In your soul?"
"Apparently."
He looked far too pleased by this.
I regretted telling him at once.
Lazy ignored him.
"Continue."
"I sink through it."
"How?"
"I don't know. I let it pull me."
That sounded a lot less smart out loud.
"There are layers."
Lazy's eyes narrowed.
"Layers?"
"Different kinds of memories. Different sensations. Different things."
I waved one hand.
"The point is, every time I go deeper, the pressure changes."
I stopped.
Something clicked.
"Wait."
Both of them looked at me.
"I was moving faster."
Lazy straightened a little.
"What?"
"Through the ocean."
I closed my eyes and rebuilt the descent in my head.
"The first time I used Soul Diver, sinking took forever. Every layer dragged me through it."
This time…
"The descent was quicker."
Much quicker.
I had noticed it.
I had even thought about it while I was inside.
I had not thought about what it meant.
"I thought I was getting better with the spell."
Lazy's gaze sharpened.
"You might be."
"No, I mean…"
I frowned.
"I thought I was physically moving through it faster."
Sleazy raised an eyebrow.
"You were."
"Not like that."
I pointed toward the window.
"I thought Soul Diver had gotten faster. I didn't think I was spending more time inside than everyone outside."
That was the difference.
Inside Soul Diver, nothing felt accelerated.
I had not watched memories whip past me at absurd speed.
I experienced them normally.
Conversations took as long as conversations should take.
Pain lasted exactly as long as it wanted to, which was rude.
I had time to think.
To react.
To suffer.
Yet outside…
Ten minutes.
Lazy went still.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"Time dilation."
I grimaced.
"You say that like it's simple."
"It isn't."
"Wonderful."
Sleazy floated toward the window.
"So from Kamrik's perspective, he spends hours inside his spell…"
He tapped the glass.
"While out here, almost no time passes."
"Potentially."
Lazy looked at me.
"Did the memories feel shortened?"
"No."
"Compressed?"
"No."
"Did your thoughts feel accelerated?"
I paused.
"Not that I noticed."
Lazy frowned.
That bothered him.
He went quiet for several seconds, eyes narrowed as he worked through something in his head.
"The only theory I have is an unexpected interaction between my Origin Spell and yours."
My brows lifted.
"What do you mean? How does that even work?"
He shrugged.
"I don't know."
"That is reassuring."
"To my knowledge, no one has ever possessed two Origin Spells at once."
He paused.
"Let alone five."
Oh.
Right.
Lazy tapped one finger against his chin.
"The effects of multiple Origin Spells existing within the same soul are unknown. There is no precedent for what is happening to you, Kamrik."
His eyes shifted to me.
"My current theory is Thought Acceleration and Soul Diver are interacting."
I frowned.
"But I wasn't using Thought Acceleration."
"Consciously."
I stopped.
Lazy continued before I spoke.
"My Origin Spell is attached to you whether you invoke it or not. The same applies to the others. We are tethered to your soul, and through that connection, pieces of what belonged to us are now available to you."
He gestured vaguely toward my head.
"If Soul Diver works through your mind and soul, then contact with Thought Acceleration might explain the discrepancy."
"The time dilation?"
"Possibly."
He floated closer.
"Think about it. Thought Acceleration increases the amount of thought within a set span of time. Soul Diver places your consciousness into a mental world made of memories."
His eyes narrowed.
"If both effects were active at once, your perception inside Soul Diver might have accelerated while little time passed outside."
I stared at him.
"So I wasn't moving faster through the ocean."
Lazy tilted his head.
"You might have been."
"That doesn't help."
"I'm not trying to comfort you."
Of course he wasn't.
I rubbed my forehead.
"From my perspective, I was definitely sinking faster. The layers passed quicker than before."
"Then there are several possibilities."
Sleazy groaned from nearby.
"Oh, wonderful. A list."
Lazy ignored him.
"Thought Acceleration might be accelerating your consciousness while Soul Diver itself stays unchanged."
He raised one finger.
"Or Soul Diver adapted to the presence of Thought Acceleration."
A second finger.
"The two spells might be overlapping in a way we do not understand."
A third.
"Or the mana structure of Soul Diver changed after prolonged contact with mine."
I stared at him.
"Changed how?"
"That is the problem."
Lazy lowered his hand.
"I don't know."
He looked almost annoyed by the admission.
"It is possible Soul Diver evolved."
My headache throbbed harder.
"But I'm only tier two."
"Yes."
"And Origin Spells aren't supposed to evolve this early."
"Usually."
"Usually?"
Lazy gave me a flat look.
"Kamrik, you possess several dead versions of yourself, multiple Origin Spells, memories from futures which no longer exist, and apparently an ocean inside your soul."
He paused.
"I think we passed usually some time ago."
Fair.
Lazy tapped his chin again.
"Another possibility is neither spell evolved."
I raised an eyebrow.
"They might have altered one another."
"That happens?"
"No idea."
"Lazy."
"What would you like me to say? There isn't a book titled What to Do When Five Origin Spells Are Stuffed Into One Idiot."
Sleazy raised a hand at once.
"I would read that."
"Shut up."
Lazy's mouth twitched.
Barely.
"The possibilities are endless, Kamrik. Until we see what happens the next time you use Soul Diver, all I have are theories."
Then he paused.
His eyes settled on me.
"You surprised me twice today."
I blinked.
"Twice?"
"Yes."
Something about the way he said it felt strange.
Before I asked what the first surprise had been, Lazy looked away.
"That is impressive by itself."
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Alright. Seems like we're not getting more answers today."
My brain pulsed in agreement.
"I'm going to meditate this migraine away, then I'm going to bed. Okay?"
Lazy and Sleazy both shrugged.
"It's not like we're able to stop you," Lazy said. "Do whatever you want."
"Glad I have your permission."
I turned back toward the bed.
It took only moments to settle into a meditative position and a little longer to start sorting through the mess in my head.
Important.
Unimportant.
Constant.
Irrelevant.
Keep.
Discard.
Keep.
Discard.
For hours, I sifted through fragments of a future which no longer existed.
Conversations which might still happen.
Conversations which never would.
Faces I needed to remember.
Names I could not afford to forget.
And roughly twelve billion pieces of information with no purpose at all.
The pigeons went first.
By the time I opened my eyes again, sunlight had vanished.
Night settled over the academy.
I breathed out slowly.
My headache remained, but the difference was huge.
What had once felt like someone smashing my skull against a wall had faded into a deep, ugly throb.
Progress.
I looked around.
None of the ghosts were visible.
They must have retreated into my soul.
Good.
I liked them.
Well…
Some of them.
Sometimes.
But there was beauty in silence.
Real silence.
No Bloody screaming for violence.
No Lazy explaining why every choice I made was stupid.
No Sleazy appearing over my shoulder like a pervert with teleportation privileges.
Only me.
I slid beneath the blankets and rested my head on the pillow.
My new room was absurdly comfortable.
The mattress practically swallowed me.
I stared at the unfamiliar ceiling.
Tomorrow would be my first real day in Vanguard.
The thought sat strangely in my chest.
Vanguard.
That was where I would meet them.
The main Constants.
The people who appeared around the moments that mattered.
The people whose lives kept tangling with the future of the world.
And now…
Mine.
This was where the plan began.
No more assessment.
No more reacting to whatever insanity landed in front of me.
Tomorrow, I would start changing things.
My eyelids grew heavy.
Finally.
I let myself sink into the mattress.
The soft pull of sleep welcomed me.
Conversation number thirty-four. Two months from now. Main lecture room.
My eyes opened.
I closed them again.
No.
Absolutely not.
A wooden sword slammed into my back.
I shot upright.
"Motherfucke…"
Another memory surfaced.
Then another.
Then another.
I stared into the darkness.
My brain kept organizing an entire year of information like a loyal little traitor.
I didn't sleep that night.
34
"Guys whats wrong?"
I raised an eyebrow.
Lazy and Sleazy stood frozen, staring at the floor.
Small tremors ran through both of them. Sleazy even had one hand pressed to his chest, like his heart had tried to quit on him.
I had never seen either of them look so…
Off.
Whatever happened while I was gone had hit them hard.
Too bad I had bigger problems.
Namely, an entire year's worth of information hiding somewhere inside my skull.
"Alright, guys, enough of this. I gotta…"
Crash.
No other word fit.
One moment, my head felt empty.
The next, everything poured in.
"Ghk!"
I grabbed my skull and rolled straight off the bed.
Conversations.
Feelings.
Faces.
Movements.
Achievements.
Failures.
Places.
Names.
Thousands of tiny moments slammed into me at once, stacking over each other faster than I had any hope of understanding.
It felt like someone had cracked my head open and started stuffing another life into the gap.
But this time…
I endured it.
Barely.
For one thing, I sensed an end.
This was not some endless flood stretching past comprehension. I had only searched through the first year, and beneath the avalanche, I felt the edges of it.
More important, this was not the worst pain I had ever felt.
Not even close.
Compared to the white void from my first Soul Dive, this was almost reasonable.
Almost.
Another wave tore through my skull.
I curled up on the floor.
Eventually, after seconds, minutes, or however long I spent wishing someone would remove my brain, the agony began to fade.
The pain dulled.
Then dulled again.
Until all I had left was a vicious headache pounding behind my eyes.
"Uhhhhhh…"
I groaned into the carpet.
"Gods… this is worse than a hangover."
"Nothing is worse than a hangover, Seer."
I opened one eye.
Sleazy stood nearby.
He looked normal again. His usual cheerful expression had returned, along with his usual coating of sleaziness.
Whatever had happened to him earlier might as well have never happened.
Might as well.
Because when I looked closer, I noticed it.
His eyes were trembling.
Barely.
So little I would have missed it if I had not been staring right at him.
Everything else looked perfect.
The smile.
The posture.
The relaxed shoulders.
But around his eyes, a tiny tremor remained, like every nerve in his body had been forced still except for those few.
It was creepy.
I squinted at him.
His smile stayed in place.
Whatever.
My exploding skull came first.
If I remembered later, I would ask him what the hell happened.
Lazy had vanished somewhere, which was unfortunate, because I needed him right now.
But once again…
Whatever.
I winced and pushed myself upright.
Memories kept pouring in.
A conversation.
A movement.
The food served in the cafeteria two months from now.
A staircase.
Someone complaining about an assignment.
Three students arguing beside a fountain.
How many pigeons sat on said fountain.
Why did I know that?
Who needed to know how many pigeons would sit on a fountain months from now?
Nobody.
Nobody needed that.
I stumbled around the room until I found a notebook one of the maids must have left behind before I moved in.
"Okay… notebook. Notebook is good."
Another memory slammed into me.
I hissed through my teeth.
"Fuck."
I found a pen.
Good.
Future events.
Constants.
Deaths.
Important conversations.
Anything useful for stopping the end of the world.
I lowered the pen toward the page.
Then I stopped.
Did I even need to write this down?
I stared at the blank paper.
Ever since awakening my Origin Spell, my memory had improved.
No.
Improved was too weak.
My memory had changed.
Things which should have faded stayed clear. After this latest dive, it felt stranger.
The memories were not sitting in my head as one giant mess.
I was able to sort through them.
I focused.
The cafeteria meal surfaced at once.
Then the fountain.
Then the exact number of pigeons.
I pushed those memories away.
They receded.
I reached for something else.
A conversation.
It came forward.
Clear.
Detailed.
Almost perfectly preserved.
I blinked.
Was I organizing this now?
Keeping what mattered and letting the useless fragments fade?
Had I become a machine?
I rubbed my temple.
Maybe this was another side effect of whatever happened when I awakened.
The silver eyes.
The changes to Soul Diver.
Now this.
Wonderful.
I set the notebook aside and turned toward Sleazy, who still wore his perfectly rebuilt smile.
"I'm going to meditate through this, okay?"
He tilted his head.
"I need to sift through these memories. Get rid of the useless ones and keep anything tied to the Constants or major future events."
For once, Sleazy's confusion looked real.
"You're able to do that?"
I waved him off.
"Yes, apparently. Now don't wake me."
My gaze drifted toward the window.
I stopped.
I remembered looking outside before entering Soul Diver.
The headache had buried the thought under everything else, but now, with my eyes on the sky, something felt wrong.
A chill slid down my spine.
"Hey."
Sleazy raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, hey, Sleazy."
"Yes, Seer?"
"How much time passed?"
I stepped toward the window.
"The sun only moved a little."
"Because it has."
The voice came from directly behind me.
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Fuck!"
Lazy floated there.
"When did you get back?"
"A moment ago."
"Stop doing that!"
He stared at me.
I rubbed my face.
"Whatever. What do you mean, because it has?"
Lazy drifted beside me, much more composed than he had been before I entered Soul Diver.
"The sun hasn't moved."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"Not in any meaningful way."
I looked toward the window again.
The sun sat almost exactly where I remembered it.
No.
I frowned.
"How long was I out?"
Sleazy scratched the side of his face.
"A few minutes."
Silence.
I turned toward him slowly.
"A few… minutes?"
"Give or take."
"No."
Sleazy's smile widened.
"I assure you, Seer, I have not gained the ability to stop the sun."
I ignored him and looked at Lazy.
He gave a small nod.
"Approximately ten minutes."
My mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Ten minutes?
Impossible.
I went through the first layer.
Then the pain.
Then the nothingness.
Then whatever rage-filled nightmare came after.
Then I reached the cracks, crossed into the silver pool, and spent what felt like an eternity digging through an entire year of memories.
Ten minutes made no sense.
"I was down there way longer than that."
Lazy's eyes sharpened.
"How long did it feel?"
"I don't know. Hours?"
I rubbed my forehead.
"Maybe longer. Time gets strange inside Soul Diver."
Sleazy leaned closer.
"Apparently much stranger than usual."
I frowned.
"Last time it took until sunrise."
"Exactly."
Lazy folded his arms.
"That is the problem."
Of course he called it a problem.
"What problem?"
"Your Origin Spell has changed."
I blinked.
"Changed how?"
"I don't know."
"You said that with a lot of confidence for someone who doesn't know."
"I said it changed. I did not say I understood the change."
Fair.
Lazy's gaze moved over me.
"Origin Spells improve as their mage advances. Higher mana density. Better efficiency. Finer control. That much is normal."
"Right."
"But what you described sounds more significant."
Sleazy tilted his head.
"Evolution?"
Lazy paused.
"Possibly."
I stared at him.
"Already?"
"That is why I said possibly."
I raised both hands.
"I'm tier two."
"Exactly."
Origin Spells evolving was rare, but not unheard of.
The problem was, a mage usually needed time to grow before their spell had anything worth evolving from.
I had been a mage for what?
A week?
Maybe a little longer?
"Tier three would make more sense," I muttered.
"At minimum."
Sleazy glanced between us.
"So either our Seer is exceptionally talented…"
"No."
I pointed at him.
"Don't start."
"Or something else is influencing Soul Diver."
That shut me up.
Lazy looked at him.
Then back at me.
"What happened inside?"
I hesitated.
The ghosts knew what Soul Diver did. They knew I entered memories.
They did not know what it looked like.
None of them had ever followed me in.
"It's hard to explain."
Lazy's expression stayed flat.
"Try."
I sighed.
"There's an ocean."
Sleazy blinked.
"An ocean?"
"Yes."
"In your soul?"
"Apparently."
He looked far too pleased by this.
I regretted telling him at once.
Lazy ignored him.
"Continue."
"I sink through it."
"How?"
"I don't know. I let it pull me."
That sounded a lot less smart out loud.
"There are layers."
Lazy's eyes narrowed.
"Layers?"
"Different kinds of memories. Different sensations. Different things."
I waved one hand.
"The point is, every time I go deeper, the pressure changes."
I stopped.
Something clicked.
"Wait."
Both of them looked at me.
"I was moving faster."
Lazy straightened a little.
"What?"
"Through the ocean."
I closed my eyes and rebuilt the descent in my head.
"The first time I used Soul Diver, sinking took forever. Every layer dragged me through it."
This time…
"The descent was quicker."
Much quicker.
I had noticed it.
I had even thought about it while I was inside.
I had not thought about what it meant.
"I thought I was getting better with the spell."
Lazy's gaze sharpened.
"You might be."
"No, I mean…"
I frowned.
"I thought I was physically moving through it faster."
Sleazy raised an eyebrow.
"You were."
"Not like that."
I pointed toward the window.
"I thought Soul Diver had gotten faster. I didn't think I was spending more time inside than everyone outside."
That was the difference.
Inside Soul Diver, nothing felt accelerated.
I had not watched memories whip past me at absurd speed.
I experienced them normally.
Conversations took as long as conversations should take.
Pain lasted exactly as long as it wanted to, which was rude.
I had time to think.
To react.
To suffer.
Yet outside…
Ten minutes.
Lazy went still.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"Time dilation."
I grimaced.
"You say that like it's simple."
"It isn't."
"Wonderful."
Sleazy floated toward the window.
"So from Kamrik's perspective, he spends hours inside his spell…"
He tapped the glass.
"While out here, almost no time passes."
"Potentially."
Lazy looked at me.
"Did the memories feel shortened?"
"No."
"Compressed?"
"No."
"Did your thoughts feel accelerated?"
I paused.
"Not that I noticed."
Lazy frowned.
That bothered him.
He went quiet for several seconds, eyes narrowed as he worked through something in his head.
"The only theory I have is an unexpected interaction between my Origin Spell and yours."
My brows lifted.
"What do you mean? How does that even work?"
He shrugged.
"I don't know."
"That is reassuring."
"To my knowledge, no one has ever possessed two Origin Spells at once."
He paused.
"Let alone five."
Oh.
Right.
Lazy tapped one finger against his chin.
"The effects of multiple Origin Spells existing within the same soul are unknown. There is no precedent for what is happening to you, Kamrik."
His eyes shifted to me.
"My current theory is Thought Acceleration and Soul Diver are interacting."
I frowned.
"But I wasn't using Thought Acceleration."
"Consciously."
I stopped.
Lazy continued before I spoke.
"My Origin Spell is attached to you whether you invoke it or not. The same applies to the others. We are tethered to your soul, and through that connection, pieces of what belonged to us are now available to you."
He gestured vaguely toward my head.
"If Soul Diver works through your mind and soul, then contact with Thought Acceleration might explain the discrepancy."
"The time dilation?"
"Possibly."
He floated closer.
"Think about it. Thought Acceleration increases the amount of thought within a set span of time. Soul Diver places your consciousness into a mental world made of memories."
His eyes narrowed.
"If both effects were active at once, your perception inside Soul Diver might have accelerated while little time passed outside."
I stared at him.
"So I wasn't moving faster through the ocean."
Lazy tilted his head.
"You might have been."
"That doesn't help."
"I'm not trying to comfort you."
Of course he wasn't.
I rubbed my forehead.
"From my perspective, I was definitely sinking faster. The layers passed quicker than before."
"Then there are several possibilities."
Sleazy groaned from nearby.
"Oh, wonderful. A list."
Lazy ignored him.
"Thought Acceleration might be accelerating your consciousness while Soul Diver itself stays unchanged."
He raised one finger.
"Or Soul Diver adapted to the presence of Thought Acceleration."
A second finger.
"The two spells might be overlapping in a way we do not understand."
A third.
"Or the mana structure of Soul Diver changed after prolonged contact with mine."
I stared at him.
"Changed how?"
"That is the problem."
Lazy lowered his hand.
"I don't know."
He looked almost annoyed by the admission.
"It is possible Soul Diver evolved."
My headache throbbed harder.
"But I'm only tier two."
"Yes."
"And Origin Spells aren't supposed to evolve this early."
"Usually."
"Usually?"
Lazy gave me a flat look.
"Kamrik, you possess several dead versions of yourself, multiple Origin Spells, memories from futures which no longer exist, and apparently an ocean inside your soul."
He paused.
"I think we passed usually some time ago."
Fair.
Lazy tapped his chin again.
"Another possibility is neither spell evolved."
I raised an eyebrow.
"They might have altered one another."
"That happens?"
"No idea."
"Lazy."
"What would you like me to say? There isn't a book titled What to Do When Five Origin Spells Are Stuffed Into One Idiot."
Sleazy raised a hand at once.
"I would read that."
"Shut up."
Lazy's mouth twitched.
Barely.
"The possibilities are endless, Kamrik. Until we see what happens the next time you use Soul Diver, all I have are theories."
Then he paused.
His eyes settled on me.
"You surprised me twice today."
I blinked.
"Twice?"
"Yes."
Something about the way he said it felt strange.
Before I asked what the first surprise had been, Lazy looked away.
"That is impressive by itself."
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Alright. Seems like we're not getting more answers today."
My brain pulsed in agreement.
"I'm going to meditate this migraine away, then I'm going to bed. Okay?"
Lazy and Sleazy both shrugged.
"It's not like we're able to stop you," Lazy said. "Do whatever you want."
"Glad I have your permission."
I turned back toward the bed.
It took only moments to settle into a meditative position and a little longer to start sorting through the mess in my head.
Important.
Unimportant.
Constant.
Irrelevant.
Keep.
Discard.
Keep.
Discard.
For hours, I sifted through fragments of a future which no longer existed.
Conversations which might still happen.
Conversations which never would.
Faces I needed to remember.
Names I could not afford to forget.
And roughly twelve billion pieces of information with no purpose at all.
The pigeons went first.
By the time I opened my eyes again, sunlight had vanished.
Night settled over the academy.
I breathed out slowly.
My headache remained, but the difference was huge.
What had once felt like someone smashing my skull against a wall had faded into a deep, ugly throb.
Progress.
I looked around.
None of the ghosts were visible.
They must have retreated into my soul.
Good.
I liked them.
Well…
Some of them.
Sometimes.
But there was beauty in silence.
Real silence.
No Bloody screaming for violence.
No Lazy explaining why every choice I made was stupid.
No Sleazy appearing over my shoulder like a pervert with teleportation privileges.
Only me.
I slid beneath the blankets and rested my head on the pillow.
My new room was absurdly comfortable.
The mattress practically swallowed me.
I stared at the unfamiliar ceiling.
Tomorrow would be my first real day in Vanguard.
The thought sat strangely in my chest.
Vanguard.
That was where I would meet them.
The main Constants.
The people who appeared around the moments that mattered.
The people whose lives kept tangling with the future of the world.
And now…
Mine.
This was where the plan began.
No more assessment.
No more reacting to whatever insanity landed in front of me.
Tomorrow, I would start changing things.
My eyelids grew heavy.
Finally.
I let myself sink into the mattress.
The soft pull of sleep welcomed me.
Conversation number thirty-four. Two months from now. Main lecture room.
My eyes opened.
I closed them again.
No.
Absolutely not.
A wooden sword slammed into my back.
I shot upright.
"Motherfucke…"
Another memory surfaced.
Then another.
Then another.
I stared into the darkness.
My brain kept organizing an entire year of information like a loyal little traitor.
I didn't sleep that night.