In the awakening world, any moment could be stretched to infinity. Right now, Dallion was back to the time when a day was a day, but even so, knowing that he was to meet someone else who’d been outside of this world felt painfully long. Forgetting to order a new phone, he had spent the rest of the night listening to Red Atol on spotify. All in all, there were three dozen songs, all of them singles. The lyrics weren’t anything special, focusing on the generic themes of love, loneiness, self-discovery, and space. They couldn’t be called bad by any stretch of the imagination, but that wasn’t what made them likable. The music threads added to them had minute elements of joy and melancholy, making people want to listen to them. If the woman had chosen a more popular genre, she could well have turned into a star. More than likely, the decision had been deliberate.

Song by song, the hours dripped by. With nothing left to do, Dallion started counting them. Upon reaching a hundred and one, the first rays of dawn peeked through his dorm window.

“You still up?” His roommate stirred on the other bed.

“Of course not,” Dallion said with complete conviction. “I just got up half an hour ago.”

The explanation made enough sense to be plausible, causing the guy to turn to the other side. After ten more minutes, he turned again and stretched.

“Listen, can you cover for me today?” Dallion asked.

“Dude! Give it a few weeks at least.”

“It’s not like I’m learning anything during the snorefest. Maybe the profs and TAs will notice and start doing better.”

“You’re crazy.” The freckled grinned. “Sure, I’ll think of something. Where will you be, though?”

“Here mostly,” Dallion lied. “I need to order a new phone and check on a few things. I might replace this too,” he tapped the side of his laptop.

“That must have been some call. By the way, if you’re loaded, maybe get a spare which I can borrow?”

It would have been easy to promise anything. However, Dallion decided to take the vague approach.

“Sure.” He glanced at the other. “Maybe in a few months.”

“You shithead.” The roommate laughed. “You’ll owe me one.”

Close to fifteen minutes later, Dallion was alone in the room. It was outright impressive how ineffective and forgetful his roommate was. Good thing all the classes so far were easy, or he’d never have been able to get through a single lecture.

Almost an hour later, Atol’s new song appeared. The name of the single was Within the Seventh Sphere—potentially something connected with the seven Moons, though by no means definite. Immediately, Dallion started listening.

Unlike all the previous songs, this one had no lyrics, just a three-minute instrumental. That didn’t stop it from having a bouquet of emotions tied in. On the surface, the usual joy and cheer were present, yet hidden underneath were more sinister threads. Dallion could clearly recognize depression, fear, and sadness, along with two strands of overconfidence.

You’re trying to fight me? He wondered. The effects weren’t strong. Anyone capable of noticing them would clearly ignore them without any effort on his own. Even so, Dallion chose to hum a tune to counter the threads, nonetheless. To his surprise, that actually worked.

Growing up, it couldn’t be said that Dallion was particularly bad at singing, but he definitely wasn’t anything special. His stay in the awakened world had changed that. Clearly, not all skills were lost after being cast out.

A notification emerged on the laptop screen—Dallion had received a new patreon message. The message was a map location, but this one was a lot closer. In fact, it was the dormitory building Dallion was at right now.

In front. Red dress.

“Shit!” Dallion jumped to the window.

Climbing on his desk, he opened the window and looked outside. There were a few people about, but none of them matched the description given.

Dallion grabbed his laptop, then hastily put on some shoes and rushed into the corridor and down the stairs. Out of habit, he tried to combat split again, but only one instance of him kept on running. Fortunately, with most of the people off to class, there was no one to bump into.

Getting in front of the dormitory, he once again looked about. There was no one in a red dress anywhere. For that matter, he couldn’t see anyone wearing anything red.

Suspecting this to be a test, Dallon opened his laptop again. Before he could check for messages, a honk came from the student parking-lot. There wasn’t a single red car there either, but it was difficult to miss the black and yellow muscle car that clearly didn’t belong there.

Seriously? Dallion remained still.

A second set of honking suggested that he wasn’t wrong. At this point, there were two ways for him to react: keep his distance or go straight at it. After engaging with seven deities in battle, Dallion went for the second option.

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The passenger seat door opened as he approached. Without pause, he got in and closed it behind him. A petite woman in a biker outfit. She was probably a few years older than him, with Asian features, and long black hair that went red further down. An unmistakable air of rebellion surrounded her, suggesting that she was part of a biker gang. Yet, that was a false impression. There wasn’t a single tattoo or piercing on her as far as could be seen.

“Red Atol?” Dallion asked.

She nodded.

“Red Moon, red card—muscle car,” Dallion said.

“Just a car I got.” She tried using music again, but Dallion snapped his fingers, causing the strands to snap. Part of him was disappointed it had been so easy, but apparently Earth brought a lot of limitations to awakening powers.

“How did you find me?” Dal asked.

“Your patreon account. I asked a few people for a few favors. I can be very convincing.”

“I bet.” Even at this level, music skills were capable of convincing anyone anything. They wouldn’t work on another former awakened, but Earth was full of non-awakened with no ability to resist. “Thanks for coming. I didn’t think—”

The woman raised a finger.

“Let’s go somewhere first.”

The somewhere turned out to be nowhere in particular. There didn’t seem to be any plan to it. The woman only wanted to be in a place away from buildings and other people. After she found a spot that met the criteria, she pulled up to the side of the road and stopped the car.

Dallion used the map on his laptop to check his current location, then closed it again.

“So, you’re really from there?” The woman turned to him.

“Yep. Part of the Tamin Empire.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

That was a minor disappointment. Given that the music skill had been passed down on the mother’s side of Dallion’s family, he had hoped that they might end up being related there.

“When did you return?” she continued.

“A few weeks ago. You?”

“A bit longer.” She looked at the road straight ahead. “Mage or domain ruler?”

“A bit of both.” It was weird talking about such things in the open. Subconsciously, Dallion expected a yellow rectangle to emerge warning him not to discuss matters that others hadn’t learned yet. “You?”

“I used to be a fucking noble,” she laughed, but the sadness was apparent.

Dallion remained quiet. Saying he was the Architect was a bad move regardless of circumstances.

“Are there others?” he asked after a while.

“Lots. Good luck finding them. You have the whole of human history to go through. The ones that are here keep to themselves. I thought I tracked someone down once. He’d left any spot I found until I finally gave up.”

“Why?”

“Look at me.” The woman’s expression sharpened. “I used to own four cities bigger than New York, and I don’t even remember how many smaller ones. Do you think I like being reminded of what I had and could never have again?”

Dallion could see the point. But at the same time, he also saw the flaw in logic.

“Why not try to go back?”

“You think you can go back?” She laughed again. “You must really be green. If the Moons wanted us back, we’d be there. Being stuck here is their way of saying that we’re done. It’s up to new players now.”

“I’ll find a way to go back.” Determination emanated from Dallion. For a single moment, he almost felt as if he were in control of his music skills as he was back in the awakened world. The feeling didn’t last long, quickly fading away. “I’ve no choice.”

“What were you? Some bigshot somewhere?”

“I was married.”

It wasn’t so much what Dallion said, but the way he said it. With Atol’s current level of music skills, she was able to feel Dallion’s focus.

“Holy shit. You really plan on trying, don’t you?”

“You said all the awakened on Earth are keeping to their business,” Dallion began. “Why didn’t you? You didn’t have to reply. You definitely didn’t need to fly here on the redeye.”

“I hitched a ride on a private jet,” she said unapologetically. “As I said, I can be convincing.”

“You still haven’t answered my question, though.”

In the awakened world, Dallion would have been able to read her emotions without even trying. Here, he had to rely on observation as well: the micro expressions on her face, the subtle changes of her voice and mannerisms, even the frequency of her blinking. All told him that she wanted to be here, that she was relieved she had found him.

“I wanted to be sure there was someone else,” she admitted. “I told you that I wasn’t able to find anyone from there. I lied. I found half a dozen before I stopped searching. All of them remembered parts of the place, but for all of them, it was like a dream. They had no real memories and or powers, just echoes of an existence. Only mages and nobles keep those. If there’s anyone else that has, I haven’t been able to find them.”

“Well, now there’s two of us.”

On the negative side, that still didn’t help Dallion much. He had found his confirmation, but nothing more. Yet, it was precisely that single spark of hope that made him decide to continue down the path he was afraid to voice even to himself.

“Are you serious about going back?” the woman asked.

“I told you.”

“You uttered a few words. If you’ve serious about it, prove it. Leave your college and forget everyone in your current life: friends, family, exes, the works. Agree to that and we’ll go to the airport right now. Don’t and I’ll leave you here for wasting my time.”

This escalated quickly, didn’t it, Adzorg? Dallion asked, as if the mage could still hear him.

There was a time when he would have found the choice impossible. To some extent, he was happy to have returned to his old life. Reconnecting with his mother, the new friends he’d met at college were part of a distant past he’d lost ages ago. All that paled in comparison to what he had lost—not the power, not the awakened abilities, but Euryale. Hardly an hour would pass without Dallion having memories about her. No matter what he was doing, the gorgon’s voice remained always there, present in the back of his mind.

“Not so easy, is it?” Atol put her hands on the wheel.

“Head for the airport,” Dallion said, causing her eyes to widen.

“Are you sure? You’ve already lost one life. Are you ready to throw away another trying to find it?”

“Yes.”

She kept on looking at him, as if expecting the punchline of a joke.

“You’re nuts,” she grinned, then turned the car around. “I’ll help you, but you’re not leaving your college. I'd hate myself if I made you mess that up. I’ll convince every admin asshole to let you when we have something. Meanwhile, you’ll remain enrolled.”

“What about your place?”

“My parent’s place is in Hawaii. I’ve been staying at “friends” the last few years doing this or that. The song thing was on a whim. I thought I’d become an instant celebrity. Wasn’t worth it.”

Dallion was about to ask where she’d stay, but the answer was obvious: she was very good at convincing and colleges always needed TAs.