Alex is still standing, staring down at me.

Honestly, this is probably closer to our real height difference, if I weren’t in Aurelia’s body but my own.

I take it back, I’d prefer to look him in the eyes. He’s scary intimidating this way.

“So your soul… was moved to Aurelia’s body while on the brink of death?” he says slowly. “How did it happen? Did you will it to escape death?”

“No!” I flinch away just at the thought. I would never intentionally steal anyone’s body. “It was… really fast. The car was honking and then—That was it.”

“ ‘Car’ again?" His brow furrows. "What is this thing you keep mentioning?”

“Like….” I grasp for an explanation. “A horseless carriage? But faster?”

“So magic was involved.” His nostrils flare. “But I’ve never seen or read anything like that, not even during my time in Augusta.1 You must have been conducting illegal magical experiments.”

“No,” I insist. “It wasn’t magic! I don’t have magic, nobody in my world does.”

“Of course someone must,” he says. “Magic is like fire. It should be controlled and manipulated, but it’s naturally occurring. It can’t be eradicated.”

“The car’s technologic, not magic.” But what he says snags at me. It’s my turn to look at him with skepticism. “Wait—you don’t think magic comes from the King?”

Alex huffs out a laugh. “Please, then how would the Hannu have magic?"2 he says dismissively. "That’s just something we tell the commonfolk so that they don’t dabble with powers they can’t use wisely without guidance. Silverwood Keep has books that predate the royal line.”

That… makes a lot of sense.

Not the ‘commonfolk are too dumb bit’, that’s just regular old elitism. But the bit about where magic comes from. Alex Prime had explained to the kingdom’s people that because the King had failed to be a wise guardian of its magic, Alex Prime had the right to take his power and would rule more wisely as a mage himself. But if Alex Prime had actually believed all magic came from the King, I guess he wouldn’t have so carelessly overthrown him in the first place.

Alex narrows his eyes. “Stop distracting me. You must have some hunch on how it happened. And it couldn’t have been random coincidence. You knew about my family and me already, not to mention the attack. Aurelia was normal the evening before the Harvest Festival, so your switch happened too recently for you to have learnt what you know here.”

Honestly, Alex is way too annoyingly quick.

I cast around for an explanation a little more normal sounding than your world is all made up and I was reading about it to pass the time and that’s how I know.

“I’d stop trying to think of a lie if I were you,” Alex cuts in. I blink. He rolls his eyes. “It’s still Aurelia’s face, I know her expressions.”

So. Fine.

All cards on the table, then.

Weirdly, thinking about telling Alex—it’s relieving, in a way. He can do what he likes after wards, I mean, he already can, anyway.

I twist my hands in my lap. Take a deep breath.

“I read about you in a book. Your family and Aurelia too, sort of.” I wave vaguely at him. “But mostly you.”

His jaw drops open like he’s just been shocked. Literally I mean. Not just figuratively.

”You’re from the future?” He blurts out. “It’s actually possible to time travel?”

What an absurd—another “no” is right at the tip of by tongue.

But.

Actually, that… sounds less crazy than the full truth?

With a quick scan, I can’t see any specific flaw to going with that cover story.

Explains how different my world is, check.

Explains why I know some stuff, check.

Explains why I don’t know some other stuff, check.

“Sort of?” I say slowly. “Though I guess it’s more like… an alternate future at this point? Since your family and Aurelia aren’t dead, like they’re supposed to be.” I pause. “But what do you mean ‘actually possible’? It’s happened here before?”

Chess Games of Blood hadn’t mentioned any time travel. Otherwise that’s an obvious other thing Alex Prime could’ve done instead of murdering people and committing treason.

... But at this point, I’m not surprised when I encounter something the books don’t mention.

“It’s not supposed to be,” Alex says. But then, in a quieter voice, as if to himself, he says, “Though the King has sponsored magical research on it for a long time. That’s what he has his seers doing, in-between fortune-telling for nobles at court. Perhaps he’s always known something …” He jerks his head up. “Magic is involved then. And if your magic displaced Aurelia, then your magic can put her back.”

I give an exasperated sigh. “I’ve already told you, I don’t have magic! Look. If it was involved, then I promise you, it wasn’t on my end.” I throw out a hand. “Maybe it was on Aurelia’s end. I mean, she’s the one that probably has magic." Alex scowls, but I cut him off before he can start. "I was telling the truth before, I have a vision after I was put in her body—I pause, then correct myself—"what I think was a vision anyway, I don't exactly have anything to compare it to. I don't know why she didn't tell you, maybe she's never experienced one before. I was making plans to figure all that out after the attack."

Alex thinks this over.

“Fine,” he says shortly. Though I don’t know if he actually believes me or thinks it’s more important to get on with the interrogation. “What was your plan then?”

“Well… I was… going to find a seer coven?” Now that I’m saying this plan out loud, it seems about as dumb a plan as hiding in the dungeons. But it was the plan I’d been considering. “To see if they could determine if Aurelia is a seer? And they’re supposed to hoard a lot of magical knowledge, right? So I thought I could also see if they have theories that might explain what happened to her—her soul, I mean. It’s not like I actually want to steal her body.”

Surprise flicks across his face.

“You… don’t?” He asks. “Did you not say you’d died?”

I shift in place on the chaise. “Yeah. Probably. At the very least badly hurt and in a coma. But like, I don’t want to not die by killing someone else. Accidentally or not.” If there’s a surefire way to get reincarnated as like, a worm or something, that has to be one.

If anything, Alex looks even more surprised by this.

Alex looks down on the floor, his arms still crossed tightly, a considering expression in his face.

I wait with bated breath—though I’m not sure for what.

He pulls his head up again, a fierce light in his eyes.

“Tell me something that proves to me that you’re telling the truth,” he says. I open my mouth. “Nothing about the attack. Nothing that you could’ve learnt from another. Something that only someone from the future might know.”

----------------------------------------

1. So Alex spent a year or so at the capital Augusta and in court when he was like, ten or something? We found that out in the last book, when he stormed the castle and came face-to-face with the Crown Prince, who seems to not have really done anything the entire series, and killed him to ensure there was no possible successor.

2. I don’t think I’ve told you much about the Hannu? The series described them as a ‘vicious and lawless’ nomadic people that occupy the frozen lands past the norther borders. They’re split into clans led by mages loosely answering to a chief all the clans, wear only animal furs and feathers, and have long hair and dark eyes.

Honestly, they basically seemed ‘inspired’ by indigenous peoples, in a way that can be described as best as uninspired and at worse as borderline offensive.