As he was jolted awake, Zycor quickly sat up. Panting, Zycor could only hold his head in an attempt to contain the agonizing throbbing in his head. As the morning sun shone through the window, there was a knock at his door.

“Zycor? Are you awake?” Adria asked, opening the door.

Opening the door she was met with Zycor sitting up in his bed, covered in sweat and visibly shaken. In an attempt to comfort and calm him down, Adria ran over and hugged him. “Everything is ok,” She started, “Mom’s here, you’re safe.”

As Adria’s efforts bore fruit and Zycor calmed down he silently returned the hug.

After the long hug ran its course Adria smiled warmly and reassured Zycor, “I don’t know what sort of dream you had, but know that everything is ok now.”

“How long was I out?” He inquired.

“Too long, you idiot,” a voice answered from the doorway.

Directing his attention towards the voice Aisha was standing there, arms crossed. Adria softly answered Zycors question, “You have been out for three days.”

“I see.” Zycor sighed.

Beginning one of her bratty tirades, Aisha complained, “Honestly, what is it with you and being unconscious? Sleeping is one thing, but here you are slipping into multiple comas like it’s going out of style. So, do you have anything to say in your defense?”

With a small grin, Zycor looked up at Aisha and chuckled, “Haha, my bad. I’ll try to space them out in the future.”

Adria and Aisha, taken aback by the uncharacteristically large amount of expression from Zycor, looked at each other in silence. Blushing, Aisha quickly turned away and began to walk away as she embarrassingly stammered, “W-well, as long as you understand. I will be waiting downstairs, breakfast should be ready soon.”

After Aisha had left, Adria turned her attention towards Zycor. She asked, “Are you feeling ok? I was confident it was at first, but now… are you sure you are ok?”

Zycor hugged Adria and warmly reassured her, “Everything is ok mom, I promise. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

After the embrace ended Adria got up, filled to the brim with happiness, told Zycor they will be waiting for him and exited the room.

“Well, I think that went well.” Zycor happily commented to himself. Still basking in his expert acting skills, he continued, “Aside from showing a tad more emotion than they were used to, I doubt they think anything is critically wrong.”

“Shut up and give me my body back!” Another Zycor shouted from within their mind. The alternate Zycor had managed to usurp control of their body. Letting out a hefty sigh, the alternate Zycor replied, “Yeah, I don’t think so. As I said before, I cannot fault you for not having the stomach for what must be done, rather it is a pity. However, it still needs to be done. So why don’t you take a back seat for now, not like you are going to die or anything.”

A piercing pain suddenly began to assault Zycor’s mind, bringing the alternate to his knees. The alternate Zycor grunted in pain, “Argh! Damnit, why are you fighting so hard?! AH! And how… are you…winning!?”

After he had finished complaining, A small burst of electricity mixed with something that felt heavy briefly enveloped Zycor’s body. This ended up forcing him to keel over, panting.

Adria, noticing the small, sudden increase of mana, yelled up concerned, “Is everything alright?”

“Y-yes mom! I’m almost finished here! Just dealing with a minor headache” Zycor responded.

“Well, if that’s the case I will have Aislin head into town and pick up some tea for headaches!” Adria cheerfully exclaimed.

After one more burst of magic mix, Zycor, panting heavily, shouted back, “I-it’s ok. I-I just d-dealt with it.”

The alternate Zycor, now confined to their mindscape again, stood up as he exasperatedly complained, “Damnit! How the hell did you win that!? How did you do that!? ”

“I-I’m not sure myself.” Zycor responded, still somewhat winded.

As Zycor walked over to his wardrobe to change out of his pajamas and into his main attire, the alternate Zycor continued his tirade, “The hell kind of answer is ‘I don’t know?’” Taking a moment to recompose himself, he continued, “No, I suppose it does not matter. There will come a time when you realize we need each other. And when that time comes, I will be right here. I am you, and you are me, we are two halves of the same whole.”

Having said what he wanted, the alternate Zycor went silent, the raging headache subsiding following suit. Now free of both the headache and his alter ego, Zycor was able to function again. After double checking everything was on right, he left his room to join Adria and the others.

As they ate, Adventurers began entering the guild ready to start their day. Noticing Zycor was awake, the adventurers greeted him with handshakes, fist-bumps, back slaps, and an assortment of other greetings. With all of the adventurers entering the guild, Adria got up and said, “Well, it’s time for me to work, you two have fun.”

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After a few other adventurers said their hellos, Clyde came up behind Zycor and wrapped his arm around him as he cheerfully exclaimed, “Hey there buddy! Glad to see you decided to join the land of the conscious!”

Zycor nodded and replied, “Thanks.”

After a short while longer of these constant greetings, Baz and Mylon finally entered the guild hall. Mylon, happy to see Zycor had finally woken up, cheered, “Zycor my good friend, it’s great to see you finally awake!”

Baz, arms crossed, scoffed, “About damn time.”

Aisha angrily sprang out of her seat and began to chastise Baz, “You inconsiderate asshole! Would it kill you to be a little happier? Oh wait, we talked about this last night, so I guess not.”

Having been patiently waiting for this moment, though surprised it happened so soon, Baz smugly retorted, “Whatever you say, Miss Fluffy Ears.”

Immediately turning red, Aisha began to stutter, “W-w-w-what the hell are you talking about!? S-s-s-s-shut up you dumb orc!”

“That’s dumb half-orc to you,” Baz responded, still smirking.

Now even more furious, but freshout of retorts, Aisha reluctantly sat down and began to pout.

After festering for a moment, Aisha looked over at Zycor to try and get him to back her up and incited, “You don’t like the way he is acting either, right? You should say something!”

Shrugging, Zycor sighed, “To be honest, constantly hearing ‘glad you’re awake,’ was becoming annoying. So I actually don’t mind all that much.”

Now having no choice but to truly accept her defeat, Aisha leaned back in her chair silently. As Baz brought a chair over to sit in, he cockily stated, “Baz one, Aisha zero.”

After both Baz and Mylon took their seats, Mylon asked, “So, what kind of plans do you have now that you’re awake?”

Zycor shrugged as he replied, “I have not thought of anything past catching up on food and water.”

“The hell we don’t!” the alternate Zycor shouted, suddenly breaking the silence.

Standing up in shock, kicking the table as he did, everyone stared at him. Aisha asked, “Are you ok? Where are you going?”

Zycor replied, “I-I’m ok, I just remembered there is a slight problem I have to deal with. I’ll catch up with you guys afterwards.”

And with that, Zycor left the guild hall. “Quite busy for someone who literally just woke up ain’t he?” Baz remarked.

Aisha, starting yet another fight, no doubt in an attempt to win this one and tie the score Baz was apparently now keeping track of, replied, “Quit being such an ass!”

Baz, with a cocky grin, replied, “Stop being a kiss ass and maybe I will.”

“What was that?!” Aisha exclaimed.

Mylon put his head down and his hands interlaced above the back of his head, and begged, “Oh goddess, I ask for one morning of peace, please. I don’t ask for much, so please just grant me this.”

As Zycor was walking deeper into the downtown area, hoping the abundant ambient noise would allow him to draw less attention to himself, he addressed the alternate Zycor, “I thought you were sleeping or something.”

Chuckling, the alternate replied, “At the moment, I am just a manifestation of our consciousness, so I don’t really need sleep.”

Annoyed, Zycor asked, “So what was so important that you had to scare me like that?”

“First of all, not my fault you ended up a scaredy cat,” The alternate mockingly responded.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zycor questioned, growing increasingly exasperated.

Ignoring Zycors new question, the alternate continued, “Second of all, you told them that you had not thought past ‘catching up on eating and drinking.’ Pardon me for even assuming this but… am I a joke to you!? We literally had a whole heart to heart discussion about what we were going to do!”

Zycor, interjecting, corrected, “You were the one having a conversation, I kind of just sat there and listened.”

His frustration boiling over, the alternate Zycor shouted, “I AM YOU!” Briefly pausing to calm down, the alternate Zycor continued, “Though, it would appear you are not too far gone.”

Confused, Zycor asked, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that your mannerisms are changing little by little. Just look at how we communicate with each other. It is clear that our two personalities are affecting both of us. This means that with time, our thinking should re-align.” alternate Zycor explained

“I’m also affecting you?” Zycor asked.

“Jeez, I am only now realizing how often we ask questions. It’s honestly quite annoying, we will have to work on that. But to answer your question, yes, I have felt it. When I first came into being the only thing I cared about was what we originally continued living for, revenge. Having been shaped by the emotions of pain, anger, and sadness you repressed, I should not have the capability to form attachments. But after even the brief exposure I have had with you, with the complete ‘us,’ the sole, driving force of vengeance has already begun to shift. I cannot help but feel the way you do for our friends, and I want to protect them.”

Zycor heavily sighed, “I don’t know if that helps, or complicates things.”

The alternate responded in the same manner, “Probably complicates things.”

Attempting to re-focus the discussion, Zycor asked, “So what did you mean by what you said in the guild?”

The alternate, with a more serious tone, replied, “Like I said during our apparently one sided discussion, if that soldier we killed knew about our village, then he was told by that Volnir bastard. Which also means we can assume he is probably aware that we are here. I doubt that a nation that sent some of their top officers after us would not follow up, especially after losing one of their reconnaissance soldiers.”

As Zycor walked through town talking to himself like a nutcase, he spotted Dreiford being escorted into an alleyway. “Hey, alternate?” Zycor asked.

“Yeah?” the alternate replied.

Zycor began his inquiry, “Two things: First, you need a name. Second, you saw that, right?”

The alternate matter-of-factly responded, “Yes, to both of your questions.”

“Thought so,” Zycor said as he began to head towards the alleyway.