Sedna didn't have an easy life.

Despite being the sole child of one of the wealthiest families on the continent, the seemingly limitless wealth couldn't buy back her health. Just two years after Duncan Genuiver made his absurd warning, one day, she felt the backs of her calves begin to go numb. Then her hair began to turn a bluish-teal hue, the same color of Glimmersteel.

Her parents spared no expense in providing her with the best doctors, witches, mages, and anyone else who could save her from her impending death. They even procured her two phoenix claw essences. And yet, all of their efforts did next to nothing in halting this strange paralyzing disease that ate away at her.

She lost her legs first. She relied on a contraption designed by an engineer from another continent to continue walking around for a couple of years. However, eventually, she had to settle into a wheelchair because even her arms had lost too much strength. Then the muscles around her face withered away, with only her eyes capable of movement. Finally, her organs began to shut down, forcing her to rely on complex magic to continue to live on, albeit as a shell of her former self.

Her golden eyes noted her reflection in an emerald-framed mirror before she was carted about the mansion on her daily "walk." The young woman, on the other side, looked beautiful and healthy. But she knew the mirror to be a lie. Her eyes could see the withered grey skin of the arms that dangled uselessly on her lap.

"I recall reading long ago that it's all about perception. If you believe yourself healthy, then you will be healthy," her mother exclaimed when showing her the mirror the first time around. After exhausting all other options, her mother settled on the power of belief.

Sedna was beyond belief. She was counting down the days to her foretold death. Her mother had ingrained in her that suicide was a sin; thus, she had no choice but to wait it out.

But that's when the curse was enacted. All those efforts of trying to cure Sedna did do something. They extended her life beyond the timeline Duncan Genuiver gave by two years. Two whole exhausting and miserable years.

And finally, she died. It was an unpleasant death too. She choked on her own bile in the middle of the night, and no matter how hard she tried to call out, no one could come and relieve her.

But even as she was dying painfully, she smiled because finally… Finally, it was all going to end.

She felt her body's pain lighten, and she opened her eyes. Only it didn't end. Time had turned back two years and forced her to go through the worst two years of her life again. And then again. And again.

What was it that God wanted from her? Where was the paradise that she was promised?

And then it hit her that perhaps she didn't live well enough to go into paradise and had instead been tossed into hell.

By the third time around, she had accepted that she had been forsaken.

By the sixth life, she cursed the God she had prayed to all her life.

By her tenth life, she concluded that there was no God. There was only a demon with a sick sense of humor.

"By that expression alone, I can tell you're a fellow Awakened."

Sedna's eyes gazed at the young man before her, sitting comfortably on her window's ledge and eating a piece of cake that he had procured out of thin air. He had a dark complexion and light violet hair and looked perfectly at ease. He arrived in her chambers just a few moments ago as a cat before transforming into his human form. She knew him. He was Prince Chase Daylan of the powerful Daylan Dynasty.

What she didn't know was what in the world he was doing here.

"How many lives have you lived?" he asked.

She blinked, but her surprise was short-lived. Having gone through ten lives and currently living through her eleventh suspended her sense of disbelief.

<< Eleven. >> She replied. << What do you mean if I'm a fellow Awakened? Have you been reliving your life as well? >>

She spoke using the power of the Whispering Necklace around her neck. Her mother had procured it from an artifact dealer when Sedna's facial muscles had given away, making it difficult for her to speak. By now, she couldn't have uttered a sound even if she tried.

"Oh? Did you think you were the only one regressing?" Chase Daylan smiled mischievously at her and picked up a piece of cake off his plate with his fork.

He laughed. It was the sort of laughter of someone who had ventured beyond the realms of sanity.

Sedna's facial muscles were too frozen to frown.

<< I always woke up two years back after dying. >>

"Oh, don't worry. I was like you. I thought the world revolved around me too. And then, one day, I regressed in time without dying. Then again and again. It dawned on me then that I wasn't the one for whom the regressions occurred. I was just collateral damage. Of course, given your condition, I suppose it's understandable you wouldn't know that life went on without you."

Sedna motioned her right ring finger on the round runic nob on her wheelchair's armrest, and the metal contraption moved forward. It was one of the few ways she could still remain mobile. Of course, even this little freedom would whither in nine months.

<< Do you know why this is occurring? And why is it just us? >> Sedna glided her wheelchair beside the window.

"Oh, it's hardly just us. Anyone with eyes like you and me and who has Awakened is experiencing this," Chase said, waving about his fork. "But to your question, I know what may be occurring."

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He beamed at her over his reflective golden circular eye shades.

<< What is your theory? >> Sedna asked.

Chase leaned back against the window's glass pane. "See, I met someone that has lived far more of the regressions than you and I. She told me that this loop we're in is because of something known as a Summoning. Someone wanted something badly enough that they summoned an Other-Worlder to help them achieve it."

<< What does that have to do with the looping? When will it end? >>

"Well, it's supposed to end when either the goal is achieved, or the Other-Worlder gives up and returns back to where they came from." Chase moved his hand, and a cup of tea appeared in a whiff of dark smoke.

Had this not been Sedna's eleventh life, perhaps she would have been startled by the excessive use of dark magic for nothing more than to bring forth a cup of tea. It was the equivalent of cutting off an arm to eliminate an itch. Dark magic was extremely dangerous and potent, and warlocks that could utilize it were impossibly rare. It was even more incredible to learn that the youngest prince of the Daylan Dynasty was one.

<< Then when will the loops end? Who brought about the Summoning? >> Sedna asked.

Chase took a sip of his tea.

The cup clanked back down on the blue saucer.

"I haven't figured out who caused the Summoning, but I have a decent idea of what the Summoning was for. You haven't lived to see it yet, but the world resets every time the Adovorian Kingdom falls to the Kobar Empire."

Sedna recalled from each of her lives that sometime towards the end of it, Adovoria was attacked by the Kobar Empire. There were signs before that attack that the neighboring empire had set its eyes on her home. Still, she never imagined the Adovorian army to be so weak against the Kobar Empire that the nation would succumb to their invasion.

"I'm planning to do a wee bit of a massacre on your country's army to test my theory," Chase continued. "If the world regresses earlier than usual, my theory would be correct."

He frowned suddenly.

"But I don't want the Other-Worlder to catch onto me first, so I'm going to go disguised as a raid master of a group of marauders." His expression brightened as he continued to talk, seemingly to himself. "Ah! I've always wanted to try playing the role of an overlord of outlaws. I will build up a proper group and pillage a few villages beforehand, and then, I will strike the soldiers."

He's insane.

Sedna felt her skin crawl. Metaphorically, of course. She couldn't feel a thing even if she tried, except for the constant pulsing pain.

She remembered the shy prince that attended royal functions. The Chase Daylan before her was a completely different person and had a few loose screws.

But I suppose that's to be expected if one goes through these loops repeatedly. How long before I crack as well?

<< How do we stop the loops? By helping Adovoria win against the Kobar Empire? >> She asked.

Chase shrugged.

"I'm not planning on doing anything," he said. "I'm just going to wait things out. It's not like I care whether your country falls; I barely care about my own nation. I mainly wanted to figure out who the Other-Worlder is because it seems like a bit of good fun. After I figure out who they are, I might go try my hand at blowing up the Kobar Mountain Range."

Sedna blinked.

He plans on destroying one of the largest mountains on the continent. And he's serious too. He could really do it. Not only is he insane, but he is also extremely dangerous.

"Well, I'll be off. I heard there might be an Awakened here, so I just wanted to pop by. Plus, a tour of the living skeletons in your basement was a fun bonus." Chase beamed brightly at her and then promptly disappeared.

Whether Chase figured out who the Other-Worlder was, Sedna never found out. But the next life ended five days in, and in the one after that, there was news of the Kobar Mountain Range combusting.

"I provided funding for the protection of our borders as you requested," Duchess Meriwa Ozeryn commented on a daily walk with her daughter. "Ah, but what a surprise. I saw the second eldest Frey come by with the Commander of The Order. Luca Frey, was it?"

Senda halted her wheelchair.

The Commander of The Order came by to request funding near the beginning of each life round. Sedna convinced her mother to provide far more than she had in prior rounds. She even made it her dying wish to her mother, requesting that she support the war effort and have Adovoria win. However, clearly, the war was not won, as she was now on her sixteenth round.

<< Who is Luca Frey? >> Sedna asked. The Commander came by each round like clockwork, even before she convinced her mother to supply him with sufficient funding. But this Luca Frey was a new element.

"You probably recognize the name Arankagul a bit better from your studies," her mother replied.

Sedna would have nodded if her head had allowed her.

House of Arankagul was shrouded in secrecy. They could have taken the throne centuries ago but gave it up, instead opting to operate from the shadows.

"The daughter of Madam Ruth Arankagul changed her last name to Frey upon marriage," her mother continued. "Given that family's dangerous history, I kept an eye on their activities, but in the end, they all perished. Well, except for Luca Frey. Perhaps their poor luck did not extend to him as he was adopted. I didn't even know he was still alive all this time."

Sedna considered looking into this Luca Frey but, at the time, decided not to bother. The elements of each round changed. The visual landscape changed, but so did details in behavior. She couldn't and didn't act the same, nor did any other Awakened or whoever was the Other-Worlder. Thus their combined changes shifted the world ever so slightly each round. Sometimes more drastically with the explosive actions of the likes of Chase Daylan.

And then a miracle occurred.

For the first time in a long while, Sedna awoke with her arms able to move. She had gone back six years in time instead of the usual two.

And yet the round ended on day one several times, baffling her as to what might have occurred. It was dizzying how disruptive it was.

On the sixth time being back six years, the time finally continued beyond the first two days. But to her horror, Chase Daylan, the insane yet mighty warlock, had been killed. Not that this news had reached everyone yet. For now, the assumption was that he disappeared.

"And who killed him?" she asked Lady Agnese Hensley.

If someone could kill that lunatic, I'd need to tread extra lightly.

They sat outside in the gardens of the Ozeryn's capital city mansion with a spread of breakfast items before them. Lady Agnese Hensley was a distant aunt to Sedna, but more than that, she was paid quite handsomely for her services and came about often to inform their family of the changes occurring within the kingdom. She knew all that was happening across the domain, having eyes and ears in nearly every crook and cranny.

"While I don't know who made the order, one of my mages confirmed the corpse's location. It is on the premises of the Frey Manor," Lady Agnese Hensley replied. She took a sip of tea and set down her cup.

Sedna felt a shudder. And unlike the many previous looped years, she felt it on her skin.

"And the order to get rid of all cats?" Sedna was one of the few who knew that Chase Daylan could transform into a cat, so she connected the dots to his untimely death. "Do you know where that came from originally?"

"It came from Micah Frey, but it was due to an order by his younger brother, Luca Frey."

There's that name again.

Sedna clasped her cup with both hands are brought it to her face. She was technically capable of lifting it with one hand. However, she was too unaccustomed to having full movement of her muscles still and was prone to spillage.

Lady Agnese Hensley excused herself, having somewhere else she needed to be, leaving Sedna alone in the gardens.

"How was your chat?" Duchess Meriwa Ozeryn came over and sat beside her daughter. "Did you learn what you wanted?"

Sedna set down the empty cup on her saucer. Her golden eyes gazed down at her pink and healthy hands.

"Mother, how soon will Uncle Meadow return from his latest job?" she asked.

"It'll be another ten days; why do you ask?"

Sedna plucked a grape from the plate before her. The taste of real, solid food was a pleasant treat, albeit one she was still unaccustomed to.

"I need him to investigate someone," she replied.