Sparks I had wished it wasn’t this situation that led someone to find out. I could think of a million better ways to tell someone the truth than ‘a possessor entity ratted me out.’

I looked back at Turste and couldn’t help but glare, my voice was pleasant enough though, somehow. “…good job for using your nose? But Turste, could you go deeper into the forest for a bit, you know, there’s more shade there and it might help your brain.”

Turste brightened and happily plodded off, muttering about betrayal and deities.

Niun watched him leave with trepidation, looking back at me with wide eyes, “Are you-”

“No, no, no. I should have assumed that idiot would blab about it to everyone who had ears… I’m going to tell you the truth because we all need someone to trust, right?” I ran a hand through my hair, pulling out the ponytail and letting my hair fall. “You asked me earlier where I’ve been for the last twenty-two years?”

Niun nodded slowly, “Yes?”

“Well, It’s more complicated than I gave it credit for, I didn’t lie though, something happened that I couldn't have prepared for and it brought me to my lowest point.” I smiled, “I died.”

“What?!”

I nodded, “I died. Then I woke up twelve years later, somehow back to being a child.”

“...So this is an illusion?”

“Yes,” I unclipped the chain and brought it over my head, watching his expression closely and tucking it into a pocket. From Niun’s widening eyes I could tell the illusion was gone.

“Eliax. You’re…Eliax.”

I nodded.

Niun sat down. “How is that possible? Tell me something only Eliax would know.”

I hummed slightly, “I first met you in the dungeon with Illila, she told the mage guild about you practicing necromancy without someone monitoring you and you’re still suspended. She also told them how I’m a dimensionalist and they got after me for not getting trained and I was salty about that for a couple of weeks.”

“Sparks, then you appeared again because you wanted to change how things are done?”

I cringed, “No, that part wasn’t nearly as well thought out. I just...wanted to be her again. I wanted to be able to make sense of the things happening in my head.” I looked down at my hands, tempted to start bending the space between them. No, I was too close. I balled them into fists instead.

“This is insane. I’m pretty sure you’re not feeding me a pack of lies, but sparks, it really feels like it.” He ran a hand through his hair and then stood back up so he could start pacing. “How can you be the Hero?”

“I think it was my soul affinity that brought me back, maybe. After I died… things are weird.”

“Why were you a kid?”

“A lot of my memories did fade with time, I can barely remember what happened when I actually was eight.”

A faint flash of unexpected sadness snuck up on me, but that was probably just cause I was eight when my parents died. I didn’t make it to the Ayfel till I was ten…and...well I did remember being on the streets for most of that time, I probably should have died a million times over.

I frowned slightly, maybe I had died. Maybe some magical ability had reset me to the state I’d been when it was first activated. But...if that was true that meant this would keep happening. I would live out my life only to come back again. And again…and again.

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I shoved that thought to the back of my mind. If it happened it happened, there wasn’t really anything I could do about it if it did. I shook my head to dispel the sense of unease and focused back on Niun, “I don’t know why I came back, it could be that I made Gium angry or something, or maybe it’s a sign of a bigger ability. All I know is that you, need to keep this quiet.”

Niun stopped pacing and nodded quickly, “Yes! I’ll do that, no need to worry about me or silence me or anything like that!”

I narrowed my eyes, “Good, because I haven’t had the chance to think about the implications of you knowing, it might throw off everything.”

“What are you trying to achieve then that I might ruin?”

I looked him in the eyes, really looked. It somehow didn’t feel wrong this time. In the back of my mind I was amazed at this, In his eyes I saw that he was telling the truth. He wouldn’t knowingly compromise my position. Mostly I just felt resolve as I finally truly made up my mind. “I need to talk the queen into helping me make contact with the dragonlands.”

If anyone would know something about rebirth, it would be them.

Before Niun could properly absorb the implications of the whole idea, something huge leapt into the area with a grace I honestly hadn’t expected. The rustling of branches was the only warning as Turste leapt out of the trees, a large hog caught in his jaws. He landed in front of us, his ghostly tail of black smoke wagging like a sparking dog.

“I found a piggie! Look how small it is!”

I examined the hog and gave Turste a dubious look, “It’s bigger than me.”

“Yeah, what a pity, people are much smaller than I remember them being. You’re like little ants!”

“And you’re as big as a tree.”

Turste snorted, “The trees on Virna are absolutely minuscule- BUT ahhhh it must be part of the curse!”

Somehow though, Turste broke the tension in the air. Niun laughed, it was stress filled and uncharacteristic of him, but he laughed. I felt my anxieties finally fall to the back of my mind

“So this whole ‘getting to the dragonlands thing,’ you really think it’s a good idea?”

I nodded, “It’s the only idea I’ve got.”

“I’ll help you then. I don’t understand a lot of this but I do know that you need that much.”

I smiled, touched, “Thank you.”

--

I grinned widely at the mirror image of myself, who was rather confused. She seemed to have all my memories though and that’s all she really needed.

“So do I get to be Foralen or do I have to be Eliax?”

I grinned wider, “This spell lasts three days my friend! We’ll rotate to dissuade boredom.”

The clone held up a hand, paused, and examined it with a frown, she shook her head and focused back on me, “Alright so which one am I…today.”

I tapped my chin, “You’ll be Foralen. Just entertain the Nobles that started annoying Aymi.” I dug in one of my pockets and pulled out the list Aymi had given me, “Go to a couple of these houses and have tea with them or something, I’ll meet you at the Ayfel by moonrise.”

The newly designated Foralen took the list with a scrutinizing face, “Oh come on Sir Yanovel is on here?”

“...I can do that one I guess.” I winced, not looking forward to the encounter with the slimy noble. “You can use all my abilities, right?”

The clone nodded and pocketed the paper. She was technically a conjuration, but given a snapshot of the casters mind. I’d heard of some Geneseri who were just extensions of the caster, not individual entities. But I wasn’t great at time magic and never really would be, so this had to do.

She looked at her hands again, squinting, “It’s so strange to think that this isn’t real. It looks real, even my magesight sees exactly what I’d expect.” She glanced back at me, holding out her hand.

I obligingly handed her the illusion, trusting that she would look after it with her life.

The clone picked up my bag of Foralen stuff and saluted. I teleported from the Ayfel back to Alsen’s Inn, watching the space change in the blink of an eye. I really hoped this wasn’t an absolutely terrible idea.

I descended from my room and smiled as Alsen handed me a relatively small cast iron wok, it was only big enough to comfortably fit my face instead of pretending to be a bathtub like some of them!

“Take this miss Lestwood, there’s something strange afoot! I feel it like the flames of the world burning out!”

The faint fire aura she always spread around intensified to my magesight, but it didn’t cause any effects so it was probably fine. “Really? What kind of strange?” I hefted the wok, deciding it wouldn’t fit in my bag.

“I just feel like you might want to take this with you from now on, most of the nobles are back in town and they’ll be causing trouble left and right!”

I put the wok down, “Alright, do you have a smaller one I could take? The more subtle the less they’ll see it coming.” I knew she had a smaller one already, she’d shown them all off to me quite a while ago.

Alsen smiled pleasantly and handed me one that was only a single handspan across instead of two. I had no idea where she’d gotten that one from, her hands had been empty a moment ago.

I took it somewhat hesitantly and slipped it into my messenger bag, feeling the weight significantly increase. Between that and my belt knife, along with my magical prowess, I was fairly certain I could face anything that barred my way. “Thanks Alsen!”