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As I exited the confessional, I repeatedly reassured the young Father Titus that I would remember his name and seek his help if necessary. Then, convincing Mother Liora that I needed some alone time, I headed to my room.

“My room is just at the end of this hallway,” she reminded me as we reached my quarters. “Please call for me should you need anything.”

“I will,” I assured her.

A frown flickered across her face. “I suppose we can continue the tour tomorrow…” she conceded.

“Right.”

While Relias would likely be embroiled in assembly battles for days, I’d be here, pacing the halls…

She fidgeted for a bit. “Are you sure you don’t want me to keep you company?”

“Ah, I’m feeling somewhat tired, so…”

“Alright. I’ll check in on you again in a few hours.”

“Take care, and I’ll see you later.” I nodded, closing the door somewhat awkwardly on her. Once her footsteps faded, I sighed deeply and sat at the table. I updated my journal with details from the recent Father Titus side quest. Just as I finished the last bullet point, a loud commotion erupted outside my room.

Without warning, Nora burst through the door. “Do you think I lack self-control?!” she shouted in frustration.

Avoid the landmine!

I carefully closed up my journal. “I take it your first magic lesson didn’t go so well.”

“He said I have to go back to the basics!” She flung herself onto my bed head-first, her body quivering in anger as she screamed into my pillow.

“What are the basics, anyway?”

“How should I know?” She sat up just to throw her hands in the air. “But we don’t have time for that. He should give me his spellbook and get out of my way!”

“He didn’t mention anything helpful at all?” I persisted.

“Just some theoretical mumbo-jumbo about dark magic using animus to move its target away from its ideal form and distort its intended Purpose. Then he said I have to learn self-control or I’ll blow everything up!”

She clearly wasn’t thinking with her rational hat on at the moment. “That… doesn’t sound like just mumbo-jumbo to me. He mentioned Purpose specifically?”

She grunted. “Probably just to get me to listen. I stopped paying attention to him after he refused to tell me how to get stronger.”

“Did you… walk out on him?”

“No, he dismissed me! Can you believe it? And I’m supposed to consider “the weight of his words” before tomorrow! Fah!”

Changing the subject might help her calm down. “You could always throw knives with Vernie to work out some frustration. At inanimate objects, of course.”

“Vernie stopped teaching me, too,” she huffed. “No idea why.”

“Hmm… she probably got what she wanted from you,” I mused, stroking my chin thoughtfully.

Nora turned her sooty gaze toward me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Uh…” I hesitated, silently cursing myself. “Don’t you think it was a little weird, having a thief promise to teach you all their secrets five minutes after they met you?”

Nora’s eyes widened in disbelief. “She tricked me?!”

“I mean… I don’t know! I’m just spit-balling here!”

“She did only teach me parlor tricks… How could she not trust me?”

“I’m pretty sure she does, now,” I added quickly. “ That was probably the plan— to get to know you. And it worked! She made sure to reconcile us when I was being all weird about you and... um… His Holiness. So… you are now definitely trustworthy. Just… she’d probably never show her true secrets to anyone.”

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She had reason not to trust people, considering her assigned Purpose.

Nora threw herself back onto the bed and stared at the canopy overhead, the minutes passing soundlessly. I watched her face twitch, the awkward silence slowly becoming more bearable as if she were finally entering a state of introspection.

“I…” she started. “I’ll admit, sometimes I don’t think about the consequences of my actions fast enough.”

“I think that’s something we all do, at least sometimes.”

She sat up. “It’s not like I’m trying to be a bad person!”

“Nora, who said you’re a bad person?" Was I going to have to discipline someone? “Did Master Landon call—”

Tears started to pour down her cheeks. “It’s all my fault we’re here. I just had to figure out what your connection was with Euphridia! I just couldn’t let the coincidences go!”

It was finally time to have a crucial conversation with Nora.

“Tell me about the coincidences,” I said carefully, sitting in a chair near but not too close to the bed she sat on.

“You know… you sleeptalk, right?”

“Um, so some people have said,” I replied. Vernie had mentioned it in passing, once. “But they also said they couldn’t understand what I was saying…”

“Your first sleepover at my house,” she blubbered between sobs. “You remember?”

“Yeah. I ate a bunch of junk food and fell asleep. The next day, you told me people don’t sleep when they sleep over.”

“The point is to stay up and… never mind.” She took a shaky breath. “That’s not what’s important. That night, you kept talking about the story, except… it was the future. I thought you were just having a weird dream, but… as the chapters came out, everything you said came true. You even mentioned Oliver’s betrayal...”

I froze stiff. “I… did?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “But understand, I didn’t think you were… you! I thought that you must have known the author from before. The description of the hero: your pink hair and gold eyes…”

“It’s coral!” I objected. “A coppery blonde at most!”

“Rae… it’s pink,” she said as she held up a hand to stop any further interruptions. “I thought you just dyed it religiously and were fibbing about it for fun… but let me finish.”

I muttered about variations in color perceptions quietly but let her continue.

“I thought you two had been friends or something… maybe you moved away or had a fight. I had no idea she was a middle-aged woman until the interview, let alone… a… well, anyway. I had figured she had made you the hero in her fictional work as sort of an apology or something,” she concluded softly, her energy spent.

“Except the fiction was bait, wasn’t it?” I murmured. “She must have known I loved stories… and what better story is there than one about yourself and how awesome others think you are…”

“You are awesome!” Nora insisted. “And not for the reasons she thinks! But… I will admit… the interview. You were right; it was very, very weird. I should have walked away. But this part of me just wanted to believe that… and then with everything… I could finally be something special…”

“You are special!” I shouted back. “You’re the toughest, smartest, funniest person I know!”

“Rae, I’m a nobody—at least I was. I did okay in school because I studied at Mama's insistence. Before I met you, I had no friends to distract me. I went to college on taxpayer money—not a scholarship; just because of my mom’s household income.”

“No… You were never a nobody. You’re my best friend!”

She shook her head in disagreement. “I’m so sorry. I knew. Before we went to the fair, I knew something was wrong with the situation, and I didn’t say anything. I let it happen. No, I wanted it to happen. I wanted you to be the hero, to come back, get your revenge, and save the world! But… this place, and everything going on… How people treat you…”

“It’s a lot more complicated than it looked on paper, right?” I said with a weak smile. “Or screen, I suppose...”

Her eyes widened as they filled with tears, her bottom lip quivering before she let out an overwhelming sob. It was a loud and ugly cry involving snot, tears, and a deep, guttural sound of anguish. "Can you ever..." A hiccup interrupted her, and she fought to regain control of her trembling voice. "Forgive me?"

I sat on the bed and hugged her tight as I patted her head gently. “I’m pretty sure I already have. We’ve both made some mistakes and what’s worse is that we’ll continue to make more of them. But if you can accept that I've been suspicious of your involvement for a little while, then I think we’ll be okay.”

“You had every right to be suspicious of me…” she sniffled.

“And I didn’t tell you everything, either,” I admitted.

She paused and solemnly asked, “Do you… really not remember yourself as Raelynn?”

I sighed. “Yes and no. I’m not kidding when I say things are starting to come back. But they’re not in sequence. Everything’s…. fragmented, like, broken shards containing few seconds of time. And sometimes I see things that I don’t think were my experiences, but the heroes of the past.”

“Can you give me an example?”

“Training in a bamboo forest—but not with tigers. Humans. No metal claws. Just wooden sticks. A primitive era.”

“Raeonna’s memory?”

“Maybe…” I answered warily. “Not sure.”

She scanned the room briefly, then lifted her hands and whispered, “Obice Silentii.” A shadowy sphere enveloped us with a loud boom, silencing all other noises. “Rae, I promise to do anything you ask of me to make things right between us, even if it means pledging my soul to the demon king.”

“You—you better not do such a thing!” I gasped. “Why would I make you do something so horrible?!”

“He’s the only one here who can send you home, right? That’s the Plan B I talked about when we first arrived.”

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Post Chapter Omake:

Olethros: Whatever made you think I’d want your soul?

Nora: What are you talking about? It’s priceless!

Olethros: Very doubtful.

Nora: Just look up the going rate for the soul of a Dark Mage, Fifth Circle.

Olethros: Who would even set the market value?!

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