When Cale had returned together with Grischa, Ben, Philippa and William had also rejoined in his apartment. He had only explained to them that Grischa was having problems with his mana and therefore would be staying with him for the next few weeks, which didn't bother the others much. Together they ate at the table before gradually the group dispersed and went to their beds. Grischa was very cheerful and polite towards them all the time, but Cale knew exactly how his friend was feeling right now.

After some time, the two High-Magicians had retreated to the room before Cale blocked the entrance with magic and set up a sound barrier in his bedroom. Grischa and he were now lying side by side on his large bed, gazing up at the starry sky.

"It had all started with Groka", Cale began carefully. He had thought for quite a while about what and how much he actually wanted to tell his friend, but in the end he couldn't find a suitable limit. He decided to tell him everything and answer every question he had. "I was born there and lived there with my parents Olivia and Vincent Leuen. Until the day when the creatures came out of the mountains. My mother, along with the other villagers, ran in panic to the big square where she met my father. His colleagues and he decided to defend the town while the others needed to be safe, which was a fatal mistake. I don't remember very much about everything that happened that day, but my father was killed and my mother was impaled by a Noraven in front of my eyes. Someone had grabbed me while passing by and took me with them, but we didn't really get very far. I remember falling into a creek and hiding under a small bridge while the creatures ran over me, killing every single inhabitant who tried to escape. I sat there all night, huddled in the cold water, until the next morning dawned and Duke Caplens' soldiers came to the village. They had spent the night killing the creatures and came to the village, where they encountered only chaos and corpses. The only survivor crawled out from his hiding place after a few hours and wept bitterly. That was me."

Grischa looked at him with big, sad, but also confused eyes. The story from Groka was not unknown, yet he had a completely different memory of the events. Just over 100 residents had survived the attack back then, but why did Cale claim he was the only one?

"That day I was broght to some women who took in and raised orphans. I spent all my childhood there, and of course I made friends with the other kids, but we were pretty poor. And as we were, we tried to raise money. The easiest way to do that was, of course, stealing."

"You stole?", Grischa asked, as if that was the most bizarre thing in the story. Cale turned to him and nodded.

"We were good, pretty good in fact, and the older we got, the more money we brought back. But people had gotten wind of the thieves in town and became more cautious, so we had trouble still getting the money. We were doomed to fail one day and that's exactly what happened. I stole from a man and he noticed it immediately. He was Anuxer and I had real trouble running away from him. At some point I crashed to the ground and the man caught up with me. I was 18 at the time, but like a little kid, I hid in the dirt and wished he would miss me. I imagined how I successfully disguised myself as a woman and he simply didn't recognize me as he walked past me. And the next moment, he was standing in front of me. 'Hey, kiddo. Did you see a young man with black hair and yellow eyes walk by here?' he asked me right to my face. I was so confused at that moment, shaking my head and burying my spoils deep under my jacket. And the guy just left, can you imagine? I just sat there for several minutes wondering what just happened, until I realized I was in the body of a little red-haired girl. In fact, it was the appearance of one of the neighbor's children, and to this day I don't know how I managed to change my shape without any prior knowledge of magic."

Grischa listened to the story without making a sound, while Cale pulled the blanket over himself and continued talking.

"That night I questioned my whole life. I didn't want to steal from others for all eternity, so I thought I should get a decent job. I threw it all away and after looking for a while I found a job with a chef named Henry. I don't know what he was thinking letting a complete stranger into his house, maybe he felt sorry for me, but he set me on the right track. He taught me how to behave properly, how to talk respectfully and politely to others and most importantly, he taught me how to cook. The man had always prepared food for the soldiers and so I had the pleasure of some painful sword lessons at that time. The men always told me that I had the potential to become a swordmaster or a mage, because I learned very quickly and had a lot of mana. I don't know how much, but at that time I was supposed to have over 20RM, but I didn't know what exactly that meant. And then one day the man just died in his sleep. I was devastated. Over three years I had lived with him and suddenly he was gone? I felt so helpless and lonely, but the soldiers from Sylve took care of me and helped me up again. They even offered me to start as a soldier, but I wasn't particularly convinced that I could become a good swordsman. Besides, I simply lacked experience and I knew that the exams were quite difficult, so I didn't want to try it at all. Therefore, they recommended me to become an Anuxer. Fast money and lots of combat experience, they said, I should just be careful which group I travel with. So I became an Anuxer at the age of 21. A year later, I was staying in one of the well-known taverns of the city, with the intention to go to Altona for new orders. That evening I met William, Benjamin, Aletta and Philippa for the very first time. We had talked a bit and they told me that they were almost dying of hunger the last few days, so we had a deal. We joined forces, they protect me until Altona and as payment I cook for them every night. And that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Admittedly, I had no idea who they were at the time. Also, how on earth was I supposed to know that William was the Shadow Prince of Sylve and Aletta was the famous healer from Frignez?"

Grischa cleared his throat in amusement, causing Cale to laugh briefly as well.

"Anyway, we were traveling together when the storm hit us. For hours, we walked through the rain and we were all injured and exhausted. William had it the worst though, he had developed a fever. I was really scared at that time. At first, I didn't get along with him very well, he had always been very cold and dismissive of me, but eventually it slowly but surely dropped his block. And then this happend. Immediately I had to remember the night in Groka and also the death of the nice cook, while Aletta revealed her secret and healed our injuries with her abilities. However, she didn't have much mana left, so she desperately watched William's condition worsen. She kept saying how incompetent she was and how much she hated herself for having so little mana. I asked her if she could use other people's mana, which to my surprise she said yes. I mean, we kind of surprised each other, because when I offered to use my mana she realizing how much mana I had for the first time. She was the one who had taught me mana transfer back then, and that night she had also successfully cured a disease for the first time. That was pretty much the day we became very honest with each other and became really good friends. And that was also the day I had gone through the first stage. I still remember the feeling when my veins suddenly started burning and my mana spread all over my body."

Cale smiled briefly as he thought of the past.

"There we were, five or four Anuxers respectively, fighting our way through the creature plains, crossing the desert, staying in the trading city of Persiven for a day, and finally arriving in the capital of Exarion. We were supposed to part ways there, but I had no particular interest in being an Anuxer anymore and just wanted to stay with them. Fittingly, Ben asked me to accompany them to Frignez, which I eventually did. We stayed in the capital for about two days before heading north for a few weeks afterwards. When we finally found Aletta's families, I learned two things", Cale explained, straightening up and raising a finger. "First, Aletta was Aletta Merensen, the daughter of the second chief Merensen."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Cale pulled out the second finger.

"And second, Exarion had been overrun by a huge wave of creatures after we left. The city was in ruins and hundreds of thousands of people had died. The whole country was considered a total exclusion zone."

In disbelief, Grischa stared at him. His friend's story was sad and funny at the same time, but most of all it was misleading. Many of the things he told made no sense at all.

"Do I need to understand this?"

"No, you don't. Let me finish the story first and it will become clearer", Cale threw back. "So we were trapped in Frignez. Over the next few weeks, thousands of refugees showed up and the chiefs had great difficulty caring for everyone. Although they didn't trust strangers, they were far too kind-hearted to send away desperate people. Because of Aletta's status, however, we had a certain advantage over the others and helped as best as we could. And then, one day, the chiefs Merensen asked the people to join the country's forces if possible, since they were in danger of being overrun by the creatures. Of course, we all joined immediately. Aletta's fiancé, a man named Miguel Heriog, was considered one of the strongest swordsmen in the land and taught us until a mage showed up at some point. Sefra Risztus. She had hidden for a while that she was a High-Mage, but the chiefs eventually recognized her. I don't know what she had told them, but the battle in Exarion had brought many High-Magicians an early end. Whether anyone had survived and where they were, however, she couldn't say. She had no way of contacting the other High-Magicians."

"And my communication crystals?", Grischa interjected confused.

"They didn't exist then, but I'll explain that to you in a minute, too. In any case, she had later started teaching some students of the Magistrat and many other potential mages, including me. Thanks to her teaching, I went through the second stage of being a mage and finally became somewhat useful as well. Miguel Heriog and Sefra unwittingly became the hope of the whole country. So the years passed, until that fateful day. I was just 25 years old when the news reached us that Sylve was under attack and they were also on their way to us. I swear by the three gods, I have never experienced such a silent city in my entire life. Everyone, without exception, was scared to death. We were no different. We sat in the eternal winter waiting for the creatures to come to us, which they did after a few days. I will never forget the following weeks. That was my first real battle and I hadn't seen so many dead people and creatures since Groka 20 years ago. It was a mess, chief Merensen realized that too. He ordered William to leave with our group and his daughter. Of course, we refused at first, but after arguing like forever, we finally gave in. The five of us grabbed one of the well-hidden messenger boats and sailed away just before the defense failed and Frignez went down."

Grischa took the story far too seriously, as he got tears in his eyes.

"So there we sat. A 19-year-old healer, a 26-year-old archer, a 27-year-old and a 24-year-old swordsman, and me, a 25-year-old beginner mage. We were lost. After all, where should we go? Frignez had been overrun, Altona was infested with creatures, Sylve and Winstest weren't doing any better, and were also weeks away from us. For hours we sat silently in the ground, drifting. We all kind of knew we were going to die soon."

Cale took a deep breath, as the feeling of that time came over him.

"And at some point, William told us who he was. It was so ridiculous. For years, he had kept from us that he was the third prince of Sylve, and then, when we were in the middle of nowhere he told us his biggest secret. His father, King Leonhardt of Sylve, had charged him years ago to slay a dragon. It was like a glimmer of hope for us. Five young people, sailing aimlessly on the water, suddenly had an idea that could save the whole world: We kill the dragon queen!"

Grischa was visibly surprised by this statement. Not even he would dare to fight a dragon, let alone the queen of all dragons.

"The thought was stupid, of course, but what did we have to lose? We had nowhere to retreat to, and if we were already in the seas near the Holy Island, why didn't we just try it? So, with a full head of steam, we laboriously fought our way to the island, cautiously but quickly. When we saw the first dragon circling in the sky, we were frozen. We thought we would die immediately, but the dragon was not particularly interested in us. Even when we got closer to the island and even when we got a foothold. They left us in peace. It was as if they welcomed us so that we could have a fair duel against the queen. I didn't even get to take a closer look at the island, because danger lurked from every corner and we were as careful as possible not to anger anyone. And then, after several days, I think it was actually several weeks, we had reached our goal. The queen was clearly visible. She was huge, as big as a whole city I would say, and beautiful too. She had golden scales and deep black eyes. The whole mountaintop was enveloped in her mana and it was so eerily calm and peaceful, I can't even put the feeling into words... William finally introduced himself and announced his intention, which the dragon queen understood. What surprised us, however, was that she answered us in our language. She asked us if we had gone mad. William only drew his weapons in response, which is why she Dragon Queen raised her head and burned us all."

Cale was silent. The feeling of being burned alive run through his mind.

"The last thing I saw was William apologizing to us and dying right in front of me. I remember screaming his name and huge amounts of mana pouring out of me before I could feel that I had broken through the third stage, the test of life."

Cale closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He didn't know how long he had been telling his story, but he noticed how his arm had fallen asleep. Slowly, he opened his eyes again and looked into Grischa's green eyes.

"And then? The next thing I heard was my mother's voice before she grabbed me, took me in her arms and ran away. I was really confused, I didn't know where I was and I didn't even recognize her at first. But when I looked around, I recognized Groka. And I saw the creatures coming out of the mountains that had killed us all back then. The villagers wanted to stand up to the creatures again, but this time I intervened and told them that they had no chance. Only then I realized that I was in the body of a child. My body when I was five years old."

Cale ends his story with a smile, but Grischa's look spoke volumes.

"You died and were revived?", he asked in such an irritated voice that Cale almost had to laugh.

"Yes, that was my first rebirth."

"First? How many times has that happened?"

"This is my sixth life."

"W... what... how....", Grischa just stammered. "How old are you?"

"Good question, I'd have to count, but a little over 300 years should do it."

Grischa's mouth was half open in amazement and shock before he found his voice again.

"You know I can't believe that."

"That's why I asked you in the beginning if you would believe my story. I am well aware of how implausible this story is, but it is the starting point for all your questions to me. I can't explain a lot of things I think, say or do without mentioning this time loop", Cale replied, but his friend seemed to believe him even less.

"This is insane."

Cale sighed and straightened up.

"Have you never wondered how a 16-year-old became a High-Magician? Or how I know so many things and do things that seem strange to you? Have you never noticed that I direct the Magistrat in the background in the direction I think was right? The city, all the preparations, the students, the shelters, Sylve two years ago. All those things were part of a grand plan, and the survival of Exarion was one of the most important ingredients for the future of the world."

Cale opened his small hiding place and pulled out all the documents he hid there.

"Grischa, even your inventions were part of my plan. Do you remember how you came up with the concept for the communication crystals? Wasn't I the one who told you about a mage who uses sound as an attack? Everything you guy do is because I want it to be. You are, so to speak, my figures in a battle against the downfall of the world."