Hailey then Kait appeared in a grove of trees. Birds sang, leaves danced, and springtime was seemingly in bloom. Towering far above them was a mountain.

Another Hailey, this one wearing a red headband, stood not far from them with her arms crossed. “Took you long enough.”

The real Hailey ignored herself while she dusted ice filings off her pants.

The Fake Hailey continued, “You can call me Mark 3. So, can we get this over with?”

Hailey shrugged. “Yeah, but what are we even doing?”

Mk3 pointed up the mountain. “Getting to the top.”

“Oh jeez,” Hailey said, intimidated. The mountain wasn’t your ordinary hill, but a full-sized climb.

“Yeah, it’s big, and you better not slow me down.” Without another word, Mk3 began jogging toward the mountain.

Hailey was taken aback by how quickly her other self had begun, while Kait said, “Sorry, but it’s getting late, and I don’t think I’ll be of much use at the moment, so I’m leaving.”

“I bet you just don’t want to climb this thing,” Hailey said with a shrug and a smirk, knowing full well that Kait could probably just fly. “But that’s fine, I can handle this on my own.”

Kait nodded. “See you later,” she said, then disappeared.

Hailey picked up her journal and tried to put it in her pocket, but it didn’t fit. She rolled her eyes, then tossed it to the side. She moved her eyes back to the mountain. That thing’s big. This could take a while.

She heard Mk3 yell to her, “Hey, slowpoke! Get over here now. We don’t have all day to waste!”

Longer than a while, she corrected herself.

Jaine watched as Alchemia’s soul suddenly appeared in the jar of mercury in his hands. As a necromancer, he could see souls. “Don’t worry, bud, I’m not gonna drop you,” he muttered as he gently set the closed jar into a wooden box, then set it into his duffel bag.

He zipped it up and threw the strap over his head as he saw the witch’s soul return on the other side of Hailey’s room. He’d cleaned up the circle and set Hailey back on her bed while Alchemia was in The Consciousness. It was like he was never there.

Still, he had a feeling that he should leave before the witch woke up. He did just that, stepping quietly down the stairs and leaving without a fuss.

To be honest, he had no expectations that his plan would work.

Many of his clients expected him to do the impossible and save them from fates they had, like, a thousandth of a chance of surviving, even with his help. A few idiots even emailed him asking to be put in a younger vessel. He glanced back at the house as he walked to his car.

Sometimes, Jaine regretted his new profession. He never wanted to think about all the lives he could’ve saved, he never wanted to hear another person blame him for their deaths, and he never wanted to hear another unreasonable request or to see another dead, soulless body.

He never wanted to drop another jar of mercury, either.

But at least when he did things right, he could leave feeling like he’d done something good. He hadn’t felt that way many times since he gained his affinity for necromancy at fourteen, but today, he was hopeful that maybe someday he could do something that outshone all of his mistakes.

Maybe…he really could enjoy being friends with someone again.

Kait shook off her dizziness.

She placed her hand on her chest. It’s still there. She stood and walked to her room, storing her necklace under her comforter before walking out of the house and toward the base of the mountain range that surrounded the city, not too far from the Jouls’ home. Then, she took her broom for another stroll through the cover of the mountains.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Hailey jogged behind Mk3, barely keeping pace with her other self, exhausted already. It didn’t help that Mk3 made sure to bark at her each step of the way, insulting her and claiming she wasn’t giving it her all. Who did she think she was, a military sergeant?! Hailey was happy that Mk3 had at least removed the concept of sweating from this reality, which made the climb more comfortable, if nothing else. She freaking hated sweat so much.

“Come on, get up here and get this over with!” Mk3 cried out at Hailey from twenty feet up the rock face.

Hailey could barely stand after thirty minutes of jogging uphill and was halfway to collapsing. She was also pissed at her other self. How did Mk3 expect her to keep going if they weren’t even a fifth of the way up the mountain?! She spoke through gasping breaths, “Just…give me…a…break…” Hailey collapsed, unable to go on.

“Urgh, really?” Mk3 threw herself down the slope, stopping at Hailey’s corpselike body, her skin pale and cold from the mountain’s chill. “You are out of shape.” A bottle of water appeared in front of Hailey’s face, and she gulped it down. “Look, I don’t think we need to struggle too much here. Stop making this difficult, and ask for what you need. No cheating, obviously!”

After finishing a colossal swig of water, Hailey gasped. “What’s up with you ‘parts of me’ and cheating? Couldn’t you just teleport me to the top if you’re so impatient?”

“That wouldn’t do.”

“Why?!”

“Cause I care about doing my job, and I care about you, so I’m not gonna let you half-ass this!”

“I don’t get it,” Hailey cried. A cup of hot coffee appeared next to her, and she drank it without complaint before standing up again. Sweet.

“Now get moving! You should know this by now: The more you want to move, the more you will move!”

Hailey groaned, then stumbled forward as her quadruple took the lead.

This wouldn’t be very fun.

Clera sat on her office room chair as she tapped a pen on her desk. “Yep. She’s in a magic sleep.”

“This is ridiculous,” her husband said through the speaker. “You don’t think a kiss on the forehead would wake her up, do you?”

She shook her head. “Obviously not.”

He sighed. “As if things could get worse…damnit!” She heard him stomp angrily. “Look, I’m going to take off–”

“No, Maple, we still need the money from your excavation. Even if you did, what would you do?”

“I-I don’t know, hun…I’ve already missed her this whole time since Abbie died, and…”

“I know, I should’ve let you come back when it first happened.” Clera looked down with guilt. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll just make it up to her once I get back. We’ve already begun uncovering artifacts from the dig. If I’m lucky, I might be able to come back within the month.”

“Really! That’s wonderful.”

“Yeah...But about Kait…she was the one who caused it?”

“Yeah. I’d rather ask her to live somewhere else, like the Snowleys’ mansion, but Taylor doesn’t want her to leave, and Hailey deserves a vote, herself.”

“I don’t think she should leave. The spell sounds harmless enough, plus she said that the spell could actually help Hailey.”

“You really think so? Oh, Taylor just texted me.” When Clera saw the text, however, she rolled her eyes. “He’s asking for money to do affinity rituals. Seriously?”

“Why not let him? You’ve been saving up some money to run the house, let him chase his dreams!”

“You’re too loose with your money, hun. Anyway, I gotta catch a client now. Love you.”

“Love you, too. See you later.”

She hung up, then opened her laptop.

Taylor was at the library, studying a thick book: Book One of The Complete Dictionary of Magics, Their Rituals, and Their Uses.

If someone found they had an affinity for magic, they could find a career, but he wasn’t looking for that. He wanted to be able to help. To do that, he would have to test for each affinity individually, which costed a varying amount of money. The book was helpful in learning about each one.

So, after some research with the book, he wrote a list on a piece of paper:

Postcarrio: a magic that allows one to change tiny actions in the future to make more extensive overall changes. I think this would be super useful. Ritual cost is $135.

Doppelgear: a magic that lets someone create literal copies of themselves. It seemed similar to how Mk2 was made, so I thought I’d keep it in mind. Ritual cost is $105.

Appetizer: I’m tempted to think this is a joke by the authors, but it’s a type of magic that lets someone heal souls with food. I couldn’t help but write it down. Apparently, the ritual cost is only $15, so I decided to throw it on here.

Fortune reading: I think I’m relatively likely to have an affinity for this since grandma was one, but I’ll ask Taila about this before I pay.

Aquaformer: the book is vague about it, but apparently, it lets someone ‘manipulate water with souls and souls with water.’ It’s pretty rare, though, and the ritual cost is $150.

Sumnus: Interacts with dreams and stuff. The ritual cost is only $60, partly because its demand is high.

After his bout of research, Taylor put back the book, texted Taila and his mother, and went home.