Zakaria turned the page of the book he had been studying. After the fiasco of last night, the middle aged man - Professor Salador Solaris he had introduced himself as - had led him to the manor house he currently found himself in. He’d fallen asleep almost instantly on the three - conveniently identical - beds found next to each other in the top floor room. After waking and finding no one home, he’d had a look around the manor, finding it to have over ten bedrooms, a training room, a sunroom, a study, three dining areas, two kitchens and four bathrooms, two of which had hot tubs!

Finally, Zak had stumbled upon the massive library he was now situated in. It somehow seemed to surpass the rest of the house in size, and though Zak had definitely entered from the ground floor, and the top most level of the house was definitely the fourth floor, the library had seven floors all on its own!

“How are you this morning, young man?” inquired a strong yet soft voice from the library entrance. Zak looked up to see the six foot tall, imposing yet friendly Professor Solaris approaching where his three bodies were currently situated.

“I’m fine sir” replied the closest body of Zak, having finally worked out how to speak from only one body.

Solaris looked from one of Zak’s bodies to another. “And how are you coping with the new living arrangements?” He smiled.

Zak smiled wanly back at him. “I honestly don’t know what to do, is this normal for magic people?” He asked hopefully.

“Not at all” replied Solaris jovially as he took a seat “but there's no reason to be upset, your situation could turn out to be quite fortunate. How about we go over the events of yesterday, I explain a few things to you, and then you decide what you want to do next?” Solaris asked warmly.

“That sounds fine. But how are Jairo, Mamoru and Martim” asked Zak worriedly.

“They’re fine, absolutely fine. I checked up on them this morning, which is why you found yourself alone. They suffered some muscle and nerve damage due to the effects of the sacrificial ritual yesterday. But that was all healed easily last night. We took them to the Brigid Institute after all. That’s one of the top five healing institutions in the world by the way. They normally deal with much nastier injuries than that” explained Solaris.

“Thank god” smiled Zak. “Were you able to find anything about returning them to their families?” He questioned further.

“Not yet, but the magical world has excellent connections with the non-magical side, so we should be able to reunite them soon enough. Until then they’ll be informed about their situations like I'm doing with you, and then we’ll send them home.”

“That’s great,” Zak smiled, tension leaving his body as the last of his stress and worry from his ordeal melted away.

“Excellent” Solaris said as he shifted about in his seat, trying to get more comfortable. “Onto the explanations then, first things first, as you have undoubtedly realised, magic is a very real and versatile energy that some of the inhabitants of Gaia, or you know it, earth, are able to wield.”

“So you're a wizard?” Asked Zak.

“I am indeed. Or alternatively, a sorcerer, a warlock, a shaman or any number of other titles depending on where you are in the world, however it all comes down to the fact that I can wield magic to affect the world around me. An ability that you also have.”

Zak nodded at this. “Well I do have three bodies” he laughed, “that’s pretty magical, and it also explains why I’m able to do four things at once. Or I guess three now” he sighed, still feeling weird and uncomfortable with the loss of one of his ‘attentions’.

To Zak it was like losing an arm. He was still able to function fully without it - and indeed could function much easier than an individual with one arm, seeing as he now had six! - But it was still a loss of an integral part of himself which he’d had since forever.

"About that” said Solaris, “Have your three bodies come into contact at all, as in, have you touched or shook hands or anything?”

“No not yet” replied Zak.

“Well go on then, you may be in for some good news.”

Zak nodded and stood up, he directed all three of his bodies to link hands. As soon as each body's fingertips came in contact with the other, a brilliant azure light flooded the room and a sound similar to steam evaporating was heard. As the light blinded Zak he felt a sensation in the pit of his stomach. It was both hot and cold, violent and calm. As the light receded, there in the middle of the room stood Zak. Not three Zak’s, just one body of Zak, glowing a slight azure colour.

“I’ve got one body again!” he exclaimed, not sure if this was a blessing or a curse. On the one hand having three bodies was amazing in that he could read three books at once, or travel to three places simultaneously. But on the other hand he could no longer operate at three times the speed, and explaining he had three bodies to people was bound to be awkward.

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“Just as I suspected,” nodded Solaris. “Your three bodies each contain a part of your soul, and no matter what you only have one soul. Therefore, your three bodies can merge into one and split whenever you wish, as long as they are in close proximity to one another of course.”

“Wow” breathed Zakaria. This solves all my problems, he thought. I get the best of both worlds.

“Now then” continued Solaris as he pulled a rhombus shaped crystal filled with swirling mist out of his robe. "I have here the last forty-eight hours of memory from the leader of the Shadow Order Squad, Stor I think his name was" Solaris explained. "I've reviewed them already so I can confirm all the details of what formation they used, but to understand why it malfunctioned I need your memories.”

"My memories?" Questioned Zak.

"This here is a mind crystal son. If used on a downed foe it will extract their final few days worth of memory, but if used by an individual willingly one could store any memory from their life on it" Solaris again explained.

"Alright then" said Zak, curious about what caused his current situation. He would normally be apprehensive of a stranger operating a foreign device on him, but he felt warm and trusting towards Solaris for some inexplicable reason.

Solaris pressed the cool surface of another empty mind crystal against Zak's temple.

"Think of the ritual, son. I know it must have been a traumatic experience, and I'm sorry we have to do this" Solaris said soothingly.

Zak nodded and recalled the events of yesterday. He recalled the blood painted on the floor, the bright crimson light, the pain, both physical and mental, but most importantly he remembered the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and the regret at not having done more with his life. As his breathing deepened due to the distressing memories, he felt an electric chill run up his spine to his brain.

"All done" Solaris whispered, as he pulled the now full crystal away. "Would you like me to leave and review it?" he asked.

"No, I want to know what happened and put this all behind me” Zak said determinedly.

Solaris nodded somberly and placed the crystal at its point on the table. Instead of falling, it started spinning slowly and an astral projection appeared above it, showing Zak in the cell at the moment the skinnier cloaked woman appeared at the bars of said cell. The projection continued to play, showing the events of yesterday. Zak watched with a stoic mask as he relived the hellish experience. The pain he remembered was one thing, but the agony had ended relatively quickly and his new bodies were completely healthy. It was the hopelessness that he had felt and realisation that he had come so close to death that tormented Zak. Had he died, his mother would be alone in the world, he’d never find out what had happened to his father, and he’d have failed to live up to the promise he’d made to his grandmother to live his life to the fullest.

As the recording ended with the tendril of light stabbing into Zak and his body being destroyed, Solaris looked over to the child sitting next to him. Zak’s expression was impassive, but a fire could be seen in his eyes illustrating the personality differences the formation had caused. Solaris rested a comforting arm around Zak’s shoulders, and although Zak didn’t visibly respond, he was grateful for the warmth and reassurance.

“You okay?” Solaris asked with concern.

Zak nodded. “So I died then” he questioned, referring to how his body had been destroyed.

Solaris smiled slightly at Zak’s nonchalant tone when asking such a crazy question. “Not exactly,” he began. “From what I can tell, your soul is different on a fundamental level, and so part of your soul has been destroyed, but you are very much not dead” he continued.

Solaris’s smile grew at seeing a confused look appear on Zak’s face. He was a professor after all, so teaching students and lecturing were his passion.

Solaris waved his hand and a ball of light appeared. “Imagine a normal person's soul is shaped like the simple sphere here. Your soul is different as it would look like this” he said as he waved his hand again, causing four smaller spheres to appear, each overlapping slightly so it looked like a model of an atom one would see in a chemistry class. “Your soul could be considered to have had four parts, which is the reason you could theoretically control four bodies at the same time. Thought originates and is processed by the brain, but consciousness resides in the soul. Now formations are very tricky things. They need to be followed precisely down to the last gram of ingredients or second of the day depending on the intended outcome. So when the formation sensed that instead of four normal newblood souls, there were instead three normal souls and one slightly different fourth soul, it malfunctioned. Instead, it used its energy to create your three new bodies using the body that was destroyed and one part of your soul as a template and payment. It then placed one of each of the remaining parts of your soul in the three new bodies.” Solaris explained. “Well that’s my theory anyway. With me so far?” He asked.

Zak nodded at Solaris to continue. "Now my question is, what were your exact thoughts when that tendril of light stabbed into you" queried Solaris.

Zak took a moment to think before answering. "Well I was feeling pretty hopeless, as I was in a lot of pain and couldn't move. And I guess I wished I could help the other three" he answered.

"Excellent," Solaris said. "Firstly let me commend your character. Even in a moment of pain and suffering, you were thinking about helping others. For that you have my respect. Now regarding the way the ritual malfunctioned, it's all about intent. Magic works via intent. If you intend for your magic to make you warmer, it will. If you intend for your magic to summon something towards you, it will, as long as you have enough control. So when the ritual malfunctioned, the magic in the formation read your intent to protect your friends, and did so by creating your bodies, thereby using up all of the formation's energy and shielding your friends from further harm.

"Hmm" responded Zak. "That seems… complicated" he shrugged.

Solaris chuckled. "Magic works in mysterious ways. Regardless, any questions?"