Fred could feel the sweat piling up on the back of his head as he sat in front of the audience.

“You see Fred, you have been up to a lot of weird antics over those past few years, and are quite intelligent for your age, disbelievingly so.” George didn’t know what the right question to ask was, ‘who are you?’ ‘What are you?’ ‘How do you know so much?’… “What I’m trying to ask is, well, let’s look at the furnaces in the blacksmith.”

“The blacksmith?”

“Yes, we will start with that as an example, you looked down on their technology with disgust, as if you have had first-hand experience with something better. Due to our town being a gathering place for high skill adventurers and a supply town for three forts, our town’s blacksmiths have been able to procure some of the best forges in our kingdom.”, “or the fact that you didn’t seem satisfied with the glass from the alchemy shop, they are imported by the Tusconocia republic, near the Mediterranean centre. They are known for producing the best glassware in the mainland.”

Fred didn’t realise George had been paying so much attention to him, heck he didn’t know he let on the fact he was unsatisfied with the glass. Fred knew he would have to tell the truth now, otherwise, he may lose their trust forever should he tell another lie and get found out later. However, what if they mistook him for a demon possessing Isabella’s son. Or what about if they no longer view him as part of the family, what about if Isabella distanced herself from him.

Isabella saw that Fred was starting to panic, she leaned over and grabbed Fred’s hands causing him to pause and look at her. “Fred, we are family, and I am your mother, you can trust me and if it is a difficult problem then we can work it out together.”

Fred seemed to be soothed by her voice. “all alright, I’ll tell you,” Fred remembered what one of his old professors said, propose the worst situation first, then all other situations will seem better by comparison “I’m a demon who possessed your son.”

Isabella was taken back for a bit and looked confused

“That’s bullshit, I’ve already checked, your soul matches your body.” George blurted out.

“?” Fred was confused, ‘You can check for things like that in this world. I had thought the only ‘evidence’ of possession was random peculation like my previous world’ but this is a good thing Fred had let out an audible sigh of relief by accident, which didn’t go unnoticed.

But Isabella was mad at George, “What do you mean you’ve checked.”

George sighed, he knew would cause a big row with Isabella about it, but it was his duty to keep her safe, and Fred had a habit of giving off red flags. He decided to reveal a small bag in his pocket. “I brought a heavenly Crystal from a Friend, I used it one night on Fred when he was asleep, it confirmed that his soul belongs to that body.”

“And you didn’t think to bring that up with me,” Isabella shouted

“Would you have let me do it if I had?”

“Absolutely not”

“That’s why I didn’t bring it up with you.”

“Grrr”

Isabella was about to carry on when Johan stepped in, “Isabella, let’s hold on to this matter, for now, whether or not George was in the right, we need to address the main issue.” He turned to Fred, “Fred, I’ve known you for a while now, and I could tell from the tone of your voice that you let on at that being a lie, so why did you want us to dismiss that claim?”

“Well, I was scared you would comprehend the truth as demonic possession and have me burned at the stake, I didn’t know you had a method to prove whether or not someone was possessed.”

“So is the truth really bad,”

“Well, it’s more dependent on how religious and superstitious you are.”

“Come on Fred, you have been with us for 4 years now, do you really take us for the Superstitious type?”

Fred sunk his head at this “well no, I was just scared”

“So, are you going to tell us?”

“Well, I had a couple of theories to explain what happened, but that crystal might have destroyed the one I believed in the most.”

“The Crystal? Did you think you were a demon possessing this body?”

“No, it was the second bit, about the soul matching this body.”

“Should your soul not match your body.”

“Well, I thought not, but now”

“Why don’t you run through your theories with us and maybe we can come to a conclusion”

“Well, all the theories seem to achieve the same results and the differences were a matter of philosophy. Well, the one I had believed in was that I was the soul of another person who came from another world and took over this body. A ‘human’ possession if you like.”

“?”, “?”, “?”, “?”, this revelation had seemed to confuse the whole room,

“But if the Crystal says this soul belongs to this body, then I don’t know what that means, It could mean, that I gained the memories of another human, or my soul that came from the other world was destined to have this body, it could be a merger of two souls. I just don’t know, but what I do know is that I have memories of another person in my head, but the similarities are too uncanny.”

Johan seemed to be the calmest of the group, he was one to take in all of the stories before making a judgement. “Similarities you say”

“Well, in my previous world, although I was an orphan, and my name was Frederick, and the only parent whose information I could track down was my mother, last name Ansul, not only that the map George showed me matched my previous world, and from connecting the information, it seems I was born in the same city, although in that world it was called Bristol instead of Poilutonne port.”

“Hmm, do you mind if I check you over with the Heavenly Crystal? Maybe that would give us more clues.”

“Sure Doctor,” Fred was nervous as well, but also wanted answers himself,

George handed Johan the Crystal and the doctor started scanning Fred with mana sense.

“Hmm… that’s strange… that’s really peculiar.”

“What have you found doctor” Isabella chimed in; it seems she was just as nervous as Fred.

“Well, I first thought I’d seen an unusually large soul in Fred’s body… but on closer inspection, it’s two souls joined together, there seems to be what looks like a faint seam connecting the souls, and on extremely close inspection it looks like they are slowly binding completely. I would say based on this speed that in another few years, the souls would have merged completely and will become one.”

“But, Doctor, when I checked with the Heavenly Crystal it was clear that the soul matched the body. But if there are two souls, one of them should have stood out to me.”

“Well, that’s the think George, according to my observations they are the same souls, its probably why they are merging instead of one trying to take over the other, as is what’s usually observed according to the current thesis.”, “not only that the body views both souls as the correct soul. It’s like the soul has been duplicated, the only difference is the thickness. Hold on, there is something behind the thicker one,”

“What?”

“There seems to be a black mass being suppressed by the thicker soul. But it doesn’t seem to be alive, and it’s not fighting back. It seems subservient to the thicker soul.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t seem to be alive, is it demonic, or death energy,” George replied, even Fred was getting curious about what was going on in his body.

“No, it’s like an inanimate object. Wait it has some sort of writing on it, but I can’t tell the language properly. Let me write it down.” Johan wrote down the details of what was written on a piece of paper and then showed it to everyone else in the room, none of them seemed to know what language it was or could decipher what it meant, so Johan showed Fred.

When Fred saw what was written he was stupefied, it took him a minute to respond, “It’s the language from my old world.”

“What does it say?” George asked.

“Neurolink bio-chip 24x series, Tesla, Inc. Serial number: 4g:82:63:ad:f6” ‘this was his biochip almost everyone had one of these in his homeworld, but to think it merged with his soul, although, there wasn’t much understanding on his homeworld about souls, and what there was, was only religious texts. But Johan said it was being suppressed, is that why I am unable to access it. “Holy shit”

“Wait” George chimed in, “we can talk about that after, what does it mean from the two souls being the same?”

“Well, George, other than the two souls being the same, one is half the accumulated experience one would have expected for a boy Fred’s age, while the other one, well the other one, I’d have to guess was the accumulation of someone that’s lived for a few centuries.”

“What do you mean they are the same if one is thicker than the other doctor?”

“Well, each soul has a unique quality to them, it’s a type of resonance if you could call it that, when you have mana sense turned on while holding a crystal, the soul comes up with a unique colour, smell, taste and sound, as well there are unique patterns to a soul and your brain combines all of this input and formulates a recognisable stamp, and it’s very easy for people to recognise two different souls, but your two souls match all of these factors.”

‘Is that like a fingerprint or a unique soul frequency’ Fred pondered.

“But how are there two souls the same, that should be impossible,” George spoke

“Impossible? Yes, it should be, but the contrary is sitting in front of us.”

“Erm… I might have an explanation on that,” The room looked at Fred, “Well it’s just a theory, and technically I would be the only proof of that theory,”, “Well back in my world, or the world of the memories I have, it was a lot more advanced than this world, well there was a theory of a phenomenon known as the multiverse.” Fred was jumbling up his words, he had only read so much into it and even he struggled to understand it properly.

“Multiverse?”

“Yes, well the theory was that there were multiple copies of the same world in infinite possible universes, or realms, some might call it.”

“Infinite worlds are that such a possibility?”

“Well, there is probably a finite number but, Well the theory goes is that, when you make a choice, let’s say, you want a drink tonight, and your choices are wine or beer. When you come to choose, the theory dictates that, that world is duplicated, where one is you picking wine, and in the other world you pick a beer.”

Fred paused there; the people present looked like they were struggling with the concept. “I think I’m getting a headache”, Isabella retorted,

“I don’t understand either” George added, “what has that got to do with you having two identical souls?”

“Well, I’ve only read the theory once, and it was full of speculation, but the point is, the two souls might both be me, from two different worlds, Johan said one of them looked to have gained experience equal to 3 centuries, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Johan confirmed,

“Well according to my memories from that life, I lived up until I was 312”

“Lived up to, does that mean you died in that world, if that was the case your soul would have been cleaned to be used for the reincarnation circle

‘What?’ Fred hadn’t read much of the religion in this world and therefore didn’t understand their concepts of life after death. But he didn’t want to ask about that now.

“Well, I don’t think I died in that world, I was on a ship that was on a crash course towards a phenomenon called a black hole. What little information we had about these black holes have mostly been contradicted with my presence here. Technically I should have died going through it. In that world, we didn’t have magic, but some people, myself included had a power known as Esper, I was a lightning Esper, and I think that protected my mind as I watched the ship and my body get ripped apart by the black hole,” Fred was visibly getting upset describing this as for a kid with half a mind, or soul of a child, the remembrance of the pain was unbearable. Isabella moved over to sit with Fred and comfort him, no one in that room could imagine the pain one must have suffered by having your body being ripped apart. Heck, even Fred’s adult side shook with trauma.

“Do you want to take a break honey,”

“no, no I’m alright,” Fred said with red eyes, trying to hold back the tears, “after that I found myself falling to this planet, although at first, I thought I was back on my home planet as the landmasses looked the same, I was only getting still images on my way down,” as he was recounting the images the last one suddenly became very clear to him, he looked up at Isabella with shock, “the last picture I saw was always fuzzy to me, but for some reason, retelling the events made it clear.”

“What did you see?”

“You”

“Me?”

“Yes, I was coming down from the sky and saw you look up at me with shock, it was at night-time, but it was like your face and the surroundings were suddenly lit up by a bright light, it was on the balcony of your room and George was standing behind you,”

Isabella looked at George “Was that when…?”

“Yes, I think it was.” George confirmed,”

“What?” now Fred was confused.

“A few days after we got here, your mother was probably 4 months pregnant with you. Isabella was struck by lightning.”

“What?” Fred asked George then turned to Isabella, “where you ok?”

“I was fine Fred,” Isabella reassured Fred but felt warmth from his care. “We thought it was odd as the lightning did nothing to me, there was no injury or pain, if it wasn’t for the burnt clothes, it seemed like the event didn’t happen.”

“But what are the coincidences, if what you say is correct, that the same soul would enter the same body as its copy.” George mused.

“It might not be a coincidence, George” Johan answered, “the two souls seem to have an attraction for each other, that’s how they are merging so well, so I guess that as big Fred lost his body, it reached out and found young Fred, who then called him over.”

“This explains something else I found odd” Fred butted in this time.

“What was that?” Johan asked.

“Well, I originally thought that I was singularly the old Fred and that I had taken over this body. But Many of the times, I have acted childishly, and my adult part never seemed to have enough power to stop me from doing childish things.”

Isabella chuckled and said “That’s cause you are my baby and will always be my child” Fred’s cheeks grew red and hot from that statement and seeing this, Isabella just hugged him.