A few weeks later, Danny awoke in his new room one morning and realized he hadn’t visited his sanctuary in a while. Since leveling his primary skills so high, gaining new levels seemed to happen less often. Entering his sanctuary, he looked to the attribute triangle and noticed there had been some slight movement in intelligence and agility recently. Over in his bookshelves he found three new books for “Elven (spoken)” had appeared on the “Speech” bookshelf. Having a native speaker teach you a language was always helpful. Thanks to training with Jade, his “Sneak” was now level five. Taking care of Phantom helped him reach level three in “Cooking” and gain three new books for “Animal Husbandry.” Treating Leaf raised his “First Aid” to level six, gave him two new books called “Surgery”, and another new book called “Caregiving”. Confused, Danny assumed from looking at the knowledge within them that Caregiving had to do with taking care of the patient and Surgery was for using knowledge to treat internal damage.

Moving into his mana room he found “Air Affinity” and “Mana Manipulation” reached level seven, and “Life Affinity” level six. The experience from their first mission was turning out to be a huge boon for him.

Moving out into the hallway, he was about to go back to look at some of the new books in the first room when he noticed a strange flickering coming from the crystal room. Frowning, Danny hesitated a moment before going toward the newest room. Before he had even made it to the doorway he noticed that the crystal previously holding his dual concentration in the form of his old body, Cranny, was missing. Fragments of crystal were scattered all over the floor. Looking back down the hallway, Danny suddenly felt like he had just stepped into one of those low budget horror films.

The strange flickering light seemed to come from one side of the room as it reflected off all the crystal fragments. Moving into the room proper, Danny found what could only be described as a building security station set up on one side of the room. The plain room even morphed on that side to have generic carpet flooring, mauve colored walls, and popcorn ceiling. Danny grimaced at the visually-offensive addition. A dozen monitors were arrayed along the far wall and sitting at a desk beneath them was Cranny. He now wore a security uniform and was typing away at an 80’s desktop computer. Next to him was a half-eaten donut on a plate and a steaming cup of coffee.

Danny looked around and seemed to hesitate to interrupt his former self. Cranny seeming to finally notice his presence stopped typing and turned around with a big smile, “Danny! Thank you for finally letting me out, it was getting really cramped in there. Oh, and I got a new job, but the pay stinks. Gotta start somewhere though…”

Danny didn’t respond at first, but was finally able to form a coherent sentence, “Wha…?”

...Well, sort of.

“You finally let go and allowed the other half of your dual consciousness - that’s me - to handle things on my own. Now I get to monitor your surroundings and respond to external threats. These monitors in the middle show me what you can see through your eyes.

The ones on this side show me what comes up on the air and earth scans. I use those now on a regular basis. I don’t use earth scan as much unless we figure out something really useful for it to detect. But hey, if you don’t use it you lose it, am I right?

Then over on the other side are your vitals and general condition. I wish I could use the mana eyes but that would get in the way of your ability to function, so that one’s up to you to use.”

Danny looked over the monitors for a moment before he really focused on what he was seeing. “Are my eyes open right now?”

Cranny looked up, “Yep, I block your perception of them and barely open them every now and then when you are asleep. Can’t keep them open too much or they can’t rest. Oh, want to see me make them blink?”

Cranny reached over and tapped a key on a console that stretched along part of the desk. Danny watched as his barely open eyes blinked over and over.

Cranny focused on the controls, “See, I can even send out messages in Morse code. Please… send… help… can’t… get… out... Ha! Just kidding, we don’t know Morse code!”

Danny sighed and considered leaving right then, but asked another question instead, “So, were you the one that sent the vines and branches to grab me a few days ago when I suddenly fell?”

Cranny nodded seriously, “Yes, I have access here to all your abilities and spells. If it looks like you are in trouble and can’t properly focus for some reason, I will step in. You thought the dual consciousness was meant for dual casting, but this was its intended purpose. Your own mind was fighting for control with itself as this was a new experience for you. Took you long enough…”

Danny wanted to lay ground rules, “This is good, but I don’t want you eating up all my mana…”

Cranny interrupted him, “We are the same person, and I know what you’re going to say. In fact it’s written on the monitor below your vitals right there, see. Don’t worry, I will manage things fine from here, so you go play.”

Danny looked one last time at the monitors and saw his eyes were barely open again and Ivy walked into his bedroom. She paused when she saw he was sitting up, but relaxed when she realized he was meditating.

A smile appeared on her face and she went and sat down in front of him on the bed. She apparently couldn’t tell his eyes were barely open, even from this distance. She craned her head and inspected his face from one side to the other. Her hand reached out towards the top of his head as if she was going to run it through his hair, but stopped herself.

Cranny turned to him and smiled, “Since I was released, I have seen the three of them all come in every night to check on you. I don’t know if it’s because your new room is out here by itself, or if they did it before as well. I think they do a rotation, but Jade sometimes checks on you on the same night as the others. She’s sweet… for a stalker.”

Danny was blown away by this revelation. His heart-rate increased and a fast beeping sounded from his vitals monitor before Cranny casually reached over and pressed a button to silence it.

Ivy’s mouth started moving and Danny thought he heard something, before Cranny turned a dial on one of the two speakers right beside his computer. He could suddenly hear her loud and clear.

“…tiful. I don’t know what I am going to do with you, Danny Creek. You drive me crazy one moment then do the impossible the next… I wish they would let us take you into the city to train, so I could have an excuse to take you out and do something fun. I guess I will have to wait just a little bit longer…”

Ivy started to lean in towards his face and closed her eyes.

“Wait, how many times have I been kissed in my sleep!”

Cranny had a bag in his lap and was about to eat a fistful of popcorn, “This has never happened since I have been watching. Shhh, it’s about to get to the good part.”

Danny couldn’t control his reaction and ejected himself from the sanctuary with a jerk. Ivy must have noticed his reaction, paused, and quickly opened her eyes. Smiling she played off what she was about to do by laughing and announcing, “Surprise, Meadows wants our team to meet her and some others in the dining room.”

Danny noticed a blush on her face as she turned and quickly left the room. His left hand involuntarily reached out and pinched his leg.

Realizing what happened Danny fiercely whispered, “Owww, don’t do that, this is my body!”

Ivy leaned her head back into his room, “Sorry, were you calling after me?”

Danny forced a smile and gripped his left hand with his right, “No, I have to do some stuff and I will be there shortly.”

“Alright,” Ivy nodded and left.

Danny just sat there staring at the doorway to his room.