(Alorovos, 15)

Green pants or brown pants? Green pants or brown pants? I'll go with the green. Grabbing them, I stuff them into a dimensional space, along with my boots, vest, and belt. They'll all be pulled out together, once I've left.

"NOOOOO!" A voice wails in my head, and I wince.

I was expecting that, though. I really need to hurry, to get out of here. It's so close, the source of this agony. He's told me that. So close, and yet so far away. I need to hurry, but I can't get caught. They'll try to stop me, and if too many of them come after me, then it'll be problematic.

I can probably handle everyone who'd try to stop me with force, but I don't want to hurt them.

Shaking my head, I sniffing the air. There's moisture in it, so it might rain soon. Just as I planned. The clouds are thick, blocking out the moon and the stars and creating a very dark night.

Opening my dimensional spaces, I count out all of the swords. Good, they're all there. Sometimes, I worry that I'll accidentally destroy one of those spaces, and if I did that, it would destroy the sword.

These swords are far too important to destroy.

"STOOOOOP!" Midlaris wails again, nearly causing me to jump.

"I'm going to stop it soon," I whisper, knowing he'll hear me.

He always does.

Grabbing my pack, I open up a new dimensional space and shove the pack into it. It's got the last supplies I couldn't hide into the spaces over the last few months.

With everything ready, I weave together a mixture of light and wind to prevent notice of me by any mortal senses. As long as no one looks too hard where I'm at with their ability to see magic open, I'll be fine.

That's one of the most bothersome abilities of the clans. We're all born with the ability to see mana and magic. While most usually keep it off because of how much magical power and mana fills the air around here, there are some who use it at all times. Or while watching our borders. Or while out on hunts.

Shaking my head, I walk towards the door, and after using my magic and senses, phase through the door. Doing that with clothes wouldn't work, as I would phase right through those as well. One day, I'll sort out that spell so that I don't need to sneak around naked.

Humans outside the clans might live that way, but we don't.

As soon as I've made it through the door, I check on my notice-protection spell, then walk through the hall. Even though I know I can't be heard, I do my best to move silently, not allowing my feet to touch the floor too hard.

As soon as I reach the first floor of the dormitory, I make my way to the front door and phase through it. The front wall of the building is the only one without a room covering every inch of it.

Checking my notice-protection spell again, I lift myself up into the air with my magic, then begin walking on it. Best not to leave a trail in the ground. While the step up to the door is stone, the rest of the ground is dirt and grass.

Someone would notice if footsteps appeared there.

Walking quickly, I make my way to the large wall of tree trunks used to protect the clan from random attacks by the monsters. We can handle them ourselves, but they're bothersome to deal with. So we built those walls to keep the wild beasts out.

Phasing through this wall is impossible, so I float up into the air, slipping through the protective barrier that shields our sky. I've studied it enough to know how to do that without alerting the guards that something's passing through it or interfering with it.

As soon as I'm on the other side, I return to the ground, walking an inch above it as I make my way into the forest. I want to hurry, but I still need to be careful.

Only once I'm several miles from the clan do I stop and open up the dimensional space with my clothes, which I pull out and pull on. Once I'm dressed, I pull out Exvalar and fix it onto my belt, then test it to make sure it clears.

Sensing something that's not showing up in my scanning spell, I jump up and back, using magic to increase the height of my jump beyond just want my pure strength would allow. As I flip, I notice roots growing up where my feet were. Someone was attempting to bind my feet and legs, to delay me.

Only a few people can evade my scanning spell's detection and detect me while I'm using such a potent notice-protection spell.

Extending a hand, I send a spray of ice shards in the direction I sensed the hostility coming from. Though someone might be able to conceal their presence from my scanning spell, true hostility cannot be hidden. The moment someone moves to attack someone, the target can detect them if they're sensitive enough.

And I'm sensitive enough.

My spray of ice shards covers a space one hundred feet in diameter, and only twenty feet from the inner edge of the attack do they deflect off a shimmering violet barrier. I land on the ground, taking control of the earth and plants around me.

As a grey, my control cannot be stolen by a violet, no matter how powerful and talented they may be. Binding my feet just became a lot more difficult.

"Helvias," I say with a clear voice that echoes through the air and the forest. "You aren't stopping me from leaving."

My aunt releases her notice-protection spell at the same time I release my own. My aunt looks well for her age, with the same blond hair and blue eyes native to the clans, her face only lightly lined with wrinkles. Among the Delvarkari, we do not age hard, instead taking many years to age at the same rate as others, once we've finished our growing days.

"You cannot leave, Alorovos," she tells me. "We noticed your preparations, and wanted to see how long you would go with this."

"You don't have the power to stop me," I tell her. "The world needs me. It needs all of us, Helvias! We are the only ones who can stop this war!"

"Let the war happen!" She responds. "We are fine where we are! What if more gods come after us because of you?"

"That is all the more reason to act!" I tell her, jumping to the side as a trio of binding icicles shoot at me from a somewhere past her and to the right, and the attack misses, soaring by me.

With a wave of my hand, I wrap that attacker up in vines and throw them back.

"Helvias!" I say. "I have to do this! Someone needs to, and-"

"And so you want to be a hero?" She asks. "The dragons grant us protection. They grant us safety. If you leave us, they will turn against you, Alorovos! They will hunt you down, and-"

"Don't try to stop me!" I gesture with my hand, and a ring of light bursts forth, spreading out from me. My aunt manages to deflect it, but not all of the attackers are so lucky, turning into stone. They'll get out eventually. "Midlaris is in pain, Helvias! The dragons only care about themselves! We serve such greedy creatures, but what will happen when the angels and demons and gods run out of humans elsewhere? They'll come to the Delvarkari, they'll try to enslave us again and again and again! The dragons can't defend against all the gods!"

My aunt waves a hand, and a torrent of flames jets out, threatening to consume me. I let it part against my barrier for a few seconds, then I take control of the spell and send it back at her twice as strong. It won't kill her, but it'll certainly give her pause.

"See reason, Alorovos!" She cries out in pain, and as the spell ends, I see her extinguishing the flames on her clothes with her magic, burns covering her body. She'll heal. We always do. "Your brother died against the war! It took all of his power to kill a single god! They've left us alone since then!"

"But they won't once they run out of humans elsewhere!" I hold up a hand, stopping a bolt of lightning and tossing it at another attacker. "They'll go to the strongest source of humans left, enslave us, and battle us until we die! And my brother would want us to fight against the war!"

Helvias summons up five rings of lightning, which she sends at me. Nasty trick you put in those for when I go to take them, aunt, but I'm not falling for that.

"You would go against your people and masters?" She asks as I hold up a hand, her lightning slamming into five grey barriers that manifest. "You are a slave of the dragons, Alorovos! Leave, and they will hunt you down! They will kill you! Think of your mama and papa!"

"I'm thinking of the world," I tell her. "I cannot be bound by something as thin as family when something as great as Midlaris and his children are in danger!"

I surround myself with a thick, grey barrier just in time to stop the dragon's fireball from reaching me, then I glare up at the silver-scaled dragon.

Silver dragons and golden dragons, the rare type of dragon that would do more than demand tribute or go on rampages. They are the overlords of the dragons who rule the Delvarkari. For one of them to come here means that they knew this would happen.

"Alorovos," the dragon says as I identify her.

Crap. One of the Dragon Queens. This is not good.

She stands fifty feet in height, her silvery scales shimmering, even without light from the moon and stars. Even without the inherent night vision of the Delvarkari, I would have been able to make out her majestic form. Even those grey eyes of her seem to glow with an inner light. This is one of the stronger silver dragons.

"You do not have permission to leave," she says.

"I will leave," I gesture with my hand, and vines stretch up, binding all of the Delvarkari left standing, my aunt included. They'll be freed. Eventually. "Midlaris is in pain!"

"Midlaris will recover," she says. "He always does. Return to your home, and all will be forgiven."

"No," I stand firm. "I will not stay, not when the world is ravaged by a war! Not when our cousins out there are dying to forces from another realm! You could all make a difference, yet you're content to stay here! I know that you can hear him, Aizvenna! Silver and gold dragons can all hear him! And you ignore him!"

"His pain is not our concern," she says. "Only our land and our subjects. Now return to your home."

"No!"

She begins to gesture with her tail. Arrogant beast! That is one of the conditions I've set into the storms above! You personally helped train me into who I am, did you truly fail to think my escape would have preparations made for if dragons attempted to stop me, too?

Too late, she realizes my trap, looking up. But a dragon's spell was begun, and that triggered the storm I had been brewing for the last few days.

As she cancels her spell, rain begins to fall, lightning striking out from many points, as if drawn to her. She roars as the storm attacks her, a grey barrier forming around her to protect her from my trap. As she does, she puffs out a series of fireballs, intent on hurting me badly enough I cannot escape.

I thicken my barriers, layering several more over as a lance of shimmering grey energy forms beside me. Snapping, I send it soaring towards her. She drops, allowing herself to fall, before spreading her wings and soaring towards me, her tail lashing out.

As I jump above her tail, I weave together another spell, increasing the force of the world upon the queen silver dragon. It's not enough to fell a beast which naturally abuses the same principles for her own flight and survival, but it disrupts her flight enough for me to strike her with fire, ice, earth, air, and lightning.

She roars as she twists, a wave of force sending me tumbling, and I twist, evading a lance of silvery energy that threatened to kill me. Only gods have silver magical power. Gesturing with one hand, I change the rain falling in his direction into ice pelting down, sharp as a sword and with the speed of lightning. The air rumbles with the thunder caused by the assault and sings with the shattering of ice.

The god must have been heading this way already, and was then drawn by the fight.

"END HIM!" Midlaris yells.

"I'll do as I please!" The queen silver dragon calls out, telling me she could hear his cry.

Drawing Exvalar, I teleport to the god's location, startling him as I run my brother's sword through the god's chest. The divine being freezes up for a moment, his silver eyes staring at me with shock as he realizes that he's actually dying.

"For Midlaris," I whisper, and the god's life fades away.

I withdraw the sword, then use magic to clean the blade before sheathing it as I look at the queen silver dragon. Killing the god occurred because he hadn't expected me to do such a spell, but no doubt others will learn of this and make it more difficult.

Even still, doing what I did has given her pause.

As she watches, I pull my brother's sword off my belt and send it back into a dimensional storage. Then, I withdraw a similar sword and fix it to my belt. This one was forged by me, for me, to act as the younger brother of Exvalar.

"Goodbye, Aizvenna," I grip the hilt of Selmat. "Do not try to stop me, or I will make you suffer. I will keep my brother's sword as a memory, but you have shown me that I am not a part of the clans anymore, so I will not use a clan-made sword, but one I forged myself."

Swiftly drawing the blade, I send out a wave of force, thin and compressed to a sword's edge. By the time she reacts, I'm already fleeing.

"YOU ARE A TRAITOR!" The queen silver dragon's voice booms through the storm, loud enough to shake the rain itself. "ANY DRAGON WHO EVER SEES YOU WILL FIGHT YOU TO THE DEATH, ALOROVOS! SHOULD YOU EVER RETURN, THEN YOU WILL SUFFER UNTIL THE END OF YOUR TIMELESS DAYS!"

I run my hand through my hair, changing its color to brown, then I wave my hand in front of my eyes, turning them brown as well. If I'm no longer a member of the Delvarkari, then I shouldn't look it, either.

By the time I reach the encampment Midlaris has been wailing over, I've decided on my new name. Nolan. It's a nice, simple name that's common outside of the clans.

Floating in the air, I appraise the encampment. It's over a hundred miles from home, and I'm exhausted from the fight and the flight. Do I have the power now to take it down? There are twenty angels and a god there, in addition to the fifty humans they've enslaved. If I wait a few hours, it'll cause Midlaris to wail and be in even more pain, but allow me a greater chance of complete success.

My decision on resting or fighting is answered when the god turns and looks at me, frowning. Looks like I'm about to find out if I can do this or if I'll need to retreat, Mildaris.

(Alex, 16)

Even though there aren't spirits surrounding me, I still wake during the night of the transition from the first half of the festival to the second half. What woke me up this time?

Shaking my head, I try to fall back asleep, but after… I don't know how long, actually, I get up and put on some clothes and boots. I just feel like going for a walk right now, so I leave my room and head downstairs.

As I walk through the empty, dark halls, only a ball of light to illuminate things, I notice another light on down here. Someone turned on some of the lights in the dining hall.

When I enter, I find Jason sitting at one of the tables, eating a giant bowl of ice cream covered in slices of strawberries and bananas and coated in chocolate and caramel syrup. He's wearing just a pair of pants right now, and briefly glances at me as I walk over to him.

He's sitting angled with the door to the side, so that he can see in his peripherals anyone who enters.

"Normally," I sit beside him. "A giant bowl of ice cream means ya broke up with someone."

Another look at him, and I realize he's pale, somewhat shaky, looks exhausted, his hair is ruffled as if he had been turning a lot in his sleep, and his eyes are quite red. Red… with grey irises.

"And normally, those looks could accompany that," I put a hand on his back, rubbing it gently, hoping this is comforting to whatever's caused his distressed state. "Everything alright, Jason? If we broke up, I ain't remembering it."

He frowns, thinking about what he's going to say, then shakes his head.

"Nolan," he hesitates. "Nolan has some unpleasant memories. I think talking about leaving the Delvarkari earlier caused some of them to come forth."

He closes his eyes, taking a long, slow breath, and when he opens his eyes, they're back to their normal, beautiful blue.

"We all had unpleasant memories," I tell him. 'But they're just memories of another life. They aren't experiences we actually went through. That's why we can handle them."

"No," he hesitates, then shakes his head. "Alex… lately, I'm reliving them in my sleep. I am Nolan, not just remembering what he did. It's only happened three times so far. The other two times, they weren't all that bad. Last night's dreams… the memories I just relived, as if I was Nolan, experiencing them?"

He shakes his head, and I notice tears welling up in his eyes.

"Nolan nearly died," he tells me. "The second god he fought – well, first when you take into consideration the first one wasn't really a fight – nearly killed Nolan. He was exhausted, he had looked at the encampment, and was spotted by the god before he could decide what to do. He'd just killed another god and fought off his clan and a dragon. He didn't have much energy left to fight. And he had to fight a god and twenty angels."

"They're just memories," I rub his back some more. "Just memories, Jason. It's just your brain playing with them."

"No," he shakes his head. "Alex, I'm actually reliving them. I swear it. I can still feel the god's sword running through my chest, the burning feeling it gave me. I woke up in a cold sweat screaming. I know exactly what thoughts I was having at those times. Those aren't things that come from memories, Alex. I was actually reliving that event."

He starts shaking, and as he does, I realize he's serious. He wasn't just dreaming Nolan's memories, he was dreaming Nolan's experience. The way he's reacting, unless he's using those acting skills of his, he's reacting the same way some people would do while suffering from past traumas.

Jason reaches up and rubs his chest, just beside where his heart is, and I know that he's thinking about the feel of the sword running through his chest.

"But I thought reincarnation doesn't work that way?" I ask him. "Isn't it just the memories that accompany the soul? None of the experiences themselves? None of the knowledge or personality or experiences?"

"I thought that, yeah," he nods. "But what if I was wrong, Alex? What if the Queen of the Gods altered our reincarnations themselves so that we didn't retain those? She already removed or blocked some of our memories, she could have done something like that, too."

When he says that, I realize he's right. The Queen of the Gods may have affected our reincarnations themselves to ensure we weren't the Magi as children. Twelve powerful beings capable of wiping out kingdoms on their own, coming into the world without warning?

That could be more than a little disastrous.

"But we don't have our power," I tell him. "All of that magical power we had before."

"If that's attached to the body, then we wouldn't," he shakes his head. "What if I'm wrong about being wrong, though? What if this is because I'm nearing grey?"

I stare at him. He's nearing grey?

"How close are ya to grey?"

"If I keep up with my training?" He answers. "I'll be grey before your birthday. What if normal reincarnation is how I theorized, but if someone turns grey – or starts to – in magical power, they begin to recover the experiences in addition to the memories? Niko's the next-most-powerful of us, yet he isn't going through this. None of you are, as far as I know. So it would stand to reason that my level of magical power is affecting things."

He's mentioned this to Niko? I'm going to admit, I'm a little jealous he's confided in his best friend rather than me about something like this. I know he probably didn't want me to worry, but still. It hurts a little.

"That's a theory," I push that pain aside for Jason, reminding myself that he was probably just thinking of me, and he digs into the bowl with his spoon and scoops out a large chunk of ice cream. "Are they all from your time as Nolan?"

"All three of these?" He asks, and I nod. "Yeah, all three. If it's the new theory, the one I just said, then maybe it's because I'm from this world originally, that maybe our lives are imprinted into the memory of the world, and I'm drawing on those. But we can only know for sure once it keeps happening. I don't want it to, though."

"I know," I tell him.

"Is everything alright?"

I look up to find Lina and her two guards in here, all three wearing their nightdresses and boots. The stone floor is a little bit cold to bare feet, though I suppose with what Jason just experienced, he doesn't care about that. He's probably using some spell to keep his feet warm.

Subtly, I pull my hand off his back so that they don't see it. He needs comforting, but I think he'd be a bit embarrassed if one of his friends found out about us. I know I'd be if they realized we were courting, since there would be a whole lot of questions that would come up. Plus the possible complications.

"I'm just harassing him over not sharing his ice cream," I tell her. "He decided to hog it all. Was trying to scoot him away from it, but he just moves the bowl with his body."

Lina laughs, then approaches us.

"You look terrible," she tells Jason. "What happened?"

He glances at her guards, but I suppose he doesn't care, because he tells her what he told me. As he talks, he rubs his chest again. It might take awhile before he stops thinking about what it feels like to have a sword run through his chest.

Going against the royal code, Lina sits beside him and wraps and arm around him, giving him a one-armed hug.

"It'll be okay," she tells him as I scoot a little further from him. "I feel confident you will figure out what's going on soon enough, Jason. And who knows – maybe the next dozen times, they will all be fun things. Do you remember that time we went swimming in that lake, only to learn the lake had a spirit who strongly disliked trespassers?"

"From what I remember," I say as Jason chuckles. "That spirit started assaulting us with water. Not the kind that could hurt us, just… spraying us. I guess we thought she was playing, 'cause then we started throwing water back at her."

"Yeah," Jason snorts. "She got really mad at us because of that. If I remember correctly, when we managed to talk with her, we found out that some god had been ordering humans into the lake, and then having his angels drown them in it. I don't remember the reason for that, though."

"And right after that," Lina says. "The twelve of us decided to track that god down. I do not remember what we did to him, though."

"I don't, either," Jason scratches the back of his neck. "We did slaughter his angels, though, I do remember that much. I think he fled."

Jason sighs. We went from a fun game to fighting angels, and it's probably making him remember the dream again. That's confirmed when he rubs that spot on his chest.

"Ya keep doing that," I tell him. "And you're going to rub it raw, Jason."

"Doing what?" He asks.

"Ya rub your chest every time ya think about getting turned into a shish-kebab."

"What is a shish-kebab?" Jacob asks, and I look up to find him standing there, his own guards to either side of him, all three of them fully dressed.

(Jacob, 16)

When I noticed Lina sneaking down, I decided to follow, but I had to change first, because I was not walking out there in just a nightshirt. Then when I arrive, I find her comforting Jason, Alex sitting on his other side, and Jason himself eating a giant bowl of ice cream covered in toppings and sauces.

"Ya rub your chest every time ya think about getting turned into a shish-kebab," Alex tells Jason.

"What is a shish-kebab?" I ask, and everyone but Jason looks up at me, startled by my question and probably 'sudden' appearance. They seemed too focused on their conversation, though Jason probably noticed my approach with his scanning spell. "My apologies, I was curious about why Lina was wandering about and overheard what you said."

"A shish-kebab is something from my life as Lucas," Jason shakes his head. "You get a small wooden rod, a very thin one around eight to eleven inches in length. Then you put small slices or chunks of meat and slices or chunks of certain vegetables on it, then roast it over a fire. Sometimes with a sauce."

I suppose Alex has known about Jason being reincarnated as Lucas for awhile, with how close those two have been and how much Jason likes him. Finding out Alex was the one I was looking for, though? I never thought he would have been Quinn.

That leviathan spell of his brought up an unpleasant memory of a time when I was Ethan and angered Quinn. The Magus of Mind was quite a fearsome warrior, and one of the few who stood above me in skill with a sword.

And his reincarnation, Alex, must be feeling pretty jealous right now, but this is not the time to mention it when Jason looks so bothered by something.

"When were you turned into a shish-kebab?" I ask Jason.

"Not long after I – Nolan – left the Delvarkari," Jason answers.

Then he tells me about how he relived the memory, as if he had actually been there. I sit across from him, my guards remaining behind me as I do, just in case of the unexpected.

"I cannot imagine what that feels like," I tell him. "But I side with Alex and Lina, Jason. It is no doubt your own mind playing with you, attempting to reconstruct those experiences from your memories."

"But-" he begins.

"My apologies for interrupting you," I tell him. "But it is possible you are the only Magus suffering this because of how strong of a will and power you have, Jason. You are the most powerful of us, the most talented in all forms of magic between the twelve of us, and it is possible it is your very magic and abilities with minds that is doing this to you, as an attempt to turn those memories into past experiences, because they feel 'out of place' to you."

Jason contemplates this for a few moments, then nods before looking at his bowl of ice cream.

"Yeah," he digs out a scoop of it and eats it, and I wince.

I ate too much too quickly when they served it, and the 'brain freeze' was not pleasant. Jason seems unaffected, though, and he chews slowly, before swallowing.

"I didn't think of that," he says. "But that's probably it. The memories do feel out of place in my mind, and it could just be my mind magic and my own mind doing this to make them feel natural. I still feel horrible, though. The pain… I don't remember ever feeling pain like that before. When my mind plays tricks, it really likes to go all-out doesn't it?"

We are all silent for a few moments, then Jason shrugs.

"By the way," he says in a bit of a better tone. "The Mad Witch is coming to investigate why seven people passed through her alarm ward at the end of the dorms. I used a gate to bypass it, which is why she's taking so long from when I came down. She's probably going to be a little mad."