Flynn laughed out, stupidly loud, attracting a lot of eyes as we walked through the Order’s main courtyard. “I can’t believe this! You’re coming to me for help?” he rubbed it in my face, “Did hell freeze over? Did the ocean dry up?” He held his stomach, crying with laughter, even pointing at my concerned but irritated face.

“You’re a jackass, man. A total moron,” I said, “it’s actually astonishing that you didn’t utterly fail at life.”

He grabbed me by the collar, “Say that again, you mistake,” he said, his face switched up.

“You’re a useless piece of shit!” I shouted. He curled his fist back, and I did the same, we socked each other in the cheek and stumbled back. We bounced back and I sent a kick right to his midsection but he dodged, creeping in on the outside and sank another punch to my other cheek. I lost my footing a little but regained balance, catching him back with a swinging backhand when he neared me again. We snared at each other and clenched our fists again, going in for another round, but a dense wall of water suddenly formed and our fists sank into the sludge-like water. Dawn’s water wyrm was the culprit, and honestly, I was relieved it wasn’t Mary the demon.

“Eric, professor, please conduct yourselves,” Dawn asked of us, nervously. I took one look at Flynn and scoffed, casted Dispel and just walked away, taking her by the hand and bringing her with me. She released the Water Wall before she could leave with me.

“So, what was that about?” she asked, slowing me down.

“I asked for advice on how to manage a large class. He laughed at me.”

“Huh? That’s it?!”

“What do you mean ‘that’s it’? That’s a lot!” I folded my arms.

“So, you’re mad at him?” she sat me down on a bench nearby.

I looked left, then right, and shrugged, “Nah, not worth it. We’re always like that.”

“Well,” she tittered, “he is your father.”

“Which is depressing…” I rubbed the back of my head, “Listen, Dawn,” my legs felt like led, “I’ve been thinking about you, about us, but mostly about you.” I noticed her priming herself up, she probably sweated buckets internally. Her nervousness was clear to me, and in a way, it reflected my own apprehension about taking our relationship further. My usual straightforward half-lexicon of words was there, yet I couldn’t help but feel I wasn’t my usual brazen self. “What is it you want? What is it you want to do? How do you picture our lives together if you’re able to stand me? I feel like I know nothing about you. Why do you study magic anyway?”

A long silence echoed between us, as she contemplated various things in her mind. She faced forward as if to change the topic and tucked her hair behind her ear, “I’ll just, keep it short. My uncle, dad’s brother, was a mage from the Order, and probably more of a father figure to me than my father was. We were pretty close and I guess, I was pretty impressionable when I was younger. He taught me a bit of magic, and I came to like it because of him. One day, he was given a mission to investigate someone the Order suspected of practising forbidden magic. That was the last we saw of him. Dad grew suspicious, questioned the Order and eventually made enemies with them after years of talks about my uncle’s disappearance. At first magic was just interesting for me, now it’s more of a tool to unravel what happened to my uncle.

As for you, well,” she folded her arms and turned her face away from me, “you notice nothing!” she said angrily.

After that sap story, she said that and totally derailed my ongoing investment in her. “Wow, yeah, you really don’t notice anything huh? Aren’t you worried about copulating? You know, like other boys your age?”

You already know the answer to that…

“Do I?” Donna asked, a devilishly mischievous tone to her.

“Well,” I exhaled, “can’t say you’re wrong,” I grabbed her hand, intertwining our fingers together, “though I can guess what it’s about.”

She turned to face me, her cheeks flushed and her ears following suit. Her arm jerked to her a little, probably trying to get away. “What are you, ten? You’re embarrassed to hold hands with me?”

“N-no! I’m, not…” she averted her eyes and looked down.

“You know what,” I stood up, pulling her along, “we’re going to the library. We’re not using the teleporter, we’re walking it, in front of everyone. No letting go of each other, so suck it up.”

And so, we did, though she practically died a few times over from the attention. I was honestly amazed at how innocent and sheltered this girl was, not to mention kind-hearted and respectful. Dare I say she was amongst the top five of the Order’s beauties, and a crowd of people witnessed her descent into commitment. By the end of the week, the entire Order of Mages would have caught wind.

In the library, I gave her a book on stealth and tracking magic, but she readily declined. “I’m not allowed to read the books here. I only have access to enter and exit because of you. It’s the same with your dad.” My jaw dropped. What kind of a stupid rule was that? I’d almost forgotten the twenty years of service needed to access these books, which rekindled in me a fire to truly do what I need to do, research and master Division, and also, to read up on resurrection and double-consciousness.

“Can I ask you a favour, Dawn?”

“Sure…” she looked at me funny as we were in a dark corner of the labyrinth and I held tightly onto her arm with a serious look on my face.

“Wow, you were just having some dirty thoughts, huh? Don’t worry, it’ll happen,” I smiled deviously.

“Don’t be silly!” she turned around, pretending to read the spines of the books, “What do you want?”

“For you to really be my babysitter. I’m going into learning mode and I’ll need you to drag my ass to classes, to feed me, to make sure I get proper sleep, to tell me when I stink so I can go wash up, and all those other things a normal person does.”

“Well, it’s a step up from what I’ve already been doing. I better get a good reward,” she winked, a slightly forced one.

“I figured you were a dirty girl,” I put a hand on my hip and one stroking my chin, “but I never thought you’d be so forward with it. I like.”

She scoffed, “Well, bad influences do that. How long will this last for anyway?”

“A month? Maybe two? Maybe three? A year?”

“Whoa! Okay, slow down! Best I can do is two,” she recoiled. Taking care of me was indeed a descent into commitment.

Two, huh? Two months to learn Division. I rubbed my chin in thought.

“Why do you want me alive so badly? I mean, that’s what I wanted you to do and all but, there’s no rush.”

Donna, some woman just summoned me to a random place, literally pulled you out of my mind and put you back in. On top of that, you, my master, said that she’s the strongest being in the world. After seeing and hearing those things, you say there’s no rush? I chuckled, earning a weird stare from Dawn after my silence to answer Donna. I’m going to resurrect you, and when I do, you owe me all your spells.

“So that’s what this is about… I should’ve known. Resurrection and immortality are probably on the same level of magical requirements. If you really bring me back to life, you’ll probably be stronger than I was at that point.”

Doesn’t matter. Don’t make me say it.

“Aww, Eric wants to meet me and become close friends. Or do you want me to have a physical body for another purpose?” She poked fun at me, but she was right on the former point.

“Hello? Anyone in there?” Dawn knocked my forehead.

“Oh, sorry, I was thinking, about something.”

“Well, I guess I’ll leave you to it then,” she smiled.

“Yeah, thanks for doing this, I’ll see you.”

She still stood there, a little awkwardly. Oh… “Well, I took the initiative a minute ago, it’s your turn now,” I placed the ball in her court. She bowed her head even more in anxiousness, then suddenly looked up, moved in, and pecked me on the cheek, speeding out without giving me a second look.

“Well, gotta start off somewhere, right?”

I was at least expecting lips though. I mean, come on!

“Says the guy who only held his girl’s hands and couldn’t even recognise her signals in the desert.”

Fair enough…

I practised and studied Division relentlessly for the first week, balancing in meals, classes and showers, but foregoing some sleep in the name of knowledge. Unless of course Dawn insisted I sleep. With that week of practise, came improvement in tangible Division, yet, I had to question, was it really Division I was practising? I stressed my magical energies, my own advanced form of spell conditioning, and indeed, I could feel less physical energy needed to use magic, but what exactly made this training different from any other besides its efficiency? I had to look at what exactly Division was at another angle. Was it achievable passively? Or was it something of an active cooldown like Purist and Timedial? Was Division a spell, or a state? If I took the concept of non-tangible Division and applied it to the tangible version, it would mean the actual cast and the mana requirement were two separate entities.

I had to revisit the basics, just to clear certain misconceptions. A cast, was a visualisation of a spell in your mind, a pre-spell to your spell. But a cast without mana was just imagination. Only the siphoning of mana would give physical form to a cast, making it become a spell. The second week I spent my time buried in words and diagrams. The more I read, the more I began associating the word ‘cast’ with consciousness, and the word ‘mana’ with energy. It was becoming clearer, I could feel it, but I wasn’t quite there. To cast is to think. To think is to be aware. To be aware is to be conscious. Donna, where the hell does mana come from? I mean really? It was becoming frustrating, because it felt like most of the puzzle was assembled, but some snot-nosed prankster little hooligan kid stole a piece, a central piece.

Donna, do you remember anything about storing your consciousness in the codex? I asked her, tired of scouring the library for texts on the subject.

“Just one thing, which I suppose would be good advice for you. If you try to store your consciousness in something or someone else, you will die.”

Is that w–

“What happened to me? No, it nearly did, but my master saved me. It’s stupid how obvious it was after I’d done it, but I realised the minute you separate your consciousness, your mind is literally gone. The only thing you’ll be running on is raw, primal instinct. I wasn’t completely dead yet, but I was getting there. Anyway, that wasn’t how I actually died. My death is still a mystery.”

So how the hell did you end up in a book?

“Beats me,” I felt her shrug, “but I know that no one but me could do that.”

“Because?”

“Because you can’t jus–” she paused suddenly and screamed out, “Eric, I’m an idiot!”

Yes, you are.

“You can’t just clone other people! Of course!” She ranted about something, but I had no idea what. “Okay so, there are essentially two types of cloning magic, right? One’s illusions, and one’s real, like, you can touch them real. And do you know what’s also cloned if you make another you?”

The clock on the wall ticked a few times before I snapped out in laughter! Thankfully it was the wee hours of the morning, I think. Its goddamn consciousness! Donna, you’re a genius! A really stupid genius! How could you forget that?! That was it! That was the missing piece I needed, but even with all pieces, the puzzle still needed to be done. I knew now that an actual clone was a physical copy of yourself, coming equipped with every trait the original has. All I needed to do now was learn how to clone myself, then learn how to transfer that consciousness into me as a somewhat separate mind. But, did this mean I was travelling the non-tangible route? What then, was the point of physical demands decreasing when you practised more and more magic? Why did that concept exist? I casted a Candlelight spell over my head, staring into its illuminance.

I, really don’t think tangible Division exists, Donna. The reason it feels like we need less stamina is because our bodies adapt to it, we condition our bodies. Think about doing one exercise over and over. Eventually, you’ll get pretty good at it and it won’t feel taxing anymore, even though you can suck at other exercises. That’s probably why old mages have the usual body of old people but have no issue using spells for a long duration. I was barking off my thoughts at Donna. She didn’t exactly counter my hypothesis, which only reinforced the notion that I was right. Tangible Division didn’t exist, it’s just that my body adjusted to survive. This meant the study of consciousness was my only bet.

Donna taught me the cloning spell; it was pretty easy to master despite having to visualise the body from the main layers. First skeletal, then muscular, then skin and hair. The first few clones were a bit sloppy, but by my twenty-something try, I pulled it off. There was just one teensy little problem. The sheer magnitude of stamina and mana the spell called for was absolutely unbelievable. Seconds after I summoned another me, I collapsed, hardly able to move. Now to be clear, the library had a testing area with absolutely nothing in it for people wanting to try new spells. In that area is where Dawn found me and me that morning. One passed out, one still drowning in a book. It was amazing my own clone left me there on the cold ground to learn. No, really, I amazed me. So, do you think he has you in his mind too?

“Hmm, I’m actually not sure how that would work, since I’m a special case. But I think as long as you cloned yourself, then I wouldn’t exist in his mind. Anyway, you can pull their memories and experiences whenever you want, or they can just transfer it to you if they see it fit. By the way, I must’ve forgotten to mention, that level of spell is something only those who have mana pools on par with the Apostles of the Crescent Moon attempt.”

And you let me do it?!

“Meh, I knew you could do it,” I felt her wink. What a handful this woman was!

So, could you give me like, a breakdown of the strength levels that you know of? I want to gauge myself.

“Sure, that was something master actually told me. I was her favourite after all.”

Don’t gloat, it’s not cute.

“You must be regretting turning her down. Anyway, to go from weakest to lowest I’ll start with your normal citizen. After that are the five ranks of the Order. Those spirit lords you summon, like Hydra–you pervert–are above the rank five councilmen of the Order. After those spirit lords are us, the Apostles. Believe it or not, the rumours of the witch having dragons are true, but there’s only two of them. One breathes fire, one commands ice and cold. From what I knew they have some sort contract with master, but she treats them like her best friends, especially the fire one. Anyway, those dragons are a huge jump in power over the Apostles, really huge. Those two alone could end this world. Above the dragons, hmm…” She tried to recollect, “Master told me of a creature that she could summon at will, but I’ve never seen it. She said it was much stronger than her dragons. And above them all, is the witch herself.”

And me? Where would you say I’m at?

She chuckled, “Of course, you’re just a useless shrimp, far weaker than your common citizen.”

Woman, when I bring you back to life, I’ll beat the shit out of you.

“Nah, you love me too much. Flynn said, that at your magic power, you’d be either a rank four officer or a rank five councilman in the Order, but he was wrong. He can’t see your power like I can. I’d say, you’re at the spirit lord level, I mean not exactly because all the spirit lords are still more powerful than you, but you’re too strong to call you a rank five councilman.”

I see. I gotta get to at least dragon level. I want to be stronger than the Apostles and–

The door to the testing area opened, and Dawn had the most awestruck face I’d seen. I wiggled about to see her better.

“Right, I guess anyone would be surprised by this. Long story short, he, well I–hmm, I don’t know which pronoun to use–anyway, some cloning magic was done and it was way above the level of magic we have. I’m the clone, by the way. Well,” he got up and stretched, “guess I should fix this,” then summoned Hydra. “Totally forgot about him,” the clone muttered under his breath, as if I wouldn’t know what he said.

Dawn breathed in and out slowly, but when Hydra appeared, she really calmed down. Hydra healed me a little, “Can’t restore too much, it will stress your body. If you know clone magic, you should send one of you to keep me company!” the naked beast fumed, not exactly the best thing for an ignorant onlooker to see. I could at least stand up and walk around with Hydra’s help, albeit like an elderly person. Hydra returned to the spirit world and Dawn took me out for breakfast whilst the clone stayed cooped up in the library studying.