“Can you teach me magic?”

“Learn how to apologize first.”

We all sat in what could be called the living room of Alessa’s house. Whatever new world I was in, despite having magic, was some sort of pre-industrial backwater. Wood fire stove. No fridge.

Luckily, there seems to be running water, but I wonder what kind of soap they have. What about toilet paper? Do they even have such a thing? Bunch of savages.

I look back to Narses, who had stuffed some cloth into his nostrils to slow the flow of blood pouring from them. Then, I watched as he took a tired gulp from a fist-sized crystal flask containing a red and mildly translucent liquid.

“Is that one of your potions?” I asked, but Narses snickered as Alessa shook her head.

“It’s one of my most prized potions. Helps numb the pain.”

“Can I have some?”

“Sure. I don’t see why not.” He shrugged, but Alessa furrowed her brows at his response.

“Narses.” She said. “You can’t give my daughter anymore wine.”

“I’ve never given her wine before.”

I thought it was a health potion or something. I mean, it’s red and encased in crystal. What else was I supposed to think?

“It’s just wine?”

“I assure you that it’s the best wine.”

“I don’t even like wine.” As soon as I said the words, Narses’ eyes went wide with panic as Alessa reached out towards him.

“I swear, it wasn’t me! WAIT DON'T-” He cried out as she flicked his nose.

“I don’t even care about that right now! Just get back to what you’re here for!”

“But I’m still drinking. Ah, now I’m in pain!”

It was then that Alessa tore the crystal flask from Narses and grabbed him by his beard.

“I’ll SHOVE this thing down your THROAT!”

“Alright! Just give me back my flask! Also, let go of my beard!”

“Only when you’re done.”

Narses groaned as Alessa returned to her seat.

“Begin.” She said.

“Listen here, girly.” He began to say to Alessa, before abruptly turning to me when she scowled at him. I thought he was blind.

“I thought you were blind.”

“Listen. Here. Girly.” He said, slapping the table with every word. “Your name is Alex. You’re some sort of young, human female. Your mother is Alessa, a much- AHEM- a slightly older, human female.”

“And you are Narses, an elderly drunkard?”

“I am Narses, powerful mage and healer. Exceptional in all things.”

“Exceptional in drinking wine?”

“The most exceptional.” He nodded proudly.

“I can respect that.”

“Oh? I think I like her better now.” He asked Alessa, but she looked at me with concern.

“Can’t you fix her?”

“She’s awake, isn’t she? There’s nothing else for me to ‘fix’ here.”

Alessa buried her face against her palms and went silent. Narses took the moment to retrieve his flask and put it somewhere inside his robes.

They sat silently for a long while.

“Narses.” I whispered. “I want to see my reflection. Can you help me?”

“Vain girl.” He snorted as he waved a finger at me. The finger wagging wasn’t to admonish me for vanity, but to conjure a reflective surface. I think.

Regardless, I looked at my reflection and saw a younger version of Alessa staring back, but a bit thinner. With everything considered, the young woman staring back at me is probably Alex.

At first, I thought she dyed my hair and got me tan so she could pretend I was her daughter, but it would seem that I've been transported into another world and into an entirely different, pre-existing, body. Her daughter’s body. Alex’s

Now, I’m a little younger, just barely an adult. Still an adult, though, so maybe I can drink some fantasy mead. I’ve heard such mead is the drink of the gods.

Still, I’m glad I wasn’t literally reborn. I think my adult mind being stuck within an infant body for multiple years would be torture. However, if I was reborn, maybe I would have more time to exploit my knowledge from Earth for fun and profit.

But, shit. I’m one of those, huh? What were they called? People who traveled, in body or soul, from Earth to a newer, more fantastical one. I can hardly remember. When I think, there’s a jumble of memories and it’s hard to make sense of everything.

“Why can’t I fucking think clearly?”

“You shouldn’t speak like that, Alex.” Alessa said, wiping away a tear. “Just because you’ve had a little bump on the head, doesn’t mean I will allow this foul behavior from you.”

“I don’t know, she’s kinda strong now.” Narses muttered.

“Enough! Take your flask and go-” Alessa looked for the flask where she had placed it, but sighed when she found that it was already gone.

“Just leave.” She continued. “If you can’t bring her back to normal, then I don’t need you here.”

“Wait. I just need a moment. Please.” I said, placing a finger to my forehead. “I’m just trying to think. To remember.”

Alessa leaned towards Narses and whispered into his ear, “Can’t you do anything to help?”

“It’s fine.” I told them. “I think I can remember now.”

“Do remember everything? Who I am and most importantly, who you are?”

“Yes. Alessa, you are my mother.” Alessa nodded, but remained silent. Her eyes looked at me like she was expecting more than I could give.

“Also, me. You remember me, right?” Narses said.

“Narses, my memories tell me you’re the town drunk.”

Alessa's cool visage broke and she began to laugh.

“That’s not incorrect.” She said as Narses crossed his arms and muttered to himself, clearly displeased.

“And you,” she continued, “who are you?”

“I’m Alex and I’m restless.” I stood up from my chair and walked to the door. “I'm going for a stroll through the woods.”

“Not this again. Alex!” She yelled, following me outside. “You need to get back into bed. The forest is the last place you should go right now. It’s where we found you, laying limp and with your head against a rock!”

“That’s why I need to go back. I didn’t just fall on my own.”

“WHAT? What do you mean? What happened? Was someone else there? Did someone do this to you? ALEX!”

“STOP!” I yelled with more anger than I intended. Alessa shrank away, looking so shocked and afraid for ‘me.’ It was unbearable. So, I ran while she just stood there with Narses.

When I focus, my original memories as Yuliya become more distinct from my new memories as Alex. I might have thought that Yuliya was a figment of Alex’s imagination, but it was all too vivid. Too real. I had lived a life as Yuliya. It’s who I was. No, it’s who I am. I am Yuliya in spirit, but my body is Alex’s. We are different and separate.

Of course, I doubt I can tell anyone this. Much less Alex’s own mother. Would she even believe me? If she did, would she blame me for taking Alex’s place? After all, my presence here proves that this body of hers is capable of sustaining life. Her heart still beats in her chest!

If I found myself in her body, does that mean she found herself in mine? What a cruel twist. I would be living her life in a magical new world and she would be left with my own mangled body. If she even survived past the accident, what life would she have? I shudder at the thought.

As I continued to run, my hair painfully snagged on shrubbery whenever it could, until I found the last place in Alex’s memories. Deep into the woods, by a small stream, there was an old bridge. The paint had long since faded away and the wood was old and a little soft.

The guardrails were broken in a certain spot. Below it, was a large rock, smoothed by the water flowing over it. Of course, by now, all traces of blood would have washed away.

Alessa said that Alex had been found here, but she was under the assumption that Alex, by her lonesome, had simply fallen. As if it was a careless mistake. In my memories, there was someone else with Alex.

Dahlia.

She was someone who Alex had called a friend. Someone who pushed Alex into the broken guardrail. Someone who, in a fit of jealous rage, killed her supposed friend.

Why had she been jealous?

Despite having access to so much more wealth than most anyone in the village, Dahlia was intensely jealous of the magical ability that Alex had begun developing. She wanted Alex to keep it a secret, feeding her lies about being taken from her mother, but it’s clear to me that she simply didn’t want to be overshadowed.

I pointed a finger at the rock that Alex had landed on head-first. I recalled when she first learned how to control what was deep within her. I focused on how she felt, harnessing her excitement, but controlled it as she did. As I focused, purple light swirled and crackled around the tip of my finger into the shape of a ball. I imagined the face of the young woman who had murdered Alex. In my disgust, that obscenely indignant face could only be rivalled by Alex’s own passivity.

The ball of light left the tip of my finger and tore through the air.

KRAKOOM

It sent shockwaves into the forest, before erupting against the rocks surface and leaving only a small hole in its place. I didn’t even have to worry about pieces of rock flying into me like shrapnel. Everything there was had been obliterated utterly. It was far more powerful than anything Alex had ever done.

Thinking back on her life growing up, she had been timid. Easily strung along by adults. Like a puppet. She was barely alive. I twirled my hair, her hair, and I thought back on my own life. I was far more willful by comparison, far stronger in the few beliefs that I actually had. Yet, I would sometimes lower my head and hide behind my hair the way Alex did with hers. When that happened, I would tell myself that avoiding a fight was the right thing to do, that it wasn’t worth the effort, but the truth was that I had lost a certain spark in my soul. That thing in which I could find solace and even hope.

In this way, Alex was better than me. Stronger. She looked to the future with hope and even passion. She wanted to be just and righteous, like the heroes in the stories her father had told her before he died. She deserves better than to be betrayed by a friend and replaced by me.

That spark that was inside of her is now the spark inside of me and I won’t let it fade! Never again! Hear me, Alex, I’m going to live life for both our sakes! I’m going to fight corruption in another world!

“Dahlia, you jealous bitch! Yours will be the first ass I kick! I won’t let you get away with murder!”