“No!” Berla said definitively.

“But I—”

“No.”

“Come on,” I pleaded, “you’re not even going to let me present my arguments?”

“I will not. You’re going to make good points that seem to make perfect sense, and in the end I’m going to think it’s a good idea, and that I don’t have any other choice. No.”

I had thought a lot about this, and I truly believed that Berla would be a good leader for the new Alarna. She cared about people, she was honest, smart, and could be very kind. She had also fought and risked her life for this town for years, and she had seen some of its bad sides. But even her handicap was kind of a plus, because it would demonstrate that we meant business, by putting someone at the top who would’ve been discarded before. And while I hadn’t known about it until today, she was blood related to the king, giving her even more credibility. Maybe that’s the problem? I hope I’m not being insensitive about it...

“Is it because of your family...?” I asked carefully.

“No... I mean, the Rulers would be a problem, but more importantly, I’m not a Ruler! And... after not getting the Calling, I realized I never really wanted it. It was mainly my uncle who pushed me in that direction.”

“You finally told them?” Reurig asked, and Berla nodded in confirmation.

Ah, of course. It made sense that he had known. He was a temple agent after all. A group that, among other things, was tasked with spying on the royal family by the High Priest. They surely wouldn’t miss a candidate for the throne becoming an agent instead. Especially if that was such a big deal to the Rulers.

Berla’s response to my question was interesting though. Once more, we had someone who should’ve received one Calling, but got another. And as it turned out, she didn’t actually want to become a Ruler. I had to wonder how important your heritage really was in this process.

Several of the young adults we had administered the ritual to in Cerus had dispositions that didn’t match their parent’s Callings, though there was usually still a chance for them to receive it. I suspected that, if you were determined enough, you would be able to influence what Calling you got. But just wishing to become a Ruler because you wanted power and money couldn’t be enough, or the Calling would be much more common. It also wasn’t what that Calling was about. “Waysiders,” as they were originally called, were jacks of all trades. Assuming that you were able to influence your Calling, this one would presumably require you to have a disposition for multiple fields. Wait... why didn’t I consider this before? What if a Ruler is not an actual Calling, but kind of a mix of Callings...? It makes no sense to have a dedicated “job class” that gives you something of everything. We should test a Ruler to see their Calling signs!

‘Hey, Miles. Stop dreaming,’ Lilana said in my mind.

Apparently she had noticed that I momentarily spaced out while thinking and making plans, and she got me back to reality before it could get awkward. I had missed a brief exchange between Reurig and Berla, but she was just turning back to me as I focused on her again.

“I can’t change your mind?” I asked her.

“Maybe you could... but I’m asking you to not try,” she said.

Without thinking too much about it, my response came naturally. “Of course not,” I said. “I would never try to force you.”

“Thank you,” she said with a light smile.

It made me happy that she was happy, but this put us in a tight spot. We needed a leader for this town, and I would rather never have a body again than do that job for the rest of... someone’s life, or even beyond. It was interesting to think about how I would potentially be able to rule forever, switching bodies when my hosts became too old, but I would become suicidal if I had to do the same job for even the next few years, not to mention decades. How long will I be able to live anyway...? Will I disappear at some point?

“Let’s do it, Miles,” Tomar suddenly said.

“I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t do it...” I said with a frown.

“It was our idea, it’s only fair, right? We can find a replacement later.”

“Hm...”

Try as I may, I couldn’t think of a better solution for the moment. I would’ve preferred to switch in the permanent replacement right away, while pushing things in the right direction from the shadows for the first couple of weeks, but if we didn't have a candidate on hand, it couldn’t be helped. I would try to leave Lialan’s mind soon, and at that point she would focus on the temple, while we would have to take care of the rest. Even though I didn’t believe in these “gods,” I was curious what she would turn this place into. After all, she would be the first temple leader in history who had actual knowledge about Omega.

“Alright,” I said, “let’s go with that for now. Though I’m still hoping to find a better solution.”

“Maybe it’s not going to be that bad,” Tomar said and returned to the files he had been reading ever since we got back here.

Neither of us had wanted the job of ruling the town for the foreseeable future, but it was for different reasons. While he didn’t want the weight of the world on his shoulders, I simply didn’t want to have to micromanage people. I had always been more of a loner. I could get things done, but I sucked at instructing others, because I expected them to be as self-sufficient as I was, and if they weren’t, I’d rather do the job myself. That would not work on a town-wide scale.

“We’ll see,” I responded. He was probably right though. It should be fine for a little while. Preliminary check on “finding a leader”... What else?

With every check on my mental todo list, my mind became a little clearer. I hadn’t quite realized how cloudy my head had been all day. I’m actually looking forward to getting to the backseat, where all this stress will fade away.

***

As I started to relax, I looked around the room. Reurig had settled down in a corner of the room and was maintaining his weapons, as he usually did in the evening. I didn’t know a lot about weapons, but since he didn’t even use these daggers every day, I assumed it was more of a ritual.

At my side, Berla’s head was already lying on my shoulder again. Or rather on Lilana’s shoulder. How is it that she hasn’t said a word about what is happening here yet...? This thing with Berla was yet another topic on my mind, and I had to talk to her about it. However, at that moment, I didn’t want to do anything anymore. And if it doesn’t bother Lilana, who cares?

The only one who was still busy was Tomar. After I had found his file in the High Priest’s desk, he had decided to dig through all the papers and see what they knew about us. We had not yet questioned the High Priest, because that wouldn’t have gotten us anywhere if he was aggressive, but the term “Split One,” that we had read in Tomar’s file was certainly curious, and both of us wanted to know more about it.

“Find anything?” I asked him.

“Yea, the High Priest is creepy,” Tomar said without looking up.

“I’m not surprised, but why in particular?”

“These reports on people are way too detailed. Callings, jobs, relationships, daily routines... and it seems like he was monitoring dozens of people.”

“Well, not he himself,” I said, glancing at Reurig.

“... I’m not proud of my role in that,” he said. “The worst part is that we usually didn’t even know why we were monitoring them. I once spent an entire month following some Charmer, and I still don’t know why.”

“A Charmer... This one?” Tomar said, holding up a folder that looked three times larger than the other ones.

“That’s the one,” Reurig said with a sigh.

“The most detailed one I’ve seen so far... good job...?” Tomar said, seemingly unsure whether he should congratulate him on his work ethic.

“I still don’t get that. Why would he not tell you why you’re monitoring them?” I wondered. “That would make your job easier and you would be able to get him exactly what he’s looking for.”

“I wish I knew. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so frustrated with my job then... At least these surveillance jobs were usually pretty safe. Where it gets really irritating is when you have to risk your life because of some nebulous order.”

Reurig had told us a little bit about his job before, and how much he hated the idea of risking his life without knowing what it was for. Of course the “risking your life” part was kind of in the job description for Fighters, but having the High Priest as your boss seemed to be a frustrating experience. Although I almost felt like I had to thank him for that, because his last order to Reurig, to follow us lowly criminals to Cerus, without telling him exactly why, had sent him right into our arms.

“What about you, Berla? How was the life of a royal agent?” I asked, but I didn’t get a response. Glancing down at her head on my shoulder, I saw that she had apparently fallen asleep already. “Oh well.”

With a smile, I leaned back and rested my head on the sofa. “Nothing on Split Ones yet?” I asked Tomar in a quiet voice.

“No, unfortunately not. This is weird, right? Where did this term come from if none of us knew about it?”

“Yea, it is weird.”

What bothered me most about this, was that such a term didn’t just come into being. It sounded like it might be describing a mind that’s split in half, which would match Tomar and me back when this file was written. However, if there was a name for this situation, it would have to have happened before, otherwise there would be no reason to come up with a name for it. Unless we were the first, but the way it had been added to Tomar’s file looked more like suspicion than theoryzing.

As I was thinking it over, I didn’t even notice how I was slowly drifting away and fell asleep. After a long day, resting on a comfy sofa, and with a theory on my mind, I didn’t stand a chance, even though the plan had been to be to work through the night, while Lilana took sleep duty. I thought I heard someone say my name, but I was already too far gone to react.

***

...

... ‘—s!’

... ‘—LES!!’

“Ngh... AH!”

‘WAKE UP MILES!’

My slumber was interrupted when pain shot through my cheek, as if someone had slapped me. Groggily, I tried to take in my surroundings, but the room was pretty dark.

“What...?” I said, but I was suddenly wide awake when I heard metal hit metal and I saw a shadow resembling Reurig fight someone.

‘We’re being attacked and I don’t know how to properly move like this!!’ Lilana yelled, only having controlled her body from the backseat once before.

I shot up and looked around the room, but the only other people I could see were Reurig and the attacker. Where is Tomar? And what about...!?

That’s when I finally looked to where I had just been sitting, and I saw a bloody body lying on the sofa.

“B-Berla...?”