Serving coffee and cleaning up tables proved to be a good enough opportunity for me to think back to that phone call from this morning. I had since received a very detailed text message explaining just where and how I was supposed to meet that friend of my father’s as well as what I was to wear and how I was to style my hair for the event. I wasn’t quite sure if this was a normal by-product of being part of high society, or if Chloe, my sister, was just being a bit of a patronizing bitch.

Either way, her phone call did make me rethink things in relation to Laura’s, or rather my, family in this world. I had originally decided to stay away from them, to avoid being swiped by the events of that spin-off of ‘immoral immortality’, but I wasn’t sure that was still a possibility.

It wasn’t just the phone call, but also me buying teleportation stones in sets of three, or using my medical insurance. In a way, I had always kept some form of ties with those people, and I currently struggled to find an excuse as to why Huang and his entourage would not find me. So perhaps the best thing for me to do was to embrace it; give up on this slow and (mostly) uneventful life, and do whatever it was rich folks here did.

Maybe I could even join an adventuring guild-

No.

I could think of at least half a dozen ways that could go wrong. As well versed in fantasy literature as I was, I knew someone with my sets of skills would end up either tanking (since I could not technically die) or doing some other kind of exploration or vanguard work. Plus, it was highly likely that dungeons would have monsters in them, which I was far from a fan of.

“Your future will be that of anonymous greatness.” A soft voice spoke behind me.

I sigh and took a second to put on my business smile.

“Hello madame.” I turned around to face a short and small old lady. She wore some sort of traditional Japanese gown and had not come accompanied by that person whom I assumed to be her grandchild today. “Have you already ordered? Would you like me to help you to a seat?” I asked.

“What a polite child.” She replied, but ignored my offer.

Instead, she took a seat at the table by the window, furthest away from the door. It had become her usual spot in the two weeks she’d been coming here almost daily, to the point where I was no longer sure if it was almost empty because she came early, or because she had claimed it as hers.

“Have a seat with me.” The old woman gestured.

“You can have 10.” A tall, elegant woman spoke from behind the counter.

I gave Manon a confused look. Not only did she hardly ever work when our traffic was as slow as today, but in my four months of being here, she’d never offered me such a break.

“If you bring the lady’s order to the table, you can take spend some time with the customer. You need to learn more about that part of the job if you are to become manager.” Manon added, seeing my confused expression.

Not wanting to bring up this promotion, and how I was thinking of rejecting it, I did as I was told. I set two cups of cappuccino, and one slice of marbled cake in front of the old woman, before taking a seat myself.

“This one is for you, child.” She said, turning one cup towards me.

I was hesitant to accept it, but I could feel Manon’s glare on me, so I slowly pulled the cup towards me, and took a sip of what turned out to be a hazelnut cappuccino.

“It’s gotten really cold these past few days…” I attempted to start a conversation, to play into whatever it was Manon wanted me to do.

“Yes, perfect weather for kidnapping.” The woman replied.

“Pardon?”

My mind went blank. That was not a normal response. Furthermore, as I got a bit more time to process, I started to worryingly suspect that she was referring to Cain, even though she very obviously had no way of knowing about that.

“Oh, I am just thinking out loud. You know child, we live in dangerous and uncertain times. Certain people or organisations in power, or who strive towards it, are more likely to commit crimes in a period such as this; where the rain will wash away their tracks, and the snow will snuff their footsteps. Of course, this being the season of solstice does help for those whose powers are reliant on godly favours.”

I carried on sipping on my cappuccino, not without relief. Either this lady was some kind of prophet, or she had gone crazy somewhere in her long life. Either way, she had not been referring to Cain earlier, and that was all that mattered.

“Perhaps a little bit of both.” She quietly whispered to herself.

“Will you be staying in Paris for much longer?” I asked, trying to divert the conversation to a normal topic.

Her grandchild, who was as talkative but way less cryptic than her, had told us that they were, to quote, ‘impulsive travellers’, and that they had just flown in from China. I assumed that they were only going to stay for a few days, but when they both started showing up at the coffee shop daily, I was faced with the reality that they might be staying for quite a while.

“Oh, no.” The woman replied. “As I said, trouble is on its way. Both for you and for me my dear. Thankfully I have enough foresight to avoid it.”

She smiled as she said that as if she’d just told a very funny joke.

“What kind of trouble?” I asked although I suspected I already knew the answer to that.

“Kidnapping.” The lady replied, less bemused. “Not yours, of course. Battery, murder, all the usual kind of events that follow those who distort the natural order.”

I choked on my drink. There was something in her tone that directed this seemingly offhand comment at me.

“Some say fate is a tapestry of individual futures. None serve a specific role, and if one was to vanish, the overall picture will remain undisturbed. The theory of skill-norm relativity states that every second our plane of existence creates an infinite amount of new ones, for each choice each person makes at any given moment. Both of those are wrong of course.”

I had finally stopped coughing by the time the old woman had finished her little lecture. She gave me a second to catch my breath, before continuing:

“Linearity and progression are two words often used synonymously. As one moves through life, they go from point A to point B following the shortest possible route. In reality this route can rapture, it can divide itself, or it can wrap itself back onto its origin point. The System allows it.”

What this woman was telling me was actually fascinating, albeit somewhat out of place and unprompted. Having read the original novel, I always took the System as something that simply existed, without thinking about how it might influence people subject to it, or what kind of philosophical thoughts it could give birth to.

“So it can allow for someone to respawn after death for example? Or to never die in the first place?” I asked.

The woman gave me the strangest look.

“Yes and no, respectively. One must always reach their predefined end, otherwise their entire journey or thread, whichever metaphor is easier for you child, is erased. Those who achieve true immortality were never born in the first place. They existed, yes, they move and they talk just like you and me, but they are not animated by a will of their own.”

“You’re saying they do not have a soul?”

I wasn’t much of a philosopher myself, but I could at least tell with certainty that I did, in fact, have a soul. Immortality or not.

“The definition of a soul, or a spirit is a highly debatable subject child.” The woman simply replied, taking a sip from her own, almost empty cup.

“I believe I never properly answered your previous question.” She continued, before downing her drink in one go, and wrapping the slice of black and white cake into a napkin. “I shall be leaving Paris immediately.”

“Oh, well it was a pleasure working for you while you were here.” I blurted out, not sure how else I could reply.

“Yes, dear child, our meetings have been most fruitful.” She replied with a smile.

I got up to help her stand up in turn, but she gestured me ‘no’, as she gracefully got up, and headed out. I followed her with my eyes until the angle of the window and the street it opened onto no longer allowed me to. I could have sworn I had seen her eyes lit up with magical energy.

Mind Stop

Inefficient

· ‘Memoire’ blocked

· Effects of memory-restoring external skills blocked

· Effects of memory-restoring artefacts and relics blocked (with the exception of ‘Antidote of the Elixir of Lethe’ and ‘Veda of Brahma’)

I looked down at the table I was standing by. I couldn’t recall how long I was standing there, so it must have been a while since I had zoned out again. I glanced at Manon who was working behind the counter today. That was very out of character for her, just like her current relaxed attitude towards me.

Not wanting to lose any more time doing nothing, I quickly returned to work, as I picked up the two cups, one of which was only half-empty, from the table.