The next morning, the Eldest, the 4th seat of the Maigstrat Sefra Risztus and Yusuf Mirai found themselves in Cale's apartment. Aletta was also present, but kept her distance from the others and watched the proceedings in silence.

"I'll do it", the blind man announced, and Cale breathed a sigh of relief. "Now that I know what's going on, I can't just ignore it. I'd hate myself for letting Grischa down. Especially since I could possibly really help him."

"Thank you so much, Mirai. May the mana go with you", the Eldest expressed.

The rest now also expressed their gratitude, which Cale did the same. Afterwards, Yusuf stood up with a jerk and looked over at Sefra. The mage had returned with her group during the night and had stopped here for a few hours, as well as paying Grischa a quick visit. The rest of the High-Magicians were washing or probably eating, while the 4th seat had gathered here. A moment later, she sent a message to 6th seat Luc Darves that he could come along today. With that, her group had grown to five High-Magicians. She planned to meet up with the others in the creature plain and travel with each other at a distance.

"Yusuf, please be careful", Cale gave a sanctimonious word. With his hands outstretched, Cale walked toward Yusuf, which his schoolmate seemed to realize because he returned the hug a moment later. Yusuf Mirai may be just a pawn in Cale's plan, but there was still no need to let people die needlessly. But thanks to the other High-Magicians, Cale suspected it shouldn't be too dangerous. Hopefully.

"So you are actually worried about me? Don't worry, I may be blind, but I'm not stupid", Yusuf replied mockingly, patting Cale on the shoulder, who gave a weak laugh. A few minutes later, Sefra and Yusuf took their leave to pick up the rest of the group before heading out. The young healer, who had stopped at the window, watched Cale for a while before reaching for the cup and taking a seat on the couch. She seemed to have been waiting for her usual seat to be vacated, so she could get back to work.

"Eldest", Cale raised before gesturing towards his study with a nod of his head. The fact that he had never left suggested to Cale that the man wanted to continue last night's conversation.

Without a comment, the Eldest followed the instruction and went into Cale's study. Cale himself stopped for a moment and gave Aletta a grateful smile, which she returned silently.

"I'm quite relieved to finally be able to talk to you about all this. The insight back then had been bothering me all my life", the Eldest lifted after sitting in the chair as he had yesterday, watching Cale with interest as he revealed the hiding place on the shelf with the help of his mana. "How did you do that?"

"Same principle as with the doors, you can't open the second row unless it's my mana", Cale explained, carefully lifting out the documents and slowly placing them on the table. He had to grin as he remembered Aaron at the sight of the Eldest. Both of them immediately focused on the strange things Cale presented to them.

"Had you recognized me? Back in the day, 12 years ago I mean", Cale quietly gave the word, taking a seat on the soft stool he had positioned here from the dressing room this morning.

"Yes, instandly. You were young, but I haven't forgotten your face and especially your eyes", the Eldest explained calmly. Cale wondered what would have happened if Grischa had not exposed him then. He would never have gotten to present his true appearance and the Eldest would never have recognized him. At the time, it had been a rather unfavorable situation for Cale, as he had been forced to completely revise his plan, but in retrospect it had not been too tragic an event. After all, he could use the time for other things. "I have always known that you are the one from my vision. It was just the when and especially the how that had been quite a surprise."

"And I thought you would have been surprised because I was 10 years old", Cale admitted with amusement. He sorted through some folders and placed them neatly in three piles. "That's how to be deceived."

"What's all this?", the Eldest asked after a while.

"It's hard to remember everything over the years. Here are all the possibilities events of the future, as well as my plans to prevent them", Cale quickly replied. He handed the Eldest some pages in which the events of the third wave were noted. Thanks to the survival of the capital, Cale was now also facing a time that was relatively unknown to him. But at the same moment, Cale recalled something that he had completely disregarded until just now. "Eldest, did you see the arena in your vision?"

"The arena?", the Eldest repeated slowly.

How did Cale's actions affect his vision? Would it remain unchanging or would it change along with it? And what happened to the Eldest's alternate selves? Do they live on or overwrite the future?

"Good question, I can't say for sure, but I think I did... not, no", the Eldest announced thoughtfully, seeming to try to remember, but struggling a bit. "Why didn't the arena exist?"

"This is the first timeline in which the arena existed. It never existed in my other lives", Cale explained calmly, before realizing for himself what the Eldest was telling him. "That means you must have seen the original timeline. The one in which I died when I was 25 years old."

"Are you sure?"

"You said yourself that you were able to watch the creatures destroy the capital. That had only happened with the second wave so far, but we were able to successfully avert the attack. Your insight at the time... was not influenced by my time travels. Or it is yet to come, which, however, amounts to the same problem."

The Eldest stared at Cale before his gaze inevitably fell on Grischa. As usual, the man was sleeping peacefully in the large bed, but this time quite centered. He and Cale had talked a lot about family and friends during the time he had been awake. Cale had massaged his head a bit during the story, as he had a slight migraine, but the next moment the mage had suddenly fallen asleep on his lap. While this wasn't the first time this had happened, Cale worried all the more each time.

"That would have to mean you can't do anything with your time travel", the Eldest cautiously admitted, which is why fear gripped Cale. Was he really trapped in an endless rebirth with no chance of recovery? Was everything he did meaningless? Was the present in which he existed even real?

"Am I... imprisoned?"

"I don't want to take away your hope, but that's what it looks like", the Eldest replied. "Besides, with my visions, I think I can only see our current timeline, not the one you came from."

"How exactly do you mean?"

"It made me think of the vision in which I specifically observed the death of Odin. Since the vision is still very fresh, I'm pretty sure I saw the arena in the background."

"Were the creatures... inside my barrier?"

"Not that, no. Your Igrikum was still standing", the Eldest instantly took away Cale's concern. "However, I am more concerned with the fact that my insight and my vision, which actually showed the same day and place, are different."

"Your insight was not influenced by my time travel, but the visions you received after the year 1145 were."

"Correct."

"But why?", Cale replied with questioning eyes, watching the old man who held both hands on his face and looked at the ceiling. For a while they were both silent, until suddenly the Eldest jerked forward.

"A second world", he finally gave voice. "On the day you are reborn, you create a duplicate of the original world. Therefore, my insight is the same, but my Igrikum behaves differently."

"A duplicate of the original world? How exactly is that supposed to work and what happens to it when I die?", Cale asked. Perplexed, the two mages looked at each other, but for the life of him, the Eldest seemed to have no idea on the question. Reluctantly, Cale dropped down on the table with his arms folded, ignoring the documents. "None of this is any good. According to the theory, I can't change anything about my situation unless I can change the time before Groka was attacked. However, I have..."

In mid-sentence, Cale fell silent in the statement and recalled what the Eldest had said to him. His Igrikum could receive memories from the future. What would happen if the Eldest actively used his Igrikum?

"Eldest, what if you used your Igrikum the other way around and became the second I? Could you send yourselves memories so far back that it would not be affected by my time travel? Say, before the 25th spring of 1145?"

"Oh, by my beard, that's abstruse. Actively using my Igrikum? I have no idea how exactly I'm going to pull that off, aside from the mass of mana I'd have to muster. But what concerns me is what would happen to us afterwards", the Eldest replied, now sitting upright again as well. "I would change your first lives with it. What if I also overwrite your rebirths and you can remember nothing after that? What if you forget all the deeds and lose your knowledge and current abilities?"

The Eldest was right. They had no proof for their theories. But Cale had to start somewhere if he wanted to know why this was happening to him. He had always known that he couldn't run from the problem forever, but he didn't want to face it. As the Eldest noted, Cale was just as unaware of what might happen to him and the rest of the world.

"Maybe I really should figure out how I got into this situation first", Cale muttered a few moments later. And the main reason he found himself in this situation was because of the dragons.