Chapter 8: Destabilization

“Hey, lime, get the guest room ready, with a crib if possible.” Evan said.

“Hm? Sure.” Lime said, snapping her fingers.

“Thanks. Ooh. Is that a lime?” Evan asked

“Yes, and it’s for dinner. Not for experiments or eating right now.” Lime said

“I know, I know. Also, why did you use magic to fix up the guest room?” Evan asked

“I’m rather tired.” Lime said

“Are you not curious as to why I asked you to set up the guest room with a crib?” Evan asked

“Dear, I don’t exactly recommend letting Akari kidnap children.” Lime said, yawning

“What? How did you know that?” Evan asked

“Well, first, me and Akari have been friends for ages. That’s why I set up beds instead of a crib. She probably doesn’t want the hassle of certain things.” Lime said, laying on the couch

“Honey, why don’t you take a nap in the bed, instead?” Evan asked

“Hm. Yeah, sounds good to me.” Lime said

She got up and started dragging Evan with her

“Wait wait wait! I need to make sure Akari gets settled in.” Evan said

“Huh? Oh. Right, sorry. Jeez, I really am dizzy.” Lime said, fainting for a moment

“What? Damnit lime!” Evan said, barely managing to catch her

“You… have a cold. What have you been doing?” Evan asked, feeling her forehead

“Nothing. My body is human right now, after all. And it is that time of year. I probably just caught a cold from someone else. Aren't you a doctor, too?” Lime asked

“Yes. Technically. But not this kind of doctor. I’m more in the technology division. I didn’t do at home checkups, so I’m not exactly too familiar with this stuff.” Evan said

“Well, first, you should probably bring me to a bed rather than the hallway. I’m just tired, do what you used to do whenever I got sick before. That should be fine.” Lime said

“No, I know how to care for a sick person, but not how to tell what you have.” Evan said, worried

“Dear. Darling. Honey. It’s a cold. That’s very simple.” Lime said

“Tch. Usually you’re the nurse, not me.” Evan said

“Everyone is right behind you.” Lime said, laughing a little.

“Oh. Uh. I don’t really have a good excuse to explain what I just said. So ignore it.” Evan said

“Dad, what did you mean by nurse?” Rin asked

“Rin, lets just walk away and let Evan deal with lime. You will understand when you get older.” Rai said

“Nice one, dear. Can you just take me to bed? I’m rather tired.” Lime said

“Of course. Hey Rai, can you bring up everything I need?” Evan yelled

“Sure, gimme a sec, I’ll be right up.” Rai sad

“Thanks!” Evan said.

He took lime to their room and laid her on the bed.

“Hm. This looks better, no?” Evan said, putting the nurse hat on.

“Why was that just in our normal closet, and why does it look hilarious on you?” Lime asked, laughing

“Oh. Don’t laugh, just sleep. My bad. Just thought it would be rather-Ah. There we go. She’s asleep.” Evan said

“Why are you wearing that?” Rai asked

“I thought It would be fitting.” Evan said

“Has anyone ever told you two that you’re weird?” Rai asked

“You do. A lot.” Evan said

“Ha! It’s because you do stuff like this on a daily basis. It feels relaxing, though. It’s a nice life you made here for everyone. Myself included. It’s peaceful here. Oh, right. Can I move the PlayStation into Renjis room and the Xbox downstairs?” Rai asked

“Oh, from your place? Sure. I’ll copy it, one of each for both rooms.” Evan said, grinning

“That’s so unfair. I love it. I’ll Seeya later.” Rai said, pressing the return button on her key.

“There we go! In storage you go! God, magic is so helpful. I should teach Rin this. It took me a while to learn it, though.” Rai said, dropping the items into her magic storage

She pressed a key to teleport back. Evan had moved the location the key brought her to from the alley to the study.

“I can’t really imagine a life without magic anymore. More so than that actually, whenever I think of things before I met Renji, it feels cold and lonely. I finally found warmth. Was that what I was trying to find all this time? Magic or no magic, god or not, it feels warm no matter how I change that in my imagination. I think I understand why I became a detective in the first place. No family to love me, no friends to enjoy… What kind of life is that? I don’t know about anybody else, but to me that sounds sad. But, a family to care for who cares for me back, friendship not only abundant, but one that also runs deep. I guess there’s only one thing I’m really missing. Not that it matters. What I have now is more than enough. I wonder how long It’s been since I last thought of having love myself?” Rai said, plopping down on a beanbag she brought to the library herself.

Now that she looked at it closely, it was truly massive. It wasn’t just books, there were quite a few tables and chairs, a bathroom, various other facilities, and more. It even had the information desk that a librarian would usually sit at. There was a ghost-like image of a girl sitting there, though.

“Who is that, anyhow? There’s a few of those hologram things. There’s even a bedroom with one. Why are they just frozen. Actually, that goes for a lot of stuff. There’s just random things frozen in the sky. There’s cracks and broken pillars everywhere. Heck, even a lot of the stuff that’s floating is debris.” Rai said

“That’s Alice. The current and permanent reigning queen of the magic world. And this library was where she originally worked. It was an odd job. But she enjoyed it. This is the place where she first met Sora. He’s the current and also permanent reigning king of the magic world. This library means quite a lot to them. So I froze it in time as a memory and made it a physical world, only unfreezing certain bits. The original got destroyed almost instantly after I had made the copy. I barely made it in time. Now, there’s a lot of things I could have done. I could also fix it. Technically, I could have turned back time as well. Well, the time we usually think of, at least. The progression of events. But Sora said this was fine. Those images of Alice are a strange phenomenon. Time acting a bit odd. If I change anything at all, those images will disappear. Well, not anything. But stuff like fixing the place is a no go.... He hasn’t come here in a long time. Almost centuries at this point. Not that he needs to. He has his, Uh.. fun with Alice in the new royal library they helped build together. This place is like an ancient relic. These books are well over centuries old at this point.” Evan said

“Huh? If they’re centuries old, why do they look almost newer than brand new?” Rai asked

“There’s a spell cast on them to freeze their current condition while still allowing usage of it as normal. Basically a stronger form of preservation magic. By the way, the books that were originally here were replaced with the ones you see now. Copies are made with creation magic from an infinite amount of dimensions and species, from the entirety of time and space, and the ones of reality itself, and put here according to their usefulness and skill level. So, while the spells you can learn from the first floor may seem weak, they are the strongest spells among the skill level they are attributed to. Every last one of these books is the life’s work, the magnum opus, of a greater than legendary wizard, from the weakest one here to the strongest. It is definitely not normal for one of the middle level spells on the first floor to only be able to burn an iron gate slightly. No, these ones blast right through it. A normal amount of power for a spell of this level would only just barely achieve the level of power of the first example. It’s not magic that’s ever even meant to be used in a fight. Just to practice. Yet these have power on par or even above those of the third level, which is the actual starting point of most magicians when learning actual useful combat magic. The third floor of the library is literally forbidden from you. There’s a reason for that. The higher the level, the greater the disparity between these spells and the average mages.” Evan said

“Um. How many floors are there?” Rai asked, looking up through the clear glass center of every floor's center area.

“There isn’t a number for that.” Evan said

“What are those books?” Rai asked, pointing to a hologram of different books, cycling through them slowly

“Oh. Those books are on the floor around tenth down from the top of the library. That’s what the viewer should be at right now.” Evan said

“Wait, so it isn’t infinite?” Rai asked

“No, I’m just too lazy to say the number, remember it, or go look at what it was. Though it’s enough zeros to wrap around your head a near countless amount of times.” Evan said, laying down in midair

“And… you said the power difference only grows right?” Rai asked

“Hm? Oh. None of the books past the what, ninth, tenth floor are written by normal legends and sages. Nope, those are written by me and my friends over time. Since I rejected omniscience, I don't actually know everything about mana. I also don’t have a perfect memory ability like Akari. So I write down all of the things I study, or what my friends work on, and put them here. Again, we have lived an infinite amount of timelines in countless dimensions, from beginning to end. We still end up back here, somehow. It’s just that we still find new things, or ways to have fun. Reality is endless, and if you can’t find something fun, just make it. In the case of one of my friends wanting to start over from near the beginning, we measure a certain amount of time in their memory and move it to storage, basically rewinding their identity. That way it’s safe. After they want to do it again we put the other stored memories back in and let them rethink. After that, they either choose to stay for a bit or go back again. It’s pretty cool. I think Kane or Qin do it the most often.” Evan said

“How many times have they had their memories altered?” Rai asked

“I’d say Kane is about 650, Qin is around 300ish, Johnny is around 200, everyone else is below 50.” Evan said

“Oh. What about lime? She seems to have memory issues, did she have her memories taken recently?” Rai asked, interested

“No, she’s just a natural airhead.” Evan said

“So are you.” Rai said

“Hm. I guess so. Limes had it done around 7 times maybe? 5 of them weren’t by choice, but rather necessity.” Evan said

“Wow, that is nearly nothing compared to the others. What about you?” Rai asked

“Less than once but more than zero. It both did and did not happen. In fact, it has to do with why I reject and despise omniscience so much. Argh!! Ahggg, anyway, ignoring.. that, I’m going to check on lime. I need her right now. You can put the game consoles in the living room or the kids room for now.” Evan said, clutching his head, with what even impossibility itself couldn’t comprehend, shown as what can only be described as an emotion on his face.

“Evan, are you okay?” Rai asked

“No. I need lime. I’ll talk later. It’s my fault for bringing it up, sorry.” Evan said staggering in a straight line, moving at a running speed while walking towards lime.

The stairs didn’t exist for a second, and he appeared immediately at the door to him and limes room

He sat down next to her, his existence unstable.

Lime opened her eyes. Slowly at first. Then shot open when she saw Evan. She tried to get up, but was held down by Evan

“Stay still. You’re sick.” Evan said grabbing her hand

He started to stabilize, the impossible expression melting into a smile.

“Buhgy!” Lime said, alarmed by a familiar aura. It shifted to a greater recognition of who was next to her. She could feel Evan, but he didn’t seem to be there. Yet he was clutching her hand.

“Lime. Give me a second.” Evan said

His voice seemed to come from hundreds of himself talking, only slightly off from each other in time, his appearance became visible, hundreds of himself sitting there, only slightly moved from each other in space, causing him to sound Like and look like a blurry existence.

“Evan? Are you okay?” Lime asked

“You can recognize me?” Evan asked

“You can remember me?” Evan asked at the same time

“Of course I can. I’d never forget you in any way, I’d never mistake you when you're right in front of me, and I’d never not be here for you. Whether I’m here physically or not, I’m a part of your existence. One that can’t destabilize. One that can never destabilize. Together. With you. For the entirety of existence and beyond reality itself. Even if we went beyond that. I’m here.” Lime mumbled, falling asleep again

“Haha. Even half awake she can speak so elegantly”

“Haha. Even half awake she can talk so cutely”

“Haha, cute. Even half asleep she’s still darling.”

Evan said at the same time

“My little lime. My greatest love.”

An infinite amount of Evan said, slowly fusing back together. By the time he had said love, he was back to normal.

“Ha. Haha. Ahhhh. Lime...... I love you.” Evan said, putting his head down next to her, and falling asleep