As soon as I got to math class, I was softly ambushed by one annoying person alone. "Come on Reed. Stop being a loner and just with us today."

This again? I cleared my throat, ensuring I could be as firm and honest with Banarus as possible. "I can't today. I have something to take care of in class this time, so I'm going to have to be by myself for the day." I knew she would not really understand, but I wasn't technically lying to her either. Something Lumina told me earlier was still weighing so heavily on my mind that I could think of nor imagine anything else. Whether or not she felt like giving up, I brushed by her chest since she was in my way, and I finally got over to an isolated desk at the center of the room, securing my more private position.

"You and your things." Banarus grumbled as she flew by the front of my desk, heading back to her clustered seating arrangement by Malica and Maddison.

"What is with her anyway?"

"Who, Banarus?" I knew what Lumina was talking about, but I wasn't expecting her to bring it up so soon, which is why I sounded a little confused in the first place. With a distracted mind, I tried to shorten it for her. "She's always doing that. She has this strange need to make sure I'm not left out of most of the things they do over there. It used to be helpful when I was more girly and hung out over there often. But now, she's been bothering me for the past two months about sitting there again and again. It's getting old."

"Have you considered that she might actually want to be friends with you despite the incident with Malica? You could learn a thing or two from her you know."

I was disappointed to hear that coming from her mouth, but it bothered me the least with what we had left to discuss. "Let's get back on topic with this heat issue you mentioned."

"Oh..." Lumina made such a sad whimper in her own voice, one of regret and defeat, but all I could do was wait to find out why. "Do you remember what I said about psionic waves being disrupted by the heat?"

"Not really," I answered. "I think I got lost in the sea of information I drowned in yesterday."

"Basically, if the outdoor temperature for either one of us gets close to or above sixty degrees Nixus—"

I had to cut her off immediately. "I don't read Nixus."

She corrected herself in an aggressive tone, annoyed by my own interjection. "—Sixty-five Fahrenheit or higher, our connection will automatically fail, and trying to make contact again with that temperature range will be impossible, until it drops to an appropriate level."

Now I do faintly remember her saying something about heat being capable of killing the connection. I didn't realize that it only took warming up outside to make telepathy totally useless. I also knew that while it applies to both of us, Lumina is basically not one to worry about, since she would never be caught alive in such a heated area, for her own sake. In a nut shell, I can't contact her the way I did today if it gets hot outside, nor can I keep an existing connection going. Right now, it's cold out, and will be all week long due to the weather we have in the month of November. "What if I were to stand in a freezer or something?"

"It doesn't work like that," she warned. "The Cora sector of the brain is extremely sensitive to heat, so much that it is affected by all surrounding heat from one mile away in all directions. So it has to be outdoor temperatures. Indoor temperature would not negatively affect the connection, unless the difference indoors was severe enough."

"Okay..." I wanted to be sure that I had all the facts together. She seemed to be hung up on this one detail, when her previous issue was not being friends with me. Somewhere, there were dots I could not connect right away. "So if it warms out outside where I'm at, anywhere within a mile of where I'm at here in Georgia, then we can't connect or communicate at all?"

"For as long as it stays warm, yes. At the present moment, it's not really something to be concerned about. But I'm sure you've realized it by now. You grew up in Georgia, so you should know that this place is on average one of the hottest and most humid states in America, aside from Florida and Texas."

On average? I never thought about it like that. She must be looking ahead, all the way to the summer of Georgia, which is no longer than any other summer by technicality. If you were to base a summer not on time of year, but instead by the climate temperature in that area for the duration, Georgia's summer is much longer compared to other places in the world, and far hotter than sixty degrees.

"Basically, the winters there are much shorter than the summers. The divide between those two seasons lasts for several consecutive months. Last night, I was talking to my sisters, and they pointed this out to me."

I get it now. Based on the average climate of Georgia, Lumina and I cannot realistically speak to each other every single day. The moment it starts to get hot again, telepathy will be blocked no matter what either one of us do. That's what her big fuss is about; something nobody can control. "Ah, so what?" I asked, letting her know this was no big deal. "So summer time will roll along, stopping us from talking to each other. But in time, winter will come back in, and we can just call each other back at that time."

"But don't you see that's the point? It's moving deeper into winter right now, which is a good thing if we want to try getting along like we are now. But eventually, summer will come around, and it won't be as nice as the three-month summers in the northern states."

That's still no reason we can't try and get along. She doesn't have to tell me why cellular phones would never work; I understood enough science and astrology with radio waves and light waves to know such ideas are out of the question, on top of her world not having cell phones. "Don't sweat the small details."

"I just don't want you getting too attached to me. I don't want you to wind up liking this only to have it taken away from you later."

Her words make no sense, as there is no other way to take it all back now. "Well, I wasn't attached in the first place. But then why go through all the trouble of purging me when you knew this temperature obstacle was going to be a problem?"

As I waited for an answer, I was only getting one really long pause. Whatever emotion she was supposed to be feeling was hidden from me too, so I really couldn't read what was eating away at her. But four seconds was long enough. "Lumina?"

"Yeah, I don't know Reed."

I found her answer too hard to believe, but I also guessed that she wasn't going to tell me if I keep asking either. Whatever reason she purged me for is a total mystery to me. She said she did it out of desire to hang out with me, but if she knew about the temperature problem, that reason becomes cast aside. So there must be another deeper meaning to all of this. "Well, what's done is done. Can't take it back now, remember?" I knew damn well that we could. All I would have to do is throw away my effort to call her back ever again. But her change in heart also gave me a change in mind. Even if I don't believe she is real, I want to know her reason for purging me when there were so many costs to both of us. I have to find out someday, and it might as well be today.

Shutting her eyes from the stress, Lumina tried to calm herself down, sighing through her mouth as it leaked back into her own telepathic voice as well. "I just wish you could be here with us."

"Yeah, not going to happen." It was one of the facts that I did easily remember from yesterday. "We humans can only construct shitty rockets that can barely make it to the moon without exploding."

"Nhm-hm. I was talking about using transperation."

"Transperation?" Every time it felt like I finally understood just enough about the Altiri, Lumina would throw in another vocab word I never heard of before. Actually, there was transpiration of plants and water or something, but I already knew to expect a different definition with possibly different spelling too.

"I never did get to it, did I? Okay, so we should talk about that next. Transperation is similar to the resurrection machines we have up here."

"Okay, and how do those work again?" I actually did remember hearing that they had giant resurrection chambers, but I'd fail the test if I had to recall how the process worked, not that I really understood her explanation the first time around.

"The technology works based on bio-material reconstruction using that person's DNA map. The damaged body is repaired in the cryo-pod chamber, while the bio-material is printed with a collection of fluid substances we create in a separate lab within the same station."

"Uh-huh..." My tick of acknowledgement was meant to allow her to continue, but I withheld the fact that I still had no idea what she was going on about.

"Then, the entire team of that target's loved ones must gather around at the central chamber. There, we use a kind of psionic amplification process and a call to their soul. Our psionics signals span into the afterlife, so the process involves calling to their soul and attracting them directly to their fixed body for rehabilitation. It's not something that can be forced exactly, but our time limit is always ten days. Once it's done, the body is brought back to life with an electrical pulse simultaneously, and the resurrection is then complete."

"That's crazy..." She's talking about a person's very own soul, as well as the afterlife... Psionic signals reach the afterlife? What kind of science are the Altiri getting into?

"But transperation isn't all that different. The chambers are separate so that they are not misused, but they all run on the exact same technology. The only difference is that the transperation chambers were specifically designed for human DNA reconstruction."

"Wait!" I had to reset myself after hearing that. She build similar technology to use on humans? "You're saying that if I die over here, right now, you could use that transperation machine thing to bring me back to life? But how would that work? How would you get me into that pod?"

"One question at a time... The machine works differently in that the scanning equipment for biometric data capturing is greatly improved. It actually merges the scanning signals with psionic energy projections far stronger than Altiri people just to pick up physical data in the real world. This thing can scan every quark and string of matter in your body from any location in the universe."

"That's one powerful machine!" I can't believe what I'm hearing right now. With technology like that, couldn't the Altiri just transperated every last human into their world? Wouldn't we die from the sheer cold and different air mixtures? I had so many questions at once that they began firing off on their own without any pattern of priority. "But I thought that even your light waves had yet to reach Earth, so how could that machine scan me from all the way over there?"

"Weren't you listening? It doesn't use light waves, it uses psionic waves. Psionic waves don't travel at the speed of light. They don't even travel through our physical dimensional space. So when they are sent out, the signal reaches its destination instantly every time with no delay at all. It's all complicated stuff that even I barely understand. But basically, the machine isn't the only one scanning you. We would have to be involved in helping guide that psionic process to. In a way, the machine acts more like an amplifier with quantum processing routine layers than an actual scanner. Once done, the machine does all the work interpreting the results."

I was quiet before her, overwhelmed with questions and science that was totally new to me. I wanted to ask so much more, but due to how complicated it all sounded, there was a more important factor to consider. "Has this ever worked before?"

"It has, on four different purged subjects. The machine never messes up or makes a mistake in the process. Even so, there are a lot of conditions that must be met for a successful transperation to take place."

"Conditions?"

"We use the transperation machine first when we realize you have been killed in some way."

"Okay, but how would you know that I died, assuming we were not linked up to begin with?" I couldn't act as though I put a brick wall into her logic, because I was more certain from experience that she would always find some way to explain any technical question I had.

"You and I are more linked together than you realize. A purge isn't just an unlocking trick. It interprets both of our psionic signatures, and bonds them together with your Cora sector, at the final stage of the purge. Once that is done, we would theoretically rely on Psionic Biolution to determine if you were to suddenly die while not connected to us."

"I don't get it. What is Psionic Biolution? What are psionic signatures?" I swear, there are more terms than I can keep up with that this point. There's no way I could be subconsciously making this up!

"Think of a psionic signature more like a digital signature. It's more unique than a person's DNA. Each individual has their own unique psionic signature, even if you were to clone somebody. If I were to suddenly receive two psionic signals requesting telepathy from yourself and another random person at the same time, I could easily distinguish your own signature before picking which is which. And every time you try to call me, you are inadvertently locking in on my psionic signature."

"I..." Her scientific babble only got more complicated when I asked about, keeping my mouth shut until she was fully finished.

"Anyway, if you were to suddenly drop off the face of the earth, my psionic biolution ability would activate automatically, letting me know that you died, though not beyond any detail apart from your moment of death. And before you ask, I know nothing about how that ability works or where it came from. It isn't unique only to me, but it does only seem to work on people who have bonded farther than a few greetings."

It's too amazing for my words. Still, if she can sense my death... "Does that ability work both ways? I mean, would I know if something happened to you out of the blue?"

"It's highly unlikely that it would. It's an Altiri thing. You have to be very strong with psionic aptitude in order to use an ability like that. And I'm sorry to say that the Altiri are far stronger than humans in that department."

"Okay..." Let's see if I have it all figured out now. "So if I die, then you sense it, rush to the machine, get together with your sisters, tell the machine to scan my dead body in psionic code, and have the machine warp me over there and bring me back to life?" It isn't just resurrection she is going on about; there's a layer of teleportation there too. It means that if I die here, and the Altiri are real, I'll come back to life instantly in their world, and therefore become capable of seeing everything for myself! On the other hand, it's not something I can just kill myself for, right?

"Not all of that was right." Her correction and focus to detail forced me into a level of concentration that I never quite achieved before. Every last level of thought was so focused on her that I felt like I was sitting right in front of her explaining it to me. "Your body does not warp, move, or change its state when we scan it. We have to scan the body while it is not in motion, stored in a cold enough environment, and seeded with enough remaining organic material. Then, we have to take what we have scanned, use the editing software to recreate a new body profile integrated with the same initial DNA data strands, and then edit the biological factors to the point in which the new body is set to become an Altiri capable shell. That new body is then printed entirely by the cryostasis chamber. Then, from there, we begin the resurrection process as if we were using a normal resurrection machine. The location of one's soul doesn't affect our psionic transmission and soul calling process. Once it's complete, you wake up in your new Altiri body, here, in this world, with all of us in the flesh."

In all my life, in every book I have ever read, in every game I have ever played, in every movie I have ever seen, I've never heard of anything this complex and genius until now. This time, I was able to keep up with the gist of her explanations, to determine the true meaning of being transperated. Had she explained it any differently, I would have shrugged it off as wild and impossible. But this technology was built by a genius! "That is wicked! You Altiri obviously don't treat life and death the same way we do here."

"Is that a bad thing?" Lumina really sounded worried by my own statement, and I moved to elaborate it.

"No..." It's not a bad thing. But it is the craziest thing I've ever heard, crazy strange, not crazy impossible. I can't believe how many layers there are to their science and technology fields. If I listen to Lumina for a few more days, maybe I could invent something on Earth that would revolutionize the entire world. It's almost scary. "It's just different from anything any human has ever heard of before." It sure as hell puts a few holes into the whole idea of going to heaven right away. Maybe there is some kind of ten day purgatory period that allows us to come back to life before heading up to heaven. But I wasn't sure of that, and I would need to carefully read the entire Bible one of these days to be sure.

"The specific conditions can be quite harsh. You really have to be lucky or die in a lucky way to be transperated. Your body cannot be decapitated, burnt to ash, or harmed to a point of excessive organ damage upon death. Your body also has to be motionless for thirty minute during the scan. The body also must be in a zone right around freezing temperatures or lower during the same scan. On top of it all, we have the ten day time limit. If any one of these factors fails to line up right, transperation becomes absolutely impossible."

"Now I'm surprised you had four successes."

"I really think a majority of those who were purged before this era attempted transperation, but many were not met with successes."

Interested in reiterating my earlier point, I let Lumina know the dark elegance of that plan. "I guess something like that would prove everything to be beyond a doubt. But then, I would have to die just to find out in that case... I'll wait instead."

"I would never want you to kill yourself just to come over to our side."

I'm glad to hear that. I was silently getting anxious about the idea that she might want me to try that, but like any normal person, she refuses the thought itself. "I don't get something though. Why wait until we're dead to scan our profile?"

"Well, the systems have to change the biological clock of the new body, reverting the settings of that for humans to age 16. For an Altiri body, that has to convert to a similar Altiri setting. But on top of that, the system uses one-time storage media to complete the process. We don't store the data of those we scan for more than ten days."

"Shouldn't you though?" To someone like me who already understand a bit about computer hardware, I wasn't seeing the reason why they couldn't store that data for later and scan someone who was already living. "I mean, technically speaking, if you created a secondary buffer, and then scanned a person when they were already sixteen years old, it would accomplish the same task, would it not? Staying still in a cold place for thirty minutes can't be impossible for people."

"I'm sure there is a very good reason why the system is set up the way it is."

"But you don't know the reason, do you?" I knew what I was talking about. I understood the computerized components of this design on a basic level. If they install two hard drives into each transperation machine, and save a person's scan while they are still alive, then the who aspect of being lucky with how a person dies would not even be a problem anymore. It would be a better design, not worse.

"I'll be sure to ask the experts why we couldn't use a secondary hard drive that way... But I have to say, I'm quite surprised you even thought of that idea."

"I'm not," I explained. "Not that I'm a genius or anything, but I do know my way around computers." Since I have always been interested in playing offline video games, PC gaming turned out to be my number one retreat, since they were so versatile and capable of graphics improvements. My dad gave me my first computer when I was only nine, and ever since then, I've been cursed with some weird kind of technological bad luck, either that, or Microsoft Windows really doesn't know what they are doing. But serious, every time I have to change a setting or do something I have not done before, the machine glitches, errors, or breaks down right in front of me, and then I have to rely on my dad to help me fix it. But I pay attention to what he does each time.

In all the years leading up to now, I've learned quite a few interesting tricks about navigating Windows, as well as how to build my own custom gaming computer without supervision. It was the reason I understood why a second hard drive would be better for Lumina's specific situation of examples. It's not like I know how to code or program, but I do know how to troubleshoot and find workarounds when something gets in the way.

"I guess I wasn't prepared for you to be as knowledgeable on technology."

It is my only other escape from life. Going to school every day, drowning in homework and never finding any friends, and repeating that cycle of boredom has messed with my head more times than I care to count. But the video games keep me engaged in something, occupied enough to make that bit of fun worth it.

"But still, the idea of coming back to life in an Altiri body sounds completely crazy! I can't believe that's even possible!" My voice for how I felt wasn't full of doubt, rather amazement. The very concept of it intrigued and fascinated me more than I was expecting it to. It's bad enough the way things are now, but if I could somehow die and come back as an Altiri, in their body, with their incredible abilities, it would be the coolest thing in the world. I couldn't ask for something better than such an incredible experience.

Of course, Lumina took it the wrong way and assumed I was being all literal. "But it is possible! All of this technology was developed after the end of Legasso. Its incredible advances were put in motion by our top Altiri scientist. Ship to ship teleportation, water purification, new space ship technologies, improved system terminals, quarks and quad scanners, better dark matter chain reactions—"

"Okay, I get it." She would have gone on forever if I didn't stop her, but I was shocked still to hear there was so much more I have not heard about yet. "You are the superior race after all. You got better tech and better biological traits than us."

"Now you're the one laying it on thick. I still like to think that we are all mostly the same kind of people on some level. What I mean is, humans and Altiri all have souls, so it shouldn't matter which one of us is superior."

"Yeah, well it's too late not to rub it in now. Didn't you say that you Altiri don't even have to sleep? It's incredible! You can seamlessly live forever without any rest, only water. It's no wonder you've evolved into such an intelligent species of people." I couldn't control my own excitement anymore. The very idea that I could possibly be transperated into their world to become an Altiri sounded more amazing by the minute. Could there be any downsides? "Hey, if I had to be transperated, would I have to come back inside a female Altiri body, or a male Altiri body?" It was something I would really have to think about. It would be too weird if I had to come back to life as a women instead of a man, and based on their hatred for men, they might just go for it on my behalf.

"Male Altiri body. We wouldn't do that to you."

"We?"

"Me and my sisters. We are part of the process too."

"Right, your sisters..." I had to remind myself how strange it was hearing them call each other that. For Altiri, sisters doesn't have the same meaning there as it does down here. If they are actually biologically related sisters, then they refer to each other as blood sisters. But in a general sense, they are to Lumina as best friends are to each other here, enough to be considered family by choice. Even so, I don't hear or see these other sisters Lumina spoke of, except for Junko for only a few seconds. "You said your sisters were with you in the Cy-Star Aggressor Group. But how does that work? Where is everyone?" At this point, I knew I was only asking rapid-fire questions, but I didn't care. After the rest I obtained last night, I was perfectly capable of absorbing another mountain worth of information from her world, and I wanted to know everything.

"Well, I fly the Triag class capital ship, along with my second pilot, Junko. Then there are four other capital ships with different designs and classifications. Most of these ships are set up to co-pilot two people every time, so we always only have two people per ship. That flatbed ship is the only exception with three pilots."

"Okay." She really is going to give me the rundown of her specific fleet.

"On the flatbed ship, there is Rose, Sherika, and Derria. After that, the two-by-two is Ashiela and Fionne, Hurma and Taylor, then Lulu and Luna."

Those are all their names? I kept trying to remember them in my head, since this was really the first time I was hearing the names of all her sisters so clearly. I think I met them in one of those lucid dreams too, but each hour I tried to think back to it, the visual details became even vaguer. But their names also sounded so foreign, which was really pushing up agianst my internal suggestions that this was all made up somehow. "And these are all the same people that initially formed when you all entered the draft?"

"That's right. All of us stayed together and grew up together. It was a long time before we were comfortable in each other's presence, but it wasn't long before we all became family."

"What about last names?"

"Altiri people don't have last names."

No last names? "Really? So what happens when you and another Altiri end up with the same name?"

"Ever since the 49,900's, we created a legal registry with all associated names to avoid having duplicates. Those days, when people were sorting things out, they kept their duplicate names while changing the spelling a little. Some even capitalized their legal name to set apart the difference."

It really never fails! Every time I quickly ask her something, even if it seems more random, she can answer easily on the fly. There isn't much of a mystery to the Altiri that I can't have solved simply by asking her. "Wow... Just, wow!" It felt less likely the more I learned that I was making any of this up. Normally, when I try to day dream of something, or imagine a scene for a writing project, it takes me some time to think of every little detail. But I'm putting in no effort here, yet my mind is already beginning to feel overloaded with facts again.

"Go easy on yourself taking it all in. I know it can be a lot to process."

As true as her advice was, it actually felt really good to have this many simultaneous thoughts overloading me like this, as if some kind of faint euphoria were seeping in. It wasn't annoying anymore, I preferred this to the alternative of being bored. Therefore, I was keeping up with everything just fine, because I wanted to. "I think I got it all... But let's go back to transperation for a second. If I were to decide I wanted to go through with it, would I really have the same Altiri body, with all the same special abilities and superhuman powers?"

"There would still be lots of internal adjustments you would have to get used to. In fact, since your body changes so much, the experience is rumored to be incredibly painful for the first month or two, due to physical shock."

"Eeh..." Hearing that made me rethink the entire strategy. But even so, a month or two of immeasurable pain for a lifetime of immortality sounds like a fair trade. The bigger picture is whether I could be lucky to have it done in the first place. "I doubt I could really make the trip even if I tried." With my rotten luck, I don't see it happening by chance.

"But if your motivation for that is simply based on desiring proof, maybe I can instead share what I happen to know about you, or if there were any specific questions about the purge, I could answer that instead."

"I don't think that would really change my view of anything, but go ahead and try."

"Pick a topic then. Name one weird thing that happened to you that you still could not explain any other way, or something you don't think I could know about you from your past."

One weird thing huh? "Okay, I've got one. This very strange thing happened to me back in the fall, when it was warm out. Actually, the weather was scorching. I take it that the purge isn't supposed to do anything when it's hot outside, but I really don't have an explanation for it."

"The purge can in rare cases still affect you if that warmth comes and goes. But go on..."

With her attention at my disposal, I described that strange moment in best ways I could. "I was listening to special music, music that made me think a lot about the Altiri, while I was laying on the couch. And the next think I knew, I was suddenly in this freezing cold world surrounded by trees and snowfall as far as the eye could see. It wasn't a dream. Everything I could feel there was far too real to be a dream experience. Even the last lucid dream I had could not compare to it. I couldn't explain how I got to this other world. But then, as soon as the music left my ears, I was back in the living room again, nauseous and thirsty."

"That sounds a lot like perceptual manipulation."

"Percepta— what now?" Don't tell me she can explain this away too. I remember the moment poorly, but I know it was no dream.

"Perceptual Manipulation," she repeated. "It happens when all of your sensory traffic is intercepted and rerouted by the signals of the purge activity. Your brain is essentially bombarded with faster, stronger sensory details that are related to the data of the purge. One moment, you are in one place, and the next, you are somewhere like the place you described, in a colder artic zone that feels similar to our world. It's similar to a hallucination event, but they are not exactly the same. Perceptual manipulation is stronger. It's very rare, but is motivated by the purge should it happen. And since you said you were obsessing about the Altiri prior to that moment, your own montrum about us acted as a catalyst for the purge and the phenomena."

"My own montrum makes the purge stronger?"

"Between the first and last phase of the purge, there are five other phases. Phase two is the montrum phase, and phase five explains how something like perceptual manipulation may occur on its own. Phase three is the emotional personality changes. When phase two is active, phase four and five become more common and stronger. But if phase three becomes stronger, then phase two and five become weaker. Throughout the life cycle of a purge, these phases can all happen at once, but typically cycle at random. That's why your montrum coaxed it to happen."

"Holy mother of god!" If what she's saying is true, it could happen again at any time, right? "Can I get it to happen again? Better yet, can you get it to happen again?"

"No, we can't. The only reason it was possible in the first place was because the purge signal was live and active. Now that it's gone, any montrum you have will be a natural one caused and influenced only by you. And we don't have the ability to manipulate our own sensory environment map."

"Oh..." I really was disappointed to hear that. Even if it was all illusion, I understood the crazy benefit of the capability to reshape the entire world around me. To put myself in any environment I could wish for, it would be the ultimate virtual reality experience! The purge is something powerful, no doubt about that... Okay then, what about this other inconsistency? "Here's something I don't get. Earlier, you said that you were stronger with psionic capabilities. And for that reason, I'm not easily able to see through your eyes, because I'm the weaker node. But how does that work? I don't understand why that makes any difference."

Without argument, Lumina kept up with my pace of questions, matching the facts I desires without strain. "You and I are telepathically linked right now. Because of this, regardless of our strength difference, psionic energy is being shared between us constantly. But the amount of psionic load that puts on our minds is not the same proportion. Between one Altiri and another, it would be fifty-fifty. But between an Altiri and another human, I would draw sixty percent of the load on average while you draw forty percent."

"Meaning..."

"Psionic load relates to how stressed the Cora sector of the brain is during any ability use. Human to human telepathy is impossible because the energy requirements to make the load within range of possibility just isn't there. Because I'm the stronger node, it means most of the psionic load handling the entire connection will default to me, because for someone like you, 40% of the load would be more like 90% if all of it were to fall on top of you. But for someone like me, where 60% feels like 60%, it isn't a problem."

I didn't understand a word she was saying, except for the mathematics behind it. With what little clues I could obtain, I tried to piece it all together.

"However, because of this difference, human to Altiri telepathy has a few limitations compared to normal telepathy. It should be possible for both of us to share all of our senses in real time with absolutely no quality loss, including personal emotions... But you surely have noticed by now that not all of that information is getting through, and what does - only leaks through in fragments."

"Yeah, I have noticed." Like how I know that there should be more emotions shared between us, or how I can feel any specific or rough physical sensation on her arms and legs, while knowing I should be able to feel like I'm in her entire body. There is information missing here!

"Well, the reason this data is missing relates mostly to the connection strength itself. A telepathic link has minimum requirements to stay active, one of which involves a constant subconscious focus from both of us, one I had since birth, and one you had since the completion of the purge. But factors such as outdoor temperature, physical energy drain, and even psionic load differences can lower the strength of a connection. With a lower strength, less information is transferred with less detail."

"So with a weaker connection..."

"Something as simple as me seeing through your own eyes would become more difficult, and hearing you would also be harder too. Physical touch would not even be available to transfer, and neither would sensing emotions."

I was able to catch up now, but something about psionic loads just didn't click with me right away. "But earlier, I was able to see though your eyes just fine."

"But only as a result of something I did. We Altiri have learned how to manipulate telepathy power just a bit. All I had to do was use psionic amplification on the telepathic signal we were sharing. It's an ability that increases the strength of the telepathy, but only temporarily, for as long as I could hold out trying it. It works by shifting the psionic load further onto me since I can handle more of it at once. Instead of forty-sixty, I inherit the psionic load average of 90%, while you only strain ten percent of your capability. Naturally, even I would struggle to hold a 90% strain to my Cora sector for long. However, since I never did it for more than a full minute each time you witnessed it happening, I'll be fine. Once it's over, the values go back to their default. With you using only ten percent of strain while subconsciously projecting the same amount of psionic energy, it enables you further capacity for information transfer through both our psionic nodes. All it does to me is drain me a little."

"Incredible! And I had no idea that it would drain you like that."

"Natural signal boosters are better since it doesn't change our psionic loads. So, if for example it were below freezing outside and snowing all around you, your ability to see through my eyes would be as natural and easy as breathing the air around you. I wouldn't need to amplify anything."

"You said it drains you, but what is actually happening there? Can it affect me somehow?"

"Actually it can, not the trick I used earlier, but a low telepathic signal itself can harm either one of us. If the connection becomes too weak and remains active for a long period of time, it will drain the both of us much faster than normal. It puts stress on both our Cora sectors while dehydrating both of us. Needless to say, we should keep up with our water consumption to be safe."

I only picked up on it now, that even as I was listening to her, I had an open bottle of water in my right hand, drinking it just as she was saying that. But this lone 16 ounce bottle was not alone with me today. I had three more hidden away in the cold lunchbox I bring to school. I had the same amount yesterday. But was there ever a time I was drinking it this often? "I didn't even notice until you pointed it out, but I have been drinking a lot more water lately. Can telepathy really make me drink more?"

"Yes it can. The good news, is that your water consumption needs are based on the strength of the connection in action. The stronger the connection gets, the less water you will need to drink in order to keep up. But if the connection becomes weak, you better start slamming them down. You'll need a little more than I will based on the impurities found in both tap water and bottled water."

I don't care about no stinking impurities! "You're missing the point! Don't you understand? My drinking of bottled water has been way up since yesterday. If it's because of what's happening here with the connection, well, it's not solid evidence, but it is a clue that everything I'm experiencing is real!" How else could it not be? Even if my subconscious mind could make all of this up on the fly without me knowing about it, the water detail is something I've only now learned about. Having not known before, there is now way I would have naturally prepared myself to conveniently want to drink more... Is still circumstantial, but it's a clue showing that I'm not going crazy after all!

"I'm glad you see it that way. But as I was saying before, you will notice a lot more going on when the connection is vigorously stronger. The temperature outside right now is 44 degrees Nixus, which is cause for an average signal strength."

"What about the taste and the smells?"

"We actually don't have as good of a taste or smell. It's mainly due to our smelling powers being different."

"So the Altiri are weaker than us in at least one area... Not that it's a big issue. Actually, you're lucky. You get to avoid the smells that I don't want to be a part of. Imagine sitting on the seat of the bus. If the kid in front shat his pants, it's going to be one long, terrible ride the rest of the way."

Lumina let out a long vocal chain of laughter, proving she understood my half-attempt to a joke. Even though she smell the same way humans could, watching over us for thousands of years, understanding how we react to smells was one thing she did understand. By the time she recovered enough to continue the conversation, Lumina cued me in on the difference. "I bet on Earth you can associate countless good smells from bad smells. But for us, we can only smell pure elements and a few mixtures, minus the air we are used to breathing. I think Altiri are capable of smelling normally too, but our sense on that is so dull, it would have to be a powerful odor to pick up at all."

"Pure elemental mixtures? That doesn't sound right."

"Yeah, you know. Titanium, Lymenym... Tyroxemeroid doesn't have an odor to us."

It wasn't easy for me to be confused by all the weird elements in her world. I understood what titanium was immediately, and from that, realized she was referring to atomic elements, like the kind one could find on the periodic table. But because of that, my brain felt like it about to explode from hearing those two new words. Lymenym, which I'm sure I might find on that table if I'm lucky, and Tyroxemeroid, which I was certain I've never heard of in my life. "What the hell is Tyrox— Trynox..." Even trying to repeat the name I just heard, it was hard to pronounce.

"Tyroxemeroid," she helped me. "It's a natural compound that we reshape and repurpose from crystals to use it as a kind of reinforced glass. When it's done right, even a very thin layer of Trynoxemeroid glass can be bullet-resistant. It's in the HUD of our ships, in tunnel halls of the temple, and in many more objects. What I understand most about it, is that this crystal substance is native only to our world. Although, I personally don't have a comprehensive understanding of your system's periodic table just yet."

It's so cool! They have elements up there I've never even heard of! "I want to smell the periodic table!"

"I wish it were possible. If only I could smell through your nose the same way I use mine, I might at least be able to describe the elements to you."

"You mean, even with a good connection, you can't smell the same things I do?"

"Property of difference, remember? If any one of our physical or absolute senses differ from each other biologically, sharing them through telepathy is just not possible. Since my nasal structure is different from yours, we would never be able to know what each other's worlds smell like. It's the same reason why your vision enhances slightly when seeing through my eyes, tough you are still hitting an unseen limit that is far below the actual visual quality. My ability to hear further away would not apply to what you hear through telepathy, because you don't have that same super power. Sorry to bum you out a little, but this includes all physical sensations as well. Our biological differences limit what information we can share; that's the other factor of telepathy that is limited in a human to Altiri connection."

I understood all of where she was coming from now. As long as she takes her time and stays detailed, I can actually keep up with this better. Still, does that include all physical sensations? "What would that mean for..." I stopped myself before I could finish that sentence. Glad as I was to not consider asking that out loud for the class to hear, the topic was still pretty embarrassing for me to say. I suddenly felt more nervous about the idea of asking this, and I could feel myself blushing pretty badly. My pause was so long that I'm certain Lumina noticed it. "You know... Men and women's parts?"

"Ooooooh!" Lumina wasn't shocked or offended, not by the way she just said that. Her tone shifted to a more playful and teasing attitude, as I brace myself for whatever fallout was to come. "I had no idea you were trying to learn something so naughty!"

As my heart and mind prepared to explode, I quickly tried to correct her, learning for the first time that it was possible to stutter and fumble my words even without using my mouth to speak. "No! I didn't— I mean, that's not— I was only curious!" What have I done? Now she's going to think I'm a pervert for the rest of my life!

However, I realized I was worried and blushing for nothing, because Lumina was folding herself forward, holding her stomach in a hold, and laughing harder than I've ever heard her laugh before. It was a full on fit from which she could not quickly escape from. At the same time, I was relieved and humiliated to realize she was only teasing me.

"Don't worry Reed. I won't have to expect feeling your penis, and you won't have to worry about confusing your cock with a vagina. Sound good?"

It was at this moment I realized, I was better off not asking in the first place. She speaks English better than I thought, and I didn't want to dare challenge her to any game of words and wits. "Yeah... Good..." I gulped quietly as my face turned redder from the embarrassment I brought onto myself. The only thing that saved me from losing my mind was the rationalization that nobody else knew what I just heard. I might say something vulgar every now and then, but I wasn't used to this much exposure.

"Haha! You're really feeling awkward about that of all things?"

Now she's just mocking me! "Come on! I didn't want that coming up randomly. I had to know!"

"I'm sure you did," she replied with a smile still in her throat. "Or are you bummed out about it somehow—"

"Whoa! Okay!" There was no way I was bummed out about something like that. If we could sense all of each other's body parts, I'm sure I would have lost it already. "New subject."

Laughing at me some more with a toned down tolerance to my humiliation, Lumina wasn't so ready to move on like I wanted her to. "You know? You're a little more vulgar than I thought you would be."

"And you're a little meaner than I thought you would be... Seriously though, I shouldn't just say random things like that. And I could stand to stop cursing so much too. I'm sorry for that; it's my fault."

"Nah, it's okay. I kind of like it when you're just being yourself. The cursing doesn't bother me one bit. Just don't go mouthing off swear words for the fun of it. At least, I heard it was bad to form a habit from that."

I felt calmer about myself somehow, knowing that what I said was over with now and could never be taken back. She must think I'm such a weirdo now! "Is it too late to change the subject?"

"Not really... Let's see..." Lumina gave both of us twenty seconds to reset, and in truth, I needed it.

I learned so much in this one period alone, but my intension was just that; to learn about her world. I was still struggling to put together the fact that she had her own kind of personality, one she didn't bother keeping to herself. What amazed me more was thinking back to how long we have been taking for in total. It isn't just the interest of her world that keeps us from running out of things to say, not entirely. I'm an introvert, a shy guy, and it's nearly impossible for me to bring together the guts to start a conversation on my own, which I usually avoid doing since I can't stand mindless small talk. But Lumina... I can tell she's an extrovert. She speaks twice or three times as often as I do. Of course, her conversations are always interesting to me since she is an alien and all. It made me realize that even if I didn't think she was a real person, I have no choice but to treat her as one. She has real emotions, real feelings, real laughter, and realistic reactions to anything I say or do. I'm not controlling her at all. I'm not twisting around her words or behaviors; she's acting entirely on her own, autonomous from my own nature and even my own personality type.

"Well, we were talking about what a stronger connection would mean for us, and we were also talking about psionic loads between us, and special abilities that I knew how to apply to telepathy. There is one more unique power I would like to try out soon."

"Unique?" How many powers can a psychic really have?

"Yes. It's an ability we call three-way telepathy. Normally, we don't need to bother with this between other Altiri girls since we can use telepathy in more limitless manners. But in your situation, the purge has you specifically locked onto my psionic signature. As such, you cannot telepathically talk to anyone else in my world while you are the way you are. But there is still a way around this. Using three-way telepathy, I can set myself up as a host node, and add dynamic endpoints to a third person, allowing me to redirect all sensory information and psionic data to that other endpoint."

I didn't understand the lingo at all, but the way she said three-way telepathy reminded me of how cell phones can go to a three-way call. "So it's like putting a cell phone call on a three-way?"

"Kind of. In order for it to work at all, the connection must be strong to begin with, plus it requires me to invoke telepathic amplification at the same time. Three-way telepathy is essentially an add-on to the existing ability of telepathic amplification. But as far as the results go, you would still technically be connected to me. However, anything you say and hear will be transmitted to the person I map and redirect the connection data to. They can then say something directly to your mind as well. It won't work for any other sensory transfer of information, only psionic noise and communication. But using that, you can technically meet my sisters this way, even if all you end up doing is hearing their voices."

"Yeah, I don't know..." This sounds too complex to risk in the first place. "Wouldn't it just be easier to have the stand in front of you and show me as we transfer our speech indirectly?"

"It wouldn't be as efficient that way, and getting all of my sisters together like that would take careful time and planning, and is in fact riskier since they won't be able to take the controls of their ships if something goes wrong. We can't just land anywhere we want and dock for the fun of it."

"If you say so."

"It's not like I'm even asking you to do this. I'm just letting you know the option is there. Of course, the ability will have drawbacks, mostly for me."

I knew there was a catch. "What kind of drawbacks?"

"For one, I can't simultaneously intercept, process, and redirect the information all at the same time; I can only redirect. So anything you talk about with the third person is not something I will be able to listen to or hear for myself."

That's not a drawback, it's a bonus feature! Learn a little more about privacy Lumina.

"It can be a problem since I won't have any way of knowing when I'm supposed to ease off and return the connection back to normal. If I revert the connection back to two-way, I won't be able to know if I'm going to interrupt your conversation right before doing it, and since it takes up so much of a psionic load, I can't hear my other sisters through telepathy the normal way either, not during that function. Of course, the second drawback is obvious. It takes even more of a psionic load agianst me to use that ability than to use normal amplification. If I could pull it off, I doubt it would last for more than sixty seconds. And the third drawback, is that this ability in question is fairly experimental in its own theory. I've heard about it from rumor floating around other aggressor groups, but without a purged person to try it on, I've never tried it before. I might accidently screw it up and kill the connection by mistake."

Those sure are a lot of drawbacks, but it's actually not as harsh as I was expecting. Basically, if she can pull it off, it can only work for a brief period of time, and only when hell has frozen over outside. "If you kill the connection by mistake, I'll just call you back. I think I figured out how to do it now."

"Yeah," she added with a pinch of pessimism, "well anything we do with telepathy has limits for us, including a few things I still have not gotten into yet. Did you know that it takes a lot more energy to start a connection than it does to keep an existing one going? Thanks to your purge cycle, you can easily maintain psionic focus without even thinking about it."

"But I never understood it. Like, when I did contact you, I had no idea what I was doing. But somehow, I still figured out the right thing to do by instinct, instincts that I shouldn't even have."

"Nerve memory. Similarly to muscle memory, your brain can be trained to perform a certain task without a full conscious input to do so, or without the intuitive knowledge of how that task or ability would function. You only obtain nerve memory by decades of practice, or in your case, a purge carrying the data of this nerve memory that was already obtained by me."

"..." The method she used to describe it to me, even though I just barely understood what she was trying to explain, had me fascinated beyond anything I could express with words or with heart. Something this complex, and she simplifies it like it's noting! Not just for this one thing either, but for every topic I bring up. "There is absolutely no way my subconscious is this smart or intelligent." If I were hallucinating, the information she would making up would have to be limited only to what I already know, but I'm somehow learning knowledge I don't already know, provided I can prove psychic powers to exist.

"Well, you will always have access to this telepathy so long as you use it. The more often you use this ability, the stronger you will be with it. Each invocation you take for telepathy will become easier after every use. But as I said before, there are always going to be limits."

"There are?"

"For example, if you were to hang up the connection right now, you would actually find that you can't call me back at all, not until at least thirty minutes has passed. But if you do it again in the same day, the second time trying to call me back would require you to wait for a full hour, and the third time would require another hour stacked."

"That's strange."

"It's one of those natural laws about telepathy we know of, but do not understand. Similarly, if you call me, drop the call, and repeat that cycle three times in the same day, you won't be capable of calling me back the fourth time at all, not until eighteen hours passes from that moment. But after one day, both the timer for calling be back and the number of tries is reset each time. We aren't sure, but we think it has something to do with an unseen temporary psionic strain."

"That is a bit of a drawback." I get it now. If we get disconnected for any reason, I can't call her back immediately. And if I play hot potato by turning our connection on and off too much, I'll have to wait a whole day to call her back... What a weird rule!

"The Altiri do not rest, but humans like yourself require it. Your energy recovery reduces from each hour you are awake. Every time you wake up from your slumber, you will have to wait between 45 to 60 minutes before you will even be capable of contacting me again. And once you have been awake for about fifteen hours, your body will become so tired, your mental capacity to hold a connection will fail by that point. Too much physical exhaustion or the onset of sleep deprivation can block you from telepathy as well."

"So then if I wanted to keep this up, I have to get my sleep." It sure was weird to hear that. To speak to her, I have to be healthy, energetic, and well-rested, the exact opposite factors that a hallucination or mental delusion would benefit from. I can certainly see why disconnecting for just a moment is a bad idea. "Okay, so then just don't disconnect unless we have to... Wait! What if I need to hang up for something specific and call you back after?"

"Like what exactly?"

"I don't know." I did know, at least two possibilities right off the top of my head, but I didn't feel the need to tell her about why it's a bad idea to stay connected to me during moments where I have to use the bathroom, since it should be obvious. "Like, what happens when I have to get back to studying? I can't let my grades slip, and I know for a fact that there will be classes that would bore you to death."

"In cases like that, I can just put the connection into phase."

"Phase?" How many different sub-abilities for telepathy are there?

"Using your analogy to cell phone calls, putting a connection into phase would be the same thing as putting an existing call on hold. I can change the state of the connection, to phase it out so to speak. Doing so intentionally limits and blocks the sensory input from each other to absolute zero, but the connection itself remains intact. It means that, despite keeping the same telepathic connection, we would be unable to see, hear, or feel each other in any capacity for as long as the connection remains in a phased out state. However, once it's time to pull it back into phase, one of us would have to do it ourselves."

"Is that something either of us could do?"

"Even though I'm new to it as well, it's better if you let me try to handle it for now. One little mistake or incorrect projection signal when trying to pull it out of phase, and the connection will be killed instead. However, phasing a connection in and out is theoretically within your capability, if trained."

"I didn't know you could do all of these things to telepathic signals. It's revolutionary!"

Lumina however did not share as much enthusiasm about it as I had. "Yes, well, phasing and dephasing a connection also comes with a set of disadvantages."

"Of course it does," I complained softly.

"First of all, since the telepathic link still exists, it will draw energy and hydration from both of us. You can't forget about it, because it will still make you want to drink plenty of water. But worse than that, it actually increases the psionic load to both of us over time, even if the difference is slight."

"Not that I'm an expert in psionics," I interrupted, "but how can it increase the load percentage for both of us? Wouldn't that violate the total sum of a hundred percent?"

"Getting cheeky on me now, are you? Well, you probably have never heard of a virtual machine before, but the concept of it is useful for this. Virtual machines means a powerful host computer is running another virtual operating system environment within itself. But in order to achieve this, the host system must yield some of its available resources to the virtual."

As smart as I was with computers, the concept of virtual machines was one I had no knowledge of, but I didn't interrupt her to ask about it.

"When it comes to psionic loads between two people like us, the concept of that resource management is similar. In a virtual machine setup, you can either have the host machine give less than fifty percent of its resources, equal to fifty percent, or more than fifty percent. In a case where the host machine is giving less than fifty percent, the virtual machine will run poorly and operate slowly, if it operates at all. Energy and resources are not created out of thin air, only conserved and reallocated. Of course, the host machine that controls everything is not really affected as much, since it hogs most of the remaining resources for itself. If you have a fifty-fifty split, then the setup is stable between each other. But in an event that the host machine gives away seventy percent of its resources or more to the virtual machine, what do you expect to happen?"

I answered to the best of my knowledge, keeping pinpoint focus with how interested I was to hear this. "The virtual machine runs faster?"

"When it comes to computing, that can happen if the hypervisor is set up right and the allocation of percentage is based on an insane amount of maximum resources available. But if you were to assume such a connection can barely function at all when split evenly, the situation is different. The virtual machine would struggle to function properly, stuttering in and out of service. This is because, regardless of what insane resources the virtual machine has, the primary host machine that controls everything including the virtual can't keep up anymore. The host machine is running on 30% of the resources it needs to work properly, or less depending on the setup. Since the host machine is still a controller of the virtual one, both machines suffer in performance and stability, instead of only one suffering like in the first case. It's entirely possible that a full system crash occurs if the host machine is too starved of its power to do what it needs to. It has to have enough additional resources to control the virtual machine. In a way, this is somewhat inefficient for resource management."

"How does this tie into psionic connections?"

"Psionic loads and virtual resources are the interchangeable variables in this analogy. When we phase a connection, instead of my load being at 60% and yours being at 40%, it might shift so that I am at 50% and you are at 50%. The thing is, our psionic load potential is based on our biological potential for physical energy as well as psionic aptitude. In a computerized environment, a 50% load of resources is always even and balanced. But in a situation with our telepathy, it's not. Being an Altiri, I am not only the host node of the connection, but also the stronger node. It's more accurate to say I'm the host node only because I am psionically stronger than you. Handling a larger psionic load doesn't mean resources are allocated to us; it means more energy and resources are being handled by us. The reason I handle sixty percent while you only handle fourth is because my aptitude allows me to handle sixty without any problem. But if mine were to lower, yours would increase. At first, it might sound like this is better because I'm using up less energy to keep the connection alive, but then the strain is only added to you, making it harder on you to keep the connection going. If my psionic load increase by five percent, it would be like requiring me to handle 500 random points of some arbitrary value. But if yours increase by 5%, the number is still 500, but your maximum handle hasn't changed. What should be 5% of difference is actually a lot more change than the load values alone. And if it gets to a point where you have a majority of the load and I do not, then both of us will be in trouble. I'll struggle to keep the connection alive since I'm not actually handling most of the load, but at the same time, that struggle on you will increase the amount of energy I lose since we are constantly sharing psionic energy with each other. Since I'm the host node, you would not feel the drain before I would. And if I'm struggling to keep the connection alive with a low psionic load, the energy that is shared between us is reduced as well, limiting your own ability to keep the connection going on your end without straining yourself, with a psionic load level that is already higher than mine. Get it now? We both suffer."

It was hard to wrap my head around this, but being good with math and numbers, I think I got the picture of the situation well enough. Basically, the percentage of psionic load from zero to one hundred has a different base variable value for me than it does with Lumina, because I'm a weaker human node, and she is a stronger Altiri node. If only 40% of her psionic load were somehow placed onto me abruptly, in terms of points rather than proportion, I would be totally screwed even if I started at 0%. 40% to her means something a lot more to me. "So phasing is a bad idea then?"

"It's not a bad idea. We just have to be a little careful when deciding when and how to use it. Phasing the connection shouldn't be done at all if the connection strength is already weak to begin with. And the example I gave you was a more extreme one."

"Okay, then why can't you contact me instead of me contacting you? I know you made a big deal about it before, but aren't you the stronger node?"

"I am, and that's exactly the reason why it has to be you placing the call. Since I'm the stronger node, any psionic signal you project while focusing on my psionic signature will reach me, provided you are in a cold environment and well rested. I will be capable of feeling that energy and then using my own method of contact. If you and I try to psionically connect to each other at the same time, that's what starts the connection. The only issue is, even with your abilities and the completion of the purge, you are not strong enough to sense the psionic signals I sent to you prior to a connection. You're not unique in that by the way; every purged human can't seem to sense that on their own. If I tried to call you, you would never-ever know about it. And if we just tried to do it at random, that would be more inconvenient."

I can't believe how I oversaw that! It's because she is the stronger node that it has to be me sending the signal, so that she can sense it in the first place and stabilize our connection somehow. Every time something doesn't seem to fit, Lumina can answer it so perfectly, it's incredible!

"With that said, the other drawback to phasing a connection is that this ability also has a limited number of uses per day. If we phase the connection in and out three times in the same day, each successive attempt risks instantaneous connection failure, with the fourth attempt always having a 100% chance of doing that, on top of the third attempt reducing the maximum connection strength for some period of time when successfully executed. And that's when they are spaced out well enough. If we were to phase out and phase in a connection more than once within the same three hour span, the risk of connection failure gets even higher, but not if we space them out a little more throughout the day. Of course, with a new day, this resets as well."

"So then it's useful, but it's also best not to overuse the phasing technique?"

"That's right."

Well, now I understand how I can make efficient use of our time like this. If I'm busy in class, we can phase the connection, then unphase it, and get back to whatever we were talking about. And then, at the start of every new day, all I have to do is put in the effort and contact her again. "Okay then. Let's skip that for today then. I don't want to phase the connection right now. I'd rather sit here and learn more about you."

There was a strange pause from Lumina after I expected her to say something. "You do?" She was really surprised to hear me say that, about me wanting to learn more about her.

But I couldn't help it anymore. The more I keep hearing, the more incredible her world becomes, that and her abilities, which on some level are also my abilities now. This has to be the most interesting thing I've ever heard in my entire life! I can't just let this go to waste. I have to learn more! "Of course I do Lumina! Look. I may not have come to terms yet with believing any of this is real. Every time I think about it, it just confuses me more. But I think, the more I learn about you, the quicker I can find out."

"Of course!" Lumina was so eccentric to hear me say that, driving home the point again that she was only in this for the sake of being here to begin with. "If there's anything I can do to help you prove how I real am, anything..."

She really wants to prove her existence that badly? Maybe I've been looking at this the wrong way. What if Lumina knows she's real, wants to prove it, but simply doesn't know how to given the complex circumstances? None of her special powers would be useful here, unless other people could somehow see them... "I know!" The light bulb going on in my head spurred dozens of new possible thoughts. I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner! "How about you help me, on tests and exams?" It's the perfect plan! Everything I've learned from her so far, no matter how incredible is still just conjecture, and limited to what I could possibly understand. It would all be false information. But here in school, if I suddenly have knowledge of materials that I know I couldn't have learned any other way, and demonstrate that to the teachers, what more proof could I need?

There was a five second pause from her, and I sat still patiently waiting for her to say something, uncertain why she was hesitating. "I won't do that."

"What?!" She won't help me? I can't fathom why she would pass up such a perfect opportunity. She said she would do anything to prove herself; well this is it! "Why not? Even if all you do is teach me the information before the test, it's not the same as cheating." I didn't consider the 'I won't help people cheat on tests because it's unethical' excuse. She can't be serious right now! It only has to work for one stupid test!

"Listen. I don't have a problem teaching you everything I can, everything I know. But your school runs a very specific curriculum of information and details that I likely do not have. I'm not omniscient. Most of what I know is all based on macroscopic observations processed for objective conclusions. I certainly have not had the time to observe every person down on Earth, and there are plenty more historical moments that we Altiri missed entirely due to something like the weather and temperature in that area at that time. Besides, if I start helping you cheat on tests, it's only going to make it harder for you in the future. I won't be a bad influence and help you cheat on tests."

Unbelievable! Shot down just like that. "Man, Lumina. You can be impossibly cruel sometimes." She came up with the most convenient yet imperfect excuse not to help me on this one. I guess she can't prove her own existence, so she won't do anything that she isn't actually capable of. I knew I couldn't learn things out of the blue like that.

"Well a woman has to have her standards. You should try having some too."

This isn't even about standards. Oh whatever. "Fine. I won't ask for your help then." I didn't mean to put up a pout, but it was tough building my hopes up like that only to have the crushed away.

"Don't be like that! I told you already, I'll still teach you any subject in school you want to know, if I know it. I just can't do it during quiz time, you know?"

I shouldn't jump to the end here. Her offer still leaves the door of evidence cracked opened. If I can learn something from her that I know I did not pick up from class, and then later go to look it up and prove it, well that would do it for me. But can she teach me anything? "Okay. What subjects are you even good at?"

"Subjects... Let's see... Uhm..."

Come on Lumia. It isn't that difficult. "History?"

"Depends on the subjects."

"Economics?"

"Depends on the principles."

Is she really going to be like this? I wish I could show her my perfectly blank and straight face stare, to tell her how funny this isn't. "What about math?"

"Depends on the concept of equations and operations."

Is there anything that wouldn't depend at random? Is she doing this to me on purpose? "Writing?" Before I let her reply, I realized the problem with the subject I just mentioned. I can't really learn that much from her in that area. "Actually, never mind. I don't need any help in the subject of writing."

"You don't?"

So I see she doesn't know yet... "Nope. I've recently discovered that I'm actually not bad at writing at all. It's also kind of fun. I think I'm going to make a book someday."

"That's actually pretty cool. A lot of people these days don't have the stamina or patience to write a book. You should let me read some of it soon."

Yeah, in your dreams. "Yeah, well, all I have right now is ideas I jotted down, mostly just scripts... Of course, I have a lot more new ideas now, ever since you showed up."

"Be careful about what you write. I don't want to create situation where every human on Earth learns about us and starts some kind of revolution."

"Oh, don't be an optimist." If I wrote a book about this very moment happening to me right now, I wonder if anyone would even consider it as a real possibility. Even so, world chaos and panic among all humans is pretty much deserved at this point, but it's too much to hope for Lumina. Nobody would act on my behalf. "Nobody would believe me if I published a book based on all Altiri material, even if I labeled it, Autobiography."

Now realizing that I was partially joking, Lumina let herself relax into that calming state she liked to stay in. "You never know sometimes."

"You have to know something about science."

"I'm great with science, Altiri science anyway."

Oh really? Is there anything she does know about school? "Why must you be only halfway helpful? I should just publish some specs for a transperator machine, get sent to Harvard early, and retire at thirty."

"Yeah, some dream. They would never accept that without a running model or proof of concept... I'm sorry Reed. I'm only going to know bits and pieces. I paid attention to the people as they lived their lives, but not what they were learning from boring lectures and textbooks. It's not that I'm not interested in some of its aspects, but it's nearly impossible to learn that kind of stuff using only clairvoyance, so I'm limited on what kind of knowledge they teach you there. I don't want to make you a promise I can't keep."

"Yeah, yeah." It's not that I refused to believe her, but her responses to knowing so little in all subjects was beyond annoying. It also means she can't really help me on tests after all, even if I convinced her it was okay to do so. And knowing her, she would just give me weird answers that would lead to a zero marked with a WTF badge anyway. "Also, my real dream is to become a world famous author someday."

"That's an awesome dream! And this one is obtainable too. But it won't be easy you know."

Really, that much I already figured out on my own. All these other authors that made it big and struck rich, how could I ever hold a candle near their light? "Nothing ever is these days..." I don't know how it happened just now, but my excitement slowly dwindled away, leaving me emptier now than before. As much as I wished I could prove this Altiri paradox, I could tell it wasn't the most motivating thing to me in the world. So much about me felt off now that I didn't know what to think about life anymore. Because of my sadness mixing with familiar feelings, my gaze drifted over towards Malica at a distance. I just let them rest on her face for now, that dreamy look in her eyes longing for something too.

"She really did you in, huh?"

I once again forgot that Lumina could so easily follow the focus of my eyes. She saw me staring at Malica again, and since I was already caught in the act, I glanced away from her, fixing my gaze to the ceiling having learning nothing in math class. "I don't want to talk about it, only because it would be wasting both of our time. And that is something I hate doing."

"You know, I could try to help you in social situations. If all you want to do is mingle with those around you and make new friends, I can help you learn what to say to them, even how to say it..."

I hadn't expected that much sentiment from her, especially considering her purge was the thing that threw me off course to begin with... It's a nice idea and all, but, "That's just stupid. If you don't know already, I'll fill you in. Nobody will ever like me. I'm already strange enough as it is... And now look what's happened to me." I did my best to hold it all in, but the tears from my soul leaked into my eyes, revealing to myself what I really wanted out of all this. All I want in life are friends to hang out with, friends to have fun with. But I can never have that, because I'm too much of a weirdo, too much of a loser, a nobody who freaks other people out.

"Strange isn't always a bad thing. You can meet incredible people when they stand out in a crowd. You obviously don't seem to like the normal life of school clichés or the idiots roaming all about. You want something real, something special."

I couldn't deny it. Lumina was more right about what I wanted now than she ever could be, and I wasn't kidding myself about it either. But just because I want something doesn't mean I can have it. Just because I know what I like and don't like, doesn't mean anything will change. "I only like what I like. I'm picky, selfish even. What can my preferences ever grant me in life? What can I ever hope to obtain from being my own person?"

"Knowing what you do and don't want isn't a bad thing. You want to know what it gives you in life? I'll tell you... It gives you mental clarity."

Her answer was so specific, it left me speechless for a few seconds... And then, the school bells rang again, forcing time to advance forward, and amaze me to realize that Lumina and I have been talking for more than an hour consecutively. But I didn't want to move out of my seat right now. I didn't want to let this go until I had it all figured out.

"I'll prove it."

She'll prove it? I think I kind of understood what she wanted to try, but I wouldn't be able to do anything until I have one more class with a free period in it. On top of that, my student schedule has been altered since this morning due to some dumb elective mistake. I'll have to plan for this then. "Okay then. I have Gym in fourth period. I'm pretty sure today is another free day, so we have the time to figure it out there. Just tell me what I have to do."

"Simple," she replied in confidence. "You show me every student that you care to show me, and I will tell you what I can about them from a glance. Then, you are going to try and talk to them, but with my help this time. I'm going to tell you what to say, so that you can relay that to them. Just don't translate word per word; adopt your own meaning as you go."

So her plan is to hide in my own head telling me what to say to people on my behalf? Now that I thought about it, it wasn't the worst idea ever, and I don't have that much more to lose.

"What do you say? Are you in?"

I feel like I've become trapped in one of those weird dating simulators, and Lumina wants to be my guide for it all. If she wants to help me with this, I won't stop her. When the time is right, she can become my wing-woman. With no further stalls, I gave her my answer with all the determination I harbored to this desire. "Gladly."