“The best people to work for are me, myself and I.”

Oscar Wilde

“What?” I asked astonished staring at myself in what had been the most private of my refuges, my mind. I being Kai if you were as confused as I was.

“You missed a notification when gaining analyse.” The mental me identifying as Callen smiled, clearly far more aware of what was going on than I was. “They were not just skills levelling up.”

“I did?” I asked again. I did not feel that I was making the best first impression on myself but I was still in shock. This had always been a private space despite the multiple clones I had created to represent and run parallel processing. They had only ever been separate representations of my single mind. A way of focusing on multiple different tasks much like playing ten different fingers on a piano and singing at the same time while watching a conductor and listening to the others in an ensemble. It worked as long as it was moving forward in harmony. This was something different and I didn’t know quite how to react.

“Yes,” he teased. “The one that said, Ding! Multiple Minds (Lv 1)!”

“Multiple Minds?” I repeated incredulously.

“Level 1.” He added. “I’ve had till now to think it over. I’ll give you a minute he said sitting down in one of the chairs and manifesting a book to write in just as I did.

I quickly reviewed what had happened earlier and how I could have missed it focussed as I was on achieving some form of skill to block observation of my status it had not felt comfortable holding in my mind the fortress and my status. Locking it within had clearly done more than just give me the skill Status Block. It had split my mind in two. No wonder my head was hurting so much. There were now two of me in here.

Callen had closed the book and was waiting for me to come to the same realisation that he had clearly come to significantly earlier. Although his existence alone alongside his ability to operate within my mind while watching from my command room had obviously made it instantly obvious to him, me, myself, or rather my other self. This was going to be confusing.

“So, you are me and I am you?” I asked to confirm my thoughts.

“As far as I can tell, but try to be more precise in your questioning. I understand you but I doubt many others would.” Callen seemed happy enough in existence and unworried about mine but he had as I had thought earlier had longer to come to grips with it.

“It might help to go over our status and skills to highlight the changes.” He added clearly having already done so. “Though it is to be expected with another Tier 5 skill.”

“Tier 5?” I whispered. No wonder it had hurt.

“Take a look and see,” Callen suggested waiting for me to reach the same conclusions that he had. “I’ve reorganised them by skill levels. They were quite cluttered and in my humble opinion due for a consolidation provided Lady Acacia agrees.”

I turned to the wall the core of my existence. My status inscribed now read as follows. It was getting just a little bit longer.

Level: 16

Title: Lord

Métier: Singer LV4

Name: Callen Kai Silversea

Age: 5 years 0 months 1 week 12 hours 30 minutes 15 seconds

Metier Experience: 200/3200

General Experience: 37,400/819,200

Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 1000/1000 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1010/1010

Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky

Vitality: 100

Endurance: 100

Strength: 100

Dexterity: 100

Senses: 100

Mind: 101 +1

Clarity: 100

Magic: 100

Charisma: 100

Luck: 100

Free Points: 211 (Locked)

Skills Tier 1:

Swimming (LV52 -> 60) Running (LV52 ->55) Meditation (LV51 ->54) Time Sense (LV51 ->53) Breath Control (LV46 ->51) Singing (LV48 ->50) Diving (LV40 ->50) Sailing (LV40 ->50) Dodge (LV40 ->50) Knots (LV43 ->45) Draw (LV39 - >44) Knife (LV40 ->44)Listening (LV44) Stitching (LV43) Climb (LV40 ->42) Trading (LV33 -> Lv40) Humming (LV34 ->39) Drumming (LV35 -39) Whistling (LV33 ->38) Sneak (LV31 -36) Calligraphy (LV25 ->Lv31) Farming (LV25 ->31) Acting (LV25 ->30) Balance (LV25 ->30) Throw (LV20 ->26) Bussola (LV20 ->25)Mathematics (LV20 ->24) Insight (LV10 ->19) Glide (LV10 ->19) Poise (LV10 ->19) Grace (LV10 ->19) Charm (LV10 ->19) Composure (LV10 ->19) Lie (LV12 ->16) Elvish (LV 5->16) Giant (LV 5->16) Dwarf (LV 5->16) Pixish (LV 5->16) Gnomish (LV 5->16) Koboldogo (LV 5->16) Beastkin (LV 5->16) Halfling (LV 5->16) Appeal (LV7 ->15)Ambidextrous (LV 10 ->15) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Silent Step (LV5 ->14) Deft touch (LV5 ->14) Posture (LV5 ->14) Dance (LV5 ->14) Sprint (LV5 ->14) Inspect (LV1 ->10) Riding (LV1 ->10) Rapier(LV5->9) Spear(LV5->7) Painting (LV1 -> Lv5) Axe (LV1 ->4) Baton (LV1 ->4) Club (LV1->4) Dagger (LV1->3) Estoc (LV1->4) Flail (LV1->4) Glaive (LV1->4) Halberd (LV1->4) Pike(LV1->4) Mace (LV1->4) Morning star(LV1->4) Quarterstaff(LV1->4) Sword(LV1->4) War Hammer (LV1->4) Archery (LV2 ->4) Cook (LV3) Sketching (LV1 -> 3) Drafting (LV1 ->3) Blacksmithing (LV1 ->2) Carpentry (LV1 ->2) Mining (LV1 ->2) Teaching (LV1 ->2) Measurement (LV 1) (81 Skills)

Tier 2:

Sense Mana (LV48 ->50) Quick reflexes (LV48 ->50) Eavesdrop (LV39 ->50) Rebec (LV20 -> 31) Aulos (LV20 ->31)Linguistics (LV20 ->31) Cornu (LV20 ->31) Harp (LV20 ->31) Memorisation (LV30) Recall (LV30)Cartography (LV20 ->26) Composition (LV23) Pain Tolerance (LV20 -> 23) Stealth (LV20 ->23) Spellcraft (Lv10 ->19) Spellsong (Lv10 ->19)Order (LV6 ->18) Transplant (LV12) Misdirection (LV9 ->14) Knife Arts (LV10 ->14) Haggling (LV6 ->11) Mind Sense (LV5 ->11) Observe (LV1 ->5) Martial Arts (LV4) Cruising (LV1) Poison Tolerance (LV1) Treasure Sense (LV1) (27 Skills)

Tier 3:

Expel Mana (LV45 ->50) Mana Manipulation (LV40 ->50) Gale (LV29 ->50) Echolocation (LV35 -49) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21 ->25) Ignite (LV16 ->25) Melt (LV11 ->25)Command (LV4 ->17) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Deception (LV4 ->11) Analyse (LV1 ->2) Racing (LV1) Smuggling (LV1) Seismic Sense (LV1) (16 Skills)

Tier 4:

Parallel Processing (LV 20 ->30) Virtuoso (Lv25 ->30) Polyglot (Lv 20 ->30) Stone shaping (Lv5 -24) Material Manipulation (LV21) Mana Drain (LV 20) Seafaring (LV1) Block Status (LV1) (8 skills)

Tier 5

Mind fortress (Lv19 ->20) Multiple minds (LV 1) (2 skills)

Skill experience: 11700 (131,300 wiped by recalibration)

Origin experience: 0 (16,000 wiped by recalibration)

Combat experience: 0 (12,000 wiped by recalibration)

Craft experience: 0 (14,000 wiped by recalibration)

Trade experience: 10,000 (18,000 wiped by recalibration)

Popular experience: 19,000 (39,000 wiped by recalibration)

Exploring experience: 0 (47,000 wiped by recalibration)

Total Experience gain since last stat check: 286,300 (Wiped by recalibration)

Experienced gained since Recalibration 40,700

. . . .

“I’ve tried to work out the experience gained and lost from the recalibration but it all gets a little confusing especially with the recalibration wiping it blank. I think it is impossible to work out exactly what got added when and where. But this is the best I could do.” Callen excused. “I have been able to go back through our notes on where our skills were but and how they have increased. However other than Inspect, Observe, Analyse and now Multiple minds we have not worked on anything since the heist and we were focused on our singing skills after our first visit to the church.” Callen explained the process he had gone through. And there it was, a second tier 5 skill, Multiple Minds. It did not take a lot of brain power to work out what that particular skill was doing. I had inadvertently managed to multiply myself. Or split myself in two.

“I think in retrospect we should have possibly avoided using the Mind fortress to seal our status.” Callen iterated the conclusion he had arrived at. “I think that either the system or the lodestar, whatever rules or gods that define or control this world objected to what we were attempting to do.” He verbalised his thoughts.

“Objected?” I asked. “Rules or Gods? Those are some rather large assumptions.” I replied. “Besides we got more than one skill out of it in the end, Status Block and Multiple Minds.”

“Multiple minds but we only have one body. Are we going to take turns?” Callen quizzed comically but the humour covered up a deeper darker question.

“I don’t see why not,” I answered. Not particularly keen to return to my body while my head throbbed incessantly. I could do with a break.

“So . . . sharing. I wonder what Lady Acacia would see if she looked at us now. One soul with two minds or two souls with one mind?” Callen considered.

“Let’s not find out just yet. I can always end the skill. In fact, we might need to if my headache continues to increase. I was meant to be having a nap to help alleviate it. However, having met you in here I would not be surprised if the extra mind is the reason for my headache.” I cautioned.

“It’s that bad?” Callen asked.

“I think it is responsible for the raise in my pain tolerance so it certainly isn’t pleasant,” I replied.

“Are you happy for me to check it out?” Callen cautiously asked. We had watched enough Sci-fi to be aware of the problems with multiple selves but hopefully, with a system-endorsed skill, and a certain level of sensibility around the matter we could be reasonable enough not to end up mutilating one another.

“Go ahead. As I said I came in here to get away from the pain.” I answered. On the one hand, I wondered whether this was the right decision on the other hand he was me. “I’ll go to the command room,” I said as I made my way to the room where I could watch the outside world from the inside. He though closed his eyes and disappeared as if he had never existed although I knew that he was returning to the surface to inhabit the body I viewed as mine. I quickly made it to the command room in time to witness my head buried in my hands. My head clearly still hurt despite which mind was thinking in it.

“Yep, this is no fun and certainly stronger than before. I am coming back in.” He said before he returned to our mind fortress to join me at command.

“It is probably the new skill.” He explained his thoughts. “That was not pleasant at all.”

“We might need to end the skill.” I cautiously suggested unsure of how he/me would take it.

“Right, right, Time for me to go and let us recover.” He quickly suggested refusing to hesitate.

“See you around then.” He said as he ended the skill and disappeared. It was weird not to be in control of the skill even stranger still was the sudden influx of memories from the last hour that I had not lived or witnessed yet somehow now did. I had memories of him watching from within command as we informed our parents. It felt weird to remember something I had done but from another point of view even if it was my own. Too much to think about just now. I returned to the world to find the headache clearing. I would wait until it was gone before attempting the skill again. I would have to build up a tolerance for the skill but this might just solve my troubles with not enough time.

I would have to see if I agreed with myself. Time for that nap. The Archbishop would be here soon.