Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The voice seemed shocked by the words, but it settled itself soon after.

<I don't think it's going to help one bit, but I'll do my best to shed some light in this matter… You remember of the Children of the Empress, right?> the voice asked.

"Of course," Evin replied, shocked by what it meant.

The Children of the Empress were people who reincarnated in the bodies of children, with full access to the memories of their previous life. They were always born as mages, and they were always good at magic. Evin even heard rumors about. Urven, the one who betrayed the six mages sent to murder King Roland, being a Child of the Empress.

The kingdom looked at these individuals with neutral eyes, if not a warm one. They knew of their existence and they knew of their promising futures. The various nobles and eccentrics often tried to curry favors with them, vying to be the first ones to lend a hand to these promising youths. Many others saw them in a more negative light. They doubted their claims, but could not outright deny them, as it was difficult to either confirm or deny these claims.

<I feel that I'm a failed Child of the Empress,> the voice explained. <I mean no insult or hurt when I say this, but I don't think we were supposed to share this one body. It was either you or me, but through some mishap unknown to either you and me, we share it together.>

"Why would that happen?" Evin asked, "If it is the Empress' will, wouldn't it be made perfectly?"

<Nothing proves that these reincarnated individuals are things that the Empress willed. It could simply be a natural occurrence that happened in the world, and the people decided one day it was something the Empress willed. And again, as much as I'm getting tired of saying this, we have no concrete knowledge of our situation. It could be that, or it could be something else entirely.>

"Does that mean you've been a mage in your previous life?" Evin murmured, but instantly found the flaw in his thinking, "No… You know too little about magic itself, but more about science, as you say yourself."

<Yes. And with that, let me tell you of another secret that I hold,> the voice said sighing, <I come from a planet, or should I say a world, far different from yours.>

Evin's mind stopped abruptly, struggling to process the information it just received.

"What are you talking about?"

<I know it sounds unbelievable, but there are different worlds in this universe. Well, there is at least one more world in this universe other than this one - my home world. It didn't have mages, nor the Empress, nor different advanced species other than humans, but we did have advanced technologies and many other… well, stuff,> the voice shrugged.

"The world is the universe, right? They're the same thing," Evin asked stubbornly, still not convinced by the voice's words.

<The two terms mean similar things to you, but they mean two different things to me. And I reckon that there are two different terms , because there was a need to distinguish it.>

With the help of the voice's mind, Evin was able to pick up on the hint: the need to have the two terms in a language. Evin dug his head for information, and sure enough, even in Imperial, there were two different words, meaning 'world' and 'universe'.

"Does that mean there are people in this world, who know of these other worlds?"

<I'm sure the Empress knows, if any talk of her omnipotence and omniscience is to be believed.>

Evin slouched back on his bed, feeling that he discovered something he shouldn't have. And abruptly, he rose from his bed and searched his room for Talismans of Listening.

<Don't worry about people hearing us. None other than Arza and Leanne came to your room and didn't see them leaving anything here. And as far as I can tell, there's not a soul nearby to listen to you talk.>

"How do you know that?"

<I told you. The things I can do are becoming more sophisticated. I'm sure it's thanks to the two World Shards you absorbed… This is also the reason I'm so doggedly chasing for more power,> the voice reminded once more. <Perhaps if we throw ourselves into magic wholeheartedly, we might be able to solve our problems by ourselves.>

As Evin sat thinking about the implications and consequences of this revelation, his mind was very quickly overwhelmed by excitement and worries. It did not help that he possessed access to the voice's over-active mind.

<Sigh. Forget about this matter for now,> the voice seemed to shrug. <Get dressed and go to your classes. It's history and society in an hour, and I don't want to miss any of them.>

Evin was sure he still had many questions in his head, but he understood that the voice would be unwilling to answer them. What it told him so far was too big of a secret to swallow whole for him.

He then pondered on its suggestion and was reminded of his life as a student once more. Although his resolutions and newfound agreements with the voice had greatly changed his outlook on the future, life had to go on. And Evin was excited to continue living with such a strong will to bring change to his situations.

'Something tells me that these moments of newfound resolution came about at nights, right before one slept, only to be forgotten after a long night of dreams,' Evin thought amusedly.

He washed his face, fixed his hair a bit, wore his cleaned uniform and walked to his class. On the way, he saw a few Demanders and Pleaders arguing with each other, talking about the proper use of magic. The Pleaders admonished the Demanders to not use magic so vainly and disrespectfully, while the other side belittled the Demanders for being so small-hearted and short-sighted.

Evin guessed that these were the conflicts that Alvert expected and wondered if they would keep this up for the entire two months like the teacher predicted.

He passed by them and entered his classroom, but only found two others in it. One was Bellaslayn, as Evin learned from the Combat Training class, and the other was Kona, who seemed uncomfortable in the presence of the noble.

Evin guessed that the other students haven't come yet, walked over to Kona's side and greeted her politely. The latter moved over to share her seat. But as they started some small-talk, Bellaslayn moved closer to the two and asked with amused displeasure.

"A tad rude to walk past me without even a greeting, no? Mister Evin?"

Evin was surprised to see the girl showing interest in him, as she all but ignored everyone during the classes Evin attended with her, but he quickly hid the shock and apologized politely.

"I'm sorry if I slighted you. I imagined you wanted to be left alone, Lady Bellaslayn."

He stole a glance towards Kona and found her withdrawing to herself, clearly unused to Bellaslayn's presence.

"Just call me Bella and I'll call you Evin," Bella shrugged and continued, "I wanted to ask you something. May I?"

"Sure… If you don't mind Kona here."

"Of course not," Bella smiled and cleared her voice. "I ask you to teach me illusions."

"Illusions?"

"Yes, the ones you used with your fight against Decatur."

"I don't think I have many things I can teach you," Evin shrugged.

Even if he knew and understood what the voice was doing to achieve those illusions, he wasn't willing to part with them.

"All the better. It means that whatever you know is crucial in casting illusions," Bella's eyes shimmered with anticipation. "You see, I've been studying on the topic for three years now, but never once I came close to doing what you did. Of course, I had instructors, teaching me about the element of thought, but lately I've begun to think that there are other possible schools of thought. Ones that might deny the existence of these elements."

Evin assumed a thinking pose, before shaking his head.

"I have trouble understanding what I do. I have no wish to explain it to another."