Chapter 10: Chapter 9

That night I lay awake, just staring at the ceiling mulling over what I had learned from The Headmaster earlier. What caught my attention the most was that they acted as if they knew the gods were real- but not in a reverent way. I vaguely remembered that there was a theocracy to the east- past the country that shared a border with The Academy in that direction. I couldn’t remember many people mentioning the gods in the past- or maybe it’s more accurate to say it was like those memories were on the tip of my tongue, definitely there but just out of reach.

 

They had also mentioned that my ‘mental node’ was fractured but reformed- and that somehow led to my lucid dreaming? What else would that do to me? Was that why the harder I try to recall personal memories, the father away they seem? 

 

There were just too many things giving me anxiety to feel like I could sleep. But, the funny thing with sleep is that it catches up to you when you least expect.

 

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The entity that called itself Ripple soon found itself in a softly glowing white void. There was a weird pressure on the edges of its mind, which gave off a feeling of simply waiting. Like their other dreams and in accordance with the prediction of their Headmaster, they thought they were completely lucid…

 

“What did the other world have that was advanced?” they thought. “I guess materials science was on the edge of a few wonder-materials. Stuff like graphene and carbon-nanotubes. Heck, even some of the older stuff we made is somewhat unbelievable. My favorite was teflon, a material that just didn’t give a crap about pretty much anything chemical…”

 

CLICK

 

“What did the other world have that was advanced?” they thought. “I guess mat… mathematics were more advanced than people realize. Stuff like the Banach–Tarski Paradox. Wait, is that math? I really don’t know enough about it to even really explain it, but the idea of a way to plausibly duplicate something within understood physics- or something like that- is fascinating…”

 

CLICK

 

…The entity that called itself Ripple soon found itself in a softly glowing white void and all the anxiety they felt from before was gone. It was truly peaceful. The first time they had felt like this since the event that had brought part of them here…

…The entity that called itself Ripple soon found itself in a softly glowing white void and…

You are reading story Spiral Hill at novel35.com

…The…

 

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“I can’t actually remember what- or even if- I dreamed last night,” was the first thing I thought as I woke up. I had remembered my dreams since being here, if I wanted to or not. Wasn’t I supposed to try something in the dream? I guess that doesn’t matter now.

 

It took me longer than it should have to realize I was seeing the same ceiling twice. The feeling reminded me of my first dream I can remember. I tried to pat myself down to check for other abnormalities, but just ended up in a jumble of limbs and sheets. I could feel myself touching a body that also sent feelings of being touched without being the body the hands came from. All this was made worse by the fact it was almost pitch black in the room, so I couldn’t make anything out.

 

Trying to get out of bed was like trying to untangle a knot with your eyes closed- made harder by the fact it felt like my center of gravity was off and everything was really sore. Eventually, I was able to get into a sitting position on my bed and sighed once- but heard it twice. 

 

After that I had separated from… myself… I was able to try to pat myself down again. Yep, I definitely now had two bodies- although one wasn’t wearing my nightclothes- and also had a tail? I still couldn’t see that well, but coming out from my tailbone was a long, hard limb I could kinda control if I tried to. While running my hands along it to get a feeling for its length, I cut my thumb on its top ridge from only lightly running along it.

 

I needed light to get a handle on what was going on. As I sucked on my thumb to stop the blood from getting everywhere, I got up and lit a lamp- only to realize the body that lit it was different from the one that was sucking its thumb. Getting confirmation of the fact I did have two bodies was less confusing than it probably should have been. After regaining the ability to see, I quickly got dressed- and ran into an issue. 

 

Tails typically come out of the base of the spine- and mine was typical in this regard- and the base of the spine sits right below where the waistline of most pants, skirts, and underwear is. This would be less of a problem if my new tail was relatively thin, but it was about 20cm tall and shaped a bit like a teardrop extruded into a 150cm long cone.  If I wore my skirt below it would be too low for comfort- but if I wore it above, I’d have to make sure my tail was pointed down to not flip it up. The best solution would probably be to double-layer in the back and put my tail between them like the uniforms for the beastfolk that have tails. For now I guess I’ll put it under my skirt and ask the school for one of those uniforms.

 

While figuring out those things was a good idea, when I tried to go down the stairs to leave, I realized just how unsteady I was. Having a constantly shifting, decently heavy weight coming out of your back does not help with balance- one of the important things for, you know, walking. So I made the executive decision to take a sick day off from life- made easier by only class for the day was de facto skippable.

 

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