Chapter 9: Chapter 8

I had been just standing outside The Headmaster’s office for the past couple minutes. You’d think such a supposedly important person would have an assistant of some kind, or at least be in one of the more central rooms of the building- and you’d be wrong. Apparently their office was in one of the turret-tower-things on the corner of the main administration building. The door looked like it was to a janitorial closet or something except for the small nameplate beside it saying “Headmaster’s Office.”

 

After a couple more deep breaths, I worked up my courage enough to knock- but just before my knuckles could make contact, the door opened. Standing in the doorway was the heavily bundled form of the supposed leader of this whole place. I stood there for a couple seconds as they stared at a watch on their wrist- which are all extremely expensive by the way. As I finally put my hand down, they looked up at me- yes up, they were surprisingly short- and motioned for me to come inside.

 

I had thought it was weird that their office was on the first floor instead of the third and highest, but as I walked through the threshold I realized it went from the first to the third. There were no windows, and the only door was the one I came in through. Bookshelves lined the circular room and went floor to very high ceiling. A single tracked ladder like in older libraries appeared to be the only way to get to the higher shelves as there were no platforms or landings at any point up the walls. At about what would be the third floor floor level in the air was a round platform suspended by cables- and given there were no chairs or desks on the bottom floor, I feared the worst.

 

The Headmaster rolled the ladder to a particular position and grabbed onto the base, calling back “Please follow us up, we shall discuss on our office.”

 

I wasn’t necessarily scared of heights, but climbing a fragile-looking, rolling ladder up a floor and a half would likely be enough to give anyone second thoughts. Despite my trepidations, The Headmaster scurried up startlingly quickly. Given no choice but to follow, I sighed and nervously followed up as instructed. When I looked down about halfway up I was kinda surprised that I didn’t actually mind. 

 

This revelation sent me into a state of cognitive dissonance. One part of me was saying I should be atleast nervous, while another argued it was just like the cliffs I used to live in. This cascaded into more confusion at where I used to live and other conflicting and vaguely remembered parts of my past lives before The Headmaster called out once again.

 

Once I got onto the platform I found The Headmaster sitting behind a desk on a very heavy looking chair, with a matching one across from them. As I sat down, they started “We hope we did not cause you confusion with the welcoming. We like to ask and be certain of when guests will arrive to properly greet them.”

 

“Who did you ask, I was a couple minutes early for the arranged time,” I replied trying to be respectfully confused.

 

“We ask questions and get answers- any question. All questions. All we can think of. This is why we have such records.” As they finished their statement, they gestured to the massive amounts of books lining the walls and the one sitting on the desk- neatly and tightly packed with questions and answers I couldn’t quite make out. “We have been asking for a long time and listening for longer. We have learned people do not like to wait once they have decided to commit to an action.”

 

“That is actually quite considerate.”

 

“We try.” After a short break to take a sip of water during which I only saw a flash of their mouth under the scarved and large hat they always wore, they asked, “You are not entirely from this world correct?”

 

I startled a little before hesitantly answering, “yes…”

You are reading story Spiral Hill at novel35.com

 

“That is good, it lines up with my answers. Consistency is good. We know you had a questioning with your last teacher, yes?”

 

“Yeah, I somehow got the classes pre-test correct, which led to them thinking I was cheating. I honestly was dead tired when I took it and can’t really remember it at all.”

 

“We know you did not cheat… you are simply more knowledgeable than you were even mere days ago. A blessing or a curse it will be, my questions cannot answer. One must seek new questions to answer- do not bother with that anymore. Your knowledge is useful for me to find questions I have not considered- do you have a gift of a question to ponder?”

 

I was a bit surprised by their sudden excitement when asking about my other life, so I quickly replied “Uhh, do quantum mechanics exist in this world?” while trying to keep my voice from wavering as much as possible.

 

“That is a question that requires many more to even start picking away at. Very good.” Another sudden tone shift, this time to a much more serious voice happened as they explained, “We think we are close to identifying rules behind Abilities. We know yours will appear tonight. We would like you to try something. We know you are more aware during your dreams- a consequence of having a mental node fractured and reformed. You will know that your dream tonight will be the gods plumbing your brain for desires and ideas of how to manifest them. We request you recognize this and think of more ideas not present in this world to see how such actions affect the selection of your Abilities.”

 

The penetrating look in their eyes as they waited for my reply made my adrenaline surge. As I tried to calm myself I managed to squeak out, “I think I could try that- but if I may ask, what is a mental node?”

 

“We forgot you have not taken classes on Ability-theory. One’s mental node is where their mind- or a copy- truly lives. We know it is not within these dimensions. We theorize it allows for others to use Abilities that would reshape or destroy their brain without killing themself, and use abilities to seance or resurrect a proper consciousness.”

 

“I see…”

 

“Remember to think of ideas from the other world tonight. We look forward to your awakening- it is the only thing we cannot ask about and get an answer for in any form.”

 

After they said that, they leaned over the notebook on the desk and started writing while muttering to themself. I was left awkwardly sitting there for almost a minute waiting for them to do anything before excusing myself and shakily climbing down the ladder.

 

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