Chapter 12: 12: A Path in the Woods

********** Melissa’s POV **********

Camping was exhausting. Most weekends I found the activity refreshing but everything my friends did was getting on my nerves. I blamed it on having bad sleep for the past couple nights, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty for how short tempered I was. Even Pia had asked me what was going on and she was the most emotionally oblivious of the group. The worst part was that I couldn't pinpoint what was causing my bad sleep. There were no nightmares to be seen and the fresh air while hiking still felt amazing and energizing during the day. I just felt out of sorts the entire time.

The drive back to campus was relatively uneventful at least. I managed to sleep a bit, but mostly I just responded to missed messages and stared out the window at the landscapes flying past. I found several messages from Nate and told him we could talk when I got back. He sounded a little anxious and I realized that my spell could be responsible for my recent exhaustion. It wasn’t very likely, but maybe there was something off about it given the drain I had felt on Friday night.

It was likely time to drop the prank anyway. His next couple messages made my decision even easier. I didn't want to risk his transformations progressing enough that dysphoria set in on top of whatever nonsense his parents had brought up this time. Not that I thought the transformations would get that far in less than a week or two.

Jenna was in charge of the music since she was driving and had chosen some upbeat pop. It wasn't my favorite genre at the best of times and I found it only worsening my mood now. I found myself getting angry on my friend's behalf as I responded to my other messages. 

Nate's parents were the biggest thing wrong with him in my eyes and every interaction he had with them further proved that to me. Our first few interactions had been garbage due to the things they had taught him. It wasn't until a loud drunken argument that I had learned he was actually pretty reasonable once you got past the learned bigotry. He was eager to apologize whenever he learned he was wrong and we became fast friends once we gave each other an actual chance. 

We had Amanda to thank for that. She had a strange penchant for matchmaking her friends together, both romantically and platonically. I idly wondered what Nate would look like if my spell continued for a few weeks, but lost my train of thought quickly as I started imagining pretty girls in general. There wasn't even that much of a similarity between the girls I imagined but just…girls. I shook my head out of my gay revelries as we pulled into a gas station.

A few hours later, I was dropped off at home and promised Kristina I would study with her later. I collapsed into my bed as soon as I got to my room. There was nothing like sinking into a soft mattress after sleeping outdoors. I wanted to just go to sleep until classes in the morning but I resisted the urge. Barely. After a few minutes enjoying the relaxing feeling, I begrudgingly got up and put my supplies away. 

I ran into Amanda as I was leaving and we chatted briefly. It sounded like it had been a pretty low key weekend. She hadn't seen much of anyone else, but that was pretty typical. Especially since she was usually out partying most weekends. Or working to afford her tuition. Or just generally being the social butterfly that she was. Even tonight, she was heading out to a movie night with some friends and only briefly stopped at home. Her ability to juggle two majors, a job, and her absurd social life never ceased to amaze me. Part of me envied her for how easy she made it all seem, but the other part of me knew that such a busy lifestyle would drive me insane.

20 minutes later, I was sinking into Kristina's couch with a sigh. Any other day I would be excited to share a study session with her but I was just feeling so tired that it was difficult to summon my normal exuberance. We shared two classes this semester luckily, so this was a pretty common occurrence. We started on our intro to biomechanics homework, trading information back and forth until we both felt that we had a good grasp on how to tackle each problem.

It took us a couple hours to get through the few questions we had planned to complete and we were famished by the end. We took a quick break for some dinner, during which we watched some silly videos to turn our brains off for a while. "Oh right! So I recently met this girl I thought would be perfect for you!" I had finally begun to relax when Kristina set my nerves on edge again. "I know you told me to stop setting you up, but I figure she's got similar interests and she's really pretty!" I groaned as she dug herself deeper.

"We've been over this Tina, I'm not looking for a girlfriend right now. And even if I was, telling me some stranger is pretty isn't the way to go. Do we need to have this talk again?" I fixed her with a glare but she just waved her hand at me. She had long since become immune to my minor annoyance, much to my chagrin.

"I know, I know. But she really is nice and she's really into that whole witchy thing. Even if you don't date her, maybe you could at least be friends? She's super shy and I can tell she needs more. And we both know you could too." She gave me a look and I averted my eyes. I had plenty of friends. It wasn't my fault I was too busy to spend time with them more often.

I gave a half hearted shrug. "Fine, yeah. Whatever. Assuming we're going to become friends just because we've got a witchy vibe though is a huge stretch. I'm more than just my vibes after all." I rolled my eyes at my personal joke as she smirked. "Anyway, how's your latest boytoy? What was it, Roy? Ronnie? Ripley?" I knew the last name wasn't correct, but my roommates were rubbing off on me with their choice of games. "I haven't heard you talking about him all weekend."

"His name is Wren. I'd say don't forget it, but who am I kidding. I'm already getting tired of him honestly. I think I might need to give up on frat boys." She paused and giggled before continuing. "Any chance any of that witchery you love so much has something that can make me gay? You at least get to have cool friends come out of half your relationships after all." I threw one of the pillows at her and we both laughed. I knew she was teasing me so I didn't bother correcting her.

We got back to studying, but switched our focus to our upcoming test in our intro nanotech course. It was an absolutely fascinating class but we had to teach ourselves all the material. The teacher was obviously one of those members of the staff that had been hired on for his research expertise and then got roped into teaching a class. His lectures were all over the place and I could only hope for a better professor for the more in depth versions of the class. 

We were about two hours into our study session when I stood up to grab us a soda refill and felt a little woozy. At Kristina's worried look, I laughed it off. "Just stood up too fast. I'm fine." By the time I was in the kitchen it had indeed worn off so I thought nothing of it. Which made it really awkward when I felt myself tipping over as I re-entered the room with our drinks. As I felt myself collapsing, I couldn't help but mutter, "well hey, good thing I didn't open those cans ahead of time."

Next thing I knew, I was standing on a path in the middle of the woods. I examined my surroundings, finding them quite normal, even peaceful. The only strange thing I could see was a tiny strand of discoloration behind me. I almost missed it, but it briefly pulsed brighter as I spun in place. I couldn't interact with it, but when I stepped away from it, I saw that it moved in the same direction. I tried to walk towards it, but it felt as if I were simply walking in place. Next, I tried to walk off the path but found that I would simply walk back onto it as I stepped off.

I sighed. Great. Some sort of magic bullshit path. I tried to cast a simple spell and found that I simply couldn't. It felt as if I was trying to write with an empty pen. I knew how to access the magic and I could even tell where it should have been but it just wasn't there. I puzzled over the oddity of that as I started down the path. Whatever was happening, it obviously involved more hiking. Good thing I liked hiking?

I don’t know how long I had been walking before I saw the first one, but I found a shimmering…hole to my right. I paused when it appeared and tried to see it from other angles, but it simply continued to exist in the same place in my vision as I moved. I could see movements behind it that felt familiar but I didn’t trust it so I tried my best to ignore it as I continued walking. Eventually I found two more around me. One was to my left and the other was almost directly above me. Neither of them felt familiar but I ignored them nonetheless.

I was joined by six more before I was caught by one of the rips. One had opened right in front of me and I didn't notice until I was already falling into it. Next thing I knew, I was on a couch watching a news program. “Earlier today, a minor breach occurred near The Facility. We are not sure what caused the inciting outbreak, but we believe it originated inside a car. Based on the initial reports, we believe the car to have belonged to one Vanessa Helridge. A half transformed body believed to be hers was found in the wreckage but two Fallen were found within a five mile radius.”

I looked around as the news program droned on in the background. The room I was in was a pretty typical apartment. There were some decorations on the walls and basic furniture in the room. “Yet another tragic outcome that begs the question—” I stood up to look at my surroundings but found myself back on the path. It was just as bland and peaceful as I left it.

I blinked a few times as I tried getting my bearings. I instinctively reached my hand out to balance, but found myself in a familiar scene as I accidentally interacted with another rip in my surroundings. I felt my body move without my input as I waved to my first girlfriend. “Over here Sarah!” She nervously smiled at me as she walked over. As she sat down, I felt myself lean over to kiss her but she turned away. I cringed as I realized what memory I was reliving.

It had been a couple years since I last thought of this lunch period, but it still hurt despite the passage of years. Especially with it being so crisp this time. “I-I’m sorry Sands. L-last night was a mistake. I don't think I'm gay. Can we just go back to being friends?” Something was off. Maybe I was just trying to focus on something other than the scene around me, but I focused on my senses one at a time as it continued.

I couldn’t make my body move as it followed predetermined movements, but I tried to focus past how terrifying that idea was. After a few moments, I finally realized that the food I had been eating tasted muted. I could feel myself chewing as my past self worked through the first stage of grief. The taste was closer to what I would expect when I had a cold. If it weren’t for how vivid everything else was, I would have likely ignored the discrepancy, but it felt important somehow.

My body ran out of the room as I continued trying to figure out what was happening. I burst through the door and found myself back on the path, running into yet another scene as I failed to stop my body's momentum. I ignored my surroundings as I came to a stop. This was all some side effect of either dreaming or magic. It had to be. 

I glanced around and considered the combination of the two as I saw people with heads made of cheese walk in and out of giant mushrooms. I tried to remember what had led me here, but the last solid memories I had were of the path. As if summoned, I found myself there again. Luckily this time I didn’t immediately get thrown into another place.

I guessed there were somewhere around 15 bubbles around me now and I tried not to move as I looked around at them. They all seemed very blurry but none looked like any of the last three. Looking down at myself I found nothing out of the ordinary. I expected myself to be wearing some jeans but was wearing…jeans? Wait, that wasn’t right. I had definitely been wearing a skirt a moment ago. And again I was wearing a skirt. Squinting, I imagined a pen in my hand and just like that, it was there. 

Definitely some sort of dream. Maybe. If this was a dream, what was the last thing I could remember of reality? Studying with Tina, right? If I could remember that, then this has to be some sort of magic though, no? I tried to hold onto that memory as I made the decision to explore deeper into whatever this was. I made 3 marks on my arm with the marker the pen became and sighed as I fell to my left.

I somehow landed on my feet on what I could only describe as a rail. It was much wider than a train rail, thankfully, as I couldn’t see the ground beyond it. All around me, I saw bright screens and fast vehicles in some vaguely cyberpunk setting. I jumped off the rail and imagined landing on an air bike equivalent. And continued falling. 

Well there goes the idea that these would follow dream logic. I am woman enough to admit that I screamed. And felt very foolish a blink later as I found myself sitting in a stereotypical diner. Everyone was staring at me and I stopped screaming. I sheepishly looked down and immediately jumped out of my seat as I found a plate full of bugs. I looked over at the other diners and found they were happily eating from similar plates and ran out of the building to vomit.

Vomiting rainbows sounds cute on paper, but let me tell you, it does not save you from the taste. The smell was honestly worse, but I attributed that to my slowly worsening sense of taste. As I wiped my mouth, I looked around and found myself in an honest to Goddess candy kingdom. I rolled my eyes as I made my way over to a gingerbread house. A perfectly normal person stepped out and greeted me. When I attempted to talk to them though bubbles came out of my mouth. I wanted to throw something but it seemed that I could only summon things while on the path.

Once again, I found myself back there with the thought, but the only way I could recognize the path as such now was the dirt underneath me. The forest was completely obfuscated from view by all of the tears surrounding me. I looked down at my arm to make a couple more marks and found it covered with marks. I blinked at it in confusion as I considered the meaning. Had I been doing this for longer than I realized? Or was this a method to stop me from keeping track of time? I looked at my other arm and found it blank. I pointed starting anew with it, but shrugged away the idea since it obviously wouldn’t matter.

Looking behind me, I could still see that faint line from behind me and I tried to focus on it as I stepped through a portal once more. The scene around me changed to that of the top of a skyscraper in the midst of a storm. I ignored my surroundings as I attempted to find the coil of string tying me to that other realm. 

After a few minutes I finally found it again. It was even more faint here, but focusing all my senses, I could feel and see it faintly. Beyond it, I saw a flash of lightning and heard muted thunder in the background. It was strange feeling the thunder in my chest better than I could hear it but I ignored the oddity as I focused on my task.

I tried walking back along the strange tether but found myself unable to. When ignored I could simply step in that direction with no issue. I could even go in circles without resistance as I focused on that strand, yet walking directly back along it was impossible. 

Strange, but I suppose that lent itself to the magic theory well. Magical dreams weren't something I had experienced before but that's what this must all be. That might explain why the forest path seemed to be a focal point connecting all these dreamscapes.

As I found myself once more in said focal point, I sighed and resigned myself to my fate as I walked forward with my eyes closed. I heard the change of scenery but continued walking as I listened to bird calls in the distance and breathed in the scent of pine. Standing still was boring but I was already tired of all these strange places. Better to ignore their visuals.

As I continued, I became aware of a very slight pull to my right. It felt different from the thread I had previously examined. After a few minutes of feeling it shift directions ever so slightly, I shrugged. Figuring there was nothing to lose, I turned towards it, finding no resistance as I made my way forward.

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After some vague amount of time, which could have been hours or months for all I could tell, I opened my eyes once more out of curiosity for the strange whale-like noises I was hearing. I was met by the imagery of colors bleeding together around me. I could still make out my surroundings but they were significantly harder to separate. 

I couldn't tell if it was a strange side effect of whatever dream I had wandered into, so I thought of the path and returned easily. I was only there a moment before I found myself in another psychedelic landscape. I could tell I was in a canyon but rather than the shades of browns and greens I would expect to see, there were purples and grays. My sense of color was still blurred in either case. Sighing, I chose to simply continue towards the pull I could sense slowly growing stronger.

Time passed, along with many new dreams, and I began to notice the further I traveled, the worse all my senses functioned. At first I believed it to be a side effect of following the pull and I broke off from it. I tried to focus on my senses as I did so and wandered through no fewer than 15 dreamscapes before I felt my focus slip for a while. By the time I remembered my task, I could tell my senses were further dulled.

I tried several more times to catch the deterioration with no luck. Given that they were happening whether I filled the mysterious pull or not though, I went back to that path. It was the only constant in a sea of ever-changing nonsense. Best I could tell, it mattered little as far as my worsening senses were concerned. So I used it's comfort as the one source of sanity among the senseless scenes I passed through.

I remembered many things over that period of time. I got to eat pancakes that smelled heavenly even through my reduced senses, but tasted like nothing. I got to feel air fly past wings I shouldn’t have had. And in fact, thinking about the sensation after the fact left me confused as my brain attempted to understand input it was never supposed to encounter.

I listened to a beautiful opera but the memory was overlaid with the screeching of some terrifying beast. I remembered being audience to a scene of a past fight between myself and a younger Estus. Another memory of my parents grounding me for some issue at school managed to hold my attention for some time. I even remembered a place where I saw tastes but tasted feelings and smelled sounds. Even among everything else, that place stood out as it was such a strange mindfuck.

What could have been days or even years passed as I traveled onwards. Eventually though, I found some things changed as I felt I was nearing the end of my path. Colors ceased to bleed throughout my sight, but in place of that effect, I could see the saturation fading from my surroundings. I found it odd but as my other senses had been undergoing similar changes I passed it off as yet another oddity of this dream magic hybrid place.

Finally, I felt a tangible end to the pull as I stepped through a waterfall into a new scene. I stood in an expansive chamber that felt strangely familiar. There were all sorts of computers and other equipment stationed all around it but what drew my attention was the giant shape in the middle of the room. After an incalculable amount of time in grayscale surroundings, the vibrantly chaotic colors bursting forth from it grabbed all my focus.

The thing was a riot of clashing forms. In one area it looked like granite, cracking under the strain of its weight. In another it was such a smooth black, it appeared shiny. Yet another small portion of its surface reminded me of a stylized shooter I once played, looking as if it were trying to get past rendering restrictions in a playful mockery of reality. As I stared, I realized that the thing was pulsating, almost as if it were a heart. Aptly, I didn't notice that detail until my eyes had fallen upon a portion that had similar coloring, though it's texture reminded me more of a sponge. 

With that realization, I found a cold chill run up my spine as a feeling of dread washed over me. I took a stopped, noticing I had unwittingly been stepping closer to the glass walls encasing it as I had examined the thing. There was a sudden clarity in my mind that told me this was not where I was meant to be. It was not part of the path I had been going down. 

The pull it was exerting on me was growing still, almost becoming visible with how close I was. This has all been a trap as opposed to my true goal. I knew that with certainty even as I realized my thoughts were not bringing me back to the path this time.

I felt my feet slide across the floor as the strange object glowed in an unhealthy light and I was pulled closer. I tried to back up, but its pull was only getting stronger as it felt its prey attempting to escape. I reached out to the closest computer bank and just barely grabbed it's corner as my feet slipped out from below me.

Luckily that's when the tether behind me snapped into full strength once more, pulling me back. I saw hundreds of images flash around me as I was pulled backwards. I caught a glimpse of that pleasant diner where I had enjoyed pancakes. I saw the memory of the first time I had cast a spell. I only could recognize it by the surge of pride that poured into me as I passed through it in a moment.

As I was pulled through the scenes, I felt all of my senses return in a rush. I even realized that the sense of flatness I had felt in almost all of them was due to the lack of my magic sense. While not being perceived as its own sense, it seemed it was just as potent in my conception of reality nowadays.

That thought brought a smile to my face as I suddenly was in a blindingly white space. There was nothing around me as far as I could see, yet that didn't scare me. Nor did it hurt my eyes, interestingly. If anything, I felt at peace as I felt the space saturate slowly. I felt exhausted but whole once more. 

The exhaustion made me want to stretch out in a field of grass with a pillow and I found my surroundings once more following my will. A small patch of grass formed below me with what looked to be a perfect pillow. I laid down and looked around the empty space. It felt like home.

I spent some amount of time resting there before I started to feel my surroundings shift. At first they simply felt increasingly saturated, which was a strange sensation. The white nothingness around me felt the same yet fuller? More real. Closing my eyes yielded no change in my vision which was strange enough to make me surmise I must be in my own mind. Or still dreaming, but that felt wrong. Even more so when I felt the same saturated feeling suffuse my body. I could hear the occasional words during all of this, but couldn't make out what they were saying. I also recognized a couple voices, but couldn't place them, much to my annoyance. 

Eventually I felt those feelings fade and almost as soon as I became aware of it happening, I found myself waking up. My memory of that strange place faded with the shift in awareness but not as much as it would with a proper dream. I could still remember most of what happened but fine details were fuzzy. The first thing I noticed was air being pushed into my nose. It wasn't uncomfortable, just an odd sensation. I forced my eyes open, and took in my surroundings.

I was in a pretty stereotypical hospital from what I could see. TV in the upper corner, a few chairs against the wall, and most importantly, that distinctive scent of cleaning products overlaying whatever other scents might be passing through the air at any one moment. Which at this moment happened to be a hint of lilac, likely from a bouquet of flowers on a table in the corner. The only thing that felt out of place was the girl making cute noises a little past the foot of my bed as she stretched. I raised my eyebrows as she bent over, touching her toes.

Staring at someone like this wasn't very like me, but I had to admit she was gorgeous. I felt a tinge of guilt as I found myself looking her up and down. She was wearing a loose T-shirt along with some cute booty shorts that seemed enchanted to draw my gaze to her voluptuous ass. Her face was obscured by auburn hair cascading down a good ways past it as she stretched. 

She held that adorable allure so many nerdy girls at this school shared. She looked like she was too busy to come up with a proper outfit and just tossed on whatever found it's way too her hand first. It somehow worked even better every time in my eyes. 

As she straightened up, I could swear she arched her back to pull my focus back to her rear. Upright, her hair just barely reached the midpoint of her chest. Something about her hit some button on my brain that told me I knew her. I tried to search my memory for who she was but couldn't place her even as she turned and glanced at me, giving me a full view of her face. 

Seeing it and the look of shock on it only convinced me further that I recognized her, but still I couldn't determine how. Her face was soft and cute, even innocent in a strange way. My focus was drawn to the earnest amber-ringed eyes that were widening as I watched. She wasn’t wearing any makeup yet her dark lashes still managed to pull my attention to the depths of her eyes. The sense of familiarity from her seemed to hack my sense of attraction and I licked my lips in hopes of making my mouth feel less dry.

"Why do I feel like I recognize you, yet can't place you, oh girl with the fantastic ass?" I found myself asking, adding the last bit without thinking. Was my flirtatious nature getting out of hand that I could wake up in a hospital and still immediately hit on cute girls? Maybe, but I could claim hospital brain, right?

"Fblthp elt soth," she sputtered in obvious surprise. She gathered herself after blinking at me a few more times and rushed forward. "Mel! You're ok! Holy shit we were so worried about you!" She made to hug me, but stopped halfway through the motion as my words sank in. "Oh uh right. I do look pretty different, huh? What's the best way to answer that? Um…" She scratched her head awkwardly.

She bit her lip adorably as I saw cogs working behind her eyes. She opened her mouth a few times but closed it again each time. After the third such time, my impatience got the better of me. "Your reactions are only making you feel even more familiar. Still can't quite place you though, which is very out of character for me. I usually have a pretty fantastic memory for cuties." The girl's face turned scarlet as I teased her again.

"W-well um," she paused again. "G-give me a second to figure out a good way to explain? I didn’t really think about the fact that I’d look different enough that you wouldn’t recognize me until just now." She let out an awkward chuckle and held her hand up on a placating gesture in a way that reminded me of Nate. She continued in a mutter, "you'd think having a few days would have made me think of this possibility."

I realized quite a few reactions and body language ticks she had displayed were reminiscent of said prickly friend actually. Or maybe his bestie Rachael. How strange, but— "wait, what do you mean, you had a few days?" I interrupted my train of thought as her self-directed words sank in. "Just how long have I been here? What day is it? How much time have I lost?" My mind whirled as I considered the ramifications. What if this was Nate after a few months in my spell? What if he hated me? What had all my friends been up to all this time? Had my family even noticed? What if this was one of my cousins all grown up?

"Y-you um. You've been here a week. It's Friday. Um well I guess Saturday by now. So like 5 days I guess? Or 6 now? I don’t know if you had any tests or anything this past week, but at least ethics was normal? I took notes that you can use? I can help with anything though. If you want. And stuff." She rambled the answers off rapidly in a voice heavy with anxiety. I could see tears collecting in the corners of the girl's eyes as she started to get overwhelmed. I was about to try to comfort her when I heard a completely recognizable voice.

"Hey Soph, I managed to find some of those little cakes and some skitt—" Estus stepped into view with his hands full of snacks. The mystery girl and I stared at him as he took in the scene. "Oh hey Mel. Glad to see you finally decided to wake up. Magic was really kicking your ass, I guess." He gave a cheeky grin and dropped a bag of candy in Sophia's hand as he walked past her to ruffle my hair. I wanted to be mad at the nonchalance he was putting off, but his calm energy actually helped for once. Wait, him?

"Oh hey spawn mate. How is it that every time I see you, that spell of yours is even more subtle? I almost didn’t notice it influencing my mind. I’m guessing the rarity of you feeling like a guy is the only reason I noticed at all. Oh also, who's the girl? A girlfriend or something? She's having some trouble answering it seems." It had been weeks, possibly months since the last time we had spoken. Considering he was the person I was closest to in the family, I was relieved and thrilled he was the one I got to see. Not that I'd ever tell him as much.

"Hmm. That’s a good point. Maybe I should edit that clause. We'll see. In any case, it probably feels more subtle because I keep improving it, silly Milly. And I don't think you need me to answer that question. And even if you did, I wouldn't. After all, I'm not the one that was throwing around poorly crafted curses recently. And at their possibly non-magical friends to boot? Tsk tsk." He shook his head at me sarcastically, but the smile on his face didn't help sell it. His exhaustion was evident in it, but I could feel the heartfelt relief behind the comments. His aura of calm may be magical, but when you knew what to look for, it was still easy to see the feelings lurking within.

I squinted menacingly at him and made a face at his use of the childhood nickname. As he continued, my mind started working at what he had said. Was the implication…? I checked my magic and found no drainage. No connection to anyone. So the person in front of me couldn't be Nate. My spell was no longer active so if it was, he would look like the last time we spoke. The confusion must have been obvious on my face because Sophia piped up.

"As much as I want to ask about the magic stuff, I should just go ahead and get through with the explanation instead of overthinking everything as per usual. Firstly, um no, I'm not their or anyone's girlfriend. Though I do like the ring of that? Much better sounding than boyfriend.” She giggled to herself. “Guess that makes a lot of sense now. Guess there’s a lot of those types of things I’m still gonna be running into." She still sounded very unsure of her words, but was at least speaking now. I saw a small smile play at the corner of Estus' mouth. 

"Right, um anyways, who I am. Focus. I’m your roommate? The one you uh...cursed?” She used air quotes around the word and bit back a smile. I blinked at her words. She fidgeted before continuing awkwardly as the silence stretched. “um, if the meds are still clouding your mind or something, I guess I could say my old name but I’d really rather not? Feels wrong to call myself that. Don’t love hearing it either but I’m sure I’ll have to hear it for a while. Well at least until more people know that I’m the same person and am going by Sophia now. Oh right. I’m going by Sopha now. Or I'm sophia. Or uh however I should be saying that? Or introducing myself?” 

As she continued to ramble, I double checked, and then triple checked, my magic and found no connections to her or anyone. Or anything for that matter. I couldn’t even feel the tiny trickle I associated with the enchantment that let me always find my phone. I spoke slowly as my brain worked double time.

“Ok…Sophia. Cute name. Lots of implications there. That’s a big thing that I have so many questions about. I’m gonna let that one simmer for now. Apologies for the use of the name, but if you are Nate, I have to ask.” I saw her nod with a tiny wince and I continued. 

“How do you still…look like that though? I don’t feel my connection to that spell anymore. Or any other spells for that matter. Did you and Estus cancel all spells connected to me or something? That should have reset you back to the past. Also, is all that somehow related to why I’m in the hospital? Last thing I remember was studying? Or at least, the last thing before those weird dreams. Also, how the hell did you two even meet?” I stopped as I felt myself throw out too many questions at once. Of course, that was the moment a nurse showed up and we had to postpone talking as the room became a hive of activity.

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