"Did he find a way I can go home???..." I asked as Scarlet lead the way to Paul's room.
"You don't like it here??.." Scarlet asked sounding worried.
"It's great... It's everything I ever wanted.... but I have a loving family back home...." I replied.
"Yeah..... Must be hard to leave your family behind I guess...." she replied
"Do you have any family????...." I asked feeling curious as she hasn't mentioned anything about her family before.
"Aside from Ashley and Paul.... no family.... I don't even know my parents....." she answered.
".... What happened??..." I asked feeling extremity worried for her.
"Ummm as long as I can remember I was alone before I met Paul." she answered.
"Ohhh..... I'm so sorry." I instinctively replied to her.
"It's okay brighter days now." she smiled.
"That's great." I replied.
"I don't want to scare you or anything but there's a punishment for dissertation...." she warned me opening the door to Paul's room.
"Hey scarlet did you find Emilia??..." he asked as she entered.
"Yeah.... she's behind me." Scarlet answered him.
"Great..." he replied sounding a little nervous.
"What's going on??? Anyways.... what's with the hush hush???..." she asked him.
"Hey Paul...." I hesitantly greeted him.
"Hey.... take a seat... while we wait for Ashley to arrive." He asked sounding still sounding slightly nervous at my arrival.
"Okay....." I answered him quietly taking a seat, "Ummm how comes you called me here ??..." I asked.
".... I kinda found a way to help your home issue...." he replied sounding very quiet as if hesitant to suggest it…..
"Really???...." I asked extremely curious on what he could try and do.
"It's not easy it will take a few hours.... but I could make a clone of you....." he sheepishly explained.
"Okay...." I replied still unsure what he's planning.
"So.... we can either send your clone home.... and she will live your life for you there.... while you're here...." he carried on trying to explain. "or.... you can choose to go back home... and I'll fake your death with your clone.... and rewrite your memory so you don't remember anything that happened here....." he finished explaining.
"Paul that spell normally takes 12hours to a day to cast....." Scarlet asked feeling unsure.
"Yeah I know .... I'll have to burn a wish" he replied.
"A wish???..." I asked.
"Yeah.... it's a powerful spell.... nothing like three wishes from genie extremely limited in scope and power." he answered me.
"How many can you do??..." I asked in shock at the revelation.
"At the moment six..... But it's extremely taxing anything after one without a few weeks of rest will be extremely strenuous on me...." he answered.
"So you wish for a clone??.." I asked trying to grasp the situation.
"..... No.... I'll use the wish spell to cast another spell called Simulacrum and hopefully make it faster." he answered me.
"Wait wait wait.... you can make a clone of me??....any time you want…." I asked in total shock.
"Kinda….... you will need to be there....so that's why I wanted to see you tonight...." he replied.
"and my clone.... what can it do???...." I ask slightly shocked and horrified at the thought.
"Well I haven't made one before but in my studies they say it should be near perfect copy..... Personality and all.... and will stay 'alive' until it.... she get killed or I willing stop it's exsistance..." he explained.
"So you're gonna make a clone of me that's is almost like me but you have total control over it...." I asked as a whirlwind of emotions came flooding in.
"No no no no..... I won't do anything inappropriate with it.... if you're wondering that..... It can basically mimic you.... and has your memories and things so it should theoretically fool your family and friends without raising an eye of suspicion....." he answered extremely panicked at my reaction.
"Paul that idea is so wrong in many ways!" I honestly replied to him disgusted at the thought of him having total control over me… or a copy of me.
"We can do some other options....." he asked.
"There are other??..." I look at him cautiously feeling slightly fearful of what he can do.
"Well I can alter your family and friends memories.... and put in a plausible explanation for your frequent disappearances." he replied.
"You can alter people's minds and memories??!!!!" I looked at him with a little fear on what he is capable of doing with his magic.
"... I shouldn't have said anything.... I'm sorry...." he replied quickly walking into the kitchen.
"Paul wait...." Scarlet tried to talk to him before she was interrupted by the closing of the door.
The room now completely silent from what just conversed. Scarlet took a seat opposite to me the expression of concern plastered all over.
".... I know you're shocked at what we can do with magic in this world.... but.... I can assure you he has a good heart.... he would never do such a thing to people especially people he loves....." She explained.
"I know... but he has the possibility to..... How would I even know if he's done it to me??.... Or even you???..." I asked
"He always taught me something very important….. A quote from a Drider…. Something about 'With Great power comes…. Something'.... Anyways…you know.... it might have been years and maybe feel like another lifetime since you knew each other..... But look deep into your heart.... you know although he is capable of such actions he would never do anything like that with malicious intent…" Scarlet said.
I remains silent a part of me knowing what she said was completely true, and I just overwhelmed by the thought of his capabilities.
"Besides I'm immune to Mind magic so he can't possibly do such a thing to me..." she said with a smile.
"What do you think I should do??..." I asked feeling out of my depth.
"Well..... You said you didn't like it here so I guess we can send you off home and fake you're death with the clone...." she said after taking a small pause to weigh up the situation.
"But do you need to wipe my memory aswell???" I asked.
"Sadly.... because if you change your mind later... I don't think we can miraculously bring you back to life..... And erasing your memory although is very heart breaking.... but it's the best course of action....." She replied with a frown.... "Also.... if anyone was to catch you using arcanum then there would be so much backlash that even we wouldn't be able to pull string or talk our way out of it...." she added.
"Yeah but..... Having a clone of me living out my life back home.... that's just crazy and absurd...." I replied.
"I know... like we said it is literally a mirror copy of you." she answered.
"But how.... I have a soul.... I have a mind and heart.... how possibly can it be a copy of me....." I asked in disbelief.
"We don't understand ourselves how a near perfect copy can just be created through magic but it does....." she informed me.
"And what if I go home??....how do I know what she did while I was here...." I asked.
"Well I'm sure you realised by now Paul and I can use mind altering magic..... We could fuse your memories..... Or project them for you to see..." she explained.
....I remained completely silent again unsure how to feel.... but defiantly feeling some sort of anger and disgust…. The invasion of privacy being able to copy someone….. able to dominate or alters people's minds and memories… everything felt absolutely wrong.
"..... I know this is all so overwhelming.... I can tell you're feeling all sort of emotions after learning what we can do with magic." she said understanding me. "And trust me... Paul only wants the best for you... he only wants to help you whatever way he can...." she replied.
"Can't we just tell my family where I've gone???.." I asked her unsure why we have to keep it a secret.
"Because we aren't allowed to intervene in other planes.... the introduction of magic could have devastating consequences.... so there's a laws setup to stop that and a special policing unit to even stop it from happening...." Scarlet explained.
"But how will they know???..." I asked.
"We don't know ourselves that policing division it's shrouded in mystery we don't even know how many members there are where they operate .... We only know that the penalty is either death or imprisonment or worse" Scarlet answered.
.... I remained silent shocked at how shockingly horrible this world was.
"I know... I know..... Paul said he felt like that when he first arrived...." Scarlet informed me.
"Hey guys!!!!" Ashley said bursting through the door with a large black briefcase. "Ohhh Hey Emilia!" he said with a jolly smile noticing me.