Professor String's advice was simple, and May knew immediately that he was right in coming here.
'You are seeing two pictures,' professor String said, smiling patiently. 'Okay, imagine you are in class. You are seeing me at the front, talking about the first awakening. You are also seeing Professor Kline explaining muscle mass regeneration in class five. Because you are seeing two professors at once, the lessons are jumbled up in your head. Being overworked, your head is shutting down. You just have to figure it out. Maybe you can teach your eyes to see one picture each. Or maybe, you could do it so you see one with your eyes closed, and another with them open. Firstly though, you have to decide which picture is me and which is professor Kline, and who you like better. Me, isn't it?'
For a while professor String stayed by the side, watching and making sure May didn't collapse. And when May seemed to be getting the hang of it, at least without collapsing, professor String left, leaving the study to May.
With his eyes tightly shut, May stopped seeing the room. He welcomed the darkness that came with closed eyes, and then welcomed the shadows hiding behind the darkness. They came at him like the winds of a storm, slamming into him with a force that sent him crashing to the ground. A metallic taste filled his mouth, and a smell of iron filled his nose. Blood, he realised, and felt woozy. Wasn't like he was discomfited by the sight of blood. He had gotten hurt plenty and had bled plenty. But this felt different. This felt like he had fallen into a pool of blood. Maybe that was why he felt lightheaded. Or maybe, he couldn't keep from wondering, it was because he bled so much. It was a short respite. Not even waiting for him to lift off of the ground, the pictures rushed toward him.
He fell onto his back. He couldn't feel it now, but he knew he would hurt later. Sadly though, he wasn't able to afford his back a moment's attention. The taste in his mouth and the smell in his nose were stronger, and his breaths were laboured, as the pictures started to faintly make sense.
He didn't know where he was looking from. It was the academy. Students were running about, seeming randomly at first glance, but closer inspection revealing them all to be escaping away from one direction. It was the direction he was headed toward. The herd of running students grew thicker, before thinning. Near the boundary where the students were thinnest, he saw blood, and students collapsing. And beyond, were the attackers. A large group, taller, bulkier, clearly stronger, but their features hazy as if hidden away underneath thick mist. They seemed to be speaking, with each other, or maybe saying something to the students, taunting the students. May wasn't sure how he knew, he couldn't see their lips, and he certainly couldn't hear them. He couldn't hear anything. But he knew. With that same certainty, he knew he must turn around. As he did, he found himself in a small room that he didn't recognise. There was nothing in the room, not even a door or a window. Not even a light, even though the room was well lit. There was only a boy in the room, a seventeen year old student of the academy named May. He looked into the face of the older May, a face that was hidden just as deep underneath the mist, but because of the familiarity, the mist was clearing rapidly. He couldn't look away, even though he knew it was the face of an older him, another him. He probably wouldn't learn anything, but for some reason he couldn't understand, a reason he didn't want to question, he couldn't look away. As the mist cleared, and more of the face was unveiled, he felt something changing inside him. When all of the mist was gone, he was staring into an almost unchanged face, except for lesser freckles and strangely darker eyes, but maybe that was just the light, or just him.
'May,' he called out softly.
The older him didn't hear, but smiled nonetheless, at something else. In that moment, he snapped, and his eyes burst open.
**
String pulled out a sheet of brown paper carefully placed at the bottom of the shelf underneath his shirts. Anyone who had ever seen one would easily recognise the relic from the second awakening. Eclipse paper. In today's age of wide-field communication that offered as much security as desired, no one bothered with eclipse paper. Other than those with inclinations for collecting relics, it was widely assumed that no one else cared for eclipse paper.
Yet, here was String doing exactly that. He was no collector, and it was no relic. Eclipse paper was a communication device, and it was exactly that to them. Eclipse paper was made from Pyerus wood. Papers made from the same piece of bark at the same time, acted like siblings. What was written on one paper, was visible on another, in real time. Owing to the fact that it was the twin effect, communication between sibling papers was unbreakable and absolute in security.
String thought out the words carefully before writing.
O - (( Came across something strange and interesting. ))
The reply was five minutes in coming, a wait that he was prepared for. Lira was the first, and that was no surprise.
L - (( Saw a ring, thought of me? ))
No one had the time to laugh, before Hose wrote.
H - (( Nope. Not happening anytime soon. ))
L - (( Don't be such an annoying know-it-all. ))
H- (( What is it Otto? ))
String welcomed the wave of joy that washed over him. It had been a while since the four of them had met. But it was too short a period of time to affect their years of friendship. Not even eternity could bring a crack to their relationship. Otto String, Lira Hepp, Hose Ship and Klaus Sant, they were the four wings of Gwishore. They would never fall.
String wiped the smile off his face, and wrote in all seriousness.
O - (( Heard a war is coming. An attack on the academy as well. Anyone hear anything? ))
The pause was not even as long as a minute, but felt so much longer. The barrage that came afterward was a flood that couldn't be contained by the tallest walls.
L - (( Heard from where? ))
H - (( A war? Any more details? ))
L - (( It's not, is it? ))
H - (( I can't think of anything immediately. Nothing big enough to register. I'd have to scavenge through memories to remember if there was anything. I'll keep an eye out, an ear open for anything from now. ))
L - (( You're not too close, are you? You know how dangerous it can be. Is it real? ))
H - (( I think Klaus would know better. ))
K - (( And Klaus does know better. Otto, tell me all you know. ))
String didn't hesitate. They each had their role. Klaus was the ear, and also the one who spoke last.
O - (( I told you all I know. A war is coming. An attack on the academy. ))
K - (( Returner? ))
O - (( Yes. But I don't know who it is. Leave that to me. ))
K - (( Okay. Haven't heard anything about a war, or an attack. But there have been some curious enquiries. ))
O - (( Curious, how? ))
K - (( A lot of chatter about the legend of Rinaldo. And his pearl. ))
O - (( Why is that curious now? ))
K - (( It connects to the academy, because there have also been enquiries about professor Mito's paper on the popularity of magicians' artefacts during the second awakening. ))
L - (( Yes. This I know too. Not just professor Mito's, but old papers of several reputed professors of the older generation have been receiving great interest. There was even a job for us, to analyse similarities between the approaches of researchers of the fire artefacts from the second awakening. ))
H - (( Wait. Give me tonight. I think I came across something. ))
O - (( Okay. So it's safe to assume the attack is real. And we're onto it. ))
K - (( We certainly are. Now that we know what we are looking at. ))
L - (( We'll find it. ))
H- (( Gwishore is undefeatable. ))
O - (( Be careful. Feels like we're onto something real. ))
String rubbed the paper clean, and returned it to the bottom of the shelf underneath the shirts. Hose asked for the night, so they would speak in the morning. Until then, he needed a rest.