Even though my eyes were open, my mind was still trapped in the nightmares. No, the memories. I still remembered every single emerald-eyed woman. I still remembered the way I murdered them. I didn't know why. Even though i tried my best to erase them from my mind, the stain of their blood was indelible. Decapitated. Hung. Stabbed. Stoned. Skinned. Tortured. It had always bothered me, though i did not know why. Every single time I did it, both satisfied yet so empty, so disgusted.
I took in a deep breath. This body was not ready to sleep outside. My ribs badly hurt, my legs hurt... I'd rather list what didn't hurt, that would be shorter.
Using the nearest wall, I stood, full of cramps. the sun had just started to show its first rays, and the only people who passed were either in a hurry with large... briefcases or people... jogging, concentrated in their activity. Nobody had even seemed to notice me. It was better like that.
I was still getting used to my glasses. Whenever I looked at something, the name and definition would pop up next to it, so it took me a second to read. This also included actions and concepts when they are done or mentioned.
I took a second to dust off my clothes. Thank god I had been careful to not get any blood on me. I headed out of my alleyway and into the streets. I was searching for a place with knowledge. A place with books, or another form of information bank.
So i walked through the streets, hands in my pockets, a neutral expression on my face. The roads got more and more populated. Adults with angry faces dragging crying children with schoolbags. People meeting up and laughing together. This was nothing like my last life, here people were more free. Free to be who they are. Crap! would I have to get the woman's love with something else than money? No, surely dads still love money, right?
I started asking people for directions.
"A library? Sorry I don't live here, i'm only at Paris to visit!" answered a man with beautiful white hair with a confident smile.
"You should find one at the end of that road" mentioned a woman with deep green eyes. Green eyes!
As if miracles now existed, I was now if front of Elizabeth's reincarnation.
"Your eyes are of exquisite beauty, miss, what is your name?"
"Awww you're so cute little boy, but I bought these."
"Bought them?"
"Yes, it's eye lenses!"
And sure enough, when I looked at her eyes again, the name "Green lenses" appeared.
"What witchcraft is this?"
My mind went at a thousand miles per hour. Could I get green eyes too? I had to learn more about those and how they worked.
Oh... she was gone. And I had forgotten the directions.
A little troubleshooting later, I arrived at the library. It had just opened. It was time to start learning about this era.
The room was absolutely gorgeous. From the outside, its wall was entirely composed of slightly blue glass. As the sun rose, its reflection on the glass only grew more intense as if the library was itself part of the sky. As I entered, the library was imbued in light despite the lack of artificial lighting. Every single hair on my body rose in amazement. In an orange-red tint, I could see rows and rows of bookshelves, and to the right, a spiral set of stairs with a metal barrier. It seemed so naked yet so creative. On the second floor, the colours were much more varied: red, orange, purple and pink, as if it wanted to appeal to children, but it attracted me just as much by its sheer beauty.
"Hello? Do you need something?"
It was a woman with a blue dress and long black hair. The name 'Robin' was on her uniform, but my glasses resumed it to 'Librarian'.
"Hello Mrs. I'm here to learn about history in the last few hundred years."
"Alright... but where are your parents?"
"They are most likely at home, I came here on my own, because I wanted to."
This brought a tear to her eye. I could hear her mumble "So young, so interested, it's a miracle."
"What are the rules of this establishment?" I questioned.
"You can come in and read all you want. Though if you want to take books home, you are supposed to have a paid card... we can work it-"
"No need, I will be coming here to read my books."
Her tears became a flood.
"What is your name?"
"Adam"
"Follow me, Adam, I'll show you the history department."
We walked through the corridors, and I started liking the lower level more and more. The mature diligent blue and dreamy turquoise created a magnificent couple to revive my thirst for knowledge. I spotted one or two people plunged nose-deep into reading, hidden in their respective corners; regulars. I read what I could from the passing shelves. Fiction. Lifestyle. Psychology. Science. And finally, History.
"The books are ordered chronologically newer to older from left to right. You will find everything from world wars 80 years ago to ancient religious scriptures, you might even find another Adam there. hope you find your fit."
"Thank you, Madam, your hospitality is more than satisfactory. I would have never expected so many book to be available, and for free!"
She scuttled away, leaving a stream of tears.
I started my reading from the most recent books to the older ones. It started well. My eyes flew through the paragraphs, the world wars, the "Roaring Twenties", and the industrial revolution. I stopped into the Science section to check out what progress they had made, but it seems they were still as ignorant... They still hadn't figured out magic or even the existence of the Alius spatium! I couldn't believe it. I quickly scuttled back to the hopefully more objective History books, chasing the nonsensical laws of conservation of mass and energy far away from my mind. But it was the same in those. Past the scientific revolution, everything was nonsense.
"I was here when the Mona Lisa was made, and Da Vinci never did anything, it was saint John Fischer which called upon the still-living Archangels to create the damn piece!" (Archangels really used their magic on anything those days, most Gods were already dead.)
A librarian popped out from behind a shelf.
"Oh, you're that child Robin was talking about." at this point, my vision was so blurry that I couldn't make out the speaker's hair colour. "you've been here for hours, and you're disturbing everyone around you."
Indeed, people had started flocking in. Blurs of many different shapes and colours moved around before my eyes.
"But the book is wrong!" I argued.
"That's your opinion! You weren't there to check, kid. You should be at school, are you skipping?"
I refrained from answering any of those questions. The man took my hand and dragged me outside of the library while i hollered "Curse this weak body!" from the top of my lungs. I had like a feeling of déja vu...
It was already the afternoon. Roads were riddled with people, chatters had emerged everywhere. A cacophony of senseless sounds from all directions plagued my ears. Overpopulation did suck after all. Somehow, I felt reinvigorated, then noticed my glasses had dissolved. 'no problem', I thought, as I muttered "Omnituens Lexicon" and they appeared again in a beacon of light. But problem there was. Screams pierced the air as the passing people had just witnessed something they all thought impossible. Some thought it was a bomb, others simply didn't understand, others were right.
Those people were the wizards.
A sound resounded above all.
"somnum"
The screams died down. Everyone was on the floor, but they seemed very much alive.
"sisto"
My arms stopped in place. I was frozen. people emerged from the alleys, rooftops, and about every nook imaginable. They were about 15 of them dressed just like normal civilians. A man advanced confidently, he had a dark skin tone but turquoise eyes.
"Can I see you magic permit?" He asked.
I gasped for air as my mouth was freed.
"I'm a kid," I hissed, "and I don't know that stuff."
He smiled.
"You think you're smart? Normal kids don't know about magic, let alone perform spells. Besides, my friend over there informed me of your... peculiar soul mark," He pointed to a young adult with blue hair. "you're either an adult trapped in a child's body or the biggest genius of the millennia, and seeing the fact that you just randomly summoned a magical object in the middle of a crowd, I have my guess on which one you are."
I felt insulted. He hadn't even blocked my mouth again so I wouldn't cast a spell, I wasn't even a threat to him.
"You got me. I indeed come from another mind. Are you satisfied?"
The blue-haired girl came closer.
"What happened to the child that was in this body before."
"Why would that be important for you?"
Turquoise eyes mumbled "Falx spectris" and a black sickle was summoned right under my throat. I could feel the skin slowly tearing apart.
I giggled
"You think you scare me? If you kill this body you will have killed an innocent child."
"Oh believe me, this will scare you."
He plunged the sickle into my hand, it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt because I had lost all spiritual connection with that part of my body. The child's empty brain had taken control of it.
"Okay, okay, i got it. I'll tell you." A smirk drew itself on my lips. "I've completely taken control of this body. The child's soul is probably wandering somewhere in eternal repose as we speak."
A punch landed straight on my face.
"You're lying, now tell me who you are."