Slowly, my vision began to fade back. However, before it could properly refocus itself, I thought I was still inside of my mind or dreaming in some capacity because everything was blindingly pink. Once my vision had properly refocused, I was just as confused. The body that I looked upon was not my own. It was the body of Jester. Female Jester. The weight distribution of my entire body was totally off. It was worse because of the watery environment. My balance was completely off and I was starting to panic.

The vision was always the last thing to return in the switch between personalities, so why was I still in Jester’s body? Did I have to consciously will my body back to the way it was? I had no idea how to do that. All knowledge they had on it, Jester got from Sylak. My breathing began extremely strained as I looked at my body, not knowing how to fix it. No one would ever recognize me like this.

I was about to ask for help from Jester when I saw the strands of pink hair in front of my eyes begin to uncurl and take on my natural pale green hair color. The green streak of hair seemed to disappear, merging with my normal hair. My skin regained a bit of color and my clothes began to change back. It all ended with my shoes changing back to their messy green state. I was back in my own body and it felt very good. Except for the bits of searing pain that remained from the rearranging of bones, muscles, and tissues.

Once everything had settled, I stood up, meeting the eyes of the group. They all seemed pretty happy to see me. I then realized that it had been quite a while since we’d actually been talking face to face compared to the amount of face time we’d been getting before. I awkwardly raised my hand to wave, but Lilith quickly rushed up and wrapped her arms around her. I smiled and did the same, feeling the warmth from her body washing over me. I just stood there for a while, enjoying the comforting embrace. I was so glad to see her in person after so long too.

Before I could say anything, she broke the hug and smiled at me. I smiled back and then saw her expression turn grim. I gave her a puzzled expression and she promptly planted her fist in my stomach causing me to collapse to the ground, wheezing from the sudden lack of air flow.

“Do you have any idea how worried we were!”

I attempted to pick myself up. “No...”

“Can you see what’s happening even when someone else is in control of you?”

“Yes...” I tried to regain my normal breathing.

“Then you should know just how weird it was for me to be walking around with someone who looked like you, but different and then he was a she and I just, I don’t mind that, but that’s not the point! I’m angry with you!”

I had finally regained my standing position. I smiled cheekily. “I missed you too, explosion girl.”

She scowled at me and I thought she was about to hit me again, so I put up my hands defensively to block the blow, but it never came.

“I did miss you, bubble boy,” she said averting her eyes.

“Is that nickname ever going away?”

“As soon as you stop calling me explosion girl.”

I chuckled. “I guess that’s a no then.”

She smiled before backing up. I was immediately assaulted by another hug from Viktor which I embraced as well. From behind him, I saw Julian smile and I gave him a thumbs up. He chuckled and I smiled. I was so glad to finally be back with my group, my friends.

We headed out of the palace and back in to the city. As soon as we hit the city, my stomach let out a loud grumble and I laughed, looking down at it. “So, is anyone else hungry because I do believe my stomach has just spoken for itself.”

Lilith and Julian both shrugged. Viktor looked at them, puzzled. “Are you guys serious?! I am starved! We fought a freaking Current Reaper earlier! How are you guys not starving?!”

I gestured around to the city. “Shal we find somewhere to eat then?”

They nodded and we headed out across the city. Now that I was back in my own body, I wanted to try something. I stared forward intently, focusing on the motion of things in front of me. I tried to force my vision to slow down, but all it did was flash green a few times before completely cutting out. It was better than before, but still not good. I frowned. I still had so far to go with this whole magic thing. Maybe in a few years I would be close to the level of the others.

After some time of swimming around aimlessly, we happened upon a really nice seafood place. The woman running the restaurant was, ironically enough, a Potron which I found extremely funny, but I figured it would be best to just keep it to myself. Dinner went by really quickly and soon we found ourselves heading back to the inn we had stayed in on our first night in the city. We got a room and headed to our rooms. The second my head hit the pillow, I immediately fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes, all I saw was darkness. I wondered around for some time, searching for anything, before seeing a dim red glow in the distance. I began walking towards it as visions flashed before my eyes. I saw an oddly familiar double aura, a weird dark forest, and a board with posters of the entire group on them. They flashed faster, causing me to stumble forward until I finally reached the source of the light and they suddenly stopped. I looked up to be met with a somewhat familiar sight. On the ground, in front of me, was a very strange looking man.

To start with, there was blood pouring from several holes punctured in his body. His hair was half golden-white and half black. He was wearing a lab coat that was white on one side and red on the other. The edges of the red side were torn and there was a blood-soaked pair of scissors in the pocket. He was wearing a pair of jeans, but just like the coat, one side was torn at the edges and seemed to have bits of blood coating it.

The image was gruesome and it filled me with an overwhelming sense of danger that my brain couldn’t really comprehend. I began to step backwards, but with the first step, my foot sank down on something sharp. I looked down and saw my foot was impaled on a spike that had formed from the pool of blood on the ground. I looked back at the body, fear welling up inside of me as my heart began pounding faster and faster. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.

I was about to make a run for it when the body began to rise, puppeteering itself in to the air on fountains of blood. The body lunged forward, the eyes glowing.

I shot awake, my body now covered in sweat. It was a very strange feeling to be sweating while surrounded by water. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Everyone else was still asleep, so I just sat there thinking. After some time, I finally realized where I had seen one of the images. It had been a blood-red aura with a second smaller blue aura attached to it.

As I had begun to use my observer’s eye more and more to see auras, it had become more refined. Originally, the auras I saw were simply shapeless masses of essence. Now, with practice, those masses had begun to take the shape of spheres that surrounded the person almost like a protective bubble. The red aura I had seen in the vision has tons of spikes protruding from the surface. The smaller blue aura had been dripping, almost like it was crying. It was bizarre. I hadn’t really ever stopped to pay attention to the auras of the rest of the group.

I flicked my hand over my eye and watched as the auras began to appear all around me. I focused and narrowed down the range and focus of the auras, so I could only see the ones in close proximity in the inn.

I started by taking a look at Viktor’s aura to my left. His aura was very smooth looking and it flowed very calmly, the surface flowing in slow consistent currents. From the top, there looked to be a sort of leaf that made his aura look like a giant apple.

Next, I looked over to Lilith and saw that her aura was extremely different from that of Viktors. Her aura was extremely rough and flares of essence constantly sparked off like a raging fire. There was nothing calm or consistent about the aura. It was almost the polar opposite of Viktor’s which I found pretty interesting.

Finally, it was time to look at Julian’s. The second I saw Julian’s aura, I was immediately confused. This aura greatly broke the convention of the other three auras I had seen so far. Unlike the other spherical auras, Julian’s was very geometric. It had two pentagon-shaped shield-like objects at the top and bottom of the aura and continued that pattern all around. The aura had no movement or ripple to the surface at all. It just stayed there, completely still.

I really wanted to see my own aura and compare the shape of it to the others, but I couldn’t do that. Maybe I would have to ask for the help of another apprentice with an observer’s eye to see the shape of my aura sometime. I deactivated my eye and continued to sit there.

After about an hour of sitting there and waiting, the rest of the group began to wake up. It took around ten minutes for us all to get dressed and make our way out of the inn. We headed to get breakfast and then discussed what our next plan of action was.

“I just realized that we have no idea how to get to Gaias from here, do we?” I looked over at Julian.

He shrugged. “Not exactly. I know that there’s a tunnel that leads to Gaias in every major city, but I don’t know where the one is in this place.”

I nodded. “So, we’re going to have to ask someone about it then.”

“We also need to go get refills on our potions since we can’t get there on the time we have left for them,” Lilith added.

Viktor lifted his fork up like he was about to issue a prophecy. “Why don’t we ask the girl at the shop if she knows where the tunnel is?”

I smiled. “That’s a pretty good idea. Let’s do that after we finish here.”

We all nodded and finished our meal. Once we had paid for the food, we headed out and over to the potion shop. Thankfully, the same girl was working there as before. The second we stepped in the shop, she smiled and beckoned us over to the counter. “I figured you guys would be heading back to get your refills soon!”

She plopped four potions on the counter and Julian tossed her some amount of money which seemed to make her extremely happy. “Thank you so very much for such a generous tip! Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

“Actually, there is. We’re wondering if you know where the access tunnel to Gaias is located.”

She laughed. “Of course I know where it is. It’s in the same place as all the other tunnels. In the front of the city, next to the main gates, there are all the tunnels that lead to different places. All you have to do is find the one that is labeled with Gaias!”

I smiled. “Thank you so much for the information.”

She nodded and then her face got grim. “Although, I should tell you all that there have been earthquakes reported in that tunnel for the past few days. No one has used the tunnel for fear of what might happen, but I figure since you have two earth apprentices with you, you’ll probably be fine.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the info. And thanks for the potions!”

She waved goodbye and we headed outside of the shop. I uncorked my potion and the group followed suit as we all downed the potions. It was time to head out.