Our picnic ended peacefully. No surprise encounters with villains, no one jumping at me for a fight—by my standards, that was a win. Today, however, I had more focused work to do. After my classes wrapped up, I made my way to the lab.
It had been a week of continuous experiments on the Arcane Spell, and so far, the results had been underwhelming. I stood outside the containment field, staring at the spell hovering faintly within the area enclosed by the Distortion Bars. Various test items were scattered inside the field—metals, organic matter, even a few meta-receptive objects.
Yet, as always, the spell seemed indifferent to them all. The effects, or rather the lack of them, were frustratingly consistent. Sure, there were minor shifts in the local reality constant, but they were negligible. To put it into perspective: if I stood still in one spot for five minutes, I’d release more radiation or meta-aspect into the surroundings than the spell managed to produce in an hour. And Jade, well... she released more radiation every minute than I released in an entire decade. Her meta was terrifyingly volatile.
I leaned against the observation console, tapping a finger against its surface in thought. Maybe the spell needs specific conditions to activate properly. Something I haven’t accounted for yet…Like human.
It was the only explanation that made sense. But, of course, I didn’t have a spare human locked in my basement to experiment on. So unless I wanted to test it on myself—which, let’s be honest, wasn’t exactly ideal—I had to find another way to figure things out.
And that was why I was here—to make sense of it all. I needed to understand how the spell I had absorbed was affecting me, my surroundings, and, most importantly, my mind.
"Maybe we should poke it with a stick," Jade suggested from her perch on the lab counter, legs swinging. She''d invited herself along as my ''research partner'', claiming she was fascinated by magic. Though I suspected she was mostly here to keep me company and prevent me from getting too lost in my own head.
"That''s your solution to everything."
"Has worked so far." She hopped down, peering at the spell through the Distortion Bars. "What if we played it music? Everything responds to music."
I couldn''t tell if she was joking. "It''s an magical construct, not a houseplant."
"Grumpy." She poked my shoulder. "Come on, we''ve been at this for days now. Time to get creative."
She had a point. Despite hours of careful observation, the spell remained frustratingly passive.
"Hand me my notebook?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the containment field.
The notebook appeared in my peripheral vision. "Page 47," Jade said. "That''s where you drew those cute little runes that looked like ducks."
"They''re not ducks, they''re arcane symbols I saw."
"Quack quack," she whispered, making me fight back a smile.
I flipped through my diagrams, thinking aloud. "Maybe if we destabilize it somehow..."
The notebook contained runes I had been experimenting with, though unlike Sir Nash, I couldn''t conjure them effortlessly. I had to rely on other methods. Then an idea struck me—what if I disrupted the spell to create resonance or dissonance? Like how two objects colliding produce an effect, perhaps "knocking" on the spell would elicit a response.
But the idea came with risks—serious risks.
“What if the spell…minds?” I muttered, glancing at Jade.
The thought lingered uncomfortably in the back of my mind. If the arcane spell decided to take offense at my actions, it could very well blow up the entire building—and us along with it.
Jade raised an eyebrow but stayed quiet. I appreciated that about her – knowing when to let me think things through. My fingers traced uncertain patterns over my notebook. This could either be brilliant or spectacularly stupid.
Well, one way or another, we were about to find out.
I raised my hand, watching the ceiling-mounted robotic arm mirror my movement. It picked up a simple screwdriver – nothing fancy and moved toward the containment chamber where the arcane spell hovered, defying gravity with its unnatural stillness. Naturally, I wasn’t reckless enough to add extra energy, use something like a blaster or any high-powered tool that could trigger an explosion—or worse, some unforeseen reaction that could endanger both of us. I knew enough to avoid direct contact. Even Sir Nash hadn’t dared touch the spell, opting instead to encase it securely within the seal.
The memory of the spell merging with me was still fresh – not something I was eager to repeat.
But using an object instead of direct contact? That idea wouldn''t leave me alone. The robotic arm moved forward, holding the screwdriver like some weird mechanical peace offering as it entered the chamber.
I caught myself holding my breath and glanced at Jade. She was leaning forward, completely focused on the spell, probably not even realizing she was biting her lip – something she always did when things got intense. When she noticed me hesitate, she nudged my arm. "Just do it already," she whispered. "Before you overthink it."
Right. No more stalling. I guided the screwdriver closer, closer – until it touched.
I''d expected fireworks, maybe an explosion. What actually happened was way weirder.
The spell seemed to consume the screwdriver. It wasn’t disintegrating, nor passing through the spell; it was vanishing in a way that defied explanation, as though being swallowed by the hollow arcane mass. My instincts kicked in and I yanked the robotic arm back, but it was too late. The spell had already turned violent. It began to revolve at an alarming speed, its size fluctuating wildly, parts of it trying to separate from itself. One second it was bulging against the containment field, the next it was barely a speck of light. It destabilized in a way that was eerily familiar—just as the splinter and mindfield spell had assimilated me the first time.
The monitoring screens around me flickered to red, alarms blaring with urgent beeps. "Reality Weight Constant Critical," the warning lights screamed, as I watched the scene unfold.
Reality cracked. Literally.
That''s the only way I can describe it. The containment chamber – no, the whole room – started to split and layer over itself like a glitching video game. The air rippled and fractured, bending in ways that hurt my eyes to look at.
"North!" Jade''s voice sounded distant and too close all at once. "What''s happening?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but the words died in my throat. Jade was... multiplying. Two of her stood there, perfect mirrors of each other, both staring at me with identical expressions of shock. My head snapped around instinctively, and there he was – another me, moving in perfect sync with my own movements.
Leave a Face Behind.
The arcane spell had revealed its nature—It could grab moments of us from the past thirty seconds, duplicate them, make them real again. But only for those same thirty seconds before they dissolved back into nothing.
I turned to face my copy, studying it closely. Something was off about its eyes. They were hollow, lifeless, as though the spell couldn’t fully replicate the soul behind the face. Perhaps it was because I hadn’t fully assimilated with the spell yet. The same eerie hollowness was in Jade’s copy, making them both feel… wrong.
And yet, the other me was staring at me—not just idly, but with an unsettling intensity. Its gaze suddenly sent a chill racing down my spine.
It smiled.
A slow, deliberate smile that chilled me to the bone.
And what followed was worse – reality itself seemed to gag and convulse. The distortion bars didn''t just break; they twisted like living things, metal groaning as it warped into shapes that shouldn''t exist. They appeared as if something inside them was trying to break free. Their metal surfaces groaned, stretching and contorting into grotesque spirals that resembled jagged, writhing tendrils. The walls started to breathe. Actually breathe. Steel panels bubbled and swelled like infected flesh, growing what looked like tumors made of liquid metal. They hardened into crystal formations that caught the light wrong, reflecting things that weren''t there.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"North?" Jade''s voice shook slightly. "The stool is... evolving."
She wasn''t wrong. The lab stool had turned into something from a nightmare, its legs fusing and splitting into a crown of bone-like spikes. Our equipment wasn''t doing much better – the whole workstation had melted together into some kind of techno-organic horror show. Cables slithered across the floor with purpose, and the monitors... well, the monitors were showing things I couldn’t comprehend, as if they were broadcasting from another dimension entirely.
Even the air was thick with strangeness. It tasted like old pennies and ozone. The light in the room flickered erratically, casting warped shadows that didn’t match their sources. The shadows themselves seemed alive, crawling across surfaces like they had a will of their own.
Once the transmutation halted, cold sweat dripped down my neck as I watched our nice, normal lab turn into a modern art exhibit designed by someone who''d seen too many horror movies. But worse than all of it was that smile still burned into my brain – that thing wearing my face that had looked at me like it knew something I didn''t.
As I thought calmly, It didn''t feel like a memory; it was more like an echo, something that refused to leave even though the distortion had faded.
"What the hell just happened?" Jade''s voice cracked as she backed away from a monitor that was now weeping something that looked uncomfortably like mercury. Her hand found mine, fingers gripping tight enough to hurt.
"I... I don''t know," I admitted, watching a section of floor that had twisted itself into something that looked like a metal Venus flytrap. It was as if the strangeness had infected everything. Luckily, we were standing outside the spell''s influence and hadn''t been affected in any way whatsoever.
Still, the fact that this wasn''t even in my top ten weirdest experiences probably said something about my life.
Jade was still staring at the warped containment chamber, her face pale. "Should we... call someone?"
"And tell them what? ''Sorry, we broke reality a little bit?''" I took her hand, leading us toward the door. "Come on, let''s get some air."
The spell had stabilized itself again, but I needed fresh air to process what I’d just seen. We made our way to the garden, and as we reached a quiet spot, the ground beneath my feet shifted slightly as I sat down, thinking.
The behavior of the spell confirmed one of my suspicions: the Arcane was alive in some way. Not merely a construct or an energy source, but something with awareness—or at least intent. The way it had reacted, the way my duplicate had smiled... this thing was alive. Maybe not in any way we''d understand, but it definitely had its own agenda.
"Earth to North," Jade waved her hand in front of my face. "Your thinking eyes are getting intense. The strangeness is moving."
"Just realizing I might have miscalculated." I replied.
Initially, I''d thought that I could use the Arcane spell against the Tunnel Underground gang, turn it into a weapon. Now I was wondering if I''d been playing with something that was just waiting for a chance to play back.
“Okay, but why do you sound more fascinated than freaked out?" Jade asked, studying my face.
I had to laugh at that. She wasn''t wrong. Any sane person would be running for the hills after watching reality have a nervous breakdown.
But then again... I was just a traveler. Getting worked up over every reality-bending monster or cosmic horror would be exhausting. I''d seen things that would make this look like a kid''s magic trick.
I plucked a blade of grass, twirling it between my fingers. "You want to know something interesting? Every meta-nature comes from somewhere deep inside us – desires, obsessions, those weird little things that shape us."
Jade shifted to face me better, already familiar with the concept but curious where I was going with this.
“For me, my meta-nature came from something almost every child goes through—a strange phase of obsessive fascination with something that doesn’t make sense to anyone else.”
Jade drew her knees up, settling in for the story.
I paused, the memory surfacing as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. I reckoned it was the effect of the Splinter and Mindfield. Or maybe some memories just never fade.
"When I was eight, there was this man at the mall," I continued, the taste of grass bitter on my tongue. "He said he could see through anything. And me? I was a kid obsessed with superheroes. X-ray vision, laser eyes—the whole deal. So when this guy started talking, I was all in. He wasn’t a street magician or one of those weird guys in tinfoil hats. He looked... normal. Like someone’s uncle who got lost on his way to the food court."
"The way he described his powers was mesmerizing. He made it sound effortless. Just... looking, and knowing. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. But looking back, I think he was just enjoying the attention. Some wide-eyed kid hanging on to his every word."
I let out a slow breath, rubbing a bit of dirt between my fingers. "Then he did something strange. He reached out, grabbed my hand, and said, ‘Let me show you.’ And suddenly... I wasn’t seeing through my own eyes anymore."
"At first, it was incredible. I could see through people like they were made of glass. Their clothes vanished, like some magic trick. But then... it changed. Their skin faded, layer by layer. Muscle peeled away. I could see their lungs expand, their hearts beating, their bones shifting as they moved. Then even those disappeared. It was like looking into nothingness. And in that nothingness, there were beautiful patterns. Coiling, twisting, infinite. Things I didn’t have words for. Things I still don’t."
I swallowed. Even now, recalling it sent a ripple of unease through me. "I turned to ask him what was happening. But when I looked beside me... he was gone. Just gone. Like he’d never been there at all."
Jade’s brow furrowed slightly, her curiosity clear, but she stayed silent.
“The incident didn’t scare me though” I admitted, “If anything, it left me fascinated. After that, I’d stare at people for hours, waiting, hoping to see it happen again. I’d watch objects, buildings—anything—just to experience that strange sight one more time. My parents started getting concerned after our relatives started saying something was wrong with me. I even had to attend therapy for two years. But no matter how long I stared at things, I never saw anything like it again.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “It wasn’t anything extraordinary in the end, just a fleeting moment that stuck with me for years. Funny how those things work.”
"It became your meta-nature catalyst," Jade said quietly, understanding dawning in her eyes.
"Yeah. It shaped how I saw reality – or rather, how I wanted to see it." I turned to face her fully. "Want to guess what my real obsession was?"
She thought for a moment, head tilted. "To see through everything?"
I shook my head, my smile widening. “No. It’s to see everything through.”
Her brows furrowed as she tried to process my words, but I continued before she could say more. “That day, I was angry at the man for disappearing halfway through—for not explaining everything to me. He left just when things started to get interesting, just when I felt like I was on the verge of understanding something incredible. I couldn’t see what I wanted to see. So now…”
I paused, chewing on the thought, then finished, “I want to see everything through—to the end. No half-measures, no unfinished answers.”
For a few moments, we sat in silence. Jade didn’t speak, and neither did I. The quiet felt almost comforting, but my mind was already drifting to what I needed to do next. I thought about heading back inside to clean up for the next phase of experiments. But the task wasn’t something I could handle alone—I needed someone who had a meta-nature that could build and had a solid grasp of technology. Fortunately, such meta-natures weren’t too rare, about one in ten thousand. Compared to telekinesis, gravity manipulation, or other abilities dealing with abstract concepts, the odds were practically favorable.
"Let''s go inside," I said, pushing myself halfway up. But Jade''s hand caught mine, the sudden contact making me pause. When I looked back, her expression made me settle back down. "Everything okay?"
She met my eyes, and something in her gaze made me wait. "It''s control," she said, her voice soft but certain.
"Control?" I tilted my head, not following.
She nodded, and this time when she spoke, the word carried more weight, like she was sharing something she''d never said aloud before. "For me, it''s the strong urge to have control over everything."
That should have made sense, but something didn''t fit. Jade was probably the least controlling person I''d ever met. She''d never tried to dictate my choices, never tried to change me. She was the opposite of controlling, actually. She went with the flow, turned disasters into adventures, made chaos look like an art form.
"You don''t believe me," she said, reading my expression.
"It''s not that. Just… You''re the least controlling person I know," I said, settling back down beside her. It wasn''t flattery – just truth.
The fact that she was sharing this at all felt huge. People''s obsessions were like buried treasure – the dark, precious things we keep locked away where no one can find them. They''re the parts of ourselves we don''t show anyone, the shadows we pretend don''t exist. And here was Jade, willingly cracking open that vault for me.
She wouldn''t meet my eyes, staring instead at the grass like it held answers. "Promise you won''t... just promise you won''t judge me too harshly?"
The idea that she thought I could hate her was almost funny – in a sad way.
"Hey," I said softly, "after everything we''ve been through? You could tell me you secretly control the weather with interpretive dance and I wouldn''t judge."
That got a small smile out of her, but it faded quickly. "It''s not about controlling things the way you''re thinking," she said, choosing her words carefully. "It''s... the need to impose myself on everything, and imprint myself on the world.”
Her confession left me momentarily speechless. What must someone have experienced to develop an obsession like that? Her words lingered in my mind, pieces of a puzzle clicking into place. I understood now why she’d asked for my promise, why the person in the background had sent her to Earth, and why she constantly bled into her surroundings, distorting reality itself. Why I was always in so much trouble! It all made sense—finally, a big clue revealed itself.
"Are you mad?" Jade''s voice was small, uncertain – so different from her usual confidence. She looked ready to bolt, like she''d revealed too much of herself and was waiting for the consequences.
I couldn''t help but chuckle. Leave it to Jade to worry about my reaction when she''d just dropped a bombshell. "Do you want me to be mad?"
"Never." The word came out quick, almost desperate, and she looked up at me with those impossibly innocent eyes, making me lose my focus.
"Then let''s go inside," I said, pushing myself up and offering my hand. "We''ve got a experiment gone wrong to clean up."