Tuesday morning started quietly. I was just leaving the bathroom when I heard Celica's voice.

"Your cousin confuses me."

That voice came from somewhere by the teapot.

I glanced over to Celica who was still in the bathroom doing her hair with her duplicate. Nowhere near where the voice was coming from.

"I can't help you. We've known her for the same length of time."

There it-or maybe they-was.

Wreathed in blue light and transparent Echo versions of both Jarec and Celica were sitting at the table with cups of tea in their hands.

Echo Celica sighed, "So you can't get a read on her either? That's disappointing."

"Think it's a human thing?" Echo Jarec asked.

"Who knows?" Echo Celica shrugged.

"She's certainly nothing like the Aunt Lucinda I was told about."

"Assuming the stories are true."

"I don't think she trusts us."

"That would explain why she hides her emotions all the time. I thought for sure she didn't have any for a while. But we'll see."

And then they were gone.

"Uh oh." That was probably from Other Celica. "Prime, I think we have a problem."

"I take it from that reaction that the conversation I just saw really took place?" I asked. I figured the answer was yes, but I really wanted to be sure. Just in case.

There was a very telling silence from the bathroom for several seconds.

"It's not as bad as it sounded, I promise!" Other Celica tried.

I held out a hand in their direction, a sign to tell them to not bother but also that it was okay. "It's fine. Really. I'll see you in Alchemy."

(*********)

One thing about mental group chats was that news apparently travelled fast. Or at least the bad news.

I hated being out of the loop, but that's just another thing on the pile of reasons I needed to free myself from this curse.

Stupid Merripen.

"So…this morning…" Jarec started as we left Spellcraft.

I sighed. "I saw an Echo of you and Celica talking about me. I don't know what Celica told you about it but it's fine."

"Not mad then?"

I rolled my eyes, "We're good, I promise."

He sighed, "That's a relief. But at least now we know the big secret of Dragon Tower."

"It records everything we do and then shows it later at different points in the future," I speculated. "With exceptions."

Like Red.

Who knew way too much.

And a simple recording can't move objects or interact with the world around them.

Curiouser and curiouser.

But one thing at a time.

"Can you do me a favor and let Celica know that I'm not mad or upset at her either?" I asked.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Thank you."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

(*********)

"How is it whenever I think that maybe, maybe I've finally figured you out you manage to surprise me?" Celica asked as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

I was holding up a vial of what I was certain was small pieces of jade in a few different shades of green.

"Are you mad at me?" I asked while not taking my eyes off of the vial.

"I'm confused."

"You know if you have questions you can just ask me."

"Yeah but what's the fun in that?" She shifted her posture.

"Well I'll keep the offer open. And we can consider this a learning experience."

"Dragon Tower is the worst place to gossip."

I wasn't sure if that was meant to be the big takeway or lesson from living in Dragon Tower. But we still had up to the end of our fifth year to figure it out I supposed.

Several minutes passed before she suddenly sat up straight in her chair and asked the question, "If the Echoes are just recordings of things that happen in Dragon Tower, how was Red able to grab you?"

I shrugged, "No idea. There's a lot about Red I don't understand."

She frowned and let out a low hum. "We'll have to finish this later. I'd rather not risk being overheard by unintended ears."

"Again."

She let out a huff and rolled her eyes at me. "Oh will you look at that, the Tower is teaching me things already."

I chuckled.

(*********)

"And neither of you noticed it was doing that?" Fethris was asking.

The five of us were gathered in the main room. I was sitting on the windowsill with my back to the glass. Russel was sitting on the floor leaning back against the fireplace. Jarec was taking up an entire couch by laying down. Fethris was by himself in a single seat chair and Celica was sitting upright and proper on the other couch.

"If I had known we would have an audience I would have conducted myself differently," Celica responded.

"Everything was normal," Jarec confirmed.

"So what, it's doing that all the time?" Russel commented.

"Presumably in every room we've seen or heard an Echo in," I guessed. "Good news is that rules out the bedrooms and bathrooms."

"I'm still trying to understand the Red situation," Celica commented.

I nodded, "I have no idea what's going on there. First time I saw her, she didn't seem to know what was going on. The next was when she waved at Fethris and me through the window. Somehow. Then she shows up at our séance and manages to touch and move an object."

"Which a recording definitely shouldn't be able to do," Celica interrupted.

"And then we saw her die," Fethris spoke softer.

"She's said a few things, but all of it was vague at best," I told them.

"When was this?" Jarec asked.

Oops.

I had forgotten for a second that I hadn't told them about either of my Red sightings since the Echo of her death. I sighed and decided I might as well at this point. "I've seen her twice since then. We talked."

"Serafina!" Celica turned around so that her whole body was facing me.

Oh yeah, she was definitely mad now.

I shrugged, "I don't know much and she never answers my questions."

"But you were going to tell us about these talks, right?" Celica pressed.

Oh. Was this about what Jarec said about me not trusting them?

"Yes. As soon as I knew what was going on. To be blunt I have no idea what's up with her and I don't think she does either. Or at the very least I don't think she has any say in it."

"We're going to need more details than that," Jarec said.

"The first of the two happened on the eighth," I started. "I had just come back from working on my curse and suddenly she was there. She made some vague comments. One of them was about how she didn't make the rules."

"Anything else she said?" Celica asked.

"She knows things. Or at least has implied that she does. Very specific things. About me."

"Ominous," Russel commented.

"Very," I confirmed.

"And the second visit?" Celica reminded me.

"That was on the twelfth. Again most of it was vague." I was not going to bring up the crying and the Ethan thing. I had poked at that wound enough this past week. "But there was one thing that might be useful," I said as I started to think about it. "She implied she had some kind of curse. And if there's anything I've learned these past eight weeks it's that curses can do things completely unexpected."

I slipped my fingers underneath the glove so I could rub the patch of skin where my mark was.

Her gloves covered her entire hands.

Was it to cover something?

"Like meddle with an ancient powerful enchantment? How? And that still answers basically nothing." Celica pointed out.

I shrugged. "Like I said, she only implied it. I don't know with any more certainty than you do."

She also mentioned magic having loopholes.

"That would explain why she didn't set Osto off," Russel said. "If she's connected to the Echoes in some way then she wouldn't be undead."

"Except we saw her die." Fethris commented.

"Or we saw an image of her dying moments. And there's no telling what her chronology is. Assuming she even has one in whatever state she exists in," I offered.

"But none of that explains how she has a modern Dragon uniform. She can't be from a time where it was in use. Red has to be at least a hundred years old." Celica said.

"Not possible." I told them. "She can't be from anytime sooner than forty-three years ago."

"And you're sure of that how? I thought she didn't tell you anything." The tone of Celica's voice was accusatory.

"The one question she was able to answer was what her favorite song was. It was one that came out forty-three years ago therefore she must be from sometime after that." I explained.

"Except Dragon Tower wasn't in use then," Jarec said.

"I didn't say it made sense. I just thought it might be a useful piece of information. I have no idea what it means either."

Thinking about it was making my head hurt.

The loud scratching sound of the Dragon Statue moving caused the window at my back to shake.

That's certainly one sign that it was getting late.

"I don't think we're going to figure this out tonight," I said. "We'll probably have to wait for her to show up again."

"Or find this 'Echo Chamber' she mentioned," Celica offered.

"Assuming the Tower isn't hiding it from us," I thought out loud.

Why do that if that is actually the case?

But then, why did it seal itself for a hundred years?

Too many questions, not nearly enough answers.

I didn't dream that night.

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