I was making tea in Dragon Tower. I needed to calm down. I should call my mother. No. What would I even say? How do I ask?

Breathe Serafina.

I took a deep breath.

I grabbed the jars for mint leaves, ginger and white tea leaves.

"Ginger and mint are pretty conflicting ingredients, don't you think?"

Red was both the last and perhaps only person I wanted to see right now.

"My advice? Swap one of them out for a fruit. Apple's pretty good."

I turned from the tea cupboard to face her. I was met with the back of a red overcoat and hood.

"Are you ever going to show your face?" I demanded.

"Eventually."

"Oh wow. A real answer. I'm impressed."

I could see her cocking her head from my angle but she still didn't turn around to look at me. I went around the table just to see her pulling her hood down further over her face. There was a mug of tea in front of her. And she still had those gloves.

Oh come on.

"You want me there when you're about to die but I can't see your face?" I demanded.

"Being mad at me won't change the fate you're heading towards like a train whose brakes are broken."

"Please. I'm not in the mood for your cryptic bullshit right now."

Red sighed. "I wish I could say I knew how to help you. But I don't know what your friend's glimpses into the future mean either. There's something we're both still missing."

"How do you know anything?"

"I can't tell you. Those are the rules."

"That doesn't make sense. Dragon Tower doesn't even understand you and you're somehow connected to it."

"You're getting there though. I wish I could tell you. But M's made it pretty clear that I'm not allowed. For what it's worth, even if you never break the curse, there are loopholes and work arounds."

"Like what?"

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Anger isn't always a bad emotion. It's just the matter of putting it to good use."

"Is that how your magic works? Tapping into your anger?"

"Being older and therefore wiser I have a few different things I can tap into to get my magic working. And I overcast to be sure."

"That sounds exhausting."

"I can do one spell without passing out. Which is pitiful compared to the others, but better than the progress you've made."

"What makes you think your solution would work for me?"

"Remember when I said we were both cursed?"

"Your curse works the same as mine?"

Red lifted her cup of tea to her face to take a drink instead of answering.

I waited and glared at her until she decided to completely ignore my question. "You know who might be better at helping you work through your feelings?" She asked instead.

"My dad probably."

"You can always call him. We both know he's just as happy to hear from you as your mom is."

"Seriously, the fact that you just have access to my personal information while I don't even know your name is freaky."

"A little. But it's something worth thinking about."

"Thanks for the advice Miss Stalker."

She laughed again. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had heard that laugh somewhere else.

And then she was gone.

Off to when or wherever she comes from.

(*********)

I was staring at the ComMirror. I hadn't called Dad yet.

I should. I meant to. I wanted to. But I hadn't. I didn't know what to say. Or what I wanted to talk about.

I chickened out.

I grabbed the closest thing to a substitute for him. I grabbed the chemistry textbook he gave me off the shelf. I flipped through the first pages.

But my mind wandered.

I touched the mirror. "Victor Stewart."

A few moments passed. My father's face appeared. "What's going on?"

"I have a riddle for you. Pure hypothetical."

"Alright. But if this is a magic thing your mother might be better."

"This puzzle is better suited for your brain I think."

"Alright then. Go ahead."

"So….again pure theory, say there was a….thing. That's…personesque."

He nodded.

"And that thing knew things about someone. Very specific things. That basically no one else could know."

"Do they speak with this person?"

"Yeah? But not about those things."

"Have you seen them both in the same room?"

"Sort of. Not physically."

"My first thought is maybe one party is lying. The second is perhaps an alter?"

"DID is off the table."

"Is the knowledge both ways or one way?"

"One way. The person has no idea how the other one knows any of it."

"Someone who was there perhaps?"

"Only one person was there."

"And mindreading isn't an option?"

"I don't think so. Too much distance between the two people in question." I wasn't an expert. But I knew that there were limits. Besides, the curse kept people from doing that. If Red was reading my mind somehow I would get a headache or something.

"Is temporal tampering an option?"

"What, like time travel?" The Echoes were kind of like that. Like time capsules meant to connect past and present.

"Is it possible this person has somehow made contact with a person from later in the timeline?"

I gasped. It wasn't…that wasn't possible. But my knowledge of magic was spotty and more theory than anything. And we didn't know how Dragon Tower worked. Not truly.

Dragon Tower doesn't know her, yet she's an Echo.

She wore a uniform that was put in place eighty years ago, after Dragon Tower closed.

She knew a song from forty-three years ago.

She knew me, and she knew my story.

"I have to go. Thanks Dad!"

"Always happy to help?" He sounded so confused as I ended the call.

It was crazy. Too crazy to be true.

But this was Dragon Tower. Improbable and crazy was our modius operandi.

That wasn't possible.

By the gods.

Was Red…was Red from the future?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.