Evren walked into his room with his bag of possessions over his shoulder. The enchantments flooded the room with light, and he hesitated to enter. The air smelled earthy and stagnant, as though no one has been in this room for a long time. Dust motes filled the air, like at his grandmother’s house, and his feet left marks in the dust gathered on the floor. This room, that he he'd visited not long ago, was unoccupied.
No, that’s not true.
Evren occupied it now, and he would be its occupant for as long as he studied at the Academy. The thought of such permanence, that he would never again be asked to leave, flooded him with a feeling of relief. But that wasn’t all. He was the owner of this space now, and with that ownership, a great responsibility came sneaking into his thoughts.
This is my home now, and I will care for it as best as I can. Hearth Maiden, guide my actions.
He spoke a quick prayer to Hearth Maiden, the goddess of home and safety, before crossing over the threshold and into his new life.
The room was no larger or smaller than when he’d last seen it, but his keen eyes were fast to pick out the differences. The two beds, one on either side of the room, were gone, replaced instead with a queen-sized four-posted bed. Evren flopped down on the downy comforter, sensing right away that this would be the most luxurious bed and the best sleep he would ever have in his life. It was like floating on a cloud.
Looking around, though, there weren’t any other places to sleep. The hard floor was the only other alternative.
“He wasn’t kidding about having to sleep together,” Evren marveled as he stood up again and approached the toilet and shower.
In its early years, It had been established that the Nexus must not contain any doors. The engineers had figured that that was the best way to prevent any stoppage of energy, and to keep the mana flowing freely through the lower tunnels. The dorm designs had worked around this lack of doors, and still provided a modicum of privacy. But Evren could feel right away that the room's privacy had been altered.
In this dorm, the only toilet had previously been hidden around a 180 degree bend, with a sheet of privacy glass to avoid accidentally surprising your roommate while they were sitting down. That was not the case any longer.
The tunnel to the toilet was straight. Evren, wanting to see for himself, sat down and noted with apprehension that he could clearly see the bed from where the toilet sat, which meant that anyone lying in bed and turning on their side could accidentally see the person sitting on the toilet.
“This is ridiculous,” he muttered to himself.
The bathtub was just as bad. There was a wide 20 foot hall separating the bathroom from the main room, but the hall ran straight as an arrow, and as he lowered himself into the dry bathtub experimentally, he noted that one of the two study desks had a clear view of whoever was getting in or out of the tub.
“How am I supposed to live with a girl in these conditions?” he asked himself, gauging the angle and finding it impossible for him to grab a towel without first showing everything to a person sitting at that desk in the main room.
He charged over to the desk and sat down. For a moment, he pretended to write, but it only took a movement of the eye or a raising of his head for the bathtub to be completely visible, though somewhat far away.
“This is a nightmare,” he moaned, envisioning his female roommate’s reaction to seeing him getting out of the bath. He didn’t know what she would look like, but he imagined her looking away in disgust and shouting for him to put some clothes on. How was he to avoid such degradation with this ridiculous dorm-room setup.
“This desk will be mine,” he told himself with resolution. “It’s my room and my rules. I won't be humiliated in my own space.”
He looked over his shoulder at the desk across the room. That used to be his, and he felt a bit sad abandoning it, but he'd have to get used to studying here. After all, Lyra claimed it for herself, so why shouldn't he claim it now?
He ran a finger over the writing surface, leaving a trail in the thin layer of dust. But the dark mahogany was solid and waxed. He caressed the corners, admiring his new workspace. Opening the single drawer, he found a short stack of papers ready to be written upon. There was a full bottle of ink and never-before-used quills; sharp and ready to write with.
He placed one of the papers on the center of the desk with reverence, noting the enchanted candle shone brightest at this point. Uncorking the ink, he took up one particularly beautiful feather quill and dabbed it within. He was in a mood to reflect and record his thoughts.
Is it the world that’s changed or is it me?
The question resounded in his mind. He had so many memories from his freshman year that were very different from what was happening around him today. The people had changed and the Academy had changed. Or was he just dreaming the whole thing?
Maybe I’m dead and this is my afterlife. Am I being punished or rewarded?
He turned the question over in his head, but it quickly became clear that there was no answer, so instead he switched to another line of thinking.
What should I do? What’s my goal now?
He dipped the quill’s tip into the ink and wiped the excess off. He was ready to write and he would start by reevaluating his entire purpose of being here. At the top of the page, he wrote in his most elegant handwriting:
Goals in this New World
He stopped to admire his well-formed letters then, without hesitation, he added the number 1 and wrote his first and foremost goal.
Become a Top Ranked caster and make my parents proud.
There was no secret there. No second thought. That had always been his goal and continued to be, even with the world changing around him. But he couldn’t get the changes out of his head. He added a second point to the list.
2. Find out what happened in the Hall of Records.
He nodded to himself, knowing that he’d been a part of something big and magical. He didn’t necessarily want to return to the way things were, but deep down he needed to find out what had happened to him.
As he reflected on the event, Evren felt a warm puff of air tickle his nose. How strange! He looked up and found that the stone wall directly in front of him had several small holes that had a slightly acrid smell about them. They were too small to fit his hand into, but when he passed his nose in front, a faint smell like sulfur could be detected. It felt like the air was rising up from the depths of the mountain.
Huh. He had never noticed these holes before, but then again, he had never been close to this desk before either. He was in new territory, since he was in charge of the dorm. He remembered again his conversation with Warden Hugo and the Warden's stiff attitude towards partnership. He thought about what had been said and added two more points to his list.
3. Do not accept the first partner that is assigned to you.
4. Stand up for yourself. Don’t get pushed around.
He nodded with satisfaction at that last line. The third one seemed risky because, despite what Hugo had told him, he may just meet his perfect partner on the very first day. But the last point was golden. No matter what happened, from now on, Evren knew that no one could make him do anything he didn’t want to do.
He had been thinking for quite some time now, and he had been ready to add a few more ideas to the list, when he heard a small gasp and the sound of a bag falling to the floor alerted him that someone else had entered the room.
Turning his head to the right, he could see a thin feminine form, wearing a crisp freshman uniform, standing in the threshold of the room. Her face, barely visible in the low light, looked very pretty at first glance. Evren stopped what he was doing and turned to the newcomer. There was something eerily familiar about her.
She picked her satchel up off the floor and stepped into the light, revealing an elegant moon-shaped face highlighted with bright eyes and framed by long, glorious waves of brown hair. There was no doubt about it.
It was Lyra.
But it wasn’t the Lyra he had seen just a day ago. And finally Evren fully understood the extent that the world had changed around him. Not only was he back in his freshman body, but everyone else was, too. There, standing in front of him, with her gorgeous face and thin wiry body, was young Lyra, just as she had been when he'd first met her.
Her uniform was a bit different, the skirt inching high up her creamy thighs and the shirt looked two sizes too small, but the biggest difference was in her face.
Her lips, so often flattened in a look of disapproval, were now plump and opened in a look of amazement. Her eyes sparkled, not with disdain, but with excitement. Despite the obvious physical resemblance, Evren couldn’t believe that this was the same cold girl he’d lived with for all those months.
“Hello,” he spoke first with added energy in his voice. “We're destined to be partners it seems!”
“Y -you… you’re beautiful!” she answered breathlessly.