It seemed I wasn't in as much of a hurry as Celine's earlier words had implied, as we had time enough for a comfortably lengthy bath and once we were dry she sat me down in front of a mirror in the bathroom. It definitely felt a little cramped, especially once Celine started to loom over me, suddenly inspecting me with a whole new intensity. The way she was frowning, I had a good hunch that I wouldn't be allowed to move for a while.
For my part, I decided to just focus on trying to get used the face staring back at me from the mirror. It just still didn't quite connect in my mind, and instead I was left disoriented by the feeling I was simply absent in that reflection. It was quite contrary to how I didn't seem to have much of a disconnect with my body in general. I had been able to function perfectly well, despite any number of major and minor differences between the new and the old, that I could notice if I focused my attention on them. Seemingly I had inherited Mela's muscle memory among a number of other things, but I theorized that recognizing myself in the mirror was different because it relied more on active thought, unlike the subconscious factors which weren't as affected by the lack of memories, even if they would occasionally leave me confused.
"What did I say about trying to cut your own hair? A few months living alone and already in such a state again!"
I was left feeling quite odd, listening to Celine's muttering next to me. I wasn't the actual target of her criticism of course. So why did I start feeling embarrassed? Was it some ghost of Mela's emotions bubbling up again, like Celine seemed to still not quite realize that I wasn't her sister? Or was it because I was also the type that would let myself go in that regard, and so the point was still valid? Yet it was oddly not that unpleasant, and it even felt comfortably familiar, letting Celine fuss around me like that.
It seemed like my hair really was the biggest of her worries. Too short for her to do any proper hairstyle that would hide the messy cut, but still long enough to get in my face, I gathered. The best she could do was to get the hair out of my face with a couple of pins she had at hand. For my part, I wasn't about to voice that I was satisfied enough that it was short enough to keep dry easily, especially if I would continue to get dragged to bathe with such frequency.
Then again, if it was something as simple as drying hair, there had to be a spell that I could apply for the purpose. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for other such mundane spells that I might find useful in taking care of my new body, since there was just about enough space in the bathroom to fit a few small arrays without them interfering with each other. Then I found myself mildly perplexed that such a thing even occurred to me.
Based on the audible click of her tongue, it was a safe bet that Celine didn't approve of the way her sister had been dressing whilst living alone either. Admittedly I hadn't been particularly impressed by Mela's previous choice of attire either, but it hadn't exactly been very high on my list of concerns. By my estimation, which certainly wasn't very reliable, she was picking the girliest set of clothes that she could manage from what was on offer, with the exception of a gown that I could briefly see hanging in the back. It was clearly for formal occasions, and I was willing to bet that it was what Mela had worn to the academy's entrance ceremony, and that she never touched it since.
The chosen outfit did include a skirt, one of the only ones. Somehow, I had to wonder if Celine was simply used to picking Mela's clothes for her, or if she had just decided to take advantage of how obediently I had been following all of her instructions. I wasn't particularly looking to quibble, since I wasn't about to try to coordinate an outfit myself, but I couldn't help grumbling a little.
"Isn't it a bit short? At least pants would cover the legs."
"Yeah? I guess it might have been, three hundred years back! It's frumpy, if anything. We can get you some pants later, but nothing as slovenly as this."
Celine didn't notice when I froze in shock, and kept picking the rest of the outfit whilst continuing to badmouth her sister's style. At that moment the prospect of future shopping trips didn't really enter my mind however. My tastes being out of date may have been another good reason to leave picking outfits to Celine, but I got stuck on a particular set of words. How long had it been since I had died? Several decades certainly, for Mary to have grown grandchildren. An full century seemed possible. But Celine had said what?
"Three hundred years?"
"Yes. Grandmother says it has been over three centuries since the founder lived."
Celine had stopped to look at me seriously and enunciated every word very clearly. She wasn't joking. It was quite a lot to take in, and I found myself having to drastically re-evaluate the situation that I was in. I wasn't just someone a bit out of time, I had found myself transported to a whole different era. I was going to have to start taking a whole lot more of an active approach to getting myself up to date, if I was going to act the part of an academy student, not to mention resolve whatever issue it was that Mela had talked about.
"And Mary? Is she still in good health?"
"Grandmother's fine. Rather, I don't think she has more than a decade for each of those centuries. The rest of us are also rather long lived you know. Mela – she was twenty four. I'm older."
It was a relief. Mary's continued longevity was actually within my expectations, though it was all theoretical back then. Truthfully, I didn't fully understand it, but it was one of many unintended effects. That the trait had passed on was more surprising, but in regards to that I had never had the time to even start creating an estimate. It made perfect sense though, and it would actually have been odd for Mela to be attending to the academy, much less showcasing such mastery of magic, at her apparent age. I'd finished my studies at the academy much quicker than most, and that was only four years before I died.
But that was the crux of the issue – I had only been half a decade older back then, than my great-granddaughter whose place I am to take? As for Celine, she hadn't specified, so she could well be decades older than me, if Mary's aging was anything to go by. And little Mary, she had now lived more than ten times longer than me. I clearly had to re-evaluate my priorities, if I was to live up to the responsibility that Mela had laid at my feet and try to solve an issue that they've tackled with for so long. I was starting to feel ever more lost.
"I have to talk to her. Sooner rather than later."
"She's not an easy person to meet, you know. She's got a lot of responsibilities. Your best bet is to wait for a family gathering or some other important occasion, unless you want to try to explaining everything to her by letter."
I could only nod absentmindedly, disappointed at myself for feeling almost relieved at hearing at. It wasn't like I had a plan for what to say to her even once we did get face to face, and the prospect of the meeting didn't get any less intimidating with what I had just learned. After such a long time, could I even claim to know her? Should I really expect there to remain some sort of bond between us, just because she had come to consider me her parent after the few short months we spent together? But if not her, then who else could even remember the era that I knew?
"Even if she's busy, she will make time for you when the family gathers. There aren't many of us, so she's the one that insists that we come together several times a year, and with her talent Mela always had her attention."
"Not many?"
It seemed that she was trying to sound encouraging, but in response I stared at her until she realized that she'd raised another question. If Mary's descendants were also long lived, and centuries had already passed, then what she said seemed strange. And since Mela was only Mary's granddaughter, then it seemed the would also remain fertile for long. It was worrying.
"It's difficult for us to have children. Not many pregnancies are carried to term, and it's also dangerous for the mother, particularly if they are a Tannel."
I could only grimace in response when the explained the issue. I didn't need to ask to figure out where the problem stemmed. It was perhaps already a miracle that Mary, an artificial and heavily modified human, had been able to have viable children at all. It was frankly unsurprising that issues would emerge with this most vulnerable process. I could only feel responsible, as the one that had failed to do the due diligence in my research, time constraints or not.
"Okay, let's get going. I'll show you the way for today – I've checked your schedule for the day."
Suddenly back in big sister mode, she shook me from my mood before I could start brooding, dragging me out of the door almost as soon as I managed to get my feet into the shoes that she handed me as the last part of my outfit. I made sure to check my room's number before she rushed me down a set of stairs into a small entrance hall and then straight out the door. I wondered if we were actually in a hurry after all, but once we were outside we slowed down and she gave me a chance to look around, settling into the role of a guide.
It was oddly comforting, hearing that the academy had not only survived, but actually greatly expanded since my last time studying there. It gave me a sense of continuity that I was sorely lacking after previous revelations. I learned that only one smaller building remained both standing and in use from my last time there, but to my surprise all of the varied buildings that we passed by were part of the academy, multiple times the number that had been there last time. It was slightly odd to find out that one of those newer buildings was named after me, and that there was apparently a scholarship program in my name as well.
Since I wasn't able to lay my eye on the only building that I would know, there was really nothing about the place that I could recognize, including the geography. There was still a lot of familiar pleasant greenery, that indicated that the climate hadn't changed much. I couldn't tell where exactly the bulk of the buildings were located in relation to the old academy, but it was safe to say that the whole area covered had become several times larger. There was something about the range of architectural styles, that were covered by all the new buildings, that gave me a distinct sense of progression, from something rather recognizable all the way to what I thought had to be the modern style, distinctly minimalistic in approach and emphasizing structural soundness and simple shapes. I felt a little excited by the scope of it all.
"It's a lot bigger."
"It was bound to happen, with the Fae rift so close by. I've heard that experiments performed within the affected area have led to several revolutionary advancements. Don't ask me to name them though."
Once she mentioned it, I could feel the rift quite easily. Extending my senses out a little, I could easily tell what direction the anomaly was in, and I could see that the academy had indeed expanded in that same direction. The unpleasantly familiar flow of mana caused me to shiver a little. It was different from what I remembered however, much calmer and more orderly in the directions of the flow. It was true then, that Mary had managed to stabilize the anomaly, whatever that meant exactly.
"It seems to be more or less under control now, so what is the problem anyway? Why did Mela think that I was needed?"
Again I felt my anxiety bubbling up, as I was struggling to comprehend what use I was going to be. Whatever had been done to this rift, it was far beyond my comprehension and the incredibly crude method that I had hopelessly lost my life to. It seemed that Mary and her family had developed a far better understanding of the phenomenon that I ever had. Apparently it had become a matter of public knowledge and an important research site, so things had to be a lot better already than when I was worried about it literally eating away our world in its wild expansion.
Curious, I glanced at Celine who hadn't answered yet, and found her looking with a furtive frown at the people around us, here and there, dressed in styles similarly unfamiliar to me as what the two of us were wearing. I noticed that some of them were throwing looks our ways, but they were all out of earshot and her overt manner of acting was as likely to draw attention to us as anything, when she leaned in to quietly speak. Clearly this issue wasn't part of the public knowledge about the rift.
"You are going to have to ask grandmother about that. I don't have much talent for magic, so they never really talked to me about it."
I had the urge to laugh at the way she was acting, when she wasn't even able to tell me anything. But when I saw how bitter she looked at that moment, I quickly wiped the good-natured smile off my face, worried that she'd take it as mocking. I had a hunch about the reason, as I recalled what sort of people I knew she had been around. I just realized that despite how she seemed to know her way around, she probably wasn't a student. I could easily sense that she didn't have the potential for it. I didn't pry, but she decided to open up and explain anyway.
"We Tannels have a lot of expectations placed on us. Most of all by family. We are after all the most prominent family of mages on this side of the world, thanks to what grandmother and great-grandfather."
She paused, seeing my troubled look, as she basically confirmed what I had thought. The pressure I was feeling from Mela and Celine, wasn't it just a projection of the expectations that had been set for Mary's descendants after she took on my name and credited me as the founder of the family? Celine recovered quickly though, giving me an encouraging smile as she proceeded to give a more positive spin to what she had just said.
"There are a lot of other families that are desperate to steal that glory from us, here at the academy. But that's never going to happen, because grandmother is the custodian of the Fae rift. And you are not only the original custodian, but the one that created her, the oldest and most respected mage of our time."
With a start I realized that it was the first time that Celine had directly addressed me in a way that recognized that I was who I had claimed to be. Was she telling me that I had the right to be proud for what I had done? She certainly seemed to take pride in her grandmother. Thinking about it, I realized I didn't have a choice in the matter. How could I not be proud, when Mary and her descendants had gone on to achieve so much? And I should feel honored, not ashamed, that she had chosen to credit me with so much of it. So I decided to try and be a little more confident. Thinking that the academy I was going to attend would be the best place for me to catch up on the progress of the past three centuries, I was actually getting a little excited.
"What's with that name anyway? Fae rift? Why is it called that now?"
"Isn't that because it connects to the Faerie?"
I came to a sudden halt, losing the new spring in my step, and whipped my head sharply to look at Celine to make sure that she wasn't joking, though her voice didn't indicate such a thing.
"What?"
"You didn't know?"
The look on her face must have mirrored my own confused surprise quite well. She looked at me like I had just said something that pointlessly contradicted her established common sense. But wait, I wasn't the one saying that the parallel world, home of the literal titular characters of fairytales, from which our world had supposedly been closed off in the ancient days of the age of myths, was real! Yes there were stories of fae that had remained, or slipped through the cracks of the old paths, but was my great-granddaughter actually that superstitious?
"Try to not to be too surprised when you see a visitor, I guess? The fae don't show their faces often on this side, but you are bound to catch sight of one eventually if you study here."
I didn't believe her yet. She might have started to feel comfortable enough around me to try to pull my leg. But she looked so serious that I wasn't confident enough to call her bluff, so I decided to just not say anything and keep walking. I had been through a lot of surprises already, but I had to wonder if the world had seen changes beyond what I could have ever imagined.
As we walked, Celine caught me up on the three classes I would have to attend for the day, and gave me detailed instructions on how where to find them. Then she looked rather apologetic, and promised that she'd bring me something to eat after either the first or the second class, since we never had a chance to eat breakfast. That was when I first realized that I was feeling hungry.
Soon enough we stood at the door of one of the academy buildings, my destination judging by how Celine had come to halt there. When we stood there, with a lot more people around than during the walk, I noticed just how many stares the two of us were really gathering, and I realized that there was something important that we hadn't covered, and I had to ask her quietly.
"What do I do if someone approaches me? I don't know anyone here, and I'm not very good at acting."
"I don't think you need to worry about being addressed by many people other than the instructors, so it'll be fine if you are polite."
Celine didn't look at me directly when she answered hesitantly. Her awkward look told the story however, and I couldn't help but give a wry smile. It wouldn't be the first time I'd be getting ignored by my peers at this school. And since Mela had clearly been a studious girl, it should be fine is I also just quietly outperformed them, like back then.
"People don't really tend to get close to us Tannels anyway, and it's especially eyecatching when one of us attends this academy."
Celine continued hurriedly, seemingly trying to assure me that it wasn't just that her sister had been a loner. I had more or less understood that they were famous in these parts, but I didn't really get what being a Tannel had to do with getting looks like that. I could see that Celine wasn't quite comfortable, so I just nodded when she told me to hurry to class. As we said our goodbyes I was left alone there, surrounded by strangers of a generation three centuries years remove from my previous self.
