“Shall we continue, lady Octavia?” The strange girl asked, her smile sending shivers down Octavia’s back.

“Who. Are. You?” The fixer hissed, her heart pounding in her chest. Every instinct in her body screamed to flee. Forget everything and run to the end of the world.

“I’m Vinn, silly?” The girl giggled. “Why? Have I done something wrong with my form? Oh no! Is my tail showing again!” She began to turn in a circle, trying to look at her back. “Don’t look! That’s private!”

“What the…” Octavia was more confused than ever and her headache returned with a vengeance. It was as if someone was trying to split her skull in half with a hammer. “Stop!” She finally shouted.

“As you wish,” Vinn froze mid-motion. A posture no creature could assume. At least not while being alive. It took a moment for Octavia to realise that the world around her turned grey.

Vinn’s smile soured and a predatory gleam entered her eyes. Ever so slowly, she returned her outstretched right foot to the ground and folded her wings neatly behind her back.

“I overdid it again, didn’t I?” She took a single step forward and was standing right before Octavia’s face. “At least we found a resonance this time!”

The girl clapped her hands and jumped back. She looked at the fixer from head to toe and smiled again. “To be honest, I was starting to worry…”

“You better start making sense or…” Octavia hissed.

 “Or what?” Vinn’s voice became a growl and the features of her face shifted, becoming harder and more menacing. “Lexi asked me for a favour, but that doesn’t mean I won’t tear you to pieces if you…” She placed her hand over her mouth. “Oh, dang it! I wasn’t supposed to say this… And this…!”

“I…” This was insane. Octavia had to be under some sort of spell. That was the only reasonable explanation. For now, she had to get as much information as possible. “I don’t…”

“Shush, now! Vinn has to think… Vinn’s landed in hot water, as you say.” She looked at Octavia as if the woman could give her any answers. “I never understood that. What’s the problem with hot water? It feels so nice on the skin.”

“It can burn you…” Octavia offered, unsure how she was supposed to act around this thing. It was obviously connected to the gods. And thinking was becoming harder because of the relentless hammering inside her head.

“It can? You mean like swimming too long in a volcano can char the tips of your scales?” Vinn scratched her chin, before giggling again. “I keep forgetting how fragile you mortal creatures are. My bad.”

Vision and memories of places she had never experienced flooded Octavia’s mind. Some were twisted parodies of who she was, while others were of things she hoped for in the past. As quickly as it started, the assault stopped. Scared and shaking, Tilly dropped to her knees and looked at the strange girl.

“Who are you? What are you? I don’t understand.

“I told you at the start…” Vinn paused and pressed the knuckles of her small fists against the sides of her head. “Hmmm…” She pressed harder and closed her face, making a grimace. “Hmmm…”

“Are you… alright?” Tilly asked and tried to reach for the girl, who was obviously in distress. Shocked, she realised she could not move her body. “What is happening?!”

“Right! Lexi warned me about this! That’s why I had to choose my words carefully!” Vinn soared off the ground and did a loop around the basement.

“You see, you are dying,” Vinn glided through the air and landed on her back just a step away from Tilly, pretending to be dead. “Well, not you you, but the original you I had to bring over.”

“So, pretty much we did some interdimensional hopping until we reached a you that resonated with you. Do you follow?” The girl asked as she jumped to her feet and dusted her pants.

Tilly was at a loss. She did not understand a single word the girl was saying. It must have shown on her face because Vinn let out a sigh and sat on a chair that materialised out of thin air behind her.

“Yes, it took me a few hundred years to wrap my head around it too. But once I got it, it’s been a lot of fun.” Vinn gave Tilly a warm smile. “Anyway, since I messed up and your head hasn’t exploded, I can tell you the truth.”

“How should I put it delicately?” The girl stepped off from the char and began to pace the room. “Ok. You see, another Demon King will appear within this generation. So, the gods did what they usually do, the lazy bastards.” She gasped and looked pleadingly at Tilly. “Don’t tell them I said that last part, ok? Anyway… The gods are a little tired of introducing new flaws to this world because it messes with the fundamental laws of nature. So, they tried something different, and as a result, you got screwed over. Honestly, it is an elegant solution. However, you see, the heroes got on Lexi’s bad side when they met with the gods.”

This was more manageable for Tilly to understand, but she was struggling to see the point to Vinn’s rant. If the gods thought that by sacrificing her, they could save the world from the Demon King, Tilly would accept her fate without complaining.

“Here comes the interesting part.” Vinn winked at her and smiled. “Because of the heroes’ attitude and because Marthal was a big jerk during the whole thing, Lexi did something she was not supposed to do. She gave you a talent reserved for only her children – the undead. After that she had me contact Leon…. Ah… The Fixer.”

Vinn pulled on her hair and growled. “Why do I keep saying things I shouldn’t!” A moment later, and after doing another lap through the air, she continued. “You see, the Fixer exists to clean up the messes the gods create. And he was supposed to protect you. He's a really nice fellow, that guy. Always kind and happy to see me. If you can trust anyone to get things done, it’s him. However, Omni had a different idea. If she got you out of the picture, before all the negative traits and talents you were given manifested, those would bounce back to the heroes. As you can guess, she doesn’t really like them as well. But as Lexi, she can’t act against them. At least not directly. Leon on the other hand… I mean the Fixer, dang it! Well, he can. So, by having you, you know…”

Vinn pulled on an imaginary rope around her neck and stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth. She stood like that for a second and smiled at Tilly

“Out of the picture, while Le… The Fixer was protecting you; Omni could have him go after the heroes and beat some common sense into their heads.”

Tilly was starting to get the idea. She was just a pawn in a game the gods were playing. And an important one. Her entire existence was so that they could get another pawn moving.

“But why?” Tilly asked after gathering all her strength. “The heroes will save the world.”

“Ah… About that. They sort of might, or they might not. It’s kind of up to them since they are not from this world. They don’t play by the same rules as we do.” Vinn shrugged. “And besides, have you seen the gods? Because they are so godly, they are very proud and vain. The one thing they don’t like is being told how to do things. To make matters worse, Lexi gets blamed for a lot of shit because of the heroes. So, you can imagine how she and Omni took it when the heroes told those two, in particular, how much they had screwed things up and didn’t deserve to be called goddesses. And that they should clean their own mess and how it was unfair to burden them, the heroes that is, with negative traits.”

Yes, Tilly had to agree with this. The last thing one wants to do is anger the gods.

“Back to my story and why you are here.” Vinn clapped her hands. “So, learning about Omni’s plan, Lexi called me to do her a favour and screw the Goddess of Fate’s plans while doing so. But don’t get the wrong impression. Me and the Goddess of Pestilence and Decay are not friends. I am what you’d call… Ah, what was the word your kind used.” The strange girl paused again. “An independent contractor!” She shouted. “Yes, that’s it. I’m an independent contractor for hire.”

“Who are you?” Tilly asked again. From what she understood, this Vinn was either a goddess that she didn’t know about or a direct servant of the gods.

“Didn’t I tell you this already? Maybe I didn’t. I’m Vinn. Vinntrea the Dragon.”

“You are a dragon? You don’t look like one.” She chuckled despite the pain wracking her head. This was absurd. Dragons are hulking beasts as large as a house. And even when they took a human form, they resembled very large lizard-people rather than humans.

“No. I’m not a dragon, silly,” Vinn laughed and wiped a tear from her eye. “I’m the Dragon. As in, the very first one the gods created at the beginning of time. However, I was a little too strong and wilful for their liking, so they scrapped the whole idea of making more like me. After some corrections and adjustments, they came up with the final product you know as dragons. My nephews and nieces - that’s what I like to call them by the way - were supposed to be the ones to oppose the Demon Kings whenever they appeared. But… Well, I was angry and sad, so I kind of messed that plan up. Oh! And that’s why I had to learn how to do interdimensional hopping. To avoid Acheron from putting me back in a time loop cage again, you see.” She whispered the final part.

“I’m not feeling so well…” Tilly said as the headache reached a crescendo and her head threatened to explode.

“Oh, right! Look at the time. We don’t want your head to explode now, do we?” Vinn grabbed Tilly’s shoulder and pulled her to her feet.

“In short. You are dying, well not you, but the original you. Lexi is offering you an escape through me. But the choice is up to you, as in the original not the you from here. I can transfer, more like merge, the original you, with this you and you can carry on doing what you are doing in this version of the world. Or…”

Vinn pulled her closer and looked into her eyes. “You could go back to the original you in the version of the world where you are you. However, in order for you to not be pushing daisies from the roots’ side, you’d have to do something for Lexi.”

“What?” Tilly asked as she felt herself slowly fading away.

“You have to kill Sally.” Tilly had no idea who Vinn was talking about. “You remember Sally, the receptionist from the Guild. Yes, that one.”

“Why?” This made no sense at all.

“What do you mean why?” Vinn looked genuinely shocked. “Haven’t you figured it out by now? We are in this mess because of her!”

This made even less sense. What did the receptionist have to do with the gods, the Demon King and the Heroes? It was more likely that Tilly’s mind had finally shattered and she was hearing things.

“Sally is one of the new generation of Heroes! The one who started this whole argument with the gods… Well, she is going to become that hero. In a few years, some things will happen and she will be transformed. But she is also one of the Demon King’s generals… Either way, it’s all her fault!”

“Look. I know this might not make much sense, and honestly, I wasn’t supposed to make this offer to you. I was supposed to make it to the you from here. However, Leon is also a little peeved with how the gods are handling the situation right now, so he asked me... You get the idea. I’m doing a lot of favours to a lot of important people with this one job. Now, what will it be? Keep in mind that you are running out of time.”

This was insane. Pure madness. How was Tilly supposed to make such a fundamental choice in a matter of seconds? Sure, she did not want to die. But who did? On the other hand, this version of her. The one whose memories she was experiencing, was an evil woman. At least that’s how Tilly saw her. Octavia, this one… Damn it, this was way too confusing.

Anyway, this Octavia was cold, filled with hate. It wasn’t just how she handled the situation with her captors. She placed no value in other people’s lives, and that was a part of her. And her memories of before she became Octavie. Those Tilly could not accept. They were too painful for the young girl to handle. It was a miracle Octavia had not taken her own life. Actually, even if she wanted to, Tilly could not accept taking Octavia’s place. This would make her no different. Or, would there?

“What… What will happen if accept to stay?”

“I told you, silly,” Vinn scoffed. “I merge you with her and it’s done. Like nothing happened. Neither of you’ll know the difference. Well, at least in theory. I’ve never actually done this with a mortal creature.”

“And if… If I re-return?”

“Seriously? You are running out of time here and now you think about asking questions?” The girl puffed her cheeks, offended for some reason. “I snap my fingers. You wake up a little worse for wear but breathing. And to save us time. If you refuse – I do the same. With the difference being you ain’t breathing and get a long lecture from Saya about the value of life. And while the Goddess of Death does that, I make the same offer to this you. Now, would you kindly make your choice? This isn’t exactly easy for me too. You have no idea how many rules I’m breaking just so the two of us can have this conversation. And Acheron is not the forgiving type.”

“I…” Tilly gasped, struggling to take a proper breath. “I don’t want to die… I don’t want to be like her… I accept…”

“See! It wasn’t that hard, was it?” Vinn smiled, revealing of line sharp teeth. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t bet on the last part. She is you, and you are she, that’s why you resonated. Now, off you go.”

 

---

 

Octavia opened her eyes and winced in pain. She was not dead, although she was not sure if that was a good thing, considering every part of her body was screaming. By the Abyss, even her teeth were pulsating. It was like an ever-ending wave of misery.

She tried to focus, but her memory was a mess of conflicting memories. Apparently, the nightmare she had had really messed her up. Yet, Octavia was amazed at her own imagination. To think she could come up with something like this almost made her smile despite the pain.

“Oh good, you are alive.” Octavia’s blood froze. This was Vinn’s voice. But that was impossible, she was just a part of her nightmare. “No need for you to talk. I just came to make sure you are, well, that you are not dead.”

Carefully Octavia removed her head from the pillow and looked up. Yes, that was Vinn and she was standing on the ceiling. Her black wings folded around her body like a cape, or more like a dress.

“So… All is good. You know what you’ll have to do. The good news is that you don’t have a time limit, although if you can do it before the Demon King gets to conquering the world in a decade or two, that will be swell.”

“You… Why? How?” Octavia mumbled and regrated doing it as fresh excruciating pain rocked her head.

“Because the me from here is having tea with Le… The Fixer upstairs and can’t come to check on you.” Vinn waved at Octavia and smiled. “Anyways, I just came to check on you and to tell you that everything went fine. Apart from a small hick-up right at the end. But you’ll be fine. Like, most likely. Probably. Actually, try not to think about it.”

“What?!” This time Octavia managed to raise her voice to a whisper.

“Right, you should probably know this. I kind of mixed the you, the original you, with the you from here and the you from back there.” Vinn pointed with her fingers in different directions as she spoke. “Well, the you, from the original place is the dominant one. Like… It should be. However, your memories are mixed with the you from here and by accident, I mixed some of the memories of the you from there, with the original you, before mixing you with this you and making the current you.”

Octavia opened her eyes in horror. Although nothing of what Vinn said made any sense at all, it did not sound like everything was fine. On the contrary, it sounded like Octavia was facing a really big problem.

“In short,” Vinn let out a tired sigh, “your memory of the past is going to be a bit messy. Also, you might know of events that might never happen. It should all settle down in a week or so, but there is no fixing it. Sorry about that. However, we were out of time and I’ve never done this with a mortal creature before. I mean what was Lexi thinking asking me to do this? It a bit similar to what the gods do when they bring over the heroes, though on a very small scale. Still, it takes their combined power and effort to do it. And here is little old me, doing it on my own.”

The girl puffed her cheeks, which somehow made her look threatening. “As amazing as I am, there are limits to what I can do. Truth be told, I sort of expect your mind to melt, like the moment I was done.” Vinn giggled as if this was not horrifying in the slightest.

“Anyway, Septima is on her way to check your wounds, since all your traits and talents have been locked for the moment. Sorry, nothing I can do about it. They should be usable once your memory sorts itself out. And Septima doesn’t like me all that much, so I’ll be, you know getting out of here. Actually, it’s not that she doesn’t like me specifically. That girl has very big issues when it comes to other women, but that’s not something you should worry about right now. So, goodbye, good luck and try to avoid spontaneous brain-melting.”

With that said, Vinn simply disappeared. Octavia blinked a few times, just to make sure. This. All of it. It was way above what she could cope with right now. That’s why she chose to ignore it for the time being.

The door to her room opened and when Octavia turned her head, she saw the surprised Septima standing at the entrance with a cloth and jug of fresh water in her hands.

“You are awake!” Septima gasped and placed the items on the desk next to Octavia’s bed. “I’ll let Master know. And Octavia,” the old maid said on her way out, “I’m proud of you. You did really well.”

The teenage girl made the slightest of nods and closed her eyes. She could not look at the woman, because all she could see right now was Rebecca the Ice Queen. The insane mage who murdered women and children in her pursuit of power.