“Alright, so, in short, uhhh… I think I might know her. She might, just might, be this strange sorceress I met in the other world. Can you communicate with her? Her name was Mirim. Mirim Pureflame. Try calling that name. No, wait, if it’s really her she won’t understand English pronunciation, uhh… alright, try saying this: ‘oajc icoaisjci aocj# Obj 9jbvctr ndk’, alright?” Adam said, shifting about.

Chad squinted.

“Bro, I’d love to try, but, like, what did you just say? Like there at the end?” Chad asked, lifting an eyebrow at his friend. Sadly, his friend could barely make out the gesture, since it was dark as night in that fire-coloured bedroom.

“It was Pterican for 'Mirim, if that’s you in there, say ‘present’,' since she wouldn’t understand English,” Adam said.

“Whooa. So, like, they don’t speak English over there? And you just learnt whatever weirdo language they had over there?? Dude, I-, okay bro, if you could learn it, so can I! But say it again, will you?”

“Uhh, yeah, I-, sure? And… thanks…? Um, ‘oajc icoaisjci aocj# Obj 9jbvctr ndk’,” Adam said.

Chad looked down at the rug for a moment, mumbling the foreign phrase a couple of times. Eventually, he looked back at Adam and nodded.

“Alright, I think I got it! What do I do now?”

“I, uh, she might be somewhere inside you, somehow, so… just think it really hard, I guess? I honestly don’t know much, but… I’m anxious to find out!” Adam said, his love for researching Magick surging within him.

Chad nodded and closed his eyes. The strange words repeated in his head, around and around.

She certainly heard it.

The pronunciation was way off and she could barely tell what he was trying to say at the end, but… she got it. She let the strange new word roll over her tongue. Uncertain and unsure, she spoke the weird word, as loud as she could.

“Present!” she called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to make the most of it. The word echoed through the empty void, bouncing here and there without stop.

“...Whoooaaaa. She said it, bro! Right there in my head!!” Chad said with a wide, excited smile, pointing at his head.

“Is that so? Interesting… can you feel her? Or is it only her voice that reaches you?” Adam asked, wishing he’d had a paper and pen to write down the results on.

“I can only really hear her but I’ll try feeling her dude,” Chad said, closing his eyes once more. And, to be sure, there was something there! An entity quite foreign to him, not him in the least. “Yeah, bro, I can-, I can feel it!” Chad said, and although he’d never been much for introspection, much like the former Adam, at this moment, he could almost see himself reaching out.

The void parted before his eager fingers, and within that cool emptiness, he felt warmth. And much like the fever that had pained him for the past two days almost claiming his life, the warmth spread out through him, through his fingertips to his throat to his toes.

She reached out to him, too. To that large presence she had felt before. She had to get answers. How had he suddenly spoken her language? How did he know her name? She had to get answers. Reaching out, she felt her hand grasp his hand, together, two as one, one as one.

On the outside, Adam was presented with the odd sight of Chad glowing. Unlike before, when the light came from the powerful fire Magick coursing underneath his skin, however, this light came from something else entirely. And instead of being a different entity, aside and different from Chad, it was Chad himself. Glowing brightly, his light taking up the whole room, he burst into flames. Glorious, warm, saintly flames. And when they faded like embers in the night, he was hardly himself.

“Yo dude, wassup?” a tired, hoarse voice said from within the light. As the light faded, Adam was met with a strange sight.

The man hardly seemed to be Chad at all, being by far slimmer, although he was still quite well-toned. The face, which almost-but-not-quite looked like Chad, seemed almost feminine in comparison to the burly teen he once was.

“Yo, dude, you’re lookin’ pretty close there, you cool man? Also, uhh, who are you?” the man asked, leaning in. His auburn eyes seemed to glow in the dark. He was sitting cross-legged, and Adam, not wishing to be the inferior in terms of positioning, sat up in the same position. Whatever the hell this was, it was clearly a Magickal occurrence.

“I’m… you don’t know? You know me, bro, I know you do,” Adam said, his gaze trailing over whatever this strange thing the man was wearing was. It seemed to all be in a single piece, but it was very odd. The nether part seemed to be like a pair of shorts, but the upper part was poofy and large like a robe. Overall, it was orange in colour, and the only odd part visible was a small signature that seemed to have been written in ink. Ink…

Before the man could answer, Adam leaned in as well, focusing his eyes on the little written part. It was clear and well-written, spelling out “Adam B. Windsley” in Lutum Common. Adam looked back up at the man. Their eyes met. His were tired and almost distant, Adam's were awake and clear.

“Duuude, this is super trippy. Like, yeah, I know you and stuff, sure, but, also, like, uhhh… what was I saying? Oh, yeah, bro, you totally look like this Adam guy I know! But, like, older? No, wait, you look like this? Okay, bro, my memory is all fuzzy, I have no idea about anything,” the man said, taking a puff of a long-shafted rosewood pipe that he'd apparently pulled out of nowhere. “Oh yeah that’s the stuff”, he mumbled, letting a purple-coloured smoke-cloud flow out of his mouth.

“I’m Adam, yes. And you are… well, I’m not quite sure myself. Are you Chad, or are you Mirim, or are you perhaps someone else entirely?” Adam asked, feeling his curiously tickled once more.

The man ummed and aahed for a moment, the capped beanie on his head wiggling with each movement. Eventually, he peered out from behind his full head of auburn dreadlocks.

“No idea bro, but, like, that’s totally deep, and stuff. You’re a pretty clever dude, aren’t you? Heh. But, like, if you want, you can call me, uhhh, okay yeah you can keep calling me Bro that’s pretty sweet heh,” Bro said with a broad smile. Adam nodded hesitantly.

“So, br-, Bro… what languages do you speak? Can you use Magick?” Adam asked.

“Uhhh, I can speak whatever this is, English? English yeah, and, like, I speak this other language, but I know another one like a little. As for Magick…” Bro looked up at the ceiling, squinting a bit in thought. “Absumet heres Caecuba dignior luce, ostendere viam: Veni,” Bro mumbled, and opening his mouth, a small cloud of white light flowed out before condensing into a spherical ball of light.

Adam nodded. Apparently, this Bro character was extremely proficient in Spellspeak, something Adam personally could not do. Chanting was one thing, sure, but creating Spell Circles without even using your hands… impressive, to say the least. Although Mirim had of course been quite talented in this area, she had never been as prominent as this.

The spell quickly dissipated.

“I see, very interesting… So, in short, you’re not them both, you’re more of a separate entity, with their abilities and personalities merged with no real seam in between?”

“I dunno bro, maybe?” Bro said with a shrug. Adam didn’t quite know how to respond. So, given a moment to think, he had a bit on an idea.

“What happens if you feel inside of yourself?”

“Bro, that’s, like, super gay, but, I mean, sure, heh,” Bro said, closing his eyes much like Chad has mere minutes before.

And in a brilliant explosion of light, Chad was right back, with all his hunky muscle and blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Whooaa. Dude, that was…” Chad let his hand cradle his head. “Bro, I want to say that shit was trippy, but I don’t want to sound anything like him,” Chad confessed.

Adam put a hand on Chad’s shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s okay, uh, you did good, br-, dude. Just… can you remember anything?” Adam asked.

Chad glanced up to him.

“I… I do. But, like, it’s pretty muddy,” Chad said, his gaze anxiously bouncing about the room as if even the colours had been different during his short time as a hippie. During this pacing about, he somehow caught a glimpse of the clock. “Oh, shit dude, we gotta get in bed! Hold up, I’ll go grab a mattress from the washing room, there’s a pillow and some covers in my wardrobe so you go grab that, alright? Right!” Chad said as he quietly burst out of the room. The hallway was very dark, the only light in the house coming from the television in Chad’s room.

Adam got up and tried to navigate the room. Wardrobe, wardrobe… that’s a large cabinet, right? Ah, there it is. Red in colour and quite tall, it was filled with shorts, caps, sleeveless shirts and pretty much nothing else. However, in the bottom drawer, he found a pillow and a cover. Perfect.

Chad soon returned, tip-toeing about as quietly as a hundred kilos of muscles can.

He placed the mattress on the floor beside his car-shaped bed, and with Adam adding the pillow and covers, they had a full bed all ready and done.

Chad, not really caring much about Adam seeing anything, got changed into his pyjamas without a care and hopped into bed.

“Dude, come on, get in bed before mum and dad notices we’re up way past midnight,” Chad whispered, and Adam was just about to slip into bed in his school uniform when Chad stopped him. “Hey, yo, you can’t go to bed in your uniform! Just sleep in your undies dude, it’s alright,” Chad said. Adam nodded but was somewhat unnerved.

What a strange world. People didn’t like you removing your clothes in front of them, but they also did? How strange. But Chad probably knew what he was saying, so Adam removed most of his clothes and got into bed.

Silence.