Silently, the two High-Magicians stared at each other for a moment.

Cale was quite confused. It took him a moment to understand what Grischa was talking about, because over the last few days, the new information had been piling up. By now, he couldn't even tell exactly when the whole thing had started.

"Each of us had a different insight, Grischa. Just because you didn't see one of us doesn't mean your vision is irrelevant or even wrong", the dark-haired mage explained calmly. Several weeks ago, he himself had doubted his vision, but after talking to the Eldest, he realized that it was true. Which made it all the more interesting to him what Grischa had seen. "I... for example, didn't see any people at all."

Cale never wanted to talk about his vision. The sheer fact that a dragon was in it scared him to death. Therefore, he had simply avoided talking about this insight. The insights of the future, like the Igrikum, were a great secret to every High-Magician. Therefore, it was considered disrespectful among them to address a colleague on this subject. Since he himself could not reveal his insight, he had never inquired about what exactly the other High-Magicians had seen. In retrospect, however, the thought struck him as rather silly.

"May I ask what exactly you saw?", Grischa replied quietly.

"Not very much, to be honest. I stood on the top of the mountains of Sylve and watched both countries from above. Why? I don't know", Cale explained hesitantly. He did not mention the detail of how peaceful the city seemed and the dragon at his side. "What about you? How did you even figure out that we High-Magicians see each other in our insights?"

Grischa sighed and held his hand in front of his head.

"Now I feel really stupid. Besides Sefra, I talked to a few others at the time, and somehow the Magistrat or one of us appeared in every insight. Just not in mine, my vision was so... strange."

"What exactly did you see?", Cale inquired curiously.

"A woman. I saw a young woman screaming. A man was standing next to her holding her hand, presumably her husband. She was in the process of giving birth."

"You saw a birth?", Cale retorted in surprise. "Did you get a good look at their faces?"

"Yes, that's why I'm so sure it wasn't one of us. The Eldest once commented to me that in our insight you see the future, but to this day I don't know who those people were."

Momentarily, Cale had to remind himself how old the Eldest was. Could it be that Grischa had simply seen hundreds of years into the future? Was it possible that the people he saw weren't even alive yet?

"Perhaps the man or woman were mages who would join the Magistrat later?", Cale voiced his thoughts aloud. But instantly he recalled something.

The world had no future.

If these were really magicians, why didn't Cale know about them? How long had Grischa survived in the other timelines? Could it really be that they were currently missing one member? A member that could save the world from destruction? Something that even Cale had missed?

"You think they were High-Magicians who are yet to join us?", Grischa interjected in surprise.

"Could be, yeah. I mean, it was the same with Sefra back then, you weren't even..."

Momentarily, Cale fell silent. He was just about to tell him that Sefra was over 100 years older than she looked. After all that Grischa had experienced today... the memory lapse and the near-death experience... how do you think he would react if Cale told him that he probably had to watch his son and grandchildren die?

All at once, Cale also realized the reason the Eldest didn't talk openly about it. It was cruel.

"Not what?", Grischa prompted to keep the young mage talking, but Cale remained silent. He stared at his friend with meek eyes while thinking about his family. The man, who was also an Apostle, outwardly still looked like a man in his late 20s, though he was now 42. "Are you going to completing your sentence?"

"Grischa...", Cale raised jerkily. Suddenly, he had a thought flash. "How old were you when you went through the 3. stage?"

"How old was I? I was 20. I still remember that day as if it was yesterday. Summer, 77 in the year 1040. A scalding hot summer day, I was on the way to the sea with my friends at that time, when suddenly mana had spread inside me and I got the insight. It had knocked me out then, and when I woke up hours later, Aaron was already with me."

With his mouth half open, Cale stared at his counterpart. Summer of '77? And then in the exact same year, too? Grischa had received his insight on the day Cale was born? The vision... did he see his birth? Could that even be possible? The insights don't showed... the future? At least not always?

Without a word, he let the worksheets slide from the table to him, stapled the documents over the Kormandent, and began to draw the faces of his parents.

"What's going on?", Grischa spoke up shortly after. Cale ignored his friend's question and began to briskly trace his birth mother's face. For a while, Grischa simply watched his younger friend slowly but surely draw the face of a pretty, slender woman. "That's her! That's the woman from my insight back then! How do you know what she looked like?"

At Grischa's exclamation, Cale stopped and looked at the unfinished drawing in front of him. What in the world did that mean? Why did her insights show such different things, and why had Cale seen a dragon then? What... what did the gods intend by this?

"It was never about the woman or the man in the vision Grin, it was about the child."

"The child?", the 1st Seat repeated in wonder, glancing at the drawing and then back at Cale. He seemed to realize at that moment what Cale was trying to tell him.

"This is my mother, Olivia Leuen", he explained nonetheless, causing Grischa to gasp in surprise. "77th summer, 1040 is the day I was born. Did you see anything else in your insight or was that it?"

A second later, Cale could feel someone approaching his apartment again. When the person opened the door a moment later, Cale suspected that Aletta had returned. Unobtrusively, she crept toward his study when Grischa's movement caught Cale's attention.

"By the Eldest's beard...", Grischa slowly raised, his eyes instantly filling with tears. "... I'm so sorry. Oh, by the Eldest's beard, Caleb. I didn't know that, you have to believe me."

"What, what do I have to believe you? What are you talking about? Speak clearly to me, please."

Grischa held his face with both hands, trying to hold back the water in his eyes as he looked at Cale.

"I'm so sorry. In my vision, I saw her death. The attack on Groka, I saw it."

"Groka was... not attacked until 5 years later", Cale replied now completely confused. The insights defied any logic he had so far. Why was it jumping back and forth between moments?

"Cale?", Aletta's voice suddenly spoke up before the mage realized she was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"I will be down in a moment", he replied loudly, before grabbing Grischa's shoulder with both hands and looking at him seriously. "Don't apologize for something like that. It's not your fault, and certainly you couldn't have prevented the attack. I hope you realize that."

"Caleb, I swear to you, if I had known, then..."

"I know. I believe you", Cale threw back. "Excuse me, I have some important things to clear up with Aletta that also have to do with my Igrikum on your back. Let's continue talking later."

The two High-Magicians paused like that for a moment until the 1st seat nodded and Cale broke away from him. With brisk steps he walked to Aletta while some new questions ran through his mind.

Why did Grischa have this vision, with this big time jump at that? How had his parents died exactly in this vision? Did his time travel affect what Grischa had seen, or was it like the Eldest?

He hopped down the last two steps and came to a stop next to Aletta, who had taken a step to the side. Skeptically, she let her gaze wander upward, as if checking to see if Grischa would overhear her, before she began to speak.

"Miguel would be coming to the Magistrat tomorrow morning, could you please tell the Eldest?", she raised loudly, at the same time gesturing with her head for Cale to follow her.

"Of course, I'll tell him."

Quietly, Cale let the door fall into the lock behind him and waited for Aletta to begin the actual topic. She elegantly turned around to the back and leaned against the back of the couch in the entrance hall, while Cale continued to stand by the door, not letting go of the handle.

"My Holy Mana, why didn't it kill the creature?"

"I've asked myself the same question", Cale returned truthfully, watching as the young mage allowed some mana to move in her hand. "Yusuf had even confirmed that he could sense your mana."

"Strange, isn't it? I talked to the healer and she was beside herself. It had never occurred to her that Holy Mana did not have a poisonous reaction in creatures. She didn't budge from that opinion either, so I asked father", Aletta explained quietly, as if sharing a tremendous secret with Cale. "He said exactly the same thing: it's impossible. Never had he seen or heard anything else. Holy Mana is, without exception, poison to creatures."

"But not to the Kormandent", Cale returned serenely, watching the little woman lower her hand and look at him with serious eyes.

"Not to the Kormandent, exactly", she repeated. "So I asked myself a question: what if these aren't creatures at all?"