The forest at night had an exceptional quality to it, due to the lack of light pollution, the sky through the tree leaves burst with colour of the galaxies far away.

  “I thought I had to use tracking magic.” I was under the assumption null would still follow the rules of teaching me, but it seems like she has given up for some reason.

  “Do you really want to learn?” She asks while guiding a light on her finger, she had checked Jackson’s file and used tracking magic on his blood type, so the light will shine brighter like a compass when you are facing it.

  “Not really…” the ground here was covered in leaves and sticks, we could make no sneak entrance.

  I had a couple of the sleeping spells in my pocket, hoping it won’t come to that.

  Jackson isn’t stupid, he will clearly accept my plan to clone him then use the clones dead body as proof we found him, it’s so simple. Anyone with half a brain would see that.

  We find the river and walk along it, he is probably using the river to fish and drink, smart.

  “Hey uh… where even are we? In the world?”

  She shakes her head, “I don’t know, we are on earth.”

  The smell of smoke made its way to us, null stops, “he is…” she continues walking until we find a campfire with a rock covered in paper.

  “Huh… where is he?”

  Null looks around, “it says he is here-“ a spear slices through nulls jaw, she falls onto the ground gurgling, I feel a kick to my stomach.

  I hit a tree as I fall backwards, he steps back to keep distance, “paper doesn’t do well when you have to get close right?” He chuckles to himself, his hair is messy and his body is covered in dirt and sap, even more dirty than he was in the town.

  Null is below him with blood pooling along her mouth, she reaches for his leg but he stops it by stabbing her through the hand with the pointy stick.

  “STOP.” I yell, “hear me out.”

  “Hear you out? That’s rich.” He takes a few stones from his pocket, it’s wrapped in paper. He throws it up and down into his hand, I move left while he moves right, like two predators getting ready for a fight.

  “We had a plan to take you alive, we clone you then use that clones body to prove you are dead.” I explain as calmly as I can.

  “I don’t care.” He throws one stone, “MORVA ERIS.” The stone compacts in on itself and shoots out like a bullet into my shoulder, grazing my bone and causing a deep wound.

  “What the hell was that?” I clutch at my bleeding wound hoping to fix it with willpower.

  “It’s energy, the implosion power has to go somewhere, so it compacts on itself and increases its velocity. Basic physics.”

  He gets ready to throw another, he screams the two words, aiming directly at my head, it misses just barely, hitting my hair and burning it a bit.

  The rock hits the tree behind me, rattling leaves and sticks to fall down and cloud my vision. A crack in front of me signifies he is moving forward so I hold my hand out hoping to catch his attack.

  Instead of doing a stabbing motion like I expected, he does a swing directly at my head, hitting me in the temple.

  I grab a piece of paper and try to reach for his feet while I fall to the ground.

  The spear stabs through my wrist, “what’s this ring?” He asks calmly while ripping the paper from my hand, “does this spell kill instantly?”

  “Just puts you to sleep, please just listen, If I don’t…” he rips the spear from my wrist and I pull back, I receive a kick to my head.

  I cough out a tooth and pull myself backwards, he is walking slowly towards me like a machine, “everyone in the town dies if I don’t give them your body, plea-“ he tries to stab me again but I manage to grab the spear, “PLEASE JUST-“

  I receive a kick to my stomach, landing back first into a tree, Jackson looks completely drained of empathy right now.

  “You’re such a manipulative little creature, you’re like a cockroach, finding its way to live, spreading disease.”

  I receive another kick to the chest as I sit down, a couple ribs feel like they break.

  “You say everyone in the town will die if you don’t kill and clone me, but I think the reality is that everyone in the town will die because you messed up and used magic.” He kicks me again, “we all died the moment you did that.” He goes for another kick, this time I grab his foot as hard as I can and try to use a little bit of my innate magic.

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  He coughs up that black liquid, not falling instantly, but definitely still hurt. All I did was visualise that 10% damage variable.

  I get up as he sways, “please.”

  I reach into my pocket for the sleeping spell, he reaches into his and pulls out his own paper.

  He coughs out again, swaying even more, “what did… you do?” He takes a step forward but his feet move back, “stop it.”

  “I’m not doing anything, please just listen to me.” I get on my hands and push myself up with barely any strength left. “Just trust me.”

  “Fuck you.” He slams the paper onto himself, activating it with a scream.

  A ball of meat falls to the ground, what remained of Jackson. Why? Why did he do that? Is he stupid? Is he dumb? Why would I lie? Why didn’t he trust me?

  I… I can still save him. I grab the ball of meat with both arms.

  I run over to null while almost falling over, my body is bleeding way too much, she is alive miraculously, stitching her jaw together with some glowing pink stitches.

  Whatever I don’t care right now, “do you just need dna to clone someone?” I grab her shoulders. “Please, make him alive again.”

  She stares at the ball of Jackson, then at me, she nods twice while getting up. The once gaping wound in her jaw is now shut carefully, I guess this is how you heal yourself with your own magic.

  We both walk back, her in a bit of a rush, I’m leaving behind a trail of blood but pure adrenaline keeps it feeling like a mild paper cut.

  Once the cabin comes into sight she slams open the door and writes a healing spell, placing it on my chest and saying the words through a confusing airy tone. My body heals almost completely, albeit my ribs still feel incredibly wrong.

  I place Jackson’s ‘body’ on the table, she begins to prepare some resources from her bag, the small bag that holds 6 years worth of food in it.

  “Make way to grave, shovel” she says while muffled due to the stitches.

  When we took that man from the town I made sure I buried him beside my cabin as a reminder for what I did, sorry old man.

  I pick up a shovel and move the loose dirt, I didn’t even give the grave a chance to settle. I had only buried him 3 feet so I reach his body quickly, there was a stench of rot that I was used to in the mud town.

  I drag his body out, onto the path and into the cabin, null is taking blood from the Jackson ball. It’s disgusting to look at, it’s like how chicken nuggets look before they are cooked, but as a sphere with hair and obvious lines where limbs don’t connect.

  “Need lots blood.” Her jaw is still causing her words to be confusing, but it’s getting better with time. She picks up the old man’s body and places him beside the ball.

  A pink thread connects the two, it surrounds the ball, then surrounds the old man, I hear the sounds of cutting and snipping, like she is giving them a haircut.

  “4 hours. Wait.”

  “Okay.”

  I sit down, watching her work at them, “is there any way to take them back? To the modern world?”

  He jaw has almost been completely healed, only faint scaring on her face remains.

  She shakes her head, “only master Lilith and her boss have that ability. We are on private land.” Her fingers twist a bit to reshape the head of the body.

  I stand up and take some chips out of the cabinet, “why are you helping me?” I pull the two edges of the bag and it pops open.

  “To be honest, I don’t have long left, Lilith replaces her clones every 2 years, I found receipts…”

  I sit back down, “chip?” I hold it to her mouth and she bites.

  “I thought I’d achieve great things when I was released from my box, but a life made to suffer and cause suffering isn’t purposeful.” The arm twists on the old man, making his form lankier, I can’t see anything below the pink threads.

  “I get that… my whole life has been about maximising the good I do.”

  She shakes her head and smiles, “this is a roundabout way to achieve that…”

  I notice her human emotion, “woah you’re smiling, that means you are sentient.”

  “I could just be good at mimicking emotions.”

  “Does it feel that way?”

  “No…”

  “Then it isn’t, you’re as real as anyone else… real…” I get reminded of the 10 clones I killed in cold blood, how brutal I was, how unfeeling I was in the moment.

  “I need air, you go…” I get up, moving to the door and swinging it open, I walk down the path out of the forest to bask in the moonlight.

  I killed 10… no including Jackson and the old man I don’t even know the name of I’ve killed 12… people…

  “Urghhh.” Well I’m going to save Jackson so that means I killed 11, so I just need to save 11 more and I’m back to being a good person.

  Fog surrounds me for a quick moment before dissipating, the sound of a fancy carriage passes through.

  “Stop!” A female voice shouts as it goes by my feet, someone in a black and red dress comes out, their hair styled up to make sure she looks sophisticated.

  Her face is nulls.

  “Now what’s a young boy doing out here in the wilderness, it’s rare to come across such a specimen.” She hops down and grabs my hand, “do you talk boy?”

  I nod, “yes nul- no uh, I mean, yes I talk.” That’s going in my most embarrassing moments book.

  “Ohhh good! You are the human with magic aren’t you? Such a wonderful delight, a treat, a tasty one at that.” She pulls me up from the ground, “I am here on business but I can’t deny the pain of not being able to study your thoughts.” She strokes my cheek.

  This is nulls owner, the actual original, I don’t know why but I can tell, she has a similar atmosphere to her than it was to be around Liliths boss.

  I speak in the voice that I use for Lilith, I need to control the flow of conversation, to make a suggestion of a future meeting so I have time.“That would be wonderful, we should setup a date then, what time would be convenient?”

  She lets go of me and claps, walking over to another version of her and grabbing paper, “13th of December, 5 days, I’ll come pick you up, wear something nice. Your gift wrapping is sub par at best.”

  She hands me the paper delicately, the glove on her finger is fully black except for the ring finger which has the ring and skin showing.

  The paper had the exact time she will pick me up and the date, “thank you, looking forward to it.”

  “It’s always so wonderful when our kind makes a new breakthrough, you’re one of us now, don’t forget it okay?” She fiddles with my ring, “such a pretty ring for a mud thing.”

  Mud thing? “Thanks…”

  “You’re so pure, alas I need to talk to… what does she go by ‘Lilith’ now?” She looks over at one of her clones.

  “Yes, she goes by Lilith.” A clone speaks as calmly as possible while tapping her pen on the table within the carriage.

  “Okay, well I need to see Lilith about issues she is having with one of my clones, they’re nasty little things aren’t they?” She pats both my shoulders at once, “oh! Before I forget, did you get innate magic?”

  “I did…”

  She squeals in excitement, hopping back into the carriage, “I’m looking forward to our meeting. Bye!”

  I wave, she had just given me information I probably shouldn’t have. Null is going to be replaced soon. ‘Issues Lilith is having about one of her clones’ is just code for ‘I want a refund and a new one.’

  Does that make my kill total 12 again if I can’t save null? I need to save 12 people to make me a good person, that’s all.