"Every year I am asked the same question, what is the point of this exercise? Let me make one thing clear. I will not baby you, I will not favor you, and I will not under any circumstances save you." Coach O'Ryan paces the gym in front of us.

I glace to my right and see Dariyah is no longer wearing her signature smirk. In fact, there is just an air of dread and fear in the room. No one is talking or joking around, they all look like they would rather be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

That makes my heart rate spike.

"The answer to that question is the same every year. Self-awareness." She stops dead center of the gym.

I hear the girl next to me gulp in fear.

"Out there in the real world, you will be picked on, discriminated against, even harassed. It's not a nice world to be a Caster. People will do anything to make you look like the bad guy, push all your buttons, play on all your fears. You have to be aware of your own weaknesses. Our energies react to us, if we are scared, or angry, or upset, they will react accordingly. But you cannot under any circumstance lose your cool. They will attack you, they will make out to be a monster, they won't understand you. For all these reasons, we do this exercise."

That's a little dramatic.

"Every semester I have several people drop my class after this, I expect the same here. Some people can't handle the truth. But understand I don't do this to be mean or torture you. I don't get any pleasure from this. I hate this as much as you do, but it's necessary for your survival in this world. There is no pass or fail for this assignment, you get points for just showing up and doing it. But, if you lose control of yourself during the simulation I will make note of that. And I will hound you extra hard for the rest of the semester. If you want out say the safe word which is Unicorns."

A few girls giggle at that.

"If anyone is able to stay through the whole thing, you will be exempt from the final this semester."

"Has anyone ever gotten that before?" Dariyah asked.

"Not in the 22 years I've worked here."

Everyone whispers amongst themselves.

"Now, there are a lot of you, so I've recruited a few professors for help. Our campus physician will be on standby as well as the headmaster."

I turn to my left and see Asherah lingering in the doorway.

Kenshin has a table set up with medical supplies, several assistances next to him.

"Ellison, you're up first."

I hear my heart in my ears and step forward, my knees shake as I walk to the big glyph in the center of the room. There are four more all around the room.

"This simulation is done by Shadow magic. When you step in the energies will drill into you and project your fears and insecurities. It could be something as silly as bugs, it could be as serious as being chased by a serial killer. Only you will know what it is and only you will see it. This is to make you aware of your limits. Do you understand?" she asks me.

I nod.

"Nothing in there is real, it won't be able to hurt you, but you will feel like it's real. Are you ready?"

"Do I have a choice?" I say.

Many people giggle at that.

She smirks and steps aside for me.

I eye the black glyph on the floor before taking a deep breath and stepping inside. A black bubble appears around the circle blocking out everything else. It's pitch black inside, I can't see anything.

It's not real.

It can't hurt me.

I feel the moment when the energies or whatever drill into me. It makes me sick to my stomach. Like when you've seen something so gross you get nauseous. That feeling. Then I get cold. Goosebumps rise on my skin.

Then something strange happens, the star mark appears on my hand and starts glowing brightly.

A vision starts appearing in front of me, it's me, the me from right now. Doing this exact same thing, over and over and over still. I stare at it in confusion. It's like an endless mirror all reflecting back this moment. I turn to my left and my right and see the same thing.

A huge clock appears in front of me and it makes loud ticking noises going forward a few seconds before rewinding back again and again. It makes this god-awful sound, like every sting instrument playing a harsh and out of tune note at once.

"Emery!" someone shouts.

I whirl around but no one is there.

"Run!" I turn and again there is no one.

"Hello!?" I call out.

The clock gets louder and louder and I have to cover my ears.

My hand glows bright and I see a new vision. It's me, finishing this simulation.

"She cheated!" Dariyah comes over to me and shoves me to the ground.

Lots of other people chime in.

"She's a star caster, it's not fair!" Another girl says.

"We all saw the light." Someone else says.

Then the clock rewinds again.

"Trust your light," a voice says.

Then I see the moon, full.

"Emery! Run!" someone calls.

Then I hear my name being said over and over and over by different voices. Some familiar some not. I cover my ears again and crouch down to the floor.

"What is going on!?" I say.

Then silence.

I look around and see a new glowing, this time it's not coming from me. It's an explosion coming right at me. Before it can touch me, the bubble pops and I am back in the gym.

I look around in confusion.

"She totally cheated!" I turn just as Dariyah shoves me to the ground.

Everyone starts getting rowdy.

"She's a star caster, it's not fair!" someone says.

"We all saw the light..." I say the same time the other girl does.

Dariyah eyes me in confusion, being the only one close enough to hear me.

I stand up and look around in confusion.

"Alright settle down," Coach calls.

I look down at my hand, but nothing is there.

Coach touches my shoulder but I pull free of her grasp and back away.

What is going on?

She eyes me in confusion.

I eye everyone in the room before backing up to the door. I back right into Asherah, we lock eyes before I push past her and run out of the room.

What is happening?

This is the second weird vision I've seen.

What does it mean?

I walk out of the gym and across the walkway to the library. I run inside and up to the front counter.

"Can I help you?" a student worker asks.

"Are Time Casters real?"

She eyes me in confusion.

I wait for her answer.

"You're serious?" she says.

"Yes."

"Yes... everyone knows that." She says.

"Books, I need books on them. Now. Where?" I demand.

"Okay, geez." She taps on her computer before writing down a shelf number and handing it to me.

"Try the fourth floor." She says.

So I take the elevator to the fourth floor.

People eye me as I rush by in my gym uniform.

I got to the shelf and quickly start taking out as many books as I can carry. Then I go to the front desk again.

"I want to check out these," I set the stack down.

"Oh, well okay then. Let me help you with that." She starts typing away.

"It's for a paper." I supply.

"Can I have your student id?"

Shoot, it's in my normal clothes.

"Uh, can I just give you the number? I forgot it." I say.

"Sure," she eyes me.

I so I recite the number to her. She rents out the books to me and I carry the stack out. I go right to my dorm, not wanting anyone to see me. But Asherah must have tipped Cyrene off about the weird incident because she is waiting for me at my door.

"What's that?" she indicates to the large stack of books.

"Nothing," I say too quickly.

She eyes me.

"Just research," I say.

"For?"

"Just curious." I lie.

She moves to grab one but I jerk the stack away from her.

"What are you doing here?" I push past her and unlock the door before walking in.

"Asherah told me you ran out of the Gym."

"Well, I'm fine." I set the books down on my bed and toss a blanket over them so she can't read the titles.

She eyes me and moves to look but I step in the way.

"I'll meet you at your office later," I say.

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," I move in the way again when she tries to step around me.

She tries to push me out of the way but I push her back.

"Emery what's going on?" she asks.

I stare at her.

I can hear my heart in my ears.

I don't know who to trust.

I don't know what's going on but somehow, I just know something isn't right here. Something is off. What if... what if this isn't the first time I've lived this moment? What if this has happened all before?

What is going on?

I can still hear a clock ticking in my head. Feel the heat of that explosion. Once might have been a fever dream, but twice now? What are the odds I see something freaky twice!?

"Emery want to explain?" she says slowly.

"Just back off okay! Give me space. I need to think." I snap at her.

"Why? What's going on?"

"I don't know!"

She raises an eyebrow.

"I don't know, but I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"Because! I don't know who to trust."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know who did this to me or why, but I know something, but I don't know what I know. I can't explain it, it doesn't make sense. I'm confused and freaking out. Just don't okay."

"Emery—"

A knock on the door causes me to flinch. Asherah walks in, eyeing us.

"Everything okay?" she asks.

I glance at Cyrene in panic. She looks at me, trying to decide what to do. I shake my head no. Asherah clears her throat.

"Everything's fine," Cyrene says.

"Oh Really?" Asherah says unconvinced.

"She started her period," Cyrene says casually.

"Don't tell her!" I play along.

Asherah sigh and shakes her head at me.

"You shouldn't have run out," she says.

"I panicked," I admit.

"Well, don't let it happen again."

"Okay."

Asherah eyes us one last time before walking out.

I shut and lock the door.

"Going to explain now?" Cyrene crosses her arms.

I move the blanket and hand her a book.

The title reads, Time Casters and their limitations.

"Why are you reading this?" She eyes it in confusion.

"I've seen some weird things that don't make sense. I know it sounds crazy, but I think I've lived this all before."

"What do you mean?"

I sigh and sit down on my bed.

She sits next to me, moving the books out of the way.

"There is something I didn't tell you, about that weird dream I talked about during the council meeting."

"Finally going to elaborate on that?"

"Don't tell anyone," I whisper.

"Why?" she scoots ever closer to me.

"Because I don't know who I can trust."

"You trust me, don't you?"

"I guess, I don't know," I admit.

"Emery what is going on, you're starting to freak me out. Has someone approached you, did something to you? What does it have to do with time caster's?"

"After I got into that fight with Dariyah I went to Crystal Keep to hide, when I was there something weird happened. There was this glyph on the floor, when I walked over to investigate it, it opened up a portal or something. I saw myself, but like, older, more skilled. Just different, it was me, but not me at the same time. She pulled me through the portal and I saw some stuff."

"What?" she says softer.

"I saw the same building, but it was on fire. I was all beaten up and rough looking. That older me told me not to trust anyone. That she was my future self, that was my future. She said that the key was inside me now. She put something in me, like... her energy or something. She said that the key was inside of me and only I could use it. That I have to break the cycle. Then the building came crumbling down in an explosion. I got blasted back to my time."

Cyrene eyes me in alarm like I just told her I plan on trying to assassinate the president of the united states. Her look only makes me panic even more.

"And you haven't told anyone about this?" she says even softer.

I shake my head no.

"Don't."

"Why?" I say with equal intensity.

"It makes sense now, why your energy was all out of tune. Emery, you could have died. You had inside of you, energy from another time period. If what you are saying is true, this is very serious. A time caster has broken the most sacred of laws and somehow you are caught up in it. Don't tell a single soul about this, tipping off the wrong person will alert them and they will just rewind time and do it all again, this time making sure that you don't catch on."

"That's not all, when I was in the fear simulation that thing that my future self put inside of me activated. I saw the future again. It was that exact moment, I knew people were going to say I cheated, I knew Dariyah was going to push me. There was this clock and visions of myself doing the same thing over and over. I think my future self is trying to warn me. That's why I think, this isn't the first time. I think, maybe this has all happened before, me and you having this conversation, everything."

"How did it activate, show me where she put it."

I offer my left-hand palm side up.

She grabs my hand and closes her eyes.

"What are you doing?" I jerk my hand back.

"I'm going to see if I can read the energy." She says.

"But—"

"Emery, first off, I'm not a time Caster. Second, if I was out to get you, don't you think I would have done it by now? And third, you see me every day, several times a day. How exactly am I going to plot against you without seeming off or suspicious?"

I guess she does have a point.

I eye her and she eyes me.

I have to trust someone; I need someone who actually has some idea about Casters to help me out. Because I am so lost. I have no clue what I am doing. I am so out of my league that it's not even funny. No way I can figure this out by myself.

I take a deep breath and once again offer her my hand.