1: The Mage Sixtus

I didn’t stop to observe every single detail, but based on what I saw from the doorway, the general design of the room and all the furniture was identical. That made my mind go completely blank. Becauseof course it did. Ordinarily, the door should have opened to a corridor or a different room. How could anyone possibly expect to walk into a room of the same size, with the same furniture, and decorated down to the same wallpaper?

I stood there with my hand on the doorknob, frozen for a time.

I’m scared. Maybe even too scared to move.

“What is going on...?”

I had no answer to my question, but the idea of turning back was even more terrifying. I knew that the corpse in the previous room wouldn’t move from its place, but the image of it rising to its feet filled me with worry. I felt a scream rising from the pit of my stomach, but I shoved my terror from my mind as best I could and took a step into the new room. I stood at the corner of it, my eyes on the door at the opposite wall, a mere ten steps away.

I walked toward it with such trepidation it was almost laughable, taking in my surroundings through something of a dull mental haze. It wasn’t that I wanted to seeit again, but I at least wanted to know if it was still there, unmoving and slumped over the desk. I wanted to reassure myself that the only odd thing about the situation was the room itself, and so I reluctantly took it all in.

And as if to laugh at my show of confidence, fate saw fit to alert me to something out of the ordinary. I heard a sharp intake of air and did not immediately realize that it was my own gasp. It turned out the second room I’d entered was not an entire replica of the first; this was good. The difference, however, brought me no joy.

Gone was the corpse strewn across the room’s desk. Instead,someone sat slumped against the far wall. I could not make out their features with their head slumped, but the clothes made methink it was a male. The reason it was so difficult to tell was that the body had r