Psycho Gem

Chapter 12: Two of a Kind

I kept focusing on his face, hoping that I was just seeing things, but I wasn't. This wasn't a hallucination at all.

"This can't be real, you can't be me. This is a trick or something!" I said, denying what I was seeing in front of me.

"Oh, I am. It's good to see a familiar face every once in a while." Malcolm said in what seemed like a friendly tone.

"No. Who's to say this isn't some illusion? or a body that you took over using an echo of myself from another universe to confuse me?"

"It isn't too hard to grasp, Magus. The multiverse is more than big enough for an infinite number of us. Every copy of everyone is only separated by circumstance. You already know how echoes work, different universes have different versions of everyone. We may share the same identity, but we couldn't be more different. What you see isn't some host body or illusion, this... is me." he said with a bow.

I was in shock, trying to process the fact that the legend, Malcovius, was an echo of me from God- knows-what universe.

"I mean, it's a lot more complicated than that, but it's not important right now. What is important... is that you have something I need."

Those words snapped me back into reality. "Tracks?"

Malcolm stood silent.

"Why? Why are you trying to kill Tracks?" I asked, ignoring his reply and hoping to finally get some real answers.

"I don't want to kill him, I want to spare him," he said.

"Spare him from what? If anything he should be spared from you!"

"It's not me he should be spared from, it's everything else." he replied with a hateful tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Tch, please. You of all people would understand. Nobody deserves to go through the pain we all face in life. Our souls are plagued by darkness from the moment we take our first breaths. You of all people should know... that life is pain."

"Not all of us feel that way."

"But you do, and those who don't are just kidding themselves. You and I have experienced firsthand the true nature of things."

"Yeah, so what?" I asked, wanting to get to the point.

"I was unwillingly brought into this horrible existence, and I can't stand the notion of me bringing someone into this life like I was. He can't be allowed to suffer through life like we have." he said with a hint of regret on his face. "But back to the REAL topic, Tracks isn't what I need from you."

"Oh, really? What would that be?"

"The twelve coins of Lemore."

The moment he said that, I was more than shocked. I had almost completely forgotten about those stupid things. I remembered seeing them in Malcolm's lair around the statue's neck, I had no idea that was what they were. There is a legend of a woman who made a deal with the Devil. The deal was that she'd be given great riches if she was able to fool a god. She went on to challenge one of the members of the council of those above to a rigged card game. She wagered her soul and the god wagered twelve gold coins. I don't know how she was able to fool the god but that's just what the story says. She won and was given the gold coins, receiving the riches the Devil promised her. The god realised that she cheated him and sent her soul to Hell for the Devil to collect. The coins were lost and it is said that whoever has the full set becomes exempt from divine punishment, effectively making you immune to consequences when breaking the god's rules. Nobody's ever seen them until a few years ago while I was with the Midnight Magicians, we found them, or at least some of them. I was supposed to be the one to keep them, but when I left the group after what... happened, I gave them to someone else. I was trying to think of what Malcolm could possibly want with those tokens.