After a short rest, I manage to pick myself up off the ground and brace myself against the wall to start awkwardly limping back towards the lit area.


    “Wait,” the other me says. It’s so weird hearing my own voice like that. It feels like it’s coming from just next to me, but there’s only a wall there. “Don’t leave those behind.”


    “Which?” I ask.


    “Anything. The cloak, the dagger, and the candle.”


    “That sounds like the name of a fantasy novel,” I chuckle.


    “I’m serious, Allison.”


    “Okay, okay, give me a second...”


    It’s not exactly easy to carry everything. I start with the cloak, picking it up and shaking out the bones. I stare down at the yellowish white remains of my former aggressor. It sure is a skeleton. Not a human one, I don’t think, but it’s got a lot of similarities. Or it did. Now it’s just a pile of bones.


    I throw it over my arm and bend down to pick up the knife and candle. I grimace when I notice the blade still covered in my own blood.


    “Ew...what am I supposed to do with this?” I ask.


    “Wipe it off on the cloak, maybe?” the other me suggests. “Be careful not to cut yourself, it’s surprisingly sharp.”


    The blood doesn’t wipe off very neatly, but I do my best. It’s not like movies where they just wipe the sword a couple of times and it shines like it’s fresh out of the prop master''s closet. It’s more like trying to clean my glasses—mostly clears it up, but there’s still some obvious smudging and streaking.


    With my loot in hand, I begin the trek back only to nearly collapse on the first step. After a bit of awkward juggling, I manage to free up one arm entirely by draping the cloak over the other and holding the candle and knife precariously between my fingers. Using the wall as a crutch, I’m back to a slow, limping gait in no time.


    “Where are we going?” the other me asks.


    “Back to the pillar room.”


    “Why?”


    I shrug. “Dunno. Feels safer, I guess. I don’t want to sit out here in the dark where something can sneak up on us.”


    “That makes sense,” she agrees. “But you don’t need to go all that way. As far as we know, the lit areas are clear, so we should keep an eye on the entrance to this corridor, in case something else wanders in.”


    I can’t argue with that. It’s not like there’s anything waiting for me back in the Pillar Room, anyway.


    “Alright, sure. That’s less limping anyway.”


    I hobble in silence for a bit before the quiet starts to get unnerving.


    “Hey,” I say, without thinking of anything to follow that up with.


    “Yes?”


    Frick! Now I’m gonna look like an idiot if I don’t have a good conversation starter. Luckily, this is something I’m actually good at.


    “What should I call you?” I ask. “I keep just thinking of you as ‘the other me.’”


    “I don’t know. My status just says Allison.”


    “Well we can’t both be Allison,” I grumble.


    “No,” she agrees. “I think you should keep that name—you had it first.”


    “Thanks. Then what do we call you?”


    There’s a short silence before she responds. “What about Violet?”


    “Violet?” I ask. “Where did that come from?”


    “It’s...” she hesitates. “It’s kind of stupid, actually. Maybe I should think of something else.”


    “Oh come on!” I protest. “You can’t leave me hanging like that. I’m sure it’s fine.”


    “Well, I showed up when we fought that skeleton,” she hedges. “And ‘Violet’ is kind of close to ‘Violent’ so...yeah.”


    “Hmm, you’re right, that is stupid.”


    “Hey!”


    I giggle. “But it’s your name, and it’s nice. I like it!”


    “Thanks...”


    We arrive back at the entrance to what I am now dubbing the Dark Corridor, and I sit among the candles to give my poor injured leg a much-needed break.


    “So, Violet,” I begin while I try to get my hair clips back in order. “What should we do now?”


    “You’re asking me?”


    “Yeah,” I respond. “You seem to have a better head for this stuff than I do, and honestly I don’t have a clue where to start.”


    “I see...” she says. After a short pause, she begins to list things off. “Most immediately, we need to rest our injured leg, but not for as long as I’d like. While we’re doing that, we can go over what we know about the mechanism and pick a class for me—and honestly, I’m still leaning towards [Angel-touched].”


    “What? Why?”


    “Because we’re still in a lot of danger, Allison,” she says solemnly. “We’ve only got a few days before dehydration sets in—maybe more if resilience works the way I think it does, but there’s no way to know for certain. And that’s for a perfectly healthy person—we just lost a lot of literal blood, sweat, and tears and our body is going to want to start replacing those lost fluids soon.”


    “Oh...” I say lamely. “But if you take that, you’re going to be stuck with it forever.”


    “Not necessarily,” she retorts. “I’ve been thinking about it, and while permanent classes can’t be removed, there’s nothing to suggest they can’t be fused. The [World Engine] strikes me as something that’s very precise about its language, so I don’t think that’s an oversight. All we’d need to do is get [Unified Collective] up high enough to fuse it with [Angel-touched] and we should be able to combine them together.”


    “About that, actually. Don’t you think that both of those classes are a little weird compared to the others? Not just because the angel one is more advanced or...all the other weirdness. I mean they feel completely different.”


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    “I’m not sure that I understand,” Violet replies. “Though [Unified Collective] does seem a bit alien. I’m not sure it actually came from the [World Engine].”


    “Right!” I agree. “There was that—well, not a voice exactly, but a presence.”


    “Some kind of incorporeal entity that can interact with the mechanism directly somehow? But why would it help us?”


    I blink. “Uh, I think you lost me with that one. Anyway, can we make taking the creepy class that subordinates us to some kind of mysterious alien force a backup plan?”


    “Sure,” Violet says with a chuckle. “But seriously, we need to make finding a source of drinking water a priority, and I don’t think we can afford to wait for our leg to fully recover.”


    Oh man, I am really not looking forward to that.


    “Are there any classes we can take that might help there?” I ask. “Aside from the angel one.”


    “I’ll check...but I’m worried that replacing [Wanderer] might doom us, and we still don’t understand how switching between us works.”


    Hmm, that’s a good point. I glance at my “status” as Violet called it.


    [Allison: Tier 0 Human]


    [Class Slot 1: Tier 0 [Unified Collective ]* - Level 0/10


    [Class Slot 2: Tier 0 [Wanderer ]* - Level 3/10


    [Attributes]


    Power: 1


    Resilience: 4


    Awareness: 1


    Ego: 1


    Will: 1


    [Skills]


    Parallel Wills (1)


    Retraced Steps


    I haven’t been feeling the headaches and nausea for a while—though that might just be because it’s been replaced by dizziness from blood loss and the much more acute pain in my leg. Still, I wonder if maybe my increased stats are enough to let me look at [Unified Collective].


    A stabbing pain behind my eyes quickly answers that question.


    “What was that?” Violet asks.


    “You felt it? I was trying to look at [Unified Collective], but it still hurts too much.”


    “I can try for you,” she offers.


    Would that work? I guess it’s worth trying.


    “Go ahead,” I say, bracing myself for whatever might happen.


    After a tense moment of silence, nothing happens.


    “Sorry,” Violet says. “I can’t seem to access it at all. It doesn’t even feel like a link for me.”


    “It’s fine,” I reply. “I was just hoping that there’d be something in there to help explain what happens when we switch.”


    “How did you do it before?”


    “I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “I just thought about it and it happened.”


    “Hmm. Something to experiment with later. For now, I’ve looked at the classes I can take, and there are a couple of new ones.”


    “Oh?”


    “Aside from the ones we had before, I can take [Medic], [Survivalist], or [Defender].”


    Out of curiosity I try focusing on the idea of [Medic].


    [Tier 0 Medic]*


    An aspiring healer, applying first aid and treating minor injuries.


    Skill - First Aid: Increased Awareness and Ego when treating recent injuries.


    Attribute bonus: Ego.


    Advancement: Treat injuries.


    “Medic doesn’t seem too bad,” I comment. “Would have been really nice earlier.”


    “I disagree. Ego wouldn’t have helped us much there, and we already had a reasonably good handle on it. The class seems more suited to treating others, and advancing it by ourselves would require us to sustain more injuries.”


    “Huh,” I say, impressed. “You’re really taking this seriously.”


    “Of course I am, Allison,” Violet replies, sounding a little irritated. “This is life or death—we can’t afford to be flippant. If you’re able to read the classes, could you look at the other two and give me your opinions?”


    “Uh, yeah, sure...”


    I feel a bit embarrassed after being chastised like that, but she’s right. I guess even after getting a knife to the leg, I’m still having trouble processing all this. I take a look at the next two classes.


    [Tier 0 Survivalist]*


    A lone survivor, living off the land.


    Skill - Foraging: Increased Awareness when searching for food and water.


    Attribute bonus: Awareness.


    Advancement: Survive outside of civilized areas.


    Wow! That’s almost exactly what we need. Still, I should keep an open mind.


    [Tier 0 Defender]*


    A stalwart protector. A shield and spear raised in defense against the enemy.


    Skill - Retaliation: Increased Power and Resilience when fighting to defend someone or something.


    Attribute bonus: Resilience.


    Advancement: Fight to protect things.


    Hm, I really don’t see how that even compares to the other one. Even [Medic] seemed better.


    “Violet, you’re not seriously considering this Defender one, are you?” I ask.


    “I was, actually, but I can see why you’d ask,” she responds. “Do you notice anything different about it?”


    I frown. “You mean other than the fact that we have to fight things on purpose to level it up?”


    “I was thinking of the skill, actually. It’s a lot stronger than most of the other ones we’ve seen.”


    “It is?” I ask. “First Aid boosts two attributes as well.”


    “Sure, but it’s more narrow. Defender’s boost can apply in all sorts of situations.”


    I scratch my head. “Uh...are you sure? That one seemed pretty narrow too.”


    “Think about it, Allison. How broad is ‘defending someone or something’?” she asks excitedly. “Just what counts as ‘fighting’? I could use it while hunting for food to protect you. I could have used it to fight to stay awake while I treated our wound to keep you alive!”


    “That’s—does it work like that?” I ask incredulously.


    “Maybe!”


    Well now who’s being flippant?


    “I think that Survivalist makes more sense. That one is useful for sure, and I think it might be better to spread out our attributes.”


    “That’s an easy mistake to make,” she says. “But if we try to be good at everything, we’ll end up lagging behind where it really counts. The best RPG builds usually specialize.”


    Wait, what?


    “Could you say that again?” I ask.


    “I mean, it depends on the mechanics, but specialization is almost always better than a wide build.”


    “What are you talking about?”


    There’s a long pause before Violet answers. “Um, TTRPGs? Character sheets? Build optimization? Is none of that ringing a bell?”


    “No!” I protest. “Okay, well I know what TTRPGs are but I barely played them. I just liked hanging out with friends.”


    This is the first aid thing all over again. I still don’t know how Violet knew all of that stuff. The only thing I remembered was not to pull out the knife, and I was wrong about that!


    “That’s odd,” Violet says. “I remember poring over character sheets for hours trying to come up with the best builds.”


    “I’ve never done that before in my entire life,” I declare with certainty.


    A long, awkward pause stretches out between us.


    “Well, anyway,” Violet brushes past it entirely. “I think I should take either the angel class or Defender to stack Resilience, since it seems like the most useful attribute for survival.”


    I feel like we should discuss the mismatching memories thing more, but there are so many gaps in my own memories that I don’t really know how to address it, so I just go with the change in subject.


    “The other class is literally called ‘Survivalist’!” I protest. “Also, you may remember more stuff about games, but this isn’t a game! This is our life! No matter how much we ‘stack Resilience,’ we’re eventually going to need to eat, drink, sleep, and pee!”


    Oh gosh, I shouldn’t have said that last bit. Now that my mind is on it, I kind of have to go...


    “That’s a good point,” Violet concedes. “And the attributes do seem to be a bit more abstract than we’re giving them credit for. They’re probably all important to some degree or another.”


    “So you’ll take Survivalist?” I hedge.


    “Yeah,” she agrees. “I’d still like to get Defender eventually, but for the short term, you’re right. We need to prioritize our physiological needs.”


    [Level up!]


    Unified Collective is now level 1.


    +1 Ego.


    “Oh! I gained a level!” I declare.


    “I saw it too,” Violet confirms. “I guess it likes when we cooperate.”


    “I guess so,” I agree. “Um, but speaking of physiological needs...”


    “What?!” Violet asks, her voice suddenly sharp and alert. “What’s wrong? Is it your leg?”


    “No, I just um...” I trail off, my face flushing with embarrassment. “We’re going to need to find some place to use as a bathroom...”


    “...oh.”