Oliver, you work too hard! Walter exclaimed. Why dont you eat first?

Rest up, Ralph added.

Relax a little, Simon agreed.

But Oliver shook his head. Im sorry. I have to speak to Professor Amethyst.

His gaze lingered on Esther. He could see sorrow in her eyes. It was like she knew something that Oliver did not fully know yet himself, about what he was going to say to the headmaster and what the outcome of their conversation would be.

Professor Amethyst led Oliver by the shoulders through the doors. They exited out into the main atrium, right at the top level of the school, and crossed the short distance to the sixth dimension. Then they entered into the room and started to float upward. Glowing jellyfish in a myriad of bright colors floated all around them. It was beautiful. Relaxing.

Or at least, it would be, if Olivers sense of anguish had not been growing greater and greater with every passing second.

What is troubling you? Professor Amethyst asked.

Lucas, Oliver confessed. I… I think its my fault that he hated the school so much.

How so?

Lucas was a Seer all along, Oliver explained. A cobalt one. But Armando didnt think he was, and so he wasnt guided, or sent here to school. The cobalt in him turned him rogue. What if by going back in time and revealing my powers to Armando, I was the one who made him think that Lucas wasnt the Seer he should guide? Its all my fault. I made the whole thing happen.

The headmaster shook his head. Perhaps you ought to know that Lucas was turned away from the school.

What? Oliver gasped.

Professor Amethyst nodded. It was my mistake, Oliver. I was the one who failed to see the Seer in Lucas. But even so, we are not responsible for the choices others make. Lucas turned to the dark side of his own accord.

Did he? Oliver contested. He was the same age as me. The factory was his home. Armando was his guide. Then I ruined everything for him.

He felt the headmasters hand come down on his shoulder. It squeezed.

Lucas did, indeed, have a hard life as a boy. No one can dispute that. But so too did you, Oliver. And yet youve not allowed yourself to get bitter. Lucas chose the path he followed. Your presence in the past was not to blame.

Oliver wished he could believe the headmaster. But it would take a long time before he accepted he was not to blame. That his meddling in the past had not set off a chain reaction. It was a heavy burden to bear.

He gets his revenge eventually, Oliver said aloud. Perhaps not as dramatically as he wanted to, with Hitler and destroying the world, but he goes on to kill Armando anyway.