Medoria held a candle lantern and traversed the darkness. The soft radiance provided her with a hazy view of the bookshelves that stretched endlessly into the corridor. Behind her, Specria checked through the shelves and picked a few books detailing the creation of spells and permanent formations.

Their echoing footstep created an illusion of something following them in the darkness. The off-rhythm creaking of the wooden floor amplified the suspicion.

"We've been walking for ten minutes now," Medoria said. "This floor is strange."

"This is above my current understanding. We'll have to keep walking to see the result."

Specria pulled a strand of her hair and placed it on the bookshelf. She carefully put it in a book in a corner and memorized the location. Though she couldn't detect any Fons at work, she knew something was missing.

Medoria and Specria walked through the same walkway, inspecting the bookshelves and reading a few books that caught their interests. Despite having the intricate technical knowledge and codes in them, Medoria and Specria skimmed the books with minimal time.

As the peak Arbiters, they possessed the mental capability stronger than an ordinary computer. Compared to the encryption used by the military, this Fons-based encryption was a child-play, though they required a comprehensive understanding of Fons.

Specria opened a book and pulled out a strand of hair. She compared it with her hair before showing it to Medoria, whose face turned amused once she noticed the similarity.

"We're trapped. I'll climb the shelf and look for the general layout," Medoria said.

"In the folded space, brute force won't work. Without Fons, we'll have to play by the rules and satisfy the condition of the trial."

With their strength, they could conjure destructive spells to create chaos, but the warning of the Scholars made it a dangerous gamble. Instead of cheating, they would try to calculate the path to victory.

Medoria told Specria to wait for her before she started to backpedal into the darkness. With her eyes closed, she walked in a straight line and attempted to trace back to the beginning. The creaking of the floor sounded reversed, but everything else remained natural.

A pair of hands caught Medoria. She opened her eyes and turned to Specria. After she regained her balance, she watched Specria took out a book and held a strand of hair. She compared it with her hair before looking at Medoria.

"We're walking in a loop," Specria said.

"You're also a loop." Medoria took the hair and placed it in her pocket. "One of the rules is time-bound space."

"Why am I a loop?" Specria narrowed her eyes before nodding in satisfaction. "I understand now. You're from the future section, which means I'm just an illusion."

"Should I continue going back?"

"If you want to leave the place empty-handed. To progress further, you must pass through this corridor."

"I'll go back one more time. Please allow me to borrow your pen."

"You should have brought your own." Specria sighed and gave it to Medoria. "She always brings one with her. That's why she rarely forgets about anything."

"If she were here, she would have already solved it."

Medoria backtracked into the darkness, her eyes staring at Specria, who waved at her. The cold air flew past her. Through the gaps between the shelves, it stroked her skin and flickered the lantern she held.

The darkness gradually consumed Medoria. She watched the flicker of the lantern moving in reverse. The faint smoke it radiated flowed back to the burning tips and merged into the wax. The handle turned colder as the candle tears floated back to the candle.

"Medoria, what are you doing?" Specria said as she watched Medoria obsessively staring at the candle.

"The corridor is a loop. What is the place you would search for the abnormality?"

"I'll slip my hair into this." Specria plucked a strand of her hair and picked the same book from the same corner.

"Will you be looking for this same book every time you come back here?"

"I understand. I'm sure I'll check for the hair." Specria smiled. "That way, you can test your theory."

"Will you go back? It's the easiest way to exit the trial."

"I won't. It would be unbearable if I were to go back alone. We'll surely meet on the other side."

Medoria took the book and examined it. Its cover and thickness were ordinary, though it sat at the best spot that stood out. The content of the book discussed the relationship between time and space. It talked about the arrow of time and the timeline. Time and Lie was the title, authored by an unknown Authority whose name was blurred.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

After skimming through the first page, Medoria flipped the book to the page where the strand of hair was and wrote her question.

"Using the first experiment as the middle point, in which iteration are you?"

After placing Time and Lie on the shelf, Medoria borrowed another pen from Specria and guided her through the darkness. She kept track of Specria behind her until the footstep suddenly disappeared. Once she turned back, only darkness surrounded her.

The creaking of the wooden floor mirrored her movement. Their echoes resounded slightly after hers as if someone was trailing her from the nearby corridor.

In silence, Medoria found herself pondering about Time and Lie. She stared at the world around her and observed its movement. A soothing sensation invaded her mind as she began to process the event that transpired. She was a traveller who journeyed from one place to another, trying to find the thing which she had lost.

A soft radiance emerged into her point of view. Medoria paused her thought and stared forwards. Like previously, Specria waved at Medoria.

"Where have you been?" Specria said.

"Why are you waving at me?" Medoria looked around the shelves. The composition resembled what she remembered, but the scratches and dust pattern weren't the same. "Do you remember anything?"

"I just arrive here. Something isn't right."

"Please pick me the book that you choose before."

Specria furrowed her brows and nodded. "Where have you been?"

"In the past and future. We're in a loop, and I need your confirmation."

"As expected. The book you're talking is this one, correct?" Specria gave Medoria Time and Lie.

Medoria flipped through the content regarding time and space. It became heavy as she approached the page she wrote her message. She took a deep breath before flipping the last page. On it, her line remained in the middle while another scribbling appeared beneath it.

"Medoria, once you read this, be aware that the formation is testing your patience and will power. I'm at the eighth iteration. Please write to me about your observation. I'll wait for you to reach my iteration. Going into the past isn't the right choice."

Medoria turned to Specria, who was staring at the page with interest, though her gaze lingered at the content and not the hidden message.

"Can you read this?" Medoria said.

"I can't see your tampering. The trial didn't allow me to help you."

"That's enough. I'll be going now." Medoria handed the pen to Specria. "Keep it. I have another one."

"I already have one." Specria tilted her head. "You got that one from the past me?"

After talking about the potential rules of the trial, Medoria bid farewell and wrote a message on Time and Lie.

"I figure we're in a different loop. I'm using the illusionary you to anticipate your reaction. The flow of time is strange, so be careful."

She placed Time and Lie in the same place with an additional strand of hair from her. In her next journey to the future, she placed one of her pens and rolled it forward. It crept toward the darkness until it left her sight. After everything returned to silence, she arrived in the next section.

"Did you find any pen rolling here?" Medoria said.

"I don't. Did you lose your pen?"

"I lost your pen. You gifted it to me a few minutes ago."

"So we're indeed in a loop."

Specria picked up Time and Lie and turned the page to pick two strands of hair. She compared her hair to them and found a match, while the other wasn't hers.

"Is this your hair?" Specria said.

"It is. I placed it after you."

Medoria played with her strand before reading Time and Lie.

"You'll understand soon when you reach my iteration. I'm still waiting at the eighth iteration. I'll continue to supply you with information until you arrive at my level."

Medoria wrote more before placing her strand of hair back into the book. She scribbled a drawing onto the cover and showed it to Specria.

"What a lovely sketch. You draw me perfectly well," Specria said.

"What do you think about the trial?"

"It is a powerful trial. It can replicate me quite accurately, as expected of the best permanent formation in the world."

"Do you think it is possible to improve it?"

"I don't think so." Specria gazed at the darkness above as if she was staring at someone. "Unless the Great Races come together to create something extraordinary, this will remain the strongest formation."

"It is indeed unbelievable. If we're lucky, maybe we might comprehend its vastness."

"I believe in you. You have so much potential that it will be unfortunate if you fail."

"Don't place too much hope on me. Disappointment will eventually come."

Medoria shook her head and walked to the darkness. The light behind her gradually faded to black. She glided her hand across the shelves and left a scratch on one of the books. She stared at the wooden floor and felt its creaking. Nothing happened during her journey.

The fifth floor was infinitely huge, though time was meaningless inside it. Medoria had been walking for too long, but she felt neither tiredness nor hungriness. She understood a little every time she contemplated her experience and the world around her.

In a loop, she continued to write to Specria and talk with the illusionary Specria. Through repetition, she learnt to observe every bit of detail and experiment with all kinds of theories.

The darkness that covered her was merely a veil that separated her from real space. It folded time and space into a Mobius Strip which she trod on. Once she backtracked, she realized that the corridor she stood on was a loop.

Despite walking in a circle, she never met Specria, but their influence intertwined, leading to a conclusion that they were in a different layer of the same space. Like the diversity in wavelength, they stood on a separate spectrum, unable to see and interact, but their presence remained in the same reality.

In the eighth iteration, Medoria held Time and Lie and read the message for Specria, who stared at her with hope and amusement.

"I've seen a lot of your observations, and they match with mine," Medoria wrote. "This trial is about the past, the present, and the future."

"To progress through the corridor, we must move forward."

"To recklessly go about is dangerous. Those who follow the tide could never see the beginning and understand the truth of reality."

"We'll test the durability of the trial by resonance. Though we can't cast any spell, we can still manipulate the Fons in the surrounding."

"I've attempted to locate the major intersecting points of the formation with some success." Medoria drew a simple layout of the corridor and cut it into different sections with countless lines.

"Your layout is comprehensive, but I've found a few interesting contradiction." Specria highlighted a few oversights and explained them in detail. She finished it with a redrawing of the formation.

"This looks great to me. We'll try this at the ninth iteration. I'll see if I can get the illusion to cooperate with us."

"I'm sure they will. They are you and me, after all."