The townsfolk were confused and frightened, but recovered quickly with the help of Brand and Zorea. Saul kept to himself that day, leaving the others to look after the townsfolk.

He returned to the village with the others, but then took himself off to walk alone for a little, enjoying the much more pleasant aspect that the town of Jillin presented now that the curse had been lifted.

An hour or so after he’d returned to the village, he felt something strange. There was a rushing sound in his ears, and the world swirled around him, and then suddenly, with no warning at all, he was pulled up into the air.

With a sickening lurch, he gained height. The world fell away below him.

He saw the whole world laid out below him for a moment, and then everything went black.

Saul blinked, opened his eyes, and found himself in a different place… a new place?

No.

He had seen this place before. He knew what he was looking at. He’d seen that operating table, equipped with restraints for the hands, feet, and head, and the powerful light globe shining down onto it with a harsh illumination.

He had been there. He had been on the table, held down by the restraints.

Sarkur’s Workshop. The place where Saul’s soul had been melded with the System.

Then, Saul had not been able to see the rest of the room. He had been blinded by the light, confused by the lack of understanding of what was happening, of what was about to happen.

Now, he was looking at the room as if through a window. He could see the many strange and fantastic devices, and the strange, haggard figure of Sarkur the trickster god standing at the other side of the room.

As Saul stared in, he realized he was unable to look from side to side or see exactly where he was in the room. What had happened?

He groped for his System, but nothing happened.

Sarkur started and glanced up, then turned around to look in Saul’s direction.

“Ah, there you are!” he cried. “What a good surprise! I didn’t think that was going to work. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried the spell. You’re a hard man to conjure up, Saul Kramitz, but here you are!”

The strange deity spoke with a forced lightness of tone, but was clearly worried about something.

“Sarkur,” Saul said.

The trickster god frowned. “Damn it,” he muttered. “I can’t hear you. Wait a moment.”

Sarkur turned away and fiddled with something on the table behind him. There was a puff of purple smoke, a flash of green light, and a sound of crackling like snapping twigs.

Sarkur hissed through his teeth, pulling his hand back and shaking it as if it had been burned. He spoke a word that sounded like a curse in a language that Saul did not recognize.

As Sarkur turned toward Saul again, Saul caught a glimpse of the machine behind the deity. There were glass globes of different colors, something like a big silver and gold clock, and a parchment covered in figures and narrow, scrawled writing.

“Try to speak?” Sarkur said.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Sarkur,” Saul said again and, this time, the god’s face lit up with satisfaction.

“Now I can hear you!” Sarkur said. “Great! I’m not sure how long this magic is going to be effective—it’s a new machine, you see, a new invention of my own, and it’s something of a prototype. Anyway, I’d better be quick, because the spell might wear off and I don’t know if I’ll be able to conjure you again if it does. I needed to talk to you. It’s important!”

In apparent contradiction of his own words, Sarkur then turned away and scribbled a note on the piece of parchment.

“How was the transition?” he asked distractedly over his shoulder.

“Not great,” Saul said. “Fast, but abrupt. No warning it was about to happen.”

“Uh-huh,” Sarkur said, scribbling. “And how’s the System working out for you? All well? No problems?”

“It’s fine, Sarkur, but what do you have to tell me? You said it was important. You didn’t just bring me here to check in with my health, did you?”

“What? No, of course not!” Sarkur flung the paper down and glared at Saul. “You think I’d work this magic for something so trivial? I have something important to tell you, and time is running out!”

He stared at Saul expectantly.

“Perhaps you should tell me, then?” Saul suggested gently.

Sarkur nodded slowly. “Hmm, yes, that’s a good idea. Where was I? Ah yes. Saul, I have some… interesting news.”

“And what is that?” Saul prompted. He did not feel good about this. His stomach felt hollow as he saw Sarkur’s eyes twinkling with mischief.

“Well, well, it turns out that someone else is out there trying to play tricks,” Sarkur said, losing all trace of his absent-mindedness and becoming brisk and businesslike.

“Can you imagine such a thing? What nerve! What cheek! To set oneself up to play tricks on the trickster god! I almost admire it…”

“Sarkur,” Saul said interrupting. “What do you need to tell me? What has happened?”

“There’s another,” Sarkur said. He leaned closer to Saul and spoke in a confidential whisper. “There’s another person with a System, a System like yours, Sigil-based, that doesn’t rely on channelers and anchors. A System that doesn’t rely on integration with the gods.”

“What, another person like me, who has been transported back in time?”

“Exactly,” Sarkur said. He straightened and clapped his hands together, turning around the room and cackling suddenly like a mad man. “Someone is playing tricks!”

He seemed delighted with the idea, yet Saul could tell that he had something more to say.

He was saving something up.

“Who is this person?” Saul asked. “Who is it who has been granted the System as well as me?”

“Well, that’s the beauty of it,” Sarkur said. “After you were pulled from the battlefield by the vengeful gods, another came to find you, to take the Sigil. The gods pulled him out of the world and exiled him, just like they did with you, and then this… other Trickster pulled him out of exile, granted him a System, and sent him back into the world. Now, Saul, who do you think this person who came looking for you might have been?”

“Surely…surely not…”

“Yes,” Sarkur said with glee. “You’ve guessed it. The person with the other System, the person who has been sent back into the world, is none other than your old friend, Baraz Karak!”

“Baraz,” Saul said. “The emperor is here, in the world now? In this timeline?”

“He sure is!” Sarkur said, “but there’s something else that you need to be aware of. Baraz does not know why he is in the world. The person who gave him the System did not tell him what it was or how to do it. I believe he may be a little…confused.”

“Where is he?”

“Oh, that would be telling!” Sarkur said. “I would not tell you, even if I knew! You must find him for yourself. You must find him before the others do! You are not the only one looking for him. And then together, you must join forces to defeat the gods.”

“You can’t tell me anything more?”

“Nope,” Sarkur said, then he clapped his hands together. “Oh, there is just one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, you know how Baraz is two years older than you?”

Saul could see where this was going. “Yes…” he said.

“Well, that means that you have just a little less time than you had before. I granted you twelve years at the outset; two have passed and the third is passing. You have nine years left until your birth, but only seven until the birth of Baraz. And can you guess what the consequences will be if you don’t manage to transcend your timelines by defeating the gods in this newly shortened timescale?”

“Oh, let me think,” Saul said sarcastically. “Might it be the complete destruction of the universe and everything in it?”

“Exactly!” Sarkur said. He returned to his table and his hand hovered over a gleaming lever of some silvery blue metal. “You’d best get to work, my friend,” he called to Saul over his shoulder. “The clock is ticking.”

Then he pulled the lever.

Saul fell, and landed back in the world, exactly where he had been before.

He opened his eyes. Yes, exactly where he had been before.

But nothing would ever be quite the same again.