“This place looks familiar,” Nym said.

They stood in front of a large four-story manor house. It was impressive, he supposed, but he’d seen far more spectacular-- not to mention physics-defying-- abodes in his short time as an immortal. But there was something about this particular building that tickled his brain. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

Hozim glanced over at him and shrugged. “One of his many eccentricities. Erian has always been a strange one, almost hostile towards other ascendants. He can be quite rude, but he’s also fair. There’s a lot of speculation as to why he’s even here and not locked away where no one would ever find him.”

The two went in, and Nym lost a step when he saw the interior.

“Something wrong?” Hozim asked.

“Er, no. It’s… it’s fine.” The place had the exact same layout as the Feldstal’s manor in Abilanth. The decorations were different, but even there, Nym saw a lot of similarities. Some of the pieces were straight out of his memories. “Does it always look like this?”

“The manor? Yes, it’s a bit dumpy by ascendant standards, isn’t it?”

That was true enough. The vistas some of the ascendants had constructed were beyond beautiful, more majestic than anything the inner layers could offer. Sometimes they were just as disturbing as they were beautiful, but each and every one was something special.

This place was… just a place, a typical mortal home for a typical mortal noble. It was unique only in how common it was. Nym idly smiled to himself when he remembered how awed he’d been at the Feldstal’s home when he’d first seen it. Now here it was, replicated in shape and form, and his initial thoughts were of how dingy and boring it was compared to what he’d become used to.

The two of them walked down the halls, unable to teleport inside the manor. That was an unusual choice as well, but perhaps Erian simply wanted to make the mighty ascendants who came to his door feel mortal again. Perhaps that was why he was so disliked. Being made to feel powerless would certainly rub any of the ascendants he’d met the wrong way.

“To the library?” Nym said softly, more to himself than Hozim. He’d walked those halls enough times to know what rooms were in the direction they were heading. And besides, what better place to meet with an ascendant?

“How’d you know?” Hozim asked. “Been here before?”

“No. It’s just very familiar to me.”

They entered the library and Nym’s eyes immediately went to his favorite table. He’d spent a lot of hours with Analia there, figuring out and teaching each other the basics of magic. Sitting there, leaning back in one of the huge, padded chairs that Nym had used himself, was a man who looked very much like Bardin Feldstal. He looked up as they entered and traded a nod with Hozim.

“I think you can take it from here,” Hozim told Nym. “I’ll just be on my way.”

“Yeah. Thanks for the help,” Nym said absently. His eyes were locked on Eriam’s face. It was so familiar, but there were differences. The man came from the Feldstal line though, Nym was sure. Perhaps that was the real reason the Feldstals were so intertwined with the Collective. They had an ancestor who’d ascended hundreds or thousands of years before Nym’s time.

It couldn’t be thousands of years though, not with the manor looking the way it did. Eriam had to be within a few generations of Analia and Bardin. Nym wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not though. Considering how things had gone with Analia’s father and brother, he’d had more bad encounters with various members of her family than good ones. Analia herself was an outlier.

“Well, well,” Eriam murmured as Nym approached.

“Well?”

“You don’t look like I expected you to.”

“Oh? What were you expecting?”

“Someone ten years younger, darker hair, finer facial features, less muscle. You’ve already started disguising yourself.”

“That’s creepy,” Nym said. “Do we know each other?”

Eriam tilted his head and studied him. “Time works strangely out here. New ascendants rarely appear, and we’ve never quite figured out what determines the order we show up. The only thing we’re sure of is that it has nothing to do with the chronological order that we ascend from the core reality.”

“I… see.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I suppose not,” Nym agreed. “Did you want to try making sense, maybe?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The ascendant threw his head back and laughed. “You haven’t changed at all.” Then he sobered and added, “There’s only so much I can tell you, you know? You made me promise.”

“Did I? I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Not yet, from your point of view. But you were already an ascendant when I was born. I’m sure you know where I came from. I met you back when I was still a mortal.”

Considering that Nym could exist in whatever time he wanted, that didn’t mean much to him, but he suspected Eriam had been born sometime after Nym’s mortal adventures. Nym just hadn’t met him yet in his own personal timeline.

“You said you didn’t want me to ruin the surprise,” Eriam said. “I remember you were quite insistent about that, that life wasn’t as fun if you already knew how it was going to happen.”

“I’m not really sure what you’re talking about,” Nym said.

“Oh come on, you’re just being intentionally dense.”

“Maybe I’m not interested in trying to tease it out of you.”

“Spoil sport,” Eriam said. “Fine. You helped me when I was a mortal, set me in the right direction for my own ascendance. You told me about this meeting we would have one day, made me promise not to tell you certain things, and made me promise to be sure to tell you others.”

“Sometimes I hate this time travel stuff,” Nym muttered. “Gives me a headache.”

“That was actually something you were quite specific that I clear up for you. You’ve got a problem with trying to reconcile this reality with the concept of time. You need to stop thinking of this as a place where time doesn’t exist and start thinking of it as a separate time. You have two clocks. One is your time in the core reality, only for you it’s not a straight line. You can jump in and out wherever you want. Your body is mortal, and accumulated time spent there will age you into nothingness.

“You already know how to fix that, I believe. It’s important to keep your mortal avatar in good condition. Let too much age build up and it starts causing problems and takes more effort to fix. But you don’t need me to tell you about this. This is the part you’ve more or less wrapped your head around. It’s outer layer time that you’re struggling with.”

“So what’s the big secret?” Nym asked, leaning forward on the table.

“That it’s not as timeless as you think. It’s more like you have a second clock. When you’re not spending time in reality prime, you’re here. Your time here progresses linearly, much like you were used to in your mortal life, except that it pauses while you’re not here, then resumes when you come back. The other important thing to understand is that it’s not synced to reality prime. Two ascendants can ascend within moments of each other, but one could exist in the outer layers for centuries before the other comes into being. An ascendant who won’t ascend for a thousand years after you did could exist here for hundreds of years before you do.”

“And you have no idea why it works that way?” Nym asked.

Eriam shrugged. “You know how everyone’s ascendance is personal? Nobody’s is quite the same. It’s just a part of that. Even after millions of years of cumulative knowledge and experience, no one knows. Or, if someone does, they’re not sharing. But I doubt it, personally.”

Nym flopped down into the chair opposite Eriam. “How long have you been waiting to tell me that?” he asked.

“I don’t keep track of years. They’re meaningless here. Hundreds at least. Maybe more.”

“Oh. Heh. And you can’t tell me anything about when we first met?”

“Nope,” Eriam smirked. “Sorry, your orders.”

“Damn you, past-or-future-me.”

A book whipped off the shelf and landed in front of Nym. It scooted forward until it was practically in his lap. “What’s this?”

“The spell you came here for.”

Nym looked down at the book, then carefully slid it back into the center of the table. “What do you want for it? You’ll forgive me if I’m not interested in owing you any favors.”

“No, it’s not like that. This is me repaying you. After all these years, I’m finally settling the debt I’ve been carrying.”

“Something I’ll do in my personal timeline’s future, but your timeline’s past?”

“Makes your head hurt, right? I’ll be glad to wipe the slate clean on this.”

“Are you going to tell me what it is?” Nym asked.

“Look at me,” Eriam’s voice was suddenly a lot sterner. He’d been relaxed throughout the conversation, not really at all like Hozim had described him, but that was gone now. “You know where I come from. I’ve told you enough to guess when I come from. Take the book. Master the spell. And go do exactly what you’re planning on doing already. And take my thanks for helping. I wouldn’t exist without you.”

Nym’s breath caught. He wanted the spell to go help Analia. Eriam was obviously part of the family, but from sometime in Nym’s future. “Huh,” he said, connecting the dots. “That’s interesting.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Yeah. So… I guess I’ll see you around.”

“One way or another. Though, maybe not me as an immortal ascendant. You know, I don’t really like what they’re doing here. It reminds me too much of the politics nobles play. I guess it’s better, since it doesn’t usually lead to the deaths of other mortals. But still, now that you’ve arrived and I’ve discharged my last debt, I think I might disappear for a while.”

“Where will you go?”

“I don’t know.” Eriam smiled. “Anywhere I want, I suppose. Any time I want. We all hoard those precious seconds on reality prime, but what worth are they if we only use them to check each other in our games? Are any of us really living a life worth living here? I wonder sometimes. Maybe you had the right idea.”

“What idea is that?” Nym asked.

“Ah, but that would be telling, now wouldn’t it?”

Nym gave Eriam a sour glare. “You just remember that I’ll get you back for this when I meet you next time.”

Eriam snorted. “I’m not afraid of you. You’re a big softie. Now, off you go. You’ve got magic to learn and people to save. And I’ve got a domain to pack away and new adventures to have. What’s the point of being an immortal demi-god if you don’t do anything?”

“Right? All these guys do is sit here contemplating the mysteries of the universe or whatever. Do any of them ever have fun?”

“No,” Eriam said seriously. “They don’t. Ever. It’s so boring. Why do you think I hate it here?”

“But you stayed for centuries, waiting for me?”

“Someone taught me to take my debts seriously, back when I was young.”

“Good lesson, that.”

“It was,” Eriam agreed.

“I think, in the future, once I’ve lived the part you remember, I would like to get together again.”

“I’d like that too.”

“I guess we’ll see each other then,” Nym said. “Not sure how, but I’ll figure it out.”

“Bring Cold Paw with you. I’ve missed him.”

That brought Nym up short. Then he laughed and said, “Yeah, I’ll see what I can do. A snow wolf ascendant though? You think it’s possible.”

“I think… I think that I believe in you.”