In Velvet’s vision, Erin Cardomos’ pocket dimension was covered in immense, thorny plants, which coiled and piled over themselves, creating an eerie atmosphere with hardly walkable paths.

At present, it wasn’t like that.

All of that vegetation had disappeared, and now, some small, young stems peeked from the naked ground, where several craters could be seen in the distance.

This should be the aftermath of the fight between them. She looked around for clues about the spells used, but there wasn't any that she knew, even loosely.

She could still deduce some other things, like the fact that it was a single spell that scraped the whole flora of the place.

By the way the ground is scarred, I’d say it was done with light magic. Light didn’t burn things down like fire would do, and the damage done by it didn’t ‘spread’, focusing more on a single point.

She had only seen Dianthus using that type of magic, though, so her deductions were based on him. But, since he was one of the two mages fighting, everything pointed at him as the culprit.

Even so, the range of this spell is immense… I was sure that Dianthus was the kind that hid his strength, and yet, it’s stronger than Doireann’s Conceptualization. As someone who had never seen anything above the broken Conceptualization that the girl used, she didn’t make assumptions.

But still, something doesn’t make sense. A piece of information didn’t fit with the others, bothering her.

Well, Erin Cardomos hadn’t shown up yet, unless he was already dead, which was something she doubted.

He was the one that sealed Dianthus inside a coffin in that strange temple, after all.

Right, the vision. That’s what doesn’t fit. That’s how she knew about the thorns on the pocket dimension, which were now gone, destroyed by Dianthus himself.

It wasn’t like the plants on the vision were fake. They had been there previously, the small stems poking from below the dirt belonging to the same plant. She could even see the zones where the plants in her vision had been, and they matched down to perfection.

So, the vision wasn’t fake. It had too many details that only a knowledge mage would remember to be fabricated. But, it had derived from the present to the point where it could never come to pass.

In the vision, Dianthus had been taken to an old, strange temple, right in the middle of the thorn forest, which meant that he had been captured before having the chance of destroying it. In reality, he had trashed it to the ground.

Velvet could choose to ignore the vision, since well, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was the reason behind the changes that bothered her.

The Prophet had been very adamant about how each timeline had ended up the same, losing the Chosen One, with this one being the only different path, which end it couldn’t see. So, if that vision was from the doomed choices, why had a difference appeared before she showed up?

If the changing point was Velvet’s entrance, then the things happening before it should’ve remained the same.

And yet, that wasn’t the case.

The Prophet can’t see Dianthus because of Fate’s Corruption, but the opposite might not be true. A change like this could only be made by interfering with the things happening between the time when Dianthus got brought into the pocket dimension, and the time when I entered.

So, if there’s some conclusion to reach, then the biggest possibility is that Fate’s Corruption can make decisions retroactively. If that’s the case, though, was there ever a chance for Dianthus to lose his Chosen One’s status? Or was it a trap for the Prophet?

Even when the deductions looked like this, Velvet felt pretty calm, all things considered. This time she had managed to get the cat out of the box before it jumped at her face, so she had a bigger array of options to pick from, plus not being in a rush.

“Hyde.” She called. Even when she was confident in her deduction, getting a second opinion could never go wrong.

She had been unable to contact them before, not because the Deriliam sealed her connections like the Director did, but because It did occupy her whole mind to speak, even when It was silent. An almost painless, but very taxing act.

And it wasn’t like her companions had tried to communicate with her during that moment, instead reducing their mental links down to the minimum possible.

Well, Frenese always had his almost shut down, with Velvet having to force her mind to go through every single time, but she had felt Hyde’s thinning when the Deriliam showed up.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Guess you can’t really ask for bravery from a spider, a knowledge one nonetheless. They must be the ones that know when to not show up. She joked, still poking the mental link.

“I'm here, I’m here.” Hyde finally said. “Send me the details.”

So Velvet did just that, together with her conjectures.

Hyde fell silent for a while, processing the information. “Is the building where Dianthus was still standing? We should check that out first.”

“Before Erin Cardomos shows up, you mean.” If the Archmage hadn’t shown up already, then he either was still damaged, didn’t have a security system in place, or he had, but Dianthus crashed it next to… well, everything.

Velvet continued. “He also didn’t appear in the vision, even when I walked to where Dianthus was, so that detail remains consistent. We can even assume that whatever killed him on that ‘timeline’, also affected him on this.”

That was one of the biggest incognites she had. At first, she expected it to be some kind of revenge from Fate’s Corruption, but, with the fact that it could make retroactive changes, that idea didn’t hold.

But yes, the strange temple. It wasn’t far away, and, with the forest gone, she didn’t need to go there, just walk for a bit until it was (or wasn’t) visible.

“So…” She started, going in a straight line this time. “What’s your opinion on the Deriliam?”

“Didn’t It tell you to not investigate?”

“I don’t mean the name, just,” Raising her hands, she made a holding motion. “Everything else.”

“It explains why His actions were so… like that.” Hyde said, referring to Lothrigern. “In this world, only the strongest can make decisions that go against anyone’s wishes, and it seems like the same applies for Them.”

“So, for the ‘weak’ party, if their wishes go against the strong’s, their only solution is to work in the shadows, until their goals are at the tip of their fingers, and too late for the strong to change the tides.”

“Or, until they are found out.” Velvet added. “Is the Father of Hell stronger than Lothigern?” She avoided using Andras’ name.

“I… I don’t know. That comparison is a bit far away from my expertise.”

“A bit.”

“A very big, immense bit. Comparing two galaxies’ worth bit.”

But it explained why Lothrigern didn’t get the Chained Man out by His damn self. He probably could deal with everything inside the dream: the chains, the formation that held it together… just not with another Deriliam.

Another Deriliam probably being Andras, but that wasn’t confirmed, just had a big chance due to Lothrigern’s own behavior. Velvet didn’t know how They scaled between each other, after all.

“Huh?” She said, stopping on her tracks. The temple was fine, even when everything surrounding it was gone.

I don’t remember it having any sort of protective spell. Did Erin use some when Dianthus attacked?

History books didn’t paint Erin Cardomos as a mage with high defenses, but one that didn’t need any sort of protection to cut down everything in his path.

Well, either age changed people, or the strange temple was too important to lose.

Velvet walked towards it, this time, with a fake sun illuminating the whole place, unlike the vision’s, which was shrouded in thorns.

Like the previous time, though, what caught her attention the most was the immense, multi-colored windows, now reflecting the sunlight.

Red, blue, green, yellow… if her memories reflected reality, then the interior absolutely crushed the lighting aspect, with the room being almost hypnotic under the colorful lights, and that was with barely any illumination.

Almost expectantly, Velvet extended one hand, reaching towards the giant door, to one of the iron handles.

The doors weren’t heavy back then, so now…

As her fingers touched the iron, the doors fell backwards, like a domino’s piece being flickered.

Velvet retracted her hand quickly, escaping the short daze that had clouded her mind.

Red, blue, green, yellow… the colors danced over her head.

As the door hit the floor, the walls holding the building in place started crumbling, the debris flying up, as it broke down in smaller and smaller particles before disappearing. All the statues, and the tiles covering the floor went next, being reduced to nothingness in seconds.

Only the windows remained, with their crystals, red, blue, green, yellow…

She looked down, trying to get rid of the colors by looking at the ground. And yet, she found more multiple colored glass below.

“The way it shines with the sun…” Velvet muttered. “It’s oh so beautiful…”

It was so breathtakingly gorgeous, that she almost missed the mage who had summoned it.

But she didn’t, turning her head around upon hearing steps.

Even under the hypnotic lights, she could see the dirty blond hair and the tall and muscular frame that belonged to Erin Cardomos.