Aria stood at the edge of the Crystal Pool, ready to depart with her new found sense of wonder and blossoming spiritual maturity. When all of the sudden the cavern began to shimmer and distort around her.

"Not so fast, young one," a chorus of ethereal voices echoed. The forces of time and space bent way for the ancient law – karma – to materialize out of the invisible cosmic fabric of the universe itself.

"Your journey is far from over."

Swirling mists enveloped Aria, and she felt herself being pulled apart and remade.

She experienced a succession of her future lives – a doting mother that lived until old age surrounded by loving family and a gaggle of her beloved great-grandchildren, a fierce warrior cut down in his prime, a wise sage persecuted by the religious authorities of his time, then again as a wise sage'ess who was loved by millions for her message of unconditional love and helped uplift millions of lives in just one lifetime -- each reincarnation cycle facing their own trials and tribulations.

With each rebirth, her inner essence transformed and became more differentiated, but the looming threat to her people in her current reincarnation cycle as Aria of the Silverleaf clan remained unchanged.

“Am I really powerless to effect the outcome of this timeline? The Crystal Pool showed me the events of the darkness yet to come! I can prepare for it in some way!!”

The Tree-Beings words echoed in her once more.

The mists surrounding Aria increased in their turbulence and intensity. More rebirths, more deaths. Life became but a show on a stage.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

The basic space around her became more and more saturated with a distinct nothingness.

Aria began to realize there is no self, no destiny even, just a Cosmic "Self" or a Spiritual Mirror that was underpinning the whole vast realm – and we were it's reflection!

This nothingness was the ocean and we were the ocean foam. Destined to rise and evaporate with each setting of the spiritual sun.

Finally, after what felt like thousands of times of living and dying, Aria found herself reborn once more.

This time Aria of the Silverleaf Clan became Aria the Chronomancer, a master of time magic. Her elven features remained, but her eyes now swirled with temporal energy.

Rather than entering a new timeline she remained in this one.

She was completely aware of the Chamber of Destiny and Conquest and the portal she had entered through in Everwood lay not too far in the distance. There was, particularly, no semblance of a future life needing to be lived.

Suddenly, a dark figure materialized before her - the Shadow Lord, the enemy of the future - broke through the basin of the Crystal Pool where Aria had glimpsed visions of things yet to come.

The sinkhole below emptied out into a chasm in a whirlpool motion.

This Shadow Lord was the embodiment of the very darkness she had sought to change with a characteristically singular focus.

The forces of karma are truly prophetic.

"So," a horrible voice filled the empty room, "the little elf thinks she can change fate. How amusing."

Before Aria could reply, the Shadow Lord unleashed a wave of corrupting energy.

Aria raised her hands, calling upon her chronomancer powers.

Time slowed around them as they engaged in a spectacular duel, hurling bolts of temporal energy and shadow magic across the chamber.

Aria dodged and weaved, drawing upon the skills and experiences of her many lifetimes. She was a warrior, sage, and human being all at once. Her movements were a blur to the dark entity as she manipulated the flow of time around her.

But the Shadow Lord was relentless too, its power seemed to grow with each passing assault. "You cannot win," the horrors of the world echoed. "Every happiness you find I will unbind with despair. Every hope you foster I will lace and corrupt with fear.”

Aria the Chronomancer remained unphased. She knew life was deeper than any affective body we could possess.

“I have seen the fall of your people across a thousand timelines!" The darkness hissed.

Arya finally faltered in her showdown of parry and riposte with this dark being. The temporal fields around Aria dampened and a wave of corrupting energy knocked her down to the ground, leaving her exposed.