“The throne room is lost!” Philip came bursting through the solid oak door and into the laboratory. His father's sword in his hand, bent and bloody, mirroring his own chainmail. “There are too many of them. This door should hold for maybe five minutes! Is that enough Master Timon?”
Philip did not wait for the old Magic Engineer to respond, the approaching mass of footsteps ringing in the hall outside prompted him to maneuver some heavy boxes to barricade the door. Screams and swords could be heard from the royal guards doing their duty and fighting to the last man.
“TIMON! Any gizmos of yours that might buy us some time right now?” Phillip was desperate.
The Master was finally stirred from his concentration for a moment to respond to the desperate prince. “Firren! Do what you can boy!”. With that, he went back to work on the monstrous metallic disk positioned in the middle of the room. A large metallic disk was inlaid into the floor. The aging master sat near the closest side with a set of mithril inscribers, adding the final few symbols to the tapestry of runes. This is their final hope, and Timon could not spare a second, he just had to push a bit more.
I finished rummaging through my master's old travel bag and produced a handful of quartz marbles of a murky red color. I thought back to when this bag contains endless devices, but now the look of the leather satchel seemed… somber.
“This is the very last we have, make it count!” I whispered a few quick enchantment into my hand holding the marbles and quickly tossed them to Philip.
“I hope they buy us enough time, young apprentice!” He snatched the marbles out of the air with his characteristic ungodly speed and in one fluid motion threw them through the slit in the door and into the noisy hall. He whispered to himself, “2… 3…. “, and then BOOOOOM! The whole room shook and the hall went quiet. “We have 3 minutes until they can clear that rubble out there. There is nothing else we can do, Master Timon!”
‘Ghmf’, He was so deep in concentration he did nothing more than let out a grunt of sorts.
“Firren! Boy, come here.”
“Yes, my prince?” I said as I knelt before him.
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“Screw that now, no kingdom left to be prince over. Here! You’ll need this.” Philip pulled out a fine leather satchel from under his cloak and threw it to me. “Hopefully this will get you the verification you’ll need”
I caught the bag and peeked inside. “Y-Yes Ss-sir!” was all I was able to stutter back as observed what the bag contained. “Are you sure…. This is…?”
“It is of no use to me the kingdom now, I hope you find it of use. If ever you-”. Philip’s attention was pulled back to the hall. It seemed the shouts had returned, louder, and they were getting closer. “TIMON?” he shouted.
“Its done! It's DONE!!”. A massive surge of energy tore through the room. I feet it in my bones even though I am not a mage. The mana this thing is giving off was something no mortal should wield, but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind. A vortex of green and white light enveloped the magical circle, forming what looked to be an eye of a storm at the center of the circle.
The voices were now at the door. The boxes piled to barricade it were not holding very well. THUD… THUD…. CRASH…. In fact, they were not holding at all.
“GO NOW!” Yelled Philip before brandishing a pair of Mythril rapiers. Like lightning, he raced across the room and collided with the first intruder. A tall, hulking man who fell quickly to his first piercing blows. As did the next, and the next, but they just kept coming. Ten men, then a hundred, surrounded the prince in a few seconds. With great effort they wadded through the growing pile of their allies on the floor to get the desperate prince.
I stood in awe for a moment, but quickly I shook my head and moved back to my mission. I dashing to my master.
“Master Timon! I am ready! I have all the supplies here.” I motioned to the paired bag on my hip as well as to the other satchel that the price had just supplied.
“You sure boy? You know everything we went over. All the key dates and time? All the people?”
“I do sir!”. How could I forget? It had consumed my every waking moment for the last three weeks ever since we had come up with this insane plan.
“Very well.” I saw a solitary tear forming in the eye of my aging master. I have never seen my master cry before. With his large hands, he reached out and gave me a great big hug. “I'm going to miss you boy. You would have made an even greater master than me one day!” Tears were rolling down his face. With that, he thrust me from his arms and towards the machine.
The energy was even more intense now that I was so close to the magic circle on the floor. White and Green magical energy could be felt erupting from every rune painstakingly carved into the magic-steel ring.
I turned so that my back faced very edge of the circle, surveying the room one last time. The Price was holding well, but not without injury. He bled from multiple wounds and his movements were growing slower. My master was watching me with teary, worried eyes. He burned their two faces into his memory. My master and friend. I must save them. I must save them all.
I took a step back into the center of the circle. The magical energy that was already blinding began to shake the very room. I looked down at my own body to see it start to glow a green color. Then everything started to go white.
When Master Timon saw his young apprentice vanish from the circle a sigh of relief graced his face. One of the men had broken free from Philip’s bottleneck and reached the Master. The soldier’s sword pierced the old man’s back, but Timon was in no position to care. He just started to laugh to himself.
In an old, tired voice, the master spoke his final words as he fell to the ground “Now…. Now we will be prepared… Sent him back to warn them... Change the past to fix this... god damn future. Ha… ha … ha …. h-”