Time Magic
Spell weaver and temple priestess Amara studied the runes surrounding the ward on the gold aethersteel door in front of them. The construction of both the door and its runes were both immaculate, bordering on art. The curves and precision of the angles in the runes suggested great care and consideration to the runes and their crafting. Someone clearly took pride in the work. Maybe too much pride.
The longer she studied the craftsmanship and the interlocking weaves of the runes, the more she puzzled out their intent. It was like she was partially able to see the answer. But something obscured it somehow. She pursed her lips, unable to fight back the pensive frown that begged for dominance. Brows knit together with concentration and she moved to lean closer but held back when Nathan pushed in front of her, pointing out a particular pattern.
“This is interesting work right here. Look how the Mind and Void runes link together with the Light and Air. The lattice work is exceptional. There’s clearly an intent and an expression being made here, but what?”
She grudgingly acknowledged that despite the fact his education was far less formal than hers in terms of magic, he had a point. Now that he’d pointed it out, she’d noticed the very same pattern repeat itself, over and over. It was maddening to know she was looking at something important but being unable to tell just what it was. She huffed in irritation and froze when Yasiin’s calming hand drew her attention.
“Sometimes, when I’m frustrated with something, I take a step back. Perpsective has a way of reframing things.” He patted the scope on his rifle. She saw the adjustment dial on the side and grooves carved into it, indicating the most used settings and ranges. That scope had seen a great deal of use in a short amount of time.
She nodded to him. Take a few steps back from the door to study it. She drew in a short breath and let it out after a few beats to calm her heart rate. She needed her body as close to a rest state as possible. If she let herself get amped up, she wouldn’t think clearly, and right now she needed every tiny edge she could eke out.
Amara noticed two things immediately. The repeating pattern she’d initially seen was again repeated only in larger relief at a far enough back perspective. The other thing was that she now recognized the pattern as a clock face. “It’s not a lock...it’s a clock.”
Nathan glanced back and smirked. “A clock, huh? Not bad. I thought it had something to do with time.”
“No, you see this pattern here?” Amara indicated with her finger where each hour and minute mark would be, “Each one represents a number on a clock face, but also a subdivision of time. Days, hours, minutes, and seconds.”
“So you said it’s a clock. What time is it set to?”
Again, Amara’s brow knit. “It’s not. It’s just set to 0000.”
“No time? Sounds like an absolute lock.” Nathan said, rubbing his chin. “What if we set it for our time right now?”
Amara almost laughed. “Surely it wouldn’t be that easy?”
Nathan shrugged. “You’d be surprised. Humor me?”
Amara looked to Yasiin who simply shrugged. With no other suggestions, it wasn’t like she lost anything from trying. She wove through the required signs and runes, manipulating the magical clock face to match their own. As she did, something shifted. Like reality had settled into place in front of them. There was a magical tremor that rippled all around them. Like a shockwave, they could sense more than feel.
“Part of me is scared we were right. And this was easy. And the other part is terrified we were wrong and just doomed ourselves.” Nathan said, his voice a whisper. She exchanged looks with Yasiin and then reached for the door. Pushing on the unlock switch the door whooshed open quicker than she’d expected it to and glanced around. The inside was clean, pristine, and immaculate. Untouched by the ravages of time like the exterior in the cave. Amara traced a finger along a surface and found no dust. It was like walking into a lab behind the last user.
“Huh.” she said aloud thoughtfully.
“Huh?” Nathan asked. Always a curious look on his expression.
“She’s wondering how my facility has managed to remain so pristine, but she already has the answer to such questions.” A cultured draconic voice said behind them.
Everyone whirled around and found a feminine dragon wearing gold and white robes. Her hands were clasped behind her back. Her skin was nicely tanned, and her eyes were a golden amber. She was dangerously beautiful. A pair of dragon wings ruffled behind her as a slender tail swished lazily. The woman studied the group for a moment before gesturing for them to come inside so the door could shut.
“Please, come inside. You’ll let the stench in.”
“Who are you?” Amara asked. She caught the tension in Yasiin and the abstract wonder in Nathan’s expression.
“I am a clone of Fahnes, but then, you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Amara’s eyes narrowed. She’d begun to suspect, but having the confirmation slap her square across the face was more than enough. “The Astral Goddess...”
The Fahnes clone smiled ruefully and shook her head. “I’m just a shadow. Her likeness and memories up to the point I was created and nothing more.”
Amara focused on the room they were inside, studying the details etched into the gleaming gold aethersteel. It was above and beyond the craftsmanship of the best artificers on Eryn. Even those had been awed by its beauty. Amara felt the urge to touch it again, but resisted the temptation. There would be plenty of time for sight-seeing once she took care of what needed taking care of here.
She turned back to the woman standing there watching her. “What is this place? And why do you have us here?”
“I am a facility administrator. This is my workplace, where my predecessors spent their lives building an empire in my name. Now I am all that remains left.” Fahnes’ clone said.
Amara realized she needed to come up with something better to think of her as. Fahnes’ clone was too clunky and cumbersome. “Shanes.” Amara said pointed to the clone with a nod.
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The woman’s brow arched curiously, and Amara responded to the unspoken query. “You called yourself a shadow of Fahnes. A clone. Thinking of you as Fahnes’ clone is too tedious. So I’m naming you Shanes.”
The dragon in human form considered that and nodded. “That is acceptable.” She paused, adding a too toothy smile that made Amara shudder in her armor. “I like it.” Shanes added.
“Right.” Amara added, turning back to face Shanes. “So let’s cut right to it then. What do we need to do?”
Shanes turned her gaze to Nathan, Yasiin, then finally to Amara. The expression on the draconic face was almost one of amusement. “Well...first off...” Shanes gestured around them at the pristine room. “...you can put down your weapons.”
Nathan rolled his eyes while Yasiin stared flatly ahead. They’d both been so close to firing when they’d first entered but had held themselves back from making such a rash move against a powerful opponent who had revealed herself. For some reason, they didn’t feel threatened by her yet, but Amara felt otherwise. Still, if this place was a trap, having everyone armed would have just gotten them caught in an explosion. Besides which, Shanes hadn’t done anything overtly hostile towards them thus far and had invited them inside for peacefully conversing without resorting to violence or magic.
Nathan cautiously slid his pistol back into its holster. Yasiin’s barrel lowered enough to be considered just this side of not hostile. Shanes smiled, her chin bobbed happily. “There. See? Now then. I trust we both know why you’re here, so to borrow a parlance from yourselves, let’s ‘cut to the chase’ shall we? Before you, is a control matrix for magic. It is the key to finding that which you seek. Uncover the means to operate the matrix, the way forward will be revealed.”
“You rehearsed that didn’t you?” Nathan asked genuinely curious.
Shanes wilted soflty. “I...may have been here for quite some time.”
Amara gave Yasiin a wincing glance. She wasn’t sure if she pitied the shadow clone or if she was worried Shanes may be slightly off balance from isolation for....however long she’d been placed in charge here. Since there wasn’t anything she could do about it, Amara sighed, giving the control matrix her attention completely for the first time since stepping inside. The basic sort she was used to seeing looked like a pair of solid flight sticks, with various runes etched into them like buttons. Pressing the runes akin to depressing a button or key. Unlike the bog standard mil-spec (translation: bottom dollar for mass production) control matrices, this one looked as artful and high quality as the rest of the facility. She could see the magic swelling within the platinum, gold, silver, and bronze aethersteel.
It took her several moments of fumbling through all the controls before something clicked in her mind. The gold, silver and bronze layers of the controls she’d seen implemented in a more dumbed down fashion in the Crasher. But this one had all those in layers, and a platinum layer atop it. That meant something, she was sure of it. How did it adjust the output of the magic?
“You’re getting warmer.” Shanes said leaning over Amara’s shoulders with a sing songy tone. “You know what you’re looking for.”
“The spell shaping system...” Amara whispered to herself. Her hands fell away from the control matrix. Her brows knit and then resumed her grip. There was something different about this matrix beyond the materials and intricacy. She also found it puzzling to have a control console installed here if the facility was located this deep below the ground. It was going anywhere, so what did the matrix control?
“Not so much what? Think more.... how? Or, when if you will.”
Amara’s eyes narrowed, and she glanced back at the controls. Was this a magic control matrix for time? That was the only answer that made sense. Rather than piloting the facility in a linear direction, the matrix propelled it through time.
Shanes gave Amara an approving smile. “More accurately stated, it propels time through the facility.” the shadow clone corrected.
Amara glanced back, brows knit. Shanes was reading her thoughts? That was concerning. Even at a fraction of the goddesses power and she could still see into Amara’s mind easily.
“Wait. So this dry dock... It’s one big time machine?” Nathan asked, glancing around as if seeing the interior for the first time. He’d been standing in it for five minutes with the same awestruck expression. “I mean, weird flex, but ok? Why?”
“To protect the ship from the wrong hands.” Amara guessed. She turned back to Shanes for confirmation who gave her a knowing smile. “You hid Theferyis from your enemies by hurling it into time. Didn’t you?”
Shanes nodded excitedly. “Exactly! Mother said you’d be sharp when we finally met.”
Amara turned, and Shanes grinned. The expression told Amara the answer to the question she hadn’t even voiced yet. Was this god reading her mind?
“Yes. Surface level thoughts. You’re actually rather well guarded. Probably a part of your priestess’ training. This one is an open book and all curiosity.” Shanes casually gestured at Nathan, who returned to the conversation at the mention of his name, blinked, and went back to poking random things to see what happened. “This one is also well guarded, but also unnervingly quiet. But you? You’re fun. Smart and driven. I see why Mother liked you.”
Amara went back to studying the runes on the controls. She tried to focus on them as Shanes spoke. But the niggling curiosity of her own kept pulling her away from the matrix. “She mentioned me? How, we only just met recently?”
Shanes smiled, but there was a sadness to it. Like a child remembering being disappointed by her parents often. “Mother exists in a state outside of time. She experiences all of time at the same time. For her, it’s a perspective. Such is the fate of the webmaster.”
“Web master?”
“The one who guards the web of fate.”
“Doesn’t sound like it lends itself to time, though?”
“It doesn’t.” Again that eager academic grin. “That, my friend, is my father’s magic specialty. You may or may not meet him. So I’ll leave it to him how and when to avail himself of you.”
Amara nodded, returning her complete focus back to the control matrix. With a heavy sigh, she gripped both sticks, and began tapping in runes. The linkage ritual runes didn’t follow the standard convention, and took some guess work to unlock, but a few attempts later and she felt the matrix and her magic bond. A slight rush and she swayed in the command chair. Amara felt a steadying hand on her shoulder and she glanced over to see Yasiin looking at her concerned. She couldn’t help the reassuring smile she shot back.
“I’m ok, thanks.”
Yasiin grunted, a lack of complete faith in her reply obvious. “What happened?”
“This control matrix. It’s so much more than a regular matrix. I wish Kusi could have come. He’d be about like our archeologist friend over there.” She said with a casual gesture towards Nathan.
Nathan blinked, looking from studying the base of a portal arch. The purpose of which they couldn’t be sure yet. “huh?”
Amara chuckled softly and focused on her link with the control matrix. She stretched her fingers for a moment and fed the matrix some magic. Ahead of her, a wheel with runes marking it, again like the face of a clock began to spin. Her vision blurred and for an instant she could see the web of fate thread upon which this facility sat. Then she noticed that she could scrub time by turning the wheel. It flowed forward and backward.
“Whoa.” she whispered in awe.