“W-what the hell are you talking about?” I said. Unfortunately, his statement caught me so off guard that I wasn’t able to fake my confusion convincingly enough.

  “I can’t keep this up for very long, so I’ll explain later. Help me get rid of the kitty, and we can talk more.”

  “Wait-” I started, but cut myself short when I felt another wave of mana.

  “Lucy?” said Antonio looking at me with concern.

  I realized that the Chronomancer had frozen me mid-sentence, so to Antonio, it appeared that I simply stopped talking.

  “It’s not important,” I said dismissively.

  “Oh. Alright then.” He eyed me doubtfully. “Mr. Chronomancer, is there anything we can do to change your mind?”

  “Nothing,” said the Chronomancer cheerfully.

  “Then I’m afraid there’s no point in sticking around,” he said, standing up. “Come, Lucy. Perhaps the paladins will have found something by the time we return.”

  “Actually, I think I’ll stay for a little while,” I said. “I think I should be able to get something out of him if we talk a little longer.”

  Antonio narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He was not stupid, so he had probably connected the dots between my unfinished sentence earlier, and my sudden desire to stay. He didn’t bring it up though.

  “How will I return to the city then?” he asked. “You flew me here.”

  “I can teleport you back,” I said before turning to the Chronomancer. “Do you have anti-sp- wait of course you don’t.” If time magic was a subset of spatial, then he wouldn’t be able to set up anti-spatial magic wards in his house. “Here, Antonio.”

  I held out my hand and started channeling my mana into [Portal] while focusing on [Waypoint]. [Waypoint] was a very useful skill that basically formed a connection between myself and a location using spatial magic. Usually, I just used it to teleport myself, but it could also be used to make portals. I wasn’t as fast at making them as Anatoly or Natalya yet, but it still only took 10 seconds for the portal to stabilize.

  “My [Waypoint] is currently set to Natalya’s house,” I said to Antonio. “She’s probably noticed the intrusion, and will be waiting for you when you arrive. You might be able to get her help finding Envy, actually.”

  “Thank you, Archmage Lucille,” he said stepping towards the portal. “When you return, come back to the church. Hopefully we will have some more information, and we will be able to hold a fruitful discussion.”

  “Of course. I’ll see you in a little while.”

  “Farewell,” he said, then stepped into the portal.

  I closed to the portal then looked over at the Chronomancer, who was sporting an excited grin.

  “So. What kind of world are you from? You’re obviously not from mine, since we don’t have vampires in my world. Wait, do we? Well, if we do, I’ve never seen them. How did you get here? You’re clearly not a chronophysicist, so you can’t have gotten here the way I did. Unless you were a test pilot?”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up a hand to stop the torrent of questions. “How did you know I was from another world?”

  It was too late to deny it. I wouldn’t be able to tell him the full truth, of course, but he was a talker, so I would have plenty of time to come up with a believable lie.

  “Well, I didn’t know for sure until a minute ago. I had my suspicions though. Vampires have been extinct now for like a thousand years. And then suddenly, you show up one day with ‘amnesia’ and five years later you’re an archmage? I was about 80% sure that you were from another world until you told me earlier that you knew time magic was a subset of spatial magic. No one in this world has even theorized that yet, but the vampire with suspicious origins knows it?”

  “Shit,” I muttered.

  “Oh, you’re fine, though. I’m literally the only one in the world who’s also from another world, as far as I can tell. No one else would be able to notice. Well, maybe an elf would. They might have seen some stuff like that in the past, but still, maybe not. My circumstances were highly unique. I’ll bet yours were, too.”

  “I guess you could say that,” I said vaguely. “I’m not talking first. You tell me how you got here, and I might tell you how I did.”

  “Sure!” he exclaimed. “Basically, I was a chronophysicist working for Eon on a-”

  “Hold on,” I said, interrupting him. “What’s a chronophysicist? You said it earlier too.”

  “Wait, you guys didn’t have chronophysicists?” he asked.

  “No. We had physicists, and astrophysicists, and nuclear physicists, but no chronophysicists. Are those just physicists who specialize in time?”

  “Woah, you guys are way further behind than I thought you were,” he said. “Yeah you’ve pretty much got it. Chronophysicists are physicists who know a lot about how time works, and help work to manipulate it.”

  “You guys could manipulate time? Without magic?”

  “Not really. Only a really tiny bit. Nothing compared to what I can do here. We mostly focus on sending messages to the past, and receiving them from the future.”

  I thought about that for a few seconds. “So you’re saying that the multiverse theory is correct? Because there’s no way that wouldn’t cause paradoxes.”

  He gestured all around us. “I mean, we’re literally in another world. But yeah, even before I got here, we knew that the multiverse theory was correct. One of the big concerns early in the study of chronophysics was time paradoxes, but nobody really thinks about them anymore. No one but chronophysics majors who need to study the history of chronophysics, anyways.” He said this last sentence somewhat bitterly.

  “So how did chronophysics start?” I asked. “In my world, I don’t think we’re at all close to any kind of time-based advancements. Wait, what year was it in your world when you came here?”

  “It was 2067 when I left,” he said.

  “Wait, but that’s only 45 years ahead of my timeline. Are our worlds just drastically different, or did chronophysics get discovered, and become a whole field of study in just that amount of time?”

  “I think it only took about 30 years from discovery to where it is today,” he said, rubbing his chin in contemplation. “No, maybe it was 40… That doesn’t sound like much time, but you gotta understand that we can get information from the future. That includes designs for new tech. Technology got crazy advanced in the decades immediately after chronophysics was discovered.”

  “I see…” I said. “How-how was it discovered?”

  I had to catch myself mid-sentence, because I had almost asked him how it worked. If I did that, he might refuse to answer. I couldn’t ask direct questions like that.

  “Well, do you know about the double-slit experiment?” he asked.

  “Yeah. With light and wave-particle duality and all that stuff?”

  “Yeah, exactly!” he said, animatedly. “So you know how in that experiment, the presence of an observer affect the behavior of the photons at all points in time, and not just the time after the observer is activated, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, at some point in the early 30’s I think, these two scientists thought ‘What if we just kept the experiment going for a really long time? Will it still behave that way?’ And so they set it up for a year or something. And it worked! Turning on the observer at the end of the year made all of the data from the entire year appear as particulate! So they did the experiment again, but this time, they set it up so they could collect the data as the experiment was running, and they set a condition for turning on the observer. I think the condition they set was something about the success of Mongolia’s invasion of Japan or something like that. It’s not important. Anyway-”

  “Wait, Mongolia invades Japan?” I interrupted. “What about China?”

  “China collapsed in 2025,” he said dismissively. “Its land was split between Taiwan, Japan and Mongolia. Anyway they set up the experiment with those conditions, and the data immediately started showing that the photons were acting as particles, before the observer was even activated! They kept this to themselves for a while, and kept the experiment running, but eventually, whatever condition they set happened, just like the particle data said it would. They turned on the observer, then shut down the device and made their findings public, and the field exploded after that.

  “They set up massive rooms full of little double slit experiments, kind of like those old-timey computers that were just rooms full of switches, and used those to receive more complex data from the future.”

  “But how does that even work? If you set the experiment up, and get the answers instantly, who gave them to you? Wouldn’t they just grab the data, shut it all down, and turn it back on and wait for a new message?”

  “Yeah, if we used the original double slit experiment format it wouldn’t work. That first experiment was a bit of a fluke, because they did turn on the observer themselves at the end, but it opened the door to possibilities. It would be too complicated to explain it fully, but the gist of it is that the future messaging devices run on a modified version of the double slit experiment.”

  “I see,” I said, slightly disappointed.

  It was interesting to learn about how chronophysics came to be, but it didn’t sound like I could use any of this to figure out how time magic worked. I vaguely understood how wave particle duality worked, and how the double-slit experiment was set up, but I didn’t know enough to replicate it, let alone make the advancements necessary to reach the Chronomancer’s level of understanding. Maybe if I had a century or so, but by then, Envy and the Chronomancer would probably both be dead, so it would be a moot point. I would need him to teach me directly if I wanted any kind of time magic.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “So, how did you end up here then?” I asked.

  “Well, as I was saying earlier, I was a chronophysicist working for Eon, the leading chronophysics corporation, on a device to send not just information, but also objects through time. Or I suppose it would be through dimensions, because we would be sending and receiving things from other timelines similar to the past and future, rather than the actual past and future. Whatever the case, we had the device built, and we were starting up the first official test when the device started malfunctioning.

  “We underestimated the power it would take to properly control the wormhole, and it got out of control. I got sucked in, and ended up here. It sucked at first, but once I started learning magic, it got better. Then, when I started applying my knowledge of time and space to magic, the System gave me a bunch of cool time magic skills and even a fancy unique class with awesome stats! I got famous, and eventually the duke hired me to work for him.

  “It’s a pretty awesome job. I barely have to do anything, and he gives me pretty much whatever I want. I only have to do actual work once a month or so, sometimes even less, and the rest of the time, I can just relax and enjoy life.”

  “Fascinating,” I said unenthusiastically.

  “So what about you? How did you get here? You sounded like you were from a world just like mine, but 45 years earlier or something like that, but you’re a vampire. Are vampires real back on Earth too?”

  “Yes,” I lied. “We like to lay low though. We just work night shifts and raise livestock for blood. You’ve probably run into a few of us at some point in your life.”

  “Woah!” he said, eyes sparkling. “Awesome! Does that mean magic is real too? Is that how you got here? Did you open up a magic portal?”

  “Magic is real, but on Earth, it’s more like old Irish mythology-type fey magic than the magic here. No one really understands how it works, not even us supernatural creatures. I got here after accidentally walking into a fairy circle. I ran out as soon as I noticed what I had done, but it was too late. When I got out of the circle, I was here, and the circle disappeared behind me.”

  “Wow!” he said.

  I was somewhat impressed with myself for the lie I had given. I was confident that I wouldn’t be caught by him, but I hadn’t expected that I would be able to give such a believable explanation. It helped that he was jumping to conclusions on his own about vampires and such. He didn’t even consider the possibility that I wasn’t always a vampire, or that my arrival here might not have been an accident.

  “That’s crazy! Is being a vampire here different from being a vampire on Earth?”

  “Oh yeah,” I said. “I used to be able to turn into a bat. I can’t do that here, though, for some reason. I guess transformation skills are reserved for Demon Kings. And dragons.”

  “Damn, that sucks.”

  “Yeah, it’s super unfair,” I said, getting animated. “Why do dragons get to have a human, and dragon form? Since when could dragons transform into humans? Tolkein’s dragons couldn’t do that! But vampires have always been able to turn into bats! So why can’t I do that here?”

  “Yeah, that’s dumb,” he agreed. “I guess vampires in Astraeus are different from the ones on Earth, and the System didn’t differentiate, and just gave you the skills of an Astraeus vampire instead of an Earth one.”

  “I guess…” I said.

  “So where on Earth are you from?” he asked.

  “I’m from…”

  We talked for nearly two hours more about our lives back on Earth. He did most of the talking actually, which was fortunate, because I didn’t want to accidentally contradict myself if I lied too much. He seemed to have been starved for company that he could actually talk to about his past, and just kept rambling on, telling me about everything, from his childhood to popular sports teams and players, to new futuristic technology and whatever else he could think of.

  About half an hour in, he was starting to get annoying though. I sat through it anyway, since I needed to form a bond with him if I ever wanted him to tell me anything about time magic, but even with that in mind, I couldn’t make it to two hours.

  “Well, it’s been nice catching up with a fellow earthling, but I do need to get going,” I said. “I just promised Diligence I would help him out with catching the Demon Kings, and by now, we should have some more information on the Envy situation, so I need to get back.”

  “Awww,” he said. “Will you come back later though? It’s been years since I was able to talk about the past. I’d love to talk with you again. Maybe somewhere a bit nicer?”

  I thought that sounded an awful lot like a date. I had no desire to go on a date with the Chronomancer, but perhaps if he thought about me that way, he would be more willing to share his secrets.

  “Maybe,” I said, as I stood up. “Will you teach me time magic?”

  His expression hardened. “No. It’s too dangerous. Time magic lives and dies with me.”

  “I won’t do anything bad with it,” I said. “And I won’t teach it to anyone else.”

  “Still, no,” he said, shaking his head. “One can keep a secret, but two can’t. We may have a lot in common, since we’re both from the same world, but I still can’t teach you.”

  I looked at him coldly.

  “Is that all you wanted?” he asked, looking betrayed. “Is that the only reason you stayed? Were you hoping that if we got close, I’d teach you?”

  “That was the main reason, yes.” His face fell even further. “...but I will admit it was nice to be able to talk to someone about Earth again. If I ever want to talk again, I’ll come back here.”

  His face brightened back up. “Well, you’re always welcome. Like I said early, I never turn away a beautiful woman.” He winked. “Don’t teleport inside though. Again, I never turn away a beautiful woman, so… You might see some things…”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, standing up.

  “It’s been fun,” he said. “I won’t teach you time magic, no matter how close we get, but please do come back whenever you feel like it.”

  “I might,” I said as I started preparing [Teleport] “Adios.”

  “Sayonara.”

  .

  .

  .

  When I returned to the cathedral, I was immediately escorted up to Antonio’s office. Inside, there were many more people than I expected. In addition to Antonio himself, the Saintess was sitting upright on one couch, her laid back image from a few hours before replaced by her normal public image. She smiled slightly and winked when she saw me though. Sitting across from her was a greyhound-like beast woman nervously tapping her fingers on her legs. There were half a dozen high level paladins standing around them, and Alexei was standing next to Antonio’s desk engaging him in a very serious-looking conversation.

  “Oh, great,” muttered Alexei sarcastically when he saw me. I shot him a quick glare before focusing back on Antonio, who was talking to me.

  “You were gone quite a while,” he said. “Does that mean that your efforts bore fruit?”

  “Unfortunately, no. He made it very clear that he would not be teaching me any time magic under any circumstances.”

  “That is unfortunate,” said Antonio.

  “Thank you for your report, Archmage Lucille,” said Alexei. “You are dismissed.”

  “No. Stay,” said Antonio. “She is the only one who personally witnessed the Demon King.”

  “Well, how do we know that she actually saw them?” asked Alexei. “What if she’s mistaken? What if she’s lying to protect her fellow Demon King?”

  “Archmage Lucille trained under Archmage Natalya for 5 years. Aside from her father, Natalya is the most knowledgeable person in the world on Demon Kings. If Lucille were a demon king, she would have noticed. Are you saying that you don’t trust your grandmother’s judgment?”

  “Maybe,” said Alexei defiantly.

  “Well, unfortunately for you, you are alone in that opinion,” said Antonio sternly. “And don’t forget that we have already externally verified Envy’s presence. Don’t let your personal vendetta get in the way of the investigation.”

  Alexei scowled as I smiled triumphantly at him.

  “Where is Natalya, anyway?” I asked.

  “She is out, searching for Envy,” replied Antonio. “She said that it would likely be futile, but that if anyone could find Envy, it would be her. She probably won’t be back for a while.”

  “Mm. Makes sense,” I said. “And how did you verify their presence?”

  “That was largely Mirella’s doing,” said the cat man, nodding towards the dog woman, who waved shyly at me. “Mirella is an expert in tracking. She went to the palace, and managed to track the scent of the real princess to a location a couple miles outside of the city. There were signs of a high-temperature blaze, and we didn’t find the body, but we did find a few strands of hair and a few rocks with a few drops of blood on them that we confirmed to belong to the real princess Jocelynn. We believe that when Envy replaced the princess, she cremated the body, albeit somewhat sloppily.

  “Additionally, when we interviewed the servants around the castle, many noted that the princess’ behavior had changed in the past month. She became notably less well-mannered, and more demanding, though they couldn’t have done anything, since they were unable to speak out against her.”

  “So Envy had been pretending to be the princess for a whole month?”

  “It seems that way, yes,” he said grimly. “We are currently discussing whether or not we should make Envy’s powers publicly known yet. If the servants had known Envy’s powers, the princess’ replacement would have been discovered much earlier. It would have been too late to save the real Jocelynn, but if they managed to report the replacement discreetly enough, it is possible that we could have ambushed Envy and taken them out before they had a chance to escape.”

  “We can’t do that,” said Alexei. “Even if we might be able to catch Envy more easily, it’s not worth it. Revealing Envy’s powers would cause mass panic. Friends and family would turn against each other. People would accuse others of being replaced, and many innocents would be killed. It would be absolute chaos. So far, Envy has only killed about one person a month, in order to replace them. It’s a tragedy for them and their families, but trading the lives of many, just to save a few from being replaced would be exceedingly foolish.”

  “That is true, however, that only takes the short term into account,” argued Antonio. “If Envy is allowed to continue to roam about freely, they will only keep getting stronger, and better at hiding. What if they replace a king next? Imagine how much damage they could cause. We need to take care of them right now, while they’re still weak, and sloppy. The need is amplified even more greatly, as the Chronomancer still refuses to help.”

  “We can’t sacrifice the citizens based on ‘what-ifs’!” said Alexei.

  “But if we don’t, we may end up losing far more than we would if we said nothing!” Antonio turned to me suddenly. “Lucy, do you have any opinion on the matter?”

  “Well…” I said slowly. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think Alexei is right. For now.” Alexei looked at me in shock. “I think that informing the public should only be a last resort. It would work, but as he said, many people would die before Envy were caught. I think it would guarantee the success of the hunt though. If the world got chaotic enough, I believe the Chronomancer would decide to intervene.

  “Before choosing that option, we should try whatever else we can. Maybe we could lure Envy into a trap of some kind. They’ve been replacing people for a while now. Surely there’s some kind of pattern that will allow us to predict their next target.”

  “There is a slight pattern, but nothing concrete enough to make accurate predictions,” said Antonio. Then he sighed. “It seems I am outvoted though. All the paladins, as well as the Saintess agree with Alexei as well, of course. We will work on trying to set traps for Envy, as well as trying to place our own people near every position of power we can so that we can hopefully notice if someone else gets replaced.

  “Meanwhile, the king has been informed of his daughter’s unfortunate circumstances, and he is now in deep mourning. There will be a funeral service held in two days, and Lucy, you were invited by the king directly. I believe it would be unwise to decline. We can delay your departure until after the funeral if you’d like, or you can go tomorrow night as planned, and return again the next day for the funeral.”

  “I’ll go as planned,” I said. “I don’t think there’s anything else I can do to help here, and I’ll be bored if I’m stuck here another two days.”

  Antonio nodded. “Then you are dismissed if you’d like. Or you can stay, too. We will mostly be covering logistics and administration now, though.”

  “I will take my leave, then,” I said.

  I gave Evelyn one final apologetic look before I left, to which she responded with a slight nod of understanding.

  I didn’t have anything else to do until sunset, so I spent the next sixteen hours or so doing my best to replicate the Chronomancer’s time magic to no avail. I could remember the feel of the mana, but no matter what I did to my spatial mana, I couldn’t even get it close. When the sun finally reached the horizon, I made my way back to the cathedral, and mentally prepared myself to meet the other Virtues.