Girem had prepared me for a hundred different scenarios that I might encounter in my tenure as an advisor. I could negotiate with hostile parties, disarm threats and evaluate costs versus benefits. I could speak and read three different languages or devise battlefield strategies. He was a man determined to plan for as many situations as possible.
And precisely none of that training prepared me to speak with myself. How could it?
He, or rather I, looked different than I had expected. We shared the same muddy brown hair, but he wore his short, barely more than a shaven head. His face was clean-shaven, and several faint scars danced on his chin and cheeks, and his eyes, though dark brown like mine, had a flicker of green passing over them.
I knew I would never be tall, and his frame confirmed as much. At best, he was of average height with a slim build exaggerated by the somewhat loose clothes he wore. But as we stood next to one another, I felt my heart pounding and tension gathering in my shoulders.
It has escaped my notice before, but now it was starting to settle on me. Duke Estton wielded a sort of aura born from their rank and upbringing as if he doubted you would dare to oppose him. Girem had a similar way of standing, but that was from decades of facing men and women strong enough to level buildings if their tempers flared.
But this man was another animal entirely. He felt like a storm in human form, ready to level everything around him in a moment. His stance was casual, the poise of a man who knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was invincible. Even now, he glanced around the Astral Plane utterly relaxed, one hand resting on the hilt of his blade with a faint smile.
"Hey, anyone home in there? I know you have questions. Even though this has to be a bit of a shock, we are the same person, and I would have questions, so it stands to reason that you would feel similar." he suddenly said, turning to face me.
"I-that is to say-" I stammered before clearing my throat and asking, "What is going on?"
He stared at me for a second before smirking and shaking his head.
"A little open-ended, but fair enough to ask. The short answer is we are even smarter than we thought. And considering our ego, that is saying something. Not to put too much of a point on it, but we never quite learn humility."
"I...I think I need a longer answer if it is all the same to you." I replied, his words not illuminating much.
"I assumed as much. Alright, bear with me. This is the first time I have explained most of this out loud, so expect some stumbles."
He paused, folding his arms over his chest, his eyes taking on a brief, far away look before refocusing.
"Time is a tricky thing. Centuries of Awakenings and more studies than you can count have helped, but our knowledge remains limited. It is a bit of a taboo subject for mages."
"I assumed prior nobles or monarchs would make it a priority. Having the capacity to see the future would let you take steps to make certain events pass. Invaluable for a ruler, I would say." I remarked, my mind racing at the implications.
He gave a dismissive gesture, responding, "Fear is a hell of a deterrent. There are a hundred stories about people seeing a future during an Awakening and trying to alter it, only for it to end tragically. That, and there are plenty of thought experiments about the risks of interfering with the natural flow of timelines."
"Seems those cautionary tales did not stick with you," I remarked, waving one hand at him.
"Us, Vayne. They did not stick with us." he corrected, shooting me another grin.
"Fine, us. What does this have to do with our meeting here?" I snapped, ready to get to the point.
"Patience. As I was saying, what we do know is that time is flexible, like a bow. It can bend, but only so far until it snaps. Changing small details is easy, but larger things can get tricky."
"Like an invasion?" I asked, jumping to the obvious conclusion.
"Exactly! Near as I can tell, major events have multiple factors contributing to their occurrence. Worse, people are predictable and tend to act and react in the same way, making it even harder to change course."
He paused again, glancing at me with a frown.
"Around fifteen years ago, I underwent my Awakening and saw much the same as you just did. I would become an Archmagus, grow incredibly powerful, and die to that man's blade, trying to save our home. After seeing all of that, I did what any loyal servant would do."
"Which was?" I asked, already suspecting the answer.
"Walked out and told Girem, of course. I assumed he would know what to do about it. His first move was to contact Duke Estton, and within a few days, King Lyos had me training with the best tutors he could find. His Majesty spent years and a fortune turning me into the mage you see now. Self-preservation tends to get people moving, you know."
"Understandable. It seems it was not enough." I remarked, tilting my head to one side.
He fixed me with a blank stare, replying, "I took a sword to the torso, so no, it wasn't. But I was never one to throw all my faith into the long shot. What is it that Girem always says about planning?"
"'Plan to succeed, but always be ready for failure.'" I intoned, smirking a bit at the words. Girem had a hundred sayings he constantly repeated about nearly every subject imaginable. At this point, they were drilled so deep into my brain they entered my dreams.
He had a smile that was eerily similar to my own, nodding and saying, "Exactly. Is it strange that I almost miss the man and his annoying phrases? Regardless, I did what any smart mage would do and created contingencies. Namely, this."
He held up a hand, and a miniature copy of the circle appeared, floating above his open palm.
"This is, to my knowledge, the first and only example of temporal alteration magic in history. It took me a decade to create and involved bribes, favors, threats, and no small amount of hard work."
I stepped closer, leaning in as I muttered, "Really? How does it work?"
He smirked and responded, "Time works strangely on the Astral Plane. This little beauty anchors a portion to my will, which lets our minds meet here and interact. There's more to it, but if you forgive my joke, we do not have the time."
"That sounds...difficult."
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"Closer to impossible, truth be told. I can faintly perceive my body, and my mana is draining like a damned sieve. If I had solidified my core, maybe..."
He trailed off, eyes closing and arms folded across his chest. I recognized the habit, the same one I used all of a minute earlier. The surreality of it struck me, and a laugh slipped from me, half-humor and half something else. My laughter broke him from his musings, and he looked at me with a slight grin.
"Sorry, bad habit. Regardless, I brought you here for one simple reason. To change the future, or more specifically, our future."
"I- I am afraid I still do not see how that is possible. Seeing that future ensures it, right?" I said, tilting my head to one side.
Sighing, he replied, "A question for the ages but not necessarily, I think. People tend to follow the same or similar paths, and if not for our meeting here, you would in all likelihood do the same thing as me. We are the same predictable person, after all. Try and tell me you did not plan to walk out, run to Girem and follow through with our training."
"...alright, assume that you are right. You still have not answered my question. Are we not doomed to end up right back here?" I said, trying not to let a scowl across my face.
His smile grew, and he responded, "I love a good metaphor. To put it in terms you might appreciate, our lives are like a book with an ending already written. To change that, I was left with one option. Any guesses?"
"Rewrite the ending?" I said with a raised eyebrow.
"Wrong. It all starts to go wrong after chapter one. Therefore, the only option is to throw out the whole thing and try again."
I said nothing, and he did not continue, seeming to understand my turmoil. We sat in silence as seconds ticked by, my mind trying to wrap around his words.
Finally, I looked at him and said, "How? How do I even begin going about that?"
He nodded and walked closer, saying, "Now that is the million gold question. Normally, you would be trapped, if not by your actions, then by the actions of others. Chances are that just our conversation will change things, but again, I'm not one to bank on the long shot. So, do me a favor."
"What is that?" I asked, noticing that he was now only a few feet away.
"Stand still."
There was a blur of motion, and a hand slammed into my chest, sending me flying back several feet. A searing pain, as if someone shoved a red hot poker through my sternum, tore through me, and I let out a strangled scream, clutching at the wound. But as I glanced down, I realized there was not a mark on me.
"Sorry about that. Had to brute force it, and I thought if you had too much warning, you might resist it and risk injury," he said, glancing down at his hand and shaking it several times as if in pain.
"What-what the hell was that?!" I yelled, pushing to my feet and rubbing at my chest. The pain had already vanished, but that did not do anything to calm my pounding heart. Again, there was that brief moment as I tried to rationalize that those sensations should be impossible.
"Hey, easy with the language and temper! That, my ungrateful friend, was a drop of Ocean-grade mana, injected right into your core with a semi-permeable shell, which should help hide it from prying eyes. Over time, the shell will dissolve and integrate with your native energy, but it will be pretty benign for now. Just avoid poking it."
"That has to be dangerous, right? And I thought only my mind was here? And can two mages mix their mana like that?"
"In order, yes, sort of, and not usually. I piggybacked off the connection between mind and body, which is fiendishly tough, but again, Archmagus with an excess of free time and resources. Mixing mana is usually impossible, but since we are the same person, I made a leap. And as far as danger goes, well, you survived, so not a problem!" he said, folding his arms over his chest with a shrug.
I stared at his self-satisfied grin, resolving to try and avoid that facial expression in the future. The similarities had been amusing at first but were rapidly grating on me.
"Fine, but why?" I demanded, relatively confident he danced around that he could have killed me with that stunt.
"Couple reasons. The first is that liquid mana attracts mana, and this should help you gather it faster. It won't happen until that shell starts to break down, and I doubt it will be anything incredible, but any boost helps. You'll need to become even stronger than me if you want to succeed."
"And the second?"
His face became stern, losing the grin he sported before as he seemed to gather his thoughts.
"There are plenty of vipers in Ferris, but the worst of the bunch is a man named Artus. He's a Seer, a type of mage that retains a connection to this place which grants glimpses of the future. It has downsides, and he's half-mad most of the time, but when he's lucid, there's no one more dangerous."
"So, this mana will help me fight him? Is it a spell?" I asked, my hand returning to my chest.
"Fight him? Founders, no. He's a lunatic, but Artus would tear you apart limb from limb, lucid or not. What it will do is keep you hidden. I found testimony from a Seer around six hundred years who spoke about causality and-not important. The main point being his journals gave me an idea to cloud visions. Temporal paradoxes disrupt the natural flow of time and should hide you from his sight."
"You choice of should is worrying," I remarked.
"As it should." he responded, briefly smirking at his choice of words before continuing, "My working theory is that having my mana inside you turns you into a sort of living paradox. You have energy from two separate versions of yourself, which should be impossible. But as you can imagine, I never had a chance to test this so-"
The mists around us shook and warped, darkening for a moment as a strange echoing sound boomed. He glanced around, a frown on his face as he muttered under his breath.
"My spell is collapsing faster than I thought. We are running out of time, quite literally."
"What you are asking is-it seems impossible. You can control time, and you still lost. How am I supposed to get even stronger than you?" I said, trying not to raise my voice as I met his eyes.
Chuckling, he shook his head, responding, "Control is going too far. I merely...twisted it a bit, but it's twisting me right back."
Again the world shook, and this time, he fell to one knee, eyes squeezed shut. His entire body faded for a moment before resolidifying. After a few seconds, he stood, smoothing his ruffled clothes with a frown.
"My timeline is fading, a consequence of my interference in the timeline. Like I said, messing with time is risky. If you have any burning questions, now is the time to ask. We do not have long, so-"
"What sort of magic should I study? And who are those invaders? And how do I get stronger? What-what should I do?" I interrupted, words tumbling from me one after the other.
"I have no idea who they are, only that they come from across the Azure Expanse. As for the rest...well, I can give some hints. First, keep what you saw and what you can become quiet, at least for now. Most who hear will grow envious and try to break you or leverage your potential for their own benefit. That's not to say you cannot trust anyone, but be mindful. After you wake, request immediate entry into the Academy. You need its resources to grow, and the sooner you get in, the better."
"But what about magic? What should I learn? What sort of spells?" I pushed, desperation creeping into my voice.
He frowned, staring at me with a conflicted look in his eyes.
"I can't tell you."
"Why not?!"
He held up a hand, cutting off any further interruptions before saying, "Results springs from hard work and, frankly, desperation. Challenges breed growth, and if I hand you the answers, I rob you of those challenges. If I give you too much now, you will struggle to find your way without my help and, worse, risk turning into me. All too soon, you'll be standing here again, on the other side of this conversation."
"But surely you can tell me something? Anything?"
His body began fading again, and this time did not subside. Within seconds, it crept up to his thighs, flesh turning into motes of green. He glanced down at his hands before looking back up at me with a final grin and a single nod.
"Our time here is up, but I know you will be able to do this. Good luck, Vayne."
And with those last words, the world faded, and I fell into darkness.
----------------------------------------
My younger self vanished, and I let my smile fall from my face. Girem taught us to compartmentalize well, and he was taking it better than to be expected but still. A reassuring smile and attitude seemed better than the alternative. No, he would have enough to deal with when he woke up, and the least I could offer was a few kind words.
Only the tiniest scraps of mana remained, but still, I fed them into the spell, clinging to the last fragments of my timeline. I had thought myself ready for death, but now the reality stared back at me. If there was an afterlife, I was barred from it. The only thing awaiting me was the oblivion of non-existence.
Still, I felt something, a sense of contentment maybe. My shoulders relaxed for the first time in over a decade, and I let out a breath, taking one final look around the place where my journey began.
"Let's hope the third time is the charm," I muttered before closing my eyes and feeling the world around me fade into nothingness.