It looked like a boy, spoke like a boy, moved, and smelled like a boy. But its magic signature screamed to Ember that it wasn't a boy but some kind of creature using magic illusion to pretend to be one. It was a lot more comprehensive than Merida's illusion, and yet, it had one big glaring flaw that her partner's counterpart did not share: a weakness for magic sensors.

Good job spotting that one. I knew that "human" was talking uncharacteristically for its age.

Given your own reading of its magical signature, I think that an apprentice-tier construct, similar to myself, but more advanced and specialized in illusions. Based on this, it should have mind magic to power its illusions, life magic to move its artificial body, and some kind of third emotion-based magic.

All the more reason not to start a fight and be ready for everything.

'Sure. I didn't plan to fight that thing after leaving Mary behind,' Ember mumbled, reminding Merida of that fact.

The girl might not stay with them, but Ember's loyalty wasn't that flimsy.

"Here we are," The fake boy exclaimed as they reached another isolated settlement, only a quarter an hour on foot from the last one. "Already told you, but Grandpa is a little eccentric, deep diving into all those shamanic nonsense after the system had gone public about a year ago."

Ember tilted her head. It had been one of the many things she had missed when she had shut down the system entirely and stayed away from magic as much as she could. Her late owner's death had been her wake-up call. But still: she did miss things while she isolated herself. It was an undeniable fact.

"It's okay. Ember and I do not mind one bit," Merida assured the illusionist construct with a big fake smile.

The boy nodded and sped up nervously as they reached one door.

"Grandpa? The doll and the dog are here. Just as you predicted!"

Ember was taken aback at the fake boy's last word. The old man predicted they would come here? How would he know? Did he really see the future, or did he have some magically-extended, weird perception range? One way or another, how could they possibly escape if they needed it?

You are not wrong. But every power has its limit, and every sensory-based or information-gathering magic has its blind spot. Let's probe it gently to know how we can escape it, should we need to do so.

'Sound like a plan,' Ember approved, wagging her tail as she crossed the door.

★☆★

The "Grandpa" man cave had such a strong smell that Ember almost immediately felt dizzy upon entering the room. At least, the man was indeed human and not an illusion, like the "boy," who had retreated as soon as they settled in.

"... promised me I would get plenty of time to say goodbye to my family. So I said yes. But instead, I got plenty of time losing my family over and over again before me."

The old man sounded heartbroken as he finished his tale, going back and forth with no rhyme and reason as his innate talent did to him for the last thirty years or so. Or so he claimed. But Ember had struggled to stay awake through it and involuntary yawned.

"That's a great story," Merida replied diplomatically, "But I'm sure you didn't go through so much trouble just to exchange memories with some strangers."

But the Grandpa completely ignored her, focusing solely on Ember's reaction.

"She does not seem to share your sentiment," He observed after a while. "But you are not strangers to me, actually quite the opposite. And I came to the conclusion that meeting you early would be the only way to save my family from those no-face thieves."

Ember perked up at the man's declaration. She kind of expected that conclusion. But not the man's influence over this early meeting. Did he merely exploit a missed opportunity or somehow create the opportunity he needed? How far did his power over time, lost in the loop, truly reach?

That's a very valid point.

"Ember is questioning how far you went to make this meeting happen?" Merida translated.

"Good question, and right on time as I was about to introduce you to yet another of your future friend and my partner in crime, so to speak," He said and paused, taking a deep breath before calling out at the top of his lung: "Prairie!"

First, nothing happened, and Ember was afraid the man had gone completely nuts. Then, a new magical signature registered in Ember's range before some kind of polecat jumped in from the only open windows, about a meter and a half off the ground, landing right next to her in a gracious roll.

"As you might have guessed, this is Prairie. She is a life nature spirit assuming the form of a Black-footed ferret and with one-of-a-kind innate talent deceivingly called 'Summoning Wild Fire,' which in our case happened to be your young friend's father."

Ember nodded, though it was both too much information and not enough. But she was starting to get used to the old man's odd way of explaining things and reigned her impatience.

"It allows her to summon weak-minded fire users and temporarily imbue it with life magic and assume control of their fire until they reach a preset destination of her choice.

So on my demand, she caused a minor deviation in the original timeline by summoning this man on the west coast, knowing full well from the previous failed attempt that you would lose its tracks, and timed it just right so this place would be the nearest settlement on your way back.

Not that it is our first time having that exact same talk, by the way. But I can assure you won't regret that little mingling with your life back home, given the number of lives getting spared in the process."

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Ember did not know how to react to this declaration, but this time, she was glad Merida took over as she asked the most sensible question:

"I'm sure you are meaning well and that your actions did save lives in Great Falls... but what about innocent people on the West Coast?"

Ember nodded approvingly at the doll, glad her partner could think through those implications better than she did.

"Well..." The man scratched his head before saying, "That's actually the beauty of it. The west coast is in a dark place right now, and the poison of one might be the cure of another." He shrugged, "I can't guarantee it cause the future is constantly changing, but seven times out of ten, he comes back from there a changed man after saving countless lives. Anyway, it's always an improvement from the father-daughter mutually assured destruction from the previous timeline."

Ember stared at Merida like a hawk would a mouse, ready to tear her apart, as the man just confirmed Ember's worst fears about the daughter-father confrontation that Merida had wished for. The doll had the decency to respond by looking shocked and contrite at the possible consequences of her actions might have been.

★☆★

The man was really stuck in a weird situation. He was surrounded by some weird creatures who took away his family but could not do the same with him without resetting his time loop, compromising all their efforts to conquer the surrounding area.

Over the many times he got sent back in time, he did, however, manage to gather much valuable information.

The constructs were working for a species of megalomaniac spellcasters. They needed to keep his family alive to power the illusion spell of their servant, which they needed because, to the man's hypothesis, they were somewhat weak or small and did not want a frontal confrontation. So they detained his friends and extended family in some prison pocket dimensions, which they planned to abandon to the demons when their connection to their homeworld was severed.

In a nutshell, their plan was to progress unnoticed, letting their construct servants do the grunt work while they planned on the next stage of their conquest from whatever shadows they were hiding in.

That's when Ember finally came in: according to the man, those prisons were designed to be a one-way trip, though due to her future-self power, she was supposed to be able to travel back and forth from those and somewhat save everyone???

On the plus side, that was straight up the alley of what she wanted to one day achieve with her power. On the minus side, either the man was utterly delusional or was describing a version of herself who was way too far in the future. But he was unable to explain how she did it, as the last time she succeeded in doing so, he kicked the bucket before she was done, therefore undoing her every effort by triggering his loop.

So she was on a timer cause the man was to die of natural causes from his terminal cancer fourteen months from now. And the loop would trigger anyway if the man died of an unnatural cause, got sent to the same pocket dimensions as his family, or if he did not reunite with his entire family.

It was quite a pain-in-the-ass, double-edge power he got, though the system did not deceive him about it: He literally would never rest in peace until he got reunited with his family for his final goodbye. And he got thirty accumulated years to think it through.

It was indeed a wonder that the man had not turned completely insane.

★☆★

After the Old man and Merida talked some more about time travel, human politics, and butterflies, he sent them off with a smile, promising to keep in touch. And so they rushed back to Mary, whom they found suspiciously unconscious but unharmed "after eating too many sweets," as the dark construct servants in disguises had put it, before they hit the road once again, very happy to put as much distance as they could from that place and its disturbing stories.

Though Ember could not help herself but ask: 'So, what do you think?'

There is no point denying that old man story. He knew too much for it not to be true. And yet too little as you would expect from someone watching it from the backseat, stuck in that place as he is.

Plus, the faeries do come from the same continent as the elves from Galore, and it would fit their modus operandi as they are known to be ambitious and manipulative yet somewhat non-confrontational.

The only weird thing is that magic and the system never take sides. So a god had to be involved, giving that poor man this tailor-suited innate talent to foil their plans. But he somewhat didn't mention one, and yet he was rather open about his religious practices.

Ember wasn't sure she fully understood Merida's reasoning, but what she did kind of made sense.

There were obviously some discrepancies within the old man's story. Still, there was no denying the solid evidence that something wrong was going on, especially with the near kidnapping of Mary that gave Ember quite a fright. Had they left later than they did, they might have found a really different 'Mary' waiting for them, while the real one might have been gone forever.

But the old man probably foresaw it too. And though it was hurting his own goal of getting them motivated, indirectly being responsible for their friend's kidnapping would have been a deal breaker, and he most certainly knew it. Instead, the almost kidnapping had done its job by driving the point home for Ember:

It could have been her friend. It could have been her people. It could have been herself. And if there were anything she could do so to save innocent people from some kind of prison, she would gladly do so.

'So what do you think of the power he mentioned about future me?' She asked again.

In spirit form, you might already be able to bypass a one-way portal. The part I cannot figure out is how you are supposed to save those people. Creating your own portal inside a foreign pocket dimension on another world is way beyond what you can achieve in fourteen months.

If I had to guess, that would mean you would have to develop your own way to transport those people on yourself in spirit form without relying on Ether magic, which would be the usual go-to for that kind of effect. Whatever it was, this old man could not understand it, and so do I.

'Yeah,' Ember mumbled, 'I guess that would be too easy if we got those answers right away, right?'

My mistakes. I think I spoiled you too much, and you failed to learn the gratification of achieving things by yourself.

Merida nagged, and so Ember pouted for most of their way to Missoula.

'Well... I guess that somewhat helps to know you are unknowingly stuck in a time-loop cause some old man needs to save his family before he dies,' She reluctantly admitted after a few hours.

That's the spirit! Seeing the cup half-full instead of half-empty is the first step toward progress!

And so Ember barked but said no more.

Mary was alive and well instead of dying in a pointless confrontation with her father. They made some noticeable progress for that whole trip though they — apparently, thankfully — did not achieve their goals. And they got aware of an issue they had been blissfully ignorant about, and that might compromise their project for the future if left alone.

So they just had to get back home and learn some more magic until they were confident they could deal with it. Then get back to the old man, reunite him with his family, save many more people as a bonus, and possibly screw over the plans of some wicked sapients as a cherry on top.

It was just one seemingly impossible task to add to the list, right beside improving the ecoregion environment, helping humans rebuild a functioning society, and achieving her own personal goal of becoming a rescue dog.

Because she definitely had to succeed cause she would not remember it if she failed. Right?