The tree trunk fell to the ground as many times before with a loud thud of resignation, severed at the bottom by Kayden’s strong axe. Kayden wiped his brow, exhausted, and moved on to the next tree. Just as he had been doing for the past two weeks.

Day after day he now spent chopping at trees, working with the lumberjack to earn his room in the inn. Kayden had adapted quickly to the job, hiding the fact that he had once been a swordsman, but still, it was exhausting. Exhausting, but peaceful.

Kayden had several times found himself enjoying this new lifestyle. Not just the woodcutting, but everything about this place. The mornings spent cutting trees with Barelk, afternoons spent chatting with Tham, evenings spent laughing at Hank’s inn, nights spent peacefully resting in a comfortable bed with no danger of being killed.

How long had it been since he had last experienced peace like this? Centuries, that was for sure. He was, after a tiring and catastrophic adventure, finally experiencing peace.

The world had changed so much since he had been imprisoned. Architecture seemed to be more solid, more square, and even this small village seemed the size of a full-fledged town back in his time. He found himself wondering how many soldiers it would take to protect a village like these.

Luckily, he wouldn’t have to fight any longer. Kayden just had to beat up the marauder band, and then he’d be free. He was not an adventurer anymore. He was just the average local lumberjack, chopping at logs.

But something throbbed at the back of his mind, haunting him.

Sure, he had had an adventure. But he had failed. And when the world had needed him the most, he had given up.

The Skylands were lower than ever before. The world needed him. He now had a second chance. But he just couldn’t. He couldn’t fail again. Another hero would rise, he hoped. Another young man or woman with hopes of becoming a hero. He didn’t need to worry.

But then there was Lauren.

She was still alive, thriving and ruling. As the village of Bargolen was on the very southern edge of the Skyfall Empire, he hadn’t yet found out much about her rule, but if she was still how he had last seen her… He grimaced at the thought.

She had done it. She had done what she had always said she would: force the Skylands people to face the truth. However, Kayden had never thought she would do it by such an extreme means. But she had. It was her. After all, she had named her empire the Skyfall Empire, taking advantage of the people’s hatred to her end. He worried about her –about it all. But that was not his problem anymore.

Forcing himself to relax, Kayden went to sat down on a nearby stool, drinking from his waterskin the cold and satisfying crystal water. As he did, he saw the figure of a now-familiar teen approaching from the village, washing away his troubled thoughts. Tham, carrying a basket with lunch. Kayden smiled. Tham reminded Kayden of a younger version of himself, back before everything had gone horribly wrong.

“Hey, Kayden!” Tham called, waving his hand.

“Hey, Tham,” Kayden called back. “How’s it going?”

“All good,” Tham said as he reached the place Kayden was in. “Mr. Harnol’s chair is almost done.”

“Well done,” Kayden congratulated him. Tham was the carpenter’s apprentice and son, and so was tasked with completing minor jobs. He was pretty good at it, and seemed to enjoy his work. “Your father will be proud.”

“Thanks. He always is, no matter how awful my work is,” Tham noted with a chuckle. It was true. For the few weeks Kayden had been in the village, Tham and his father had clearly had their bad moments, but they ended each day with a smile. Like those fairy tales for children Kayden used to read as a kid.

“Hey, I wanted to tell you something,” Tham then said. There was a hint of nervousness in his voice. “The newspaper from last week arrived from the city of Marbarth earlier today. And… it talked about you, with a drawn portrait and all. Specifically, it mentioned an extremely dangerous prisoner who had escaped from a high-security prison some time ago around this area. We’ve had luck so far, but be extra careful in the future. We think you’re not dangerous, and you’ve gained our friendship and trust –you don’t have to worry about us selling you to them. But, well… we don’t know about other people who might come this way. Be careful. You’re one of us now. We won’t give you up easily.”

Kayden sat in silence for a few moments, pensive. “Thank you,” he finally said. “I’ll make it up to you all someday. I’ll tell you everything… as soon as I know what’s going on.” He then asked the question whose answer he feared to hear. “Are the other Skylands still low as well?”

“...Yeah,” Tham answered. “I think there’s nothing that can be done about it anymore.”

If the Skylands fell, it’d be extremely chaotic, Kayden knew. A war would erupt, that was for sure, and the whole world would shake. But the people here seemed to be blinded by their hate towards the Skyborn, the people in the Skylands, and they only wanted to pull them back down, without realizing they’d be the ones to suffer.

“How do you feel about it, Tham?”

Tham hesitated, unsure of what to say. “I don’t really know,” he said. “I guess it’d be good for all mankind to be together again, but needless to say, I don’t want war. I think forcing mankind to join is a bad way to start.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Kayden said, relieved. It was good to see Tham didn’t have the irrational hate towards Skyborn he had known some people to have. “There are definitely other ways to join mankind that don’t involve literally pulling them out of the sky.”

“Agreed.”

They sat in silence as Tham took some sandwiches out of his basket, handing two of them to Kayden. Kayden took a bite of the first one. Brown bread with cheese and vegetables. As he finished his first sandwich, eating energetically, Kayden spoke again.

“...Do you think someone will rise to stop the Everbender?”

Tham looked at him, thinking about the question. “...No. She’s too powerful and has too great an empire and a reputation for anyone to even try.”

Kayden nodded slowly. “I see. You got no Lawbending yet?”

“Nope,” Tham shrugged. “I guess I'm just a carpenter. And I'm just fine with that.”

Kayden envied that about the teen. He wished Tham would stay that way forever.

After that, they kept chatting about more trivial matters as the afternoon went by, and after several hours, they started to head back to the village. Kayden smiled to himself, looking forward to an evening spent chatting with the other villagers. But as he did, he noticed something odd in the distance.

Fob and his pet pig Geraldine were running around the village, knocking on doors and hurriedly telling things to the people inside.

“What’s going on?” Kayden wondered aloud, cocking his head.

“Gimme a moment and I’ll go check it out,” Tham said, running away from the forest and into the village. He was always so energetic, Kayden noticed idly. He saw Tham get to Fob and speak to him briefly, then return running to Kayden. Tham was pale.

“Imperial soldiers,” Tham told him when he got back to Kayden, nervousness in his voice. “We don’t know what they want, but Fob fears the worst. He thinks… they’re looking for you.”

“Oh, no,” Kayden muttered. “Let’s just wait here and see how it plays out. Chances are, they’re here for something else entirely,” he said, trying to reassure Tham.

As they watched, a group of about ten different carts approached from the main road, heading towards the center of the village, with people walking at the sides.

Soldiers started to come out of the carts. Thirty of them in total, many of them carrying those strange long artifacts. Tham had called them… muskets, a type of weapon that could fire projectiles. Those definitely hadn’t existed back before Kayden had been imprisoned.

One of the guards approached the growing group of villagers, with Townmaster Harben walking in front, and they started to talk. Although Kayden couldn’t hear what they were saying, the townmaster seemed nervous about something. Soon, he started to raise his arms in protest.

The soldiers raised their muskets, pointing them at the frightened villagers.

Oh, no, Kayden thought, paling.

With that, the townmaster lowered his arms in resignation, and the villagers, all grown men and women, started to enter the carts slowly, one by one.

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Why is this happening? Kayden thought, horrified. Why?!

He then realized.

Because of me.

If Kayden’s suspicions were correct, the Skyfall Empire had realized Kayden had been accepted here, and now… villagers were being taken away as punishment.

This is my fault.

“We must do something!” Tham exclaimed, terrified.

Kayden’s mind rushed, formulating a plan.

“Can you make a distraction for me?” Kayden asked Tham, trying to keep his voice steady.

“What should I do?”

“Anything,” Kayden said. “Just buy me a few seconds. I’ll defeat the musket-wielding guards and then we can all… I don’t know, lynch the others or something.”

“I don’t know about the, er… consistency… of your plan,” Tham said, cringing.

“We have no time!” Kayden explained. “Now, go! Before they’re all in the carts.”

With that, Tham rushed into the open, clearly terrified, but willing to risk his life for his fellow villagers. Kayden briefly considered going to get the Mimicker, his sword, but he had no time. His lumberjack’s axe would have to do.

“Hey, you!” Tham shouted at the guards as he ran. “Let them go!”

The guards turned to face him, confused. As they did, Kayden ran parallel to him, intending to flank the guards and attack them from behind. He got to the perfect spot, but as he did, memories flashed before his eyes. A different place. A different time. Same situation. A terrible outcome.

– – –

“Come here, you arrogant girl,” Sethon muttered as he ran with unnatural speed through the corpse-ladened battlefield, his thin longsword readied at the side. The figure at the top of the hill spun, facing him. It was the Everbender.

Lauren. Her blonde hair was slick with blood, none of it hers. Her blue eyes threw sparks wherever they looked, and her hate was palpable.

Sethon kept rushing through the battlefield in her direction. A group of about twenty soldiers pointed their bows at him, and fired. Sethon either dodged or cut all twenty arrows with impossible speed, never stopping moving.

He crossed the battlefield in a matter of seconds, getting to the Everbender. She nonchalantly raised her own sword, ready to strike at him with all the power of physics.

Kayden couldn’t move. Sethon had been a distraction. It was time for Kayden to attack the Everbender from behind. But Kayden couldn’t move.

He could just watch as one of his best friends screamed in pain, then suddenly went silent.

– – –

Kayden snapped back to reality. But he couldn’t move. It took him a second to realize that his blurred vision was caused by tears.

What… was that?

He realized with shock that several seconds had passed without him noticing. Tham was now being taken away by some guards, an ugly-looking lump on the side of his head. Kayden’s body was completely frozen. He couldn’t move a finger.

I can’t fight again. I can’t fail again.

But, as Tham prepared to enter the cart, scared, a man from among the villagers sprung into action. Tham’s father. He tackled the guard closest to him, giving Tham an opening.

Three guards raised their muskets at Tham's father.

Tham paused for a moment, pale, trying to decide whether to run or not.

“Run, Tham!” his father shouted.

Kayden watched everything in stunned silence. He knew he should do something. He just didn't have the courage to fight again.

Tham’s father spun, punching a guard hard in the jaw.

One of the other guards fired. A small explosion resounded in the village. But Tham’s father didn’t drop. He appeared a foot to the right, having apparently sidestepped safely out of the way. But Kayden had noticed what no other villager had.

Tham's father had not sidestepped. He had teleported. He had Spacebent.

What?! Kayden thought. The effect had been unmistakable. He had seen it several times before, in… He forced those thoughts away as the other two guards prepared to fire. But only one of them aimed at Tham’s father.

The other aimed at Tham himself.

No.

With that, Kayden rushed out of his hiding spot, progressing time on himself over and over, getting to the village and the conglomeration of people in a matter of seconds.

Fight, or run away? The decision made Kayden pause. Try once again, or give up? Fight. Run away. Fight. Run away. With a final moment of realization, he came to a rushed conclusion. He couldn’t fight again. He couldn’t fail again.

Running out of air, he grabbed Tham, and progressed time for both of them by the maximum amount he could with what little breath he had left. Ten seconds.

They appeared crouched behind a nearby terrified house, Kayden panting. Tham was pale.

“What… was that?” he whispered.

“I’ll tell you later,” Kayden whispered back.

Tham slowly peeked over the side of the house, and gasped. Kayden pulled him back.

“We have to help them!” Tham exclaimed, worry and fear showing in his face.

“We can’t,” Kayden replied, feeling like a monster. “There’s too many of them and too few of us. We… We have to run away.”

“What?!” Tham protested. “Leave them behind, just like that? We can’t do that.”

Kayden started to tremble slightly. Where had the Swordsman of Time gone?

“...Yes we can. And we must. We must do it… if we want to have a shot at saving them in the future,” he found himself saying.

They could still hear the occasional scream coming from the village center.

dang it! Kayden thought, gritting his teeth. Where is the Swordsman of Time?!

Kayden suddenly grabbed Tham by the arm and started to run, pulling him away from the village. Tham tried to resist, but they ran into the forest, away from the guards’ sight. They kept running away, far away, until they could no longer hear the villagers’ whimpers of pain.

Where is the Swordsman of Time? He’s gone.

Tears filled his eyes as Kayden left the villagers behind.

– – –

“I hate you!”

Tham’s declaration resounded in the silence of the forest.

Kayden looked at him with sadness and disappointment in himself.

“Yeah…” Kayden whispered. “I hate myself too. But it was the only way.”

They sat hidden behind a tree in silence for several minutes. As Kayden looked at Tham, he realized Tham was shaking, his face buried in his arms. He was crying.

Poor boy, Kayden thought with regret. I… I just ruined his life. This is my fault. All of it. I doomed that village ever since I woke up in it. I should have left when I had the chance.

Wherever Kayden went, people died. He was like a bad-luck charm, a bad omen. A failure. He didn’t remember details, but deep down, he knew this had happened before. But, had he given up? No.

I’m not the same person anymore, Kayden thought. He would get up, gather his things, and leave this place, to live a peaceful life in a faraway land. The Northern Frosts seemed good enough. But, then, he looked down at Tham. Could he really leave this young man here, to his fate? Could he really come here, ruin Tham’s life, and leave?

No.

In that moment, seeing Tham cry like that, Kayden made his decision.

“I’m going to save them,” Kayden declared, surprising even himself. “It is better to fight and fail than not to fight at all. And now I have a responsibility. A responsibility to fight. So I’m going to go out there, I’m going to find them, and I’m going to bring them back. But… I can’t do it alone.”

Tham looked at him.

“But… I don’t know how to help,” he muttered. “I don’t know how to fight.”

“Your father was a Spacebender. A man who can bend space to his will. One of the two most powerful types of Lawbender,” Kayden told him. “That means… you’re a Spacebender too.”

“What?” Tham whispered. “You mean, I have… powers? Like you?”

“Yes.”

“I really want to save them. I really do. But I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I can be of any help,” he muttered.

“I’ll train you,” Kayden said. “And we’ll save your village. I promise.”

Tham nodded, though visibly scared.

Kayden breathed in. He’d fight once more.

You’re a hero, Kayden told himself. Timebender. The Timeless. You may not be the Swordsman of Time anymore, but act like it. Just one more time. For the ones who are not here to try.

“But, what guarantee do we have?” Tham said, his voice shaky. “What chance do we have against an empire?”

Kayden realized his hands were trembling. He grabbed his right hand with his left, unsuccessfully trying to steady it. “We’re going to win,” Kayden told him, trying to assure himself, trying to keep his voice from wavering. “We’re going to get your family and your village back. That’s a promise.”

Tham remained silent, clearly trying to believe.

“We’re the Skyguard now,” Kayden said, meeting Tham’s eyes. “And I… am the Swordsman of Time. I’m the Timeless.”

Tham gasped in recognition. “You were part of the Skyguard?! You are the Swordsman of Time? The Timeless? And you didn’t tell us?”

“I should have told you earlier,” Kayden said, feeling guilt for a thousand different reasons, but determined despite his fear. “I have been ignoring my quest for too long. I won’t just save your village. I… will take the whole Skyfall Empire down. But for that, we’ll need the Skyguard. The world around us is crumbling. It is time for the Skyguard to rise.”