Lia felt apprehensive, as they walked through the long corridor to the pirate's ship. Ormo Andromedae had asked for her cooperation, but he had also threatened them. She squeezed Orphelia's hand, and got a squeeze in return, the two girls reassuring each other.

It didn't take them long to reach the other ship, and Lia stared for a moment. The interior was bathed in soft light and the corridors had smooth, rounded surfaces. She had imagined the ship to look at least as bad as the Aptenodyte. Or maybe worse. With rust showing here and there. But all in all, the ship looked at least as modern as the Aurelius, if not more advanced.

"Undock as soon as possible," the captain told his crew. "I want to be in hyper space before this Ludwig can even think about contacting the imperial star fleet."

"Yes, sir!" One of them answered, and they moved.

"Follow me!" Ormo turned around and walked down a corridor, taking it for granted that they would follow him. Lia thought for a moment to run back the way they had come, but the airlock hissed closed before she could even follow that impulse.

"Let's hear, what he needs help with," Orphelia whispered. "It's not that we can do much else, now that we're here."

They walked hand-in-hand the whole way through the corridor. There were windows here and there that allowed them to stare into space and the Aptenodyte that was still alongside their ship. The other ship seemed to move backwards, and Lia was almost sure that the pirate's vessel was accelerating already. They were accelerating without them noticing it. They must have a very powerful and experienced gravity mage on board to pull that off.

Ormo finally stopped at a junction. "Please, this way." His tone had gotten a bit more amenable, but he still seemed a bit rough. Lia and Orphelia followed his instruction and entered the room at the end of the short corridor.

The room was also lit by some diffuse light, but more surprisingly, there were a lot of flowers in the room. Water murmured softly in the background, and the air reminded Lia of home. She froze in the doorway, staring at all the greenery.

In the midst of it all was a low table, and four pillows were distributed around it.

"Please, take a seat," Ormo said behind them. They both entered the room and knelt on one of the pillows directly in front of them. They heard the hiss of the door, and noticed how Ormo went past them and around the table to kneel on the other side of the table.

He didn't say anything for a long time, and it was Orphelia, who broke the silence. "So, you said you needed our help?"

"Yes. We're the Coalition of Free And Equal People, the FAE, for short."

Neither Lia nor Orphelia felt compelled to say anything to that. There were legends of the Fae, and none of them were positive. Maybe it was best if they thought to take a different name.

"I apologize for the rough treatment," Ormo tried next, but again, the girls kept quiet. Lia certainly wouldn't absolve him of that crime. Kidnapping was kidnapping. It resulted in another long pause.

"I have to explain a lot, before I can truly ask you for your help. It's not only that Amir Saggitarius wants to ascend - and we're pretty sure he wants to - it's also the political landscape that has changed dramatically."

Again, the girls didn't say anything.

"Have you ever heard of privateers?"

"Aren't those just pirates?"

"No, they're sanctioned pirates." Ormo stopped for a moment. "How should I explain this best," he wondered and rubbed his chin with a hand. "We had a different standing under Lillian Saggitarius, the former Queen," he began. "She basically allowed us to exist, if we only took on targets, that were not in line with her political agenda." He lowered his hands and folded them in front of him, while leaning with his elbows on the table.

"So you lost your status of being sanctioned," Lia commented. "That justifies our kidnapping, in which way?"

She could see Ormo grimace. "It doesn't," he admitted. "But on the other hand, we can't allow Amir to do as he pleases."

"You don't want him to ascend," Orphelia observed and Ormo nodded. "This may be common knowledge for those who have graduated from Crystal Academy, but we don't know what the process involved or where it is headed." Lia nodded her head slowly at Orphelia's comment. At least this wasn't another thing she should know and had simply missed to learn at some point.

"I was coming to that. But maybe it is better, if I start with it." He sat straight and pulled his folded hands closer to his chest. "There is an old rumor, that there's an eleventh element: Magic itself. An Element that allows you to control the Mana that's all around us or within you. It encompasses all the other elements, and allows for the transmutation of materials. But most importantly, it supposedly allows one to merge one's spirit with the Mana. Which would make him immortal."

"He'd be like a god," Orphelia whispered.

"He could choose who has access to magic, and who doesn't. He could upend everything. Especially since he wouldn't be bound by mana constraints anymore."

"But ... if he is mana, then wouldn't he slowly destroy himself by using the magic?" Lia voiced her thoughts aloud. The mana in her was always used up, when used for an effect. No matter if it was an Impero doing it, or one of those stones that would shape the magic for them.

"Which is why no one with at least half a brain cell is trying. And which is why that part of magic theory isn't taught. Just imagine someone succeeding, only for parts of their mind to disintegrate over time." Ormo shook his head. "It's the real reason why magic was split into Imperi and Donar."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

At that comment, Lia stared at the man in front of her. She noticed that even Orphelia was surprised by Ormo's revelation. Because that simply meant one thing: Someone had tried this before.

"How, exactly, is it done?" Oprhelia's voice was barely above a whisper.

"I have no idea. But I imagine it has to do with his crazy idea of a mana tax."

"Mana can't be stored. How is that supposed to work?"

"I don't know either. Maybe he will call all Donar in the empire to Aravos, and have him give a portion of their mana at the same time?" Ormo shook his head. "The thing is, that we can find out." And with that, he fixed Lia with his gaze.

"You want to look into the future."

"Indeed. Each glimpse may help us to decide on a course of action that will stop this mad man." He sighed, and then added in a lower voice: "It will also help me to protect my people."

Lia looked to Orphelia, unsure what she should do.

Orphelia looked at her, then at her own hands, grimacing as well. When her friend looked back at her, she nodded. "Let's do it. Let's help him out."

Lia closed her eyes and sighed. Then she turned to Ormo herself. "I'll give you a bit of my mana. But I want to know what you've seen." It was hard to make up stories on the spot. And this way she'd know, if he was really using her magic to protect their people, or whether he wanted to wage war on the empire.

"I agree to your terms." Ormo offered her a hand, and she took it, shaking on the deal they'd made. "I do you even one better. I will pull you into the vision with me. You just have to trust me some and provide me with some spirit mana as well."

Lia didn't answer right as well. Giving him spirit mana could be dangerous. He could try to control her thoughts.

"It is your decision whether you trust my words or my actions."

Lia bit her lower lip, nodded, and simply told him: "Brace yourself."

Ormo's eyes became wide just before Lia pushed time and spirit mana into him. A few moments passed, and Lia's world plunged into darkness.

***

Lia still felt Ormo's hand, even though she couldn't see the pirate captain. The rest of her world had faded to black as well: Orphelia had disappeared, she could still feel the table, but was unable to perceive it with her eyes. Besides her vision, her hearing was affected as well, as she couldn't hear the steady murmuring of the small stream in the room.

"Do you know the biggest drawback of using time magic?" Ormo's voice cut through the silence. Could she hear him, because she had been drawn into the vision as well?

"No." Lia shook her head, unsure whether he could see her.

"In these visions of the future, I'm limited to my own perspective. I can't see what will happen to you for example. Or my people. At least not directly. I have to be with them in the future to even have a chance to glimpse at their possible fates."

Lia didn't answer. It was a severe restriction on the magic, and yet it was still supposed to be the most valuable of them all ...

When she felt her time mana being drained as well, it was as if she was in a field of stars, and they accelerated toward one of the distant glowing lights. The brightness quickly engulfed them, and as the light faded, she stood in a room she recognized: The bridge of a ship. Maybe even the one of the vessel they were on. It looked at least as modern as the one on the Aurelius.

She tried to look around, but whenever she tried to look to the side of her, the picture became blurry, and out of focus. The only place she could see something, was directly in front of her. On the HTV displays hidden behind the fake windows.

It took her a moment to realize what had the pirate captain so mesmerized: There were hundreds of ships. Some next to them, some in the distance. She could see shots of plasma glowing in the distance, moving on trajectories that spoke of magic being involved. She saw a rocket hit a ship next to them, causing a bright explosion. Then the explosion itself was whipped forward to intercept another projectile.

The hull of the ship had a hole in it that was slowly closing, something the captain only seemed to notice out of the corner of his eye.

"Take out as many as you can," the Ormo's voice ordered. She couldn't see him, and it sounded strange. As if it was coming from her, sounding far deeper than she remembered. "We need to buy Eden enough time to flee."

The HTVs flashed and flickered, a tremor ran through the ship.

Hull damage in sector E-14," someone on the bridge shouted.

"Get a metal mage to repair it, ASAP." The captain shouted. A grumble left his throat. "If only I knew how they found us." There was a small pause, as if Ormo was juggling two thoughts at once. "Target their engines. We need to stop them from following EDEN into hyperspace."

The view shifted suddenly and Lia was staring at herself. She was still wearing the academy robes, with Orphelia standing behind her.

“This is what the Empire’s doing now. They came here and began to slaughter us. They didn’t even try to negotiate your safe return first.”

Lia saw her other self stare at the screens around her with wide open eyes. “I don’t understand,” she whispered.

“Amir wants to control everything. Those that don’t bow to him, will be crushed.” Lia heard a thud and felt a dull pain on her right hand. “Will you lend me your power?”

“How’s my power going to change anything?” The question flitted briefly through Lia’s mind as well. How could she change anything in that situation?

“I am sure that we can pin their flagship down. I just need enough mana to push through their defenses.”

Her other self hesitated a few moments longer, then nodded.

Her viewpoint rose, probably because Omor just rose from his seat.

“We’re being hailed,” one of the crew shouted.

Lia could feel how Omor ground his teeth. “Put them through.”

The lights from the HTVs showing space around them faded slightly, and a figure was projected into the middle of the room. A trimmed full beard framed a stern looking gaze. His hair was as short as his beard, and was partly white. Lia couldn’t say whether that was a sign of his age, or his magic.

“I am General Arthur Horologii,” the projection said. “Are you the one in command of the fleet?”

“I am part of the FAE’s court of four,” Ormo replied. “What do you want?”

“I take that as a ‘yes’.” The projection waited a moment, maybe to put weight on his following words, maybe to await a denial. “We demand the surrender of your fleet, as well as the safe return of the two students you’ve abducted.”

“What if we refuse?”

“Then we will destroy every vessel in the vicinity, starting with your space station.” There was no smile on the general’s face, but a rather sour look. “Our darkness mages are keeping it from entering hyperspace.”

Ormo’s gaze wandered far to the right, where several pristine white rings floated around a central crystalline structure. Lia guessed that that was the station in question, that that was EDEN.

Everything seemed to stop, cracks formed in front of her as if Lia was looking through a broken crystal, and the vision faded. A moment later, she looked at Ormo’s wide eyes. She felt his hand shaking, pressing hard on her hand, while a tear rolled down his cheek.

Lia pulled her hand back before he could hurt her.

“Captain to bridge,” he finally said, his voice sounding firm despite being barely above a whisper. “Abort current course. Stay in hyperspace.”

“That will put a lot of strain on our mages,” came the answer.

“Then find another beacon nearby, one where we can hide the Lagrange, if necessary. But we can’t return to EDEN right now. I repeat: we can’t return to EDEN.”

There was a long pause, before the acknowledgement came. “Roger.”

While Ormo folded his arms, Orphelia leaned in to Lia. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Lia answered, keeping her gaze on the pirate captain, “but I think if he stays on course to his home … It will be destroyed.”