Dellen felt a moment of disorientation.

He was out of the time stream and standing upright on a railed balcony with the landscape spinning by at an idle pace.

“Well.” A voice huffed. “That was most irregular, most irregular indeed.”

Dellen looked at his hands and reached for his leg; he didn’t bother to glance at Gilgamesh. “Irregular?” He felt like his entire body should hurt.

Gilgamesh whirred in the air. His voice, when it came, took on a strident tone. “This is wrong, all wrong. You managed to get yourself killed?”

Dellen could almost imagine Gilgamesh pulling his hair in frustration.

“How did you get killed? Killed! How did you get killed? Within a week of reintegrating with your timeline!”

Dellen poked at his chest. “Killed? I don’t feel dead.”

“You’re in a time loop, you blithering idiot.”

Dellen looked up from his self-inspection.

“What was that now?”

Gilgamesh’s visible presence didn’t change much, but his words came out as though from between gritted teeth. “You created a time loop, when it comes to its end, or you end it prematurely by doing something stupid like, oh, I don’t know, dying. Then you and I come back here.”

“Is it a time loop for everyone?”

“No.”

“Then why do you know about it?”

Gilgamesh released a long-suffering sigh. “Is some part of you surprised that the standard rules don’t precisely apply to me?”

Dellen waved away the response. “Perhaps not.”

“Now, how did you get yourself killed?”

“It was an accident.”

Gilgamesh let out another long-suffering sigh. “Yes, obviously.”

“Well, I was exploring the city, and there were explosions, then some airships were blown up and,” Dellen’s words were slowing down as he tried to process what had happened to him, “Some of the cogs fell into the chasm. I was on one of them.”

“Ah,” Gilgamesh said, his tone noticeably less strident. When he next spoke, his voice was noticeably glummer. “I did hear some loud noises, but I paid them no mind. I suppose we know why you’re here then.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were sent back to redeem a mistake. Somehow, the city exploding is your fault, or at the very least, you can prevent it, but it’s probably your fault.”

Dellen rubbed his face with his hand. “That’s really more responsibility than I needed to take on.”

Gilgamesh was unsympathetic, “Do what you like. You’re going to live this week over, and over and over again, until you find a way to stop the explosions.”

Dellen leaned on the railing and groaned into his hands. “How am I supposed to stop a city from being blown up in a week?”

“Well,” Gilgamesh said, “The situation isn’t without its own advantages.”

“What advantages?” Dellen said in a voice that could have frozen steam.

“You must have been injured before you died, but you’re not injured now.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Dellen stopped to consider his hands, shoulder, and leg again. They’d been far from his only injuries, but certainly his most painful ones.

“Hmm, so you’re saying that every time the loop resets, I’ll be restored to full health.” Dellen hummed in his throat.

“Correct.”

Fingers drumming on the balcony railing, Dellen said “I believe this calls for iterative testing.”

“Slow down,” Gilgamesh said, a note of rising panic creeping into his voice.

The analytical portion of Dellen’s nature came to the forefront. He performed a quick, almost unconscious, pat down of his body. “Everything has parameters, I need to understand this loop.”

He looked out across the restored skyline filled with airships. “You’re saying this week will play out the same way, and end with the same explosions?”

“Yes, the explosions where you died,” Gilgamesh said.

“Unfortunate,” Dellen looked at his hands again, “Shockingly painful and traumatic, but my suspicion is that I can avoid that going forward. For now, though, I have questions.” His mind raced as he worked through the implications of being in a time loop. Gilgamesh was right, there had to be significant advantages to be found. Information was a currency all its own, and he was in a unique position to make himself rich.

“You told me that I have an affinity for Chronometric Aether. That’s why I can see you, hear you, and touch you?”

“That’s right,” Gilgamesh said, warily.

“Can I manipulate the time loop?”

“Stop right there,” Gilgamesh said. “You can’t even sense Chronometric Aether. You sound like a three-year-old who thinks they can do calculus.”

“Fine, fine,” Dellen said as much to himself as his companion. He needed to understand the parameters of the time loop. He turned to Gilgamesh, who seemed to know more than him. “I can’t address this until I understand its limits. First, let’s test the duration. We need to know if the time loop has a consistent length or if it varies. Wait. How much do you know about this time loop? Is there a limit to the number of loops I can go through?”

“There is a limit, and if you fail to finish the loop within the allotted time, you will be erased, and possibly me with you.”

Dellen’s face paled at the revelation, and his body tensed. The prospect of erasure was alarming. He tried to speak, and his voice warbled, it came out correctly on his second attempt. “How many loops do I have left?”

“Approximately one thousand. Maybe longer.”

His muscles relaxed. A thousand. Well, that was a relief. Then Dellen frowned.

“Allotted? Allotted by who?”

“Mostly through fluke and by you,” Gilgamesh said.

“So I’m here, to somehow, redeem a mistake, accomplish an impossible task, in a week, and escape this time loop.”

“Succinctly put.”

“Most tasks are also easier when you’re well funded.” Dellen nodded to himself. “I need to secure myself a source of funds. Perhaps I should try my hand at gambling.”

“Ah yes, humanity at its finest,” Gilgamesh said, voice drenched with sarcasm, “Using a miracle of Aether to steal.”

“I don’t see you volunteering a more practical solution, I should look up the results of upcoming matches in the next few days, learn the winners, and bet on them.”

“That won’t get you money today.”

Dellen shrugged.

“Depends on when the matches are. Still, I’ll have to memorise the outcomes and make use of them on my next loop. Oh.” He stopped as a thought occurred to him, Maisy would be coming into his father’s study at any moment. He opened the door and found Maisy already waiting for him.

“Stefan’s looking for you.” She said without preamble.

“Thank you.” Dellen said, “I will visit him directly.”

She nodded and looked like she had more to say, but kept it to herself and left.

Dellen looked over at Gilgamesh hanging in the air. “It’s lucky that only I can see and touch you.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t touch me. I would strongly prefer it.”

Dellen rapped his fingers on Gilgamesh’s steel.

“Stop that! I am not a bauble or trophy, you will treat me with the respect that I deserve.”

“Why can’t she see you, and why can I?”

Gilgamesh let out a frustrated sigh. “Because you have a chronometric affinity and she does not, as we just discussed.”

“Yes, but what does that mean in the here and now?”

“I am half a step outside of time, that’s why you can see me and they cannot, and why I can perceive your time loop.”

“I can touch you, can you touch other physical objects?”

“Only other objects that are also have an affinity to Chronometric Aether.”

Dellen sat at his father’s desk. “How common are such items? For that matter, how common are people who have affinities for Chronometric Aether?”

“You and your ilk are vanishingly rare.”

“And the items?”

“The same.”

“And people with two or more affinities?”

“I believe you can have several affinities, but for each affinity that you have, it becomes progressively more difficult to gain another affinity. There are some rare people born with multiple affinities, but as I said, they are rare.”

“So, hypothetically, I could gain a third affinity?” Dellen said.

“Hypothetically, yes, though it should be considered that some affinities will conflict with each other. I’ve never seen an aetherforged with both a cryo affinity and a pyro affinity.”

Dellen stared at Gilgamesh. “I’ve never heard of a cryo affinity.”

“Different affinities are common in different parts of your world. I suppose we must be in a region where cryo affinities are so rare as to be unknown, however, we are getting far afield of our original discussion. You need to escape this loop so that we can both move forward. Now, let’s talk about ways to prevent you from dying going forward.”