"The King is sentenced to death for practicing time magic!"
The word started as a mere rumor on the streets. We didn't even know who started it. It spread like wildfire and reached every corner of the capital in just a few hours. This rumor brought my father to his knees.
"You've to live, my children." My mom said as she knelt down on the execution chamber. She still had hope of surviving, but, at this point, I didn't think survival was possible. There was a whole battalion led by nine archmages just behind us, watching.
Didier (the leading figure of the invaders) materialized out of thin air on the execution chamber. He had come to personally lead the execution.
"Greetings, your grace." The nine archmages and the battalion behind them said in unison, bowing.
"That is an address for the King, you bastards." My little sister said. Her voice was loud enough to be heard by anyone within a fifty meter radius. She was fifteen, two years younger than me, but a little braver and more foolish.
"They call him King now." I said just as loud as her, deciding we shouldn't spend our last moments in silence.
Didier turned around and looked at us. He had that menacing, pitch black sclera. No matter how many years passed I would never get used to those disgusting eyes. The moment I looked into his eyes, I felt weak, so weak I couldn't even lift a finger or talk. The Nestone cuff sapped my remaining strength until I had nothing left but fear.
"Just like you to attack, kids." My father said.
"I don't discriminate." Didier replied back, looking smug.
"Ugh... I hate him." My sister just wouldn't keep quiet. "Hey, black-eyed cat, do you hear me, I hate you!" She shouted even louder than before.
"What are you doing, Farida, keep your voice down." Mother tried to silence her but she wouldn't listen.
"Monster cat, listen closely, we'll hunt you down, I will hunt you down..."
True to his word, Didier knocked her out before she even completed the sentence.
"Farida!" I called her name repeatedly but to no avail. She was deeply unconscious. Now it was just father, mother and I.
"King Aeriyon of House Wilberforce, confess your crimes." Didier said, giving my father one of his cheeky smiles. I hated that smile.
My father laughed proudly. "You'll never have what you desire."
I was happy father didn't resort to pleading, that would have been too embarrassing.
My mom, on the other hand, had a very different opinion. She pleaded. "I, ASIYA OF HOUSE WILBERFORCE, ADMIT TO PRACTICING TIME MAGIC."
The crowd fell silent, they looked like they were struck by thunder. Time magic was a taboo in this part of the world, but the way these black-eyed monsters treated it had never failed to surprise me. Their gods took it extra mile and categorized it as a sacrilege punishable by death.
"Practicing time magic?! How could you? Do you have no shame?" One of the black-eyed soldiers shouted at the top of his lungs, stirring up a wave of curses from the other soldiers around him.
"Of course, the gods would abandon us!" Someone called out. "You're the source of our misfortune. I'm certain it's your time magic that brought the demons back to our world. May you rot in hell."
"Yes, hurry and execute them."
As these (and other similar) curses filled the square, my father and I looked at mother speechless. She often had a very skewed opinion about situations. What was she thinking? She knew Didier would never let us go, no matter how she pleaded. In fact, this whole 'time magic practice' accusation was just an excuse to hide the truth.
"I admit to practicing time magic, so please spare my children, they'd nothing to do with it." Mother pleaded with tears running down her face. "I would do anything, just let them go. They will never come for revenge, I swear."
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"Silence!" Didier snapped at her before he turned to the crowd. "As provided by our religion, Asiya of House Wilberforce will be beheaded and her dragon, which allows her to practice time magic, will be captured and kept in the treasury for all eternity. There shall be no more magicians dabbling in time magic, from this day till the end of my days.
"We have found sufficient evidence that at least one member of your family is involved in your sacrilege as well. However, even after a meticulous searching we couldn't identify them. It could be your little girl for all we know," He gave my sister, who was deeply unconscious, a sinister smile. "It could be your little boy, or maybe your husband." He knew, if anything, it was the latter, not me or my sister. Nonetheless, he intended to execute the entire family, so the best thing was to feign ignorance and blame the entire family.
"It's me, I swear it on my life. I was involved in time magic the same as my wife, my little kids have nothing to do with it." My father said.
Didier shrugged. "We'll obviously behead you and take your dragon for safekeeping, King Wilberforce II, but your children are in the same boat as you. They, just like you, deserve to die."
To my surprise, the crowd immediately erupted into whispers, showing obvious disagreements over my execution and that of my sister.
"I know, I know, our religion doesn't allow the killing of unarmed children, but listen, these... ones aren't children. Their parents have been practicing time magic for who knows how long. They've been using it to dilate time: literally living years in a single day. I know this is all hard to believe, but trust me, the only way we can purge the practice of time magic from our society is by killing these kids, their parents and anyone who's directly (or indirectly) related to them."
The black-eyed soldiers calmed down a bit. They had always been religious. Not even their hatred for my family could change that.
Didier went ahead and told them the story of the first magician to have ever practiced time magic in the continent - Elizabello Harn Wilberforce. The man could literally rewind time and go back into the past with a full knowledge of the future. Instead of using his skill to help the kingdom, he planned a coup d'état, which was successfully averted by the usurper's grandfather. How convenient.
The usurper even mentioned several other occasions where Elizabello had conned people and stole a huge sum of money. By the time he finished his stories, most of the crowd felt we deserved to die. If nothing else, Elizabello was a horror nobody wanted to meet.
"Today - Tuesday, 6th of April, year 01 of the Commandments - shall mark a new age. An age that's ruled by honesty and peace. No more time magic!"
Didier inhaled deeply and pointed his right hand up in a gesture signifying his consent to go on with the execution. Dunnurain, who was the leader of the nine archmages, and his second-in-command, Nárànain, came forward and stood behind father.
"In the name of King Didier'ain Djinn, First of His Name, King of the Abyss and the World Beyond, we sentence you to die." They unsheathed their blade and cut my father's head.
"NO!" Mother and I screamed helplessly. Father's blood splashed on my face and body. The amputated head rolled all the way from the top of the execution chamber to the ground, father's lifeless body fell on the floor and his blood painted the ground red. It was all over.
"I'll hunt you down even in death!" Mother raged. An empty threat if you asked me, we would all be dead in a second and dead men didn't hunt.
I closed my eyes and prayed. My little sister was unconscious for a while now. She wouldn't even know how it happened. She was lucky.
"Kill the boy next." Didier commanded in a domineering tone.
As the executioners turned to me, my stomach churned and my external sphincters gave in... I was helpless, too afraid...
"Please don't, please take me instead, PLEASE!" Mother shouted desperately but they didn't stop or even spare her a glance.
Náranain and Dunnúrain lifted their blades, recited the same lines as before and mercilessly cut my head off.
***
"Aaargh... " I screamed and closed my eyes, waiting for the blades to cut my head off. It was finally over. What would it feel to be dead? Would I even feel anything? I guess the answer to these questions would be available to me now.
Wait, why is it suddenly so calm? I didn't know how it felt to be dead but this didn't feel like it. There was no pain, no bleeding, no... nothing. I didn't even feel the blade when it cut my head.
I opened my eyes, already dreading what I would see, but to my surprise, I was standing alone in an alley, facing a towering, dark-blue wall: no black-eyed monsters, no execution chamber, just me. I closed my eyes, rubbed them with both hands and then reopened them again. I was still alone, standing there in my white, execution gown.
Where am I? Did I just survive the execution? But how? I turned around only to see another wall painted with an intense yellow. One wall was painted dark-blue and the other intense yellow, what a riot! That aside, this whole place didn't feel right, I didn't feel right. There was nothing in particular but I just felt... different, lightheaded, weak even.
I checked the watch on my wrist, it was already 3am in the morning, 6th of April, year 1851 of the Commandment...
Year 1851? I cleaned the lense with my sleeve and rechecked the date and time.
Date Time: 3am
Day: Tuesday
Month: April, 6th
Year: 1851 of the Commandment
There was no mistaking it... According to the watch, this year was eighteen hundred years into the future!
What is going on?