It was fortunate the small lake wasn’t too far away. From its shape, it must’ve been a crater left behind by a particularly strong Tribulation long ago. There could be a shattered skeleton somewhere at the bottom. Through centuries or even millennia, water filled the hole and it became a lake. Elian couldn’t help but marvel at the many odd things he kept finding on Fellenyr despite living so long here.

And beside him was another oddity. He couldn’t figure out what to make of Jadewell Khaero.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pour the potion on your arm?” she asked.

“I can do it myself,” Elian replied, perhaps too quickly.

She had given him a bottle of orange liquid meant to be poured on injuries for quick regeneration instead of being drunk like most potions. Shaking the bottle, he didn’t notice any impurities. Like her other possessions, this must be expensive.

“Don’t hesitate to ask for my help. I’ll just wash this.” Jadewell removed her cloak stained both by the Quillhusk remains and Elian’s blood.

The darkish emerald dress she wore underneath was of Northern Raelyon style, mostly hugging her petite body other than for puffed shoulders and flared sleeves. Around her waist was a huge belt, reminiscent of those wrestling title belts on Earth. Here, it had a dual purpose for women—a sort of outer corset to taper the torso and a place to slot in gems. Though Jadewell didn’t display jewelry, the quality of her clothes proved her wealthy background. Her various spell shard rings should cost a hefty bag of coins too.

She tied her hair up and coiled it into a bun, exposing her sharp cheeks. A dark jagged patch of skin, stark against her paleness, ran from her left cheek to under her ear and down her neck.

“A scar caused by Aether flames,” Jadewell explained, noticing Elian’s gaze.

“Like mine?” Elian asked as he scrubbed off the dried blood on his skin. He checked the plant symbiont in his right arm. It happily pulsed green light.

“This was worse. Much, much worse. Overly curious seven-year-old me meddled with my grandfather’s experiment. My burns were more severe then. Flesh rotted… dissolved, even. My family called for the most skilled of Healers to treat me. This was the only part they couldn’t fully restore.”

“Ethereal necrosis,” Elian said. “Your skin has forgotten it’s alive and won’t respond to healing. It’ll need something like the Melded Greater Boon of Lasting Relief to restore it.”

“Oh, you know about this?” Jadewell stared at him, impressed and also sad. “My parents can’t find anyone with that Boon. It was just… awful. The purple flames haunted my sleep through the years. More than a nightmare, it became a mental block, preventing me from sensing Aether no matter how hard I tried.”

She knelt at the side of the lake. With her hair out of the way, she bent down to wash her cloak.

“But you did it in our school within a day,” said Elian. “Just several hours, actually.” He bit the cork sealing the bottle and pulled it off. Instant relief as the liquid coated his injuries.

“I’m not sure what happened,” Jadewell said. “I was seething in my vat. Anger filled my thoughts at the audacity of my family sending someone after me. I channeled the swirling rage into concentration, broke through the wall of fear holding me back for years, and… succeeded in awakening Aethersense. Someone could explain it, but I cannot.”

“For a moment, you forgot your fear,” Elian said, “and all your training kicked in. Boom. Success.”

“Possible, possible. My gratitude for your inadvertent help and sincerest apologies for thinking ill of you.”

“And for following me around while invisible.”

“And for bringing a jarlion along.” She grinned while giving him a sidelong glance. “All the apologies on Fellenyr for my mistakes. You must have a keen sense to notice me. Didn’t you also notice the fearsome beast before it appeared?”

“Honed my senses through experience,” Elian said with a shrug. He dangled the half-empty potion bottle. “Just going to say it outright, I can’t pay for this anytime soon.

“I'm not asking you to. Consider it an initial payment for my mistakes.”

“Okay then, because I’ll use the entire bottle. My Curse that stops your healing ring? The same one diminishes the effects of potions on me.”

“A weighty condition to endure.” Jadewell gave him a look of pity. “I wonder how you’ve come about such a Curse.”

“A long story.” Elian reminisced about the string of shenanigans with the Abyssal Eye. He wouldn’t have thought it possible if it didn’t happen to him. Adding the time travel part for why he had the Curse now, it’d be an even longer story.

“Quite an interesting life you have.” Jadewell paused washing. “May I ask why you hid your skills and delayed claiming you have achieved Aethersense?”

“Ah, that. I wanted you to be first because…” Elian’s brain used all its power to formulate an explanation without sounding condescending, patronizing, or creepy. But he didn’t need to. Jadewell’s face already turned sour.

“Was it because you pitied me?” Her words were coated in ice. “I didn’t ask for it.”

“I was trying to be nice.” Elian threw up his hands in exasperation. “And you weren’t supposed to know. Thinking about it, I should’ve just lied to you.”

“I appreciate you didn’t.” She furiously rubbed at his blood on the sleeves of her cloak. “But you can’t blame me for resenting you. My success is now tarnished by…” She shook her head. A few strands of her hair fell off her bun and strayed down her cheek. “It’s all in the past. I wouldn’t have awakened Aethersense without you. I suppose this is the time we agree to keep each other’s secrets?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“What secrets?” Elian guardedly asked. “That you ran away from your family?”

“I respectfully expressed my intent to leave and didn’t let anything they said stop me. Then I walked out with my belongings and went on my way. There was no running involved. Yes, this is the secret I’d like you to keep. In return, I’ll say no word to any soul about your bizarre Tribulation.”

“What are you—?”

Jadewell had a sly smile. “I thought we were past the point of playing dumb, Elian Ward? Two strikes occurred. You can’t fool my eyes and ears. I may be a beginner Penitent—I haven’t moved past my third Tribulation yet—but I have witnessed many others call for it on the Stage of Devotion. Only one strike. All of them. Why is yours two?”

Should I tell her? Could Jadewell be a future ally? Her resources and connections might prove useful in the future.

She didn’t leave him when they fought the jarlion even though she could’ve fled using her invisibility ring. He knew her secret, whatever that was worth. She’d value keeping a lid on those secrets rather than exposing his Curse for whatever reason. Moreover, she felt that she owed him after wrongfully accusing him of being a spy and attracting a jarlion that mauled him. At the least, she’d be bound by honor to keep her mouth shut.

“I’ll show you,” Elian said, removing the sad remnants of his leather vest. Then he unbuttoned his shirt.

“By the Aether’s flare,” she exclaimed. “What are you showing me? Cover yourself. I’m not… wha-what is that?”

“This is the Magistrate’s Curse.” Sharp scale tattoos covered Elian’s body as the Kymorathi symbol for seven appeared on his chest.

He was more than sure Jadewell wouldn’t treat him like a heretic. She wasn’t a zealous follower of the Hundred-Armed Magistrate. He recalled the first day they met that she was reluctant about the Tribulation; she must’ve asked for the Boon only to get into the Path of Immaterial.

“A Curse?” Jadewell gathered her wet cloak and shifted to the side, wary of him. “Why were you punished by the Hundred-Armed Magistrate?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Elian said. “The Magistrate doesn’t require passing a test for its Boon, right? Just ask and it shall give. I tried asking for a Curse, and it granted my request.”

“You absolutely did wrong!” Jadewell’s face contorted into utter confusion as she tried to process how someone could be so stupid. “The Magistrate’s Boon has killed many people. Its Curse should be several times worse!”

“It is. On top of hitting twice, I also have to do it every day or else it’ll hit harder by midnight even if I don’t call for it. The way it’s worded… I don’t think it’s possible to avoid it unless I never see the sky ever again.”

“What!” Jadewell almost stumbled back in shock. “You’re marching towards death, you crazy… yo-you… We should ask help from the priests to remove it. There must be others Cursed by the Magistrate before. The priests will have records of them.”

“I don’t want it removed. This is according to plan.”

“Plan to emulate a flatbread with your body?” Jadewell asked, incredulity tinging her voice. “Why did you ask for such a dangerous bestowal? I doubt it's merely to squish Quillhusks or whatever nonsense you were doing back there.”

Elian fixed his clothes as he considered what to tell her. “It’s a long story. Crazy too. A very long and very crazy story.”

“I’m no stranger to crazy stories. My grandfather searched the lands and seas of Fellenyr for anything to help him survive the Tribulations. The stories he brought back from his travels, now, those are crazy. I doubt anything you say can shock me. I suppose I was shocked just now that you asked the Magistrate for a Curse. Do you have anything that can surpass it?”

“Lots and lots.” Elian looked Jadewell over. What would be her reaction if he revealed that he was from the future?

Think that he was crazy, most likely. It always happened in the time travel movies he had watched on Earth.

Problem was he didn’t have anything to prove his claim. If this was Yanira or Corondel or others of his first adventuring group, he knew plenty of their secrets and was confident of convincing them. He also knew near-future events down south that he could predict. But when it came to Jadewell and this part of Raelyon, he got nothing.

He didn’t plan on telling anyone he was from the future until he had reconnected with a few old friends who could vouch for him. The fame from winning the Sarnival Port tournament would also add weight to his words.

But the situation was different now. He lost the infinite retries of the Timekeeper’s Boon. Gather allies. He intended to eventually tell Thorren. Why not try with Jadewell?

It really wasn’t much of a gamble because he’d lose next to nothing other than Jadewell thinking he was insane and avoiding him. Best test how this would go with various people. He had to prepare the script when meeting the Caelidon family of Sarnival Port.

“So… are you going to tell me any of those stories?” Jadewell had finished washing. She hanged her cloak on the branches of a tree. “I have time to spare. Want me to wash your clothes for you while you talk?”

“Okay, I’ll tell you,” Elian said, ignoring her offer. “You probably won’t believe it. I wouldn’t either, if I were in your shoes.” He took a deep breath, imagining the suspenseful background music welling. “I am… from the future.”

With a deadpan face, Jadewell replied, “The double Tribulations have hit your head too hard.”

It was the reaction Elian expected.

She softened her expression, “However, as part of my apology for all my wrongs to you, I’ll listen to your story. I can’t explain this feeling that I should.”

“That’s all I ask,” he said. “If at the end you’ll dismiss my words as my delusions, we’ll forget this happened and continue as we were before. It’s not like we talked much in class. So, again, I’m from the future. To be more accurate, my mind is from fifteen years into the future, and it was transferred back in time.”

Time traveling forward was common in many Fellenyran tales, usually about people cursed to sleep for decades or centuries, waking up to a different era. Not really the time travel mechanics someone from modern Earth would think of. Time traveling backward was a fairly newish thing in Earth stories. Humans of Fellenyr might not have any of that kind when they got warped from Earth.

Ellian’s theory was that it’s better to claim to have visions of the future than tell the truth. Familiar concept and easier to explain. He’d try that next time if this wouldn’t pan out with Jadewell.

“I’m starting to relive those fifteen years is what I’m saying,” Elian continued. “Think of me as knowing things to come. Around two weeks ago, I was passing through Ambervale or Amberwynd, the town about two weeks of traveling on foot east of here.”

“That’s Ambervale.”

“Ambervale, yes.” Elian started his story from that point, intentionally omitting he was from Earth—an even more complicated story for another time. “At that point in my previous life, I met the Timekeeper, a powerful yet forgotten deity who could control time. I know you haven’t heard of him,” he said, noticing Jadewell’s expression. “Just bear with me here. The Timekeeper gave me a Boon that allowed my mind to return to the past after I died.” Elian explained the specifics of the Boon of the Timekeeper’s Secret Gift.

“Fairly complicated and punishing,” Jadewell said. A good sign that she was listening. “You needed that many unused Favor Points when you die to activate it? I also can’t imagine the hardships you endured with your attribute gain hampered to that extent. I’ve heard of Boons that could raise the dead, and those are legends. But a Boon that transports one’s mind through time? What you’re telling me is…”

“Crazy, right? It’s going to get even crazier. The Timekeeper gave me this Boon to save humanity from the Giants.”