Beyond?

by Andur

  My spell makes that weight bounce for a moment. The surface of space time is inverted, creating a bulb instead of an indention and time flows backwards until the weight falls back to its former position. That means that everything is returned to its former state of existence. Even the mana which is used for the spell flows back where it formerly belonged to. My clock...” He bends down and picks up the clock. “The main purpose of this thing is to protect the caster's mind, so that he can remember what happened after performing the spell. It's absolutely safe.”

  Valeria gasps and shakes her head. “I've also read theories on time travel magic. What you described is the absolute basis of all ideas, called time reversal! But there has to be a mistake to that theory because the spell does nothing when it is performed. There has to be a certain trick to it!”

  Azir tilts his head. “Probably they performed the spell correctly. Casting time reversal alone isn't that hard, but how do you want to confirm the spell's functionality if you reverse yourself too? You need a way of protecting your mind from the effect.”

  His sister shakes her head. “But if that's true, why aren't we caught in an unending loop of people casting the spell again and again?”

  Her brother shakes his head and grins. “Didn't you listen? The spell reverses the flow of time until the physical laws return to their former state. It doesn't send you back to an exact point in time, time runs backwards and then forwards again. That means that some things might change since the law of uncertainty permits a certain amount of change. Your loop might happen if you travel through time, but time reversal reverses the flow of time. Time runs backwards, so it means that some minor things change from iteration to iteration because the caster acted slightly different. That's why loops have a self repairing nature in this case. They simply happen again and again until enough things have changed to stop them from happening. Don't confuse time travel with time reversal.”

  Valeria just stares at her brother. Clearly she didn't get that explanation. I didn't either, but I am a little too tired to think about things like this. “How about calling it a day. From the looks of it we have Jeremiah safely locked away and according to Azir's story it would be okay to let him rot here.” I grab Azir's hand and pull him towards the exit, leaving the others behind. “The others can deal with the situation from now on. We still have business between the two of us.”

  “Really!?” Azir's expression lights up and he follows me without further thoughts of torturing the poor beggar. I wonder if Jeremiah's exceptionally long life left some damage to his mental facilities. On the other hand the erasure of his memories might have caused the change too.

  It doesn't take us long to reach our home by using a stepper disc, but Azir is strangely silent and that gives me time to think. What if Jeremiah's words are true and playing with such powers is really no good? What if Azir is really overdoing it with his egoistical experiments?

  At home I decide to take a bath to cool my head. Getting your marriage party crashed is a real let down. While I am in the bathtub it dawns on me that we are getting dangerously close to collecting all of the emperor's artefacts. We already have three of the keys.

  What might happen if we get all of them? Will Azir be able to restrain his curiosity? Whatever the vault is, it's dangerous enough that someone like Jeremiah takes measures like erasing his memories to ensure it stays forgotten.

  Azir is by no means a person who can restrain himself when he finds a new toy. I get out of the bath and put on a bathrobe to search for my husband. Strangely enough my first guess is wrong. I was sure I'd find him in his lab, already studying the sword, but the lab is abandoned. Returning to our living quarters I find the kitchen and the living room also empty.

  At the end of my wit I notice that the door to the new addition to our house stands open. We added a set of new rooms above the servant's quarters where Ivy lives.

  At the moment most of them are empty, but we keep our eggs stored in one of them. Our children can use the rooms later on for themselves. I head to the room with our eggs and take a look inside. Azir is standing there, hugging one of the eggs and pressing his ear to it.

  I smirk and awake him from his trance. “Listening to the noises is relaxing isn't it?”

  Azir opens eyes and looks at me with an embarrassed expression. “No. I was just... checking on them. But everything seems to be fine.” He pats the egg and closes the incubation chamber, not admitting that he was worried about leaving the eggs alone.

  No. He surely wouldn't do anything to put us at risk. Jeremiah only tried to play us against each other. I smirk and play with the belt of my bathrobe. “I thought about doing something pleasing for my husband tonight. Of course only if that stupid beggar didn't destroy the mood for you.”

  Azir rushes over to my side and takes me in a princess carry. “I can choose? Then prepare for a long night!”

  79. ~Arrival.~

  “The newly issued ZJ-M01-Assault-rifle has reached the state of mass production and will replace the formerly used bows. The weapon is based purely on scientific principles and can be used by every soldier. The weapon is a semi automatic design with twenty shots per reload. It's geared towards precision, rather than firing speed. I expect it to have a huge impact on the battlefield, which requires us to think up new strategies and tactics.

  The fact that we have to concentrate our troops around magicians remains. It's far too dangerous to have regular soldiers operating on their own, even if the range of the new weapon allows new scenarios. What may become possible is to split our battle formations into smaller groups to make it easier for them to pick out certain targets.

  The new coating for our armour is also in the last stages of development. I was promised that we can convert our old factory lines to the new materials without problems. The biggest problem of our army is its bad mobility. The new armour may change that since it provides the same protection with even less weight. A problem which has to be mentioned is that our troops have to be retrained, which certainly won't happen over night. There is a lot of work to do.”

  -Weapon report I. Free City States of Nict, Armoury.

  Free City States of Nict, Tri

  Azir

  I levitate within the mana stream and try to relax. It's important to concentrate only on the important sensations. My ability is an annoying mixture of taking everything into account, yet ignoring the unimportant stuff.

  My mind wanders to the recent events. A few months have passed since Jeremiah showed up and got himself arrested. Lucas interrogated him very thoroughly about his misadventures throughout the continent and according to Jeremiah's testimony the so called Saviour is the main reason why the southern nations are so fragmented.

  Some could say that the current situation is good for Nict, but at the same time it allows our hidden enemies to influence of our neighbours. The southern nations seem to be gathering their forces, but we aren't ready to go on the offensive.

  Of course we could launch an attack and cause chaos, but we don't have the manpower to keep the conquered land. There is no sense in attacking if we can't ensure law and order afterwards.

  Dwem is still occupied with the barbarians and our visitors from Quinn have established an embassy in our capital. Unfortunately they aren't in a better position than us. It looks like we have to enforce peace on the main continent before we can deal with the second one.

  My drones brought their first images from the second continent. It's largely green and wild. There are some civilized areas, but they are strangely mono-form. I can't help myself. The pictures of the recorded cities and fields look like someone drew everything on a map. The placement of fields and buildings didn't develop naturally.

  What's even more disturbing is that the people in those villages act like ants. Everybody moves in straight lines, nobody is standing around to talk and there are no children to be seen anywhere.

  Whatever is happening on the second continent, it's creeping me out.

 
The drone operated only a little over two hours until it was found and shot down. Hopefully the second drone version, which is currently being finalized by my research group, will give us a little more information.

  I let my attention wander and follow the mana stream trough the rock of the cavern. I try to ignore everything and watch only the mana stream. It goes on and on towards west. Squinting my eyes I try to see even further. Almost at the end of my sight I find the mana stream turning into a big bright light and splitting to the left and right.

  Following the stream to the left I find the fine line slowly vanishing into nothingness. Something is hindering my sight in that direction. I frown and end my training session by slowly bending the energy around me and exiting the mana stream.

  Outside I find Valda and Quarma waiting for me. Valda smiles as I descend to the ground and land at her side. “You ended your session earlier today. How did it go?”

  I shrug my shoulders. “It was okay I guess. I tried to see as far as possible like you instructed me to. There was a big bright light at the end of the stream and it split up from there. Running roughly back towards us, but not directly.”

  Valda nods with an earnest expression. “That's good. It means that you've almost mastered your ability. You can stop using the stream from now on.”

  I protest. “What? But I still can't see as much details as you!”

  Quarma pokes her finger into my chest. “That's not a matter of using the stream. You've got an idea on how to see through physical matter by using the stream. From now on you have to train what you see and how deep. The stream doesn't help with that.”

  Returning my attention to the mana stream I follow its entire length with my eyes until it vanishes in the wall. “Say. The direction of the stream goes roughly towards the capital, right? And the point from where it splits... I could swear that it runs towards Di and Tetra from there.”

  Quarma nods. “You are right. Back in the time when I still had my ability it saw it very clearly. I think the mana stream converges under the capital and runs towards all six border cities.”

  My head snaps back to her. “But that's important! What if that's somehow connected to the Emperor's vault? There are six cities, six mana streams, six artefacts!”

  Valda nods, but she isn't as enthusiastic as me. “You are right, but didn't you notice that the stream goes deeper into the earth towards the capital. It has to be several kilometres under the ground over there.”

  “Have the other clans access to the mana stream?” I ask.

  Quarma shrugs her shoulders. “If they have, then they are keeping their mouths shut like us.

  But we came here to instruct you of the dangers you are now facing by using your power.”

  Valda nods. “Yes. Since you are able to manipulate mana at a far bigger scale now, you also have to be more careful. There is an important rule to manipulating mana. Never try to interact with mana which is firmly attached to an object!”

  “But I already interacted with mana that's inside matter?” I don't understand what she means.

  Quarma takes over. “Until now you only saw the mana which is freely available and loosely bound. It's existing in form of energy and warmth, but once you start seeing finer details, you'll notice that everything consists out of energy. All solid matter is power. Someone might think that our ability is able to influence solid matter too, but it's beyond us.”

  Valda pulls out a small smooth peddle. “Our ability is all about reshaping energy into another form, or redirecting it.” She concentrates on the round pebble and a few pearls of sweat start forming on her forehead by watching it intensely. Slowly the pebble changes from a round shape to a cube, then she hands the pebble to me. “That's the most I can do without overusing my ability. Of course there are easier and less straining ways to do this, but it was just to show you the limit of our ability.”

  Quarma nods with a sad expression. “Never try something bigger than that. When I fought in the Southern-Borderwar I encountered an enemy on a reconnaissance mission. He was my equal in ability and we fought each other to a standstill. Neither of us could afford to turn our back on the opponent to escape. Finally we had used up all our mana and I had even emptied our surroundings, scraping together the last bit of energy I could find. He had a stronger physique than me and in my desperation I used my power to reshape the ground under his feet into a spike. It worked and I killed him, but by doing so I overused my power. Since then I've never felt any mana outside of my body.”

  I grimace and try to think over the implications. “But the Gejene can influence matter like it's nothing. Isn't that essentially the same process? Everything that's to it is that the mana is in form of physical matter.”

  Valda shrugs her shoulders. “Certainly, the Gejene's ability and ours are related to each other, but for some unknown reason we are positioned on two different ends of the spectrum. We govern over all forms of non-physical energies. The Gejene have influence on matter itself.”

  My grandmother smirks at me. “That's why Helen is so excited about seeing her grandchildren. Your union with Stella may produce something unexpected since our abilities root in similar principles.”

  I gulp. “Something unexpected? I don't want little brats with unknown superpowers. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep someone like that under control?”

  Valda pats my back. “I am sure you'll do fine.”

  After a few more interesting tips on how to start the next stage of my training I head home while I try to think about the implications of my new discovery. Valda and Quarma are underestimating the fact that the mana stream splits under the capital. I'll start investigating this further right in the morning, but today I am tired.

  The stairway back to the surface helps me to gather my thoughts and from there on it's just a short walk to the next stepper plate.

  It's evening and at home I find Stella in the kitchen. She is munching on a salad, so I take some for myself and start telling her about my day. It's the usual story about university and my work at the research facility. And Louise gave the military the new designs for the armour just recently.

  Upon mentioning Louise Stella suddenly reaches for my face and closes her hand around my chin. Did I say something wrong? Did I make her angry?

  She summons a light globe and waves it left and right in front of me. “Did your eyes always have this metallic shimmer?” She asks in deep thought.

  “I think so? They were always greyish.” I try to continue my meal, but Stella grabs my left horn and pulls me with her. I manage to grab the plate just in time. “Hey! I am still eating!”

  She isn't impressed and leads me down into her laboratory where I am placed on a broad chaise.

  Stella reaches for a magnifier to inspect my pupils. “Your eyes are strange. It's like something metallic is in there.”

  “Really?” Now I get a little disturbed too and reach for a mirror to risk a look myself. Indeed my eyes have changed. Instead of the usual plain grey iris which turns dark towards the outside there are some silvery veins added to the mix. It doesn't look bad, but it's still frightening if you don't know what's going on with your body.

  “Look.”

  I turn to Stella who is holding a strange device to my face. A flash of light blinds me and I see stars dancing despite having my eyes closed. “Fuck! Warn me!”

  “It doesn't work if you close your eyes.” She rummages through the room and something pokes my neck.

  “Hey!” I reach for the spot where the needle penetrated my skin, but it's already gone and the rummaging starts again.

  “Were you exposed to unusual amounts of mana recently?” She asks and I try to blink, but there are still after-images in my field of vision.

  “No? Yes. Maybe? I was forced to use that time spell and the training of my ability makes exposure to large amounts of mana necessary.” I answer.

  “The bad news is that there seems to be a large amount of lingering mana in your body. That ha
s to be the cause for the change of your eyes. The good thing is that there don't seem to be any other problems.” My hand is taken between Stella's soft fingers and placed on the chaise. Something clicks and I am suddenly unable to move my hand properly.

  My vision returns and I find myself being chained to the chaise. Stella pushes me on my back and closes a second handcuff around my other hand. “Stel? What are you doing?”

  “Oh, that's just an artefact to stabilize the flow of mana within the body. You have to stay connected to it for a while.” She explains.

  I feel my power being drained away as I try to get up. “I can do that myself Stella. There is no need for this stupid thing! Where did you even get it?”

  Stella watches me struggling while I am lying on my back. “Don't worry. Ivy builds much medical equipment for me, she is so helpful. The cuffs work perfectly fine, I already tested them myself. You have to endure just a few hours. There is no need for you to take such a creepy form as the nomad chief from back then.”

  I try to remember the chief's disfigurements, which were caused by high exposure to mana, and stop struggling. Stella pulls at her lower lip while looking down at me. “But having you in this position is kind of interesting... and you can't move.”

  “Stella. Your expression is strange...” Don't continue on this path! Look away! Don't take that route!

  She starts chuckling manically and leaves the room. I try to free myself, but the handcuffs are good work. Ivy put all her skills into making these items.

  A sigh escapes me when Stella returns with a pillow and a thick blanket. I already imagined the worst.

  She places the pillow under my head and lies on top of me, throwing the blanket over us. “Tonight you aren't allowed to move.” She whispers into my ear and slips her hands under my clothes. “Louise told me about a few interesting techniques.”

  She bites into my neck and starts moving her body against mine. This is even worse than torture! Does she intend to let me hang in the air until I scream for it? Maybe my first idea would've been kinder?