Jackal Among Snakes

“Mastery over time itself… I can scarcely think of a power more alarming.” Master Castro travelled along with them, his eyes wandering the area.

“I took interest in magic that affects time,” Onychinusa commented, tone tense. “But I reached a dead end. Erlebnis’ archives had no knowledge of such a thing. Divinity, however, can have some effect on the flow of time. Law has demonstrated some small mastery over the sphere… and in the distant past, an ancient god governed time. He was powerful enough that several gods cooperated to end him, consume him. In the end, all of his powers merely prolonged his death to seventy years of agony.”

Argrave nodded. “But that’s slowing or speeding time up, right? Nothing can truly suspend time, nor… loop it like this.” He spotted a sign above a store, and felt a chill as he read the words, ‘Sandelabara General.’ The location, then, was confirmed.

“It’s clear there’s one exception.” Melanie looked around.

Orion’s steely gray eyes wandered the cityscape from on high. “I’ve been searching for any deviation, any exception… but all I see are trapped. Blissfully trapped, looping into themselves totally ignorant of their condition.”

“I caution us against making assumptions,” Anneliese cut in. “We cannot know if this place is constantly recreating itself anew, if time is rewinding, or if we face an illusion on such a grand scale that even our significant protection cannot ward from it. After all, we are currently excepted from this bizarre happening.”

“As far as we’re aware,” Castro agreed.

The Alchemist stopped his advance and looked back. “It would be best if you ceased speculation altogether.” A hand emerged atop his head, and pointed firmly toward a distant castle. “That is our destination, just beyond this city. We might find answers there.”

Argrave felt a strange sense of nervousness when their destination was highlighted amidst this impossible scenario. It felt like, at any moment, Argrave would find himself looped in a task for all eternity, brought under the thrall of whatever malignance had ensnared this city. Were these people aware of what was happening? Would he be, if he kept going? Death was one thing, but this fate seemed so insidious and devastating. These people, trapped here, unable to act beyond their five seconds of allotted existence…

But they had come far too deep into this eternal city to turn back now. The Alchemist led their now-silent charge, heading for the castle. It was a steep gray structure, blocky and crudely effective as a fortification. It was shaped as a square and had another square-shaped keep inside it. The outer wall possessed four towers on its corners, but the guards within were not free of the influence of this trap in time and their group passed easily. It had no windows, queerly.

Once within they followed the steady advance of the Alchemist, drifting through the castle keep like ghosts as he pursued the source of Gerechtigkeit’s resonance. They passed through the reception hall decorated with decadent velvet, then passed through the kitchen, finally entering the banquet hall.

“King Norman! King Norman! King Norman! King Norman! King Norman!” came a man’s voice again and again, trapped in this loop. He declared this as he pushed open the double doors to the banquet hall and entered, panic in his voice, posture, and demeanor all.

There was a long rectangular table laid out in the banquet hall, yet only two places were occupied. At the head of the table, there was a black-haired man with deep red eyes wearing black velvet. Considering he lifted his head every time his name was called, Argrave presumed him to be King Norman. And just beside him, kicking her legs daintily as she sat on her hands, was a young girl in a red dress. Considering she shared King Norman’s black hair and red eyes, Argrave placed her as his daughter. Neither were exceptions in this loop of time, despite Argrave’s expectations.

“There. Gerechtigkeit’s resonance,” the Alchemist declared, holding the vial. Then the glass began to tremble, and it exploded outward. The Alchemist looked genuinely shocked, and grasped at the energy as it escaped. It was a futile thing, though—Gerechtigkeit’s energy soared through the air, heading for the royal pair.

Argrave watched King Norman with expectation and alarm, yet the energy veered away from him and entered the little girl.

“That glass shouldn’t have broken,” the Alchemist shook his head, watching the scene with some alarm. “It was made to withstand many tons of pressure.”

“Hold on,” Argrave entered deeper into the banquet hall, watching the scene. “The girl is the resonance?”

“Yes,” answered Anneliese, to Argrave’s surprise. When he looked over at her, he could see the tension of her face. “I… I’m starting to make sense of what I see. This isn’t a trap. This is… this is something to preserve her, to contain her. And all of what we see, all of what’s happening around us… they’re merely the bars of the cage.”

Realizing Anneliese must’ve seen something with her [Truesight], Argrave focused closer on the girl. Her skin was strangely pale and immaculate, almost like porcelain. She caught sight of Argrave in one of her loops and looked up at him. He expected something monstrous within those eyes, but all he saw was exactly as was: a young girl. Six, perhaps seven at best.

Argrave looked back at Anneliese. “But what is she? Why would she be locked away like this?”

“She…” Anneliese grasped at words for a few seconds, and everyone, even the Alchemist, awaited her answer. “She is one half of an unfathomable whole.”

#####

Far away from the portal chasm leading to the city of Sandelabara, magma slowly encroached back upon the place that had been drained utterly by the dwarven pumps. It was moving slowly, letting out vast amounts of heat and warping the air itself as it travelled. And yet in portions, it seemed especially active.

On the right side, the magma began to move faster, spread out thicker, almost as if something was pushing it from the other side. And when a glowing hand emerged out from the magma, pushing it aside like nothing more than thick sludge, the driving force behind the magma was made clear. Slowly, a golem glowing red hot freed itself of the magma, pushing away thick globs of the stuff that clung to its metal frame. To walk through magma was quite literally to walk through rock, and its state as a liquid did not change the difficulty of such a feat.

Yet the passage of time slowly proved that it was not alone in this tremendously impossible challenge. The tide of magma shifted and turned as yet more of these golems emerged, one by one, and began to fill the cavern. They glowed brightly from the intense heat that they endured, yet their metal bodies did not seem hampered at all by the tremendous burden.

Miles above, in a dark cavern, Dario laid on a dank, hot floor and stared at a rocky ceiling. Compared to his sickly form before, he was now broken. Death looked liable to claim him any second. His breath was a low rattle, drawing what little air found its way into this place far beneath the earth. Yet he kept his bloodshot eyes open, retained his lucidity and focus, and persisted. After all, he was the only thing linking these golems to this realm. If he was too far away, they would falter. And if they faltered, Argrave might unlock the secrets within Sandelabara.

Dario heard a voice. He couldn’t be sure he was hallucinating, yet he understood the intentions behind it all the same.

“We will do our best to stop the parasite, and to stop us from falling into the chaos that curiosity brings. Rest, savior, and let your body be host. You will be remembered by those who matter as a great preserver.”

“I don’t…” Dario breathed. “I don’t wanna die. Why does it have to…?”

The voice, or hallucination, never answered him. But Dario could feel the march of the golems far beneath, entangling and strangling him. He felt a hundred puppets nailed into his soul, tearing him apart. But he wasn’t the puppeteer—he was the tool the puppet master used, and nothing more. Was he right to come here, to come so far? And if he wasn’t… what could be done?

Traugott knew what might happen should Sophia be freed. Yet even still, torn apart like this, he thought as much of Argrave’s hopeful struggle as he did his own duty of preserving the current world. Despite knowing his fate was death, he hoped for something else.