I’d lost count of the number of times I’d visited this same scenario before that day. Perhaps it was my more direct involvement that sparked the shift, or perhaps it was a simple change in my words this time compared to the others. I’d watched Zephyra die in that burning building so much that I knew the pattern of her blood beneath the charred wood. The limestone tainted by her death had a unique texture too. The smell as well, so distinctly reeking of cinnamon and burnt meat, but a small hint of that foul stench I’d come to fight – the stench of aged reptilian musk from a decayed shed. It was the call sign of those creatures at work – the Abominations, as they’d been coined milennia before my time.
But this time, things changed. I fired on Arceia, my dear friend, with a weapon from my time – a firearm which blasted condensed magical energy crystal as a missile using superheated air compressed in a small chamber. It lodged in her body so easily, and the sound alone was alien enough to Arceia to snap her back to reality. The being in control of her body seemed to release it as she fell back from the recoil of my handgun, and I watched her scramble to grab something to end her own life with in the same instant. I stopped her, of course, and briefly I elaborated on my motive. We fled the crime scene, treated the girl, and Arceia shone her brilliance by deducing what I am – what I can’t afford to share.
Shortly after that, I took another initiative I don’t usually in these events – I befriended June more directly and helped guide her toward her next major step. In many of these events, she would never fully master her magical potential and waste away as a mere soldier. But she was critical to my plan, and seeing her unleash her greatness was non-negotiable. As such, I needed to give her a gentle push. Her bonds with Key, Arceia, and Zephyra were vital to her developing, becoming the true heir of Saiorse’s Kiss, and ascending to the final battle. Many trials awaited her, some of which I wouldn’t be able to protect her from, and some I may even have to raise a blade against her to ensure the best possible outcome follows.
My name is Alarice Pundit Truesdale of Nova Star, and I am from the future of Magna Varia, several milennium from now. I’ve come to liberate this world of the Serpent Mother, who will rise to power in a few hundred years if her power is not kept in check starting as soon as possible. However, we cannot destroy her, for she will also be vital in defending this world from the Concept. I wish to say these things out loud to my alies, and alter history more directly, but every time I’ve done so they have been felled in battle far before their time. Other times, I have been forced to end their lives myself. I have only ever brought them to the final battle once, and even then…
Well, at least I was able to bring that version of June and Arceia to this reality with me. That, too, is another way I’ve taken a more aggressive approach with this iteration. They have been able to live normal lives as such, giving me custody of their maximum potential and choosing to live as powerless mortals among the public. With this power, a gift I can bestow upon these two versions, there may be enough strength yet… Perhaps we will not need the Reality Breaker, or the sacrifice of the pantheon, or the rapid and non-consensual deific ascension of several mortals to offer their power as well. We may not require the Nova Star to flee the planet.
Perhaps we can save one of the thirty-two realities yet.
“Allie, you awake in there?” I heard from behind me. That voice, it was June, but older. Speak of the devil, this was her.
“Ah, Summer. What can I do for you?” I asked, continuing my path. I hadn’t even realized that I was walking the streets of Magnum aimlessly until she snapped me out of my bubble.
“Ah, still adjusting to that name…” she sighed. “It’s so bizarre to be here again, as if nothing ever happened. But, it’s not unpleasant. I just saw you and I was reminded of when we first met. All your silly fortunes that you’d given to protect me, and here I was, an idiot believing you were some sort of psychic.”
“Is that all?” I said, snark dripping from my lips. Summer – this June, I knew her as a colleague and a friend. I could let my guard down around her.
“Well, there’s also the matter of my… Disguise? Identity?” she asked the air. “This is all so confusing, but I guess what I’m asking is, do I look anything like myself?”
I knew what she meant, and I spun to see her finally – and I had only one response.
“You look exactly like your mother, if we ignore the scars.”
Summer had lost her right eye in a battle soon to come, and I’d replaced it for her the same way I’d replaced the one for Zephyra, but with a red orb instead. The two of them made a fine duo, missing opposing eyes and having opposing colored false eyes. The only difference was, Summer had a deep scar run down her entire face from where the eye was cut out. Ignoring this, with her original brown hair back and the slight hints of dirt from working hard that day, she was the spitting iage of her mother Freja. It’s only natural that she would be though – they were technically the same age right now.
The only other major difference was that her hair length was greatly let go, extending down past her knees in a near-finger thick ponytail from her neck. Against the earthy green colors of her everyday wear, this length of brown hair almost made her seem like an envoy from the Throne of Moss. I had to wonder if that was a coincidence.
“I’ll definitely take that as a compliment, since my mother is gorgeous!” she replied, her enthusiasm matching my snark from before.
“That she is.” I ruffled her hair, still being much taller than her and theoretically much older. “You may have once been a fearsome warrior, but you’ve become a beautiful, ordinary woman as your mother is, and as you’d always wanted. And I will make sure your gift goes to your younger self when she can handle it. This time, we will win.”
“I believe in you.” Summer shook her head to re-align her hair.
“What have you decided to do with this new life?” I asked, as this was the first uncertainty I’d experienced since I began meddling timelines.
“Well…~” she had a little bit of a hum in her voice as she blushed, the earthen colors now having a clashing apple red amongst them. “Since it’s ordinary, I think I’d like to settle down. Have a child. Maybe open that trinket store I thought about as a kid. Who knows?”
“I’m not so sure a child would be well received in this reality.” I said blankly. “Remember, you are still alive here. A child between this older version of you and someone from this reality, should the pantheon find out… I don’t doubt you and that child would be punished severely for something unjust.”
“Oh.” she had seemed defeated by this for only a moment, before that characteristic smile returned. “Well then… Just don’t tell anyone!”
Wait.
“Don’t tell anyone what-” she cut me off.
“You really have to ask?” she said, a hand automatically hovering her stomach. “I may be a little older than my mother was when she had me, but I’m well within the age and… I may have already met someone.”
“For the love of-” again, I was cut off.
“Just keep it between us. As one of my only two friends in this reality I assume I can trust you?” she winked, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
“… Who is the father?” I asked, defeated.
“A man I met in the Throne of Moss named Redellus. Well, technically I met him in our reality too, but- Ah, you know what? I’ll just invite you over for dinner sometime. You can teleport can’t you?”
It was only at this point that I realized, I’d let my lack of sense for time flowing get the better of me. We arrived to this reality ten years ago. Ihadn’t seen Summer for quite a while, but to me it was mere days ago. The grave miscalculation I made in my senses needed to be rectified.
“Summer, when did I last see you?” I asked, cutting the topic short and not dignifying her brazen choice with a response.
“About a year ago, I think. When you asked me to help you secure the Mistress.”
Right. That added up.
“And in that year you-“
“Yep!” she beamed, happy with her timeline fracturing decision.
“… Not like anything can be done about it now. Congratulations. I’ll be sure to teleport you back to your new home and meet this Redellus. He’s an unknown to me in all my times scanning the timeline.”
“Did I hear that right?” I heard, a new voice from behind us both. With stone faces, we realized how loudly we’d been talking about this in what was undoubtedly a decently public space. Thankfully, it was just us and this one interloper present. This issue was…
I had to speak up. The silence was telling enough as it was, but if this ice wasn’t broken she may start to ask more.
“Oh. Zephyra…”
Magna Varia 