“What do you mean?” I asked, unsure of what specifically she was asking about.

“I mean, why are you here? You should be figuring out a way to stop Merlin. Instead you’re playing knight and making us watch.” she said with an annoyed tone. If you looked at her face you would probably assumed that she was pissed but it was far too dark for me to see her face properly.

“I wish I could but I can’t do shit until Tim lets me hop through time again. Plus, I need to learn as much as I can about the time right now so that I can figure out Merlin’s weaknesses. If I don’t then we may be screwed.” I replied. She rubbed her temples as if what I said was giving her a headache.

“Well, right now we have enough food for a few months. If you can be out of this time period before we run out of food then I’ll be happy. So much is going on and none of us know how to deal with it. Compton is slowly going insane as he reads through the entire library and Mordred is getting more and more anxious by the day. Then you have Iscarat who is far too eccentric for any of us to handle so he has been banished to his place until we need him and Lily is slowly driving all of us mad.” Elysif exploded as if she’s been holding that in since we got to this time period.

“I don’t know what to tell you. The answer you want me to give you isn’t the truth so all I can say is that I would like all of you to hold out until I can get us out of here. Then we can start checking off the bucket list of stuff we need to do in order to defeat Merlin.” I said.

“And that is?” she asked as she crossed her arms like she was pouting.

“First we need to see if there are any ways we can go about stopping Merlin before 1889 even if it goes against the rules that Tim made. Next we need to get Silva to join us in order to keep things the same. Then fake her death. Once all of that is done then we will attack Merlin before he can set up the ritual and if that doesn’t work then we have to destroy the ritual itself. Last resort, we kill Tim.” I explained in a nonchalant way that seemed unrealistic even by my standards.

She wrestled with this for a moment before leaning against the wall of the fort and sighing. I had no clue what she was thinking but it didn’t sound good. It almost sounded like she was tired or perhaps depressed. At the same time though her appearance made it seem like she was thinking hard about something.

“Is something the matter?” I asked.

“Of course there is but I have no clue if you would understand.” she said.

“Please don’t speak like I know what your thinking. I’m a fairly dense man.” I stated in a somewhat joking way. She snickered at that and turned to me.

“What would happen if we just stopped. We didn’t fight Merlin and we didn’t save anyone. We could just go somewhere else in time and enjoy ourselves until we die. No one is expecting us to save the world or even try for that matter. Most of us wouldn’t even be remembered if we did.” she said in a way that made it seem like she was coming onto me. Before I could answer though, everything froze. Time was stopped.

Everything from Elysif to even the few raindrops that were still coming down. I had never seen anything like this happen yet and it almost seemed different from the world of stars. Though the feeling it gave me was all too familiar. It reminded me of when I would hop through time, but only right before. For a second everything would stop and this was no different. Looking around I saw Tim standing on a small pool of muddy water as if it was a glass floor.

“What do you want?” I asked in a rather disrespectful way.

“I noticed that you wanted to do as she asked. To make me bored of you by watching you give up and live a normal life. You want that and I can feel it. Though I must say that if you try it then you will suffer more than you can possibly fathom, and if that isn’t enough then I’ll make all of them suffer as well.” Tim said as if trying to convince me to not give up.

“Is this really what you want? To make us fight till we want to die? Just let us have some peace for a small bit of time.” I pleaded.

“I can’t do that. If you were to taste even an ounce of freedom then you would refuse to return to your shackles. Your powers that I have given you are both a blessing and a curse. If used wisely and in the right conditions then they would bring you unending happiness. However, if you were to use them poorly as you have then suffering is all that awaits you.” Tim said as the spectral humanoid approached me.

“So we just suffer until we win or lose?” I asked with a bit of angry confusion.

“Yes, but I promise you this. Succeed and I will give you all that you desire. Keep fighting and you could be happy. Though, if you give up then all of you will suffer far worse fates than any you can imagine.” Tim said. Suddenly time began flowing again and Tim was gone. Elysif walked towards me as she was before and brushed her hand against mine.

“Please just let us take a break?” she asked as she went in for a kiss against the side of my mask. Before she could though I grabbed her shoulders softly and looked her in the eyes.

“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible right now. Tim... won’t let us.” I said in a shallow voice. Even with the mask on I looked defeated and on the verge of breaking down. I believe that Elysif saw this as she looked away and bit her lip.

“I... understand.” she said before disappearing into the pendant.