Mark of Time:

The Mark of the Chosen of Time.

Abilities: Time Reset

Resets: 1

Integrity: 99.16%

Tier: Undefined

[Mark of Time: Time Reset] obtained!

The system message floated in front of Jennifer’s eyes, prompting a blink from her. She stared at the words, unsure of what she was seeing.

Where am I? I thought I had…

Jennifer glanced around as the world began to register in her mind, one object at a time. She was in her room, sitting at her desk with a quill in her hand. The quill her father had made for her a long time ago, the very same one that’d broken a while back when she’d been writing down some enchanting runes.

Something was wrong.

What had I been doing? There was the… the…

A sharp pain assaulted her head, like a burning needle being pressed through her skull. Jennifer doubled over, clutching her head as an agonizing throb went through it. She pressed her hand against her forehead, trying to push the pain away when her eyes caught on to a glowing light coming from her hand.

The Mark.

Memories rushed in like a roaring tide, crashing through the barriers of her mind. Jennifer saw cold green eyes staring into her own as life had slipped away from her grasp. Sand covered her body, piercing her over and over as her city burnt on fire, tinged with the smell of blood.

The Mark lit up on her hand, as memory after memory started to play through. Of the dungeon, of the trial, of Irwys. Each little piece returned to her one at a time, reminding her of the nightmare she had lived through. She clutched her tightening chest, feeling each beat of her thundering heart sending a pulse of pain through her body.

Jennifer's hand drifted up to her throat, and she touched her neck gently, afraid to disturb the wound that her mind insisted was there, even if she couldn't feel it.

The contents of her stomach began to rise up to her throat as the sensation of air leaving her body, as life was choked out of her replayed itself in her mind. She gagged, holding the nausea back, and forcing the bile down. Thankfully her stomach seemed to be mostly empty. She didn’t want to make a mess in her room.

Jennifer stood up, kicking the chair as an unknown sense of terror overwhelmed her. She felt like she was dying. Closing her eyes shut, she fought against the images playing in her mind. The green eyes haunted her, chasing after her as she ran.

It’s alright. I’m alright. Breathe Jennifer, breathe. Calm down.

Her limbs shook as she stumbled to her bed, and curled up upon the mattress, tucking her head closer to her chest as she fought hard to regulate her breathing.

I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay.

The words repeated in her mind like a chant, and she desperately clung on to them, pushing back the terror that grabbed her heart. It took a few minutes before the emotions loosened their grip and Jennifer found her body was sweaty, her hands were shaking.

After she could tell the worst of it had passed, Jennifer raised her head, trying to understand what just happened. She looked at her arm and saw the Mark, glowing very lightly with a dark blue sheen.

That trial, and the sand tribes and Elphion damned demons themselves. Just what is happening? Am I dead?

Jennifer had never been that pious, having scant beliefs or concerns for what’d happen to her soul after she passed away. She believed like all magical sources of energy, her soul would simply dissolve and fade away forever. Contrary to that, the church proclaimed the afterlife to be a paradise created by Sera as she took in her believers from Elphion’s hands, leaving those who had sinned in eternal damnation.

The idea had always reeked to her as talks of the fanatic, not grounded in any sort of reality. The gods rarely interfered with the affairs of mortals, and none of the dead had ever mentioned seeing an afterlife, even those who’d felt Elphion’s touch directly upon their souls. The belief of an afterlife also didn’t address necromancy whatsoever, or other applications of magic that pertained to the dead.

Perhaps that is why Sera never took me in with her own. Either that or I am still alive and have just woken up from the most realistic nightmare of my life.

Jennifer found her mind returning to the sights of a burning city, her hand still repeatedly rising up to her throat to check on her wound. It was a struggle to think calmly as a mess of emotions tussled in her chest. For just a moment, she wanted to curl up on her bed and just stop existing.

In need of a distraction, she called the system message she’d gotten and had it appear in front of her once more at a thought. It’d keep her mind off the existential dread plaguing her, or her tenuous grasp of reality.

Mark of Time:

The Mark of the Chosen of Time.

Abilities: Time Reset

Resets: 1

Integrity: 99.16%

Tier: Undefined

Jennifer stared at the message. The Mark of Time. Is this what brought me back? Why is the tier undefined? I’ve never heard of something with an undefined tier before. I guess I’ve never died before either.

She tugged on the mark, trying to expand the section with the name displayed on it. Nothing changed. She tried one more, this time expanding the abilities section. A new message opened up alongside the current one.

Abilities: Time Reset

Resets: 1

Returns the chosen to the soul anchor set in the stream of time at the cost of Integrity.

Jennifer stared at the message in wonder. The answer was obvious yet it took her a moment to parse it. Jennifer gulped as she closed the message.

I’m back in time? That shouldn’t be possible.

Jennifer pulled herself up from her bed, and made her way to her desk. She walked up to the small calendar she kept, the seventh of the next month marked onto it with a little circle denoting the day of her first class in the academy.

What’s the date today?

Jennifer flipped the calendar, and found a little cross marking today as the third day of the third month. Exactly one month before the day of the invasion.

Jennifer stumbled back, as she stared at her room. Her eyes drifted outside her window, finding the sky dark. The time of the day roughly corresponded to what it had been during the day of the invasion.

This can’t be real. Time magic? On this scale? Impossible. No spell matrix could handle, much less source enough mana for it. This makes no sense.

Time magic was an obscure field of study, mostly lost with the disappearance of the giants from Zweiril a millennia ago, who had been the creators of all space and time magic in the first place.

The magic was old, with only rare remnants and artifacts present today capable of mimicking it, and even then, the amount of mana required to turn back time upon itself would be so ridiculous that it would require the death of every living creature, the consumption of all mana and energy sources, and perhaps the interference of the very gods themselves to revert time by an entire month.

Jennifer stood in silence for a moment, unable to think of a course of action. The possibility of going back in time hadn’t been one she had been prepared for, the idea itself too ridiculous to be taken seriously.

Sera, I’ve totally gone mad haven’t I? Is this what death is like? I’d prefer Elphion’s eternal prison over this.

Jennifer let out a breath, as she walked to her desk and took a seat. One of her books was open and she saw notes written onto a sheet of parchment about some spell matrix and its components.

Jennifer flipped over the book, reading its cover. Intermediate Magic Theory II, the book read, the letters printed neatly on top of it. She remembered finishing this book a few weeks ago, as preparation for her enrolment in the academy. She’d wanted to be ready, and not do worse than any stuck up kid of some noble.

Setting the book aside, she prodded through her system message once more. This time, she looked at the section denoting Integrity.

Integrity: 99.16%

The integrity of the bond between the Chosen’s soul and the Mark of Time.

She read through the description and frowned. There was clearly a limit to the Mark. Does this mean I can come back again? Almost a hundred times?

Her eyes drifted to the number displayed on the integrity. 99.16% was an odd number that she couldn’t think of a correspondence to. Neither could she think of a reason why she’d be sent back in time exactly a month prior to the day of the invasion. Would the Mark send her back another month in time if she killed herself?

Jennifer’s eyes drifted onto the sharp crystal she used to etch her runes. She pulled her eyes away forcefully, pushing the thought away. She wasn’t willing to test that hypothesis.

Taking out her quill, Jennifer noted down the integrity number on the paper, alongside some questions she had about the Mark. She was aware that all she was doing was trying to distract herself from her prior death, but it was working and she wasn’t willing to descend back into a panic attack.

Hold on just a moment. What if I equate the displayed integrity to the number of days it sent me back?

Jennifer poked at the integrity again, trying to see if it would expand. She got another display for her curiosity.

Integrity: 99.166666667%

She wrote down the number, putting 0.833334% as the equivalent of 30 days. Beyond that, it was a simple matter of finding out the total amount equating to a hundred percent and she soon had the result.

3,599.997 days, which is almost exactly 10 years.

Jennifer stared at the number, unsure if it was just a coincidence or if she’d truly stumbled upon something. She went through the system messages once more, trying to find more information.

“But if I’m back in time, does this mean… [Lesser Arcane Analysis]” Jennifer intoned, as her eyes widened. She could feel her skill, present alongside all her other ones, waiting to be used.

I still have my skills, even the new one. This is strange. There is no way my skill should’ve been sent back in time unless the Mark had something to do with how I earn a skill, but then how does Irwys factor into all of this? Not to mention the—

A knock at the door interrupted her.

“Jenn, it’s dinner time, come down,” her mother called from outside.

“I-I’m coming,” Jennifer replied. She waited for a while to see if her mother would enter the room, calming down when she heard the sound of her footsteps walking down the stairs.

She sat quietly for a moment at her desk. What had happened to mom and dad? Did they… did they survive the invasion?

Jennifer didn’t know, and a part of her didn’t want to know either. She stood up from her desk, leaving her notes on the table as she walked towards the dresser on the other side of the room, staring into the mirror. A small luxury, as glass wasn’t cheap, even in a city like Lienmont.

She inspected her face, feeling surprised at the lack of any injuries. Even now, she could touch her shoulder and neck, and feel a dim burning pain present there.

Yet in the image reflected from the mirror, there were no injuries, no blood marks or brutal wounds that she’d gained just a few moments ago. Her light brown hair was combed and let loose, free of all the muck of the sewers and her eyes shone with a dim blue glow as she circulated her mana. There was no trace of anything that had happened, besides the Mark on her hand.

She needed to find a way to hide it from her parents. Having them ask how she got a clearly magical marking would make things a lot more difficult than she’d like, and she’d prefer to have some time to see things for herself before she told them anything.

Jennifer pulled open a drawer, taking out some bandages. She always kept some around due to the frequency with which she slashed her hand when working on enchantments. She wrapped her wrist in the bandage, before glancing at the crystal. A deep breath later, she grabbed the crystal shard, and lightly cut her hand, enough to give the injury a red tinge.

Jennifer checked once again to make sure the injury looked real before she walked out of the room.

She picked her way down the stairs, making her way to the dining room. Despite feeling relatively more calm, things hadn’t suddenly started to make sense. Her mind still jumped at thoughts and her chest still tightened with inexplicable fear from moment to moment. A part of her mind was still screaming at her to run.

A shadow floated near the corner of her eye, and she turned in a panic, preparing a mana bolt on instinct as she became prepared to fight her way through.

“Demo-” Jennifer hissed, pausing as she took another look. An empty window.

Jennifer felt her heart thundering like the roaring beat of a drum. The sound felt even louder in the still silence of her home. She let the spell fade away, letting a breath out as she closed her eyes for a moment. Taking a hold of her light brown hair, she arranged it together neatly as she often would when home. It wasn’t much, but the gesture helped to reassure her.

After making sure no hidden monsters lurked around the staircase, or it wasn’t a prank her brother had set up, Jennifer began to make her way down.

The stairs led to the dining room, where she spotted her father — Ailvin Laine — reading a book, and Keith, her ten year old brother, sitting nearby with a bored look on his face.

“Come on in, take a seat Jenn. I was about to call for you again,” her mother — Amantha Laine — said, walking in with a large tray filled with food. Her mother’s eyes widened upon seeing the bandages on her hand and she set the food aside rushing over.

“What happened Jenn? How’d you hurt yourself?” her mother asked, grabbing her hand to inspect the injury.

"Oh, just cut myself with my enchanting crystal. It’s nothing, I just wrapped it up because it kept stinging. Anyway, Is there something today?" Jennifer asked, eyeing the food on the table. It was a lot more food than she had been expecting to see. She tried to remember if there was something they celebrated around this point, perhaps her brother’s birthday. No, that's still months from now.

Her mother looked at her hand for a lingering moment before letting go. “If you say so. Get some salve though, or a potion if it’s a deeper cut. And no need to pretend you don’t know what today is, you’re fooling no one here,” her mother said with an amused smirk.

“Uhh, Happy anniversary? No?" Jennifer asked, confused as she walked to the dinner table.

“You really don’t know?” her mother asked, looking at her with surprise, before glancing over towards her Father.

Jennifer shook her head, confused.

“It’s the magic school thing, Jenn. You got in right? Mom said she’d make lots of food because of that,” Keith said, happily eyeing the food on the table.

Jennifer’s eyes widened in surprise as she remembered the celebration. It’d just been around this time that she’d gotten her acceptance letter to the Mage Academy, and her family had decided to go all out and celebrate for her.

This was still before the dungeon branch had been found out as well. The first tremor should be soon as well. There had been talks of a meeting with the Church and the Alliance in Lienmont. Was the invasion targeting that? What about the-

"You're spacing out dear," her mother called out. "Nervous? Things will be alright. I know how hard you've worked for this.”

“It’s her big day, of course she’ll be a little nervous,” her father added, turning towards her. “You have nothing to worry about Jenn. We’re all proud of you.”

Jennifer nodded, as she looked down at the plate of food covered in all her favorite dishes. Memories of the dead corpses covering the streets and of the screams that echoed through the sky played in her mind. Her eyes drifted towards her hand, at the mark hidden there. She felt sick looking at it.

She set aside the thoughts, and began to eat. The food didn't taste like anything to her, her mind occupied with the sound of explosions and screams. She ate silently, as her parents talked with each other, and Keith happily devoured his own share. She felt out of place.

An elbow poked into her side and she almost snapped back, when her eyes met Keith’s. Her brother's eyes shone with barely held back excitement.

"You’d promised that you’d teach me how to do magic when you got accepted. Can you show me now?" Her ten year old brother, Keith, whispered to her, loud enough for everyone nearby to hear his words.

"Keith, let her eat, no causing trouble during dinner okay? And finish your food first," her mother chided, as the boy deflated.

"It's fine," Jennifer said and turned towards Keith. “I can’t teach you much. It takes weeks to sense your mana and then form a working spell matrix, but the first spell you’ll learn is this,” she said, summoning a simple light orb around him.

“This is the simplest spell matrix for any spell. It has your mana turn to light when applied. The difficult part is making it float and stay in a spherical shape, instead of having it flicker for a second before fading,” Jennifer said, as Keith stared at her with shining eyes.

Jennifer was about to dispel the light orb when she felt [Lesser Spell Analysis] activate. She felt the spell matrix of the light spell in her mind, as the skill nudged her towards a different method of using the spell.

Jennifer followed the feeling, dividing the spell matrix into two, then four, then eight and so on. She chained the spells together, applying mana into the new spell.

The light orb turned to little shining dust particles that swirled around Jennifer’s hand. She felt surprised when she didn’t have a headache at simultaneously casting what would be dozens of spells, even just a light spell when she realized that the chain of spell matrices worked as a single spell in function. She decided to have the light dust form a small whirlpool as she ended the spell in a flashy shower of lights

"Whoa! That’s so amazing!” Keith exclaimed, his mouth open in wonder. “Show me one more? Please, please, please?"

"Yes, but not now, finish your food first and I’ll show you some other time okay?" Jennifer said, smiling.

“If you focus on your studies then I’ll start teaching you as well,” her father said.

Jennifer’s smile widened as she saw Keith’s excitement swiftly being replaced by the horror of having to study.

"You've improved," her father added, turning towards her with a light smile.

"I’ve been practicing," Jennifer replied. Her eyes drifted to her father's hands. He had overdrawn during a difficult spell and ruptured his mana circuits on both his hands, losing his job as an enchanter in the guild. He could cast some spells but the act would leave him in pain for a couple of days, effectively killing off any possibilities of him using any form of magic.

A large part of why Jennifer wanted to join the academy was to follow in her father’s footsteps. He’d been the one who’d taught her enchanting, and she wanted to pay him back by earning enough to get his mana pathways healed.

Jennifer continued to eat her dinner, the brief moment of comfort fading as an odd mix of dread and anxiety took over. She found herself scanning the room for unseen shadows. "I think I'm done."

"What’s wrong? Didn't like the food?" her mother asked, looking at her in surprise.

"The food was great, mom. I just feel a bit tired and my hand stings too. I think I’m going to rest a bit now."

“Are you sure you don’t want me to use a potion? It’ll heal the cut instantly,” her mother asked.

“It’s fine, no need,” Jennifer replied. She felt bad about lying to her mother, and wasting the food her mother had put so much effort in, but she couldn’t convince herself that she’d be able to continue eating without puking it all out anymore.

Grabbing the dishes and putting them away before she walked back up to her room. She hurried up the stairs to her room, closing the door behind her as she held back the food rising in her throat. Taking a deep breath, she began to think over what she needed to do. The meal had convinced her about the reality of her situation, at the very least.

"I need a plan, a way to avoid the oncoming attack and warn someone about it. I also need to ask about why Irwys had dragged me in there, and what a royal knight like him was doing here,” she paused at the lack of strain in her mind at saying those words. Jennifer inspected her mind for any oaths she’d sworn.

“The oath, it's gone. Is it because I’m back in time? Another thing to ask him about, along with this Mark. No, even before that. I need to get my family somewhere safe. But how do I take them out of the city?"

Jennifer unraveled the bandages on her hand, the Mark visible once more. She took a seat at her desk and took out a piece of parchment, picking up all her books that were even tangentially related to time magic.

Grabbing her quill, she began to prepare.