"Son of a fucking bitch! I'm going to fucking kill him!"

"Sir!" Ryan heard his servant exclaim, and he forced himself to take several deep breaths to calm down. "Is everything alright, sir? What happened? You don't normally have foul dreams."

Ryan rubbed his temples, then began moaning from the physical adjustment of magical abilities that washed over him. At the same time, he heard his servant moving closer, then starting to leave.

"STAY!" He commanded telepathically, startling his servant.

"Just give me a minute," Ryan said. "It'll fade soon enough. Fucking asshole. I'm going to fucking make him wish he'd never fucking existed."

It wasn't until the PAOMA began to fade that Ryan came to a realization. He was in his room again. His room at the main estate. Without having reset.

"What's wrong?" Tyler asked, and Ryan could hear the concern in his servant's voice. "Ryan, it's not like you to wake like this. Or swear. What has you so pissed off?"

What did have him so pissed off?

"What's today's date?" Ryan asked.

"November third, sir," Tyler answered. "Your birthday."

"That's what I thought," Ryan muttered. "Which is interesting. Well, at least I know that happens when someone kills me. I'm so going to fucking kill him."

"Sir?" Tyler asked, and Ryan could hear the alarm in his servant's voice.

"Fetch my father," Ryan told Tyler. "But don't tell him about what happened, just tell him I wish to speak with him. Tell no one about what happened. Nor the fact that I have telepathy."

"I never would, Ryan," Tyler said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes," Ryan said. "And I only want my father coming here. Not the healer. I'm fine. That was PAOMA and the after-effect of having a bullet put in my brain. Hurry. I need to speak with Father."

Tyler left, and Ryan rubbed his temples again. He was shot. And he lived. He didn't just survive the shot, however. When he died, he reset back to his birthday. Back to the last time he'd reset. An interesting aspect to his power, and one which he didn't want to explore. Dying was not pleasant, even if it had been painful.

One relief he had was that Tyler was still alive, too. With the reset, it was as if Tyler had never been shot. As if he had never been shot. And unlike him, his servant wouldn't have any memories of it. That meant Bethany was also alive, having never been shot. Time had been reset.

By the time his father had returned, Ryan had already begun to formulate a plan. He trusted his father and servant absolutely, which meant he could reveal to them what he wanted and needed to.

"What's wrong?" Ryan heard his father asked, and he stretched out his sense of water and air to their maximum.

Two people were outside the door, and with his empathy, he could sense the concern of his father, his servant, and one of the other two. The fourth person had a strange calmness to him, which disturbed Ryan. It was likely the same man who had come with his father on the last run of his birthday.

"Send the healer and the other person away," Ryan said. "I won't say it with them present, even if they're outside the room."

He felt his father's confusion, then realization, then his father moved to the door. It took Ryan a moment to remember that his father could feel him using empathy, which meant his father suspected he knew about their presences because of that.

Once the healer and guest were dismissed, his father returned to his side, Tyler closing the door.

"What's wrong?" His father asked. "Tyler said you were wishing to see me, and that isn't normal, not upon waking. He seemed rather concerned, but refused to answer."

"I ordered him not to," Ryan said. "I woke up with a nasty case of PAOMA. There is an earth mage in a branch family named Abel, yes? Who worked on excavating our Heisar when it suddenly expanded a few years ago?"

"There is," his father responded. "I wasn't aware you knew about him."

"Contact him," Ryan said. "And contact Damien Mieria. Inform him that we will be supplying an earth mage with experience excavating a Heisar and performing the necessary spell to detect things within it. The price for that is my stay out there."

"Ryan-" his father began, and the teen could feel confusion in the older man's mind.

"Father," Ryan interrupted. "He will be amenable to it. A Heisar opened up on one of their islands yesterday, and the majority of their mages are water mages. The few who can perform earth spells aren't experienced enough to properly excavate a Heisar. His issue with our family is that you took his fiance from him before they could marry. My mother. He knows the Third Age of Magic is likely to end soon, and suspects of the marriage between the Novar and the Veloas Families. He wishes to mix his bloodline with ours before it gets diluted through branches and the Veloas, even if with just one pairing. He'll call a niece out and hope that she can seduce me, knowing I'd likely be desperate because of my situation."

"Whoa," his father interrupted. "Ryan, slow down and explain. Why do you think this stuff?"

"I'm a chronomancer who can reset to a previous point in his life," Ryan stated. "I just had a rather nasty reset, and it was not Damien's fault."

No, it was Nicholas's fault. Everything had happened suddenly enough that Ryan didn't have time to react. All he knew was one moment, Nicholas was shooting Tyler and Bethany, then the next, the gun was aimed at him, then he was waking up on his birthday again.

They came across evidence Nicholas was plotting something foul, were caught, and then executed. Except that somehow, for some reason, Ryan's reset spell triggered, sending him back to his birthday. The last reset point. All because they had stumbled onto something and weren't able to vacate quickly enough.

Whether or not that would happen again was not something he wanted to test. It was possible he had triggered the spell himself. His thoughts were too jumbled and panicked to remember clearly what he was thinking or if he had thought to use the spell. It was the most likely event, however, as he couldn't think of any other reason he'd find himself back on his birthday.

"And I'm only telling you this on this reset," Ryan said. "I'll be doing more. I was training at the islands, and want to pack in as much training as I can. I trust you not to reveal this, and I trust Tyler as well."

"If what you say is true," his father said. "Then you need to tell me who attacked you?"

"They won't succeed again," Ryan growled. "I know their darkness. Their secret. Their truth. And I'm going to rip his fucking guts out of him."

"Ryan, please think about your situation, and about-"

Ryan flicked his wrist, and his pillow struck his father square in the face.

"I may not have sight," Ryan said. "But I'm not weak or useless in a fight. The only reason the reset happened was because I was surprised. Tyler died. Bethany died. I was nearly shot. It happened too fast to react to."

He felt surprise in his father's mind. Surprise and a decision. Tyler's mind, on the other hand, was full of shock and horror, as well as relief.

"You were shot at?" His father asked.

"You're accepting what I said?" Ryan asked.

"I'm going to verify information," his father said. "Then either you have a spy network I'm unaware of, immense ability with mind magics you've kept hidden from me, or it's true."

"Go ahead," Ryan said. "Call him now, even."

He felt his father debate on it, then watched as his father pulled out his phone and dial a number, setting it on his lap. It took Ryan a moment to realize his father had set it on speakerphone.

"Hello, Samuel," Damien spoke, surprise evident in his voice. "I wasn't expecting to receive a call from you so early in the morning."

"Hello, Damien," Ryan's father spoke. "Actually, I'm sitting with my son, and he's requesting to come to the Mieria Islands for a few months. It seems the idea of a tropical vacation appeals to him, and he's asking it as a birthday present."

"How long were you wondering?" Damien asked.

"Before that," Ryan's father responded. "I was wondering if it were true that a Heisar just opened up on one of the islands."

Silence filled the air, and Ryan could feel the anticipation in the wait. After a few long moments, a response finally came.

"One did," Damien responded. "We've kept it quite secret, even among my own Family. The only person who knows about it right now who has any contact with anyone else not involved is me."

Ryan smiled as he felt his father's gaze focusing on him.

"I have my ways of acquiring information," his father said. "I will make you a deal, Damien. You allow my son to stay as long as he wishes, and I will allow you the assistance of one of the earth mages who helped excavate our own Heisar."

Something different from the previous run of the day, but Ryan knew that new information meant a new negotiation. It would allow him to potentially stay for longer than three months, as long as he wasn't forced to reset to before the negotiation again.

He just hoped he didn't have to explain too much to his father. The man seemed to accept his status as a chronomancer all too easily.

"That sounds… agreeable," Damien responded, surprising Ryan. He'd expected at least a little bit of resistance. "However, I would prefer to have as few outsiders as possible."

"That is fine," Ryan's father said. "Ryan and his servant will travel out there, and I will arrange for the earth mage to as well. Depending on who I send, they may have a child or two accompanying them, including an adult child."

"Understood," Damien said. "That is acceptable, then. I assume you'll want to see their quarters for their stay?"

"Of course."

"I will personally give you that tour, then," Damien said. "When should I expect your arrival?"

"I need to teach my son some stuff," Ryan's father said. "And then we will depart. Either tomorrow or the day after will be when we make our way there. I will call you before we leave."

"Thank you," Damien said. "I will see you then, Samuel."

"I will see you then as well, Damien," Ryan's father said, then ended the call and pocketed his phone. "So. You're a chronomancer."

"You're accepting that a lot more easily than I expected," Ryan said.

"There are three known chronomancers," his father told him. "When excluding the Gray Mage. All three of them have been in our family, even if that's not well-known and at least one abandoned us. Our blood family, not just through marriages. They were each of Novar blood. While I am surprised to find out you are one, it is something I can easily accept as truth, with a small verification. If Damien is the only person who could communicate with someone else on this, and I trust him on this, then you have some way of knowing such information without contacting people. Either you're a telepath with an unheard-of range, or you're a chronomancer of some variety. The other option is that you have an information network I'm unaware of which is able to find information about something new which only a few people know about and is being kept secret."

"I'm a chronomancer."

"And an empath," his father said. "Clear proof you're a Specialist. What's your Tier?"

"Divine," Ryan answered.

"If you're being honest," his father said. "Then it should be quite easy for you to learn the spells I intend for you to learn before you go."

"You're allowing me to go, knowing I was shot at, with just a couple of spells learned?"

"You're going to tell me everything," his father told him. "Even if I know you'll likely reset to before now at some point to prevent me from knowing all of it."

"I will," Ryan grinned. "But I'll see how this run plays out, first. Why such a light protection when you know what happened?"

"The first spell I'm teaching you," his father explained. "Is one you can run even while sleeping. At Divine, it shouldn't take you long to reach that level of skill with it. It effectively makes you bulletproof. It does put a strain on you mentally if you run it for too long, and you'll still feel the impacts, but bruising is the most you'll get. I will trust you to use it wisely."

"And now I know why you're trusting me with such light security," Ryan said.

"Promise me you will use it as soon as you suspect anything," his father said. "And anytime you are around whoever shot you. I will not let you go unless you do."

"I promise," Ryan said. "I've no intention of dying, Father. Mother might have been taken from you, but don't worry about me being taken from you. My plan has always been to reset as soon as I caught a whiff of true danger, and it seems I managed to do that without even thinking about it too hard. It's a shame Tyler's not a Specialist, too, or I'd ask to have him taught the spell."

"I can sense your rage building up," his father said. "What happened? And I want all of the details."

"Tyler, Bethany, and I," Ryan said. "Stumbled upon another guest preparing to kill Damien and take over the islands, his plans accelerated because of the arrival of the Heisar. He killed us in response. I plan on exacting vengeance upon him for that. Before he gets a chance to hurt me, I am going to make him beg for mercy."