Jorge wakes up in an unfamiliar location. Everywhere he has ever been was blazing hot, or at least slightly warm, but the place he wakes up in is much colder than anything he is used to.

Reflexively, he reaches for his bag of holding for a bottle of alcohol to help ground him, but his bag is not there. For a second this insights panic, almost believing he might be back in the nightmare where he was without his precious drink, but he calms down when his eyes adjust enough for him to see a man above him holding the bag.

“I’m going to need that back lad,” he tells the man, standing up to reach for it. The man looks down at him, causing Jorge to take note of a large scar across his throat, it is familiar but he can’t quite place why. The man hands him the bag, only having found alcohol inside of it, not anything useful enough to take.

“Do ya mind informing me of where I am?” Jorge asks the man, remembering that he fell through a portal. The man again looks down at Jorge and grabs him by the collar, yanking him forward as he starts to lead him through what Jorge assumes is a village.

“Ya don’t have to be so rude, I’d follow if ya just told me to,” Jorge complains, finding the action rather jarring. The man lets go having understood what he said. Jorge stays true to his word and follows the man.

“So do ya not know how to talk lad? Seems like ya know what I’m saying,” Jorge asks, finding the silence odd when Jorge questioned him earlier. The man responds by shaking his head, trying to make it clear to Jorge he cannot speak.

“Hold on… lad, ya must be one of those guys. I don’t remember what ya are called, but there was this man named Sharn, he couldn’t talk just like ya,” Jorge suddenly remembers why the scar across the throat seemed so familiar, having encountered Sharn a couple of times while traveling with the group.

The man’s interest in Jorge is peaked when he hears Sharn’s name, something Jorge takes note of.

“So do ya know this Sharn fellow?” Jorge asks, assuming that is why he reacted. The man nods.

“Ya should bring him here, he should remember me… wait…” Jorge pauses, recalling that because of the portal he could have been transported to a time before Sharn encountered him.

“If ya wouldn’t mind informing me of the date?” Jorge requests, wanting to know exactly when he is as well. The man stays silent, continuing to lead Jorge through the village.

“That’s right, I guess ya couldn’t answer. Ya know of someone who can talk round here?” Jorge asks, curious to know where he has ended up.

The man nods, waving Jorge forward as to signal that they are already heading to such a man. They come to a giant wooden gate and the man forces Jorge through a door at the base of the left side of the gate.

Inside Jorge sees a grey-haired man with dark red eyes glaring up at him, his meal seems to have been interrupted by their entrance.

“Do you know her?” The man asks Jorge signaling to a sleeping Lunette at the side of the room.

“Yeah, I do. Can I ask ya where I am?” Jorge asks, just happy to have found someone who can answer his questions.

“You and your friend here have stumbled onto the island of immortals, this is a sacred place so I must ask you to take your friend here and leave immediately”.

“Hold on, let me ask ya a couple of things first. I’ll leave right after, but I need to know what the date is,” Jorge demands, not wanting to wander about the world without knowing when he is.

“Fine if I will answer your question if you answer mine… and I will know if you are lying. How did the two of you end up here?” The man asks, peering into Jorge’s soul almost as if he already knew the answer as soon as he asked the question.

“Aye, we ended up here because we went through one of those portals that can shoot ya through time. That’s why I want to know when we are,” Jorge just gives it up, thinking some mysterious immortal guy could comprehend such a thing.

“Yes, I believe you. As for when you are, it is the one-hundred and thirty-seventh day of the year one thousand and twenty-eight,” the man kindly informs Jorge.

“Now that you know when you are I must ask you to take her and leave,” the man demands, signaling down towards Lunette.

Jorge notes in his head that they are about a year in the past, not too long to wait for someone like him.

“Hold on, what if my other friends end up here?” Jorge asks, thinking this is a possibility.

“I will send them off the island as well, seeing as they do not belong here,” the man informs him.

“I can’t be satisfied with that, let me at least describe em to ya in case ya see em,” Jorge insists, describing Xander, Kayde, Gwendolyn, Kali, and Drakthar to the man.

“Kali, you mean the guardian of the fountain of luck? She was traveling with you?” The man inquires, knowing of her.

“Yeah, I think she did mention she did that sort of thing before,” Jorge notes, not thinking much of it.

“Well, now this is interesting, that is supposed to be a lifelong task, but it seems she abandoned it. The near future should prove to be interesting,” the man notes before showing Jorge the door.

“Come on, wake up lass,” Jorge shakes Lunette, not wanting to carry her out of here himself.

“Kayde, no! Not there,” she giggles in her sleep causing Jorge to shake her arm more roughly.

Her eyes shoot open seeing Jorge’s bearded face looking straight down at her.

“Jorge? Wait... where are we?” She asks as she looks around.

“Come on, we need to get off their island,” Jorge informs her, helping her to her feet and exiting out the front gate.

“Okay… what is going on?” Lunette asks, confused as to where they are.

“We’re a year in the past, this place is called the island of immortals… but I don’t know where that is,” he catches her up to speed.

“Hold on! This must be the Marshlands then. Wait! Which way towards Kali?” Lunette asks the red-eyed man before the gate is completely closed.

“Go directly Northwest, you will find her by some ruins,” the man is kind enough to tell her before the gate shuts.

“What do ya mean which way towards Kali?” Jorge asks, wondering why the man was so interested in her future.

“Because this is where she is right now… an earlier version of her, but still. Although we are not interested in Kali,” Lunette starts to inform him.

“I’ll bite, what are we interested in?” Jorge asks, not sure what Lunette means.

“What she is protecting,” Lunette’s eyes light up a devious plan having already formulated in her mind.

“The fountain, what do we need with that?” Jorge questions, wanting to get out of this swamp-like place as soon as possible and return to a city where he can sit and drink.

“Come on Jorge, don’t you want to be super lucky just like Fore?” Lunette asks, this being a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“No, I like my luck just fine, it involves drinking, visiting brothels, and occasionally taking on a dragon with the lads,” Jorge makes it clear, fully content with his current lifestyle.

“Please Jorge, it could be fun,” Lunette tries to get him to go along with it.

“No, I’ve done this sort of time traveling thing before. If we’re only a year in the past then the two of us need to hide out somewhere and wait for things to catch up to where they’re supposed to be. I was thinking Aconblasam, it’s a major city and I never go there so I won’t run into myself,” Jorge decides, already having thought this through.

“Fine, I guess this is where we part ways then. Because I’m not just going to wait a year, I’m going to get up back to our time myself,” Lunette declares, also already having a plan of how to do it as well.

“No, I can’t let ya do that. Ya can’t just be running around because ya might change things,” Jorge insists, not wanting Lunette to go through with it.

“Oh come on Jorge, waiting in some desert city is going to be so boring, there is nothing for me to do there. Plus I’m so pale and the desert and the Sacrosanct Empire aren’t on good terms yet,” Lunette starts to argue, knowing that staying in the desert would be unpleasant for her in this time period.

“Fine, ya can find somewhere else to hide but don’t go trying to meddle with time. Trust me I saw what happened to my man Alcaeus,” Jorge warns her, not wanting her to share his fate.

“Okay, but let’s at least see what Kali is up to. We don’t want her to know we are there, but we could at least spy on her for a second,” Lunette suggests, still fully planning on getting to that fountain, drinking for it, and then using her newfound luck to invent time travel.

“Fine, Northwest he said, lead the way,” Jorge gives in; thinking taking a look couldn’t hurt. They head in that direction through the thick forest until they hear an odd sound off in the distance.

As they get closer they recognize it as moaning. They hide behind a tree and spot Drakthar and Kali having sex, their forms only illuminated by the torchlight around them.

“Well, I didn’t expect this,” Lunette comments to herself, intently watching the act before her.

“They’re all here then,” Jorge notes as he sees Kayde and Gwendolyn’s familiar tents set up nearby.

“No, that means we are too late, Fore is in there right now drinking the fountain… and Kayde’s in there too. I can’t sneak in anymore,” Lunette sadly realizes.

“Hey, it’s fine lass, let’s get out of here before we make things worse,” Jorge suggests, not wanting them to mess with anything that happened, especially with the people they travel with.

“Okay,” Lunette dejectedly agrees, getting a last look at Drakthar and Kali before stealthily following Jorge away from there. They find a place to rest for the night, deciding that moving through the vast forest of the Marshlands at night could only cause more trouble.

“Do you think any of the others could have ended up here too?” Lunette asks Jorge as they look up at the dark sky above.

“I thought maybe they could have. But I remember when we came through, it was only the two of us that were moving towards this one,” Jorge notes, having thought back to when the monster appeared and pushed them back into the portals.

“Yeah, I think so too,” Lunette agrees, having also come to that conclusion, but still wanting to hold on to some sort of hope.

“So can ya agree we are heading to Aconblasam in the morning?” Jorge asks, hoping this time travel business is in longer on her mind.

“Nope, I know exactly where I’m going and it’s not Aconblasam. I’m going to go to the Silent Brotherhood safe house where they are holding the man who created Kayde. There he and I are going to work together to solve time travel,” Lunette declares, excited by the challenge of it.

“Fine, that seems out of the way enough, just stay there for a year and don’t let anyone else know about it. He should be able to handle keeping your secret, he knows about this stuff,” Jorge doesn’t stop her; sure that she won’t be able to actually learn anything in a year.

“Jorge, come with me. At least get me there because I don’t think the people here will be that nice if I walk around by myself. I’m like really pale,” Lunette requests, knowing what she will encounter in this area if she goes alone.

“Fine, but then I’m going to Aconblasam, waiting a year and then returning to the desert capital where I belong,” Jorge states, eager to get back to his normal life now that they have slain the legendary sand dragon another two times.

“Thanks, Jorge, I appreciate it. If I do figure it out though do you want me to get you so we can go back together?” Lunette asks, thinking he might want that.

“No, I shouldn’t be getting involved in these sorts of messes with time travel and Scientists, best do it by yourself. I’ll wait it out,” Jorge turns her down, content to wait.

“Have it your way. Either way, we have to get out of here first,” Lunette notes, already trying to think of how she will accomplish that the following morning.

The two of them awaken in a thick fog. It takes them a second to realize that the odd white clouds in front of them are in fact fog and not the fuzziness in their eyes when they wake up.

“Lass? Ya here?” Jorge calls out, trying to make sure she is still there because he cannot see her.

“Yeah, hold on a second I am going to get rid of this stuff,” Lunette responds, starting to rifle through her bag of holding for something.

“Here we go! Now it will only be a second,” She assures him as he starts to hear a loud mechanical noise right next to him. Suddenly the fog around the two of them starts to clear and Jorge looks over and sees what looks like a giant vacuum, not that Jorge would recognize it as that, sucking in the air around them, removing the fog.

“That’s handy,” Jorge notes as he gets to his feet.

“WHAT?” Lunette asks loudly, unable to hear him over the sound of her machine.

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU,” she informs him while pointing to her ears.

Jorge waves it off, no longer trying to talk over the loud sound. They make their way through the fog-covered forest; scaring away any would-be predator due to the harsh sounds of Lunette’s device.

They make it past the trees and see the waterline marking the entrance to the Marshlands. In the distance, they spot the bridge that the group used.

“Over there,” Lunette points to it as she starts to walk over to it.

They go down it for a little bit before coming to a massive break in it, the part where Xander switched the group with a giant tree on the shore.

“How are we supposed to get across? Just swim?” Jorge questions, starting to consider that as their only option.

“No, they mentioned something about man-eating lizards or something… I think swimming would be a mistake…” Lunette warns him as she starts to think of something.

“So what do ya suggest we do?” Jorge asks, not noticing that Lunette is in one of her dazes.

“Hey, Lass,” he raises her voice when she doesn’t respond.

“Huh? Were you saying something Jorge?” Lunette asks, snapped out of it by his yelling.

“What are we going to do?” Jorge repeats the basis of his question.

“Hold on, I have something that should do that trick,” Lunette starts to dig through her bag once again, having a solution to their problem. She pulls out a long sheet of metal.

“That isn’t nearly thick enough to support us,” Jorge notes as he watches her pull it out.

“Normally no it could not, but this sort of metal in particular while it may seem brittle if you dip it in water,” she demonstrates by starting to put it in the water.

“Tada! It gets harder,” she pulls it out, showing Jorge the change in the texture of the soaked part. She hands it to him and lets him lean over and dunk the entire thing into the swamp.

Once it is solidified, they place it on the bridge and cross over it with ease. They make their way across the bridge without encountering any of the lizards Kayde mentioned to Lunette, causing her to doubt his stories.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad… now if I recall correctly we should just head South through the mountains and we will end up in the desert,” Lunette declares, the hard part of their journey out of the way.

The two of them travel South, stopping by in some desert towns to gather better supplies for travel. They never stop in one place for long, making their way all the way to the Silent Brotherhood safe house the Scientist is hiding out in near the Southern part of the desert.

“This guy can be kind of jumpy from the times I have encountered him, how are you going to convince him to help ya?” Jorge asks Lunette, not sure why he would do so without a good reason.

“I mean… I am kind of his creation’s lover. I feel like if I tell him that he should help me out. This guy is like Kayde’s father so it should be fine,” Lunette figures, not actually sure what the Scientist is like.

“Hope that works for ya,” Jorge notes as they two of them approach the safe house. Jorge knocks on the door and promptly a man opens it slightly and looks through a crack at them.

“Who are you two? State your business,” The man demands, based on the voice Jorge knows this isn’t the Scientist.

“We are friends of Gwendolyn and Kayde,” Lunette declares, trying to reference the two people he would know.

“How do I know you aren’t lying?” The man asks, thinking this could be a cheap trick by the Cult of Chaos to take by the Scientist.

“Let me talk to him, he’s seen me before,” Jorge suggests, having met the Scientist with the others in Melusarej when they put him here initially.

“Fine, you, go stand by that window,” he points Jorge over to a window for the Scientist to look out from and confirm that he knows Jorge. He listens and it only takes a few seconds before the man opens up the door, letting the two of them inside.

Lunette sees all of the machinery lying about and cannot help but go to inspect it all herself, completely ignoring introductions or explaining the reason she came here.

“What are you two doing here?” The Scientist asks, seeing Jorge and this odd woman that has accompanied him.

“She wanted to talk to ya… I’m going to be taking my leave now,” Jorge warns him, wanting to get back to his old way of life.

“Hold on, you just show up here and leave this girl at my doorstep, you have to explain why,” The Scientist demands, having no idea who she is or why she came.

“Not my problem, she wanted to see ya so I brought her to ya. Nothing else needs to be said from me. Just ask her once she is done gawking at your metal boxes,” Jorge tells him as he walks out the front.

“So who are you,” the Scientist asks Lunette, not knowing that doing so when she is in this state is futile.

“Hey, are you listening?” He asks while she is completely ignoring him.

“Who are you?” He starts to yell at her. This snaps Lunette back to reality.

“Oh, sorry, that must have seemed rude. I’m Lunette, I am… well, I wouldn’t say dating, that’s not quite right. I am sleeping with Kayde,” she sticks out her hand at him, a wide smile on her face.

“Okay… Nice to meet you,” the Scientist is taken off guard by how cheerfully this woman just declared what she did.

“You too. I heard you do time travel stuff, I want to make a time machine,” Lunette tells him, her smile getting more and more devious.

“No, I am afraid I do not meddle in such things anymore. I haven’t since Kayde and the others helped me escape here. That makes me wonder, if you are here, where is Kayde?” The Scientist questions, thinking that if they were close they would be together.

“That’s where it gets complicated. Jorge and I were pushed through a portal, now Kayde and the others went through different portals. That all happens about a year from now. I want to skip the whole waiting part and just time travel back to that time where the others will be,” Lunette explains to him what happened.

“It is only a year, did you consider just waiting?” The Scientist asks, seeing that as the sanest option.

“Jorge is going to do that, seems kind of boring to me. It’s been so exciting lately you know? I don’t want to just wait around for another year. So what do you say? You know I can help you I’m a scientist myself,” Lunette tries to get him to go along with it.

“No, I will not help you, but if you want to stay here so you are out of the way for the year you can,” the Scientist offers. While he doesn’t want Lunette to meddle with time, he does want to learn more about whom his creation has chosen as a lover.

“Come on… I mean your name is the Scientist, let’s do this,” Lunette doesn’t give up so easily.

“That isn’t really my name you know,” the Scientist informs her.

“Oh, I didn’t know everyone just always calls you that. So what is your name?” Lunette asks, the first person to think to do so in a really long time.

“Kayde,” the Scientist responds plainly.

“Wait, your name is Kayde?” Lunette asks, this being the last name she would have predicted.

“Yes,” the Scientist nods.

“You named your creation after yourself?” Lunette asks, finding this slightly weird.

“I did. He doesn’t only just have my name, but the human parts of him have my DNA, so he is almost like my actual child. Although I am sure he only views me as his creator, not like a father,” the Scientist notes, the sadness not detectable in his voice.

“Oh come on, he talks so fondly of you other Kayde. He keeps telling me how smart you are. I’m pretty smart so I would always argue that I am smarter than you are and it would get him kind of annoyed,” Lunette recounts, thinking back to their many conversations.

“That… that is good to hear,” the Scientist notes, getting a little teary-eyed.

“Okay now that you are thinking about him why don’t you help me get back to him? Come on other Kayde, I know you want to,” Lunette tries once again.

“No, but you know what, this year isn’t going to be boring for you. Why don’t we figure out who is right between you and Kayde? I’m curious as a fellow scientist to discover which of us is truly superior,” the Scientist challenges her.

A fire suddenly erupts in Lunette’s eyes as they narrow onto the one before her.

“You’re on,” she agrees without hesitation, seeking to prove herself against someone as lauded as him.