Xopil opened his eyes and with a yawn, he tried to get up. "So heavy...?"

"Good morning, Xopil." he was greeted by six familiar voices as his eyesight adjusted.

"Good morning, now let me go... please," Xopil was rather civil considering his situation, then he added, "before I lose my patience would be good."

Xiara smirked at him as she laid on top of him, "Oh, and what would happen then?"

"Cold baths for all of you," he replied unamused, finding each of his limbs held by one of them.

"You really don't like waking up surrounded by women?" Calypso asked.

"We've been over this yesterday. This isn't what I consider 'surrounded', this is 'outnumbered' and 'restrained'... borderline 'prisoner'," Xopil retorted.

"Aren't you being a bit pessimistic?" Xiara asked as she smiled while staring into his eyes.

"Maybe, but that's enough." Xopil wrapped each of them in a spacial distortion, picked them up and carried them unceremoniously out the nearest open window. He dropped them in a pond. Before he dismissed the magic, he manipulated it to suck all the heat out of the area, instantly bringing the temperature of the water just several degrees above freezing.

"Heartless." stated Lexi. As she climbed out of the water she summoned a small fire to gradually warm up.

"Well, he did ask nicely at first, our fault for not heeding the warning." Beda surmised.

"Didn't think I'd get a cold bath too though," Xiara commented as the six of them gathered around the warmth.

"Okay, next attempt we'll..."

"Women..." Xopil shook his head as he climbed out of bed and dressed himself. Hopefully that's the last of this sort of thing... who am I kidding? They're likely just getting started. What got into Xiara though? She's very possessive, so this doesn't make sense. Is this world affecting her in other ways? What about me? Xopil got lost in his thoughts as he made his way out of the inn, out of town and deep into seclusion in the forest.

Before he engaged himself in the mysteries of time magic, he wrapped his surrounding area in a spacial distortion severing it from the rest of the world so he could work in peace. Another benefit, in the event something went wrong, the damage would be isolated.

"Classy." Xopil chided himself as he manifested an antique clock in his hand, "But... the simpler things in life are easier to comprehend."

Xopil turned the clock around, examining it from every angle, looking at what options he has for tinkering with it. "The concept of time in a clock is pretty straightforward. One direction at a steady even pace, with a fairly clear indication of how much time has passed. Thinking on this logically, if the clock were to run fast, that should speed up time, right...? Of course it does. So running the clock backwards should rewind time... but it doesn't look like this clock has such ability."

"I wonder if that's due to my lack of understanding, or if I made too simple a clock? What if the clock stops? Or... breaks? Nothing should happen right? It's just a simple magical clock I made... for that matter, can it break?" Xopil scrutinized what he held in his hand, "...ok you fool, stop thinking of it like an actual clock."

Xopil slowed the speed of the clock slightly and observed the two separate areas, his isolated zone and the world outside it. It took a few minutes, but there was a clear desynchronization between the two, with the isolated area influenced by the time magic seemingly trying to catch up to the other. Xopil dispelled the clock and the spacial barrier, and observed that the desync remained, the previously isolated zone would forever be some minutes behind in time.

Xopil manifested a screen, and watched as the six women were dropped in the pond. "If only I could use this to see a future event, but... there's no way of knowing now exactly what is going to happen... or is there?" Xopil continued watching the women and listened in as they discussed their next scheme.

"...Seriously?" Xopil dispelled the magic, "well here goes nothing..."

Xopil concentrated on what he just eavesdropped, and a very vague image appeared before him. He couldn't tell the 'where' or 'when', but he and the six women were clearly visible. "And that's enough of that." Xopil dismissed the magic, a light blush on his face. "I have to find some way to avoid that, just there's so much unknown."

Elsewhere, six women shrieked as they were suddenly picked up and thrown into a pond for the second time.

"Clearly, he likes that or he wouldn't try to deter us before we get to try it," Xiara giggled.

"You mean...?" Lexi asked.

"Correct, he viewed the past and listened to our plans to try and see the future, and he liked what he saw, so much he would likely..." Xiara stopped herself mid-sentence. This isn't me... what the hell is going on?

"In that case do we proceed, since he knows?" Beda asked.

"He knows the what, but not the when or where, since we didn't discuss that and now we aren't going to," replied Xiara.

The women suddenly felt a familar grasp as a spacial distortion enveloped them individually.

"Well, at least his finesse is improving, this is quite comfortable and... arousing," commented Xiara as she was gently placed waist deep in the pond, as were the others.

"What's he plotting now?" asked Calypso, but her answer came all too soon as the pond completely froze over while they were each half submerged.

"Gonna say we call it off," Lexi said through gritted teeth. When the other five nodded agreement, the pond gently thawed to prevent any further shock from quick temperature changes.

"That control though... he's gone through a pretty drastic improvement in just an hour." Winter commented.

"An hour to us... consider if he slowed time on himself and condenced a few days worth of time into an hour... or months, even years," replied Xiara, "he is capable."

"Maybe next time." Xopil answered her as he approached the pond, "I'm here to tell you in person to give up on your plot. I still don't have all the details yet, but it's becoming clearer. For instance, when I'm viewing the future from this point in time, one of you is missing. And, that is because one of you dies here, from non-compliance. I'm not going to say who though."

"And one more thing," Xopil continued, "release Xiara from your hexes."

"Hexes?" Xiara looked at the five women in disbelief.

"Yes, quite astonishing really. You haven't been your proper self for a few days." Xopil cast a cold, no-nonsense glance at them, "Time magic is quite convenient for a lot of things, particularly when it comes to investigating a change in a person's behavior. I should mention they tried the same thing on me, but they said something about my natural resistance being too strong for them."

"..." Xiara glared daggers at the five women as the foggy feeling in her mind abated and dispersed. "Who is the ringleader?"

Xopil replied, "Irrelevent. The present has changed, so the future is no longer clear."

"You mean...?" Xiara looked hopefully at Xopil.

He shook his head, "No. There's still a long ways to go. This situation has helped though. So I can't let you kill any of them," his eyes gleamed as he viewed visions of ancient history, and events yet to pass. After a slight pause he added, "...yet. It seems they all have a helpful role to play in the future."