“You know why, you know EXACTLY why?” I give Estellda a look of disbelief.

“Well… not everything, just the part about Allemantheia headquarters, why it’s undamaged.” Estellda replied. I narrow my eyes, squinting at her, not convinced. “You know how I told you we’re all on a quest?”

“Mmhmm…” I nod. “I remember you telling me that but I don’t think I really understood what you meant.”

“Well I figured as much, your reactions aren’t really what I expected when I told you.” Estellda draws her swords, stabbing the tip of one lightly into the ground, the drags it across the dirt in a straight line. “Imagine that as the timeline in Arborea.” She walks to one end of the line, “What’s the last major event you remember before falling asleep Red?”

“Hmm… I suppose that would be the appearance of the Island of Dawn, the call for adventurers from the Federation. I was already in the arccannon development team then. My last memory was the night before the test for the new armor that would protect us from the stored arcane in the arccannons.” I answer as I step away from Estellda, giving her more space.

“Right.” Estellda draws a short line perpendicular to the first long line. “Let’s say this is when you fell asleep.” She takes a few steps down the long line and draws another short line intersecting it, “and this would be when I first entered Arborea as a Castanic.” She draws a zig-zagging line from that point along the longer line as she speaks “all that stuff your read about in the library, all the events involving the guardian of velika happened in this jagged part of the time line. Eventually it leads up to this,” She stops, and draws a big cross about four fifths of the way down the long line “the defeat of the Argon Queen, Shandra Manaya. So far so good?” I nod, observing the crude drawing on the ground.

“Good. Here’s where it gets interesting” She grins as she moves back down the line towards the Island of Dawn marker, “Every adventurer from my world enters Arborea at this point in time. If they follow the progress of the quest, they would walk down the same path.” She draws another line parallel to the first. “Take Bree for example, she would enter Arborea in the exact point in history as I did. Even if Shandra Manaya’s already been defeated in my timeline, it hasn’t happened yet for Bree.” Estellda starts drawing multiple lines parallel to the first, “And that is the same for every adventurer, even as we speak, there are new adventurers entering Arborea at that point in time.”

I continue looking at the picture Estellda scrawled in the dirt, then back up at her. She’s smiling, an expectant look on her face. “You’re joking right? Bree... tell me she’s joking.” I turn to Bree, waiting for her reply.

“Well… I’m pretty sure I got here before she did but everything else she’s said so far is accurate.” Bree nods as she replies. I turn to Estellda again, then back to the drawing, trying to take it all in, to visualise the idea.

“It gets better.” Estellda says excitedly. “Remember how I said all adventurers go through the same events through the quests? It’s like we’re all reading the same book and the main character in it is the reader. So in certain portions of the quest, we get to experience the events like we’re watching a movie!”

“What’s a moovy?” I ask. Bree bursts out laughing.

“Urghhh… damnit Red! Bree a little help, what’s a movie...” Estellda annoyed with having to explain something I’m pretty sure is common knowledge to adventurers again.

Bree composes herself, leaning on her sword for support. “Ok you know those stage performances at Pleasure Street in Castanica?” I feel my face and the tips of my ears turning a shade of crimson as memories of my home city surfaces in my mind, “Well I may have caught a glimpse of that passing by the entrance…” I wasn’t allowed to watch the performances at Pleasure Street, only adult Castanics bearing the curse of Baldar can and I was already at Allemantheia when that happened, but that didn’t stop me from sneaking a peek from the roof tops. We all did when we were young, how else were we to learn the dance of the deva?

“Right… That blush is telling Red. Now imagine if you can somehow record the image and sounds of the performance and then replay it over and over whenever you want.” Bree explains “so in our quests, we sometimes observe these events like that. All adventurers would see the same thing.”

“Exactly! We call that a cutscene and while we’re experiencing that,” Estellda continues, taking over from Bree, “the world doesn’t actually change. You remember reading about how we got the title of the Guardian of Velika on the Steps of Velika? That ceremony took place in such a cutscene. No one else but the adventurer experiencing it can see it happening at the Steps of Velika.” She points to one of the lines parallel to the main line “because it took place in a parallel timeline.”

“So you’re saying that right now, that event is happening to some adventurer in Velika?” I ask, still not a believer.

“I can’t say for sure at this point in time but it’s a very real possibility.” Estellda smiles, happy that I’m getting it.

“So how does that explain what happened at Allemantheia headquarters?”

“It explains it perfectly! That was your cutscene Red! We were able to see it too somehow, well Bree only saw the end but that’s not the point. I suspect it’s because we were in your party!” Estellda exclaims as she jumps and dodges around me all excited.

“But how do you know it’s my… moo… what did you call it again?”

“Cutscene” Bree said flatly.

“Right. That.”

“Because when we went back after the world came back up, before we started your awakening process, we didn’t see get to experience the same scene!” Estellda continues running circles around me, “you were on a quest Red. That NEVER happens for an NPC!”