The City of Sand is the capitol of the Desert Triarchy, the city does not have its own leadership but is ruled by the leaders of the other three cities. They stay in the City of Sand at all times and direct their joint government over the region and war to contain the Southern Darklands.

Adrian

Aside from a minor skirmish from a small group wandering into the camp yesterday, nothing of note happened in two weeks it took to both get to the Forest of Daerth and gathered to be thrown at the werewolf village as fodder.

“Assemble in formation!” Sir Brightdouche yells out and I sigh.

Tonight is the full moon, this must be at the start of the attack. I suppose this explains the lack of food being distributed this morning. I can just hear those in charge saying, 'no need to waste good food on those that are going to die.’

“Alright, Ria will be in the middle of us. Bryan you’re front while I’ll take the outer flank. Abagail. . .” I say before Abagail interrupts “inner flank, we know.”

By the time we’ve set our own small formation within the blocks that Brightblade has forced us to be within, the paladin shouts out “advance towards the heretic monsters!”

Shouts of derivatives of 'for the Holy One' echo his shout while I just roll my eyes annoyed. These werewolves have been here for a long time and seem to just want to be left alone but because they fight the demons in a different way and worship a different god from the same pantheon they’re trying to exterminate them.

We begin the March into the woods and after nearly an hour at the pace Brightblade set, we see a small circle of huts. Atop of the huts are several people holding bows, most of which are women but I don’t have time to notice more than that as the whistle of arrows flying through the air as several of those in the block fall dead.

I stand ready as Ria begins one of her spells. Unfortunately, she is noticed as a caster and a few arrows fly at her. I want to protect her but Bryan beats me to it as he raised his shield and it glows pulling the attacks to it.

I stare for a moment, I did not know he could do that. I really should have done more than just trying to figure out how to do more with my magic. . .

“Charge!” Brightblade shouts over the growing clamor of combat.

The actual soldiers behind us force us forward and it is not long before we are at the edge of the village. Bryan blocks a spear strike from a child before I feel a flash of heat from my right. A conflagration of fire exploding and killing many of those who wanted no part in any of the bullshit of this world.

I grab at the flames and force them to grow larger and wash over my friends and me without actually burning us, giving Ria the cover she needs to keep anyone from noticing her illusion's flaws for a while. I feel a strange tingle wash over me before she grabs my hand and pulls me towards the village. I grab Bryan, who grabs Abagail to keep us from getting lost.

We rush through a gap in the fighting caused by the oversized fireball and into the village. From here we should be able to get out before the village is surrounded. At least that was the plan before Ria says, “someone broke my illusion.”

I turn about as I look but the only people I see are a silver haired woman and two red haired elves walking out of the shabbiest of the huts. A young man follows after them and the world freezes in place as our eyes meet.

Lykou

It does not take long for me to lead the elven twins to my hut as Kylana does whatever it is that she needs to do with the information that she just gained. I move the cloth aside that acts as a door and say, “it isn’t much but it should be secluded enough to keep you from being interrupted.”

“Thank you” one of the twins say but I don’t know who it is as I’ve lost track of which one is who.

They frown just as K used to at the low quality of just about everything in the building. Maybe I should get some better furniture. . .

The elf girl who thanked me kneels down in a corner and I guess she starts praying. I’m not really interested in whatever religious thing is going on so I turn to the other elf and ask, “where are you and your sister from?”

“Sister’s prayers need to be done in silence” she says rather than answering my question.

So much for my subtle plan of learning what I can about these two elves who look exactly like the two elves in my memories; at least the shorter versions of the two. I glance at K who frowns at the elf girl's response to my question but she doesn’t do anything about it.

Since I don’t want to potentially ruin getting back my harem, I just pull K away from the less polite elf and we sit and wait for something to happen. I am a little disappointed that we didn’t get to have our morning spar but I have this strange feeling that I am not making some connection and something is going to happen.

Minutes pass before I hear a yell outside. I don’t quite catch what was said but K must have as she stands up immediately. Oddly enough, the elven girl who was praying also gets up and walks towards the door of my small abode as the outside noise grows louder.

I get up and follow them outside, wondering why the warmth in my chest is there for the elf girls. K was fun to be around from the start but they have not been so. One of them is overly prideful and the other just seems hasn’t spoken much since her sister woke up.

The elf who was praying chants something in the doorway, a spell of some sort but I don’t know what it does. Just that it doesn’t use the parts of magic I’ve been studying.

As I step through the doorway, I see the air shimmer as K begins to charge forward. The shimmering area blurs for an instant before I notice four people. The first two seem familiar, a tall teenage male with brown hair in a chain shirt holding a longsword and shield, and a very short girl that could probably pass herself off as a halfling in leather armor cut not to get in the way of the somatic gestures required in casting.

Even though I feel that I know these two people, they are not what catches my attention. The red tipped golden blond fox ears and twin tails on the girl between those to and the next male is. She’s a kitsune, and looks just like the one in my memories other than that she is a tail short and a bit shorter. I feel a warmth in my heart for her but it is even less than what I feel for the two elves.

I need to figure out if she and the elves really are my lost harem and if they are get back their affections. I continue my traveling gaze until it lands on what seems to be a near mirror image of myself. He seems to be slightly taller but he doesn’t have as much muscle on him.

The two of us make eye contact and all the sounds and movement in the world seem to stop, the color rapidly draining from my vision before the world goes dark.

An instant later, I am standing in a white void across the from the mirror image of myself.

“Where are we?” the double says as I wonder the same thing before muttering “a mindscape” to myself.

“What did you do?” the duplicate yells at me but I ignore him.

What is going on? I shouldn’t be in this kind of place. Someone did something to put me here. The last time I got stuck in a mental battle like this was that dragon trying to steal my body. That imposter must be trying to do the same.

But he seems to be confused. Maybe he isn’t . . . No, I can’t risk it. I just got my K back and haven’t figured out my questions about the two elves and the kitsune yet. It could also be a distraction, him trying to get me to lower my guard.

I begin to cast Magic Missile at the intruder and find it draws on my will rather than mana as it did during the conflict with that dragon. As the barrage of miniature bombs of concussive force fly true, I shift into the dragon-human hybrid form as I charge.

The false me yells out in pain as my preemptive strike succeeds and I send him in twain, showing myself in the blood of his astral projection. The blood seeps into my body like rain on the dry ground before he vanishes and reforms. I feel my form grow stronger, larger and more solid in this astral realm. Images begin to play in the back of my mind but I ignore them for the moment. Kill the false me who intrudes on my mind, that is what I need to do, I can figure whatever else is going on when I am safe.

The false me does not say anything as he reforms slightly smaller than before and he says, “Bestow Curse: Weakness”.

Unlike when I’ve heard people cast spells before I understand what he is doing and that he is not actually using magic at all, but something else entirely. His will slams down on me as I throw my denial of the changes he tries to make to find that his power to manipulate this place is stronger than my own. My projected form feels weaker but I know it is not nearly as much as he had wanted to afflict me with.

I also know that I can just tear him apart a few times to completely offset that debuff. I take a step, teleporting behind him and try to send him with my claws but am blocked by a party from a blade of condensed light. He struggles to hold it against my physical might and while he succeeds, I smirk and use my tail to trip him.

As he falls I will a Combustion into existence without any word or gesture around him, his flesh Burns and the acrid smoke that billows off of him for a short few seconds before the projection vanishes and reforms flows into me just as the blood before it.

The instant that my foe reappears, I am hit with a blast of lightning, but it is not a full hit and only ruins my left arm. The smoke and blood dripping from it moves for my opponent for a second before I am whole again.

I teleport and maul my double, overwhelming him with the physical power of a dragon but do not immediately kill him again. My tail smashes his legs, my claws pierce his spine to paralyze, and I rip a chunk out of his shoulder with my teeth.

He tastes even better than the dragon did. I didn’t expect him to, I just wanted to inflict as much damage as possible before he dissipates and reforms to pull as much out of him as possible but now I just have to get more of this taste. I quickly take as many bites as I can before he dies again, and with each but I feel stronger and more images begin to fill the back of my mind.

He soon dies and reforms, smaller and weaker and I repeat my pattern of disabling him to eat. Sometimes I break limbs with magic or sunder and eat them, and at times he manages to strike me with a blast of fire or lightning but each time we clash I take more from him than he does from me.

I do not know how long we fight for but I am disappointed when he finally dies and simply remains dead. He doesn’t reform and I just finish eating what little is left after our fight.

As soon as I swallow the final bit the images that fill my head crash into my conscious mind, years of life fill much of the blank space that was my forgotten memories. I shout out in pain as I feel like I am being crushed by the rushing information. Names, places, events, raw knowledge and ideas spin around my mind.

I don’t understand most of them but I feel guilt, anger, hate, confusion and love that was not in me before and I remember who I am. My name is Adrian Ravnos, World Shaper, Dragon of the Void, and son of Randy and Kathrine.

Geldath (Twisting Fate Timeline)

Three days have passed since the ritual I and the other Archmages used to throw one Adrian Ravnos through time and space and yet nothing changed when we had done so. The outsiders' invasions were not undone nor did any of their actions changed.

“We can only assume that the ritual failed. If anything was going to change it would have by now” one of my colleagues says before another interrupts saying, “I told you time travel was not the solution! Now not only is it too late to perform a disjunction but we’ve lost both our chance at fresh blood and Rynald who managed to cure himself of our curse.”

“Yes, yes your idea that parallel multiverses may have some credibility. Now shut up. Why it failed isn’t important, we need to deal with the outsiders. Greater demons are beginning to make their way through the planar breaches” I shout at my fellow Archmagi.

A moment after I finish speaking a chill passes through the room and I turn to look at the origin of the feeling. I pale when I see what is standing in the back of the room. A physical embodiment of paradox.

The creature walks forward, it’s shape changing with each step, until it reaches one of the others in the room. It touches him and he vanishes is a burst of light, erased from the fabric of reality.

I throw all of my reality bending might and refined essence at the creature. My power slams against it as I panic at the strength of the creature. How did we manage to generate so much paradox, especially given that everyone has seen the supernatural by now?

It barely slows as it approaches me and reaches out it’s hand