(Day 179) Aprilis 24th, 12th year of the Dragon, Age of Enlightenment

“It would seem that our problems to the north have come to an end,” the Council Member known as Trajan stated matter-of-factly.

“There is no way to know if that is true,” a second Council member by the name of Urban stated.

A third Council Member, Seneca, one of the eldest among them stated, “I have scried the location. There is nothing there. Literally nothing there. For a one-mile radius around the tower's location, the mountain is gone. It’s as if someone scooped the tower and the nearby surroundings right off the mountain.”

A fourth Council Member by the name of Lucan cut in, “Not to mention the devastation in the surrounding area. The forest was destroyed up to five miles away and the explosion was felt almost 100 miles away. Our spies report that the only reason anyone survived in Village by the River is that the Elders there were able to erect a shield in time. A cleric of Serena resides there, her goddess must have warned her of the impending destruction, knowledge being one of her realms of interest.

“Yes, Yes,” an irritated, heavily set, man by the name of Pliny said before pausing and continuing, “The Tower is gone, that’s all well and good. We know that Grasar, Xsitant’s red dragon survived. Where is he? Also, did this Adamantadine survive?”

Eyes turned to one of the only two women at the table, “I have no input to give. I thought it was a very bad idea to hire Xsitant, you all know that. We do not know if the target was in the tower, all we know is that the target hasn’t been seen in two days,” Vibia said.

“It matters not,” Furia, Leader of the Council declared. “Our spies have informed us that the new king is guarded by another cleric of Serena and the captain of the guard without fail. The two assassination attempts that have been made have both failed and both assassins have been fed to the Dungeon. It seems that King Tavor doesn’t have much taste for Assassins. Of course, Desirae’s team did kill his wife and child so the sentiment is quite understandable. That is not what concerns me. What concerns me is that by all reports this Adamantadine seemed to be able to perform acts of divinity without the restrictions normally in place by the divine. For this reason, the Kingdom will remain on high alert and we must remain vigilant. After we are done here I plan to return to my chambers and commune with my God. I will discover one way or another if Adamantadine is a threat to us or not.”

The Council of Seven rose, nodded to each other, and departed. Furia turned to leave and noted the Vizier waiting outside her entry point.

“Council Member,” the Vizier started but was cut off as Furia asked.

“What have you discovered?”

“As you know I traveled to the mountain and performed a scrying of the events that took place. Xsitant teleported to the roof of the tower and released something from his belt which traveled down to the door and then returned to his belt. He nodded to himself and then cast a rune and a spell inside that rune that I am unfamiliar with. Xsitant teleported back to Grasar and they flew south. When the spell went off the entire mountain vanished and an explosion ensued. I traced Xsitant and Grasar over the forest to the south where Xsitant cast a shield that I am unfamiliar with. As I have seen all eight primal shields it must have been one of the higher energies or a combination of some sort. As the wave of destruction hit the shield it did protect both the dragon and the mage, however, the mage vanished as the dragon was thrown even farther south than he’d been able to get.”

“How far exactly?” Furia asked.

“A couple of hundred miles at least.” the Vizier stated as if that was reasonable.

“A couple of hundred miles? From the mountain to a couple of hundred miles south of the mountain in no time at all?” Furia asked rhetorically.

“The Vizier recognizing that no answer was requested remained silent.”

“So at the very least we know someone was in the tower before he cast the spell?” she asked.

“It would seem so.”

“Good, then our problems may have been solved. Continue looking for Xsitant. If he cast a spell from one of the higher energies and it reacted poorly to the blast he could be anywhere.” She paused for a moment then continued. “If the shield was from the sphere of time he could be any ‘when’. See if we have anyone that studies time that can at least cast spells that can detect their usage then take them out to the point where the shield was cast. If it was a time shield we may yet hear from Xsitant. If it was any of the other higher energies, we will be lucky if anyone ever hears from Xsitant again,” very obviously dismissing the Vizier with a wave of her hand.

“As you command Council Leader,” the Vizier stated before turning and leaving.

Furia knew that the Vizier was useful but sometimes his groveling was oppressive. Moments later Furia had put the Vizier out of her mind. Returning to her quarters, Furia locked her door and then made her way over to her small shrine to the God of Destruction, Feazure.

Kneeling, she cleared her mind and communed with her god.

“Furia, what destruction do you seek this day?” her God whispered into her mind.

“My Lord, two days ago a tower to the north in the mountains was destroyed by one of your acolytes, Xsitant,” before she could continue the god whispered into her mind.

“Yesss”

“My Lord, was anyone killed in the tower.”

“You seek knowledge of the trespasser Adam?”

“Yes, my Lord”

“Adam is no longer on this world.” The god hissed.

“Thank you my Lord”

Ending the communion Furia rose from her kneeling position. She thought about the way her God had answered, “No Longer on this world.” He hadn’t said he was dead though.

Furia would continue to respond as if this Adam was still a threat to the council and prepare. The military would get some much-needed training in preparation for the assault on Venoran that she would order in the near future.

Unknown to Furia, The God Feazure had indeed worded his response both as a test and an answer. He was glad to see his cleric had passed the test and understood the message. If the little bit that Feazure had seen of Adam’s handiwork with the assassins was any indicator, his purpose was about to see some action. The question was, where was Adam? He truly was no longer on this world or in this Universe as far as Feazure could determine. Then Serena had been called away by the only god left in the Abattoir. Granted one of the oldest but still. When she returned he’d seek her out. While the gods did play their games he had found over the millennia that being personable to one's allies and foes in this game of divinity more often helped than hindered. The purpose he had chosen, destruction, was just as often accidental as intentional. It was always good to make friends with those that could further his purpose. Knowledge and Learning was one of those Divines. Mages that cast the wrong spell or blew themselves and others to bits, served his purpose. Just like Xsitant had just done, though using chaos? When that idiot returned from wherever he’d gone Feazure was of a mind to let his wrath be known. Of course, his purpose had been served and served well. Punishing such an agent of destruction as this mage had been, could hurt him. Putting it out of his mind, Feazure looked for others that also served his purpose.

The Vizier made his way from the inner sanctum of the Council to the Mages Academy. He passed various functionaries Walking directly into the headmaster's chambers without preamble and demanded the location of the closest mage with the ability to detect or analyze spells from the school of time. After waiting for a couple of minutes two men teleported into the room he’d been waiting in.

“Vizier may I present acolyte Zoie,” an elder, whose name escaped him at the moment said.

“Thank you, acolyte Zoie attend me,” he commanded. Not waiting to see if the acolyte would follow the Vizier turned and left the room. Once they were in the hallway the Vizier cast spells on each of them that would allow them to fly and teleported the mountain where Adamantadine’s Tower had been. As they hovered he got his bearings and cast a spell of remembrance that replayed the events of two days ago for both of them. As he surveyed the area he followed Grasar as he flew in close and Xsitant teleported to the tower. Then back before they turned south. They followed until Xsitant cast the shield spell and he stopped.

“Acolyte Zoie, I need to know what spell that is. The events happened two days ago. Can you determine this for me?” The Vizier asked.

The acolyte stated flatly, “Yes,” then began casting a spell. Moments later Acolyte Zoie was done and turned back to the Vizier, “The spell cast was one called “Time’s Shield.” Immediately after the shield was cast a wave of energy impacted upon it containing trace elements of chaos which changed its properties. After analyzing the residual traces it was easy to determine that the mage we both saw cast the spell was hurled into the future.

“How far into the future?” The Vizier asked.

Zoie contemplated for a few seconds to determine the best way to explain then tried, “The mage has traveled forward in time much further than I am able to determine. If he had traveled up to 1,000 years into the future I could give you an answer. He has traveled much further than that. As a time mage, he may be able to make his way back but every second he has been gone may make that impossible.”

“Explain,” the vizier commanded

“Travel through time is of course possible. Moving forward is easy. the future is unwritten from your point of view so it would require less energy. Also, time moves forward naturally. Moving backward, however, becomes harder and harder the further back you wish to go. If he’d tried to come back the moment he’d arrived it might have been possible. If it is possible to return, as a rule of thumb, a mage who studies time could travel back in time up to one day per skill level in time magic.

The Vizier looked as if to say something about explaining better, then asked, “If he can only travel back one day per level how is he going to travel back over 1,000 years?”

The acolyte hurriedly continued, “The answer is his perceptive time, so long as there haven’t been major changes or he crosses a time nexus…”

“Time nexus?” the Vizier asked cutting the acolyte off.

“A time nexus is a point in time which is almost impossible to travel back through. That’s why I ‘might’ be able to come back. Anyone that can travel through time can go forward across a time nexus. None, save maybe the divines can travel backward across a time nexus. Most mages limit their forays into time to short hops so any inability to return does not keep them away for too long. And of course, if they travel back in time they can always return to their starting point.

“So he might not be able to come back to this time because he’s blocked by one of these time nexus?”

Exactly, I should also point out that the other reason mages do not travel into the far future is that even if there were no time nexus between now and one million years from now. Every second the mage is at that future point there is a chance a nexus formed somewhere in that million-year time period. The longer they are there, the higher the probability. The mage we are discussing has been thrust, as far as I can determine many times 1,000 years into the future. It has now been two days since the event. The odds are very low that not a single time nexus has formed sometime along the timeline within the last two days.

The vizier nodded. teleported both of them back to Crownport and said,

“I thank you for your service to the Council. You are to speak of this to no one. I will inform the Council myself if it becomes necessary.

“As you will Vizier, “the acolyte said.

The Vizier nodded, turned, and made his way back to his quarters. How to tell the council that one of their most powerful tools was most likely gone for the foreseeable future? Obviously, this was one of those instances where the Council would think ‘No News is Good News.’ The Vizier smiled as he walked. He’d always thought Xsitant was a little too dangerous for the Council to bargain with. Now it looked like he need not have worried.