It wasn’t really a question of safety. Serenity doubted that there was much that “Lost Regrets” could or would do that could harm him.

Instead, it was only a question of which would waste more time. Traveling through the middle of a Time-warped area could well cost far more time than the shortcut gained. On the other hand, it might also do the opposite and let him travel through the area in no time at all or even push backwards in Time. He’d be happy if it simply left him unaffected.

Realistically, he had some spare time. He wanted to hurry, but the only real deadline he had was Rissa’s pregnancy. For all that he was coming up on nine months since she became pregnant, her pregnancy wasn’t as far along as it should be. He probably had time to go around; he was simply impatient. Still, he knew that impatience wasn’t a reason to skimp on preparation and safety.

If he went around, he’d probably have to deal with the demon beasts he wasn’t seeing in the deep forest. While he hadn’t seen any he was worried about yet, that didn’t mean it was completely safe.

If he went through the forest, he’d have to deal with the time anomaly. He didn’t yet have enough information to determine if it was problematic at all or not. On the other hand, Serenity had an excellent SpaceTime Affinity, and he needed practice with it. Could he use his Affinity to figure out what was happening and avoid anything that might pitch him forward in time?

Did he have any Skills that could help?

Serenity paused while he searched through his Skill list. Despite his Child of Time Path, he didn’t have many Skills that were specifically related to Time.

The search also made him realize another lack: all of the Skills he had that were seemingly Space-related weren’t using his SpaceTime Affinity. They instead used his connection to the Origin, which wasn’t even clearly listed on his Status. It was almost like the Voice didn’t know how to handle it.

He needed to put a good Space-related Path on his list and maybe a Time one as well. The Space one was especially important; his boots’ magic had finally failed. They were only a well-fitted pair of boots for his Chimera form now, not magical equipment. He needed a Skill to replace the battlefield mobility he’d lost.

Off the battlefield, his study of Portals and teleportation was coming along, but he wasn’t yet confident enough in his presets to Infuse a teleport spell. He could affect a few things while Evoking an Infused spell, but they were limited. His new Quickrune Skill would help with that once he unlocked it, but he wasn’t certain how flexible it would be.

For now, though, the important thing was his Time-based Skills. He only had three. Of the three, Moment of Prescience seemed the least usable in this situation. At the very least, he hoped it would stay unused.

Moment of Prescience

Know a moment ahead of time when something will kill or disable you or someone you wish to protect. Activation is automatic. Cannot be activated more than once a minute. Consumes stamina in inverse proportion to the threat

His other two Time-related Skills, however, were likely to be useful. He didn’t need to do anything at all for Unbound; it simply worked. Time’s Eye, on the other hand, was a problem. He’d never gotten it to work without serious effort. It created images that weren’t at all simple to interpret.

Time’s Eye

Your eyes see the motions of Time as it stretches and changes. The hidden is easier to see and the false easier to see through. Consumes Stamina

Unbound

Time does not quite have the same hold on you as it does on others, and Fate does not rule you. You can slip between the lines of the future and past or even blur them if you have the desire and the strength. That which will be has no power over you, and you can break the strands of Destiny for others if you dare. This ability is always active and has always applied to you

It was still perfect for the situation; he should be able to literally see Time moving and changing, while Unbound would prevent any of those changes from trapping him.

Yes, he’d be fine. More than that, he should be able to get through without being trapped in some less friendly version of Brigadoon.

Serenity continued on his planned route, but he asked Aide to help him monitor Time’s Eye. If he tried to figure it out on his own, it would take more time than simply heading around the forest.

Even with Aide’s help, Time’s Eye wasn’t very informative before Serenity decided to stop for the night. Like the previous night, he found a good place in the trees to build a temporary shelter with Call on the Origin; this time, it was above the ground where a number of branches came together.

In the morning, Serenity climbed out of the tree to a changed landscape.

He was surrounded by fields as far as the eye could see. A glance up at the tree he’d spent the night in showed a far different tree than when he woke; it was a different species of tree, tall with no low branches. It was clear that any that tried to grow near the ground were eaten.

The branches he’d used to climb down simply weren’t there. It was like everything changed when his feet touched the ground.

Since he’d handed off the Skill to

Aide? Did Time’s Eye show the change?

Time’s Eye shows a diffraction pattern of shifting time.

What? Serenity knew what diffraction was, but he didn’t usually think of time as having waves or moving around corners. Was that part of why he’d never been able to figure out Time’s Eye?

No. The amount of information supplied by Time’s Eye is consistent with the noted processing difficulty.

Serenity was fairly certain Aide had just insulted his mental processing speed. He couldn’t really argue; a computer was much faster than a human at many things. He might not be human anymore but the way he thought was still based around the way a biological entity worked, not a computer.

Serenity heard laughter in the back of his head. It had to be Aide, and that meant it was deliberate.

Serenity grinned. Aide was definitely becoming more like a person.

Show me what you’ve figured out. Can you keep it to something my puny human … er, draconic brain can handle?

Aide didn’t respond verbally; instead, Serenity’s vision split into a pair of images. One was the forest he’d been in, while the other was the lightly treed grassland he’d seen when he touched the ground. There were sheep in the distance in the grassland; several of them were overlapped by trees in the forest.

When he looked behind himself, Serenity could see several places where there was a rainbow pattern; each color seemed to be his brain trying to protect himself against the spray of images Time’s Eye usually presented him with. Unless it was Aide protecting him?

Which one am I in right now?

The meadow appears to be the more physical of the current manifestations. Time’s Eye allows us to see the present as well.

There was a pause while Serenity thought through the situation. He could probably leave if he went towards one of the prismatic sprays; diffusion implied a corner in Time, which meant it was likely to be the way out. On the other hand, that would be giving up on the direct route.

Can you track the passage of Time outside while we’re in here?

The last thing Serenity wanted was to be catapulted forward in Time.

As far as I can tell, it is not moving. There is no movement from wind; the animals are not moving, not even to breathe.

That sounded like good news. A few days one way or the other shouldn’t be a problem, but saving several days would still be good if he could do it. If not, at least it gave him time to figure out what was going on here without costing him time he cared about.

Serenity moved forward and tested Aide’s words by putting his hand through where another tree should have been. It went right through the air. He was correct; Serenity was on the other side of the looking glass now. Figuratively, at least.

There was only one way to find out what was here: to go and look. Lost Regrets still didn’t sound directly dangerous, though Serenity was concerned about the lack of monsters. It had to mean something.

He moved forward for hours without seeing anything more notable than an occasional free-roaming sheep or songbird. The lack of shepherds surprised Serenity, but he had to admit that he didn’t know enough about sheep to be certain that they were always kept close.

While Serenity tracked what was happening around himself, Aide kept an eye on what was going on in “real” time with the use of Time’s Eye. As far as Aide could tell, they were still in the same frozen moment as when they started; there were no discontinuities and still nothing had moved. They did seem to be changing their location, at least, which added to Serenity’s impression that something strange was happening to a large part of the forest.

It was midafternoon in the meadows and still morning in the forest when Serenity found a road. It didn’t lead exactly in the direction he wanted to head, but it was only a slight turn to the left. It would take him deeper into the forest than he’d planned, but with Time being frozen outside, that ought to be fine and Serenity was curious.

The other direction wasn’t an option; it wasn’t exactly back the way he’d come, but it was more backwards than sideways. For all that Time seemed to be standing still, Serenity didn’t want to backtrack if he didn’t have to.

The road reminded Serenity of an old Roman road, made of fitted stones. It wasn’t perfectly flat; instead, it was a little higher at the middle than the edges. The difference was visible but not really noticeable when traveling on the road. The strange thing about the road was that it was as wide as a modern two-lane road, far wider than Serenity would have expected for something that didn’t see much traffic.

Serenity followed the road, content with the knowledge that Aide was keeping track of their location.

It was hours later when Serenity finally reached a village. It seemed small; there were only a dozen homes. There also wasn’t a wall or anything keeping the village safe. What there was instead was a set of animal pens that clearly led up to a large building. There was a fully paved section of the road that led directly to a wall of the building on the opposite side from the sheep pens; as far as Serenity could tell, the entire wall must open if they were using all of the road that was there.

Serenity wasn’t certain if the building was a shearing barn, a slaughterhouse, or something else. He didn’t know enough about sheep raising to even know if those would be in separate buildings, though it seemed likely.

There were a few sheep in the pens, but not many; quite a few of the ones Serenity did see seemed to have some sort of injury, so he guessed these were probably the sheep that they wanted to watch for one reason or another.

Serenity looked around the village; no one was outside, but it was obvious that several of the houses were currently inhabited because light leaked out around the edges of doorways and windows. It was getting dark; perhaps someone would have a spare bed?