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Chapter 41: Arcana Tempus

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Ted entered the estate, stepping through the front door which hung for dear life on a single hinge. He stepped around the bodies, the pools of blood, and debris. The smell was overwhelming. He tried to ignore it, focusing instead on learning what happened.

Late as usual, he thought. He sighed as he looked over the bodies and took note of who he found. He then focused more on who was missing. A handful were not counted among the dead.

He reached into his coat and pulled out an ornate pocket watch and gently swung open the glass cover protecting the clock face. He took a deep breath, held it in, and focused the static on the hands of the watch. 

He took his index finger, placed it on the minute hand, and turned it counter-clockwise. He felt resistence in the gears, forced to alter the very flow of time they worked so hard to track.

The world around him froze, then moved in reverse. He continued to spin the hand, watching as the blood worked its way back into their veins. The bodies sprang to life, rising and moving in predetermined paths.

Every spell flew back to its caster, reversing every death, albeit, temporarily. Ted watched the dance of fate, studied how the enemy fought. He watched until there were no enemies at all.

His was unique among the arcane genres. Ted was the only one who could do it. He may well be the progeniter of the art, having written the entry for it in The Simplex Arcana, himself. When Theodore took the rite, he woke with an understanding. He saw how things worked on even the simplest level.

Techniqually, he couldn't use the prestige. He was given a single talent. He could take somthign apart and put it back together. He could patch up the wounded with little to no effort.

He could build whatever he set his mind to, and he had a mind for time. By taking this gift and directing it at time, he found loopholes. He invented a power to call his own: Arcana Tempus.

He stopped turning the hands of the watch and the world stood still. He stepped forward, taking note of those who were missing in the preasent. He released his finger, and time resumed. 

Arcana Tempus is focused on time. It gave him a sense of precognition. It allowed him to witness the past, firsthand. It allowed him to alter the flow of time, speeding up or slowing down the present, but even this had limits.

He watched the actors perform all around him. Some played chess in common room to his left, Isla stood atop the stairwell telling Damon of Theodore's warning. A young man ted had never seen stood nearby, and the sudden burst of static told him the enemy was near.

He didn't even try to alter the course of events. He was an observer, caught between two points in time. He could move where he wanted, take advantage of what appeared in the past, but he couldn't change it. This was written in stone.

As he watched the carnage unfold, he learned how to predict the movements of the enemy. He noticed how they worked as one. Some were untrained, their power unrefined and without focus. Others were trained elites, who used their less valuable allies as a shield, sometimes literally.

Ted watched as a woman in red doged behind her ally, the spell killing him instead. Ted was indifferent. Ruthlessness was nothing new for him. Using the cultists as a shield, the elites subdued some of the more valuable members of the cabal. Why? Why not just kill them?

He watched from an upstairs window as they dragged their prisoners from the house. He placed a finger on the hand, pushed it forward, and time sped up. He heard a sound from the right, froze time, and looked to see Morrigan hovering over a body.

Tears covered her face, an anger growing that could be felt as well as it could be seen. He let time resume, felt the massive push of static as it rattled the mansion, shattering the windows. He followed her as she flew out out the door, immmediately assaulting the cultists.

Ted watched her rip them apart, a smile on her face and not a single hint of remorse. Her spell mutated, growths appearing on the bodies of the dead and bursting. Red mist flowed forth, shrouding The Estate.

He heard gun fire among the screams, watched the survivors of the mansion escape, and sped time again. He watched the events unfold with a look of facination, and confusion.

He watched Morrigan fight the creature, watched her defeat, and somthing clicked. This was planned. How did they know she would return. Did she recieve a warning? Why did he recieve one if she was the target?

He sighed again. "Too many players." He reviewed the events, again and again. He felt as if he learned more with every repitition. He froze time, studied the cultists, and noticed the woman who warned him of the attack was not among them.

He froze time, walked outside and to the position of the survivers, and let time resume. They were fighting over how to proceed. Some wanted to chase after them, to rescue morrigan, but others knew they were out of their depth.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw Isla staring at him with a look of defeat. The illusion faded as time moved to the present. He closed the pocket watch, placed it into his pocket, and nodded.

"Where were you?" Isla asked.

Ted looked hurt for a momet. "I couldn't have changed anything."

Isla sighed. "I know. Did you learn anything?"

Ted shook his head as he turned and walked toward the mansion. "This attack was a blatant disregard of agreements. We need to be careful here. This was planned, and I imagine their are contingencies regarding retaliation."

"That's obvious."

"There's somthing else, though," Ted said. "I can't quite explain it. I was warned by a woman in the cult, but she wasn't here during the attack. I assumed the entire cult was in on it."

Isla nodded, stepping through the door of The Estate. "The cult is divided. Tyler seems to think it's more than that, but there are definetly those in the cult who were not okay with this."

"Who?" Ted asked.

Isla looked around, pointed to a young man, and replied, "This is Tyler. He's Morrigans other half, a Discordian like myself."

Tyler sat at a bench, a pool cue laid out before him. He carved into the wood, each cut made with enthusiasm as he etched along the symbols made in black ink.

"Other half?" Ted said, reaching his hand out to shake. "Nice to meet the man who tamed the shrew." Tyler didn't respond. He shook ted's hand, and crossed his arms. "Fantastic work, by the way. Are you improvising the enchantments?"

Tyler nodded.

Isla placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll get her back, Tye."

Tyler chuckled. A curious reaction, but how else to respond to such a statement. "How? You said yourself: 'We're not meant for the front lines.'"

"We're not. Does this look like the front lines to you?"

Damon spoke up from the stairwell, a glass of whiskey in hand, "No one's doing anything."

"Excuse me?" Tyler said.

"I dont stutter. We have a potential war on our hands. There are many more cults out there. We have to work on maintaining peace. If we retaliate-" 

"We show that this kind of behavior won't be tolerated." Isla said.

Tyler shouted, forcing himself to be heard, "I don't even care." Silence followed as Tyler finished the sigils on the catalyst. "They took her, Damon. Why?"

Ted answered, "Likely to reverse her immortality. To kill her and eliminate the only threat to the cult."

Isla crossed her arms. "They can do that?"

Ted nodded. "If they can incapacitate her long enough to drain her of blood, yes. She'll be dead by morning."

"You could just fill the body with blood again and she'd be fine." Damon replied.

"If burn the body and scatter the ashes, that's all there is to it. She's gone." Damon opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. Ted nodded. "Didn't think about that did you?"

"We still won't stand a chance." Damon said, turning from them and holding a hand out to stop any further arguments. "I'm sorry. We lost."

Isla waited for him to fade away in his office before speaking, shaking her head with a clenched jaw, "We don't lose." 

 

 

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Nov 15, 2020 23:27 by Jacob Billings

Oh boy, sorry for the delay. Firstly, it took me WAY too long to realize that the opening of the chapters said "Ted" not "Tyler". Once I did, the chapter started to make sense.   I see what you meant by Ted's perspective giving more hatred to Morrigan's state as he rewound time in order to watch what happened.   Ted's arcana is super cool and I like it, though the logic behind it is kind of funny as it relies on him essentially claiming that he's able to comprehend physics to such a degree he can make a pocket watch with the ability to alter the flow of time. There is one thing that doesn't make sense to me: how did Isla tap him on his shoulder? You say that she does so and then he restarts time. Prior to this, you suggested that what he was observing actually happened, but this suggests that his ability simply allows him to observe the recent past at any speed he wants to.   I like the idea that Morrigan's immorality can be reversed by draining her of blood. Why refilling her with blood would resurrect her makes a bit less sense as I would assume that the blood has a restorative power and therefore you would need to refill her with her own blood or some semblance of her blood with the arcana in it to revive her.   The line "Damon opened his mouth to speak" is placed oddly. Because he had just spoken and I didn't know for sure who was speaking out of the characters in the chapter. The fact you used Damon's name immediately also alluded to the possibility of Damon speaking twice in a row, and this was only slightly rectified by Ted's nod, which alludes to it being him speaking but doesn't confirm it. That's a bit of an odd problem since we, as the reader, can only assume who is actually speaking.   Alright! That's about it, sorry it took so long to get to.

Nov 15, 2020 23:47 by R. Dylon Elder

No worries man. we all get busy XD I may change it to theodore to make it more noticeable. I still want to express more hatred, but i'm glad it helped show it.   So he actually didnt make a watch that can rewind time. The watch is his catalyst and a requirement for Arcana Tempus. i may switch the implication he invented it vs he discovered it. He cant truely rewind time. Its an illusion, which is why Isla can tap him on the shoulder from the present. Ill make that more clear. He cant travel through time. He can teleport though... kind of. His precognition is like... a few seconds ahead of the present. Nothing crazy. He can only observe.   Ill go back and fix this cause it's a minor detail that never really came up. Morrigans body is like a refinery. It can make the blood you put it in "her blood" if that makes sense. The blood is just blood, its morrigan who imparts the arcane quality.   Ill fix up those dialogue tags and make it clear! thanks so much. Were nearing the end here. Just a few more to go.