Ch003-Time Flies

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Ch003-Time Flies

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*Ciege
Ciege woke up with an awful pain in his neck. In the past when he had fallen asleep at the forge, he would wake up with a pillow and blanket. At first, it was his mother, and later on his father. But now he was alone. A lot of the time when he woke up, he would be covered in sweat, and shrug the woolen thing off him, annoyed at being treated like a child.

But now that there was nobody left to place it, he missed that tiny piece of wool. The forge had been cleaned to the point it was shining. He had added his father’s name onto the giant metal chimney, and while he was at it, added his own. The chimney had a long list of names going all the way up to the ceiling, and still had plenty of space at the bottom, that would now remain eternally unused.

With the razor he used for shaving, he cut his hair, until it was barely a finger’s width in length, and threw the cut-offs into the forge. A smile crept onto his face as he remembered the 2 seconds of relief, that he wouldn’t have to pay the temple a copper for his dead father. His body was burned in the forge, as was his father before him, and his father before him.

The forge was built an unknown time ago. From its proximity to the river, and where the center used to be, his family could boast to be one of the earliest settlers in this area. Traces of his family’s brand could be found on some of the oldest tools in the city. Even the great brass bell the temple uses has a tiny marking made by one of his predecessors.

I wonder what my grandfather would think. Giving up my life and legacy, all for a woman. But on the other hand, it was all gone the moment dad died. At least this way I got something out of it.

*Sylver

Digging deeper through Ciege’s memories Sylver uncovered a few things. The first was that he was thankfully still on Eira. Or at least a world that was similar enough to Eira that he couldn’t find any concrete distinction. Where he was exactly, was a different question. He had never been this far west, and only had vague memories from Nyx’s travels and sketches to use as a reference. But one of the mountain ranges was distinct enough, that he was certain it was the same one. How far into the future on Eira, was an entirely different question. Comparing stars would be best. If he had bothered looking at them before he died. Or even knew what to look for.

The next question that came to mind was what the fuck was up with all these screens? People spoke about it like it was normal. Like being able to increase your strength or speed, without any training was completely reasonable. They even had it as part of their learning curriculum. And weirder still was that it didn’t feel like magic. Even something so advanced that he wouldn’t be able to comprehend it, would still feel like magic. But he felt nothing.

Another big question was what the fuck the needle was, and how the fuck his soul was attached to it. Not even inside of it, but attached somehow. Even touching it directly, he wasn’t certain his soul was inside it. In fact his soul was in Ciege, and yet the needle felt as if it was inside of it. It wasn’t a phylactery, it was something else entirely. And once again it didn’t feel like magic.

Another question was, how the fuck was he still alive? Fallen Dawn was perfect. There was no wiggle room for him to survive and there would be nothing left after the fire. A fluke? His mind giving him a peaceful vision of some world it came up with to calm him down? Some sort of crossover with the traitor’s chronomancy? Something else entirely? Even with all of those, he still shouldn’t be alive.

But putting how he got here on hold, there was a final question he had been afraid of asking.

Now what?

*Ciege

“I can’t explain it. I’m going to be leaving soon, and I want you to forget about me. I love you more than life itself, but I can’t be with you,” Ciege said.

His image in the mirror looked exactly like his fathers had, on the first morning after his mother’s death. He didn’t look like a man who had woken up from being asleep, but a man simply waiting to go to sleep again. He had grown used to the grey hair by now and barely noticed it.

“I had to get help from someone, and now I have no choice but to go with him,” Ciege said.

“I’m sorry Yeva, I only realized it last night, but I’m attracted to men,” Ciege said, smiling despite himself at the imagined shock on Yeva’s face. There was a kind of grim humor about this whole situation, that Ciege couldn’t help but laugh at it.

“I’ve decided to become an adventurer and there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” Ciege said, puffing out his chest, with false bravado. “After fighting those goblins, I can’t go back to being a blacksmith, when I know just how fun killing is.” Ciege continued, flexing his muscles, and now trying to find the least idiotic explanation.

“I accidentally unlocked a unique class, and now I must go out into the world and use it,” Ciege said, his face brightening at this.

“I’ve been given a gift by the gods, and I have to go and use it.”

“The gods have recognized my bravery for risking my life, and now it’s up to me to go and help the world.”

“Montu himself came to me in a dream and told me I must go and fight for humanity’s sake.”

“The great god Montu has delivered a message unto me, that I must leave everything behind and go and fight for humanity’s sake,” Ciege repeated.

For a solid 10 minutes, he did nothing but stare at himself in the mirror, and repeat the phrase until he got it down perfectly. By the end of it, he almost believed it himself.

He knew exactly what to say, exactly how to say it, and exactly when and where to do it. But as with most things in his life, things never went according to plan.

When he opened the front door and saw Yeva standing there, his neatly laid out lies fell into a jumbled mess and he was at a complete loss of what to say.

*Sylver

Sorting through Ciege’s memories did not take as long as he had thought it would. But he kept to himself and very rarely glanced through Ciege’s eyes to see what he was up to. Thankfully patience was one of the few gifts of growing old. And the fact that he would feel like utter shit if he cut the kids 2 weeks short.

Right now, Ciege was holding Yeva, and crying on her shoulder. Whatever words they were exchanging right now, Sylver didn’t care enough to listen. The kid wasn’t stupid, and from going through his memories he got to see that he always kept his word. He even got a perk for it.

Sylver felt awful about the situation. Ciege was a good kid, dealt a very bad hand. He was principled, honorable, and brave to the point Sylver felt envious of him. If circumstances were different, Sylver would have gladly left the kid alone and let him grow up and become a very fine man.

But Sylver didn’t know what else he could do. His selfish desire to have a body and be alive again won out over whatever sympathy he had for the kid. And sharing wasn’t an option, since at some point his soul would start overpowering and diluting Ciege’s. Which in his eyes would be a worse outcome, than simply killing him and sending his soul off.

There was only one solution to this.

*

Sylver had very little to do but sit around and wait. So, he decided to go through Ciege’s memories again. Only on the 4th replay, of a very minor memory, did he catch it. The tiniest, and almost perfect alteration to Ciege’s memory. A figure, in a pure white robe, who managed to erase every trace of herself from Ciege’s mind, and only a mirror in the corner of his vision caught her.

What was even more confusing, was the way she was altering his memory. Erasing memories, is challenging in it of itself, but altering them permanently like this? For more than a few minutes? The required precision and raw amount of mana could only be achieved for a tier 7 mage, at least!

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