It is 2025 and Ariel is watching herself in the Aerie with Seraphiel.
“It’s about time you showed up.” Seraphiel says.
“What did you do with the calabash?” Ariel sees herself asking. Her wings are glorious at her back.
“I told you, Rel,” Seraphiel says, “you don’t need to worry about this stuff. It’s between the old Supremes and the Fonlands…”
“What is happening?” Ariel says. The Death Witch Detritus stands next to her and they watch Ariel with Seraphiel at a distance.
“You don’t remember this?” Detritous asks. “You’re about to be glib, watch.”
“See, if you had just answered my question,” Ariel hears herself say, “I wouldn’t be so skeptical right now. But Leilar ain’t trusted you since day one and she said you been acting tricky. But you just seraphim, you can’t do nothing with the calabash or any of the artifacts that keep coming up missing. You wouldn’t know about a missing pipe either, I bet.”
“You don’t remember killing him?” Detritus asks.
“This wasn’t me,” Ariel says.
“That looks like you,” Detritus says.
“The calabash!” Ariel sees herself yell and Seraphiel startle.
“I don’t have it, I promise. But maybe Jess know, he get more access to information than me.”
Ariel sees herself as menacing, her dark wings like weapons threatening Seraphiel as she approaches him wordlessly, and he crumbles under the silent pressure.
“The Dark Witch Coven,” Seraphiel stammers.
“Why did you have me looking for the calabash that you stole?” Ariel asks Detritus as the scene around them begins to streak past them, as though they have suddenly begun to move at a very high speed and all the world is now a blur.
“You still don’t get it do you?” Detritus asks. “I am using you, channeling my amazing mastery of Death Magic into you, a user of Divine Essence with seemingly endless potential, in order to recess into the past. Haven’t you noticed how disjointed your life has been lately, especially since you met me? I have been using you for quite some time to slip into the past, but I have learned that the closer I am to you, the easier it is for me to make lasting changes that can’t be undone by you forgetting them. The power to travel through time is in you, big sister, I am merely hijacking your ecstatic gland and trying to learn exactly how it works. We have managed to scatter the aziza from their mound! That was an unexpected success. Your power is amazing Ariel, too bad you will never know it for yourself. You will be my tool until you expire in the husk of your body. Now shut up and let me concentrate. I want to go somewhere good.”
Ariel wants to power up and attack Detritus; she can feel her energy gathering at her hands, but there is no glow. She can’t spark. She can’t do anything but nod because that is what Detritus demands.
Tracia and Ahdis land in the forest of the Disc of Agê, near the spot of a great disturbance. They quickly see Leilar, Agiel, and Zana stumbling through the woods in their direction.
“What happened to Ariel?” Ahdis asks when the group is closer.
“Speak of a Supreme and they usually appear,” Agiel says. “She has been taken by a Death Witch.”
“Is there anything we can do to get my sister back?” Zana asks, obviously suppressing anger but trying to be respectful of the mmoatia that she knows to be extremely ancient and powerful.
“Do you know who took her exactly?” Ahdis asks. “Did you get a name? Pestilence, Sorrow, Vexation?”
“Detritus,” Leilar says. “I’m sure I heard someone say Detritus.”
Ahdis looks to Tracia who shakes her head.
“Do you know where Detritus took Ariel?” Tracia asks. “Is that the disturbance we sense in the distance?”
“Detritus and Ariel disappeared and there was like a hole in space,” Zana explains.
“What is she doing, Ahdis? What are we not seeing?” Tracia asks.
“From everything that Raius and I have discussed, it seems that Ariel possesses a very rare power. Ariel is capable of warping reality around her and she can use that power to influence the past and to change the future. I had dreams of a different present where the Death Magic of the Deep had been taken. I was getting glimpses of Ariel’s manipulation apparently, but I don’t think that Ariel is aware of this power. It requires a mastery of Divine Essence that is far beyond her current knowledge and experience, it requires sophisticated juggling of multiple spells that I don’t think Ariel has had the time to learn. So it stands to reason that Detritus is using Ariel to access her ability. And if she is able to permanently change the past to cement the present that I have witnessed in dreams, then she is the reason that the Deep was robbed of Death Magic. She is consolidating Death Magic, or trying to, maybe to gather enough power to do something big. I wish that I knew what. But that is all I know.”
“Do you think that we can go in that hole after them?” Zana asks.
“I think we have to try,” Tracia says. “Ahdis and I are definitely going. It is not necessary that all of you come along, but we will not refuse help. We go into the unknown. Like Ahdis said, Ariel’s power is rare, I have never seen anything like it. But Ahdis and I should be able to use our power to protect us from danger, hopefully enough to make it back to a present that makes sense.”
“I have to go,” Zana says. “I think you two should stay here. I think you can be a anchor for Tracia and Ahdis so they can get us back. I know we can stop this Detritus witch lady, we won’t let her use Rel to change the past. Can we go now?”
“I like your attitude,” Tracia says and walks quickly toward the disturbance in existence that is still very small but very slowly increasing in size.
“This is the time eater spell,” Ahdis says when she sees it. “When it grows to a specific size, it will stop growing then disappear and everything done through that portal in the past will change the present permanently, the time eater consuming the rewritten moments. That means that even if they change anything, we have a chance to put it back before we return. I don’t think either of us have the magic necessary to undo it, and even if we did, we’d be stranding Ariel in the past. We have to go in and figure out how to navigate the portal to the past to find Detritus and Ariel. This will be difficult.”
“I can feel Rel,” Zana says. “Since I been doing all this magic stuff and grew wings, I been able to feel Rel, all of y’all, really, if I concentrate. It’s the Divine Essence. I think my connection to Rel is strong enough to track her across time.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Tracia says, looking at the disturbance. “We will do what we can to boost your abilities while we are inside. Ahdis will cover us in her armor and figure out how to navigate. We will have to link psychically. Let’s do this.” Tracia says and jumps into the disturbance, followed by Ahdis and then Zana.
“This is very crazy,” Agiel says, watching the three of them disappear into a hole that is a tiny fraction of their size. “I can’t believe Ariel has the ability to travel through time. She can bring me back those cakes I loved from Vrwal before it became a dead world.”
“Is that really what you’re thinking about right now?” Leilar asks. “To be so skinny, you sure do eat alot.”
“I’m lucky, I have a tight Aerphim figure. Seriously, though, I need Ariel to be ok. Tell me they will bring her back.”
“Zana will bring her back,” Leilar says confidently. “I feel bad for that Detritus Witch. When Zana gets her hands on her, she is going to regret this whole scheme.”
“And what do you think that scheme is?” Agiel asks. “Do you know anything about Death Witches?”
“We can learn, I haven’t been in the Fonlands long enough to know deep cuts like Death Witches. Ahdis seems to know a lot, they’re probably from the Deep. My mother told me about the Scroll on the Disc of Jo. It’s this long scroll that records stories of the Fonlands and any Fonlander can access it if they can access the Time Chamber where its located. My mother taught me how to access the time chamber. It takes meditation and quiet contemplation. We can do it together.”
“I don’t want to be quiet right now!” Agiel says. “I want to tell everyone what is happening! Some crazy stuff is happening.”
“We’ll be more helpful if we stay here like Zana says, and while we sit here, we can educate ourselves. We might discover something helpful.”
Leilar sits in the grass and motions angrily for Agiel to join her, and he eventually does, protesting all the while.
“What is this?” Detritus asks. “What kind of structure is this?”
Ariel is trying not to panic inside of her body that she can control but only in a limited way. And she is compelled to respond to Detritus, to do anything Detritus says.
“This is my house,” Ariel says like a whisper. A tear wells and then falls from her eye.
“Interesting,” Detritus says. “We are in the Earth realm. When is it, do you know how far back we are now?”
It is 1993, and Ariel sees her young self just learning to walk. She knows what is coming, the injury that will leave a scar on her forehead.
“It has to be more than twenty years ago,” Ariel says and wipes tears from her cheeks.
“I wonder if we can find a portal to the Fonlands?” Detritus asks Ariel.
“I don’t know. I think we’d have to find the place where my mom lives in the future. I think there is a portal near there. You will feel it when we are close.”
“I hope that maintaining our place in this time won’t be too difficult the further you are from your tether to it,” Detritus says, mostly to herself. “But this is a good time to test it, I guess. Lead the way to this portal to the Fonlands.”
Ariel walks away from her screaming self. She had been standing in the kitchen with Detritus watching her young self in the living room, and she hears her mother rushing from the hallway into the living room as Ariel and Detritus leave quietly out the back door.
Ariel marches across the backyard of the house that she has shared with her mother and sister for all of her adolescence, but rather than embrace the nostalgia bubbling up inside of her, she is forced to soldier ahead.
“We’re not walking,” Detritus says from the air and Ariel flaps her wings to take off in the direction of her mother’s future home.
Ariel was born and raised in North Carolina, but her mother had moved to a home in South Carolina that was close to the border once Ariel went off to college and her sister Zana started her own life. It was much quicker to arrive at the future home of her mother flying through the air, and once they were close, Detritus changed their trajectory.
“I feel the portal,” she says and changes the direction of the thick cloud of violet that she uses for flight.
Ariel follows and soon they are over dense woods below. Ariel is startled to a stop when she sees Detritus hit with a large ball of glittery white energy that causes her to fall from her dark violet cloud and plummet head first to the ground.
“Help me!” Detritus yells and Ariel dives down to catch her, but isn’t fast enough to keep her from plunging into the canopy. “You ingrate!” Detritus yells before she smacks against branches and tree trunks until she hits the ground. Ariel makes her way through the branches. Her heart leaps at the sight of Tracia, Ariel, and Zana.
“Sissy!” Ariel screams and both she and Zana run toward one another, but there is an explosion between them that sends Zana back to the Supremes and Ariel to the Death Witch.
“This is no time for joy and reunions,” Detritus says.
“We are taking Ariel back to the unaffected present,” Ahdis says. “Let her go and surrender or die here in the past, Detritus.”
The Death Witch laughs. “You two know me better than that. I don’t surrender, and death is not a threat. Leave us, mmoatia, before you illicit powers you cannot imagine.”
“Then I guess it’s a fight,” Zana says. “Can one of y’all fly Rel back and I’ll keep the Witch busy?”
“Detritus might not look like much,” Tracia says, “but this is not a job for a single aboatia. We will have to defeat her together.
“Not just me,” Detritus says with delight. “Ariel is mine. Good luck staying alive. And don’t worry, young one, I’ll let your Sissy put you down herself.”
Ariel hangs her head in shame, unable to stop the tears. She knows what comes next, she will be forced to fight her sister to the content of Detritus.
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