An Age of Mysterious Memories

B 3 C 20: The Fata Morgana

As I’m passing out, I manage to reset time one last time. There are enough messages and logs that past me will see me being approached in their future.

I awaken with a snort, the air rippling down my throat causes me to cough and sputter. I hear several conflicting tips from various versions of future me from dead timelines, and check my logs.

On the most recent attempt, an individual was coming from this direction. I cautiously step out into midair, and my weight is supported by nothing. I don’t mean I’m falling, I mean there is absolutely no sensation of my weight being supported, yet I remain standing in space. I know for a fact that a previous future me flew up and down in this exact spot dozens of times over their decades of exploration. Why is it solid now?

I’m suddenly being approached by a figure from my most recent log. I can’t make out their subtype under their dark gi, or their large hat with dipping brim. They slowly clap as they approach.

In a soothing voice,they say, “Well done, let’s just help you out by hiding a few of those painful memories unless you should need them, hm?”

As they reach for my forehead, I grab for their hand to toss them over my shoulder, but they fritz out, like Lil’s new teleportation ability. I groan in exasperation.

The figure calls out from far above me, sitting upside down in midair, “Understandably mistrustful after such an awful experience.”

They chuckle before continuing, “Come now, Lil is waiting, you’ve passed the first test with beyond flying colors. Even to the bitter end, you never gave up hope of saving your family. You tried nearly every conceivable path that wasn’t a simple pointless alteration. Lil can help you face the Fata Morgana if you wish. Chop chop, and again, well done.”

Lil! I glance around in a panic. The figure motions a chop with their right arm, and some of the scenery changes. The stone ledge is still here, but now it continues on the side to the right of the statues facing out. Also, the pit is barely deep enough that it might cause a small injury. The ceiling is visible, and the creature is sitting on it upside down.

Seemingly in response to my thoughts, they query, “Or is it you who are standing upside down, having had your world flipped upside down to safely practice your time skill so thoroughly? Decades, honestly, far more than expected.”

I begin ambling towards another statued alcove, grumbling and groaning. My head is so full of logs. I can see why they would consider it a kindness to hide or delete some of these for me. Fourteen million six hundred six timelines. My brain feels like it’s going to explode. Still, I’ll deal with it myself. I’ll shove the early few million in a redacted subfolder. Ow, okay, the process of doing that feels like the sound of an old hard drive clunking along, no, worse, an old floppy disk drive. Okay, whew, feels a bit better now. I just realized something they said.

I ask the creature, “What do you mean safely?”

They respond, “Exactly that, the only place in existence you can practice enough that your time skill does not steal time from another’s life as the price it pays. Now it only steals time from your life, and you’re ageless! Hah! Always breaking the systems you are!”

I quail at the thought momentarily, “I, I would have been. I did. I stole seconds from someone else’s life, to save Teuila on that day? I, I think I’m going to be sick.”

They reply, “You did, you will. Why do you think you agreed to get your dear friend to tell the younger you not to use it again? It’s a heavy price for someone with a conscience. Unlike certain rapscallions floating around out there. No matter. Yours is the important one. Theirs will never have such versatility, or such a high possible cost.”

As the creature suggested, when they said I will be sick, I horf along the stonework before the statues. I mumble apologies as I lean against a statue, accidentally pulling its secret lever. Wait, did they say a floating rapscallion? But that means Mataalii has a version of the time skill. It’s less versatile though? And they can’t use it for as high of a cost or to alter as much as I can. I almost guarantee it has something to do with moving items between different points in their timeline, probably specifically to the future. Maybe items and energies. They can likely only do any given item once, and the difference doesn’t matter, because it’s not taking away time from anything, not really. It’s pausing it, then causing it to travel to a point. The travel time is probably the cost, and the travel time is likely judged by the speed of light, or thought.

Hm, Lu would probably tell me to stop guessing. Or maybe we’re past that? She says she knows I have to kill Mat. She also, hm. I don’t know. She also said I’d make the right choice. If Mat is even stealing fractions of seconds of people’s futures, and their lives, he needs to be stopped. If he could be redeemed, would he come here to train? Would he be willing to practice until the only fate’s string he could pull from, would be his own?

My vision is all wonky, I feel like I’m stumbling through a funhouse of mirrors. I see reflections of myself, but they’re all distorted, stretched, compacted, bloated, and all other manner of morphs to my form. Where did my erstwhile guide go? They said I could have Lil help on the next test. Or did I accidentally trigger the test when I horfed alongside the statue? Ugh.

Great, what’s a Fata Morgana again? If it has to do with Morgana, or Morgan Le Faye, from my memories of, I keep jokingly calling it cryptozoology, but I guess it’s just mythology, anyway, if it has to do with those memories, that’s bad news. Morgan Le Faye at best is usually a trickster, a connection between the human and the fae realm. At worst, she’s the most powerful, and most evil sorceress to ever have lived, one whose corrupted heart called for an unending quest for power that sought to rule the world from the seat of Camelot’s throne. I really, really hope it isn’t the latter. On the plus side, most of the myths agree that she was a cunning, intelligent, charming, beautiful woman, so I might get some witty conversation or snuggles before getting a dagger in my kidneys. Fata though, does that mean fate? I guess it could just mean fey or fae. But even those can be tied to mythological fates and inevitabilities. An inevitable betrayal? Who cursed whose sudden but inevitable betrayal? Hm. Or an inevitable trick, prank, prankster or trickster. Again, hoping that it’s that one rather than the other.

Wait, fate, Fate’s Threads. Morgana, robes, no clothes, fae, fate, argh, brain, where are you going with this? I can tug at the end of my own thread of fate. I’ve basically had it confirmed. I can run forward and backward along it at will, to some degree, that it costs from the end of my thread of fate, but my thread is endless. The only skill whose growth remains with me, from that dead timeline with decades of solitude, is the time skill. Can I really pause time? Look into the near future? Oh, oh, I don’t have the hundreds of thousands, or millions of mana that future me did. I mean, even their mana was worth relatively much more, because their stamina was at ridiculous levels. Their consumption was a fraction of what mine would be, and their pool was massive enough, and recovered fast enough, that I don’t know exactly how much energy it takes to engage those aspects of the time skill. Still, emergency aces in the hole are always nice.

I call out, “Hey, um, tester?” The cacophony of echoes that I’m treated to feels like it’s going to rupture my eardrums and flatten my brain. All of these distorted images of me each seem to be calling out the same question, and now clutching their heads along with me.

Ow, okay, no sound. I wonder if now is when I should send the messages back to past me. I don’t think I know everything I should know yet to make that choice. Also I shouldn’t do it in here. Since I think I have to speak out loud I’d probably cave in my own skull with the echos. Grr, my heart aches, I want to see Lil or Lu or Te. I’ve literally spent decades without them at this point, according to my logs, and I actually feel as much longing as if I’d actually gone through with it.

Alright, if this is another test, what was the last one about? It was perseverance? Or was it willingness to sacrifice? Maybe both. Persevere until sacrifice is likely the only possible option left, and even then, buy as much time as I can for my family in case even that doesn’t work out. In here I don’t feel like some endless all consuming evil is going to destroy the universe, but it is creepy as all heck.

Still, each reflection floating around here feels like it hides some demon or another. Since they’re my reflections, I guess they’re my demons. I wonder if they’re manifestations of my sins, my actual demons. Is this test about self reflection? I feel plenty guilty already for the actions I’ve taken, or not taken, that had cost lives. Wait, no, remember the name of the test, the Fata Morgana. So at best, the reflections are a trick. Don’t cave in to whatever any of them seem to be saying to you Reggie. That would be so much easier with Lil at my side.

It’s so weird, some of these reflections are of cherubic Reggie, but even those are twisted beyond recognition, like their eyes overlap so hard that they form a single large eye for example. Or their collar mingles with their mouth, giving their maw a green fanged black hole appearance. Stuff like that. The draconic ones I don’t even recall how I look yet since I’ve only seen myself for a brief time through Lil’s eyes. I’m not capable of judging the accuracy of copies of draconic Reggie.

Hm, they’re all mostly unarmored and unarmed, should I be as well? I currently am, but for some reason I feel like I should be fully geared. I draw forth my Valkyrie equipment, which takes on its draconic form for this version of my body, and seemingly just in time. Every reflection seems to break free from its mooring, but half of them seem intangible. A very tangible one however is rushing towards me with a familiar spear. I hate you. This version of, hm, me, I guess, is twisted and bulbous beyond recognition, as if I were some enormous draconic bodybuilder. Their copy of Gae Buidhe is also twisted, but even with a spiraling handle, it’s still recognizable.

Blocking a simple forward thrust with the buckler on my left hand, I slide along the haft of Gae Buidhe, closing the gap on Monstrosi-Me. Their reach is massive, but now that I’m within their short range, they’ll have a hard time bringing Gae Buidhe to bear. I try to cave in their right knee, which is at head height for me, but it’s like punching a granite cliffside. Fine, weaponry it is. I dance around behind my right leg, gosh that is such a weird sentence to think. Ugh, anyway. I hack away at Monstrosi-Me’s tendons, when I’m suddenly skewered by ridiculously long fingernails from one version of Cherubi-Me. Hglrk. Always the freaking right lung. Coughing up blood I can’t even pull myself off of their nails as Monstrosi-Me raises their copy of Gae Buidhe to drive it through my cranium from the top down along my spine.

Is this maybe a test to not react and not use my time skill? Nope, nope, nope, too close, not going to risk it. Hey past me, vertical dodge!

I’m fighting Monstrosi-Me, attempting to slip around behind their right leg to sever the tendons when I hear “Hey past me, vertical dodge!”

I leap and look down as I see a Cherubi-Me thrust its gruesome nails where I had been standing, and it skewers Monstrosi-Me’s right leg. As I land from my dodge, I orient to figure out how to capitalize on my enemy’s predicament. Monstrosi-Me sweeps their copy of Gae Buidhe low, and suddenly I drop to the ground, my legs cleanly removed below the knee. “Oof, past me, vertical dodge again!”

As I land from my dodge, I hear an instruction from the future to leap, so I do. I see Gae Buidhe swept low by Monstrosi-Me and it cleaves Cherubi-Me in-twain. A version of me that’s stretched into a vaguely predatory bird zooms in from nowhere and begins to sink its talons into my eyes. “Past me, ground quick!”

As I land from a dodge, hear an instruction to leap again, I leap again, then hear an instruction to head to ground, so I JT myself downward away from the combat backing up a bit to catch my bearings. I stand to take a defensive stance, and a Gorilla-Me grips my head and begins to squeeze. “Past me, duck again!”

As I start to catch my bearings, I hear, “Past me, duck again!” Of course I oblige immediately.

I’m pretty sure I go through a few more near-miss timelines, because I hear “Pivot left”, so I spin on my back foot as the Gorilla-Me jabs, they end up smashing in the face of Vulture-Me. Then I hear “Swivel right!” I do a half pirouette, and watch as Gae Buidhe launches through the Gorilla-Me’s abdomen right where I’d just been.

I hear “Left Lunge!” So I turn left, dip forward, and thrust into a long horizontal lunge. I pass between a low sweep from the upper half of Cherubi-Me, and a grab from Monstrosi-Me.

I hear “Right cartwheel!” That one just seems ridiculous, but oh well, future me thought it was worth it, I wheel to my right, and between each of my limbs a flurry of blows pass from various grotesque versions of me that happen to skewer, jab, crush, or grab other versions of me.

My next instructions are, “Throat Jab!” after I run up the toppled Vulture-Me, I throat jab Monstrosi-Me, and hear “Uppercut!” Obviously I oblige, and send Monstrosi-Me crashing into the remainder of Gorilla-Me and Cherubi-Me.

Wait, vertical, vertical again, low, low again, left, then right, then left, then right, then heavy, then leap. Did future me just have me do the Ko-code? Hey me, did you do that on purpose? Or was that really the quickest safest path to victory? No words of wisdom? Hm? Sometimes I’m a butt.

Finally, that seems to be over. Lil is sitting near a half broken statue, whacking it with their tail. They aren’t wearing their invisible goggles, or cloak. They begin saying some nasty things to me as they look my way. I exhale smoothly, I try connecting my senses to Lil. They’re nearby, in a similar position, but this isn’t Lil. This Lil would be viewing me from a slightly different angle. I skewer it with my Valkyrie dagger just shy of its core.

I lean in and whisper, “No games, I want my Lil, now. If you’re a real entity, and I see Lil in three seconds, you get to live. If you’re an illusion, it doesn’t really matter.”

The fake hostile Lil nods as the undulating mirror-esque realm begins to dissipate in smoke, revealing a rather plain roughly-hewn stone room between two sets of pairs of hourglass statues. Finally, my buddy appears in front of me, looking mildly confused before leaping into my arms.

I immediately divest everything to my inventory to safely catch Lil and hug them tightly. I cry as I exclaim, “Lil, my beloved dragon buddy, it has been so long. So, so, so long.”

Lil starts to question me, but they dive into my logs. Once they see just how much has happened, they pause their question and instead whistle appreciatively. Lil nuzzles me and wraps their tail around me as best they possibly can.

I collapse to my knees and just weep, holding and stroking Lil until something dares interrupt us. Thankfully nothing is that stupid right now. For their own sake.

Eventually, Lil asks, “So, really? Ageless buddy? Does that go for all of us? I mean, I guess you wouldn’t know. Sorry pal. Wow, that’s just. That’s awful. All that time, and there’s millions more buried away, all blocked out to save space? Oof. My poor pal. I love you Reggie. I’m sorry you went through that.”

Lil continues, “There was a weird lady, or um, maybe a guy, I couldn’t really tell, their hat’s really big. And they were like, Reggie’s about to take a test, if you are in the room when they do, you will be annihilated time and time again, and it might break Reggie. I couldn’t let you go through that pal. So, so I moved over to this room, and, and, uh, just, ugh, that sucks. I can’t believe you went through that, but your time skill is enormous. Is that, is that a billion? Hundreds, thousands, millions, billions. Yeah, wow. I’m surprised the skill system didn’t just go, fine, here’s infinite, instead of adding more digits.”

I can’t help but laugh at how rambly Lil is getting about the situation. I smooch the heck out of the crown of their head and give them light noogies.

When I’m finally mostly in control of my faculties, we share a meal together, and contact the family with the Comm Stone. Amazingly it has only been a day since we last contacted the fam. I let them know we’re in some kind of temple of time, and that I’m going to need the longest cuddle in the history of ever when we get back. They tell me there was a fight today, but not among any of ours. The critterkin that left the contingent snuck back in and tried to steal produce from the human quartermaster. The humans threw their weapons away so they could fight back nonlethally, but the critterkin took the weapons too, and ran. No casualties on either side, but plenty of bruises, and some lost supplies and equipment. The magic of the stones runs out on our end before I can hear more.

I can’t really fault either side for that interchange. I don’t know what to do though. We offered everyone a place with us, we might have to make it known that we will fight back with lethal force if they keep attacking our allies, so that our allies know we’re standing with them. Otherwise coexistence will be a fading dream. If the humans think our people don’t care about their lives and health, they’ll likely respond in kind, by not caring about ours, and resentment will fester. I huff, heaving a heavy sigh. More political nonsense. I know I don’t consider myself a hero, while some do, but I’m definitely not a leader.

Alright, genre savviness says one more test, or some sort of final boss room, or something like that. Let’s see what’s on the other side of this door together, eh Lil?

Lil exclaims, “Sure thing buddy! Together!”