His temporal home created the ideal conditions for the artifact to work again, and this time, Sen and Tutor would guide it. “Mori, did you get everything? You’ve lived here for a hundred years, surely you have some belongings of your own?” Sen asked.

  Mori scratched the back of his head. “Well, actually, I was about to mention…” He looked unsure of himself, and Sen wondered what exactly Mori was finding so difficult to say.

  [We are ready to leave whenever you’re…oh, the artifact is activating.]

  Sen and Mori both looked up at once. “What?” Sen demanded. He focused his magic senses on the crystal; whatever was going on was barely perceptible. There was some kind of magic present. He could feel the hint of a spell activating, but it felt far too subtle. Moving through time should have more of an impact, shouldn’t it?

  [Ten seconds until the spell activates.]

  Mori’s eyes lit up. “Master! I’ll be right back, recall me when I ask!” With that, Mori ran to the door, whispered something, and ran through it as soon as the thunder cracked and light shone through the gap.

  [Seven seconds until the spell activates.]

  Sen swore. “Mori, wait!” He began the recall spell. He’d wait as long as he could, but he wasn’t leaving Mori behind again. Whatever he needed, Sen hoped he found it fast.

  [Five seconds remain. The recall spell may take time as well. You may wish to use it a little early. Three seconds remain.]

  “Mori!” Sen shouted into the air.

  [Two.]

  [One.]

  “Do it now, master!” Mori’s voice called out in his head.

  Without saying a word, he released the Greater Recall ability in his mind.

  Mori appeared suddenly in a flurry of papers. Books thudded against the ground, and loose sheets of paper floated through the air. They slowly landed on the floor, his bed, and even in the waterfall. The clutter would drive Sen crazy. But at the moment, his biggest concern wasn’t the mess. He was more curious about the woman sprawled out on the floor. Mori had gone back for someone. He’d risked getting stuck in the past for a girl.

  [You had less than a quarter of a second remaining. Very reckless, Mori.] Tutor could speak without constraint or effort to others within this temporal space.

  Mori forced himself to his feet. The woman didn’t stir, though an initial glance told Sen she was okay.

  “Mori…who exactly is this?” Sen asked, afraid of the answer. He was afraid because she looked a lot like they did.

  Mori bit his lip. “Well, master, I’d like to introduce you to…my sister. Her name is Ilm.”

  The effects of the spell were already in place. It didn’t feel like it, but they were shooting through time. He should be focusing his attention on that, but instead he looked down at the woman sleeping on his floor. She had long white hair, and if she opened her eyes, Sen already knew they’d be the same blood-red color as his and Mori’s. She even had the same markings that Mori had: long black lines that formed at the base of their necks and disappeared under their collars. Though an initial scan revealed them to be cosmetic instead of magical in nature, like Mori’s. He pieced together what Mori had done in seconds.

  “You created a perfect replica…of yourself?”

  [A replica of a replica. Though I wouldn’t say the technique was perfect. This one is a woman.]

  He’d also wondered about that. A perfect replica was often as similar to you as possible. Had Mori made a mistake during the spell, or had something else triggered the change?

  Mori bowed deeply. “I apologize master, I wanted to bring my sister up before, but…I was just so surprised to see you after all this time.”

  Sen smiled. He knew the reason he’d created Mori, and he knew the reason Mori had likely created Ilm. “Mori, it’s okay. I’m not mad, just surprised is all. I hadn’t passed down the knowledge of that technique to you. You figured it out yourself?”

  Mori beamed. “I did, though it took time. She’s not been around long.” His eyes widened a moment later. “Master, I tried to grab the tomes as well, but there wasn’t time. This was all I could manage!” Mori gestured to the scattered books and papers all around them.

  Sen froze. He turned back to look at his empty bookshelves. He’d left hundreds of books behind for Mori in the kingdom’s library. In a room guarded by a powerful spirit Sen had contracted. The librarian and Mori were the only ones who could access the room…and apparently Ilm as well. But that knowledge wasn’t meant to be left behind.

  “Tutor, can we go back?”

  [We cannot. The artifact is already approaching its limit. My calculations indicate we’ll have moved a hundred additional years into the future before it breaks.]

  “Greater Enhanced Cognition Maxim. Greater Enhanced Perception Maxim. Greater Reflex Enhance Maxim. Time Crawl Maxim, Mana Encapsulation,” Sen said in rapid succession. All around him, the world slowed. The waterfall in his room appeared to be falling at the pace of a snail spirit. Mori was trying to look up at him in slow motion. His body was moving more quickly, and his mind could process and react to information at tremendous speed now.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Several high-grade magic essence spheres floated from the storage chest of his temporal world. He sacrificed them for his next spell. “Greater Creation-Evolution-Maxim,” Sen said quickly. In front of him, a formless mist appeared, and he went to work. Sen needed to act quickly; despite everything he was doing, time was still moving. He needed to set things in motion before they reached their destination. He had no intention of stopping at just a hundred years, but pushing the artifact to its limits would require his full attention.

  He shaped the mist with his mind, and slowly it took physical shape. He didn’t have time to be picky, and he sculpted this new life with the first idea that came to mind. Jumping through time. The result was a giant blue frog, as long as a horse and equally wide. It stared at him with slit eyes, and its tongue and limited magic gave it fairly powerful offensive abilities. In a single leap it would bound over towns and kingdoms, and its tracking abilities would be nearly unrivaled.

  “Master, you’ve outdone yourself,” Mori commented.

  Sen looked over to see Mori had applied his own enhancements as well, pulling free of limitations. “Mori,” Sen said. “My apologies, I should’ve included you in the spell as well, but I needed to act quickly. What do you think?”

  Mori nodded. He looked impressed. “I think we need to give it a name.”

  Sen smiled, as always Mori didn’t take any time to catch up. “I’m thinking, Tomeseekers.”

  [We do not know how this might affect things.]

  “No, but I do know how my journals will. We can’t change the fact that they’ve been left behind for so long already, but hopefully the kingdom will protect them. That knowledge is dangerous, and if it spreads from the library, these creatures will seek out and collect that knowledge by any means necessary,” Sen said. He turned and put a hand on the frog’s nose as it took its first breath.

  “Ribbit,” it croaked.

  “Go and get my knowledge. Keep it safe,” Sen said. A slit in his temporal world appeared, and holding it open while they traveled through time drained mana quickly.

  The tomeseeker tilted its head, and then jumped through the air and disappeared. From the mist, several more jumped out and formed in an instant. After a dozen or so had leapt, all the creation mist was used up. “Now, just one more thing,” Sen said.

  He mentally sorted through the artifacts he’d picked out for this occasion in his mind, and they flew from the chest in his room where he kept them. Armors, accessories, and body parts of powerful creatures.

  This time, his creation wasn’t meant to be a new species, but instead an individual. It was a being he’d designed in his head a long time ago. The man’s pitch-black armor was a part of his body, and it looked as if it had fused to his skin itself. It was covered in spikes, and his skin was like that of a burnt corpse. He had two dark x’s where his eyes should be, and his teeth were sharpened like spikes with no lips to cover them. They were permanently on display. He was designed to look intimidating, and from the moment he was born he would have the power of a king-class magician.

  Sen had wanted to create a training partner; now, he was giving the creature a different purpose.

  “Observe the world and wait for my return. My knowledge may have been scattered, or it may be safe. The Tomeseekers I have created will bring the knowledge they accumulate to you and respond to your orders. I charge you, Xanadrell, with overseeing and protecting this knowledge. Ensure it does not fall into corrupt hands, and wield your power to destroy those who use it to hurt the innocent. Manage the situation as best you can until I return.”

  Xanadrell knelt. “As you say, it shall be.” Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  Mori was too stunned to speak. “That creature was…insanely powerful.”

  [Are you sure you should have released that into the world?]

  “It shares my morality and perception of the world. It will act as I would, for the most part. We’re fine. Now, Tutor. How much further can we push this artifact? A hundred years isn’t enough.”

  [I’ve completed the calculations. We can push it further, but it will be costly. You’ll need to spend energy not only to fuel it but also to keep it from being destroyed before we arrive at your destination. Though I must warn you, push too far and the consequences could be severe.]

  “I understand. Thank you, Tutor. Mori, you focus on protecting the girl.”

  “Of course, I’ll deal with the books and loose papers as well! I wouldn’t want you getting a headache, Master!”

  Sen smiled. “You know me so well, friend.” He concentrated on the artifact and waited.

  [We’re approaching one hundred years. Just a few more years left and the artifact will run its course.]

  Tutor counted it down. Sen waited, hoping to make the transition as seamless as possible.

  [Two years. One year. Now!]

  “Mana Transfer Maxim!” The effect was instantaneous, and for the first time in a while, he felt the surge of significant amounts of mana leaving his body. Usually, using magic for him was like peeing with a bladder the size of an ocean. It didn’t matter how much magic he expended, there was plenty more where it came from. He still had plenty of mana, but it had been a long time since anything drained him like this. It was strange and almost satisfying. He hadn’t pushed his body to its limits in years.

  [We’re moving even more rapidly now. Two hundred additional years have passed.]

  Three hundred years total now. Sen wanted to check the sun, but he couldn’t do that while focusing on keeping the device active.

  Mori looked up from a stack of papers in his hand. “Master, how far are we trying to go exactly?”

  Sen smiled. “One thousand—” He grunted and fell to a knee. The boundaries of his temporal world began to fracture. Long spiderweb-like cracks formed along the walls and floors. The scattered papers were sucked towards them.

  [Warning. The strength of your magic is taking a toll on the artifact. If we don’t lighten the burden, we may destroy it prematurely.]

  Sen cursed. “Mori, Tutor, the artifacts. Use them.”

  Mori looked surprised, but set his papers down and ran over to the chest. He threw it open, and Tutor went to work, connecting artifacts at random to the crystal.

  As they moved faster through time, one by one, the artifacts he’d collected over a lifetime shattered. He pushed attachment to them from his mind. He could collect new artifacts, but he’d never have a chance like this again.

  The cracks widened, and several of his research notes and books flew through them, lost to the flow of time and released into the world. He couldn’t focus on that; his Tomeseekers were out there, and they’d collect them.

  [Eight hundred years have now passed. We are spending artifacts quickly.]

  “Just tell me when we hit a thousand!” Sen managed through gritted teeth. It was a point of pride now. He needed to see this through.

  [Nine hundred years have now passed!]

  “Only a few artifacts left!” Mori called out.

  “Come on. You have to do this. Come on!”

  Sen shouted and made one final push with everything we had.

  [Nine hundred and eighty years. Nine hundred and ninety years. One thousand years.]

  The crystal time-altering artifact shattered into thousands of pieces, which dissolved into nothingness moments later. The freed butterfly flapped its wings, flew toward a fracture in his temporal world and disappeared inside. Its purpose complete.

  The temporal world shuddered. Sen had suspected it might. He’d pushed it too far. In mere moments, it would shatter.

  “Absolute Eviction Maxim,” he said, almost in a whisper.

  One moment he’d been standing there in his personal home. The next, he, and everyone inside, along with his belongings, were scattered on a grassy plain in the middle of nowhere.

  Sen closed his eyes and focused on the connection to magic, searching for the progress humanity had made over a thousand years.

  He smiled at what he saw.

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  Sen

  Magic. I'll give you one guess.

  butterfly spell. He's more myth than man and some say the true source of his power is the handsome interface embedded within his brain. You didn't hear that from me, though. Together with Ragmár he laid the foundations for the Kingdom of Magic. A safe haven built to withstand the chaotic world the two grew up in. A world Sen brought forcefully to order.