Putting the Pause on a Bounty

Piazzo started the morning at the desk of his home office with a rather peculiar invitation. The wanted poster of Roze Campanella was stabbed onto his pristine oak countertop with a knife, drawing an immediate gasp from him for ruining the finish.

‘In front of your shop at noon.’

It was a clear issue of challenge from his target, one that had him scrambling to call up every mercenary involved in the search. As Gideon and Roze suspected, Piazzo had been keeping tabs on the girl, sending spies to discover her process.

It was rather fortunate that he had stumbled upon her greatest secret, one that was easily exploitable with a single declaration by him. He had nothing personally against Time mages, but society did. Magic-wielding soldiers of the kingdom did.

Wiping out a single competitor could be written off the books using the excuse of heresy. Fortunately, the girl was far too immature to be a threat, making it all the easier to sweep matters under the rug.

At least, that was what he believed as he saw her standing in front of his shop – a base of economic prowess that imported most of the town’s goods for everyday sale.

Buy in bulk and sell for cheap. Outsourcing was the way to beat the local businesses.

That was why the business of a certain fledging shop caught his eye when she could do it cheaper. He could understand the foregoing of labor costs when she harvested ingredients and crafted medicinals herself, but highly perishable and time-sensitive ingredients had come into focus. These ingredients normally led to high mark-ups and the largest profit margins, but the existence of her shop had slashed the demand. Setting prices well below market trends made him morbidly curious about her business secret. Discovering it made him salivate at the prospect.

“Have you come to surrender your tiny little shop? I’ll even make you a deal since you’re a cute girl with no one else to depend on. Come work for me, and I’ll give you 10% of the profits. Pretty good, don’t you think?”

It was borderline slave labor, but he had all the leverage in the negotiation. His mercenaries flooded the streets around the shop. Even proper court mages would have difficulty dealing with such numbers, much less a single girl. He had to have her. The cost upfront was but a drop in the bucket for the future.

“Do you really think you can handle the power of Time magic?” Roze stared defiantly at Piazzo, dauntless at being surrounded.

Piazzo scoffed and waved his hand for them to proceed.

In response, Roze reached into her bag for a handful of pellets, tossing them forward before crying out, “Accelerare!”

A few mercenaries in the crowd laughed off the attack prematurely, as they had seen it in action the prior day. A line of them held up thick shields to block the barrage. However, their eyes bulged as tens of bodies were instantly flung through the air, smashing through the storefront like cannon fire.

All eyes turned to the lone girl before them, but in their surprise, they had missed her own reaction of shock. Roze recovered quickly, only because Gideon had warned her of his actions ahead of time in the workshop.

“What are you planning to do?” Roze asked him, suspicious, after he had made his declaration.

“It’s simple. You do your normal attacks, and I’ll just activate my Time Stop and cause havoc before disappearing. They’ll think it was you all along.”

Roze wasn’t quite sure what he meant by ‘havoc’, but his tone was so confident that she figured it would be impactful enough to make a difference.

“Just trust me and keep attacking.”

Roze immediately grabbed another handful, tossing it forward and yelling out her spell again with gusto. The beads shot forward into a column of mercenaries. In the next moment, an invisible hammer slammed into them, clearing a pathway right up to the store. Bodies scattered left and right, landing on their fellow allies, invoking a wave of panic through the crowd.

Incredible…

Roze was at a loss for words. The impact of Time Stop had ramifications far beyond her imagination. What she saw was a life-changing power that obliterated her previous fate into nothingness.

What Gideon saw was far more mundane.

In the space of frozen time, Gideon immediately went to work. The moment that Roze released her attack, he followed its trajectory and pulled out his sticks. Targeting the nearest guy, he quickly hammered across his body with the skill and speed of a pro drummer.

His fond memories of playing those arcade games after school were not wasted one bit here. With a simple pair of wooden sticks, he could hit a beat of ten hits per second easily. It didn’t matter that he had the strength of a normal person.

In frozen time, all those hits compounded into a single attack, until it became enough to match the force of a speeding truck.

Gideon did the same to an entire line of mercenaries before running out of view and reverting time back to normal, where his attacks came into effect all at once.

He was breathing hard by the end of it, taking some moments to recover as he watched the response from the safety of a nearby building. Looking down at his arm, the counter had dropped by over an hour. He had essentially drummed enough to play through several tracks of an album, but he needed that much to create an overwhelming power.

Piazzo was jumping out of his skin as he felt the crash against his precious shop. His view from the balcony of his store had gone from a platform lording over his opponent to a giant target for mercenaries to slam into. A crash rocked the floor he was standing, and he could hear the groan of the wood starting to buckle.

“Accelerare!”

Another tremor rocked the balcony. This time, Piazzo was tossed in the air. He landed on his rear as the entire platform started to slide downwards. Moments later, the beams gave out and the structure collapsed to ground level.

Piazzo ended up on top of a mostly intact piece of the balcony, his hired mercenaries having cleared away from the landing. The clatter of footsteps echoed all around, having attracted the caution of the local guards.

Wands were raised, at the ready. The Guard Mages stationed to keep the town safe had arrived on the scene, surveying the issue at hand. No one moved because they reported directly to the crown. Drawing their ire was the same as declaring war on the kingdom they stood for.

“Halt! In the name of King Cappellini, we order you to stand down!”

Piazzo’s eyes lit up, an opportunity evident in his eyes as he stood up from the wreckage of his shop. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a parchment.

“As lord of this town, I hereby ask the kingdom to arrest this criminal for destroying my shop! She is a dangerous mage hell bent on taking revenge!”

All eyes turned to Roze, who had the tables turned on her. She stuttered, her face twisting in disgust at his accusation.

“Revenge? You were the one that sent these mercenaries to capture me out of the blue! So what right do you have complaining that I’m fighting back?!”

Roze’s knees started to shake. She knew the situation had gone from bad to worse, but if she didn’t stand her ground somehow, Piazzo’s accusations would stick and never let go.

“Right? Of course, I have that right! This little document confirming my duties as the lord of this town gives me the right to mark you as a criminal! It is magically signed by a counsel member reporting directly to the King himself!”

The Guard Mages looked at each other and started marching toward Roze, wands up in case they needed to restrain her. Even if Gideon were to fight them off, she would now be marked as an official criminal of the kingdom. There would be no place safe for her.

But just as she was about to give up, a single piece of paper floated right before her face. She grabbed it by reflex and looked at it.

“This is…”

…the document that Piazzo had in his hand!

Sure enough, a surprised Piazzo was panicking as he wondered how the paper suddenly appeared over there. Roze knew. It had to be Gideon that did it. But why?

Wait… it couldn’t be?!

“Historia Revelata.”

The parchment in her hand started to glow, and all of suddenly, Roze could see the memories involving that document.

A dark alleyway.

A shady mage in a workshop, carving a copy of a signature with his wand.

A large exchange of gold between hands.

Roze knew what all this meant. She gasped at how much this changed things.

The magic faded as the wands of the guards started to brim with elemental spells of their own. But Roze knew that it was checkmate.

“This document is a forgery!”

A silence blanketed the area as spells wound down. Murmurs between the guards were exchanged. If that was the case, it was certainly a more serious matter. Falsely abusing authority in the name of the King was punishable by death and all his assets would be seized.

“Don’t listen to her! She is trying protect herself with lies to catch you off guard! Look at the damage she is capable of! If we leave her be, she will destroy us! She wields Time magic! Forbidden spells of destruction!”

A few of the Guard Mages clenched their wands, fervor overtaking sworn vows. It was obvious who were the extremists. They numbered almost a third of them. That left a majority that were indifferent about her background but didn’t act, and far too few brave enough to hold their fellow guards back.

Roze instinctively reached for her beads to launch an attack, but she was far too slow. Fire, ice, and lightning shot towards her, screeching through the air menacingly.

But then, a crackle sounded in the air, right as the spells all exploded a short distance away from Roze. Shrapnel of the wreckage littered the air as if it had been thrown up in the path of the magic, blocking it.

At the same time, the Guard Mages that had attacked all bent over, like they had been struck in the stomach. They rolled on the ground, writhing in pain.

Meanwhile, one particular member of the Guard Mages came forward. He wore elaborate armor, looking fairly distinguished as he approached Roze. Blond hair flowed under the helmet he had on, and piercing blue eyes held her in place. A picturesque image of a handsome knight wielding magic made her hesitate. He was one of the few that carried a sword on his belt. She could feel a slight blush on her cheeks from his attention towards her.

He was within arms reach, still with no weapons drawn. Likely, he believed drawing them would cause unnecessary provocation. His discerning eyes instead checked to see how she would react. He sniffed the air once, giving a nod of recognition.

“Hm, lavender and calendula.”

“What?” Roze was confused, but the knight took no heed of it.

“If it is as you say, then I see no reason to attack you for simply being a wielder of Time. Unfortunately, it appears that we have those in our ranks that believe otherwise. Unlike them, I will not draw your ire.”

He turned to the others, signaling them to take action in keeping the downed ones restrained. He held the proper authority over them, once the troublemakers had gone quiet. Then, he faced Piazzo, who had the appearance of a rat caught in a trap.

“As for you, I shall personally verify the validity of this signature. By the name of Captain Rafaello Segurio, I hereby ask you this. Have you been given the authority to rule over this town?”

A shadow of guilt appeared on Piazzo’s face. He turned to run, but a quick whisper of a chant from Rafaello placed a patch of ice on the ground under him. It took only Piazzo one step to send him backwards and landing hard on his head.

Roze couldn’t believe the result. She inched away from the scene, her heart racing the entire time throughout the ordeal. Only as the finality of the outcome hammered home did her legs finally give out from under her.

“Well, that wasn’t according to plan, but it worked out in the end.”

Roze nearly jumped into a wall at Gideon’s sudden appearance.

“Don’t, just appear out of nowhere!”

“I mean, that’s what I’m supposed to do. Is it not? But in this case, all I did was simply walk over. Otherwise, you’d know it was me from the pop, pop, pop of my actions.”

“Come to think of it, why do you make that noise each time?”

“Can’t help it. I’m probably breaking the sound barrier with my motions happening in frozen time.”

“Huh?”

“It’s like a whip cracking from going too fast.”

Roze could imagine that at least. But then, another thought came to mind.

“How did you know the document was a fake?”

“I didn’t for sure. But I had a hunch. I mean, who carries around an official document in their coat pocket to show off to everyone their authority. It seemed to me like he was overcompensating for something, like if anyone held any doubt, then he would whip out his proof right there.”

He extended his hand to help Roze up to her feet. And then, he beamed a smile at her.

“Plus, I figured you could find out for me. I’ve seen Historia Revelata used on our journey together before.”

She did not like the thought of another Roze having spent time with him. It made her want to question just how much he knew about her, and what the future entailed for them.

“Hey Gideon, what do you know-”

A bitterness in his expression halted her words. It was the first time she had seen him the slightest bit perturbed. He shook his head to clear it away.

“You are different each time I meet you. That’s all I want to say. It will be a pleasure to have you on this journey, Roze Campanella.”

“Likewise, Gideon.”

They accepted a handshake to seal the deal.

Silently, they walked back to her home to prepare for the journey. Roze could feel it was not the time to pry. Not yet, anyway.