Historia Revelata

The party raced through the streets, heading straight for the archives. Luckily, all the fighting had been done far from that location. There were also no further enemies chasing after them.

Gideon was on Ferdinand’s back, too injured to move. Roze stayed by their side to continuously check on his condition. The potions that she had on-hand stopped the bleeding and stabilized the wounds. They could do nothing for his missing hands.

There’s still hope, isn’t there? Gideon said so himself. That I would save him.

Roze held onto that promise closely. She prayed that there was something in her clan’s lost magic that could turn back the clock. Just like the spell that reversed all damage to the Oscillium Giant, that seemed to be the only method for full recovery.

They followed the empty pathways, following the marker on a crude map that Gideon had scribbled before the whole ordeal. It didn’t take long for them to arrive at a large set of buildings that clearly gave off the sense of a collective gathering of knowledge.

Even in this ruined cityscape, the buildings had an aura of welcome in their approach. The wide windows and unguarded front entryway seemed to beckon them in. Perhaps, there was a time when people could freely access such information. It was a far cry from the kingdom’s magic knowledge, reserved for only those demonstrating ‘proper’ credentials.

Regardless, they stormed through the entrance and down a short entryway before it opened up to an atrium, shelves lined everywhere with texts of all sorts.

For many decades, possibly more than a hundred years, no one else had set foot in this treasure trove of information. Time magic had become a slowly dying practice, only passed on by word of mouth. Its glory had dulled with each generation, until it came down to Roze, who immediately knew that she had experienced only the opening of an ant hill.

Ferdinand set Gideon down on a nearby couch, dusty but still somehow retaining some of its original comfort. They knew it would take some time for Roze to find what was needed.

“A catalogue. There has to be one. Some sort of organizational system.”

Roze charged ahead, determination in her eyes to use the last moments of Gideon’s remaining time wisely. Given how easily lost she could become from the multitude of herbs in her storage, her biggest advantage would be to decipher the categories first.

Raffy wandered the shelves, taking note how some of the books suffered from age and deterioration. A few fallen tomes laid open, its pages turned brown and some even crumbled to dust. While magic could hold their place in time, the natural elements still affected them.

The protective measures cast by the Time mages of olde had been effective in driving off their enemies, protecting their secrets in the process. Even if others could find another way to plow through the endless hordes and defeat the Oscillium Giant, the utter lack of legibility became another barrier.

However, that was not the case for someone that practiced Time magic.

A glow came from Roze as she found a magical device that appeared to be a counter keeper of sorts. Her guess was correct as touching the object with Historia Revelata active gave all the details that she needed to know.

Such was a spell that was held the most precious of all. Her parents had made sure to teach it to her first. It was crucial magic that gatekept everything else.

Visions of a time long ago filled her head. She watched as people used it, moving to respective sections of their interests right after. The longer she held on, the more history passed through her gaze, until she finally found what she was looking for.

“A catalogue of Time magic, please.”

She could see it – a young scholar of that age, bright-eyed and filled with promise. The device pointed him in the right direction as she watched him walk up a flight of stairs and to a far corner.

“There. Please wait for me, Gideon. I’ll reverse your injuries and remove your countdown. I swear it.”

Milipitas watched over Gideon as Roze walked right by, hope in her eyes. Ferdinand had stepped out into the hallway, finding some secluded corner to make some grub. Raffy continued to soak in the atmosphere, his eyes turning to the studious Roze every so often.

Gideon let out a soft chuckle. His head vacantly turned in the direction that Roze had gone. Time passed by in silence, hope being held in their chests that victory would reward them in the end.

However, an hour passed by, and then, another. Roze had moved from shelf to shelf, digesting the contents of each worthwhile book with her magic before moving on to the next. Her movements became desperate after a while. It was clear that annoyance was building up the more that she read.

An eerie sense of realization began to grip the group. All the while, Gideon remained smiling.

There is not a solution, is there? We cannot save Gideon, can we?

No one wanted to ask that question, but it crossed everyone’s mind. By the end of hour three, Milipitas, Ferdinand, and Raffy were all sitting around him, sensing that his time was coming to an end.

Before everyone realized, a faint ticking of the clock echoed around them, soft at first but chiming louder every minute. Finally, it bothered Roze enough to abandon her search to come over.

Gideon shifted and sat up, some strength seemingly returned to him. There was a calm sense of acceptance on his face.

“Once you guys hear that, there’s no going back. It’s the countdown to the final hour. And well, I guess it’s loud enough now that there’s hardly any time left.”

They looked at him like they couldn’t believe he would just go out quietly. After all, he had always been the loudest given any situation. His presence was a shout to enjoy life, a dare to challenge the status quo, and a cheerfulness in the face of tough odds.

“Don’t look at me like that. I had plenty of fun getting all of you here. And look, Roze learned all that she needs. She’ll be a great Time mage soon enough.”

“Not soon enough,” Roze sighed. “You were right that the secret to becoming great was here, but you never told me that there would never be enough time to save you.”

Roze had indeed unlocked the secrets of Time magic. She found the incantations and the guidance needed to use them. But at the same time, she found an answer that dashed her hopes.

Time magic comes from the heart. It cannot be shaped without the proper intent and desire. Dedicate your hopes and dreams, my dear practioners! Salvation only comes in the face of equal conflict!

It was a passage coming from the Age of Heroes, shortly after a set of legendary Time mages had defeated a demonic invasion that had plagued the land for years.

The strength of Time magic grew in response to the despair that people held at the time. It cultivated as the will of the people focused on survival. It generated the necessary power to shape their intent into something that could overturn the massive strength of the demonic armies.

Roze went over to Gideon and held our her wand.

“Tempus Contrarium.”

The blood dripping from the bandages around Gideon’s forearm reversed course. It seeped back into the crevices for a moment before the magic faded.

“Five seconds. Five measly seconds of reversed time,” Roze mumbled with a bitter expression.

She simply didn’t have the mental capacity or practice to shape her intentions any further.

Living in a time of peace with hardly any drive to survive until this journey, Roze lacked the necessary ability to do much more than that. It would likely take years of effort and proper experiences before such magic would become noteworthy. Years that Gideon did not have.

Mastering such a spell with clear results would take so long. Then, what about Gideon’s countdown? Such an unknown was even more impossible to solve as there were no clear references in any text of someone holding a similar power.

“You’ve got it all figured out. Good for you,” Gideon said, showing no indication of disappointment.

“Tell me this, Gideon. What was the whole purpose of this journey? If there was no way to help you avoid the outcome, then why did you do it at all? You just go back to the start, meet us all over again, and repeat it endlessly!”

Roze didn’t care anymore if his secret was revealed. She was simply that angry at him. Her gaze darted around to the others, wondering what they thought of it all.

Not a single one of them looked surprised.

“Wait, did he tell you? That fact that he cycles back and re-lives everything over and over again?”

“Roze, you know it just as well as I do. They guys are smart as hell,” Gideon grinned and shook his head, “It doesn’t matter how many times I meet them. They manage to sniff me out eventually. It was all I could do to keep a single secret from you.”

“And what is that?”

“This journey, all of it, has been about making you capable of standing on your own.”

“W-What?”

Roze pulled back, confusion replacing her tears. Her mind raced back – to the time she ‘fought’ over the mercenaries, to when Milipita’s tribe recognized her, to gaining confidence in her spellcasting against fearsome enemies, to coming up with her own ways of using her magic.

Gideon could have done most of these things himself. He could have resolved the issues another way. With the knowledge that he had, everything was likely a cinch. Yet, every step of the way, Roze was right in the center.

She believed him when he said that she would save him from repeating the same life over and over, but then again, it never felt like he was suffering from it.

Rather…

“I had fun, Roze. I have fun every time I meet you. Even knowing that I would never see past this journey, that never stopped me from doing it, from being with you and everyone else here. Time and time again.”

The ticking in the background got louder again, but now, it was accompanied by the dull echo of a bell. Gideon’s body started to glow. He looked at himself, knowing that the end had finally come again. He looked up at everyone and held the stump of his arm up to his head in a salute.

“Gid-”

Roze barely managed to mouth his name before he disappeared, just like he would do when time was stopped. Only this time, the mark on his chest, the one he kept hidden, fell toward the ground.

Seeing it, Roze instinctively caught it in her palms. At that moment, Historia Revelata activated, even without her casting it.

The story of Gideon flashed before her eyes.