Time Passages

Andrew D'Honaire was bored. Sometimes, he wished that the Republic of Allaria was as it was in ancient days when it was still a medieval monarchy: dangerous, often strange, somewhat unsanitary, but never boring or mundane.

He sighed and got back to his homework. He sometimes still wished that the aristocracy had not been overthrown by revolutionaries 300 years ago, so he would have the privalages that came with his noble ancestry. But then again, even Lords had to do homework.

He turned his mind to his computer, on which he was typing his assignment on a word processor. It was a horrily boring research project, involving tons of work. But at least the subject interested him, the strange legends of wizards from Allaria's medieval past. He was currently writing about one of the more interesting ones, Gryffid, court wizard of Allaria in medieval times, before the reign of King Emry. [ref: 9747] He was a bizzarre wizard, and legends of him are told in many sources. It is said that he anticipated many of the historical developments in the history of the world in his books of prophecies. Reputable historians generally dismissed this, but there had been a lot of interest in him recently, after the new interest in magic and the revival of witchcraft and magic as a fringe religion.

But the most interesting thing about Gryffid was his strange theories about time. Andrew had lately been doing a lot of research in physics class about theories of quantum mechanics and the nature of time, and Gryffid's writings often oddly anticipated the discoveries of quantum physics. He had been the first to say that time was relative, and speculate that time was a fourth dimension. He was also the first to conceive of the idea of time travel, that it was possible to travel to other ages. No reputable scientist belived this, of course, but Andrew sometimes wondered if he would be proven right here, as in other cases.

Andrew stepped away from his work to get a drink from the bathroom. Then, he bumped into something. He looked to see what it was... and screamed as he saw the nightmare thing that was facing him.

Beyond time:

The being laughed (or the psychic equivalent of laughing) in unholy glee as its minions spread throughout time. Soon, it would be free from this prison of time in which it had been held. Soon, the timestream would be disrupted, and it would be free. Reaching through small, imperceptible holes in the fabric of time, worn out by its thrashing against the barrier for thousands of billions of years, it had sent its minions through, to unravel time. A chain of causality is only as strong as its weakest link, and soon he would break the links, destroying its chains and leaving it free, free to roam, free to destroy...

The present

Lord Frederigo D'Honaire did not often scream. He was a great warrior, a noble knight, trained to confront any danger unafraid. But the thing he saw now made him scream, chilled him to the very core of his being. He, Princess Exotica of Allaria, and Velus ran from the creature. They rushed through the cavern, to see that the path Exotica had made had been replaced by a blue door. It was locked. They were trapped!

Frederigo still felt terrified. The being closed in...

"Wait!" said Exotica. "I think there's a spell that could open any locked door. Wether it would work for this one, or only for normal doors, I don't know. But it might work."

"Let's hope it does," said Fred, "because here it comes!" The dark being closed in on them, hugering to destroy them.

Exotica pulled herself together and instincively recited a spell. "Rof deraperp neeb sah tnemom eht tub, emoc sah dne eht!" she cried out. Frederigo felt his pulse rise as the beast came closer...

And the door opened. Without looking to see what was on the other side, the three leapt through...

1. Otherside.

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