A Matter of Time

Images came flooding to her mind, She opened her eyes and found herself in a familiar place. Some sort of waking dream? Memories? But whose? She was standing beside the Azure Citadel, home of the Mages' Guild who had served and protected the Emperor of Telluria and his family for generations. The citadel itself stood on a hill overlooking the capital, presenting a clear view for miles. It was twilight, and Elaine looked down, she saw a terrible sight. The great city was burning! Fires raged in whole quarters, destroying buildings that had stood for centuries. The mages who would have responded to douse them with water spells were nowhere to be found. A huge shadow pased overhead. Looking up, she saw a massive black dragon, larger even than Minestus had been. It let loose an ear-piercing shriek as it swept down over the city, raining fire as it came. A blast of magic rose from somewhere in the city to challenge it, but this was easily evaded. In the distance she though she saw several more of the wyrms.

Is this what caused the Empire's fall? War? Dragons? It seemed impossible. While the dragons and dragon-mages had always existed, they usually kept to themselves, and what few that did attack humans had been nothing that the Imperial army and the Mages' Guild couldn't handle. What could have stirred them to such a fury, that they would do this?

Elaine felt a surge of power from behind her. A beam of green magical energy lanced into the air, striking the massive creature and causing it to plummet from the sky. It fell to its death somewhere in the city. Turning in the direction of the spell, Elaine saw Celubar, the archmage who had trained her in the magical arts, standing on the Citadel's steps. He had been a conteporary of Belboz, in his mid-sixties when Elaine had gone to the Shreken and ended up in stasis. In this dream he looked far older than she had remembered him. He muttered something and turned to go back inside. Elaine called out his name, but he seemed not to hear her. So she followed him.

Inside, the great guild hall was a mess, its statues and ornate stained glass windows destroyed, tapestries burned or splattered with dried blood. The great crystal globe which had adorned the center of the room had been shattered. She descended the stairs quickly, finding more scenes of chaos and destruction, but most troubling, no people at all. If the city was in such bad shape she would have expected the Citadel to serve as a kind of refuge. But, there was no one else.

Elaine followed her former master to a room she did not remember, in the lowest levels of the Citadel, deep beneath the mountain. It was some sort of laboratory, and at its center...A machine, in many respects identical to the one in Belboz's lab, though made of more ornate materials. The old mage sat and seemed to be tinkering with the machine. Elaine approached and attempted to put a hand on his shoulder, but it seemed he was incorporeal, her hand passed right through him.

With a start, Elaine's eyes opened and she was back in Belboz's lab, back in the caves of the Shreken, back in the future, a future in which Telluria had been ravaged and destroyed. Celubar had been renowned as a mighty time-mage. This machine, then...a machine that can transcend time!?

But what would have caused Belboz to build one? How could he have known of Celubar's work, if he had been stuck in the Shreken at the time of the Empire's fall?

1. Elaine attempts to operate the machine.
2. Elaine continues searching the lab, hoping to find more clues. She spots a dusty, forgotton tome tucked away beneath some scrolls and bottles. Is this Belboz's diary?
3. Elaine hears the approach of others coming up the corridor. Adele and her friends, no doubt.

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