The moment they were both through, the door shut, disappearing into nothing as a seam of light strung to nothing. Beneath them was intricately woven steel humming with life, gargantuan brazen gears floating amidst a bed of glimmering starlight which stretched on forever, mechanisms locked together in a harmony unfolded brilliantly before Era’s eyes. The design was beyond complex, it was unfathomable, each little component working in tandem with thousands of others, some overlapping in space, but none in time, each flowing clearly from one second to the next, then the last. It was as if this space had not stopped running since it was first created–an impossibility.
At the end of the walking path upon which they stood, a great solar model hummed, encircled by a large bronze ring platform subdivided into levels, each strewn carefully with various magical implements of unusual design. The moment they stepped into the center, the bridge they entered from, along with several others at even intervals along the outside, began to turn and bend, splaying out into themselves wider platforms where more curiosities lie waiting.
Trenton lugged himself to the side, labouring over their care, almost certainly a means to distract himself from grief. He gently laid each of his companions upon soft blankets, replacing their bandaging and resowing their wounds before tucking them in. It seemed he was no longer satisfied with the quick sutures he’d initially given, and even as Era’s magic worked, they were not yet perfectly healed, nor would they be for some time. Trenton pulled a small bucket of water from seemingly nothing, laying cooled rags over their foreheads in an attempt to quell their restless slumbers.
Meanwhile, while Trenton delicately cared for the others, Era investigated the space, starting carefully with the sun at the center. It was a perfect replication of the actual sun from what Era could tell, not the simple emulations the false sun spell creates. It was a true nuclear fission reactor. Although, the notion that a spell such as this, impressive as it was, could sustain a space this intricate for so long was absurd. Other factors were at play.
Era spent some time circling around the platforms, closely inspecting the runes carved into their surfaces, diagraming each with careful hand and taking peerless notes the whole while. Whenever he noticed something out of place, he made sure to take special care to mark it on the full scale spatial diagram he constructed and kept alongside himself. But above all, the turning gears, strange instruments, and peculiar designs, one thing stood out above the rest–a rune hovering in the air a ways beneath the whole platform carved in the shape of the infinity symbol.
Era approached the symbol with caution, marveling at its ability to deconstruct the very fabric of reality as the closed the gap between it and himself…or himself and the sun…or himself and Trenton…or…every time he attempted to approach, space seemed to bend and warp in ways typically impossible with linear construction. Inches became miles, what was once was then twice, thrice, both in a state of instant entropy and evolution simultaneously. It was as marvelous as it was impossible, a wake of contradictions bundled into a package of unknowable lights and fragments whirring around him like fairies dancing on Spirit’s Eve.
To the naked, it would seem as if the world itself had simply gone mad, but to Era, it looked almost as possibility, chance–a path. Era consulted his diagram of the space, zooming in a piece of paper he’d read but a dozen minutes or so prior. “Possibility is such a novel concept. I find it impractical, frankly…”
Era closed his eyes, hovering between the sun and rune, arms splayed to the heavens. And in this moment, he attempted something he’d long given up on, long deemed beyond mortal control, that of time itself. In linear space, it was woven as a single thread, delicately crafted and maintained by the daymaker, unwavering, unshakable, unshatterable. But in there, it bent upon itself, fraying where the eye could not trace.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Piece by bitter piece, Era laced his magic into the tapestry of time, gripping it with irrevocable strength. He rended it backward, unraveling the future and using it as material to remake the past as the patterns dictated. Overhead, the gears slowed to a halt, then revered, every mechanism winding back on itself. Just as he’d thought, the machines served to bend the flow of time, which also gave Era power he never thought possible. And when next he opened his eyes, when past was no more, his hands clamped about the infinity rune, extracting its original creator from it.
Suddenly, Era no longer hovered beneath the platform. The space was dark then light simultaneously, begone of all the flourishes that had decorated it but a moment prior. Then, one by one, the stars began to light up, flaring into existence, outlines of the gears risen from the darkness below and filled with the great golden light from above. This was it, what he’d been looking for all this time, creation–the magic of the gods.
In the center of it all, the strangest creature appeared, the sun birthing from his flesh as would air from one’s lungs. It had the strangest, and yet most familiar, anatomy Era had ever seen, pure white skin like snow stretched thick across burgeoned muscles, 4 ivory horns sprouting from its head and winding each in a different direction. Across its skin, solid, thick tattoos which shifted fluidly across the entire color spectrum radiated with energy. On his face, he had 6 eyes arranged in a perfect circle, each one an exact replica of Era’s.
It felt almost like Era was looking at a human, but wrong in ways that felt simply unnatural. The being had no hair, nose, mouth, or ears, only head, eyes, torso, arms, and legs. It was uncanny, flesh covering the spots where they would otherwise be. Did a truly like this truly exist in the past? Did it still exist? What was it?
“I was given a grand idea the other day, grander than any I’ve ever had before. I simply couldn’t wait; I simply had to work! It was a wonder I had this pip from Sol still within me! I do so prefer to work in light, and he is so rather talented at what he does,” the being spoke, its voice echoing in a tongue completely foreign to Era, but in a script somehow legible to him.
The being stepped upon the platforms, watching them turn with great pleasure. It flicked its hand to the side, and suddenly, 6 stone statues roughly resembling the mortal races appeared, created much as the gears had been. The first was a male human, the second a female elf, the third a male dwarf, the fourth a male giant, and the fifth a spirit. But what really caught Era’s attention was the 6th statue.
It looked featureless, colorless, almost like a blank canvass not yet filled in. the other statues all looked well cared for and loved, each with a symbol emblazoned somewhere on their bodies: the sun, the tree, the cloud, the river, and the magical wheel respectively. The last, however, was completely unbranded, unclaimed in a way.
The figure spoke anew, “Before he left, Atlas made these 5 statues. I am unsure what he intended for them, but I simply cannot allow such potential to pass me by. If we cannot create beings as we, then we will make lesser beings to toil this world in tow, mortal by nature. They shall have free reign to rule as they wish, unburdened by our sovereign paws, free to laugh, weep, fear, and fight however they please in what time they bear. The 6th I bring only for honor. If we 5 should get one, then I believe it suiting Atlas receives one in his name as well, even should he not be here to see it. They will be beautiful, I can already see it. Man, I shall call them, servantile in nature, but not subsidiary to we. These grounds shall serve as my hallowed shrine of labour ever more to this day. This is my vision, and thus it is so.”
Time rewound upon itself, correcting the error Era had strung into it, forcibly ejecting him from the vision. In a blink: Era, Trenton, and his friends all stood before the entrance to the vault, the memory of what happened still spinning through Era’s mind.
