The First Land Herald/434-10-38

Article Number: Unknown article number

Dateline: 434-10-38

A LESSON IN TIMEKEEPING - VERALOS SPEAKS, NAVESI FACES HERSELF As a historian and chronicler of events, I never thought time was complicated. The past was written, immutable, and the future merely followed from the past and our choices in the present. I was wrong. What follows is the story of an attempt to contact the Timekeeper Veralos, and to probe his timeline, past and future. This venture was made by an incredible army of Bard and Moon Mage researchers, headed by myself, Bards Jorenn, Grancz, and Broichan, and Moon Mages Selesthiel, Miskton, and Traim. Other Bards I was able to recognize were: Bethanna, Corcus, Aashja, Lupdels, Mordiazi, Nilme, Almarius, Iryta, Kaedan, and Hondashi. Other Moon Mages included: Atazai, Chearonk, Angel, Aaoskar, and Lenaea. We were also accompanied by a number of interested observers and valued Empaths. Veralos had previously eluded our undertakings to interview him mainly by simply failing to respond to us. He stood in the Temporal Pocket behind a shimmering red barrier, saying very little. We wondered if perhaps he was lost in another time, paying attention to another time, or even an illusion. When Mazrian delivered him a note inviting him to a Town Hall meeting, at the meeting his face appeared in flashes, each a different age, suggesting that he was not able to attend in person, in the present. We first gathered a group to plan our ritual to view the past and future of Veralos. This way, we hoped, we could deliver him a letter in the Pocket, and perhaps find a place in his timeline where he was or will be able to respond to it. We drafted this letter with six simple questions: Are you friend or foe? How do we contact you safely? Where and when are you? What are your aims? Why are the Gorbesh appearing in our time? Why did you give us these Feral tomes? The ritual we designed was to have all the Bards present sing in chorus with me as we focused together on evoking Veralos' past. I theorized that doing so together would allow us to pick up on whispers and echoes, amplifying them for one another so that we might be able to probe more deeply. Selesthiel, meanwhile, would delve into Veralos' future, and the other Moon Mages would scan the Web of Fate for anomalies, ripples, or other clues. By using a single mage to predict his future, we would avoid the dangerous and forbidden group prediction. A few andaen after I delivered the letter, we met in the Town Hall, where we prepared for the ritual at hand with several spells before traveling to the Temporal Pocket where Veralos resides. This can be done via the raising of a red-swirled orb of mysterious origins [QUEST CLAIM]. To my great surprise, Veralos was active and spoke to us immediately upon our arrival, pulling out the letter and answering each question in turn: "Right, rightright, friend or foe. Well, I am a Timekeeper. I tend to the lines. This is the anchor I've created to gather them together. I mean you no harm, and could always use more company. Though I need to warn you, this isn't a particularly safe enterprise. How to contact me? I'm right now. Leave me a note if you want, I'm sometimes looking elsewhen." "Where and when am I? That's hard to answer. I'm here, right? And, well, not quite now, because I'm also before and after." "What are my aims? My aims are maintaining this anchor. It gathers some important events, and lets people study them. It also gathers some alternative events. What didn't happen is often just as important as what did happen. We look at one another and learn a lot. If there is anyone to look, that is." "The Gorbesh. Right. The Gorbesh are tenacious. Very unpredictable. I imagine you lot would count yourself lucky that this now wasn't another now. There are other nows that are less favorable for you. But the past Gorbesh recently attacked you recently because you pushed at the snarls and let past Gorbesh now. They shouldn't have been now, indeed, they *would not have been* now had you not picked at the snarls. Just leave the snarls be, they're resolving if you let them." "The Tomes? They were a gift to help you deal with the Time Eddy. Same magic to counter same magic." Notably, he seemed a little confused at times, occasionally becoming distracted by something in the distance, or reintroducing himself, then saying, "Oh, right... we're still now." At the end of his speech, he suddenly leaned forward and whispered to me, "I think you're ready for a brush with these forces, to understand the possibilities. Time is confusing, and difficult to work with. It is fluid and mutable. Remember that you can still change outcomes!" With a snap of his fingers, a chorus of Feral magic wound around me, empty space nearby shattering into a wall of broken crystal, echoing with unfamiliar songs and histories that painfully battered my eardrums. Through the wall, I heard a cacophony, an unsettling progression that formed, somehow, an outline of myself. An image unfurled, and I had the sense that it was a glimpse into a future that had yet to transpire. From beyond the wall, I heard a crackling of unstable Feral energies howling as they discharged shivering lashes of what I can only assume were broken time and space, and I saw - myself! The other me was holding her hands up in terror to protect herself from the onslaught of energy. I realized I could intervene. I was close enough to lean forward and shove the other me out of harm's way. My every instinct urged me to do this, to save myself. But I hesitated. Veralos had spoken of the snarls, and these had brought us back our ancient enemies, the Gorbesh. With every ounce of my will, I forced myself to stand back and watch. The other Navesi was blasted by a lurid arc of crackling energy. Her corpse fell to the ground, smoke and evaporating crystal streaming from her body. A moment later, the crystal fragments snapped into place, space healing and reverting to normal. My heart ached for the other me, and I only hoped it was a far distant future, or another timeline that I would never experience. To my surprise, Veralos then encouraged us to conduct our experiment, to look into his past and future. It seemed our lesson was continuing. We chose to go ahead with it. I played a haunting composition on my loimic bass viol and began to sing, the chorus of Bardic voices joining mine in sublime resonance, filling the strange space with our presence. Moon Mages gazed at the sky, seeking their portents, as Selesthiel focused his intense gaze upon Veralos. I found myself opening to Veralos' story, listening intently for the threads of his history to be revealed. A dull hiss began to emerge, and the memories began to flood my senses - he is lonely, the company of other Timekeepers being as difficult as the looping trajectory that is his existence, as difficult as remaining sane in conversation with all possible versions of one's self. I almost immediately lost track of his timeline. The ending kept modifying the beginning, as each possibility of Veralos lent a voice. Piercingly high tones of Feral magic screamed around echoes that managed to harmonize with themselves, climbing and falling in arpeggios that kept changing before they concluded. The last note informed the first, the story telling itself. I realized that Veralos has no past, as his history is yet to be written, his future as much his origin. The cacophony of bizarre magic rang forth from him, shaping his form and defining his features. Selesthiel would later tell me that he experienced a similar view of Veralos. He felt a Veralos looking directly at him, countless versions of him, all aware of his probing. Veralos dances along the future, he said, informing his every now, modifying his past, separate from the Web of Fate but aware of everything that it strides. All of Veralos' past is informed and modified by his future, and he does not truly experience the now, he merely observes and ensures what he knows will happen. Fate and chance cannot touch him, so thoroughly has the meddling with Feral magic shaped his mind and body. Meanwhile, a crackling storm of Feral energy began to form in the center of the area, shedding howling arcs of broken space and shattered crystal. Veralos looked around impassively and remarked, "I remember this. Their introduction to Timekeeping!" The storm began to gather in strength, the Feral magics writhing out of control as they were probed. Echoing around the area, the storm lashed outward, and I saw a series of bizarre images within: fallen towers, primal forests, roads lined with obelisks, a ziggurat bathed in light and shadow, crystal spires wreathed in energy, the coronation of a Queen with cruel eyes, a laughing couple seated on an oceanside cliff, and countless more. Suddenly, a series of crackling bolts struck the ground, and the storm surged briefly. A wall of broken crystal formed next to me, and a second Navesi could be seen on the other side of the wall! She did nothing, and as we stared at one another awkwardly, a lurid arc of crackling energy slammed into me, rearranging my body in a mess of vaporizing flesh and smoking shards of crystal. A moment later, the wall of crystal fragments snapped into place, the space healing and reverting to normal. I was quite dead, and I only had myself to blame. Veralos seemed delighted by this turn of events, clapping his hands in glee as the storm abated. "You see? You begin to see?" Through some obvious control over the Pocket, Veralos next unceremoniously dumped my corpse at the Crossing Empath guild courtyard, rolling me through a region of space shattered into broken crystal. There, I was fortunate enough to be raised, surrounded by some very confused healers. Before I could explain more than that time meddling was dangerous, I was suddenly yanked through another portal of crystals and back to the Pocket. Once back, after assuring those present that I was indeed the same Navesi, I discovered that Veralos had opened the way to a new area of the Pocket, through a shattered crystal wall. Seven anomalies hovered above crystal pedestals. From what we could gather, each showed a possible alternative timeline that we had managed to avoid. I saw an utter calamity as Elemental laws were breached, Sithsia returned to defend Zoluren, Osven taking an alternate path of Empathy, and more. They are fascinating, and I encourage all to visit while we are still able. Ultimately, we had many questions answered, and learned much about the nature of Time in our world. Of course, I was left with more questions: What would have happened if I had saved myself? How, and when, did our meddling somehow summon the Gorbesh? At the parley? How is a Timekeeper even made, and how is one born Elothean if he has no history? I am too exhausted to wonder further, but we must visit some of these again. Look for an announcement of a discussion, where we might all comment on what happened and form our theories of Time. We will learn more, in time. Still the one and only, Navesi Daerthon History's Voice, True Bard, Zoluren's Herald Editor in Chief of the First Land Herald

Real Date: Unknown Date

Subject(s): Bard Crossing Empath Gorbesh Feral Magic Moon Mage Navesi Osven Sithsia Temporal Pocket Veralos Zoluren

Author(s): Navesi