The sun had only just crawled over the horizon and the birds had just started their morning songs. Even this early though, it was already quite warm, foreshadowing a hot day ahead. It was in these circumstances that Ishmael wandered through the thick forest known as the Aevum woods. He was a young, black-haired man with brown eyes and a rugged appearance. In spite of the temperature, he wore clothes as if he was ready for winter. A mask over his mouth, a rather tight-fitting dark shirt and a pair of pants in similar fashion, finished off by a pair of boots and a cape. He was sweating, but he had no intention of taking it off. He was after all an adventurous rogue. On his belt hung two short swords and hidden around his body were several throwing knives. Whoever tried to sneak up on him, he’d be ready for them. Right now though, something else was on his mind.
   “Why do I always get shafted with these easy low-level quests?” he complained out loud to himself. He had been making grunts ever since he got his quest scroll earlier this morning. His guild-master had ensured him that the rewards would be wonderful but the rogue was sure that it was just a leftover quest deemed not good enough for the others. He had joined a rather prestigious guild and he figured it’d be a surefire way to boost him to hero status. Alas, Things are never easy, are they.
   The path through the lush forest was quite hard to navigate. The Aevum woods used to be travelled a lot but these roads have since been abandoned in favour of the portal system. Because of this, several trees and plants had slowly been overgrowing the pathway. Most of them were quite vicious too, leaving him with many scratches from thorns and sharp branches. Using his short swords, he’d occasionally hack away at his obstacles but that seemed pretty useless when each new branch was merely obscuring two more behind it.
   Ishmael had been traveling now since the dead of night. He wanted to get this quest over with as soon as possible, hopeful that it would impress the guild. He didn’t know what time it was exactly but it must have been around 6 in the morning. It was then that he could hear something: the flow of water. A smile appeared on his face. At last he had found the great river, the Alina. It took him another 10 minutes before he could finally see the stream of water. The river was quite big and the opposite side would be quite hard to reach if he wanted to cross it. That wasn’t what he was here for though. The place he was looking for was supposed to be on this riverbank.
“What a sight,” the rogue said and he took a deep breath of fresh air. It was starting to get rather stuffy and humid inside the woods. He had to admit, if anything this place looked gorgeous, so there was that at least. Thankfully for him, the road would continue to follow the river from here on out. Because of the river on one side, it was also much easier to travel than the thicket from before. This seemed like a perfect place for a pitstop. He got closer to the water, took off his boots placed his bare feet in the water to try and cool off a little bit. He got bread out of his satchel and started eating his well-earned breakfast while taking in all of the sights. The water sparkled in the sunlight and there was a light summer breeze. His ears were filled with the sounds of flowing water, mixed in with the wake-up calls of several songbirds. It was times like these where he wished he hadn’t been sent out on his own; where he wished he could share this sight with his friends. The rogue had always been a fan of rivers like this. Maybe this mission wasn’t so bad after all. As he ate, he found himself staring into the water. It captivated him for some odd reason. As if it was compelling him to hop in. The rogue quickly shook his head, figuring it was probably just the warmth toying with his mind. He might just go for a swim once his quest was done.
Standing up, he stretched and finished the last of his morning meal. He then dried off his feet with the cape he was wearing, put on his boots again and proceeded to carry on with his journey. If the quest scroll was correct, his destination should only be about half a mile away from where he was now. He could see nothing yet, but that was only because of the riverbend, obscuring his view. He didn’t mind that all that much. His mind kept wandering off to his guild mates. What would they all be doing now? Epic battles against fierce foes, grand adventures through dangerous dungeons, it could be anything really. Yet he was stuck with investigation duty. As the sun went higher and higher, so did the temperature, making the Alina seem all the more inviting. No, he had no time for that if he wanted to be back before dinner!
When he finally arrived at the river bend, he could get his first glimpse of his destination: the ruins of some old shrine. It was his quest to reach this ancient building and explore it. Any treasure he found would be his, so long as he reported his findings. The plan of the guild was that they might use this building as a new base of operations in this area. As he got closer, he was able to get a better look at the shrine. Most of the building stood over the river on a metal dock while its entrance was placed on the riverbank. Its back exit led to a crescent-shaped dock, topped off with a large dome. It must have had glass in it at some point but that has since been broken. It made the rogue curious who this shrine belonged to. Taking out the quest scroll, he decided to read the lore behind it all for once. He never did that, always skipping straight to the objectives, but he simply had to know now.

The shrine to Alinavious lies within the Aevum woods on the shore of the river Alina. Or at least, that’s where it was the last time anybody saw it! This shrine used to be a safe haven for travelers in need of a bed or priests wishing to pray to the goddess. Many say that….

“Right, Alinavious then,” Ishmael said. He had no idea which god or goddess that was. There were so many of them after all. The text was way too long to skim through for any mention of what this shrine really stood for. As such, he put the scroll away again and carried on walking.

After a mere five minutes, he finally found himself in front of the large double doors. They were rather muddy but he was able to make out the artwork of a large tidal wave. Above it was a broken down clock with its arms missing. Either they had fallen off or they had simply been stolen by some thief. Next to the doors were two stands. One of them held a statue of a woman while the other only had a stump of marble. It was clear that no-one had been here in years. The rogue shrugged and pulled down one of the door handles. The moment he touched it though, its rusty hinges gave way, causing it to fall. Ishmael was only barely able to jump away before he would have been crushed by the metal gate.
   “Fucking…” he cursed. That was a rather close call! Even though this was an easy, low-level quest, he couldn’t slack. He actually did have to pay attention and be careful. He peeked through the hole left behind while remaining hidden, as if expecting a very angry owner to come charging out for breaking their front door. When he was certain that wasn’t the case, he decided to step inside. Much like the outside suggested, the room he found himself in was an absolute mess. Several cobwebs hung in the corners. On the ground lay numerous pieces of broken glass and rusty metal. Almost everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. The rogue figured that it would take a lot of work if they wanted to turn this place into a new guild hall. He was thankful that he was wearing strong boots, meaning he wouldn’t have to worry about glass sticking in his feet. The room itself seemed to be some kind of entrance hall. The walls were adorned by many glass pipes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some of which were broken. The far wall held yet another large clock, missing its arms much like the one on the outside. In the center of the room stood some kind of pedestal. All of the pipes seemed to gather on the ceiling just above this point. In the middle of the pedestal was a hole which led back into the pipes, separating outwards. There was no telling what this place was for. On both sides of the grand clock were two doors. One of them was blocked by a large wooden beam that had fallen down but the other door was free. Preparing himself to jump out of the way again, Ishmael opened it and was relieved to find it opening like normal. It led to the large, crescent-shaped dome outside. Surprisingly, the docks themselves had remained largely intact, having rusted only a little bit. There were several seats around this place which reminded him of a seafish show. Once again, he was able to spot various clocks around this area and all of them missed their arms. Either these arms were once made of pure gold or there was something else going on. Other than that, there wasn’t too much about this place. He shrugged, closed the door again and turned back to face the entrance hall.
   “No loot, of course,” he muttered. It must have already been stripped by looters, or it never had anything valuable to begin with. He sighed. It would indeed make a pretty good guild hall, but there was nothing of great interest about this place as far as he could see. He thus decided to just take a better look at the pipe system. It really was quite intricate in its workings. He guessed that at some point, water must have been flowing through it. He approached the pedestal in the middle and he could only barely make out some writing on it. It was in some ancient language though which he definitely could not understand. He decided to touch the pedestal and rub away some of the dust in the hopes of getting a better view but that turned out to be a mistake. When he touched it, the pedestal started lowering into the ground.
“Oh shit,” he said and he took a few steps back. He then turned around to try and bolt out but it seemed that that was impossible as large metal plates had shot out of the ground as well as the ceiling. They all locked into each-other, effectively trapping him. Pulling out his daggers, he tried to slash his way out of his metal cage but it just wouldn’t budge whatsoever. It was surprisingly sturdy, regardless of its rusty and ancient state. He yelled for help but of course, there was no-one nearby for miles on end. He was so occupied by it that he hadn’t noticed the pipes underneath him slowly receding outwards as the pedestal completely reached the ground. There were various noises around him of clicking gears and the flowing of water. How could he have let himself get trapped so easily? Maybe he really wasn’t ready yet for the big missions after all. Just then, the floor he was standing on started opening up.
“No! Damn it all!” he yelled as he tried his best to stay up but the metal had no grip whatsoever. Within moments, the floor had completely fallen away, dropping him down into a tank filled with water. It must have been connected to the Alina but there was no way out. Nothing he could fit through at least. During the fall, he had lost his grip on his daggers, causing them to fall and sink down to the bottom. Looking down, he could see a small yet bright white light appearing there. Above him, the floor closed up again, cutting off any escape yet leaving a similar small light in its place. Ishmael had luckily taken a deep breath beforehand but he had to get out of here as fast as possible, lest he’d drown. He outstretched his right arm upwards towards the light. His left leg was outstretched below to try and reach the bottom. He could use that as a springboard then. It was at the moment that both his arm and his leg touched the lights at both ends that something unexpected started. Above him, the light seemingly went into his right hand and started lowering down. The backside of his hand turned into green metal while the front side turned into glass wherever the light had passed. It also looked like it filled up with water. Not only that but his hand also became quite slender. He had to try really hard not to gasp at this when he could feel a similar sensation on his left foot. Much like with his hand, the light had entered his body and transformed where him where it passed. His boot vanished while his foot too had started transforming. His soles had become the green metal while the top had started turning into glass. Unlike his hand though, there was no water that filled him up there. The lights didn’t show any signs of stopping there as it climbed up his lower leg. It too became very slender and quite feminine. This time Ishmael couldn’t help himself. His breath was running short and out of reflex, he gasped for air. Normally, that would be a very bad idea underwater but strangely, he found that he had no trouble breathing. Was this part of the transformation too? This made the rogue really worried but there was no stopping the changes. Soon, his entire right arm had turned into this glass and metal tube, as was his leg. Both limbs had become very feminine while the rest of his clothes had slowly vanished, soon leaving him naked. The top light was in his shoulder now where the changes seemed to simply stop. Below, the changes had stopped as well, at his hip. The lights themselves though did not stop as they started moving towards each-other. The rogue could feel the warm lights moving through his body as they entered his chest, leaving behind a trail of illuminated tubes, visible on the outside. Finally, the lights blended together right where his heart was. He used his left, untransformed hand to reach for his chest to try and somehow do something about it but it was too late as his heart transformed. It was again visible on the outside as it was glowing a very bright white light. The tubes went right through his heart, connecting with each-other and causing the water from his arm to start gently flowing down into his leg. This kickstarted the transformation on the rest of his body. Wherever the changes reached caused his body to turn into the same green metallic substance. His chest expanded outwards into a pair of breasts as his shoulders became a lot less broad. It was clear now that, aside from his humanity, he was going to be losing his manhood as well. His new boobs kept on swelling until they stood at a firm C cup. Inside of his body, his blood veins turned into tubes, one at a time, and each of them started lighting up, much like his heart had. When the changes reached his left arm, he was surprised to find it becoming fully enclosed in green metal unlike his right arm. His waist narrowed down while his hips expanded. It was then that the time had come that Ishmael was dreading: the changes had reached his crotch.
“Please… stop…” he said which surprisingly came out clearly, even though he was underwater. His voice was quite a lot higher in pitch now too. None of his complaints and pleas mattered though as his penis retracted back into his body, leaving behind an inviting set of vaginal lips. He had become a she. As her right leg turned into green metal as well, the transformation had finally begun its journey up her neck towards her head. Her cheeks puffed out as her eyes turned ocean blue. Her black hair turned into light blue and started growing. It flowed down to her mid back like waves of the sea. Finally, as the last bits of her body changed, she found that the changes started affecting her mind now. She had been able to feel the water that was flowing through her heart as well as the tubes in her body. Now though, the water seemed to be translating into something else. Something she couldn’t quite comprehend at first but then it hit her like a tidal wave. It was time. She could feel time itself flowing through her as water dripped through her heart from her right arm into her left leg. The former rogue shook her head to try and think clearly but it was no use. The sensations simply kept on coming. The current time, the amount of time she’s been in this water, the amount of time since she left the guild hall. She knew all that now incredibly accurately, down to the very second. No, it wasn’t that she knew it, she could feel it. She was so occupied by these new sensations that she failed to notice a clock appearing over her heart, made of the same white light as the tubes. It too displayed the time very accurately. The former man closed her eyes as she entered a dream-like state. Inside of her mind, she was fighting the changes.
“Please… turn me back,” Ishmael said mentally. She could see her old male body. She was a rogue. She was an adventurer. She was a man.
“Turn me back to what?” she found herself saying then. The image of her old body simply washed away with water, being replaced by the image of her new body. She was a priestess. She was a devotee of Alinavious. She was a woman.
“No… that’s not… who I am!” the transformed victim said desperately. This wasn’t right, was it?
“Yes it is. This is who I am.” she said back to herself again. Why was this small part of her mind thinking that this was not who she really was? How silly.
“No… this is not… a… dream… right?” a voice said to her, but it was quickly fading away. Lost in the ever flowing passage of time. Washed away by the water. That’s right, she was asleep. She had been for a very long time. 1041 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 19 hours, 52 minutes and 38 seconds to be exact. Sleeping for so long causes the occasional strange dream to occur of course. Why did she go to sleep again? Of course, it was when the vile Chu Chu Thulala afflicted this world with his horrible taint, causing her goddess to die. She felt it in her entire being. Time took a massive hit that day. She vowed then to go to sleep until the day her goddess would return. But she was waking now. Her deep slumber was interrupted by something. A feeling? A twist in time? Something or someone was meddling with time. Her time. It was only brief and it was quickly fixed again but it was certainly noticeable. Either this meant her goddess was finally going to return or something else was happening. In any case, she was waking up. When she opened her eyes, she found herself into a capsule filled with water. Of course, this was where she had gone to sleep in all those years ago. She took a deep breath of water in, filling up her veins. It flowed through her entire body, as it always has. She reached up with her right, water-filled arm towards the door. When she touched it, the gate opened up. Then, instead of climbing out, she concentrated and within moments, she started rising up. Soon, she was standing on top of the surface as if it was a solid platform. The metal plates that had covered the entrance to her capsule pulled back into the floor and ceiling and she gasped at what she saw. Her shrine… was in ruins! Of course, it had been over a thousand years but it was still sad to see it in this sorry state. A tear left her eye. Stepping out of her pool, it closed up again behind her and the pipes combined once more. Finally the pedestal reached up once more as it had been before. The priestess left the building then through the broken door and turned around to face what was left of her beloved home. It was going to take a lot of work to restore it to its former glory. Much went through her mind. What was the world like now? What had changed? What had remained the same? Did people even still know who Alinavious was? What was she to do? Wait… there was that small irregularity in time again. Much like before, it was ever so slight but she knew it was there. She was an embodiment of time after all. Where was it coming from? Somewhere close by. Somewhere… behind her?
“Well well well,” came a sudden, refined, feminine voice, “what do we have here.” The time elemental gasped and turned around. What she saw stunned her. There stood a woman made out of glass. Her head was purple and she had swirling, purple eyes. In her hand she held a staff containing an hourglass and she wore clothes as if ready for the desert. The most noticeable about her though was the hourglass that was present inside of her glass body. She was smiling but the priestess wasn’t sure if this smile was malicious or out of mere amusement. Of course, the time irregularities could only have come from another time elemental.
“Who are you?” the water clock woman asked.
“I believe I asked you first, dear,” the stranger said, pointing her hourglass staff at the priestess who huffed in return, unflinching.
“My name is Ysera,” she said. The stranger was definitely a noble and she carried herself accordingly.
“I am Lavini,” the hourglass woman said, lowered her staff and stepped closer. “I came to see this shrine but what I find is a time elemental. How unexpected.” Was this woman for real? What was her intent? Was she hostile or was she here on friendly terms?
“Are you the one that has been messing with time?” Ysera asked and struck a fighting stance. “Because I will retaliate.” Lavini halted, placed the hourglass in the staff in the palm of her hand and looked at the sands trickling down inside with great interest.
“My apologies,” she said. “It is but a mere side effect of teleportation. I fix it the moment it happens but I too can feel them. I still need to improve on this.” She lowered her staff again then and looked Ysera in the eyes. “I come with no ill intent.” The water priestess narrowed her eyes. She did seem genuine, but how did she know to come here right at this moment? Right now that she woke up?
“I see,” she said yet she was still suspicious of the stranger. “This is a shrine to Alinavious. My shrine to her ladyship. I am its keeper. Its priestess. Its guardian.” She sighed then as she remembered its ruined state.
“I know,” Lavini said. “I am a bishop of time. A devotee of the goddess. I hail from the temple of Alinavious in New Stepolis where my sisters and I preserve the legacy of the goddess, each in our own way.” She smiled as Ysera’s eyes widened. The stranger was a fellow devotee. A time elemental in service of the goddess just like she was. If that was the case then there were no need for hostilities. They were allies. They were sisters. She dropped her stance and took a step forward then and took a courteous bow.
“I… forgive me then,” she said. “I only just woke to this strange new world. I believe that your meddling woke me up.”
“Woke up?” Lavina tilted her head. “Why were you sleeping, dear?”
“After the passing of lady Alinavious, I…” Ysera said but she couldn’t finish that sentence. Sadness overcame her once more as she thought about the death of her goddess. It seemed that sand trickled out of Lavini’s eyes. It caused sadness for her as well.
“You don’t have to say more…” she said. “I understand.” Ysera smiled at her sister then when she remembered an earlier question of herself.
“How did you know to come here right at this moment?” she asked. Lavini chuckled at that.
“I simply knew, though I knew not why I had to be here,” she said. “It is a part of my job. My being. My ability to preserve the current timeline. I imagine you have chrono abilities that I do not have yourself.” Ysera chuckled this time.
“I know a trick or two, yeah,” she said and sighed sadly again. “Sadly I do not have the skill to restore this shrine on my own, though.”
“Fear not, dear,” Lavini said then. “My sisters and I can help you. After all, you are a sister of ours as well, are you not?” This pleased the water clock woman. Where she had despaired earlier, she now felt happiness. As water dripped from her arm to her leg through her heart, she could feel it beating eagerly.
“Thank you so much,” Ysera said. Lavini smiled warmly, waved her staff and opened up a portal of sand.
“Come. I’ll introduce you to my, no, our sisters Bridget, Akita and Zexa Xeza. They’ll be happy to meet you.”
“Gladly,” Ysera said as she walked through the portal. She had awoken to a new world and a new time but she had immediately found her place in this new world. She was going to rebuild her shrine and restore it to its former glory. Alongside her new friends, she will show the world the virtues of Alinavious and the importance of time.