It was another early morning in the town of Aliglyn. Pellan yawned as he began his daily routine of opening up his shop. Living in a small town, he generally didn’t expect many customers which made him feel comfortable enough to leave the store unattended for the most part. He trusted his fellow villagers not to steal anything and they trusted him to be there whenever they needed him.

Today, however, was different. Instead of farmer Miller coming in for some of his usual treats or old Gwendolyn nagging him for some coffee beans, there were two very unique looking young women that had entered his shop.

Pellan couldn’t help but stare at them for a moment. One of them was pale white like a pearl and the other was made of glass and the whites of her eyes were black instead.

“Good morning, sir,” the lady of glass spoke.

Pellan blinked and bowed his head. “S-sorry… good mornin’,” he stammered.

“Do you perchance have any rations in stock for on the road?” the glass lady asked. Her accent was quite posh and her choice of words were, in Pellan’s opinion, far too sophisticated than was necessary. That could only mean that she was some kind of noble. But what business would a noblewoman have with his shop?

Pellan became a little weary but still answered truthfully. “Yeah, I got plenty,” he said.

“And how long do they last?” the pale woman spoke. She appeared not as posh, which, for Pellan, was a lot easier to talk to.

“The biscuits’ll be good to eat for two weeks tops. The jerky can last up to a month. Might be a bit too salty though.” Pellan responded.

The two women looked between themselves and nodded. “We would like to buy enough biscuits to last us two weeks,” the pale lady said.

Pellan raised his eyebrow. “You’re plannin’ quite the trek then, eh?” he asked.

The noblewoman nodded. She was constantly smiling and looked quite friendly at least, which was unlike most nobles he’d come across in his life. “You could say so. We are planning on going north, into the Aeon forest,” she said.

Pellan frowned. This pair was getting stranger by the minute. “The Aeon Forest… you sure you want to go in there?” he asked, just to make sure.

The lady of glass tilted her head. “Is something the matter with that place?” she asked.

Pellan folded his arms. “You’re not from these parts are you?” he asked rhetorically. “The place is haunted.”

“Haunted?” the pale woman asked in surprise.

Pellan nodded. “Aliglyn was a larger town once. A stop on an old tradin’ route through the forest. At least, until those freaky apparitions started showin’ up. Exorcists, priests, adventurers, even necromancers have all tried clearin’ ‘em out in the past but no success. Nobody has lived there for hundreds of years now,” he said.

While the pale woman’s eyes went wide with concern, the noblewoman stared into the hourglass that rested atop her staff. Only now did Pellan see the sand trickling down within her body as well. This lady was a walking, talking hourglass?! He had seen many strange folk over the years but this was new.

“I see…” the hourglass woman mused, mostly to herself. “Could you tell us more about these apparitions?”

Pellan shrugged. “I avoid the place so I ain’t seen ‘em myself but I know plenty folks that have. It’s usually some girl just sittin’ by the riverside. She’s there one moment and the next, poof, she’s gone. I’ve heard stranger stories though. Entire towns that show up out of nowhere, people walkin’ around that aren’t really there. Even large travellin’ parties with horse-drawn carts. All of it shimmerin’ like you’d expect from a bunch’a ghosts,” he explained.

“Th-that’s… whoa. Is that really true?” the pale lady asked.

Pellan nodded. “I trust the people who told me,” he said.

The pale lady gulped now but the noblewoman seemed to shrug it off and stayed calm. “Thank you for telling us this. We shall be on the lookout then for these apparitions,” she said.

“You’re still goin’ in?” Pellan asked, confused.

“Why yes, we are,” the noblewoman replied. This seemed to even shock the pale lady at this point.

“Why? There’s nothin’ in there,” Pellan asked.

“Oh, but there is, good sir. Something most precious to us. Or rather, someone,” the noblewoman replied. 

    There was a long story behind this that he was not privy to and would probably take far too long to wrap his head around anyway so he decided not to ask further questions. Instead, he just shrugged and started preparing the rations. “If you say so. Just be careful in there,” he said.

    The noblewoman nodded as she got out her purse with money. “Rest assured, we will,” she said.

With quite some force, Cassie slapped herself on the cheek while quietly mumbling something obscene under her breath.

Lavini tilted her head at her and then just chuckled. “Forgive me for sounding juvenile, but why are you hitting yourself?” she asked.

“Some of us aren’t made of metal and glass and therefore still have to worry about bug bites,” Cassie hissed.

“Ah… I see, yes…” Lavini stammered in return.

Cassie sighed. “Why would anyone build a shrine to a deity in the middle of an overgrown forest anyway?” Cassie muttered.

“Do not forget that that was well over a thousand years ago. As the kind shopkeeper told us, the lands must have looked very different from how they are now. It would not be unheard of to build a shrine under those circumstances,” Lavini proposed.

Cassie let out another sigh as she stared out across the river. It truly was a sight to behold. The mighty Alina River snaked through the landscape and seemed unstoppable. It was wide and its currents appeared almost impossible to cross without the help of a bridge or a sturdy boat. There were rocks jutting out of the water here and there stubbornly trying to maintain its position that were slowly being eroded over time. They had even seen the occasional fish jump out of the water and swim upstream.

After yet another bend in the river, the two halted as the river took a nosedive into a waterfall. It wasn’t that big, perhaps one or two meters tall, but it did result in a cliff they had to climb down.

“Magnificent,” Lavini said.

Cassie gave her an amused grin. “You are such a desert girl. You know that?” she said.

“Whatever are you talking about?” Lavini asked, acting hurt.

“Just look at how flabbergasted you get around a little bit of water,” Cassie teased.

Lavini couldn’t help but blush. “Why I… I mean… oh, be quiet!” she huffed but the nun simply kept on laughing.

    After another two hours of walking, Cassie and Lavini decided to take a break. It basically boiled down to them finding two ‘comfortable’ rocks next to each-other so they could sit down and have lunch. Well, so that Cassie could have lunch.

“I am sorry, by the way,” Lavini spoke up as Cassie bit into one of her rations. “I should have paid Estella closer heed.”

Cassie shook her head. “Estella is not a little girl anymore. She shouldn’t need close supervision,” she said.

“I simply do not know what to think about it…” Lavini admitted.

Cassie frowned and had a worried expression on her face. “You don’t think that this is Edwin Thamos seeping through, do you?” she asked.

Lavini shook her head. “I believe I can safely conclude that this is not the case. Estella went into that wild mess of a plan, knowing full well the consequences. But she did all of that for her friend Dawnyte,” she said.

Cassie placed a hand on her chin. “Something the selfish Edwin Thamos would never have done, of course,” she mused. 

Lavini nodded. “Her heart was in the right place. It was simply her methods that were… misguided.”

Cassie then rolled her eyes, stood up, and did her best to join Lavini on the rock she was sitting on, which was quite difficult since it wasn’t really big enough but she managed. There, the nun wrapped her arm around Lavini’s waist and hugged her close. “You shouldn’t be blaming yourself. That’s not fair on you and it’s not fair on Estella either,” she said softly.

Lavini chuckled while leaning into the nun a little. “I suppose you are correct…”

“Of course. We, as her parents, had our hopes and ideas for what sort of person Estella would become but it is ultimately up to her what she decides to do. Even if it drives us up the wall sometimes,” Cassie said.

Once again, Lavini looked out over the river. “You hang out with me too much, you know. You are getting far too wise for your own good,” she said.

Cassie snorted and gave her a soft headbutt. “Fine then. I’ll take my leave!” she said jokingly. With that, she stood up and started running further along the river, quickly vanishing around a bend in the river.

Lavini laughed and shook her head. At least they were having fun on this long trek. Calmly, she stood up as well and picked up their belongings before following the nun. However, when she spotted Cassie again, she saw her standing completely still. Curiously, Lavini approached her and placed her hand on the nun’s shoulder. “What is it?”

All Cassie did was point and when Lavini followed the nun’s gaze, she could see what had Cassie so startled. Just a ways away, sitting on the riverside, was a young woman with long, flowing hair. She was cooling her feet in the water and she was just intently staring out across the river. True to the merchant’s story, she appeared to be shimmering in the sunlight.

Cassie and Lavini looked at each-other in confusion. “You don’t think…” Cassie asked, her voice trembling.

Lavini nodded, her face turning quite serious now. She hadn’t doubted what the store owner back in Aliglyn had told her but to actually see the girl he had described before them was quite shocking to say the least. Their journey had been so peaceful and quiet up until this moment. “Excuse me?!” she called out.

The girl did not respond.

“Hello?! Can you hear us over there?!” Lavini continued.

“S-stop it, Lavini! What if it’s a vengeful ghost?!” Cassie hissed.

Lavini couldn’t help but smirk and look at Cassie. “My dearest Cassie, are you afraid of ghosts?” she asked.

Cassie blushed, which stood in stark contrast to her pale white skin. She frowned and looked away. “N-not at all!”

Lavini chuckled and turned back to face the girl, only to see the spot completely abandoned now. How could that be? They didn’t hear her leave at all, nor did they see her do so because they happened to look away. She carefully approached the rock the girl was sitting on but there was absolutely no sign of her whatsoever. It was quite wet but that was to be expected, seeing as it’s right next to a river. None of the pebbles were displaced either by someone walking through them, nor was there any sort of trail leading into the forest. It was as if she had vanished into thin air. 

Cassie stumbled on over as well, looking mortified. She was looking around herself to try and see if she could spot even so much as a glimpse of the young woman but they were definitely all alone here.

Lavini rubbed her hand on the rock the girl was sitting on. It did not feel warm at all. Either the girl was only sitting here for a moment or perhaps nobody was sitting here at all. Was it a trick of the mind? Or something like the mirages she’d occasionally see at home?

    But she couldn’t pass up this opportunity to tease Cassie some more. “Who knows, maybe that girl is a real spirit, trying to lure us into her trap so that she may start haunting us…”

The chills that ran down Cassie’s spine were visible to anyone as she shook while opening her eyes wide. “S-stop it!” she huffed.

Lavini laughed and gave her nun a hug. “You are adorable, you know that?” she whispered softly.

Cassie gave an annoyed sigh. She returned the hug but not before kicking some river water at Lavini. “You’re a dork,” she muttered.

Lavini winked and let go of the hug. “Shall we move on?” she proposed.

“But… What about the girl?” Cassie asked.

“Whatever we saw, it is gone now. We are here for the shrine, remember?” Lavini said as she was already on the move again. She was hoping that her nonchalant attitude would at least put Cassie’s mind at ease, even if it did trouble Lavini herself.

Cassie looked back to the rock that the mysterious girl had been sitting on. “I guess…” she said.

… Time, like the river, flows on forevermore… 

Lavini halted her pace again. What was that? And what was this feeling she felt? It was as if her entire core was given a minor shake up. She turned around and frowned at Cassie. “Was that… you who just said that?”

Cassie’s eyes widened. Her lower lip trembled slightly. “... said what?” she asked.

Lavini narrowed her eyes. It sounded like a soft voice in the wind. A smooth whisper in the water of the river. Was the girl real after all? Or could she have imagined that voice just now? After all, Cassie wasn’t able to hear anything at all.

“L-Lavini?” Cassie asked, looking extremely worried now “Please stop joking about this!”

Lavini blinked a few times and forced a smile upon her face again. “Ah, pay me no heed. It must have been my imagination playing tricks on me,” she said.

Cassie frowned angrily. Both women knew that it was a bullshit excuse but it was Lavini’s way of letting Cassie know that it was useless to debate on what it was and that it was easier to explain it away. For now at least.

The pair simply kept on walking. The event earlier that morning with the mysterious girl was all but forgotten and they had resumed talking about other things. About Estella, about the situation between Akita and the twins, about the whereabouts of the rightful owner of the final holy trinket they still had; the Temporal Candle.

“... I say, it’ll take a while before we find them. I mean, who would wanna set themselves on fire?” Cassie said.

Lavini chuckled. “Who would willingly turn themselves into glass?” she said.

“I mean… well… true…” Cassie stammered.

“For all of us, the transformation truly suited us. Hence, I am certain that we will find our Keeper of the Flame one day. Who knows, perhaps they will come from the most unlikely of places,” Lavini said.

Cassie shrugged. “Perhaps…” she mused.

Suddenly, the nun halted her pace. She gasped and held her hand over her mouth.

Lavini eyed her curiously. “What is it?”

“There!” Cassie cried out. Ahead of them was that same girl from before, sitting by the riverside, staring out across the river. She was wearing different clothing this time but was otherwise doing the same thing and before. And again, she looked to be slightly shimmering.

Lavini frowned. Once was a fluke but this could not be a coincidence. “Let us approach her… but keep her in our sight this time,” she said.

Resolutely, both women started approaching the young woman. Try as they might though, she did not respond at all. As if Cassie and Lavini weren’t even there.

“W-What is going on, Lavini?” Cassie asked. It was obvious that she was getting a little scared now.

“I wish I could tell you…” Lavini responded.

“Ysera?!”

Lavini froze at the sudden voice. It sounded male and it was coming from within the forest, behind the young woman. At the same time, that same feeling from earlier overcame her. Something that tipped the scale of her inner balance somehow. Surprisingly enough, Cassie simply kept on walking. Had she not heard that voice at all? 

    As for the mysterious girl, only now did she finally respond to something. She stood up, turned around, and waited.

A man soon emerged from the woods. “There you are! Out here again?” the man asked.

Cassie gasped this time. “There’s a man as well now?!” she cried out.

Lavini hurried on over to Cassie and reached to hold her hand over her mouth. “Hush…” she said softly.

Cassie obeyed the order but still gave Lavini an angry glare. It didn’t matter for now. Lavini just wanted to hear what was going on. What these visions were saying.

The mysterious girl nodded at the man. “I like it here…” she said solemnly.

The man sighed and placed his hands on his hips. “Well, come on. There’s lots of work to be done back home,” he said. He didn’t sound angry. More a little concerned.

The girl nodded again. “Yes father…” she muttered. With that, the two started moving off again.

This prompted Lavini to come into action once again. “Wait!” she called out. She hastened her pace but since she could not risk falling over onto the hard rocks, she was unable to reach them in time before they vanished from view. At the very least, that inner imbalance vanished alongside them.

“What is going on here?!” Cassie cried out.

Lavini halted. “There is no time to talk! Please, follow them, Cassie! I will catch up!” she commanded.

Cassie gulped in fear. “A-alright!” she stammered and stormed off into the woods herself to give chase.

Lavini groaned. Her fragility was one aspect of her transformation that she could have done without. She did her best to use the sand within her own hourglass to strengthen the glass from within but she was still very much aware of how easily it could break. In that aspect, each of them had quite a debilitating weakness. Akita, of course, had water, Bridget had trouble around magnets, and for the twins, one of their strengths was also their weakness, since they could completely shut down when apart due to their mental connection.

Carefully, Lavini picked up her own pace again and entered the forest. “Cassie?!” she shouted.

A few moments later, Cassie emerged from behind a couple of trees herself. “I’m sorry… I lost them,” she said apologetically.

Lavini sighed. “It is alright.” She started looking around herself but, just like before, there was absolutely no sign of the two people at all. That said, she did notice that it was a little wet here. Of course, that could have simply been caused by an animal, or maybe even Cassie herself. Ghosts don’t really get wet, do they?

“Now will you please explain what’s going on?!” Cassie hissed.

“Cassie, could you truly not hear them at all?”

“Hear them?! What do you mean ‘hear them’?!”

Well, there was absolutely no dancing around the subject anymore now. “I… heard these visions talking amongst themselves…” she admitted.

Cassie looked at her, completely freaked out now. “‘vini… they were completely silent!”

“Which is exactly what worries me. Why was I able to hear them whereas you were not?” Lavini pondered out loud.

The nun huffed. “Okay, so you can hear them talk. What does that matter? We’re here for the shrine, not to chase these… these spirits. You said so yourself!” she huffed.

Lavini shook her head. “I cannot help but wonder if these two things are entirely unrelated,” she said.

“Why not?” Cassie asked, tilting her head.

“Because the man called the young woman Ysera,” Lavini responded.

Cassie gasped as the realisation struck her. “That’s… you mean, the girl we’ve been seeing is the Priestess of Rivers herself?! But how is that possible?! She was human… and isn’t she supposed to be asleep?!”

“Calm down, Cassie dear. I am certain that there is a logical explanation for all of this,” Lavini said. However, she too was quite freaked out by this. Why could only she hear them talk? And why were they even here in the first place?

Cassie’s eyes darted around them. “We shouldn’t have come here alone…” she said.

“We could not have known what awaited us here,” Lavini argued back.

“What should we do?” Cassie asked.

Lavini considered their options. Their goal was to find Ysera and wake her from her slumber. There still wasn’t any sign of the old shrine, or Rylla for that matter. “We keep moving. Keep your eyes and ears perked and stick close to the river. We cannot afford to get ourselves lost.”

Cassie was visibly shaking. She was trying to maintain her composure but she was failing miserably. It was honestly adorable to Lavini who took the time to give her nun a soft hug. “We will get to the bottom of this, Cassie. We are in this together,” she said softly.

Cassie nodded and clutched Lavini tightly. She didn’t really say anything but words weren’t necessary here.

That’s when something caught Lavini’s eye. “Is that… a house?” she asked.

Cassie gulped and turned around. Sure enough, there was a building there. It was small, made of wood, and looked very old fashioned. It, too, was shimmering and glistening in the sun.

The two women looked at each other. Lavini steadied herself and resolutely stepped towards it.

“Wait! We… we don’t know who lives there and… and what if…” Cassie stammered.

“We have to get to the bottom of this, Cassie dear. It may very well be the key to waking Ysera from her slumber,” Lavini said.

Cassie’s breathing had gotten significantly faster. “Fine… just… stick close, okay?” she said while clutching the time elemental’s arm.

“Always,” Lavini said. With that, the two women stumbled their way through the thick woods. Several roots had grown to the point where they blocked their path and some of the bushes here had sharp thorns. It was way harder to traverse than the riverside, making it even more unlikely that Ysera and her father were able to disappear so quickly.

As they approached the house, Lavini felt that imbalance overcome her once more and it only got stronger as they got closer. Soon, Cassie was able to point out another house. Then Lavini spotted another. And another! This wasn’t just a random house in the middle of the forest. This was…

“A village?!” Cassie gasped.

Indeed, the two women suddenly found themselves surrounded by two or three dozens of buildings.

And lots of people as well.

    At least a hundred people, young and old, were seemingly going about their day. Some were working, some were playing, some were lazing about, and some were simply talking amongst themselves. Well, Lavini could hear them at least. Whether Cassie had the same luxury was another matter entirely.

    Lavini rubbed her eyes but they were not deceiving her. This was real. She was really seeing this village that wasn’t on any of the maps that they had studied before this trip.

    “L-Lavini?” Cassie said while pointing behind them.

    Lavini turned around and was met with surprise yet again. The thick forest that they had just traversed mere moments ago was gone, and in its place was an open field of grass, a few more houses, a clear view of the river, and even more people.

    And all of them were completely ignoring Lavini and Cassie.

    Only now was Lavini finally able to tell that that imbalance that she was feeling, which had only gotten stronger and stronger, wasn’t really something physical. It was temporal. She couldn’t quite tell whether Cassie was feeling the same thing as well or not but if she did, it must not have been affecting her nearly as much.

    Lavini clutched Cassie’s hand tightly. Now that she was close enough to these visions, she was able to see that shimmering effect up close. Not only was everything here glistening in the sunlight, everything also looked like it was… doing waving motions across its surface? No… could it be…? With her other hand, Lavini used her staff to start feeling around herself as she walked up to one of the houses. She did so to make sure that the overgrowth that had been around them previously was still there but it was clearly not. When she finally did reach the house, she tapped her staff against the house… only for it to make a splashing sound. 

    “What in the name of…” Lavini pondered to herself as she retrieved her staff again, its tip now wet.

    “W-what?! It’s made of water…?” Cassie stammered.

    Lavini nodded. This was possibly one of the most puzzling things that she’d ever seen. “Are you able to hear them talk at all?”

    Cassie just shook her head furiously.

    “And do you feel anything that seems out of the ordinary to you?” Lavini asked.

    “W-well… I do feel a little funny I guess…” Cassie admitted.

    So it was true then. Cassie did feel it as well. Of course, that was to be expected from a half time elemental. “Then… I believe there is but one conclusion to make. I have been feeling this since we first saw Ysera. This place… this village… these people… exist on a completely different point in time.”

    “We’re in the past?!” Cassie cried out. 

    “Yes… and no. I can still feel the current time of the present day flowing steadily as usual but on top of that, I can feel this time from the distant past flowing as well. It is as if two hourglasses are trickling down sand within me at the same time,” Lavini explained.

    Cassie gave her an absent minded stare as she tried to wrap her head around what Lavini had just explained. Was this what Pellan had mentioned? What the people in Aliglyn had experienced? Their temporal translocation to a completely different timezone? Surely there must have been efforts in the past to try and stop this madness but with little success. Of course, if the problem here was temporal, then the only people who could solve such an issue would be a priestess or a time elemental like herself.

    That said, perhaps their fear and abandoning of this place was ungrounded. After all, none of the people here did anything that could even remotely be considered scary. In fact, it was all rather mundane. It looked like any normal village, if a little primitive. Not to mention the fact that none of the people here interacted with Lavini and Cassie at all. It was as if, to these people, they were ghosts.

    That’s when Lavini managed to spot the by now familiar form of the young Ysera. She was off by one of the small huts, pulling weeds out of the ground with her father.

    Lavini clutched her staff in one hand and Cassie’s hand in the other. “Let us approach them…” she said softly. With that, they began scurrying over. Lavini constantly waved her staff before her just in case the thick forest decided to materialise itself again.

    When they reached Ysera, they held their breath, waiting for something to happen. Lavini didn’t have to wait long.

    “Ysera… come on, spill the beans. What’s bothering you?” Ysera’s father asked.

    “Huh?” Ysera asked absentmindedly.

    “You’ve been going to that river every day, you’re very quiet, you’re always alone… your dad and I are growing very concerned for you, you know,” Ysera’s father said.

    Ysera let out a sigh and looked away while tugging hard on another piece of weed. “Sorry…” she said in return.

    The father shook his head. “I’m not asking you to say sorry, I’m just asking what’s wrong? We’re your parents and we want to help you…”

    Ysera clenched her fist, holding some of the weed still. “I… am tired of this place. I’m tired of the same old town, with the same old people making a fuss about the same old things. Nothing ever changes and nothing ever happens,” she muttered.

    Ysera’s father honestly looked a little shocked by his daughter’s answer. “Ysera… this is our home. We live here where it’s safe. We don’t know what’s outside the borders of our town so we stay here,” he said.

    “Well maybe I’m tired of this stupid safety!” Ysera yelled. She stood up now and threw the weed she had been clenching in her hand on the ground in anger.

    “Ysera…” the father said.

    “I go to the river because I like watching it. It flows from wherever it came from to wherever it’s going. I don’t even know where… but it gets to flow on. It always gets to change itself, unlike me. I feel so trapped here,” Ysera mused somberly while a tear formed in the corner of her eye.

    In that moment, there was a gleam in Lavini’s own eyes. ‘Time, like the river, flows on forevermore.’ That was the sentence that Lavini had heard the first time they saw Ysera and it was sounding awfully familiar now when compared to what she had just told her father here. Come to think of it, that voice actually sounded exactly like that of Ysera...

    Ysera’s father stayed silent for a moment longer, thinking to himself. Finally, he spoke up again. “You’re 20 years old… you’re old enough to make your own decisions in life…” he said.

    Ysera gasped. “You mean… I can leave?... And you’re not going to stop me?” she asked.

    It was now Ysera’s father’s turn to look quite somberly. “Your dad and I don’t want you to go. We ask that you stay here, with us. With your family. Where you belong. Where you’re home. But… I don’t think either of us will stop you…” he said.

    “Father…” Ysera said, her voice trembling. She leaned forward to give the man a tight hug. For a moment, it seemed that Ysera had changed her mind. However, there was true pain in her voice with what she said next. “I’m leaving within the month…” she whispered softly.

    Then right before their eyes, the visage of Ysera and her father began to ripple, as if a stone had been dropped in an otherwise still pond. The rippling increased until eventually, the water simply fell to the ground, leaving Cassie and Lavini all alone again. In fact, all around them, they could hear water fall to the ground, as the rest of the entire village also faded out of existence again. Lavini, likewise, could feel the flow of time return to normal again.

    While Cassie frantically looked around herself, Lavini placed her hand on her chin, lost in thought. She replayed in her head what they had just seen. So Ysera, living in this small riverside village, wanted to head out but was kept here by her overprotective fathers? Well, until this event it seems. But why were they seeing all this?

    “Lavini!” Cassie called out.

    “Ah, y-yes?” Lavini asked.

    “What are we going to do?! I don’t like this at all! We should have come here with more people… We should have…Why didn’t we…” Cassie’s words kind of died in her mouth as she didn’t even know where to go with her own thoughts.

    Lavini was about to open her mouth to start talking back when they were both shaken out of their thoughts by a new voice. A voice quite familiar to Lavini.

“Laviiiiniiiiiii?! Caaaassiiiieeeee?!”

Lavini gasped. That could only be…

“Hurry, Cassie, let us return to the river,” Lavini said as she created a sand portal that would lead them back to the spot they had first seen Ysera and her father together. They had been there for long enough that she could pinpoint its location decently well. Once it was open, both women stepped through, finally finding themselves out in the open again.

There, swimming in the river, was the Seeress of Eternal Currents, shouting around herself over the trees. It was certainly a most perplexing sight since merfolk usually don’t swim up rivers were it not for the fact that Lavini and Cassie were fully expecting this.

“Rylla!” Lavini called out.

“Laviii- OH! There you are!” Rylla shouted out in surprise. She turned around and swam up to the river bank as best as she could. She didn’t want to run aground of course.

“By Alinavious, are we glad to see you,” Lavini said, relieved.

Rylla puffed up her cheeks in anger. “Where were you two?! I was shouting around and looking all over for you for at least two whole minutes!” she huffed.

“Forgive us, Rylla… we got distracted,” Lavini said apologetically.

Rylla tilted her head. “By what?” she asked curiously.

“It… is a long story,” Lavini said apologetically.

Rylla shrugged. “Oh well, you’re here now! Good to see you again Lavini! And hello again to you too, Cassie!” she said excitedly.

“Hello… again?” Cassie asked. She had stayed pretty quiet, likely out of respect. This was, after all, her first time meeting Rylla and she did not know yet what to expect from the seeress.

“Oh! Right, we hadn’t met yet. Hi! I’m Rylla, the Seeress of Eternal Currents. And you are Cassiopeiah, nun of time, half human, half time elemental, mother to Estella Providence and about to be enga-... I mean… lover to Lavini here!” the mermaid said proudly.

Lavini’s heart skipped a beat. Rylla had almost spoiled the surprise there that she had been preparing for Cassie… However, when the nun looked in her direction again, she put up her best poker face.

Cassie just eyed Lavini for a moment before looking back to Rylla again. “That’s… all very accurate, lady Rylla…” she said humbly.

“Well, duh! I’m a seeress!” Rylla said with the biggest grin. She then placed her fingers on the sides of her head and put up her most serious face. “I see everything…” she just said.

“Well, she does, so long as she is within the Spring of Aeons back in Listanta,” Lavini added.

“Yep!” Rylla nodded vigorously. “Oh, and there’s no need to call me ‘lady’ Rylla. Just Rylla is fine,” she said.

Cassie gulped and bowed her head. “Very well then, Rylla,” she said.

“Sooooo? What were you doing in the woods? I thought you’d stick by the riverside…” Rylla asked.

“Well…” Lavini started. She then proceeded to explain everything that had happened before. What they had seen, what Lavini had heard, the fact that Cassie wasn’t able to hear anything, the fact that these visions were all made of water, and of course about the fact that it felt like a complete transportation to the distant past. All the while, Rylla just looked highly confused.

“That’s funny… I didn’t see any life streams around this area back in my spring… just the usual animals,” she pondered out loud.

“No life streams? Meaning…” Cassie asked.

“It means that what you saw wasn’t really there,” Rylla explained.

Lavini looked back towards the woods. It wasn’t there. This different point in time was only contained in this small bubble then, even though she was definitely able to feel it. “The girl in the visions called Ysera… is that the Ysera you know?” she asked.

Rylla looked down apologetically. “I’m sorry… I only met her after she transformed. I don’t know what she looked like as a human. It could be her for sure! But I need to see her for myself,” she said.

Lavini narrowed her eyes. “And the village… Does that sound familiar?” she asked.

“Oh yes! Ysera’s hometown, Beaver’s Dam, I think it was right here actually, once upon a time!” Rylla replied.

Cassie gulped. “So that means…?”

Lavini let out a sigh as she closed her eyes. She calmed down a little as she finally drew the conclusion she believed to be correct. “What we are seeing are the ancient memories of Ysera, the Keeper of Rivers,” she summarised.