Disclaimer: No I do not own the world of Tortall or its inhabitants. I will, however, be creating some of my own and hoping they blend in well enough.

A/N: So you do not have to look them up, both of these years fall during First Test. They are around Midwinter holidays.

Chapter 1: Unexpected Arrivals

Winter, the 13th year of the reign of Jonathan IV, and Thayet, his Queen, 452 H.E.

Daine watched from the doorway as Numair worked on his latest project. He had been working on it for nearly two years now. It had been Sir Myles's idea at first, but Numair had volunteered his services when Sir Myles had brought the idea up. Sir Myles had been hoping for a way to better study the ancients and this project was the result of the brainstorm. Daine was not exactly sure of what the project entailed, but knew it would create some picture of the past. Numair had explained it as a sort of time-independent scrying. Though Numair was no big fan of history, he hoped to be able to view the ancient times, if only to prove that he could.

Numair's workspace was littered with parchment covered in untidy scrawl. Some contained general plans and others intricate calculations that made her head spin. None of the work seemed to be in any particular order, and truthfully Daine didn't see how Numair could get anything done efficiently. She supposed that it didn't matter, as the project was entering its final stages. In front of Numair sat a fist sized crystal. It floated, bobbing, just above the workstation, all the while emitting a faint blue-white light.

"I should be able to finish this early tomorrow. If not tonight," Numair said without turning around. His voice was not raised above a whisper. The project, at this stage, was very sensitive. Anything could disturb it.

"Finally." Daine said softly, smiling a bit; glad that she would soon have Numair to herself for a bit before he adopted a new project.

"Yes, finally," Numair repeated, still tinkering with the crystal.

"Well, I'm going to bed. It's been a long day. Try not to stay up to late, alright?" Daine said. Numair grunted and Daine knew any attempts at getting more out of him would fail miserably. She left the doorway, taking care to shut the door. It was early still, the sun had not yet fully set, and it really had been a long day.

Daine half asleep when she heard it. She sat up in bed and watched as Numair went charging down the hall. She quickly pulled on a robe over her night clothes and set out after him. She knew that the disturbance was loud enough to disrupt his work. As she ran by the workroom she heard a faint high pitched whistling. Kit was staring inside the workroom looking worried. Daine took a peek inside. The crystal was glowing a bright red and spinning, weaving, and bobbing furiously. It was the motion and magic that caused the whistling. She ran out of the room in case Numair needed help. She reached the top of the staircase in time to hear most of Numair's lecture.

"…managed to affect my current working; if it were to go astray…Except that it's not going to, because you are going to drop this and go do whatever it is pages are supposed to do at this time of night. Run along, please."(1)

Daine noticed that none of the pages left. There were five of them. Nealan of Queenscove she recognized, and Keladry. One was Lord Buchard of Stone Mountain's son, with hair like that he was easy to remember. The other two she'd seen but did not know who they were, exactly. She saw Numair frown when the pages didn't move. She stifled a small giggle, because she could tell from where she was that as much as they wanted to leave, they could not. They could hardly move beyond breathing, and even that took more effort than normal. It had to be a spell. Trust Numair to have forgotten. She was about to say something when Nealan finally managed one word. "Spell."

"Spell?" Numair asked, he looked baffled for just a moment, but then regained his composure. "Oh, yes, of course. How careless" He removed the spell. "Now you may go."(2)

As three of the pages ran, Numair turned around and headed up the stairs towards Daine. It wasn't until after he turned the corner that they heard Keladry ask if they would be reported. It took all of Daine's will to keep herself from laughing when she heard Nealan answer "Master Numair? I doubt he'll remember why he left his workroom, once he gets back to it. That must be a sensitive…" (3) They never heard the rest because they had gone out of hearing range. Daine noticed that Numair looked slightly affronted, but knew that once he got back into his work, he really would forget all else. The problem was getting him back to his work before he decided to take revenge. Oh, Daine knew Numair wouldn't hurt the page boy, but that wouldn't keep him from a few nasty, if not embarrassing, tricks.

"Will the project be affected at all?" Daine asked, trying to get Numair back to their rooms.

"I certainly hope not. When they started acting up it was disturbed, they were practically right outside out rooms! And with all that noise they made….Its a wonder they were not stopped earlier."

"Will it have any lasting affect?"

"I don't know." They had made it to their rooms and they both headed to the workroom, Numair sticking his arm out to keep Daine from actually entering. She was a bit miffed that he would not let her enter, but knew he cared for her safety. And if he was stopping her…

There didn't seem to be any damage, the crystal had returned to the slow bobbing and was emitting the same blue-white glow. "It looks like everything is just fine." Numair pronounced. "It started glowing red earlier. I was half expecting it to be contaminated."

"I'm glad everything went alright." Daine said, "I'd hate for you to have to start all over. I'm off to bed again. Hopefully I won't be disturbed this time." This time there wasn't even a grunt in response.

Early Spring, the 14th year of the reign of Jonathan IV, and Thayet, his Queen, 453 H.E.

Numair had finished his project almost two months before. It was now going on spring. Numair had been ready to test his latest project since the day he finished it, but the King had invited important mages and historians to the event as well as some other notable people, and it was taking them a long time to travel. True some were already in Corus, but others had been tucked away in other parts of Tortall.

The last of those invited had arrived the day before and today, finally, Numair would be able to test his creation. They were sitting in a meeting room. There was a long, rather thin, oval table. People sat intermittently around the table. Some Daine knew and some she did not. Daine saw Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, Sir Wyldon of Cavall, and Sir Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau along with Baron George, Duke Baird of Queenscove, Hirailt of Aili, and Buriram Tourakom. There was also Numair, the King and the Queen. Sir Gareth of Naxen and Sir Myles of Olau had not yet arrived. Daine didn't know any of the others except in passing, and wasn't expecting anyone else that she knew.

Once everyone had arrived, Numair took his place at one end of the table. The Jon and Thayet sat at the other end, and everyone else had been left to fend for themselves. Daine was half-way down the table with Buri on one side and a guildsman on the other.

Daine was so consumed with looking at the guests that she didn't notice when Numair began to speak. It took an elbow to her stomach, compliments of Buri, before she turned her attention to Numair. He was still explaining the reasons behind the project.

"…help us study the past. The whole project is based around the idea that if it is possible for people to see part of the future, it should be possible to see the past as well. The past should be easier to see actually, as there is no uncertainty about the facts and choices of people, which is often a problem with being able to see the future. As many of you know there is always some doubt about what a Seer can actually foretell. They can often see the most likely future, but it is not the only future, as the future depends on choices. But there is only one past. Without all the uncertainty of the material to be viewed, it is possible that the past can be viewed by using an inanimate object, such as a crystal," Numair gestured vaguely at the crystal that floated in front of him. "Whereas…"

"Why would it matter if we can see the past if it has already happened?" Someone more towards the King interrupted.

Numair looked a bit perturbed at the interruption but answered politely nonetheless. "There will be time for questions at the end, so if you could please hold on until then, it would be appreciated. But seeing as I was headed in that direction, I will entertain that particular question. The past is often as much as a mystery to us as the future, albeit it is a series of facts instead of a series of choice and chances. Take for example, the immortals. When they first entered the realm, no one had any knowledge of what they were and how to get rid of them, simply because they had not been a part of history for so long. However, before they were trapped in another realm, they were part of life here. Imagine how much easier it would have been, knowing what we were getting into. It took research to discover that. It took knowledge of the past.

"I am in no way saying that this will be the most useful tool in everyday life, but it can make life easier. The ancients knew things, and maybe they had the cure for some disease that they lack. Maybe a past war could help us fight the next war we run into. This will not be just another useless tool. Imagine if…"

Daine stopped listening after a while. She was caught in a daydream. Imagining all the things that the Numair's latest project would allow people to see. She almost grinned when she imagined that she would be able to watch Alanna thrash Ralon of Malven. Then again that would take a lot of convincing. The crystal, still nameless, was not user friendly. She would never be able to use it herself, and she'd have to convince someone else to activate it. And that was a slim chance. Most of the people who would be capable of activating it would be more concerned with real history than with humoring Daine.

She listened as Numair drew to a close and as various people asked questions. She was sure she wasn't the only one who didn't understand many of the points brought up. Many of them dealt with the technical aspects of the project.

When it was finally time to activate, they had decided toe set the date to be viewed to King Jonathan's coronation, some years ago in 438 H.E. Numair began to activate the crystal, and had she not been watching his face, Daine would not have known that something was going wrong.

It started out fine, Numair had began muttering under his breath, presumably a chant, and pouring his magic into the crystal. At first it only began to grow brighter. When Numair stopped chanting and pouring magic into it, things changed. For a few moments it grew brighter and the glow began to expand out in a perfect sphere. From the side it looked flat, and Daine noticed that no matter how she moved her head, she had a perfect, seemingly flat viewing surface. It began to grow red and move about more, just like it had some months ago. Daine thought it normal as pictures began to appear on the screen.

They were fuzzy, all of the pictures were blurred beyond recognition, but they seemed to be coming into view. It was a ball, that much she could tell but she couldn't make out specific details. She heard music, above the whistling the ball was now making. It was then she looked at Numair he looked somewhat panicked. Something had gone wrong. Daine assumed he was overreacting. She couldn't tell anything was wrong. Obviously it wasn't perfect, but things could be fixed. She was about to tell Numair as much when there was a dull thud followed closely by a sharp crack. Silence followed immediately after, and once people had taken in the scene, there was screaming.

(1) , (2), & (3): First Test, pages 168-169