Plotting and Temporal mechanics
Night had fallen while Rin spied on the Abyssal Exalted. For the day she had flown over top every so often to track their movement.
Now that the sun had set, flying and spotting them would be harder so she had to rely on another method. She had taken the time to hunt a rabbit to assume it's form and now could spy on the abyssals with her hearing at a great enough distance to not be spotted.
They had continued moving after the sun had set. The Abyssals seemed perfectly suited to the darkness of night so Rin had needed to be even more careful with when she hopped.
They weren't talking as much now, likely in an attempt to not be noticed or because they had nothing major to talk about. Luckily while their footsteps were quiet, Shirou's were not. She could follow the sound of his steps to follow the group as a whole.
The group seemed to be heading to the east, which was back the way they had likely come. Assuming they kept their pace, the port was only a couple days away. She would have to find some way to free Shirou before that time came.
Ideas came to her hourly as she followed. Not all of them were good but she gave thought to each of them, searching for a way to get Shirou out. The issue was their numbers. Even if she distracted one of them, the other two would still be able to guard Shirou. She couldn't pick them off one at a time as she doubted she was strong enough for that. She had her demons with her now so she could use them as a distraction but at least one of them was likely to die in that strategy. Rin could just summon a new one but it wouldn't be the same.
That said, she knew what she would do in the worst case scenario. Should the Abyssals get bored or otherwise give up on bringing Shirou to their master, they may very well kill him. If they attempted that she would give her demons the order to distract before charging in herself to get him out. It might very well result in both of their deaths but it would be better than the alternative.
Her demons were currently positioned to peform that very plan. She wanted it done quickly should it become necessary. The demons didn't complain but then hers rarely did.
She would be ready, whatever came. Maybe if she summoned another demon?
It was then a small voice spoke to her, it quite spooked her.
"Miss Lunar?"
Rin turned to see a small metallic sphere with a large eye in it's center. The sphere was pulsating and it meant that it's shape was never solid.
"You are miss Tohsaka correct? I have a message for you."
A few hours previously in Malfeas, Sakura had just heard awful news.
Shirou had lost a fight and was in danger of death. Szoreny had also mentioned an "Or worse" but she could imagine little that would be worse than his death.
"Perhaps he was captured by forces of the underworld. They have the power to turn Solars into dark reflections of themselves." Her Coadjutor mentioned as she moved. She was aiming for one of the lesser used exits from Malfeas.
Szoreny had been one of the Yozi that had created creation's concept of time, that gave him some leverage on deciding exactly how it worked.
It normally took five days to cross from Malfeas to Creation. When a demon was summoned however, they knew five days in advance of the summoning being peformed. They would feel the pull of the spell before it was even cast. Demon of the first circle is a very simple spell from what she had read, it orders a demon to come to the caster using the oaths the primordials are bound by in order to command their children. Yet this simple spell can pass along information to a demon before it has even been cast.
Time travel isn't possible in creation, or that is what Szoreny had once mentioned to her. So the question of how the spell sends information back in time is raised.
When she had once asked that very question, Szoreny had grinned with her face and explained. The reason that travel requires five days is because the two worlds are five days away from each other. In a spacial sense, not a time sense. You didn't really need to travel constantly in the desert to reach the other side, you could just walk out and camp for four days before travelling for the last one. Time was the obstacle here. All physical matter requires five days to travel, information doesn't.
This didn't explain the message travelling backwards in time relative to creation though. Szoreny chuckled at that.
"The spell uses our oaths, we are bound at all times. Not just in the present, but in the past and future too."
He explained that the spell didn't target demons in the present Malfeas but in the one that existed five days ago.
"After all, Time travel is possible here, if only for about a year in either direction most of the time."
The answer made the exit obvious. She reached the point she was running to, a cliff overlooking a silver pond. It was a demon of Szoreny's third circle. As the creator of time, his souls can act strange in regard to time.
Tylonica, the many-faced pond. It existed in five or sixlocations throughout Malfeas. Important to know that there was only one instance of the powerful demon. In truth the different locations were only an inevitably. The true locations it existed was in the present, five minutes ago, one hour ago, twelve hours ago, five days ago and last calibration. The last however was so rare that it would likely kill all those who attempted to go to that exit.
Sakura jumped. She closed off her eyes and mouth and covered her nose with her hand. When she hit the quicksilver water near the edge she sunk quickly.
There was no light down here, none could penetrate the reflective surface of the pool. This pool was made of quicksilver, magic mercury, and thus was poisonous to her even as an Exalted.
She lost her sense of time too. She didn't know how long she had been under the surface. She waited, trusting in what Szoreny had told her before making a break for the surface.
When she pulled herself out of the poisonous liquid she found a small demon. The moment she touched it, the demon stiffened. She smiled.
The demon began to walk towards the edge of Malfeas, taking Sakura with it.
End of chapter.
Time travel. I won't be focusing on it but it does exist.
