Chapter Five: Time Travel

Yuri figured mages ought to work in a mysterious wizard tower, or at least some place with domes and spires. The Zaphias mage headquarters was disappointingly bland and could have passed for any other business building. This was really a missed opportunity.

"Is this it?" he said when they stepped inside and found a boring lobby. The floor was tiled, there were some potted plants in the corner, and the walls were a boring beige. "This place is lame."

Rita gave him a look. "What were you expecting?"

"I dunno, something magical."

Karol grinned. "Yeah, that would be cool! Aspio looked pretty mage-y at least. It had all sorts of books and glowing lights."

Yuri nodded. "Yeah, that's what you need here! Rita, you should get the mages to buy glowing lights and then cover the walls with books and weird symbols and then it will look like a place for magic."

Rita smacked the back of his head. "Shut up."

"Hey!" Yuri rubbed the back of his head while Karol snickered.

"You guys stay here. I'll go ask about who was running those experiments that summer." Rita stalked off and Yuri sneered after her.

"Don't take it personally," Karol said. "I'm just glad she slapped someone else for once."

After a few minutes, Rita returned and guided them down a hallway. "Good news. The guy who ran the program is still working here."

"Bet he's a bad mage if he's stuck in this boring place and not Aspio," Yuri grumbled.

The other three shared an awkward silence and then Judith said, "Actually… the entire city of Aspio was destroyed last year. Most mages are now based out of Halure."

Yuri glanced between them to see if they were joking. "What? No way. A whole city couldn't just get wiped out."

Karol hung his head. "It's true. There was this ancient city beneath it and when it rose into the sky, it crushed Aspio."

"A city in the sky? What?"

"It's a long story." Rita stopped in front of a door and banged on it. "We'll tell you later." She barged into the room before the resident could invite them.

Beyond the door was an office. A round man with rounder glasses was halfway to the door when they entered. "Hello," he said. "Can I help you?"

"Hey. I'm Rita Mordio. I want to ask you about a project you ran about thirteen years ago."

"The Rita Mordio? I'd be honoured to share my research with you! I'm George Herbert, by the way. Please sit down."

He hurried to his desk and gestured to the pair of chairs across from it. Rita and Karol sat, while Judith lurked behind Rita and Yuri held back near Judith. His eyes kept going to Herbert as he struggled to place the man in his memory. His stomach felt queasy and he instinctively stuck close to Judith. It was like Cumore all over again; he couldn't place why the man freaked him out so much, but a deep part of him wanted to run out of here and never see Herbert again.

"So," Herbert folded his hands on his desk with a friendly smile, "what do you want to know?"

Rita jumped right to the point. "Thirteen years ago, you led a research project in the lower quarter. Can you tell me what that was about?"

"Ah, yes! The Outbreaker Project. Such a shame it never worked out."

"Outbreaker?" Judith asked.

Herbert nodded. "That's right. Some mages investigating the blastia in Mantaic ventured into the Sands of Kogorh. They were accosted by a strange creature that they claimed was able to pull them through time and into the night, and then back again. Sadly, only two of the team survived the encounter, but they returned to our lab with a sample of the creature's tissue. We were attempting to harness the beast's power of time manipulation."

Karol's face lit up. "So you guys were trying to invent time travel!"

He looked back at Yuri and they shared a look that said, looks like it worked.

"That's correct," Herbert said. "We managed to get it to work, too. But… only for inanimate tissues. The Outbreaker pulls its prey ten to fifteen hours into the future, enough time to change the light and throw the victim into confusion. We tested it with stones and they successfully materialized in our work area about twelve hours after putting them in."

"That's amazing!" Karol gaped at him. "How come I never heard about this?"

"Because it was ultimately useless. Sending objects to the future isn't that useful, especially when we couldn't pin down an exact arrival time within that ten to fifteen hour window. We couldn't get them to appear in an exact place, either, so we'd be working and then out of nowhere a rock would fall on someone's head. Very frustrating."

"So is that all you ever put in?" Rita asked. "Rocks?"

Herbert frowned. "There was one other test… we had reached the limit of what we could learn from rocks, so we decided it was time for a, uh, live tissue trial."

Judith frowned. "Just what kind of 'live tissue'?"

Herbert cleared his throat. "A dog. It was a dog. I've always felt rather horrible about what we did to it. The poor thing was just a stray off the street. We led it into the portal and then waited for it to reappear hours later, but… it never did. I feared all we'd get was a corpse, but we didn't even get that. I can only assume time swallowed that poor thing up."

"And the dog is the only living thing you sent through?" Judith asked.

Herbert nodded. "We tried sending plants through. The dead ones showed up fine, the ones still living in a pot vanished. I can only assume that whatever we had set up was impassable for living tissue. By the end of the summer, it became clear that we weren't going to send a human through time and our funding ran out. It was a very interesting summer, to be sure. I only wish we had more promising results. Why are you interested?"

Rita shrugged. "Time travel is an interesting subject. Anything else you can tell us?"

Herbert drummed his fingers on the desk. "Like what? I could give you all the papers on how it worked. Perhaps you could figure out how to get a person through time."

"Hm… yeah, give me your folders. I'll take a look."

It took Herbert a few minutes to gather all his files from deep in a cabinet and then the party left him in peace. Yuri couldn't hurry out of there fast enough. In the hallway he took a deep breath and tried to fight off the weight in his chest.

"Yuri?"

He jumped when a hand rested on his shoulder. "I'm ok!" He whirled around and looked up at Judith. "I'm fine."

"Are you ok?" Karol asked. "You look kinda nervous."

Yuri shuffled his feet and glanced at the closed door to Herbert's office. "I… I don't like that guy. He gives me the creeps."

"Is it something he said?" Judith asked.

Yuri shook his head. "No… I feel like I've met him before or something, but I can't remember. Argh," he clutched his head and tried to pull the memories out of the corners of his mind. It was like the horrible, stomach-aching fear that arrived when thinking about a scary story, except he couldn't remember what the scary story was. "I just… don't trust him."

They walked together back to the street. On the way, Rita said, "You know… it's actually pretty likely he was involved in how you got here. Your memories got erased but if something traumatic happened, it might be deep-rooted enough to remain. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you might be on to something."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"That I don't take theories from snot-nosed little kids seriously very often."

"Who are you calling a little kid?!"

"If you're age is still a single digit, you're pretty little as far as I'm concerned."

Karol looked to her with a smile. "Cool, so I don't count!"

Rita whacked the side of his head. "I'll make an exception for you."

Yuri felt ill at ease for the rest of the day. Rita went off to study while Karol and Judith took Yuri for a walk around the city. He found it hard to focus even while they told him thrilling stories about their adventures as part of the guild Altosk. Herbert and his time travel experiments had to be the reason he was here, but he'd only sent a dog through. How had Yuri gotten here? The blackout of his memory between running off to play and waking up in the castle was so frustrating. He wished he could punch his brain.

In the evening, they met Flynn and Estellise for dinner at a restaurant. Yuri spent the meal quietly eating his grilled cheese sandwich while the others chatted about… grown up stuff or something. Yuri wasn't really listening. He finally started paying attention when he heard his name.

"He must have something to do with Yuri," Rita was saying. "I don't think it's a coincidence that he was planning to send something around twelve hours into the future and now Yuri is thirteen years ahead."

Flynn nodded. "Right. You think the scale was off?"

"It worked for rocks," Karol said, "but not anything alive. So maybe it takes a different amount of power or something to transport living things."

"Hm…" Judith put a bent finger to her chin. "Do you think if we went to the site of the experiment, we'd find old smashed pots and dying plants that appeared years after the study ended?"

"Could be," Rita said.

Flynn looked down the table to Yuri. "Are you sure you don't remember anything, Yuri?"

He shrugged. "I think that mage guy was involved, but I dunno how."

"He said he only ever tested it on a dog, right?" Estellise said. "So how did Yuri get involved?"

Flynn frowned and swirled a sauce around on his plate as he thought. "Well… knowing Yuri, there's a distinct possibility he snuck into some place and poked his nose where he shouldn't have."

Yuri folded his arms and glared. "Are you saying this is my fault?"

"I'm saying that I specifically remember you saying we should sneak into the mage's building and that you didn't get here by staying out."

"Maybe I was kidnapped. You don't know."

"Sure, maybe it was that."

Yuri had a feeling that something bad had happened. Why else would he be so freaked out by some mage? He couldn't have just snuck in after hours and tripped into the future. He must have met Herbert before, and he must have done something to make Yuri so frightened of him. He hated the idea of bringing this up, though. He wasn't supposed to get scared of people like some little kid.

After dinner, Judith, Rita, and Karol took off to spend the night at an inn while Yuri followed Estellise and Flynn back to the castle. Yuri looked away when Flynn kissed her goodnight, because that was so gross, and then they returned to Flynn's apartment.

"What are we gonna do tonight?" Yuri asked as Flynn kicked off his shoes.

"I have some reports to read and you're going to bed."

"Whaaaat? Not yet!"

"It's almost nine."

"But I'm not tired." He ignored how heavy his eyes felt. He couldn't go to bed yet! If he was in bed, that meant lying on the couch in the front room while Flynn was in the back and if anyone came in, he'd be really exposed. Not that he was expecting someone, but what if that creepy mage came after him? And Cumore was still in the building and he was scary, too. Plus, with the barriers gone, who knew what kind of horrible monsters could get in and lurk around the castle. It was logical to be concerned, and it showed how mature and reasonable he was to think it through like this.

"Once you lie down, you'll get tired. Go brush your teeth and get ready for bed."

"But-"

"Go to bed."

"I'm not ti-" a yawn overtook him. "Ti-i-erd. Ok, maybe a little tired." He hefted a dramatic sigh. "Fine, I'll go to bed but only because I'm feeling a little sleepy and not because you told me to."

Flynn just wore a mild smile. "As long as you go to bed."

Despite Yuri's reluctance, he did end up going to bed. Flynn disappeared into his bedroom and Yuri curled up on the couch. He was asleep before the lamplight from Flynn's room disappeared from under the door.

He had no idea what time it was when his eyes flashed open with a pant of breath. Sweat dampened his neck and hairline and it was only partly to do with how warm the room was. Even worse, he was pretty sure the moisture around his eyes wasn't sweat.

The memories from his dream were disjointed. George Herbert's face swam through the fading images. There had been something bright, too - so bright that everything around it seemed like blackness. He remembered kicking, pulling, and shouting, along with fear - a fear so intense it still thumped through his heart now that he was awake.

And the thing was, these fuzzy memories didn't feel like they'd come from the dream. The dream kicked them into his mind, but these memories carried too many traces of the smell of sweat, the scrape of his shoes on a dirty floor, and the sting of trying to break out of someone's grip.

Yuri swallowed another gulp of air, still trembling. Before he could stop himself, he leapt off the bed and dashed to Flynn's room. Even the dark shadows in the corners of the room threatened to hold enemies. He ran to the bed and clambered on, pulling his legs up quickly before anything lurking underneath could grab his ankles. He crawled to Flynn's side and shook his shoulder. He started to hiss his name, but Flynn reacted first.

Flynn's arm whipped out and smashed into Yuri's chest, knocking him back. He bolted up. "Who's - Yuri? Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, are you all right?"

Yuri lay on his back, panting. He was still shaken from remembered fear and this shock hadn't helped. "I'm… ok."

Flynn rolled on his side. "I'm sorry. I know I have enemies. In the split-second of waking I thought someone was attacking me. You're not hurt, are you?"

Yuri shook his head and sat up on his knees. "No. I'm ok."

"What do you need?" He frowned and analyzed Yuri's face. "What's wrong?"

"I… just, well - I had a dream and I think I remembered some things. But they're not… they weren't happy things and I thought, well, there are bad people and what if Flynn is in danger all by himself so I thought I'd come check on you…."

"You remembered how you got here?"

Yuri shifted his weight and fiddled his hands. "Not really. Just… like… flashes of things. Maybe if I go back to sleep I'll remember more…." But he didn't want to. The thought of going back to that couch and sleeping alone in the dark to let more memories come to him made his skin crawl.

"I see. So… do you want to stay here so you can keep an eye on me, just in case?"

Yuri nodded. He could go back to the couch, but that would be irresponsible because Flynn might be in danger, right? Yeah, he needed someone to watch him, just in case.

"Ok." Flynn yawned and stretched out on his side of the bed. "We can talk more about what you remembered tomorrow."

Flynn closed his eyes to go back to sleep and Yuri got comfortable on the other side of the bed. The mattress was so huge, it almost felt like he was on his own bed. Since it was too hot to sleep under the covers, he felt very small and exposed on the giant bare bed. He wiggled backward until he was close enough to feel Flynn's body heat against his back. The strength Flynn had shown knocking him back a few minutes ago reassured Yuri that if anyone tried to attack them, Flynn was more than powerful enough to fight them off.

Flynn's arm flopped over and wrapped around Yuri. It reminded him of the simpler nights they used to share, squeezed together on one small straw mattress. If one of them had a nightmare, the other was always there to defend them through the night. Yuri wiggled another inch closer to Flynn and finally let himself relax. Whatever terrifying monsters or people were out there, they'd be hard-pressed to get to him here.

Yuri told Flynn about his dream and memories over breakfast. Flynn was intrigued to say the least, but he didn't have time to think about it too deeply before it was time for work. Rita was still researching Herbert's files, so Yuri went off with Karol and Judith to see the city. Flynn pushed Yuri's disturbing dream to the back of his mind while working, and didn't think about it again until he told Estellise over lunch.

"It doesn't sound like he stumbled into the future by accident," she said when he finished relating the story. They were in her office this time, with a pair of crumb-covered plates pushed to the side of the desk.

"Right. At first I thought he might have been exploring and touched a portal of some sort he shouldn't have, but if his dream-inspired memories are accurate, something much more sinister must have happened."

"Mr. Herbert said the only things they ever put in were rocks, plants, and a dog."

"Yes… but I believe Mr. Herbert may have been lying."

"But he wouldn't…" Estellise hung her head. "No, I suppose I can't say that. After Ragou, I have to believe there are people who really would do such awful things to a child. What do you think happened?"

"I don't know." He folded his arms and thought. "I still don't know how Yuri ended up there, but somehow I think Herbert and the mages running the experiment forced Yuri in as a test subject. They were expecting him to reappear in about thirteen hours, but something went wrong and he came out thirteen years later instead."

"You're going to arrest him, right?"

Flynn scowled. "I'd love to, but on what charges? Unwilling time-travel? I don't know exactly what happened, I can't prove it, and it happened thirteen years ago so even if I did know what to charge him with, the statute of limitations has probably run out."

Estellise pouted. "I hate this. I hate that I'm the empress and I still can't fix everything."

"We're getting there, though. Maybe more of Yuri's memory will come back and he can give us something I can charge Herbert with."

"I sure hope so."

Flynn took a sip of water from his class. "In lighter news, I've gotten some responses about potentially adopting him. There are a few interested families. Obviously I need to do more thorough background checks, interviews, and discuss it with Yuri, but I'm confident I'll be able to find a permanent home for him in a month or so."

"That's wonderful!" A smile wiped away her frustration. "They live in Zaphias, right? I hope he can keep visiting. He's a sweet boy."

"Yes, they are. I promised him we'd still hang out so I'm sure you'll see him often."

"Unless Rita figures out how to reverse time-travel, of course. I wonder what would happen. Do you think a grown up Yuri would suddenly exist?"

Flynn rubbed his chin in thought. "That's an interesting question." He tried to imagine what an adult Yuri Lowell might be like. When they were kids, they'd said they were going to join the Knights together. Would he have followed through with that?

Estellise leaned forward with a sudden thought. "But what if Yuri goes back in time and steps on a butterfly and then the Adephagos kills us all?"

"I… beg your pardon?"

"I've read about it in books! People try to go back in time and cause one tiny change that spirals out of control and then the future is irrevocably changed."

"Oh, right, I've read stories like that. But I don't think it's the same, since that's his original time. He's not going back in time, he's… returning to the past. I think that makes a difference."

"Hm, could be. Since he's already supposed to be there, I guess he doesn't have to worry about killing his own grandfather and ceasing to exist."

"Right." Flynn nodded. "Although, do you think things would change for us? If Yuri goes home and grows up where - when - he's supposed to, would things be different here?"

"Hm… I hope not." She folded her hands around one of his. "I quite like the way things are now."

He smiled at her. "I do as well. It's something to think about, though. Maybe he would have tagged along on our journey."

Estellise's eyes gleamed as an idea sparked. "How do we know the present hasn't already been changed? If someone changes the past, we'd feel like this was how we always lived. How do we know someone hasn't already done it? What if there used to be a timeline where… where Alexei won, but someone went back and fixed it?"

"I would have to thank that person."

"And what if… maybe there was once a timeline where I'm not the empress and you're not the commandant, and we could just run off together and see the world."

Flynn pulled his hands away and patted the back of hers. "It's a nice dream. But, I'm afraid in this timeline, I have a meeting to prepare for."

Estellise sighed. "Me, too. Thank you for joining me for lunch."

"It was my pleasure. Dinner at your place tonight?"

"See you then!"

Yuri wandered down a hall in the castle. He'd had dinner at Estellise's place an hour ago, but after dessert Flynn told him he was excused to entertain himself until bedtime. Yuri had mimed a kissing face at Flynn behind Estellise's back, which had hurried the speed at which Flynn kicked him out.

Well, fine. He didn't want to hang out in her fancy empress suite and watch them rub faces together anyway. They were probably doing sex and considering people kept telling him it was a grown-up thing, he had to assume that was boring.

He stopped in front of a window. From here, he had a good view of Zaphias and it occurred to him that he'd never realized just how big the city was before. He couldn't even see the lower quarter, but he knew which direction it was in. He was pretty sure that if he left the castle and just walked in that general direction, he'd eventually find his home. That would be important for when he left here to live on his own. If he got lost, Flynn would never believe he was ready to be independant.

His eyes fell on the golden cord holding back the silk curtains. There was a round gold disc decorating its widest part, encrusted with a ruby. The jewelled box was still in his pocket, since he had nowhere to store things Flynn wouldn't find, and he took a quick look up and down the hall. The disc was about the size of a gald coin, and he was certain no one would miss it. Yuri gently tugged it off the cord and slipped it into his pocket.

There was an identical one on the opposite cord. He ought to take it, too, or someone might notice that the cords were different. Yuri took a few steps over and then snapped that one off, too. He certainly wasn't going to have to worry about money now.

"You there!"

Yuri jolted and whipped his head around to see a knight at the end of the hall. He didn't wait to see what the man had to say before bolting. The clanking of armour said the knight was following him and Yuri was certain the man had seen him filch those curtain decorations. This castle was huge, though, so if he managed to shake his pursuer, he'd be able to find a place to hide and everything would be ok.

A large hand grabbed his arm and yanked him back; the knight had easily outrun him. Yuri automatically struggled to pull away, but he didn't have much luck.

"Empty your pockets, young man." The knight's moustache quivered as he glared down at Yuri.

Yuri stuck out his chin. "I don't even have pockets."

"I saw you put something in. Empty them."

Yuri stuck his free hand into his pocket, fished around, and pulled out nothing. "Look. You're seeing things, old man."

The knight reached down and patted Yuri's side, his hand landing on the lump of the jewelled box. He raised his eyebrows. "Seeing things, am I? What's this? Pull it out."

Yuri searched for a way out. Maybe if he had a rock and he could pull the rock out and pretend that's what it was… except he didn't have a rock so that was useless.

"I'm waiting."

There was no way out. Yuri slowly reached into his pocket. The box felt as heavy as his heart as he dragged it out with a scowl.

"Where did you get this?" The man took it from his palm.

"Flynn gave it to me. I'm allowed to be here. I'm not breaking in or nothing."

"Yes, I was informed the commandant's nephew was staying with him. But what about those buttons you pulled off the curtain cords?"

"He said I could have them."

"Really? Why don't we go talk to him about this?"

"Sure." Yuri was actually pleased with that. Ordinary knights could get him in serious trouble, but Flynn was just Flynn. What's the worst he could do, be mad at him? Yuri made Flynn mad all the time; it wasn't a big deal.

The knight didn't let go of Yuri's arm as he marched him down the hall. He was annoyingly tall. Yuri couldn't wait to finally be as tall as all these knights so maybe they'd stop bossing him around so much. Being a kid sucked.

They were passing through the Knight's administrative area and nearing Flynn's office when they rounded a corner and stopped in front of a very familiar knight. Yuri's heart sank and he set his face in a stubborn glare.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Leblanc," Cumore said. His eyes turned down and his lip curled in disgust. "What are you doing with this brat?"

Leblanc straightened up and saluted. "Good evening, Captain. I caught this child stealing and I was escorting him to Commandant Flynn."

A tiny smile twitched on Cumore's face. "Stealing, you say?"

"Yes, sir. I saw him take gold decorations from a curtain cord and I found this in his pocket." He produced the box.

"Well, there's no denying that, then. He was caught red-handed. Do you really think the commandant needs to be bothered with petty crime?"

"Not… really, sir, but I thought, this being his nephew, he'd want to deal with him personally."

"I highly doubt it. He's always going on about eliminating nepotism from the government, isn't he? Besides, he's not in at the moment. I believe he's off cavorting with the empress. No, don't bother him. I can deal with this miscreant."

Leblanc hesitated. "Sir, he's… he's just a child."

Yuri's own discomfort with Cumore coupled with Leblanc's hesitations made him very keen not to be dealt with by Cumore. "Just go get Flynn. It's not like he's busy. I think he's just having a sex or whatever."

Something that sounded like a smothered laugh escaped Leblanc's lips while Cumore just looked at him with disgust. "No, I don't think we should bother the commandant at all," Cumore said. "You're dismissed, Lieutenant."

Leblanc gave Yuri a sympathetic look but all he could do was nod. "Yes, sir."

Leblanc's iron grip was immediately replaced by Cumore's. "Come along. I'll show you what we do to thieving little street rats that worm their way into proper society."