Chapter Text
While their peers were prepping for graduation and fondly looking back on their time at wildcliff, one eccentric tiefling was engaged in much the opposite. This oddity among the celebratory was not fond of their years spent in this school. Nor, to be honest, were they especially fond of themselves.
Instead, this student was meticulously pouring a mixture of sand and ash onto the floor of the archive’s restricted section. It was almost absurdly easy to sneak in there once you figured it out. Delicate runes and symbols were taking shape around a complex series of interlocking circles and triangles. Several rituals and longform magics were being overlaid and mashed together here, everything had to be just right. At best, this wouldn’t work at all and nothing would happen. They would return to their dorm for the final time and do their best to prepare for tomorrow. At worst… Well, these aren't your typical everyday magics going wrong, the forces being played with on this night are very likely to produce devastating consequences beyond even the renowned imagination of Curiosity Cuddleberry.
But this magician isn’t looking for a best outcome, they couldn’t let themself believe things would go horribly wrong either. Curiosity’s faith was placed in this spell going wrong in just the right way. Eight years of their emotions, convictions, belief and longing were swirling inside them. This massive pool nearly overwhelmed them everyday, roiling and crashing within, there was no escape, no cathartic release for it. This version of Curiosity was broken. Something inside them wasn’t working quite right. But that was fine, this Curiosity found a solution.
For the first time in their life, they had secured some small amount of luck. Aimlessly wandering the depths of this school some weeks ago, Curiosity stumbled upon a most peculiar stone. The fragment of what appeared to be a finely crafted purple orb, given its one smoothly rounded side. It was clearly the lesser of two pieces, but it proved to be enough to change their life forever. In their dreams, they met with a most wondrous being. Tall, amorphous, oily black with the imposing head of a cobra. They were glorious in the eyes of this unremarkable illusionist. Admittedly, the Progenitor, as they would entitle themself, was not particularly optimistic that Curiosity could prove useful to their goals, but found the enthusiastic tiefling to be entertaining enough to offer them an opportunity.
In the few months since finding this gem, Curiosity had been receiving periodic, specific instructions on this ritual. They had been gathering scrolls, candles, incredibly particular samples of sand, dust, ash, and scraps of metal. It’s a miracle they found everything, but with their new ally, everything seemed to be falling into place.
Curiosity finished arranging the makeshift ritual site. Carefully placing themself in the centre, they turned to the only other being in the room. Kat was Curiosity’s roommate and only friend, and the only one who they could trust with this. She wished they would change their mind, go back to bed, and work on moving on. Kat understood as much as anyone could how they felt, but this… This was not a solution any reasonable person would consider. Kat had no trust in her heart for ancient snake gods and destiny altering orbs. But Curiosity needed her, and for some inexplicable reason, she agreed to help. She tried not to think too much about it, the last thing her friend needed right now was to see her cry. If she hadn’t agreed to help, she knew there was nothing that would stop Curiosity from doing it anyway. So if these were the last moments she could spend with them, she would spend them in the most supportive way she could. And… She happened to have a small scheme of her own. Curiosity had practically no skill or understanding for any magic beyond the illusory, so much of the preparations for the scroll itself were left to Kat, leaving her enough room to adjust the spell ever so slightly. If her friend wanted to reinvent themself, they weren’t going to take this version away from her completely. That wouldn’t be fair.
With a solemn nod between them and tears barely managing to stay contained, Kat unwound the scroll. She took a deep breath and began to read, the language everything had to be translated into was nonsense, with all of the instructions coming for Curiosity’s dreams. But after a few stumbling sentences of gibberish, the words started to flow out of her in a manner Kat found extremely uncomfortable. She wasn’t in control anymore, and Curiosity began to notice this. They were worried about their friend but held back any urge to reach out. The lines on the floor began shifting, the runes and symbols danced and shapes expanded, shrank, twisted and swirled together. The floor grew dark, beyond any darkness known to the two of them. It appeared to be swallowing the light in the room, trails of radiance being pulled from the candles down into the unfathomable twisted space that had become the restricted sections floor. Holding the orb piece out before them, Curiosity spoke aloud the phrase they had been given by the Progenitor.
“Illusion is my power.”
It’s a fairly common statement among those who experience linear time, that “time is an illusion”. While some believe this wholeheartedly, many more say it as a small joke, a jab at the way time seems to move nonsensically sometimes, all with some understanding of why time can fly by or drag on depending on circumstance. But according to the Progenitor, while Time is much more complicated, its experience truly is an illusion at play, or at least very similar. And that might just be enough of a doorway into the inner workings of it for someone with enough skill to reach in and make some changes. This was the plan tonight. Curiosity would reach through the illusion of their temporal experience, and grab hold of their thread of Time. They would only have a short time to make their change, so they had to be quick and know exactly what they planned to do.
The instant after Curiosity finished her exclamation, they were gone. The archives were empty. Kat was back in her dorm, the bed opposite her was empty, unused. She had never had a roommate, not anymore. But she remembered the one she should have had.
“I… Guess everything worked…”
She was now the only one who remembered. New memories started to fade in as well. It looked like her best friend finally found the adventure they sought after so much. Kat shook her head gently, “I shouldn’t think that. My best friend doesn’t exist anymore.”
While her peers slept peacefully with dreams of their bright futures, one broken human girl cried over a past that no longer existed.