Chapter 150: Book Three Chapter Ten: Mind Mage

The Chosen One kept marching until he reached the fourth tower. It was a strange monument that made Qube’s brain itch just looking at it. While it appeared to just be an ordinary tower, the more she looked at it, the more she became convinced that it was actually twisted in on itself, despite its apparent straightness.

 

The Chosen One paused at the closed door long enough to let Qube and Definitely Bad Guy catch up. He still looked somewhat irritated, which surprised Qube. Normally the Hero’s moods were mercurial, quickly changing from one emotion to the next, but always reverting back to the kind of carefree attitude that caused so much trouble. She wouldn’t have thought so small a thing as being confronted with someone who’d confessed her love to him would have such a long-lasting effect.

 

Unless… was he worried it might impact his relationship with Sexy Screamy Spider Lady? Qube was suddenly extremely glad that the Hunter hadn’t been there with them. Not out of jealousy or anything like that! While the giant arachnid was free with her flirting, Qube couldn’t imagine that she would’ve been pleased to come face to face with someone who had caused her lover such unhappiness.

 

Qube smiled at the Hero reassuringly.

 

“You did a good job,” she said supportively.

 

“Thanks?” the Chosen One blinked, startled out of his scowling. “I’m more just mad that they did that.”

 

What they would he be referring to but —

 

“The Devs? Did they make her look like someone you know?” Qube asked. A disturbing thought. While she knew the Devs were powerful beyond her wildest imagination, the idea that they’d modify someone’s appearance just to distress the Chosen One (or perhaps in some quest to push their matchmaking agenda) was horrifying on a whole new level.

 

“She has always looked like that,” Definitely Bad Guy interjected.

 

“Yes, but time moves differently in the Devs’ realm,” Qube pointed out, looking at the Mage. “So…” she trailed off, frowning as she tried to piece it all together. “Chosen One, how much time has passed in the Devs’ realm while you’ve been in our world?” she asked.

 

The Chosen One locked up.

 

“Well, it’s not like that,” he started to say, before stopping himself. He sank into deep thought, scratching at his chin.

 

“It’s not one-to-one,” he said eventually. “Your entire world, everything in it, how long has it been around?”

 

The two beings local to the world stared at each other, each hoping the other would have the answer.

 

“Thousands of years?” Qube offered up eventually, making the statement sound like a question.

 

“At the very least,” Definitely Bad Guy qualified. “Sewer Bard would perhaps be better equipped to answer this question.”

 

“Definitely at least a thousand years, I think,” Qube said.

 

“Right,” the Chosen One said, nodding to himself. “Well, as far as I know, your world, or at least the parts of the world with you guys in it as you would recognise it, has only existed for like… five years. Probably three if you wanted to be certain.”

 

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Qube exclaimed. “That would mean that whenever you interacted with the Save Point, and the Devs, hundreds of years would pass in our realm!”

 

“Like I said, it’s not one-to-one,” the Chosen One explained. “Time doesn’t just go faster there or here. Time here, this world—” he hesitated, clearly picking his words with care— “it stops and starts. It’s not always flowing. Sometimes it's faster than others.”

 

Qube massaged her temples. Her head hurt.

 

“What?” she managed eventually.

 

“So sometimes I’ll spend a week here, and only a few hours have passed in the Devs’ realm,” the Chosen One started warming to his explanation. “Other times I’ll have spent a week in the Devs’ realm, and almost no time will have passed here. It’s not consistent, you see?”

 

Qube tried to wrap her mind around the concept. What would cause such a disparity in the flow of time? But then, she was thinking of time as being linear. Her thoughts pushed up against a barrier, straining to try and expand her thinking.

 

How could this work?

 

“It’s like a river,” she said at last, relaxing as everything clicked into place. “Where time flows in eddies and swirls, rather than straight through.”

 

“Kind of,” the Chosen One said, looking impressed with her breakthrough. “In fact, that’s probably the best way to explain it to you guys. Good job!”

 

Qube beamed in pleasure at both the praise, and her increased understanding.

 

“Can you control it?” she asked, as a fear suddenly reared its head. “What happens when we ascend to the Devs’ realm to help them? Will we be able to stop time continuing here until we’ve finished our work with the Devs?”

 

“Why would you want to?” the Chosen One asked, bewildered.

 

“So that we can come back to all our friends, and do what we want to do after we complete the Golden Prophecy, of course!” Qube said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

The Chosen One didn’t say anything for a little bit.

 

“I don’t know if you’ll want to come back,” he said eventually.

 

“Of course I will!” Qube said, offended. “I have so much I want to do!”

 

“The things in the other place might be better,” the Chosen One said cautiously. “It might give you a different perspective on this place.” Qube emphatically shook her head.

 

“This is my home,” she said firmly. “Even if I reach the realm of the Devs, and become ascended, I’ll still want to return. Especially when everyone in the village is back. I might not want to stay, but I’ll always want to be able to visit.”

 

The Chosen One seemed unconvinced by her passionate statement. He looked at Definitely Bad Guy, who hadn’t said a word. The Hero opened his mouth, about to question the silent man, but closed his mouth again after a moment.

 

“Sure,” he said, having digested what Qube had said. “We can make it so time doesn’t flow here. I’m pretty sure. This world, anyway. They’d have to agree to that. Especially if you’re all helping out with whatever reason they want you to ‘ascend’. Yeah. Why wouldn’t they let you go back?”

 

Let you?

 

The troubled Saviour then turned, and entered the tower.

 

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The Chosen One didn’t immediately bolt out of this tower, which was an encouraging sign. Instead, his worried expression seemed to melt away as he relaxed. Strange music was playing, and as Qube stepped over the threshold she felt a wave of warmth and joy spread through her.

 

“Welcome to my abode,” a soothing voice drew them in. “Come on up if you wanna get high.”

 

The music twanged, and twisted, as did a display of various coloured lights embedded up the walls of the tower. Giant pedestals smoked as incense burned in them, and an androgynous figure lounge on a rug that hung over the edge of the platform, a large ladder leading up to said platform.

 

Qube hated platforms.

 

The Chosen One laughed at her expression of disgust, but started scaling the ladder, plonking himself down next to the colourful figure. Their clothes were loose, a medley of dyes spiralling outwards, and long, shaggy hair covered most of their upper body.

 

“All right, dude,” the figure chuckled. “I’m the Mind Mage, and I’m about to expand your mind.”

 

The music suddenly swelled, and Qube, who was about halfway up the ladder, nearly fell off as a wave of peacefulness hit her. Even Definitely Bad Guy, who was still on the ground and firmly not looking up, staggered at the sudden urge to relax.

 

“Don’t do that again,” the Chosen One snapped, angered.

 

“Peace out, man,” the Mind Mage said. Qube scurried even faster up the ladder, worried by the Chosen One’s sudden rage.

 

“No. No emotion manipulation.” The Chosen One was looking extremely stern as he helped Qube up the last of the ladder. Definitely Bad Guy, now that Qube was clearly on the platform, started climbing. The Mind Mage shrugged.

 

“Whatever,” they said.

 

The Mind Mage spoke in the same strange, slang-filled way that the Hero sometimes did.

 

“You’re gonna have to learn how to cope with emotions at some point, my dude,” the MInd Mage continued placidly. “Keeping all your feelings bottled up, that’s toxic, man. You’re gonna end up exploding, or imploding. You gotta let that stuff out. How else are you gonna know who you can trust, and who’ll help you when you need it?”

 

Definitely Bad Guy reached the top of the ladder and paused, looking at the other Mage.

 

“You need to be in touch with your emotions, my dude, or else you’ll end up in a bad situation,” the Mind Mage said, staring at the Academy’s former apprentice.

 

“I’m pretty good at my emotions, thanks.” The Chosen One, in his characteristic distracted nature, had let go of his spurt of anger, and was playing with a giant bottle, with several tubes sprouting out of it. It kind of reminded Qube of Squiggles’s tentacles, only these were clear.

 

“Sure,” the Mind Mage said, the rainbow lights panning over their face as they continued to look at Definitely Bad Guy, making their expression hard to read.

 

“You’re gonna tell us about this amulet thing and then we’re on to the next weird Wizard,” the Chosen One said, gently pushing the bottle and watching it tip back and forth, the grooves in the glass causing the multi-coloured lights to fracture. He seemed oblivious to the by-play.

 

“There’s no more people after me,” the Mind Mage said peacefully, unperturbed by the Hero’s lack of manners.

 

At this the Hero looked away from his bottle.

 

“What do you mean?” he asked. “Aren’t there two more Wizard’s Towers?”

 

“Yeah, man,” the Mind Mage said. “But that’s for the guardian and the Grand Working.” An amulet appeared above their outstretched palm, with a strange animal that Qube had never seen before carved into it. It looked like a cat, but with a bushier tail with a stripe down its back.

 

A skunk. The identification appeared in her mind a second later. The rainbow lights stuttered in their rotation, and the music made a strange note. The Chosen One looked around, confused.

 

“This whole place is pretty buggy,” he commented to nobody in particular. “Even more so than the rest of the world,” he added as an afterthought. “Anyway, yeah, thanks for that, any instructions on the next part or where to put this?”

 

The Mind Mage leaned back against their rug.

 

“Whatever feels right, man,” they said calmly. “In the end, you gotta be able to trust your instincts.” Once again their gaze flickered over to Definitely Bad Guy, and then they closed their eyes.

 

“Peace out,” they said, and waved the party away.

 

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Qube’s heart was practically thudding in her ears as they left the Mind Mage’s tower and approached the next one. Naturally, given how such things worked, this was going to be the home of the guardian, and the next one would be the tower with the Grand Working in it. No point putting a guardian after the tower with the spell in it, was there?

 

Although, if they were in totally separate towers, and they were forewarned, what was to stop them from skipping the guardian and going straight to the Grand Working? The Mind Mage hadn’t said that the guardian would give them anything. And if they got to the Grand Working and couldn’t complete it for some reason, there was nothing to stop them from just going back to the guardian tower and discovering whatever there was that needed doing, was there?

 

What was even the point of a guardian, anyway? What was it guarding? Or was it the general Wizards’ Academy guardian, in case they were ever invaded?

 

The part of her that loved following the rules and making sure everything was done as it should be warred against this new, rebellious tower-skipper side that really, really wanted to see a Grand Working and also get a chance to read through as many books as possible before the Chosen One got bored and demanded they leave.

 

Eventually, her rebellious side won out.

 

“Hey, Chosen One,” she said, as they stood outside the next tower. “What if we just… skipped this one and went straight to the next?”

 

The Hero looked at her, and placed a hand over his heart.

 

“I’ve taught you how to sequence-break already!” he said, his eyes glistening with emotion. “I’m so proud of you! My little girl is growing up!”

 

“Never mind!” Qube said, flushing, and stomped into the guardian’s tower.

 

They probably needed to get an amulet or something from the guardian anyway.

 

Stupid Chosen One.

 

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