Chapter 17: Chapter 17

“Sorry Tyler. That’s actually not possible.” Eris said.

“Aww. Why, though? I thought you said anything was possible with magic?”

Eris sighed. “Yeah. And it is. But that’s for things that are logically possible, and time travel just isn’t logical.”

They were watching the first installment in one of Tyler’s favorite movie franchises, and the wiry-haired doctor had just demonstrated time travel. The movie was paused as Tyler wanted to ask if she could go back in time. She wouldn’t say it out loud, but she was thinking of her father when she asked.

“But, why, though? It doesn’t seem logically impossible to me. Wouldn't it just make a new timeline?”

“The problem with time travel is two-fold. The simple answer is that you’d create a paradox simply by going back in time with a goal. Say you go back in time and save someone. What will happen? The person is alive now in your own past, so present you would have no reason to go back to save that person, but if there’s no reason to go back in time, then you weren’t able to save them. It’s like asking me to pull myself up by my shoe laces, it can’t be done because it’s logically impossible.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. What’s the second reason?”

“The second reason is a bit more complicated. Time isn’t actually a series of events… well, I suppose from our points of view it is, but what’s actually happening is the slow decay of the universe.”

“The decay?”

“Mhmm. Remember what I said about our souls, how if I tried to repair them and replace what was lost then it’d be impossible to restore you to the way you were exactly, and you’d be a different person? Or when I told you that trying to magically learn something would more than likely cause you to learn a falsehood rather than the truth?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s because magic, or rather my home, binds itself to your will. If you don’t know what the answer is, then it will try to fill in the blanks with whatever is closest to the desired outcome. You can consider time to be the slow wearing away of the universe. If you actually tried and succeeded in 'going back in time', you would probably end up in a rapidly decaying pocket universe with no way out, since it'd be cut off from my home and all other universes.”

Tyler gulped. “Right. Let's never do that.”

Eris nodded in agreement.

Tyler looked down at the table. Her phone had just vibrated, and the screen showed a new message from Durian. She quickly reached for her phone and unlocked it; unconscious of the small smile that found its way onto her face.