"..." Thalor was silent as he carefully thought about his response. "To be honest, I don’t really know how to cure it, but-"
"What!? What do you mean you can’t cure it?!" I screamed hysterically.
"I didn’t say I couldn’t, I said I don’t know how. It might still be possible, but we need time. More than you think we need." Thalor explained calmly as he stroked his chin whilst looking deeply at Shirayaa.
"What do you mean you need more time? You’re chronomancer’s aren’t you? Can’t you-"
Delzon interrupted me, "Temporal Decay will eat away at a person’s very being, from their lifespan, to their body and soul, in any stat of time, frozen or not. Frozen time just happened to slow it down, but doesn’t stop it."
My eyes sunk and my mouth was gaped. Krytaraa also looked perturbed, as did the headmaster, with her expression as aghast as mine.
As for how Kronia was dealing with all of this... She hadn’t stopped staring at Shirayaa once, and her expression was deeply disturbed.
Thalor then started mumbling to himself momentarily before he suddenly appeared with a table filled with various books and scrolls that at a glance, looked ancient.
Delzon then did the same, except his table was filled with many alchemical liquids and ingredients, most of which I’d never seen before.
As for Kronia, it didn’t look like she had even moved. Even after both Thalor and Delzon had gone and gotten their stuff in frozen time. Of course, I had no way to really tell if she hadn’t moved, but it just felt like she hadn’t.
Thalor also had more parchments and paper strewn across the desk he brought in.
Then I realised something. I was experiencing time normally, as I could see everyone else moving also. And I knew we weren’t frozen in time because why else would Thalor and Delzon just have desks full of stuff out of nowhere?
"Wait, why aren’t you still in frozen time? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to do this in frozen time?" I questioned upon realising that fact.
"Because we’re out of mana." Thalor replied bluntly.
I blinked and shook my head. What did he mean out of mana?
"Out of mana? Is that even possible? Just how long have you been stopping time for?" The headmaster inquired after hearing Thalor’s answer.
Why don’t you take a look at her?" Thalor looked up and to Shirayaa behind me.
Oh dear Goddess, I didn’t even think about that. Immediately the three of us turned around to look at Shirayaa who was currently behind me.
But when we turned around, what we saw was horrific. So horrific that I let go of Shirayaa’s hand that I was holding onto.
When I saw her this morning when I got her for the tour, she was pale, her eyes had sunken in and she looked kind of malnourished.
Now though... Now she looked worse. She looked deathly skinny, with her body looking like it was just skin and bone. As for the skin itself, it now looked absolutely horrid, with black spots constantly shifting about all over it.
Her eyes looked already dead and decayed, looking like a pair of dried fruits nearly. Her tail had the worst of it though, as half her scales had fallen off and turned to ash while the rest had turned a sickly, off shade of white. The flesh beneath it wasn’t faring much better either, looking just as dried up as her eyes whilst being either a pale rotted green, or a distressing lifeless grey.
The three of us where absolutely horrified by what we were looking at. She was quite literally decaying right in front of us.
Just how much time did they spend in frozen time? And can this even be cured? Is it even possible anymore?
I wanted to speak, to as them what happened or what I could do to help or... Or... Something! But I couldn’t even bring myself to speak.
The sight before me was just too much for me to handle.
Unbeknownst to me, my breathing started to quicken as my vision started to blur and my body began shaking uncontrollably.
When suddenly I found myself no longer looking at Shirayaa and now at Kronia, who was now grabbing my shoulders after she’d turned me around as I could now see glimpses of Thalor and Delzon behind her.
My panicking mind and body slowly returned to as normal as it could, but still shaken by what I saw as Kronia’s gaze bore deep into my own eyes with a fierce intensity that I don’t think I’d ever seen from her in the short time we’d spent together.
And within that gaze, I could see something else as well. I think I could see concern also. A deep, almost motherly level of concern within her.
Regardless, that was enough to calm my nerves enough for her to start talking to me.
"Traytora..." Her gaze faltered and I could see the light in her eyes dim slightly, then looking straight back at me with a great resolve. "Traytora, you remember that I sealed your memories, right?"
I blinked, and took a moment to respond, "Uh huh."
"Do you know why I sealed your memories?" She pressed, which prompted me to think deeply.
"Because... It hurts?" I answered apprehensively.
"Yes, and if I didn’t do it, you might not have had the strength to continue living with the pain you carried." She finally closed her eyes which I now realised were concerningly dry and lowered her head. "What I saw in your memories was too much, even for me. I lost my husband when I was young. And ever since, I’ve never quite been able to get over it, never been able to move on."
Her eyelids opened and I could see the dreariness in her eyes, the grief that she’d carried for a long, long time.
"I tried to become more powerful and use my chronomancy to try and prevent this outcome, but nothing I did could stop it, even after I became a defiant, that’s what we’re properly called, being outside of fates wheels. Even then, I couldn’t stop it from happening."
"I then came to realise that this was note Fate at play here, but another force, one not bound by the machinations of Fate, one that is innate to an individual, destiny. He was always meant to die, not by the powers of fate, but it was his destiny to die, and it was always to protect me."
"Not everyone has a predetermined destiny, and those of us that aren’t bound by fate, will often find our own destiny. I’ve yet to truly find mine, but I’m content with what I have now. You on the other hand, haven’t found anything you could truly call your destiny, you’re still figuring it all out."
"Uhh... What does this have to do with Shirayaa?" I interrupted as everything she was saying was getting to be a little too much for me to handle right now. Especially with the current situation.
"She’s not supposed to be alive right now." Answered Kronia.
"Pardon?" Thalor blurted out randomly as I could see him looking up from his ever-mounting pile of paper. "What do you mean she’s not supposed to be alive?"
"Someone has resurrected her, exactly the same as before." Kronia clarified.
A look of dawning or clarity appeared on both Thalor and Delzon’s faces. "If that’s the case... Then that means..."
Thalor disappeared. He was just gone. Presumably to look for something somewhere regarding what Kronia just said.
That wasn’t important right now as Kronia was currently still staring intensely at me as she continued speaking.
"Part of that reason has to do with you. And it involves the memories I sealed for you."
I could feel my heart start beating faster once again as I felt a creeping dread rising deep within my mind. And it only got worse as Kronia continued speaking.
"I’ve done a lot of research on Destiny, so I know what I’m talking about when I say that her destiny should’ve ended..."
She trailed off and her gaze was no longer directed at me, even though it she was facing me. Instead, it was now a crystal-clear look of realisation.
"Oh my god... I know why this is happening..."
The moment she said that, Thalor appeared out of nowhere, even though Kronia hadn’t moved, meaning Delzon must’ve gone and gotten him.
"What is it? What’ve you realised? What did you figure out?" Thalor yelled urgently as he pried Kronia off of me and started to shake the answer out of her.
"She’s supposed to be dead. But something or someone has revived her, turning her into some sort of paradoxical entity due to the way her destiny is supposed to work. It probably doesn’t help with her affinity for [Time]." Kronia explained, to which only Thalor and Delzon really understood.
"That, or her [Time] affinity could be a side effect of the Temporal Decay." Delzon pointed out.
"Maybe. Not important right now. Now we have to figure out a way to circumvent this. Firstly, why is she even like this, because being revived alone shouldn’t be enough to cause this. There has to be more." Thalor let go of Kronia and began scribbling down on a blank scroll.
"It actually has everything to do with her." Kronia turned and pointed at me.