Pasquinelli/Rise 465

The Charge had done its job. As soon as Jon felt the intense heat of the Black Fire he was hurtling toward, a great hole in the cocoon burst open, and Jon flew through it. In the center of the Black Flames was Ignus, maintaining his control and stream of Black Fire, keeping the light-sucking wall of flames alive. But Jon was flying full-force into that cocoon. There was no turning back this time. Ignus had barely time to register Jon’s incoming before Jon threw the other ribbon at him. Ignus let go of his hold on the firewall and ducked the Stream. But he couldn’t avoid Jon, a rather large flying object aflame. Jon’s arms connected with Ignus’ shoulder and Jon could feel his own fire burning Ignus, so he intensified it. Ignus couldn’t readily retaliate, but kept tossing out Black Fire at Jon, but Jon kept dodging it, still burning into him with all his might.

Meanwhile, Ignus’ concentration on his firewall was all but gone. In the few seconds that he and Jon were struggling, a great hole appeared in the wall, and was spreading and multiplying into other numerous other holes, also growing and connecting with other ones.

“You won’t win!” Ignus screamed.

When a Black Fireball impacted in Jon’s stomach, only then did Jon release his grip. By that time, the firewall was completely gone, and Jon was hardly damaged from the projectile. The creation and sustaining of such a force had weakened Ignus.

Jon took the opportunity of distance between himself and Ignus to unload as much Eternal Fire as his body could muster at him. But Ignus, though weakened, was not about to be defeated. He dispelled the Eternal Fire with the telekinesis he’d used in the Frost. They stood (or hovered, rather) face-to-face in the now crystal blue sky. Six thousand feet below, the battle raged on, with the scales tipped back toward the Norean Forces. They had the Empress with them -- possibly the most powerful Mage alive. Jon stole a glance down at the battle to see the Norean color-coded army blasting the Guild from every angle.

Ignus took the opportunity and performed the same attack on Jon as he did. Jon retaliated and let out another blast of Eternal Fire at him. The two continuous jets of Fire met in the middle of the two of them, and created a pink colored fire, spurting tongues out from the center high into the air all around them. Jon was fighting with all of his might, but Ignus’ Black Flames were more powerful -- slowly Red Fire diminished as the Black and Purple Flames engulfed them. Soon, even with Jon’s whole body ablaze, Ignus’ fire was three quarters of the way toward Jon in the air between them. Jon couldn’t actually see Ignus’ face clearly through the Fiery chaos, except for very brief moments when the Fires weren’t bursting all over the place, Jon caught glimpses of him. Strangely, his face wasn’t contorted in anger or rage; it was insanely greedy.

“I WILL HAVE IT!” Ignus said over the intense noise.

Jon was beginning to understand now. Ignus didn’t want to kill Jon; he wanted the Amulet. Jon’s primary goal became clear: keep the Amulet away from Ignus while simultaneously help the Norean forces...and then kill Ignus if he could. If he could accomplish those goals at the same time, he’d be in good shape.

But that battle was not going well. Jon was still struggling to ward off the Black Fire. Just when he was about to close his eyes and stop the Timeline he heard a strange, beautiful and terrible sound altogether. It was like a million high-pitched bees were flying toward him -- Jon looked down without moving his head and saw only for a brief second a large white ball flying up at them. It flew right up into their dueling flames, dissipated the pinkish quelling mass and exploded with such force that Jon was knocked out of his floating stance and hurled to the ground. Sky became earth, and earth became sky -- he was falling too randomly and rapidly for Jon to distinguish the two.

He couldn’t tell how far he’d fallen, or worse yet, how close he was to the ground, but his vision had begun to blur and darken -- he was going to pass out, and die upon hitting the ground. But something caught him, or seemed to close in upon him...and it wasn’t the ground or death.

When he came back to his full senses, he was laying on the grass. He pushed himself up and looked for Ignus. Instead, he saw a much friendlier person.

“Sye?”

“Jonathan. Good to see you again...not falling through the sky.”

“You could see me up there?”

“Oh yes,” Sye said, with his arms folded behind his back, perfectly calm. “Once the Black Fire shield dissolved, you two became quite visible.

“And you --?”

“Yes, I saw you falling uncontrollably. Glad to see you’ve mastered flight, now just learn how to land.” He patted Jon on his shoulder.

“Where is he?” Jon looked wildly around. They were quite a ways away from where the battle took place. They were further from Norea than before and much closer to the forest. Jon couldn’t hear anything but a few birds chirping in the trees a few feet away.

“I’m not sure. He fell just a few hundred yards from here. Maybe it’s better you don’t follow him,” Sye added, seeing Jon’s head dart around this way and that.

“Wha? Why not?”

“Because...” Sye began delicately. “He wants your Amulet.”

Jon stopped looking wildly around and stared at Sye. “Uh yeah. I know that already.”

“And, he’d be willing to kill you to get it.”

“I already know that too.”

“And...”

“And what? Jon said quickly. He was losing his patience. Ignus could be escaping.

“And if the Empress hadn’t forced you two apart, he would have been able to kill you.”

Shaking his head, Jon said firmly, “No, I don’t think so.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I can stop him. I know I can now. I may be one of the few who can.”

“That didn’t really answer my question, you know.” Sye gave a weak smile.

“No, I suppose it didn’t.”

“I don’t think you know what he’s capable of, Jonathan.”

Jon blinked for a very long time. In that few seconds his mind’s eye replayed the moment when Ignus began to incinerate the Norean army. He did it so easily, so without remorse...

“I was there, Sye. I saw what he did, what he’s capable of doing.”

Sye looked into Jon’s eyes, and looked away, off toward Norea, and Jon knew he wouldn’t try and convince him any further.

“Listen, Sye, you’ve now saved my neck twice. I owe you for that. But if I die and take him down with me, it’ll be worth it.”

“What if you just die? And he survives?”

“One thing at a time.” Jon smiled.

Sye laughed, then looked over his shoulder. “He’s that way. Good luck, my friend. You’re just as stubborn as she is, you know.”

“Thanks, I know. And I still have the mirror.”

Sye nodded, wavered, and disappeared. Jon turned to the rocky slopes Sye had indicated and took off at a run. It took a few tries, but eventually he became airborne again with a tail of fire accompanying him. As he came over a ridge, there were hundreds of tiny black marble-sized dots hanging in the air. On the ground beneath stood Ignus, with his hands facing up at Jon. Jon pulled hard to the left, but it was no use. With a flick of his fingers, the hundreds of little black dots pelted themselves at Jon, and each one was small, but quite painful explosion of Black Fire. He was thrown from the air, and even after he hit the ground, several more of the dots hit him. He winced and yelled out. He was burned worse than coming through Ignus’ firewall and couldn’t move.

“It’s called Dark Matter,” said Ignus, walking toward Jon. His voice was still an eerie imitation of his own, which was almost as disconcerting as the face the two of them shared. “Quite effective. Deadly if used in the proper quantity.”

Jon wanted to say something, to yell and scream at this maniac, but he couldn’t move his lips without severe pain. They were slowly healing themselves, along wit the rest of his body, but Jon was still immobile for the moment.

“But kill you? Not just yet.” Now Ignus was right near Jon. Jon felt himself lift up off the ground. Ignus was levitating Jon, just as he had done at the Frost. But this time was not gentle. The air had a vice-like grip around him and his wounds, though healing, were causing him agony. “You should have been more careful. The Empress is far away; she can’t save you this time.”

Jon closed his eyes (or maybe they closed themselves -- he couldn’t tell which) and remembered back when he first got the Amulet. He and Ray were in the forest, with only themselves for company...and they had no idea what they were walking into.

“I suppose I was similarly foolish when I was your age. Ah well. Jotea needs to realize how dangerous I am. I destroyed her family, and I’m going to get her, too.” He took a step closer to Jon. “You all underestimate me.”

Jon’s mouth was finally moveable now. He was boiling inside, but during his brief lapse into semi-unconsciousness, he’d found something else in the darkness, something more and more familiar as Time went on.

“Pathetic,” Jon said in a horse whisper.

“What did you call me?” said Ignus, tightening the telekinetic grip.

Jon winced again, but kept his eyes fixed on Ignus. “You’re pathetic. And you’ve got it backwards.”

“And what would that be, my dear, idiotic younger self?”

"You underestimate us.”

Jon yelled as he pulled the Timeline into a micro-chaos right in front of Ignus’ nose, in between the two of them. Ignus eyes widened in shock a moment before it happened. The Timeline was stretched too much, and a kinetic explosion issued in between the two of them.

Jon was released from the vice-like grip, and Ignus toppled over. It wasn’t terribly strong, but it was better than nothing. Jon was on his feet before his doppelganger, and in his mind thought, “Fire! Now!” Eternal Fire burst out of his hands toward Ignus, but he deflected again, and threw Jon off his feet with a jolt. When he stood up, there was a tugging on his chest, and instantly, the tug felt like someone was trying to pull Jon’s heart out. Jon instinctively grasped his chest; Ignus was stepping toward Jon with his arm in a grasping, claw-like hand at Jon’s chest. Jon could feel his robes starting to loosen themselves on his back, and he was having trouble feeling the pulsing Timeline beneath visible reality. Ignus was ripping the Amulet out of Jon.

"Focus, Jon!” said a voice in his head that wasn’t his own. ”You have the power within you. Use it!"

Jon shut his eyes as his clothing attempted to peel itself from the rest of his body. With the Empress’ help, Jon found the Timeline again, pulsing like it normally did. Jon grabbed hold of it and opened his eyes. Ignus had the demonic, deranged look Jon had seen him with before. The robes of the Phoenix Amulet were completely gone, and there was a hazy terra cotta colored line ending from Jon’s chest, going toward Ignus’ taut stretched fingers. Jon was losing it. He thrust out one hand, mentally grasping the trinket he commanded the past few weeks, calling it back to him -- he’d lost it once, he didn’t want to lose it again. His other hand he tried to shoot out a Timestream, or what he could feebly call Timestream with the Amulet’s powers nearly completely vacant from him. He thought of Ray and threw the TimeStream at Ignus.

But something strange happened. Instead of impacting Ignus like it had the tree and the window in the castle, the stream of wavering air connected with the stretched out Amulet in mid-air. The Phoenix Amulet, wavered itself for a second, then let out a huge yellow ray directed at Jon which hit him squarely in the chest, and seemed to cause no damage but Jon’s mind was a blur of strange images of war, dinosaurs, ancient buildings, and sun-moon cycles all in an instant. It was like the Earth’s life was flashing before his eyes. Ignus yelled “NO!” and it Jolted Jon back to the present. The air around the stretched Amulet wavered in tight circles as if the air itself had currents flowing toward it.

For a brief second, the Amulet reappeared fully circular and intact between Ignus and Jon floating in mid-air. But neither Jon nor Ignus had time to even think about lunging for it because it wavered for a moment, then disappeared, but not before releasing a massive fire shockwave that threw Jon off his feet entirely -- in fact, he was in flight again. The air thundered and pulsed as Jon flew, and flew. He crashed into the ground, and had no idea how many feet he’d traveled. But he did know this -- he was steady on the ground. And in pain, again. “I sense a pattern here,” Jon said to himself. He half smiled and stood up, but immediately toppled over again. Now his right leg was in such severe pain that his eyes were watering. Clearly something had been broken. Jon felt down his chest and stomach and found a T-shirt. He groaned in pain and frustration. That meant he wouldn’t be healing instantaneously. He also looked around the grass in his immediate area, but it was in vain. The Phoenix Amulet had disappeared, and was not thrown next to him.

Taking a deep breath, he realized the softer edge of the double-sword -- at least Ignus didn’t have it, either. Jon laid back down on the grass. He was exhausted. He hadn’t had a proper night sleep in what felt like weeks, and to top everything else off, he was nearly burned to death and had a broken leg. Aside from his throbbing, excruciating appendage, he also seemed to be plainly aware of the Timeline as it buzzed away. It was like a second heartbeat in the grass, in the air, and in fact, all around him. It was a strange sensation -- usually he had to concentrate hard to feel the Timeline. Now it seemed to be ubiquitous. He absently felt his pockets to see if somehow the Amulet was there, but deep down he knew it was probably somewhere far away, beyond his reach. And he was glad for it. Yes, his protection was gone, but so were all the other horrible things that came with it. His firmly consoling thought was that at least it was also out of Ignus’ grasp. In fact, for all Jon knew, Ignus could have died in that blast of fire and temporal energy. But he probably didn’t said his pessimistic side. He’s still out there. He could even be regrouping. But nothing short of a direct attack could get Jon up off the ground. He seemed to hurt all over, and the part of him that wasn’t registering the pain was just too tired to do anything but lie there, quietly.

He closed his eyes, for how long he did not know, nor did he care. He could have fallen asleep for seven seconds or seven hours. But he did realize something in the blissful darkness -- someone was coming, fast. The footsteps were loud thumps. Jon raised his head and squinted against the bright sunlit sky. A large figure obscured it, and was peering down at him.

“I’m glad to see you are undamaged, Jonathan,” said Jotea.

“That’s a matter of opinion.”

“I meant alive.”

“Oh yeah. Well, can’t complain, I guess.

She sighed heavily. Faintly, the smell of lilac wafted over to Jon’s nose. She always smelled lovely. “I should have you thrown in the dungeons.”

“Again? For what? Breaking and exiting?”

Jotea managed a very faint smile momentarily. She wasn’t panicking, so things must have gone well.

“What happened out there?”

“The Guild was thwarted, as I assumed they would be.” She paused. “We owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“Fine, just get me a doctor.”

She hadn’t seemed to hear him, though, in fact, she crouched down on the grass next to him. “If you hadn’t flown up through the Fire, Ignus would have won. They probably would be ransacking the city, searching for the Crystal. By the time I would have figured out what was going on, it may have been too late. You risked great personal injury to yourself to save us. You nearly died.”

“Sure felt like it,” said Jon as he rotated his shoulders; his right one felt like it was in a vice. He tried not to wince front of Jotea. He hated feeling inferior in front of her. “So where are all the Guild members now?”

“We have placed all those left behind into custody. Many more, I am sad to say, escaped.”

“What about...him?”

Jotea looked away from Jon. She seemed to do so in disappointment of herself. “I’m also sorry to say, he has escaped as well.”

“Really? Damn. Thought I might have at least injured him enough so he couldn’t have gotten away.”

“What do you mean? You...injure -- Ignus?”

“Yeah. I was hoping to finish him off if I could.”

“I’m glad your aims are so high, however, in the future, you would do well to listen to my advice, particularly when I confine you and Racine to a room, and lock the doors and windows.”

Jon chuckled. But even doing that hurt his ribs, so he winced again. “The Empress thing works with everyone else in this country, your highness. But Ray and I ... not so much.”

Jotea raised an eyebrow a fraction of an inch. Jon knew that to mean she was slightly amused by his statement.

For a second, it looked like she might laugh, and Jon would have right along with her despite her deliberate cordial tone, but as she looked at Jon, her eyes widened in horror. “Where are your Phoenix Amulet robes?” she said. She sounded on the brink of hysteria, which for Jotea, was a big deal.

“I don’t know actually. They sort of--”

“My dear Empress!” shouted a voice from a few yards away. Jon saw and recognized Solus, the Empress’ chief advisor was walking toward them, limping on his cane. Nevertheless, he looked ecstatic to see her. “You’re alive and well! Perfectly lovely.”

The Empress went to him and embraced him like a daughter to her father.

“And I am glad to see that you are alright as well.”

“But of course. You made sure I was safe. And I am. I’ve been worried about you these past few hours.”

“I am well; unhurt.”

Solus’ grin disappeared. “But you’re upset. What is wrong?”

“Jonathan, I don’t believe you’ve been properly introduced. This is Solus Fauntyle. Solus, this is Jonathan Kenneth.”

“Pleasure,” Jon said from his sitting position on the ground.

Solus inclined his head.

“Wait, Faunytle? As in, Prime Minister Fauntyle?”

“Correct,” said Solus. “He is my nephew.” Solus turned to the Empress. If Jon had been standing, he would have towered over the tiny man, for the Empress was even taller than he was. But in this childlike sitting position, the two of them were like skyscrapers over him. “What is the matter?”

Before she could answer, or say anything, Commander Bailey came trotting over the hill. The Empress instantly clapped her mouth shut.

“Empress, your orders?” said the Commander.

“We must mobilize the wounded and transport them to an infirmary.”

“Which one, your highness?”

“Stonethrow District Infirmary. It is the closest.”

“Yes, your highness.” Bailey turned his horse to leave, but the Empress stopped him.

“And Commander. Have the captains of Scarlet Force and Green Force send a few soldiers after the Guild members who escaped. They are to remain hidden, and just be certain they do in fact, leave Norean lands. Keep a special watch on Ignus. I want him back in the Frost where I can keep him there. Use whichever Siphons and Charges they feel necessary. Dismissed.”

“Instantly, your highness.” And with that, the Commander turned and disappeared again over a hill.

“We cannot discuss this here.” The Empress looked at Solus for an abnormally long time, as if trying to communicate telepathically. But Kavin Fauntyle was just an empath. Could empathic mages still hear telepathic thoughts and respond to them?

“I see,” said Solus as he nodded slowly.

“And you, Jon, most importantly, need to be there,” she concluded. Jon’s heart gave a brief leap. “Sure thing.”

“Come,” said the Empress as she turned and began walking briskly back toward the battlefield.

“Uh, Jotea?”

She turned, and Jon pointed as his leg. “Broken, I think. Along with a bunch of other things.”

“Oh!” The Empress said, almost startled. She waved her hand, and Jon felt like pillows were elevating under him. Soon he was laying flat on his back on a particularly comfortable bit of air. The pain subsided slightly as the Empress began walking, and Jon floated a few feet in front of her. He didn’t have the energy to move or look around, so all he could see was the deep blue sky with a few very puffy clouds floating fast across the atmosphere. It was looking to be a pretty day -- only some cloud cover and warm temperatures. It was as if Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that there was invasion happening today.

Jon must have been floating alongside the Empress for two or three minutes before he heard the sounds of voices and more movement. There were several gasps and even a few shrieks as people registered the spectacle they made together. Now Jon didn’t even WANT to look around even if he could. In fact, he closed his eyes. A few minutes later, a stretcher came up under him. The air cushion dissipated, and Jon was now on a very uncomfortable stretcher -- at least when compared to the Empress’ mode of transport. But Jon didn’t care about his discomfort or pain. At least, not now. He couldn’t decide whether he was frightened or angry, frustrated or helpless. Perhaps he was all of them.

And oddly enough, he could still feel the Timeline buzzing right under visible reality, as plain as day -- to Jon, anyway. This puzzled him. Now that his mind was a bit clearer, it still didn’t make sense. But Jon tried not to think about it. The Empress would sort it out. Then finally he’d possibly be able to go back to California, Earth... with Ray. Ray.... He’d forgotten all about her. They’d lost each other in the battle and he hadn’t seen her since. He craned his neck around after opening his eyes. There were scores of people in various states of general health. Many were crouched down or over, tending to fallen comrades. They were grouped in twos and threes, and some carried stretchers while others scurried to one location or another. He couldn’t make out many individual people and even if he could, almost all the people on the ground were Force soldiers, and the groups of people were so numerous that it was like looking through a thicket to find a squirrel.

“Ray? Ray!” Jon called from his stretcher. Doing that hurt too.

“Stay still,” said one of the men that were carrying him. You’re still hurt.”

“I know, but my friend is --”

The man who was carrying him on the end interrupted Jon. “I know, friend. We’re all missing people, loved ones we know.”

Whether by his words of comfort or by some other outside force Jon didn’t understand, he put his head back down, and was instantly taken by sleep.

When Jon woke up, he realized someone was touching him. Or perhaps it was the fact that the touching woke him up. Either way, it did the trick.

It was an elderly woman, dabbing his forehead with a wet cloth. She had a kind face, with reading glasses perched on her nose and snow white hair tied in a bun.

“Glad to see you awake, Mr. Kenneth.”

“Thanks,” said Jon, not quite knowing how to respond to such a statement. “And it’s Jon. My name is Jon.”

She smiled at him. “Of course.”

“Where am I? What happened?”

“You’re at the Stonethrow Infirmary. All of the wounded came here after the battle.” She began to move around the room and check his pillows and tuck his sheets under his mattress. Jon wasn’t the only one in the room with the nurse, either. There must have been half a dozen other patients in a room the size of a two-car garage. They were all in various stages of recuperation. “You had three broken ribs, a broken leg, and internal bleeding.”

Jon’s heart beat a little faster. He was afraid to move in fear that he might break something else, or worse, find that he couldn’t move something he normally could. “But you’re all healed up now,” concluded the nurse. “And the Empress wants to see you.” She jerked her head toward the door that led to a hallway. “Through there.”

Jon swung his legs over one side of the bed, and gingerly put weight on his good leg. It seemed to be able to take his weight with no problem. The nurse nodded with encouragement. Jon then shifted his weight onto his right leg. It also seemed to hold his leg up without a problem. It didn’t hurt at all, in fact. Jon walked very normally across the room, and turned back only to thank the nurse that had been so gentle with him. She nodded her head and smiled at him, then waved him away.

“It’s my job, Mr. Kenneth. Now go do yours.” She nodded again in the direction of the hallway. Jon turned from her and went out of the room.

He stepped into a long hallway with several doors leading off into various other rooms, and people bustling in and out. Most were all dressed in white -- Jon assumed these were the infirmary workers. Other, more worried-looking and regularly dressed people were standing around, apparently tending or visiting their ill family and friends. But no Jotea.

Jon walked slowly down the hall. He figured he’d go to a receptionist and ask them where the Empress was. Surely they’d recognize her.

But passing one of the doors, a very familiar voice croaked, “In here, dimwit.”

Jon couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear as he turned around and rushed into a room and saw Ray, laying on a bed, awake. Along with Ray were the Empress and Solus, seated on either side, looking grim. Jon’s smile vanished when he saw the two of them, but Ray’s good spirits remained.

“At least you’re alive,” she said.

“Course. Someone’s gotta keep you in check,” Jon retorted back. Ray gave one of her penetrating laughs, while the Empress and Solus remained quiet.

“How long have I been out?” said Jon.

“Approximately twenty-four hours,” said the Empress, as if she was giving passengers of an airplane the estimated flight duration.

“Oh.” A low-pitched bell donged in the back of Jon’s head. Today was some sort of landmark, if he had his days straight... an anniversary or something he couldn’t quite remember. “So what’s the party for?”

“Please, sit,” The Empress said.

Jon sat in an empty chair between her and Solus, facing Ray’s bed. “I have found that it would be best if both of you were present for this so there is no confusion over what happened,” the Empress began. “Also, she said, raising an eyebrow slightly, “you have both proven yourselves capable of seeing the Commencement Room on Earth, so there must be a purpose for both of you being here. “And ...” she added with some trepidation, “you have both proven yourselves capable of handling these trials.”

“Well, duh,” said Ray.

“What the hell happened to you out there, anyway?” said Jon, fully knowing that he’d stolen the steam from the Empress’ locomotive of an explanation.

“When the sun went out, I figured I better lie low, right? But I didn’t want to just sit there and let them get through, so I porcupined and ran straight into them.”

“So how did you end up here?”

Ray’s smile faded and she continued. “I couldn’t see a damned thing, so tripped and fell over, and one of my spikes wedged me into the ground. Luckily I took a few Guild members with me. Ha!” She began tying her hair back into a ponytail. “When I finally got unstuck, someone shot me point-blank.”

“The weapons’ signature was Norean, so it was friendly fire, I’m afraid,” said the Empress.

“The thing was set to stun, thank god,” said Ray. “That damn Guild had their set to kill.”

“But she’ll be ready to return to her normal activities very soon,” the Empress said, again ignoring Ray’s interruption.

“Good,” said Ray. “Though that was a really good night sleep I finally had.”

“Tell me about it,” Jon agreed, still a bit groggy from the twenty-hour nap. One thing, however, still buzzed under the surface of Jon’s consciousness -- the same thing that was buzzing before he fell asleep.

“In any case,” the Empress began again, “the matter at hand regards Jon and Ignus.

“I believe I know where your Amulet it, Mr. Kenneth,” said Solus after having been silent the entire conversation thus far.

“That’s great, but I really could care less. I’m glad it’s gone.”

“Huh?” said Ray, obviously not being informed of what had happened.

“Ignus tried to steal it from me. I tried to stop him, but he only half-succeeded. It kind of...disappeared into thin air.

“Oh. That sucks.”

“Not really,” said Jon quickly. “I’m glad it’s gone. He can’t get it, and he knows I don’t have it anymore either. What’s so bad about that?”

“As long as he doesn’t go looking for it, you are correct,” the Empress said.

“But you already know where it is. You just said so.”

“Well...not quite,” the Empress said quietly.

“We have a general idea where it may be,” Solus said. He seemed confident in his and the Empress’ abilities regardless of anything else. “We believe it has been...lost in time.”

There was a pause as Jon waited for the rest of the findings. After fifteen seconds of Jon looking back and forth between the Empress’ and Solus’ grave faces, there appeared to be none. “And...anything other than that?”

That seemed to ruffle Solus’ feathers a bit. “Well what do you mean, Mr. Kenneth?” Having arrived at that conclusion required a great deal of effort and deliberation!”

“I guess so. But that doesn’t mean you actually know where it is. It could be floating around somewhere ‘lost in time’ as you call it.”

“True, but at least we have a general idea!” said Solus, verging on hysterics.

“And chances are that Ignus knows the same thing, right?” Jon said.

It was the Empress who spoke this time. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“So he’s probably already looking for it too, now, huh?” said the Empress, her mood lightening perceptibly. “Time travel, as Ignus knows, is very dangerous, not to mention very difficult. There are very few ways to actually accomplish such a feat.”

“I’ll bet he’s studying up on how to do it, though,” said Jon, looking out the window. He knew because it was precisely the thing he’d be doing if he faced and almost impossible task.

“You may be correct, again. But there is one thing that is still in our favor, and has been since you first arrived here, Jonathan. Only Temporal Mages are completely immune to changes in the Timeline.” Now the Empress outright smiled at he and Ray. “There is one other thing we found out in our brief research. When Ignus tried to forcibly take the Phoenix Amulet from you, something unexpected happened. The Amulet...knew it was in danger and discharged almost all of it’s Temporal powers -- into you.” The Empress stopped smiling, but didn’t stop looking directly at Jon.

He heard the words and his stomach lurched, but instantly knew it was true. All that humming he’d been feeling was his Temporal Charge, now divorced from the Amulet itself. The sensation was quite different than his transformed state. He could usually call on his Charges and abilities at will, but they were almost always imperceptible until activated. Now it seemed like they were a part of him, all the time. Though one thing did seem odd. “Almost all of its temporal powers?”

“Yes, the remaining bit of Temporal Charge was used to shift the Amulet out of Temporal sync with us, and therefore is hiding itself sometime in the Timeline.”

While the Empress and Solus still looked very downcast, Jon was elated. This was great news! Even if Ignus got the Amulet, Jon had the temporal powers safely concealed in his own body.

“Why do you guys look like you just seen a bird splatter on a windshield? This couldn’t have been a better outcome!” Jon said, feeling lighter than he had in days.

The Empress began cautiously. “Jonathan...if you haven’t realized it yet, you and that Phoenix Amulet are now connected. If Ignus gets a hold of your Amulet, he can use it to permanently take back the Temporal Charge from you, forcibly.”

Jon’s heart sank. “Oh. But that’s almost impossible, right?”

Solus chimed back in again. “Nearly impossible, yes.”

“Nearly...” Jon repeated. This changed everything. There was still a chance that Ignus could get the Amulet, and force the temporal powers from him. As much as Jon didn’t even want the thing, the thought of Ignus having another one was unbearable. Especially when he could use it to rip the temporal powers right out of him. That was absolutely unacceptable. His only consolation was that the chances of that were slim to nil.

“Oh great,” said Ray, folding her arms.

“What?” said Jon.

“I know what this means. We’ve gotta leave.”

“Leave...what?” said Jon, not quite getting what exactly she meant.

“I’m afraid Miss Cavitt is correct. Iannis is no longer a safe place for either of you. I cannot guarantee your safety. Jon, Ignus will try and use whatever means he can to get to you and your newly found Temporal Charge. And Ray, you were lucky you weren’t injured more severely, or worse.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Undoubtedly,” the Empress said through gritted teeth. “Jonathan, you said it best a month ago -- this is not your fight.” The Empress looked grim as she delivered this news.

So that was it. That was why she wanted to call this meeting -- not for some epiphany on Jon, or the Phoenix Amulet...it was to tell him that he needed to leave the country, possibly forever. This should have been good news, and Jon was partially glad for an excuse to leave, but he wasn’t totally thrilled at the prospect, either. It’s like something had called him here to Iannis, and as much as he wanted to leave, that same something made him feel anchored here.

“I don’t want to leave,” said Ray. Jon was reminded of a similar reaction when his ten-year-old niece was with his family at Disneyland.

“I understand, but you must,” said the Empress. “This is for your own protection.”

“Oh, I already knew that,” said Ray. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Jon said nothing. He looked out the window again, and pewter grey clouds were creeping over the horizon.