Rya's eyes were drawn to this ancient bck leather book that kept most of the knowledge about the Time-Space magic. Its pages were yellowed and torn in pces, but it still held onto its secrets. Quinus was the one who brought it to her, and she was excited to see what it contained inside as she slowly opened its cover.

  The old Elven dialect started to become legible within seconds as her Omni Eyes deciphered a nguage that time has forgotten.

  "To whoever is reading this diary, the author's name is Rohas, and I am a time-space mage of the Rylous Empire to the Great High Elven King, Altharion. I am a Time-Space mage of the 13th Order, and this diary will detail my studies into the realm of time and space," Rya whispered to herself as she continued reading the book to herself.

  "I will record what I learn about the time-space magic with a vision from the Great God of Time, Xandros. The God spoke to me and told me the beginnings of my journey into the realm of time-space, and what I must do."

  Rya's brow furrowed slightly in concentration as she stumbled upon a tantalizing hint regarding the origins of Mages in the world of Tertius. The air around her felt thick with intrigue as she continued to delve deeper into the diary, her heart racing with anticipation of uncovering more secrets.

  The initial pages of the book were cluttered with meticulous notes and intricate sketches, indicative of a series of experiments that had clearly captivated the author's mind. Among the detailed illustrations, she noted various types of crystals—some radiant and multifaceted, others dark and opaque—each accompanied by annotations that hinted at their properties and potential uses.

  As Rya turned the pages, she was drawn to a particurly ornate drawing, depicting what appeared to be an ancient artifact, its surface etched with arcane symbols. Her curiosity piqued, she examined the accompanying text that detailed the first incantation known to those early practitioners of magic: “Temporal Stasis.” This spell, as described, held the power to freeze moments in time, offering a glimpse into a reality where time itself could be tamed. The implications of such mastery were profound, igniting Rya’s imagination with the possibilities it presented.

  "Huh?... So, a time mage can put someone or something in stasis?... God, it would be so awesome if I could use time magic... Hmm... So, I need to channel my mana into both palms of my hands and eyes. If done correctly, any object or creature with a weaker vein will be slowed down to one tenth of their original speed..." Rya muttered aloud as she studied the incantation.

  She quickly looked around the table and saw a stack of books about three feet away from her. She looked down at the old diary, then back at the stack of books. Quinus was looking for more books, so Rya was alone at the time. She looked behind her to make sure no one was watching her.

  "Haah... What the hell... I'll give it a shot..." Rya sighed, momentarily hesitating as uncertainty flickered across her face. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to gather her focus. Deep within herself, she concentrated on her mana—the lifeblood of her magic. She envisioned its flow, like a warm river coursing through her veins, and willed it down her arms, funneling the energy into her palms. With a determined flicker of thought, she channeled some of that energy into her eyes, opening them with newfound intensity. Stretching out both arms, she whispered the incantation with a mixture of hope and trepidation.

  "Temporal Stasis."

  If anyone had been using Rya's Seer Stone, a mystical artifact that revealed yers of a person's magical essence, they would have witnessed a striking phenomenon. An orangish-red mage vein pulsed vibrantly in her abdomen, where her unborn child nestled securely—a vivid reflection of her own powerful lineage. This same color resonated with the deeper half of the yin-yang orb that dangled from her choker colr, symbolizing the duality within her.

  As Rya steadied her focus on the book that y at the center of a precariously stacked pile, she reached for her mana, only to feel it falter. It dissipated through her body like water escaping through cupped hands, reminding her of her futile attempts to wield spells beyond her affinity, like Lightning or Illusions. She held her arms out for a few moments, a mixture of anticipation and disappointment painted on her face, before they sank to her sides. A pyful grimace crossed her lips, and she sighed, "Yeah... No dice... Well, it was fun to dream... Boom."

  In an impulsive fit of mischief, Rya knocked over the stack of books, relishing the chaotic spill of paper and leather. However, as the middle book tumbled from its perch, she felt a strange thrill—a sensation that seemed to suspend time itself. The book descended at an almost leisurely pace, as though gravity were taking its time with it. But then, almost as if the universe corrected itself, the book began to plummet faster and faster, chasing the reality Rya had tried so desperately to grasp.

  "What the fuck?" Rya said with a surprised look on her face.

  Then, the book hit the floor, and the sound echoed throughout the library. Rya looked at her hands and then at the diary in front of her, where the page of the Temporal Stasis incantation was.

  "That can't be..." Rya said with a stunned look on her face.

  She picked up a different book, held it up, and cast the spell again. This time, the book floated in the air when she let go, then slowly fluttered towards the table, and she quickly caught it with both hands.

  "Oh... My... GOD!" Rya yelled out as she stared at the book, her expression surprised.

  'I am a fucking time mage!?! Wait!? Did Nebulus share her affinity with me!?... M-Maybe she's not so bad after all... Wait!... I should see if I can cast other spells first.' Rya thought as she quickly paged through the pages of Rohas's diary, looking for another incantation to try. She stumbled across a spell called "Blink" and read the words on the page, memorizing the incantation.

  "Okay... here goes nothing," Rya whispered to herself as she stood up. Her mana channeled into her eyes and palms again, but she needed to add mana into the soles of her feet and her biceps, triceps, and quads. She focused on where she wanted to go, and in the blink of an eye, she disappeared—and reappeared on the other side of the table.

  "No fucking way!... No! Way!" Rya said with a loud voice. She looked at the top of one of the 20-foot-tall bookshelves and blinked again.

  *Poof!*

  And she nded on the top of the bookshelf.

  "Holy Shit! I'm a Time Mage!!!" Rya yelled out in excitement and joy.

  Then her mind began to wander about all the possibilities as she blinked in front of the time sage's diary.

  'There have to be portals, or maybe teleportation?... Wait a minute! What about time travel!?! Maybe I can get back to Earth by traveling back in time?!' Rya thought and quickly searched for the time-travel incantation.

  After several hours and dozens of pages ter, Rya found the spells of Portal, Chrono Shift, Teleportation Orb, Quantum Shield, Temporal Echo, Chrono Heal, Gravity Surge, and Singurity Pull.

  Portal is precisely what the name implies. The mage can open one 8-foot radius portal to travel between far distances. But there was a catch. The mage needs to aim the first portal in a direction that almost acts like a telescope, as the first portal needs to be exactly parallel to the second portal. So when Rya tried to see, she watched as the second portal zoomed forward in a straight line, and she could see the world passing by the first portal until the second portal stopped 250 miles away. That was the second limitation of the portal spell. It has a limited range, and it took one minute for the portals to form, so she couldn't spam the portals around like crazy. And she tried opening two portals at the same time, but it gave her massive migraines. So, she was only able to open one portal at a time.

  Chrono Shift allows the mage to make everything go in bullet time, like in the Matrix movies. If a mage had a strong enough mana vein, they could almost make time stop.

  Teleportation Orb is simir to a portal, as the mage can travel great distances in an instant, but there were a few pros to this spell. It was faster and easier to cast, and the mage could grow the orb's radius to 100 feet and teleport everyone and everything in the radius. But the mage has to know where the pce is and have been there before, or at least seen it, to teleport there. Otherwise, if they didn't know where they wanted to go or were under stress when casting this spell, then they would be teleported to some random spot in the world. It could be 100 feet away or 10,000 miles away from where they cast the Teleportation Orb. And the other issue with this spell was that when it says that it teleports everything within the radius of the orb, it was not exaggerating. Anything within the orb's radius was teleported to the destination. That meant rocks, trees, animals, people, and even the ground beneath their feet. Hence, everyone had to worry about the ground crumbling or falling away when they teleported to the new location. The best way Time Mages worked around this was using Gravity Surge or Singurity Pull to either stabilize the ground that came with them through the orb, or the Mage lifted everyone off the ground when they canceled gravity.

  Gravity Surge. It makes the gravity within a 5-foot radius around a target area increase or decrease exponentially. This allows the user to control the gravity of the target area and make it heavier or lighter, depending on their needs.

  Singurity Pull. The caster can pull in anything around towards them, almost like telekinesis, but it's not as powerful. Once the target gets pulled, then that's it. It moves in one direction until the object or person hits a solid surface or a barrier.

  Quantum Shield is a magical shield that can create a protective barrier by folding space, deflecting attacks from multiple angles at once, and can also absorb energy, redirecting it elsewhere. This allows the caster to create a multi-yered force field that can withstand almost any kind of attack, including magic, physical, and even mental.

  Temporal Echo is a magical technique that allows the caster to summon echoes of the past or future to provide guidance or reveal hidden information. The technique is very useful for foretelling the future and predicting the outcome of decisions.

  Chrono Heal can revert an individual's body to an earlier state, effectively healing wounds and reversing damage. This is a less superior version of a Healer's magic, but it's far superior to any potion that an Alchemist can create. What makes it less superior than a healer's magic is that it can only heal an injury within a 12-hour time frame, and if the injury occurred in the past 12 hours, the injury will only partially heal. It will scar, unlike a healer's magic. The other thing about Chrono Heal is that it is far more unpleasant than a healer's magic. So, if someone's leg was severed, and a time mage used Chrono Heal. The injured would experience the pain all over again as they get healed, almost like they experience the pain in reverse.

  'God Damn!... Time Space Mages are scary powerful!...' Rya thought as she studied the grimoire. And when she turned the next page, she was greeted by a warning from the Time Sage himself.

  Dear reader. Before you go further into the grimoire, know that I am not responsible for your safety with my st discovery as a Time Mage... During my time with three over Time Mages, we always thought it was possible to create an incantation for time travel. And after three centuries of researching this theory, we came across a spell that would allow us to travel through time and space. And during our research, we found that it is possible, but it is impossible to survive the journey.

  "Wait... what!?" Rya said out loud as she read the st paragraph. She furrowed her brow as she continued to read on.

  We discovered that the time-space conundrum that I fear I won't be able to solve in my st couple of hundred years of life. The enigma of traveling back and forth through time isn't the issue, but surviving the trip is. We tested the spell several times, and each attempt either caused us to fail from the sky or become buried in the earth or a building form, only traveling a few seconds in the past or future. What has pgued us is that the time portal stays in the exact same position in the universe retive to our timeline.

  "Huh?... What's the problem with that?" Rya asked as she read the passage.

  This is the problem with time travel: the universe seems to be in a continuous state of movement. And the old ways of thinking that the universe revolves around Tertius were wrong. If the universe did revolve around Tertius, then time travel would have been successful a century ago. And since it doesn't, that means the portal that we create in our timeline to go back 24 hours will open the second portal in the same exact location in the universe a day before Tertius is there in the same pce of the universe. My good friend Jaspen was the first to try going back 24 hours into the past. When the portal opened, everything inside our Laboratory began to be sucked into the vacuum of space. I witnessed Jaspen getting sucked into the portal, and before the portal colpsed, I saw the pnet of Tertius in the distance as a beautiful gem in the vast darkness. This was when we understood that our pnet was traveling through the cosmos. Mage Hervor was the one to theorize that the portal wasn't traveling with the gravitational pulls of Tertius, which was the cause of the failure. So now I can't help but wonder if it is possible to survive the trip. Even traveling back a second caused my legs to submerge in the city square, which is 43 miles away from our Laboratory. I was lucky enough to cast Chrono Heal on myself before my lower legs were crushed and ripped apart by the cobblestone road.

  We've tried everything to move the portal to the correct location of where the pnet Tertius would be in the future or past, but without the proper formu to calcute Tertius' current velocity through the cosmos, we are left with this dilemma. I've tried praying to the Great God of Time, Xandros, but he refuses to answer me. And so, it seems that time travel will forever be a mystery.

  Rya finished the rest of the book and sighed. "It seems the problem with time travel isn't the spell itself... but the destination," Rya muttered.

  "What's that, Babe?" Quinus asked as he brought another stack of books to Rya.

  "OH! Um... In one of the books you brought me, I discovered a journal entry talking about time-space magic. And it seems they figured out how to travel in time, but the issue was the location where the portal would open," Rya said as she rubbed her chin.

  "Hmm, I don't get it," Quinus replied.

  "If the journal entry is correct, and if my hypothesis is correct, then the portal opens in the exact location in the universe from where we stand right now. This means if you tried to go back 24 hours, then the portal will open a 24-hour trip away in this spot here, but the pnet would be a different spot because the pnet hasn't gotten to the same pce in the cosmos it was 24 hours ago," Rya expined.

  Quinus took in the information, and he understood what Rya was talking about. "So, if you go 24 hours back in time and open the portal. The portal would open up to outer space instead of on the ground."

  "Precisely. So, they tried to fix the problem by calcuting where the pnet would be in the past or future, but they didn't understand astronomy... Or maybe it's cosmologists? Sadly, I don't understand the theory of retivity," Rya said.

  "So, is there a solution?" Quinus asked.

  "Yeah, I think so. But it might be beyond... That a bummer but I guess I can live with that," Rya said as she flipped to the next page an saw the incantation for Time Travel. It wasn't too hard to cast, and Rya didn't know if it would be useful at all, but she read it anyway.

  "So, how much longer do you want to stay here?... It's getting te, and I think you are ready for dinner," Quinus said.

  "Huh? Quin, I'm not hungry—"

  *GROAN!*

  "—I think?" Rya blushed in embarrassment.

  Quinus just chuckled at the sound and smiled. "Come on... We'll come back to this Library tomorrow. Let's head back home."

  "Okay, sounds good," Rya said.

  Rya put the books she wanted to read aside and pced the books that didn't have any relevant information about magic back on the shelves. Quinus gathered the books she had pced to the side and took them with him and handed them to Balthazar for safekeeping.