The first thing Edgar said was, "This is why the sword hasn't recognized you as its owner."

And then, "We can fix this."

I looked at him, starstruck. I was expecting a lot of things from Edgar. The only thing I was not expecting was for him to take the news so well.

Of course, he was probably panicking on the inside. I mean, I didn't blame him. If anything, I admired him. He'd always been so much better than I was at handling the bad news.

"Do you remember what I told you?" he asked.

"Oh well, you told me quite a lot of things..." I started fidgeting. 

"The part about running away," he said. "When you told me you wished you had the guts to run away, and I told you it takes a lot of courage to stay."

"So... you want to stay?" my voice cracked. I was more relieved than words could say.

"Yes, but not only that," he replied. "You have to stay too. Find the courage you had back home. Stay. Whatever it takes to break the curse, we'll do it together."

"Even if the worst happens?" I suddenly felt awkward. "I can't believe until a minute ago I was about to steal the Enemy Mirror. Thank you for making me snap out of it."

I started chuckling uncomfortably.

"Well, I don't like to see you laughing at such a time, but you can be sure of one thing," Edgar said soberly. "You and your uncle are taking the fact of being cursed in very different ways."

I bowed my head. "I consider it a compliment."

"I have a question to ask you," he added then, carefully. "You saw the present, and the past. Why don't you have a vision of the future?"

While I never saw the future, I already had a vision of blood, pain, and the nightmarish landscape of the part of the Aether Realm that was made of black magic.

I didn't need to dream about it to see what would happen if we didn't find another way.

"Thankfully visions only come when I tell them to," I replied. "And to be honest? I'm scared of what I'd see."

Edgar nodded. It didn't take a genius to understand what I meant, and Edgar was undoubtedly clever.

"Do me a favour, now that you know," I added hastily. "Please, tell Raegan and Jeff if I cannot. The virus inside of me is Set's magic. There's his will, somewhere in my veins. He makes me do things. He... he doesn't want me to say it."

Edgar's eyes opened in wonder.

"I like this idea," he whispered. "Taking it one step at a time, together. No more secrets." I could feel his aloofness coming undone.

We heard a coughing sound behind us, and we turned around to see Luna.

"Not to interrupt the moment, but if you stay here you have to know there's a price on your head."

"But Selina Cooper and Alice are back, and Selina had already said she considered me innocent..." I tried to reason.

"Not everyone agrees, it doesn't mean Johnston isn't the one in charge. If Thomas Johnston say something, people at the very least listen to his words. There are wanted posters with your pictures on them."

"What do they say?" I asked. I was curious despite myself.

Luna looked vaguely bored but she replied, "Raegan McIntosh, former cult leader, Jeff Tanaka, son of a murderer, Edgar Wollstonecraft, hybrid with shady powers and Ryan Barnes, dark magic Enchanter, probably Typhon."

"I am not on my way to becoming a Typhon," I pointed out angrily. "And I don't practise dark magic! I'd call it... morally gray."

"You have to go back to the other world," Luna said. "Brady gave me the coordinates and I will draw a magic circle in this very room. But before you go there is something you need to know. The Circle was keeping track of the strange happenings in the world and we noticed a rift in the time continuum."

Edgar's eyes opened wide, so I assumed it was something bad.

"The good thing is that it's not recent," Luna replied. "The bad thing is that, with time, there is no meaning to the word recent. It could have been done in the past, it could be something from the future. But the year is 2004."

Edgar and I exchanged a glance. It was the year we were eight years old.

"When you go back to that world, do what you will," Luna told me. "There might be tasks awaiting you since I've heard you're a Prince there. But remember the rift in the time-continuum. Edgar knows its importance, I can see it in his eyes."

"Yes," Edgar said softly. "It means one can time-change without learning the spell. You go back to that year, 2004, and you find a way to close the rift."

"You!" I pointed at Luna, a realization dawning on me. "When did your researchers find out about this? It wasn't yesterday, was it? This is the very reason you contacted us in the first place, isn't it? Why didn't you tell us? We could have prepared for this!"

"One does not need to be prepared to complete a test," she shrugged. "As for your words, they are true, in a way. I wanted the four of you."

"The heores of the quest," Edgar said.

"Yes, yes. The cult leader, the son of the killer, the shady hybrid and the Typhon," I agreed bitterly. "Now, let us go back. I know I'm endangering the world just by being inside of it."

Luna shot me a deadly glance. She looked a little hurt.

Luna was right. Back at the palace, I was told I would have to attend a celebration that very evening. It had something to do with a very wealthy merchant coming home, and I hope it had nothing to do with the fact that he had a daughter my own age.

Still, Nia insisted I dressed for the occasion.

I'd never cared about my appearance, to the point I barely combed my hair, but the idea of how the clothes I would be given would have looked next to my pasty skin, my tangled hair and my sunken face almost made me want to cry.

Raegan tossed me something that looked like another tunic, but that was probably an old fashioned robe dress.

It was really hideous on me, dark blue with silver embroideries.

"I've never worn a dress before, but I like the feeling of wearing one," Raegan commented. "It really gives you a greater freedom on your nether parts. This must be why girls wear skirts and dresses and those other clothes I always thought impractical."

"Ah, is that the reason why?" Jeff mocked her with a dark look in his eyes. Jeff's robe dress was dark green and it made his skin look more golden and luminous.

"I do not know, but it sure feels good," Raegan replied shrugging. Her robe was yellow, which wouldn't have looked the best on anyone with light auburn hair but she made it work.

While we were waiting for the guests to arrive, I sat at one of the mahogany chairs. The one I chose was at the head of the table, and the moment my hands touched the frigid arms of the chair, I realized everyone would be able to watch me eat. I felt rather uncomfortable.

"Luna told us of a rift in the time-continuum," I said, for keeping secrets from Raegan and Jeff was something I didn't want to do anymore. "It's in the year 2004."

"This was what she wanted us for, isn't it?" Jeff sighed. "This is why she opposed no resistance that we space-shifted. A rift in the time-continuum can be reached from all the worlds. Speaking of which," he shuddered. "We should close it before someone else goes in."

"How do we know no one got in so far?" I asked.

"Trust me, you'd know," Raegan explained curtly. "Especially if that person didn't close the rift, and apparently they didn't..."

In that moment we heard a sound as if somebody was blowing on a conch shell. It was a brief, hideous kind of sound.

"I imagine it's the sign the guests are coming," I commented glumly.

Aproximately ten people entered the room. I couldn't focus on all of them together so I focused on each one at a time. I stole a look at the merchant, and I tried not to stare at his daughter. Though I liked girls I couldn't even imagine looking at someone who wasn't Edgar.

Speaking of Edgar, I gestured to the chair next to mine. "You sit here," I told him.

The merchant sat on the other side. 

"What a way to give us privacy," I whispered at Edgar. I looked nervously at Jeff and Raegan, a few chairs away.

"What did you just say?" I heard a booming voice. It was the merchant sitting next to me. "I have a very keen hearing, you know. My parents thought it was probably something magical-related. A skill no one else I know has."

"Must feel crowded," I pointed at my temple. "Your head. I should know, I can read minds."

The merchant laughed, but it sounded very fake.

"And do your friends know how to read minds too, your Highness?" he asked. "Did you teach them?"

"Not all of them," I replied. I tried not to show how nervous I was.

"And who did you teach dark magic, exactly?" the merchant asked.

"As a matter of fact, it was me," Edgar replied, dark in the face. "And was it your parents who taught you how to be so nosy?"

"What?"

"Your power. It's not common. Why wasn't it reported, or cured? Did your parents benefit from the gossip you kept hearing? Is it the reason why you don't understand what to say or not to say?"

A few people held their breaths.

The merchant coughed, and tried to laugh again. "At any rate, we all have some kind of talent here!"

"My name is Turiau," he added. "So... Edgar. As I understand it, you're a servant. Why do you speak up during dinner insulting the guests?"

The same people who were holding their breaths before were now laughing. I knew Edgar had never lived a single day as a servant. Not the Edgar from this world. Still, looking at his face, I couldn't help but feel broken-hearted.

"The Prince has given him permission," I said.

"To insult the guests during dinner? But if everyone acted outside their statutes, we wouldn't have a difference between servants, commonpeople and noble folks!"

"That's the general idea, yes," I replied, deadpan.

"But who would serve?" Turiau wanted to know.

"Butlers," Jeff suggested. "Think if we could do that, but with magic. Now that would be something that took this world out of the dark ages."

"You confirm that you, indeed come from another world?" Turiau asked. "I heard the rumors, and I heard it said that the Prince was a hybrid..."

"We all are foreigners," Raegan said, smiling charmly at the audience. "And we all agree that we found this world rather.... backwards. With your idea of serfdom, and all."

"Magic is just magic and, at the end of the day," I explained slowly. "The servants have magic in their veins like the rest of us. Different? Yes. But so does Turiau --- have different magic, I mean. I studied a bit these matters, and I can say with confidence magic seems to be different in each one of us. Lately I've come across powers I did not know I had. Great powers."

Turiau refrained from laughing in my face. "When did you come across these powers, your Highness? Last year, when you found out you were not human after all?"

Many people snickered. I hadn't thought this was how my words would be interpreted. I hadn't thought about how humans were considered in this world either, and that if I stepped foot outside the castle, I'd see that this was what the people had against me. Not the fact that, according to them, I'd been there as a child and left. No, it was the humanity inside of me --- they had killed all the humans in their world, at least the ones in England.

"If it wasn't for the intimate friendship between this servant and the Prince," Turiau added. "And if it wasn't for your ability to stick your nose in other worlds' business... and maybe if it wasn't that you see yourself in the servants, seeing as your own powers are strange... but alas, we cannot tell the Prince openly what he shouldn't or should do."

"If you accept us with open hands," Raegan grinned widely. "We promise not to make you regret it."

I nodded, happy someone else was saying the words I was finding so hard to speak. It was, mostly, the way Turiau had treated Edgar --- I couldn't get out of my head all of the impertinent things I wished I was saying to him.

During dessert, Turiau excused himself, and he and his daughter went to speak in a corner of the room. I took the occasion to slide near Jeff and Raegan, and I was promptly followed by Edgar. I told the guests that the dinner was considered over, and that I wished to speak a few words to my friends. Thankfully, no one had to say anything about that.

"About the rift in the time-continuum," I whispered to my friends. "Do you have any idea what it might look like?"

"I do," Edgar frowned. "But we have other, more important things to do..."

"Don't you get it?" I raised my voice accidentally, and looked behind to steal a glance at Turiau. He didn't seem to have noticed. "Don't you get it, Edgar? We have already completed a task for Luna once. We know how her mind works. We do this huge, impossible thing for her, which is, by the way, the only thing she wants, and whatever help we need with breaking the curse, she will give it to us."

"I don't know, it still sounds a little fishy to me," Raegan frowned. "It's not like she's very kind, and now that I know what's wrong between my father and her, I know I cannot fix it... and before any of you says something, I will not pimp myself off to someone just because she liked my father."

"Raegan," Jeff blinked. "No one was about to say that."

"Ryan is right, and as usual, we don't have the luxury to come up to come up with a different plan. Besides," he stole a glance at me, and I nodded. "There is something else that he wanted to tell you. Something that might possibly have something to do with turning back in time..."

"You don't think..." I started to ask.

"It might not change a thing," Edgar replied, serious. "But if we go back before that..."

"Okay, it's decided," Jeff whispered finally. "Edgar, tell us what the rift in the time-continuum should look like."

"I know it doesn't make sense, but I've seen illustrations. It's like a void, like the literal Void in the room Vitaly creates, but if you look at it closely, it's made up of little eyes, glancing back at you..."

"I've seen it!" I exclaimed, a little loud. Turiau was starting to worry me --- if he hadn't interrupted us so far, it meant he was taking a great deal of time trying to prepare his daughter to talk to me.

"I've seen it back in the Autumn's mansion," I said. "It was inside a box that Mister Autumn showed me. I thought I was on drugs at the time."

"Is it... likely?" Edgar asked.

"You'd know that. No, I thought Mister Autumn had drugged me. He did tell me something ominous just then, but I do not recall what it was. Don't look at me like that, I am told weird stuff all the time by everyone I meet."

"That seems to be a common recurrence, yes. And you also tell weird stuff to everyone you meet."

"The rift in the time-continuum could be everywhere," Jeff complained.

"You mean anywhere," Raegan replied quickly. "Isn't time all around us? Are we not inside time, in a way? If we knew the right spell we could probably see the rift in this very room."

"Oh, yes, a spell!" Jeff lit up. "Not for time-changing, but to see the rift that has already been created. Why Raegan you're a genius..."

Raegan smiled, pleased, but there was mockery in it.

"No, I mean, you're alright, you know," Jeff added, blushing a little. "I mean, your brain works and all of that."

"I'm sorry to say we should probably divide and look for a way to reveal the rift," I said. "Divide and conquer, they say. I am afraid I will have to talk to Turiau and his daughter and let her down gently."

"Don't make it too gentle," Edgar said. "Drive the point home."

I sighed, and looked at the merchant and the girl for one last time. This time, I really spared a glance to look at her, and noticed something I hadn't before.

"Do you see what I'm seeing, or am I finally losing it...?" I started to ask my friends.

The merchant's daughter had something that looked like a grenade in her hand.

But it didn't make sense. Why wouldn't the guards, or Nia, tell me? It was unlikely she had gone in and passed the checks with that weapon.

But there was no time for overthinking it any further.

Turiau announced, "Prince, entertain us! The dinner doesn't have to be over yet!"

"What was the important thing you had to tell us, Ryan?" Raegan wanted to know.

"We have to go," I replied, feeling a little light-headed.

"No, finish your sentences for once," Jeff said, half-amused.

"Look, it's not my fault I get interrupted. It's just that... this time, well, I'll make it short..."

I wasn't making it short.

"Turiau's daughter has a grenade in her hand," I said nervously. "Don't ask. I don't know why she would have a human object with her."

Raegan snorted. "Indeed," he commented. "Enchanters don't use those kind of weapons."

"Well, that's not the problem, is it?" Jeff asked irritated. "Ryan, where is she?"

I pointed at the young woman. She was not with her father --- in fact, she was already making her way out of the place.

But Jeff and Raegan managed to catch a glimpse at her.

And she didn't have anything in her hand.