Igor was lying down and very relaxed when Ailin lay down next to him, hugging him.

"I thought we had already talked about certain things, my angel," he said, turning his face to her and smiling.

"Well," Ailin laughed, caressing her friend, "let's sleep together as we always did. The rest doesn't need to happen."

"Behaved, huh?" Igor laughed and hugged her, kissing the girl affectionately. "You are too dangerous and I end up faltering because of the resemblance—"

They woke up early and bathed. Igor always missed a good coffee and had no doubt in making one appear. Ailin, who had already tasted and loved it, did not hesitate and used her powers to materialize another one for her. Laughing and very happy for having succeeded, she started drinking. When they finished, she went to take her classes and he returned to the fourth plane, looking for the entrance to the city or whatever that was.

It was already dark, but he had not yet been crowned with success. When he was about to give up, he felt a faint vibration. It was not a physical vibration but something too subtle, which, definitively, was not natural but some kind of machinery. He decided to look a little more, readjusting his equipment for another functionality. Despite the high sensitivity of the device, he had to cross the mountain range twice, taking five days with it, because the formation was about twenty kilometers long and maybe five or six wide. The night of the sixth day was already halfway through when he found the entrance. As in the previous shifts, he decided to sleep there so as not to waste time or orientation.

He woke up at dawn, still tired, and prepared to enter the interior of the mountain accompanied by his friend Gwydion, who was always around. When they reached the first large cave, he felt disappointed because the place did not look much different from a small inland town. Despite the phosphorescence of the walls, he chose to launch a gigantic ball of light and make it float as high as possible. He followed some streets, trying to keep a constant direction towards the center. Gwydion, since he entered there, flew from one side to the other looking for information, which he passed on to Igor and that's how he said:

"There is a larger cave next to this one and inside there is a very large pyramidal building where I feel several vibrations flowing. Further back, a colossal pavilion appears and they are the only buildings that exist."

"Let's go see that," Igor said, rising in the air behind the bird.

They crossed the cave in a little more than a minute and, in another, they were halfway to the pyramid that was visible in the distance. As the dragon said, the building behind it was titanic. It must have been about three or more kilometers on the side and eight hundred meters high. In depth he was not able to calculate the dimension for lack of a reference. The pavilion started about thirty meters after the strange building and occupied the entire cave to the bottom, if it did not continue into the mountain or underground. When they landed at the base of the pyramid, they located a door that faced north. Igor did not expect to find it unlocked and, therefore, found it very strange when it opened effortlessly. They entered the first room, which was empty except for several opaque panels. A quick analysis was enough to find out that they were image screens and that looked like a lobby of some commercial or administrative building of yore, where the panels passed various information to the people who used the building.

There were some corridors with niches closed by sliding doors. Igor opened one and came across something that resembled, and should be, computer consoles. At the end of one of the corridors, he opened the door and saw a room that had everything to do with a huge control room. There were some armchairs very similar to those of the 20th century Earth and he sat down in one of them, looking at the table in front of him. To his surprise, the room lit up, showing several screens that also activated.

Because of the previous experience, the young man had no difficulty in adjusting his device to communicate with the machinery that existed there. He wondered without stopping about what kind of energy source the ancient owners of that planet relied on to be able to build a machine that half a million years later still worked and calculated that it should be geothermal because no radioactive isotope would last that long. As soon as he became more familiar with the equipment, he was able to obtain a lot of information, but his main goal was to know about time shifts. The computer of that people had an incredible knowledge stored in the memory cells and it was so advanced that it became easy to obtain a huge amount of information, many of them even already of his full knowledge. The experiments with time, however, were at a theoretical level and not even close to the science of Earth. Igor determined that no such experiments had ever been conducted by that people. Even so, the excitement was so great that he lost the whole day in the research, telling the dragon his discoveries. The hunger was unbearable when he realized that the day had passed without him eating anything. He materialized a coffee and left the cave, ready to return the next day.

He was very surprised when his friend said, as a warning:

"Saci is nearby. I feel his presence."

"Did something happen?" Igor asked, worried.

"I think they are looking for us," the dragon replied. "They are near the other mountain and I feel a little anxiety. At this distance I only capture emotions; I can't communicate."

"Let's find them," Igor decided. "Land on my shoulder and I'll jump straight to them. I think it's my fault because we didn't come back sooner."

On the mountain, it was easy to find Ezequiel and Ailin, along with Saci in his dragon form. He approached and the girl ran to hug him, with a worried and relieved face.

"I knew you wouldn't leave without saying goodbye," she said, relieved after covering him with kisses. "That's why I was so worried."

"With Gwydion by my side, Ailin," Igor hugged the girl, understanding, "I don't run great risks. I was doing research on this world, just that."

"I told you." Ezequiel laughed. "But you know how women in love are. Saci tracked your portal and—"

"No problem," Igor replied. "It was my fault and I'm really starving, so let's go back to Earth."

"Saci needs to rest to open a new portal," said the druid, raising his hand, "and I didn't bring capsules, so we have to wait until tomorrow."

"I'll open one for all of us." Igor didn't wait for an answer and opened the passage. He smiled, with a theatrical gesture. "Did you forget that I'm grade one? Go ahead."

In the cabin, while Ailin served her friend and sat next to him, Igor thought about everything and how it was getting harder and harder to find a way back to his time. If that people so much more advanced than him knew nothing about time displacement, it was very likely that he was irretrievably stuck in the past.

Sad, he concluded that it was best to resign himself. At first, he could live for many centuries, as much or more than Ezequiel, but it wouldn't be the same thing, especially without his Eduarda who wouldn't even be close to being born until eighteen hundred years later.

Not satisfied with the sudden silence of the wizard after dinner, the girl sat on his lap and smiled, saying:

"You're too serious." Without him expecting it, she kissed his lips. "This is to cheer you up a little."

Igor, smiled. Little, but smiled. More and more resigned that he was unable to escape the past, he passed his arms around her waist and sketched a bigger smile, but still not much came out.

At night, with her sleeping snuggled on his shoulder, Igor remained awake, looking at the dark ceiling and, when Ailin turned to the side, he took the opportunity to get up and walk a little, outside. Leaning against a tree and looking at the moon that started the waning quarter, he thought about Eduarda and the total inability to return, letting some small tears fall. Igor also grappled with his profound affection for the girl he accompanied, a sentiment so compelling that it prompted him to acquiesce impulsively to her desires. Maybe it was the great resemblance between them, both physically and spiritually, although Ailin was even more gorgeous and as intelligent as the sweet Eduarda.

He felt that, if he continued his search, he would only wear himself out and maybe it was time to give up and be resigned, but another thing that bothered him too much was the fact that he had to contain that terrible evil that Caroline released because of him. He feared that the failure to return could be a catastrophe for many worlds, starting with Earth. When he remembered the English sorceress who died in his arms, more tears fell from his eyes, joining the night dew. Knowing that he would only torment himself even more with that, he sighed and went back to bed, lying down. Ailin turned and nestled on his shoulder.

― ☼ ―

A week had passed since Igor had lost hope of returning, to the girl's delight. She received lessons from him and her father, becoming stronger and stronger, but she had no interest in being a priestess of the Goddess, even because she was not very faithful. All she wanted was to be like a modern sorceress, without religious obligations, and Igor laughed because that was the mark of the transition from druid to wizard.

Ailin saw that Igor was very affectionate and attentive, but she also felt, especially after she began to develop her gifts, that he suffered in silence. She knew that her partner liked her very much, but it was not that strong love that she had for him and that made her a little sad.

"You are discouraged and worried, my love," she said one day when the wizard was quieter than usual, "and I think part of it is because of me."

Igor turned to the girl and smiled, stroking her face. As always, he sat leaning against a tree, calm and passive. One day, she asked him why he used to do that and the answer enchanted her so much that Ailin started to imitate, because, according to him, the tree worked as an antenna that channeled the energies of the Universe and Nature in a constant harmonic flow. Leaning on it, he could absorb a great amount of power and could hear the world.

"Why do you think it's because of you?" he asked, curious.

"Because your true heart is not here, my love. I always knew that and also accepted it. I wish I could help you find your way back to be completely happy!"

"In part you are right, angel," he replied, after returning the kindness with a kiss. "But it's not because of you. You, at least, make my exile tolerable, even pleasant."

"You are so kind, sweet heart," she said, kissing and hugging her partner.

"Actually, one of my biggest concerns is about what that monster can do to the world."

"Is it that serious?" she asked, not wanting to believe it.

"He killed all the wizards of the Citadel, maybe all the wizards of the Universe except me and your father. There is nothing that can contain him and all he likes most is to cause havoc. Close your eyes."

Ailin obeyed and Igor touched her source with his thumbs. When she started to receive images she became stiff, but soon calmed down when she saw that it was Igor who transmitted information. She saw a beautiful city like she never imagined, but that had bodies piled up everywhere, dead. Even in that state, some tears fell from her eyes as she saw the horrors, as if they had happened to her.

"By the Goddess!" exclaimed the girl, drying her eyes. "There has to be a way to stop this!"

"Well. Knowing that I have no way of returning to continue trying to stop the monster is one of my concerns." Igor hugged her and waited for her to calm down. Then, changing the subject, he asked. "Do you know how to swim?"

"Of course I do," she replied, laughing. "After all, we always swim in the river lagoon!"

"Obvious, what a silly question," Igor also laughed. "So let's go to the beach."

He took her hand and transported both to an empty place, but of great beauty.

"In many hundreds of years, this will house a very beautiful city and these beaches will be surrounded by large buildings with all kinds of people who will come to bathe in the sea."

He looked around what would be Copacabana, but now it was a large beach with the Atlantic forest a little more than fifty meters from the water, after some almost shallow dunes. It was very hot and the couple took off their clothes, entering the sea. They swam a little and had fun, and then let themselves dry in the sun.

When they returned, it was already night and, after dinner, they went to sleep.

This almost became his script, always accompanied by Ailin. Once, leaning against the tree he chose for his meditation, Igor watched the people and the simple lives they led in agriculture. Most of them went to their fields to work the land, while others hunted and still others had the most diverse basic works of a rudimentary civilization. The druids did not need to work like the others, but they had several duties, acting as doctors and priests, above all. Many times, the people made some festivities and were always happy and satisfied. Marlon, after being wounded in the battle and Igor in person was the one who saved him, never acted behind his back again, but was removed from the position of deputy chief. They tried to offer it to Igor, however, the wizard did not accept, leaving Aodh the blacksmith in his place, supported by the young man.

On that particular day he watched some cheerful villagers on their way to the field and wondered if modern civilization had not lost much of that. In the 21st century, people spent their lives ensuring their livelihood and a peaceful old age that did not always happen.

Countless citizens had to get up at night to face hours of traffic and then an exhausting job. At the end of the shift, this same ritual was repeated in the opposite direction. Many of the modern men and women did not live, they only survived, they did not know what it was to rest or have fun. There, in that Celtic civilization, things were so much simpler that he wondered when society became so complex that it became a living organism where human beings were gears that had to spin without stopping to maintain the whole and not succumb.

With a sad smile, he shook his head and muttered:

"That's all I needed; now I've become a philosopher and on top of that thinking about things with no apparent solution."

He gave a little laugh and shook his head. Then he got up and went to look for Ailin to see if they could do something useful or, at least, fun.

― ☼ ―

Geothermal energy – extracted from the heat of the planet's core. A. N.

Copacabana is a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A. N.