" Not this again ! I am so done with never ending cycle! " Quentin yelled with frustration towards the same never ending thoughts that raced through his mind like a wild fire. He has become aware of the past 39 times he has died coming into battle up against the Beast. The words spoken to him by the Dean had never left his mind. Quentin had become obsessed trying to figure out the missing piece of his puzzle. He was lost in his work, his quest for answers was getting tiring. " There has to be an answer within these memories, I just know it! " His surroundings became a blur, all that mattered to him was getting the answer to his undying questions.
A surging pain ran through his brain, it burned from the intense electrifying shock. Quentin grabbed tightly to his head with both hands, bending over closer to the table before him. " Why? Why must I experience these stupid flashbacks ? ! They are not getting me anywhere closer than I was before." the words felt like sharp knives stabbing at his very being as he spoke. Julia reached over , gently resting her hand on his right shoulder. She could not bare seeing her friend go through such pain alone. The gut wrenching pain of her betrayal to Q was being relived before her eyes. Tears ran down her face, she could not forgive herself for what she has done in spite.
" Q, you have to slow down. There is no need to rush this. Let's just meet up with your friends and come up with a plan as a team." Her soft voice was cracking. She felt helpless in all of it. She blamed herself for tampering with his mind to pass a test given by the head hedge witch. " This must be my fault , I am sorry , Q. I never meant for you to experience this pain again. " Julia could not finish her sentence. Her last words were a fading whisper in the wind. Quentin let out a breath of relief , as the burning pain subsided. His hands slowly fell to the table. He could barely see , the world around him was a spinning blur of colors. " Julia, I don't know why I am having these flashbacks. It's like the beast is inside my head, but this time the illusion is real. I.. I can see everyone around me dead. These continuous flashes of light in the dark relieving a new death, and I am powerless to stop it. " Quentin was shaking in overwhelming emotions. Just as Julia was about to speak , Quentin fainted from over excretion. Julia quickly caught Q in her arms. " Q ? Q?! Are you ok?! " Julia looked around frantically, hoping to find a familiar face.
Nothing. " Ok, Julia , now is not the time to panic. Just have to focus and get to a safe spot. " trying to reassure herself. Taking in a deep breath , she slowly let it out once more. She tried to recollect the image of the map , Quentin and her have created and placed under the table. " There has to be something here, anything, that will let me know where we are in Fillory." She spoke to herself. They were surrounded by trees , vines wrapping around tree trunks, the light mist in the air was intoxicating. The mist created a thin barrier to cover the world of Fillory that has yet to be discovered. Julia remembered a spell she had learned from her time with the hedge witches. She laid Q on the floor next to the table. Quietly , she whispered the spell to lift Quentin's body up from the ground and place it over a bed made of leaves. " There, that should be fine for now. " Julia was relieved for a moment. Julia went back to the table. She looked through the notes that Quentin had figured out during his search for his answers.
Nothing seemed clear, Quentin had written everything in a disorderly fashion. He rushed to get his thoughts down as they occurred during his episodes. She could not believe how many pages came about in the short 20 minute session Quentin was able to withstand. Picking up each sheet of information one by one, turning and folding each one to make sense of what was in front of her. Julia sighed, " Q, how in the world do you make sense of any of these notes? Your thoughts are very scattered. How where you going to find your answer in this mess? " As she kept reading the notes , drawings , and partial words written, Julia noticed a pattern. She looked closely to the pages, allowing her fingers to trace over the pages as she read the phrases. " They all have the Leo Blade used against the user. Mentions of a glowing blue blade, which solely was created to end the life of the beast or god. " Julia was thinking out loud.
" Everyone dies before me, The Beast makes sure to make an example of everyone before he takes the Leo Blade disappear from the holders body and reappear in his hands. Magic is infused in the blade. Swirls of white , icy wind circle around the blade and inside the blade. The Beast has white synchronized icy wind in a continuous flow , forming the figure eight around his wrists. He is holding the blade in front of his body, hands crossed at the hilt." Julia read from Quentin's notes. She flipped through the pages once again thoroughly , she did not want to miss a detail. Although none of it answered the question to why Quentin was now having flashbacks , since he was told it is a repeating loop of time that has now stopped with the death of Jane.
Julia started her own notes along side the ones already written. She circled , underlined, drew a line across all the information to connect the dots to the best of her ability. " If something was changed before the death of Jane, what if one of the changes made was to recreate those past mistakes into memories that would be released from the moment the Dean notified Q of the past events." Her heart started to race and she could feel the waves of magic she possessed raging within her veins. She knew she was getting close to an answer to the reason why Q had the reoccurring none stop choppy flashbacks. All though this did not answer the question behind the glowing of the Leo Blade once taken by the Beast. " That would make sense, the spell I created to mess with Q's mind is similar to the one being cast now. But it was delayed. Why? Jane would have had to have traveled back to the very moment Q went to the Dean to seek answers. " Her thoughts began to fire off like a train engine raging through the snow on the tracks.
Julia did not know how long Quentin would be out from his experimentation with his flashbacks. It could be hours or days before he regains consciousnesses of what happened. If he even remembered what caused him to faint. Julia cast a barrier spell that would surround them both and give them the extra security until help arrived or help was able to be contacted. She hoped for the best, she wanted Quentin to be up and ready to go within a few hours, but she did not want to get her hopes higher than her current reality. " The books never mentioned any details about how the Leo Blade was created other than it is the only blade that could be handled by a master magician and it can kill a master magician and , or god. Then there is the fact the Leo Blade took years to craft. Could you infuse your own magic into the blade to make it stronger? Or , was that an Illusion to distract you from a different matter at hand. " Julia was annoyed once again at her situation. The world of magic is a question answered by a question, causing confusion if not able to read in between the lines.
