Fall of the Mighty ★ [4] ✔

The Path of Time

"Stephen, I need a favour," I uttered carefully.

"When the Lady of Time asks for a favour, it's not something to be taken lightly," Strange noted. "You're asking for a big favour, I assume?"

I bit my lip. "It's not going to be a small one."

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, indicating to me to tell him what sort of favour was there to ask.

I wasn't sure how to put it. It wasn't going to be easy to pull off. We were going to need some powerful magic, magic we both had but would drain of it easily, him more so. I was going to be going against the golden rule in the Time Walker rulebook. I was going to be breaking a vital rule of the universe.

But I needed to. I needed to see him, and I was going to do that no matter the cost, and there very well would be one. A high one.

"I need you to help me meet the dead," I said blatantly and outright as if I was informing him of the weather outside.

Stephen inhaled and exhaled. He knew as well as I did that that kind of necromancy was not to be taken lightly. It was a deadly school magic, but not an impossible one.

"Who?" he asked.

"A friend. A Time Walker."

"There will be a price, Andi. You know it will be a heavy one."

"I know. And I know this is going to be dangerous. The way he was killed...it's unlike anything you've dealt with." I leaned forward, sitting at eye level with him. "But I'm willing to pay whatever price to see him. I have unfinished business with him. I just want to talk to him." Strange clenched his jaw, thinking about his reply. "Please, Stephen."

He massaged his moustache once more before he stood, and I followed. "How long?"

"An hour. Two at the most."

"Do you have his body? Where it can be located, at least?"

I grinded my teeth. "No." I pulled my watch from my pocket, it swinging back and forth from the chain in front of us. "But this belonged to him once."

Stephen seized it. "It'll have to do."

I followed him down to the mansion lobby where the space was plentiful. He placed it in the middle of the room. He pointed at it. "Sit." I sat before my watch, legs crossed and looking up at him. "Put your fingers on it." Gingerly, I placed the index and middle fingers on the golden lid.

Strange began, magic flowing freely from his fingers, green energy floating around me. A circle had formed, magic rising up to about my shoulders.

"I'm going to take you to where you last saw your friend," Stephen detailed. "You have two hours and I'm pulling you back."

I nodded and closed my eyes. I felt my hair lift around my shoulders as the atmosphere around me chilled. When I opened my eyes again, I stood in a place I'd never thought I'd see again.

A galaxy swirled before me, blue and purple and green nebulas exploding, stars dotting a dark sky. I stood on a platform in the middle of it all, marvelling at the beauty of his personal galaxy that was now long gone.

"Andi." I turned and felt my heart leap into my throat.

There he was, standing right there in front of me, blue eyes gazing into mine and that cheeky, boyish smile I knew all too well.

"Hello, Eilian."

I warily walked up to him as if he were a ghost. But he was a ghost. It wasn't truly him. It was an illusion. An illusion that could think and feel and retained all his memories, but a ghostly figure all the same. It was all magic.