I heard the sound of a click, and torches began to light themselves up. I looked forward and saw the same girl who had led us here, completely chained up with spikes digging into her skin. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at us.
"Glad you made it here," she said lazily. " almost thought were going to die."
Ignoring her strange way of speaking, I asked the question I'd wanted to ask since I saw her outside. "Who are you?" I asked.
Her blank expression turned to one of surprise. " forgotten?" she asked. " Valeria, one of lovers."
"What are you talking about? We've clearly never met before," I said.
"See now, thought it was a trick, but it seems lost memories and powers," she said thoughtfully.
That's when it clicked. She must have been my predecessor's lover. But if she was his lover, what was she doing chained here? I decided to ask her.
"So, if you're really my lover, what are you doing here?" I asked.
"Oh, was kept here after leaking one of secrets," she replied. " be released when repented you said."
I struggled to understand what she said. It seemed that she had been imprisoned as punishment for betraying my predecessor. Setting that aside, I explained my circumstances to her, causing her eyes to shine brightly, in contrast to their initially dull and lazy look.
"Please release" she begged.
"Why should I release you?" I asked, stepping back suspiciously.
"Please, promise not to betray anyone again," she said. " can't regain predecessor's trust, but was given an opportunity to gain successor's." Her eyes shone with intense light.
I pondered the situation for a moment before responding. "I don't believe you," I said. "And besides, don't you have a clone? Why don't you make them do it?"
" don't have a clone," she said. " a space affinity mage. After staying in one place for a long time without anything to do, increased mastery over space and studied the relationship between space and time, which led evolving into the legendary spacetime mage class."
The thought of a spacetime mage was almost enough to make my decision waver. I could imagine the possibilities of what I could use her power for, but that still didn't explain how she was able to create a clone. As I opened my mouth to ask her, she spoke first.
"already know what questions are going to be asked" she began explaining.
As a spacetime mage, she had the ability to manipulate the fabric of space and time itself. This allows her to create distortions in the fabric of reality that can be used to project an avatar of herself. The way this works is by manipulating the space-time continuum in such a way that it creates a pocket of energy that can be projected as an image of the spacetime mage. The image is not a physical form, but rather an energy construct that can be controlled by the mage.
"I see," I said, nodding even though I didn't understand how it really worked.
She also explained how her abilities were restricted here, limiting her control over her mana and effectively sealing her method of escape. From what she said, she could break the seals now, as they were already weak, but she didn't because she was waiting for my predecessor to come back and free her by himself to show that she had repented.
"Wait," I said suddenly. "How long have you been stuck here?" I asked.
"Next month, it will be 30,000 years," she said casually.
THUD!
I turned to see David had fainted.