As the masters stared at the small boy, Poralis was the first to break the silence. "I believe I mentioned he was talented already. How long have you been listening, Von?"
His face turning pink as he knew he was caught, he answered honestly, "Since you talked about me attuning with the great emperor hourglass made from the heart of the corrupted time dragon in the tower. I have to admit, I'm already attuned to it. I partially attuned to it the first time I touched it. When I pushed my aura into my own hourglass to break from the spell you cast holding us in place, I felt it and was able to draw on its core to focus my aura to break through the spell you cast strengthening my attunement and pushing away the minor threads of those who have come before me over the centuries. I think, if I tried, or maybe just if I wanted to right now, I could pull it to me, I think, but that would be rude, and you need it to teach with. So that wouldn't be right, and it would be unfair to those students who could use its insight long after I am gone."
Alden held up his right hand signaling the others to remain quiet for a moment, the webbing between his fingers quivering with the thought running through his mind. "Do you think, hatchling, you would be able to return it if you were to bring it here now?"
Searching within himself, the boy's eyes moved to the ground as he reached out feeling the thin tendrils which connected this mammoth hourglass and his aura, then considered the distance and where his aura and the hourglass itself felt it belonged. Remembering the test for choromancy and the ability to move things through space, he shifted time in his immediate location giving him hours to their seconds while he dismantled his method of pulling of the great hourglass's smaller cousin, he looked up to the tortoise and responded, "I can try, if you wish, Master Alden."
Poralis's eyes widened as he spoke, "Just in case, I would rather you didn't at this time. If you couldn't, it would take no small amount of effort to return it to its location within the tower, not to mention the labor of getting it up the stairs unless," he continued looking at Alendoria, "you would like to make use of your colleges talent to attempt to return it to its location?"
Archmage Alendoria pondered the size of this well-known artifact of the Temporal Tower and the fact it was made from an ancient dragon heart then finally moved her head slowly from side to side. "Such a task would require a monumental amount of control to push it to its home. If I recall correctly, it was originally moved to its location by dozens of workers and engineers." Despite her master of her craft, the fluctuations of time energies surrounding the artifact alone could create an instability. The massive amounts of energies already contained within the great hourglass and its existence through thousands of years of time meant it would probably be easier to move the entire tower than to move the hourglass itself. How this boy felt he could call it on a whim was beyond her ability to fathom. She was positive, despite Poralis's time stream scrying, the boy couldn't be so strong at his age to be able to move such an artifact.
The tortoise smiled, his beaky nose making this expression look out of place on his scaley human face. "We shall leave the hourglass where it is for now. I am willing to accept the idea of your learning at each of the colleges during the next week or until two days prior to the time here catching up with your time outside Sungrove. We shall bring this idea to the council tonight provide all here agree?" The ancient wizard then looked to Alendoria.
Twisting the bracers upon her wrist, she sought a moment to ponder everything she had seen and heard in the last hour, and all the possibilities the boy's future might hold, she knew of all the possible outcomes, she did not want the girl involved with chaos magic. Luck magic was dangerous enough, but combined with agnomancy, such really could tear the fabric of the world. This could not be allowed to occur. Finally, after her thoughts had run their course, she responded, "I and my college would like our turn to aid in the young man's education. We will not go easy on him because of his age but will make certain he knows the dangers of choromancy and offer him what guidance we can within the limited time allotted to learn what skills he can."
Alden acknowledged her statement with a bow of his head before turning to the woman with the silver tiara. "Eve?"
Holding the brain-shaped pendant, she had been concentrating her purple aura around her as it seemed to fluctuate before Von's discerning. She spoke, "I think I would like to know more of this young boy before I make a final decision." Instantly, her aura sent a twinned probe split between Von and Monica directly toward their head. Still being in an advance time rate, Von easily saw how the woman was drawing on her focus to create two probes at the same time which contained greater strength than the first one. Trying to mimic the effect, Von took the memories of how his system created the helm which had protected him the Monica before and flung forth the same energies but combined it with the twinning technique the older woman had just revealed to him. With the difference in his mental speed and reaction time, it seemed as if the two arrows were crawling toward the two of them giving Von what felt like an hour to experiment with this defensive technique before finally getting it to do exactly what he wanted. Realizing the incredible amount of willpower he was expending as he was putting every bit of the surrounding magic energies he could form and no small amount of temporal energy into the two defensive helms, once the two helms were in place, he allowed his perception of time to return to that of the four master wizards a fraction of a second after he felt he and Monica would be secure within their helmets.
The two probes were deflected powerfully away from the two youths and redirected to their origin as if they were a pitch hit by a baseball bat. The speed at which they were repelled was impressive, surprising the elder wizard as they made contact with her unprotected aura then mind creating a pair of feedback loops of mental energy. Von watched as the two indigo shafts turned to ever widening beams as they made contact with the woman's psyche causing pandemonium to afflict her mind until the shafts eventually enveloped her head.
In less than a minute, a shriek issued forth from the older woman and drool slid from the side of her mouth as the strength of her own attack against her unprepared mind wrecked any semblance of thought she might have once been capable of having. The purple-blue energies continued to wrap around her head until eventually her eyes glazed over, and she fell toward the floor. Utilizing his own grasp of time, Archmage Poralis sped behind her catching her before she could sustain an injury sliding her slowly to the floor before the others could move.
From Von's vantage, the energies continued to circle her mind trying to discover something nonexistent within her own memories causing the swirling visions to increase in size about her as the confusion continued. System, what can I do to stop it?
The elven and tortoise wizards stared at Von with mouths agape. "What happened, hatchling?"
Von looked at the now glowing sigils on the robes and carapace beneath, "She sent very powerful probes toward Monica and me. My helmet defense reflected them back to her and the energies she threw at us are very slowly building in strength around her doing something I think is called a feedback loop, but don't know how to fix."
The temporal archmage allowed the time chamber he created to drop allowing them to return to the same time as the rest of the world. "Stephen, your mistress has somehow managed to cause herself to enter a magical mental feedback loop. Do you know how to stop it?"
Stephen, who had moments before seen the group in entirely different positions and now the head of his college was lying on the floor encased in mental energies spinning out of control, jumped at the sound of his name being called. In his startlement, he missed what was said and even by whom. "Huh?" was all he could utter.
The tortoise pointed at the drooling human woman on the floor. "Master Eve has incurred a mental feedback loop?" he queried looking at Von before continuing, "and Archmage Poralis asked if you are able to stop it."
The green-haired man ran his fingers through the spikes on his head as he examined the amount of mental energy pouring around Mistress Trapper. "There are two spikes coming from and returning to her in what appear to be endless loops. With the help of a second myalomancer, I believe we could break the two circuits, but it would have to be at nearly the same time. If not, the energies would probably immediately attack the person," looking at Archmage Alden, "or creature who broke the first loop. We need a second myalomancer."
The tortoise looked down to the weary looking Von, "hatchling, can you assist if Stephen shows you what needs done?"
"I'm sorry Master Alden, I am feeling weak after blocking her attacks, though I would love to know how it's done." The boy replied weakly.
The green-haired man feeling slighly more frantic as he saw the purple energies growing, replied, "We need TWO people trained in breaking the loop, and it MUST be at the exact same time."
"Master," the boy looked at Poralis, "can you stop time completely for Mistress Eve?"
Having an idea where the boy was going with this question, the temporal master took a deep breath then stood with outstretched hands, weaving intricate patterns in the air with his fingers. His eyes glowed with a radiant brilliance as he harnessed the ancient power of temporal energies. Wisps of shimmering light danced around him, forming a mesmerizing spectacle rippling through the very fabric of reality surrounding the woman in the deep indigo robe which caught and reflected the ambient magical energies surrounding her. The robe seemed alive with arcane resonance, responding to the currents of power in the room. Eve's azure eyes, once radiant and filled with ancient wisdom, were now glazed over as the profound knowledge she commanded continued to reflect on herself.
As Poralis continued to manipulate the temporal energies, time itself appeared to come to a standstill around Mistress Eve. The air around her quivered with the suspension of moments, creating a surreal tableau frozen in the midst of enchantment. The chamber echoed with the subtle hum of magic, and the two figures, one manipulating time and the other embodying the arcane, became intertwined in a dance of mystic forces of time. Von watched as the thread of time not only stopped touching the woman on the floor but were completely diverted around her body as though she was protected by a very thin layer of cloth which repelled the essence of time.
Taking another full breath which expanded his abdomen the chronomancer released his breath in a rush. "It is done."