As the spirit beings around him went about their tasks or moved to the spirit realm Jolan sat down. He cleared his mind and began a type of meditation that focused on a person or something that an individual wanted to communicate with.
This meditation was very close to astral project but it did not enter the collective consciousness, or the spirit realm. The individual sought within the ley lines. Their consciousness moved across ley lines to find who or what they sought.
If they had a soul connection to the person or thing it was a bit easier because soul connections and tethers were attracted to these lines and it was easy to find your connection to who or what you sought as your consciousness moved along the ley lines.
Jolan was surprised to find his connection to his mother almost immediately. This told him that she was very close to him and that she had somehow prepared for this so that the whirlpool did not disrupt the connection.
He had been worried that he would not be able to break through the time anomaly of the whirlpool and it seemed that his mother had already helped him in this.
As soon as he found the connection his mother snapped into focus. It was jarring and a bit incomprehensible.
Anabel sat down smiling at him. She reached out to her right, grabbed the air, and pulled. Allistar appeared at her side. He looked around and then sat next to her.
Jolan looked on extremely bewildered.
Anabel looked at him intently and then she slightly narrowed her eyes.
"Something has pulled at your soul sea. What happened?"
"His soul sea?" Allistar keenly looked at his son.
"I just sent out my perception and something pulled at me. It felt like I slipped into a time stream before I recovered." He was looking down at him. He had not felt any problems with his soul sea.
Anabel nodded. She sent healing magic down their connection. He still could not sense an issue but he immediately felt soothed as her magics entered his soul sea.
Anabel looked into the distance as if she were looking out over the island. "There does seem to be something here connected to you." She looked at Allistar. "Did you create this island chain? They seem connected to Amethyst and Jolan somehow."
Allistar shook his head. "I did not create them. You know they were here long before we came here. But over a hundred years ago they began calling to me. I felt they were akin to sirens so I ignored them. Then, recently, I sensed Amethyst. I thought that I was being delusional and it took a long time to convince me to come here and verify things. In the end I thought it would be better to just tell you."
Anabel nodded as he spoke. She instinctively understood that it was that portion of Amethyst in his soul that had to convince him.
She looked at Jolan. "So all you did was send out your perception to understand the island?"
"I got close to something that is close to the center of the island. My perception got within 30 feet of it and I was suddenly and aggressively pulled."
Anabel stood which caused Allistar follow suit. "The spell on this place is pretty intricate and complex. You triggered it. What you did was like a rule violation. You have to figure out the puzzle here to break the illusion and using perceptions as keen as yours seems to be a cheat.
"I agree with you in that the loop is a month and you only have three chances. I will pull you out before you can trigger the trap or punishment, whatever it is."
She looked at his as if asking "is there anything else you'd like to ask?".
"What should I do."
She shook her head. "I have already tried to give you my opinion twice." She looked to Allistar as if asking for confirmation. He nodded in agreement and her gaze returned to Jolan.
"That is obviously a cheat as well. You must think it through. If I understand it you do as well."
She smiled at him and his brain snapped back into focus as if he had been dreaming or lost in thought and something woke him from his daze.
He opened his eyes understanding that his mother had moved to him by entering the folds of time and taking him to her position within them. She had never actually set foot on the island. She felt the pull on their soul connection and had acted before he could.
He suddenly felt disoriented and confused. How did that happen and he did not fully understand it. It was like his consciousness had been frozen in time and his soul moved about oblivious to his true condition.
The thought gave him pause.
That whirlpool is more powerful than they thought. He remembered his mother glancing around the island and realized they could only discover this once the entered the whirlpool and the loop itself.
"I think I understand. Guard me. If it seems like I have become lost retrieve me."
As he spoke the spirit beings all appeared before them. They nodded in affirmation and they all took up defensive positions around him.
He decided that what needed to be done here needed to be done by him and him alone. The only way to succeed was by his own power.
He stood, his back, and rolled his shoulders. Then he began to cast. The spell welled up within him and it felt like a natural thing.
A bright blue ball of light left his chest and bloomed inches in front of him. He could tell that everything slowed around him and the space before him opened and there was an empty black space before him.
This opening folded itself in half across with the top folding down to the foot. It then folded long ways and then down again.
The folding stopped once the black area was the size of a small men's shirt. It then unfolded once to reveal a blue space. He moved forward and entered this blue space
The area between the folds looked like normal space and time but it always held hidden clues because it was walking between the past, present, future, and what could be at the same time.
Jolan did not want to move until he understood the area.
He stood stock still and told himself that he was standing on a each on Drousan Island. There were time mage spirit beings around his previous position in real time. The island was under a spell weave of time that held it and everything on it in a month long time loop. There were three chances to break the loop and leave the island.
He paused. He wondered why he felt that he would be sent from the island once he broke the loop. He sensed this but he had no sense of what would happen to the island itself.
He looked at his feet. Even though he was in a time fold There should still be sand under his feet. If there was no sand, because he was in a fragment of past or future, should there not be water at his feet? Or something explainable.
All he saw was a large pool of black. A large pool of water. The water was perfectly still and placid. It was a time stream a motionless time stream.
He formed a small pebble of magic and dropped it into the dark pool. It dropped and a splash sounded but the there was no splash, there was no ripple.
A stagnant pool of time.
Jolan's mind reeled. He was actually seeing theory manifest in reality.
His mind reeled again as he wondered if this was a man-made or natural phenomenon.
He calmed himself. He looked off in the distance and appeared in the spot he focused on.
Traveling through the time folds was merely looking at the spot you want to be in and blinking there.
He quickly found what was so intently calling to him.
It was a small cottage. It was log cabin with wide black windows on either side of the a large wooden door. All of the wood was etched with intricate runes that seemed like confusion to Jolan.
He was suddenly berating himself for not studying runes like his mother had always demanded. Looking at them not understanding them now he still felt he didn't need to learn them.
A bright red light bloomed and shot upwards from the chimney. But no light shown out from the windows. They stayed as black as they had before the light shot from the chimney.
As the light dispersed Jolan instinctively crotched and and quickly moved to a different fold. Here the house was decayed. The windows broken or cracked and some of the logs used to make the walls were missing. The door was missing and all that was inside was a cold blackness.
He had moved her because that red light from before seemed to want to find him. It felt like a protective spell that sensed danger and was seeking it out to deal with it.
Deciding he shouldn't wait any longer he quickly blinked around the cottage to see what he could understand about it.