The Audience

Pamphilos welcomed the others to the room. "Congratulation on completing the trial of Pythia. You will now be rewarded an audience with Pythia the Oracle. Please follow me".

The group followed the dragon into a portal and found themselves in an underwater city. The ocean was held back by a clear energy shield and each building was a Large floating sphere made from some form of shining white stone. What had fascinated the twins was none of it was using technology. All of it was using self-powering true magic.

"what is powering all this magic?" Infy couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.

"All of this is powered by consuming a fragment of each of the three suns. At the current rate of consumption, the suns will die before we use even a 100th of their mass." Pamphilos was happy to answer their questions.

Infy wanted to ask some more questions but they had reached their destination.

"Welcome members of Absolute Horizon you have been through quite a trial to meet me, it has been a long time since anyone has succeeded in getting this far" Pythia greeted the party as they entered her sphere. Pythia was a 100-foot green and gold serpent dragon that seem to float in the air. Pythia was currently circling the party.

"We haven't named our party yet. Are you saying we will call ourselves Absolute Horizon? but now if we do, is it our idea or yours?" asked Chris, he hated thinking about time paradoxes.

"or maybe you were always fated to come here and find your party name, so it would always be so" answer Pythia.

Infy took issue with that statement as it implied they had a destiny.

"But the Primordial told us, that the future can be changed and that destiny doesn't exist. He also told us that no one can see the future. So can you actually see the future? and are you stronger than a Paragon?"

"Yes, Yes and No. you can change the future but some futures are far more probable than others and are resistant to change. Yes I really can see the future and no I'm not stronger than the Primordial but I am an ability user with an affinity to the time field so I am stronger in that one aspect." Answer Pythia as she continued to weave around the group.

This was the first time the rest of the party was hearing about the contents of the "nothing" conversation the twins had with the Primordial.

"Does that mean you can tell us about the fixed point we are responsible for?" asked Null, this was the question he wanted answers to the most. He still didn't know how he could be responsible for such a large event.

"yes, and no. It is only the scope of the event that is fixed. A galaxy defining event will occur but the context of the event changes drastically depending on your choices. I can't tell you what that event will be as even I can't see it. I can tell you much will be decided by your choice over if you visit Ollhelian. It should be noted that all futures where you choose to ignore Ollhelian end in the death of everyone in the party but who can say if that is good or bad for the galaxy. At Ollhelian each of you will be faced with a difficult decision. That will solidify each of your futures."

Pythia continued her reading. "Every member of this party has a highly flexible future due to the close proximity to Null and Infinity who don't seem to be bound by the normal laws of nature. Once you have visited Ollehlian your possible futures will be reduced to a mere handful of possible outcomes"

Chris had already gained a bounty of information from this conversation and wanted to milk it while it lasted. "Ollhelian is the place that Phosphoros wants us to visit, what will we find there and can he be trusted?"

"You will find your future there, as for Phosphoros, he can become either your greatest allies or your worst enemy, I would recommend you investigate what motivates him. My last piece of advice to you all, decisions made that align with your true self are easier to live with. Use what you learn during your trials to assist you. It had been a pleasure by that is all I can say" After Pythia finished talking the party was teleported to a different location.

"Gah, I had so much more I wanted to know" Chris was frustrated, He suspected the meeting would end like that but they never got any direct advice.

As if Pamphilos was able to read Chris mind

" I know you wanted more direct information but we aren't gods, we don't get to decide which outcomes are the best. Pythia only tells you what may happen but not how to get there," explained Pamphilos.

Lisa was beyond curious about the dragons she and had to ask.

"Where are we and who are you, I mean your race not just you in particular?"

"As I'm sure you worked out we are the dragon race. This is Delphi the last lands of the dragons," replied Pamphilos he was happy to give a history lesson.

"Why is it the last lands? is it because you practice true magic?" asked Chris.

"No, we are being punished for another crime. There seems to be a misunderstanding we don't practice true magic. We are abilities users. Abilities users can channel a single field and usually for a specific purpose. This specialisation allows us to maximise the power of a spell but it comes with many drawbacks"

"such as?" asked Jania as an ability user herself she wanted to know what weakness she might have.

"Once our abilities have been unlocked we can't create spells using Zallium that don't match our field affinity so we require time and multiple casters to create complicated spells. This does allow us to create many marvels but they have to be static. The only true magic-user any of us dragons have seen is Null and Infinity. That is why we decloaked our planet on Pythia orders as we wished to meet them"

"How are we different to you?" Null was curious, what made them different and if that could be the missing piece.

"You have an affinity for multiple fields can combine fields to create new spells and have the option of manipulating your spell as you cast them. There was not a been a magic user like you in the Milky way"

"so why is everyone scared of us?" asked Null.

"Because some of the other galaxies are ruled by true magic users and can not be matched, even by all five Paragons in combination. Now you are far from this but they still fear that outcome, especially because you are from one of the Alterra seed planets" answered Pamphilos.

"What is a –" Lisa didn't get to finish her question.

A Large black dragon appeared. "You have said enough Pamphilos. Time to get you all home"

The black dragon had an affinity for space field and quickly teleported the whole party back to the Golden chariot.