53 Time, Bones

The next day, Yuri was back at it again. Yuri remembered Savos mentioning how dangerous Time magic was and how practicing it wasn't advisable in this College, so he left!

On the same island he was practicing Shadow magic earlier, he had over 7 books laying around discussing Time magic and its own history and applications. Time magic was what created the Dragon Break that all Dragon Breaks are colloquially named after using something called the Staff of Towers, and a couple more historically relevant examples of disaster. No one truly has a perfect grasp on it.

'Most, if not all, of the problems associated with Time Magic were when a mage or group of mages attempted to do something too big or too brave like changing the nature of Akatosh himself or altering events that already happened. I'll stick to the small stuff for now'

What Yuri did not expect to assist him in the matter was his soul.

Time magic, like Space, was another branch of what this world calls 'Alteration' magic. The stronger his soul was becoming by the daily refinement it was undergoing, the further his ESP could reach and the stronger his Tenth Eye became. Similarly, it was barely raising his TK strength, though not as much as his mind and mana manipulation were.

Time magic needed a serious grasp on the object or surroundings one was attempting to perform it on, which also explained why the success rate was so wildly varied. Akatosh watching over his own divinity could also explain it.

It was similar to the Voice in that it needed a tremendous amount of willpower coupled with a sufficient understanding of what Time is. Yuri struggled with understanding the more complex Time travel stories at times himself, but he considered Time to be the evidence of change, of linear narrative. He considered it to be a river that flowed continuously while possible branches broke off at every choice yet those branches would become the main river once that choice was followed in the narrative. Time is linear in the sense of cause and effect, or so he hoped. Otherwise, he would rather avoid seriously meddling with it too much.

Yuri tossed a ball of earth he made using the surrounding sand up and down repeatedly, letting it fall into his hands and rise again as he pondered its repetition and the direct cause and result of throwing, rising, and catching.

Cause - Beginning and process of Effect - End. Over and over he meditated until he decided to interfere with the effect.

The ball stopped in midair, the breeze stopped in a small radius around him. The ocean behind him didn't stop lapping, but the sound didn't reach his ears. The area in a radius of fewer than 5 feet around the ball stopped for less than a second, including the atmosphere around him.

The mana for the spell wore off almost instantly before the ball reached its apex and dropped once more into his hand. The breeze returned.

'That was more than the effect, that was the entire moment within a certain radius surrounding the subject? Or perhaps the effect wasn't just added to the ball but all the air the ball pushed aside? No, it was a radius I was unable to control stemming from the subject I targeted. Perhaps being Akasha's Champion allowed me to avoid being frozen in time myself until the spell wore off and I wouldn't have even noticed I did anything.'

Yuri had no idea how close he was to performing Time magic under his own nose and going home believing he couldn't hack it.

'I can go with this cause and effect targeting or I can get to the root of it and pause moments or accelerate them within my range. I think that's more viable.'

Yuri gave the ball a few more tosses before looking at the tree he had reverted yesterday. He wound up and tossed the ball before it disappeared!

Yuri waited five seconds before it reappeared in midair and continued toward the tree, striking it and creating a dent.

'Sending it forward five seconds into the future was taxing on mana, and it also didn't record the result of what the throw would have done while creating it but kept it within the space with its inertia intact. If I fire a hundred bullets and send them all to the future they won't continue their course until they arrive at the time they are sent, how neat. Time stop worked the same way. I don't even want to try reversing Time yet, I might get stuck in a Time loop of tossing a ball'

───※ ·❆· ※───

On the Island of Artaeum in a pocket dimension beside Summerset, Chief Proctor of the Psijic Order, Yellendor, looked outside his window in the Ceporah Tower once more. Not at the neighboring islands, but towards Skyrim.

"First the Eye of Magnus disappears and now Time magic is being activated not 50 miles away from that location."

"Master!" A young Altmer woman burst through the door.

"Ah, Lilatha. Do you feel it this time?"

"As you taught me to. There's a Time mage in Skyrim! Should we stop them!" She raised her fists and looked ready to go out there personally, eyes ablaze.

"Time is not fracturing, it is not our duty until a Dragon Break is imminent. If this mage continues pressing the fabric until it tears, then we move to fix it"

"But master!"

"Lilatha, we are not guards of all magic, we are guards of the general peace when mystical means threaten it. There have been many a mage who is capable of using Time magic responsibly in history, and others who were punished by Time before we had the chance to."

What Yellendor wasn't mentioning was that even he couldn't sense the mage casting it, which has only happened two other times. When that Shadow mage left he could no longer perceive him, and when the Eye of Magnus disappeared no one could track him. With all these events, a connection was made evident.

'There's a terribly capable mage in Skyrim. First Tiber Septim and now this one, it looks like the next to Apotheosize will also be a Man and not a Mer.' He thought sarcastically, not commenting to himself about the controversial and conflicting theories of Tiber's ascension.

Both him and his student assumed that the Shadowy figure who came that day was a Man simply because a Mer probably wouldn't stomach doing such work, but they were right anyway even with their less than solid reasoning.

"Anyway, continue watching. There may or may not be a need to move out ourselves or bring more from the Council depending on if and how bad it fractures." And with that, they waited in vain.

───※ ·❆· ※───

Yuri was about to call it a day and work up better applications when he has the need for them when he remembered.

'Shit, there was a Slow Time Shout. It hasn't been used in years due to complexity, what were the words... Time, Sand, and Eternity? Awfully abstract for what the shout was doing ultimately. Let's try verbatim in Draconic.'

Three separate nouns like that in Draconic wouldn't act as fluidly in a three-syllable shout as Thu'um would. He had to say most of the words before he tossed the ball overhead.

"Kroen Toornas," The atmosphere responded somewhat ethereally and steadied itself imperceptibly, the sand underneath him quaked a bit on his second word 'earth grains', then he threw the ball in the air before shouting the last word. "Alfaan."

The intent was there but the effects were mediocre. The ball hung for less than anyone other than him could observe as different before it fell once more. He was stringing words that didn't have the same meaning in Draconic as they did in the local Dragon language, as he had already surmised.

"Alright, time for me to string my own sentence."

Yuri thought for a moment before deciding to reuse a word he had already used: Raas, meaning To Become Still or Stillness depending on where you put it in the sentence.

"Raas Viraan," He tossed the ball up once more, the atmosphere halted as if afraid of moving save for the ball he had just thrown which had already slowed a bit, "KROEN."

A wave of blue erupted from him outwardly in all directions before overtaking the ball and all notion of movement. It hung there for as long as Yuri wanted, his surroundings were contained without him being affected, which was what he wanted most.

Without practicing the magic first, he likely would not have succeeded using the Voice immediately. But now that he did and had the Voice, there was no need to employ Time magic in an uncontrolled environment like combat with such an easy medium as this.

'Raas Viraan Kroen. Stillness - Shall Overcome - Time. In other words, Time shall be overcome with stillness.' The ball dropped into his hands once more. 'There were other ways to do this, probably. Maybe a different word combo that would last longer'

"Yon Siviir" And he tossed the ball once more, "KROEN!" And the ball slowly reached its apex before floating down as if sinking in mud. He could feel the wind had slowed as if it were milder weather suddenly, the water within 10 feet of the beach in a circle did so too. {Slowness - Applies To/Becomes - Time}

"I remember this effect being applied to the Dragonborn completely, not just in a radius around him." He turned around and was puzzled. "I need to use Draconic to speed up my personal time, which is likely what the original shout did." The ball fell once more and he caught it above him before it hit his head.

Yuri threw it up once more. "Faraas Siviir Kroen Diin!" {Haste - Applies To/Becomes - Time - Mine/of Mine}

It felt like he lurched forward without going in a specific direction or couldn't tell where forward was. But he was there now. The whole breadth of what he could see and feel, including the ball overhead, was slowed. He walked around and found that his ESP was working perfectly without any interference he was afraid of.

"That knocks that off the list for now," And he canceled the effect before the ball fell to its final resting place.

Yuri opened a portal and came back to their room before he found Tonilia and picked her up from class to spar for the day.

"You look pretty comfortable in your weights now, don't you?" He poked Tonilia's arm as they arrived at the practice area.

"What, as comfortable as you have been for a while now?"

"Oh maybe an hour or two longer... whoa!" He narrowly dodged a strike from her to the face. He looked behind her and found she had kicked them off while he wasn't looking.

"I need to keep on my toes around you, it seems"

"I hope you do!" She flashed a gorgeous winning smile at him, her hair covering her face.

"I'll give you time to get yourself together, you know. Unlike you, I'm a gentleman," He stuck his tongue out at her after making that remark.

"Ha!" She looked up and laughed as she tied her hair behind her head. "Don't hide behind chivalry when I kick your ass!"

Yuri didn't bother dodging the series of trades that followed, and Tonilia felt her arms grow sore from the impact.

"Did you change forge your bones in Ebony while you were gone or something?" She rubbed her wrists.

"Uhhhh," He raised his hand and a black spear stuck out from his palm seamlessly without making him bleed. "How did you know?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!!!"

"I kinda forgot about this thing, there was an artifact that decided it really liked me so it penetrated me before I could say no," Yuri cheekily looked up when Tonilia gave him a playful sock in the shoulder.

"Seriously, does it hurt?"

"If you keep punching me it might..." She squinted at him. "Alright, alright, it hurt like a bitch when it happened. I don't really know what it does, that was my first time using it but it felt instinctual"

Yuri spread his palm again and let the spear stick out further and further, checking inside his body and seeing the bone under his forearm generating it from seemingly nothing but itself while regenerating using his...

'Shit, that's my lifeforce. I can't tell her it's doing that, but I need to focus on supplying it more before I use it too much. It doesn't seem to be using too much, but better safe than sorry. On the bright side, it looks like I won't be needing to use 'Bones Unbreaking' because mine regenerate now'

Yuri cut off the process and pulled out a six-inch obsidian-colored and shiny spike from his hand which quickly closed the wound. It was only spiked on one end and seemingly a smooth nub on the other. The spike had a hefty weight and felt solid, like steel. He surmised that his whole skeleton grew heavier and more solid while also regenerating.

"Please tell me you didn't just pull out a bone," Toni grew queasy and the thought.

"Sorry sorry, no it looks like a construct that my bone created and gave to me. I think I can freely reshape my bones and generate more of them now," Yuri was already letting thoughts of Kimimaro from Naruto and Wolverine swim in his head.

"And it doesn't hurt?" She eased up and looked him in the eyes for confirmation.

"Ah, I mean being stuck through in reverse was semi unpleasant but more of an itch that I'm not familiar with yet than pain."

"Tch, lucky bastard" She relaxed after that. "You got cool bones and widened the gap again?!"

"I knew I was a lucky bastard when I landed you, Toni," He flashed back the winning smile she gave him earlier.

"Hmph, on guard!" And she charged again, not letting him relax.

Yuri tossed the bone aside and defended before catching her wrist and throwing her behind him overhead.

Tonilia flipped and landed more gracefully than a cat, resuming her charge. Every block he made was putting her at odds with a mountain she couldn't weather down quite yet, causing him to notice his unfair advantage more and more as if his higher strength wasn't already enough.

"I have a method to increase your bone density and regeneration rate similar to mine when you are ready for it, though I'm not entirely sure on the logistics." Yuri said through sweat and pants.

Tonilia relented while leaning her hands on her thighs. "Yeah, okay."

"No fight this time?"

"If you can't beat em', join em' right? Or so you say. I can't magically grow stronger bones without your help."

"Haha, you're learning quick. Thank you for letting me help," Yuri moseyed toward her and she leaned into him for a quick sweaty peck.

"It's been three hours, I think we can shower and settle for the night, right?" Yuri offered.

They picked up their weights before discussing getting heavier ones and retiring for the night.