Nick of Time

"...And so we came back here." Mike concluded, having explained most of the situation to the rest of the party. He decided to leave out the bit about Reber being a Reincarnated person from Earth, since he wasn't quite ready to tell Lily and William just yet. He'd only known them for a short period of time, after all.

That said, he did want to speak with Morris about it, and planned to do so at the next opportunity. Unfortunately, the bard was still dealing with a number of loose ends that originated with the coalition army. From the sounds of it, he would likely be occupied for another few days at least.

"You lead an interesting life, Master Mike." William was the first to speak up after he finished. Judging by the way the butler put it, he wasn't exactly certain if that was meant to be a compliment or a complaint.

"Sounds like this demi-realm is a bit more extensive than we originally thought. Do you have any specific plans for the extra space?" Sera asked. Mike wasn't sure, but he thought she was intentionally directing the conversation away from Reber to avoid any awkward questions, which suggested that she might have some idea of his origins.

He shrugged. "Beyond a place to stay and somewhere to store various things, I hadn't anticipated using it for anything in particular."

Of course, considering the sheer size of the realm, he'd already intended on bringing in the tools and equipment he'd need to start working on his various crafting skills. Initially, he'd been concerned about being forced to neglect Smithing, but this would solve it nicely.

"Cultivation, perhaps?" Tal suggested. It took Mike a second to realize that she was talking about agricultural cultivation rather than the self-improvement kind.

"That might work…" He glanced over at Reber, who was still busy enjoying the plant lifestyle. By this point, a few birds had perched themselves on his head, and even looked like they were trying to make a nest. "Hey, do you think the demi-realm could support plant life?"

The tree man slowly held up one wooden finger. He responded in a muted whisper. "Quietly. I don't want to scare them off just yet. To answer your question, it's possible. The soil's a bit sterile at the moment, but if we can add a bit of fertilizer and introduce some water, it should work. Sunlight is going to be a problem, though. You'll need to adjust a few settings on the control pillar to change the ambient lighting. I'm not sure, but I think that might mean taking down most of the illusions, as well."

Mike summarized for the others.

"If we can implement all that, it would give you a means of growing your own ingredients." Sera explained. "We can even introduce some harmless animal life, should we feel the need to do so."

[Come to think of it, I've never tried to use Healing Magic on plants before. I wonder what I can do with it.]

William coughed politely. "While this has been a most fascinating conversation, I'm afraid it is nearly time for dinner. If you would be so kind as to excuse me. I still have a few preparations to make beforehand."

"Of course." Mike replied with a nod, quickly noting that Lily had already disappeared while they were talking. He caught sight of her walking back into the dorm, and guessed that she had some kind of project she was working on.

"Alright, since we are done here, I'm going to go back to training. I think I've just about gotten the hang of it." Sera announced.

[I guess that brings this meeting to a conclusion.]

"Will start. Preparing." Tal commented, indicating that she would begin working on getting the demi-realm ready for cultivation. It seemed like she was really excited about having some kind of garden to maintain. With Reber's Druidic expertise to assist her, she could probably make something pretty spectacular.

[Now that I think about it, I haven't spoken to him about his future plans, yet. He might want to go his own way.]

Nodding to his departing companions, he made his way over to the tree man, unintentionally scaring the nesting birds away.

"Aww, I was hoping they'd lay their eggs here. It would have been interesting to watch them grow up." Reber complained when they were gone.

"You are starting to sound like an old man."

"Ha! I am an old man. If you count my life before reincarnating, I'm probably close to two hundred years old. Anyway, what can I do for you?"

Mike scratched the back of his head. "Well, the thing is, we're actually planning on traveling in the next few days. Heading to the Riverlands for some business. While I can probably convince the University administration to let you stay here, I was wondering if you had somewhere you'd like to go."

Reber shot him a sidelong glance. "Right, I didn't explain it yet. I'm actually soulbound to the demi-realm. Supposedly, it's something that Fatima managed to do in order to keep me there long term. Not too clear on the specifics, but I was told that I can't be away from it for more than a few days...probably."

"That's rough...probably?"

He shrugged. "I'm only relating what Fatima told me when she first put me in the Stasis Array. It's possible she was lying, but I'm not sure if I really want to test it. If she was telling the truth, it would end badly for me."

"...You know, I might be able to fix that. Like I mentioned before, I'm something of an accomplished healer. I've reached the point I can even correct anomalies in the soul."

"Well, aren't you fancy with your magic and whatnot? Alright, be my guest."

Mike stepped forward and laid his hand on the tree man's shoulder, channeling his Healing Magic into him. It was an unusual experience. Reber felt fundamentally different from the others he'd healed in the past, and not just because his body was composed of plant matter. There was something unusual about his soul that stood out. It was denser and a bit more unstable, almost as if it had been unnaturally concentrated by some force.

[Is this what a Reincarnator's soul is like? I wonder if mine is something like this.]

In any event, it didn't take him too long to identify the effect that was keeping Reber in his tree shape. It was haphazardly attached in a manner that shouldn't have accomplished anything, but had evidently found some kind of crack in the unstable surface. If the tree man's soul could be visualized as a solid sphere, then the effect was like a weed growing in the only available space, sending a root system down into the depths of the structure.

Mike thought it would be relatively easy to remove the foreign influence, even though it had largely permeated Reber's soul, but he refrained.

After searching for a few more minutes, however, he couldn't locate anything that might tie him to the demi-realm in some fashion. Finally, he let go.

"Well, I'm not an expert, but I think Fatima might have been lying, or at least misleading you. As far as I can tell, there is nothing affecting your soul at the moment besides the curse, or whatever it is, that's keeping you a tree."

Reber shrugged again. "Figures, but I think it would still be wiser to avoid testing that assumption if I can avoid it. Since that's the case, would you mind if I tagged along for a while?"

"Not at all." Mike replied with a smile. It would be nice to have someone from his old world to talk to.

"Cool. Of course, it's not like I have anything else I'd like to do. Being trapped for several decades means that most of the people I once knew have likely died or forgotten about me by now. Seems to me that this is a great time to make a fresh start." He commented while idly scratching his back, causing his leaves to rustle. "Sorry, still getting used to having foliage."

"I can imagine that being a bit unusual."

"Also, I'm fairly certain I'm starting to develop flowers." He said, indicating a few buds that were forming along his branches. "I wonder if this means I'm going to be a father soon...or mother, maybe? This whole gender thing is weird when it comes to plants."

[Should I be worried about him starting a new race of tree people? Wait, wasn't there something about chestnut reproduction that was a bit unusual? Hm, it might be worth checking some kind of reference book...Ah, crap. I was going to hit the library today.]

"I just remembered I have something I need to do. Will you be alright on your own?" Mike asked.

"Sure, sure. I'll probably hang out here for a bit then head back into the demi-realm when the sun starts going down. In the meantime, I can hide myself among the other trees and scare passersby."

"Don't do that. The last thing we want is for the University to start thinking there is some kind of tree monster on the loose. If you need anything, see if you can find one of the people from earlier. They should be able to help."

"Will do. Have fun storming the castle, or whatever it is you're doing." Reber replied with a wave, watching Mike go.

-----------------------------------------------

After taking a few minutes to catch up with Rusilka at the front desk, Mike headed up to the highest part of the Spire aside from the headmaster's office. Here in the most restricted section of the library, he could finally find books of real power. He'd even gotten permission to borrow three of them for an extended period of time. Eventually, he'd need to bring them back, but there was no explicit limit on how long that would need to be.

[If I can improve my Space Magic enough, it might be possible to come back here every now and then and get new ones.] He thought while opening the door.

Inside he was confronted with the usual circular room, albeit with one noticeable difference. Instead of caged bookshelves lining the walls, there was bare stone. In the center of the room were five locked display cases containing three books, an ornate scroll case, and a pile of wooden tiles. Simply judging from their appearance, this particular collection represented the most valuable written works the library had to offer.

Without further ado, he walked over to the first book and read the cover. It was entitled "On a Voyage Through Time: An Autobiography of a Time Traveler." Feeling a bit breathless, he opened the tome and started looking through it.

It covered the life of an Arcane Mage who spent nearly a century developing a spell to mimic the effects of Time Elemental Magic. Unfortunately, the contents weren't quite what he hoped for. While the book did discuss some aspects of how Elemental Mages used Time Magic, it quickly became clear that the methods used by the author were incompatible with other forms of magic. In fact, a large section of the first half of the book was devoted to extrapolating on how he needed to basically start from scratch in order to make any kind of progress.

Nevertheless, the work did give him a few ideas on what to expect should he ever try time traveling himself. It seemed that the world of Ea had some in-built limitations that prevented even accomplished Time Mages from doing anything too crazy. While it was possible to travel into the past, there was some kind of paradox excluding force that prevented a traveler from interfering in events that were already designated as having happened. Although this only extended to things that had a lasting impact on the course of history. This meant that while it might be possible to alter the past to a very limited degree, one would never be able to change something significant without violating an intrinsic law of the universe.

Similarly, traveling forward in time also had some unique drawbacks. While a time traveler was more free to act in the future, simply visiting it had an effect on their destiny as soon as they returned to their own time. The author didn't quite understand how this worked, but he quickly realized that the future he encountered became predetermined for him, regardless of what steps he took to change it. This didn't extend to anyone else, but the resulting stress caused by any differences led to the creation of strange and unnatural circumstances that could be quite hazardous.

It also seemed that any kind of time travel was inherently temporary, and that unless an individual continued to supply an exponentially increasing amount of mana, the universe would cast them back into their own time after the effect ended.

[I suppose this would be one method of avoiding any serious complications created by paradoxes. Still, it seems a bit limiting compared to other things the System has done. Maybe there is more to it…]

Mike took a few notes for future reference, and returned the book to its case. He was about to move on to the next when he detected the presence of someone entering the room. Turning, he watched as Emmanuel stepped in.

"It's good I caught you." His teacher said with a sort of grimace. "There are a few things we need to speak about."