Kaleth couldn't bring himself to think about the horrible revelations that gnawed at his mind, so he continued to focus on the phenomenon that surrounded him. Two more hours of solid effort had brought the boy much closer to determining how the magic of Geos worked. Although, he couldn't seem to predict the occurrence of these random spells of altered time, he managed to work out a binary pattern. Whenever a burst of slowed time coincided with an even number of minutes on the clock, the magic seemed last only briefly, while an odd number of minutes seemed to find longer occurrences. The opposite seemed to be the case an hour previously, before he turned the clock a minute forward. Whatever was happening, it seemed to be tied into someone's clock, but not his.
He began to pace in the middle of one of these spells, staring at his clock as he walked. It began at thirty one minutes past the hour, and had gone on for over half an hour. He continued to stare at the clock while wandering through the room, which turned out to be a mistake. Distracted by the slowly-moving clock face, he stumbled and dropped the clock, sending it sprawling to the floor. He picked it up and examined the damage. He was relieved to find that one of the case's sides had popped off, but the clock remained in working condition. He sat down on his bed to reattach the detached panel and stared at the clock until the hands began to turn at a normal speed once more.
The many hours that he had been cooped up in that room had taken their toll just then. What was he even doing here? If it was true that his parents were dead, what was he going to do? With a sharp intake of breath, he jumped out of the bed and began to pace once more. He ignored the clock completely this time and merely tried to walk out his frustrations. As he stopped, he heard one long, booming sound that seemed to rattle the walls. Then another. Then yet another.
Kaleth froze. Whatever that sound was had seemed to stop after the third time. He glanced at the clock and realized that it was moving slowly again. He shrugged and continued to pace, deciding it wasn't worth trying to make sense of anything that happened when everything was moving so slowly. After what felt like another half hour of pacing, the booming sound returned, this time to the door. Kaleth jumped this time and smacked himself on the head. Only now did he realize that the sound must have been someone knocking first on the wall, then the door. How much noise was he making?
As if to confirm his suspicion, a booming voice grumbled painfully slowly, "Keep it down in there!"
Kaleth sighed and glanced at the door. Something about the voice sounded familiar. Feeling an urge to apologize directly, he opened the door and did a double take when he saw a familiar face. Atunis Astersong, his father's best friend stood in the doorway staring into his eyes with widened eyes.
"Atunis! I'm so happy to see you!"
Atunis was a gentle man, who never seemed to have trouble making Kaleth smile. Before the sai'mul began to ravage the world, he would visit often to either spar with his father or practice their healing magic together. Whenever he did, he always spent time with the entire family. He always seemed to have better stories than his father and was seemingly acquainted with many interesting people. To Kaleth, there was no better company.
The Avatar of Salica didn't respond to his greeting, however. Instead, he continued to stare at the boy, his lips waving slowly. Tears pooled in his eyes and fell down his cheeks at a snail's pace. Although he seemed to be making every movement with a deliberate pace, he covered his face with his forearm and turned his back on Kaleth as fast as he could in this state. Kaleth could only watch as he did this, unsure of how to respond. Time returned to normal at the end of Atunis' turn and Kaleth shook his head vigorously to straighten his mind.
"Please come in!" he murmured weakly as he stood aside to let the man in. "I've been hoping to see you!"
Atunis wiped away his tears and sniffed before entering the room, his back to the oni. He paused for a moment before looking over his shoulder. "Kaleth?"
Kaleth furrowed his eyebrows in concern. Whatever had befallen him at the hands of the undead army seemed to have shaken so completely that he was no longer himself. "Are you okay, Atunis?"
"You...don't need to worry about me," Atunis replied, furrowing his own brow. "Are you okay?"
Kaleth nodded somberly. "Not really. Volt told me my parents are dead, but it's hard to believe, you know? My father's magic doesn't seem to have gone away, so I want to believe he made it, but then why hasn't anyone seen him?"
Atunis looked at Kaleth with confusion. "I was also told he was...dead." He swallowed the last word, and then continued. "But you say that his magic still exists?"
"Yeah! That was what allowed us to get here as quickly as we did!" Kaleth insisted without a trace of certainty. "Time's been slowing down around me since the sai'mul attacked Orion."
As Atunis looked away, he seemed to be thinking about something. "Have you tried praying?"
The boy shook his head and gave him a sigh. In truth, he was not as comfortable with prayer as his parents were. He didn't have much patience for the complex symbols he needed to learn in order to understand their language. Kaleth preferred to connect to his world through nature instead of religion, which was what drove him to become a druid instead of joining the clergy like his parents had. "No, not really."
"You may want to try it," Atunis replied, furrowing his brow and looking tiredly at the ground. "The Gods may be able to provide some of the answers you're looking for."
This was the first time Atunis had ever actively encouraged him to pray. Wondering why he would start now, Kaleth responded, "Not directly, anyway. My training in Tanis didn't exactly cover the language the gods speak in."
Atunis folded his arms across his chest, looking at Kaleth pensively. "When you opened the door, before I came over here...were you using time magic?"
The boy shook his head again. "Not really. Time's been acting very strange around me every since this all started."
Atunis turned towards Kaleth and put his hands on his shoulders, looking into his eyes imploringly. "Kaleth, I need you to reach out to Lord Geos. Please...just try."
Kaleth frowned in confusion, wondering where the Avatar was going with this. "Do you really think that will help me find my father?"
"It certainly couldn't hurt," Atunis replied softly with a sad, but desperate look on his face.
Kaleth frowned awkwardly, "So how do I do that?"
"Just close your eyes and ask for him, as if you were wishing for something," Atunis replied. "You don't need to worry about doing it the right way. He...will hear you."
Kaleth nodded and gave a noncommittal shrug. "I guess there's no reason not to try." He closed his eyes and murmured. "Do you want to have a seat while I'm doing this?"
Atunis smiled weakly and headed over to one of the beds in the room, sitting on the side of it and keeping a close eye on Kaleth as he began to pray. The boy opened his eyes to glance at Atunis, sat on the bed beside him, and closed his eyes before falling into a trance. He sat there in silence for several moments, calling out in vain to Geos. No matter how he worded his requests, however, the deity wouldn't respond.
When Kaleth finally opened his eyes, he frowned. "I didn't hear anything."
Atunis' brow furrowed curiously. "Well...it was worth a shot." He looked at Kaleth. "Kaleth, there is something odd going on here." His face fell and he sighed, before adding, "That sounded pathetic. Of course there is. I mean, I have... much to tell you. Things are not as they seem."
Kaleth nodded excitedly, eager to finally learn something new about this mess. "Okay, how so?"
Atunis stood up, pacing in front of Kaleth. He took a deep breath and released it, starting to relax. "I...will start from the beginning."
Kaleth nodded, encouraging the Avatar to continue.
"Two days ago, none of this was...happening. At least, not for me. No sai'mul trying to take over Mortanis, your father...was alive and well. As was everyone else," Atunis began, furrowing his brow as he recalled things. "I was with Jemah, and suddenly, everything just...changed. He was gone, and when I looked outside my apartment, there was nothing but desolation."
The unfamiliar name seemed to catch Kaleth's attention. "Who's Jemah?"
Atunis' eyebrows perked. "Oh, sorry. Jemah is my partner. I had just returned from a long trip, so we were spending some time together. It was, unfortunately, cut short due to the phenomenon I just described." He rubbed his chin and looked away pensively.
Kaleth couldn't help feeling a little disappointed to hear that. In all the times Atunis had visited, he had never once mentioned being in a relationship. As he pondered a response, he noticed that Atunis had begun to walk backward. Back and forth across the room, he seemed to pace in reverse. He sat back down in the bed beside Kaleth and hung his head.
Atunis sighed yet again and said, "That sounded pathetic. Of course there is. I mean, I have...much to tell you. Things are not as they seem."
Kaleth's suddenly widened with bewilderment. "What's happening?"
Atunis didn't seemed to respond to his confusion. It was as if he was unaware anything unusual had happened. Once again, he stood up and began to pace the room. "I...will start from the beginning."
"Okay," Kaleth murmured, unsure of what else to say.
"Two days ago, none of this was...happening. At least, not for me. No sai'mul trying to take over Mortanis, your father...was alive and well. As was everyone else. I was with Jemah, and suddenly, everything just...changed. He was gone, and when I looked outside my apartment, there was nothing but desolation."
Everything about the way Atunis spoke was the same as it had been the first time. Kaleth noticed the same pause just before he began to tell his story. Figuring it best to keep things on track, the boy tried to keep his response the same. "Right. So, who's Jemah again?"
Atunis' eyebrows perked. "Oh, sorry. Jemah is my partner. I had just returned from a long trip, so we were spending some time together. It was, unfortunately, cut short due to the phenomenon I just described." He rubbed his chin and looked away pensively.
Kaleth stared at him for a few seconds before realizing that they had just return to the point in their conversation which preceded this newest episode of time magic. "Right. So, what were you saying?"
Atunis sighed and proceeded. "Well, at first I thought I was dreaming. For everything to change like that...I assumed I had fallen asleep in my apartment. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong. The sai'mul killed my horse, and it looked so...real. I was almost killed, myself."
Kaleth nodded, genuinely hurt to hear about the man's struggle.. "That's awful! I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm glad you're okay!"
Atunis' brow furrowed worriedly as he noticed Kaleth's demeanor. "Are you, though? I don't want to upset you."
Why would Kaleth be upset to hear that? It took the boy a moment to remember that how he felt emotionally was never a secret to Atunis. Being the Avatar of Salica gave his eyes permanent Empathy magic, allowing him to discern people's emotions through colored auras that only he could see. He could tell that Kaleth was upset about something, but not the reason.
"Of course I am!" Kaleth said hastily. "I know what you're thinking, but something is happening to me right now."
Atunis tilted his head confusedly. "What do you mean?"
Kaleth stared at the floor as he struggled to put what he saw into words. "I almost don't believe what I saw. We were talking, then you just started speaking in reverse for a few seconds. Then you repeated yourself! I think this is more time magic!"
Atunis frowned and sat down next to Kaleth, studying his face with great concern. "Have you tried controlling it?"
Kaleth's eyes widened at Atunis' question. The thought of consciously controlling the time magic he was experiencing had never occurred to him. "Control it? No! I've been trying to understand it, but I'm not making any of this happen!"
"I don't know why this would be happening to you, but I imagine you're right about it having something to do with Kartal." Atunis looked away from Kaleth as he said this.
Kaleth began to wonder why this was still in question. Once again, he insisted, "Exactly! Why else would any of this be happening to me if he weren't trying to protect me?"
Atunis sighed heavily. "I want more than anything for your father to still be alive, but... I don't know."
Atunis leaned over, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Kaleth could see that he appeared to be praying.
After a few moments, Atunis looked up. "Lady Salica won't answer me." His expression was one of pain. "She...would tell me if he was alive."
Kaleth's denial was starting to wane. To hear this from Atunis of all people made the thought of his father's death seem all the more real. He pulled his knees up to his chin and murmured. "I see."
Atunis stared at the floor. "I'm sorry, Kaleth."
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