1:5:6 Agreements (Part 1)

Discomfort. Their upgraded Breacher had managed to spare them most of the effects that Tempora radiation exposure typically had on the organic body but given the complexity and length of the jump, some discomfort was expected. Lore felt their knees compress slightly as they landed; adjusting to the gravity change before their eyes to the harsh light. They could sense a presence around them, a familiar energy just not as powerful. Five outlines surrounded them, their left eye still blind; five burning blue outlines.
“Stalt! Du Bynst Wedi’geben!” Blurry farming implements prodded at their waists.
“Dychehr!” A sixth outline came into view. She moved in closer, her hand in the air as if ready to set her troops back on them. She lowered her fist slowly and gave them a nod.
“What’s going on?” Lore whispered to Char.
“We’re definitely on Quatarr. Though the dialect’s a little older than I’m used to. I think they said stop you’re surrounded.” Char paused her translation. “Then the new-leader-person said come as in come back.” She turned to Lore. “We might be a bit early.”
“Thanks.” Lore tapped Char’s shoulder. They turned to face the leader. “Sorry to jump in unexpected and sorry it’s been a while.”
“Sha’tara. Lore. You return exactly when needed and not a moment earlier nor later.” Her outline flickered from blue to white as she came into focus.
“Sharr’Renn?” Lore couldn’t help notice how different she now looked. Her skin had thinned and had long since cracked around the eyes, her body had followed a similar path; from those cracks and her eyes, white light poured. “What happened?”
“The Guild.” Sharr’Renn scowled. “The Guild have forced us to take actions most drastic.” She highlighted her cobbled together team. They all shared in her decay; skin cracked as if struck by lightning that chose to remain. With another nod, she dismissed them. Char and Lore moved in closer to talk to Sharr’Renn. “A shameful existence for such promising young people.”
Lore couldn’t help but examine every aspect of Sharr’Renn. Although looking as if she had entered a state between life and death, it had seemingly done little to hinder her mobility nor her intimidation factor, rather the opposite; her physique, while smaller than it was, had a strength to it that seemed impossible, inquatarrian.
“We know these are likely our last days. We have seen Quatarr’s fall.” Sharr’Renn opened her tent to them. “Enter and I will show you too.”

Her tent looked as though it had been ransacked; the once rich and storied shelves sat bare. A sizeable chunk of Tempora crystal sat alone in the middle of what was once the room where they had taken tea. Sharr’Renn sat with her toes touching the spike, it’s light replenished her own. She sat there, breathing ragged and pain filled breaths; with each inhalation, like white water rapids, it rushed through the veins and arteries it had created across her body. After a few cycles, her breathing calmed and her demeanour somewhat relaxed. Her eyes retained their new, white glow.
“Come, sit with me.” She beckoned them over.
Both Lore and Char were apprehensive but eventually came over and sat beside her.
“What’s going on?” Char reached out and tried to take Sharr’Renn’s hand into her own but found herself subconsciously repulsed.
“The touch of Time.” She unbuttoned the first few buttons of her shirt. A chain hung loose around her neck, connected to it, a Tempora crystal nearly five centimetres tall and three wide at its base; the chain had long been surplus to requirements as the crystal had embedded itself in her sternum, melting into her flesh and becoming one with her bones. “Such a blessing is scant free but the cost is far outweighed.”
“Nothing is worth this.” Char realised the origins of her aversion. Lore looked to her for answers. “Gwam’Zeitung. The toll of time. I’ve never seen such a case of Tempora exposure, you should be dead.”
“As I have said, Time has protected us; long since before we needed it and without knowing.” Her voice spoke with a detachment to the physical. “We do what we must.”
“But, again, why?” Lore looked at their Breacher. “It’s been three years since we last saw one another, what’s changed?”
“You, you changed everything.” A single tear formed in Sharr’Renn’s eye. “For the better at first but… The reality you have created, the one we experience now… You stole from us a great mercy.” She took another deep breath. “My apologies, not you but your ilk, your origin. Their mess is yours to be inherited and yours to unfortunately correct.”
“Mess?” Lore looked over to an exasperated Char. Then they remembered. “Quatarr.”
“Quatarr?” Char gestured for them to continue.
“The civil war was supposed to end with your mutual destruction. Both sides were supposed to engage in an ever escalating arms race until one side, didn’t matter which, detonated the planet.” Lore shook their head. “It was all I could think about during the Three Year Month.”
“But if the planet was detonated via what I’m guessing was a Tempora cascade, surely it would be useless to The Protectorate.” Char shrugged.
“Tempora is self regenerating. When it cascades, the structure isn’t harmed, just the surroundings. Quatarr would have been reduced to a mass of crystal orbiting a sun.” Lore paused. “But I made sure that never happened.”
“And in doing so, brought about The Guild and their subterfuge.” Sharr’Renn offered her hands. “Join with me, bathe in its energy and share in its secrets once again.”

The streets of The First City looked considerably cleaner than they had the week prior. The war was over and the flags of both the West and East were emblazoned on every building. People appeared, populating the empty city. It seemed like a normal day. Through the will of an unknown force, their heads were all turned to face the top floor of a nearby block of flats. In a blink, they found themselves transported from the street, into the building. The hallway they found themselves in had been given the same level of care as the main street; railings polished to the point of erosion and freshly painted and decorated walls. The only aspect of the hallway that appeared to be lacking was the doors. They were thin, wooden affairs, lower in quality than the rest of the flat but fit in well overall. A commotion could be heard in the room ahead of them. A white flash saw it end and a second saw the noise return tenfold. Energy and light roared out of the flat followed by a singed figure. They flopped out of the room, holding onto the door as if it were their only chance of salvation but there was nothing that could be done. They were dead or very nearly so. Ninety percent of the figure’s body was burnt, not with fire but by the same energy that had empowered Sharr’Renn; nodes of Tempora had seeded across them, taking root and harvesting their rejuvinative energy to grow themselves.
“Human.” The figure appeared to be talking to Lore. They stood there for moment, wondering how the past was interacting with the present. They took a step to the side to reveal a second figure.
“A human did this?” Lore and the stranger locked eyes.
“Ser eich bri’letz?” The second figure knelt, holding the first as their eyes took on a blueish white glow.
“Crait.” Their last word chilled Lore as it exited their mouth.
The light that had inhabited the figure’s eyes spread along their body, illuminating their burned tissue first before engulfing the entire corpse; once completely consumed, the light captured Lore, Char and Sharr’Renn.

They stood together, hand in hand on the plains outside of The First City. Although they knew it was only a vision, they felt so present in the moment, more so than they had in the city itself. They felt as if they had been transported forward in time. Silence. It was unnerving. They could feel a breeze, the sand beneath their feet and the suns overhead but there was no sound. Lore clicked their fingers; the sound, as little as it was, reassured them. Both they and Sharr’Renn covered their eyes; Char wasn’t sure why so followed suit. She was soon glad for their precognition. A pillar of light bored into the sand ahead; the rain clung to their skin; the air started to burn. The ground shook underfoot. The light faded. Silence returned; it bore the same unnerving air.

The room came back into focus. Char still felt the lingering heat on her hand, a tear of glass fell into her lap. “Was that… Will that?”
“Indeed. The end of our peoples. It’s arrival is flux but the day must fall soon. However, with flux comes potential.” Sharr’Renn’s eyes flickered from white to blue. “Opportunity may fall sooner.”
Lore went to move the crystal only for Char to stop them. “Lore!” She scalded. “What are you doing?”
“It’s killing her.” Lore tried again only to be stopped again.
“It’ll do much worse to you.” Char shook her head. “At this point, she’s already dead.” Her tone was grave. “We may have grown up with Tempora, evolved along-side it, but you can still have too much of a good thing. At least that’s what you humans say.”
Lore felt another hand on theirs; a paradoxical touch, soft and light yet with the weight of a planet and all those whom reside upon it. “We have all made peace with our choice, me most of all. If our sacrifice saves only one Quatarrian, it will be worth it. This vessel, I, am not one of those nor can I be the one to help. Sha’Tara: A title once given to an outsider who ended a war, I now pass to you for you are our only hope, an outsider who spared our people.” She collapsed, her last breath pulled itself from her crystal infused lungs.
Char moved into a kneeling position at Sharr’Renn’s head, she closed her eyes and pressed her hands to the floor. Lore rose suddenly, their head light and disoriented. They reached out for Char, eyes still trained on Sharr’Renn; when her hand refused to come to theirs, they dove for the Tempora. Almost as it had with Sharr’Renn, the crystal and its light flowed through their veins; like ice and fire it burnt, activating, over-stimulating and destroying every nerve ending in their hand. It only took a moment for the sensation to reach their heart and, from there, the rest of their body. Then the pain stopped. Now saturated with the energy, they recognised where they had felt it before: The Paragon. Their body became one with the light, rendering them an intangible version of Lore. Blinding white light filled the room. As the process neared completion, every atom of their existence screamed then, it stopped. It stopped feeling painful. Loneliness filled that void. Without Char, without Time, The Paragon felt alone. Alone, they had one thought, one mission to achieve. An aura of the present remained still around Sharr’Renn. With a wave of their hand, time froze. Char with it. She had only just acknowledged The Paragon’s presence so found herself frozen in the process of standing. The Paragon advanced, levitating at Sharr’Renn’s feet. They closed their eyes and let their head fall back. Taking a deep breath, they focussed their energy into their chest. Parts of their body started to lose their light, others faltered and flickered but the chest only grew brighter. The Paragon took the light into their hand and considered its potential. Their plan changed. The Paragon took a seat in the air, crossing their legs and closing their eyes once more. Five figures came into sight. The energy fragmented itself; five orbs of equal size formed around a sixth that was nearly twice as great. They orbited the larger sphere, gaining momentum with every pass. The Paragon released the primary orb, its satellites lagged behind but followed it as it started its journey. It came to a stop over Sharr’Renn. All that remained of The Paragon’s energy was limited to Lore’s eyes. In a similar fashion to she who came before them, Lore let out a breath before falling to the floor. Time resumed as they met the carpet.