Let it go

“I sense greatness.” Varkral was way too close for comfort. “You have all been touched by a higher power and as a result, you carry some of that with you. If you focus and apply yourselves, you may be able to guide it as I do.”
Char removed her pistol from her jacket and fired at the targets down range. “Like that?” Varkral looked astonished.
“Indeed…”
“What about this?” Both Lore and Pwy’he had created orbs of their own temporal energy. Varkral removed his staff and scanned them.
“Incredible. I’ve never seen stable time energy like this and I have never seen the energy of the present.” Char holstered her pistol and produced an orb of her own. “And the past too. Between you, you have the whole set.”
“So, apart from what we already know, what else can you teach us?” Char’s orb faded.
Varkral swirled his staff, drawing with the light emanating from its crystal. The circle lingered for a moment, fading as the line grew and the staff moved to his side. With a brisk shake, the light went from white to red. He cracked his whip. The beam shot from his staff and towards the targets. Acting more like leather than light, the dummy was brought towards them with extreme speed. As it neared them, he swirled his staff once more, disconnecting the line and creating a new one. A blade of ruby light shot forth and passed through the target. A cloud of hay and canvas engulfed them. As the debris cleared and the dummy settled, the true extent of Varkral’s attack became clear.
“Bloody hell!” Pwy’he turned from where the dummy had been to where it now laid in two smouldering pieces.
“Now you.” Varkral holstered his staff and crossed his arm.
“How?” Lore looked to the energy in their hand. They looked between the dummy before them and the one Varkral had eviscerated. “Ok…” Lore frowned, shaking their head. They tossed the orb. It appeared as if nothing happened. “It’s frozen in time, I swear.”
“That may be so but…” Raising it like a kettle, Varkral poured light from his staff’s tip into his hands. “You think of your gift as just that, a gift. Unchanging in its nature but the rules are a little different here.” The light formed into a caltrop which Varkral threw, impaling Lore’s target. “Here’ the only limit is your imagination.”
“Here, yes but not everywhere.” Lore extruded their orb into a thin cylinder. “Is there any way to make this permanent?”
Varkral gently whipped Lore. “How do you think I got home after my excursion into your universe? Magic.” Varkral removed the stone from his staff. He held it to Lore’s arm. “It’s the same material. What allows you to travel the multiverse allows me to do the same. It also allows the user to take aspects of the universe they visit with them. But only those exclusive to that universe.”
“So, if you taught me proper magic then I could go back to school a wizard?” Pwy’he smiled, turning his orb into a rubber duck.
“Maybe later.” Varkral winked. “Now, try make something offensive.” Pwy’he’s energy instantly formed into an anthropomorphic cat. “Not quite.” Char scowled, proving Pwy’he right.
Lore’s energy went from it’s pure green light to a misty glass as it stretched into a long dagger. Lore rushed their dummy, closing the hundred metres gap in an instant as they unleashed a flurry of attacks on the target.
“Go, Lore Go!” Pwy’he stood on the side lines applauding.
“That’s it. You’ve got the hang of it.” Varkral tapped their shoulder. “Now, I have studied my universes temporal magic and have learned much of the three aspects.” A book faded into existence above his hand. It fell into his palm, opening on a page showing a likeness of Time. “The past, The present and The future. All unique, all powerful. The past, rigid and unchanging but with a fluidity. The present, infinitely changing and infinitely destructive. And the future, uncertain and veiled in mystery. All three can be shaped and utilised by masters such as yourselves.”
“Which is most powerful though?” Pwy’he poked his nose into the book.
“Well that depends on your definition of power. By all accounts, the present is the least powerful; lacking the indirect damage of the past and future.”
“Ha ha, I’m stronger.” Pwy’he poked Lore. “Knew it.”
“Alright, alright.” Lore knelt to Pwy’he and tapped the end of his nose.
“The Past, when shaped, allows the user to damage their victim’s past self in the present. Any injury inflicted will ultimately appear healed but will have caused lingering damage in the past, weakening the foe.”
Char created an orb of her own. “Really?” She formed it into a dagger, stabbing her target. “Nothing.”
“Look at the stitching.” Varkral pointed at the neatly sewn line where her dagger had been
“What about me?” Pwy’he waggled his energy blade in Varkral’s face.
“The future is perhaps the most destructive and should be treated with the utmost of respect. Any wound inflicted by a blade of the future will cause the premature aging of the victim.” Pwy’he swung his sword through his dummy. The blade cleaved through it as if it weren’t there. The area around the split seams crumbled to dust before their eyes.
“Cool.” Pwy’he went to lick his sword but Char caught his hand as it raised to his face. Char’s lack of approval was felt instantly.
“Not cool. You aren’t doing that again.” Char shook her head. Lore winked with a smile.
“Only when it’s absolutely necessary.” Lore’s face dropped to a more serious one. Pwy’he understood immediately.
“Yes Lore. I promise mum.” His sword dissipated into nothing. Char gave a reluctant nod.
A purple rift opened. A cloud of mist funnelled through. There was a wet thud as a viscous head hit the floor.
“Never again Master.” A black sludge coated blade exited the rift next, followed shortly by an equally coated figure.
“Found her.” Edge’s hand stuck to her shoulder. “And you were right, she forgot her rune stone.”
Aloe raised her sludge coated hands to wipe her eyes. “Lore?” She began to run over but tripped over her trophy. Loads of Catching-up.