The flickering candlelight in the corner of the guild hall cast long, dancing shadows across Elsa’s face. She didn't look like a typical mage; she looked like someone who had been haunted by a ghost for a very long time.
"Selia was my heart," Elsa began, her voice barely a whisper. "She was a brilliant girl, but her life was a nightmare. Her parents were killed when she was young, and she was taken in by an uncle who... well, he was a monster. The abuse broke her mind. She murdered him in a fit of madness, and the law demanded her head. I was the one tasked to execute her. I watched the light leave her eyes, Jessica. I’ve lived with that weight every day since."
Jessica felt a pang of sympathy. She knew what it was like to be the survivor, to be the one left behind with the "what-ifs."
"You want to go back," Jessica said. "You want to save her parents so the cycle never starts."
Elsa nodded, pulling an ancient, glowing scroll from her robes. "A time-reversal spell. It requires a massive amount of mana—more than any one mage in Heltery possesses. But I’ve heard what you did to the Ogre. I’ve heard about the bandits. You are the battery I need."
Jessica looked at the scroll. Her scientific mind screamed that time was a linear constant, but in this world, logic was a fluid. "If we do this, can we change things? Truly?"
"We can save a life, Jessica. Isn't that why you’re here?"
The Leap into the Past
They traveled to a secluded grove where the veil between eras was thin. Jessica stood behind Elsa, placing her hands on the woman's shoulders. She opened the floodgates of her power. Violet energy poured from Jessica, so intense that the grass around them turned to glass.
The world began to blur. Colors bled into gray, and the wind began to howl in reverse.
When the light faded, they were standing in a village that looked familiar, but vibrant and new. It was twenty years ago.
"There," Elsa pointed. "That’s Selia’s house. Her parents should be inside. The killer—the thief who took their lives—will be arriving any moment."
They rushed toward the small cottage, but as they reached the door, the air grew cold. A figure stood in the garden, shrouded in a dark cloak, holding a jagged, blood-stained blade.
"Stop!" Elsa screamed, her hands glowing with ice magic. "We won't let you do it!"
The Horrible Truth
The killer turned slowly. As the hood fell back, Jessica’s heart stopped.
It wasn't a thief. It wasn't a bandit.
The killer was a young woman with the exact same eyes as Elsa’s friend. It was Selia. But she wasn't the victim—she was the butcher.
"Selia?" Elsa gasped, her voice breaking. "Why? We came to save your parents!"
Selia let out a chilling, hollow laugh. "Save them? You want to save the people who locked me in the cellar? Who sold me for wine? Who burned me when I cried?" She pointed the blade toward the house, where two bodies already lay cold on the floor. "My uncle didn't break me, Elsa. They did. My uncle was just the only one left to kill after I finished with them."
Selia stepped forward, her face twisted in rage. "And you... you call yourself my friend, but you never saw the bruises. You only saw the 'perfect' Selia you wanted to believe in."
"No..." Elsa sobbed. "That's not how the story went! I remember the records!"
"Records are written by survivors," Selia hissed. She lunged, her movements blurring with a dark, desperate magic.
The fight was short and brutal. Elsa, paralyzed by grief, couldn't defend herself. Jessica had to step in, using her speed to deflect Selia's strikes. But Jessica could see the truth in Selia's eyes—a deep, unfixable rot born from a lifetime of pain.
In the end, Elsa had to make the choice. With a scream of agony, she unleashed a spear of ice that pierced Selia’s heart.
History had repeated itself. The girl had to die.
The Price of Memory
The world began to ripple as the time spell collapsed. They were pulled back through the gray void, landing hard on the grass of the present-day grove.
Jessica looked at Elsa, expecting her to be inconsolable. But Elsa was standing still, looking at the empty scroll with a confused expression.
"Jessica?" Elsa asked, tilting her head. "Why are we in the woods? And... why are you crying?"
Jessica froze. "Elsa? You... you don't remember? Selia? The parents?"
Elsa frowned, rubbing her temples. "Who is Selia? That name sounds like a dream I had once."
Jessica looked at Elsa’s hands and saw a faint, fading glow of gold. She realized then what had happened. To power a spell that broke the laws of time, Elsa hadn't just used Jessica’s mana. She had used a "Sacrifice of Self."
Elsa had traded her memories of her best friend to fuel the trip. The tragedy was gone from Elsa’s mind, but it was now burned into Jessica’s.
The Lingering Question
That night, Jessica sat on the roof of the Heltery Guild, staring at the moon.
She had traveled across the world, fought monsters, saved children, and even walked through time. But she felt more alone than ever. She realized that this world wasn't a "fantasy" or a "game." It was a place where people suffered, where memories were currency, and where some tragedies couldn't be fixed, even with all the magic in the universe.
"Is this world the same as mine?" she whispered to the stars. "Is there truly no happy ending, no matter how much power I have?"
She looked at her hand, where a tiny spark of violet light danced.
She thought of the young girl she had saved from the truck. She thought of the children in Eldaline. Maybe she couldn't fix the past, but she was here now.
"I'll live," she decided, her blue eyes hardening with a new kind of strength. "I'll keep going until I find out why I was chosen. Whether I’m a hero or an anomaly... I’m going to write my own code for this world."
As the sun began to rise on a new day, Jessica Smith, the third-year genius, stood up and prepared for the next leg of her journey. The wilderness was behind her, but the world was just beginning.
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