The chamber hummed with ethereal light, echoing songs of times yet to come and times that had passed. A single figure waited at the entrance, watching dozens of realities all at once. Dozens of possible stories, set in dozens of possible timelines.

  The guardian had seen his own past, and he had seen the possibility of the future. He turned to the dozen or so mages surrounding him as the last brick of the castle was laid. The future wailed, then it changed with the force of a star exploding in the night sky.

  Dozens of possible futures, some more probable than others. But the future was in motion, always changing. To stop a possible future was to risk it to come forth. The guardian took another step into the heavy stone chamber, his boots echoing through the roaring walls as torches lit the burning stone as the air filled with ozone.

  “Is everything ready?” He asked sharply, turning to the mages at the edge of his vision as the circle began to glow, the sounds of wind and children playing echoing through the underground ritual room.

  The guardian took one step, bracing against the wind in the room that seemed to push against him even now, slowing his pace as if caught in a runic trap.

  Again and again, more futures vanished and new ones bloomed. There were so many threads of the future, of what could be.

  As he took another step, sounds of battle began to echo through the stone works. Some were real. Some were past, some were battles to come and some that may not happen at all.

  Battles turned into the sound of a child whispering, echoing through the stone chamber as the wind began to howl, battering its edges.

  Still, the guardian took another step forward as the wind died down and sunlight began to filter in from the ritual circle, as the sound of a person, or rather two people falling on top of each other echoed through the closed stone walls.

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  “I think since I have nothing better to do, we could go on a walk if you’d like?” The voice drifted from the circle, regal and yet ever so nervous. It was a woman's voice, one like the guardian had met countless Eons ago.

  “Promise you’ll wait?” A girl asked, a whisper drifting through the now howling chamber like it had been said in a snowstorm as the guardian took another step forward, the effort causing him to slam his boots into the ground.

  “I Promise” The voices blended together, a young woman and a young man, both carrying the soul of a fragile child on their back as the threads of bloom withered and pulsed with new futures.

  The guardian stepped back, a gale of icy snow slamming him in the face as he looked around not quite believing his eyes. The circle glowed brighter, shifting through all sorts of colors from violet to magenta to red to pink and finally settling on the dark blueish black of the night sky as the guardian took one more step forward.

  “To each their own.” The guardian said, loudly, his voice echoing through the storm of memory and the sounds of children playing. He took one final step, and the storm quieted.

  “That’s enough.” His own voice echoed through the chamber, the magic of spells that had yet to be cast filled the cavern, echoing through magic itself and coating the chamber in a thick heavy moisture.

  “You needed something headmaster?” Ciril’s voice echoed through the thick haze like lightning through rain

  “Yes. We will have a couple new people staying over the summer, court ordered like the last group.” A voice responded as the circle began to bind to his body, the chanting of mages starting through both the men in the chamber and perhaps a dozen more through times Unknown.

  “The future belongs to those who protect it.” He said, the chanting and the magic hissing into the air as the world shifted around him. Frostbitten children in a storm. Two girls enjoying a date by a lake, a boy comforting a frostling, and a dragonborn laughing as she flew through the air.

  Were these possible? Yes. Were they real? He had no answer for that. The fact they might become real was enough for him.

  A thud, and then darkness.