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my error. Twelve years I have worked without respite to bend time to my will, so that I might come home…”
    “But, if you are here now, it must mean that you have triumphed. Master, this is a feat of great wonder!”
    “I have not triumphed,” Xaarus replied bitterly, “I have failed.”
    “But…”
    “Only by bending every ounce of skill, energy, and power at my disposal toward my intent, have I been able to temporarily stretch the timeline back like a bowstring. But you cannot conceive the effort required to remain intact, physical and present in this moment. In fact there are instances even now when I lose my concentration and am pulled back to the future, where I am still chained…”
    As if to demonstrate his point, suddenly Xaarus flickered and vanished from sight. Wide-eyed, Tvrdik leapt to his feet. But in a moment the older man reappeared, tottered, and would have sunk to the floor if he hadn’t been caught by his former student and lowered onto the nearest bench.
    “My apologies – I confess I am growing a little weary after the journey, and the hour is late.”
    “Perhaps it would be better if you rested now and we continued this conversation tomorrow?”
    “No! No. I have found my focus again, and there is still so much more I need to tell you tonight. At any rate, you can see my dilemma. I have calculated that, giving all I have to this venture, I should be able to remain in this time just long enough to accomplish my goals, but only this once. After I am pulled back to my future position for good, it could take years to accumulate the strength and power needed to try again. Unless of course, I find the key I seek to unlock my prison and return here once and for all. I fear I may still be far from that hope, though. I have already spent some of the precious days I have here seeking you in this remote place, and I cannot know with any certainty when my visit will end.”
    “But, hold on. Do you mean to say that you were able to choose this place, this moment in which to appear?”
    “Of course. Years of study have enabled me to aim more accurately at a given time frame. I at least had that benefit this time.”
    “But if you knew you could only do this one time, why did you not go back to a time before the accident, as you originally intended? Why not stop all of this from happening to begin with?”
    Xaarus was hoping to be asked that question, “Because, in the interim, I have discovered a far more important mission demanding our attention.”
    Tvrdik threw up his hands in exasperation, “What could be more important than having a second chance to put everything to right? To give Ailianne and Benjin back their lives and free yourself to come back where you belong?”
    “Changing the future.”
    “Say again?”
    “Tvrdik, we may have one chance to change the course of history for good.”
    The hoot of a very distant owl could be heard in the silence that followed. Tvrdik stared at his master, speechless for a moment, and then found his voice. “Is that wise?”
    “If you had been there with me, son, lived among the people, you would not have to ask that question.”
    Xaarus motioned for his student to sit, and leaned in close to him, “Tvrdik, the future is a gray and grim place, filled with fear and violence, divisions and inequities. We see all of those things in our own world of course, but in the time to come they have grown to such overwhelming proportions that they are nearly irreversible. There is no balance, no light, no magic anywhere. The people hate, exploit, and enslave one another; war breaks out everywhere, often over greed and lies and folly. It is only a matter of time before they all wipe each other out. To make matters worse, they have treated their lands selfishly and without wisdom. Only a small remnant of the ancient forests still stand, and the seas are all poisoned. Many creatures have perished; all the naiads and dryads have long gone away. There are no dragons,