Chương 3: Cause And Effect

"Up, boy. We've arrived." Teren's eyes opened. He barely stopped himself from screaming in pain. For a few seconds, he remained completely still, staring through the iron bars inches from his face. His skin remembered the fire. Heat pouring across his face. White flames filling his vision. His mouth opening to scream before the fire reached it. He slowly raised his chained hands and touched his face. No burns. He ran his fingers through his hair. Still there.

The wagon rocked beneath him as it continued along the road. Metal links scraped over the wooden floor. Across the cage, the older man was watching him. Teren glanced at him. He looked exactly as Teren remembered him, down to the gray in his beard and the worn brown shirt. The man tilted his head.

"Ya awake in there?" Teren did not answer. He had no idea what to say. His gaze moved around the cage. The goblin woman with dried blood on her face sat across from him. The large gray-scaled man was sitting at the rear edge. The young boy had his knees drawn against his chest. Nine captives, all wearing the same clothes and chains he remembered. Outside, mounted guards rode beside the wagon. The same rocky ground and thorny shrubs stretched away from the road. The walls of Karthane rose ahead.

It is happening again... The thought felt impossible even while everything around him proved it. He had burned to death twice. Now he was back in the wagon for a third time. Dreams and warnings no longer explained it. Somehow, he had actually come back in time. Teren gripped his knees and forced himself to breathe slowly. Maybe he was losing his mind. That would almost have been easier. A madman could keep imagining the same place again and again. A dying brain could repeat its final moments.

But he had learned things between the deaths. He remembered the city before seeing it. He had known what the large captive would do. He had known the clerk's questions before hearing them. And during the second death, he had felt the fire strike from behind because he had been looking in the wrong direction. His imagination had not warned him about that. The wagon rolled over a rut. Teren leaned away before his shoulder could strike the bars. The older man noticed.

"Ya traveled this road before?" Teren looked at him sharply.

"No." The answer came too quickly. The man shrugged and returned his attention to the road. That small difference made Teren's pulse quicken. The first two times, he had hit the bars. This time, he had not. The world had not forced it to happen. So things can change. He looked toward the walls. Sunlight flashed against the invisible barrier above them. The moat would appear next. Then the gatehouse and the drawbridge. Then the bronze token. Each came exactly where he expected it.

His fear still remained, but something colder had begun to form beneath it. If he truly had gone back in time, then there had to be a reason. Or at least rules. He needed to understand them before the fire killed him again. Burning to death twice was more than enough. The caravan crossed the drawbridge and stopped before the closed portcullis. A guard took the bronze token from the lead rider. Teren barely watched him inspect it. His attention had turned inward.

Both attacks had happened shortly after he touched the strange testing device. That could have been just a coincidence, though. Everyone in the yard had been killed, not only him. Perhaps the attack always happened at that time, whether he was present there or not. Perhaps someone was attacking the compound for reasons that had nothing to do with him. But the timing had been almost identical. The crystal had flashed purple and stopped working right before the white fire appeared. Teren looked down at his hands.

The last time he had been tested, something had moved through his hand and into the metal handle. It had felt like electricity, but not quite. There had been no sharp sting. No source outside him. The current had come from somewhere inside his arm. Was that magic? The portcullis opened. Teren remained silent as the wagon entered the long passage beneath the wall. Orange lights glowed inside their glass containers. The first time, they had seemed strange. Now he hardly noticed them.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The city beyond the gate no longer surprised him either. He noticed the scaled riding beasts, the crowded streets, and the distant airships, but his attention kept returning to the same question. What happens if I don't touch the handle? The answer seemed obvious. The guards would beat him until he did. Still, he might be able to delay. Even a few seconds would tell him something.

If the fire came at the usual time while he stood away from the device, then touching it had nothing to do with the attack. If it did not... Teren's mouth went dry. The wagons turned away from the main road and entered the military compound. The cheering came from the left just as he remembered, and the wagon turned before he could get a proper look at the fighting enclosure. He knew the large captive near the rear door would attack as soon as he reached the ground. Teren looked at the gray-scaled man.

He was already staring at the guards outside. His jaw was clenched, and his broad shoulders were rigid. Teren considered speaking to the lizardfolk man. A warning might save him from the beating. But warning him would change what happened next, and Teren needed to know whether the rest of the sequence would repeat without his interference. The thought made him feel sick. He was allowing a man to be beaten so he could test whether time was repeating. But I don't even know his name. The cage door opened.

"Move. All of you!" The captives began climbing down. The large man reached the ground and lunged at the nearest guard. This time, the guard managed to twist partly aside. The captive's shoulder struck him at an angle rather than squarely in the chest.

"Take him down!" The guards rushed in. One cudgel struck the man behind the ear. Another hit his ribs instead of his knee. He staggered for two more steps before collapsing, and the beating continued until he stopped moving. The details were different this time. The man had still attacked, but the guards had reacted differently to him. People were behaving based on what was actually happening in front of them. This is real... A guard climbed into the wagon with blood on his cudgel.

"Out, unless you want the same." Teren moved before the man reached him. He judged the short ankle chain correctly and jumped down without stumbling. The guard gave him a brief, suspicious look but said nothing. Teren joined the line. His wrist shackles were removed. Two men dragged the beaten captive toward one of the wooden halls, though this time his feet scraped a slightly different path across the yard. Teren watched until a voice called from ahead.

"Teren." He stepped forward immediately. The guard beside the clerk lowered the hand he had begun to raise. The older clerk looked at Teren's wooden tag.

"Trade?"

"I can't remember," Teren said.

"But I can read." The clerk looked up.

"Can't remember? You lose your memory or something?"

"I think so."

"Convenient." The man dipped his pen into the ink and wrote something in the ledger.

"No trade listed. Literate." There were no questions about animals or tools this time. Teren walked on. The testing device waited near the center of the yard. His chest tightened as soon as he saw it. A slave ahead of him gripped the brass handle. Weak yellow light formed inside the crystal. The scarred yard-master leaned closer.

"Small response. Take him over to Master Edras. Let him decide whether the boy's worth feeding." A guard led the candidate toward a wooden building on the far side of the compound. Master Edras. A real mage, apparently. Teren stared at the building for a moment. If he could reach the mage— The goblin woman ahead of him tested next. The crystal remained dark, and she was sent toward the labor group. Then it was Teren's turn. The scarred yard-master gestured impatiently at the grip.

"Go on." Teren stopped a step away from the device. He looked around the compound. No fire. A few guards were talking beside the holding yard. The knight in plate armor had moved closer to the compound's wall this time. One of the clerks was arguing with a wagon driver. That hadn't happened in the past. But everything still appeared ordinary. Teren didn't lift his hands. The yard-master frowned.

"Did ya not hear me?"

"I heard you."

"Then put your hand around the grip." Teren raised his hand above the grip but did not touch it yet. He looked toward the left side of the yard. That was where he had expected the fire during the second loop. It had come from behind him instead. Perhaps the attacker had moved as well, like some others had. Or perhaps Teren had simply remembered the direction incorrectly. He turned slowly, examining the rooftops, the watchtowers, and the gaps between the wooden halls. There was still no sign of the white fire.

Several seconds passed. Longer than he had waited during either previous loop. The fire did not come. Teren's heartbeat quickened. It's the device. He could not prove it yet. But the attack should already have happened. The only important thing he had changed was that he had not touched the handle. The yard-master stepped closer.

"What ya waitin' for?" Teren's thoughts raced. The purple glow must be alerting someone. Or the strange current might do something that would allow the attacker to find him. If he didn't touch the grip, perhaps the fire would never come. He could accept a beating instead. It had to be better than burning to death again. Perhaps he could even pretend the device had finished testing him without closing his hand fully around—"Grip it, boy!" The sudden shout cracked across the yard. Teren flinched.

His raised hand jerked forward, and his fingers touched the brass handle before he realized what he was doing. Cold sank into his palm. The strange current moved out of him. Dammit! This time, he was alert enough to catch the sensation clearly. The current started somewhere inside his arm and flowed through his hand into the metal. The crystal flashed purple. Shit! Teren tore his hand away. The light vanished instantly, and the crystal went dark. The yard-master stared at it.

"What was that?" Teren spun around, searching the yard.

"Get away from here!" he yelled. The yard-master caught his shoulder.

"What ya talkin' about?" Teren tried to pull free. The ankle chain tangled between his feet, and he nearly fell.

"Fire!" he shouted.

"There's going to be a—" A white glow appeared beyond one of the buildings. The people standing near Teren turned toward him at his shout rather than toward the approaching death. For one terrible instant, their confusion delayed them from noticing the fire rushing at them. Then the white flames swept into the yard. A guard shouted in alarm. Someone grabbed Teren from behind. He did not know whether they were trying to restrain him or pull him away from danger. Heat reached his face. The device causes it.

The thought came with absolute certainty. Then the white fire reached him again. Even as a scream failed to leave his mouth, this time he knew exactly what would come next.