I didn't feel right in this disguise. But I'd been studying the Circle for years, I knew what they wore and how they wore it. I was finally so close to completing my goal, so close to saving my family. So close I could feel them again.
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I slowly focused on reality again as my disguised self made it to the doors of the Hall of Judgment. Leaving the ivory city of Kaladea behind me as I sank into its deep and beautiful halls. I walked past giant statues of the founders of the Circle. Great men and women who built this place, a home for normal people and Gifted alike. A haven.
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As I walked through that great hall the thought of Fraey crossed my mind. I'd met him and many others from the Circle before all in an effort to slowly gain information to easily enter this place one day, this day. But Fraey stood out. When I look at him I can tell one day he will do great things, maybe even terrible things but all I knew for certain was that he would be someone. I'd watched him and many others for the last thirty years, learning, growing to make this plan easier and smoother. Today I'd find out if all of this work was worth it.
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I kept walking through the halls, my feet a quiet parade across the polished marble floors. The feeling of adrenaline was a chorus inside of my body, I was this close to finding him. Ending him. Saving my family, going back to them, feeling their warm embraces. Being whole again. Forever.
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I stopped in the middle of the statue causeway and focused. I knew he would've been here at some point today. I turned my palm as I felt my stomach tug and pull at my soul. I willed time itself to slow and turn back a few hours. I watched as scenes of previous happenings passed by me. Things that had happened earlier, people talking, walking together, small things like every day life here. But then I saw him, the man. Fraey was with him. Walking down another hallway.
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I knew it was him because of his face, the scars weren't there but I still recognized. I would never forget that face, not for all of my life. Part of me was afraid of him again, of what he did to my husband and my children. But the better part of me filled with rage. I questioned why I felt ashamed in a way that I was about to do this. My daughter would've been ashamed of me. But he was here, he was breathing, she wasn't.
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"Fraey.. Diana.." His voice hummed slowly. "There's news... from the Highlands.. Something's happened.." He said as I new he'd been talking about me. A few days ago I'd used my powers to steal this disguise from another member of the Circle, and her horse. Any person trained to recognize magic like the men and women of the Circle knew how to spot something like time magic, especially since I hadn't killed the girl after I stole everything.
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I kept the flow of time glued to the palm of my hand as I walked with their stream, slowly to a giant study room lined with bookshelves and artifacts of older generations. I watched as he sat down on a fine oak chair while Fraey and Diana did the same. I stood behind them, invisible in my own pocket of time. This was it. My chest and legs were burning with a newfound hatred, a hatred ready to kill.
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I stepped from behind Fraey and Diana and towards the man. I curved around his desk, keeping my eyes on him the entire time. He wouldn't escape. Not this time. I prepared myself for it. For this moment. So many years spent building to this one piece of time. Killing him now meant preventing my terrible future from happening. For my daughters, for my husband, for my self. So I let time slip.
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The flow of things went back to normal. I looked at everyone in the room as a blank silence filled the study, like silence before a lightning strike. I looked at Fraey as he recognized me from earlier at the gate as I let him into the city. I could see it in his eyes piecing together, all of the fragmented and fabricated times we'd met before. He knew who I was now. He and Diana both were frozen in surprise at me appearing out of nowhere until I drew my dagger. Fraey stood so fast his chair flew back a few feet and Diana followed in suit but it was too late.
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I raised my free hand at them both and centered time around them, forcing them to stop. Frozen in place, still able to see and watch. I looked down at him. This... thing. This monster. He just stared up at me, not knowing how to react at my presence or my powers. I was close to him, close enough to touch him. Close enough to smell his lavender incense, a mask for his true self. A killer. A cruel killer.
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I drove my dagger down onto his hand straight through the wooden desk. Blood erupted around the blade and he began to scream. I didn't care if anyone heard it or if anyone came to help him. He was mine. He tried to pull the blade free but it was sunken deep into the wood and bone. He looked back up at me in panic, he knew what was coming. He didn't want to embrace it.
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"Please, don't do this." He begged. "Who are you?!" He screamed. "What do you want?!"
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I bent lower to get closer to him and he seemed to calm for a moment. I scowled are him furiously. I wanted him to see in my eyes the hate I felt for him even if he didn't know what he would do ten years from now. This feeling ran that deep. No matter his innocence in this moment, it would never make up for what he would do to my family ten years from now. I didn't care what he or anyone else thought of me or my actions. My goal was pure and selfish. To save them he had to die.
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"It doesn't matter who I am." I told him as flashes of their faces ran through my mind. My vision turned red as the adrenaline and disgust ran deeper and deeper into my being. "I come from a future, tainted and destroyed, by your hands. Torn apart and ripped to pieces because of you. In that future you took everything from me. I come from a future without light or promise. Without joy or belonging. Because of you." I hissed at him.
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"What are you talking about?!" He screamed again. "I've worked for peace my whole life. That's not me! Please!" He yelled as he began to weep uncontrollably. "I have a family, please don't do this." He sobbed.
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"I don't care." I told him as he looked up at me again, his sobs and whimpering fading as he knew he was at the close. "You're here... and my family is gone."
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His eyes grew wide. Not from the pain of me jerking the dagger out of his hand but at the realization that his life was coming to an end. For an instant he looked up at me, a look of bewilderment in his eyes. Maybe he was seeing the things I saw. Images of his children. Of their smiles. Of the things he loved. That look ended as I finally, after thirty long years, drove my dagger deep into his throat.
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