"Motherfucker! What the hell is this place?!"
Streams of light hurtled past Lynn, surging from every direction like countless luminous rivers forced through a narrow channel.
He felt like a leaf swept into a flood.
The currents battered him, carrying him forward whether he wanted to move or not.
Fleeting scenes flashed before his eyes, one after another.
But Lynn, who had once again merged with Levi, had no interest in admiring the spectacle.
He swung his wand.
Layer upon layer of brilliant spherical barriers formed around him.
Their surfaces shuddered violently beneath the relentless torrent of light, threatening to tear apart at any moment.
Lynn was terrified that he would be flung into some unknown fracture in space and time, never to find his way back.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions reverberated through the passage.
Each blast hurled him farther along, sending him careening wildly through the currents.
Left.
Right.
Up.
Down.
He had no control over his direction.
All he could do was pour everything he had into maintaining his shields.
He had no idea how much time passed.
Minutes?
Hours?
Days?
Just as he felt himself approaching his limit, a white light appeared ahead.
Lynn's eyes lit up.
If the usual logic held, passing through that opening should bring him back to some point in time.
He desperately swung his wand.
Golden-red flames erupted from its tip, twisting into a roaring dragon that charged into the storm behind him.
The dragon collided with the oncoming tempest of space and time.
Blinding light swallowed its body.
Boom!
The explosion launched Lynn directly toward the opening.
He moved so quickly that he barely had time to watch the white light expand to fill his vision.
For a fleeting instant, warmth enveloped him.
Then his consciousness dissolved into chaos.
...
When Lynn opened his eyes again, most of his injuries had healed.
Muscles torn by the explosions had regrown. Cuts left by flying debris had closed. Even the organs displaced by the shockwaves had settled back into their proper positions.
The pain, however, remained.
His ribs ached.
His shoulders were swollen.
His knees felt weak.
He decided to blame it on the aftereffects of using a Time-Turner, although he had never encountered any mention of such symptoms in a book.
Lynn cautiously moved his arms, then tried waving his wand.
A flash of white light struck his ruined robes.
The tears in the fabric closed one by one. Their dulled colors brightened, and the countless creases smoothed themselves out.
Within moments, the tattered garment had returned to its original condition.
At least his magic still worked.
He hadn't transmigrated into another world all over again.
Lynn released a long breath and pushed himself to his feet.
Levi was resting nearby, quietly keeping watch over him.
He reached down and stroked the phoenix's feathers.
Levi opened its eyes a fraction, glanced at him, and closed them again.
"Good work, Levi. Rest in my pocket for now. It'll have to do."
Levi nodded and gave a faint reply.
Its body shrank until it was small enough to fit in Lynn's palm. With a few tired flaps of its wings, it climbed into his pocket and curled up at the bottom.
Before long, slow, steady breathing drifted out from within.
Lynn patted his growling stomach.
Only now did he finally have a chance to examine his surroundings.
He stood at the bottom of a valley, hemmed in by sheer cliffs.
Thick moss blanketed the rock faces. Beneath it lay stone that had weathered the passage of who knew how many years.
Forget finding somewhere to eat.
There wasn't a single person in sight.
"Where the hell did this lousy Time-Turner dump me?"
Grumbling, Lynn retrieved the device from his other pocket and held it up against the light.
Calling it completely destroyed would have been an exaggeration.
Calling it usable would have been an even greater one.
A deep crack ran from the top of its casing to the bottom, nearly splitting it in half.
Through the gap, he could see the mechanism inside.
The tiny golden hourglass was covered in fractures, a dense web of cracks spreading across it from end to end.
Lynn was willing to bet that if he tried to activate it for so much as a second, the entire thing would shatter in his hands.
"Guess I'll have to take this one step at a time."
He sighed and tucked the Time-Turner away.
Then he raised his head and surveyed the valley again.
"The world can wait. Food comes first."
Lynn rubbed his stomach.
"Since I'm already here, I might as well hunt something."
...
After a meal of plain roasted rabbit, Lynn finally set off to explore.
He flew at an unhurried pace, an endless expanse of forest stretching beneath him.
A long time passed before he finally spotted signs of human habitation.
His eyes brightened.
Descending a little, he narrowed his eyes and studied the settlement ahead.
It was a reasonably large village.
At its center stood the only building constructed entirely from stone.
A church.
Nearby was a larger house built from both timber and stone—presumably the local lord's manor.
The villagers' cottages clustered around it.
They were small, with walls of timber and mud, thatched roofs, and windows covered by nothing more than hanging cloth.
Scattered among them were communal mills, ovens, and barns.
Beyond the buildings stretched field after field of farmland.
Green crops swayed in the fields, though Lynn couldn't immediately identify them.
Everything below matched his mental image of medieval Europe.
Which meant he was at least several hundred years away from the time he had left.
Lynn tugged at his hair in frustration.
He had no map.
He didn't even know where he was.
Perhaps he should go down and try his luck.
The lord might own a map.
The odds were slim, but it was worth checking.
Having made up his mind, Lynn waved his wand and descended toward the village church.
A church was a public place.
A stranger showing up there shouldn't seem too unusual.
If someone asked where he came from, he could say, "Far away."
If they asked why he was there, he could say, "To pray."
And if they asked his name...
He could make one up.
It wasn't as though anyone in medieval Europe would demand to see his identity card.
He landed outside the church.
His robes fluttered behind him, stirring a small gust that lifted dust from the ground. The tiny motes glittered in the sunlight.
"Wow!"
The exclamation came from behind him, brimming with undisguised curiosity.
Lynn slowly turned.
A girl of eleven or twelve stood nearby. Her untidy dark-brown hair was loosely tied back with a faded strip of cloth.
"Are you a wizard?"
There was a trace of uncertainty in her voice.
Mostly, however, she sounded excited.
Lynn studied her in silence for a second.
"Take a guess."
The girl blinked.
Then she smiled, revealing two missing front teeth.
"I think you are. Grandmother said wizards come down from the sky, wear beautiful robes, and use little sticks to make all sorts of magical things happen."
Her gaze traveled over him, pausing on his expensive-looking robes before settling on the wand in his hand.
"You've got both."
Lynn glanced at his wand.
Then at his robes.
"What else did your grandmother tell you?"
The girl thought for a moment.
"She said wizards are very powerful. They can heal sick people and make the crops grow better."
"What does your grandmother do?"
"She's the village midwife."
The girl puffed out her chest.
"She met a wizard when she was young. He saved her life."
Lynn raised an eyebrow.
"Did he?"
"Mhm!"
She nodded vigorously.
"He gave her a bottle of medicine. After she drank it, her stomach stopped hurting. She said he was very handsome, too, and wore robes like yours."
Lynn couldn't help smiling at the brightness in her eyes.
"What's your name?"
"Agnis," she answered immediately. "What's yours?"
Lynn considered the question for a moment.
"Lynn," he said. "You can call me Lynn."
"Lynn..."
Agnis repeated it once, then looked up at him with another smile.
"Are you hungry, Lynn? There's porridge at home today. It isn't very thick, but it'll fill you up."
Lynn rubbed his stomach.
The roasted rabbit had long since been digested, and his stomach was beginning to growl again.
"I am, actually."
He glanced from Agnis to the wooden bucket full of water in her hand.
"Where do you live?"
"Over there!"
She turned and pointed with her chin toward the left side of the church.
"The house with grass growing on the roof."
Then she hesitated and added, "It doesn't look like much, but it's very clean inside. I tidy it every day."
Lynn nodded.
"Lead the way."
The walk was short.
Agnis's home stood fewer than two hundred paces from the church.
The little hut nestled beside an old oak tree. As promised, tufts of grass sprouted from its thatched roof.
Several of the wooden beams in its walls leaned crookedly, supported from outside by thicker logs.
The door was made from wooden planks. A long crack ran from top to bottom, with a strip of burlap stuffed into the gap.
Agnis pushed it open and stepped aside.
"It's a little small. I hope you don't mind."
Lynn ducked through the doorway.
The interior was tidier than he had expected.
Hay covered part of the floor, with a sheet of coarse cloth spread over it.
That was probably the bed.
A wooden table stood in the corner, holding several rough earthenware bowls and a wooden spoon.
"Please sit down."
Agnis set the bucket beside the door, then went to the hearth. Picking up a wooden spoon, she stirred the pot hanging over the fire.
"The porridge is nearly ready. It just needs another moment."
Lynn remained standing.
His gaze passed slowly over the little room.
There was very little here, but everything had been cared for.
"Agnis," he asked quietly, "where is your family?"
The spoon paused.
"My father died last winter."
Her voice was soft.
"My mother remarried and moved to the next village. She wanted me to go with her, but I didn't want to."
Lynn said nothing.
"So I live here by myself. It's quite nice, really. I can do whatever I like. Wake up whenever I want. Eat whatever I want."
Once again, Lynn found himself without a reply.
"The porridge is ready."
Agnis filled a bowl and offered it to him with both hands.
"It's hot. Take small sips."
Lynn accepted it, blew gently across the surface, and tasted the porridge.
It was faintly salty, with a hint of bitterness from the wild vegetables mixed into it.
"It's good."
Agnis's eyes lit up.
"Really?"
"Really."
He took another sip.
"Much better than the rabbit I roasted."
She smiled, showing the two gaps in her front teeth again.
Lynn stood in the little hut, cradling the bowl and drinking porridge so thin he could see straight through it to the bottom.
All the while, his mind raced through possible ways of returning to his own time.
"Agnis."
"Hmm?"
She peered out from behind the hearth.
"Do you know where I could find a map? Something with mountains, rivers, and towns drawn on it?"
Agnis thought for a moment.
"The lord has one. I've seen it. It hangs on the wall in his study. It's very big, with lots of lines and names."
Lynn's eyes brightened.
"Can you take me there?"
Agnis hesitated.
"The lord doesn't like strangers very much. Last time, a blacksmith from the next village was only passing through, and he still ordered his men to chase him away."
Lynn took another sip of porridge.
"As long as he has a map," he said calmly.
Agnis: ???
---
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