Chapter Forty-Eight - Time, Fractured or Otherwise

  When her magic pushed into an area, there was always a slight bit of feedback. It would take over the dark, making it her own.

  There were few circumstances where shadows were owned by someone else. Most people didn't think of their own shadow, and if asked, wouldn't place much importance on it. It had happened that monsters and powerful entities that they'd fought had claimed ownership of their own shadows, but those were rare and far between.

  And so, to Alice, conquering the shade of a place as she approached it wasn't something she expected to have contested. It just happened, with minimal effort and no thought.

  Chernobyl was proving different.

  Her control swept ahead, tapping into every shadow, down every dark, unlit corridor, through a basement filled with water up to the waist, and across the entire facility.

  Then her control swept ahead, tapping into every shadow, down every dark, unlit corridor, through a basement filled with water up to the waist, and across the entire facility.

  Alice was walking just a step ahead of Crystal, who still held onto Vasilisa. She stopped, and Crystal almost bumped into her back.

  "Huh?" Crystal asked. "Is everything okay?"

  "I think so, give me a moment," Alice said.

  She extended her power into the facility and--

  She extended her power into the facility and--

  She-- Alice shook her head and cut off her own magic in that direction. It was like cutting off a limb. A sudden, sharp pang of almost-pain that seared through her. Then the limb was replaced by a dozen more, like a hydra investigating the loss of a head.

  "There's some strange magical effect here," she said.

  "Yeah, I bet," Crystal said. She was looking up, to the floating cooling towers, partially destroyed and hanging out of the air in a way that was quite inappropriate for something caught in an explosion.

  "No, it's more than that," Alice said. "I... didn't quite lose control of my magic, except that I did. I think..."

  Alice licked her lips and leaned forwards a little. She didn't quite push her powers forwards, but she did do her best to push her perception that way. There was nothing that said she needed to control the shadows in order to perceive them.

  And perceive them she did. Shadows across the facility, a few rooms where they were pushed back by bright light, and others where shadows were flickering, but her perception was mostly fine.

  And it saw the shadows moving under the subtle control of magic.

  Her magic.

  It raced across the facility, grabbing hold of every shadow and dark space, then it raced across the facility, grabbing-- a repeating loop.

  "I think I see it," Alice said as she gently pulled her perception back and reopened her eyes. "The place is looping."

  "Through time? I guess that's not too surprising," Crystal said. "This is where Fractured Time is, right? That's her whole gimmick."

  Alice wasn't so sure if mere time looping described Fractured Time's whole gimmick, but it was certainly a frequently used tool in her magical arsenal.

  "So, the whole building is making your magic loop?" Crystal asked. She frowned, then summoned a round ball of crystal in one hand and flung it out towards the factory. It was an underhanded throw, with someone hanging off her back, but Crystal was a magical girl, and the ball travelled anyway.

  It came down onto the roof of the building. Then reappeared in mid-air and came down again, and again.

  "Neat," Crystal said. "But it can't just be loops on loops, there's bits that are stuck in mid-air and they're not moving. That's a whole other trick."

  "Right," Alice said. Fractured Time had once sat with Alice and explained how some of her magic worked. It was mostly instinctive when she was moving herself along in time, forwards or back. Slowing time down for herself was the same. But anchoring her magic was tricky.

  Meagan had always been worried that she'd lock something in time, and that being locked in time gave that object a sort of indestructibility. The issue was that time wasn't a fixed location. She had to ensure that wherever she locked something it was locked in relation to the world around it.

  What would happen if she locked a marble in time and the Earth rolled over a tiny, immovable object? What was the 'true' anchor of the universe? And how fast was Earth moving in relation to that? Not only in terms of Earth's rotation, but its movement around the sun and the sun's movement in relation to the true anchor?

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  An indestructible object the size of a marble moving at nearly the speed of sound was dangerous. Meagan had confessed that her own magic kept her awake at night.

  Fortunately, time travel was a good solution to insomnia.

  "There has to be a way in," Vasilisa said. Her voice was hoarse and quiet, but she sounded quite certain of herself. "It can't just... be nothing. It can't be impossible."

  Alice slid her tongue over her teeth as she thought. "Maybe it's not completely blocked off?" She extended a hand towards the building.

  The shadows around them grew, boiling over before rushing towards the plant. They crashed into the front, and she swept her power back.

  The wave of darkness crashed into the building again, and again, only... not everywhere. The repeated loops of her power pressing up against the building were limited. There was a path, an opening a couple of metres across, where the image of her power pushing ahead didn't reappear.

  "Neat," Crystal said. "Is it like a maze, then?"

  "I don't recall Meagan being particularly fond of mazes. Or puzzles," Alice said.

  She stepped up and took the head, Crystal followed her, boots crunching in the ash-covered ground. If she slipped into one of the loops, then she'd pull out of it.

  Sure, it was strong magic, but... well, there were levels to this kind of thing. Water beat fire, but there were no oceans large enough to quench the sun. Likewise, this remainder of Fractured Time's magic wouldn't impede her all that much, she suspected.

  The plant wasn't a singular building, but a collection of them. The entrance was contained by a tall gate structure, a security booth to the side. As they crossed, they arrived in an open space. She pushed her darkness out along the ground, watching as it seemed to almost recoil in places where Fractured Time's magic was strongest.

  They continued ahead, walking down the main path of the site until the area where the magic was weakest took a turn to the right and into a building.

  There was a girl there. She was wearing silvery, reflective gear, with what looked like an armoured undersuit on. Her head was masked and covered by a thick hood. A gun was strapped to her back, over a pair of oxygen tanks.

  The girl was in the motion of tripping to the side, her eyes going wide before she fell. Then she tripped again. An infinite loop of falling over.

  "Should we..." Crystal said.

  Alice considered it. Would this girl know anything? Enough to help? Would it be worth the time to save one when they were so close to the centre of everything?

  "Leave her," Vasilisa whispered.

  "Oh?" Alice asked.

  "She's dying. Look at how pale she is. Look at the front of her outfit. That's blood. She made it this far, but she fell anyway."

  "That's a little harsh," Crystal said.

  "It's reality," Vasilisa said. "If we come back, then maybe. But... but I feel like we need to move on. Move in."

  "Well, okay then," Crystal said. "Alice, wanna keep moving?"

  "Sure," Alice said. The interior was old. Walls and office spaces with large computers and decor that looked like it was straight from the seventies. Lots of faux-wood and pitted chrome and the lingering scent of cigarette smoke.

  She led the way deeper into the building, her shadows and darkness brushing past decades of dust and decay. The lights were off, but Crystal soon raised a light and they moved on ahead, bleeding off looping shadow magic to the sides as they went.

  They left the building out of the back, and then walked a few feet over to another, this one far larger, with a small antechamber just within where factory worker suits hung on rusty hooks and where it looked like people had evacuated in a hurry.

  "I think... I think whatever we're looking for is close," Vasilisa said.

  "Feels like it," Crystal said. "If this is a power plant, then I think this is the building where the... power plant stuff happens."

  "So we're close. Very close," Alice said. She nodded. "Keep your wits about you. I think we're about to find Fractured Time."

  ***

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