Wood was easy. Swing axe, split log, get new log. She had spent a day or two perfecting her accuracy during the chores she had done about the camp, and now it was methodical and almost relaxing in a strange sort of way.

  “So explain tiers to me” Kiko exclaimed after a few minutes of woodchopping. Now she had some time to digest everything and work out her muscles, she was back to using her brain muscles.

  “A Magus is tiered based on what kind of magic they can use. First Tier Magic is the modification of nature within the confines of science. There is nothing a First Tier Magus can do that a machine can’t replicate. The only question is how big and how expensive said machine is to make.

  Second Tier Magic is powers that aren’t within the confines of natural science. This is where you get into your true Magic. Instantaneous translocation of matter, localized manipulation of time, and the ability to travel faster than light” Eternia would seem like she was about to carry on, but was stared at by Kiko.

  “....Time?” Kiko exclaimed, a solid stare and a soft speaking voice as if chewing on the word to make sure that she was speaking it properly. That she had heard it properly.. This woman in front of her was able to control the very nature of continuity itself, and that…was absolutely terrifying beyond anything she had done or said.

  “Localized, but yes” Eternia replied, giving Kiko a pacifying stare and letting her get back to wood chopping. “Reversing time is the easiest since it’s akin to winding up a fishing rod. Causing a loop is the second easiest because you are folding time in on itself so it repeats a certain amount of time. You generally can’t control a wide area though, even the most powerful are limited to about a mile. And the tighter you wind Time back, the harder it gets to wind further, and more likely you are to lose control and have a Temporal Snap. Your grasp of time is lost and the situation violently lurches back to present moment with devastating results for the user. The limit sits around one minute for a normal Magus, and one hour for a very powerful near-divine Magus.

  Second - and to a much greater degree, Third - Tier Magic is self-limited in it’s difficulty and scale. The energy that allows us to do this, is called Aeonic energy. A fundamental force of the universe similar to gravity and light. Much like how too much light will burn a person to a crisp, and too much Gravity will crush you like a bug, every being has an Aeonic Threshold at which point you will melt. The-” Eternia was cut off by a loud thunk of Kiko’s axe.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Stop. I am still dealing with the fact that you can control time!” Kiko exclaimed, shaking her head.

  “Locally” Eternia retorted, with more emphasis this time. She would point at the pile of firewood that Kiko has chopped, and circle her finger. With a shudder, the wood blinked back to the uncut pile, fused back together perfectly. And then, circling her finger the other way, the wood would….stay there, and do nothing.

  “There are limits. We can reverse time, but not cause anything unnatural to happen. We can make wood rot with age, but we can’t cut it in half, even if a man is stood next to it with the intent to cut it in half. Causality is beyond even a Second Tier Magus. And we can’t age people into dust or reverse aging due to the limitations. Nobody is going to notice being an hour older or an hour younger. I guess a concerted effort over a few years will cause you to be younger or older, but that is, ironically, a waste of time. We can at best reverse time to prevent people from suffering severe wounds we can’t heal” Eltaria explained, her demonstration being better than spewing words. Even if Kiko had to go cut all the wood again.

  “There is some fifty seconds between a person passing out from a fatal wound and a person actually biologically dying. Once you are proper dead, reversing time will merely give you a pretty corpse. The prevailing mentality here is that your soul has left your body after that time and so while you are still ‘alive’ there is no controlling consciousness left in your body”

  Eternia looked primed to carry on even further, but Kiko just shook her head. She was fine doing shit, but hated doing the same shit she had already done. That was the crux of hatred for forced stealth missions in games.

  “Ele! Come save me! This woman is controlling time!” Kiko exclaimed. Eternia raised an eyebrow at the exclamation, but less than a minute later, the called Kitsune would drop from the sky and steal a kiss.

  “Breaking my lover’s brain, huh?” Ele asked, a teasing grin.

  “Wouldn’t I have to be your lover first for that to work?” Kiko asked, looking at the Kitsune.

  “I guess I should control time to bring us forward to that point” Ele replied, stroking Kiko’s cheek.

  “Too bad you can’t make something do anything unnatural” Kiko retorted, flicking Ele’s head.

  Eternia, would just watch the flirting impassively, basking in the fun the two were having with each other. Eventually though, Ele would take a step back and nod.

  “Going out guarding some hunters who are picking up dinner for the next week. Wanna come?” Ele asked. Looking to Eternia for a moment to ensure that she was allowed to ditch her magic lesson and go hit things, she got a nod of affirmation.

  “Yea! I’ll get my sword” Kiko replied, holding out her hand, though it was pushed down by Eternia.

  “You aren’t allowed to use that yet, you’ll have to settle for normal weapons” Eternia replied. That sword’s power was addictive, and the song it sung when held by it’s owner would entice them to use it whenever they could. So Kiko needed watching until she could handle the whole situation.

  “Killjoy” Kiko commented, heading off with Ele to get dressed in the light armour and grab herself a proper sword. The sword she wanted to use seemed malleable, but it was best to get some experience with its native form before poking any transformation capabilities, if any.