Chapter 92 What If I Have To Pee?

  “I should have known that you would get over confident, both of you.” Jala scolded Isaac who could do nothing but take it. He had just finished filling her in on everything that had happened in the interim since the last time he had seen her.

  ‘Can you help Lenna?’ Isaac asked his wife’s aunt through the telepathic connection that she had established.

  Jala wrinkled her nose as her mind sifted through hundreds of possibilities. It looked, to Isaac, like she was processing the entirety of existence in real time to find the optimal solution. “There is someone who can help you and would most likely be willing to do so.” She told him a frown. It was clear that she did not like what she was about to offer but it was obvious that it would be the most efficient option.

  ‘Who?’ Isaac questioned almost immediately. Jala could hear his thoughts but the same was not inversely true.

  “That demigod that came to see you. The one that moved as if time stood still for her.” Jala explained. “The only current Demigod of Time.” She grumbled. “The only other option would be a time dragon, but where would you get one of those that was both willing to work with you and was trustworthy.”

  The irony, of Isaac and Lenna’s hunt for a green dragon turning out how it had, was not lost on him. ‘I don’t know how to get a hold of Lady Jikan.’ Isaac confessed.

  “There is one easy enough way to do it, though I would rather not.” Jala told him.

  Isaac raised an eyebrow without thinking about it and could do nothing but accept the pain the movement had given him. ‘How?’ He asked her.

  “Create a paradox, obviously.” Jala told him and looked around for something to use. She settled on his empty travel cup. She drew a small spell sigil in the air over it and the cup was instantly cleaned and polished to a mirrored finish. Jala wrinkled her nose at what she was about to do. “You know I hate doing this.” She grumbled. Apparently she had not gotten around to learning how to ritual cast every single spell that had ever existed.

  ‘Thank you.’ Isaac told her.

  “Yes-yes. Now hush. I am working.” Jala shushed him. The cup was suddenly displaced half an inch above where it had been but then landed in the exact location that it had been taken from. “Rules are meant to be broken. Laws are but simple constructs. Accept my shining token and become my time's obstruct.” She chanted and power washed over the steel cup. Nothing happened, because it already had.

  Isaac’s mind was reeling. ‘The cup was sent back in time into a place that it technically existed in, only for it to fall back down into the place that it was, so that Jala could send it back in time, but the one that Jala had sent back in time was the one that had been sent back in time otherwise it wouldn’t have fallen into the position that it was in.’ His head was pounding as a time paradox had literally spawned in front of him when all of a sudden everything was back to how it was before the cup had arrived back in time. A black haired woman with angular features and flowing clothes was glaring down at Jala.

  “I told you to never use that spell again. Do you have any idea how much of my power it takes to do something like…” The Demigoddess of Time slowly panned her gaze over Isaac and Lenna and then sighed. “Jala L’Vore. I mean it when I say that I would have frozen you in time until you lived out the rest of your natural lifespan.” She sighed again. “But without any means of contacting me, I can understand why you did it.” She reached into her sash and pulled out a small stone. She handed it to Jala. “If you ever need to summon me again, use this.” She ordered the other ancient wizard.

  “Yes ma’am.” Jala spoke with a slight bow of her head. Her glance that met Isaac’s wide eyes conveyed a message that spoke of debts being paid and favores no longer owed.

  Isaac nodded. ‘If you would be up for staying in Safeharbor permanently, we can entirely forget about favors and lives owed.’ He mentally thought aloud so Jala could hear him. Jala looked away without responding which left Isaac questioning what she was thinking.

  Ori Jikan bent at the waist to hover directly over Isaac. “You’ve really done it this time, haven’t you?” She questioned with raised eyebrows.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “It’s been a great time.” Isaac joked through the agony that speaking brought him.

  “This is going to cost you, and not in a way that you would expect.” Time told him.

  Isaac nodded slightly.

  “I am going to alter time from your perspectives so that you have more time to heal. This will make less time go by for everyone else but will also increase your recovery time from your perspective. I know that you are familiar with the Quicken spell. It will be like that but much worse. I will adjust it so that you will never bleed out, or suffocate, but we will be riding that line until you are healed enough to take care of yourself.” Time went on. “But you will owe me one, this is overstepping. I agreed to leave you to your own devices, but now that I am here, I can’t just leave you without helping. While I work, tell me why you are here and what got you into this mess.”

  Isaac glanced over at Lenna. Lady Jikan’s eyes followed his gaze and then they seemed to glow a vibrant indigo. She saw things that had been and then widened her eyes slightly.

  “I see.” She told Isaac with a frown. “I will do her first. While I do, fill me in on what I have not seen.”

  “My Lady.” The healer spoke with his head down and his body in a low bow. “Speaking will be quite painful for him at the moment, and I am sure that there are magics that the newcomer has that would allow him to speak without speaking.”

  “I know it is painful.” Lady Jikan replied calmly as she knelt down just north of Lenna’s head. “But speaking will keep him from getting stiff, and I am owed an explanation at least. These kinds of injuries do not just happen.”

  The healer just nodded and did not speak again. It appeared that Jala also knew when to keep her mouth shut. Only Ori and Jala knew the full story of their first meeting but Isaac assumed that Jala had gotten quite the verbal lashing at the very least.

  Isaac swallowed dryly. “Water?” He asked the healer who nodded and fetched some for him. “I’ll start at the beginning. Lenna and I, we found some slave girls, at an auction…” As Isaac went on, he watched Lady Jikan work. The healer had gotten him water and helped him sip from it from time to time as he told her everything. He knew that she had seen when he and Lenna had acquired the girls, but they were truly the beginning of their adventure.

  Ori’s hands hovered against the outline of Lenna’s soul. She could hear Isaac clearly and was passively taking in everything that he was saying but most of her focus was on Lenna. She slowly started to adjust the rate at which the elf was going through time until her input equaled the amount of mana that she was bleeding. Ori held her there through meditations and unconsciousness for two full hours until Isaac was finished with the story.

  Isaac’s voice was horse by the time he was done. He had noticed Lady Jikan’s facial muscles tense at the mention of a green dragon and everything that led Isaac to think that there might’ve been one in charge of the CSC. She had maintained silence as he gave her, Jala, and the healer the unadulterated version of the conversation that had gone on just before he returned from death, again. He hadn’t spoken Rei or Zei’s names, but simply referred to them as the golden haired girl and boy. He knew that they were unimaginably ancient, but that was how they looked and Isaac assumed that they had chosen that look on purpose.

  “I have set her passage of time to change based on how much mana she is taking in and how it relates to how much mana she is bleeding.” Lady Jikan told Isaac and then slowly got up and walked over to him. “I know you are going to get mad at me for saying this, but it must be said.” Time told him with resolve in her eyes. “Your wife is a beautiful woman who I cannot help but care for very deeply for her earnestness and dedication alone, but she is an idiot.”

  Isaac was too taken aback to reply right away.

  “She should have just healed herself and gotten someone capable of resurrecting you the normal way. Halya, Lua, and the twin divinities obviously were prepared to help you both in your time of need. I doubt you would have even lost any memories. You have a blessing of Lua, she probably would have scooped you up like a thief takes an apple in a marketplace.” Lady Jikan went on. “All of this was unnecessary. Her overprotectiveness cost her thirty years of her life and both of you unnecessary pain. This entire event is utterly ridiculous.”

  “Maybe you should wait until she is awake?” Isaac offered.

  “Oh believe me, I will still have plenty of words for when she is conscious.” Time snapped back at him. “And your meditation is the reason you even need me. If you had thought through the consequences of your actions, which I would have assumed you would start to do after you literally died due to a lapse in judgment, then you would be well on your way to recovery. The two of you would have been functioning in two days and fine in a month or two, entirely on your own.”

  Even if Isaac had the words to argue, which he did not because she was very much correct on all accounts, he didn’t have the energy to be able to muster any kind of defence. Taking a verbal lashing was not something that Isaac usually would have stood for but, just this once, he could agree that he probably deserved it. If anything, it made him feel better. There was only so much that he could beat himself up over his own mistakes. Having someone like Lady Jikan hit him in the face with them and scold him for each one was actually helping him process and push past his own failures, faults, and fuckups. In hindsight, far off into the future, Isaac realized that she was probably scolding him for exactly that reason, just as much as she was scolding him for actually making those mistakes anyway. By the time she had wound down, Isaac’s thoughts had turned entirely within himself.

  “I am not done with you.” Time told him and knelt down so her knees were almost touching the top of his head. Her hands hovered right next to him and he felt the world dim as he was taking in the surrounding light at a slower rate. “But for now, I will let you have peace. Do not meditate, but try to sleep if you can. Once you have slept and awoken twice, I will have enough information to set the magic up without my direct input. I will let you know when you can start meditating again, but don’t expect it to be soon. “

  “What if I have to pee?” Isaac questioned her.

  “Then pee.” She told him with a frown that meant that she was entirely serious. A moment later she sighed. “Do you actually have to pee? That healer can help you.”

  Isaac smirked. He would have chuckled but the thought of the pain that it would have brought was enough to keep him silent. “Not yet.” He said and closed his eyes. He hadn’t just brought it up to mess with her but instead he had used her own strategy against her. He knew almost as well as she did that a person’s answers to unusual questions, especially when the person had all of the power in the world, expressed what kind of person they truly were. Isaac had always been wary of Lady Jikan’s power but he had to admit, there was a motherly, almost grandmotherly, air about her that just made him want to drop his guard, even if her power screamed the opposite.