Pahhu: Shifting Sands of Time 18: Three Truths

DAY 49
 
The turbulent energy of the temporal demiplane where the party had faced their mirrors slowly disintegrated around the party as the feeling of an instant stretching through time and shattering enveloped them. They found themselves in Thamisia’s temple, the Sphinx staring down at them with an inscrutable face. Though the party was unaware of it the magic which had pulled them into their trial had warped the passage of time; two weeks had passed since they had accepted the trial.
 
“You have done well to overcome the trial. Though… a bit violent, aren’t you lot?” Thamisia’s blue eyes scanned the party without blinking. “Well, no matter. You have overcome the challenge in… your own way. Allow me to offer a gift to make amends.” Thamisia willed another bit of the wall to fold and part, revealing a small nook of treasures. Seemingly the belongings of adventurers. “Not all who attempt the trial succeed. What they leave behind becomes the strength of those who carry on.”
 
As Rasheed examined the bounty, Pahhu approached Thamisia. “Are you alone here?” The Sphinx stared at Pahhu, considering her words. Could this little one be seeking to know the depths of her strength in this place, perhaps ready to attack as vengeance for putting them through the trial? But as the Sphinx judged Pahhu’s intent she chose to question. “Why do you ask such things?”
 
“Well, we haven’t seen anyone else, and you said others had come for the trial. And you said my mother was here once…” Pahhu glanced around the place, almost as if looking for footprints in the dust. Thamisia regarded Pahhu for a moment and answered carefully. “Things have changed in the past couple decades. My mate, Lostheus, and I were forced to become more active. The faithful were driven to seek us out and to prove their worthiness, and while at most times the faithful succeeded there were many others who failed. We gave those who succeeded what they needed to carry on… but the imbalance lingers.”
 
The Sphinx shifted her weight as she considered the subject. “My patron and lord, Labelas Enoreth, must manage this imbalance and correct it, but he is limited in the action he may directly take. The imbalance now has grown to where it encroaches on the Prime Material Plane; something you are keenly aware of. Should this imbalance continue to grow the danger will be immense… In the end all is dust to time.”
 
“We have watched you for a long time, Pahhu. You do not understand where this is going, but a moment of critical importance is imminent. Those that have come before you…” Thamisia will glance towards the mirrors, and the nook of items. “Have failed to correct the imbalance. They have lacked the skill, or the power, or the allies to overcome their path.” Thamisia’s blue eyes scan over the party as she says the word allies.
 
“You know the danger of the uncontrolled tears. Of the great ooze which would have consumed all. The mechanoid you have encountered is dangerous and seeks to accelerate the fraying of the planar boundaries. He came to this temple once to seek access to the Temple of Time, from where he would have been able to unravel things instantly. Because of him Lostheus and I must remain apart, protecting the halves of the key from his grasp.”
 
“Lostheus and I each hold half of a key to the Temple of Time. It is a sacred place into which only few are ever granted access… I fear you all may be the last to make the attempt. I pray you succeed in bringing back balance to the temple, and the plane beyond. But to enter you must go to Arvandor and earn my patron’s favor and receive guidance from his adherents in how you must correct this matter. He has needs in Arvandor, and you must prove yourself to him. We are bound in what we can do directly, and this must be your decision. Will you go?” The Sphinx’s eyes did not even flicker as she impassively awaited an answer, one she probably already knew was coming.
 
The party gathered to discuss in the temple sanctum. Pahhu felt in every fiber of her being that she knew she must go. She wasn’t sure if she was the reason that the dimensions had begun to fray and tear, but if she was that was even more reason to repair it. What had long ago only been the friction of her running against the wind and had grown into her very movements scraping the planar boundary had made her aware of the great thinning, and the danger that lurked just beyond. Had she grown stronger? Had the boundary grown weaker? Was she at fault. The responsibility that had begun to weigh on her had been buoyed by her growing strength and control. “I think I gotta go.”
 
Pahhu’s slate-blue eyes gleamed under her hood. While the words lacked volume, and the statement lacked eloquence there was a determination behind it. “And we’re going with you.” Marinette said, through almost clenched teeth. “We’ve gone this far, we’re not turning back now.” One by one the group agreed, and soon they stood united before Thamisia to declare their intent to continue.
 
“Very well. Spend the night in the temple and recover. On the morrow you shall go forward to Arvandor.” Thamisia began to turn, but was halted by a question from Pahhu. “Is it my fault? Am I the one who started this?” The sphinx once again regarded Pahhu. “How would you have done this, Pahhu?”
 
Pahhu lifted a ringer and began to slowly scrape against the plane, a thin trail of pale blue-grey dust falling from a static sparking line as her finger traced the space. Thamisia’s eyes watched the sparks and dust as a wave of containment energy rippled forth from runes embedded into the sanctum, containing and imploding the tear, shoving Pahhu back slightly. “I… have always been able to do this. Scrape, rips, even holes if I try hard enough. Sometimes I even end up in the dry place if I over do it.” Pahhu began to hastily explain the magic but Thamisia cut her off.
 
“To see such a holy thing here…” For but a moment Thamisia’s mask-like face cracked as the slightest bit of awe shone through, but it was quickly replaced by the stoic face she always wore. “It seems the divine power has manifested is in your bloodline, Pahhu.” Thamisia shifted her weight as she considered her words, but opted for silence, perhaps having already felt she had said too much.
 
Pahhu’s mind quickly raced. What did that mean? Divine power? Her bloodline? But her parents had been tribespeople, and had worshipped Amaunator, not Labelas? In a rare flash of insight she realized that perhaps any temporal magic was divine to Thamisia, or that there were many ways to arrive there. What mattered most was Thamisia had recognized what she was doing! “I… can you teach me?” The words came quickly from Pahhu, even before she realized she was saying them. “If I’m the one making the rips and the scars then I want to control it. You… you have the stable portals here. How do you do it?”
 
“The mirrorways? They are a secret I can not teach you now, and this place has much to do with it. But perhaps I can teach you of the power you wield.”
 
Pahhu spent the evening learning from Thamisia, for the first time in her life Pahhu became aware of a very simple truth. The temporal magic she was wielding came from within her. All along she had seen it as a force she tapped into on the other side of the planar boundary, but it was more similar to a resonance. The power had been within her all along, growing with her and allowing her to touch the ever-present fabrics of time itself. But if this meant that Pahhu hadn’t been stealing from the Temporal Energy Plane all this time did that mean she was never the one who had caused the imbalance?
 
The results of her training were incredible; the locus shift of reaching out and grasping vs willing and pushing from inside greatly sharpened her control over her magic. Pahhu would no longer suffer the backlash of entropic wild magic in temporally stable environments.
 
Meanwhile the party took their time to rest, playing games amongst themselves. Two Truths and a Lie quickly being confused for Three Truths as the concept was lost on Ed as to the fun of telling lies. The party also explored the temple, finding a seemingly bottomless hole that Thamisia explained was the final resting place of those who failed the trial. As the party made ready to leave their home plane, for the first time for many of them they had much to consider…
 
Was it not Pahhu who was the Time Ripper after all, was the source the mechanoid undead they had fought? Or was it simply a natural force or occurrence, the circumstances around which were coincidental or opportunistic?
Was there more to Pahhu’s power than simple coincidence? Was a divine hand involved? Or did Thamisia’s slip of the tongue only suggest she viewed temporal magic as divine in nature?
Finally, what would they find in Arvandor? Why had so many others failed?
These three truths would elude them, at least for now.