Chapter three: The clock is ticking

It was the atmosphere of a cold winter night. The temperature suddenly went down, as if the sun had frozen. Zilean walked the roads togheter with Twisted fate, who had already litted about twelve cigars and still kept smoking, as if he didn't care for the risk on his health.

That moment was one of those when you know something big is going to happen. Zilean realized he had a deja vu. For most people, a deja vu means nothing, but for a time-obsessed sorcerer, it's a prophecy that becomes reality. A precognition.
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Time passed, and the weather didn't get any better. This cold winds suddenly came, about an hour ago, after Zilean went for a walk.

Sad thoughts passed through their minds, but they spoke no words. Lux had silently shed a couple of tears just minutes ago. She knew that Talon hated her. She had stayed near him the whole night, in hopes that the assassin may speak or care for her, but he didn't. The demacian girl felt devastated, and now, ironically, she couldn't even think of something that wasn't staying next to Talon. That was everything she had right now.

The noxian assassin was a weird one. He had struggled to survive, and that led him into a life of thievery and murder. But why did he kept on with all that? Why couldn't he have a life, and be happy like the rest? Maybe he had been alone so long, that he had grown accostumed to his lonely sadness. He didn't know what kindness meant, and it was already too late for him.

Talon was a man, and as we all know, adult men have their needs: Many brothels and lonely prostitutes were known to him. He had looked for satisfaction of his bodily needs more than once, but he had never developed any romantic feelings for anyone. And Luxanna wasn't going to be the exception to the rule.

In fact, nothing of this talk about feelings made sense to Talon. He didn't feel sad at all, because he barely knew what sadness and hapiness were. Gold, blood, and loyalty to the man who gave his life a purpose. That was all he really understood.

Three hours. The blade's shadow had already spent enough time alone with his thoughts. He stood up, and started to walk away from the girl, it was about time to get back at the Institute. Lux stayed there, hating herself, hating her feelings, hating her decision to approach Talon. She was a fool when she thought that the assassin would get interested in her.

Luxanna made sure that nobody was watching her, and started to cry.

The temperature then changed pretty quickly, as warm, wet winds carried a wave of heat that gave relief to those on the road by chasing the chill away from them.
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Relief brought by the warm winds was to be short lived, for the cold air returned in just minutes. It was the atmosphere of a cold winter night. The temperature suddenly went down, as if the sun had frozen.

...

Zilean realized he had a deja vu. Twisted fate stopped walking, as he saw his partner do the same. "What's wrong, Zilean?" the card master asked "You're having another trance?"

The old sorceror shook his head "No" He said, while pointing out the light in front of them "Look at that".

They both realized what it was, and said it at the same time:

"TIME WOUND!!!"

I like it! I don't read Zilean fics every day, and I love how you incorporate his chrono-displasia into the storytelling. The Talon/Lux romance is a nice bonus too.

Chapter four: Again

Time is constant, eternal, unlimited. To play with a force that strong is alike to playing with fire: You can only get hurt. Zilean had learned that lesson the hard way, and since then he practiced his magical arts with much more care for safety.

But what is a time wound? It is a place where time is distorted, in other words, a strong magical force that is able to control one of the most powerful elements of the world. And, as many may think, to do this is most unwise, for time cannot be fully stopped. If you wish to try and make time bend to your will, you might as well go grab a bull by the horns.

A similar, yet smaller catastrophic use of magic was the time bubble used in Kalamanda. However, that was controlled by summoners; The time wound opened in front of Zilean was a wild, unnatural rupture of time-space, that had nobody controlling it's energies.

The meaning of all this was clear: If the time wound wasn't closed soon, it could implode, expand, or slowly distort random places, with disastrous consequences. All this was obviously caused by someone's careless use of magic. But all this looked so familiar, like if he had been here before.

...

Wait.

These symptoms were familiar to the chronokeeper. He had experienced this condition many times in his life since the destruction of Urtistan.

It was an image, created by his chrono-displacia. An illusion, a mental time-drift.
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"This is the plan" Zilean explained to Talon "We'll try out our tactic in this training field. This will require a lot of coordination by us both; Time is key" It had been only a few days since Zilean moved into the institute, but the assassin knew his tactical mind was one to be trusted.

Talon simply said "Understood" and started doing exactly what Zilean told him. Togheter they practiced a lot of tricks combining blade throwing, tactical disappearances, time bombs and speed-boosts. At the end of the day they both felt tired and went to sleep. But as they walked through the hallways, Zilean entered one of his trances. Help and trust were the things that Talon never gave anyone, but that day, he changed. He helped the old man, and took him back to the appartment, for reasons he would never say.

Did he knew how succesful he and Zilean would be in the fields of justice? Maybe it was an act of greed rather than one of charity. But it mattered little, and when the old sorcerer came back from his trance, he was grateful for Talon's assistance.

"Chronokeeper. I think that exhaustive use of your magic outside the fields of justice isn't beneficial for your condition" Talon's warning repeated in Zilean's head, again and again. He was right. It wasn't beneficial for his condition, and also wasn't good for the surroundings: Time magic is pretty dangerous.

...

Wait, it all makes sense now.
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Zilean didn't knew if he was inside an illusion this time. But he did knew one thing, and although he couldn't actually talk --Because he was in trance--, he felt the horrible guilt as the answer appeared on his mind:

"I caused the time wound"

"Zilean! Zilean!!" There was no time for the chronokeeper to care about the warnings of his comrades. This abomination was his fault, it was because of his greed to become noticed by the summoners that the time wound had opened, putting everybody else in danger. It was his responsibility to stop this.

Here and now, this was the moment to end the madness. At last his illness would be cured. At last he would rest in peace. If he found death, little it mattered; He couldn't bear the torment of his disease nor the burden of the guilt. He was ready to sacrifice his own life for everyone else's good.

The old sorcerer looked at the time-wound opened just in front of him, and knew exactly what to do.

Chapter five: A twist of events

No one knows what happened next, not even Zilean. He was expecting death as result for trying to close the rupture by absorving it's magic. Instead of that, he awoke in his apartment, and his body had suffered no injuries. Confused, the old man sat in his bed.

"All that was just a dream?" he thought to himself "No. It was not a dream nor an hallucination, it was real"

"Chronokeeper" Talon greeted him "Are you feeling well? Today we were going to do that training you mentioned"

Another deja vu. This was most likely another trance. Zilean remembered that day pretty well, it was the very morning when he accidentaly caused the time wound. He wondered why he still had visions, while he should already be dead by now. Where his real body was located in time and space he didn't knew anymore.

"It is time for you and me to get preparated for more coordinated tactics, my friend" Zilean heard himself talking, but didn't controled his actions. He was just witnesing the whole escene. Acursed chrono-displasia was playing tricks on his mind again.

He continued the day as an spectator of his own memories. But he started to realize how different everything was from the other times he had re-experienced this moments. Maybe it was the time rupture he caused: So strong was the damage made on time space, that the very continuity of the past had been damaged.

Whatever the reasons, it was clear that time had been altered, for his training with Talon didn't involve magic, and he didn't enter in a trance at the end of the day. It was as if his past-self knew the damage he would cause by using his powers outside the fields of justice.
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The images didn't stop. Zilean was about to go insane: He had no control over his body, and he had been relieving the last months one day after another. The trance didn't end. He was deeply asleep in his own mind, living in a modified version of his past, unable to do something other than watching.

Days passed, and somehow the old man was able to maintain his mental sanity; This disease had plagued him for years now, and he was pretty used to it. And so far, it looked like the changes done to the past were for the greater good, for he and Talon had even more success than "before".

"Hello Mr. Zilean! Hello Talon!" Luxanna greeted them after they won their last match. The chronokeeper remembered this day quite well. It was that day were they lost an almost already won battle because of their allies' arrogance. This time, however, they had won, and their teammates made no stupid mistakes.

Talon was in a relatively good mood, something quite unusual. He was, of course, going to get real angry now, for Lux's unending talk with Zilean had really bothered him that day.

"Lady of luminosity. You fought well in that last match" Said the assassin, for the first time talking to Lux without hatred.

"Thank you, Talon! You did very well, too!"

Wait a second. No matter how much reality can be twisted, no matter the ruptures of time space and their grim consequences on the universe, this was just impossible. When did Talon stop wishing for Lux's death? He thought of stabbing her again, and again and again every time he saw the girl. Nonsense, this whole thing was nonsense.

But Zilean didn't care anymore for the severe changes on reality. All this changes seemed to be for good, so who was him to complain? The two youngsters seemed to like each other, and as far as the time-sorceror was concerned, that was a good thing.

Talon's eyes met with Lux's, and, just for a second there, I'm pretty sure he smiled.

Chapter six: The clock ticks no more.

"ZILEAN... !!"

The old man melted with the magic of his surroundings. Only a split second passed, but that was enough. His physical existence was terminated, the continuity of time destroyed, and his spirit condemned to the only thing he had left: Memories. He was a ghost reliving the past, both before and after the implosion. And now he could no longer awake from this horrid estate of mental time-drift.

"He's dead" Twisted fate said, before everything was swallowed by the waves of magic that made time go backwards.

"Am I gone?" The old man thought to himself "Have I went too far, and now I just can not return?"

It was a very good question. Did he even exist? Did he even had a life, or was it all just another dream? Did this eternal wandering had any meaning?
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"... He's very influential in modern art" The past-Zilean said to past-Twisted fate, while they discussed about an old painter. This was the last day he remembered before going into the time-wound. Maybe when the images of the past reached his last moments something would happen? Zilean could only wait.

He was already bored of re-experiencing his discussions, no matter how interesting they could be. So, instead of listening to his past-self chat with his friends, he tried to explore the rest of the place. It was difficult, at first, to separate his senses from his body. But it wasn't really his body, since he was just a time-wandering conscience.

Zilean focused. He thought of the surroundings, the sounds, the colors, the tastes. His awareness grew, more and more, until he became almost omnipresent. He could be wherever he wanted, see what he wanted and hear what he wanted

He took his attention away from the interior of the tavern. Instead of watching his boring discussion again, the old man looked at the exterior, and saw his comrade, the assassin, watching the stars. This piqued the chronokeeper's interest, and he decided to observe.

"No matter the catastrophes that occur in our world, the stars will always provide us with their light and beauty" Lux approached, hands on her back, looking at Talon with her pretty cristalline blue eyes, not jumping and laughing like a fool, just looking at him with a sincere smile. Real were her feelings, and real was the happiness she felt whenever she saw him.

"Lady of luminosity, I haven't asked for your company" his cold voice said cruelly, as he tried to ignore her presense, despite the attraction he felt towards the young girl.

Talon knew that feelings that strong were better avoided by someone like him, specially if the woman in question was too much younger than him, and even more if she was a demacian. While he didn't care much for patriotism, his master did, and it was better for him if he didn't had any relation with those who opposed his lord.

Lux felt like punched in the face by Talon's words, but insisted. "Shadow of Du Couteau, can't we get to know each other?"

"Exposing my mind isn't something I find pleasant" Talon replied, while maintaining his emotionless expression "And... Oh, well. I'll make an exception this time"

The chat between the two youngsters was pretty interesting. Talon was a bit elusive at first, but he slowly started to open himself. The changes done to the past allowed Talon and Zilean to become stronger more quickly thanks to the absence of the time wound, this strength allowed them to win their match. Winning their match somehow made Talon happy, and somehow this good mood of his pushed him to ignore his decision of rejecting Lux.

Zilean was amazed. He had just experienced how something barely important to him --like winning or losing a match-- had an effect on the course of events. He had just witnessed two possible realities, the both of them changed by seemingly insignificant actions.

The old man's consciousness started to fade away by the end of the night. But as he disappeared, Zilean saw the beggining of a lasting love story between two young champions of the League.

The lady of luminosity's lips met with those of the shadow. The man who was trapped in time smiled as he briefly foresaw the beatiful future that they would have togheter.

He then banished as the warm atmosphere became that of a cold winter night.
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Epilogue

"He's asleep" Twisted fate explained, as he assisted his companion, who had fainted while they walked towards the Institute.

"Are you sure Mr. Zilean is alright? He's looking rather pale" Said Lux, who, accompanied by Talon, met the card master on the road.

"Look. He's gaining consciousness" Noted Talon.

Zilean opened his eyes. For a moment, he thought he was dead, totally banished from existence. He looked around him, and found himself laying down in the ground.

"Chronokeeper. Are you okey? You look dazzled"

A thousand things had transpired. Time adventures, existencial questions, ruptures in time space. But Zilean, too wise to tell all, knew that this long trance he experienced was a lesson. Be real or not the things he saw, he had learned many things. He simply smiled, and with that relaxed, sympathetic expression of his, he said:

"I am fine, my friend. Just a weird dream"
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wow this was actually really good

a very original idea too, so many convulted time travel, different universes, things you could do with Zilean haha