The Butterfly Effect

“I wanted us to try something a little bigger today,” Jasmin announced. They’d all found their places in the room, with everything set up similarly to when they foresaw the festival. “We’re never going to know exactly how far this is going to take us until we’re willing to take the risk to find out.”

Eme gave a nervous nod. “What do you want to try, then? Is it still going to be with Truth magic, or do you want to try something else this time..?”

“We were thinking about another glimpse into the future, but heightened by Illusion magic,” Kiara explained. “Only the three of you are going to be able to see what the Illusion magic does, but I’ll still contribute my efforts.”

“I was hoping we’d do something more interesting,” Brynn grumbled. “Must we keep seeing the future? Why not play around with any of Daphni’s forbidden trades, or Faidon’s? They’re much more interesting than anything Vaso set up…”

“You should understand the purpose just as much as the rest of us,” Jasmin remarked wisely. “We need to start slow and work our way into the bigger things. As long as you’re patient, and we get the results we’re looking for, then we’ll get to that part eventually. But this has to be where we start.”

Brynn muttered something that was, just barely, an agreement.

With that settled, Jasmin continued with the rest of her announcement. “I’d like us to try to see how Yllvamel as a whole will be doing several years from now. Not only is it a much bigger jump than before, but we’ll also add some Illusion magic—I was thinking we could make the whole room part of the projection, instead of just a little spot. Something that made it seem like we were sitting in the very streets of the future Yllvamel.”

“Sounds fairly straightforward,” Eme mumbled, nodding to herself as well. “That kind of Illusion magic generally isn’t even considered Mávri Mageía…”

“That was exactly my reasoning. It’s something that tests both the limits of managing Mávri Mageía, but also our capability of performing multiple spells at once.” Jasmin continued rather casually, despite the kind of levity her words had. “Like usual, I want each of you to tell me if anything feels strange, and we’ll end the spell immediately. I don’t want anyone to be affected by Mávri Mageía or overuse any of their magic, in case our calculations are wrong on something.”

Each of them gave their mumbles of agreement, then they started the ritual. At first, it resembled the one they’d done before the festival; just a small glimpse in the center of the room. But then they added the Illusion magic, and it was exactly like Jasmin had described it—like the entire room was a pocket of the future.

“Is it working?” Kiara prompted.

Even Jasmin couldn’t hide her excitement as she nodded and said, “Better than I could’ve imagined. Shall we try to explore? We’re not going to learn much by staying in one place, after all. We can ‘visit’ each of the major streets, then we should end it.”

As they ‘wandered,’ changing their viewpoints to various places around the town, Eme took in all the little changes. She caught a glimpse of a definitely-older Ragnis casually talking with the half-siren that sometimes visited him and his mother. A few shops seemed to have closed, or new ones opened, with a few newer faces. Overall, though, she couldn’t notice any big differences between the town then and now.

She supposed Yllvamel always was slow to change. She found it rather fitting and peaceful, actually, to know that it would continue to barely differ from year to year.

They ‘visited’ each of the major streets, just as Jasmin had suggested, taking in all of the sights and sounds the undoubtedly prospering town had to offer. For a moment, as they were clearly coming near the end of their ‘tour,’ Eme almost panicked at the realization that she hadn’t seen any of them walking around. But in a moment, she connected it to what had happened with the festival, and she didn’t find herself nearly as worried.

After all, if this was working, then there was surely much more they could do later. Perhaps all of them had just been meeting at the estate on the day they’d chosen, and that’s why none of them were walking around. Or maybe they’d even gotten chances to travel elsewhere to share their knowledge, as that was something Jasmin occasionally showed an interest in.

The last thing they saw on their ‘trip’ was the Takemra estate just outside of town. All of the curtains were closed, but that was normal; ivy was growing up the walls and the fencing, but Eme always had trouble containing it; the flower bed was filling up with weeds, but perhaps it was just the beginning of the season, and she hadn’t gotten around to cleaning it yet. She found perfectly reasonable excuses for all of them—excuses she could use against her creeping dread to beat it back down and stop it from ruining the moment.

Then the projection ended, slowly fading out.

“That went remarkably smoothly,” Jasmin said, giving the most excited smile Eme had seen her have. “Everyone’s still feeling fine, right? I understand that this might’ve been a little much—I wouldn’t be surprised if we used a little bit more magic than I’d originally intended.”

“I think we might’ve just seen each of our full potentials,” Eme offered. “I feel perfectly fine—barely any different than getting some water for tea.”

Kiara nodded. “You probably underestimated what we could do—just to make sure we didn’t overdo it. I can’t speak much for the illusion portion, though.”

“All I am is bored,” Brynn remarked. “I suppose I can understand the importance of practicing the small parts first. But now that we have this down, can we please do something more exciting? Any more of only the future and a few illusions and I’m going to end up falling asleep during the spell.”

Jasmin sighed. “I suppose that’s nearly to be expected, but we still need to practice more. It’s good to hear that everyone’s fine, but we need to ensure that these are the repeatable outcomes, not just luck or chance. We’re going to have to do a couple more test runs before we can start doing anything more.”

“It’s only an unnecessary risk if we don’t,” Kiara added. “If you’re willing to take that risk, go ahead and do it yourself. But you’re not going to drag us all down with you if you’re too eager to wait.”

Eme nervously nodded. “I’m going to have to agree with both of them. We shouldn’t do something that has too big of a chance to hurt someone. Something like that could even have the chance of ruining a good deal of the progress we’ve made so far…”

“I would’ve thought you’d support me on this one,” Brynn grumbled. “You’re the one who’s only a part of this because you want to raise someone from the dead. Doesn’t this just feel like busywork to you? Don’t you want to see him as soon as possible?”

Eme hated how much she hesitated; how she knew that Brynn was right but, at the same time, understood the consequences of recklessly going along with it. As soon as Eme was sure that she’d give the right answer, though, she confidently pointed out, “None of that is going to matter if I have to sacrifice myself for it. Our family will only be complete when all three of us are together again.”

Jasmin nodded. “That’s the perfect answer. It actually puts me a bit at ease, honestly, to hear that you’re still willing to think these things through. That means I, hopefully, don’t have to worry about you making any rash decisions later down the line.”

“Of course not. As much as I want to see Leander again… I have to be there for Astyu, too. I’m not going to just abandon him. He needs his mother, and I’m certainly not going to deny him that.”

Kiara slowly stood up. “Well, it sounds like we’re just about done here for today. Perhaps we could all enjoy a nice break for tea, then head our separate ways for now?”

Eme got up as well. “That sounds good. I’ll go ahead and get it ready—and ask Astyu if he’d like to join us. I haven’t had a chance to go to the store recently, so I’m running a little low on tea, but it should be enough for the five of us to each have a cup.”

Jasmin gave her a kind smile. “Just the thought behind it is enough. Thank you.”