Test Summoning: Apocalypse

A new day dawned to chirping birds calling out to the world from the branches of The Gnashing Teeth's building. The dim light of early morning reflecting off the neighboring tree peeked through the room's shutters and rose Oliver from his slumber. His eyes turned to look at the shutters and he pondered how to block out the small imperfections to blanket the room in perpetual night.

His eyes then turned to gaze at Void and his opinion of the morning light changed. Her sleeping form was splayed out upon his chest as she breathed in and out with a contented rhythm. Her cheek fluff had, once more, tangled into a nest of slobber and nits as she moved about in her drool upon Oliver's chest. A slight pungent odor of Void's morning breath assaulted Oliver's nose.

He found the experience wonderful. He reveled in the nuances of Void's personality. Where others would find the drool unpleasant or the scent foul, Oliver saw in it life. It was within the minor flaws that a loving relationship blossomed.

Oliver lay silently for an hour as he listened to the clock ticking away, counting off yet more seconds and minutes in the novel new world. He would soon have to rouse Void. They had plans for the day, the most important being purchasing Lia's tonic they had thoughtlessly forgotten in the exciting day before.

The need to disturb Void's sleep did not arise as she gently awoke with a yawn. Her hand reflexively wiped away her drool upon Oliver's chest and she looked into his eyes. The pair gave each other their good morning kiss, their start of the day.

"Good morning," the two said in tandem, prompting mirth in the duo at their synchronized speech.

The morning's joyous ritual was interrupted by a look of distress on Void's face. She bolted up in bed and, with speed, jumped over Oliver and sprinted out of the room.

"Void! Put on some dang clothes!" Doun's shout echoed down the hall as Void entered bathroom opposite the door.

Oliver rolled out of bed, quickly dressed and collected Void's clothing. He crossed into the bathroom to assist his ill fiancé as she leaned against the toilet. His worry escalated since this had been going on for far too long. "We're going to get something from the apothecary when we buy Lia's tonic."

Void finally relented. "Alright. Let me get dressed and we can head out."

After Void recovered, the pair descended the stairs. Mira was looking concerned by her daughter's state. "When did you say your appointment was?"

"Tomorrow," Void replied. "I'm going to go with Oliver to the apothecary to see if they have something to settle my nausea. It feels like I'm rolling around on a boat."

Mira's expression changed to something Oliver couldn't decipher. It was like she was thinking deeply about something. She tapped her fingers across the bar before speaking. "Get something natural. Those harsh alchemical tonics aren't good for you. Also get some oranges and watermelon. They'll help."

"Thanks for the advice," Void said. Oliver wondered why fruit would help settle the stomach. He never thought something acidic would be useful.

The pair stepped out into the rush of morning commute. Even on the quiet street outside The Gnashing Teeth, the time of the day ensured a healthy traffic of people and animal driven carts to and fro.

Taking a deep breath, Oliver offered his arm to Void. Void, in her happiness, hooked hers around his and the two made their way down the road.

They took the walk slowly. Partly because it helped ease Void's nausea. Mostly because they wanted to enjoy the day. They lingered outside a bakery as the bakers placed fresh loaves of bread in the window to entice passers-by. Void paused by a display selling men's clothing to attempt to convince Oliver to purchase something new. He said he would consider it when his shirt was more hole than clothing. He chose to not hear when Void pointed out it was never buttoned.

The street connected to a major thoroughfare where the population pressed in their morning rush. People hurried along walkways while the rumble of animals and carts echoed along the street. It was busy and full of life, something Oliver enjoyed. All of these people, not just his compatriots, had their futures back. He was well and truly a hero, one the people of Leoren would never know. He preferred his anonymity.

Void once more felt a pang of nausea. The pair paused to help it pass. The apothecary was close, just a across the street. Oliver directed Void to a bench. "Have a breather. I'll get the tonic and something for your stomach. Natural citrus, right?"

Void rubbed her head to attempt to push away the pain. "Right. Mom has a good handle on these things. She always found the right tonic to make me feel better."

"I'll be back in a moment," Oliver said with a smile and turned to dash across the road.

One of the dangers of being stuck in a time loop for so long is a person could get overly used to replaying the same days. Repeating days and events wormed their way into behaviors and manners. It played out in big ways, such as knowing where a lost ring had fallen or when to catch a person falling from a bar stool.

It also took root in subconscious ways. Knowing when to step to a side to avoid bird droppings from falling on your head. The fine timing to receive the best loaf of bread at a baker. The traffic patterns of a busy street.

It was the last that failed Oliver in the moment. It was no longer a repeating day. His mind, so used to looping, had confused the subtleties of the air, the clouds and the people moving around as a particularly different day his subconscious had become accustomed to. When he stepped into the road, he was expecting a clear path to his destination.

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What greeted him, instead, was a rapidly moving four-bison drawn cart.

Oliver's world tumbled and spun. He could no longer recognize up from down as he lost control of his body. He heard loud snaps, the creak of wood, the braying of animals and screams. So much screaming. His body had suddenly refused to move. He felt…pain. Muted and surreal. He had experienced so much terrible agony that this event barely registered in his mind.

His eyes focused on his status bar. His health bar was dangerously low and shrinking. The rest was a deep, unpleasant black. His eyes were all he had left to move and they shifted down. They saw his body broken and mangled, limbs bent in ways they were never meant and multiple bones exposed to the air where they should not be.

Oliver's hearing began to fade. All he could register was the distant, muffled screaming of Void calling for a healer, calling for help. He couldn't even shift his eyes to lay them on her one last time. All he could see was an exposed rib, a backward leg and the ground.

Yet Oliver was content. His life may be ending yet he knew the future was secure. The apocalypse was averted. Sure, he had plans for the future. A wife. A family. Grow old and die toddling around a garden in the presence of his loved ones. Even without those dreams fulfilled, he could die happy knowing the future was secure.

As the last of his red leaked out from his bar, his vision faded and all went black.

The dim light of early morning reflecting off the neighboring tree peeked through the room's shutters and rose Oliver from his slumber. His eyes turned to look at the shutters and he pondered how to block out the small imperfections to blanket the room in perpetual night.

His eyes then turned to gaze at Void and his opinion of the morning light changed. Her sleeping form was splayed out upon his chest as she breathed in and out with a contented rhythm. Her cheek fluff had, once more, tangled into a nest of slobber and nits as she moved about in her drool upon Oliver's chest. A slight pungent odor of Void's morning breath assaulted Oliver's nose.

It was not a new day. He had just experienced this mere hours before. He looked at his right hand gently wrapped around Void's bare body and did not see the beer he had expected. Then a stark realization hit him.

My audience was back. The blasted audience had returned and I was now forced to speak to them once more. They didn't leave. The curtain isn't down on this performance. They only left to take a piss then fill back up with overpriced soda and candy.

Now the curtain was rising once more, a second act had begun. My time loop was still active. This time? This time I had to start fresh. In some ways, I was relieved. Had I landed on my ass in the castle basement with a beer in my hand, I'm sure my mind would have broken irreparably.

On the other hand, I recognized whatever saddled me with Mulligan wasn't done with me. Something was still coming and greater forces still expected me to ward it off. Worse, I had to go through the painful, lengthy process of trying to figure out what it was. Then the even longer process of figuring out how to stop it.

My eyes drifted down to Void blissfully asleep on my chest. Yet again, she had lost a little part of her. It was only two hours this time, but it was still a loss. My heart ached at the prospect of having to go through endless experiences just to have them erased from her memory. My eyes began to water uncontrollably at the thought.

When would it loop? After our marriage? Did we have to go through our happiest day over and over again just to lose the experience?

I calmed myself. I had to have a talk when she woke up. It would be an hour. After she had her bout of illness, I'd tell her it happened again.

Then something unexpected happened. Something different in my loop. Something I didn't set in motion. Void jolted up out of bed, slinging the covers clear off the bed. "Oliver!" she shouted.

Her eyes looked around the room in confusion and landed on me. I saw her instantly calm. She leaned down and hugged me tightly, almost cutting off my air. "By the Grand Creator, you're safe. I just had the worst dream. I had gotten up and we left to get Lia's tonic and something for me after I got sick…"

"Your mother suggested oranges and watermelon. Then I got run over by a bison cart because I didn't look both ways before crossing the street," I finished.

I watched Void's brow crease in confusion. She stared at me for a long moment. "How did you know my dream?"

I rubbed my hand over my face. "You just had a time loop. With me."

She blinked. "No, I must have been talking in my sleep."

I shook my head. "You never talk in your sleep. I know it feels weird. Had I not restarted the loop at my summoning, I'd have thought it was a dream, too. Abruptly finding yourself back in the past? It's hard to comprehend. You had it even worse since you didn't have a break like your death to mark the passage and you looped back to when you were sleeping. At least this confirms it's my death, not a point in time, which triggers the loop."

Void was struggling to understand what was happening. Frankly, I was too. Mulligan was supposed to be my ability. What changed? Why was Void dragged into this?

Her disbelief was debunked when I heard the door to our room slam open. There, I saw both Lia and Tizek rush in. Lia was hyperventilating to try and slow her heart rate. Tizek had a wild look in his eye from the terror.

The two began talking over each other and I couldn't understand them.

"Shut the door! We're trying to sleep!" Doun shouted from down the hall. That was enough to break Tizek out of his state and close the door. Lia had to close her eyes and take big, deep breaths.

"My lord. I was eating my morning meal and then I was lying in bed," Tizek rapidly said.

"And I was in the bathroom," Lia added. "Then I was also back in bed."

Lia recognized she was staring at me and Void stark naked in bed. She turned around and slapped her hands over her bald face. "Sorry!"

I slid out of bed and donned my clothes while Void reached down and pulled the covers up over her body.

I took a deep breath. "Bad news. It seems like you've been dragged into my loop. Good news, this should make it easier to figure out."

Lia started to hyperventilate again. "How are you taking this so well?"

"He's done this thousands of times," Void said.

"And I'm not taking it well," I added. "I'm narrating to my invisible audience again."

Void gave me a comforting smile. She knew. The others didn't.

"Audience, my lord?" Tizek asked with confusion. I explained to them how I had been narrating my life in the first person perpetually to an imaginary audience for centuries. It had broken briefly yesterday after I realized the apocalypse didn't happen.

As I thought back on my brief time being relatively normal, my mind filled in a new narrator. It was in third person and sounded British. The others didn't know what that meant since I couldn't replicate the received pronunciation accent in the magically induced local tongue.

"Will that happen to me?" Lia asked, her bald face forgotten in her panicked state.

I shook my head. "It happened mostly because of what I was dealing with. I think this may go a little better for you three since we have each other to lean on."

Lia looked like she was starting to relax a little. It was the calm before the storm. The real misery came not the first time but after we looped countless times.

"Tell you what? Go get refreshed again. We'll reconvene in my old room upstairs and we can talk about this further," I suggested.

Tizek and Lia both nodded.

"I will, my lord. I stand ready to receive your guidance," Tizek stated. I could always rely on him. He was scared yet he got it under control to focus on the task at hand.

I sat back down on the bed and pressed my face into my hands after the pair left. I erected a strong front for Lia and Tizek, but I was feeling just as terrified as they were. This was too much. I had just broken my loop and, in less than a day, I was thrown right back into a fresh one.

"At least I'll get to see what autumn is like here," I muttered.

"It's not bad. A little chilly," Void responded. She placed her hand on my shoulder and turned me to look at her. "You had the right of it. We're in this together now."

I smiled. "I wish it were that easy. I'm going to warn you now, this is going to be hard with your parents. Every time we loop, everything they experienced with you will be gone."

Void shuddered and looked down at the bed. I pulled her into an embrace. "Let's cross that bridge when we get there."

Void nodded in my shoulder and I felt tears soaking into my shirt.

"You know," I said after a few minutes. "In some ways, this is a little better."

"How so?" Void mumbled into me.

"Well, I get to wake up after each loop seeing you. We can have a nice kiss and start the loop fresh. Like a new morning. I don't have to fall on my ass or have my soul nearly torn apart connecting to the world's magic," I said.

Void took a deep breath. "That does sound easier. But I'm going to get sick again. How long do I have?"

I stroked the back of her head. "About an hour."

"Great," Void groaned. "Take your shirt back off and let me cuddle until then."

I complied and laid back down. Void rested her head on my chest and sighed deeply. I knew we had to get refreshed to go reconvene with Lia and Tizek, but I didn't exactly give them a timeframe. An hour to collect ourselves wasn't too much.

As I was lying there, my wild Florida Man brain sparked once more. "You know, there is one bad part about looping back here."

Void turned to look at me. "What is it?"

I sighed dramatically. "Now I'll never get to taste my favorite beer ever again."

I earned that little slap.