Chapter 42 The Time Walker II
"Thank you," she whispered. Tears on her face. "You have no idea what it is like. Being trapped across all moments. Unable to move forward. Unable to rest. Just existing everywhere and nowhere."
"You are free now," I said. "But if you betray us—"
"I know. You will seal me again. Or kill me. Or worse." She smiled. "But I will not betray you. You are family. The only family I have left. I would rather die than lose that again."
We left the Vault. Arianna walking between me and Nyx. Looking around like she had never seen the palace before.
"It has changed," she said. "The last time I was here, your grandfather ruled. King Aldrin Shadowborn. Before Kael's family destroyed ours."
"That was war," Kael said. "Not personal."
"All war is personal to those who lose everything." But Arianna's voice was not angry. Just sad. "But that was lifetimes ago. Multiple timelines ago. I have seen versions where Shadowborn won. Where Draeven fell. Where neither survived. This timeline? Where my great-granddaughter carries both bloodlines? This is the rarest. The most precious."
"Why?" Nyx asked.
"Because in every other timeline, the bloodlines war forever. Destroy each other. Destroy the realm. Only here, only now, do they unite. Do they create something new." Arianna touched Nyx's hair. "You are the bridge. The peace. The future where old enemies become family."
We reached the training grounds. Empty. Private. Perfect for what came next.
"We start now," Arianna said. "No delays. Every hour we wait is an hour her power grows without control."
"She just woke up. She needs rest. Food," I protested.
"She is vampire. We do not need those things the way humans do. And time waits for no one." Arianna looked at Nyx. "Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Then close your eyes. Feel time around you. Not as something that passes. But as something that exists. All moments happening simultaneously. Past. Present. Future. All now."
Nyx shut her eyes. Her face furrowed in focus.
"Good. Now reach out. Touch one moment. Just one. Feel its weight."
Nyx's hand moved. The air around it shimmered. Distorted.
"Careful. Time is delicate. Push too hard and it breaks. Too soft and it slips away." Arianna circled her. "Find the balance. The sweet spot where you control without crushing."
Nyx's forehead was plastered with sweat. Her respiration became more rapid.
The shimmer grew.
Then she gasped. Opened her eyes. "I saw it. I saw yesterday. I was there. Actually there."
"Yes. That is the first step. Observing time without being in it. Watching without touching." Arianna smiled. "Now we go deeper. We learn to walk. To move through moments without changing them. To be a ghost in time."
They trained for hours. I watched. Fascinated. Terrified. My daughter learning to walk through history like it was a hallway.
Kael stood beside me.
"This is dangerous." She is hazardous in every way.
"I am aware.
But this feels different. Like we are teaching her to play with forces we do not understand."
"Arianna understands them."
"Arianna went mad from them. Spent three centuries sealed away. That is not a recommendation." He looked at me. "What if this makes things worse? What if teaching her to use time magic just makes her more dangerous?"
"Then we deal with it. Like everything else. Together."
A scream interrupted us. Nyx. On the ground. Convulsing.
We ran. Arianna was already there. Holding her. "It is okay. This is normal. She pushed too far. Tried to walk too far. Time pushed back."
"Is she hurt?" I demanded.
"Temporarily. Her mind experienced several years in several seconds. It is overwhelming. Disorienting. But not permanent." Arianna looked at Nyx. "Rest now, child. We continue tomorrow."
Nyx nodded weakly. Blood from her nose. Her ears. Her eyes.
I picked her up. Carried her inside. Kael followed. Both of us silent. Scared.
That night Nyx slept between us. We took turns watching her. Making sure she was breathing. That her heart beat steadily.
That she didn't disappear into the past and never return. "This is a mistake," Kael muttered.
"We should stop the lessons. Find another way."
"There is no other way. You know that." I touched Nyx's face. "She needs this. Needs control. Or her power will consume her."
"And if the lessons consume her instead?"
"Then we failed as parents. But at least we tried."
Morning came with more screaming. But different. Not pain. Excitement.
"Mother! Father! I walked!" Nyx burst into our room. "I walked through time! I went back to yesterday! Saw myself training! Then I came back! I actually did it!"
Relief flooded through me. She was okay. More than okay. She was learning.
"That is wonderful," I said. "But remember what Arianna said. Observe. Do not touch. Do not change anything."
"I know. I was careful. I just watched. Saw how I made mistakes. How to fix them." Nyx bounced. Pure child joy. "Can we train again? Please?"
"After breakfast," Kael said. "Even vampires need sustenance."
We ate. Together. Family. Trying to pretend this was normal. That teaching our three-month-old daughter to walk through time was just another day.
After breakfast, Arianna appeared. "Today we learn the hard part. Not walking through time. But understanding consequences. Every change. Every touch. Every word spoken in the wrong moment creates ripples. Branches. New timelines. And you need to learn to see them before you cause them."
"How?" Nyx asked.
"By experiencing them. By deliberately changing something small and watching the consequences unfold." Arianna's expression was serious. "This will hurt. Emotionally more than physically. Because you will see timelines where people you love suffer. Die. Fail. And you will know you caused it. Even if it was just an exercise."
"I can handle it."
"We will see."
They disappeared. Arianna walking Nyx through time. Through possibilities. Through horrors that might be.
I tried to follow. Could not. I was Shadowborn but not Time Walker. That gift had skipped me. Gone to my daughter instead.
Hours passed. Then Nyx and Arianna returned. Nyx was crying. Sobbing. Covered in blood that was not there. Seeing things the rest of us could not.
"What happened?" I grabbed her.
"I changed something. I told grandfather not to start the war. In a timeline. Just to see." Nyx's voice broke. "He listened. The war never happened. And because of that, you never met father. I was never born. And the realm fell to something worse. Something darker. I saw it. I watched everyone die because I prevented one war."
"That timeline is not real," Arianna said gently. "It was just an exercise. A what-if. Nothing more."
"But it felt real. They felt real. Their deaths felt real." Nyx looked at me. "How do you live knowing every choice matters that much? That every word could doom timelines?"
"You learn to be careful. To think before acting. To understand weight." I held her. "And you learn that some pain is necessary. That you cannot save everyone. That sometimes the kindest thing is to let time flow naturally."
"I hate this. I hate seeing all the ways things could go wrong."
"I know. But you need to see them. So you do not cause them accidentally." Arianna knelt. "This is the burden of time magic. Knowing too much. Seeing too much. Caring too much. But also having the wisdom to know when not to act. When to let things unfold naturally."
Nyx nodded. Tears still falling. "I will try."
"That is all we can ask."
That night I held Nyx while she cried herself to sleep. While she mourned timelines that never were. Futures that could have been. People who might have lived if only.
"She is too young for this," Kael said.
"She is too powerful not to learn this." I looked at him. "Would you rather she accidentally destroy a timeline? Kill millions because she did not understand consequences?"
"No. But I would rather she was just a child. Playing. Learning. Growing slowly." He touched Nyx's hair. "Instead she carries the weight of reality itself."
"She is our daughter. She was always going to carry weight. At least now she learns how to bear it properly."
Days turned to weeks. Nyx trained.
Grew. Learned. And I watched my three-month-old daughter become someone ancient and young simultaneously. Someone who understood time better than people who had lived centuries.
It was beautiful. It was tragic. It was necessary.
And I prayed every night that we were doing the right thing. That teaching her to be a god would not destroy the child underneath.
But prayers rarely got answered in our world. Only time would tell.
And time, as always, was cruel. Together.
Always together.