Lia sat before a bubbling cauldron, her eyes fixed not on the potion, but on a piece of parchment covered in intricate timelines. In her previous life, she was the "Sage of Veridia," a woman who watched her world burn under the feet of a demonic invasion. Then, a miracle happened—a forbidden artifact sent her soul back twenty years.
"Today is the day," Lia whispered, her hands trembling. "Kaelen will enter the Sacred Crypts. He will find the Blade of Dawn. With that sword, he will unite the twelve moons, and the invasion will be stopped before it starts."
She knew every step of the prophecy. She had lived it. She was the one who was supposed to guide the hero, acting as his shadow counselor.
But as she looked out the window toward the Silver City, a wave of nausea hit her. The air felt... heavy. Wrong.
"System," she thought—for she too possessed a 'Returner's Insight'—"Scan the causality threads of the capital."
[Warning: Causality Fracture detected. The 'Golden Thread' of Kaelen is vibrating at a dissonant frequency. An unknown variable has entered the timeline.]
Lia stood up so abruptly her chair fell over. "Impossible. There was no 'unknown variable' in the records. The invasion shouldn't happen for another three years!"
She grabbed her cloak and rushed toward the balcony. Her eyes, sharpened by years of alchemical training, looked toward the Sacred Crypts. In her memory, the crypts should be glowing with a pure, holy radiance this morning.
Instead, she saw a flicker. A microscopic pulse of Abyssal Violet that vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by a gold that felt... hollow.
"Someone was there," Lia gasped, her heart hammering against her ribs. "Someone reached the blade before Kaelen. But who? No one in this world has the power to bypass the ancient seals this early."
She looked at her hands. The "Future" she had died to protect was melting away like wax. A cold realization washed over her: She wasn't the only one playing with time. But while she was trying to save the world, this new presence felt like it was trying to eat it.
"I have to warn him," she muttered, grabbing her staff. "If Kaelen touches that blade and it's tainted... the hero won't be our savior. He'll be our executioner."