Prologue

Lance crept down to the archives underneath the castle. It was an hour or so before Lion practice and he had some free time on his hands. Unbeknownst to the others, he had unearthed old tomes from Arus' past. Most of them were histories which he just skimmed, but some were tomes of the more interesting sort. The kind of dusty old book that people always dream of finding. Spellbooks.

Wouldn't it be a hoot to turn Keith into a frog and the only cure be Allura's kiss? he thought with a chuckle as he walked briskly along the drafty tunnels.

The room he had found the books in had been hidden behind a brick wall. He wasn't even sure that Coran knew that it had been there. He had accidentally found it while exploring during one of his few sleepless nights. There had been a hole in the wall where a brick come loose and he had discovered the room when he peered in.

Grinning, he reached for the book he was currently browsing through and laid it down on the table in the middle of the room. He sat down, the chair creaking. He had marked the page he was on last and he turned to it. His knowledge of the Arusian alphabet was sketchy and the grammatical structure of Arani, the language, was not like Alliance standard, but he knew enough to be able to get the gist of what he was reading.

Building Bridges Time, he read, frowning.

"Time bridges?" he muttered. "Bridges across time?" His eyes widened with excitement. "Time travel!"

He ran a finger down the page, his hazel eyes skimming the headings. He skipped the part about how to cast the spell, naively believing that one had to have magic powers to cast them. In the process, he missed warnings that the writer of the book had added for each heading.

He should have paid more heed for the books had been sealed behind the wall for a reason.

Ancients To Be Brought Towards, he translated.

"Old people," he said. "Brought forward? Brought to me? I need to learn better Arani." He rested his chin in his hand and read aloud from the text. He found that doing so usually cleared some things up. He read it in Arani, liking the sound of it.

River neverending, down flowing
Sarudi never broken, forever growing
River neverending, never flowing back
Sarudi lack.

He stared at it pensively. He didn't know what Sarudi meant, but it sounded ominous and his gut was telling him he was playing a dangerous game. He suddenly felt weary and closed the book. Without putting it back in the shelf, he stood and headed back to the castle. His eyelids felt heavy and he wanted to catch a quick nap.