conversations
listlengths 2
49
|
|---|
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt knocks on the door to the study."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar called for him to enter"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"...You’re back. So what were the ruins made for?\" King asks as Valt enters."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"They were once a hidden refuge for spirit sorcerers who fled from mage hunters.\" Valt replied. That was what he had managed to dig out from the vast records kept by his ancestors. He passed a copy he had made of the journal to the king. \"They were built by people who were driven out by a country that predated Tayiri, but according to records made by someone who knew that era well, they were only used for about thirty years. After that, the residents started to die out, and those who were left scattered all over.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Ah yeah, since the ruins are in the north, it would make sense for them to be related to Tayiri.\" remarked the king. \"With so many spirit sorcerers, they could have fought, but they elected to go into hiding.\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “That may be because spirit sorcerers lose their power once their chastity is gone.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “A while back, Tinasha took me to some seaside ruins. That place had a real mysterious feel. I can’t speak for Tinasha, but to me, it was like it had accepted this sense of very gradual demise. I also didn’t pick up on any sort of hostility from the site where I retrieved the egg.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt mentions that spirit sorcerers were proficient in controlling nature, and some preferred to live in the wild and pass away there. Oscar never mentioned as much to his wife, since she was a spirit sorcerer who had chosen to keep a long life. Valt didn’t think she would mind, but perhaps the king was trying to be considerate. \"Why did you take that egg?” Valt inquired."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt notes that Oscar had gone to the ruins as a sort of test of skill. But as there were few traps and obstructions, he must have felt disappointed. Why bother returning with a relic, then? He wasn’t the sort to dig up precious weapons or magic implements and haul them home."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar flashed a strained smile in reply. “The egg was placed on a small altar in the center of the ruins. The moment I saw it, I could tell it had been held in high regard. I hated the idea of it rotting away in there, forgotten.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Next time, I recommend you tell the queen about this sort of thing right away without trying to hide it from her.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “I’ll do that.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “If she gets back and she’s still testy with you, tell her Valt has a report for her. I’ll mediate things.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Thanks. Sorry about this.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " For now, the matter of the egg was closed. Valt bowed and made ready to leave. When he lifted his head, he found the king staring straight at him. “Is…something the matter?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “It’s nothing. But if you ever run into trouble, tell me before deciding things on your own. I’ll do what I can to help.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " For a moment, it seemed that Oscar could see right through Valt’s situation. Hearing a statement like that from the king was a surprise. Fortunately, he narrowly managed to keep his discomfiture from showing on his face, pasting on a pained grin. “Where could this be coming from? I don’t have any complaints about my tenure here.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Ah, it’s just that I get this sense that you’re the type who doesn’t rely too much on others. But if you ever reach a fork in the road and you’re not sure whether you’re going to betray me or not, tell me first.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I…don’t know why such a thing would ever come to pass.” Cold sweat trickled down Valt’s back. Oscar couldn’t have suspected anything, because Valt had no plots at the moment. At present, he only intended to serve Farsas. However, this was Oscar looking at Valt, jumping a step ahead, and arriving at the correct answer. Valt bowed his head again."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"I’m grateful to you for saying so. I dearly hope something like that never happens, but…should the worst occur, I will do as you ask.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Mm-hmm. Talk to me anytime. That’s what I’m here for,” Oscar replied nonchalantly, despite being the ruler of an entire nation."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt stepped from a covered outdoor walkway and headed for the training grounds. There he found the king and queen sparring. The sound of metal clashing was inescapable."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha slashed at Oscar with her sword, sweat dabbing her lithe physique."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Don’t slow down just because you’re tired. You have to keep your pace,\" the king instructed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I’m trying,\" she panted back, jabbing at her husband."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Watch out!\" he cried, grabbing her arm as she almost fell. Drawing her close, he patted her back. \"Let’s call it a day here. You look like you’re going to keel over if we continue.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I really lack endurance… Thank you,\" said the queen, perspiring all over. Her shoulders were heaving as she leaned against her husband’s chest."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “What is it? Which one of us do you need?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Guard:",
"value": " “Queen Tinasha. A merchant party accompanied by a demonic beast familiar has arrived at the city gates and wishes to enter.” Unauthorized demons and demonic spirits were not permitted in the castle city. Extenuating circumstances required permission from Tinasha or those sanctioned by her. It was a necessary measure to keep the city safe."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha brushed her sweaty bangs up and out of her face. \"I didn’t receive an application mentioning anything like that.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Guard:",
"value": " “Evidently, there was something wrong with their papers, and they were delayed in reaching the castle.” Entry procedure called for applying to a mage authorized by Tinasha in advance of the desired day. However, the forms hadn’t made it in time on this occasion. Such groups could be kept waiting outside the city gates, but Tinasha was such a conscientious person that she frequently saw to these matters herself."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Ooh, I see. It sounds like you’ve been very busy today, Valt. Just give me a moment.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “There’s no need. If you’ll authorize me, I can go.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar patted Tinasha on the head. “Let Valt do it. You’re so worn out that it’ll take a while for you to look presentable.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Fine… Please see to it.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Yes, Your Majesty.” Tinasha pointed at Valt, and a tiny dot of white light appeared at her fingertip and floated over to him, where it was absorbed into his forehead. Now he was fully authorized. A little stone bird popped out of nowhere and settled itself on Valt’s shoulder."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " bursting out laughing. “It looks like it wants to come along.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Is it…all right to bring one outside the city gates?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “It’s perfectly fine. I’m sure the local children will be delighted.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I’ll be careful to bring it back safe and sound.” said Valt, bowing to the king and queen again before leaving the training grounds. While the queen often teleported around like it was nothing, Valt’s position made it difficult for him to do the same. Oscar might have freakishly keen powers of observation, so Valt couldn’t afford to overplay his hand. Thus, he used a transportation array in the castle to teleport to the closest guard station."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " As he was walking from there to the castle gates"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " “Valt? What is it? Are you finished with work already?” She was carrying so many flowers she had bought at the market that he couldn’t see her face. Had he not heard her voice, he might have thought she was nothing but a gigantic bouquet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Oh, Miralys.”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"What are you doing with all those?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"I’m going to decorate the house with them.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Isn’t that a few too many?” Valt knows Miralys doesn’t adore flowers. After a brief awkward pause."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " “Someone put in a large order at the florist I go to but never showed to pick it up. The shopkeeper looked so upset that I bought them all.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt’s eyes grew wide listening to her tale. “You’re a sweet girl, Miralys.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " “No, I’m not.” She mumbled."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Because he couldn’t see her face, he walked up and took half of the blossoms sticking out of her basket. White petals parted to reveal Miralys, her face the faintest shade of pink. “It’ll be too dangerous for you to go home alone like that. I have to head to the castle gates to take care of something, but after that, I’ll be free to walk with you.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " “But you’re at work. They’ll get mad.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “They’d be more upset if they knew I let you go home like that. I’ll be sure to contact the castle. It’ll be fine.” He assures her, and he set off."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " Still looking reluctant, Miralys followed. “Hey, what’s this bird?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “This is a magical creature made by Queen Tinasha.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " “Oh wow. Can I pet it later?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Of course. But it’s castle property, so I have to bring it back with me.” The gates were just up ahead. The street was packed with bustling crowds, and there was not a cloud in the sky. A pleasant breeze rustled the white flowers in their arms."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Guard:",
"value": " The guard stationed at the gates smiled when he saw Valt and the blossoms he was holding. “Taken up flower peddling, chief mage?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Not quite. We’re just coming from a large purchase. I’ve been authorized to grant access to the city. Could you show me to the merchants awaiting entry?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Guard:",
"value": " “Yes, right this way.” The guard said, turning around to unlock the door behind him."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " All of a sudden, an earsplitting noise sounded from the side—an awful grating screech like stones rubbing together. It was coming from the bird on Valt’s shoulder."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " Miralys frowned. “What is it? What’s going on?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I don’t know, but…”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " She was clearly not in her right mind, more resembling a corpse than a living being. Valt recognized her. \"Tris…?\" Valt blurted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"Is she okay?\" Miralys asked dubiously."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " The sight of her so completely transformed made Valt gasp."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " A young man appeared from behind Tris, his eyes flashing with dark resentment. Valt recognized him as well. This was Savas, the prince of Yarda."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"What are you doing here…?\" Valt asked. He had a bad feeling."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Savas:",
"value": " Savas surveyed the streets around him with empty eyes before commanding Tris. \"Go.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " The battered girl staggered forward. That was how it began."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!\" Miralys crumpled to the ground while letting out a terrible scream."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Unfortunately, Valt couldn’t even reach for her, as he was struck on the temple so hard it sent him stumbling. His vision spun. He didn’t understand what was happening. His head was a mess, and his guts were churning. Through blurry vision, he attempted to locate the girl he adored."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Mira…lys…?\" Valt crawled to her, Tris passed right by."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Screams soon erupted from somewhere close by."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Screams:",
"value": " \"AAAAHHH!\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Screams:",
"value": " \"NOOOOOO!\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Shrieks sounded from everywhere, the stone bird crying in warning through it all. Valt could sense magic going haywire in the vicinity."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Savas:",
"value": " \"Ha-ha! So this is the power of a god. Fall to your knees! Suffer your ruin, foolish foes of Leonora!\" Savas let out a twisted, mad laugh."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " The world was dimming as Valt’s consciousness slipped. He reached out a trembling hand and caught hold of Miralys’s. No matter how he squinted, he could no longer see the light of her soul. It was already very far away. The flower petals, dripping with blood, caught the light of the sun and sparkled."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"You’re awake.\" When Valt woke next, Doan’s voice was the first thing he heard."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " It was a struggle to get his sluggish body to obey, but he looked around. \"Where am I…?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"The castle, in a temporary hospice room. We brought everyone who didn’t die here. A lot are still unconscious.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " They were in one of the castle reception chambers, now home to over twenty evenly spaced beds that held ashen-faced patients. A huge magic circle was drawn on the floor; a life-preservation spell."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Where’s the queen?\" Valt asked"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " Doan didn’t answer. He was sitting next to the bed opposite Valt’s. \"Let me tell you this first.\" Doan’s face was gaunt, and his voice was purposely unemotional when he spoke."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " “A week has passed since we encountered…that. We’ve managed to take care of it, mostly. We’re in the cleanup phase now.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “The…cleanup phase?” Something had attacked unexpectedly. Reflecting upon it, Valt did have a guess as to what it may have been. All the omens lined up, after all. The mysterious, unexplained deaths one after another in the east. Oscar suspected that the very first casualty was the mage who fell to his death at Minnedart. However, something had occurred before that in the vicinity of the fortress—the Ito riders’ extensive raiding and subsequent capture. It probably got released in the aftermath of all that. Something dwelled in a place sacred to the Ito. Valt had read about it in one of his ancestors’ journals. It had to be the exact same thing that the ancient spirit sorcerers fled Tayiri to escape. The stone birds were created to patrol for it. “So it was…Irityrdia.” The thing that made mages lose their minds, sent their magic running haywire, and wrecked their spirits and life force. A force of nature also known by the names World-Splitting Blade and Sleeping Paleface. Irityrdia—Tayiri’s one god—was the true form of what was sealed away inside Tris. Long ago, a mage’s body was used to seal it off when it caused havoc. Someone who knew of this must have placed Irityrdia within Tris."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " “You know what this is? We finally managed to pinpoint it just yesterday after investigating the Ito ruins. I read about it a long time ago, although I’d forgotten. I guess that means everyone who died in the east had magic.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Yeah. Some of them hadn’t ever undergone training to control their power, so they didn’t register as having any when we investigated. Everyone who died either had magic or was otherwise affected by magic going haywire.” According to the legends, the presence of Irityrdia rendered mages insane in both mind and body, a danger to themselves and others. Irityrdia must have awakened in the aftermath of the battle with the Ito, slowly made its way toward the castle city, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake…and gotten captured along the way."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " Doan let out a heavy sigh. \"It looks like it was Savas’s intention to bring Irityrdia into the city. Disguising himself and his group as a merchant caravan and making sure his faulty papers meant the castle didn’t have advance notice of his visit—all of it was a trick to lure the queen out.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I don’t…think Savas was the one behind this. Ordinary people wouldn’t know about Irityrdia or be able to seal it inside a mage’s body. He must have been used as a puppet, since mages can’t get close to Irityrdia. One of Leonora’s underlings or someone else must be responsible.” Fortunately, even a plot like this hadn’t destroyed Farsas. The situation had been resolved in only a week."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"What happened to Miralys? The girl who was with me when Irityrdia came.\" He knew the answer. That was one more reason why Irityrdia had come to the castle city."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " Doan stood. \"I’ll show you. Can you walk?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Yes…\" Even after dragging his battered body out of the bed, Valt had to lean on Doan to keep from falling over."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " When he finally got a look at all the beds in the room, he groaned. \"Half the court mages are here.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"And these are the lucky ones. That stone bird the king brought back? What it scattered was an Irityrdia-resistant psychological safeguard created by spirit sorcerers. Those of us who work in the castle were much better equipped to handle it than the mages out in town. It’s why you’re still sane after coming so close to Irityrdia.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"I see. It spread it all over the castle, and that’s why it was empty. The king really has incredible luck…\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " Despite explaining as much to him, Doan only offered a tight smile."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " The two left the makeshift hospital, and Doan led Valt to a small parlor."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"I’ll be in the hospice room if you need me.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt approached her and gazed down at her pallid face."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Sure…\" Once the door clicked shut, Valt dug his nails into his palms hard enough to draw blood."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt took her hand. It was so small. \"I should have kept you locked up.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"It’s my fault…\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt returned to the hospice room. \"I have something I need to discuss with the queen. Do you know where she is?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"She’s dead.\" The words echoed around the sparsely furnished room."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " After a few moments of complete stupefaction, Valt asked, \"She’s what?\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"How?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"There wasn’t much time to deliberate over what to do, and the damage had spread too far. Irityrdia’s power was only growing stronger. No one knew it was inside Tris. When she died, it was released, and the situation went completely out of control. Queen Tinasha had no choice but to use her own body as a vessel and hold Irityrdia in check so that Akashia could destroy it.\" There was not a trace of emotion in Doan’s words."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"So if you need to discuss something, go to the king. He should be in the chapel underground now.\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " A chapel was built in a grove of trees behind the castle. Its subterranean level served as the royal mausoleum. The witch’s corpse, dressed in her wedding clothes, lay enshrined on the altar of a small sanctuary. The king was standing next to it, staring at his wife’s lifeless body. One hand gently carded away the hair from her forehead, and he caressed her smooth cheeks. Valt noticed that the king’s fingers were trembling."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "King:",
"value": " Without taking his eyes off Tinasha’s lifeless face, the king said, \"I thought I was prepared for this, but it turns out I wasn’t.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " For three days, Irityrdia had laid waste to the city. In that time, nearly three hundred died. The storm that swept through all planes of existence in search of magical power rapidly became more powerful and untouchable…until the queen’s death brought the tragedy to a close."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "King:",
"value": " \"I knew she wouldn’t hesitate to give her life for her country. But for whatever reason, I always thought that only extended to Tuldarr.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Tinasha had died to protect the country she’d married into. As Akashia had plunged into her, she’d grabbed hold of it and wouldn’t allow Oscar to pull it out. That was how fierce her spirit was."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "King:",
"value": " \"No one was more careless with their life than she was. I’m going to do everything I can to honor her in return.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"I’m sure…Queen Tinasha was fully aware of that.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " She had always been that sort of person. No matter how many times history repeated, she always chose her king. Oscar was the only one who knew what her life was worth, which was why she could relax and let herself love him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "King:",
"value": " The king turned his head to look at Valt, standing in the doorway. His twilight sky–blue eyes held naked remorse. \"To be honest, I wanted to pull Akashia out. Even if by force.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " If the royal sword had shattered the core inside her, she might have been saved, and Irityrdia would still have been destroyed. However, the entity had grown too large. Oscar and Tinasha had realized that when the core was shattered—and they made a decision. The queen’s death meant the end for the part of Oscar that was just an ordinary man. He would live the rest of his life out of duty alone. The young king looked down at his right hand."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “This is the first time I’ve ever hated Akashia’s existence… And that stays between us.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Of course.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt bowed low before his king, \"It has not been very long, but I will be retiring from my post. I’m very sorry to leave at such a time.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “That’s fine. I’m to blame for not preventing this, and I’ve done badly by you. I can’t apologize enough.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"I pray that you keep in good health. May we meet again in another era and in another way.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Yes. Indeed.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt bowed low to Oscar with utter sincerity. Before he left, Valt asked one thing that was on his mind. \"If you could go back in time and do it over, what would you change?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " The king’s eyes widened a little. “I’m not sure. But…”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " For the first time that day, Oscar gave a tight smile. “If it was only to save or help myself, I know I wouldn’t be able to go through with anything.”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Wandering through the depths of despair, he scoured the mainland for the artifact, following it from person to person. Years passed in the blink of an eye."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt muttered wryly, standing before the small grave where Miralys’s remains were interred. “Somewhere in my mind, I knew that who you were in this lifetime is different from who you were before.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “But you are still you. The world will not diverge. No matter how many lifetimes repeat, you will be yourself, with the same soul.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt presented the gravestone with a little box."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I will find you again.”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt slumped over the table."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Someone:",
"value": " \"Valt, did you fell asleep?\" Someone asked, shaking his shoulder and jostling him awake from his position slumped over the table."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " The girl who roused him was gazing down with concern in her green eyes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Morning.\" He reached out to stroke her soft cheek as her gaze finally brought him back to reality."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " When Miralys heard that, she pursed her lips. \"You dozed off, which must mean you’re exhausted. We should postpone things.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"I’m perfectly fine. I was just having a little dream of a time long in the past.\" He said before rising to his feet. He observed the girl before him—her lustrous silver hair, her pale green eyes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " He reached out and took this girl who was once his wife into his arms. \"Miralys, thank you for everything you’ve done.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"Where is this coming from? You are exhausted, aren’t you?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Never mind that, just let me say this. We’re at an important juncture.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"Don’t make it sound like we’re going to be torn apart forever. Come on. Dinner is waiting.\" She replied exasperatedly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt’s eyes fell shut, and he smiled as he hugged her tighter. \"I love you. No matter the life or timeline, I’m always so happy with you.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"Are you sure you phrased that right? Anyway, I don’t intend to leave you. What about dinner?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Right. Sorry.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"You’re going to be here at the dining table with me, tomorrow and every day after that. Always.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Yes.\" Valt responded, keeping his voice cheerful as he buried his face in her hair."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " So in exchange, he gave her something else—undeniable proof of his feelings, though that, too, would fade from her memory eventually. Now he would take to the stage to bring this interminable comedy to a close. The day dawned bright and sunny. Oscar had come to Tuldarr via his personal transportation array. He gazed up at the sky from the passage leading to the cathedral. Clear water fell from a colonnade he spied in the distance, flowing into the gardens. Farther back past that was the tower where the ruler dwelled…though Tinasha no longer lived there. She’d abdicated yesterday. Today was Legis’s coronation. In just half a year, the reins of the kingdom had traded hands. Two days after stepping down from the throne, the sovereign queen would become Oscar’s wife. As Oscar reflected on the year that had passed so quickly, he mused that his younger self from before Tinasha would be stunned to see what had transpired. That version of himself believed that, curse or no curse, he would choose the safest possible option for his bride. That or he would marry no one at all and adopt an heir instead. As he’d grown to understand her, he’d fallen in love. She was reckless and unmanageable, and he knew freedom when he was with her. That was something he would have never felt in his life had things progressed normally. Her somewhat clingy and entirely peerless love for him had opened a new door. It brought such tremendous joy that it felt like a miracle. For that reason, he wanted to give her just as much freedom. Perhaps even more. Even if it took his whole life, he wouldn’t regret it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"I thought that with so many ceremonies taking place day after day, some of the guests would go home, but the crowd hasn’t diminished.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"Don’t tell me that’s why you put your wedding on the last day.\" Doan hissed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"That was just a coincidence.\" Oscar replied. Naturally, he’d checked with Tuldarr’s schedule in advance, but he hadn’t selected a date hoping for a lower attendance. His only request was to make it as soon as possible after Tinasha’s abdication. In return, both Tuldarr and Farsas were receiving and hosting guests who would be present at all the events. Once Legis’s coronation concluded, Tinasha planned to go to Farsas."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"You know, I haven’t seen her wedding gown yet. I’m really looking forward to it.\" Oscar said to Doan."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"Really? That’s a surprise.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"But I did have her dresses for all the other events made to my tastes.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"There it is.\" Doan quipped dryly, as he so often did."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar burst out laughing. Until the day of Tinasha’s coronation, when she announced she would be abdicating, Oscar had never dreamed of such a future for himself. He’d decided to gift her a new gown every year, since he couldn’t spend his life with her."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Pausing before the entrance to the cathedral, Oscar glanced at the royal sword belted at his waist."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"I’m praying we keep making it out alive…\" He hoped they would eliminate all plots against them and never give enemies an opening. They would live together, and he would protect his country."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Clouds occasionally streamed past the blue sky out the window. It had to be windy higher up. Tinasha felt a curious longing for the past as she watched."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " A door in the back of the room opened, and a young man in formal attire entered. She bowed to him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"All is secure, Your Majesty.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " \"I’m not king yet.\" answered the man she had called “Your Majesty” with an exasperated smile."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " \"You may as well be. I believe the guests have all arrived.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " \"I appreciate them for coming, but it does make me nervous to undergo a coronation ceremony before all the other nations.\" Legis admitted."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"You’re lying to me. You’re not nervous at all, are you?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " \"You can tell?\" Legis said with a laugh, passing some papers to Tinasha."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " \"I’m glad we have fine weather today. Everyone’s worked so hard to make this come together.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Had it been stormy, I would have changed the weather.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " Chuckling, \"Spoken like a true spirit sorcerer.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " His placid gaze turned remote as he regarded the city streets in the distance. \"I love this country. I am prepared to devote my entire life to it.\" His tone was full of conviction."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I am sure you will be a much better ruler than I was.\" The praise came in a clear, ringing tone."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " Legis’s cheeks were pink as he grinned at her, but a serious look stole back over his face. \"I am very glad that I was able to meet you.\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"You’ve saved the country more times than I can count.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I feel like I’ve caused nothing but trouble for you over the past several months, though,” she answered, sighing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Moved almost to tears, Tinasha bowed to Legis. “I should be the one offering you my gratitude. You’ve taught me so much.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " “Not at all. I’ve learned from you. Come back and visit whenever you feel like it.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Now that you’ve offered, I definitely will. I know Oscar’s going to waste no time teasing me once we’re married.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " “Please do. I’ll keep your rooms open. You can confide in me anytime,” Legis assured her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I’ll admit to feeling hesitant about the prospect of wasting a king’s time with my personal gripes and grievances…”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I’m so glad I could come to this time period.\" She stated, meaning every word."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " \"I’m delighted that I could be of service. I wish you all the happiness in the world.\" He bowed deeply to her before leaving for the coronation. Sunlight streamed in from the windows, shining off the back of his official dress."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha watched him go with a myriad of emotions in her throat. What was despair? It wasn’t the same thing as death. Death was something he had experienced many times already. He had repeatedly witnessed his own passing and the passing of others. Tragedy had numbed his emotions. He stood frozen at the beginning of the beginning, screaming and insane. Ultimately, he had come to believe that no matter when or how a person dies, death itself had no meaning."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha was not seated with the guests, for she was in charge of security. That stationed her right to the side of the entryway, where she could monitor the network of spells she had laid out. She stood to the back of the central altar, and it obscured her view, creating a blind spot of the front. Still, she knew Oscar was seated there. They had both been so busy in the past few days that they hadn’t been able to meet, which was in line with the Farsas tradition for the betrothed anyway. As often happened whenever Tinasha was incredibly swamped, the whole thing felt like some nostalgic dream of bygone days."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Although he’d probably be annoyed with me if I told him that.\" She murmured. As her wedding was not for another two days, she was between titles at present. While Tuldarr treated her like a royal, she was no longer a queen, nor a princess. She had taken advantage of that to position herself behind the scenes of the coronation. Tinasha’s dark eyes were closed so she could focus her awareness on the defensive spells, but she still heard Legis delivering his opening remarks up on the dais. His pointed yet tolerant message expressed his personality very well; Tinasha smiled. For the time being, she didn’t detect anything suspicious. The coronation was scheduled to finish in another five minutes. Tinasha sensed Pamyra’s magic as the woman approached on patrol, and she waved to her without opening her eyes. And that was when Tinasha furrowed her brow. There was something—a voice only she could hear was calling. The magic was faint, though that did not reflect on the strength of the speaker’s power. Instead, it meant the magic had been engineered only to reach her, cleverly weaving through the castle wards. Had such an adroit mage in possession of such spectacular magic served the court, their name might have gone down in history. Instead, this person operated in the shadows, plotting and scheming."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha couldn’t imagine what this certain individual, endowed with vast archives and memories of lost lifetimes, was thinking, or what they might attempt."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " The message that came to her consisted of congratulations on the new king’s coronation and well wishes on her upcoming nuptials. But there was no way she could accept that at face value, nor did she trust the sender to be genuine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " Legis’s speech finished. Raucous applause burst forth at this birth of a new king. The fervor and excitement in the cathedral reached a fever pitch."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " With this, a new chapter of history would dawn on Tuldarr. Tinasha wished the people living in this country eternal happiness. Hopefully, they would know the protection of a well-founded government. That was one more reason why she couldn’t let any schemers do as they pleased."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " The network of security spells Tinasha had set for the coronation had fifteen parts, each monitored by several mages. She was only within the spells’ coverage to keep an eye on them. Her absence would not alter the magic. The decision took only a moment. Tinasha honed her consciousness to a point and followed the voice, locating it at the edge of a very small, very fine hidden spell. He wasn’t going to get away again. She wouldn’t let him. This time, she would capture him, control him, and make him surrender. There could be no mercy. At last, she located him. He was within Tuldarr but was a considerable distance away. Such a gap didn’t matter to Tinasha, though. She forced a link to the place, tracing his magic and pulling the coordinates from his spell. As her lips curled in a defiant grin, she vanished with no incantation, leaving the cathedral brimming with enthusiasm."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha’s surroundings rearranged around her. She had landed in the middle of a wide field. Wind streamed across the grass, making it undulate like waves."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt Standing in the center of the field, who smiled delightedly at her arrival. \"Ah, so you came. You’re the only one who could trace my location, despite all my camouflaging.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Without answering, Tinasha lifted her right hand, placing a teleportation ban on the area."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt looked surprised, but it was unclear whether this was because of the speed of her action, her decision, or the complexity of the spell. His tone was glowing as he praised her. “Wonderful work as always. But there’s no need to rush. I have no intention of running.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"How admirable. Does that mean you’re ready to die?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Of course. I am ready to die anywhere and at any time. I’ve been ready for a long time. However…this moment will never come again. Do you truly understand the significance of that?” Valt gazed up. Clouds drifted rapidly across the sky. Loneliness he failed to suppress shone in his eyes—an emotion he couldn’t share with others. He pointed to a spot on the empty field. “Once upon a time, an azure tower stood there."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"The tower was equipped with a series of trials, be it traps or monsters. Those who beat them all and reached the top level would be granted a wish from the witch who lived there. But now that tower doesn’t exist—it never did.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “And was that witch me?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “It was. The Witch of the Azure Moon—the fifth witch and hailed as the strongest. That is a version of you that no longer exists. Are you surprised?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “A little, although I had some vague idea.\" Tinasha replied, tucking her black hair behind her ears to keep the wind from whipping it up. How had she been married to Oscar before the world was changed, despite their differing eras? Why hadn’t he ever explained it? There was only one sort of being who possessed mighty power and lived for centuries. Tinasha had remained unconvinced by that alone, however. That was why she’d frozen up when Valt said that name so abruptly the last time they spoke."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt’s gaze dropped to the barren plain at their feet. \"You built a tower in this wasteland and lived there alone. You were much stronger and colder than you are now. That’s why I rejoiced when I discovered that you hadn’t become a witch this time and that you had put yourself in a magic sleep. Come, let’s go and retrieve the other half of Eleterria. It’s time to bring all of this to an end.” Valt drew out a small white box. Both of them knew what was inside."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " While on guard against him, for she had no idea what he was thinking, Tinasha licked her lips. “I’m not going. Give that back.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “You’ll go, and willingly. I know how effective hostages are at swaying you.” Valt said lightly, and he snapped his fingers. The world shuddered a bit. A hint of magic drifted through the air."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha frowned. “What are you…?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I’ve put just a bit of power into a spell. You can tell what it is, can’t you?” Valt replied, closing his eyes and looking confident."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha glared daggers at that calm, composed face and followed the faint traces of magic to their source. It went on and on, stretching far into the distance on a path that branched and forked, but finally, she grasped the complete picture. Once Tinasha understood, she was struck dumb. “That’s insane.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Do you see? The best hostage I could take to move you would be Tuldarr itself.” Valt’s spell was an enormous magic circle linking five cities and towns in a ring, with the castle city in the center. Rigged up out of sight, it would erupt into a conflagration once triggered. The flames would then consume the lives of all inside, using them as catalysts to summon up more magic until they swirled into a firestorm that would destroy the entire country. The spell was designed to massacre on a terrifyingly large scale. A twisted expression formed on Valt’s face."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “If you refuse to cooperate, I will ruin Tuldarr.” Tinasha shuddered to imagine such an unprecedented forbidden curse. There was, at least, magic in place within the capital city that prevented any unauthorized widespread spells. Yet this had slipped past that defense."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “No… Did you shrink down the magic for the spell itself to the smallest it could go? You made it so weak it would never have any effect, ordinarily. To compensate, you made the configuration as intricate and complex as possible…”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Ultimately, it’s much more difficult to defend than to attack. All the deciding power lies with the aggressor: where to attack, how to do it, and when. Admittedly, it would’ve been difficult for any ordinary person to lay the groundwork on such a massive scale. We drew up dozens and dozens of spells so small you wouldn’t notice until the very last minute, and then we connected them. Oh, but it did make us uneasy when someone discovered a half-finished spell once and tried to use it.” Valt explained blithely, though the level of spellwork here was anything but normal. To have come so far with such a massive, forbidden work required vast reserves of magic, exceptional spell-casting ability, and fierce tenacity. And not only that…"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Where did you learn of this spell?” Tinasha demanded. “There are many forbidden curses that use souls as catalysts to summon magic, but this is one that was used four hundred years ago, and no records remain of it.” It was the very spell that Lanak, Tinasha’s fellow candidate for the throne, sought to use on her when she was young. Here it was again, targeting her anew, but knowledge of this magic should have perished."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt gave her a wan smile. “We acquire knowledge and pass it down. Some of us, in lifetimes past, were close to your fiancé.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “This isn’t funny. Are you saying that your people have acted in the shadows of history this entire time?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Surely not. The Time-Reader clan is not as all-encompassing as you may believe. Our founder was only one person. The next heir can’t awaken to their powers until their predecessor dies. The only thing we know about the other heirs, past and future, is their names. Everything else we must relay via journals and memoirs. It’s an inconvenient, lonely existence.” Valt said bitterly, his face conveying only sadness and gloom. But then his enigmatic smile returned. “It has taken more than three months, from the time we began laying the groundwork for the spell up until the finishing touches. We had to be exceedingly careful not to trip Tuldarr’s surveillance network and alert you. Ironically, you would have noticed if we’d prepared this in Farsas. Considering the scope of this spell, it is constantly emitting low-grade magic. However, Tuldarr is a nation of mages. The faintest trace of odd magic wouldn’t give you pause, would it?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha gritted her teeth at the enormity of her blunder."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Allow me to say that I am not the one who cast this spell. If you kill me, the caster will trigger it. Ah, and don’t think of telling anyone. No one can do a thing to stop this. Within the spell are five definition names.” Valt shrugged, such was the thoroughness of Valt’s plan, and how cautiously he had arranged everything."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “You would go this far to get Eleterria…? What do you mean to do by changing the past?” Tinasha’s irrepressible emotions made her magic start to roil and seethe."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I have a mere personal wish.” He answered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She understood that some people weren’t like her. For most people, in fact, what was worth doing and what they wanted to do didn’t equal out. Valt was a prime example."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I feel no guilt at all, no matter how many I must sacrifice. Regardless of how I die, it is only for a moment. It’s all overwritten before long. That’s how we’ve always done things.” A cynical grin twisted Valt’s lips as Tinasha sensed a quietly flickering flame deep within the man’s eyes and voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Shall I let you in on a little something? Do you want to know why I picked Tuldarr for my target?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Isn’t it because it’s my homeland?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Yes, that’s certainly part of it. I know the nation is your weak point. You’d never abandon Tuldarr. But there’s more to it than that. Ordinarily, that country shouldn’t exist.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Excuse me?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " What was he on about? What did Valt mean by claiming it shouldn’t exist? How had things gotten overwritten to make that…?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Gasping, Tinasha clapped a trembling hand over her mouth. “No…!”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Tuldarr actually fell the night they ripped you open.” He stated, the words sounding heartless to Tinasha’s ears."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She pressed an unconscious hand to her unmarred stomach. “But how? I controlled that magic…”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Yes. You triumphed even on the brink of death. But the catalyst for the forbidden curse was not the same."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Magic summoned using Lanak as the sacrifice would be quite different from that summoned by offering you. You were unable to take it all in, and the wild power destroyed Tuldarr and sent shock waves through the rest of the mainland. In the true course of events, almost all of what was once Tuldarr is now a barren wasteland razed by a forbidden curse."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"But… No…\" Her vision was going dark. The energy was sapped from her body. Tinasha struggled to breathe. Without her will to guide it, her body broke into a shivering fit. Tuldarr had been her life. Spilling blood had never been something Tinasha had questioned. She’d killed her emotions, too. Even when she couldn’t live up to a single one of her ideals, she had made the best choice possible. That was how it had been since she was born. Growing up all alone in a huge, empty wing of the castle, the betrayal of the man she saw as her brother, and the sacrifice of the only person to love and rescue her—she had borne all of it to keep Tuldarr safe. It went beyond duty. Tinasha had endured out of love for Tuldarr, despite its taking everything she had to give. And now, she was being told that it was never meant to exist. In the true course of events, Tuldarr would have perished with her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"It can’t be…\" Her throat was dry as a bone, and she could barely force the words out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt eyed Tinasha with a modicum of sadness. \"When Eleterria alters the world, it remakes itself by keeping a bare minimum of things the same. However, the survival of a nation that should have perished is too much. It doesn’t pain me at all to take Tuldarr as my hostage, because it should never have existed anyway. And what about you? Does it not pain you at all to look at Cezar, which lost so many of its people because Tuldarr survived? If Tuldarr had collapsed, as it should have, that would have never happened to Cezar.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha had nothing to say in the face of such a brutal provocation. Cezar’s downfall came after it murdered its own people to give rise to an army of the dead. Could that have been averted in a world without a prosperous Tuldarr? If all of this were true, that meant that Tinasha—and Oscar—were at fault for altering history."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I…\" Tinasha felt as though she’d plummeted after losing her footing. Alarm bells went off inside her head, pleading that she denounce her enemy’s claims as lies. However, Tinasha did not heed that warning. She closed her weary eyes. The discord felt like it lasted for an eternity. Yes, it might all be a lie to throw her off. Yet it could just as easily be true. There was no way she could know. What was she to do, then? She lifted her head."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Even if you’re right, I won’t allow you to claim your actions are guiltless. You are the one who summoned up an evil god in Cezar, and you are the one attempting to destroy Tuldarr.\" Her dark eyes blazed with the bitterness of her decision and with her sheer force of will."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"That’s true. We’re both at fault. We keep betraying the world.\" Valt couldn’t hide the bitterness in his smile."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " How could one choose what to keep and what to abandon? Humans had made their selections repeatedly, over and over. And this was the end result. \"I will protect my country. Tuldarr is alive and well. That may be the result of altering the past, but I will never choose to abandon a country that is here now.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " This was Tinasha’s conclusion. She would protect the people in front of her. Although she stood upon the back of an old crime, her only option was to move forward from where she stood."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"I suspected that would be your answer. You’ve never turned your back on your people, even dead ones. You’ve chosen to live alone for four hundred years, all for them.\" Valt’s gaze turned distant once he heard that."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I don’t like it when you talk about things I have no memory of.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"It’s true. You were very fierce. Once, you even gave your life to save the people of Farsas.\" His voice choked up for only a moment before he regained composure. \"You will accede to my demands to save your country. Is the remaining half of Eleterria in the Tuldarr treasure vault?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha hesitated over how to answer. Could she hope to trick him? She wanted to discover what Valt was after. \"What will you do with both of the orbs? You only need one to change the past.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"I know. I’ve used one myself. But I want to change the future.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"You want to travel forward in time?\" Whether going to the past or future, both were about knowing what would happen down the line and dealing with it before it happened. When traveling to the past, however, the user ceased to exist once events were sufficiently altered, and they were erased from the new future. Jumping to the future meant that the person who returned with knowledge of eventualities would not disappear. As long as the present was the true timeline, they could keep making moves forever. That was certainly an advantage. \"What exactly do you intend to accomplish?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"I’ll tell you soon enough, once I have both. Now, let’s hear your answer.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"The other Eleterria…is in the Farsas treasure vault.\" Tinasha couldn’t delay things any longer. Her very country was on the line. With her voice dry and hoarse, She bit her lip. There was no knowing the right decision. It was all she could manage to follow the course that kept things from falling to pieces before her."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " When the attendees filtered into the great hall after Legis’s coronation concluded, Oscar—one of the guests of honor—noticed that his fiancée was not there. \"What? Is she planning to lurk behind the scenes the entire time?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " And here he thought he’d get to see her in full regalia for the first time in a while. While it was Farsas custom for the bride and groom not to see each other before the ceremony, that didn’t mean he was a fan of it. Just thinking about how long it had been since he’d last glimpsed her adorable smile sent his mood plummeting. All that said, he hadn’t come for her. He was there to congratulate Legis, the new king. Farsas and Tuldarr would have a long and fruitful relationship going forward. With that on Oscar’s mind as he made his way over to his new fellow king, he was surprised to find Legis approaching him as well."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " After the briefest of greetings, he leaned in to Oscar and whispered, \"Do you know where she is?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Tinasha? I haven’t seen her… Did she do something again?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " \"She’s gone. Evidently, she vanished toward the end of the coronation and hasn’t come back since.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Oh.\" The two kings exchanged glances, unsure of what to make of this inexplicable and unpredicted turn of events. In a tight voice."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"I think Valt believes the other half of Eleterria is in Tuldarr.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " “I’ll launch a search for him immediately, including around the treasure vault. He might have set a trap there.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “To be on the safe side, I’ll return to Farsas and notify you if I learn anything.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Legis:",
"value": " “Please do,”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar stalked out of the great hall with a foreboding look on his face."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " He thought he’d died, but he discovered he was living his life over from an earlier point—back when his son was only an infant. Things continued, and he remained perplexed until he died when Valt was twenty-one. That repeated twenty-seven times. Valt had never spoken to his father about a Time-Reader heir’s duty, because Valt had no memory of the heirs while his father was alive. His father left no arrangements of any kind for after his death. There were heaps of their ancestors’ journals and records stacked in his room, though. Valt’s father had taken them after his own father’s passing. The number of times an heir experienced a rewinding of time varied. Valt’s own far eclipsed his father’s, but even his had been on the high side, owing to the many times the red orb of Eleterria changed hands during that period. But despite the alterations, history still progressed in fits and starts. Time regressed by decades, but not centuries. Those heirs unfortunate enough to be living through an era of repeated misuse of Eleterria had to bear it in silence and wait for their age to pass. That had been too much for Valt’s father. Valt remembered the one and only time his father had lectured him on the subject. “Once I’m dead, you’ll know for the first time what I was and what you are.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt's Father:",
"value": " \"Once I’m dead, you’ll know for the first time what I was and what you are.” He was talking about the artifact. Perhaps those were his parting words to his son. “The world is waiting for one last straw. That which will undo all the interventions and restore it to its original shape.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt's Father:",
"value": " \"The world is waiting for one last straw. That which will undo all the interventions and restore it to its original shape.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " What he said was undoubtedly true. That was why the world kept chasing Miralys down."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " \"Valt, are you okay?” the girl called to him telepathically, her voice anxious."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Yeah,” he replied, still facing forward. He couldn’t tell her the truth. He had to keep it hidden until the end. If she knew, she would place him above her own future. That had happened on countless occasions, so he would prevent it this time. At last, she would know a happy existence."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " The hallways of Farsas Castle looked as peaceful as ever. A woman with long black hair walked a few paces ahead of Valt, her beauty catching the eyes of passing guards and mages who bowed to her. It was a sight he hadn’t seen in a very long time. There was a clear dollop of fear mixed into the gazes, however. The Witch of the Azure Moon was the strongest in all the land, possessed of the mightiest magic in history. The invisibility spell she had placed on Valt held fast; no one noticed his presence. Even the court mages were fooled. Such was her power. The two of them strode along quickly toward the Farsas treasure vault. Once they were out of view, Valt whispered to Tinasha."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Is teleporting directly into the treasure vault beyond even your capabilities?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Of course not, but we’d be detected immediately."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “No. We’ll keep going like this,” he said. Valt knew this palace inside and out. He followed after Tinasha but was sure of his way, had he been alone. After a sigh, he remarked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I never expected you to acquire one of them only to transfer it to Farsas.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I knew you wouldn’t expect it, which is exactly why I did so.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “You certainly trust the Akashia swordsman a great deal.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Of course I do,” Tinasha spat."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt focused on that reaction. When last had he seen her like this? He was now the only one to remember her as the queen consort of this nation. “Destiny…has always had some twists in store for you. I do truly wish for you to be happy, but you’re just too powerful for that. I’m sorry.” It was an honest apology. Valt really did wish that Tinasha could live out her days pleasantly. It wasn’t to be, though. The world was like that all too often."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha glanced at Valt. He couldn’t decipher what emotion flickered across those dark eyes. Decisively and vehemently, she hissed. “My life is entirely what I have chosen.” She sounded exactly like the queen of Farsas she had been in another life."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha turned left down a different corridor and faced two treasure vault guards. While surprised to see Tinasha, they bowed to her. Sheepishly, she explained, “My apologies, but Oscar has asked me to retrieve something. Could you let me pass?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Guards:",
"value": " \"Yes, my lady. Please be careful.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Thank you,\" Tinasha replied as the guards willingly stepped aside to let her through."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Once out of their sight, she breathed a little sigh. After turning two more corners, she saw the treasure vault come into view. She approached its heavy doors and pushed them open with magic. Within was a pedestal that had held one part of Eleterria until Valt stole it from this very spot. Now it held another box."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Recognizing it, Valt exhaled with relief."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " As she dismantled the barrier around the pedestal, Tinasha snapped, “There. Is that what you need? Will you undo the spell in Tuldarr?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Not just yet. We’re only getting started,” Valt said, drawing an identical box from his pocket and offering it to Tinasha."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She frowned at him suspiciously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " In resounding tones, he said, “Now you will destroy Eleterria for me and fulfill my mission.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha stood aghast. “Excuse me?” The severity in Valt’s voice did not falter as he explained."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Both must be destroyed at the same time.\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Breaking one will trigger the other to overwrite its twin’s demise. This is why there are two.” Valt says, referring to the orbs."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “In the past, I’ve destroyed one of the orbs numerous times, only for time to rewind. Eventually, I learned that both had to be shattered simultaneously, and you are the only one powerful enough to accomplish the feat. You broke an outsiders’ artifact just the other day, did you not?” Valt refers to the Mirror of Oblivion."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Yes, you’re the strongest in all of history, but because you didn’t become a witch, you’re an inferior version of who you were meant to be. That’s why I tested your power. How fortunate for me that you absorbed Simila’s incarnation.” He continues shamelessly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “You…”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt had puppeteered events from the shadows to hone Tinasha's power."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt had prepared Tinasha for her role as the architect of the orbs’ destruction."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " But why did he want the artifact destroyed? Without making any effort to hide her confusion, Tinasha questioned. \"Didn’t you want to change the future?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I do. I want to rip down this mess of a canvas that’s been painted over too many times and restore the true future.” Fury burned in Valt’s eyes for a moment, but he swiftly quashed it, replacing the fire with his usual placid smile. He placed the box holding the stolen Eleterria on the pedestal."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “The records say it all began with the death of a child. The cause of death isn’t mentioned, and it’s irrelevant anyway. As the child’s mother sobbed over the corpse, she sensed someone nearby. A voice told her that it offered the salvation she desired. She then received the two Eleterria orbs, used them to go back in time, saved her child, and died.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “And it was an…outsider who gave them to her?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Yes. An interloper from beyond our world. You don’t seem to find that terribly difficult to believe.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Well, according to Travis, I should have no reason to doubt the existence of these outsiders, considering we know that their artifacts exist. Evidently…he once met someone who came from outside our world.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Really? It’s the first I’ve heard of that. I thought the outsiders only sent in objects, never entering personally. There are a total of twelve such artifacts. You’ve destroyed the ruins and the mirror, leaving ten.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “So outsiders really do exist, then.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “They do.\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " I don’t know what they are, but they’re certainly not deities. Following the Age of Gods and prior to the start of the Dark Age, there is a blank period of time. That was when they zeroed in on our world, introduced these experimental items, and recorded what we do like we were toys in a miniature garden. Valt studied Tinasha’s reaction. Before, in many other lives, he had told her this truth."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"What exactly is this family of Time-Readers?\" This time was no different, as Tinasha repeated the inquiry verbatim. She never changed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt chuckled before giving the same answer. \"We are the descendants of that first child saved by time travel. Ever since Eleterria was first given to humans, one member of my lineage per generation has been trapped as part of the artifact’s power. Our souls are used as record sheets.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"What…? Your souls?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Outsiders’ artifacts defy the laws of magic because the artifacts are each powered by fundamentals from beyond this world. Didn’t it strike you as odd that a tiny little orb could be so powerful as to overwrite the world by turning back time?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Well…yes. It didn’t map to the scale of it at all.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Exactly. That’s because Eleterria incorporates the soul of the current Time-Reader heir when it activates. Once it’s triggered, it calls up a specified point in time from the pool of memories the world has stored and reproduces it. The soul of the heir serves as the anchor that stabilizes that specified point and then acts as the record board where a log of usage is inscribed. The names of all the heirs, past and future, are also written upon that board. Our ability to retain memories of the lifetimes we’ve repeated is only a by-product of all of that.\" Whoever the outsider that came up with such a mechanism was, they must have been ignorant of the acute suffering of the humans whose souls would be used for this. Because Valt’s family was only alive thanks to Eleterria, the system would abuse them for centuries to come."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt tapped his forehead, his smile not reaching his eyes. \"I have a complete log of everyone who’s ever used Eleterria and why stored in here. At present, the last time it was used was sixteen years ago so that the late Queen Rosalia of Farsas could save her son’s life. And Eleterria’s most massive overwrite happened four hundred years ago, when the twenty-first king of Farsas, Oscar Lyeth Increatos Loz Farsas, changed the past for his wife, a witch. It all adds up, doesn’t it?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Tinasha’s jaw had dropped, which Valt observed with a tight grin. Lives, rewound abruptly because someone else wished it so. Memories, accruing and overlapping. That would be enough torture to crush the average person. The worst part of it all was that it was only a side effect. Irritation welling up within him, Valt let his gaze wander."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Slowly, his head turned as his gaze went beyond the castle walls and onto the wider world. Finally, he fixed his eyes on Tinasha again. \"You probably don’t understand, being the current version of yourself. But as a witch, you comprehended me a little, as you were also someone who had lived for a long time under the crushing weight of your memory.\" An image of that all-powerful witch superimposed itself over the present Tinasha’s face. They were the same and yet very different. The Tinasha who was familiar with the eons of time always had a vaguely sad, self-deprecating aura. \"I’m not talking about four centuries here. I’ve endured through millennia. There is only ever one heir who is unable to share the experience of repeating lifetimes with anyone else. Go on, visualize the horror of it. No matter what, my father always committed suicide. When I was seventeen, when I was thirteen, when I was ten… Everything you thought you’d already lived through comes back, and you must experience it again. It becomes unbearable.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Sometimes, I’ve gone back only a day in time. Sometimes I’ve returned many years. I’ve seen things rewound to before my birth and relived that time. We don’t know when or where time will repeat, but it will, mercilessly. Only at the very beginning was I happy to learn what the future held. I grew sick of it fast. It needled at me, made me feel like I would burst. I’ve died more times than I can count, but then I’m back again. How many more times must I repeat this?\" A tragedy taken too far became a comedy. On this stage, all the players of the world were dancing against their will. It was time to bring the curtain down. \"I’ve attempted to destroy Eleterria, but ordinary power levels cannot break an outsiders’ artifact, let alone two of them. Along the way, I realized you were the only person capable of doing it, but either I wasn’t able to get in touch with you, or I died before I could. Everything that could go wrong did, and I had my share of frustrating experiences. But then something happened that wasn’t supposed to. Someone went back four hundred years in time and changed history. You were no longer a witch.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Me not becoming a witch is something that wasn’t supposed to happen?\" Tinasha muttered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt gave her a pained smile. \"Do you know what must transpire in order for Eleterria to activate? Have you wondered how it gets the coordinates for the targeted point in time? The soul of the current heir acts as the anchor, but that’s not what makes things rewind to the desired time in specific.\" It was a crafty artifact."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Those orbs react to human attachment—love, hate, whatever. Any strong emotion will set one off. That means that a jump of hundreds of years shouldn’t be possible, ordinarily speaking. No one could feel such a powerful attachment to someone that far in the past, right? But there was a lone exception—a man who loved a witch and made her his wife. Your husband.\" Valt knew because he’d used it himself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha’s eyes widened."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"The artifact was designed so anyone sufficiently determined could change the past. But that was only half of it. Resolve alone with no feeling behind it wouldn’t trigger the artifact. Only the desire to use Eleterria, even at the cost of one’s own life, would remake the world anew. The heir four hundred years ago must have been pretty surprised. Just when he thought the cycle was over and he could enjoy his final rest, his own era started up again.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " It was all too easy for Valt to imagine his ancestor’s shock. He must have felt astonishment that bordered on despair—enough to make him scrawl a curse upon future generations in the records. \"But on the contrary, it gave me hope. I dared to think…if you weren’t a witch, and if you came to this time period in search of him, then this may be the timeline where everything goes as planned.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " And now, that hope was paying off. All of Valt’s meticulous preparations had successfully tripped Tinasha up. Tinasha, with all of her fantastic power, had rarely showed herself in previous timelines. Even once she met and married Oscar, she would refuse to listen to any request that sounded remotely fishy. But she was different now. While she could be cruel, she was also lost. The fact that Tuldarr had not fallen to ruin also worked to Valt’s benefit. He knew that when she’d been a witch, she chose to continue living for the Tuldarr citizens who perished and turned to souls without any sense of who they were. He was well aware that Tinasha would never, under any circumstances, abandon her country. This chance would never come again. If Valt let it slip by, salvation would elude him and his beloved for all time. He had to detach them from the world before it caught up."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “There is no such thing as a world where everyone is happy. Saving one person means that someone else will be sacrificed. And Eleterria will always get used as long as there is misery in the world. But I’m done with all of that. Our worldviews are all so limited. The exact same sand dune collapses only to be rebuilt, over and over. How much longer must I go along with it? It’s foolish and selfish to believe that saving those important to you means nothing else matters. It’s infuriating.” It really was foolish. And Valt was one of those fools. He eyed the woman who would become the world’s trump card."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"That’s why I want us to end this. You’re going to destroy it. You’re the only one who can.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " At last, this farce would draw to a close. Tinasha stared back at Valt. Then she glanced over at the two orbs on the pedestal—the artifact given to a mother who lost her child a long, long time ago. That was how everything started. And ever since, Eleterria had inflicted pain on human souls and caused indissoluble anguish, even as it reflected people’s strongest emotions and desires. It had altered reality, something that should have been unimaginable. All because of one simple wish to save someone else. That was certainly absurd and self-centered. And yet…"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I once tried to use it myself to save a child who was killed.\" Tinasha admitted softly, her eyes on the Eleterria orb. \"But it didn’t activate. Probably because, as you said, I had no true attachment to that boy.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " If she were the mother of that fallen child, she would have been able to use it to rewind time, without question. But it wasn’t to be. That bereaved mother did not have an otherworldly artifact—only the cold, dead body of her son. Tinasha could still vividly remember the sight of her sobbing, hunched over his corpse."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Yes, it may be true that not being able to go back in time to save another is natural and right. All of you have suffered so much from Eleterria’s use. I can’t ignore that.\" Tinasha said, tipping her head up to gaze at Valt. Her face was puckered, as if she were on the verge of tears. \"But I can’t deny the wishes of those who use it. That’s the human…heart we’re talking about.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She couldn’t refute Valt’s despair and suffering, yet she also acknowledged the desires of those who sought to alter history. Tinasha’s eyes grew hot with tears, and she looked away. Her heart ached because that little girl who’d been rescued once still lived within her. She understood the mentality of those who used the orbs. Changing the past and history would revise people’s relationships, too. While it was foolish to desire that someone else live, even at the cost of another’s existence, she also found it to be a very sacred thing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt’s voice cracked as he replied, \"You only feel that way because you were rescued by someone who used Eleterria…\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"No. I’m positive it was only a coincidence that allowed him to save me. When we first met, he said that he didn’t know why he’d traveled back in time, and he wanted to return.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Oscar had unwittingly activated Eleterria. That proved how great his love for his wife was. Thus, Tinasha’s own experiences weren’t informing her opinion."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"A desire to save the people we love, even if it goes against all logic, is an extremely common, extremely human emotion."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Even if…the end result is the reshaping of your fate and that of all those around you? You never know if someone’s tampering with history would render you unhappy.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Even so, a person’s strength of emotion is what activates Eleterria. That means it is a tool for human salvation.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha touched a corner of the pedestal, finding the stone to be colder than her tears. “The true object of your resentment is not the people who used the orbs. There’s a real reason why you feel you must destroy Eleterria rather than simply seal them from use. What is it?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha tore her gaze away from the red and blue orbs and stared at Valt."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " As he looked back, his eyes blazed with a soul ground down by many, many long years—a flame that would never be extinguished. “The world is waiting for a revolution.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “What?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “That’s what my father said. He used to say that each time our world is altered, another pin gets stuck into it. So it’s waiting for one last straw that will uproot the changes and restore things to their original form.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “‘The world is waiting for a revolution’…”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " In a bland, emotionless tone, Valt said, “Sooner or later, it will reach its limit. Someone has to do this. Our world has already reached a standstill. The furthest date in history is only another thirty-one years from now. No matter how often time is rewound, things never progress beyond that point. One Eleterria or the other will be used. Don’t you think that’s abnormal, even considering that this era has seen record levels of time travel? Eleterria’s survival means everything will stagnate.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha’s eyes grew wide again. “Then what will happen to the world when the orbs are destroyed?” Tinasha pressed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha stared at Valt. His eyes were filled with both all-knowing insight and silent resolve."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha gazed evenly at the man before her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " His eyes shone with the bright light of one who no longer had a choice. Valt watched her with bated breath. He didn’t think Tinasha should know this. But he did want to tell her. Perhaps she would understand him then. If this version of Tinasha were the queen he had served, he might have revealed everything. But if he did, Miralys would learn the truth, too, as their senses were linked at the moment. And she could never know. It would shake her terribly. She would tear down the spell, which would mean defeat."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " He realized that the reason the line had gone on unbroken nonetheless had to be because of some fearsome compelling force that would not allow for such things. And his hopelessness did not end there. Miralys had become the one last straw the world was waiting for. “There are no heirs after me.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha arched an eyebrow. \"How can that be? According to you, there are still thirty-one more years until the world comes to a standstill. Won’t the next heir just inherit this fate after you die?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “There isn’t one. I know the names of all heirs, past and future. My soul will be dismantled before it picks out the next one.” Unbearable pain lanced through Valt as he made that statement. He thought of all the losses he’d endured repeatedly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha’s eyes narrowed like she was analyzing magic. “Your soul will be dismantled? Does Eleterria do that, too?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “No. In my first life, I didn’t have enough magic, and I resorted to a forbidden curse. I traded my soul for power.” That was just a hypothesis. Valt could only guess what would befall Miralys when she inherited the Time-Reader position and its magic. However, her soul had indeed been splintered for some mysterious reason. And that had drawn the world’s attention."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “The heir’s soul is treated as a part of Eleterria. When my soul was dismantled, it created a gap in the succession line. Then someone used Eleterria to go back in time, and the world decided that this gap could be used to get rid of the troublesome artifact. No matter how drastic the changes to history, it would all get added to that one fixed point of repair. With every rewinding of time, my soul fractured and was dismantled again.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “What…? You mean you used more forbidden curses?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “No, it happened for a different reason with every instance. Once I was attacked by a demonic spirit; once I got dragged into someone else’s spell. The worst time was when a force of nature that sucks up mages’ souls came to the city where I was living and killed hundreds.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Irityrdia’s attack left the most devastation in its wake. Valt covered one hand with another to stop them both from trembling. “Initially, it only occurred every five lifetimes. But each rewinding of time increased the frequency. No matter how I tried to avoid it, something would inevitably happen to dismantle my soul, because that would create a gap in the succession line. That may be related to how the timeline can’t continue forward past a certain point.” It sounded like Eleterria and the world were engaged in a tug-of-war. One was rewriting the world over and over, while the other was attempting a revolution."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “I have nowhere to go from here. My soul won’t blend back into the world, either."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Sealing Eleterria won’t save my soul. And eventually, it will select some nonhereditary new heir instead. That’s why it’s much better if this ends here, with me.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Miralys:",
"value": " Miralys stood at the edge of waters teeming with the fusion of rewriting and repairs."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt had to get her out of there. He didn’t care what it would cost. If not even going back in time would change it, then his only option was to destroy the orbs."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “There was a girl living in that house with you, wasn’t there?” Tinasha says, her voice clear and ringing. Her dark gaze appeared to see right through him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Is she the one you truly wish to save?” Tinasha studied Valt’s reaction carefully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " He looked more shocked than she had ever seen him. Never had the man’s desires been laid so bare. All the blood drained from his face, but he remained silent. Evidently, he didn’t want to answer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha took some deep breaths. She kept her voice calm and steady. \"I understand what it is you wish for, as well as the state of our world and what Eleterria has done to it.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Well…good. Then you’ll break it for me. You know I’m not going to back down. You’re the only one who can save Tuldarr,” Valt said, eyes shining as coldly and emotionlessly as they had before."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “And that would mean…?”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha stood frozen."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Take a chance on it. Maybe your country and your husband will remain, and history will go on as it has, even after Eleterria is no more. But if you fail to make a choice here, Tuldarr will fall.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I know…that.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She couldn’t abandon her citizens, the ones alive right now, to die. Not without putting up a fight. Tuldarr was her beloved motherland. That was as true four centuries ago as it was today. It was a country like any other, where people worked from dawn to dusk, laughed with their families, made merry at the occasional festival, and grew old in peace. Gazing out at the city’s lights from the castle was lovely. She saw human life as a beautiful thing. Tinasha had believed she would happily spend her whole life protecting theirs. And yet every choice facing her seemed to lead to a dead end. They were all so heavy. If the weight of them meant allowing others to live, she would bear that burden without question. However, that wasn’t what was at stake now. Tinasha was so beset with doubts that she wanted to take a knee from the weight of them. Two little boxes lay open on the pedestal, one containing a red orb, and the other, a blue one. Eleterria, an instrument of hope and despair, absorbed human emotions. How much would people’s fates change if she destroyed it? With trembling fingers, Tinasha reached out."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"TINASHA!\" A man roared from outside"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Relief and remorse swept over her. That voice belonged to her one and only beloved. With Tinasha about to crumple"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt tutted in irritation and acted swiftly. He shoved one Eleterria orb into his pocket and seized the remaining one. With his free hand, he grabbed Tinasha and cried, “Let’s go!”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " They couldn’t exit the treasure vault. Even Tinasha would need an incantation to teleport out of it, allowing Oscar enough time to capture Valt. Valt set off at a run, dragging Tinasha deeper into the vault and kicking open a door. He burst into a dark stone passageway. A moment later, candelabra on the walls lit up."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " “Run. Do as I say.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha nodded. They hurried down the dimly lit passage, casting defensive barriers to guard against traps. Tinasha bit her lip as she heard the sound of footsteps pounding after them. She’d wanted him to come but also wished he hadn’t. Her country had been taken hostage, and she was in the midst of making an impossible decision, and now he’d gotten involved. Her delaying had dragged him into this mess."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " After tumbling down the passageway, Valt was struck dumb upon arriving at a large body of water. Discovering an underground lake beneath the castle was quite unexpected. He hadn’t thought their escape would be easy, but he’d counted on the flight buying some time. A short distance away, there was a path that crossed the water, but Valt hesitated to take it. It would leave them extremely visible. Instead, he threw a glance at his prisoner. \"Cast a teleportation spell. Now!\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"That’s enough.\" Oscar said in a commanding voice before Tinasha could answer, stepping out of the passageway, Akashia in hand. The king smiled as he looked at his fiancée and the intruder clutching her wrist. He had all the majesty of a monarch who could bring all who beheld him under his sway. \"You’re going to pay for dragging her around. Come here, Tinasha.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"She won’t. She can’t disobey me.” Valt responded, forcing a smile onto his face despite the cold sweat pouring down his back. Valt had served Oscar once, but only for three years. Yet in that short time, Oscar had imprinted himself as king into the man’s subconscious. This made it difficult for Valt to manipulate Oscar as he did other people. Instinctively, he shrank back. He wasn’t very good at dealing with Oscar and never wanted to face him. There could be no admitting as much, however. Wrapping an arm around Tinasha, he dragged her a step back with him. One more step, and they’d land in the lake."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " The smile dropped off Oscar’s face, and he took a step forward. A royal sense of pressure, enough to change the atmosphere around them, rolled off Oscar in waves and crashed into Valt. \"Hand her over. Eleterria, too. I won’t let you change things.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"You’re the one who overwrote the past! It’s your fault that we’ve had to suffer all over again!\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Well, I’m sorry about that. But it’s all over now. We’re going to seal away those orbs and not let anyone touch them again.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"No. You don’t know anything.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"You haven’t explained anything. Of course I don’t.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"You are capable of putting your country ahead of the people you hold dear! That’s why I have no choice but to keep betraying you!\" Valt shouted."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "King:",
"value": " The king requested that Valt talk with him before indulging in treachery, but there was no way he could."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " Valt knew what the answer would be. Even Oscar, who prized his wife above himself, would still choose his citizens. Oscar might understand Valt’s feelings, but he would never endorse them. Valt couldn’t ask a man like that to cooperate."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Valt,\" Called an anxious voice in his head. It was the girl he wanted to shelter from everything. His one and only. If he could free her, it didn’t matter if he ceased to exist and she forgot all about his love as if it never was."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Valt...! Run...!\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"It’s all right. I can still do it.\" He couldn’t back down. Dying with his mission incomplete was unacceptable. Fighting was the only recourse. He could rise above despair."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Please, come back.\" She was seeking confirmation. Pleading. Never had Valt doubted her love for him. Still, he trusted she could love another if he didn’t exist, if they had never met. And that would be fine. It was better that way. Valt tightened his grip on Eleterria as he stared Oscar down. He would handle this battle alone, atop a sense of disquiet no one else would comprehend. The girl continued to call to him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Are you listening to me? It’s pointless saving me if you just end up disappearing. I would choose unhappiness and knowing you over happiness and never knowing you. Even if our time together is limited. That’s what it is to be human. So please, come back to me.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Valt:",
"value": " \"Miralys…\" Valt was breathless. She must have caught on during his conversation with Tinasha. Miralys knew that she was the last heir…and that Valt would disappear along with Eleterria if it were destroyed. Knowing everything, aware of what she would suffer, she still chose him. That was the type of person Miralys was. Her strength was so familiar to him. Valt wanted to cry, to seek refuge in that power of hers. A desire to let her tranquil love compensate for all his repeated lifetimes rose within him. Yet Valt held his ground. He couldn’t see the future, which meant he couldn’t give up. He listened with growing frustration as Oscar and Tinasha spoke to each other. Just as he was about to urge his captive to teleport them away, something knocked into him and sent him reeling."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Don’t kill him!\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Why does something like this happen the second I take my eyes off you?” Oscar sighed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I’m sorry.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “It’s fine. We’ll figure this out.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar adjusted his grip on Akashia. “I know you’re in the midst of a situation, but don’t get reckless. Or do anything you don’t have to.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Despite how things look, I’m always considering what would be the quickest way out.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Yeah, and I’m telling you that’s unnecessary.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I can do it because I have you.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha gave Oscar a smile like moonlight. “So Oscar, come and save me.” A hand shot forward and plucked the Eleterria orb from Valt’s pocket, quick as can be. Then Tinasha rammed herself into her captor and used the recoil to leap backward. From the corner of her eye, she could make out a look of astonishment on Oscar’s face. “Don’t kill him!” she shouted to Oscar before diving into the lake, the blue orb still in her hand. A loud splash rose with white foam. The cold of the water hit her like a shock."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " If Valt and Miralys were trapped, wedged in the middle of the war between the world and the alterations, Tinasha would see to their safety first. Then she would talk to him again and consider what to do about Eleterria and the world. For now, she need only survive to reach that point. Tinasha focused her mind. The lake water dispersed her magic. However, its ability to do so was weaker than Akashia’s. She hadn’t imbibed any of the water, enabling her to push past its effects by enhancing the pressure of her power. That was how she averted danger the last time. As quickly as able, Tinasha cast an incredibly dense spell. Once the teleportation spell was complete…she suddenly realized that the blue orb felt warm. Despite the chill of the cold water, the half of Eleterria in her grip was giving off heat. And it felt like all the water in the lake was quietly urging her to clench it tighter."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Something’s wrong. Her movements slowed. Her spell dissipated. Tinasha was sinking, caught in a trap and dissolving as she held this little burning sphere. Losing track of her very place in the world, she no longer knew what was happening. A crack appeared on the orb’s surface. Tinasha stared at it numbly. Before her eyes, it widened, and lake water flowed into the fissure. The sigils carved onto it glowed white, almost defiantly. It began to activate. Frantically, Tinasha poured magic into her hands to stop the orb from triggering, but the light intensified."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " I want to go back to him. That wish flashed through her mind. She could tell she was about to lose everything. She was so close. She was about to be his bride. The promise he made her when she was a girl would come true. With each new component of her wedding ensemble, Tinasha had savored the pure excitement. It didn’t seem real that the time had really come for her to wear the veil her parents gave her; she’d thought it something that had long passed her by. Even the wait for her days with him to start was joyful. Oscar had given her something that transcended four hundred years. Once she wed him, she could die happy that very night. And yet now… A blinding light engulfed Tinasha, blotting out her vision. The hand holding the orb disappeared. Her body, mind, and magic were all dismantled. As was her heart."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " I want to…go back— With that final thought, her memory cut off and vanished."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " \"Awaken.\" That whisper made the girl look up. She couldn’t see a thing around her. There was only cold, watery darkness, and she was crouched in the middle of it. Her dark eyes scanned the surroundings. There was no indication of what she’d been doing. She didn’t know who she was. She was all alone."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " \"Where is it you want to go back to?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " She wanted to return to a distant place. But where?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " “The moment you choose, the world will form anew.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " The voice’s words were lost on her, for she was only a thirteen-year-old lost in the dark. She’d been detained here to choose another path."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " \"Out of all your infinite memories of your lives, choose the safest time for you.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " The safest?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " “Or the happiest.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " The happiest?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " “Go on, choose.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " Choose. She only had one option. To go to him, to where he was. To whatever the closest place to him was, to a time when she had fallen asleep at ease. There was no cause for wavering or hesitation. Standing up straight, she picked up the orbs at her feet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " “Run. Go.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " She sprinted away. A light glowed where she had chosen. There, the world was being formed. She didn’t look back at the darkness. Her young body became an adult’s. For the world that was taking shape, she ran."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " “This time, it is your soul that will have new records etched onto it.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " She was no longer listening to the voice. Entranced, she dashed for the place and time where she wished to be."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " “Give it as many tries as you like. You humans will keep trying, over and over.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " She ran. The darkness of the lake water faded. With every bound, the world reformed and recreated itself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " “Try. Keep trying until you get to the ending you want.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " Then she leaped into the blinding white radiance."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " Clasping the young child’s body to her, the woman wept. The child was cold and lifeless. Dead. Lost, irrevocably. She sobbed for this life that could never be recovered. No price seemed too steep if it could mean the little one’s return. Her baby was irreplaceable to her. But it wouldn’t work. She knew that. Time couldn’t rewind. That knowledge was of little comfort and did not give her reason to wish otherwise."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " \"Someone, please… Save my baby…\" Her wails echoed through the world. No one answered her plea. No one was there. Her quavering, interminable sobs only filled up her little corner of the world."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “I wish I could have watched you all a little longer,” someone said, and Oscar came to. Evidently, he’d lost consciousness for a moment. It felt like he’d been sitting in this little gray room talking to an unfamiliar young man forever."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " He didn’t recognize the other occupant, who was sitting at the empty table with him. Oscar sank back into a soft chair. His wife’s head lay in his lap; she was asleep and breathing peacefully, legs curled under her on the ground. Locks of her long hair swept gracefully across the floor of the chamber."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " Calmly, though with obvious regret, the man admitted, “I wanted to save you humans. Isn’t it sad when a mother loses her child? I wanted to let her do things over. That’s all. I hoped to give all of you a chance to overwrite whatever mournful or cruel thing occurred, if that was what you wished to do.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Even if it drove our world to the brink of destruction? Sometimes you save one thing only to give rise to another tragedy entirely.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “I thought that you humans would do something about it, should that come to pass. I only meant to expand your options and permit you to make repeated attempts, however many times you needed.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “We didn’t need that. We’ll handle things on our own.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Their back-and-forth had gone on for ages now. It felt like the same conversation had repeated for a very long time, but also like it had only just begun. All in the small windowless room was gray, like an endlessly rainy day. Tinasha’s rhythmic breathing was the only sound."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " The man cracked a sliver of a pained smile. “You don’t need it? I thought you might say that. But our power already permeates the two of you. Now you can remember all of the lifetimes you’ve lived before, too, can’t you? There’s the proof. You’re just like the humans linked to that tool, but much more powerful. When you die, your souls will not dissolve back into the world as other humans’ souls do. You will keep drifting as foreign objects, divorced from your humanity.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Foreign objects?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " When he destroyed Eleterria, two forces—the artifact’s power and Akashia’s—poured into Oscar and Tinasha. A transformation capable of changing the world had filled the pair. No ordinary ending was possible for them. It was Oscar’s responsibility that such an unprecedented end had come and that Tinasha had gotten wrapped up in this. However, he knew that Tinasha would smile and say, “I’m glad we’re in it together.” That brought him both comfort and pain."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “If it all gets too unbearable, we’ll figure something out. I know she will, at the very least.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " As long as he had Akashia, he could at least free her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " But the man tilted his head at Oscar quizzically. “Are you truly all right with that?"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “You might wind up alone for eternity.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I’m fine. I’ve already received so much.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Why have you interfered in our world?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Because it’s our role to make contact with you and accumulate knowledge. Although, all of us have different reasons. I do it because I’m interested in you. I would have liked to watch you for as long as possible… But the woman who made your sword told me I was being arrogant.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Rightly so.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Observer:",
"value": " “Meddling in others’ affairs is an arrogant act, no matter how you go about it.” The man stated, his voice dripping with undisguised self-loathing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Don’t you care that your tool’s been destroyed?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Observer:",
"value": " “It’s merely the result of you humans trying things out. And besides, nothing’s settled yet.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Because there are still other artifacts?” Oscar sighed, getting to his feet. He picked up Tinasha, still asleep, cradling her to his chest."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Action:",
"value": " A little door appeared on a gray wall. As Oscar headed for it, the man’s voice stopped him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Observer:",
"value": " “Going back already? The world is waiting for you two. You’ve finally appeared—beings who can battle against our devices. It won’t let you go until all of them are gone.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “I don’t care.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Action:",
"value": " Oscar heard the man offer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Observer:",
"value": " “Then go on and give it a try. Keep trying.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Action:",
"value": " He opened the door and stepped out into nothing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Observer:",
"value": " “The world and I will give you the transformation you need to keep fighting.”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " Sitting with his chin in his hands and a bored look on his face in the dining room of a little inn. Sulking, he muttered, “Ugh, I wanted to go to the castle city. I wanted to see the Festival of Aetea.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " Sitting at the same table as the innkeeper’s son responded with a smile. She’d been a guest of the tavern for two days now. The black-haired woman sipped at her water as she listened to him. “Is it the three hundred and forty-second Festival of Aetea this year? Yes, that’s too bad.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " “They took me last year and everything, too. Have you ever been, miss?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “I have. I’ve even lived in the castle city.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " “Aww, I’m so jealous… I wanna live there when I’m older.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Mother:",
"value": " Overhearing him in the kitchen, she shouted back, “Don’t be ridiculous!”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " Automatically, the boy flinched."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " Broke into peals of laughter. Once she was done, she grinned. “Instead of the festival, how about I tell you a very old, very fascinating story?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " “What kind of old story?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “It’s an ancient legend passed down in Farsas about a king and a witch.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " Stared at the woman’s red lips, which were stretched in a beautiful smile. Though he gaped at her for a moment, he took the bait right away. “Do witches really exist? I thought they were a myth.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “They did, a long time ago, though no one knows where they are now.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " “What? No way that’s true. How does the story go?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " Her expression turned bewitching. And with a melodious tone, she recited the tale. “Once upon a time, in the land to the west of Farsas, there stood an azure tower just beyond the border. The spire was filled with traps and monsters, and a witch lived on the top floor. Those who made it past all her trials and climbed to the top would be granted a wish. However, none had succeeded at the challenge in dozens of years.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " “Wow. Is the tower still there?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “Not anymore. It was old and dangerous. Anyway, a prince of Farsas became interested in the tower and climbed it alone, though it was very foolish of him. But he was powerful and made it to the top floor, where he met the witch…”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " Eyes sparkled as he pressed the woman to continue."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " She closed her eyes and smiled as she launched into the next part. “First, he asked to duel the witch to test his strength.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " “Wow! Who won?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “The witch beat him handily, of course. She flattened him into a pancake.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " “Yikes…” That was an unexpected twist."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " The boy had been expecting a traditional tale of valor, and he hung his head in disappointment."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " The woman giggled and waved a hand comfortingly as she went on. \"The prince was strong nonetheless, so for his wish, he requested that the witch train him. Reluctantly, the witch accepted. Before long, he became as strong as the witch. By the time the prince was king…the witch had fallen in love with him.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " \"What?! Are you joking?!\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " \"I’m very serious. Then the witch moved out of the tower and married him. The Farsas royal family carries their blood to this day.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " \"I—I don’t believe that. I mean, she’s a witch! Wasn’t she all wrinkly?\" The boy objected, which made the woman burst out laughing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " \"You should ask your history teacher. This story is fairly well-known.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " \"It is? Okay, then I’ll ask tomorrow.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " The woman nodded and took a sip from her glass. Her unique eyes, the color of darkness, caught the light of the candles and sparkled."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Voice:",
"value": " \"Tinasha! What are you doing playing around? It’s time to go.\" A voice boomed from the doorway to the dining room."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " \"Oh, right. Sorry.\" answered the woman, tying her long black hair back in a ponytail as she stood and headed to join her companion at the door."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Young Man:",
"value": " The young man set down an amount of money that covered their lodging fees and then some. \"Thanks for the hospitality.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Inn Proprietress:",
"value": " The inn proprietress came out from the kitchen and bowed to her departing guests."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " Her son did the same. \"See you, miss. Thanks for the story.\" He waved as he watched the woman follow her companion and depart."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Inn Proprietress:",
"value": " The proprietress narrowed her eyes, puzzling. \"That sword… Never mind, it couldn’t be. I saw the king carrying it just last year.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Boy:",
"value": " \"What? I wanna see the king, too!\" her son whined."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Inn Proprietress:",
"value": " \"Next year, dear. Next year.\" she placated before returning to the kitchen."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Narrator:",
"value": " The pair left the inn and made their way outside the town. Lights began to shine from the windows of village homes, and the woman admired the view."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " The man grinned at her. \"That was quite the tale you told back there.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “You heard that?! It isn’t nice to eavesdrop, you know!”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “Lots of stuff happened after we got married, too. Don’t cut the story off so soon.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “All of that is recorded for posterity in the castle archives. Old fairy tales don’t need to be completely accurate,” she responded with a giggle."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " He gave her a fond look before he remembered something else. “Who did you say flattened who into a pancake again?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “Ow, ow, ow!”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “I’ll flatten you right now!” he growled, pressing fists against her temples."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “I went too far! I’m sorry!” she cried, begging for mercy. Once he released her, she rubbed at her head, teary-eyed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " He stuck his tongue out at her. “Well, I suppose it’s the truth. But I wouldn’t lose now.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “I look forward to finding out,” she replied with a grin."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “I’m ready whenever you are,” he returned, nodding in satisfaction. But as he glanced down at himself, an annoyed look stole across his handsome features. “It’s just hard to use a body that’s not fully grown yet. Yeah, it’s nice that we can be reborn when the world commands it or whatever, but it’s a hassle right now.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Narrator:",
"value": " Their souls could not dissolve back into the world, even upon death. Such was the gift bequeathed to them by the world, to use them after their transformation into foreign entities. After they perished, it would only take a few decades before they obtained new bodies. They would search for babies that had lost their souls before birth, and they would take their forms to be reborn. Ahead of them was a war with no end in sight. To erase all outside interference in the world, they tracked down outsiders’ artifacts and destroyed them. These two were the weapons of that fight. Such a long journey would likely take them beyond the mainland. They would cross the sea, move into new time periods, and keep trying. No one could say how long it would take to end. But that was the task the world had assigned them. The pair were artifacts in the shape of people, crafted from transformed souls. Someday, their truly eternal destiny might become unbearable. Each time one witnessed the death of the other, the grief and loss might wear away at their psyche a little more. But they were perfectly happy for the moment, because neither was alone."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " The woman explained matter-of-factly, “Our physical bodies appear to be designed to stop growing naturally at the age when we are most fit for battle. Essentially, we’re young forever. Although if it bothers you, I can use magic to age you up a little.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “It’s fine."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “I’ll only have to bear with it for a few more years.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " At that, the woman happily latched on to his arm. “I like seeing you at this age. It’s fresh and new, which makes it fun.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “If you enjoy it, then I suppose it’s worthwhile.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “I’d like to see you even littler, too. I’m sure you were adorable. Oh, but don’t die on me anymore. I was so lonely waiting for you…” A shadow abruptly passed over her dark eyes. She tightened her hold on his arm, seeming anxious."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " To reassure her, the man smiled. “Understood. I’ll be careful. In exchange, you’re not allowed to go out on solo missions. You always get some mortal injury or another right away.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “What’s a bit of an injury if I still win?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “I don’t know if I would consider ‘riddled with holes all over your body to be a bit of an injury,” he responded dryly, sounding entirely unamused."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " She gazed up at him raptly. “No matter if it takes decades or centuries for you to come back, I will find you. I’ll track you down even if you don’t have your memories. We’ll fall in love all over again.” She spoke of pure and everlasting love. An affection that would surpass eternity, as it had once already. That feeling was enough to carry them through the ever-changing times. It sounded like a wedding vow."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " The man broke into a broad grin. “I’m very glad to hear that. Oh, but I should tell you that you’re extremely bad at winning a man’s heart. You come on way too strong. If I don’t remember you and you’re all over me, it’s going to be a bit of a turnoff.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “Hey! Don’t you think that’s a little rude?! I could say the same thing about you!”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “I watch and wait before making my move, adjusting my approach as I go.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “I don’t see the difference!” she whined. Then her mouth pursed into a decided pout. “I think it’s fine either way. We have all the time in the world, after all. I can wait for you to come around, even if it takes a hundred years.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “That’s exactly the sort of creepy behavior I’m talking about.” The man sighed. Despite his admonishments, the two of them would never see eye to eye on this. It was pointless to hope she would use a more roundabout approach, but that was also proof of how deep her feelings for him ran. Despite his grimace, he finally cut to the chase. “I heard a rumor that something that could be an outsiders’ artifact is in some lord’s domain in the north.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “I hope it’s true. That would make our fifth one, if so.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " “Let’s take it easy as we investigate. Once we’re done, we can go see the ocean or something. It’s been a while.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " “As you wish,” she replied, and the pair departed from town."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " Night fell swiftly around them while the man commanded the dragon to change its size. The pair boarded the dragon’s back and soared into the air. Down below, the lights of the city after dark were a sea of glittering gems."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Woman:",
"value": " The woman smiled at the twinkling ocean, the flickers of human life."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Man:",
"value": " The man wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Then this entirely uncommon pair vanished into the night on a dragon’s back. The story of the king and the fifth witch faded into the annals of history as an ancient fairy tale. Eventually, no one remained who could recall their names. All the stories in the world gave rise to others, stacked in libraries to be read over and over. But they would never be overwritten again. So it went, a fragment of an unnamed memory."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha sat up with a gasp. She was in a dark, unfamiliar room. The window showed it was night outside; no lamp or candle lit the room. There was only the pale bluish light of the moon. As she attempted to calm her panting, gasping breaths, she gazed down at herself—and froze. She wasn’t wearing anything. Instinctively, she hugged her knees and head to her chest, curling into a ball."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Why…?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"What is it?\" he asked beside her. Lying on his stomach, he lifted his head to look at her. His eyes were as blue as the sky right after dusk."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She knew him, yet his name wasn’t coming to her right away. Why couldn’t she recall it? They were clearly close enough to share a bed. That made Tinasha realize she didn’t even know her own name. While that left her aghast and stupefied, she had to get it together. Pulling up the blankets to cover herself, she inquired, \"Who are you, and who am I, and where are we…?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " The inquiry prompted the man to give her the strangest look. He sat up, leaned back against the pillows, and then answered, \"I wondered why you woke up so randomly. Are you still half-asleep? I’m your husband, the king of Farsas. You’re my queen, a witch, and the heir to Old Tuldarr. We’re in the royal bedchamber of the castle. Do you need me to tell you our names, too?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Oh!” That was enough to jog her mind and fill in the blanks. She was born four centuries before and became a witch on the eve of her country’s destruction. Her name was Tinasha. After many twists and forks in the road, she became his wife. Tinasha had no idea how she could have forgotten such a thing, even if she had trouble with waking up. \"Sorry… I guess I was half-asleep.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Sure seemed like it. It’s the middle of the night,\" Oscar said with a little grin."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " That smile filled Tinasha with such fond familiarity that she felt instantly at ease. All the tension drained from her body. He reached out to ruffle her hair, and she blushed. \"It was like…I had a dream of a time that wasn’t this one…and it felt like it took a really, really long time to get here,\" she muttered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"A dream of the past, maybe? You have lived twenty times longer than I have,\" Oscar remarked with a smirk."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “You’ve worked hard.” His eyes softened. The warmth of his sympathy for the centuries his wife had lived was her reward for those long years of loneliness. He wanted to spend the rest of his life giving her warmth and love."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha savored a feeling of happiness before she joked, “I certainly don’t feel twenty times more mature than you.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Yeah, you peaked a long time ago, considering how short-tempered and socially awkward you are. I don’t mind, though.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Stop treating me like a little kid!” she protested, although she was grinning. After living for eons and choosing to separate herself from other humans, she had concluded that she was an anomaly. Such was the nature of a witch, and she was the strongest, though still shackled by deep feelings for her homeland. Yet despite how warped she was, he never denied her identity as a witch, nor did he give up any part of himself to do it. He simply invited her to stand next to him. Ever since she met him, she had enjoyed the most fulfilling time of her whole life. That was why she’d elected to live the rest of her days as his loving wife and as a force he kept in check. “I’m very happy right now. I’m glad I finally found you.” This was the most joyful and safest place. She had no worries or anxieties. All she needed was for this to go on forever. Tinasha gave him a bright smile."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " But Oscar frowned at the sight of it. \"What’s wrong?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “What? Nothing,” Tinasha replied, but then she realized her vision was blurring. “Huh?” She pinched the bridge of her nose. Maybe she’d awoken from that dream so suddenly that her emotions were still out of whack. I have the strangest sense that I’m a young girl in love, somewhere in time. I’m thinking about wanting to wear a wedding dress. What would be making her feel that way? Tinasha had already married Oscar. She met him not as a naive little girl, not as an ice queen, but as a witch with four hundred years of ennui behind her. Curiously, she still felt a twinge of incongruity. It was as though her longing for the dream lingered within her like the traces of a fragrance. Over the blankets, Tinasha pressed a hand to her chest. “I don’t know. I feel as if…I didn’t get to marry you. That’s the sense I’m getting.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Are you sure you’re okay?” Oscar questioned, not with exasperation but with genuine concern. And it was no wonder. There were too many discrepancies in this reality. Tinasha’s memories were getting all muddled. Something that should be there had vanished…"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha swallowed whatever was swirling within her. “I’m…fine.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “I hope so. Don’t stay up any longer. Just go back to sleep. You’ll make it even harder for yourself come morning,” he said softly, reaching out to wrap both arms around her waist and draw her in."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"He-hey!\" Tinasha yelped reflexively, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " As the confused woman was pulled back into place next to him, the sensation of her skin sliding directly against Oscar’s made her feel distinctly uncomfortable."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha tried to crawl out of his arms. \"This is too—\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Her behavior made Oscar frown. \"What is it? Why are you moving away?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I—I mean, that felt really weird, okay?! I’ve never done that before!\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"You’re funny…\" Oscar sighed, rubbing at his temples."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She flailed in an attempt to break free, but she was no match for the king’s toned arms, which held her fast."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Looks like you’re still asleep. Guess I should do something to wake you up,\" Oscar whispered, dipping his head to place a kiss along her nape."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She screeched like a cat. \"Wait! I said wait! Something’s not right!\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"You’re acting weird. What’s up with you?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Let’s just talk! Let me go!\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Not yet,\" Oscar refused, pinning Tinasha down as she squirmed beneath him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Even she wasn’t certain why it felt wrong. There was simply a definite feeling of abnormality. As Tinasha thrashed around, one of her feet knocked against a cold, hard object of some kind that had no place in a bed. She frowned. \"Wait, there’s something here.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Something as in what, exactly?\" Oscar asked, lifting his head."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She scrambled out from under him and fumbled around under the sheets for it. Then her hand closed around it. \"Here it is.\" The pair of them gazed down at a blue jewel etched with sigils along its surface. Something deep in her memory whispered, I know what this is."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Ah!\" she cried as waves and waves of memories abruptly flooded her mind."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " The sheer volume of so many chronicles and lifetimes lived repeatedly was enough to send her reeling. In some, she never became a witch and perished along with her country. While in others, she died as a young child. There were a few where she perished after becoming a witch. A few lifetimes came and went without her ever meeting Oscar. A couple she spent alone. In so many, she died before ever having the chance for atonement. Others had her perishing from a sudden danger that arose once everything was over. That she could wind up in his arms at all after her fate had changed so many times was nothing short of a miracle, the end point of an indescribable series of events. This memory was like a dream, which was why she felt so happy and loved here. So much so that she would choose to return to this point from any other in time and space. Tinasha buried her face in her hands and abruptly broke into muffled sobs, leaving Oscar flummoxed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " He wrapped his arms around her soft form. Using a finger to tip her chin up, he gazed into her dark eyes. \"What is it? What happened?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Oscar…\" Slowly, Tinasha blinked."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Her eyes were wet with pearly tears. She took a shuddery breath and then gave him a melancholy smile. \"I’ve traveled such a very long way… Will you listen to me?\" The beseeching expression she turned on him was beautiful."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " It had been a long time since he’d seen her with that look, and it had been equally as long since he’d watched her cry. Oscar dropped a soft kiss onto her lips. \"Yes. Tell me.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " So Tinasha launched into the full story of Eleterria and the history that no longer existed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " After hearing everything, Oscar let out a long, hard sigh. \"That’s quite a tale. I don’t believe a word of it.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I suppose you wouldn’t,\" Tinasha said with a pained look as she glanced over at the Eleterria orb on the bedside table. It was the blue one, which should have been locked tight within the Tuldarr treasure vault in the normal flow of events."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Tuldarr, huh? I would’ve liked to see it,\" Oscar remarked nonchalantly, making Tinasha’s heart ache. The people who loved and protected her motherland were all gone. In this world, that country had fallen to ruin four centuries before. In lifetime after countless lifetime, there was only one in which Tuldarr survived. But that instance was already lost to the sands of time; nothing of it remained. A half-cracked Eleterria had deemed it a dead end and initiated a rewind."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"In the end, I couldn’t…save Tuldarr,\" Tinasha murmured, pressing her palms against her closed eyelids. Her regret turned to tears; Legis’s last smile surfaced in her memory. Tuldarr was like some illusory phantom, a country she had possibly dreamed up at some point. But it was no fantasy. Despite the fact that it didn’t exist now and that the alterations in time had erased it, that nation and the people who’d lived in it were there. She would be the only one to recall the beauty of the city lights and the days she’d experienced. Had the people of Tuldarr been truly happy? It was useless to answer that; it would make for a poor consolation. \"There is no world where everyone is happy.\" So Valt had said. Had he been correct? The world kept spinning as tragedy and salvation intertwined like a pair of lovers. It was impossible to rescue everything. Someone would always be screaming with grief at any given moment. Tinasha had survived with her country once, and now she was left alone again. Her eyelashes stirred."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " With his thumb, Oscar gently wiped away the tears from her cheeks. \"Was it a good country?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Yes… Very much so.\" Tinasha would need a little more time to process the blow of losing her country a second time. Through Tinasha’s story, Oscar had learned about Eleterria. After a bit of hesitation, she also revealed the full truth of his mother’s death, which he listened to with astonishment. Then he let out a little sigh, not seeming mixed-up over it in the slightest."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"To be honest, sometimes I would see this silhouette flash through my mind, one I’d never glimpsed before. I guess that was…a remnant of the memories that got sealed away. Did you know all along that I was related to a witch?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"More or less, yes. I recognized her magic in you… I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"It’s fine. You were being considerate.\" She said, mussing Tinasha’s hair as she watched him, casting back through her memories. This feels strange. She wasn’t her current self, the one who was a witch. Some other, weaker—and yet very determined—self was alive within her mind. Since the day Oscar’s actions had changed history and the timeline diverged, she had lived a total of seven years. While that was a drop in the bucket for a witch, it was agony for Tinasha, the Queen of Tuldarr. And at the end of it, here she was, her current self."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar gazed into his wife’s teary eyes. \"So you have these recollections that should have been erased, which means…\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Yes. I’m the new Time-Reader heir.\" At this point, there was no Valt or Miralys. In the normal flow of time, the role of heir went unfilled. Yet instead of them, she had become the Time-Reader after touching Eleterria."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"So you remember every life you’ve ever experienced? That must make it feel like you’ve existed forever.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Yes, I need to keep some degree of control over it, or things will get rough.\" She replied. Mental fatigue had occasionally overwhelmed Tinasha after living for only four hundred years. Now she had the memories of the infinite existences she’d led before. Staring at her own memories would grow unbearable. There was also something else to consider. The Time-Reader was generally a hereditary title. Any child she birthed would eventually become the next heir. \"I was selected as heir under quite unusual circumstances. Eleterria was partially broken in the lake water when it took apart the world and reformed it to escape. I was the closest, so it made me the heir, took my memories and existence as the anchoring point, and reformed the world.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"What are you saying?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I’m saying that this world was created the moment I woke up.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar gaped at her, which was understandable, as he possessed no awareness of having awoken only a short while before. This timeline was one Eleterria had selected out of innumerable overwritten pasts, then had reconstructed from scratch. None of that appeared immediately plausible, but as the Time-Reader, Tinasha knew it was true. As Oscar mulled over her story, a pensive look came over his face, and he stroked his chin. \"Gotcha. So it was almost broken and pulled an emergency evacuation. Did you try to destroy it in the water?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I couldn’t. That lake water has the same properties as Akashia. I can just barely use my magic if I pressurize it, but only for simple spells.\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"A powerful, high-output attack would be out of the question.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"The Lake of Silence, huh? Who knew there was something like that underneath the castle.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"That timeline was the only one where it was excavated. Travis seemed to know about it, but maybe that was because he heard about the excavation. I can probably teleport us there if you want to see it.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Hmm… No, I’m good. I feel like I’ve got a general idea already.\" Oscar replied, sounding like he’d accepted the crazy story. He patted Tinasha’s head."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"What idea?\" Tinasha questioned, cocking her head to the side. Reclined on the bed with her cheek resting on one hand, she resembled nothing so much as a curious cat."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar kissed her forehead. \"Those outsiders’ artifacts or whatever have powers that defy the laws of magic, right? But even before you knew about them, you’d already encountered something else that works in mysterious ways.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I had?\" Tinasha had no idea what Oscar could be referring to. She had lived a very long time and had seen many things, but only a few of those were things Oscar could be aware of. As Tinasha fell into deep, serious consideration, Oscar flashed her a chagrined look."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Come on. You don’t need to think so hard. I’m talking about Akashia.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Oh!\" He’d meant the royal sword, the only blade in all the land capable of nullifying magic. It was prodigiously effective, but no one knew how it functioned. The sword had been passed down since the founding days of Farsas without ever getting lost to the ages. \"The legend says an inhuman creature pulled Akashia out of the Lake of Silence. So wouldn’t it make sense if whoever that was came from outside our world? Didn’t Travis call the Lake of Silence the insiders’ lake?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"O-Oh yes, he did…\" Travis had said, “While she was an outsider, she also wasn’t. She chose to be an ally to humans and lived and died among them.” What if the person he met was the very one who’d pulled Akashia from the water? \"The first queen of Farsas…Deirdre?\" Tinasha wondered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"The name of the first queen was never recorded.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I heard it directly from a member of the Farsas royal family four hundred years ago, though not until after I became queen. She traded her own power for the sword and gave it to the first king. But in exchange, she could no longer return to her birthplace. So the story goes.\" If the inhuman creature who pulled the sword from the lake was the same person as the first queen, it explained why Travis was surprised that Oscar didn’t know about the existence of outsiders’ artifacts. Travis believed the Farsas royal family would have passed on the truth about the first queen and the royal sword."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Then does that mean I have outsider blood in my veins?\" Oscar posited."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"It happened twenty generations ago. It would be very diluted by now.\" Tinasha replied."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Examining Oscar magically also revealed that he had no inhuman qualities. Farsas was founded seven centuries in the past."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha gazed up at Oscar, impressed with his deduction skills. \"But wow, so that’s what it was! I’m so accustomed to how unusual Akashia is that it didn’t occur to me at all.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"Yeah, you’re pretty used to the sword because of how much trouble it gives you. But that does seem to explain why the Eleterria orb cracked inside the lake.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Yes, it does…\" The outside observers and the one outsider who’d mingled with humans and married one. Deirdre, who chose the human world, left just enough power to eliminate the artifacts her kin introduced. Now Tinasha knew she hadn’t imagined the water rushing for the orb. \"So Eleterria escaped from the Lake of Silence,\" she mused. That timeline was scrapped because the Lake of Silence had been excavated. To capture a Tinasha who wasn’t a witch, a Time-Reader heir broke into the treasure vault, which resulted in the creation of an underground labyrinth. A series of new events had driven Eleterria to desperation. \"When…I first considered where to hide Eleterria, I thought of submerging it in the Lake of Silence because almost no one would go near it,\" Tinasha recalled."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"If you’d done that, this would’ve all happened sooner,\" Oscar pointed out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha let out her umpteenth sigh of the night. Had Valt known this would transpire, he might have chosen another method. Or perhaps he would’ve reached out to Tinasha anyway? Valt Hogniss Gaz Kronos. He was a second-generation Time-Reader and Tinasha’s former subject. Tinasha knew his full name because it was inscribed on the records she had access to as the latest heir. His thoughts and desires during his many lives would forever go unknown, however. For he’d never revealed the full truth to Tinasha. Huddled in the bedsheets, the witch exhaled. \"This is all so bizarre. I can understand why Valt was trying to destroy the orbs. There have been far too many rewindings of time in this era.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"So the orbs have passed from person to person over the years, huh? Is our current timeline one step ahead of the one that disappeared?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"To be more accurate, it’s exceedingly close to it.\" This instance—the one that would have gone on had Oscar not traveled back four hundred years—had been recreated with Tinasha as the anchor. However, as it was a thing remade, there were likely to be some discrepancies. \"I chose this timeline,\" she told him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"You did?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Yes. A person’s wish is required for Eleterria to activate. When it asked me where it should rebuild the world, I chose this moment… Because in all of my memories, I am the happiest right here and now.\" She had wished to return to him. She was most content with him, so she’d woken up here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar broke into a grin when he heard that."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I’m honored.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “When you met me when I was a young girl, you promised that if I could meet you four hundred years from then, you’d make me happy. And you were right.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Yeah?” Oscar asked as his hand brushed over her cheek."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha stared at the reflection of herself in his eyes. Oscar carried no recollections of his previous lifetimes. But now, something had settled between them—eternity. The weight of all the time accumulated within her and the breadth of the love he poured into her made this place where both intertwined eternally. Yet she could not stay here forever. Tinasha could not allow the Farsas royal family to become Time-Reader heirs. She would attempt to detach the heir’s soul from Eleterria; if that failed, Oscar would have to take another consort. Tinasha had no choice but to stop her physical body’s growth again, which would allow her to live as long as possible as the sole Time-Reader. That way, the artifact wouldn’t take a new prisoner. Oscar might object to her stepping down as the queen consort, but she intended to stay in the castle until he died. And with as many memories as she had, she could live off them forever. Lost in thought, Tinasha cast her eyes down. However, she looked up again after noticing Oscar’s gaze. A bittersweet smile decorated his face as he stared at her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Tinasha.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Yes?” she replied, waiting for him to go on."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her eyelid. Then he stood from the bed and began to dress. \"Let’s go. Put some clothes on.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “What? Go where?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “There’s another one, isn’t there? In the treasure vault. Bring that one, too, but be careful,” Oscar instructed, pointing at the blue Eleterria orb as he grabbed Akashia. From behind, he looked masculine and powerful. The way he never hesitated was beautiful. Reflecting on how his actions spoke to his unshakable will, Tinasha nodded, despite her doubts."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " While the guards outside the treasure vault were bewildered to find the king and queen visiting it in the middle of the night, they bowed and made way. After refusing an escort, the pair entered the vault. Tinasha found the little box right away. \"This is it.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Hmm.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " After Tinasha cleared away the other jumble of objects on the pedestal, she placed the two Eleterria orbs side by side on it. Red and blue. The same patterns on both made a complementary pair."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar cocked his head to one side as he eyed them. “You have to destroy them both at the same time?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Yes… But wait, you want to destroy them? !”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Of course,” he responded matter-of-factly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “What? !” she cried, her jaw dropping."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Her flabbergasted look made Oscar give her a look of chagrin. “I understand your point. The point made by the version of you who argued with Valt."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"I don’t know what you’re thinking now, but if you still want to save people, even if it means altering the past…and if you’re prepared to have that affect your life…then I want to honor that and destroy it.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Eleterria:",
"value": " \"Oscar…\" Eleterria had reshaped events over and over. Those were all, undoubtedly, challenges to destiny. In the shadows of history, people had challenged fate ceaselessly. This would be the final confrontation—destroying Eleterria and restoring all of the altered destinies to what they should truly be. If that counted as yet another change, it would be the biggest yet. The mother who was first given Eleterria would not be able to save her child, and the Time-Reader family would vanish. Valt wouldn’t be born, and he wouldn’t meet Miralys. Not only that, the lives and destinies of many people alive now would be modified, such as how Oscar’s was when his mother rescued him from a demon attack."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"You…\" Tinasha began, but couldn’t go on. Does he understand that he might die? The witch gazed into Oscar’s blue eyes searchingly, and he flashed her a little grin."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"I can say that because Eleterria saved me, and I’ve used it to save another. Even so, changing the past is honestly a backward-looking way of doing things. No matter how much you regret something, you have to live with it. We shouldn’t…be able to do anything for what’s behind us.\" He stroked her hair. \"Besides, wouldn’t it make us more careless in the present moment if we knew we could go back to fix things?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " It sounded like he was chastising a small child, and Tinasha smiled sorrowfully. Oscar was right, but it was only because he was so strong that he could make such a declaration. How many human emotions and revisions had gone into this world? The littlest feeling distorted history, and that deformity spread until it became the next foundation. It was wrong. Tinasha knew that. However, she wasn’t sure if she could dismiss it, for it was so very human. Oscar was different, though."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"If you’re ready, we can end it here. I don’t know who these outsiders are, but it gives me the creeps to think of them taking advantage of human regrets and amusing themselves. I’ve had enough of getting watched and documented.\" If Oscar had been given the option to travel to the past, he would’ve refused. He’d only saved Tinasha because he was already there—because he was strong. Oscar was the kind of person who could get on his feet and start moving, regardless of where he was. \"Whatever kind of tragedy this is, we should rise above it. I believe that all humans have the power to do that.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " After a long silence, Tinasha nodded. Oscar’s dignity was the sanctity of human life. This world wasn’t a miniature garden, and its people weren’t toys. Tinasha would reject any observers and their aims. She would not allow fate to be manipulated."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She recalled the pride given to her when she was born alone in the world and when she achieved independence as a separate individual."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar watched his wife."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Abruptly, tears filled her dark eyes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " His heart ached to see it, but he didn’t let his emotions show, as that would only wound her further."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She gave him a lonely smile. \"It always surprises me how decisive you can be.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Yeah? I think this is the only natural conclusion.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “For you, yes.” Tinasha wrapped her arms around him, and he hugged her back tightly. If outside laws induced the alternation and reformation of the world, then it would reach its limit someday, given that each instance carried a significant burden. History had come to an impasse. What would happen beyond that? Everything might collapse. That meant someone had to ease the weight before the implosion. Akashia must have been passed through generations for just such a purpose. Oscar stroked Tinasha’s hair gently. “Besides, if we don’t destroy it, then I know you’ll go back to saying you won’t have my baby. And I don’t want that.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I never mentioned anything like that.” Tinasha protested, grinning through tears. Forget a baby—it was improbable that Oscar and Tinasha would ever meet at all. Eleterria had been introduced into the world in a blank space in time more than a thousand years before this moment. Everything would be redone from scratch, starting from that distant point. The two of them may not even be born. Even if they were, they could die before reaching adulthood. Oscar was only alive because his mother had used Eleterria to rescue him. In the true flow of history, he’d perished. Allowing any of that to show through his expression would rob Tinasha of the will to go through with this. All Oscar could do was smile at her like it meant nothing. The bit of deception helped ensure she carried no regrets."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “It’s all right. You don’t need to bear it all alone.” If they didn’t get rid of Eleterria, she would remain the heir, seal it away, and try to live a long life. But that wouldn’t fix the problem. She would be bound to Eleterria as Valt was. So they would end it here, staking everything on a timeline whose fate was unknown. That’s what humans did."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Oscar heard Tinasha heave a deep sigh. “You really do see through my every thought.” She looked up at him as a smile like a moonlit flower bloomed on her face."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " He held her tighter."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Oscar… If history changes and everything goes back to how it was, even if no one remembers and I’m never born, I’ll still love you. You are my first. My last. My only.” She swore that to him emphatically, her words filled with conviction. The depth of her feelings for him bled into her voice. She was a rare find. He was lucky to have known her."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " \"That’s more than I deserve to hear. I feel the same way—I love you.” Oscar was touched that Tinasha had chosen to come to him from myriad memories."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar caressed his beloved wife’s cheek. A tear rolled past her long eyelashes and fell over his thumb."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Don’t worry. I have no intention of letting you go. This is just a waypoint for us. Don’t hesitate. Whether you’re queen of another nation or a witch doesn’t matter to me. Just come to me. And if you don’t, I’ll barge in on you again.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I can picture it.” She replied with a grin, one that was beautiful through the tears."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar hugged Tinasha close."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha was sniffling into his chest. Stretching up on her tiptoes, she wound her arms around his neck and pressed herself to him. \"You are my king. I have loved you for an eternity. Everything in me—my power and my mind—exists to protect you.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Please wait for me. I promise I will come to you. I will cross time. And then we will love each other again.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “I…look forward to it.” He replied with a broad smile."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " After Oscar patted her on the back, Tinasha released him."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " They gazed into each other’s eyes, pressing their foreheads together. Dark eyes and twilight eyes reflected one another’s forms. As their noses, cheeks, and, finally, lips brushed against each other’s, they shared a last kiss. Their destinies had undoubtedly intertwined when they were not originally supposed to. That was why things had to end here. To attempt to change things, as humans did. Tinasha took hold of Oscar’s left hand. With a nod, he unsheathed Akashia. He turned to face the pair of artifacts that glittered with all of the human emotions they had absorbed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Was it fun toying with us? Don’t you dare look down on humans. Your days of amusement are over.” The double-edged sword glittered like a mirror as Oscar lifted it aloft and gave his decree with a ringing tone. “We reject your interference. You shall turn to dust and leave us be!” Akashia came down. The blade touched both of the orbs at once. A white light consumed everything. Immediately after the clear tinkling of the orbs’ rupture, terrible pain stabbed through her body."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “TINASHA!” Oscar instantly gathered his wife into his arms. The power to dismantle the world swirled in the air, whipping into a mad vortex. It was impossible to see anything, and she didn’t know what was happening. The shards of Eleterria, attempting to absorb what they could, and the power of Akashia, following them in hot pursuit, were transforming her soul. A force brought in from outside this world was pouring into her, enough to change her into something inhuman."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “AAAAAAAAAHHHH!” she screamed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar held her tight as everything turned white and burned away. Then they were thrown into an unknown place."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Father:",
"value": " \"Once I’m dead, you’ll know for the first time what I was and what you are.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Son:",
"value": " \"What, Father?\" the young man asked, stunned by his father’s sudden declaration at the dinner table. He paused while bringing a spoonful of soup to his mouth. \"What’s this all about? Why are you talking about dying?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Father:",
"value": " \"You’ll know soon enough.\" His father answered dismissively. \"This world has a way of balancing the books to make up for how things were altered. One person’s salvation means another’s downfall, and one country’s glory ensures another’s decline. Ultimately, it will all converge on a future that’s not so different from how it should have been.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Son:",
"value": " The son opened his mouth to inquire further."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Father:",
"value": " \"Stay quiet and just listen to me. Anyway, won’t shooting for that convergence mean we wind up with a future that’s totally immutable? This present that we’re in now, the one that was so far in the future for the people of the ancient past, is still being altered. Humans will keep challenging themselves for all eternity—so long as those orbs exist.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Son:",
"value": " \"Orbs?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Father:",
"value": " \"They possess a terrible power and keep sticking pins in the world. With every new prick, the world is dismantled and forced to reconstruct itself based on washed-up memories. It must be profoundly agonizing for the world. And we are the only ones who know of that pain.\" The young man didn’t interrupt his father’s story. He stayed silent, as an odd feeling settled over the room. \"The world cannot tolerate its memory being overwritten forever. But what it will truly become unable to suffer is us. In the end, we are mere mortals. Our minds are fragile. Our lot is to be used as tools and cast aside… No, we are eternal slaves who are never allowed to be thrown away.\" His voice took on a resentful tone. He wasn’t shouting, but his words shook with a deep fury. The father was swift to rein in that anger before his son. And as he stared at his child, he went on. \"The world is waiting for one last straw. That which will undo all the interventions and restore it to its original shape.\" There was an emptiness in his eyes as he whispered the words. Then he dropped his gaze to his knees. \"But that won’t happen in my lifetime.\" Heavy despair showed through in that pronouncement."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Must be because it was built over an underground lake.\" Tinasha, a stunningly beautiful woman with black eyes and hair, made her way down a hall. Passing magistrates and ladies-in-waiting turned their heads to look at her. In her eyes, as dark and mysterious as a moonless night, they found only the pronounced innocence of a girl. Clad in a white mage’s robe, she sauntered down the long hallway with arms crossed, when a bright feminine voice called out from behind her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " \"Princess Tinasha!\" She turned at the sound of nearing footsteps and spied two familiar mages."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Sylvia and Doan.\" She greeted them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " The blond woman who had called out grinned and curtsied. \"What happened to your shoes?\" Sylvia glanced down at Tinasha’s feet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " The calm young man next to her gave a bow. Both were mages who served the court of Farsas and were relatively close with Tinasha, even though she was a visitor from a bordering country."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Shoes?\" Tinasha asked, following Sylvia’s gaze. Her ivory feet were bare, floating a little above the ground. Her eyes widened in surprise as she raked a hand through her black hair. \"I didn’t even notice. I was too deep in thought.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " \"Your research?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " The future queen of Farsas’s neighbor, the Magic Empire of Tuldarr, nodded. \"I’m a little stuck on something… but I think I’ll figure it out soon.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"Ah, I know what that must be.\""
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha and Oscar were different from the versions who had married each other. They were totally separate people who had met afresh. That was precisely why she had to be the one to break his curse. \"I need to undo it, but I’ve hit a snag… I’m looking for one last flash of inspiration.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"Ah, right. That last stretch can be tricky.\" Doan said with a wry grimace. Court mages like him held just about the highest position a mage could reach; there were fewer than five hundred throughout every country combined. The best of them spent much of their time sequestered in research, so Doan sympathized with what it was like to hit a mental wall."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha floated along barefoot, stretching both her arms up overhead. “I’m really struggling with it… but I know there has to be a way within the laws of magic…” Curses and blessings were constructed from the spell caster’s own unique language, but as long as they utilized magic, they were still bound by its rules and limits. No matter how inspired the idea or technology used for the spell was, it shouldn’t have been beyond understanding and deconstructing. Thus, the real challenge came from whatever was working against those laws, rather than from the witch’s curse. The magic orb that had once sent a different Oscar backward in time now lay in the Tuldarr treasure vault, while one of another color was stored in Farsas’s treasure vault. Once someone used the sphere, history would be erased and rewritten with a new timeline that started from the point in time at which the user arrived. What was the original purpose in creating such a devastating thing that went against all laws of magic? As Tinasha considered it, doubts flooded her mind until it was all she could think about. “A new law… no, that’s not it. They don’t contradict one another.” A primary tenet of the laws of magic was that time could not be rewound. It continued to flow. There was leeway to dam its streaming for a bit, but there was no turning it back. That was the letter of the law and the hard-and-fast way the world operated. Past eras existed in memories. “Then what about overwriting a law with a different one? Or does the orb contain its own unique rules? But where would a different law come from in the first place? Since going back in time is tantamount to reconstructing the entire world…”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"Princess Tinasha, your thoughts are getting a little worrisome.\" Doan remarked with concern as he walked a step behind her. He would have liked to pretend he hadn’t heard anything, and his harsh but honest remark made Tinasha silence her whispering."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " Apparently, she hadn’t heard anything. \"Oh yes, did you know rumors are flying in the city about today’s garden party?\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Garden party? Rumors?\" Tinasha repeated."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"Hey, Sylvia…\" Doan chided."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha hadn’t been informed of the event. During the two days following her involvement in a conflict with Yarda, one of Farsas’s neighbors, Tinasha had been shut up in her room, focusing on analyzing the curse."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " Doan’s expression was strained"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " Sylvia flashed him a grin. “Aww, but it’s the talk of the town. The word on the street is that the garden party today might be a way for His Majesty to choose a bride!”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " “…” A long, unpleasant silence fell over the trio. Doan let out a heavy sigh before pasting a professional smile on his face and bowing. “I seem to have recalled something I need to do. I will be taking my leave.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Hold it,” Tinasha called, her voice imbued with power, and Doan was rendered unable to move. The young mage cursed himself for missing his chance to escape earlier. Tinasha cast him a brilliant grin. “Now that I’ve heard such interesting news, I insist you tell me all about it.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " “The garden party tradition started three generations ago with King Regius. He would invite the city’s merchants and artisans to display their pieces and sell their wares,” Sylvia explained."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Oh, so it was a way for him to gather everyone he was keeping an eye on,” Tinasha surmised."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " “Exactly. It’s a potentially life-changing opportunity for dealers, and they promote themselves with everything they have. Very often, a merchant’s business explodes after becoming an official provider for the crown,” Sylvia went on."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " After the trio headed to the lounge to continue their conversation, Sylvia launched into the details of the garden party. Her eyes were dancing, and there wasn’t a shred of ill intention in her as she sipped her tea. “So then it became a chance for the merchants’ daughters, who came along to assist their parents, to catch the eyes of noblemen. And remember, our last queen was a commoner herself.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " “All of this is just the townsfolk getting themselves all worked up,” added Doan, looking resigned. Ordinarily, he didn’t like to get himself involved in any sticky disagreements, and he could sense that this was going to put Tinasha in a bad mood. Based on her behavior, it was a reasonable fear. Still, Tinasha was about to take the Tuldarr throne and possessed good judgment."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " As Tinasha savored the aroma wafting from her teacup, she asked, “The king first fell in love with Oscar’s mother at one of these parties?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " “No, I believe he brought her back to the castle with him one day. He met her after sneaking out for some fun,” Doan replied."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Sneaking out… Like father, like son…”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " “As I recall, her family was opposed to the union, so her origins remained a secret. No one from the late queen’s family attended her funeral,” Sylvia said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Hmm…” Tinasha had a feeling that even Oscar didn’t know the whole story. His mother had been the one to bring the very orb that took him back in time into Farsas."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Elbows on her knees, Tinasha rested her chin in her hands. \"I wonder who he’ll marry.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"Princess Tinasha, may I excuse myself? I believe I have a stomachache.\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"I’m not going to do anything!\" she shot back."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " Sylvia clapped her hands together. \"I know! Why don’t you attend the garden party?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"What? But I’m a foreign visitor. I think Oscar would get mad if he found me there.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " Sylvia waved a hand dismissively. \"You just have to not get caught. Oh, I know! You can use a curse song to disguise yourself!\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Curse songs aren’t powerful enough for that… and Oscar will be on guard from the moment I sing.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " \"Then we’ll use some other method! Don’t old spell books have transformation spells?\""
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"Transformation spells? I did learn some when I was younger.\" Tinasha cast back through her memories. \"I don’t feel capable of changing myself to anything nonhuman… but I could likely manage something simple like changing my age.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " \"Let’s try it, then! I’ll get your costume ready! You should pretend to be a town girl and set your sights on marrying the king!\" Sylvia chirped."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " \"But I’m not after that!\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Doan:",
"value": " \"I believe it’s time for me to be taking my leave… I don’t want to quit my job as court mage just yet.\" Doan said faintly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha folded her arms, gazing at the pair. \"Only for a little while. I’ll leave if it looks like I’m about to get scolded.\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " \"It’ll be fine if you don’t get caught! Leave it to me!\" Sylvia reassured her with totally baseless confidence as she tugged Tinasha out of her seat."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Lazar:",
"value": " Lazar wore a faint smile. \"They were at it last year, too, but it seems like there are even more girls this time.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “It’ll get out of hand if their numbers continue to increase. I don’t have time to search for a bride,” Oscar replied while inspecting a nearby table of delicate handmade items. \"This is well made. Very interesting. I’ll take it.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Merchant:",
"value": " “Th-thank you very much!” answered the merchant, whose prestige would rise after having sold to the king."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar slipped the shellwork case into his jacket pocket. That done, his eye turned to other goods."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " Her cheeks were flushed with nervous tension as she curtsied before him. “Would you mind terribly if I accompanied you, Your Majesty?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar’s eyes widened for a moment, caught off guard as he was, but then he grinned lightly. “I appreciate that, but I’m all right.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " “Oh, but…,” the girl protested."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Young Lady:",
"value": " “In that case, allow me to accompany you.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Another Young Lady:",
"value": " “No, let me—” The girls began to close in. While the anxious anticipation in the air dissolved, it was now filled with the din of their entreaties, which clearly made the king’s guards uneasy."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Lazar:",
"value": " At a complete loss about what to do, Lazar looked up at Oscar. “Your Majesty…” He seemed to be suggesting that Oscar take his leave for the moment."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " For a second, Oscar couldn’t decide how to answer him. Turning his attention back to everyone else, he proclaimed, “All right, then. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to show someone around the castle. That said, I can’t take everyone.” He looked around at the crowd thoughtfully. Then he beckoned to the girl under the tree. “Yes, you’ll do. Come along.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " “Um…” the girl said, her expression seizing up. Her eyes darted about, as though hoping to spot an escape. Upon realizing that everyone was staring her way, she pursed her lips. She looked down and away as her cheeks turned pink. “Thank… you very much. I accept.” The girl made her way through the crowd as others lobbed envious looks at her all the while. She followed half a step behind Oscar, and as they departed this section of the garden, the feverish atmosphere vanished like a wave pulling out to sea."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Once they were out of sight of prying eyes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " “Um, Your Majesty… why me?” she eked out in a small voice."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Do I need a reason?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " “No… you do not.” She replied, cowering at his retort. Her last bit of hope had vanished, and her pink cheeks turned pale."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have said anything. But he knew what he had glimpsed. Once the two reached an open patch of lawn, he sat down on the grass."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " The girl hurried to take a seat beside him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " The king glanced at that freckled face and then abruptly reached out to pinch one soft cheek. “What’s going on here? How did you do this?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Girl:",
"value": " “Ow, ow, ow! Stop it! I just transformed myself with magic!” She confessed, ducking her head to get away from his hand and rubbing at her reddened cheek. “How did you know it was me?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Altered though it was, Tinasha’s face looked as it always did to Oscar. Her innocent eyes were just as spirited. There was no mistaking them. Oscar met that gaze evenly with a blank look of his own. All sorts of retorts came to mind, but he gave a safe answer in the end. “No amount of magic can hide power as strong as yours. You’re giving off the faintest glow.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Oh… I suppose your intuition was always pretty strong.” She replied, burying her face in her hands. Immediately, her red locks reverted to their original inky black. Her suntanned skin became alabaster, and she dropped her hands. Her face, in all its unparalleled beauty, peered up at Oscar, giving him an abashed, guilty smile. “I’m sorry. I simply wanted a little break.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “You should’ve just told me, then.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I also heard you’d be looking for a wife.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Listen… Don’t try to marry me disguised as someone else.” He stated gravely. “It’ll turn into a diplomatic crisis.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I wasn’t! I just didn’t want to get in your way!” She objected, but her actions spoke differently. She made a guilty face. “I did get in the way of your work. I’m very sorry.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “It’s fine. I was just about to leave anyway.” The garden party was an event his eccentric great-grandfather had started. It held no actual use. Tinasha’s presence actually provided Oscar with a chance to leave early."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " From his pocket, Oscar drew out the shellwork object he’d purchased earlier and dropped it in Tinasha’s lap. “Here.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “What? Is this for me?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “You’ve never been to the seashore, right?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Narrator:",
"value": " Tinasha held the box in her palms and looked it over. The finely wrought ornamentation depicted a girl sitting on a rocky shore playing the lyre while fish listened, enraptured. Luminescent stones embedded within the piece cast faintly wavering shadows."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Carefully, she wrapped her hands around it. “Thank you so much. I love it.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Next to her, Oscar softened his expression as he watched her with the gift. Amid this tranquil moment, he sprawled out in the grass and stretched his arms above his head. “Now’s a great time for a break. Also, take off those shoes. You can go back barefoot if you teleport to the castle, can’t you?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Um, I guess… Are you going to take a nap here?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Wake me up when you head back,” Oscar instructed, but before his eyes could fully close, Tinasha nudged him. Moving his arm away from his eyes to look at her, he saw she was patting her lap. “You can sleep here. I’ve got some things to think over for a while anyway.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Wow,” he remarked dryly, giving her a disapproving look for acting so defenseless. They were completely alone, however. He could let it slide. Oscar moved over and lay his head down in Tinasha’s lap. When he glanced up, he saw that her face was lit with a strange childlike glee. “What’s with that look? Are you going to chop off my head while I’m asleep or something?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Of course not. Should that ever be necessary, I’ll come at you from head-on.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Big talk. I’m going to sleep,” the king responded, closing his eyes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Narrator:",
"value": " Tinasha’s ivory hands carded through his hair softly. Oscar knew that the faint floral scent she gave off was her own. He breathed it in comfortably. Oscar nodded off rather quickly, and his breathing evened."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha gazed down at him. “He didn’t get too mad at me…”"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Careful not to wake the man in her lap, Tinasha slipped off her wooden clogs. She’d never worn their likes before, so her toes and heels were red. Oscar must have guessed that, which was why he told her to remove them. Feeling all mixed up inside, she massaged her heels. When they were feeling better, Tinasha held the seashell case up and examined it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “So pretty…” Sunlight and the luminescent stones illuminated the engraved decorations that depicted part of a fairy tale. A girl whose love had gone missing in an accident at sea walked the coast during the day, hoping to find him. Come nightfall, she sang to the fish, asking for any news of him. Despite her efforts, her sweetheart was never found. When she was nearing the last of her hope, he appeared at last, but his memories were gone. The story went that she found joy in getting to know him again, though she mourned the loss of his recollections to the ocean."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Starting over…” It reminded Tinasha of her and Oscar. Unlike in the fairy tale, she and the king of Farsas weren’t in love. All that awaited them was a final good-bye. Because the other Oscar had rescued Tinasha four hundred years ago, they had met again in this era. However, their paths would diverge before long. She could only leave him with the fruits of her labor, the breaking of the curse. It was the materialization of her feelings for him, in a way. Most curses and blessings were laid with an underlying emotion."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Oh!” Inspiration abruptly struck Tinasha, and her head snapped up. Surely this feeling is the final piece to undoing the curse."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " The desire to leave something behind. That was what the curse placed on Oscar had desired all along. Inside the spell woven by the Witch of Silence’s own distinct language, there was a further coded portion, the definition name. Even if the curse were broken, that portion would remain."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " In the curse Tinasha had examined four centuries ago, that bit hadn’t been negated. The final piece of the spell had to exist to ensure the definition name remained. “Which means…” Tinasha looked at Oscar, still asleep with his head in her lap."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She wanted to test out her theory right away, but he was resting. If possible, she would prefer to let him relax to make up for his hectic daily schedule. After thinking for a moment, Tinasha spread her arms wide. A fluffy white blanket appeared between them, and she placed it over the king. Then she closed her eyes and began to contemplate the curse."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " How long had he been asleep? Judging by the sun’s position, not even an hour had passed. Oscar craned his neck to look at the girl whose lap he’d been napping on, only to discover that she had nodded off, too. Tinasha’s head was lolling to one side. He’d anticipated that she’d rouse him, yet the young woman had abandoned her post. Oscar noticed the white blanket laid over him and huffed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “We’re in the castle, but it’s still dangerous if neither of us keeps watch.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Anything could’ve happened while they were both unawares. However, one of them would have probably awoken had there been trouble. Oscar spent some time watching Tinasha’s face as she slept, but he couldn’t do that forever. He sat up, placed the blanket over her, and took the girl in his arms. Even that didn’t wake her. Gently, he hugged her more closely."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Go on and sleep. You are free as long as you’re in Farsas.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " If Tinasha wished it, she could live like a commoner in town. But Oscar knew she’d never do that. The pair had both been raised for something more. That was why the rare moments of freedom like this one were so precious. With Tinasha in his arms, Oscar returned to his day. He didn’t want to count how many days like this she had left."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Strands and lines were woven together so minutely. It was the height of intricacy, and Tinasha reached a finger toward it. Two spells intertwined, canceling each other out, just like what I saw back then. The opposed forces brought together natures that were averse yet strongly attracted to each other. Both of them were love, and both of them were hate. That which devoured from the inside even as it protected, and that which supported even as it caused harm. Within, Tinasha saw powerful emotions, and she sighed. Fear struck her at the thought that she would soon have to manifest one-half of this pair."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “It’s all right.” She wouldn’t go back on her promise. Tinasha had slept for four hundred years for this. At the very least, she owed it to him to get it done. She summoned an array of assorted crystal balls into her hands. Then she began the long recitation to create the magic implements she would need."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar noticed dark circles under her eyes and frowned. \"Are you getting enough sleep?” Censure bled into the king’s voice as he inquired."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I don’t think I’ve slept in two days.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Go to bed! Now!” he barked, and she gave a wan smile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Lazar:",
"value": " Lazar glanced over, concerned."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha leaned against the wall by the door and held up a hand. “I came to tell you that I’ve finished the analysis. I’m going to break the curse tonight. Until then, I’m going to take a little nap… so I won’t be able to make our training today. Sorry about that.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " After sufficient time, he let out a deep sigh. “I didn’t think you’d make it before the deadline.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Of course I did. Anything less would’ve inconvenienced you, after all.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “You said it would require half a year, but I thought three years for sure.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Don’t just add on time based on a groundless assumption!” Tinasha snapped, pushing off from the wall."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Biting his tongue to keep himself from prodding her further, he steered the conversation back on course. “So, do you need anything to break the curse?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “No. I’ll do it while you’re sleeping, so go to bed early.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Why do I need to be unconscious?” he asked."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “It’s dangerous if you’re awake during the spell,” Tinasha explained while massaging her temples."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Noticing that, Oscar nodded. “All right."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I’ll come to you tonight.” She said before teleporting away."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Lazar:",
"value": " Lazar exhaled, amazed. “It feels like time has passed in a flash. It doesn’t seem real yet that Princess Tinasha will be returning to Tuldarr.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Those were the terms she came here with.” Oscar reminded him, his inflection free of sentiment."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " A profoundly mysterious emotion coursed through Oscar’s body. Impatience, hope, loneliness, worry—no, none of that. He was unwilling to acknowledge that unnamed sensation, but he did let his thoughts turn to how hard Tinasha had worked to reach this point."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha came to Oscar’s chamber an hour after he retired for the night. The color had returned to her face, if only somewhat, likely thanks to her nap during the day."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar looked her up and down from his spot next to her on the bed. “Those dark circles aren’t going to go away in time for your crowning. Legis might be upset with me.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " The future queen dismissed the concern with a smile. “I can use magic to conceal them if they don’t.” She poked at Oscar’s forehead and chest. “Take off your shirt and lie down. Once the spell begins, I don’t think you’ll wake up until it’s over. But I want you to fall asleep naturally. If I put you to sleep with magic, there will be too many spells going.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “It’s not easy to pass out on command.” Oscar complained, but he stripped off his shirt obediently and lay faceup on the bed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Should I wait until you’re unconscious and then come back?” Tinasha asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “It’d all be the same. I’d be on edge, subconsciously wondering when you would return.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “That’s true. It would be like knowing someone was going to creep into your room… I should have just done the spell without giving you any warning.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “That would have been very suspicious, so forget that notion. I’ll do my best to fall asleep.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Thanks.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Both of them closed their eyes, and silence blanketed the room."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Knowing that Tinasha was nearby didn’t make Oscar anxious. For as long as he could remember, he’d always been sensitive to the presence of others. This girl was probably the only person who wouldn’t keep him up. Perhaps it was because she held her own without growing overly close to him. Tinasha was the type of ruler who kept her head high and never relied on anyone else. That was who she was, yet in Farsas, she was free to act as she pleased. Maybe that was the reason it felt so natural for her to be at Oscar’s side, and why it gave him a sense of relief."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " He opened his eyes to see that Tinasha had about twenty small crystal balls spread out in her lap. She picked them up one by one to inspect them carefully. It looked so much like she was playing a children’s game that Oscar had to speak up. “What are those?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Hey! You’re not asleep!”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Who passes out that quickly? !”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha twisted around to show him a crystal ball in her palm. “It’s a magic implement. Each one contains a spell. I’m preparing these to draw up the larger spell.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “You need that many?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “A witch cursed you. This isn’t your everyday magic,” she replied, lips forming a smile that seemed to be both self-deprecating and relieved. Her long eyelashes cast shadows on her cheeks. The half of her porcelain face bathed in the moonlight from the window glowed pale, transforming her beauty into something ethereal."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Before Oscar knew it, he was staring at her. “It’s already been half a year,” he blurted out. While he was no Lazar, it really did feel like the time had gone quickly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " She grinned at that. “Right on schedule, just like I said.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “And you’ve managed to cause no end of trouble in such a short while, too.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Because you let me be free.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Each day they spent together was nothing like the one before. Tinasha’s utterly carefree demeanor, her immense power she wielded like it was child’s play… It was so novel and new that it left Oscar amazed and filled with a wondrous sense of liberty. “You do the most unexpected things. Like sleeping underneath a castle for four centuries,” he commented dryly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I was the one who built that underground chamber. I was only making good use of it.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar recalled the sight of that verdant subterranean garden, removed from the flow of time. The young woman sleeping on the white bed had spoken his name when she arose. “When I first saw you—I thought you were made for me,” Oscar confessed. Because he discovered her while seeking a way to break his curse, his first thought was that this must be his bride. The curse that had always mystified him—even that made sense once he met her. He felt like maybe it had all been leading to that moment."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Calmly, she spoke into the silence of the room. “Yes. I did come for you.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " It echoed what he had said, but it was not the same. Still, both encapsulated emotions that were too large to hold. Whatever sounds there were beyond the room didn’t reach Oscar. The chamber was cut off from the outside world. The flow of time was different, as if this place were submerged. Amid the quiet, everything floated to the surface. To Oscar, it felt like he might see every corner of the room if he squinted. He closed his eyes again, however. “Tinasha.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “What?”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Nothing…” He didn’t know what to say, or how."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " There was a desire to express something, but hesitation as well. In the end, he asked something that was almost what he wanted to ask, yet not quite. “Can you really break the curse?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I’ve come this far. Just trust me.” She responded confidently. There was no trace of uncertainty in her voice. The girl who had cried in front of Oscar was gone."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " While that was a relief to him, he also felt loneliness in equal measure. Whether or not that was oversentimentality, he couldn’t be sure. If it was… then maybe, he ought to just say it. “Are you really going to break it?”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " There was a long silence heavy with something that hadn’t been there before. She answers in a clear voice. “I am.” It sounded like she was reading a line prepared ahead of time. Like the young woman had already convinced herself."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar snorted at that resolute beauty. She’s struggled with it that much, huh? I suppose that only makes sense. From here, she would go on to become queen. Another thing that made sense. Oscar had posed a foolish question. He made a face, regretting his inquiry. Now that they were here, he realized for the first time that this was what he had been wavering on all along. He’d been even more shaken up over it than she was. However, Oscar refused to falter anymore. This would put an end to it all. “Go ahead.” He urged before sinking deep into slumber. He let it carry him away. As the king of Farsas fell into a soft dream, he had the faintest sensation of someone taking gentle hold of his hand."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha paused before the transportation array located deep in Farsas Castle and looked back. No small number of people had taken breaks from their duties to see her off. She gave them all a bashful grin. Before the expression had faded, she bowed to the man who was approaching her. “I owe you a great deal.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “And I you. Sorry I never let you take it easy.” He replied."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “I had fun. If there are ever any conflicts in the future, please call on me.” She said. She carried nothing with her, for her effects had already been cleared from her room. She lowered her head to the others present."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Sylvia:",
"value": " Sylvia bowed in return, looking like she was about to cry."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Tinasha smiled to see that, knowing that she would miss her friend, too."
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Oscar gazed down at Tinasha. “I’ll see you next at your coronation. It’s fast approaching.”"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " “Oh, you don’t have to come if it’ll inconvenience you.”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " “Just how heartless do you think I am?” He groused, lightly pinching her cheek."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"prefix": "Tinasha:",
"value": " Punctuating each of her words with a slap against his chest, she retorted, “I thought you hated diplomatic events like that!”"
},
{
"from": "human",
"prefix": "Oscar:",
"value": " Chastened, Oscar released the young woman. “I’m going anyway.\""
}
] |
Subsets and Splits