Tessa stood atop a tower, biting wind whipping at her braid and fluttering her skirts as she stared out over the sprawling city of Westermist. All things considered, this is not how she'd pictured her first trip abroad going. Maybe it wasn't too late...Honestly, if she just ran off would the Master really waste the resources to track her down? Dark, gray-green eyes slid slowly down to the etched iron circle she clutched so hard her knuckles were white. It was thin but heavy, heavier than an object its size should have been, and dark with age. Odd eldritch symbols ringed the edge and a hole, an inch or two across, had been burned out directly in the center. Tessa scowled. She didn't even know what the damn thing was suppose to do.<br/><br/>It would have been easy to just toss it over the edge of the tower, let it fall amongst the detritus and shadows of the alleyway below. War was coming, no matter what she or her master did. In the ensuing chaos and destruction it would be easy for just another lost, lonely refugee to make a new life somewhere far away.<br/><br/>It would have been easy, but she didn't. It was almost time, and her master was nothing if not punctual. The sun was almost down, and Tessa hesitantly raised the iron disk. The star was framed in the center and the wizard's apprentice began reciting her portion of the spell just as it kissed the horizon.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>She remembered more of the following moments than she cared to. The world blurred, burning white light flooding from the disc. Sight and sound became incomprehensible. A quarter of a century rushed by her, eyes unseeing, ears deaf to the cacophany of years of battle and destruction all happening at once. More than once she'd been a test subject for her Master's experimental spells, but the gut wrenching, disorienting sensations this spell thrust upon her were more than she'd ever imagined.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Tessa forced herself to open her eyes, and immediately wished she hadn't gone to the effort. There was nothing for as far as the eye could see but destruction and desolation. Cold panic washed over her as a very short list of possibilities formed in her mind, but the temporal implications of her surroundings were quickly pushed to the back of her mind as she realized she could hear voices in the distance.