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[ She nods, exhales, and then slides down the wall - the phone cord seems like it['ll reach even if she ends up sitting on the floor ]

I have something that I need to do back where I was taken from, and it must be completed within the next two weeks or so. If I fail, then half of the thinking beings in the world will be killed, and the other half will end up enslaved to a power that doesn't make them happy. And so I need to return back, as quick as I can... I don't know if anyone else here will understand, but you seem to know more than anyone else, and I know you can do more for me than anyone else. So I want to know more about you, and facilitate positive communication between us - I think that makes more sense than to think of you as my "enemy" when I can't be sure if anyone else here is my "ally" against you. Certainly, no one here is my "comrade."

[ For a few moments after Nachetanya finishes, there's just quiet, aside from the feedback. ]

The needs of the many, the many you care about, over those you don't. ...We think that makes sense. We think we can understand.

Understand that positive communication isn't something I'm really looking for in all this, but...I wouldn't mind a little.

It isn't even a matter of caring. In the grand scheme of things, my life isn't important either, or even my family or friends. The survival of everyone, and the peace that can follow that is what matters to me. It's my "ambition," as I like to put it.

[ She nods. ]

Our communication doesn't need to be positive, but that would be preferable. I would enjoy it remaining open though, if that's agreeable.

Alright. Sure. We're fine with that. As for your first question that lead us here... Horses.

How do you feel about horses?

[ she... actually laughs at that. A little girlish giggle. ]

I find them to be very reliable animals! I learned to ride them when I was younger, and their loyalty and speed is very impressive.

Do you...have any unicorns, where you're from?

No...? Actually, I don't know that word, what are they?

Drat. They're like horses with horns. I've just always wondered what they're like.

Oh, fiends which look like horses might be called "unicorns" then. There are some of those.

Really? Well, what are they like?

Well, most fiends that have a shape like that would be the sort of fiends who aren't able to talk, and likely are not as intelligent as some others, because fiends can evolve based on their desires and needs. A horse fiend would probably eat once every ten days or so, eating a fair amount of fruit or shrubs, and run around one of the lesser poisoned valleys of the Wailing Demon Territory... and when the Evil God is awoken, it would probably help carry other fiends into the human lands. Overall, a simple and fairly peaceful existence, most of the time.

Huh.

Was expecting kind of a "magical" or "mystical" or "majestic" descriptor in there somewhere, but that sounds about like what I imagined.

Okay, thanks, curiosity satisfied.

Well, such a fiend probably would be colorful! And fiends are a little bit "magical," given a lot of their properties.

[ She laughs, and.. ]

... Did you or the Risen take my arm, Misty?

[ She matches that amiable tone. ]

Nope. We did nothing to your bodies. When we received you, you were missing an arm.

... I do not remember that. And you said that you are certain that those profiles are correct?

[ Her tone remains sort of even-positive ]

Yes. ...It's...possible that in the transfer to your current location, you... That there were some side-effects, with your memories.

[ She's less positive. ]

This wasn't intended, and we apologize for it.

I... was actually going to ask about that. [ A beat ] You had said that "time" was interesting, so I was wondered if somehow time has... wound itself back, or forward. But if it's my memories...

[ She bites her lip. What if the timeline was actually tighter than she thought, then? How could she be missing her arm? ]

Time itself, here...

We don't think that would be the case. It's likely that there are gaps in all of your memories.

Are you able to tell me anything about time's oddities? I can't say I'll understand, but I want to hear as much as you can.

We...don't think it would be relevant, to your situation. So far, it's been...less what it was, and more what it is.

I've never -- actually, would it perhaps be easier if I clarified the only way I know time can move differently than simply being, so you can tell me if I'm off base? I would still be curious to hear about "what it is."

It'll weigh on me regardless what happens, after all.

We don't see why not.

Your profile for me identified me as a "saint" - and that's true, I'm the Saint of Blades. Saints are women who have been give a fraction of the power of the gods, and there is one saint called the Saint of Time. The power of time is notoriously hard to master - most Saints of Time have only ever been able to manage things like slowing down the decay of objects by making time flow differently around them. There have been very few in history able to wield it with any potency for battle, but those that could can make time flow differently for their allies and enemies, speeding them them up and slowing them down respectively. The most notable of the Saints of Time is Hayuha, who was one of the Six Braves, the heroes who saved the world three hundred years ago.

Very few people know this, but she was able to manipulate Time to such an extent she could freeze an "object" outside of time that it's still frozen three hundred years later, and she could, if she was in the same physical location where something happened, pear into the past. She is the only one in history who could.

... So even to the strongest, outside of very difficult efforts, time is immutable to the world at large. But... I suspect that might be different here, based on what you've said?

Not here, that should be clear, but in our experience, in our history. There are places, there are areas...where it can be manipulated, for the group of people there.

In that sense, it's not entirely different from what you've described, just instead of objects it's areas. Pockets, you could say. Pockets of time, flowing differently.

[ . . Pockets of time, flowing differently . . .

. . . ]

I ... see. [ She thinks she understands, and she bites her lip again, corrects herself, and then tilts her head to the side, before somewhat hesitantly asks, ] Does that extent to our histories, perhaps? The thirty people here?

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