Ibeos: What If? "Lost in My Own Fantasy"

Chapter 4. The Chamber of Claims

33,200 C. Aeris 21

Our footsteps tapped crisply against the stone floor as the guards marched me down the long, forbidding hallway, their rhythm echoing like a snare drum in a solemn procession. The massive chamber doors boomed as they swung open, each thud echoing like a somber note across the cold maple floor. As I stepped inside, flanked by two Quartz Guards, the air shifted—the faint hum of ambient energy was almost audible, stirring the fine hairs on my arms in a silent, invisible dance.

The chamber itself was a spectacle of contrasts: ancient stone pillars reaching towards a ceiling lost in shadow. Runes along the walls throbbed with a gentle glow, their ethereal patterns skimming the cold stone like water ripples, casting a spectral dance of lights that played across the chamber's somber face. The scent of old parchment and the sharp tang of ozone filled the air. Each breath I took tasted of dust and a faint trace of power, the legacy of countless rulings that had echoed within these stone confines. Ahead, the Magistrate's bench floated just above the ground, a marvel suspended by unseen forces, its presence as commanding as the silence that greeted me.

The guards' steady march halted at the edge of the dais. I stood alone at the center, dwarfed by the towering pillars and the expansive room. The floating bench before me seemed more a throne of judgment than a simple magistrate's seat, accentuating the gravity of the moment.

From behind the dais, a figure emerged, her robes cascading around her like liquid moonlight, the fabric shimmering with an iridescent spectrum that shifted subtly with each deliberate step.

"State your name and purpose," her voice was neither loud nor harsh, yet it filled the space with an authoritative clarity that demanded respect.

"Uh... Jane," I began, my voice steady despite the knot of anxiety in my stomach. "And well, I was trying to prevent a disaster by jumping into the arena..."

The Magistrate's eyebrow arched, a silent cue that she expected more concise information. "Disaster?" the Magistrate cut in sharply. "What disaster?"

I stumbled over my words, biting my lip as I spoke. My hands, cold and trembling slightly, clung to the fabric of my shirt as if trying to anchor myself in the reality of the moment. "Well, that's the thing, I kind of fucked up, cause I'm now learning there isn't going to be one, because that already happened I guess? Sorry, I'm still piecing everything together."

"I see," she spoke as one young clerk leaned forward, her eyes wide with a mixture of skepticism and fascination, whispering something to her neighbor who nodded slowly, equally intrigued.

"So uh, yeah. I am really sorry," I paused, noticing the Magistrate's skeptical raise of an eyebrow, "I didn't mean to ruin everything. I was just super worried that King Francois was going to kill the President, your uh, majesty? Sorry, I'm not sure what the correct verbiage is. I didn't really write or study much on Magistrates, I always thought the idea was cool, just never got around to it. Well, I guess Padsin was kinda, except monks..."

The Magistrate, a middle-aged woman with stern features softened slightly by curiosity, leaned forward to cut my rambling short. "Silence."

Her command to silence cut deeper than the chill of the chamber, as I folded in on myself like a child being chastised. "Ope...sorry for rambling, I'm on the spectrum, I get told a lot that I..."

She continued without waiting for a pause, "You speak of disasters and crucial information, yet you are a stranger here. Your accent is unfamiliar, possibly foreign, not prejudice but prudence dictates my caution. You speak of preventing disasters—your actions speak of chaos. You claim familiarity with events of great import yet behave without decorum." She paused, sweeping her hand across the room, "You suggest these events have already transpired. Chronomancy has been long since banned, though historical records still speak of those who traveled through time. Are you claiming to be such an individual?"