Dream Beyond Life's Edge

Two Pasts, for Noah

As yellow dissipated and Talia landed in the past, Florres' parents rushed out of the house. "You're... Talia?" Florres' mother said. "Your hand! What happened to your hand?!"

"What time is it?" Talia asked. "Is Florres at the park yet?"

"Yes, she'd left to meet Noah," Florres' father answered. "Your hand, what happened?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you two about."

"You look way too calm, have you gotten your father to check your arm?"

Wanting a quick talk, Talia said, "Yes. My hand was unrecoverable, but it's fine now. What time is it?"

"It's a quarter to eight," Florres' father said. The time to Joseph's transformation was about twenty minutes. At this time, the past Talia should be either dealing with Joseph or tying Jane onto the tree. "Is meeting Florres urgent? We can lead you to her."

Meeting with Noah and Florres early would change the events to transpire. With Talia's current task being to convince Florres, her abandoning it to go to Noah and Florres might even risk Noah not surviving. "No, no need. Can we get inside, I need to talk."

"Of course," he said, leading Talia inside.

Bathed in fairyflower's orange, Talia slouched herself onto the living room chair. "I know this is unbelievable, but let me explain first before you two do. I come from the future. That yellow light you saw was the light of me time travelling. My eyes, they're glowing purple as I've turned into an esper.

"As you can see, I've lost my hand. For me, the incident which led to it happened nearly two months ago. But for you, it will happen in around twenty minutes. That same incident will kill everybody in the village except for me, Alexia, and my mother."

From their furrowed brows, Talia knew though they were cautioned, they barely understood what she had explained—and lied. Of course, in their situation, she would too.

"As to why I came to this time. I'm currently trying to save people from the incident. For now, I've managed to save my brother and Noah. This one, I'm saving Florres. But as you're here, we can save your whole family."

"W-wait... so, what's your plan here?" Florres' mother said. They seemed to believe Talia's story fine. Her missing hand must have helped. May be the only time it helped...

"Wait until Florres returns in fifteen or so minutes, then dash to Lipest."

"Then we should go to Florres now and get her out!"

"You can't!" Talia cried, fisting the chair's handrail. "Doing that will fail my attempt to save Noah's life! I'm sure you can imagine Florres' devastation if she were to find out her living being the cause of Noah's death!"

At Talia's argue, Florres' parents paused. Florres' mother then asked, "If Florres were to come back in fifteen minutes, then we have five minutes to get to Lipest. That's just not possible."

"No, but there is no need to reach Lipest," Talia said. "A little more than half should be enough of a distance."

"Half to Lipest, that's..." Florres' mother thought before concluding, "it may be possible with ailo-ras."

"Lightning?" Talia cocked her head.

"I heard your friend Alexia managed dashing with ae-ras, but ae-ras isn't the fastest magic for movement. It's lightning," she said.

If Florres's mother were to dash away, carrying her husband on her back, and Florres ran alone with ailo-ras, they may all survive. Oh, Florres may survive after all.