The Visitor
2022 - 1 - 10
I was set to meet the Sorcerer Roderick just before the full moon of the month. Roderick had a small house in the southern valley, and after a few days of travel I had made my way to his residence.
“Welcome, Felix” Roderick said bursting out the door. I hadn’t knocked on the door, and I walk lightly, and so his sudden appearance startled me.
I walked in, greeting Roderick. The reason I was to see him was because of some spices that were required for a number of charms that he specialized in. I had brought samples in but in transit had lost my vial of Beurgamout., which I felt especially terrible about. “Ah, never mind the Beurgamout” Roderick said as I walked in.
“The what?” I asked “How did you know?”
“Nevermind that” Roderick said “I know you’re hungry”, he then presented me a dish of different sweets and rolls. I looked over at this, and then at Roderick, who seemed oddly fascinated at what I was about to choose. I felt that something was off, and perhaps Roderick, for whatever reason, meant to end me. But I reasoned that his business was in charm making, and making enemies in the magic business meant bad ends. I took a plain bagel.
“Interesting” Roderick said “Fascinating, you’ve never done that before”
“I simply sometimes choose to have a bagel” I retorted “thank you”
“Come, sit” Roderick said as I put my bagel over the open grill. “You wanted to show me your samples, that is, after all, the reason for this meeting” he said, in a overly exaggerated manner.
“Right” I said. i went to get the sample spices out of my ruck sack, and in the process of going through the samples I thought to ask how Roderick knew I didn’t have the Beurgaout.
“I’ll tell you later” He said suddenly. I paused and wondered if he had gained the power of telepathy. Some sorcerers will spend lifetimes learning telepathy, but you could get much better work than a charm maker with that kind of power. And if he had…
“I’m not telepathic either” Roderick replied suddenly. As if he was reading my own thoughts.
“Roderick” I said “What is going on?”
Roderick began smiling, as if he was anticipating this moment “Have you figured it out yet? I know you haven’t, but I wanted to ask”
I set my samples down, having prepared a long sales pitch for each of them during my long track into the southern valley, but now found the situation had changed dramatically, but Roderick didn’t mean to tell me just yet.
“Your sales pitch would be well thought out, but ultimately unconvincing” Roderick replied “And the Xerxex you sourced contains far too much salt for my needs”
Perhaps Roderick developed foresight. Another sorcerer practice that looks years to perfect, but a special foresight ritual, done in this particular moon phase, could be an explanation. I thought. But, the bagel…
“A Foresight Ritual” Roderick said “You’re about to ask me about that, and I would reply that while I could pull a few favors for one, you know that Foresight without The Skill would carry a heavy cost.”
“Enough of this nonsense” I said “If you don’t wish to have my wares, but seem to know everything else about this visit, I will simply be on my way. I spent three days traveling to your residence”
Roderick raised his hand, which summoned his staff, and in a swift motion cast a barrier spell, trapping the both of us within the confines of the house. My blood ran cold as all of the windows and doors slammed shut in one big clap.
“Roderick” I said
“Now this is what I look forward to the most” Roderick replied “You’re never able to successfully guess how I know what I know, but because you chose that bagel, which I’ve never seen you do before, well, I’ll give you one more hint, I am so intensely curious”
Roderick stepped towards me, his eyes an intense stare, his mouth fixed into a grin, before he simply uttered
“Basil”
How…how did he know about Basil? At the first utterance of His Name, I was flooded with my memories with them. We had an intense and deep love for one another. I was in the spice clan, and Basil was a traveler, and it was forbidden for us to be together. So forbidden I had never told anyone about this, I would be expelled from the clan. My heart had ached for him ever since. I would have dreams where we were together again, only to wake up alone, and in those dreams I knew they were dreams, and accepted the small moments of being reunited with the sadness that was returning to reality. It was sweeter than any wine.
“How…” I said “...I would never tell anyone about him”
“Felix I have come to know everything about you, about your samples, about your life, one way or another” Roderick replied “But as you have surmised I do not have foresight, nor clairvoyance, or telepathy. I simply remember it all”
“Remember?” I asked. But then it suddenly dawned on me how he could know everything. My reaction to things, my thoughts, when I would appear. Almost as if he had done so countless times.
“A time loop!!” Roderick said with anger and excitement.
“Your samples, what you eat, I’ve learned from observing you come into my home thousands upon thousands of times. At first I tried to gain your help to break the loop, once I realized I was in one, and you were unable to help. So then I tried experimenting with the loop, trying to find a way out. Perhaps if the transaction had gone perfectly. I agreed to the order. I agreed to ten times the order. Over and over again. And at last I realized that, in my prison, I had quite the gift. A visitor who would always appear, but never remember anything. And so I began to learn all about you, your life story, all of your secrets, every person you have met. As much as you can remember, at least. I can no longer live my life, and so, I must do so through you. At first I enjoyed this, but slowly i began to resent you, you and your infinite ignorance, and then this turned to hatred.”
“I would never tell anyone about Basil” I said “much less someone in Charms, I know what that would mean for me, exile”
“My dear Felix” Roderick said “It’s only under torture that you relent”
My mind began to reel at this. If Roderick was stuck in a time loop, and had been long enough to know everything about me, then he had gone completely mad, perhaps several times over. Not only this, but i had experienced countless ends at the hands of Roderick, and perhaps would do so unknowingly, forever.
“How did you get stuck in a time loop?” I asked Roderick, hoping sympathy would perhaps make this loop end better for me.
“Ah, it was that hag witch from the north peak!” Roderick bellowed “She has trapped me in this, as if it happened this morning. I remember my whole life up to that moment, how I wish I could have been somewhere else!!”
A time loop is one thing, but a witch loop is another. Witches’ magic carries a personal cost, but isn’t god like either. To send someone in a loop like this would only be under extreme circumstances.
“Why?” I asked. And dear reader, Roderick did tell me, but for your sake I will not repeat what he said to me.
It was long ago in my travels that I saved a witch from a mob, and she told me the secret to escaping a witch’s loop. She said I was worthy of the secret, and that it was impossible for a non-witch to ever reveal how it works. It’s like falling off a log. In all of the loops Roderick had with me, he would never know the secret to leaving it. It is within this small fold in time that Roderick also breaks out of the loop, but he won’t remember it. In that moment you can see centuries of regret and anguish wash over his face as I step out of his home and into the night. When I look back his house is an empty ruin.
That night I say at an inn, mulling over what has happened, and the infinite trauma my many copies have possibly endured that I would never know about, and what may have happened had I not saved that witch all those years ago.
“Best not think about it, love” the bartender said.