Six Days or Two Hours Later

[u]Once again, forgetting details: days are 30 hours long, meaning only three days/hour in Phashim’s demi-plane.
I really should consider just using standard fucking time…[/u]

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It took almost a half hour for Ahsch to figure out the answer to ‘how does Entropic Revelation work.’ In essence, the Mana used in the spell performed the otherwise-impossible feat of accelerating the growth and maturation of the caster’s body without affecting time in other ways (such as making Ahsch experience the 20-odd years of aging the spell had when he last cast it in an instant). The mechanics behind having only one ‘type’ of time be affected were beyond him - and apparently Phashim - but that wasn’t terribly important to the basic need to understand the time magic in general, as the time-accelerating needed for a demi-plane wasn’t directly related to such specific manipulations.

Once he had that (admittedly tenuous) grasp on Entropic Revelation’s functioning, the next project was to workshop a spell that was a step closer to what he needed for the demi-plane.

And then another.

And another.

Over and over again, each step taking him closer to the ultimate goal of creating a demi-plane within which time was accelerated. In reality, it was less of creating roughly a dozen new spells, and far closer to constantly tweaking and advancing one spell, especially since none of them were innate, and he therefore would have to memorize the spells as he went - given they were fundamentally useless except as stepping-stones towards creating the demi-plane, he didn’t bother to dedicate the effort towards memorizing the older versions.

It started with a simple acceleration spell, which ended up being useless because it failed to help Ahsch adjust to the timeframe of his surroundings, nor did it protect him from the dangers of moving at insanely fast speeds. From there, it changed into creating a bubble, thereby incorporating space magic. Detours were made to learn how to access the space between space, how to create a permanent _something _within the nothing, how to bind that something to the real world, and so on. Then he merged the space and the time concepts, eventually leading to his first prototype within his own soul.

Standing within it, still accelerated to one hundred times the speed of time, Ahsch and Phashim looked around.

A lush, ancient, quiet forest surrounded them.

“You have strong memories of your youth in the forest near Mother’s Canyon demesne,” Phashim remarked.

Ahsch nodded silently. Then they stepped out and continued working, the hrafthi dismantling the demi-plane to try again. There was a certain trick to creating a stable demi-plane that would last without direct input from the caster while also obtaining time acceleration within it. A trick he had failed to grasp on that attempt.

All told, they spent almost 6 days within the Phashim’s demi-plane, though it was only a mere two hours in reality. Eight days during which Ahsch ate food conjured by the dragon, slept on clouds, and otherwise worked relentlessly towards his goal.

And all the while, in the back of his mind, he planned. The afterlife he wanted to create he intended to make permanent, bound to the concept and divinity of Enochiel, potentially fed by the faith in the same. And for that realm, he debated what to include, specifically when it came to time dilation. Continuing to advance the speed within the demi-plane made some sense to him, as it was one he would always have access to, and to have more time always at his fingertips made some sense. But on the other hand, he debated the wisdom of that decision. Being so easily able to ignore the passage of time on Euphoria would likely lead to confusion within himself about how fast time truly moved. Even at a simple multiplier of ten, he could get his eight hours of sleep daily within less than an hour by sleeping within a demi-plane. But if he did that, then every day he would be offset from the usual schedule, as he suddenly gained seven hours every day, yet he would grow tired at the same pace as always. Though, to be fair, taking an hour nap once a day and simply gaining seven hours in the day would be beneficial.

Even so, Ahsch could imagine a situation in which one of the souls residing within his afterlife realm was visited by someone outside that realm - and if time carried on much faster within the afterlife than it did without, then months could go by for the soul while only weeks or days passed on Euphoria; when the two met again, the dissonance could be extreme, especially if the visits occurred at longer intervals. Though again, there was the question of how much of an issue that would end up being: how likely was it that he would have frequent visitors within his afterlife realm?

In the end, he decided it was a question for later - after all, he could freely alter the time dilation of any demi-planes he created.

And even if time was relatively in-sync between the afterlife and Euphoria, that didn’t prevent Ahsch from creating a secondary, temporary demi-plane in which to practice and train and learn.

It was ‘late afternoon on the sixth day’ that Ahsch finally succeeded. He could feel it the moment the spell completed, but he didn’t say anything as he and Phashim entered the demi-plane. That Phashim didn’t immediately turn around and have him try again was evidence enough that he succeeded; as was the judgemental-sounding grunt of approval that she produced. Ahsch had to smother a smirk, since her surprise, pride, and excitement were visible to his Heart Sight. “Six days,” she said evenly. “Hardly the longest it’s taken anyone to succeed.”

Ahsch nodded, then took a moment to explore the demi-plane. It was small, and still situated in an ancient forest. While the illusion of a never-ending forest stretched out around him, he pushed through some undergrowth that was just barely within his perception from where he and Phashim entered the demi-plane, and suddenly the dragon was waiting for him up ahead. All told, maybe a hundred feet in diameter. Even so, it could be grown, expanded, built upon and added to.

“We are done here,” Phashim stated when he rejoined her. “I have taught you to create a demi-plane in which time moves quicker. I even deigned to help you create a permanent demi-plane. Our agreement is finished.”

Ahsch nodded, then bowed slightly. “Thank you, Phashim,” he said. “I won’t forget this.”

Her nostrils flared as they exited Ahsch’s demi-plane and were once again in the starscape. Then they suddenly stood in the gardens of the Odestag suites. “You’d better not, godling,” she grunted, then turned and lept from the Tower, taking to the sky and quickly disappearing.

“Hmm, two hours,” Rwnil said from behind Ahsch. “Assuming the big lizard is capable of any sort of decent time dilation, that’s at least a handful of days. Not bad for a fool.

“Still, that’s one hour out of our lesson time,” she continued. “We’ll have to make up for lost time, godling.”