Time in the Varr Pocket Dimension became meaningless. Days bled into weeks, then months, marked only by the slow consumption of their rations and the increasing depth of Kaelen's understanding.
Kaelen spent the first estimated month mastering the preliminary skills of the Codex—the ability to cleanly separate his internal Aether from his external physical projection. He was preparing his mind to handle the paradoxes of time magic.
Elara was essential during this period. She was no longer just the reader; she was the historian and the psychological shield. When Kaelen would emerge from a Deep Meditation, his mind reeling from the raw, abstract data of the Codex, Elara would ground him.
"You've been studying the Echo Weave technique for three cycles," Elara would say, checking the dimming light of their remaining rations. "It's a foundational skill for temporal viewing. Explain it to me in simple terms—as if I were a first-year student."
Kaelen would respond, forced to translate the ancient Varr glyphs into practical knowledge. "The Echo Weave teaches the mage to perceive the overlapping timelines. We don't change the past; we find the optimal past branch that leads to our desired future. It's about navigating causality, not breaking it."
His training then moved to practical Transfiguration. He learned to cast high-level spells with such low energy expenditure that they were virtually invisible to traditional detection. He could now subtly alter the structure of the surrounding stone, causing it to vibrate at a frequency that only he could hear—a subtle, constant connection to the physical world, even in the void.
The breakthrough came when he reached the chapter detailing Subtle Scrying—the ability to send a controlled, non-Aetheric echo into the main Eldorian timeline.
"The Subtle Scrying spell is designed to pierce the dimensional barrier and return an 'echo' of the Aetheric status of the capital," Kaelen explained. "It won't give us details, but it will tell us the magnitude of magical activity. This will be our measure of Valerius's purge."
He prepared the ritual, a much smaller, focused version of the dimensional magic he had used for the Lock. He channeled his newly purified Aether through the Codex and projected a single, fine strand of temporal energy out of the dimension.
The strand traveled for a few agonizing minutes, and then, a reaction returned.
Kaelen recoiled, a gasp escaping his lips. He was completely drained by the minuscule effort, but his eyes shone with the information he had received.
"I found it," Kaelen rasped. "The Aetheric signature of the capital. It's stable, but the political climate is horrific. The purge is underway."
"What did you see?" Elara demanded, her hands clutching his arm.
"A massive, localized shift in the Court Rune of Succession," Kaelen revealed, his voice filled with grim certainty. "Valerius succeeded in his final political maneuver. The King is dead, Elara. Prince Valerius has crowned himself King."