“Thank you for getting rid of my supervisor. I don’t mean any harm, and I don’t want any trouble. I just want to find somewhere to hide this crystal where the Adversary will never find it.” The person-shaped silhouette extended a gloved hand out of the light and indeed, a crystal sat on their gray gloved hand.

“What kind of crystal is that? Because it looks like a lumir crystal.” Ran couldn’t tell anything other than that from six feet away.

“It might be one. I don’t know. I just know that the Adversary wants us to collect all the time crystals and bring them back to him. If he wants them, then I don’t want him to have them.”

“Who are you?” Uncle Miren asked, but that wasn’t as important as how the demon arrived here and how did the light float like that?

When Ran opened his mouth, a different question popped out, but it was no less important. “Why don’t you want him to have them?”

“If he wants something, then it’s best not to let him have it because he won’t do anything good with it. That’s for sure. As for who I am, that’s complicated. I’ll just say that some angels screwed around with mortals way back at the dawn of time and my kind resulted from that.”

“Can you also change your face?” Ran glanced over the edge again, but there was no sign of the other demon.

“Yes, I can change my whole body into whatever form I want. That’s why the Adversary sent my kind on this mission. But as I already said, I’m here to do the opposite of what he ordered. So, will you help me hide this crystal?” The demon held it out again.

“Sure. Toss it to me.” Ran shrugged. It was an odd request, but no odder than that time Rosalie asked him to wish she went back in time. Like I would ever do such a thing.

“Do you promise to keep it out of the Adversary’s hands? Because if you don’t, then I failed, and that’s not something I want to happen.”

“Yeah. He can’t come here. And even if he did, I’d just kick his butt like my dad did back when I was a kid. I don’t think the Adversary would mess with me again. I’m much bigger, stronger, and far more magical now than when I was little. Since he couldn’t get to me then, I don’t think he can get to me at all now.” Ran extended his hands to catch the crystal if the demon ever threw it.

“He can’t physically leave Hell,” Uncle Miren said, and that was true.

“He keeps finding ways around that, and I really need to get back because I’m trying to spread around the crystals he found before he returns. So here. Take it somewhere one of my kind will never find it.” The silhouetted demon tossed the crystal.

Ran caught it. The crystal looked like the one Rosalie had before she disappeared. I wonder if it’s the same kind. Without Papa here to identify it, there was no way to tell.

“Just promise me you won’t let it fall into his hands,” the nice demon said as his hand withdrew into the light.

“Sure. I promise.” Ran turned the crystal over on his palm.

“What are your kind called? Are they all working against the Adversary or just some?” Uncle Miren stopped beside Ran and glanced at the crystal.

“I suppose it can’t hurt to tell you that. We’re called Versati. And no, not all of us are working against the Adversary. I wish we all were, but we all have to make our own decisions. I know some are working against him, but I don’t know how many because we can’t talk about it openly. Now, I really must go, and you should hide that crystal.” The silhouette faded from the light, but the light didn’t go anywhere.

“How do we know if we encounter one of your kind in the future if they’re working for the Adversary or against him?” Uncle Miren asked, hopefully in time to get an answer.

“You can’t know that just by looking at someone. You’ll have to judge them by their actions. If they attack you with this, then you can assume that they aren’t on your side.” A gloved hand reached out of the light again and held a wicked-looking knife with a gray crystal on its hilt.

The time crystal tried to fly toward it, but Ran closed his fist around it. “How can that knife attract the time crystal?”

“I don’t know. But the adversary gave us these blades to help us find them. So anyone with them is not on your side.” The gloved hand retracted into the light, and the blade stopped pulling on the crystal. “Remember your promise. I’m counting on you to keep that crystal away from the Adversary. Don’t fail or something bad will happen.” The light shrank until it winked out, leaving unbroken darkness behind.

“Well, that was weird.” Ran tossed the time crystal from hand to hand.

“Are you going to hide it?” Uncle Miren pointed at the crystal in question.

“You ask that like you have something else in mind. What do you think we should do with it?” Ran stepped away from the edge.

“Well, you promised to hide it. So don’t you need to do that?” Uncle Miren followed him back to the middle of the island.

“No. Promises aren’t any more binding for me than they are for you.” Ran examined the crystal.

“Well, when you put it that way. I thought we could check on Rosalie and Evarian. I have this bad feeling that something went wrong. They might need help.” Uncle Miren rubbed his chest with the heel of his hand.

“That’s true, but I don’t want to travel back in time. I already ran into the younger version of Papa once already and that was weird enough. I don’t want to do that again, and I might if we go back in time.” Ran didn’t understand why Rosalie didn’t care about running into a younger version of her mom.

“Do you think we can go back? Would we use that time crystal?” Uncle Miren tapped his index finger on it.

“Maybe. I don’t know if I could wish us back in time. I’ve never tried that. But I’ve never wanted to either.” And Ran still didn’t want to.

“Would you try it? I think they might be in big trouble, and we’re just standing around staring at darkness and waiting for the floor to collapse when we could do something.” Uncle Miren took the crystal from his hands.

“And you’ll feel bad if we don’t go.” Ran folded his arms. Why did everything keep circling back to time travel? This is all your fault, Rosalie.

“Won’t you feel bad too?” Uncle Miren turned the crystal over.

“Yeah. But I still don’t like all this time travel business. Why can’t I wish them back here?” That sounded like a great idea. Ran rubbed his hands together, ready to get started on that.

“Would that hurt them? After all, we don’t know what their situation is.” Uncle Miren held the crystal out to him.

Ran walked away from it. “I don’t know.” Because he didn’t know, he couldn’t wish for that. Ran sighed because his uncle already knew that. “You know me too well.” Ran took the crystal from his uncle.

“Well, I helped to raise you, so I should know you better than you know yourself.” Uncle Miren smiled. Why didn’t the idea of time travel bother him?

“All right. I’ll wish us to go wherever they are. But if we run into a younger version of Papa, you’re dealing with him, not me. After all, he’s your brother, and it’ll be less weird for you.” Ran glared at his uncle.

“All right. I can agree with that,” Uncle Miren said with a laugh. “Let’s go before the floor collapses. I really don’t want to find out where the rest of the library went.”

“Okay.” Ran tossed the time crystal into the air and thought of his friends. But he didn’t know Evarian well, so only an image of Rosalie sprang to mind. I wish to see her again so I can tell her how much I hate the very idea of time travel.Before The world whited out, he caught his uncle’s hand to make sure the wish included him because he refused to go back in time alone. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to time travel at all. I really hope Rosalie was wrong about time being all messed up. But from everything he’d seen and experienced over the last few months, he knew she was right.