The world turned and the days passed. Little gifts with letters were send through each of their postboxes. Sometimes the gifts were met with a 'How did you know' or 'Where did you find it?', but always accepted with a 'Thank you'.

 

Yu was very busy, specifically because she had a lot to do in preparation for the ritual of her parents 🥺, so sadly she didn't have time for band practice, though they were understanding, Yu wasn't going easy on herself. 

Thus, she practiced every night, no matter how tired she was and eventually band aids and bandages covered her hands. When she took everything for the ritual and went to her parents, but she was immediately chided by her mother, the moment she stepped over the threshold. 

As she was tired, albeit usual politeness, Yu was incapable of anything else, least of all arguing and so she tried to speak as few words as possible. 

The house of her parents was big, large even, with a very large garden and surrounded by a forest. 

Not because it still looked like this, but because this dimension was anchored to the time, it had first existed in. 

However, time needed to flow, to expand itself, so it didn't stand still and it didn't loop, instead it had it's own timeline, which made it easier for spells and rituals to locate it. 

At the same time even if no one was here, the timeline still existed to go back to it and didn’t need to be created anew each time. 

And this mad it into a space in time.

The original time had been over 500 years ago, when they had decided to settle. 

According to her father they had multiple such spaces, but Yu was only familiar with this one. 

She had also created it, with the help of her father.

Her mother was not able to do such chronomantic magic. And most importantly, they would have managed without it, but why should they? 

Thus, she was here and discussing with her mother that no, she was awake enough for this, and another question was haunting her too. 

But not now! 

So, when they gathered next to the pond on the stonetiled floor that had a small sitting area and was circular in shape; her father did not chide her, but he looked at her concerned and took some of the herbs from her. 

They arranged it on the small table and as they were halfway through, Yu knew that her father would take the lead. Because he had sensed her fatique and wanted her to do the less straining part. 

Instead of the planned object, she would be the anchor to create the portal. This would still be quite straining though, so even though he did take pity on her, Yu knew in a way that this was some sort of punishment. 

As she had moved out at an earlier date, she wouldn't have to get the 'Knowledge' from the memory flood. At least not as many memories as her parents.

 

The water of the pond, which was nestled with lotus flowers, and some water lilies scattered in-between. 

When she walked into the water, she realised that it was very cold, however it still felt more soothing for her, than unpleasant, because it enhanced the healing of her wounds and calmed down her heartbeat and mind. 

It tingled through her body and when she reached the middle of the water body, she dove down. 

In that moment, it just so happened that the wind, which was conjured as byproduct of the ritual, ripped off a flower, from a far away magnolia tree, and after a tug of war, between the blossom and the wind, the flower sauntered down exactly on the ripple, created by Yu's dive. 

It spun on the surface, but neither sank nor drifted off, it seemed, as if there was a thread attached to it and keeping it in place. 

Meanwhile, day and night happened shortly after one another, similar to a time lapse. Her parents stood at the edge of the pond, while they changed into a more humanoid shape, astral projections diverted from their bodies and these seemed to live the lapse of 300 years within about 3 hours.

During this, Yu swam downward and never stopped not perceiving what her parents did. She didn't know how long it took, she just focused on the moment when she saw a light and then she broke through the surface and looked around. 

They were in the Now.

The flower now rested on her head and she touched it lightly with her fingertips. A smile broke out on her face and then she swam to leave the pond. 

The pond disappeared once she stepped out of it and then she stood there, where it had been, effectively soaked. 

Yu stood behind her parents house. 

At every step that she took toward the house, a flood of recollections surged up in her mind and gave her a slight nosebleed, the fluid trickling down and into her lips. 

She started to see stars dancing in her vision and a headache bloomed behind her eyes that reached into her frontal lobe. 

It was dizzying and the moment she lost consciousness, her father caught her and carried her into the house. 

He had waited for her to get inside, had watched the mirage of the pond fade out of existence, but as she was staggering, he immediately went to her to carry her to her room. 

His wife was already preparing everything, to seamlessly start the life, they partly had had lived already. 

Yu's father was more used to it, but his wife still struggled a bit with the flood of new memories. 

It weren't passive memories, it was always like a multiple choice situation, this made it more straining and depending on what they decided, this also altered the time flow. 

Exactly this took a toll on them - because for a stable time flow, the time river used the most likely outcomes and if they just kept with it, it was more or less fine, but if they didn't, which was preferable sometimes, it was as if they were climbing the Fuji.

This is to say that it was straining nonetheless, but if they deviated from the so called 'plot', it got excruciatingly painful, which was why Yu had started a nosebleed, and that had been the reason for Yu’s mum's worries. Yu had overestimated her and how much the changes of the plot would also affect her, now she was unconcsious and overwhelmed with a pulsating headache.

Still, her father knew her well enough, so that it wouldn't have changed anything, even if he had forbidden her participation, and due to this, he carried her into her room. And he put her on her bed, before going back and then looking at all the new gadgets and inventions lining and filling the house. 

It was truly fascinating for him, everytime when he returned to the present, the humans had always new things they came up with. Not that the magick community didn’t also do that, or inspire some things and or came up with their own stuff, because they needed other things.

His daughter was as stubborn as he had been, when young, and even though he denied it, he still was at least partially.

It was new and familiar at the same time and a lot had changed. He had a phone now... and post-it's lined everything with memos. It seemed Yu’s mum had taken to the suggestion. 

This was actually helpful, but wouldn't stop him from ignoring them, as he had done to the plates before. 

Even though it intrigued him that they were more colourful than the plates. 

Both of them had jobs to settle into and to relearn some things. They also had to let the memories truly settle in, and become ingrained in their minds, while their daughter slept and dreamed, they were busily exploring and restocking the house.