White box

Lakehouse

Stephanie opened her eyes to see Marcus standing near the mossy bed she was on, his eyes seemed distant like he was looking at something, but she couldn't see what.

"What was that?" Stephanie asked about that fog followed up by that oppressive thing. Although the fog was still here and it actually-- felt a bit-- familiar? Like she had met it before. And then it hit her-- new dryad domains had something like that in them and that meant - they were in August's domain. That would explain the familiarity.

"Tiamat," Marcus replied. "That's how her presence affects people."

Stephanie pursed her lips, figuring Purple might feel similar then-- yep, that really was a bit over her head right now. "I want to wash my face," she said and got up and walked out of the room.

And lookie what's downstairs - "Uh, hello, again," Stephanie said, spotting Albus and also August. There was a chilling sensation coming from a short girl with long dark hair and blue eyes, but like in new dryad domains would - she seemed alive here and thus rather than seeming ghastly, she looked cute.

The rest were all so beautiful they couldn't possibly be human. There were three girls with red hair and skimpy outfits giving an impression of noble vampires in fiction, although their presences didn't even hint at dark alignment so they couldn't be that. Then there was a tall girl with black hair and brown eyes (shouldn't those be red?). Stephanie had seen the picture of Riveria, so this was - yep, human-version of her. No presence, though, no idea why. And there was also a tall male with blue eyes and long blonde hair braided over his shoulder. If Stephanie's hunch was right, that was the other dragon who had been after August, although Stephanie had forgotten to find out who it was. He also, for some reason, had no presence. But that was true for August as well--

Was there some sort of logic here? August, Riveria, Albus, the blonde male had no presence while the ghost girl and red-haired three did.

The tall blonde had a confusing exchange with August about seeing some weird gate somewhere, but Marcus joined in with: "Is it glitching?"

"Yes," August replied, now looking towards Marcus.

"It's a space-time gate, then," Marcus replied. "Something from either past or future is trying to come through."

"A barrier with people in it came through, the gate broke," August said.

"I'd go see them in your place," Marcus said. "Time-leapers tend to be unstable, they often disintegrate soon. They might have a message for one of you."

"Thanks," August said and disappeared and moments after everyone else did as well.

"Time travel?" Stephanie asked, that was something--

"Yes, Hades also has the technology for it, but we only use it in case of things that might threaten our survival," he said. "Time travelers fall apart within minutes to a few hours."

Then Stephanie asked for some examples and found out about a mysterious fungus alien attacking and Hadeans coming from the future to warn about it, about some epidemic, about a certain key Hadean dying and thus Hades losing a major war that would cost them their freedom, there was also something about emperor dying. Marcus didn't tell them all but said there were eighteen recorded cases about it. 17 future to past, and 1 from past to future, because a rare material was running out and the very said time-machine would be useless for a few decades without a known mine. So they told them where the mine was, just in case.

Stephanie did wash her face, but she felt sort of-- off-- It was warm here, but her current clothes just didn't seem right, so she summoned a small wisp and exchanged a cheap potion for different clothes from her own closet, sending these to her room.