Mrs. Knight set up the tray of food in the exact same way that she had done the day before. "There, now eat up. If you are hungry after this like your blond friend then just let me know, I've lots more food ready to be eaten." She even flashed the same warm smile as the previous day.
"Where are am I? And where are my friends? What happened?" Lina asked in confusion. She had a strange feeling that there was something terribly wrong with all this.
"Oh yes dear I should have told you that from the start! It must be very confusing to end up in a place like this with no memory of coming here! Okay I'll explain first by telling you my name. My name's Meredith Knight and right now you are in an inn that my husband Harris and I run. And the town that you are in is Wislinn. Some of the townspeople found you are your three friends unconscious in the snow near the town. And I have to say I was extremely surprised and worried when they brought you four here. You were all so frozen to the bone and so blue in the face. Especially that stony friend of yours, but I have the feeling he's blue on a normal basis. Well they brought you four here because we have the room. And I have to say I'm very happy that you all seem to be better now. You all had me so worried."
Lina frowned. That same feeling kept nagging at her in the back of her head. She wanted to ignore it, but it still remained there even though what Mrs. Knight said seemed to be a plausible and reasonable explanation. She was so absorbed with thought that she didn't even pay any notice to the food in front of her. "And where are my friends?"
"Well you're blond friend whom I believe is named Gourry, was up right after I started cooking. Your polite friend named Amelia came down shortly after Gourry just as I was about to bring her up some food. And as for your stony friend who was I told is named Zelgadis is still in his room sleeping. He seemed to be the worst of the four of you when you were all brought in. Why don't you eat up and go see him? He's in the room right next to you on the left. Well I'll leave you to eat. If you need anything I'll be downstairs." Mrs. Knight gave Lina one last warm smile before she left Lina alone in her room.
Rather then brood over little things, Lina shrugged off her nagging feelings and dived right into her food. I'll go see Zel after I finish my breakfast.
The day went on exactly as it had the day before with exact same events. The only thing that was different was that the young man named Ethan didn't visit his fiancé Angel this time. Instead the young man spent his time brooding in his laboratory. He was being faced with the same problem as he always had, trying to cure his fiancé Angel of her sickness.
Angel had been sick for almost half her life with a rare illness that no one in the town knew how to cure. Ethan had tried many times to see if he could create a potion to cure her before her illness took her over. He knew that if the next day passes and Angel wasn't cured she would die.
The last potion he had brought her had neutralized the effects of the illness for only five hours, but it was the longest lasting one he had made so far.
It was very frustrating to Ethan; because no matter how hard he tried he couldn't make a potion that could permanently cure Angel. But still he persevered on though he had other things to worry about. The four travelers that had been brought into the town might cause problems for Ethan.
I'm already having enough problems controlling all the townspeople as it without them being there. I'm not sure if I'll be able to control their minds as well for long... Though I've managed to already to do this for several days now with them here and they haven't suspected anything so perhaps I can still keep this up... Ethan sighed deeply. I think it's time for my daily visit to my dear Angel.
Angel breathed hard as the sharp pains burned in her chest. She was having quite a bit of difficulty breathing and the constant pain didn't help much either.
She strained her eyes to try and get a better look at the grandfather clock that was at the other end of her bed. If she was seeing it correctly it was approximately 11:44 p.m. Angel sighed in despair.
Oh please don't let me die just yet... I want to live till the last day of the festival... Angel pleaded in thought rather then with her voice. Her body was far to weak and in too much pain to say anything more then a horse whisper.
A sudden sharp spasm of pain wracked through her body as her vision turned dark and she closed her eyes for the very last time. Just as suddenly as the pain had come, Angel's body loosened for she finally had peace.
The clock ticked on. The short hand nearing the twelve and long hand coming closer as well. It continued ticking in the silent room with it's deafening tick as the long hand finally reached the twelve. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick...
Lina mumbled half asleep in her room as wonderful aromas slowly entered the small but comfortable wooden furnished room.
Lina opened her eyes a crack in confusion and sat up in her bed. Just then she heard a knock on the door.
Mrs. Knight came right in with a tray of breakfast for Lina that was the same as the many other times that had been brought in that Mrs. Knight didn't remember.
"Oh good morning dear! I was so afraid that you weren't going to wake up! How are you feeling? Are you warm? You were so dreadfully cold when they brought you here. You're not feeling sick are you from the snow are you?" Mrs. Knight said as she placed down the tray of food in front of Lina.
Lina blinked. All she could think about was that this all seemed far too familiar somehow.
"There, now eat up. If you are hungry after this like your blond friend then just let me know, I've lots more food ready to be eaten." Mrs. Knight smiled fondly at Lina.
"Where are am I? And where are my friends? What happened?" Lina asked in suspicion.
"Oh yes dear I should have told you that from the start! It must be very confusing to end up in a place like this with no memory of coming here! Okay I'll explain first by telling you my name. My name's Meredith Knight and right now you are in an inn that my husband Harris and I run. And the town that you are in is Wislinn. Some of the townspeople found you are your three friends unconscious in the snow near the town. And I have to say I was extremely surprised and worried when they brought you three here. You were all so frozen to the bone and so blue in the face. Especially that stony friend of yours, but I have the feeling he's blue on a normal basis. Well they brought you four here because we have the room. And I have to say I'm very happy that you all seem to be better now. You all had me so worried."
Rather then respond Lina paused for a moment. Even as she Mrs. Knight questions she knew exactly what Mrs. Knight was going to say. It was rather weird and creepy. "And where are my friends?"
"Well you're blond friend whom I believe is named Gourry, was up right after I started cooking. Your polite friend named Amelia came down shortly after Gourry just as I was about to bring her up some food. And as for your stony friend who was I told is named Zelgadis is still in his room sleeping. He seemed to be the worst of the four of you when you were all brought in. Why don't you eat up and go see him? He's in the room right next to you on the left. Well I'll leave you to eat. If you need anything I'll be downstairs." Mrs. Knight gave Lina one last warm smile before she left Lina alone in her room.
Lina stared down at the food that had been laid out in front of her. What she saw was bowl of wonderful smelling and looking soup, two small oranges, a breakfast roll, a glass of water, a glass of milk, and an apple cinnamon tart.
Instead of just instantly wolfing down the food like you might expect her too, Lina just continued to start at the food. The thoughts that should have been going through her head as she looked down at the breakfast were not present in her mind. All she could think about was how it looked too damned familiar. Like as if she had in font of her the same breakfast that she had the previous day. But logic argued with Lina's sense of déjà vu. Logic dictated that she had never been in Wislinn before and that the previous morning she had been camping out with Zelgadis, Amelia and Gourry and they had eaten bread and dried fruit.
But even though she had no memory to support it, Lina was damned certain that she had gone through all this before.
She mentally thought over what she knew of Wislinn, which unfortunately wasn't much. She knew of the barrier that prevents people from entering the city every season of the year with winter as the only exception.
Then there was also the strange weather that surrounded the area around the town. Which most likely the side effects to the barrier spell.
And then she also knew that not one person has visited the city since the barrier appeared.
Why had no one gone to the town after the barrier appeared? Well that was an easy one, who could, the combination of the spell barrier and the weather barrier. The only times of the year you could reach the city without the weather preventing you, the barrier around the city wouldn't let you in. And the only time of the year when the barrier wasn't up the harsh wind and weather prevented you from getting there.
So then the question becomes, why would someone make a barrier such as this?
Oh yes, Lina was damned certain that it was a person trying to keep visitors out. She didn't believe some of the rumors that went around. Some people said that it was the of the woods around the town that it was natures will that these people be kept prisoners for some injustice to nature that they've done. Others believed it was the work of some power monster, while some said it was work of a vengeful spirit.
Now this wasn't the style of a monster. If it had been one no one in this town would be happy like they seemed to be. They would be miserable or lots of pain. And Lina doubted that the spirits of the woods would waste their energy, keeping people confined to a town.
Of course the idea of the vengeful spirit did sound almost plausible, but there was still a problem with it. Though a spirit could use magic powers after death it was usually very limited. To affect such a large area with such a powerful spell, it would require taping into darker energy, using magic amplifiers, and constant spell maintenance.
Spirits lack the ability to tap into such large magic resources and since they don't have physical bodies using magic amplifiers are useless. And as for the spell maintenance, spirits don't have the concentration to keep such a spell going. So the more logical explanation was that it was a person using this spell and was most likely in the town somewhere.
But to what end? Why would someone want to prevent someone from entering the city? Lina thought while idling tapping her fingers on the tray as she chewed on the breakfast roll.
Unless it's not to keep people out, but to prevent the townspeople from getting out! Lina thought in triumphant. But then something else dawned on her. We didn't enter the town last night. We collapsed in the snow and it was the townspeople that brought us in. If the spell caster was trying to keep them in non of them would have been able to go out and find us. Lina slumped back onto the pillow behind her in irritation.
Lina's stomach was growling at her to get her to eat faster but she was too engrossed in thought to eat any more quickly.
Well then the spell is meant to keep people out. But why? And why do I keep getting this sense of déjà vu? Or am I just going nuts? No I do know that if I go in Zelgadis' room I'm going to find him sleeping wearing matching blue silky pajamas. And that when I go downstairs Amelia is going to tell us that it's the fifth day of Wislinn's six day winter celebration. So what does that prove? That this day is constantly repeating itself? And if that's true then how long has it been going on like this? Lina mused while massaging her temples. All this was giving her one large headache. But that was a scary thought, how long had they been stuck in this town, living out the same day over and over again? And how long were the people of Wislinn living through this before they came to the town?
Of course Lina also knew that she could just be thinking this all through and it might not even be true. Lina had no physical proof that they were stuck in this repeating time loop that only seemed to affect the town of Wislinn. I guess the only way I'll know for sure is when I wake up tomorrow.
Ethan mulled over his calculations while in his laboratory, the only room in the whole town that wasn't affected by the time loop. He was working on yet another one of his potions, trying another idea. This was his third one today and after this he was going to stop for the day. The reason being since this room wasn't affected by the loop Ethan couldn't stay there for too long. He couldn't let himself age too much or otherwise the townspeople might suspect something if he starts appearing older then he should be. Doing this was quite a risky thing to do but this was the only way Ethan could get anywhere with his work.
Ethan had tried at the beginning with his laboratory being affected in the time loop along with the rest of the town but it got far too frustrating. There would be some experiments that he had going one day that he wanted to continue the next day but when he got up the next day all the work he had done the previous day wasn't there. So he had to redo everything he had done before just so that he could get to his new idea. Eventually he got so fed up with all his work disappearing on him that he made it possible that his laboratory wouldn't be affected by the loop.
He had lost track long ago just how long this day had been repeating itself. Ethan's original intention when he started all this wasn't too take years to find a way to save Angel, it was supposed to be just a few days, perhaps a few months at most. But that naturally wasn't the case. He didn't care how long had passed, all that matter him was Angel, his Angel.
Lina went the whole day observing the city without telling anyone about her suspicions. All that she wanted to do was to make sure she knew as much as possible about Wislinn. She also made special note to know exactly what time it was at all times. She wanted to know exactly when the time loop starts and begins. And while she was waiting around she was taking advantage of the free food naturally.
Fortunately for Lina there was one very large clock in the town square that she could keep track of the time without trouble.
Lots of the townspeople where gathered around in the square continuing their six day party despite the cold weather.
Lina pulled her coat more tightly around her body. She was borrowing one of Mrs. Knight's old coats since her cloak was still a little wet and not really that warm to start off with.
The cold wind blew softy through the town, blowing small flakes of snow onto the already white dusted streets. Time passed by very slowly but no one in the town square had a care at all. They were happy and completely obvious to what was going to happen.
Angel glanced desperately at the clock in her room as it ticked away.
11:30 p.m.
Lina nervously tapped her fingers against her crossed arms.
11:40 p.m.
Zelgadis took another sip of his wine while Gourry was asleep in his chair next to Zel. Amelia was already in bed.
11:49 p.m.
Angel lay motionless in her bed not feeling any pain anymore.
11:59 p.m.
Lina watched the clock as the long hand reached the twelve along with everyone else in the square.
The townspeople started to count down once the ten-second mark was reached.
"Ten!"
"Nine!"
"Eight!"
"Seven!"
"Six!"
"Five!"
"Four!"
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
The clock struck midnight.
Lina woke in her bed in the inn not remembering going to bed the previous night.
There was a soft knock on her door and Mrs. Knight came in holding the same tray of breakfast that she had brought in the day before and wearing the exact same clothes she had been wearing the day before as well.
"Oh good morning dear! I was so afraid that you weren't going to wake up! How are you feeling? Are you warm? You were so dreadfully cold when they brought you here. You're not feeling sick are you from the snow are you?"