Solem'cleavu

Claw did think about her words for a bit but ultimately he shook his head. "No little one this is a bit different. Think of it like an address. Within ourselves we hold all the information of where we are from at any given time. Now this information constantly updates as you move around your own world or even within the same dimensional plane. However, once you cross dimensions as you have that change becomes delayed. Sure, if you were to stay here for long enough your "astral address", for lack of a better term since we don't actually have a term for it, would change and shift to be in line with your current location. However this process can usually take anywhere from a few days to a few months depending on person and how firm of a grasp they have of their home location. You see little one the universe has its own way of correcting discrepancies, sometimes with rather violent results. It is for that reason that time travel can be a bit...weird and even for me who practically lives in that flow it can be a headache to even think about. Just know and be assured that the reason your mana signature is different is because you are not from this timeline. Now it would blend in after a while as I have stated before and if you had come to us after that happened it would be near impossible to return you home so you're lucky you showed up where you did."

Claw simply shrugged at that as he didn't think the subject matter was all that important but oh well. Merely shaking his head at the mention of a refill. "Maybe later... oho looks like this was faster than I thought." Sure enough the image beyond the portal shifted to a familiar looking staff, in fact the exact twin of the one that Claw had in front of him right now that was in the exact same position. Both of their crystals now glowing a bit brighter and the light pulsing in time with each other. Claw then standing up and extending his hand over the crystal of his own staff while making a quiet chant before he removed his hand. "Lock established, now we wait to see if those on the other side realize it before the portal falls in on itself. I must ask you to not go through even though I'm sure you may want to in order to retrieve the little one. However you may wish to go get Ashmire. I'll just wait here and toss a few more pebbles through, see if I can't get their attention."

"hmm?" Claw quirked a brow at the statement of their holy order's justification being a 'bitch move'. "How so? Every member of our holy order and even the rest of our citizenry knows the truth of the matter all the way down to the smallest human child. It's not like it's been kept as some big national secret after all. Hell even the other nations know the real reason we set things up this way and sure, they don't like it because there's no actual gods involved and the whole thing is treated more as paying respect to the ancestors of the dragon clans of this world but they also know there really isn't anything they can do about it especially with some of the more pointless religions they've come up with throughout history. Case in point there was a farmer about 1500 years ago that created an oddly successful religion around a particularly tall blade of grass he found in his field. Only reason that sticks out in my memory is because he paid one of our mages traveling through the area to preserve it so he could enshrine it in his farmhouse and that mage decided to return to Vashtalia just to spread that story around. Now I said "oddly successful" because believe it or not it ended up being the national religion of that farmer's home nation. Well, before the nation itself collapsed anyway. Either way point is the other nations know but can't do anything about it except shake their collective heads like a disapproving mother. Especially since our holy order offers tangible benefits for the money they ask to utilize their services." Afterwards he thought about BS's offer some before shaking his head. "That is definitely going to be a no go. The dragon clans are defensive enough against potential threats to the spirits that manage the mana flow. They are much more defensive when it comes to the seals placed by our ancestors as those seals also act as grave markers for them. I myself have had no success in being allowed to study the seals of the other Original 11. Only reason I was even allowed to study Lord Tilan's is because my bloodline is directly descended from his own."

"Oh you definitely are in a different place young one. Your own mana signature definitely feels out of phase with this world and in more ways than just time and I feel the same from that mana signature I've been detecting. It's similar to my own but feels older and also feels like it doesn't belong on this world."

"Well, each one did have their own specializations which we used for that little pseudo-religion. In reality though you will not find a single citizen of our nation that actually buys into it and definitely no one in the military. Really though we just created it partially for the reason I mentioned earlier about appearances to other nations but really we just figured a holy order should have a religion, even a false one, that they publicly support. Pretty much the same reason that we even founded Vashtalia to begin with. We, or more specifically Lord Kelinium, thought it'd be a fun way to pass the time." Draining the rest of his flagon then the mage just set it on the floor next to him as he continued. "That is neither here nor there however as we are speaking as to the reasoning for the seals. Well that reason is quite simple. They sealed their own power into the very land to act as a barrier of sorts against external threats and for the most part it does work. The method used is one that isn't used to this day but just one look at any of the seals would tell you the complicated nature of the programming of their wards. I am not sure how it worked out but it must have detected that young Nova was a member of one of our clans and linked the portal a safe area for her. I've studied Lord Tilan's seal before and it definitely affects temporal travel. However the layers upon layers of encoding that went into that ward makes even my head hurt."

Claw had just simply nodded in response to Brimstone’s observations. “There have a been a few that I vaguely recognize but obviously they are long since departed from the world. I wouldn’t worry too much on the effects we won’t really feel any of them if there are any as long as we do not get too involved. Simply retrieving one of our own isn’t going to do much and will quickly be forgotten by the collective timelines.” Stopping to think on his last question then while he took a few more sips from his flagon. “Lord Tilan was one of the Original 11 dragons that came to this world and is a direct ancestor of the Chronus’Dvergr clan of Gold Dragons which does much to explain our own affinity towards the temporal branch of magic. As such it feels odd to use him as part of a pseudo-religion we created on a whim as a public excuse behind our Holy Order just so we could avoid other nations giving us unnecessary flak for how we name our military divisions but it is what it is. More to the point though you are familiar with the story that the Original 11’s collective power was sealed within the land of this world correct?”

By the time BS got back Claw was just seated on the floor cross-legged with his forearms resting on his knees watching the scenery through the portal change, which seemed to take just a few minutes between changes, almost as if he was in some sort of meditative trance. Once that ale was placed down though the mage simply teleported the flaggon over to himself and took a drink. "You know, the more I watch this the more I am becoming convinced that the destination Nova ended up at is a version of this world very close to our particular timeline. Close enough in fact that if I were to just look at one scene out of the ones I've noticed I'd swear I was looking at our direct collective past given that things looked exactly as I remember. This is good news as like I mentioned before this will definitely be resulting in us just waiting for the proper location to open back up again. It has opened up a few times to populated areas scaring the locals something awful from what I've seen but for the most part it's opening up to areas out in the wilderness." The mage took another drink at that time before motioning BS to have a seat. "The fact that young Nova ended up there can't be just a mere coincidence. My guess is Lord Tilan's power had something to do with it, the more I focus the more I'm seeing his wavelengths all over the place."

"Indeed, I intend to sit here and monitor the portal for any further abnormalities that may hinder progress. At least if I'm here I can possibly correct any issues that come up." Claw had stated with a small nod to BS. "If you're offering though I will take something to drink while I wait."

Claw just reached over and tousled the girl’s hair a bit. “I have no doubt you’ll be reunited with your toy soon enough little one.” Leaning back in his chair at that point he closed his eyes for a few moments while the little one ate her meal. After about five minutes he opened his eyes again. “Well it would seem someone is looking for you. I’ve noticed several mana signatures similar to my own scattered in a few places of this nation, they’re very faint so likely just marker spells placed on objects tossed through a portal in our more remote regions. Well at least that proves that the portal you came through cycles through various locations so it really is just a waiting game to see if it cycles back to where you popped in at.”

Claw shook his head at Brimstone's question even as he tossed yet another small stone through the portal at the next shown destination, something he had been doing ever since he plopped himself down in front of the thing. "This is one thing you don't want to try and force along. This portal is stable now but if we try to force things and speed it along it could still collapse. Fortunately I have a pretty solid grasp on the when now. Just need to get a grasp on the where at this point which is why I've been tossing these stones through at each new destination. I've mentioned a while ago that I recognized some of these locations and given the feedback I'm receiving it seems likely young nova is in an area that would be on Vashtalia's landmass. Given the familiar mana I'm feeling through the portal from some of these locations she is definitely on a version of this world where Vashtalia exists but it does seem like she may be in a past version of it, maybe during Lord Kelinium's time which means there may be a version of myself there as well and indeed I am feeling a faint mana signature similar to my own. With luck this portal will cycle back around to where Nova is currently staying today however I have no way of knowing exacly how many destination points this portal is linked to so it could still be a day or two as previously estimated."

Claw had thought about that question for a bit before shrugging. "It's probably not ideal but since you are technically from a different universe, albeit one that's a very close neighbor to this one, there shouldn't be an issue. Just like how we advised you not to share too much about how things are here in your version of this world it would be better if I remained on this side of the portal so you will need to go through it alone. That being said however as far as actual portals are concerned what you see on the other side is where you will generally end up. Chances are when both sides are stabilized when we return to our side of the portal we'll likely see people you know on the other side waiting for you." In due time they had reached the mess hall. Claw going to take a seat at a nearby table as he motioned the little one to the serving staff behind the counter. "Why don't you go see what they have ready for you. It's late but I imagine they may still have some sandwiches left for the night crew."

Claw just looked back at BS and shrugged even as he took the hobby horse and loosely tied it to his staff and made a few more mutterings to include the new information. "How else would you expect me to be able to find her? I may have streamlined teleportation magic in this world to the point where we barely have to think about it however there are still a ton of variables that go into it and that goes doubly so for tracing a teleport no matter the nature of said teleport whether a portal was used or not. Just be glad this portal was the type that stays open at the origination point and just cycles through various linked destinations. Normally once a portal dissipates it doesn't take long for any trace that it was even there to vanish and if that happened all we would have to go by is a guess to where it may have opened initially going by the damage it caused to the surrounding area. Even more fortunately is that this portal seemed linked to various destinations on this world. Those destinations may not be in this particular timeline or universe but at least the locations are in this world. I'd guess no more than a day or two before we get a lock on where Nova went. That all being said I did stabilize this portal and locked down this entire room so this portal shouldn't affect anything else. If you do end up losing something I'll reimburse you personally, I should have enough junk stashed away somewhere that would be of some value when sold. Old enchanted weapons, gear, and the like. It will either be that or consider it as a small price to pay to get Nova back."

Claw let himself be dragged over to one of the gardens and the first thing he did was take a look around. "So if you teleported in here why didn't the damn alarms go off...? For that matter where the hell were the guards that should have seen you and alerted the rest of us? I think we'll need to take another look at who we have stationed here at the castle, well no matter I'll bring those subject up with Kelinium later." Focusing his study to the spot that Nova indicated now he just took a seat on the ground and seemed to stare at a singular point in the air in front of him for a bit. "Well this spot does seem to be a bit temporally unstable still. Usually when we get a portal opening up there's hardly any trace once it closes up but this pathway still seems to be active albeit a bit unstable. It's possible the portal you came through may open back up at some point if we simply wait a while. With that being said..." Getting back up then before he just stuck the butt end of his staff into the ground. Placing his hand on top of the crystal nested within the top of the staff he did mutter a few things under his breath as the crystal took on a steady reddish glow. "Well by the fact that you seem to know a version of myself from your timeline I can only guess that he'll be studying your exit point on their end so let's just leave this little beacon here and see if they can't stabilize the portal on their end. Either way it does seem that you are separated from your home more by time than by place so this shouldn't take too long. Just a waiting game at this point so how about we go get some food for you?"

Claw was following along behind Brimstone as the mutant led the way further down but he had his staff out and held in front of him slightly. The crystal nested within the top giving off a slight pulsing light with the mage seemingly more intent on looking at the crystal than watching where he was going but he didn't run into anything and was even maneuvering around anything that may have fallen and turned into an obstacle. Once they reached the rift though the old mage finally gave some attention to something else other than what his staff was doing. If one didn't know any better they would think the old mage's eyes slightly lit up like a kid in a candy store as he moved next to the rift and started studying it. "Well we certainly don't get these too often usually when a rift opens it closes up right away. It's these kinds of rifts that the Original 11 used to bring themselves and the eggs that seeded this world with our kind over here to begin with even though this one looks to have been artificially created. Well let's make sure this end doesn't close on us anytime soon shall we?" Taking his staff at that point he recited a quick spell on it before driving it into the flooring in front of the rift and held his hand over the crystal. After some few moments of this the pulsing light within the crystal started matching the pulsing light of the rift itself. "There we go this should work. If you wouldn't mind go grab me something of young Nova's I can use that to help locate which destination she ended up at should this thing cycle around to it although it seems that this rift is linked mostly to various versions of this world given some of the terrain I'm seeing pop up occasionally. With luck it may cycle around to wherever Nova went. Make sure the others know to not be playing around here."

((those two...were sent to the cave with star)) Claw did quirk a brow at the young ones as they carried their mother around, in the end shrugging figuring that they probably took one of the teleport gates or found someone to teleport them over instead since he was sure he sent them back to Vashtalia. Instead he just made his way over to BS. "Well let's go check out the exit point."