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[Anastasia]

Blurry words, indistinct text.

"To imagine such an unlikely thing may be beyond even the book's ability," Chrona remarks.

[Corwin]

Seira nods, closing the book for now. It's good to learn all the limitations now, even if some of them are disappointing.

And there are two more stairways to explore, so she descends once more!

[Anastasia]

Going back down, you see...

A simple path within, an empty floor with four stairs going up, each in a cardinal direction.

The stairway to the north is made of gold and looks otherwise normal.

The stairway to the south is made of stone and is difficult to look at.

The stairway to the east is made of paper and seems to loop higher and higher the longer you look at it.

The stairway to the west is made of dust and dirt.

[Corwin]

Seira examines the stairway of dust and dirt.

[Anastasia]

It looks solid enough. Nothing seems to impeding your way up, at least to a casual examination.

[Corwin]

Some things you need to experience on your own, and she attempts to ascend.

[Anastasia]

You walk up - and in the blink of an eye, the passage is gone, the way up sealed with stone.

Kascha blinks, "Eh?"

[Corwin]

Seira rolls back time to her starting point, and then decides to go back further to see what had been there previously.

[Anastasia]

Easy enough. About a day ago you see Chrona there, casually using magic to stone over the passage.

"Ah! Seira! Kascha," The past version of the Inevitable says, "You've figured it out.  To proceed, stop the passage from reverting to the past. Also, the magic was undetectable due to shunting it into the past - an extremely advanced trick with drawbacks, but effective purely in the present."

[Corwin]

"So tricky!" Seira exclaims, considering the means to accomplish it before settling on Choronomancy's variant of the dimensional anchor spell.

[Anastasia]

As you consider, the present Chrona says, "Also, cast it in the present to settle it," he says, "In the past it won't work unless it's something with a long enough duration to last the difference."

Kascha nods along, writing, "That makes sense. And shunting something to the past to be undetectable, that's clever. I like it. Why is it so hard?"

"Well," Chrona clears his throat, a metallic rattle, "It works because much of the time, no one is looking in the past, only the present. But if Chronomancy is a known problem, skilled mages will know to detect for it and not rule that out."

[Corwin]

"I thought it would work as a barrier, but if it's just suppressing the effects, then yes, that makes sense," Seira muses as she repeats her spell in the present as instructed.

"Actually, have you seen implementations where a spell is instead shunted off to another plane rather than a different time?"

[Anastasia]

"Oh!" Kascha says, "That makes perfect sense!"

"That's close enough," Chrona says, as the passage ahead returns to your magic.

[Corwin]

Seira climbs up the now unblocked stairway!

[Anastasia]

Here sits but a single glass orb, atop an altar. It looks unremarkable in a plain, slightly cramped room.

Yet as you watch it, the orb flickers with a pale purple light.