> Start the attempt at devouring the ward's history.
>You take a deep breath and focus your mind. You've never tried using your ability on something quite like this, so you'll be stretching yourself no matter the outcome. But this is important, so you
will succeed. You're not going to let there be another alternative.
>There is no ward, you repeat. There was never a ward. No one tried to cast a spell on the forest six years ago. No one has wandered lost because of it. No one was hidden because of it. Space is normal here, because space was
always normal here. No one interfered because no one ever tried to interfere. There was never a ward.
>As you try to consume the history of this spell, you slowly become aware of two unpleasant things.
>One: your connection to the history around you feels muted, distant. You can still sense it. You could still touch it. But it's not the same as it once was, and you're not sure why.
>Two: the ward has no history. This should be impossible, but that is how it feels. You can sense its presence, certainly, but it is as though the spell itself stands outside the flow of time. It existed before the world began, and it will continue to exist long after everything else has turned to dust. It could never
not exist; it is perpetual. You realize this is a logical impossibility: it did
not exist 7 years ago. And yet...