If Only I Could Turn Back Time

Writers: Devin, Estelle
Date Posted: 6th February 2026

Characters: R'fal, T'lin
Description: T'lin catches up with R'fal after the timing announcement
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 11, day 6 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: M'gan, Z'ku, K'sedel, N'vanik, Aviday

T'lin

The morning's Wing meeting had been a shock for R'fal. He remembered the draconic ability to go /between/ times from his weyrling training as something so dangerous that it was almost certain to get you lost - and he'd half suspected it of being only a legend, anyway. It was not so much that it existed that was surprising, but that someone had actually done it - and that it was M'gan, a former Wingleader. And that he was telling _everyone_.

His blue and greenrider wingmates were agog, but he managed to slip away and leave most of the questions to Z'ku - at least that bronzerider was good for something - and headed for the dining cavern, which was buzzing with gossip. It seemed the news had spread quickly.

"R'fal, hey!" T'lin tugged him toward a mostly empty table. "So you knew about this? The timing thing?" His mind had been spinning since he heard.

"Kind of. K'sedel talked about it in one of our classes, but I didn't actually think it was possible," R'fal confessed. If he had, what might he have done? Gone back to warn his father about the guards, or not to get involved with the bandits in the first place? "Or at least that it was really difficult. But M'gan says he managed it without much trouble, and he didn't seem crazy."

"It's such a fascinating idea! That dragons can't just go anywhere but any _when_ as long as we can give them a precise enough image . . ." T'lin shook his head. "Not that I would try it. I risk my life enough with Thread. But I wonder if there are ways to make it safer. If there was a really good reason, I mean, like saving someone's life."

"Perhaps M'gan found a way, but if he did, he didn't explain it. I suppose the Weyrleader wants to keep that a secret for now." R'fal thought back. "In that weyrling class, they said that someone went forward in time before the Pass began, to confirm that Thread would start falling. It wasn't here, though, it was at Dragonsfall. I didn't know what to make of the story, whether it was real or just something to do with Thread falling irregularly at first, but it sounds like a good enough reason."

"Ah, going ahead to make sure Thread really was returning? So we wouldn't be surprised by it and could prepare." T'lin put a hand to his chin. "Yeah, that would make sense, if that's what it was. And if you went to say, some uninhabited island, you would be sure not to meet anyone who would be flying Thread in that future."

"Yes. I remember I wondered why they - the riders from now, in the Pass - didn't come back and warn us that Thread was coming instead. It seems as though it would be safer to go backwards, at least you'd know what happened in the past. But since we know they never did, they couldn't..." R'fal frowned. "It's all very confusing."

"It's such a puzzle!" T'lin said eagerly. "Going into the past or the future without changing things because you've _already_ changed things. A loop that has to exist because time somehow stays the same. The dragonriders from the future didn't come back because they already knew about Thread because someone from the past had come forward to confirm it." He made gestures as he talked.

"It's puzzling, all right." The brownrider ran a hand through his hair. T'lin seemed to take to the logic of timing naturally, but he found all the implications made his head ache. "So, if M'gan went into the past, then he must have already been there? It seems harsh to punish him if he was only doing what he had to in order to close the loop. I mean...what if he hadn't gone?"

"He didn't say when he'd been or why. Maybe he _started_ a loop," T'lin said. "Or maybe he tried to fix something and made it worse, which is why he won't talk about it."

"Or - imagine if you were looking in the archives and found your own name from, say, a hundred Turns ago." While the ride forward in time to find Thread felt heroic, there was something unsettling about _that_ idea. Meeting those long-dead riders... "It sounds like one of those creepy stories people told in the weyrling barracks."

"Like the one about a weyrling pair's bones stuck in a cliff because they didn't visualize right?" T'lin shivered.

"That gave me nightmares for months. Or candidates who wander into old abandoned tunnels and are never seen again. Or, I heard there's a story about that watchrider who was murdered at Emerald Falls. Someone who got Searched from that Hold who said that at midnight, when the moons are hidden, you can still see the shadow of a dragon on the heights, keeping watch..." R'fal grimaced. "Better stop. I'm scaring myself and it's broad daylight."

T'lin laughed. "It is freaky to think about, that time itself is so . . . malleable. And how did anyone figure out the rules? If you disappear /between/ forever if you try to change your own past, how would anyone have learned that? Is that not actually true? Is it just a guess? Or did someone make that up based on misinformation?"

"I don't know. I asked Marlath, but he says he wouldn't be able to get there, because you can only have one past," R'fal said, thinking back to that strange, long-ago class. "It's like /between/. He understands it but he can't explain in any way that would make sense to me. They do say that if you meet yourself, though, it's _really_ bad. You get sick and disoriented. Maybe it's the same if you try to change what happened; something always stops you. I don't want to risk trying!"

"I don't either," T'lin agreed. "This is all strictly theoretical for me."

}:I could do it, if the image was clear enough,:{ Calaroth said confidently.

**I know we're both clever enough for it, but let's leave the danger to someone else.**

R'fal brightened as an idea occurred to him. "Tell you what, if you ever try to go back and change the past, I pledge to follow you there and stop you. If you do the same for me, nothing bad can happen to either of us." Of course, he'd no intention of leaving his own time, but it was a more cheerful thought.

T'lin didn't know how that would work, but he still said, "Sure."

"Well, nothing bad except for getting into the most awful trouble with the Weyrleader. If he's that angry with M'gan, imagine what it would be like for one of us." R'fal had already got on the wrong side of the Weyrleader's temper that time he'd tried to go to his father's mine, and he had no desire to repeat the experience.

"Oh shards he was _furious_ at the Wing meeting when he made M'gan tell us," T'lin said. "He was glaring so hard I thought he might burn a hole through M'gan." He'd gotten yelled at a few times and that was bad enough. He never wanted to make the Weyrleader _that_ angry.

"M'gan didn't seem all that repentant, for someone who'd lost his Wing." R'fal knew how shameful that must be, for a bronzerider, but the former wingleader had carried it off with surprising ease. He lowered his voice. "I heard from a greenrider in Cyclone that at their meeting, he said he went back in time to watch the Weyrleader punch _his_ Wingleader in the face. Can you imagine? So at our meeting, someone asked where he went and he just smiled and said he was keeping quiet to preserve the dignity of a certain person of rank."

"He did _not_!" T'lin gasped. "Ooh, no wonder N'vanik was so mad."

"It's like M'gan's trying to rile him up. Bronzeriders are insane." R'fal shook his head. "Panitath's next flight is going to be interesting."

"If N'vanik loses, maybe I can snatch him from the flight room." T'lin wiggled his eyebrows.

"If you can fight your way through the hordes of admirers." The brownrider grinned. "Maybe that's why he keeps winning. He knows there'd be a brawl if he lost."

T'lin laughed and then put a hand to his chin. "Hmm, there are green flights, too. Maybe I could get lucky there."

"You'd have to be very lucky. Some of those flight moths have been developing their technique for Turns," R'fal teased. "Still, you can always try."

'How can I not, if the prize is a tumble with N'vanik?" T'lin said. "I've heard things about some brownriders, too. What about you? You have any secret crushes I should know about?" He nudged R'fal.

"If I told, then it wouldn't be a secret any more, would it?" R'fal said slyly.

The bluerider laughed. "Got me there!"

"You have to let us brownriders keep our secrets." R'fal grinned. "But I promise, if anything gets serious, you'll be the first to know."

"First in line for any boyfriend news. I'll take it." T'lin smiled at his clutchmate. "How about girls, then?"

"If I mention anyone other than Aviday, then Kobeth might eat me," he joked. "I'm awfully boring as far as gossip goes."

"Hey, that's all right. It leaves more space for people like me." T'lin winked. Not that he was a source of much gossip, but wearing skirts and sleeping with people other than his weyrmate did shock the holdbred folks from time to time.

"Then you'd better get to work on starting some juicy scandals." R'fal rolled his eyes. "What with N'vanik and his friend at the hatching, and then M'gan coming back, all the latest gossip is about old people."

"Oof, no pressure!"

"That's right." The brownrider grinned. "I expect to hear something positively sensational about you very soon."

Last updated on the February 21st 2026

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If Only I Could Turn Back Time