Who's that, waving wildly outside the window? 

Stiles excuses himself. He can be a little late to class for whatever kept Scott from being obscenely punctual. 

"I can't find the Erase anywhere."

"Scotty, I need a little more than that, what are the rules here?"

"The Erase card, I don't know when I lost it, I haven't checked since we caught it."

"No, see, you lost me right there, the part where we caught a card yesterday."

"...Okay. You go to class, I'll try to figure this out."

Does he actually have Sadde's number?

He checks his phone. 

He goes to class, and makes all the appropriate excuses.

Hopefully Scott isn't just hovering outside. 

He does not in fact happen to have Sadde's number! But they did exchange numbers yesterday; it seems to have just disappeared from his phone. How odd.

Lucky that he does remember Sadde's number, then. 

Close enough, anyway. He gets it on the fourth try. 

"Today is yesterday," he says without preamble.

"Stiles hasn't noticed, so it must just be magical people. This is probably the Time card, none of the other names really jump out."

He fumbles with his bag.

"Kero?"

"It's definitely the Time."

"Does it have any weaknesses? How do we stop it? What can it do, besides repeat days?" 

"It can stop or slow time, too. I don't know how to stop it."

"Find it, get close without it noticing us...I should tell Alistair."

"I already texted him, but neither of us remembered your number."

"Okay, so we should probably meet up at the school. Since two of us are there anyway."

Who's this kid, talking to Sadde's teacher?

"I'm not so sure. I'll call you back."

He hangs up, and stops pretending he was asleep, and raises an eyebrow at Alistair.

"Here's the note. You can call them if you want, but this is kind of their thing. A little eccentric, I know."

He walks over to Sadde.

"I was just explaining to your teacher that my parents are eccentric rich folks who want me to audit classes at all the local schools before committing."

"Do your parents remember yesterday?"

He messages Scott: Alistair is here.

"Yeah. Yours?"

Okay, sure, we can meet at your school. After lunch?

"Mom's definitely a muggle."

Sounds good.

"First things first, we need to assume we'll be stuck in this loop for a few days. We might not regain our life force, either, so we should plan ahead."

"Hmm, we should probably test that somehow."

"If it doesn't regenerate, we should use it carefully. If you can think of a good use."

"Well, using cards doesn't spend it, does it?"

"Cards are different. I've never really gotten a great explanation for this whole thing, grandfather never said much about the cards. He never thought one of us would get one."

"Maybe Kero knows," he says dubiously.

"What I've noticed just from using them is that they seem to use life force, but it regenerates differently. We should probably do science to it, having a vague feeling won't help us make better choices." 

"Yes—but I'm not sure this is the best, ah, situation for that, either."

"What I know about cards is that they're more efficient, but it was always theoretical before...I'll save my spells for something serious."

"Yeah." Pause. "So uh why did you come here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. New card, new rules." 

"Awwww you're adorable."

He clears his throat.

"Anyway, I guess I'll sit in for this class and we can meet at my school for lunch? Since you seem pretty fine to me."

"Okay. I'll tell Scott, then. Oh and he apparently never captured the Erase, either."

"Right. This day gets better and better. Hopefully we can find the Time before it's over, anyway." 

"Yeah," he sighs, and texts Scott with the updated news.

Thanks. See you then.

And he spends the rest of the morning pretending to pay attention.

At least he doesn't remember the whole lecture word for word.

And eventually it's lunch time.

"Not only did I forget everything that happened yesterday, but I'm going to forget today?" 

"Like I said, yeah."

He waves at Alistair and Sadde as they approach.

"And I'm Sadde, cool sorcerer, boy form."

"Wait a minute next time, he makes the best face."

"Moving on. Let's find a Clow Card."

"Whose turn is it to meditate?"

"I only found the Erase when I did, the Time must become active later."

"But shouldn't it be active all day now? Or is it just active when it does its thing?"

"I guess it might be active all day now? Even with time travel, I kind of thought it would just activate when it activates."

"How else can it enjoy all the havoc? Think of the havoc, Scott."

"Okay. Talk amongst yourselves."

He meditates.

There is in fact an active card somewhere! Two, even!

Can he tell what direction the unfamiliar one is in?

Yep.

Time to go that way, then.

"Follow me." 

"What, and skip afternoon classes? But what about getting an education?" he asks lightly, and follows.

"You had the classes already, that's a pretty good excuse. Just tell your teachers you time travelled your way through the year and now you don't have to show up."

"Scott, are you suggesting lying?" 

"I've lied..."

"Not well." 

"Wouldn't even be a lie, we did in fact sorta time travel—makes me wonder how the physics of this all works, really..."

"Maybe magic explains all the parts of physics that don't line up. The thing that's ruining all the models."

"Hmm, maybe, but that'd be really weird."

"You can do science after we've solved the problem, unless you think it's going to help with that part."

"Not this particular bit of science, I don't think."

Anything suspiciously magical going on, or should they keep going?

Keep going, most like.

Look at all this meditating he gets to do.

"So, apparently you're kind of Clow Reed's reincarnation?"

"He kind of is. Any suggestions on how to get future you to ask less questions, since you're going to forget things every time we have to repeat today?"

"Make a pamphlet."

"That sounds like a lot of work. We could just wait until this day is over and tell you then?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Is now a good time for kisses?

Alistair seems to think now is a good time.

Sadde: agrees.

He may get a bit handsy.

Alistair is very good with his hands, and can certainly appreciate a competitor.

They could probably do this all day.

Card, card, card, where could you be?

They could, couldn't they. Sadde thinks he might suggest this if at some point they decide to take a day from this loop off.

In the meantime, the card seems to be... in that clock tower building there.

How thematically appropriate.

He awakens from his magical slumber, gripping his staff tightly.

"It's in the clocktower. Any last-minute ideas, or should we get a look at it?"

Alistair sighs, pulling away from Sadde.

"We should come up with a good plan first, and then strike."

"I'm not saying we don't prepare, I'm just saying it might be good to see it in action, let today be a wash. This today, I mean."

"—that's actually a pretty good idea."

"Sometimes I have those. Kero, anything else you can tell us about the Time card? What's it under, what weaknesses does it have, what did Clow use it for?"

"Is the plan that I stay home while you guys go to the clocktower?"

"You could come with us, you'll just forget it each time."

"The time is under the Dark, powered by the Moon. I don't know if it has any weaknesses, it's one of the most powerful cards, and needs a lot of magic to work properly. Clow used it to get more time to study or sleep, most of the time—he didn't really like rewinding time."

"Why didn't he like rewinding time? It sounds useful."

"If he could see the future, it was probably harder not to change things too much, and that always goes wrong in stories."

"Kero, if I just ask you lots of questions, can you remember the answers you give and tell them the next 'day'?"

"If Clow Reed is me, I'd actually predict the answer was more along the lines of ethical doubts about erasing everyone's minds a lot and practical concerns about messing with one of the fundamental elements of the universe."

"—yeah, that was it," Kero says. "And I don't think I could remember them all but you could write them down?"

"We should make sure writing things down works, so we can use this go to test that." 

"Did Clow Reed write anything down when he reversed time?"

"Oh. Writing probably won't work, you're right."

"Are we worried about erasing minds? It's just one day, right? And we can't control it..."

"Well I'm worried about it but it's not like we can do much about it anyway, so I can twist myself into thinking about it as us gaining new memories that other people don't have. ...hey Kero does this memory thing not affect any sorcerers at all?"

"Only sorcerers close enough that have interacted with Cards are immune to the memory erasure."

"My family remembered, but they haven't used the cards."

"I should really find out if my mom is magic."

"But they've been affected by the Cards—you have some, and there was the Storm."

"So if there are other sorcerers in town, they'll remember?"

"If the Cards have affected them, and they knew about them, yeah."

"None of the other clans are really local. We should be fine."

"Okay. Anything else we need to know before we charge in like idiots?" 

"How far does it go? Is the whole world rewinding?"

"Yes."

"...it's much more likely to be precognition or some advanced form of simulation, to be honest. And as far as I'm concerned, we could go after the Card now."

"Precognition is better. It's probably precognition. Let's go."

Into the clock tower! It has lots of stairs.

They'll be very quiet and not use any magic until they get closer.

There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary there.

He'll just have to meditate. Quietly.

—something there among the cogs—

And if he takes out a card?

Doesn't seem to react.

"Through card, let me walk to where I need to go. Release!"

The Through appears and joins with him.

With a brief glance at the others, he moves towards the cogs.

Cogs continue cogging along.

So he looks for the Time card, among the cogs.

Nothing nothing nothing old bearded man in dark robes nothing...

And if he approaches the old man?

The old man looks at him, then a—green forcefield of sorts expands from around him and touches Scott—

He wakes up.

He calls Sadde.

"Old man, didn't do anything until I got close, made a green forcefield that rewinded me when it touched me. You think of a plan, I have to wrangle my mom again."

"Okay. Memorize Alistair's number—" Here it goes. "I'll call him to tell him about it."

She calls Alistair.

"What did he do? You were fine, right?"

"Yeah, apparently he just got close enough to the card and then there was that weird green forcefield we saw and that was it."

"Okay. I suppose we'll end up needing a spell or two to coordinate this. Maybe calling on the Shield could protect us from the Time, too?"

"Yeah we could try that, but Cards are supposed to always be stronger than spells..."

"I'm not sure anything we have can defend us from it, though. We could try the Jump and the Fly cards, one person approaching from one side, one from the other...that assumes the forcefield doesn't just spread in all directions, though, which it probably does. The Maze could stop it from sensing us, maybe."

"Yeah. Let's try the Shield spell first, I guess, if it works it'll be a very simple solution." Pause. "And we might need to worry about the Erase if it also remembers yesterday."

"We can't go after it the same way each time...but we can't just leave it. We should brainstorm some possible approaches for that, too."

"Yeah. We should perhaps not go after the Erase until we have a surefire plan for the Time, though."

"I suppose. When we do succeed with the Time, we probably won't be able to use it to undo anything. Cerberus said it was very powerful." 

"Yeah, exactly." Sigh. "Are you going to school at all today?"

"No, my parents know what's going on, they know cards are more important. If you have to, I'll find something to do."

"No, my mom trusts me, I'll just explain it and she'll be cool with it."

"Alright. Can we meet at the library? It seems better than schools if we're cutting class."

"Sure, we'll meet there."

She texts Scott about this.

Sure, I'll meet you there.

"We should probably get going." 

She gets going.

They arrive at the library without an unreasonable amount of makeouts.

Scott waves from behind a wall of books.

"What are all these books?" she asks.

"Um, mostly because the librarian was glaring at me for loitering. I got here too early."

The books are mostly theoretical physics and psychology.

"Dabbling in some self-awareness? That should help."

"Reading about memory."

"Interesting. Although, I expect, ultimately not terribly useful when magic's around."

"Mostly I'm trying to decide how bad to feel about the Time card."

"Bad about which part?"

"I'm trying to figure out how bad erasing a day of memories is."

"People probably feel different about it, and we can't very well ask them."

"I'm honestly going to go through all of this thinking it's just precognition because the alternative is kinda scary."

"I'm not sure it's really a moral question. It's not our choice anyway." 

"...it kinda was my choice so I sincerely hope I knew what I was doing then."

"Yeah. It's probably fine. And if it's not, we can deal with that after we stop it, I guess. No use worrying."

"Right. Okay, so, strategy time—is Stiles not coming?"

"No. We plan without him." 

"Aww. How cute, you're bickering like an old married couple."

"Okay. So the problem with the Time card is that it pretty much gets everything once it notices us. We need to get close enough to capture it without it realizing." 

"Alistair suggested using a spell that calls on the Shield, which might make us immune to it."

"It worked with the Erase, so it's worth trying on the Time, even if it is more powerful."

"Maybe fooling its senses works? But maybe it just senses magic. Otherwise we could try to distract it."

"Did it actually look at you? And I'm not sure distracting it helps if it's very trigger-happy."

"No, you're right. It noticed me, but I don't know if it heard me or just knew..."

"So I invoke the Shield to get us close, and then you do your usual thing?"

"We can try that, yeah."

"And when that inevitably fails and we're reset, what do we try next?"

"The Maze. It warps space, it might get us near the Time card without actually being near it. The Move could close the gap, maybe. I should try seeing if I can move my staff with it, maybe capture from inside the maze? Unless it reacts to the staff, too. The Change could maybe affect its environment, making it vulnerable at the right time."

"You need to be holding the staff to capture the Card."

"Vulnerable how?"

"If we can clear a path to it fast enough, it might not have time to react? I don't know, maybe that doesn't matter."

"...it seems risky to bet on the Time card not having time. Also, whatever strategy we come up with can only be used once, if it fails it'll probably be prepared next time. The Maze idea sounds good, but we need to have a pretty solid plan for how to capture it once we leave the Maze, we'll only have the one shot at it."

"Right. Once we get to the top of the clocktower, I'll use the Maze. One of you might have to go through, since I'll be controlling the card...Alistair can do the Shield thing...but only I can use the staff, once we get it to reveal its true form I have to be there."

"Wait I thought we were going to use the Shield instead of the Maze. If we use both and that fails then we've lost two possible avenues of attack."

"We don't have to combine the Shield spell and the Maze, but we have to combine it with something, it wasn't very mobile."

"The Maze still has the problem of the exit. Even if the Maze protects us, leaving it makes us vulnerable, and then we've lost our chance. If we could get the Maze to surround the Time card-"

"It might react to that, though."

"That depends on whether it can even detect the Maze as it sneaks up, and if it could put an exit right on top of the Time so you could capture it from there..."

"We should test the Maze before we confront it. We can do that today, and try another plan on the Time tonight?" 

"Yeah, sounds good. But then there's also the problem that is the Erase."

"We'll have to take care of it on the last day, but maybe not every time." 

"Except we may not necessarily know when the last day is, given we'll be testing approaches for the Time."

"Right, but we can't lose our chance to get it by running out of plans. I don't know how smart the Erase is, but we have to assume it'll remember things we do, right? The cards are definitely magic, and affected by the cards."

"Exactly. So it won't make the same mistakes twice." Pause. "And the Cards get stronger with time, don't they?"

"Yes..."

"So not only will our plans change, but the scope of the Erase's power will, too. Ugh, what a mess."

"The trick is getting close without being affected. We'll probably have to come up with spells for this...Kero, could Sadde change herself into something the Erase can't erase?"

"Not really. But the Erase is slow."

"So it wasn't just luck that Scott captured it before it got him? I'd been assuming he'd almost made a really stupid mistake."

"It gets faster the longer it's active, though."

"Right. And how does Time get more powerful? Will it start doing weeks at a time, until we don't have any of our cards left?"

"It might, but it's very powerful already, it'll take a long time to become more powerful. It might make you forget, too."

"Okay. So we don't get too many shots at this. If we can count on getting the Time soon, we can wait to catch the Erase until after, but then the Erase gets stronger. If we keep catching the Erase, it can still get stronger, but it also learns our plans, which is bad if they would work even when it gets faster. Is that what we're looking at?" 

"Approximately," she agrees.

"Okay. So let's focus on the Maze plan. If Alistair or you activates the Maze, and I go through, I have the staff to capture it with. But even if the Maze keeps it from noticing us, are we sure getting that close counts? Kero, what do you think?"

"Counts to what?"

"Capturing it? Don't we have to 'reveal its true form' before we can?" 

"It's already revealed, now."

"Okay. So we need two people for the Maze plan, does that sound right?" 

"Are any of us confident we can direct the Maze? Enough to let us travel through it without any impossible geometry?"

"We can just test that."

"Alright. I'll go first." 

"Here?"

"Yeah, I'm sure no one will notice the giant Escher painting show up- no, not here."

"My place?"

"Sure."

Kero into bag, and then they can go.

And back to Sadde's place. "Okay, so, Maze?"

"Right. So let's see how much control I have over this."

Staff, meet card.

"Maze, create a path from me to Sadde, release!"

The environment around him changes, Sadde's apartment multiplying and getting subtly different, its Euclidean geometry lost. Sadde and the others are hidden by walls that spring from the ground—but there is a very clear path Scott should be following regardless of the myriad ways it branches.

He walks the path, not to delay or be misled.

And there's Sadde, sitting on a chair she does not actually own. "Hiyo. Did it work?"

"Yeah. So long as I ask it for a path, I get one. Next we can try a path to a card that one of you activates, in case cards are different because they're made of magic, and then we can try what happens if I don't know where you are." 

"Good ideas. Also you should try aiming for a place rather than a card, assuming the Time is in the same place."

"Alright. Let's start testing. I can use the Sword, if no one has a better idea."

"That sounds fine. Kero?"

"Yes?"

"Can you think of anything else, before we start? I'm not sure if you were listening, so if you weren't, that's fine."

"Oh. I was listening but I can't think of anything else. Maybe you should dispel the Maze?"

So he does. 

"Sword, lend me your skill, release."

There it is.

"Maze, take me to where the Sword is, release!"

The weird Euclidean-breaking-and-stretching effect takes place again, taking Alistair out of view.

Can he tell which way to go?

Yep. That way.

He follows the path.

There's Alistair and the Sword.

"Okay. Now I'll try doing this when I don't know where you are-"

Alistair leaves the room.

"...Right. I'll just. Keep going?"

Whatever path the Maze creates for Scott seems to be longer than however much Alistair has walked but he does in fact reach the other sorcerer.

"Convenient."

They head back inside.

"Both of those tests worked. Was there anything else?"

"We need to make sure the Maze can protect me from other cards. Maybe that won't even tell us that it can stop the Time, since it's supposed to be more powerful, but we should try."

"Sadde, can you try using the Change on Scott while he's in the Maze?"

"Sure. Weren't we going to try seeing if the Maze can lead to specific places rather than people or things? In case Cards we haven't captured work differently."

"That seems hard to test. We can activate a card, have it go somewhere else, but that means using it, which isn't the same as an uncaptured card."

"Hard to test if it can lead places?"

"The question isn't about places generally, it's about the locations of cards. That seems like a thornier problem." 

"I just mean we can try to get the Maze to lead to my kitchen so that in the worst case it'll lead us to 'the top of the clock tower' rather than 'where the Time is.' We already have a means of figuring out where Cards are in general, and if the problem is 'uncaptured Cards block the Maze's presence in their vicinity' then all the other experiments are also moot so might as well run this one."

"Maze card, take me to Sadde's kitchen, release!"

Once again everyone else is hidden from each other and the kitchen from Scott, but there is a clear path.

He follows the path.

Kitchen!

He rejoins the others. 

"Anything else to try?"

"Whether Cards can affect you inside the Maze."

"Try the Change on me while I'm in there?"

"Yeah." She glows and—

—is now holding the Change.

"Maze, take me outside Sadde's door, release!"

Maze takes him there, hiding Sadde and everyone else from view.

Nothing else seems to happen.

Well, he gives it an extra minute or two just in case, but after that, he dispels it.

"Apparently I can't affect you from the outside."

She uses the Card again—

—and there, much more comfortable.

"That's a good sign. Okay. Uh, what else? Or is the plan kind of ready?"

"The Time is supposed to be very powerful. We should try the Windy; it's gentle, but it's one of the most powerful cards."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea, but what should Windy do? She's a very physical Card."

"And I suppose if she can't get past the walls, that doesn't necessarily prove anything? Kero, what's our most powerful card besides Windy?"

"The Maze, and then the Storm."

"Right. So I'll try to use the Storm, and the Windy, and we'll see if either of them can affect you."

Nod.

"Maze, hide me from their magic, release!"

He is hidden in a non-Euclidean pocket dimension!

"Windy, appear inside the Maze and...blow around, release."

She is conjured and... fails to do anything.

He dispels her.

"Storm, make a storm inside the Maze, release."

She, too, is conjured and fails to do anything.

"Anything else we can usefully test?"

"Perhaps how strong Shield spells are against Cards?"

"Alright. Sadde, try penetrating my shield."

He casts one around himself. 

She glows, Change is now in her hand, she tries using it on Alistair to turn his hair pink, and it fails.

"Scott? Your turn."

Through? Fly? Windy?

Through and Fly fail, Windy succeeds.

(Sadde uses the Change again to get more comfortable in her own skin.)

"Okay. We can't necessarily rely on the spell, then, but the Maze should work."

"Are we ready to move?"

"Nnnooooo we still need to figure the Erase out."

"Are you sure we can't just defer that until we're sure today is going to stick?"

"Not if it erases people. We need to take care of it."

"How smart is it? The shield spell worked last time."

"And the problem is if it erases something permanently. And learns from its mistakes."

"What if we use our movement cards to take away its possible victims?"

"People might notice all the magic. Could be hard to explain after we stop the loop..."

"It's slow, but gets faster the longer it's out. It can target anything. Once we capture it we can return things it's erased unless it's been twenty-four hours or longer. It has a location and a range. Am I missing anything?"

"That sounds right. It doesn't have a body, right, so physical cards won't work to hold it still?"

"Right, but it can't move while it's erasing something."

"And it probably can't reach us in the Maze either so that might be the best strategy for it, too—maybe we can try to find it close to midnight tomorrow to guarantee it won't do much—"

Sigh.

"Yeah. I really hope this works."

"So close to midnight, we go after the Erase, and then the Time?"

"Biggest problem is, can we actually wake up near midnight? Given we're reset?"

"Kero, if you can wake yourself up at will, now would be the time to mention that."

"...I don't think I've ever tried that? Maybe?"

"If magic things persist, though, maybe we could just have a spell that goes off then?"

"It's worth a try."

"Fine, magic alarm for me, and I'll call you two."

"Sounds good. Should we test anything today?"

"I can test the alarm now, set it for a few minutes, just to make sure we have a spell that works at all, but I'm not sure we missed anything else."

"Oh yeah good idea."

"...uh. Anyone have a good rhyme?"

"Alarm bells ring when Time moves fast, something five minutes passed?"

"...Sadde?"

"...does it need to be a rhyme?"

"I'm pretty sure it does, yeah."

"Kero?"

Shrug.

"Hmm, alarm bells ring when time moves fast, wake me when five minutes have passed?"

"Okay. Alistair, you've used a couple of spells, you probably shouldn't use too many more today, right?"

"...I should probably be using my bow, at least."

"Alarm bells ring when Time moves fast, wake me when five minutes have passed."

The spell definitely works. It doesn't seem to do anything immediately, though, appropriately enough.

So they wait.

"Actually, I'm kind of a heavy sleeper. One of you should probably cast it."

"I can do it."

And five minutes later, Scott—

—well he's already awake but he certainly would've woken up had he been asleep.

"Cool. Anything else we're missing?"

"Nothing immediately comes to mind, no."

"Should we go over the plan once, just to make sure everyone has it down?" 

"Okay."

So they do, making sure everything has been decided.

And when they're satisfied, they can each go to their respective places.

...well. Alistair could stay at Sadde's as far as she's concerned...

Maybe not this tonight but he appreciates it.

Oh well, alright.

So back to their places it is.

So they do.

Scott calls Stiles on Skype.

Nooope.

Sadde gets a call about an hour after they get home.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Stiles is missing. His dad doesn't know where he is."

"...oh shit. What have you tried?"

"I called him, his dad, flew around town a little, checked everywhere I think he would go to blow off steam, but I thought- I think he did something really stupid. I think he tried to face the Erase alone." 

"Why would he do that."

"He likes wandering around poking his nose in murder cases, and he was mad about the fact that I didn't loop him in and my apology didn't cut it but I figured I would just fix it tomorrow." 

"Shit. Okay, change of plans, we go capture it again immediately, where do we meet?"

"I have the Fly. I'll stop by at your place and we can go to Alistair's."

"Okay. I'll call him and tell him about it."

She does.

And Scott taps on her window, riding a bright pink magic wand. 

"Can this thing carry the three of us?" she asks after she's opened the window.

"Never tried more than one. Alistair has the Jump, though, so we don't need to fit three."

"Okay."

She hops on.

So they fly. 

Scott seems to enjoy flying; good distraction from his friend possibly being erased from existence forever.