968 The Nine Wells of Time
Alex found himself a small house towards the west of the city that was isolated by itself. He found the formations and runes there the most appealing to him due to his requirement for privacy, so he rented the place for the next 3 months, to begin with.
Once he got it, he left the city and walked towards the small hill known as Time Hill, where the 9 different wells were located in.
There was quite a massive queue of people for the hill, and Alex got in the queue as well. The line he was in was far away from the hill, showing just how many people there were coming to take a taste of the waters of time.
‘I wonder how many of these are first-timers like me, and how many are not,’ he thought as he looked around.
Alex couldn’t help but wonder about the legitimacy of the site in front of him. Yes, they said that the wells could show you your past and future, but who knew really? No one really spoke about it, and those that did spoke in vague terms, so Alex wanted to see it for himself.
Still, the Nine Wells of Time was one of the nine wonders, Alex was sure there was something special about it to make it onto the list.
As Alex got closer to the hill, he paid a few spirit stones to a booth that was set up by the Nether Poison sect and read the small description left about what the wells really were.
Many hundreds of thousands of years ago, a man capable of a high level of divination had come to this world and from his gourd of time, he had poured 9 drops of the divine liquid.
The 9 liquid had grown to become wells of their own, an infinite spring that was capable of telling someone their past and future.
The line moved forward quite quickly, and Alex arrived in front of the first well where one of the people working there handed him a small cup of water he drew from the well in front of him.
Alex took the cup and moved away while he moved away from the first well. The line had already dispersed on the very first well as everyone took their cups and sat in the open hill to see the visions that the water showed.
Alex drank the water in a single gulp and felt the water trying to affect his body. He didn’t understand what was happening, but he freely let the water course through his body as he fell into a trance where the memories of when he was but a young child played out.
Alex remembered the times when his mother took him to play with the two kids from the farm next to his own. He remembered the times she taught him in his home.
He remembered the times his father taught him how to milk a cow and the times when he took his to a festival.
He remembered the time when he played with his grandfather when he was but 2 years old.
He remembered various many things, all of which were from his young age.
These were memories that Alex had all but forgotten. So when he was starting to remember them, he couldn’t help but tear up silently.
He stayed on the short grass, reminiscing about the past when everything was normal. He rejoiced in the nostalgia of the memories of days he would never get back.
After a while, Alex stood up and went to the next well where he got his cup full of water. Alex drank it once more and remembered the past again.
This time, the past was from when he was a teenager. These were memories that he hadn’t forgotten, but they were memories he had no way of keeping himself from forgetting either.
Once again, the nostalgia for the old memories was quite fun for him. There were some parts he would rather not remember like when his master died, but the memories of him spending time with her made it all worth it.
‘Even if the rest of the wells are a sham, just these two wells alone make this place worthy of being one of the wonders. What people would do to remember the past they have lost,’ Alex thought.
If he was ever strong enough to traverse the ocean without worry, he thought about bringing his mother here so she could remember the past too. Maybe his father too once he found him.
He thought of making Pearl drink some water too, but he had opened up his spiritual sea even before he was capable of making memories, so Alex doubted it was necessary.
He could give him back the memories of his mother that he had lost, but then, he would also remember the day she died. Alex wasn’t sure if he could do that or not.
He decided not to and went for the 3rd and last well that was supposed to show him his past.
This was a useless well for him as the past it showed was from the time he clearly remembered, so he quickly got rid of the memories and moved on to the 4th well.
The 4th well apparently showed possibilities of the future. Alex was curious about what it really was all about, so he drank the water he got from the 4th well.
His vision blurred within a few moments as he saw some vague scenes. He saw storm clouds and broken shards of metal, and he saw madness.
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“Was that a future of mine?” Alex wondered. Broken shards of metal gave him an idea that he was likely going to lose a sword fight in the future, were it true.
He didn’t know what the storms were supposed to represent. Were they to be taken literally or figuratively?
Also, what about the madness? Was he going to go mad in the future?
“What the hell?” Alex thought. “This has certainly got to some sort of bullshit.”
And yet, he couldn’t help but go to the 5th well and get a cup of water before drinking it once again.
This time, he saw something different. He felt something different.
A fire raged all around him. It was warm and gentle, but it was fire nonetheless. He saw himself suffer the pain of loss, and then find joy in his new gains. Then, he saw a crown.
It lay on his head.
Alex was taken aback once more. ‘What the hell was that?’ he thought. “What was the crown for? Am I a king? No, that has to be figurative at best.”
“What about the loss and gain? What’s that about? And that fire, is that representative of my True Fire dao since it can no longer do anything to me?” Alex wondered.
The 4th and 5th well were vastly different from the first 3 wells, but he couldn’t exactly say they were bad.
So, he walked up to the 6th well too, and got himself another cup of water.