The Assassin's Tale; Time-Gate

Credits; Krell, Rea, Thalia,

Cyssie's description of the device lined up pretty well with its appearance.  A sort of arched doorway in the middle of a circular basin; and on the other side of the transparent walls he could see the inner workings of the tesser coil it was hooked into.  It had already been spun up, and he could see that Cyssie and Igor had taken positions in the control room, thanks to the convenient projected feed.  Rea stood on the podium next to the doorway and turned towards the projection. 
"Four thousand years should do nicely.  Don't suppose you can put me down in the palace?"
"This is the biggest tesser coil in the known universe Miss Rea, I can put anything anywhen or where I want."
"Then want to put me in the palace, four thousand years ago." 
Cyssie turned to Igor, turning a knob as she did.  "Mr. Von Gravaga, make it so."
"As you wish Mrs. Von Gravaga." Igor turned as second knob, turning towards his wife and leaning over to kiss her as he did. 

The moment the device was turned on he could feel the difference.  Besides the usual feeling that accompanied a tesser-coil, and the loud pop that came with that he could feel what he could only cognicize as the temporal equivalent of a tesser jump.  And as the gate activated, bridging the gap between them and their destination, he could hear a series of pops like a million teleports a second.  Scientifically, it probably had something to do with the fact that air, light, and whatever was in the air or crawling through the dust were all flowing freely between the two points.  Rea waved for him to join her on the podium.  Krell was hesitant, but stepped up and looked through the door.  If he'd had to guess, he'd say they were about to step into a large closet. 
"I know, Time Travel, right?"
"Rea, its scary enough going going between two points in space with you.  This..."
"Is really scary."  She finished.  "I know.  Believe me I only do this when I have to, time travel really isn't fun at all.  The few people who know it is possible all either know each other or are trying to abuse it for personal gain.  And you've met most of us already."  She counted off on her fingers.  "Me, Petra, Petra's mum, Cyssie and Igor, Thalia, Tala, and a handful of Imperial Guards at a time.  And the guards have their own machine, they don't know about this one.  Thalia, Tala, and Petra's mum are all more or less dead, Thalia and Tala being more dead and Petra's mum having been decidedly dead most of her life and somehow even more so now without being properly gone.  Cyssie and Igor, Petra, and I only use it when we need to talk to one of the other them, and only in dire circumstances.  And since Petra thinks she already knows everything and Cyssie gets yelled at anytime she tries to visit Thalia, that really leaves just me."
"That doesn't change the fact that we're going back in time, to a day before my ancestor's were born."
"I wish I could go back that far, but Cyssie can't get it to go further than the colonisation of Tara without power outages."
"I guess a mere child like me has no place to complain then, huh."
"No, no you really don't.  Not a lot of people get the privelige of consulting with the Dark Lady of Gravaga, the Storm Mage, and Death Herself these days.  I think if you go ahead and weigh the results you'll see that its well worth the wierdness." 
Krell stuck a hand through the doorway experimentally.  He turned it and watched to see if it rotted away or gained a freckle or something.  Nothing changed, the world didn't shatter, his hand didn't turn blue, nothing pulled itself through the gaps in time and space to try and kill them.  He still hovered a moment, wondering whether or not this was the right plan.  Rea finaly gave up and pushed him through, following close behind.  He heard the popping stop almost instantly.  The door had shut behind them, they were trapped in the past.
"Oh God the door's closed."
"Its fine, I can signal a pickup whenever I want."
"How?"
"Post a note with a reminder for exactly when we left with the time I wrote it.  Remember, I rule the internet."
"So what if you wanted to go into the future?"
"You mean jump ahead?  No thanks, I like walking."
"But think of what you could do.  You could plan out whole battles and never lose a fight."
"Only the dead ladies ever fought battles, and I never lose a fight."
"Including last night?"
"That's different; you cheated!"
"All's fair."
"Only in creating and destroying life; and if you're smart you'll make rules for those too."
"You have rules for creating life?"
"Thalia does,"  She opened the door and called out, "Hey Thalia, Mr. Casat would like to hear the rules for creating life."

Before Krell could look out the door it was slammed shut. 
"Rea!  What have I told you about closets?"  Exclaimed a soft voice from the other side of the door. 
"I don't aim this thing."
"Hall closets girl, hall closets.  And never Fridays!"
"Tell your daughter, she's aiming the thing."
"Then you should tell her where she's aiming it.  Sweet little Cyssiekins doesn't have a prudish bone in her dear little body, but I know gosh darned well that you do little miss knives and eyeliner."
Krell looked over at Rea, not sure whether to question the nature of the arguement or who she was arguing with.  "You have a prudish bone in your body?"
"Shush."
The door opened and a tall ginger woman was waiting on the other side with an expression that was as much welcoming as it was mildly perturbed, a combination he had not previously thought possible.  She had a streak of purple in her hair, but it was clearly just dye rather than magical effect.  Her clothes were elegant, black, and looked as though they would be very difficult to put on without help. 
"Well come in.  I'll have Loreleen and 'Stasia set up a room for the two of you.  Seperate beds I assume?"
"You'd be the first to assume it."  Rea muttered.  Krell decided to nip the conversation in the bud and quickly followed up. 
"Yes please, seperate beds would be wonderful."
"'Stasia, two queens, one room, see to it that they have a nice view and be sure to turn off the alarms."  She turned away from the intercom and smiled at them.  Unlike Arcania, there was nothing dissmissive or insidious about the smile.  Whoever she was, she seemed more confident and kind then any other woman he'd ever met.  "You caught us on Friday I'm afraid.  Will you be joining us for dinner again?"
"I have missed your dinners."  Rea blushed slightly.  Krell still wasn't sure, but he suspected that this was...
"Mr. Casat; you haven't met me yet, although I have met you several times in the future.  Ended has been looking forward to your reaction to first trying his cooking."
"I'm sorry, who?"
"Dark Lady, Empress Thalia Immersfeld Von Gravaga, Creator of the Gravagan people, Grand Necromancer of the Pantheon, and true master of the mortal plane.  Although you can just call me Thalia, or Mrs Immersfeld if you insist on being polite."