A concerned look crossed Chronos' face.
"Is it really that bad?"
"Bad? It shouldn't even be possible for you to survive."
Seeing his confused look Archivist Quill feather continued explaining.
"Look Slipping occasionally happens when someone is trying to alter spatial points in some way. Most often this means that they slip between realms or worlds appearing in a completely different place. This makes it extremely difficult to return home as different realms operate by slightly different rules.
But what you are doing is completely different, you are Slipping between layers."
Seeing that Chronos was still looking confused, Archivist Quillfeather decided to dumb down what he was saying and teach this fool about how the world was built.
"Do you know how the world operates with layers?"
"Yes, the layers are the different parts of the world. They all work together to support the world and are aligned with a single part of the world."
"Good you at least understand how the world operates, even if you don't know what that means."
"What are you talking about?"
Archivist Quillfeather straightened himself as he entered lecture mode, "Think of the world as a layer cake with the icing being the surface. We live on that icing while the other layers support it while remaining hidden.
But those of us that can use spatial magic can open a hole in the icing to view other layers. Maybe even draw power from them. So why do you think we don't enter the other layers of the cake?"
Chronos thought that was a rather obvious answer.
"Because if you tried to enter the cake you would displace what was already there causing the icing to bubble... oh."
Archivist Quillfeathers face showed a knowing smile.
"Now you get it."
"Have I been damaging the world?" Chronos asked.
"No, the layered cake example is too simple to describe a world, but it is close enough to show you what you've been doing. But that's not the issue right now."
"Then what is?"
"I told you that even if we draw power from other layers, we don't enter them. The reason why is because entering another layer would align our body with that layer making us suitable to live within that layer. There is no known way to enter another layer and return.
Even if you survive entering another layer, once your body aligns with that layer it will never go back to normal making it impossible to return home. In other words, you should be dead right now! "
Chronos frowned, he'd entered other layers multiple times now but had come back just fine. Was he just not in the other layers long enough or was he lucky.
No, being lucky wouldn't be enough to explain it. If he'd only done it once it might but after entering other layers multiple times it just wasn't possible to remain unchanged. He'd even gained some insights while in other layers and never been negatively affected.
"If what I'm doing is impossible then how am I still alive?"
"I don't know. I'd need to understand more about what's happening with your body to tell you that."
As they returned to the front desk Micheal was organizing the documents that Archivist Quillfeather had made a mess of while he was away.
Archivist Quillfeather ignored him, flying over to the desk and opened a drawer. Reaching inside he took out a syringe and motioned for Chronos to come over.
"Let me take a blood sample and analyze it. This power comes from your bloodline so we should be able to find the answer there."
Chronos nodded and rolled up his sleeve.
Micheal stuck the needle into a blood vein and began drawing blood, but what came out wasn't the familiar crimson red that all living beings should have. Chronos' blood was a faint transparent red, almost a pink color.
"Well, that's curious." Archivist Quillfeather said while staring at the syringe.
Micheal frowned before casting several different spells on the blood.
"Everything is coming back normal, Archivist. The only thing different from a regular person is the quantity and quality of bloodline power in his blood but my spells can't seem to identify what type of power it is."
While they were deliberating Chronos glanced at his blood and confirmed that he could only sense two types of power from it.
"One of the powers in my blood is related to space, the other one is void power," he idly informed them.
Apparently, what he said set Archivist Quillfeather off because he rapidly flapped his wings as he came close to Chronos' face.
"Void power!? Are you certain?"
Chronos caught him by the talons and pulled him away from his face.
"Of course I'm certain. It's my own bloodline; I've analyzed the power coming from my second heart a dozen times and I only have the two. The first and stronger power is related to space while the second power that's nearly undetectable is void. Is it really that important?"
Archivist Quillfeather was practically dancing in glee at the mention of void power.
"Yes, the power of void has been known to exist by archivists for a long time now, but nobody has been able to interact with it in the past. Discovering an entire clan that can use void power might be one of the greatest discoveries of the century. We could learn so much about how space operates from void users that it's ridiculous."
Chronos remembered what he read from {Spatial Relativity for kids. The Place to Begin Your Journey!}. It had taught him about layers and how they interacted with the world to some extent, but it had only roughly mentioned void and space.
Something about how space surrounded everything giving it a place to live while the void touched every layer ensuring that they didn't expand uncontrollably.
Such secrets were considered higher knowledge so there hadn't been much about how they interacted with each other, but it made sense they would interact since even void needed a space to exist, or perhaps void expanded where space was?
The book had never been clear on that point.
While Archivist Quillfeather was doing his dance he suddenly let out a startled squawk, something Chronos had not heard him do yet, before speaking.
"This explains why you can enter and exit other layers safely. Void is practically imperceivable and it destroys anything that touches it! With void protecting your body you could freely wander through other layers and come back unchanged."