Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

“I heard the voice again, this time much clearer. ‘Now, how’s that? You’re all cleaned up,’ it said. I realized my visual perception was also once again working and scanned the room for what had been speaking to me. I need you to understand, Stan, that at the time, this was not all that shocking to me, but it became stranger and stranger as I continued on. The voice belonged to a human. Somehow, when I first met him, he managed to appear both old and full of life at the same time. This was my first encounter with the being Merlin.

I told him I was doing much better and thanked him for the assistance he had rendered me. A giant smile played across his face before he spoke again. ‘Oh, little one, this is only the first of the gifts I shall give you. I have found that this world is oddly bereft of knowledge, and then a lost knowledge spirit from beyond should just find their way to me? I think this was a fated meeting, and who am I to fight the workings of those who pull the string?’

His words were strange to me but a comfort against the rising wave of loss I felt whenever I dwelt on my existence. I learned much in my first encounter with the archwizard. I cannot tell you how much time that was, though, as that so fundamental force of reality bends strangely around him,” Excalibur stopped, anticipating another question, but this time Stan just motioned for him to continue.