The flow of time

"What would you do if you could change the flow of time?"

The prince took the dagger in his hands, and a flood of visions passed before his eyes. Images moving quickly flickered in his mind's eye. He could see the faces of people he had never seen before, both friends and enemies, though how he knew he could not tell. Some of the faces were twisted beyond recognition, as though they had died and been brought back to life by some evil, black magic. Those faces were gravely, dry, broken up, looking as though they were barely held together.

One face appeared repeatedly, at first angry, then slowly beginning to smile. A woman's face, though he knew not who. Her face became dirtier and more pained as she began to smile, and he yearned to reach out and help her, but she was gone too quickly. There was a darkness behind her that he could not recognize, but it seeped into his heart and filled him with regret, sadness, and fear.

He could see himself, running through unfamiliar lands, jumping and climbing up structures to reach some kind of destination that he appeared to know, but that the real him could not comprehend. He entered large pools of light, that lifted him into the air, as though it were somehow possessing him. His clothes deteriorated over time, falling away from him to reveal scars that he did not currently have. It was as though he were watching a man entirely foreign to himself.

Before the visions faded, he saw himself one final time, a look of deep pain and sorrow pasted on his face, and determination in his eyes. It was in this moment he saw himself holding the very dagger he had been handed, his hand curled around it in a death grip, his knuckles white as bone. There was something so incredibly important about that dagger. As if only it could save him.

And then he was back. He looked at the vizier, who had handed him the dagger only a moment prior, his face still as fresh as it had been. He looked around him. All faces were on him, awaiting his response to the gift. They had seen nothing. Nothing had changed. He looked back once more at the vizier. He could hardly remember the man's question. "Thank you." His voice sounded dry and rough to him, as though his throat had been coated in sand.

The vizier opened his mouth, and as though on reflex, the prince's hand gripped the dagger tightly. A button under his thumb pressed inward, and suddenly the world around him moved as though in reverse. It lasted only a moment, for as the dagger left his hand to return to the vizier, time resumed as normal.

"What would you do if you could change the flow of time?"