I can justify making this post under it being connected to my previously elaborated on Timepools and therefore part of my "free One Piece worldbuilding to use at your convenience", but let's be real, I just want to ramble about my silly portal gemstones.
inspired by these animatics
Traveller's Crystals, also informally referred to as Timestones, are the creations of the Time God Manticore and his children.
The crystals always start out blue, but the more they're used, they slowly change color from blue to pink to red to grey. Red and pink can be recharged back up to blue if left unused, but grey crystals are dead and useless, hence them being the ones found around the Timepools. The pools use a lot of magic, so the only crystals they produce are dead.
Traveller's Crystals/Timestones, as their name implies, allow the user to travel through time & space via portals they generate when touched with the intent to travel. Blue crystals are capable of hopping Universes, Pink through Timelines, and Red only allows travel through the universe/timeline the user is currently in, though still allows time-hopping in general.
The crystals are not to be given out to Mortals without careful consideration and Manticore's express permission. They are precious and supremely dangerous in the wrong hands, so any Mortals who wield them must be vetoed and trusted. The only ones who naturally have the crystals as part of their bodies are those who are related to Manticore, like the Time Children and Ishtar. Otherwise, a good handful of select Mortals across the multiverse wear them as accessories.
The crystals can be destroyed, but the fragments will be useless due to the "liquid" (more accurately, condensed magic) inside evaporating on contact with anything outside the crystal. The fragments can be welded back together and refilled with magic by Manticore and the Time Children, but only by them, and only if it's done quickly before the fragments turn grey. There is an infinite number of crystals, since Manticore and the Time Children can always create more no matter what.
Grey crystals can still technically generate "portals", but they don't lead anywhere and are more of magical shields, platforms, or discs. Grey portals can only be summoned by the Time Child assigned to them, Scorpion, and Manticore. No one besides them in possession of a grey crystal can do anything even resembling portals, so many deem them useless beyond aesthetic appeal.
However, grey crystals do have an actual use. At their center, they generate a small, circular, green gem. This is called a Greenscreen Stone, and functions as illusionary magic, allowing the wearer of one to tap it and cloak themselves so thoroughly it resembles shapeshifting. Extracting Greenscreen Stones from grey crystals is an extremely delicate process, due to these crystals being far more fragile than blue/pink/red, and the stones sharing that trait.
If a Traveller's Crystal is broken neatly in half and sealed without allowing the magic inside to spill out, then you create Twin Crystals. These allow the wielders to switch places with each other by tapping their half, or summon the other to their location by holding their half with intent to do so. The tapping causes the other's half to flash with warning, and holding the crystal after already summoning just warps the other back to where they were. Importantly, these function across time, space, Timelines, and Universes, allowing for (as some would put it) fun crossover shenanigans.
The most known users of Twin Crystals are the Monkey D Luffy and Shirakumo Oboro from their respective "SunCloud" AUs, but they certainly aren't the only ones.
This has been your introduction to Traveller's Crystals. As implied at the top, I have no problem with anyone using these or something similar, so long as if they're named & explained like this, I am credited. I will eventually get around to making a post explaining Manticore & the Time Children, but that's for another day. This covers all I wanted to when it comes to the crystals, but I'll probably realize I forgot something and circle back to add it.
📖 Chapter 1 of my Witcher fanfic Through the Cat’s Eye is live!
A canon-divergent, magic-rich fantasy romance featuring portals, monsters, worldwalkers, and a slow-burn love story with Eskel. Updated weekly.
Yennefer feels the first tremor in Toussaint. But what comes through the rift is not what they expect.
AO3 link: Read on AO3
The air over Toussaint had always shimmered—wine-sweet and perfumed, flush with summer magic and vineyard heat. But tonight, it was wrong.
Yennefer of Vengerberg stood at the edge of her and Geralt’s estate, an elegant hand wrapped around the stem of a crystal glass. Her gaze fixed not on the rows of ripening grapes, but on the ground itself.
The soil pulsed.
It was faint, like a heartbeat under stone. But it was there. She didn’t blink. Didn’t move.
A ripple passed through the earth like a breath, making the edge of her hem lift, whispering along the tips of the vines. Behind her, a servant coughed and stepped back into the chateau. He knew better than to interrupt when she was in a mood like this—eyes narrowed, still as a drawn bowstring.
The heartbeat came again.
She turned and strolled toward the vineyard’s edge. Her boots made no sound on the path. Somewhere between the neat rows of vines, a lantern flickered—then went out entirely.
Yennefer stilled. Reached for the threads of chaos beneath the surface of the world.
Something moved in response. Not near. But not far, either.
And then the glass in her hand cracked with a soft pop. A hairline fracture sliced through the stem like a lightning bolt. Yennefer hissed under her breath and let it fall.
She returned to the house and called for Triss Merigold.
The redhead arrived an hour later, swirling through a portal near the stables, where Yennefer had traced runes in salt across the flagstone.
“Another midnight summons,” Triss said, brushing dust from her sleeve. “You know, you could just send a letter if you missed me.”
Yennefer arched a brow. “I don’t miss anyone.”
“Liar.” Triss half smiled.
“I didn’t summon you for banter,” Yen replied, kneeling and pressing her hand into the soil. “You need to feel this.”
Triss’s brows furrowed as she watched Yennefer. Kneeling, she pressed her fingers to the soil. Then blinked.
“What in the name of Melitele…”
The pulse rolled through again—stronger now. Triss’s hand jerked back.
“I told you,” Yennefer said softly. “The ground is pulsing.”
Triss rose slowly, green eyes darkening. “It’s more than that. There’s pressure here. Like something’s trying to tear through it.”
“Exactly,” Yennefer murmured.
They moved in tandem after that, silent and purposeful, slipping through moon-wet grass toward the northern edge of the estate. Yennefer had a grove there—she kept it for solitude, meditation, and the kind of spellwork she didn’t want curious nobles sniffing near.
But now the trees leaned strangely.
And the air?
It shimmered too brightly. Like a heat mirage. Like something was bending the weave of the world.
Triss reached out, touching the ground near a tree. “It’s not just Toussaint, Yen. I’ve heard whispers—Aretuza, Oxenfurt, even Skellige. They’re calling it a surge, but this... this is a bleed.”
Yennefer’s eyes narrowed. “You think something’s leaking through from a parallel world?”
“I think something’s trying to.” Triss shook her head. “This isn’t natural. Not even raw chaos behaves like this.”
Yennefer studied the flickering shimmer in the soil.
Then, with a quick step, she headed back toward the house. “We need to get Geralt.”
The fire had burned low. Geralt sat in one of the deep armchairs near the hearth, boots off, a book open but unread in his lap. The pages blurred. Not from wine or weariness—but from the tension that had been building all night.
The medallion at his throat had buzzed softly for hours. Barely audible. Just enough to keep him alert.
He stood and crossed the main room of the villa, pausing by the window. The estate’s vineyards stretched out beneath the moonlight, rows of silver and shadow. It should have been peaceful.
But the land felt… unsettled.
The ground didn’t move. Not exactly. But something beneath it did.
That’s when Yen burst into the room, followed by Triss—making his eyebrows rise in surprise.
“Something is wrong,” she started.
“I know,” he said, then touched the wolf medallion.
“Come to my grove. I want your thoughts.”
“I thought that was our grove,” he said under his breath.
“We’ll have time for your grumblings later.” Then she turned on her heel and headed back out.
The clearing in the grove was faintly lit—glowing runes crawling along the trees, spiraling into the soil. Some were familiar, but others were not. Angular. Slanted. Inked in the syntax of another world.
“Elven,” he muttered.
Yennefer’s eyes were on the center. “Old Elven. And recent.”
Triss stepped into view. “These weren’t here earlier. We didn’t cast them,” she said.
Geralt frowned. “Then who the hell did?”
Yennefer didn’t reply. She only raised a hand, pulling the others up short. In the center of the grove, a portal burst into life.
And then—he stepped out of it.
The elf materialized from light and smoke, tall and too thin, wrapped in ash-stained leathers. His golden hair hung like a veil, and his eyes held no fear.
“Yennefer of Vengerberg,” he said, his voice as hollow as it was certain.
Yennefer’s tone sharpened. “Identify yourself.”
The elf inclined his head. “I no longer use names. But once, I was called Tyel.”
Geralt studied him—familiar, but not. A creature who moved like a soldier and spoke like a priest.
“A worldwalker,” Triss said. “I thought you were all gone.”
“Almost,” Tyel said. “The rift devours many.”
He moved closer to the edge of the runes. They pulsed under his feet.
“My realm is dying. This one is next.”
Geralt folded his arms. “Is this a threat or a warning?”
“A warning. I have come to offer a warning and help. A darkness has taken over our realm. It threatens yours now. Do not be so slow to react as we were. It starts in energies off, then the portals open for the darkness to infect. Your Ciri is from this world, no? It would be a shame for it to fade as ours has.”
The shimmer in the air thickened. A hum rose from the stones and trees.
“You said you’re offering help. What exactly are you offering?” Triss asked cautiously.
“A blade,” Tyel said. “Forged to hold the line. Trained to close the portals,” he added, almost gently. “She comes with blood in her teeth and flame in her soul. If you work together, you can stop the darkness before it steals your light.”
Yennefer’s face was stone. “And you expect us to just accept this?”
“My people are crossing to a new realm before we are extinct in our own. I will check with you before we cross and send her to you if you wish it. You must decide quickly. I will return with the dawn.”
The ground cracked with a flash. The portal split the air, wild and jagged.
Yen let out a jagged sigh. “Shit.”
The portal reappeared just before dawn—earlier than expected, and far less stable.
It split the air with a sound like tearing silk, snarling at the edges with wild magic that flickered between violet, silver, and void-black.
Geralt was already in the grove and drew his sword immediately. Something wasn’t right.
Yennefer stood at his side, palm crackling with controlled chaos. Triss flanked them, her lips mid-chant, ready to stabilize the weave if things spiraled.
They expected a person—Tyel.
What they got was a thing.
It slammed through the portal—a writhing mass of sinew and oil-slick tendrils, eyes like hollow coals blinking in too many directions. The stench hit them first—rot and ozone—and then it screamed. Not a voice, but a pressure. A wave of sound that clawed at the mind.
Geralt moved. Fast. A clean arc of silver aimed at its throat. The creature surged past him.
Yennefer’s ward absorbed its first strike, but her feet slid in the dirt from the force. Triss’s chant shattered mid-spell. The thing lunged for her with a wet, boneless hiss.
And then—
She dropped through the rift.
Steel flashed before her feet touched the ground.
Dyv landed in a low crouch, a curved sword already arcing. The blade caught the beast mid-lunge, slicing through flesh like buttered parchment. Her other sword sliced a tentacle cleanly off.
The creature shrieked, buckling.
She moved before it could retaliate—a blur of black and burnished metal as she pivoted and drove both blades into its skull.
One heartbeat.
Two.
Then silence.
The beast twitched once, spasmed, and stilled. Smoke rose from its ruined form.
Dyv stood slowly.
Her armor was sleek, black, and form-fitting. Her vambraces gleamed faintly, veins of red flickering along their etched lines. A long scar slashed through one brow, and her hazel eyes gleamed in the soft light of dawn.
She looked at each of them in turn, her breath steady.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then she nodded once. “Nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m Dyv.”
Triss blinked.
Geralt lowered his blade a fraction. “Where’s the elf?”
A shadow of something crossed her face. “Tyel didn’t make it. He was killed getting me through the portal. He said I am to help you stop the darkness from taking over this world.”
Yennefer narrowed her eyes. “And we’re supposed to take your word that you’re the blade we were promised?”
Dyv’s lips curled faintly. She glanced back at the dead monster behind her, then back at Yen, raising her eyebrow.
She sheathed both weapons with a clean, practiced motion.
“I’m the one they sent. Actually, I may be the only one left.”
Triss furrowed her brow. “You mean your people are gone?”
“Yes. Some made it through the portal to the new world. Most, like Tyel, weren’t so lucky. He said I was to protect Ciri’s world. So I’m here.”
Bro, remember when it took Lena 84 years to get to Canadairishlandia & back??? 🛫 On the CatCo Jet, no less… 🛬 HOW THE HELL did Sentinel Alex Danvers — from National City — catch up to Supergirl in Prague???
The Cyclopean Constortium (the CC's) Home port was the remains of a shattered world in the astral sea that a long buried portal led to. Feeding magical artifacts opens the portal temporarily. the city is built haphazardly atop the shattered rocks parts of the city are buried within the rock. The subterrainian floors accomodating a larger population than the port could originally. the CC's secondary headquarters is found here and is a beacon of efficiency.
Hanging out with tiny children during the day. Slow walks, searching for magic portals, bright flowers, fairy gardens, and the Tower of Power with my tiny friends. Getting into the sheer headspace between worlds.
While out with the dogs yesterday morning, in a back alley, looking for magic portals to photograph, a very strange looking man (not a dwarf, not a gnome, but very well maybe an extra terrestrial or terrestrial from Middle Earth) was standing at the end of the alley, waving enthusastically at me and the dogs. He was talking in what I presume was his own language which was being simultaneously translated by an intermediary something or another that was presumably clear English, but like a David Lynch movie....and this man creature was way animated, something like a Lynch character, only real, and blocking the end of my alley....
Anyway, all we managed to, exchange was “My name is Tony!” And I said, “ My name is J!” And I kept walking and he kept enthusiastically telling me stuff I couldn’t understand. He had super bright large eyes, dark blueish skin, and a pointy chin- a thin but totally muscular some kind of being.
I really wish I knew what he said however my guess is, looking for magic portals and being in real time rather than archetypal dead time was what brought this creature to my attention.
This type of contact so unusual yet not atypical in my life. Just hasn’t happened in a couple of decades. A pleasant wake up call!
Just an ordinary school girl until the day she discovered the magical wings on her back, and the power to open up tiny energy-frothing portals. What’s a nascent magical girl to do?! uwu
