Billie shook her head in disbelief—and yet, she believed every word of it. She stared at her future, possible, self. “And this artifact allows her to project herself into the rifts, as the Shadow?”
“Yes. It seems to be the only way she can move through time, in an incorporeal form. I—we—can travel a little more directly. I’ve been chasing the Shadow for months. It’s taking all my time and energy just to repair the damage that the creature is doing.”
Comprehension slowly dawned on her. “It’s changing history, isn’t it?”
The other Billie pursed her lips, and cocked her head again. “That’s one perspective. But for us, it’s not the only one. As the Outsider said, we exist outside of time—we warp it with our presence, time bending around us like a rock in a stream. So don’t think of it as history. Just think of it as time itself. That creature, whatever it is, is changing time.”
Billie looked around. The crypt was exactly as she had left it earlier. She assumed that the palace itself was still over their heads, that the strange Queen and King were still pacing the halls somewhere.
“But those things I saw, when I was dragged through the rift by the Shadow’s wake—they didn’t happen like that. If they did, well… I wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t be here. None of this would be happening.”
“That’s true,” said the other Billie, “but like I said, I’ve been fixing it.”
Billie frowned. “So the changes are reversible? Time can be fixed?”
“While the Queen can only travel in her shadow projection, yes. But she has a plan to overcome that.”
Billie lifted her magical arm, and watched the shards of Void stone turn in the air.
“That’s why she brought me here,” she said. “She wants the Sliver and the arm. You said I’ll learn to control the rifts and how to travel through them. It’s to do with the Sliver, and the arm.”
The other Billie nodded. “Partly, yes. But combined with the artifact she already has, she’ll have full mastery of the rifts. She’ll be able to travel through them corporeally, and the changes she makes to time will crystalize, become fixed points on which the world pivots.”

- Dishonored: The Veiled Terror Chapter 25