To say that my mind was reeling from everything that had just happened and my own realization was an understatement of truly phenomenal magnitude. I slumped back and let it all wash over me. Or I tried to. But it was still like being in the middle of the ocean. In this case, the violent waves that kept slamming into me from every side were my own wild thoughts that kept trying to drag me down into the depths.
Everything that happened to Dare from the moment she was born was because Maestro had sent people to hunt her down. That put her on the path to become the person who met Gaia and Joshua Atherby, my grandfather. Her being in that position was what led to her being the one who erased her identity in order to create the spell that kept the Fomorians off this world. And that led to my mother being who she was. Which led to…
“It’s me,” I whispered to myself while staring shell-shocked off into the distance. “It’s always been me. I pissed him off. I destroyed his chance to bring them here, and he didn’t know who I was. Not exactly. But he has my blood. He has my blood and now he’s using it, or he’s going to use it, to hunt her down… he’s going to– I mean he did– he will–”
I had to stop talking then. Not just because the time travel thing was getting confusing, but also because I couldn’t say anymore. Saying the wrong thing in that moment would mess everything up and hurt, or even break, the spell keeping the Fomorians away.
Or would it? I honestly wasn’t sure. We were currently at a time when the spell didn’t exist, so would telling the others about it do anything? Maybe not until we reached a point in time when the spell existed. But unless I wanted to tell them they could never go back to the present again, it was probably a bad idea.
So, I closed my mouth and squeezed my hands tightly. Which was when the subject of what people should and should not know made me think of something else. Looking up toward Ehn, I found myself jumping to my feet before punching him in the chest as hard as I could. Then I did it again, and again. I reared back and punched him in the face with enough force to crack the bones in my own hand, sending a spasm of pain through me. But I didn’t care, it would heal on its own.
As for Ehn, my blows obviously didn’t hurt him or anything, and it was probably really stupid on my part, but he didn’t move to stop me. My voice rose to a shout. “Did you know?! Did you know what was about to happen? You sent me on that whole thing and you said it was to get some sort of power! Did you know what I was about to go through? Did you know how important it was? You had to! You had to know what was about to happen and you didn’t tell me, you didn’t warn me! You acted like we were just here so you could talk to some guy, you fucking bastard! Did you fucking know?!”
The man let me shout at him, remaining silent for a moment before inclining his head. “Some, yes. I did know some of what was about to happen. But, being completely honest, most of the information I have now came from the one I told you I had to speak with. They filled in many of the blanks. And from what they told me, it had to happen this way. It truly was for the best. After all, you said it yourself, you stopped him. You did what very few others could have done. At least in that way. Now it is impossible for that creature to try that same thing again. You have poisoned the ground, as it were, against that spell.”
I was about to say something else to that, but he continued. “Even if I had known the full and complete details of what was about to happen, anything I could have said, any warning I could have given, might have changed things. You might have done something different, been in the wrong place. And, being perfectly honest, I am not infallible. I know many things, but not everything. I learned shortly before we came back here that the recording would be in that place for you, and that it would lead you to this. But I did not know precisely what was on the recording. I know who recorded it, but I do not know your precise relationship with her, or what brought her and her group to know about you. Even after speaking with Caitiff, I have pieces, not the entire puzzle. Which makes anything I could have said even more dangerous. I knew you needed to be here and you needed to find that recording in order for this to work. In order to keep the timeline as we know it on track.”
I felt silent for a moment, absorbing that while opening and shutting my hands a few times. Part of me still wanted to scream at him, just because he was a convenient target. But I had a feeling I wouldn’t get away with much more yelling or punching. He allowed it to an extent, but not forever.
Finally, I swallowed. “Do you know anything else about how this whole loop got started? I mean, it has to be a loop, like when I got sent into the future and had to do things over and over again until I managed to set up the perfect one with Elisabet.”
Percy gave a short nod. “I would be quite interested in hearing how that came about as well.” She put a hand on one of Cerberus’s heads, as the robot dog gave a low woof of agreement.
Ehn glanced over towards the townspeople briefly. I wondered why they weren’t approaching us to get some answers, but then I noticed two things. First, not only were they not approaching us, they weren’t moving at all. Or at least, they were moving in very slow motion. Staring that way, I could see one of them raise his arm, taking an incredibly long time to do so. It was like watching one of those videos where they slow a hummingbird’s wings so you could see them moving. The second thing I noticed was a slight shimmer in the air around us. Oh. Right, Ehn must have used some sort of spell to create a time dilation effect around us. I hadn’t even noticed him do so, and it didn’t seem to wear him out at all. He created a bubble around us where our time moved substantially faster than theirs did. My guess was he wanted to be able to get through this discussion a hell of a lot faster than going through time normally would allow. Which told me he was worried about what would happen when Maestro had time to react. Well, maybe worried wasn’t the best word for it. Tactically concerned? Whatever, he obviously wanted to deal with this quickly. Which became even more evident as I saw the people out there slow down even more. Now they were almost completely motionless. Either the spell simply took stronger effect then, or he specifically strengthened it because he realized this was going to take longer than he’d thought.
Either way, after clearly giving me time to realize what he was doing, the man spoke. “As I understand it, some people within that Section Four group were attempting to travel back in time in order to do something about the Bystander Effect. They believed they could eliminate it in a time before the Effect took firm hold. Yes, I know, quite shortsighted. But it is what it is. Unfortunately, they were successful in traveling back, but not far enough. Their attempts brought them to some time around the year twelve hundred common era.”
“That’s only a few hundred years before now,” I pointed out despite myself. “It’s only about a thousand years in the past from the normal present. That’s long after the Bystander Effect was created. They were still like a full millennium off.”
Ehn nodded once. “Yes, they were. Unfortunately, their ambition outstripped their ability. As is so often the case for many. But they did end up in that time. And during the course of their investigations of the period they were in, they encountered the one who calls himself Maestro, or Godfather. Through them, he learned of the eventual banishment of the Fomorians from this world. And he reacted by beginning work on a spell that would bring them here early. Not simply bring them here, but bring their home here. It seems that whatever his plans for Fomorians might be, he wishes for them to be on this world to carry them out.”
Swallowing hard, I looked away as the memories of what the Fomorians themselves would do if they were here filled my head before I pushed them down. “So the Section Four people knew they screwed up and they had to stop his spell. What I don’t understand is how that led them to leave that recording for me.”
Percy piped up. “And if they changed the past, it should have moved them to another timeline, not the one they remembered. Their present would be one in which his attempt to bring the Fomorians here had succeeded.”
That made me look at her. “Would that change them completely? Like, would they suddenly be different people?”
Before she could respond, Ehn spoke. “As it turns out, the precise method of time travel they used provided the Section Four people with a small window in which they could attempt new changes before the old ones took effect. They realized that a very powerful Necromancer was their best chance at stopping what was going to happen. A Necromancer who could take control of the specific magic he was using and corrupt the land against that ever being done. So, they sought one out. You.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
I blinked a couple times before pointing out, “Wait, how different was that version of me? Because the whole reason my life is the way it is is because of what just happened back there.”
“Not… exactly,” he informed me. “I mean, yes, but it’s not that simple. That… hybrid creature, Maestro, always knew that there were threats to his goals. Even before this loop existed. He used magic many centuries ago to divine certain details about those threats. Your bloodline was one of them. He didn’t know the details of why your bloodline was a threat, only that it was–or rather, is. You see, your ability to defeat the Fomorians, your potential to do that, would always be a threat to him, regardless of what happened here today. No matter what happened in this loop, he was always going to send hunters to track down your grandmother. His prophetic magic told him that your bloodline would be a threat to him because of your potential to defeat the Fomorians.”
Percy looked back and forth between us, clearly confused. “He sent people after Flick’s grandmother?”
“I can’t really get into it,” I managed. “The spell that–wait, you already know her, don’t you?” I was staring at Ehn.
“I was protected from the spell they used,” he informed me. “I was never affected by it, so my knowledge will not harm the barrier. But yes.”
I had to put my hands against my face and breathe for a moment as I tried to put all that together in my head. “Okay, so let me get this straight. Maestro used some sort of future-sight to tell him that someone of my bloodline was going to be a threat to him, which I was always going to be because I have the potential to help stop the Fomorians. I had that potential completely outside of this whole event right here. So he was always going to try to send people after my grandmother. But now he has my actual blood after what just happened, so what did I change? As far as that goes, I mean. Did him getting my actual blood alter anything from the way it was before he got my blood?”
Ehn gave a short nod. “Slightly. In the previous timeline, before this loop was established, your grandmother was nearly an adult before his people found her and she was forced to go on the run. Many minor things were different, of course. But she still ended up meeting your grandfather and going through many of the same major points, including their sacrifice.”
While I was thinking about that, he continued. “In any case, it’s no coincidence that the people from Section Four sought you out. Or will, in the future. The fact that you are a threat to the Fomorians is precisely why they saw you as a potential solution to their problem. They came to you, or will come to you, in the future in order to set up this loop.”
“Wait, wait, hold on. You mean I’m the one who put that entire coffin thing together?” I reeled a bit from that. “Some future version of me is going to set up what I just went through? That whole haunted forest thing out there, that was me? I mean it will be me?”
Ehn gave me a long look as though it should have been patently obvious. “Who else do you think would have both the sheer power in Necromancy to create that sort of thing in the first place, and happens to be the type of person with that power who would give the ghosts such free will? I believe your entire modus operandi has been to allow your ghosts free will, yes? You encounter a forest which is designed very specifically to do that very thing, and are surprised that you will have a hand in it? These were given the ability to refuse orders, no matter how powerful Necromancer trying to give them was. That requires a level of power and skill that is almost unheard of. This future version of you created that forest, created a land where any ghost who is created upon it is automatically given free will and the ability to ignore orders from other, lesser Necromancers.”
Swallowing hard, I managed a very weak chuckle. “Great, something else to live up to. Not that I’ve got any pressure on that front or anything.” A heavy sigh escaped me. “Why didn’t this future me just come back and take care of this herself? Why set up this whole thing for this past, clearly inferior version of me to do it?”
Meeting my gaze, Ehn replied easily, “I believe that future version of you wanted to give you–her past self– a boost. She wanted you to be stronger faster. Perhaps to help affect something that is going to happen.”
While I was thinking that through, Percy summarized cheerfully. “The Section Four people went back in time to destroy the Bystander Effect. They failed and accidentally let this Maestro guy know about the Fomorians being banished from this planet in the future. So he tried to stop that from happening by using a spell to bring their homebase here hundreds of years before they were supposed to show up. The Section Four people who started the whole thing wanted to stop him, so they recruited a necromancer who could disrupt his spell. That was Flick. Or a future version of her. But instead of doing it herself, future Flick saw a chance to give her younger self a power boost sooner so she set up the recording in the coffin and designed the whole situation to put her-you in that spot to do the job.”
A thought occurred to me then and I quickly spoke up. “Wait, why would the guy you were looking for just happen to be right where we needed to go for this to work? I mean, I could buy that future me knew you were going to bring me here so she set up that thing in the forest right where we were going anyway. Or I will set up, whatever. But what are the odds that the guy you were looking for would be in the same village as one of Maestro’s big spell chamber places? That seems like a bit of a coincidence.”
Ehn, in turn, replied, “As a matter of fact, it seems that Caitiff was searching for good places and time periods to hide themselves in. A stranger convinced them to stay here for a while. I believe that stranger was, or will be, you or one of your friends. You put them here so that I would bring you to this place near one of Maestro’s caves. Then you set up the ghosts in the forest and the recording in the coffin in such a way that only you could reach it. I assume you had the woman from Section Four do the recording because hearing some future version of yourself talking would have been too distracting in the moment. It would have thrown you off. Perhaps it did throw you off in other versions of this loop. I imagine they tried more than once before reaching this point.”
Okay, apparently I was going to be a busy little beaver in the future. Not that that was anything new. Part of me wondered just how far in the future that version of me was to be able to set something like this up. Not to mention all the other questions it raised about what I would be like in the future and what had made me decide to do this to myself. And speaking of which…
“Hang on, you keep saying that this whole thing was set up to give me power.” Quickly, I corrected myself. “I mean, you said that’s why the future version of me wanted her younger self to do it. But I didn’t even kill anything, except maybe that giant gross heart and I don’t think that counts. I didn’t get any special new power.”
Ehn raised an eyebrow at me. “Didn’t you? Close your eyes. Think about your home, the one you grew up in. Picture it as strongly as you can.”
I was very confused, but what else was I going to do? I let my eyes drift shut and did as he said. I pictured my family’s house there in Laramie Falls. As I solidified the image in my head, Ehn told me to picture our yard, and the neighborhood around us. He told me to imagine the landmarks I remembered, everything I knew about the place I had grown up in.
“Now, open your eyes,” the man instructed after a few seconds of that.
So, I did. And I jumped a little. We weren’t in the village anymore. There was no sign of anybody around us. We were in the middle of nowhere, empty flat fields all around. “Wha–what? Huh?”
Cerberus was clearly happy about the situation, considering he immediately took off and started running in circles around the open field, barking cheerfully. Meanwhile, Percy grinned at me. “You teleported, Flick! And you brought us with you, thanks!”
Before I could even start to react to that, Ehn put his hand over my eyes and told me to think of the images I had seen of the Grand Canyon, of Mount Saint Helens, of the San Francisco Bay where the Golden Gate Bridge would be far in the future. He told me to think of the White Cliffs of Dover in England, the pyramids in Egypt, Mount Fuji in Japan. Every time he told me to picture that spot, he would wait a moment then move his hand. And every time, we would be in that spot. I thought about it and then we were there. It took no more effort than stepping off a curb, even after half a dozen jumps. We didn’t spend any real time in those places, not right in that moment. I was just… jumping to them, one after another and back again whenever I thought about them. Whoosh, we were in England. Whoosh, we were in San Francisco. Whoosh, we were in Japan. Just like that. I didn’t have to prep anything, I didn’t have to put any real effort into it. I just thought about it and there we were.
Finally, we were back at my hometown. Or what would eventually become my hometown one day. Ehn explained. “When you connected yourself to Maestro’s spell, the one he spread throughout the entire planet, you linked yourself and your Necromancy to the planet as well. You permanently barred this world from being affected by the spell he was trying to cast, and you also tied yourself to the planet. You and this world are inextricably linked. From now on, all you need to do is focus on any location here on Earth and you will be transported to it. You must actually be standing on this planet for that to work, of course. And there are ways to block you. But, generally speaking, you can move yourself and up to several dozen people with you anywhere on the planet whenever you wish. If you can picture it, you can go there. And bring others along with you. I imagine you can see how that would be useful?”
“I… I… uh huh.” I found myself needing to slump down to a sitting position right there in the dirt. Sometime in the future, this was where my family’s house would be. But right now, it was just an empty field in the middle of Wyoming. Or a place that would eventually become Wyoming.
I had been with Ehn for less than a day, and already he had ensured that I would gain even stronger Necromancy, the full set of powers from an Incubus including a completely uncontrollable appearance boost, and now I could teleport anywhere on Earth whenever I wanted. Which happened because I’d had to stop one of the most evil, dangerous creatures in the universe from bringing the entire Fomorian species here hundreds of years early and destroying the entire timeline.
So the question was, if all this happened in a single day, what the hell was I going to be like by the time Ehn was done with me?