Like with Gaia, at least I was in disguise as ‘Jacob’ right now so there was no reason for this to screw up the timeline just because Sonoma had met me far earlier than she was supposed to. Yeah, I could totally salvage this without screwing everything up. I just had to be very careful right now and not say anything too–
“Bow before us, mortal!” That was, of course, Laein. She had raised both hands once more, making bolts of electricity dance across her fingers again as she cackled. “You shall be but the first to fall before the triumphant and terrifying might of our–”
My hand covered her mouth as I winced. “Sorry, what she means is, we’re here to help. Believe me, I know. She’s just… uhh… ow!” Taking my freshly-bitten hand away, I shook it out before sighing. “This is Laein, I’m Jacob. What we’re doing is kind of a long story, but we’ll get into it if you’ll give us a second. And I promise, we’re not here to make anyone bow or fall. Laein is here to undo something she did under the direction of a… a really bad mercenary guy who was–wait you’re speaking English.”
“Would you prefer I didn’t?” Sonoma sounded equal-parts confused and amused. To my relief, though she was giving Laein a curious look or two, she didn’t seem too freaked about the way the girl had ‘greeted’ her. My guess was that she had seen and heard much worse. “If it makes you more comfortable, I could try…” Then she said something in what I was guessing was Spanish before switching to probably French.
Giving Laein a look that I hoped she would interpret to mean she shouldn’t say anything, I shook my head. “No, no, English is fine. I just… um… okay look, I’m just gonna be up front about this. I don’t really have another play that won’t look incredibly suspicious at some point. We’re from the future. Like, hundreds of years in the future. And yeah, I know how that sounds, but it’s the truth. We’re not trying to change anything–well to be fair, the bad guy Laein was working with did want to change things. Big things. And they involved you. But he’s gone now and we’re trying to put everything back the way it was without disrupting the timeline any worse. And even as I say that, I have no idea if you have the slightest idea of what I’m talking about or if this is all total gibberish, so I’m really sorry. But that’s what we’re doing here.”
Eurso, who was poking his head up from behind me, gave a soft chirping noise of agreement before peering that way. His head tilted like a bird, staring intently at Sonoma as though trying to decide what she really was.
For a long moment, the Native American woman regarded me. I’d only met her a couple times before, but it was easy to see the connection between her and Aylen. She was smaller than her daughter, yet the nobility in her face, the fierceness in her eyes, it was all there. When I looked into those eyes, I could see Aylen. It was yet another reminder of how far I was from everyone else I knew, and how long it would be before I saw them again. But that was a thought I had to quickly shove out of my mind.
Finally, Sonoma gave a short nod. “I believe I understand. You are disguised somehow because I know you in the future and you don’t wish for the version of me whom you first meet in your time to already know you, thus changing your timeline.” She studied me briefly. “You were clearly born and raised female, so this is part of your disguise. Unless–” The woman paused, giving me another look. Unless you are two-spirit?”
I knew from my time with Aylen over the past couple years what that meant. “No,” my head shook, “it’s just a disguise. I’m not two-spirit, not male and female or male within a female or… no, I’m just using it to hide who I really am. Sorry for the sort-of deception. But it really is important to keep the timeline straight.”
“Which I imagine means you can’t tell me who wanted me dead so badly they came several hundred years into the past to try it?” Sonoma made a face that I actually recognized from times when Aylen had been frustrated before sighing. “Yes, I suppose that is to be expected. Forgive me, crows are naturally curious. It can be hard to resist sometimes. Especially when it’s something this important. I shall stop trying to pry into those secrets. No matter what the spirit animal inside me wishes.” She gave a kind of cute little smile then before adding, “You say the one responsible for this attempted attack is gone now? Will they return? Is that at least something you can answer?”
“You won’t see them again around here,” I assured her. “But, just in case, you might want to move on from this area and stay away from it for… for a long time.” Even as I said that, I felt a pang pass through me. How would I like it if someone told me I had to abandon all the people I cared about. Well, obviously there was the current situation, but that was much more temporary. “I know you’ve been visiting the villages in this area, and the person behind the guy who came to make sure you died knows that too.”
“Ah, so there is a person behind the person,” Sonoma noted, gaze moving to stare out over the horizon as though considering who it could be. “And they are still a threat.”
Grimacing, I offered a weak shrug. “Yeah, there’s someone out there, someone who hired the guy who hired her.” I gestured to Laein. “But we don’t know who it is. Definitely someone from our time, and we’re going to have to deal with that later. Right now, we just had to make sure you were safe. Which means disabling the Necromancy magic my new friend here put up around the village they expected to find you in, and–”
“And me staying away from this area, since whoever it is knows I come here.” Sonoma finished for me in a soft, regretful voice before turning to look in the distance of what I assumed was the village she was talking about. She stared that way, murmuring, “If you don’t mind, I will say my goodbyes to those who will notice my absence. If you are here and this just happened, I shall presume it should be safe enough for that.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure, considering the whole time travel thing. For all we knew, whoever was responsible for this whole thing could send someone back to finish the job from the minute after it failed. But if nothing else, she was right, I was here. If someone did show up with murderous intentions, I would find out about it, find her, and teleport all four of us (Eurso included) to the other side of the continent. And after telling her she had to leave these people for what was undoubtedly the rest of most of their lives, I couldn’t bear to tell her she couldn’t even say goodbye. I already felt bad enough about it. So, I pushed those worries down and nodded. “We’ll come with you. You know, just in case.” Looking at Laein, I added a bit pointedly, “And you can undo those spells you set up around the place on the way, right?”
“Yes, yes.” She literally waved me off. “I already agreed to undo it. You don’t have to keep asking. Unlike some people, I keep my agreements. I don’t break my word.”
After what she told me about what happened to her and her people with that Auk guy, I didn’t blame her for that. Actually, deciding that she would never break an agreement she made was a better reaction than many, who would’ve used that as a reason to never keep their word. And given what else she had said about what she’d focused on learning before Necromancy had come up, I kind of expected her to write up an actual contract at some point. Hell, it would probably be a magical contract, which… yeah, we’d have to see what she ended up doing. Having something like that for everyone who joined this school I was setting up to sign so they would be bound to certain restrictions might be a pretty good idea, overall. For everyone involved.
Something else came to mind when I started thinking about people keeping their words and being honest. Turning to Sonoma, I asked, “Not that I’m complaining or anything, but why do you believe me? I mean, you don’t know me at all, and you seem to be rolling with this whole thing pretty easily, all things considered.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I am not certain what you mean by ‘rolling,’” she confessed. “But I believe you because it fits with what I have already seen while I was watching that one and others create the very spell you speak of.” Her head nodded toward Laein.
Well that raised questions. But even as my mouth opened, the pink-skinned girl blurted the most pressing of them. “You were there?! How, we watched for any cro– you were not a crow when we saw you just moments ago. You were another bird entirely.”
“Hey, yeah, how did you do that? You looked like a hawk, not a crow.” I squinted that way. “The guys here would’ve been on the lookout for crows, but not hawks. But you’re a werecrow, I don’t… uhh, understand?” Fuck, was voicing that confusion also about to change the future? It was so hard to tell what I should or shouldn’t say right now.
Sonoma gave no indication about whether I had said anything strange or wrong by not knowing how she’d shifted forms like that. Instead, she simply gave a light chuckle before explaining, “Let’s just say I know someone who was able to teach me a few tricks, even if those tricks required a little bit of extra help. And from your surprise, I see I’ve managed to keep them a secret even in the future. Good.”
Oh, duh, Grandfather. Of course he would’ve found a way to upgrade her crow transformation so she could become more than just that. Or maybe it was a magical trick from Bastet. Either way, as we had already seen, keeping that secret was a good way of allowing her to spy on people who would have been on the lookout for her as a crow. It made sense, now that I thought about it.
Laein, who obviously didn’t know anything about Grandfather or Bastet, didn’t find that nearly as acceptable as I did. She pounded a fist into her other hand, blurting, “That doesn’t explain anything! We demand you provide real answers if we’re going out of our way to save your life and protect you!” She jabbed a finger that way, looking an awful lot like that cartoon meme of the angry monkey pointing. “Don’t make us force the answer–”
“Oookay, that’s enough.” Quickly stepping between them, I focused on my new little… sort of partner. “It’s magic. They used magic to let her shift into other animals besides just crows. And probably some biological enhancements. It’s just–yeah, it’s fine.”
From the look that Sonoma gave me, she’d realized that I knew about Grandfather. When our eyes met as I glanced over my shoulder that way, she gave a very slight nod and winked. Nothing else needed to be said on that front. Not for now, anyway. Even if I did still wonder exactly how far along she was with that whole thing. Maybe Grandfather had enhanced her, but were she and Bastet a thing yet? Were those two anywhere nearby? Hell, for all I knew, they were watching us right now. It wasn’t like I’d be able to tell, not when it came to them in particular. They were both far out of my league.
Laein, for her part, clearly didn’t like not knowing something that was clearly important. A person who could help Sonoma transform into other birds at will? Of course she wanted to know more. If I was in her position, I’d probably feel the same way. But, to her credit, she visibly pushed down the impulse to start throwing around more demands and threats. I saw her take a couple long, deep breaths before she scowled at us. “Fine, then let us continue, if you want those enchantments removed from the land before they inevitably cause untold death and destruction the likes of which shall be spoken of for generations to come!” Her voice rose through that before dropping back down to a conversational, “Hm. Yes, the fact that my terrible might was not included within history books seems adequate proof that I should remove those spells. So as not to change history.” That came with a broad smile. “That is our goal.”
Now that I knew the source of her need to show herself as this incredibly dangerous, powerful figure whom no one would ever dare take advantage of, I felt a shot of sadness pass through me. She was taking all her cues about how to be an untouchable force who could never be hurt again from the books she had read.
Well, with any luck, and a lot of effort, I’d be able to show her that she could trust some people, it would be okay to let herself be happy again. But that was going to take time. For now, I simply gave her a thumbs up. “Yeah, good idea. I haven’t seen any grand statues of you anywhere I’ve gone, so we should probably make sure no one around here knows just how dangerous you are. After all, if you change history that much, you’ll never get a chance to become this strong. And then the whole timeline might implode.”
There was a brief pause as a thoughtful frown crossed the girl’s face. I realized that she was considering just how it might go if she could change the future. Her future, specifically. The girl was wondering if she could do something that would make her family survive, even if that meant giving up the power she had now. She honestly seemed to be considering it. She was thinking about giving up all her Necromancy if that meant bringing back to people she loved. Which was yet another indicator that she wasn’t nearly as much of an evil power-hungry Necromancer as she tried to portray herself as. And a reminder that negotiating with and recruiting her was the right choice.
In any case, we continued walking toward that first village. Eurso trotted ahead, sniffing the ground, chasing the occasional squirrel or rat, and generally behaving like a cheerful dog. As we crossed the land, Laein went from spot to spot, carefully undoing each enchantment she had placed there. And from the way Sonoma often looked toward a spot just before the girl went that way, she knew exactly where they were too. I wondered if she had already called in help to deal with that before we even showed up. She clearly knew where the spells had been laid, even if she didn’t know exactly what they were or how to deal with them. Bastet would have. Which again raised the question of whether they were an item yet or not. But that wasn’t exactly something I could bring up easily.
Going into the actual village would have been a bad idea for Laein and me, to say nothing of the armored raptor accompanying us. So we stayed back, watching from the treeline as Sonoma went to say goodbye to the people she clearly cared deeply about. None of them were her people, exactly, not the tribe or family she had grown up with. But she’d visited them over and over again. Them and the other tribes in this area. Whatever the reasoning, they were important to her. And now she had to leave them, just because some bastard from the future wanted to erase any chance of Arthur coming back. Worse, I couldn’t even explain to her why that was so important or why someone would be that intent on coming back here! She probably thought it had something to do with Grandfather himself, to be honest.
After Sonoma took an hour to say goodbye to those people, we moved to the next village, disabling more spells along the way. For the rest of that day and into the night, we continued with that. Percy checked in a couple times with partial-Recall, and let me know that she and Gaia had something they wanted to show me.
First, however, I made sure Laein removed all the spells she had set up, and that Sonoma had her chance to say her goodbyes. She assured us that she had a place to go, and that she wouldn’t come back here for a long time. Then she thanked me for coming back here to help her. Which made me explain that it was sort of an accident. Only it wasn’t because Ehn had clearly made sure I had this opportunity even if it wasn’t–I told her it was complicated, but that I was glad I could help. She then made me promise to tell her the full story from my end of it once I met her again in the future, and to tell her who I really was. I told her I would, and she transformed into a bird again. That time, she was an owl. Laein and I watched for a moment in silence as she flew away.
“Okay, fine, it’s done. All the spells I placed are gone.” The other girl looked to me pointedly. “Can we go back now? I want to find out if your servants have located the tower yet.”
So, I teleported us back there. Gaia and Percy were waiting for us just outside of where we’d parked the intact ship. They had a fire going and Cerberus, in his smaller form, was holding a stick covered in some sort of meat in each mouth, cooking them. Eurso, of course, ran that way before stopping next to his new friend, peering that way hungrily. I’d have to make sure he got fed too.
“So did my little friends find anything interesting?” I asked the other two. “Or did something turn up on your search?”
“Your friends are still working, we’ll have to go over there and see what they’ve found,” Gaia informed me. “But as for us, yes. We have something for you.” She held out a crudely drawn map of North America, with a blue x mark along with some coordinates written next to it. “This is where your tower is. I hope it helps.”
Taking the map, I blinked down. “Wait, this doesn’t make sense. That would mean the tower was in the middle of the–” I stopped abruptly, realizing. “Ah.” My eyes rose to look toward Percy, who nodded silently. “Right.” Looking back down at the map, I exhaled.
The tower was in the middle of what would, until it was utterly annihilated to stop the Fomorian invasion, be known as Desoto.