Where had that siren come from and why was it going off right in my ear?


    Oh, right, it was just in my head. My brain was basically screaming at itself right now just because of what I had just heard. Bedivere. The man in front of me, the man who was known as Joseph Bell, inspiration for Sherlock Holmes and the leader of the Crossroads Detective Division known as the Bow Street Runners… was Bedivere, my ancestor. A man I had actually seen very briefly toward the end of last year, when we had visited the Crossroads neighborhood in Washington DC. I had seen the man from a distance, while he was talking to Sean’s parents. That was--he was… he was my ancestor the whole time?!?!?


    There was no way that I could adequately respond to that sudden revelation immediately. Respond to it? I could barely even process it. I just stood there and stared with my mouth hanging open. Maybe if I handed control over to my copilot right now, they could respond for me.


    Uhhh, nope, Hot Type informed me. I''ve got nothing.


    Miranda was the first to actually find her voice, since Tabbris seemed just as stunned (and Bezique had no idea what was going on). “Wait. Just--you’re telling us that--that you’re--that Joseph Bell is--that--” She engaged in a bit of elaborate pantomime, since even her voice had failed her in that moment.


    Hey, I didn’t claim that she managed to engage in some brilliant disquisition, just that she found audible words.


    With a soft chuckle, Aylen took pity on us. “Let’s put this simply. Bedivere was Bonded to the version of… ahh, ‘Jacob’ who showed up around Camelot hundreds of years ago, for another rift.”


    Well that made me do a double-take, my gaze snapping around to look at her, then back to the man in question. “Bonded to--wait does that mean--”


    “You might say I am something of a Jacob-Heretic,” Bell confirmed. “Similar to our… difficult friend out there, though with any luck a bit less demented. I like to think so, anyway.”


    Okay, okay I could handle this. I could roll with it, sure why not. My ancestor had become a Heretic in the first place because he Bonded to another duplicate of me. Fine, why not? All this meant was that I had one bad Bonded and one good one in this time period. That was like a fifty percent success rate!


    It was just possible that this entire situation was leaving me slightly addled.


    Raising his hand, the man summoned a ghost next to himself. This one looked like an old soldier in armor, who smiled broadly when he saw me. “Good day to you, Miss. Tis nice to see you looking like yourself, unlike when you passed by before. You probably don’t know me yet, not till all the different bits of you come back together, but the name’s Daegal. I helped that other you back in the day.” He paused, visibly blanching. “Well, I say helped. More like walked you to the village is all.”


    We didn’t know what to say, but Bezique sure did. She jumped forward, clearly using those wings of hers (despite being invisible thanks to her magical disguise) to propel herself all the way across the room before dropping into a bow. “Another of the Jacob-Blood! My soul is yours, Master, my teeth and spine and all the bits that I have been gifted into the form of me are yours to take in spite or in use!” Again, her speech pattern had changed. I still wasn’t sure exactly what was up with that. But either way, she was very thoroughly groveling.


    “None of that, now,” Bell (or was it Bedivere?) insisted kindly. He gave me a brief look, seeming to realize that I intentionally wasn’t telling her that I was Jacob, before giving a slight nod. Gently, he tugged Bezique to her feet. “May I have your name, Miss?”


    She started to tell him that she was simply a Batty-Fang, then remembered herself and blushed while clutching those Magic cards. Bashfully, she informed the man of her new name.


    While that was going on, I looked over at Aylen and mouthed an exaggerated, ‘What the fuck?’ Which seemed to make her chuckle before she gestured that all would be explained.


    Yeah, I may not have really understood everything that was going on, or how Aylen had ended up being so close to Bedivere-Bell, or… so many other things. But I knew one thing for certain. She was right about us needing help. Obviously, there was even more going on with this situation than I had understood before. And it wasn''t as though that part of it had been simple or easy to begin with. Whatever was actually happening here, there was more to it than just stopping the Fomorians from becoming superpowered.


    Still, before she got into all that, I found myself looking at the famous surgeon who had influenced the creation of one of the greatest literary detectives in history. Who also just happened to be my ancestor who was a Knight of the Round Table and also founded the Atherby Clan. “I have… more questions than I can even count, let alone that we can get into right now. But… okay how much do you know about what’s going on here? And--I mean I’m sorry to put it this way, but what are you planning to do to help?”


    “I know far too much, and yet not nearly enough, as I do about most things,” he informed me in a voice that was firm, but as polite as possible. “I know that there are very good reasons for you to be suspicious of anyone you happen to run into, myself and Miss Tamaya included to varying degrees. I know that you may also be suspicious of what sort of man I may be in the future. I cannot speak as to the character of that person. And I only speak to the character of the man I am now. And that man gives you his word that he-- that is, I, will not allow the timeline to be altered or for these Fomorian creatures to achieve their xenophobic ends. There are a great many things you and I need to discuss in the future, but for now, I fear that time is of the essence so that discussion must wait for its proper time.”


    He gave a rueful smile then, adding, “Whatever man I may become in the future, he may have his debate with me internally. Until then, for so long as it is this man who steers my ship, I shall use all that is within my power to aid you in reaching this rift. As a show of faith, I have informed Katarin and his band that you were spotted in the northern part of the country. They should be quite distracted searching you out there, at least long enough for the situation to be resolved. In our favor, Lord willing.”


    Bezique perked up at that. She had been sniffing around near his feet curiously, but snapped her normally mismatched (but currently disguised) gaze to him and smiled. “Yes, yes! The Lords will come together and prove which is more deserving of the great Jacob’s blessing! Three of the Jacob-Bloods in one place! Such is unheard of! Their titanic battle shell wreck this city and call forth its legions of dead from their catacombs. Armies of the wretched deceased shall march across this land, clawing and ripping the living into their ranks before colliding together in a battle that will be spoken of in hushed, reverent whispers the world over! For all eternity, those who dwell on this planet will know their names and recognize them as the true Jacob’s disciples. And whosoever stands triumphant in the end shall clutch this world in their iron fist, bleeding all who would-- hm?” Stopping in mid-rant, she looked over as Tabbris held up another of those Magic cards for her to look at. Immediately, her tone changed completely as she blurted, “A three-three creature for only three mana that may deal one damage to any target whenever any permanent is sacrificed? What utter madness is this? And it is red black! I must have four of them immediately!”


    “I, ahh, must admit that I find myself rather confused,” Bell slowly announced while his eyes flicked from those two over to me and back again. Beside him, Daegal the ghost-knight gave a slow nod of agreement.


    Hah, they thought they were confused? All I could think about right then was that I had definitely missed a lot. Or maybe I hadn''t. Maybe there was an earlier version of me at one of the other rifts who knew exactly what was going on. It was too bad all the other versions of me couldn''t compare notes together.


    Yeah, Hot Type noted with some amusement, you''re stuck only comparing notes with a different bunch of other versions of yourself. Have you ever thought about how hard this whole thing would be to explain to people from start to finish?


    Assuring them that I had absolutely considered that many times, I looked back at Aylen. “I assume at some point you''ll explain how all this became a thing. Where should we even start though?”


    To that, she dismissed her disguise before replying, “First, you know what kind of man we''re dealing with here. A serial killer who is even worse than his Bystander reputation implies. But you don''t know about his benefactor.”


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I frowned at that. “Okay, I really hope you actually know that this whole thing with Jacob--”


    Aylen interrupted with a raised hand. “Yes, we know all about that, believe me. I''m not speaking of Jacob, I''m talking about Invidia.”


    Well, that threw me for a loop. Of all the things I expected the other girl to bring up right then, none of them had been that particular subject. I rocked backwards on my heels while staring that way. My mouth opened and shut a couple times without any sound coming out. Finally, I managed a weak, “Buh wha?” Yes, how incredibly articulate of me. But what else was I going to say? Why would Invidia have anything to do with this? Even as that thought passed through my mind, I knew I wasn''t going to like the answer.


    Sure enough, Aylen only waited long enough to let us react to the bombshell before continuing with the bad news. She explained, and as short of a time as possible, what she had been through. Or at least, how it started. She told us about ending up back in a time when King Arthur had been a child, along with Gaia. She has simply shown up there alone, with no idea how she had ended up in that situation. For years, she had disguised herself and blended in, becoming part of Arthur''s Court, and one of the actual literal living myths herself.


    Then I had shown up. Or rather, another version of me. That was really weird to think about. Yes, I had already known that there were a bunch of copies of me all across the timeline. Or, more factually, we were all copies. Which begged the question of who the original was, if it was any of us. But now wasn''t the best time to start getting existential about that. Not when we were still getting the bad news


    Apparently, that other me had been with Shiori and Asenath. First I felt a slight pang of missing them both, especially my girlfriend. Then I realized that other me would have been missing Tabbris and Miranda. And we were both missing all the other people who were helping the other versions of us. Neither of us were with Avalon, for example.


    Yeah, we needed to finish this whole thing up so we could be recombined and reunite everyone.


    The good news on that front, apparently, was that the earlier version of me had accomplished that particular goal. Unfortunately, she had ended up discovering the Invidia problem. Namely, that the reason Aylen had shown up years earlier with no one to help or explain things to her was that the me who should have been there had already left to get to the rift. Aylen wasn''t sure exactly what had gone down there, but it sounded like that other me had made it through the rift and closed it. But in the moment that happened, Invidia had somehow absorbed that me. It had something to do with being vulnerable at the moment of going through the rift. The point was, she had literally killed that version of me, absorbing her. Which… was quite the thing to take in. It wasn''t every day that you were told a piece of you was dead. Yes, yes, that whole situation was complicated. But it made me wonder if missing a piece of myself would change things when we finally combined. Would I always be missing that piece? Would there always be a part of me that should be there but wasn''t? What would change about me?


    Unfortunately, as awful as it was to think about any version of myself dying, it got worse. Apparently absorbing that other me had somehow given Invidia all of my powers. Including the Necromancy. Which she had used to great effect when attacking Camelot. Oh, and, of course, she still had her own powers as a super-ghost Whisper, and the Tartarus powers of Charmeine, whom she was still possessing.


    Wait, did that mean that Invidia had my powers, or Charmeine? Sure, the difference was academic right now, but it might actually be important in the end. It was something to think about anyway.


    So yeah, the good news was that there was at least one version of me that had made it through the portal. Two if we counted the one that made it through but got absorbed and killed. And Aylen informed us that she had witnessed others, though she kept it vague for the time being. There wasn''t time to get into all that. But on the other hand--


    “Wait,” I broke in, “why would you have seen other rifts? Why are you still here at all? Did you actually live through all those years? What--I don''t--”


    With a small smile, the other girl explained that she hadn''t lived through every single year between then and now. After leaving Camelot, unable to bear what she knew would happen, she had wandered for a long time, seeking out more magic, as well as ways of tracking down those rifts. Not only had she found magic that could give her the general date and location for the next rift within a few years in either direction, but she also found ways of avoiding living through all those years. Though she still stayed out and awake for quite a bit, living through a year or two at a time while researching and working on the plan that she and my other self had come up with. Which was quite the doozy.


    Miranda gave a low whistle. “So, you really think the way to wake up Arthur is to grab all that Ehn energy and shove it into his remains?”


    “I believed it might be possible back then,” Aylen confirmed, “and now I''m even more convinced. It won''t be easy or simple. But it is possible. We just have to keep sending the energy forward until we reach the last one chronologically, then give it somewhere to go. I should have the best way of doing that when the time comes.”


    “So,” Miranda put in, “I guess that means this isn''t the last one chronologically?”


    Aylen shook her head. “Not yet. But it is the next one we have to close. Unfortunately, that''s where we come to our current problem.”


    I glanced over to make sure our new friend was still occupied with Tabbris. Not that it mattered that much, but still. Once I saw that they were going over cards, I nodded. “Yeah, this piece of shit serial killer, apparently, is Blood-Bonded to me.” I gave Bell a brief look. “And I’ve gotta tell you, it is nice to find out that at least it’s not my blood making this guy a monster. Though I have so many questions to get into with you.”


    “And I with you,” he replied. “Let us hold onto the hope that time and the universe shall afford us such an opportunity. Though from what I hear, finding yourself in such a situation may be all-but routine for you by now.”


    His words made me snort before I shook my head. “Trust me, we''ve been through a lot, but this is a bit much even for us. We definitely don''t do this sort of thing every week.”


    Miranda nodded. “Yeah, once a month, max.”


    The man gave a slight chuckle, his easy humor coming through. It made me really want to get to know him even more. Why had he left the Atherby camp and faked his death? Why did he take up this identity as a surgeon named Joseph Bell? Why was he part of Crossroads even in the future? Was that just an undercover thing? It wasn''t like he was some inconsequential bit player in this whole thing. He was the leader of the Crossroads Runners, their main detectives.


    In any case, we had the immediate situation to deal with. Which was a thought that brought me back to what had started this explanation. “Wait, you called Invidia his benefactor. You''re saying she’s helping him murder people and set up his whole immortal zombies experiments?”


    Aylen made a face. “She doesn''t really care about the experiments he''s running. That''s just his own thing. The main point is that wherever the rift is in this city, she has the guy practically perched on top of it with more protection between that thing and anyone who wants to get to it than you can imagine. Worse, he''s turned dozens of his creatures into bombs linked to his own life, and to the rift itself, and scattered them through the city. If it goes down and breaks the link to them, the bombs go off and flatten London.”


    The news made me wince. “Yeah, okay, that''s definitely not preserving the timeline. We can’t let that happen.”


    Bell lifted his chin. “I’m rather pleased to hear you say that. I might prefer my recent home in Edinburgh over this place, but I would truly hate to imagine a world without London.”


    Miranda gave a loan, audible groan. “Are you telling me that we have to find these bomb zombies and disarm them or whatever before we can get her to the rift? Do we have a way of tracking where they are? Because this seems like a pretty big place to search with just the few of us.”


    Aylen shook her head, fortunately. “We do know how to track them, but we need something specific to do it. Two things, actually, but you already brought the first.” She looked over at Bezique pointedly. “We needed one of his creations, and we also need some examples of his spellwork, his own runes drawn by his hand. The best place to get that would be one of his secret labs.”


    Well, that made me smile just a little despite myself. “Actually, we have that too. I mean, not the spellwork itself, but a way to find it. Before you showed up, Bezique there was about to show us where to find one of those places so we could ambush him. But I suppose we could use it just as easily to steal some of his stuff.”


    Bell was shaking his head in disbelief. “I''ll have you know that we have spent weeks searching for where any of these hidden places could be, without any luck. Now it seems that you have shown up, and within minutes have been offered a guided tour straight to them. It''s quite impressive.”


    Blushing just a bit, I shrugged. “Coming from someone as impressive as you are, that means a lot. But I really didn''t earn that. She just came to me because she thinks I’m the same as the guy who created her. She probably would’ve offered the same to you if she ran into you first.” Saying that made me grimace. “God, I really hope I can show her why it would be a bad thing if either of us really was the same. She deserves better than that.” I didn''t care how complicated that was. Yes, this girl was the result of obscene murder and magic, but that didn''t make her obscene or evil. She deserved better. I wanted to show her that in a way that she might actually accept.


    Bell glanced over to her and Tabbris, his voice thoughtful. “Well, I would say that she has taken one good first step in that direction. I wish you luck in guiding her the rest of the way.”


    Miranda gave a nod while opening up and punching a fist into her hand. “Exactly. And speaking of guiding, maybe we should take advantage of her offer to do just that.


    “Because personally, I''d really love to be able to say that I punched Jack the Ripper in the face.”