Heretical Edge

Apparently Ehn had spent an awful lot of time and resources looking for the place and time where this rift was supposed to be. He was somewhat handicapped by the fact that the rift was only open in one specific spot for what was, in the grand scheme of things, a very short amount of time. Thirteen days. That was how long the rift stayed open. Though all his research couldn’t narrow down a location or precise time period, the man had been able to find out that much at least. Apparently some rocks that had been touched by the rift eventually ended up in the hands of one of his magical researchers, who had done some fancy-pants spell identification stuff to find out exactly how long its specific energies had touched them. Thirteen days was the figure they came up with.

Obviously, thirteen days set somewhere between roughly 1200 BC and 1000 AD (the approximate time period that Ehn knew Odysseus had seen the rift within) wasn’t exactly all that helpful. Between that and the fact that it could be anywhere on the planet, it was no wonder he decided to simply wait until he could convince the ghost of the man to take him there instead. There were other ways he could spend his time, such as sitting in a fake super-prison that was actually his own private army while the evil piece of shit Necromancer he had helped create, and the equally evil mind-controlling monster plant thing he’d turned into one of lieutenants, both did their best to cause as much fucking damage to innocent people as possible. That was definitely a good call.

But no, I wasn’t the least bit bitter.

I don’t think anyone believes that, Flickster. And if they did, they'd probably think there was something seriously wrong with you. The guy may have noble goals, but he's got some serious ends justifies the means attitude going on. Makes a girl a bit nervous.

Yeah, Extra, it was enough to make anyone nervous. But the point was, we had Odysseus now, and he was willing to take us to the exact spot and time we needed to go. So hallelujah, we were about to be able to go through a rift and see the original Fomorian homeworld at the exact time that it was on its last legs and about to fall, creating the very situation that would lead to hundreds of thousands of years of galactic warfare and the potential extermination of all other life in the universe. Hooray for us.

Okay, I was being a bit overly-sarcastic there, and yes, the whole idea was equally terrifying and intimidating. But seriously, there was something inspiring about the very idea of what we were about to do. How many people had ever seen this place besides the Fomorians themselves, both old and new? How many people had even seen any of the original Fomorians at all? I was pretty sure it wasn't a very extensive list. So yes, part of me was excited about the possibilities. My brain wasn't all full of doom and gloom, no matter how much that kept trying to take over. I also spent a lot of time reeling from the sheer magnitude of what we were doing. I had already been through more than a few once-in-a-lifetime situations, of course. But this was… this was somehow even bigger than most of those. Maaaaaaybe not as rare and unique as what had happened with the Ankou, and yet… okay maybe it was tied with that.

While Odysseus’s ghost and Ehn were sorting out the exact details of when and where we needed to go, I abruptly started giggling audibly to myself. It probably sounded like I had lost my mind. Both Percy and Mekkta turned to look at me, along with Cerberus and Eurso. Six heads all staring my way as I giggled like an idiot. Holding up both hands, I shook my head. “Sorry, it's stupid. I was just thinking about how jealous my dad would be about the Pulitzer I could get for an article about this.”

Percy’s head tilted. “Flick,” she started, “somehow, I am certain that almost anything you have experienced in these past two years would result in the entire world throwing every journalism award in existence at you if you were able to report on them in a way they could both retain and believe. But of course, that would also require destroying the Bystander Effect.” She paused as though considering that, before offering a bright smile. “Which would certainly net you several more awards if you wanted them.”

That just made me snicker even more at the very thought, before Mekkta gave me an appraising look. “Oh yeah, I remember that part of the briefing.” Her voice was always oddly casual given who she was, who she worked for, and what we were doing. “Your father is a finely-decorated reporter, and you spent quite a long time wishing to follow in his footsteps.” Her gaze looked me up and down, expression unreadable. “That still something you wanna be a part of? You gonna write stories about the truth?”

I found myself shrugging a little. “Right now I think I've talked myself into focusing on the whole teacher thing. Well, tutor at least. Study buddies. We’re still setting up a school for Necromancers, and that’s uhh… that’s gonna be a whole thing. But yeah, I still like journalism, and I'd like to do something with it somehow. You know, someday when I have time.” I looked away and frowned briefly before giving a heavy sigh. “But somehow, I don’t think that’s gonna be anytime soon.”

Mekkta, however, gave me a serious look. “Write down what you see in there, how it makes you feel, everything that--everything you think would be part of a good article. Do it while the feelings and thoughts are still fresh. Perhaps it won’t be published for a very long time. Even if it is only ever shared amongst friends and allies, you will be glad that you did so. This, what we are about to do, deserves to be shared.”

Ehn turned toward us at that and cleared his throat. “Yes, quite well said.” His eyes moved toward me before adding, “I, for one, would gladly pay to read such a tale.”

“Err, you know you’re going to be there yourself, right?” I pointed out, feeling a bit incredulous. And possibly a little self-conscious about the way they were all staring. Even Odysseus seemed abnormally interested in this whole conversation.

“This is true,” Ehn agreed, his voice calm and matter-of-fact. “And yet, it is always interesting to see how different people can interpret the same event in different ways. I may know precisely how I feel and think about something, but your thoughts remain a mystery. Your opinions are interesting, Miss Chambers, never doubt that.”

While I was still trying to figure out the best way to react to that, he turned to Percy. “After conferring with our guide, it seems the precise date we must visit is sometime between what would be considered November fifth and seventeenth of the year 305 BC. Preferably sometime between the tenth and the thirteenth if possible. As far as he knows, he is the only person who saw the rift, and on those three days, he was… occupied with other distractions. There is enough of an opening then for us to make our way through and back again without being seen by the living man himself.”

I knew why he was telling her that. Percy had been on and off earth many times throughout the several thousand years that the Seosten had been here. He had to find out if she was here at any point during that particular time period. Percy was really tough, but even she couldn't survive having two of her on the same world at the same time. Ghosts apparently were different in that respect. We could have a ghost of Manakel on the planet at the same time as his living self, since they weren't exactly the actual person so much as their personality and memories stamped into magical energy. Zombies were supposed to be okay too. According to Story, who had done the research for it, both of those fell along the same lines of how clones and duplicates were safe. It was just living versions of the exact same person.

Needless to say, I was grateful for the Seosten memory she had access to. It took her a moment to sort through all of it before settling on the right time period. “Aha, my Manakel sent me on a special journey to locate a necklace for him six months before then. I returned two months after that point. That was a very short and easy trip. He was so surprised when I found his necklace without any trouble. We celebrated my success with drinking and a rousing game of Purify.”

“Purify?” I echoed, already grimacing given I really didn’t think I was going to like the explanation. And I wasn’t wrong.

“Oh yes,” Percy explained cheerfully. “My missions tended to take me into very dangerous areas where I could have been infected by and brought back any number of diseases, parasites, and other dangerous things. Purify is a game Manakel made up to kill those things off. I stood in the weapons-grade furnace while he adjusted the flames through multiple settings and added various magical effects to make sure everything that could have attached itself to me was dead. He just had me tell him every time I felt something from the magic fire.” She frowned a little. “I failed that game a lot because I almost never felt anything. And then he drank more.”

Telling myself that summoning Doctor Manakel out in front of us right now to read him the riot act wouldn’t accomplish anything (for multiple reasons), I took a deep breath before reaching out to take her by the hand. Squeezing it, I focused on Ehn. “Okay, so she’s not here during that time. Are we good? Neither of you were here then, right?”

“Thankfully, no, we were not,” Ehn confirmed after giving Mekkta a brief look. “We appear to be clear to proceed.” With that, he created another portal, taking all of us to a silver and white ovular room with a glowing blue crystal in the middle and various magical spellforms all around, which appeared to be linked to that crystal. While the rest of us watched (Eurso in particular seemed very interested in the blue ball, which I was pretty sure he thought was a tasty egg), Ehn took the next few minutes to adjust the particulars of the time travel spell to account for the specific date we needed. The crystal was the power source for it. I wasn’t sure where it came from, but it didn’t seem to be his own energy. Strong as Ehn was, even he seemed to prefer using energy gathered over a long period of time, or someone else’s entirely, for big time jumps. Which said a lot about just how hard that sort of thing was to pull off.

You know, speaking of big time jumps, you’ve been focusing a lot on how absurd and ridiculous going to the Fomorian homeworld is--which it is, don’t get me wrong-- but you kind of skimmed right over the idea of going to the year 305 BC, Extra put in.

Yeah, I sent right back, but I'm pretty sure we're not going to be staying there for very long. I won't exactly get much of a chance to sightsee. And compared to taking a rift leading back hundreds of thousands of years to the Original Fomorian homeworld, a trip to 300 BC on Earth is just a simple stroll down the street for lunch.

This particular time jump didn't feel like anything in particular. At most, it was sort of like riding an old elevator. I felt a slight whirr of motion go through me before even that faded. Ehn checked something on the nearby wall where a cluster of elaborate spellforms had begun glowing before giving a nod of satisfaction. “There, we have arrived safely, no complications.”

“Oh good,” Mekkta noted with a lopsided grin, “now I’m only ten thousand years away from seeing my own birth.” When I gave her a quick look at that, she nodded easily. “Yeah, when I was a kid we didn’t have fancy things like shopping malls or the internet. Also no such thing as civilization, farming, or laws. But hey, we had fire. It was the hot new thing.” As she said that, the woman snickered. “Get it, hot. But yeah, fire was like today's iPhones. If you had a torch, you were happening. That’s the term, right? Happening?”

Holy shit, if she’s that old, we should be interviewing her for an article, Extra quickly put in. Actually, wait, is that possible? Do you have any idea what sort of questions she could answer, what insights she could have, what--

“What made you leave Earth and join up with the savior of the universe over here?” I asked immediately. I’d been wondering that for awhile anyway, and this was a good excuse to bring it up since she’d mentioned her own history first.

The woman replied with a low chuckle. “Oh, that's a long story. The short version is that I was running away from people who wanted to hurt me when I found a tiny entrance to a cave. When I crawled inside it to hide, there was a skeleton curled up there. It was a skeleton of some sort of giant, well, now I know it would’ve been on the lower end of the giant scale. Ten feet tall, with six arms. When I touched it, the skeleton disintegrated, and the cave collapsed. I breathed in the dust those bones turned into, and ever since then, I've been pretty strong. And, well, basically unkillable. After that, I got to be a bit famous for my strength. Attracted attention, and others like me showed up. Well, not exactly like me. I am one of a kind. But they had gifts, their own abilities. They were what you call Natural Heretics. Even now, I don't know if they came on behalf of another tribe or just themselves. Either way, they started a fight. In the middle of that fight, one of them used magic. It was a transportation spell, and I ended up being sent to the far far side of the Seosten empire thousands of years before they’d ever even heard of Earth. Or Rysthael. I traveled around, learned everything I could about them, and when Ehn showed up with his offer, I said sure, I'd work with him.” She looked toward the man in question, who stared back at her impassively as she added, “On the conditions that he use his boost to make me even stronger, and bring me back to my homeworld. He’s fulfilled both of those conditions. And, well, I don’t particularly want to see the Fomorians kill all life in the universe. I happen to like life in this universe. Especially futebol. I will find someone who wants to play with me.”

“I’ll play!” Percy immediately put in, raising a hand. “I don’t know what it is, but I can learn quickly. I enjoy games, and you sound like you’ve been looking for someone to play with for a long time. People should be able to play when they want to.”

“That is a match I’m sure many would enjoy seeing. Particularly if you bring worthy teammates,” Ehn noted before pointedly changing the subject. “But now we are finally in the correct time period. If there are no more interruptions, we should continue.”

So, following Odysseus's directions, we made our way to the location the rift was supposed to be in. It was a forest in the middle of Indonesia. Which, to be honest, I really would've liked to look around more and play tourist. But not right now. And not with Ehn. I wanted to bring Avalon, Shiori, and the others here. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I wished I was doing all this with them. I'd been away for too long. Yes, from their point of view, I would barely have left before we came back. Ehn had said that I would be back with them within a couple weeks after leaving, chronologically. But to me, it had been over five months. Close to half a year without my girlfriends, my team, my family. I tried not to think about it, but that didn't seem to help.

Still, at the very least, going to the Fomorian world would be a pretty big distraction. Telling myself to focus, I looked up as we came through a cluster of trees and I got my first glimpse of the rift. It didn't look like portals I had seen before. No, this was very different. It looked like a large broken mirror in the middle of that clearing. Seriously, it was like a ten-foot-wide, seven-foot-tall mirror that something had slammed into in order to make a spiderweb of cracks spread out in every direction. Each individual piece of the shattered mirror surface reflected different things. Some showed the forest around us, while others showed a strange and utterly alien scene of dark blue clouds in a slightly pink-tinted sky, with distant mountains that looked like dark red and blue crystals.

Seeing that, Ehn smiled. “Thank you, Odysseus. You will not regret affording us this opportunity.”

The ghost himself simply shook his head. “I hope not. But if you’re going to do this, then do it right. Bring those survivors.”

There was no more discussion, no more psyching ourselves up. We were going to go in, grab three original flavor Fomorians while they were distracted by everything else that was going on, then get back through the rift with them. One, two, three. In, grab, get out. I would be the last one through. Well, Eurso and me. Ehn and Mekkta were going through first to clear any problems out of that space. Percy and Cerberus were next. Finally, I would go through with Eurso, bringing up the rear.

Which meant I had several extra moments to think about how dangerous this was, while watching those first two go through. After giving them a three second count, Percy and Cerberus gave me encouraging smiles before heading through.

Now it was my turn. Giving Eurso an encouraging squeeze, I told myself to stop being nervous and back the others up so we could be done with this already. Taking a deep breath right on the edge of that rift, I promised myself I would write a good story about this whole thing. Then I stepped through.

And that was the moment. Not the moment I saw the Fomorian homeworld, because I didn’t. Not just then, anyway. No, that was the moment I found out everything had gone wrong. It was the moment everything changed. The moment that could end up changing the Fomorians into the sort of threat none of us ever could have imagined.

Because that was the moment Ehn’s arrogance caused him to make one of the most critical mistakes any person had ever made in the history of all civilization.

A mistake that could end up infusing every single Fomorian in our time period with the full strength of his Dragon-Bonded power.