Out of Time the Grand Quest

by Christopher Douglass

  Kimberly looked around the rustic hut. It had a strange feeling of the modern about it even though everything was near stone age technology. That was the way the little of the village she had seen had felt as well. As if this place was some kind of opposing array of technology and dark ages that had been thrown together haphazardly. There was nothing so out of place that it jumped to her attention, but it was a sense of wrong that caused goose bumps to travel down her spine. Maybe it was just the whole situation that was giving her that feeling.

  A lean woman with pure white hair and piercing light blue eyes came into the room from an open doorway along the back wall. Through it, Kimberly could see a refrigerator. The woman adjusted the thin framed glasses on her face, wrinkling her small nose slightly, her smile dimpling her cheeks. Despite looking near seventy, she was lean and muscular still, her arms so well defined, Kimberly could see every curve and bulge clearly.

  “Welcome home dear, so who have you brought with you? A new friend?”

  “Its my mediator.”

  “No she’s not.”

  “What do you mean? She’s an Atlantian just like you.”

  “No she isn’t.”

  “But how--”

  “Because I know girl. Did she say she was from Atlanta?”

  “Well no. But she came through the summoning portal. So she has to be Atlantian!”

  The old woman sighed, rubbing her eyelids with two fingers. “What a mess you have made my girl. Why’d you have to go do a fool thing like try a summoning anyway? You’re not strong enough to undertake the challenge, you know that. You should be grateful you didn’t get your foolish head blown off by a backfire.”

  Kimberly’s head whipped back and forth between the two women. Her confusion must have been evident since the old woman motioned for Kimi to follow her as she headed towards another open arch that lead to a living room of some sort. She offered Kimi a seat in a comfortable looking upholstered chair, the left side of her face creaking upwards in another half smile. A plump old man who looked like he had been struck by electricity came in from a sliding window door leading from outside. His dome was bald, but the white hair ringing the sides stuck out wildly. His purple robes were singed and still smoking, and one eyebrow was missing. These thing in no way detracted from the merry green eyes or the musical tone of his chuckle at his wife’s raised eyebrow.

  “Problems, love?”

  “Nah, just an unexpected volt beetle infestation in the garden. I hit a hive unexpectedly. You could say it was a shocking experience.”

  “Please spare me your bad puns. We got real problems here.”

  “As you wish my love. I take it these problems have to do with that powerful surge I felt not long ago up on summoners hill?”

  “Aye. And you are looking at the problem and the problems summoner.”

  For the first time the old man looked in her direction. She saw the smile fade from his lips as his eyes narrowed. She felt he was seeing something she couldn’t as the air around him almost darkened. Finally he removed his gaze, turning back to his wife.

  “She’s not Atlantian.”

  “Correct.”

  “That’s bad.”

  “Also correct.”

  “Who is she?”

  “I don’t know. I was just going to sit down and have a chat with her. It might be wise if you join as well.”

  “As Grand Wizard, I better.”

  Both of the old people sat on the couch, the old woman glaring at Maria and pointing to the last chair in the rough semicircle around the fireplace. Maria sat, her head lowered and her shoulders hunched.

  “First I want to hear what happened by your own account Maria. There are too many unknowns here. We cannot decide what to do unless we have information. Nor can we name these unknowns without information.”

  “Well there really isn’t much to it. I went up to the hill and I cast the spell and she appeared.”

  “What prompted you to go up there to begin with?”

  “No reason.”

  “Don’t speak lies to me girl. You know I hate liars.”

  “Because-- because I was tired of being called a hedge witch by the others all right! A fourth generation flop who can’t even light a candle without burning out brain cells.”

  The old man spoke softly, a soothing balm to the old woman’s sudden stern tone. “My dear Maria, I have never once considered you a failure, you know that. How many times have I told you that your power will come in time, just like it does for everybody. Don’t try to force it before it is ready to bloom. Now my dear, would you mind telling me where you learned the ritual?”

  Maria shrunk even further into herself as she near whispered the answer. “I snuck into your office and found it.”

  “Thank you for telling me true my dear. But I must tell you, that wasn’t a finished concept. I was working on how to decrease the amount of energy needed for the summoning by using the regents, but it was far from complete. I’m surprised it worked at all and am glad you weren’t killed by the backlash. You didn’t sneak a peek at any of my other works did you?”

  “No.”

  “Good, next time, don’t do anything so foolish my dear, I don’t want to lose you like I lost your mother. Tell us next time you want to do something so massive.”

  “As If I would allow her to do something like this again! You’re too soft on her Joel. It’s because you keep filling her head with such nonsense as her power will come in time that she does these things! She needs to realize this is all the power she is ever going to have. It won’t bloom any more and it is time she accepts that. She’s sixteen already, she needs to put such silly notions behind her.”

  “And you are too hard on her Grell. I love you dearly but don’t try talking about things you don’t understand. I am the authority on magic here, not you. You are just a mediator who has learned a bit while living among us. There is so much you can’t begin to comprehend about magic from the little bit you have seen. If I say her power will blossom later, than it will blossom later!”

  The old woman pulled back her fist, the muscles bulging even more as the old wizard summoned balls of lightning into his open palms. Both looked like they were on the verge of full blown war at any moment. Despite the fear still causing her knees to shake, Kimberly was at her limit. She wanted-- no-- she needed, answers. Answers would make her less scared. Even if she thought those answers were crazy, improbable or even downright impossible, she needed answers.

  “Enough!”

  She was surprised at how forceful her words were. She was never that loud. Yet the very glass shook with the echo’s of her voice. She wondered if it was the fear that made her so loud. Whatever the case, the two turned to her in surprise, as if having forgotten she was there. It was Maria that spoke first though.

  “What’s wrong? They fight like this all the time, it’s nothing new. Their arguments can get quite legendary. I doubt they could go a day without at least one or two scuffles. Why last year they destroyed half the town. Grandpa rebuilt it in a day, but it was still a fight to behold. Resna says they fight because it makes the make-up sex that much better. Though between you and me, it’s kind of gross thinking of the two of them getting it on.”

  Grell and Joel looked at each other, grins splitting their face as they chuckled. Joel raised his one remaining eyebrow and spoke. “Well she is your grand-daughter.”

  “She’s yours too.”

  “We raised her well didn’t we?”

  “That we did. So what do you think? Is Resna right and our fighting makes the make-up sex better?”

  “I don’t think so. The regular sex is good enough. I think we fight because we just like to fight.”

  “I think you’re right love. But I think the young lady is also right. We don’t have time to be having a bit of fun. I’m sure she is even more clueless than we are. So lets hold off on our foreplay until we get this sorted out.”

  “I knew I married you for your brains.”
/>
  “I thought you married me for my looks.”

  “Those were just a bonus.”

  The two interlocked their hands together, resting them on Grell’s knee, focusing their attention on Kimberly. It was the old man who spoke first.

  “I suppose our first question should be to ask who you are. We’ve been remiss in not asking your name.”

  “It’s Kimberly. Kimberly Changa. Though some people call me Kimi.”

  “Well Kimberly, would you mind telling us how you got here?”

  “I’m not really sure. I was at the library, and I opened a book. My head got all fuzzy so I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I was standing in a design on the ground in a flat area. I guess that would be summoners hill. Maria went on about me being her mediator and going on a quest, but I really didn’t understand any of it. I still don’t.”

  “The library? Are you talking about the Great Library of Alexandria?”

  “What? No. The library in Virginia is pretty small. And the Great Library of Alexandria was lost thousands of years ago.”

  Joel got a puzzled look on his face at the mention of Virginia, just like Maria had. Grell on the other hand nodded slightly squeezing her husbands fingers.

  “Let me take it from here, love.” She leaned forward slightly her eyes intently searching Kimberly’s.

  “What year are you from young lady?”

  “Year? 2015. Why?”

  “I thought so. You are what we on Atlantis called a Phaser. It’s rare, but it happens from time to time where someone or something gets sucked out of the future and into the past here. Sometimes they come from the past, but usually the future since that isn’t as set in stone. When everything aligns just right in one impossible moment, a rip in the fabric of reality appears and pulls whatever is closest inside. This rip lasts only a moment, then it closes, never to reopen in the same place.”

  “What do you mean the past? This isn’t my past! The past doesn’t have magic, or these mediator things, whatever that is.”

  “Joel, can you show her love?”

  “Of course.”

  Joel got up, grabbed some sort of white crystal from a counter and placed it at the base of the sliding glass door. He mumbled a few unintelligible phrases, causing blue light to radiate from deep inside. This light expanded outwards, filling the glass until a picture of the Earth appeared. It was a view from space that quickly zoomed inwards and down towards Europe. Kimberly could tell this wasn’t a present day Europe, she didn’t know how, she just knew in her gut. As it drew ever inwards she started making out cities. Then people. This was when Grell began to speak again.

  “Right now, we are within a pocket reality. We are part of, yet apart from, the rest of the world. You have heard of the big bang correct?”

  “Sure, the widely believed theory that the universe was created by a massive explosion which in turn eventually created planets as gravity pulled together and condensed matter.”

  “Well that is only partially true. The big bang as you know it is the second one. One we of Atlantis created through manipulation. The universe was getting consumed by a cosmic black hole. One that was eating other galaxies. My ancestors literally lived at the end of days. So they manufactured a new big bang, like a giant reset button for the universe. They had discovered all the secrets of the universe through science, so were able to recreate everything down to the molecule. Once you figure out the math, it is easy.”

  Joel moved away from the door which was still showing people in lose fitting clothing that looked like it had just been wrapped around them. This view zoomed outwards and moved to Spain where it zoomed in again to show yet more people in old style clothing. Joel came to stand next to the couch, staring down at Kimi with sad eyes.

  “But the one thing they could not recreate was magic. In the first version of reality, magic went hand in hand with science. The world grew up knowing and using it in their wars and conquests. So, for the good of the new worlds that had not been recreated yet, my ancestors came together to create this secondary universe. One where all magic from your world is siphoned to, so everyone born here has it. Well, not all magic, but no one is able to be born on your World with it anymore. Yet Atlantis is and was a place of technology. They could not directly exist in this reality. So they have their own little bubble universe connected to the new Earth.”

  “It is because of this manipulation by my ancestors, and the creation of these twin pocket realities that the rifts appear from time to time. In order to maintain balance, a summoning must be undertaken every so often. A mage on this side summons a man or woman of Atlantis over here. That Atlantian and mage must then undergo a quest and trial at the end to purge the new world of inconsistencies. Normally it is known long ahead of time when this quest is needed, so the summoning is done in advance, allowing the mage and mediator to harmonize as a team. That is why we have four teams in the village now, all training to work well together for the upcoming quest. Not all of them will make it out alive, and the imbalances felt is much larger than before to require so many.”

  “But what is a mediator exactly? I mean, what do they do?”

  “In the simplest terms, we give the mage we are teamed up with power. We are like a huge battery they can feed off of at need. As such, we are always hungry, requiring a lot of food to replenish the energy taken.”

  “What about this skill Maria was talking about? She was saying something about transforming into animals and casting magic of my own. If Atlantis and this reality are separated, and mages can only be born here and nowhere else, how could these skills be possible?”

  Grell smiled, holding out her hand palm outwards. Before Kimi’s eyes, the palm hardened and the flesh turned grey like stone. This coloring traveled up the woman’s arm as she made a fist. Rock appeared around the knot of her hand until it resembled a sledgehammer.

  “At it’s apex, science is indistinguishable from magic. When I was a little girl, my body was augmented by nano-machines and responsive living bio-chips. It is an operation everyone undergoes. As I grew up, these augments evolved with me, becoming a “magical gift” unique to me alone. It compliments those things you are into. For me, I was always a tomboy, getting into fights with other boys and pushing my body in all kinds of athletics. So, my ability became one to compliment these things. Giving me increased endurance and stamina while hardening my body. Under the right circumstances I can turn it to steel, not just stone. When I partnered up with Joel, that increased stamina and endurance translated to more power he could tap into. He had already been a strong mage, I just made him stronger.”

  “She truly is my better half.”

  “Than that means I can’t be a mediator, because I don’t have these special powers.”

  “Having powers has nothing to do with being a mediator. Joel could still tap my energy if he wishes to, even if I wasn’t able to transform my body. As for having no special powers, I’m not so sure about that. Every living thing that has come through a rift in time exhibited strange abilities. Birds that could talk, Dogs that could knit, babies that could express their desires through crying. They all had at least one thing, sometimes as many as three. These abilities could not be quantified as either magic or science. They did not fit the mental magic that appear from time to time in mages either. So we just called their abilities Other.”

  “Then what’s my ability?”

  “I don’t know my dear. One thing we do know, it is usually tied to those things you are most used to. So just like I can harden my body because I was always fighting as a girl, it would be a power unique to you.”

  “And this quest, what does it entail?”

  “I can’t say. It is unique to each pair that heads off. The one me and Joel went on will be different from the one these younglings will go on. Ours was to go make sure Jesus was crucified so that it could reseal this reality from your world. Of course, time is slightly variable here, since Maria’s mother Lily, had to get the three wise
men to go see the baby Jesus. But it never goes past the year the Earth you come from is currently at.”

  “And when is that?”

  “1490.”

  Kimberly suddenly realized what was so off about the house. This dawning understanding making her blurt it out without thinking.

  “That’s why this house and this town feel wrong! There are so many small things out of place! Like this furniture, and that sliding glass door!”

  “You’re right. They are objects that came through time rifts that we have mass constructed for our own use. We can’t completely modernize this reality like Atlantis, otherwise we break the shields that hold the three planes of existence in balance. As your Earth grows more modern, we too can grow with it.”

  “But--why exactly? I mean, why did your ancestors create a new big bang and separate the world into three realities? If they had broken the quantum code to the point of being able to recreate the literal beginning of time and formation of planets, there was no need for these separate universes. I know it sounds harsh, but why didn’t they just set the plan in motion and die? If they had, magic would have been in the world again and not stuck in this alternate universe. Then there would be no need for this mage-mediator partnerships and quest stuff.”

  “Because, they had not figured out the last great unknown-- death. They were afraid of it, just like everybody is. They had a strong desire to live, to continue trying to figure out the last two great mysteries left to their scientific minds. Is there a god, or some greater being out there in the universe? And what comes after death.”

  “And have they figured out the answer to either of these yet?”

  “No. I doubt they ever will.”

  Kimberly looked at the white covered book in her lap. She just couldn’t seem to let it go. Her gut was saying it was important somehow. It had appeared in this crazy world with her, it had to hold some sort of secret. She also couldn’t just discard it because it was a book. Even devoid of words as it was, it was a book. Finally she raised her face to gaze at the old woman who’s eyes had softened. Perhaps expecting the all important question Kimberly was finally able to ask.