A New Reality

by Clare Solomon

  “Nothing,” Fal reassured him and pressed another kiss to Elliot’s lips, so there could be no doubt of what he meant. “Give me a day or two to take in everything I know now, just so I can make sense of the mix of two lots of memories. We’ll talk properly then, okay?”

  Elliot hesitated, as if uncertain over what had just happened, but then he nodded. “Of course. I suppose you’re feeling a bit confused by it all right now?”

  “More than a bit.”

  “All right.”

  They both put some more space between them as he tried to get his feelings under control. It wouldn’t be fair to Elliot to rush this, not when Fal had only just broken up with Callie and his emotions were all over the place. He needed to keep Elliot close to him, though, and Elliot seemed in no more of a hurry to leave than Farlden was to let him out of his sight.

  After having moment to take in the fact that they were here together in the changed reality they had created, Farlden said, “Now that we saw for ourselves what happened, do you think our magic might be able to fix Barve’s mind?”

  Elliot frowned as he considered the question, his expression altering from lover to colleague. Fal didn’t want any formality between them but he could understand why Elliot needed it, when Fal hadn’t been able to talk about the future of their relationship yet.

  “I don’t know,” Elliot said in response. “It’s possible that we could use what we know to show him what the information he saw meant. Not today, though. I’m weakened by the strength of the magic we experienced and we might find that more than two of us are needed to get through to him. That’s assuming it will work and I’m just not sure.”

  “Yeah. The whole thing nearly wrecked me too.”

  “It was terrifying.”

  “So that’s who Time is.”

  Elliot laughed. “I thought I’d met some intimidating people in my life but Time is in an entirely different league. You felt it, didn’t you? That Time had an intelligence of a nature I can’t even put into words?”

  “Yeah, I definitely felt that. The whole experience makes me wonder how any of us imagined we knew enough about the way the world works to try to change reality.”

  “I know what you mean.” Elliot put the chair the right way up and sat in it, resting his arms on his knees as if he was exhausted. “I felt pretty tiny compared to Time and I got a glimpse of the universe in a way that made me realise that all the knowledge I’ve gained in my life is a drop of sand in the most vast of deserts.”

  “I wonder how much the Izients know in comparison. I hope it’s enough.”

  “To fix the problems in Time?”

  “Yeah. We really messed up.”

  Elliot thought of Barve and the ghosts. “I know. I still don’t believe we had a choice, though. Would you really rather we hadn’t made the attempt, knowing what you do now about how Neans and magic users were treated?”

  “No. You’re right.”

  Accepting this made Farlden feel less guilty over the existence of the ghosts. Now that he remembered being responsible for the change to reality, though, he was determined to find a way to put things right.

  Chapter Thirty

  TCHAFFI AND nearly a dozen more Izients came from the other earth dimension to help Dervyl’s team perform magic to try to see the problem that Time had shown Elliot and Farlden the previous day. As they appeared through the shimmering doorway to that other realm, Elliot greeted Tchaffi warmly, glad for the extra help since his mind still felt raw from what he and Farlden had experienced.

  Farlden came over to greet Tchaffi too, letting her know that he had regained his memories, while Elliot watched him and smiled at the knowledge that this was his Fal again, who remembered their time at Uni and after they left; who knew their every kiss, argument, good idea and bad. He could see that having a flood of new memories of a past life would be overwhelming to Farlden but he hoped that when they talked about their relationship, as Farlden had suggested, everything could go back to how it used to be between them.

  He wanted to be re-introduced to Fal’s parents and – with some trepidation at the idea – to have Fal meet his own family. He wanted the two of them to have the chance to go on proper dates and holidays together. He had missed being close to Fal so much and, after everything they had both suffered, Elliot desperately wanted a lifetime of happiness with him.

  Dervyl called out for their attention. “We need to understand what is wrong with this timeline before we can sort out the problem, so that is the first step of what we intend to do now. If we see an easy solution we can then use our magic today to put our mistake right.”

  Elliot thought how good it would be to have the ghost problem dealt with; to be able to forget about it and concentrate on better things. Just the idea of it felt like the lifting of a burden.

  They all sat down in a rough circle on cushions on the floor, the new Izients as well as Farlden, Abbrin, Mosrra, Nariss, Al and him, some of them holding hands to make more of a magical connection. The rest of their team – Callie, Amy and Lila who were keeping an eye on Barve – stood and watched from the side of the room that was next to the door. Those without magic could pull anyone out of the link who seemed to be in danger but Elliot strongly hoped that wouldn’t be necessary. Amy couldn’t join them as her ability was to stop magic being used, which was the last thing they wanted.

  He wanted to reach out for Farlden’s hand but decided that it wouldn’t be a kind thing to do in front of Callie. It was more than enough to have Fal by his side, caring about Elliot again. He closed his eyes and reached out with his magic. He could feel the power of the minds around him in a more detailed way than ever before and realised that yesterday’s experience had changed him, opening a door in his mind that he had not previously known how to access.

  The different forms of magic merged and they saw Time. Elliot felt a jolt of fear, reliving nearly losing his mind, but he forced himself to breathe slowly and the panic receded. They had been looking for a problem in the past before, from the change to reality, but now they let Time flow past the world they knew now and, all at once, they could see it. It was like a strand out of place, linking present and future in a way that wasn’t right, causing an overlap between them.

  Elliot felt Dervyl’s wish for them to stop and he opened his eyes, the flow of magic around him fading away.

  “Did you find out what’s wrong?” Lila asked.

  “Yes,” Dervyl said, “but I could not see a clear solution.”

  “How did it happen?” Abbrin demanded, glaring at Dervyl. “You made a disastrous mistake in changing reality to have caused this.”

  “That’s not fair,” Farlden objected. “All Izients voted on whether or not to change reality and you decided to go ahead. My people wanted it too. You can’t blame Dervyl for it.”

  “She was in charge of performing the magic, which clearly went wrong,” Abbrin said, folding his arms.

  “I was equally in control of the magic,” Tchaffi said, looking minute compared to those around her but also serene. “I do not believe any of us made a mistake. We were doing magic on an unprecedented scale and it produced results we could not have predicted.”

  “That is a convenient excuse,” Abbrin said Elliot saw some of the Izients shoot him shocked glances while Mosrra, who sat next to him, looked as if she wanted to move away.

  “Enough,” Dervyl said, authority in her tone but no anger. “Izients do not argue like this as it has no benefit. I must go and brief the Prime Minister on what we have learned so that he can speak to the other world leaders. I suggest that those who live in the other earth dimension return there for now and that everyone focuses on discovering a solution to the issue.”

  She got to her feet and everyone else did the same, small conversations getting started. Elliot saw Abbrin try to talk to Mosrra but she didn’t seem comfortable with him after his display of anger. She shook her head and walked away, leaving him standing in the office, looking more bad-tempered t
han usual.

  Elliot turned his gaze to the Izients from the other dimension and had an idea. He nudged Farlden and said, “Let’s see if Tchaffi will stay to help us try to cure Barve.”

  Fal nodded, eyes lighting up. “Yeah, fantastic.”

  They walked over to her and she turned towards them with a smile.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  THEY BROUGHT Mosrra in to help them, at Tchaffi’s suggestion, and sat down together on the floor of a spare office in a tight circle. Barve was with them, still muttering bizarre comments that partly made sense now that Farlden knew what his brother had experienced. Farlden held his brother’s hands to stop Barve wandering away or hurting himself and he hoped with everything in him that he would soon get his brother back, the way he had been before: good-natured, kind and trusting. Barve was his best friend as well as his family, someone who had always been beside him, and not being able to talk to Barve or get his advice had left a giant gap in Fal’s life. His parents and extended family were devastated by the loss too and the knowledge that the ghosts’ presence in this world was partly his own fault gnawed at his conscience. Farlden needed to take Barve home to the rest of his family, sane and cheerful as if this had never happened. This had to work.

  He closed his eyes and focused on his brother, feeling magic from the others join with his. The strength of the group’s combined skills filled him and let them touch Barve’s mind. The chaos there was like a whirlwind and he could feel Mosrra and Tchaffi mentally recoil while he and Elliot, who knew the two realities Barve was trying to reconcile, having experienced it themselves, felt a grief-stricken understanding.

  They began to try to put the mass of knowledge into some kind of order to let his brother heal but Barve himself was working against them, pushing away their minds and Farlden got a sudden image of the ghosts and what they had done to him. Barve was terrified that the pain and overload of information that the creatures had caused was happening again.

  It’s me, Farlden tried to tell him but he could tell that Barve couldn’t understand.

  He felt Elliot try to soothe Barve and gently show him the two different realities. Farlden held his breath, hoping it would help Barve make sense of his own clashing memories, but his brother’s mind was too damaged and all they were managing to do was scare him and make him retreat further inside his own brain.

  Farlden tried once more to get Barve to recognise who he was – sending out love and memories of the two of them – but his brother couldn’t cope with any more memories. If they tried anything more, they might destroy Barve’s mind completely.

  They pulled away and broke the magical link.

  “It didn’t work,” Farlden said, feeling the tug on his hands as Barve tried to get free of him. He let go and Barve crawled back, away from them all, curling up and hiding his face in his hands. It wasn’t just that they hadn’t helped Barve but now he feared them too and seeing that broke Farlden’s heart.

  “We can try again,” Mosrra offered, sympathy in her black eyes.

  “No,” he said as the loss of the brother he had grown up with hit him again. “It would just upset him more.”

  “It might be possible to suppress the new knowledge he has been given, or erase it altogether,” Tchaffi said. “I can speak to Izients who have different kinds of magic.”

  “I don’t think that would work,” Farlden said, rubbing at his eyes and watching as his brother rocked himself back and forth. “I had a couple of flashes of memory of the other timeline even before the ghosts touched me. If we wipe out those memories while his brain is still trying to remember them on some level ... Well, I’m not a psychiatrist but...” He tailed off.

  “I was not aware of memories of that timeline returning,” Tchaffi said, the wrinkles on her face deepening as she frowned. “You are right that that changes what we can do. I will give it more thought.”

  “Surely it’s possible that Barve might get better when we fix the problem that’s bringing the ghosts here?” Elliot said.

  “It is a possibility,” Tchaffi said.

  Elliot turned to Farlden and put a warm hand over his, lacing their fingers together, giving reassurance and taking the edge off Farlden’s unhappiness just when he most needed it. “We won’t give up,” Elliot promised.

  Farlden nodded and looked over at his brother, who was now facing away from them, leaning against a wall, lost in his own mind.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “I’M SO sorry that our magic didn’t help Barve,” Elliot said the next evening as he and Farlden sat in a London pub together. People laughed and chatted around them, lively and animated, while Fal was still hollow with a grief so strong he could hardly cope with it. He had left his brother at home with his father today and he could see from Barve’s expression that he was glad to see Fal go.

  “He flinches away when I go near him now,” Farlden said, turning a bottle of beer round and round in his hand, his body turned towards Elliot on the bench they shared. “He associates me with the pain in his head.”

  Elliot reached out and took his hand and Farlden held it tightly. It wasn’t fair that he had got his memories back when Barve was so damaged from what the ghosts had shown him. Remembering his past with Elliot had filled corners of Farlden’s heart that he hadn’t even known were empty and Fal had never needed his support so much as he did right now.

  There was a part of Farlden that was terrified that his brother would never recover. Having seen just how broken Barve’s mind was and having already failed to help him with magic, Farlden’s worst fear was that this was permanent. If so, he didn’t know how he would bear to live with it.

  “It must be weird for you being back at home with your parents after living at Uni,” he said, needing to think about something else before he lost it and started sobbing.

  Elliot accepted the change of subject without comment. “I’m closer to Mum than I’ve been since I was a kid, which is great. Of course, she doesn’t have a clue about everything she did to help us in the other timeline, but it still feels like a step forward. I feel like I’ve outgrown living with my parents, though. So much has happened that it’s difficult to bite my tongue when they treat me like a child or try to make decisions for me.”

  “I know what you mean. I love my parents and I need to be with them to help look after Barve but, now I have both sets of memories, I definitely don’t feel like a kid anymore. We risked so much and nearly died to change Time and get to this point and now it’s falling apart.”

  “We’ll find a way to correct the damage to Time and, if that doesn’t cure the people touched by ghosts, we’ll then put all our energy into that. I still believe the magic to change reality had to be done.”

  Farlden thought about the magic users chained up at the Magic Control Department and the way his people had always been controlled by Sapiens, denied of basic human rights in that other timeline. “Yeah, me too.” He squeezed Elliot’s hand. “I’m really glad we’ve found each other again.”

  Elliot’s eyes lit up. “So am I. You’re everything I need.”

  Farlden felt the pull of the past, all the moments of them getting to know each other and falling in love and Elliot’s constant support while they were on the run. “I’m sorry I didn’t remember you at first. I know how much that hurt you.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “It wasn’t Callie’s either,” Farlden pointed out. He missed her in a way he knew Elliot wouldn’t understand, his memories of his relationship with Callie more fresh than what he had shared with Elliot, although that was more intense, especially the time they had spent alone, relying on each other, as the government hunted them down.

  “I know. She’s not the person she was in the other reality and, even if she were, she did speak to my mum and try to help put right the damage she caused. I could have got over the past earlier but seeing you and Callie together...”

  “I know.” Farlden couldn’t imagine how he would have felt if he�
��d been the one who remembered the past and Elliot, with no memory of it, was dating someone else. He wouldn’t have handled it in the quiet, polite way Elliot had: Farlden would have yelled and raged and made the situation ten times worse.

  “The timing isn’t great – it never really is for us – but could we go on a proper date on Friday and spend some time together away from work and everyone else?”

  “Yeah. That sounds good.” More than good. Farlden wanted to say more but suddenly felt awkward. So much had changed in their lives but they could take it gradually. What mattered was that they were together again. He leaned forward and kissed Elliot, letting the action say what he didn’t have the words for.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “HOW IS Barve?” Callie asked Farlden. Barve had not been to the office in several days and she missed him. She had always found him easy to get along with and she hated to think about what he was currently enduring.

  Farlden grimaced and his eyes became haunted. “He’s no better. I hate seeing him like that.”

  “I wish there was something I could do.”

  “Thanks. We’ll find a way to cure him – we have to – and my dad is happy to stay at home and look after him until we do. It’s the best we can do for now.”

  She could see from his expression that he was clinging to the hope of finding a way to help Barve and trying to push aside the pain he must feel at seeing his brother in such a terrible state. She knew how determined he was and she also knew how much he loved Barve. She hoped more than anything that their team could find a way to help Barve and the others affected by the ghosts.

  She and Farlden still had work to do together and, after an awkward conversation where they both checked if the other person was able to do that, they had agreed to carry on as normal. Or as close to normal as things could be between them now. They were in their usual office – the one where they had all been attacked by ghosts and Barve had been hurt – trying to do research on their laptops. The Izients had studied time for thousands of years and had written down what they had learnt so Dervyl had asked the two of them to go through what was available on computer, searching out any references to changing Time.