Adventures of Elegy Flynn

by Chambers, V. J.

  They looked at each other, shrugged, and left through the door they'd come in.

  Immediately, the hospital room shifted back into the bar. The beds disappeared. The walls weren't white anymore, but instead exposed brick, covered in pictures of bands from the 1980s. My nurse's uniform melted back into my regular clothes. I turned to look at the place I'd left the syringe, which had not shifted back to my rum runner. Not exactly, anyway. Instead, it was a syringe filled with orangey liquid—probably a rum runner syringe. I picked it up and set it down on the bar. “You're going to have to make me another drink.”

  “Yeah, sure, in a second,” said Elegy. She was standing over the bed of the new volur, peeling aside the blanket. “This one's got really nice arms.”

  “And you told me to stop gawking.” I went back to the bed, lifting the other side of the blanket. Elegy was right. He was wearing a hospital gown, but his biceps were exposed and they bulged quite nicely. He had fine dark hair on his forearms. It looked soft. But I figured it was pretty creepy to start stroking a guy who was asleep, so I didn't check. “He's very nice looking.”

  Elegy dropped the edge of the blanket. “Don't get any ideas, Catherine.” She started back for the bar.

  “Ideas?” I said, following her.

  Elegy settled behind the bar. She picked up my rum runner syringe, eyed it, and then tossed it in the garbage. “I remember you saying you were going to flirt with volurs. You're probably thinking that this one's unattached, so he's fair game. Think again.”

  “Elegy Flynn, you cannot treat the volurs like your personal harem of men. You're already sleeping with two of them, and you're in love with my brother—”

  “Who I'm forbidden from seeing,” she said.

  “That's enough for you,” I said. “Meanwhile, I have no one. You can't stop me from flirting with this one.”

  “I'm only trying to save you embarrassment,” said Elegy, getting out a fresh glass and filling it with ice. “Once this volur sees me, he's not going to look at you twice. No guy would pick you over me.”

  I sat down on a bar stool, glaring at her. “That is not true. I'm pretty and relatively thin and funny, and there's no reason a volur wouldn't like me.”

  Elegy poured some rum into my glass. “But I'm a Fate. You're only human. Sorry, Cathy, but I'm simply in a league above you, and that's all there is to it.”

  “You are so full of yourself, it's ridiculous.” Sometimes, being stuck in a bar with a goddess of Fate was maddening. Elegy was not exactly the poster child for good manners.

  “I'm not.” She set a new rum runner in front of me. “I'm just telling you not to get your hopes up. Trying to compete with me would only set you up for disappointment.”

  I took a sip of my drink. “We'll see.”

  She sighed. “I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, Catherine. This is the way it is. Be reasonable.”

  I sucked yummy juicy rum goodness into my mouth and seethed. “My boobs are bigger than yours for God's sake.”

  She looked from my chest to her own. Her breasts swelled a little, sticking out against her white checkered t-shirt. “Not anymore.”

  “Not fair,” I said. Elegy could change her appearance, just like she could change the appearance of the bar.

  “See?” she said. “That's what I'm trying to tell you. It's not going to be fair. I'm a Fate. You're not. Give it up.”

  I stole a glance back at the new volur. He was so gorgeous. Give it up? Not likely.

  As I was looking at him, he stirred on the hospital bed. His eyes fluttered. When they opened completely, he pushed himself into a sitting position. “Where am I?”

  “Oh!” said Elegy. “You're awake.”

  The volur was huddling on the bed, his blankets clenched in his powerful hands, glancing around himself with fear in his eyes. “I really have gone crazy, haven't I?”

  “Not at all,” I said, going over to him. “It's fine, really. You're in a time-traveling bar. Nothing crazy about that, is there?” Well, on second thought, maybe I could have picked something a little more reassuring to say.

  Elegy was right behind me, carrying some folded up fabric. “You'll probably want some actual clothes, won't you?”

  The man raised his blanket as if he could use it to protect himself from us. “Who are you?”

  “My name's Catherine,” I said.

  “She's my sidekick,” Elegy said. I glared at her. I hated it when she called me that. “I'm Elegy Flynn. I'm a goddess of Fate. And you are?”

  The man began to mumble to himself incoherently. He shook his head back and forth, twisting the blanket in his hands.

  Elegy set down the folded cloth on the bed in front of him. “This must be a shock,” she said.

  How was Elegy getting all the conversing in? If I wanted this guy to like me, I was going to have to be the one that soothed him. “See, you're a volur,” I said. “That means you're going to be fixing time paradoxes.”

  “Really, Cathy,” said Elegy, “perhaps we could work up to that.” She smiled at the volur. “There's a bathroom back there.” She pointed. “Take those clothes and get dressed, and I'll make you a drink. A good drink makes everything better. What would you like?”

  “Beer?” said the volur, still looking freaked out.

  “Lager? Stout? Pale Ale? Hefeweizen?” asked Elegy.

  “Um...”

  “Well, don't worry about it yet,” said Elegy. “You can decide after you get dressed.”

  The man picked up the bundle of fabric and cautiously got out of his hospital bed. He was a little shaky on his feet, so he staggered a little as he walked to the bathroom. The back of his hospital gown gaped a little. He had a very nice butt.

  “Don't even think about it,” Elegy hissed at me.

  The bathroom door closed after the volur.

  “I don't see why you can't spare one stupid volur for me,” I said.

  Elegy headed back for the bar. “Fine. You can have Kellen.”

  “Kellen wants you. And I don't see him that way.”

  “They all want me,” said Elegy.

  I went back to my rum runner. “Bullshit.”

  I sulked over my drink until the volur came out of the bathroom. He was wearing a white collared shirt with suspenders and a pair of gray slacks. I didn't remember the clothes that Elegy had given him being gray. Weird.

  “I suppose there's a reason why these clothes changed into something different than what they were the minute I put them on?” said the volur. The terror in his eyes had gotten worse, not better. “A reason other than the fact that I've lost my mind, that is.”

  “It's fate fabric,” said Elegy. “It shifts to be whatever you need it to be. When you travel through time, you'll look like you're wearing clothing from the proper time period. Right now, it's shifted into the kind of clothes you feel comfortable in.”

  I remembered Kellen saying something about this, actually. I wished I had fate fabric clothes. I didn't need them, because I never left the bar, but Elegy's clothes were all completely weird and horrible, and even though she said I could borrow anything I wanted, I never wore her clothes except when I put my own clothes in the laundry.

  The man threw himself into a bar stool next to me. “I am insane.”

  I put my hand on his. “It's a lot to take in at first, I know. I didn't believe it either, not right away.”

  “You're not insane,” Elegy said, filling a pint glass from the tap with a golden beer. She slid the beer over to the new volur. “You're special.”

  The man took a drink of the beer. “This is good,” he said.

  “I told you a good drink would make things better,” said Elegy. She leaned her elbows on the bar. “So, what's your name?”

  “Gabriel,” said the new volur. “Gabriel Cyrus.”

  “That's a nice name,” I said. And it was. I wasn't saying it only to ingratiate myself to him. Truthfully, it was pretty hard to flirt with someone who was confused about his sanity.

>   “Gabriel,” said Elegy. “Recently, I guess you witnessed something very strange. The sky probably changed colors. Things started floating around or disappearing or sprouting wings when they weren't supposed to.”

  Gabriel's eyes lit up in recognition. “Yes. They said I was crazy, and they locked me up.”

  “You witnessed a time paradox,” I said. “It happens to all volurs. You're not crazy.” I was determined to try to explain something here. Elegy didn't get to do all of it.

  Gabriel took a big gulp of beer. “A time paradox? I'm sorry, that sounds pretty crazy.”

  “No,” I said. “It's the universe's normal reaction to things that don't make sense within the fabric of time. See, if someone from the future goes to the past and tries to change something, then if that thing changes, when they get to the future, they don't actually have any reason to back to the past, so then they don't go back to the past, but then they don't change it, so it creates this messed-up loop, which doesn't make any sense and then the world doesn't make any sense.”

  Gabriel furrowed his brow and drank more beer.

  “Thank you for that very clear explanation, Cathy,” Elegy said.

  I flipped her off.

  “There's time travel?” said Gabriel.

  “Yep,” said Elegy. “And it makes a big mess of things. If someone creates a time paradox, it's up to people like us to fix things back to normal. You're a volur because you remember the time paradox. Most people who witness one don't. And that means that you're destined to be a person who sets the right the fabric of time and keeps the universe running smoothly.”

  “Really?” said Gabriel. “Me?”

  “You,” said Elegy, smiling at him.

  Well, she'd done a really good job of making him feel better. I'd pretty much crashed and burned. I sulked into my rum runner. Maybe Elegy was right, and I'd never stand a chance against her. But I looked at Gabriel Cyrus firm jaw and his straight nose, and I decided I had to keep trying. He was so pretty.

  Gabriel ran his finger around the edge of his beer glass. “But that sounds absolutely crazy.”

  Elegy shrugged. “Either you're crazy, or you're a hero who's been chosen to save the world from certain doom. Which would you rather believe?”

  “I'd rather believe the truth,” said Gabriel.

  “Good,” said Elegy, “because the truth is that you're a volur. And I have a job for you.”

  “Already?” I said. “But he just got here. Aren't you going to give him more time to acclimate to all of this?”

  “What better way to prove to him that it's all true than to send him back in time?” said Elegy.

  “I'm going back in time?” said Gabriel.

  “Absolutely,” said Elegy. “To 1895. Someone's trying to save Nikola Tesla, and you have to make sure he dies.”

  Gabriel got up off the bar stool. “You want me to kill someone?”

  “No,” said Elegy. “He's supposed to die. If he doesn't die, there's a time paradox. You remember what those are like, right? Maybe it isn't fair that he dies, but that's what's supposed to happen, so that's what you have to make sure happens. We don't make decisions about how the universe is supposed to work. We simply preserve it.”

  Gabriel folded his arms over his chest. “I don't know. If someone's going to the trouble to go back in time to save this man's life, wouldn't it benefit people if he lived?”

  I had this one. “Maybe,” I said. “But if there's a time paradox, then no one gets to live, not really. The one you witnessed only stopped because a volur like you set things right.”

  Gabriel bit his lip, looking back and forth between Elegy and me. “Maybe I am crazy,” he said. “But all right. I'll do it, I guess. Where do I start?”

  Elegy grinned at him. “Good man!”

  * * *

  Gabriel came back into the bar, dragging along a tiny woman with long, frizzy red hair. She was wearing a skirt and a blouse which seemed similar in style to the kind of clothing women wore in the late 1800s, but they were both constructed of shimmery metallic fabric. Obviously, she was from the future and had tried not to stick out, but ended up looking completely out of place. She didn't look happy with Gabriel at all.

  “Well, I intercepted this woman just like you said,” said Gabriel, “and I stopped her from finding and warning Mr. Tesla about the fire, but she's not very pleased about it.”

  The woman ripped herself away from Gabriel. “You can be assured I'm not pleased,” she said. “I am Dr. Tiffany Rogenze, and it's at some risk to myself that I've come here to right this wrong that was perpetrated on Tesla. I won't be manhandled or taken anywhere against my will, thank you very much.”

  “Do you want a drink?” asked Elegy.

  Dr. Rogenze sniffed.

  “Maybe a glass of wine?” asked Elegy.

  Dr. Rogenze approached the bar and slammed her hands down on it. “Do you know anything about Nikola Tesla?”

  “Quite a lot, actually,” said Elegy.

  “I've never heard of him,” I said.

  “Exactly,” said Dr. Rogenze, pointing at me. “He was a brilliant man who was silenced before his time.”

  “Shit happens,” said Elegy. “About that drink. We have lots of other selections besides wine, as you can see.”

  “I don't want a drink,” said Dr. Rogenze. “I want to save Tesla's life.”

  “Well,” said Elegy, “that's out of the question, unfortunately.”

  “Do you know anything about electricity?” Dr. Rogenze asked me.

  “Um...” I said.

  “Tesla discovered alternating current,” said Dr. Rogenze.

  All of us stared at her blankly.

  “Certainly you've heard of AC and DC,” said Dr. Rogenze.

  “The band?” I said. “Elegy probably likes them. She's really into eighties music.”

  “Alternating current and direct current,” said Dr. Rogenze. “He was a brilliant scientist who wanted to harness the power of the sun to give us free and clean energy, and if he hadn't been killed in that fire, he would have changed the world for the better. Everything would be different. But instead, he was silenced, and his talent wasted. I can't stand by and let that happen.” She slammed a fist down on the bar for emphasis.

  Gabriel made a pained face. “This is what I've been dealing with ever since I met up with her.”

  “Do you know anything the fabric of time?” Elegy asked her.

  “I've used time portals for research many times,” said Dr. Rogenze.

  “Right,” said Elegy. “For research. You didn't interfere, did you?”

  “I don't see why that's important,” said Dr. Rogenze.

  “You're trying to interfere now,” said Elegy. “And I can't let you do that. See, the fabric of time is set to go a certain way. You can't change it.”

  “I most certainly can,” said Dr. Rogenze. “And I will.”

  “I tried to explain to her about paradoxes,” said Gabriel, “but I got really confused, and I don't think I got through to her. Maybe if you said it again, Catherine, but go slower this time, so that I could—”

  “If time is set,” said Dr. Rogenze, “then who sets it exactly?”

  “The Fates do,” said Elegy. “I'm a Fate.” She pointed at herself.

  Dr. Rogenze chuckled nastily. “You expect me to believe in superstitious claptrap like that?”

  “You don't have to,” I said. “Just think about it. If you change history right now, then when you go back to the future, you won't need to change it, because it will be already be changed. So, then it'll be like two things happened at once, and that doesn't make any sense at all, does it?”

  Dr. Rogenze raised her eyebrows. “You don't make any sense.”

  “Don't listen to Catherine,” said Elegy. “Think of it this way. When you save Tesla, the you in the future who wants to save Tesla will no longer have any reason to want to save Tesla, because he'll already be saved, right?”

  “There's no scientifi
c reason why I can't save Tesla,” said Dr. Rogenze. “I won't listen to this.”

  “It's a logical reason,” said Elegy. “Think it through for a second. If you change the past, you change yourself. If yourself is changed, you won't change the past. The universe can't compute that.”

  “He doesn't deserve to die,” said Dr. Rogenze.

  “Who does?” said Elegy. “That's not the point. You can't save Tesla, and that's the end of it, okay?”

  “Just watch me,” said Dr. Rogenze. She took off running for the door of the bar.

  Gabriel went after her, but the door slammed in his face. He started to open it. “I'll get her back.”

  “Don't bother,” said Elegy. “We're going to have to try again. If you go after her now, we'll never convince her not to do it. We'll have to intercept her from the beginning again. But you can't go out at that point again, because you'll cross your own timeline.” Elegy got out a shot glass. “We'll have to get another volur.”

  “Why can't I cross my timeline?” Gabriel asked.

  “I don't understand this either,” I said. “I've never understood this.”

  Elegy poured herself a shot of whiskey and downed it. “Okay,” she said, grimacing. “Right now, Gabriel has already gone into that timeline and interacted with Dr. Rogenze. If Gabriel goes back into that timeline, then there will be two Gabriels at once and that will fry his brain. They'll try to merge with each other, and it will be completely horrific.”

  “Why?” said Gabriel.

  “In time travel movies, people do that all the time,” I said.

  Elegy poured herself another shot. “You just can't. Trust me.” She downed the second shot. “I think we can pick up Lizzy.”

  “Lizzy?” said Gabriel.

  “She's another volur like you,” I told him.

  “She's in the twenty-first century,” said Elegy. “We'll be there in a jiff.”

  Gabriel sat down at the bar next to me. “I am so confused.”

  “Yeah, that's pretty typical for being around here,” I said cheerily.

  The door the bar opened, and in walked Elizabeth Peters. The last time I'd seen her, I'd found out that she had an affair with Shakespeare before she became a volur. Lizzy sat down on the other side of me in one of the bar stools. “Hi, Cathy. Hi, Gabriel.”