They spent the next fifteen minutes walking to the beach, and Will climbed atop a small box to address the crowd. “Thank you, all of you, for coming. I called this meeting to alert everyone to the arrival of two new members of our group. Like the Shadow, they will not reside here on a regular basis, as they will focus on continuing the good work they’ve been doing Outside over the past many years. But as one of them bears an uncanny resemblance to one of our number who has recently died, I wanted to be sure that all of you know that you aren’t seeing a ghost or someone returned from the dead.”
He gestured at Eva. “First, all of you have heard the story of the founding of the Aliomenti, of the first group who worked tirelessly to build the first fortunes, who sought without success to unlock the secrets of what we know today as Energy. A terrible tragedy occurred, and in the public version of the story, only three survived. As the Aliomenti tell the story, those three survivors were able to develop Energy skills and build the Aliomenti into an international commercial force. But the story isn’t accurate. What Arthur didn’t know is that a member of that first group, a woman he thought dead, actually survived and left before the tragedy occurred. We’d lost track of each other, and I long feared she was dead. I recently learned I was wrong in that belief, and I’m thrilled to report that after years apart, we were reunited only a few days ago. I’d like to present Eva to the group.”
There were gasps of shock. The history of the Aliomenti was studied by all members of the Alliance, and those studies included the “prehistory” tales of Will, Arthur, Adam, Eva, the Traders, and the lessons learned from their failed efforts to find and develop the mysterious Energy all Aliomenti and Alliance members used today. Eva was something of a folk hero; her trading techniques, which did not require Energy to work, were studied by those heading Outside for commercial sales roles. There was the legend of Eva standing up for the weak and oppressed, which many Alliance used as a metaphor for their own efforts to lift humanity to ever-greater heights.
The legend was real, and now she was here.
Cheers erupted from the group, and those standing nearby offered handshakes, friendly claps on the shoulder, and even a few hugs. Eva looked stunned. Her last association with a group of people had been nothing like this. She’d been ostracized, isolated, and banished. Arthur and his personal bodyguard, Maynard, had literally stabbed her in the back, leaving her for dead. Will had been able to intervene and save Eva’s life, but the experience had scarred and soured her. Her long isolation was quite understandable given that experience.
And yet for the third time in only a few days, Will watched Eva's eyes water once more. He wondered if the woman’s tough outer shell was finally cracking.
Once the crowd had finished their exuberant welcome for Eva, they turned back to Will, who held his hand up for quiet. “Nearly thirty years ago, the Shadow and I returned here to report a great tragedy. We had lost Adam, and buried him here in the Cavern the following day. It was a difficult time for all of us. As he was dying, Adam gave me two messages. He first told me to find Eva, and at long last we were able to do just that.” A cheer rose again, and Eva actually blushed. Will chuckled. Even in the memory of that sad day, they were finding the good news to cheer. “But Adam told me something else that day, something that was impossible. Stubborn though I might be, I think I’ve finally learned something these past few days. There is no such thing as impossible. You see, Adam told me that he had a son.”
Gasps of shock rose from the crowd. Many of them had children, but those children were born to those who had not yet consumed ambrosia when the children entered the world. Adam, a man over nine hundred years old, was not one who’d avoided ambrosia.
They’d all realized the implications, just as Will had when he actually met that son.
“I thought that was impossible. But that was before I actually met Adam’s son, who is also called Adam. I wanted to tell all of you this before he comes ashore, for I will tell you now that the resemblance between father and son is striking.” He watched the shocked faces for a moment. “Let me go get him now.”
Will teleported into the pod, where Adam stood waiting. “Ready to go meet everyone?”
Adam took a deep breath. “I suppose I am.”
Will put a hand on his shoulder and teleported them back to the beach.
The crowd gasped in shock once more, but once they’d collected themselves, the roaring welcome for young Adam was just as effusive as that for Eva. Adam looked uncomfortable with the attention.
The crowds dispersed a while later, and the four of them returned to Will and Hope’s home to talk.
Will glanced at Eva. “You’d mentioned that there were several things you would tell me when you could talk to both me and Hope at the same time. Something about this.” He tugged on the chain around his neck. “Can you tell us now?”
Eva nodded. “Centuries ago, during our long isolation from each other, I decided to return to the Ambrosia forest. We had figured out that he knew the secret to reverse the effects of ambrosia, at least temporarily, and I was determined to learn those secrets directly from the source. After a time, it became obvious to me that we were unlikely to find the answers on our own, and that such research was unnecessary when we knew of one who knew the answers we sought. When I arrived at the forest, I was not subtle. I entered the forest, located Ambrose, turned us both invisible, and floated both of us several hundred feet into the air. He was terrified. I told him that he needed to tell me the secrets of reversing the effects of the fruit. He was motivated to do so, and he did as I asked. The secret is blood.”
Will blinked. “Blood?” The words were a shock. They’d been looking for changes to the walls and structure of the cells forming the physical body. If the changes occurred to the blood of the body, their efforts would never reveal a cure.
Eva nodded. “You see, the fruit changes our blood, and the blood is responsible for delivering the nutrients to every cell in our body. When cells divide, they lose a little bit of life each time, and eventually that leads to aging and death. The fruit stops that loss and, as best I can determine, it can even repair what has been lost during the process in the past. That is why people who are older who take the fruit will start to look younger over time. That is how the fruit leads to immortality. When the fruit reaches reproductive cells, it causes the cells to repel each other. That is why the consumers of the fruit cannot reproduce.”
Will was stunned. It seemed so simple, and yet questions remained.
“How did he reverse it, though?” Hope asked. “I guess that makes sense, but I don’t understand how you undo the effects.”
“Blood remains the answer,” Eva replied. “You must replace the blood altered by the ambrosia with blood that is unaltered. But it cannot be just any blood. It must be the blood of a genetic match. The blood of one parent works well, the blood of both mixed together works best. Ambrose was able to use the blood of his parents for his first few outside excursions, for they were still alive at the time. But eventually his parents died; Ambrose, a selfish man, did not share the fruit with them once he realized the importance of keeping their blood pure. In later years, he found that the blood of one’s children could also work, though the process did not work with every child’s blood. Ambrose would obtain blood from his long-lost adult children to enable his next visit to a village to further continue his line, and would obtain that blood before introducing his progeny to the fruit. The system was self-perpetuating. It is the reason he continued to father more children through the centuries, for they provided him with continual supplies of pure blood.”
“That’s disgusting,” Hope whispered, and Will winced at the depravity of the man whose name adorned the fruit so many revered.
Will thought of something else. “How did he replace the blood in his body, though?”
Eva made a face. “He drank it.” She shivered, as did Will and Hope. “In this era, though, you would be able to do a transfusion instead.”
“So, we just need to get some of Arthur’s blood for Hope and we’re good to go, then?” Will was pleased. He himself didn’t need a cure because, despite his original beliefs, their issues in bringing Josh into the world were due to the ambrosia impacting Hope, not due to any problems with him. If they could get Arthur’s blood…
“That is not exactly correct,” Eva replied. “Ignoring the logistical challenges, Arthur’s blood wouldn’t work. You see…”
“Arthur’s blood is currently tainted by ambrosia,” Hope said, the sad realization dawning on her face. “Even if we got the blood… it wouldn’t do me any good. And since Mother is dead…”
“So we’re back to where we started, then?” Will felt his heart sink. They’d learned the secret, only to realize that the cure still wasn’t available to them. “And what do we tell all of the others? They’re likely in the same predicament. Parents won’t be alive to provide the blood for their children—or they took the ambrosia after their children were born, not realizing what they were doing.” He shook his head. “What can we do?”
“You have an eternity to answer that question,” Eva replied. “Ambrose figured out that dirty blood causes the effects, but the only method he knew to fix it was a replacement effort using clean blood from genetic matches. With the technology you have developed here, based upon the strange boat that piloted itself here with me inside… I suspect you can figure out a different way to make it work for everyone.”
Will glanced at Hope. “We don’t have an eternity to wait, though. If we don’t figure this out in the next half century or so, it won’t matter for us.”
Eva arched an eyebrow. “Predicting your own deaths, Will?”
Will shook his head. “No. Well, not exactly. Let’s just say that we have strong reasons to suspect that if we’re going to have children, the optimal time will occur in just over fifty years.”
Eva pointed at Will. “If that is true, I suggest you take a closer look at those vials Adam provided.”
Will frowned, but he pulled the chain off his neck and stared at the vials. The metal was smooth and cool, and he didn't recognize the material. But his closer examination of the vials did reveal something he’d not noticed before.
Several of the vials were marked with the letter E. The others were marked with the letter S.
“What do the letters mean?” Will asked.
“The vials are gifts from Adam,” Eva replied. “The letters represent the names of two people he wanted to help resolve the ambrosia issue. One of those people is his son.” She pointed at the vials labeled with the letter S. Young Adam’s eyes widened. “And the others are for a woman he always thought of as Elizabeth.” She indicated the vials with the letter E.
“But… what’s in the vials?”
“Blood,” Eva said. “Adam figured out an approach that got him clean blood he could use, and in that state, he fathered his son and saved his own clean blood to ensure his child would one day have that same chance.” She glanced at Hope. “And he also figured out a way to get blood that would enable the one he knew as Elizabeth to do the same.” She smiled at Hope, whose face morphed from shock to confusion to elation.
“Congratulations, Hope. Those vials mean that you will be able to have the child you have always desired. It was Adam’s final gift to both of you.”
XIX
Partners
1969 A.D.
Will stared at Eva. Was it possible?
Hope’s eyes widened in shock. “But that’s… how… how did he…”
Eva smiled. “Adam was many things, but never one prone to sharing his secrets. I do not know how he got that clean blood, or what he needed to do to make sure it was what you needed. But I do know that he would not have given those vials to Will had he not been certain it would work for you.” She glanced at the younger Adam. “For both of you.”
Hope looked at Will, her face full of light. “That means we need to make sure we get blood from one of your parents, and then…”
Will shook his head. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” But his face fell at her words, deep in thought, a memory struggling to reach the surface of his mind.
Eva looked chagrined. “I do not believe we can do that, unfortunately. We are fortunate that Hope still has a living parent, but as for Will…” Her eyes fell.
Will and Hope looked at each other and laughed. Eva’s eyes snapped back to them, confusion covering her face.
“Sorry, Eva,” Will said, smiling. “But after everything we’ve gone through, that part of the process is actually the easiest part to accomplish.”
Eva and Adam exchanged glances. “Are you trying to say that one of your parents is still alive?” Adam asked. “How would we get clean blood from them? Surely they must be using ambrosia themselves if they’re still living after so many centuries.”
“They’re both very much alive,” Hope said, chuckling. “And I assure you, their blood is quite clean.”
“But how?” Eva said. “That seems… impossible.”
Will arched an eyebrow. “We’ve had this conversation many times in the past few days, Eva. That word is meaningless.”
To his surprise, Eva smiled and bowed. "Touché, Will. But I fear still do not understand, there is clearly a piece of this puzzle I do not yet possess. Are your parents both members of the Aliomenti? If so, how is it that their blood is clean? They must be incredibly old.”
“Not exactly,” Will said. “As of this moment, my father is four years old, and my mother just celebrated her first birthday.”
Eva looked at him sharply, and Will watched her piece it all together. Her face lit up with shock when she finally realized the truth.
And then she laughed.
“I still don’t understand,” Adam said. “How can you explain that? How can you be nine centuries old, yet your parents are young children? What am I missing?”
"At some point in the future, the Alliance will create a machine that travels in a very different way,” Will replied. “It will not travel from one location on the planet to another. It will travel to another time.” Will looked Adam in the eye, making certain that the son of the man he’d known so long knew that Will was telling the truth. He felt Adam’s Energy circling him, looking for empathic messages to suggest that this was a strange joke. Adam found nothing of the sort.
Adam looked away as the meaning of the words began to sink in. “You’re telling me that you’re not even born yet?”
Will nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. I was born on January 7th, 1995. When I was twenty-five years old, I met a beautiful young woman named Hope.” He glanced at Hope and arched an eyebrow. “She was actually a bit older than she let on.”
“A woman never reveals her age,” Hope said, deadpan, and the room erupted in laughter.
“Four years later, our son was born,” Will continued. “Six years after that, I was attacked by the Hunters and rescued by three people with a time machine. One was my adult son. One was my adult daughter, whom I'd never met, who I never even knew to be on the way. And one of them…” He hesitated.
But Adam picked up on the cue. “One of them was… me?”
Will nodded. “I thought that man was your father. Hope and I told him the truth about my origins, and he’d worked with us to start planning the work that needs to be done to ensure everything that day occurs as it must. You see, I spent time two centuries in the future, learning about Energy and some of the technological advances of the age. And then… I was sent back to the past. Hope needed me.”
Eva stared at Will. “I never figured that out, not in all of the time we spent together. Yet it explains your advanced Energy development when we first met, and how you were able to imagine and build so many of the innovations we have seen. They were memories for you, memories you introduced into that past.”
Will nodded. “I’m not that clever. I just had the advantage of a millennium of human advancements to draw from.”
Adam looked at Hope, and then back to Will. “If you thought the third person in that group was my father… I can’t imagine how devastating his death must have been.”
Will’s head dropped. “When your father died, I believed we’d failed in our mission. But when I met you… I realized I’d had the wrong man in mind the entire time.”
Hope nodded. “It was a terrible loss, on so many levels, not the least of which was that Adam had become a great friend. But we’ve also realized that neither of us can influence events on that day in the future. Adam had agreed to oversee everything.”
Adam looked puzzled. “Why can’t you influence everything? More to the point, why can’t you just stop everything?”
Will sighed. “My experiences before being sent to the past were designed to answer questions like that, even though I didn’t realize it for quite some time. If I’d been sent directly to the past and told my mission, I wouldn’t have been prepared for the challenges I’d face. They needed time to prepare me, and there was no better time than their present—my future—to instruct me. But they also allowed me to make mistakes, to help me learn the lessons I needed to learn. One of those mistakes led to me meeting Arthur, the Hunters, and the Assassin, all in that future. They needed me to meet them, to see them all still alive and functioning, because if I hadn’t, I most certainly would have had no qualms about eliminating all of them. For some reason, some crazy reason I don’t yet understand, it’s critical that those men survive. I needed to see that, and I was enabled to see that they lived.”
Eva nodded. “I wondered for years why you did not kill Arthur and take Hope from the village. But now I understand. That must have been very difficult for you.”
Will nodded. “When they attacked me, they had no idea of Hope’s true identity. I suspect that if they’d known she could have eliminated the Assassin without breaking a sweat, they might have planned things differently. But they didn’t. And so we’ve made sure that none of them know who she truly is. It’s why she’s known here as the Shadow. Keeping both her original and current names out of the minds of the Hunters will keep them ill-prepared to deal with her, and will prevent Arthur from launching a massive search effort to find her. They didn’t know who she was that day. In fact, in that even more distant future, they made comments leading me to believe she'd died that day. Which means…”
Birth of the Alliance Page 23
