by Rain Oxford
“Is there another way in?” I asked. “A window or something?”
The little boy shook his head. I needed a way to keep the inside from collapsing while I was on the outside. Or I needed another way inside.
“Can you send your energy in there to hold the structure together?” Mordon asked.
I shook my head. “I can control things with my energy, but raw energy isn’t physically strong. I could try to affect the gravity, but I have no idea how and if there’s a bunch of debris, we don’t want it flying around people. I think I could flash in there, but I might flash myself into the wall or something.”
“Can you not direct your magic to put you somewhere safe?”
“Yes, I can, and I would appear here. Oh, I have a really stupid idea,” I said, not looking at him. I pulled out the apple. “An hour or so backwards and we should be able to warn everyone out of there.”
“And then you create a paradox. Vretial warned us that paradoxes were bad. We already have enough trouble with the balance.”
“But they could die.”
He turned me to look at him. “They are mortal. They will die one day. You cannot risk the universe to give them a little more time. There is another way; there always is with you. What would your doctor do?”
“Fix his bowtie,” I said. “Limited thinking time. How many are in there?”
“Six, I believe, and the temperature is rising. There is smoke, most likely sucking the oxygen out of the air.”
I pulled my energy to flash and when the light disappeared, I was blinded. It was pitch black and the air was thick with smoke. I pulled a silver penlight out of my bag. Yeah, I was the silly wizard who used a penlight, but at least I was able to see the situation. There were people here, several who blinked at the sudden light. Two men and two women were conscious and struggling to breathe. Two teenage girls were unconscious, so I checked for a pulse to make sure they were alive and found that their heartbeats were strong.
From a quick scan, I could see that both girls had numerous broken bones, dislocated joints, abrasions, and burns. The adults didn’t look much better, so it was more difficult to flash them out because of how gentle I had to be. I had to go on instinct to get them out quickly and safely, but in just a few minutes, we were outside in the fresh air.
Immediately, I sent my magic through both of the girls at once, healing all the damage I could find. I realized they were twins just before the pain came over me. It was probably a good thing I had suffered so many injuries as a child, because the feeling of being broken all over was intense, but at least it was familiar. Even worse than the pain was the dehydration. I could heal the smoke damage to their lungs, yet I couldn’t heal thirst, so why did I feel it?
Mordon held out his hand so that I could draw on his energy, but I shook my head, since he needed his energy to defend us against any attack. Although the adults were talking, I was too tired and focused to make out their words. When the two girls were healed, I grabbed the arm of the closest woman. She had far fewer injuries, but had more burns and smoke inhalation. She would live, so I let her go without treatment, then checked the others and got similar results. I wasn’t going to use myself up to help those who would be fine without it when there were many others suffering much worse.
“Can you find anyone else?” I asked Mordon, interrupting one of the women. I was really dizzy. Someone handed me a clay cup of water, but when I tried to drink it, Mordon growled and took it away. I probably looked pathetic with my hands out for it. He sniffed it before handing it back to me.
“You should never eat or drink from another world without making sure it’s safe.” He let me finish the cup before continuing. “You need to rest for a few minutes,” he said.
Somebody must have taken the cup from me because it was gone… or maybe I dropped it. “I’m fine. Someone may not have a few minutes.” Even as I spoke, the pain from the injuries I healed was slowly fading. I knew some of my exhaustion was due to my lack of nominal energy, and that it would only get worse.
Mordon gave up then and led me through the streets. We managed to find a door into the fortress that wasn’t blocked by debris. Throughout the crumbling hallways and partially barricaded rooms, we found dozens of people in need of immediate medical treatment. After a while, my magic started coming easier and the pain took less of a hold. It occurred to me that my healing skills were improving. I was able to push aside thirst, exhaustion, and pretty much everything else to focus on my goal. After hours of work, when the entire place had been combed through, Mordon took over. He got people organized and treated those we passed over for the superficiality of their injuries.
Soon I was sitting on a mattress on the floor with Mordon kneeling in front of me. His fire soothed my pain and exhaustion, which made me much more aware of my surroundings. I was in a very large room, littered with mattresses and people resting on them. To one wall, food and water was being served. Everyone looked distraught and shaken up, but they were alive. At least there were no more signs of demons.
I noticed red out of the corner of my eyes and forced myself to focus on Mordon’s chest. His shirt was torn and covered in blood, and it wasn’t the burgundy red of the demon blood. “It’s not mine,” he said calmly.
Mordon pulled me to my feet as a man approached us. He was an old, frail man with long white hair and silver-blue robes, yet he moved with a graceful, swift march as if relief and gratitude could replace youth.
“Thank you both for saving our people! Our tribe is indebted to you, the saviors from another world.”
“How do you know we are from another world?” I asked.
He frowned. “You are a healer, yet you make magic out of light.” He regarded Mordon. “You appear to be a shifter, yet you use fire magic. You both speak a language that is not known to Malta,” he explained.
My magic specifically made me able to understand others and them understand me; if Mordon and I were talking to each other, others wouldn’t understand unless I wanted them to. I knew we needed to be careful because there were some worlds, places, and people who hated outsiders, but I was just too tired to care.
“We will build monuments for you,” he said, then hesitated. “Please, what are your names?”
We looked at each other; neither of us wanted a reputation. “This is Arthur Pendragon of Camelot. I’m Merlin,” I said.
“Are you warriors?”
“No, just a couple of stooges.”
“Please stay. Our shelter is humble tonight, but we have plenty of food and water.”
“Sorry, but I have two children to get back to.”
“Of course. A healer’s job is always more difficult than a warrior’s,” he said.
I considered my friend, covered in the blood of the demons he fought and the people he helped. The man was wrong. Yes, I had more people to heal than Mordon had demons to fight, but in the end, I didn’t have to kill anything. Mordon kept me from having to fight. Maybe I was spoiled; Edward and Ronez have had to fight their entire lives to protect their worlds. Even as my whole body hurt and I could feel an echo of the pain of all the people I just healed, I wouldn’t want to switch places with Mordon.
Mordon helped me into a hallway out of the main room, where we were alone. Just because the people were accepting of otherworlders, didn’t mean we wanted to flaunt our magic. Iadnah energy was not to be taken lightly.
I pulled the glass apple out of my bag. “Think of Sammy and Ron, as they are right now. Picture what they would do after we disappeared. I don’t know how to think of time, but we don’t want to run into ourselves,” I said.
He nodded and put his hand on the apple. I thought of them and immediately felt the same sensation I had from the map. I locked onto that, but kept Sammy and Ron in my head. The apple started getting warm with Vretial’s magic. I closed my eyes and soon sensed Malta disappear, which was odd because I still felt the gravity and solid ground under my feet, but it wasn’t real.
When t
he feeling shifted again, I started to get it. It was like a new energy. Everything in the entire universe was some form of energy. Space was simple; time was infinitely complex. Flashing was easy because my nominal energy was more powerful than my body and soul. Space was solid; it could be warped with little consequence and I could easily move myself from one place to another… But comparing time and space was like comparing a one-dimensional object to a three-dimensional one without factoring in a two-dimensional object. The shifting sensation was friction as I passed over time.
I was taught by Regivus how to create an enclosed warp in time. He could never use words to explain it, so he gave me the knowledge directly. The powers of the gods were limitless, but it was so terribly powerful that it had to be learned. I was dangerous because I was not a god, yet I had the same limitless power. I tried things on a whim because they made sense to me, without a real understanding of how Iadnah energy worked. I knew how to command my magic to slow or speed time in a contained bubble, but not what the consequences were or how to understand time.
Space was fixed; time was not. Time was changing and shifting and breaking and mending… it was impossible for a person to lock onto one moment. However, Iadnah magic could. My energy was not discovered until after I could use nominal energy, but it had always been there. It worked for me, not against me, yet it couldn’t warn me that I was doing something wrong. Although I could use my energy to travel in time, it was so incredibly complex that I could end up destroying history, people, or even worlds.
The moment that we were between Malta and Duran, I could feel us shifting through time. Time was so overwhelming, but Vretial’s magic had locked onto a point and was dragging us there. My magic wanted to learn and recreate. I shoved it down.
I didn’t want to learn how to travel through time.
When I first discovered my powers, it was in the middle of saving the worlds from time and space collapsing. I had no idea how much worse things could have been. I thought healing was just easy; it was what my magic naturally wanted to do, but I was fortunate that time had only slightly been affected. It could have been so much worse.
The “landing” on Duran was easier than on Malta, partially because Duran had a lighter gravity and mostly because I knew what to expect. I opened my eyes to find us in Edward’s cabin with Edward and the boys. I sighed with relief as nominal energy returned to me.
“Were we gone long?” I asked.
“About two minutes,” Mordon said. I frowned at him. “Rojan has a precise grasp of time.”
“Convenient.” I turned to Edward. “Ronez had a watch. Back in 1989, he sniffed Mordon and said he was a time traveler, then did something with the watch and said he was sending Mordon back to his time and place.”
“I never saw or heard about anything like that.”
Perhaps my father kept more secrets from his brother than I knew. “Okay. Let’s see where the map leads to next.”
“Nope. It’s bed time for you,” Mordon said. I glared at him. “You’re slurring and wobbling,” he said with a sigh.
Of course I was dead on my feet. I was tired before we went to Malta, but I was still me, and I had to give him a hard time. “I’m not wobbling, the world is!”
Sammy snorted and Ron put his hands over his brother’s ears. “Daddy, you’re teaching us bad habits.”
Edward shoved a clean shirt into my hands, but I was too tired to wonder where he got it. Mordon turned me towards my sleeping bag and pushed me. Though I started to stumble, he kept me up until I made it to my bed, then lowered me gently and helped me out of my bloody shirt. He left for a moment before returning with a wet cloth to clean the dirt off my face.
We irritated the crap out of each other on purpose often, and I knew I had a smart mouth, but he still had my back. Out of anyone on any world, from any time, I could trust Mordon above all else. Mordon would never betray me for anything. He would never deceive me, never do anything for his own benefit if there was even a chance it could hurt me, and he would always help me if I needed it. I couldn’t even say that about my wife.
And as much as he would be there for me, I would be there for him. I wanted to heal everything, always, because that was what I did, but anyone who messed with my brother would find themselves in a lot more trouble than they bargained for. I let the demon off too easily; the next person or thing that messed with my family would wish they were facing Vretial.
I guess if Mordon was the protective one, that made me the vengeful one.
Chapter 8
Mordon
I wasn’t surprised to wake in the dark, as it was becoming a routine. For the past few months, my dreams were vivid memories of Rojan flying and otherwise being a dragon. Three thousand years of memories bleeding into me during my sleep… I often woke several times in the night feeling smothered and confused.
We are okay. We are at Edward’s cabin, Rojan said when I looked around. I stayed over at Dylan’s sometimes, so I recognized it instantly, but I didn’t like waking up in unfamiliar places, and I wasn’t really used to Edward’s cabin. A deep inhale told me everyone was asleep and there was no danger about.
I rolled over onto my side and a nudge in my back told me I was wrong; not everyone was asleep. I reached back and pet one of Hobble’s heads. He snuggled up against me and laid his heads on my side. Rojan grumbled, but I ignored the dragon. Even though Hobble was a sweet and cuddly little beast, the gargoyle was also an unusual and mysterious creature, which bothered Rojan.
* * *
When I wasn’t dreaming one of Rojan’s memories, I was dreaming one of Dylan’s. I saw this particular one the first time after the attack on Dylan, when he temporarily lost his memory. It was simple to help him remember it, but I was unprepared to see it myself.
Dylan was seven and having a conversation with Vretial in his bedroom. However, when Dylan was attacked, he was only able to speak and understand Enochian, so that is what I heard in his memory. Except when I spoke in his head… I couldn’t think of any way to help Dylan when I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I also couldn’t understand why I was dreaming it. Dylan would say there was some part of it stuck in his head, something he wasn’t getting. All memories and languages except for one were wiped, so he was easily able to hone in on that one memory, but why Enochian, the language he only learned a few years ago?
* * *
I felt Rojan’s awareness before I realized there had been a sound. He wasn’t bothered by it because he couldn’t smell anything wrong, but I opened my eyes to see Sammy sneaking out. Sammy never went anywhere without Ron.
There is no need to worry, for he will not go far. He probably needs to use the bathroom.
No, I doubt that. I know where he’s going. I got up quietly, even as I felt Rojan mentally shrug and divert his attention to other things. I ignored him, went outside, and shut the door behind me. Sammy had already reached the tent that Nano and Vivian were in, so I stayed on the porch where I could easily overhear him. I wanted him to get the answers he longed for, but I was also prepared to fillet and barbecue the mated couple if they upset Sammy further.
He paused with his hand half-raised, as if he wanted to knock, only to realize it was a tent. “Mom?” he asked quietly.
“Sammy?” The flap opened a few seconds later to Vivian’s worried expression. “You shouldn’t be so far from Ron.”
“I wanted to see you. I had a bad dream,” he said. Vivian moved aside to let him enter and the flap closed behind him. “Why don’t you ever visit me anymore?”
“You know it’s too painful when I have to say goodbye. I can’t stay because Nano is---”
“I know. He has a job to do. You missed my birthday.”
“I can’t travel the worlds on my own and Nano wasn’t there to take me to Duran. I do miss you very much, but this is where you belong. Divina and Dylan can protect you and teach you. Life would not be easy or fun on Dios. You can’t just be a kid there, like you can here. Now go, b
efore Ron wakes up and feels abandoned.”
Sammy exited the tent, but turned and hugged his mother before she could follow him out. She hugged him back. “I will always be your mother, but you can have more than one. Divina loves you, too.”
“She treats me like Ron, like her own child.”
“Go to her.”
He started to leave, then stopped. “Mom?”
“Yes, baby?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He walked back towards the porch with his eyes down and only looked up when he got to the steps. He saw me and froze. I sat in one of the two wicker chairs and he sat in the other. Vivian closed her tent when she saw him sit with me.
“When Dylan brought you home, Divina couldn’t look away from you. When he set you in her arms, she was terrified,” I said.
“She didn’t want me, either?”
“That wasn’t it at all. She had never held a baby before. When she held you, she didn’t understand her own feelings. She was terrified that she would accidently hurt you. The thing is, Divina never had a mothering instinct before that moment. In the billions of years she has been a god, you were the one to awaken that instinct. Divina loves you as her older child because to her, you are just as much her son as Ron is. Biology means little to her.”
“Why do Divina and Dylan love me, though?”
“Because they do. A person doesn’t really need a reason to love their children, not even their adopted children. They love you because they do. I love you, and so do Edward, Ron, and Rojan. There is nothing in the world you could do to lose that.”
* * *
I woke to the sound of movement. By the meager light in the room and the faint scent of dew, I figured it was dawn. Dylan, who was naturally a night owl, slept on, while Edward got out of his sleeping bag and headed for the kitchenette. He made himself tea and sat at the table. I got up as quietly as I could and joined him.
