The Reckoning

by S. L. Morgan

  “If she is no threat?” Levi questioned.

  “We shall deal with that when we meet with her,” Navarre stated. “Right now, we must find Harrison.”

  “I am right here,” Harrison called out, forcing everyone to turn back to him.

  “Where’s Angeline?” Reece asked, seeing that he was standing alone in blood-drenched clothes.

  “She rests where we will bury her,” Harrison said flatly, wearing the same expression that he had when he left the group. “Saracen is standing watch over her until that time.”

  Levi gripped his head. “How has this happened? Yes, Mordegrin is dead, but we are trapped on this forsaken planet with no hope of returning home or to the Arsediean galaxy.”

  “You are not trapped on this planet. I am here to bring all of you home,” a soft voice said from behind them.

  Harrison’s drew his sword as the group turned defensively to this new stranger. “Who are you?” Navarre demanded.

  Reece studied the young woman, and her jaw dropped open. Her eyes were emerald green, just as Reece’s were when she held the power of the stone, and the onyx strands of her hair shined in the sun’s rays. Her high cheekbones gave a particular definition to her face that resembled Levi, and by the way she was dressed, she looked as though she was from Shallek’s village.

  “Who—” Reece trailed off as she stepped toward the young woman.

  “Do not fear.” The young lady approached cautiously as she locked eyes with Reece. “My name is Marian Oxley. I am your daughter.”

  Reece and Levi stood frozen as the striking young girl spoke. “Father,” she said as she looked to Levi. “I cannot believe I am finally standing before you both. Mother, you are even more beautiful than Grandmother Alley spoke about.”

  “Impossible,” Navarre stated, apparently confused.

  “You know that this couldn’t possibly be your daughter, Levi,” Harrison interjected angrily. “Mordegrin sent you, did he not? Tell him to show himself so I can kill him!”

  The girl held up her hand in Harrison’s direction, and a sense of calm seemed to wash over his previously grief-stricken and hostile demeanor.

  She walked up to Reece and reached for her hand. Reece instinctively placed her hand in the girl’s, and as soon as she did, Reece felt the power of the stone within her again.

  Reece stepped back and glanced at Levi, who studied her eyes intently.

  Reece smiled at the young woman. “How can this be? I don’t understand. If you are our daughter, you are only a baby.” A tear slipped down her cheek as she brought her hand to the young girl’s cheek. “But it is really you, it truly is!” She brought Marian into a tight embrace. “You saved us!”

  Marian chuckled softly as she leaned back and looked at everyone. “I was able to save you from Mordegrin, yes. And now I am here to help fix everything that has been taken away from us.”

  “You cannot seriously believe this, Reece,” Harrison interjected. “She must be an Olteniaus female projecting into child form. Your daughter should now be close to nine months old. How old are you, girl?”

  “I am sixteen years old, and I am here from a different time. I understand your confusion, so please allow me to address your concerns.” She smiled warmly at all of them. “We feared this would be your initial response, so I brought this letter with me. You are welcome to ask me anything. Grandmother told me countless stories about all of you. I memorized practically every word over the years. I have wanted to meet you all more than you can understand. I know almost everything there is to know about you from her.”

  Navarre took the letter, which was written in Allestaine’s hand.

  My darling husband,

  If you are reading this, then our brave granddaughter has succeeded in her mission, and you must be riddled with questions. Marian is an extraordinary child with extraordinary abilities, one of which is the ability to travel through time and space. Do not think that this did not frighten us at first, but it was obvious to all of us that something special was created when she was born. With the genetics of our son and those of Reece, a miracle took place.

  It has been around sixteen years since we were forced to evacuate Pemdas, so I can only imagine how hard this must be for you to comprehend, but you must believe. Marian has come to you from the future. Galleta has been working to hone Marian’s abilities since she was a child, and she grows stronger and more powerful each day.

  Mordegrin has been hunting Marian tirelessly, but she manages to avoid him at every turn. Unfortunately, Mordegrin is swallowing up the Arsediean galaxy, so we do not have long before, like Pemdas, this world is destroyed. Our only hope is that Marian can make it to you somehow and end this once and for all.

  She is brave, fearless, and will stop at nothing to make things right again for all of us. Please listen to her, my darling. She is our only hope of being reunited again.

  Be brave, Emperor Navarre, and know that not a day has gone by that I haven’t dreamt of you and longed to be in your presence again.

  Your devoted wife and empress,

  Allestaine.

  Reece watched as Navarre’s face paled. He cleared his throat and looked at Marian. After he quickly recovered his expression, he shoved the note into Levi’s chest and embraced Marian. “Forgive us, precious child.” He stepped back and admired Marian. “You look so much like your father, just as you did as a babe.” He laughed and looked back at Reece. “And yet, you have the beauty of your mother as well. It is my honor to finally see you again.”

  Before Marian could respond, Levi approached. He took his daughter’s hand and bowed over it. He rose up and intently studied her. “Indeed, you have grown to be as remarkably beautiful as your mother. The thought of losing sixteen years of your life—your entire childhood—is heartbreaking. I do not have the words to adequately express how I feel about that.”

  Marian impulsively hugged Levi. “Father, I have longed for this moment. To finally have found you and mother, to hear your voices and see your faces, gives me more joy than you can imagine possible. I know that we have lost time, but I would have rather lost that time than spend the rest of my life without you. Help me make this right, and I promise we will make up for every moment we have been apart.”

  She withdrew and looked into Levi’s glassy eyes. He ran his hand over her hair as Reece approached. “Allow us to go to a more comfortable environment. It is obvious we have much to discuss.”

  Marian smiled sweetly as Reece held her hand to lead her back to the cabin. She walked between her parents for quite a few paces, Navarre and Harrison following behind, before she halted everyone’s walk. “Uncle Harrison?” she turned and questioned somberly.

  Harrison frowned. “Uncle?”

  “That is how Grandmother referred you to my cousins and me.”

  “Cousins?” Navarre questioned.

  “Yes. They were lovely. Amelia and Jacob, they were Aunt Lizzy and Caleb’s children.”

  Levi’s brows knit together. “Were?”

  Marian swallowed and cleared her throat. “The Arsediean galaxy has been destroyed by Mordegrin. I managed to escape moments before it happened, but all of our family has met their demise because of it.”

  Navarre rubbed the back of his neck as he roared, “If I could have destroyed that man myself!”

  “I understand this is devastating for all of you, but have no fear. I have searched you all out to make this right. We have minimal time to do this, so we must make our plans quickly.” Marian looked solemnly at Harrison. “I know what happened to you before I appeared. We need to lay my aunt and your children to rest before we do anything else; hopefully, that will offer you some peace before we move forward. After we lay her to rest, we will discuss my plans for bringing you all into a different time so we can stop any of this from ever occurring.”

  That evening, the group sat in the cabin, grieving the loss of Angeline and the babies, and they tried to be a comfort to Harrison, who was clearly brokenhearted a
nd despondent despite Marian’s assurances that she could fix what had transpired.

  Navarre took a chair across from where Marian sat next to Reece. “I must admit, all of this is truly beyond my comprehension. I must know, Marian, how did you kill Mordegrin, and how is it that you expect to alter the course of history?”

  Marian nodded. “All of you must keep an open mind with what I am about to tell you.”

  Levi’s famous line. Like father, like daughter, Reece thought as she smiled warmly at her daughter.

  “Of course we will.”

  “Mordegrin put Earth on a path of total annihilation by opening up multiple portals and aligning the pyramids. In doing so, he disrupted time and everything that was right in the universe. This damage cannot be reversed, nor can it be repaired. This is going to be difficult to hear, but where I come from, Earth has been decimated for many, many years now.”

  Harrison leaned forward dejectedly. “Why wouldn’t you kill him before he destroyed everything…before my wife and unborn children were slaughtered? Why now?”

  “I am deeply sorry that I couldn’t get to you before Aunt Angeline was attacked, but time jumping is not as simple as it sounds. It is difficult for me to control if I am going to a time or place I have never been before. Truthfully, I am extremely fortunate that I was able to make it to this time period before the Earth was destroyed and all of you were lost forever,” she said seriously. “What you need to understand is that Mordegrin has been hunting me for as long as I remember because he knew I had the ability to travel through time. Naturally, he wanted to use me to go back and fix his one great mistake so he could regain control of all of the galaxies using a different strategy. What he didn’t know is that I cannot physically jump anyone else’s body through time and space; only my own. When I jumped into this time, he sensed me and found me immediately. I told him I was tired of hiding from him and that I would help him accomplish whatever it was he wanted. He was more than eager to hold on tight as I jumped, and I am happy to say that watching him turn to dust as I did is the best feeling I have ever experienced, next to finally meeting all of you.”

  Reece covered Marian’s hand with her own. “Sweetheart, you mentioned that we can go back in time and fix this.” She stared into her daughter’s promising eyes with confusion. “How is that possible if, as you mentioned, you can’t bring anyone through time with you?”

  “I cannot physically bring someone through time with me,” Marian responded. “But after years of learning about my talent, I learned that with the help of a wormhole, I can bring you all back safely. This might be hard to understand, but these physical bodies will not be traveling back through time with me. I have the power to harness your collective subconscious minds, and whatever point in time we go to, your subconscious minds will inhabit your physical forms as they were at that time.”

  Harrison gripped his forehead. “Wait a second. If I am following you correctly, you are saying that you are going to upload our minds from now back into our bodies from the past?”

  “Precisely, yes. The Bermuda Triangle has an energy force that is so strong that anything that travels through it is either destroyed or transferred into an alternate time or reality. I can harness that power, and I can control where in time we must travel.” She studied everyone. “I know this works, as I have tried it and have been successful.”

  Levi leaned forward. “This is the strangest thing I believe I have ever heard. You will be removing us from our bodies, and you have a way to transfer our current minds back into our bodies in another time period? Our bodies now will die?”

  Marian nodded. “Allow me to make this easier to comprehend. When we travel through that triangle, I will be controlling where we go in time. When we decide upon the time period we travel to, you all will simply wake up in that time period with the knowledge you have now. It will not feel as though you have died, and you will not remember going through the wormhole at all. You will wake up in the time period to which we traveled. This current reality will no longer exist when we travel back in time to fix everything because, technically, it would have never been created yet.”

  Navarre cleared his throat. “Okay.” He exhaled. “We have no alternative but to trust your judgment. Now we need to think about the optimal point in time for us to stop all of the mayhem that has taken place.”

  Levi’s eyes widened. “To get the upper hand on all of this, we must travel to a time where no one knew that Reece was The Key.”

  “Why can’t we go to a time that we knew where Mordegrin was, enslave him, and have Reece use the powers of the stone to kill him? Why make it difficult on ourselves for no reason? The farther back we jump, the more we have to explain and act like our lives haven’t changed so drastically since then,” Harrison interjected.

  “No,” Navarre responded. “Levi is correct. If we can stop Simone and Michael from going to Ciatris and alerting the Ciatron about Reece being The Key and that she was residing in Pemdas, we will stop everyone’s pursuit of her.” He eyed Harrison and Levi. “Think about it, the moment Reece’s identity was revealed to the Council of Worlds, we have seen more battle, bloodshed, and chaos than ever before. Countless Guardians have fallen, and evil unlike we have ever encountered has been unleashed upon us all.”

  “That Olteniaus female said herself that they had been searching for Reece, and once Reece was revealed as The Key in The Council of Worlds, that is when Mordegrin started scheming and plotting to take her. Shortly after that, he found out I carried the map in my mind,” Levi stated. “It has been chaos since Reece was revealed as The Key.”

  “Fine,” Harrison agreed. “We go back to a time where we stop Simone and Michael.” He sighed. “Does anyone have a clue as to how we bust them before they commit treason?”

  Navarre grinned. “You two will follow them. Spy on them and make a record of everything they say as they plot against us and plan to meet with Movac. Once they have spoken the words, you both will arrest them, and I will send them both to the Isle dungeons for high treason against our world. This will not only ensure they never meet with the Ciatron, but it will also set a perfect example to our people as to what will be done if they choose to betray our land and reveal the true identity of The Key.”

  “Since I will be physically traveling back into this time, I will now be living my life with all of you from that time on,” Marian added.

  “How do we smuggle Levi’s mini-me into this time zone without anyone asking questions?” Harrison asked.

  “Since I will essentially be appearing out of thin air, I think it is best that we think of a time where any of you were alone. I can tether myself to that person.” Marian glanced around the room.

  “I would volunteer; however, I do not think it prudent for you to appear out of thin air with me at that point in time,” Harrison said. “We do not need an unwanted scandal surrounding you at the palace if you understand my meaning.”

  Levi rolled his eyes as Reece raised her eyebrow to Harrison’s remark.

  “I was constantly surrounded when I got to the palace, and it wouldn’t really make sense for you to arrive with me because I had just gotten there and didn’t know anyone,” Reece added in frustration.

  “When Elizabeth was in the carriage accident, everyone left the palace before I did,” Navarre said. “I was finishing up orders with Samuel and the Imperial Guards about how they were to watch over Reece’s safety while she resided in Pemdas. I rode alone in my carriage to meet with the Hamilton’s and be there for Lizzy.”

  “Very well, then. It is settled.” Marian smiled at Navarre. “I will tether myself to you, and when we make it through to that point in time, I will be in the carriage with you.”

  Harrison laughed. “And the great emperor gets to explain his newly adopted kiddo to his lovely wife.”

  Navarre remained deep in concentration. “As soon as I arrive, I will explain everything that has taken place to Allestaine and tell her who Marian is. She has an extreme
ly open mind. She will trust what I am telling her.” He looked at Levi and Reece. “This may be difficult for both of you, but only your mother and we in this room will know that Marian is your daughter. We have no other option. This is our only chance to stop everything. We cannot risk changing the timeline.”

  Reece felt her emotions shift, but she controlled herself as she looked sadly at Levi whose expression was blank. “I understand. As it stands now, we are all doomed, and everyone we know and loved has been killed.” She smiled at Marian. “If I can’t proudly proclaim that you are my daughter, I will happily settle for you being my favorite adopted Oxley.”

  “This will be strange, but once everything has been smoothed over and Reece and I have married once again, we will make plans for you to live in our—your home when we take up residence there.” Levi looked promisingly into Reece and Marian’s eyes. “We will have our daughter, and we will be a family, even if it is only in the privacy of our own home.”

  Harrison stood up. “In order to get to the Bermuda Triangle, we have quite a long journey. I believe we should leave tonight.”

  Marian stood also. “That leads me to another talent that I possess. Not only can I travel through time at will, but I can teleport myself to anywhere I wish to be within this timeline. Fortunately for you, this ability is not fatal to others.” She looked around the room. “If all of our hands are connected, I can simply send us to that location by imagining us there.”

  Harrison erupted in laughter. “Only Reece and Levi could create a child with the greatest talents any being has ever possessed.” He reached for Marian’s hand. “Shall we all gather round, hold hands, and have this little enigma beam us to Miami Beach?”

  Everyone stood, gathered around, and held hands. Reece hadn’t had a chance to blink before her surroundings changed entirely. They were standing aboard what resembled a restored pirate ship, which was tied to a dock. No one was around, and she could see the destruction of the tall buildings in the distance. She closed her eyes and let the fresh smell of the ocean consume all of her senses.