Eternity Gate

by Traci Harding

  ‘You have not told them you are leaving?’ Dan assumed.

  She shook her head. ‘I have seen both my siblings happily wed, and any ill will that might have been between us has been resolved.’

  She had not been given the opportunity to bid her family goodbye last time, so she thought it best to keep to the script. Tonight was also the night that Jiang Hudan suspected she had conceived of their child, so Taren wasn’t about to tempt fate, as unlikely as that event seemed from her new perspective.

  ‘Tell them, as I tell you now, we shall meet again upon our dying day.’ Her last glimpse of Ji Dan saw him frowning curiously at her missive, and content that all was as it should be, Taren closed her eyes and visualised the snow-capped mountainside upon which Jiang Hudan would meet her end.

  ‘Farewell —’ she heard Dan bid her, but the rest of his words were obscured as her body dissolved into the quantum passage that led to her desired destination.

  Aware that she was arriving an entire day before Jiang Hudan’s death, Taren didn’t visualise landing on the icy mountain face that would collapse and claim her life, but in the small patch of trees that stood on the mountainside close by.

  ‘Rhun!’ she called, not fancying the idea of spending a night out here in the freezing cold.

  Beyond this point, her psychic talent would be rendered useless by a shield that fortified the area around the Dropa ship. The Dropa had a device that made their allies immune to the shield, and as Rhun was in league with these extra-terrestrials, he could psychically move freely through this area.

  ‘Rhun!’ Taren panicked a little, turning circles in search of him. What if he had gone back to Kila and not made it to ancient Zhou? ‘Rhun, where the bloody hell are you?’

  ‘Steady on,’ he commented as he manifested before her. ‘You’re early.’

  ‘Better than late,’ she commented with a good serve of sarcasm, as she breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Dan not in tow?’ Rhun looked around behind her.

  ‘No,’ she was chagrined to announce. ‘It appears that we actually managed to get through a life as just respected colleagues.’

  Rhun was grinning.

  ‘What is so amusing?’ she queried coolly, although she couldn’t completely wipe the smile off her face, either.

  ‘I just can’t wait to see the look on his face when he remembers the truth.’

  Taren had to admit that was going to be fun. ‘So what’s news? There are a few alterations to history that even Dragonface’s absence doesn’t explain.’

  Rhun was nodding. ‘Actually, the virus’ absence does account for everything, you’re just not looking far enough back in time.’

  ‘Explain?’ Taren was eager to hear his theory.

  ‘Once we gather the entire team, so I’m not explaining this several times over,’ he suggested.

  ‘Explaining what?’ Taren attempted to pry the information out of him anyway.

  ‘A little problem that we did not foresee.’

  ‘How little?’

  ‘Well, it’s a very little problem, for this universe,’ he said sheepishly.

  ‘But?’ Taren prompted.

  ‘But … you should really discuss this with Telmo,’ Rhun declined to pursue the topic further. ‘He’s the expert.’

  ‘Then take me to Telmo,’ Taren requested, knowing of the Dropa shield.

  ‘You can find him on your own.’ Rhun hinted at the problem.

  ‘Is the Dropa shield down?’

  ‘You could say that, yeah.’

  Rhun’s cryptic hints gave her a very bad feeling, and envisioning Telmo she issued an intention to join him.

  Snow-capped peaks around her for as far as the eye could see. Taren felt like she was on top of the world, with a floor of cloud far below, obscuring the valleys from view. She knew this outlook well. This was Bayan Har Shan, the site where the Dropa craft had crashed twenty thousand years ago. She turned around expecting to find a complex of caverns behind her — an illusion that masked the defunct alien craft — but all she found was a bare snowy mound, in the middle of which stood Telmo, waving at her.

  ‘Where is it?’ she gasped, trudging through the deep snow towards him, her feet so frozen they felt like dead weights to lift. ‘Where did it go?’ She feared that the reptilians had got hold of the craft sooner than they had last time around. As she neared Telmo she noted him standing on top of the loose snowfall.

  ‘You do make things difficult for yourself,’ he commented, grinning at her struggle.

  Taren rolled her eyes at the oversight and employed her psychokinesis to rise up and walk above the snow with ease. ‘I’ve been cast between being human and superhuman so many times now, it takes me a while to adjust my perspective.’

  Telmo nodded, able to relate.

  She noted he had grown a thin moustache and little beard, and it made him appear so much more like a young Taliesin — who had been a master mentor to some of her many incarnations on this planet. This growth also suggested Telmo had been back in ancient Zhou for quite a bit longer than she had. ‘So, are you going tell me what happened here,’ she queried, ‘or do you not have an answer?’

  Telmo frowned at her, surprised she would suggest such a thing. ‘Well, the simple answer is that the Dropa craft was never here.’

  Taren’s eyes opened wide in astonishment — for this explained so much. ‘Then the Taiji staff never existed!’

  Telmo was nodding.

  ‘The Dropa never interbred with the locals and were-people were never created!’ she surmised. ‘Thus without those genes, we timekeepers only developed our inherent psychic skills here in Zhou. Huxin’s offspring must have inherited their psychic talents from their parents.’

  ‘Well, in this universe you were known as the Chosen,’ Telmo corrected, ‘but yes, that seems to be the case.’

  ‘But how did —’

  ‘Taking the virus out of existence result in this?’ Telmo pre-empted her query, motioning to the barren snow cap surrounding them. ‘I have consulted the Akashic records on this matter. It turns out that the reptilians led by Dragonface did not just discover this Dropa craft by chance, they shot it out of the sky in the first place and then tracked it here. It was the virus’ goal to go in search of the hybrid race of their kind beyond Earth; Dragonface was seeking females to breed a food supply. Those reptilians who survive here are quite happy to remain on Earth, as this is where their food supply is.’

  ‘So without the virus, they had neither the intellect nor motivation to shoot the Dropa down.’ Taren was amazed. ‘So we’ve saved the Dropa and Draconians in one fell swoop.’

  ‘Yes, indeed we have,’ and Telmo was happy about that. ‘But I’m not sure we have done ourselves any favours.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Taren was suddenly alarmed. ‘Must we deal with the reptilians remaining on Earth?’

  Telmo shook his head. ‘We executed our part in Earth’s big clean-up long ago, but those events still lie in the future history of this planet.’

  ‘Well, what then?’ Taren suddenly recalled why she was seeking Telmo in the first place. ‘The little problem Rhun spoke of.’

  Telmo sucked in his cheeks and nodded, his brow furrowed as if challenging her to work it out.

  ‘If the Dropa are not here,’ her mind began ticking over, ‘then Dorje Pema is not here to take Wu Geng under wing and train up the spiritual side of his nature.’ She gasped. ‘If we awaken Zeven’s timekeeper consciousness in Song’s body only shortly before his death, then what is to stop him from slaying Wu Geng at Yin — an event that took place decades before Song finally died. When their confrontation at Yin takes place, Zeven won’t remember that Wu Geng is an ally! Zeven will slay Wu Geng, as per history, before the timekeepers visited ancient Zhou and changed events there. If Wu Geng is killed he’ll remember nothing upon his return to our universe, and he’ll be back to being our enemy,’ Taren stressed, ‘and we’ll be back to square one with Khalid.’

  �
��That could be a good thing. It will ensure nothing in our universe will change,’ Telmo reasoned.

  ‘But saving Wu Geng’s soul could only change things for the better!’ Taren reasoned.

  ‘So one would think,’ Telmo agreed in a noncommittal fashion. ‘But I do not believe that option is really open to us.’

  ‘But Zeven vowed he would not abandon Wu Geng, and he will not forgive himself when his timekeeper memory is activated and he realises that he slayed Wu Geng thirty years before!’ Taren felt for her team mates. ‘What are Avery’s thoughts on all this?’

  ‘I have no idea. Rhun won’t allow me, or anyone, to summon him forth.’

  ‘Rhun hasn’t summoned him back yet?’ Taren gaped at the news.

  ‘Not to Kila and not to here,’ Telmo advised.

  ‘Did he say why?’

  ‘No,’ Telmo frowned, ‘but as Kila is as it was before we or the reptilians ever got there, then I am guessing Rhun has figured that the Lord of the Otherworld’s child has never been conceived.’

  ‘Holy shit, you’re right.’ Taren bit her lip to ponder the oversight and unable to easily solve it, she moved on. ‘So what does Rhun intend to do, just leave his brother in limbo?’

  ‘Yes,’ Rhun spoke up for himself, drawing their attention to his presence just behind them. ‘Until I come up with a solution to make it right.’

  ‘And if you don’t?’ Taren posed.

  ‘Look … we don’t need Avery,’ Rhun insisted. ‘I just need to do a bit more time-hopping on the chariot, is all. So right now I need to deliver you to the time of Dan’s death; you still have a curse to cast upon Ji Song.’

  ‘Wu Geng is the next pick up, if memory serves,’ Taren reminded him.

  ‘What you do about him is your choice,’ Rhun pointed out, ‘but if the timekeepers never landed on Kila, then obviously Khalid didn’t either. So he never learned about our quest, never jumped back into the body of Wu Geng, and will have no idea what’s going on.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Taren was devastated. ‘Then we’ve lost all hope of Khalid being on our side when we return to our universe of origin.’

  ‘But we have learned that he has a soul-mind worth saving,’ Telmo pointed out, ‘so that is something.’

  ‘Hold on!’ Taren had a light-bulb moment. ‘If the timekeepers have never been to Kila, then only those timekeepers who have returned to Zhou during this final leg of our mission are going to have their timekeeper consciousness intact. There is no point picking up Dan, Fen or Ji Shi, for only Huxin and Song will know what’s going on.’

  Rhun was nodding, and Taren suddenly felt ill.

  ‘I swore to Lucian he would remember all this,’ she said mournfully. ‘Now he won’t remember any of it.’

  ‘The captain already possesses the talent to tap into the akashic memory, and he can catch up on all he missed,’ Telmo reassured her with a smile.

  ‘Across all the timelines?’ she queried.

  ‘Of course,’ Telmo emphasised.

  ‘Well, that’s some consolation I guess, but … damn.’ Taren was still frustrated about losing Khalid as an ally.

  ‘The only timekeepers we really need to remember, are you and Zeven,’ Rhun stated.

  ‘Why is that?’ Taren’s curiosity was piqued.

  ‘I have a situation unfolding on Kila that I may need your assistance with,’ he confessed.

  ‘But the plan was to go straight back to AMIE from here,’ Taren said, worried about taking another sidetrack. ‘What has happened?’

  ‘It would be better to see this mission completed, before I brief you,’ Rhun suggested. ‘But I will say, it shouldn’t detain you long.’

  ‘We’ve thought that before,’ Taren said. ‘I was only ever meant to be crossing into this universe to warn you about Shyamal’s attack, which clearly cannot happen, as the virus that was driving him no longer exists!’

  ‘In a cosmic sense I believe we were brought back here to keep our vow to Tiamat, which was never fully completed,’ Telmo said.

  ‘But now that vow has been kept,’ Taren argued. ‘There is nothing left to be done.’

  Rhun was looking a little doubtful about that.

  ‘Is there?’ Taren queried more warily.

  ‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Rhun admitted, not wanting to speculate. ‘Could we please just finish up what needs to be done here, and I will explain everything once we have collected Jazmay and Zeven.’

  Taren’s glare shifted to Telmo to get his view.

  ‘A job worth doing is worth doing well,’ he advised. ‘If we leave no stone unturned, then we ensure that we shall never need to return here again.’

  ‘You know what the problem is?’ Taren assumed Rhun had already got Telmo on side.

  ‘It is quite possibly no problem at all,’ he allowed, and Taren was a little frustrated.

  ‘And what if we just create another disaster by staying longer than we should?’ she questioned.

  ‘You cannot,’ Rhun pointed out, ‘the future is the future, whatever comes I shall deal with it. All I need is a few hours of your time. Please.’

  ‘Argh!’ Taren turned away to vent her frustration — it was difficult to say no to a soul who had once been her son. ‘If, when you explain this, the others agree …’ Taren turned back to deliver her decision, albeit reluctantly. ‘… then, I agree.’

  Rhun grinned, satisfied with those terms. ‘Then let’s go get them.’

  17

  THE CRYSTAL CAVERN

  Before retrieving Zeven and Jazmay, whose incarnations both outlived Jiang Hudan by thirty- to forty-odd years, Taren was first required to make an appearance at Zhou Gong Dan’s untimely death — more adequately described as slaughter — as this event transpired only ten years following Jiang Hudan’s demise.

  Ji Song’s insistence that the king’s will was the will of heaven and Dan’s view that a king must seek heaven’s will through homage and divination, had been the cause of a decade-long bone of contention between them. This wedge in their core beliefs eventually drove Zhou Gong to resign as Song’s advisor once the king had come of age and the regency was no longer an issue. The young king refused to accept his uncle’s departure from office, and threatened to brand Ji Dan a traitor and have him hunted down as such. When Dan defied the king’s protest, and Song made good on his threat — having no inkling of the great service and sacrifices his uncle had made to ensure Song’s kingship — Jiang Hudan was so angered by the inequity, that she cast a curse upon all the territories ruled by Ji Song. This curse sent raging storms through half of Zhou that flattened crops and upturned huge trees, and could only be broken if the king realised and repented the injustice he’d done the first Duke of Zhou.

  The curse cast by Jiang Hudan was the catalyst for the young king’s spiritual turn around, which saw Ji Dan’s political and social reforms cemented into the cultural and historic landscape of China, to be used as a guideline for this civilisation for millennia to come. Thus it was imperative that the event took place, to keep history on track.

  The timekeeping trio relocated to the glowing crystal cavern hidden deep in the inner Earth that Avery had nominated as a safe place for Rhun to store the time-shifting chariot. With this vehicle Rhun gave Telmo a lift forward in time, to the same cavern about forty years hence, when the timekeepers would be reunited. He then returned to Taren’s present, to pick her up and quantum jump her forwards to the same cavern, just a decade after her death.

  Upon arrival Taren climbed off the transport to teleport herself to the scene of the crime. ‘Without the Taiji staff, I am not even sure I still have the ability to summon the elements to my cause.’

  ‘You learned to wield those powers without the staff before you died the last time around,’ Rhun reminded her.

  ‘In another timeline!’ Taren stressed. ‘I have no idea if Avery and Jiang Hudan even made contact this time around.’ Taren had been puzzled by that point. ‘How did Jiang Hudan handle the Yin rite without th
e staff or the aid of the Lord of the Otherworld?’

  ‘She used her own command of the elements to bring down the rains and break the drought in the name of Zhou,’ Rhun stated the obvious. ‘It makes no difference whether Avery granted you influence over his elemental dominions in this life, timeline, whatever. The point is that he did grant you this power once and has never retracted that gift. Try it, if you don’t believe me.’

  Taren placed her hands together to focus her chi on summoning the elements of air into her palms. As Jiang Hudan had once taught herself to do, Taren envisioned a positive charge accumulating in her right palm and a negative charge building against her left. Once a significant charge had built up, she drew her hands slowly apart, and the positive and negative charges sought each other, forming streams of blue-white lightning to dance between her hands.

  ‘Whoa,’ Taren gasped at her own accomplishment, feeling only a tickling where the streams made contact with her skin.

  ‘If you are satisfied, you should really go,’ Rhun suggested. ‘Before we have to time-jump backwards because we’ve missed the event.’

  ‘Dismissed, dismissed, dismissed.’ She complied with the law of three requests, and the activity ceased. The delight of her achievement was short-lived as Taren turned her attention to the task at hand, for this was not going to be the joyous reunion it once was. ‘I must watch him die.’

  ‘At the risk of sounding callous, it wouldn’t be the first time,’ Rhun was sorry to say. ‘This is the way it was always meant to be.’

  ‘But if the timekeepers never toyed with history, why would Jiang Hudan have appeared upon Dan’s death to curse the land?’ she reasoned.

  ‘We cannot risk ignoring the event, lest we change history and risk altering the future on Kila,’ Rhun debated the issue just as furiously.

  Taren was frowning, as much from wishing to argue the matter as predicting his reaction to her next question. ‘Are you sure we don’t need Avery’s counsel?’

  ‘Shh!’ he insisted, looking about in the hope his brother had not appeared, and was relieved he had not. ‘Believe me, I am right about this.’ His large brown eyes implored her trust.