“I didn’t sleep much.” Teresa looked away, slightly bashful. “You’re mooning over me again.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Gabriel laughed. “None of this would be possible without you.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Teresa’s eyes found Gabriel’s and held them. “Thinking about the paradox of me being the one who figures out when and where the anchor points go and why. Being the one who helps you create the Barrier. The paradox of you creating something that already exists, but doesn’t exist in your future. I realized I can’t process it all. I can’t make sense of it. All I can do is follow the path that I’m on. But the important thing is that it’s the path that you are on. The path we are on together. We’ve both thought about leaving that path for one reason or another. Because we wanted to protect each other. Because we were afraid. Because…it doesn’t matter why. What matters is that we are both together now, and I hope it stays that way forever.”
“Forever is a very long time.” Gabriel made no attempt to restrain the broad smile that filled his face. “So that’s good.”
Gabriel closed his eyes and smiled blissfully…as Teresa kissed him.
In the stillness of that kiss 108 minds that were really one mind fell silent, perceiving nothing yet perceiving everything, seeing their own subtle energy pulse within them, a reflection of a greater power coursing through all things in all times and all places throughout the entire cosmos.
As the kiss faded the vision remained, like water cupped in a hand, slowly draining away. Gabriel Prime stared at Teresa, seriousness mixed with sublime calm.
“When we try to create the Great Barrier, I going to need you to kiss me first.”
Chapter 28
Duplicates of Gabriel stood in 107 places throughout time. He stood atop the Great Wall of China at the Shanghai Pass in 1644. He also stood at the edge of a pitched fight during the Siege of Namur in 1695. Another version of him stood in the middle of the Battle of Ceresole in 1544 while he also stood aboard the deck of a ship in the Battle of the Echinades in 1427. One of him stood on a lonely beach with unfamiliar trees lining the shore in the year 300 million BCE while two other versions of him also stood in an alien landscape 3.4 billion years into the past. In each place, the duplicate Gabriel stood in a space-time bubble sealing him away from the flow of time a moment before an anchor point would come into existence.
One final copy of Gabriel stood atop a roof in the city of Aleppo in Syria on October 28 in 2012. A space-time bubble separated him, Teresa, Ohin, and the rest of the Chimera team from the civil war raging throughout the city and the nation. They gathered at the very edge of The Great Barrier of Probability, the moment when the final anchor point blossomed into being.
“We are all in place,” that particular Gabriel said to Teresa and the others. “We will begin shortly.”
“Take care,” Ohin said.
“He will. We will. I will.” Gabriel, and the many versions of himself connected to his mind throughout space and time, briefly considered the conundrum of proper pronouns for their peculiar state of existence.
“Don’t forget.” Teresa squeezed Gabriel’s hand meaningfully.
“I won’t.” Gabriel smiled with the confidence of 108 young men about to do something unimaginably dangerous and thrilling.
“And watch your back,” Ling said. “We don’t have enough teams in the field to cover all of you.”
“Yes, and the Apollyons may have found more anchor points than we suspect,” Marcus added.
The retrieval of the comatose Apollyons revealed that the Dark Mages had discovered at least forty of the anchor points. There were only sufficient teams to cover half that number of locations to protect Gabriel in the event of an attack. A few extra relics allowed the teams to jump to places where they might be needed, but there were simply too many anchor points and not enough Time Mages.
Of course, the Gabriels scattered across time were not defenseless. They had each claimed the Grace and Malignancy imprints of the locations near the anchor points. Many of the anchor points were situated on the site of a battle or some conflict likely to have generated numerous imprints, both positive and negative. Due to the psychic link created by the doubling process, any version of Gabriel could access any of the imprints. He had an abundance of magic with which to defend himself. Moreover, if he once again managed to embrace the subtle energy of the cosmos, he would have more than enough power to fend off an attack by the two remaining Apollyons.
“One more of me to put in place and we will be ready,” Gabriel said.
“You’re sure this will work?” Teresa asked.
“What’s the worst that could happen if it doesn’t?” Gabriel tried to sound flippantly confident, but the notion troubled all 108 of his minds.
“You and I cease to exist as the Primary Continuum becomes unstable in an attempt to correct for all the ensuing paradoxes and either rewrites history where every Time Mage, including you, had affected it, or collapses completely into something even I don’t have the math to predict.” Teresa looked sick to her stomach.
“Again, thanks for not adding any pressure to the situation.” Gabriel managed a weak smile.
“Sorry.” Teresa grimaced and squeezed his hand again.
“It’s okay,” Gabriel said. As he stared into Teresa’s eyes, he also observed a different sight.
Nearly three-and-a-half billion years away, on a rocky outcropping above a turbulent sea in a world so strange even oxygen had not yet arisen, Gabriel Prime stood beside his duplicate, encased in an air bubble of Wind Magic. He held in his hand a fossil, one of the oldest ever found. The remains of a cyanobacteria from the dawn of life on planet Earth. He, the Prime, the first and in some ways most true version of himself, had insisted on being the one to attempt creating the Alpha anchor point. The others, knowing him as well as they knew themselves, recognized that an argument would be pointless.
This was the most difficult and dangerous part of the plan. The part Gabriel had kept to himself until he had made the duplicates that made it possible. The part that concerned Teresa and Ohin and the others. The part that justified their concerns.
The only way to create The Great Barrier of Probability that already existed was to find a moment before it existed. A moment before time itself existed. And the only way to find the moment before the time of the Primary Continuum universe came into existence would be to locate it from the Void between all continuums.
Gabriel Prime turned to his identical companion, and through his eyes to all the versions of himself, each one calming his mind, seeking a meditative state of awareness.
No need to speak.
We already know…
Exactly what…
You will say…
Gabriel Prime laughed at himself then nodded to the duplicate Gabriel standing before him.
The duplicate Gabriel reached out with his space-time sense as he claimed hold of the imprints available to him through the many copies. He imagined in his mind a place he had been. Not a time and a place, but an actual absence of time and place. He began to warp space-time in a slightly different way than usual, bending it as though creating a tunnel, twisting it in a fashion similar to a bifurcation.
Be ready…
Now…
A voice of many voices cautioned Gabriel Prime as his duplicate companion thrust him through time and space and into the Void — existing without existence, between and beyond all existence, the emptiness of all potential continuums.
In an instant, he hovered in the Void, his mind, all of his minds, reeling with the impact of the improbable nature of the experience. His previous exposure did not prepare him for his presence in the Void. Each moment there did not resemble any other moment, yet resembled all possible moments.
Gabriel Prime did find concentrating in the Void to be easier with his continued connection to his duplicates, but thoughts did not flow there in any normal manner. Thoughts needed the passage of time to coal
esce. Primal awareness and will power were all that functioned within the Void. Gabriel Prime examined the Primary Continuum, appearing not to his senses but to the essential awareness of his mind.
The Primary Continuum stretched around him, an infinitely tall tree growing out of an infinitely small seed. He sought that seed with his mind, willing himself to it, perceiving the exact non-spot where it would become, not an infinite potentiality, but an ever changing probability — that non-place, that non-moment which would become the place and moment where the Primary Continuum erupted into existence, where time would begin — the edge of eternity.
Knowing he had found what he sought, he next pursued the thing he needed in order to create the linkage of energy and potentiality that would become The Great Barrier of Probability. In 107 places throughout the timeline of the Primary Continuum, Gabriel after Gabriel stilled his mind, seeking to perceive the subtle cosmic energy flowing through the Void and all existence. Out of that stillness arose a realization regarding the nature of the creation of the Primary Continuum and the true purpose of the thing he intended to create.
“Now is the time for…” the 107th Gabriel said to Teresa where they hovered in a space-time bubble in 2012.
As Teresa moved toward him, he raised his hand to stop her. In his mind, the mind that held so many minds, he saw an assault upon himself at one of the anchor points. And then at another. And another. And then more.
“We are under attack,” Gabriel said. “I am under attack. At ten…no fifteen…no at least twenty anchor points.”
“How is that possible?” Ohin asked, turning his back to guard Gabriel.
“There is only one Apollyon.” The Gabriel beside Teresa concentrated, seeing himself in twenty places fending off twenty attacks, more onsluaghts occurring with each passing moment. “There are teams of Dark Mages. Some are Kumaradevi’s soldiers. Probably trapped here when we severed her alternate world. Some are Dark Mages with no uniforms. Maybe Apollyon’s old henchmen. They are at forty of the anchor points now. Our teams are fighting back. So are we. So am I. I am…wait…no…it was all a diver…”
Gabriel, standing next to Teresa went ridged, his head tilting back, his mouth opened in a silent scream.
All of the Gabriels throughout time fell into a similar pose, their minds gripped by a malevolent curse, struggling for continued consciousness against an onslaught of impending eternal darkness.
Outside time and space and all existence, hovering in a state of improbable probability in the Void, Gabriel Prime felt his mind freeze through the link with his many duplicates.
On a hillside on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 2500 BCE, the circle of the monolithic Callanish stones not far away, one of the Gabriel’s stood, still encased in a space-time bubble, his head enclosed by the hands of the man who had appeared behind him. This Gabriel reached for the Apollyon’s fingers around his skull, but made no progress in his motion — his limbs and body held fast in a rictus of pain.
“You will die now,” the Apollyon whispered in his ear. “All of you will die. And with your demise the Barrier will come to an end, because it will never have been created.”
Gabriel fought the magic assailing his mind, sensing a vast sea of imprints behind the Apollyon’s power. The man held more negative imprints than Gabriel had ever encountered. The Council had always assumed that the army of Apollyon doubles would rely upon their psychic connection as the source of their imprints. They seemed to have learned at least one lesson from Vicaquirao. They had prepared for their plan to go wrong by amassing a storehouse of concatenate crystals linked to malignant imprints. The Apollyon remained unseen behind Gabriel, but he had no doubt the man held more than a hundred such crystals upon his person, each linked to six more.
Gabriel’s own considerable power could not match that of the imprints the Apollyon wielded against him. He slowly lost ground to the dark Soul and Heart-Tree Magic invading his brain and mind. The Apollyon employed a blend of magic similar to that which Gabriel had previously used against the man and his duplicate brothers. The Apollyon sought to use the psychic connection between the Gabriels to cast them into a deadly sleep, one so deep and so profound it would slow their bodily functions to the point of death.
While the Gabriel of Scotland struggled against the Apollyon pushing him ever closer toward permanent slumber, those of him under attack elsewhere could not defend themselves. Some of the Gabriel-duplicates had Grace Mage teams to protect them. Many were not as fortunate, their frozen bodies under assault by teams of Malignancy Mages while the Apollyon’s magic seized captive their minds. The Malignancy Mages kicked and beat his various selves, adding an unwanted distraction to his attempts to alter his condition and regain some control in the fight for his minds.
“I have had a long time to learn the weaknesses of having more than one mind,” the Apollyon with the Gabriel in Scotland said. “You taught me some of them. What I teach you now will be your last lesson.”
Gabriel did not respond with words. His mouth would not move to form them. But he could still speak with his mind.
You will destroy yourself as you destroy me.
“I will survive any paradox to come from your death,” the Apollyon said aloud.
You do not even know why the Barrier exists.
“It exists to be destroyed.” The Apollyon tightened his grip on Gabriel’s scalp.
No. It exists because it must.
“Nothing must exist,” the Apollyon said.
You are wrong. The Barrier exists because it needs to. It is not a Barrier. That is only a side effect. Only an anomaly. It does not exist to create a wall between past and future. There would be no need for anchor points to accomplish that. The anchor points are the important part. They exist because the past is not stable. The creation of this continuum, this universe, this possible continuum of countless possible continuums, is not stable, could never be stable, without the support of the anchor points. They are like the splint a sapling relies upon to grow straight and true. Without it, this continuum will splinter, pulled apart by minor instabilities that will flutter and shift countless probabilities over the course of billions of years, until it collapses upon itself.
“You lie.” Hesitation marked the tone of the Apollyon’s voice.
No. I do not.
Gabriel did not lie. He had not realized the purpose of the anchor points until stepping into the Void and witnessing the creation of the Primary Continuum, finally apprehending that it was not primary at all, but merely one of countless possible continuums, some coming into fruition while others began but crumbled under their own weight, like trees split asunder as their branches grew too heavy and wide apart. He had not lied, but he had not told the Apollyon this truth in hopes of swaying the man’s judgment. The man could not be turned from enemy to ally with a few words, no matter what truth they might reveal. But words of deep truth always required at least a moment’s consideration before rejecting their validity, even by madmen. A moment would suffice for Gabriel’s needs.
Kiss me.
“What?” Teresa, standing on the rooftop in Syria in 2012, nearly jumped at the sound of Gabriel’s voice appearing in her mind.
Kiss me. Now. Please.
Teresa pulled Gabriel’s mouth to hers as she closed her eyes.
Even through the pain of the shared experience of being beaten and his mind infected with noxious magic, Gabriel, all of the Gabriels, sensed Teresa’s passion and love infuse that kiss. He surrendered himself to that kiss — to that passion, that love, that moment, letting it fill him, allowing it to still his mind in an endless moment of joy. In that stillness, among his many minds, he perceived what had previously been invisible, unknowable, but now appeared as ever-present.
Gabriel touched the subtle cosmic energy of all creation and non-creation, its power filling his minds all at once, granting them, and their collective will, an inconceivable potential. He twisted the Dark Soul Magic of the Apollyon attack
ing him on the hillside in Scotland, turning it against the man even as he cast the Dark Mages assaulting him throughout time into sudden and irrevocable unconsciousness.
He heard the Apollyon behind him in Scotland fall to the ground. As this occurred, he felt something else as well. Something sharp and painful. Something that dropped him to his knees. He turned to see a second Apollyon standing where the first had been, his hand bloody, his eyes wide with terror. The second Apollyon had been behind Gabriel the entire time. He had seen what Gabriel had done to his twin. He had, no doubt, sensed the manner in which Gabriel had accomplished the feat.
Gabriel’s eyes fluttered as he sagged, the blade of the knife still sticking between his ribs, piercing his heart. The Apollyon began to warp space-time to flee with his unconscious duplicate companion. With his mind fading in the absence of a beating heart, Gabriel knew that the precious time it would take to heal himself would also allow the Apollyon twins to escape. Instead, he seized the warping of space-time the Apollyon had begun and refashioned it, projecting the two men to a place he had previously been and remembered well, a place where a fire raged above a river, at a moment after he had departed, in a world far beyond the Primary Continuum. As the two men flashed out of sight, Gabriel, every Gabriel, wondered if the two men would ever make it back from the alternate reality where they had once trapped him and Teresa.
A last thought filled his dimming mind. A desperate plea rather than a coherent idea. An entreaty none of his other selves had time to answer. An imploration echoing throughout the many minds of his duplicates.
Help me!
This last thought faded, replaced by no other, darkness shadowing his mind, the link to his other selves weakening, the voices fading…
We will need to…
Make another duplicate…
There is not…
Enough time…
We must try…
We cannot fail…
We…
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 89