by 1
Randr collected the boxes that the storage device had obtained. “I don’t think you read the full report. Aura was stabbed while murdering the assassin who was responsible for the murder of nine ambassadors of the Alliance. She went after him with nothing more than a stunner and a need for revenge.”
“Women are not capable of that sort of action.”
Randr shook his head and started back toward the medical centre. “You will address all of your questions to Ravikka from now on. Your attitude is unacceptable for one of the Nameless. I have humoured you for too long. Goodbye, Tavik.”
Tavik stopped in place and stared at him. “You are serious?”
“By discounting women, you are ignoring half and occasionally more than half of all the living beings out there. Anyone, and I mean anyone, is capable of shaping the future for their race and the sooner you learn that, the better off you will be. Ask Ravikka to take you of a tour of the women in your species’ history. You need an education, my friend.”
Tavik was left behind as Randr brought the clothing packs to Aura. This woman was capable of so much more than most would think looking at her golden hair and soft hands.
While he gritted his teeth at the thought of those hands against him, he accepted that as one of the Nameless, she would be able to choose her own mate and partner. Though he had known her the moment he saw her, she might not share the awareness of a true mate as his people did.
He really hoped that it was not the case. Having her at his side throughout the eons stretching around them in all directions had an appeal he could not deny, even if he had wanted to.
Chapter Three
The pain was gone. That was the first thing that Aura noticed as she sat up. The second was that Randr was sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed with a pile of boxes beside him on a low table.
“What happened? How long was I asleep?” The sheet across her breasts skidded and she clutched at it frantically.
“Only thirty minutes or so. I had to wait until the healers were finished before I completed your treatment.”
He stood and she blinked at how very tall he really was. “Thank you?”
He chuckled. “You are welcome. These boxes contain several options of clothing for you. The council here is eager to speak with you, so the sooner you can get dressed, the better. I will remain outside.”
She watched him leave and the moment he was out the door, she flipped back the sheet and looked at the mark where the knife had slid between her ribs. It was an old scar now, which she would have imagined to be impossible.
The rest of her was clean and blood-free, so she guessed that the medical team had run her through a cleanser.
She got to her feet and after she swayed for a moment, she took a few steps and reached the boxes. The first one yielded a set of wide trousers and a kimono-style jacket. There was matching underwear and sandals and she grinned as she put the first box aside, looking into the next one with glee.
An evening gown in red with matching slippers was tempting, but she felt it necessary to look in the final box.
Her heart stuttered in her chest. Jeans and a t-shirt with sneakers stared up from the confines of the box. A matching set of lingerie in her size was in the box.
This was not the clothing to wear to meet a council, but she definitely wanted to keep it for later.
She opted for the red gown and matching slippers. It seemed appropriate somehow.
The breast band and panties were the same crimson and were exactly her size. She was dressed in under three minutes and when her explorations turned up a lav, Aura checked her hair.
Someone had piled it into an ornate tumble of curls on her head while she was sleeping and aside from the creepy factor, she had to admit that they had done a good job.
When she was confident that everything was in its proper place, she opened the door.
Randr was standing there, but his hood was thrown back.
“Oh, wow.” Not only did he have cheekbones that gave him the appeal of an ancient statue, but his eyes also were a swirling vortex of stars.
Her hand was on his cheek before she could stop herself. The pleased surprise on his face was enough to let her continue the slow stroke that examined the texture of his skin.
Hot steel under velvet was a trite thought, but it was the best description of his face where her hand made contact. She curled her fingers and lightly dragged her knuckles down his jaw line before putting her hand back at her side.
“So, the eyes must be the reason that you wear the hood.”
“It is best that we keep ourselves in shadow. The eyes are an indicator that we are not local in most places.” His grin had a touch of masculine arrogance. He had obviously enjoyed her admiration.
“I can see how that would be likely, but what are you?”
Randr held out his arm and Aura took it. “I am one of a peculiar subspecies that pops up randomly around the universe. The council will explain everything. Will you come with me?”
“Of course. I have to know what is going on. This day has been far too weird for me to stop it now.” Her grin answered his and before she knew it, they were walking on a high bridge leading to a tower in the centre of the…whatever it was.
The bridges linked all buildings together, some cracks in the ground beneath them showed the same swirl of stars that were in his eyes.
“Is that a danger? All those cracks?”
“No. They have been there since Home separated into its own alternate space during the great beginning. The buildings came later.”
She filed that information away for when she was capable of imagining that the piece of turf she was standing on was part of the universe before the universe.
Aura held onto Randr’s arm a little tighter as they entered a room with seven other beings sitting in it.
Randr walked with her to the centre of the room, detached her arm and stood beside her as she faced the arch of the star-eyed grouping.
A woman with a kind face smiled and leaned forward. “Do you know where you are?”
“On a floating chunk of rock?”
The woman sighed, her amber skin glowing against her midnight hair. “Randr, what did you tell her?”
He chuckled. “I followed protocol for once. All initial information will be given in the presence of the council.”
The woman grinned. “Well done.” She straightened, “Aura Athena Arkan of the Alliance Protectorate of Terra, welcome to Home.”
Aura tilted her head. “This isn’t my home.”
“We simply call this place Home. It has no other name. We are called the Nameless and our kind appears at random throughout the universe. Sometimes alone, sometimes in clusters, there is no way of knowing when one of ours will make themselves known.”
“Okay. But I am not one of you. You have those fascinating eyes and I do not.”
“None of us are born with these eyes, merely the potential for them. I will need to explain, but first, introductions. I am Ravikka. These are Toril, Mavish, Rehnara, Elorak, Nir and Gwetho. We are the current council of seven.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Aura gave a graceful curtsey.
One of the men leaned forward and grinned, “And we are pleased to meet you.”
Ravikka waved him back. “Stop flirting, Gwetho. She is not for you. Now, Aura, the Nameless have been occurring randomly throughout the universe since our minds could comprehend time. We travel here at the moment of our death and then begin a new life as one of the Nameless.
“We are observers and guardians of time. We open doorways into history and the future, changing nothing but learning details that no one else has ever seen. Our minds and memories stretch before and behind us. The Nameless are guardians of the future, we do not alter the past, but we make sure that it happens the way we remember it.”
Aura furrowed her brow. “How can you guard the future if you already know what happens? How can you observe the past without affecting it?”
/> Ravikka grinned and leaned back. “Good questions. We don’t know our actual purpose. We simply try and find meaning in what we are and how we can help and maintain the timelines.”
Aura nodded. “Fair enough. What is the deal with your eyes?”
Gwetho stood. “When a new recruit is located, we expose them to the Orb of Time. If they are truly a Nameless, they transform and take the power of time itself into them. We give them a knife, training and a tutor and they learn our ways.”
“What happens if they are not truly a Nameless?” Aura had to ask even if she didn’t want to know.
“They burn up immediately.” Gwetho shrugged. “We have created blood tests to find the dormant gene to confirm identification. It has dramatically reduced the number of misidentifications.”
“I see. So, you think I am a dormant Nameless.”
Randr answered her. “I know you are a dormant Nameless.”
She turned and looked up into his swirling gaze. “How can you be sure?”
He reached for her cheek and mimicked her caress from earlier, stroking her skin before rubbing his knuckles along her jaw line. “Because I have seen my future and you are in it.”
She blinked rapidly and turned back to the council, her cheek throbbing with the energy of the small caress. “Why aren’t you overrunning this chunk of rock if your kind have been running around for millennia?”
Ravikka grimaced. “It is difficult, but we can be killed. When the energy of our lives leaves us, it resets us to our original genome. When we are away from Home, we are just as vulnerable as any regular being in the standard temporal stream. Recently, nine of our number have passed on, but new Nameless are being found every day.”
Aura rubbed her forehead. “Just for the sake of agreement, say I believe all this. Why are you called the Nameless? You all have names.”
Randr answered. “We give up our family names, our previous lives and our planets to simply become one of the Nameless.”
Aura turned when she heard the pain in his voice. “She said we were taken at the moment of death. How did you die?”
He looked down at her with a sad expression in his face. “It is a conversation for a different time, but yes, we all come here in the moment we should have met our maker. We hunt for new Nameless through time, trying to catch them just before they are scheduled to die so that the impact they have made on others throughout their lives is maximized. You had given all you could for your vengeance and then it was time for you to join our ranks. Will you join us?”
Aura smiled. “Of course. I do so love a new adventure and a life of running through time is too good to pass up.”
Chapter Four
The deep tone of a bell pealed in the tower of the building they were in. Ravikka nodded solemnly. “Good. We will make our way to the Orb of Time and the others will join us there.”
Randr extended his arm and Aura took it once again. They paced slowly with the seven councillors through the halls, down the stairs until they were in a room at the base of the tower.
“Wow. That is…wow.” Aura followed her instinct and walked the edge of the large lip around the edge of the floor that had an open gap to the swirling vortex of the stars.
She walked easily on the narrowing stone path until she stood looking down at the window to a universe past.
The seven councillors each took a position around the outer wall and pressed their hand to an icon in the stone.
Men and women with starry eyes filed into the room and stood as witnesses.
The bell in the tower rang again and the councillors pressed the icons that they touched.
The vortex of the stars swirled rapidly until it became a ball of light. Aura stood and looked at the approaching glow and exhaled. “Welcome to you, Orb of Time.”
The ball paused for a moment and the councillors looked from one to the other. Apparently, this was not a normal occurrence.
With a slow and gentle approach, the orb eased into her, becoming one with her as it met her body and moved inside.
She knew this feeling. It was what she had trained for in her previous life’s occupation. There was something in her mind and it wanted her to be with it forever.
Today, it was moving in.
When the glow receded, she looked around the room and the witnesses were looking at each other in surprise. Unsure of what was causing the problem, Aura turned and walked back the way she had come.
The councillors filed away from their positions and back toward the council chamber.
Randr gave her a soft hug and offered her his arm. “You did well, Aura.”
“Why is everyone so freaked out?”
“This transformation was a little…odd.”
They were speaking quietly as they followed the councillors.
“How so?”
“There is normally a burst of light, a fight for your soul. Your calm acceptance and the lack of screaming has confused and frightened a number of the observers. It is usually the same for everyone.”
She nodded. “Until now.”
“Until now.”
“I know why it is different. I can explain it to the council.”
“This will be interesting.”
She chuckled. “I am usually interesting. You just have to pay attention.”
Back in the council chamber, she faced the seven again, but this time, they were far less indulgent than they had been an hour earlier.
“Ravikka, I believe that you and the council are wondering about the transformation and it differing from the norm.”
Ravikka looked uncomfortable. “We are. It was unusual to say the least.”
“This is what I am trained for, to host a power, a mind not my own. I have the ability to compartmentalize and keep the kernel of my soul separate from whoever is occupying my mind. That includes the soul of time itself.”
The councillors blinked and Ravikka asked, “Is that what this is?”
“Yes. The soul of the time of a universe lost. It was old and so very powerful, so the new universe could not simply destroy it. You can’t destroy that kind of power. It took a piece of a world as it shattered, built a city and called those who could house its power through rifts in time. It pulled its own people Home and gave them the seeds of power.”
Gwetho leaned forward. “Why?”
“For the same reason that we are here. All on the edge of death, we were taken to begin a life unrecorded by living history, just like it was. It wants to live through us, but its power cannot be used or left in the other universe. We are the wrapping that carries it where it wants to go.” She was feeling dizzy and her stomach growled violently.
Randr chuckled. “Give her the knife so that we can go and get her something to eat. She hasn’t had anything since that reception a week ago.”
Ravikka jumped up. “Forgive me. We were distracted.”
She walked to a chest and withdrew a long leather belt and a knife. Ravikka stood in front of Aura and wrapped the belt around her hips before threading the knife into place and buckling it. “With this, I decree you to be a Nameless and your tutor shall be Randr. While you may ask any of us for help, he is in charge of your education.”
Aura nodded. “Thank you. I look forward to learning your…our ways.”
Ravikka leaned forward and embraced her. “Welcome. Randr will show you to your quarters.”
Her stomach growled again and Randr took her by the hand. “This way, Aura. We have a lovely selection of food from every point in history.”
She followed him absently, her body still going over the peculiar feeling of having a piece of time from another universe in it. It was one thing to have it but another to know exactly what it was.
Knowing what her past experiences as a kah-dore had given her, she was relieved when she checked and the mind inside hers had no intentions to speak through her. It was simply along for the ride and rather curious as to where she would take it.
Shaking her head slightly
, she stumbled and then was jerked tightly against Randr.
The edge of the bridge was close and there was no railing on this walkway, if she had wandered off, she would be falling toward the crack under the bridge.
“Be careful, Aura. This is not a safe place until you learn to walk through the paths. Once you can open direct pathways in this place, you can go anywhere in seconds.”
With his body plastered against hers, she was definitely aware of where she wanted to go with him, but just as she was leaning up to kiss him, her stomach snarled again and the moment was shattered.
“Come along. You can molest me later.”
She perked up at that. “Promise?”
“I promise.” He released her but kept his fingers woven through hers as he led her into a building that was full of tempting scents.
It was time to have a snack and anything else could wait until later but not too much later. An immortal woman full of an Orb of Time had needs after all and they were probably detailed and weird.
Aura could hardly wait.
Chapter Five
Entering the arched doorway, Aura looked up and stared at the elaborate ceiling. “Holy cow. What is this place?”
Randr smiled, “Welcome to the acquisition centre. They are a department of the Nameless that gets us the clothing we need, the food we eat and anything necessary for travel through time.”
She laughed. “Professional thieves.”
His face took on a haughty expression. “Please, acquisitions specialists.”
She giggled and followed him into the exquisite building. “Who built this place?”
Randr shrugged. “Home has been the same since the first Nameless came here. We know nothing about those who came before.”
Enormous alcoves turned into room upon room of lovely objects. “Doesn’t anyone ever steal them?”
Randr laughed. “What would we do with them? The Nameless don’t use currency and we have everything provided. You can even take a turn being in one of the trades we have after your training. Your options depend on the amount that you can expand your temporal field. It is a personal-control issue.”