by JD Lovil
He started to untangle himself from the various Vera bits, and during the process, she woke up and snuggled up even closer. That was bordering on agony by this point, since with the loosening of the trapping of his left arm beneath her body, an agony of aching sensation returned to the arm with the blood flow. He forced his arm the rest of the way out from under her, no longer worried about disturbing her sleep. She opened her eyes, and after a couple of minutes, they got up out of the bed, and found something to wear.
Vera looked over at the alarm clock and saw that it was now just a few minutes until 11 AM. She felt a little peckish, and she knew that Markus wouldn’t refuse to chow down on something. She had never known Markus to skip an opportunity to eat. With minimal energy, they made ready to find breakfast.
Tom and Karla almost ran into Vera and Markus at the kitchen door. Tyr of all people was busy at work cooking a breakfast of sirloin steaks, scrambled eggs and some sort of biscuit that seemed like a cross between buttermilk and sourdough types. Whatever it was, as soon as anyone took a bite of the food, good luck on getting them to say anything for a good long while.
Tom investigated carefully the providence of the coffee, which was very thick, but did not seem at first glance to be Tyr-thick. It turned out that the coffee had been made by the Sorcerer, so Tom guessed that it should not be immediately fatal to drink it. The last time Tyr had made coffee, Tom had poured the remnants of the pot on an anthill in the flower bed in the courtyard, and both the ants and the flowers had promptly expired.
In short order, they had all eaten their fill of the highly nutritious breakfast, and so they carried their second cups of coffee out to the courtyard table to relax. It was now about 11:40, so they had another couple of hours to kill before the Vera group would be departing for the Place.
“I have some stray memories of yesterday.” Karla said. “I remember my Seed activity. I also remember being somewhere in Tucson while the place is going through an earthquake.”
“Well, I remember being in the parlor reading a copy of Cosmopolitan, and also being in an abandoned car, hiding from some of the possessed.” Vera said. “I am glad that I am living here instead of that other world.”
Even the Asgardians had some variations in world histories that they remembered. You would expect that if anyone were to be immune to the effects of changing timelines, it would be them. Tom found it remarkable yet reassuring that they were vulnerable to such manipulations, just like the rest of the humans.
A shadow approached one of the empty seats, and resolved itself into the Sorcerer. That trick was getting kind of old, but if the watcher was drunk enough, it still was entertaining. “Are you ready to read the Book, Vera?” He asked her. “Everything should fall into line for you at the tree. Do you feel ready?”
Vera looked at him like he was feeble-minded. “I was thinking about getting my nails done, instead. Could you do it instead of me, Sorcy?” She delivered the sort of smile that would probably be heartwarming to snakes or other reptiles. Despite the trapping efforts that she put into this, the Sorcerer noted his regret that the task was hers to complete.
Cernunnos and his Herald swung by the table to ask after Vera’s readiness as well. It was entertaining to Tom that the Herald was trotting around behind Cernunnos like a lap dog. Even before Cernunnos had appeared, Tom had had a mental image of him similar to that of the lap dog he was currently imitating.
Cernunnos, the Herald and the Sorcerer drifted back into the house after having checked on Vera’s status. Tom looked at Vera. “You know that they won’t leave you alone until you finish your part of the task?” He asked.
“I know. I just wish the old hands would take care of it themselves.” She replied. “When your AC breaks down, you don’t take a crash course in air conditioner repair, you just call the repairman.”
“I have been doing it wrong.” Tom quipped. “I have just been killing the Landlord, and moving somewhere else.”
“That’s a valid choice as well.” She said. “If you want to take these guys out, I’m willing to travel.”
“I would, but it would get messy. I rather like the Asgardians, and even the Sorcerer, but don’t tell him. Cernunnos would seem like a waste, without a wall of my own to hang those horns on.”
The conversation descended even further into silliness, and when the subs that they ordered finally got there, it lapsed for a time as our heroes stuffed their faces with bread covered lumps of pseudo meats, lettuce and tomatoes. Time wore on until at last it was 1:35, and time for Vera and company to go perform their tasks in the presence of the Tree.
Tom and Karla walked her into the parlor, where Markus had gone earlier to make things ready for the task. He met them there, and Cernunnos, the Sage, the Herald, the Sorcerer and Charlie were also there, ready to go. The Sorcerer would serve as the path blazer, in the absence of the Seer, who was now part of the party that Karla and Tom belonged to.
In the next ten minutes, Vera and Markus’s party formed up, and the Sorcerer did a shadow version of the Seer’s blazing staff head to open up the way. That is, he muttered some words to the shadows, and they drew together and took on form, and they muttered back and when the time was right, the doors swung open and the way was open.
Tom and Karla watched as the other party stepped into the light of the wormhole mouth and disappeared. When they had entirely entered the mouth of the gateway, the doors slowly swung back shut. They both felt just a bit like they was shirking some undefined duty, but they went back to the courtyard table and sat down with some doughnuts and coffee anyway.
Vera and Markus were close to the Tree, which was strobing in and out of phase. Vera was carrying the wooden cask which contained the Book of Eternity. She could just see the light from the Book flashing through the crack of the lid of the cask. Charlie would act as her second in the task, while Markus, the Sage, the Sorcerer and the Herald would be the defensive line. Cernunnos would officiate at the task, of course.
The Tree seemed somehow healthier than it did the last time she was here, so the planting of the Seed must have had a significant effect on the Place of Beginnings. Vera sensed that the four artifacts would actually have the desired effect on the worldline, if they got the worldline to refine itself in the proper way.
“Vera will read from the Book of Eternity while the defense holds off the resistance in whatever form it will take.” Cernunnos instructed. “Vera, do you have the Book?”
Vera nodded and brought the Cask to the front to indicate that it was inside. Everyone but Charlie, Cernunnos and Vera formed an outward looking semicircle to defend Vera. Charlie put his back to hers in the now familiar guard position, and Cernunnos stood in front and slightly to the side of Vera.
“Take out the Book and concentrate.” Cernunnos said. “You should find that the book becomes understandable, and will instruct you in what you need to ask to happen.”
Vera opened the lid of the cask, and carefully grasped the nearly transparent Book of Eternity. As she touched it, the level of illumination surged to new higher levels. She looked at the Book, and the symbols started to flow across the screen. The occasional symbol seemed familiar to Vera, and she noticed that each one that was familiar would bring other more familiar symbols right after it. The unfamiliar symbols would flow off of the screen and not reappear.
The current symbols were a mixture of characters that seemed like Nordic runes and Greek alphabetic characters. As she watched, the first recognizable word in English appeared: the word ‘The’. Shortly after that, the text in the book was entirely in English.
The device that was called the Book of Eternity gave a readout of the current consistency of the physical laws, quantum equations of state and the event tree that was determining the state of this worldline. Even though Vera did not consider herself to be technically savvy enough to make sense of such an amalgam of information, the tablet was interactive enough to present the information in precisely the correct way to be comprehensibl
e to her.
The Book suggested a tweak to the equation of state which would create a feedback loop that would in turn modify the expectations of the majority of people, which would modify the consensus reality, which in turn would modify the rules by which this worldline was operating. There was also an event that occurred some sixteen years before the ‘present’ time of 1939, which was the murder of a woman named Naomi Selvin by a drifter, which contributed to the shift of attitudes that culminated in the current disintegration of reality.
As these bits of data and information began to be understood by her, a huge swarm of insects that might have been some strange breed of grasshoppers or locusts swept into the vicinity and began to fly into the faces of the defenders. At the same time, an almost overwhelming feeling of depression and sorrow was suddenly felt by all of the party, as though it came from outside.
With the Sorcerer taking point on the defense, the defenders raised a shield against the insects, and counteracted the massive emotions by sheer force of will. The Book had meanwhile resolved the two primary alterations into a simple red-green button decision. If Vera wished to accept the feedback loop tweak that would modify the consensus reality, press the green touchscreen button. If she wished to integrate the single event change where Naomi disappeared instead of being found murdered, resulting in her boyfriend not becoming a drunk and influencing the worldline to ‘give up’ on hope for a reality that made sense, press the other green button.
She wasn’t quite sure why the Book was presenting these items as a choice. The analysis had been done by the Book that these were the linchpins of change that it could influence. She pressed both green touchscreen buttons.
The defenders now had an effective shield wall up against the insects and the empathic blasts. The Book made a humming sound, and the air between the Tree and the Book glowed with a soft amber light as the Book communicated something to the Tree. As she watched, the Tree appeared to grow even healthier, and its branches started to twine about each other, making chords of branches, which she understood to be a symbol for a merging of nearly identical worldlines into each other.
Tom and Karla had long since finished off the donuts, and had enough of the coffee. They were still at the courtyard table, but the drink was now the single malt Scotch that the Herald forgot to lock up before he left, and the night that had just come on was the ambiance.
Tom was enjoying the odd sensation, sort of like an echo, of experiencing a bit of the activity of their companions in the Place of Beginnings, and a bit of a sort of reverse Deja Vu of the worldline, and its accompanying timeline changing, and remembering both lines. Karla had mentioned just enough to prove that she too was experiencing these sensations. None of this was nearly as strange as what was about to happen.
He was just completing the injection of tobacco into a tube, using the injector system, tubes and zig zag tobacco that he had conned the Sage into picking up for ‘them’, when he ‘heard’ a sort of greeting in his head, that seemed to come from Karla, who was quietly sitting at his side.
***This is so strange. I think that I can feel you think***
***Is that you, Karla? Why can I hear you in my head***
They made eye contact with each other, and then they started to blurt out that they felt like they could hear each other’s thoughts. It was obvious that it was real, that for some reason, they picked up each other’s thoughts for a moment. They could still feel a connection, deep down in the back of their minds. It seemed powerful, and it seemed real.
The fact that their connection followed so closely on the heels of the remembering of the two different timelines suggested that somehow, their minds had been stimulated into making this connection by the circumstances. They felt a certainty that the connection was with them for a long time to come, ready to come out when it would be summoned in the future. It also felt like it might be part of a weapon, a way of channeling massive amounts of power.
From where they are sitting, they can feel the other party about to return. They feel a strange sensation, which they attribute to the difference in time flow rates, and an impending storm front of changes coming that were wrought by the reading of the Book of Eternity. Even now, they can feel the hair raising charges that opening the way places on the air, and the unsound hum of noise from the wormhole increased in volume, even if the sound was purely mental.
The double doors that hid the wormhole swung open just as Karla and Tom entered the parlor, and the other party came out of the light that bloomed in its mouth. Tyr and Heimdall came into the room just behind Tom, and the Seer was not far behind. Tom glanced at his wristwatch, and discovered that it was nearly ten in the evening. He was smoking one of the last two cigarettes he had made, and Karla was smoking the other one, as they waited for the expedition party to collect their wits and report on their success.
The Sorcerer slid to the front and confirmed what everyone knew already, that the expedition had been a success. Everyone knew, because you could feel a consistency of reality that was missing before. Everyone in the room knew that the universe was far healthier than it had been just yesterday. Once the pizza that the Seer had ordered arrived, everyone found a comfortable perch for themselves and started to investigate what was different about the world in detail. It was time for beer and pizza and copies of the newspaper.
One of the wonderful aspects of the current schedule for the Healing was that it allowed the parties to see the morning newspaper, complete the day’s task, and then come back to that same newspaper to see what was different in the world. This time was a doozy.
This morning everyone remembered that it was full of stories about the impeachment actions against several high level politicians, including the President. This time, there was no mention of impeachments, and the President was someone named Hall, a totally different president to the one they remembered from this morning.
The headline this evening had nothing to do with politics. Blazoned across the front page was ‘Mars One in Orbit, Touchdown in Two Days’. The changes to the current worldline had advanced the sciences and agendas of space sciences by several years, resulting in the production of a high thrust plasma drive, and making the launch of the long desired Mars colonization effort feasible, and with the economy stable and the world’s population well fed, it was one of the pushes that had helped to elect President Hall, and it was a very popular national goal.
Everyone was very happy with the changes that they had made in the worldline so far, and when at last the time had rolled around to 11:30, everyone began to think pleasantly of sleep to serve as bookends to this day, and dreams to process the changes wrought. One by one, or two by two, they drifted away to their beds. The same team that went out today would be up for an expedition tomorrow. It would be Markus’s turn to use the Staff of Infinity to Heal the worldline. It would be another day of Leisure for Tom. Both needed their sleep to deal with the stresses.
******
27 The Staff of Infinity
Habits persist, even when they are not needed. They are nasty habits, if they make your life harder for no good reason. Waking when you don’t need to, early in the day, now that is a nasty habit. Tom rubbed his eyes and groaned his displeasure at being awoken by his habits for no good reason so early in the day.
The one consolation of waking so early was that it gave him an additional opportunity to gaze upon the red headed beauty that was lightly snoring in his bed. There was some resemblance to that red head that he had bedded in Texas, that he had found stabbed to death and rolled up in a blanket in the back of his van. He assumed that he had killed her, but he never figured out why.
He had never thought of himself as particularly dangerous to be around until that girl. He thought that he was relatively safe for Karla to be around, and he knew that he would never forgive himself if it turned out that he was wrong about that. Sometimes, you just had to take a leap of faith in these matters. Since he didn’t want to do without Karla, he would just hav
e to assume that she was just fine with him. If he found that he was wrong, he would just have to kill everyone who knew him and start over in some new place.
Markus was busy giving Vera a massage as she lay in bed. He was paying special attention to her back, butt and back of her legs, as he was inwardly griping about having to do all this work on the same day all of the responsibility of saving the world was on his shoulders as well. It would serve them all right if the task failed, and everyone died in a maelstrom of madness.
It was sort of titillating to be touching all of that womanly skin, though. Mike was not entirely a dead persona in this body. Markus was probably one of the few humans that existed that could be counted among the sane and still be jealous of his own attention being focused on his girlfriend. It did make more sense when you remembered that there was another person named Mike inside this body, and he also found Vera sexy.
Speaking of which, he was massaging her naked body, and he was naked, and the anatomy that formerly belonged to Mike was excited, and impressively large. When you have a big ship, and you find an inviting port, you just have to pull into the dock. A quick adjustment and the process of docking brought Vera awake. What followed was a fifteen minute aerobic workout.
The deed was eventually done, and the clothing of Vera and Markus was now protecting their own bodies, rather than the backs of the chairs that they were formerly draped over. They took turns looking into the mirror to check on hair and face issues pursuant to joining the rest of the group in the kitchen for breakfast.
On the way out, they nearly collided with Tom and Karla who was strolling toward the kitchen in a relaxed and slow gait. Markus was irritated that they could afford to be lazy today, since they had nothing to do all day, just like yesterday. He secretly hoped that tomorrow proved twice as hard for them, to make up for all of the lolling about that they would doubtlessly do today.