Jigsaw World

by JD Lovil

  When they got to the kitchen, Veritasia and Arpad were the designated cooks, and they had made a big supple of chorizo and eggs, scrambled style, with a loaf of bread made into toast. Not the best breakfast made in this house, but serviceable. Karla and Tom got themselves big plates of the food, mugs of milk, and a seat at the courtyard table. It was now 10:35 in the morning.

  Markus seemed a bit nervous about his role in the day’s activities. Tom thought seriously about taking the opportunity to have some fun at his expense, but he finally decided to take the high road. He reminded Markus that the fate of the world literally depended on how he did today, and that Vera would likely leave him if he screwed up. Not to worry though; The Sorcerer would probably step in and fix his screw-up, and screw his girl, too.

  Tom was gratified to see the anxiety leave his good friend Markus, replaced by a healthy dollop of anger. He was a little flummoxed by the promise of future retribution in the eyes of Vera as she looked at Tom. Tom thought that it might be prudent to change the subject, and questioned the preparations for the day’s quest. The answers were terse but serviceable. Markus, group, staff, prune, home. He had to read between the lines, and what he read was a lot of pornography. Well, pornographic terms anyway, usually ending with the word ‘you’.

  Karla dug her elbow into his side to get his attention, and shot him a warning look when he looked at her. He chose to interpret all that to mean that he was sharing too much, and should parse out the interaction a bit so as not to overwhelm the other couple with his charm and caring.

  Time wore on, so that by noon, Markus and Vera were actually talking to Tom a little, although they still were relaying a lot of their conversations through Karla. That was okay with Tom, it gave him more cigarette time. The coffee was pretty good this morning, as well.

  The newspaper this morning was still full of headlines about the Mars mission. Everything was green for the mission, and all twelve of the Astronauts were eager to walk on the planet’s surface. That was scheduled for tomorrow.

  At about 1:00, Vera and Markus left to return to their bedroom, where they intended to take their ease and prepare to leave for the Place of Beginnings in an hour. As soon as they left, Karla turned to Tom and got his attention. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” She asked. “Markus and Vera are about as good friends as we have in this world, and they are pretty decent people. They are not mice to be played with, got me?” She emphasized this statement by digging her fingernails into Tom’s leg.

  “Okay, if we all survive this mission I will apologize to them.” He said. “I guess I got carried away a bit. You can’t blame me. I am an asshole.” With that he put on his most contrite face. Certainly that must be enough to get him back in her good graces. It was hard work faking that much compassion!

  Close to 2 PM, Karla and Tom wandered into the parlor to see the others off on their little adventure. Markus was there, holding the Staff of Infinity, which was putting out a slight mental buzzing sound. Vera was there, looking secretly relieved not/ to be the performer in today’s production. She shot Tom a look of private venom, but Markus seemed to have forgotten Tom’s previous little social blunder.

  The group that was going gathered into a tight group, and the Sorcerer did his little shadow thing to open the way for the group to the Place of Beginnings. The double doors of the hallway opened and the wormhole was once again revealed. With the Sorcerer and Cernunnos in the lead, the group walked into the light of the gateway and was gone.

  Tom and Karla went back out to the courtyard table to while away some of the hours until the group’s return. The Seer, Tyr, Heimdall, Arpad and Veritasia eventually joined them, and a good time was had by all.

  Markus stood before the Tree at the Place of Beginnings. Vera stood by his side. The Sage, the Herald and Charlie were already facing outwards to watch for opposition. As Vera joined the defensive arc, the Sorcerer took up his guard position at Markus’s back, while Cernunnos stood before Markus to officiate.

  “Markus, we are come to use the Staff of Infinity to work upon the Tree of Reality, here in the Place of Beginnings.” Cernunnos said. “Are you ready to complete your task?”

  “I am ready.” Replied Markus. He raised the Staff as he spoke to emphasize his readiness. As he spoke the now familiar change mist appeared, and spread all the way around the group. There were voices in the mists, and obscured movements were seen.

  Vera saw movement in the mists, and she watched carefully. What she saw surprised her. From out of the mists walked Darrin from her demon hunting days in Catcall. The big problem with that was that she knew that Darrin had died shortly after Vera had hooked up with this motley crew. That meant that it was a dead man walking toward her, and now that she could see him better, she realized that she could see through him in places.

  ***Turn away from this place*** his voice sounded in her mind. ***You are disturbing what must be. Let us sleep***

  “Don’t listen to the dead.” The Sorcerer said. “They lie, and they do not want the world to go on.”

  As he said that, the air began to move and became a high wind. Personal items began to be pulled toward the mist, and against the wind. At the Sorcerer’s instruction, Vera and the others erected a psychic shield against the opposition. As she did this, Vera felt a stirring of power deep within her mind. She felt that she could release this power upon her enemies, and suspected that she might be able to sweep them from the local reality with that power.

  Following Cernunnos’ instructions, Markus held the Staff of Infinity against one of the cluster of branches of the Tree. The slight humming vibration of the Staff had become an electric thing, jumping and dancing in his hands. He saw that where he held the Staff, the branches of the worldlines began to merge and change, so that where there was many spindly branches, there would now be one well fleshed and healthy branch.

  Several of the dead were ranged against the shield, attempting to force their way into the presence of the group. They could hear the pleas to stop and the curses of the dead as they held the barrier. Now the opposition included telekinetic forces such as that which started with their apparel and belongings, but the Tree was not susceptible, and there was nothing physical otherwise present, except for the group and their belongings, so there was a very limited supple of missiles for any poltergeist activities.

  Markus was making good progress on the Tree. The Staff felt like it guided itself along the branches as soon as he would touch it to the branch. He was already over half finished with the task, depending on subtle, almost artistic mental signals to know when one part was done, and when to start on the next branch.

  Vera felt the power now spinning near the surface of her mind, and it felt eager to be released to do its work. She and the others were virtually immune to the pleas and curses of the dead by this point, so to release a great weapon upon the dead would seem like overkill, but even the A bomb needed a few tests before they brought it out to remodel Japan.

  Markus looked to be nearly done with his task. The Tree was virtually throbbing with health, and most of its spindly branches were gone, replaced with branches that any world class tree would admire. It was now or never, if Vera wanted to test her new power.

  She took the lid off of the energy, letting it spiral upwards and gather force. When it had come as far as she could take it and either control or release it, she added a tiny bit more energy to the maelstrom, and the energy pushed out into the Place of Beginnings from her mind. In a few seconds, it had spread out over the field between her and the ghosts and the mists.

  As it came up to the mists, it swept them out of existence, and with wails and screams, and waning curses, it swept the ghosts of the dead out of the world along with the mist. She felt a delicious fatigue come upon her, and she leaned for a moment upon the Sage. The others were somewhat amazed at what power she had summoned. She felt as though it was a power over a portion of reality that she wielded, and she was eager to develop it further when she ha
d a chance.

  The use of the Staff upon the Tree was completed, and the opposition was gone. Everything was once more right with the world, at least as far as this part of the group were concerned. It was getting along to the time to get back to the compound for the night. It had been nearly two hours since they had arrived, which meant that it would be about ten in the evening back home.

  The group gathered back together, and the Sorcerer did his shadow thing to open the way back through the wormhole and into the compound. The tornado of light lying on its side appeared at his behest, and he led the group back through the glowing light of its mouth, and into the parlor of the compound. The group walked into the room, as the hallway double doors softly swung shut.

  The group was welcomed back with open arms. That is to say, they were greeted by Tom and company, who had eaten most of the edible foods, drank most of the good drinks, and who bore the returning group no gifts. Tom had taken care of the food and drink problem, having earlier used the credit card that he had swiped from the absent Sage to order more food in the form of pizza and subs, and drink in the form of soda and from one of the bootleggers who lived down the street, and for some reason was set up to take credit cards.

  Markus and Vera headed straight for the morning's newspaper. There were two sets of memories that were related but significantly different from each other dancing through their heads. They remembered that the Mar's mission was nearly to the planet's surface, but they also remembered something about an alien contact, and a successful Martian colony.

  When they got to the newspaper, there it was. A prospector craft had encountered an alien spacecraft in orbit around the moon of Saturn called Titan. The first landing on Mars had occurred nearly ten years ago, according to the updated timeline, not this week as per the previous incarnation of the timeline.

  The colony had been established at the original landing site on Mars nearly eight years ago, and had been thriving ever since. Since then the space activity had exploded. There were now hundreds of private and state sponsored prospecting, scientific and even recreational ventures all through the Solar system. There was even an orbital casino around Venus, and a microgravity factory in orbit around the moon.

  The four of them forgot whatever tensions might have been between them previously, in the excitement of the amazing changes that had been made to the timeline. They had also turned on the television and tuned in Fox News to see what they could see of the underpinnings of reality now. The first thing they noticed was that the problems in the Arab world had dwindled to almost nothing. Even the Palestinians and the Israelis were getting along well.

  Everyone and their kid brothers were getting into the science circus. Most of the major corporations had either started subsidizing the Science and Mathematics departments of their local Universities, or even starting their own Universities. The most popular majors in college were now Physics and Astrophysics.

  One of the most amazing things that the group saw on the television was the absence of the monsters that used to be around and behind most of the disasters that have always been the mainstay of national news. When the news showed a new eruption occurring in Alaska, there was no gigantic creature causing it, just geological factors. There was no hint of vampirism, or lycanthropy, or any news of empty graves or flesh eating anything/, except for the usual flesh eating bacteria, of course.

  It slowly dawned on the group that the world had become a better/ place, even though they all had a memory that it had always been this way. The memories of monsters and paranormal things felt like a dream, but it was much stronger than any real dream memory had a right to be.

  In their excitement, Tom, Karla, Markus and Vera temporarily forgot any differences that they might have with each other, and discussed the world and their place in it. In each case, the other three remarked that the one being discussed had grown during this process. All of them were developing powers that astounded and awed them, and in some strange way were staking a claim to their existence and their personas.

  Tom and Karla had a connection between them that was present all the time now, and a power was growing in them, both individually and as a couple, that promised the ability to deal death on even a planetary scale under the right circumstances. Vera had shown that she had a power that could evict something from the very fabric of reality. Markus had a more subtle evolution, but there was something growing within him that would make him more than he was.

  After a time they noticed that it was nearly one in the morning. Tom was due to deliver the Stone of Reality tomorrow, and if he was to do it awake, he would need to get to sleep. With a final Goodnight to all, Tom and Karla made their way to bed and to sleep.

  ******

  28 The Stone of reality

  Karla opened her eyes. She could have sworn that she heard Tom say something, but there he was, sawing logs in the bed next to her. She was still hearing his voice just a little, sort of muttering in the distance, but under her skin at the same time. She could understand just enough of what he said to realize that it was stream of consciousness stuff, hence it fit well with the sleeping state that he was obviously in right now.

  She decided to try an experiment. Mentally, she thought “Wake up!” But she made sure that she didn’t make any physical sounds. It worked like magic. Tom popped one eye open, and looked at her as though she might have lost her mind.

  “Did you say something, Karla? He asked. “I was busy sleeping.”

  Karla looked over at the alarm clock and discovered that it was 10:45. It was time to get up and go find some food to eat, before the train that was the nonexistent stream of time brought them to the moment when once again, they must visit the Place of Beginnings.

  ***Let’s go eat*** Karla thought.

  “Let’s do it.” Tom said. “I feel hungry!”

  “Do you realize that you just responded to something I thought, but didn’t say?” She asked. “Do you feel me in the back of your thoughts, like I feel you?”

  They had a little conversation about the ins and outs of this telepathic link they seemed to have developed, and then by mutual agreement, they decided that it was indeed time to fill their stomachs. They left the bedroom pushing thoughts back and forth between them as they made their way to the kitchen.

  They got to the kitchen, where Charlie had put together a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and hash browns, with coffee, milk and some sort of tea that tasted even stranger than Mate’ tea did. When Tom asked about it, Charlie said that Tyr had brought it from some very aged version of the earth.

  They dug in as Heimdall spun a tale about a world where there were gigantic insects. He said that they were pretty strange, thicker bodied than most earthly insects, with more curves and an odd geometry to their bodies, but they looked, acted and moved like insects, only four to eight feet long insects who had absolutely no problem with respiration or with moving about. By the time Heimdall had espoused all of these qualifications, Tom was beginning to believe that he was telling the truth, and had not made the bugs up.

  Charlie must have served in the Navy, because he cooked in such large quantities that no one had to duel for the last piece of bacon, or the last bit of egg. During the meal and during the stories and other conversation, Karla and Tom had a running mental conversation going between them. The connection between them was getting more and more secure.

  At first Tom was leery of letting Karla that deep into his thoughts. He thought that she would be horrified by some of his darker thoughts, but he had noticed her delving into those, and she hadn’t flinched. She smiled as he thought that it was magical when one found someone else who was just as bent as you were.

  After a while, Karla and Tom were as stuffed as they could possibly get, always a wonderful physical state to be in moments before getting into a possibly highly active situation. Tom sat back and lit up a cigarette, taking a deep drag in blissful contentment. He had a good feeling about today. He might get to be the hero of
the day, or he might be able to develop his talent a bit more, or at least, something should show up during his task that he will get to kill.

  He grabbed the morning paper to establish the day’s baseline. They were still talking about the first contact situation around Titan, but the specifics of the contact scenario were under a secrecy umbrella, and all they would say was that the contact had been made, and that additional contact team members were on the way to Titan aboard a plasma drive fast transport.

  They had wasted a couple of hours with food and conversation. It was 01:00 PM, and time to go get pretty for their adventures. Karla could get pretty; Tom was content just to make sure he was packing suitable weapons. When they hit the room, they had just enough time for a standing Quickie before having to don suitable clothing and accouterments for the trip.

  It was about 01:50 when Tom and Karla finally strolled into the parlor to meet up with Heimdall, Tyr, Veritasia, Arpad, and the Seer. Tom had the Stone of Reality in a leather pouch at his belt, along with the standard set of firearms and blades. Not that he thought he would need the weapons. With two Asgardians in tow, chances are that he would never have a decent chance to field a standard weapon. If he had to strike at the opposition, it would doubtlessly be by using his new paranormal talent.

  Cernunnos strolled over to the collected group. “Once Tom has done his task tonight, the world should finally be done with the visits to the Place of Beginnings.” He said. “Do it right, and get it done, and tomorrow will be a party day.”

  “Do you get nervous around November?” Tom asked Cernunnos. “If I was you, I wouldn’t be anywhere near deer hunting territory in the fall.” Tom looked at Karla, then at a chuckling Seer. “I just thought of that.” He explained.

  The group watched a confused and somewhat upset Cernunnos as he wandered away from their vicinity. The Seer took a last look about, and turned to face the group.