Heretical Edge

I was staring at myself. Well, basically myself. There were very subtle differences, personalized changes in her appearance. Because this wasn't the figure I saw in the mirror. It was a figure I saw every time I went into my Archive and looked at the sleeping Flique members in our little hospital. Come to think of it, I was pretty sure I recognized this specific one. She was on the third floor, six rooms down from the stairs. The way she had most of her hair cut so short, with a single small braid had always reminded me of the padawans in those Star Wars prequel movies. That's why we'd taken to calling her Skywalker, or just Sky. And here she was, a glowing, ghost-like figure sticking partway out of Marian's physical form. Hey, sort of like one of those Jedi Ghosts.

"Hey there, Original Me," she was saying while I absorbed that sight. "I guess this must be a lot to take in, huh? Let's just say this is how we saved Marian's life when she was in rough shape. Her mind was… uh, falling apart. You put me inside her, merged us, so I could help hold her together. That's why you think she's familiar, why you feel like you can trust her, because I'm in here too. The two of us are merged, permanently. It's sort of like what Invidia did, but you chose this one. You did it intentionally to save her, and you did it with my permission. It's a really long story that we probably shouldn't get all the way into now, but believe me, she's on our side. You can let her help with this. We're all on the same side. Hell, that's why you said you'd take her on as a student. She's part of this."

My mouth opened and shut a couple times before I looked helplessly at the twins. They, in turn, offered a pair of confused shrugs. So, I exhaled. "Right, why not? It's right in line with the rest of my life. So sure, there's a version of me that's just merged with Maid Marian, who happens to be my Necromancy apprentice or something. And now you're gonna help us stop Artemis and Nemesis from accidentally unleashing an evil sapient universe that could destroy the planet."

Vanessa coughed quietly. "Do you ever say this stuff out loud just so you can go, 'Huh?'"

"Not nearly as often as I probably should, considering everything that keeps happening." I replied with a slight chuckle. What else was I supposed to do at this point besides laugh at the whole situation? Seriously, there was so much absurdity in my entire existence. But if I really took the time to focus on it too much, I'd probably never get anything done. It was just a lot.

Marian had stopped visibly concentrating by that point, as that ghostly image of Skywalker finished fading away. I wasn't sure why she apparently had to essentially shut herself down to let that other me emerge enough to speak up, but it probably had something to do with the whole merging process. Either way, she cracked her neck and looked a little bit worn out, taking a couple deep breaths. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to that. We're in better shape than we were when you gave her to me, but it's a learning process. This whole thing is a learning process."

Tristan snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Hey, that's gotta be why you keep saying things that make it sound like you're from our time, isn't it? I just kept thinking the things you were saying, the way you talk, it didn't sound like a girl from this time. And it really doesn't sound like a girl from hundreds of years before now. Your speech style, there's so many times it sounded like someone who grew up in the same time period we did. I knew there was something weird about it." Belatedly, as Vanessa nudged him, he added a quick, "I mean, no offense. Seriously, being weird makes you fit in even better. We're all pretty weird around here. It's kind of a rule."

For her part, Marian looked at him before giving a somewhat self-conscious cough. "Pretty much, yeah. When we merged, I ended up getting a lot of her memories and feelings." Her eyes flicked over to me hesitantly before she explained, "It's not the same as if she was possessing me. We're not two completely separate minds in here. She's not totally herself and I'm not totally myself unless we try really hard to separate. That's what you saw right there a minute ago. Most of the time, I'm basically three quarters original Marian and one quarter some version of Felicity Chambers. I have most of your original memories and feelings right inside my head. I remember growing up in Laramie Falls. I remember going to Crossroads. I remember losing our mother, finding out about Tabbris, fighting Charmeine, killing Fossor, all the way up through… basically the moment we went into the past with Ehn. I remember all of that earlier stuff. The emotions involved aren't as strong as they would be for you, but they're still there. I feel all of that. I remember living that life. And I remember all of my original life. It's all jumbled up in here."

The more she spoke, the more her voice seemed to tremble and shake. She had been holding it together pretty admirably until she had to explain the whole situation. Then it was like saying all of it out loud cut through her emotional armor or whatever. And boy did I know what that was like. Well, maybe not the having someone else else's feelings and memories merged with my own part, but I definitely understood being overwhelmed. Hell, I even knew what it was like to try to explain something that overwhelming to other people while worrying about how they'd take it.

So, I did the best thing I could think of under the circumstances. I started to step over that way with my arms raised before pausing to quietly ask, "Do you mind?" Only when the other girl gave a hesitant nod did I finish the motion, stepping that way to embrace her. I gave her a hug. She went completely still for a second, before returning it. And even then, hugging the other girl, I felt that same familiarity, like she was part of me that had been missing. At least now I understood why it felt like that. Part of her basically was a piece of me that was missing. Or sort of missing.

Actually, come to think of it, was that part of me missing right now, or was she still in my current version of the Archive? Because technically I hadn't done that yet, right? And if that sleeping Flique member was still in there, how weird would it be if I took Marian in there right now and had her go right to her? What would happen if the two of them met face to face like that? Would she still be in there? Would putting them in the same spot be totally fine because there were already so many different versions of me in there as it was, or would it be akin to time traveling into the same place and moment as another version of yourself, making both of you explode?

Okay, on second thought, maybe it was something we shouldn't try. It was probably a bad idea just to test something like that to see what happened, no matter how curious I suddenly was about that.

If it helps, Yardbird put in, I asked the others and she's definitely still in here on our end. We… don't know what that means exactly, but our version of her is still sleeping in that bed. Which I guess only proves that this place and all of us in here were duplicated through these rifts too. That-- huh. You realize that technically means there's hundreds of thousands of Flicks spread through the timeline if you think about it? The entire Flique multiplied by however many rifts there are.

Ruthers' worst nightmare, I started before amending, okay, second-- no, third worst. I think he'd be even more freaked out by a whole army of Mom or Fossor. Still, I think it's enough to make him wake up in a cold sweat. Which is something that really shouldn't make me smile right now.

Yeah, now really wasn't the time to think about that. Shoving it aside, I stepped back from Marian and focused on the here and now. Looking at the twins, I announced, "The two of us will get Sariel and Charmeine's attention. We'll draw them out, make it look like they need to focus on us. From what…" A slight flinch ran through me and I had to try again. "From what we saw in there, it shouldn't be too difficult to make them focus on me. Especially if they see Marian there too. It should be enough to convince them we're the real threat. So we draw them out, while you two sneak in and do what you can with that flight recorder or whatever you want to call it. See if you can use that to power up the ship and… uh, find a way to get it out of there without totally destroying the entire town, if possible. But whatever you guys do, do not open that cargo hold."

Tristan grimaced. "Trust me, you didn't have to tell us that. We're not about to release all that Tartarus energy into the world. We'll figure out how to send the thing out of here before they get into the hold. You just be careful." He held his fist out, looking anxious. "Both of you."

Marian was the first to give him the fist bump, before glancing at her own hand in surprise for a moment. It was like she reflexively knew what to do and only really thought about it afterward. "You too. Even if we draw all of them out, they'll still have defenses in there. Including alarms, both the magical kind and the electrical kind. And if they figure out what you're doing there--"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"We'll be in trouble," Vanessa finished. "Yeah, I don't think any of us have the easy job here." She looked like she was going to say something about having to go up against her mother, but decided against it and just swallowed silently. She was definitely anxious. Not that I could blame her, considering how much my own heart felt like it was about to beat its way right out of my chest. This was too much. Hell, just the idea of dealing with a rift that was about to send a bunch of dragon energy into the Fomorians to make them even more powerful than they already were was too much. Now we had all this added onto that. It was just-- I wanted to scream, and maybe kick a few things. But unless I found a way to kick an entire evil universe, that probably wouldn't help.

So, I just reached out to squeeze the other girl's shoulder, keeping my voice as even as I could. I was trying not to let her see that I was just as freaked out about all this as she was, but I didn't think it worked. Either way, I met Vanessa's gaze and spoke quietly. "You and Tristan can do this. Just wait for us to lure them away, then do what you need to do. One step at a time, first the ship, then the rift. Whatever happens, we cannot let them take what's in that cargo hold, okay?"

They both agreed. We took another moment to make sure we were all on the same page about what we were doing, and hammer out a couple details. Then there was no more stalling. Yes, the time dilation effect was helpful, but even that could only go so far. We had to get this done.

To that end, I teleported myself and Marian out to the far opposite side of the town, just beyond the boundary. Once we were there, neither of us moved just yet. We still had to wait for Tristan and Vanessa to send the signal that they were in position and ready. The timing on all this had to be perfect. In the meantime, I gave the other girl a quick glance. "So, you're like, part me?"

She shrugged and made a somewhat helpless sound. "I have your memories-- well a lot of them anyway, all the way up to coming into the past. And a lot of your feelings, but it's like… I know you're not me and I'm not you, a piece of me used to be you and I still basically remember being like that even though I'm not now and most of me never was. It's--" She paused before giving a heavy sigh. "It's really hard to explain, and I'm doing a shitty job of it. Basically, yes, I have a thing inside me that remembers being you, and has all those memories. But I'm still me too. It's like I had two very different lives all meshed together. Sometimes they bleed into each other."

With that, Marian gave me a weak smile. "Sorry, maybe once I have a little more time to adjust to it, I'll figure out how to explain the whole thing better. For now, I guess the best way to think about it is that I am Marian Fitzwater, born in 1176 AD. But I also have memories and feelings from Felicity Chambers, born in 2000 AD. I'm still me, but I can remember a lot of your life too."

Ask her, came the urging from Yardbird. We wanna know, before the situation blows up again.

Glancing down at the stone in my hand to assure myself that we still didn't have the 'ready' alert from the twins, then looking around to be equally certain (or at least as certain as I could be) that Sariel and Charmeine hadn't found us yet, I took a breath before asking, "So, is that… Flique member, the one who was merged with you, I guess she's not-- I mean she's still kind of her own person, when you focus hard on separating a bit, but other than that, she's just a, um…"

Instead of answering immediately, Marian took a few deep breaths like she was psyching herself up to do something difficult. Then she focused once more. And again, that ghostly version of Skywalker came partway out. "Hey, it's okay," she assured me. "I volunteered for this. I mean, basically. I was sleeping when you and the rest of the active Flique asked-- well, sent a dream request to all of us, asking if anyone would be willing to merge with a sick girl to help put her mind back together. I knew what I was getting into, that it was a permanent thing. I'd do it again any time."

After she managed that much, the image of her flickered and faded before Marian slumped a bit, sweating. "Sorry, I couldn't hold it any more. Maybe later I'll be able to do it for longer, but now--"

My head shook. "Don't worry about it. I still have a lot more questions, like, what happened to you, why were you apparently in such rough shape, what was wrong with your mind, and more. But I feel like--" Even as I said that, the stone in my hand grew warm. "Yup, it'll just have to wait."

"That's okay, it's a long story to get into," she replied easily. "But the point is, you saved my life. You saved me, my mind. You helped me be myself again. I owe you for that. That's why I really wanted to make up for it by fixing this situation. I promised I would. I just-- they wouldn't listen."

My hand briefly squeezed her arm reassuringly. "It's okay, we'll deal with it together. You never should've been left on your own to handle this. And now you're not. So let's get their attention."

It wasn't exactly difficult to do that, of course. The first thing we did was summon ghosts, a lot of ghosts. It turned out Marian already had a fair number of her own, collected over the few weeks that she'd been traveling here and trying to convince Sariel to leave the ship alone. She was following my personal rule of not forcing a ghost to participate, only taking volunteers. But even then, she'd managed to assemble a couple dozen spirits. About half of them had been normal humans, while the rest were a mixture of Alters. And like me, she was able to let the Alter ghosts use at least somewhat weakened versions of the same powers they'd had when they were alive.

Yeah, I had a lot I wanted to ask her, so many questions about what happened to her. Especially considering she had been born in the 1100s yet was alive here in the late 1600s before being merged with that other me. Had she already been a Natural Heretic before that? She had to have been, right? So she was a Natural Heretic who got in trouble, had something very wrong with her mind, and then I merged her with that Flique me to save her. Yup, so many questions.

But for now, I focused on summoning all those ghosts. That was why we were on this side of the anti-Necromancy line. We needed to draw those Seosten out after us, and this was the best way to get their attention. We just needed to convince them that we were doing something they really needed to stop. Something that would grab their attention immediately so they didn't really stop to think about why we might be drawing them away from the ship. Fortunately, given how much as Sariel really seemed to hate Jacob, it probably wouldn't be hard to make her too angry to think.

And god damn it, I couldn't believe I was actually thinking, 'fortunately, Sariel hated me so much right now, she probably wouldn't realize I was just tricking her.' This situation sucked so hard.

Obviously, we couldn't convince them that we were up to something big just by summoning ghosts and having them float around doing nothing. So, we sent the ghosts out to the surrounding area and had them start scrawling marks onto the trees, rocks, even in the dirt. They looked like complicated runes, a massive spellform that we were getting the ghosts to draw all around this side of the town. The sun had gone down completely, but we gave the ghosts enough illumination to light up the area. I was pretty sure seeing these spectral figures just outside their town would freak the hell out of any of the Bystanders in there who happened to glance this way, but at least that would make it more likely that the Seosten would notice.

And sure enough, we'd only been doing it for less than a minute before Sariel tried to kill me again. Fortunately, I was prepared for that. Yardbird was watching the area through the eyes of an invisible ghost floating above everything, and the very second she saw the other woman appear, knife in hand, she was already focusing. As the knife flew right at our head, she used the power we'd taken from that Fomorian croc-ape monster to increase the blade's resistance to movement so much it slowed down dramatically. Then she made our hand snap out to summon a portal next to us and in front of the thing so it passed right through and continued on out of the way to embed itself in a tree a good twenty feet to the left.

There she was, emerging from a thick set of bushes with the knife already reappearing in her hand as she stared intently at me. About a hundred feet away, Charmeine came into view as well, looking just as angry. It was Sariel, however, who spoke in a very tense voice. "What is it, exactly, that you're trying to do here, Jacob?"

"Not get a knife thrown through my skull, for one thing," I replied.

"You know as well as I did that there was no way the blade would reach you," she retorted. "That was a warning. Stop whatever you're doing. Stop the ghosts, before--"

"Before what?" I cut in. "Before you summon Puriel and the others so you can admit what you've been doing here all by yourselves? My apprentice tried to tell you this was too dangerous. She tried to warn you not to open that cargo hold. You wouldn't listen. So now we're going to take the option out of your hands." I didn't actually tell her what the spell the ghosts were creating was supposed to do. Mostly because it wouldn't actually do anything. It was just nonsense, but she didn't know that, and it was better to let her imagination fill in the blanks.

Behind us, Yardbird spotted a third Seosten stepping into view. This one was unfamiliar, but probably another Olympian. He looked Asian, with short dark hair and a small, compact yet muscular build, wearing one of their bodysuits under a long, open gray trenchcoat of some sort. In one hand he held a very long spear that was almost a foot taller than him.

Was that it? Was that all the Seosten they had here? I really hoped so, because at that very moment, even as the three Olympians readied themselves, Vanessa and Tristan would be heading into the courthouse where the ship was buried.

I had just enough time to send the two a silent, meaningless wish of good luck. Then Sariel was moving, and I only had time for one last thought before she was on us.

Please God let me survive the next few minutes. I really don't want to imagine Tabbris's face if her mom kills me.