Heretical Edge

So uhhh yeah, there was a lot to talk about. I had just a few questions about why almost all of my friends and teammates were right here during World War One somehow. I knew the Ankou were sending help, but that was what Columbus and Koren were supposed to be. So how the hell were all these others here? And what had happened to leave all these dead bodies laying around? Not that having a bunch of mutilated corpses near a battlefield around this area seemed like it was exactly noteworthy these days, but still. This whole thing was just a lot to take in.

I did have my priorities, however. And the top one on that list was Tabbris. As soon as she saw me, the girl came sprinting my way. I opened my arms and she jumped into them. We hugged each other tightly. Honestly, she didn't really have to jump that far. She was only a few inches shorter than me by this point. I'd say she was almost the same height as Sands and Sarah, maybe just under five feet or right on. If my 'little' sister didn't watch it, she was going to pass me entirely.

Giving her a firm hug that went on for several long seconds, I felt so much anxiety go rushing out of me. It wasn't everything, obviously. There was a lot of it in there, and we weren't anywhere close to actually fixing everything. Not by a long shot. Plus, I still didn't know why all these guys were here, and whether their presence was completely good news or not. I mean, obviously I wanted them here, it just felt like there might be a big problem behind the fact that they were. Call me paranoid.

Tabbris finally pulled away and gave me a little push toward Avalon. She, in turn, caught my shoulders and stared into my eyes for a long moment, as though assuring herself that I was really right there. At least, that was definitely what I was doing on my end. Then we were kissing, and even more of my stress faded away. I lost myself in that, then proceeded to lose myself even more as Shiori and Columbus separated from their own hug and my other girlfriend took her turn in Avalon's place. Seriously, how could I worry about things, or even really think at all under these conditions? I had missed my girls so damn much. Even when I wasn't actively thinking about it, there was always that emptiness at the back of my mind. Now, it was full.

Just having my sister and girlfriends here would've been big enough. But the others were there too. And I took the time to embrace each and every one of them. Finally, I found myself panting for breath from all the hugs while looking around in bewilderment at everyone. "Okay, seriously, I really need some answers now. Not that it isn't amazing to see you guys, but what's going on? How did you get here? Did something happen? Were there more problems with the other rifts? Please tell me we don't have to do a bunch more time traveling. I don't think I could take it."

"No, no more time traveling," another familiar voice put in. I looked and saw Aylen. Except it wasn't the way I remembered her. She looked older. Not like an elderly granny or anything. But she definitely looked like a full adult. Actually, she kind of looked like Sean had when we got him back from Crossroads. Which immediately made a rush of fear and anger go through me.

"What the hell?" the words came reflexively as I looked the other girl up and down in disbelief. "If you tell me you just spent years in one of those time acceleration prisons, I swear to all the gods who might listen--"

Aylen chuckled, while Avalon moved beside her and put an arm around the other girl. "Oh, no, it's definitely nothing like that. I earned my years the good, honest, old-fashioned way. Well, as honest and old-fashioned as they can be when it includes far too much time spent in suspended animation, I suppose."

At first, I had no idea what the hell she was talking about. Then she gave me the quick version of what had happened. She told me all about having been part of the rift that ended with that version of me getting absorbed by Invidia, and how she had been helping out ever since. She was basically a sister to Arthur and Gaia. And boy, was that going to be a weird thing to think about when we rescued that woman. The girl who had been like a sister to Gaia was dating her adopted daughter. And how bad was it that probably wasn't even the weirdest relationship thing going on around here?

We didn't just stand around there getting into all this. As soon as she explained that much, Aylen led everyone to one of those tents they had set up. Apparently there was a time dilation spell on the thing, so we could get into all the details we needed to without spending the next eight real world hours on it. This was probably going to be a big conversation, to say the least.

And what a conversation it was. Once we got in that time tent, which was quite a bit bigger on the inside and had a whole banquet table laid out with food and drinks, we got into it. Everyone wanted to talk at once, but in the end they took turns explaining what had happened at each of the rifts they had been part of. Which, from the sound of things, was a lot. It was a good thing the Ankou had duplicated me to send me to all those rifts, because I couldn't even imagine trying to deal with all of that with just one of me going to rift after rift. It would've been exhausting. It sounded exhausting just hearing about it.

Everyone took time to tell me all about each rift, and that wasn't even all of them. Not by a longshot. There were other rifts that people had been part of who weren't actually here. I wondered if those had been any less exciting, or if all of them were equally wild.

I heard all about Sands and Sarah in the old west, where they had apparently met a guy who was bonded to me. A real piece of work, apparently. And about how we had all run into Fossor, a piece of news that terrified me even with the explanation that I had adopted my Jacob identity to mock Fossor and convince him to run back to his home to deal with some magic bombs. Yeah, that was a whole thing. Not to mention the whole part where apparently some person calling themself Cassiel (whoever that was) had come through the rift at the end before I could step through it, said something about going to Desoto, and took all three of us there.

Uh, yeah, I had questions about that. Everyone did. But Sands and Sarah couldn't exactly answer them. According to the twins, they had been duplicated by the Ankou just like I had, though only the one time. One set of them had gone on to Desoto, but these were the other set, the ones who had joined up with all these guys. Yeah, going through that rift with that 'Cassiel' person had created two sets of Sands and Sarah, and the set that we had right here didn't know what happened in Desoto.

In any case, I also heard about Miranda and Tabbris in London where they had met Jack the Ripper. Who was also bonded to me, and also a real piece of work just like that guy Saign guy in the Old West. I was really starting to sense a theme here, and I didn't exactly like it. Nor did I like hearing that Joseph Bell, who was also Bedivere and someone who was bonded to me but actually not evil, had been possessed by Invidia. Which was just fucking fantastic.

Oh, and of course I heard about Vanessa and Tristan meeting Marian and the whole part where they-we met a sapient spaceship and fought a very angry Sariel and Charmeine. Yeah. Apparently 'just' jumping through time from rift to rift wasn't interesting enough, the universe had to find more ways to spice things up for me.

I heard about everything these guys had done on their rifts. Once Avalon finished telling me all about what had happened with that Jessica Trent, I had to just stare at her for a few seconds in silence before managing a weak, "Phoenix-Bonded?"

"Hell yeah, dude," Sean put in from where he was sitting with Roxa next to the entire plate of apple fritters the two of them had polished off. "Show the girl your awesome new trick."

Avalon rolled her eyes and blushed a little, but obliged, straightening up before focusing. As she did so, a pair of bright fiery wings emerged from her back. They should have incinerated the whole place, but the fire was barely giving off any heat. Her doing, no doubt. If she wanted something to burn in here, it would have. And it looked absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, I was sitting there staring at one of my girlfriends with bright flaming wings. She looked even more amazing than she already had. Which, for Valley, was saying a lot.

Actually, between Avalon and Tabbris, it seemed like a lot of the girls close to me were getting magic wings. Okay, not a lot, but two nickels and all that. All I could say was that I was going to be keeping a close eye on Shiori for a while.

Boy, I just really loved giving myself the hardest jobs, didn't I? I was going to be staring at one of my girlfriends to see if she got beautiful magic wings like the other one had? How would I ever manage to cope with such a workload?

While I was thinking about that, Roxa spoke up. "You should've seen what that Trent woman could do." She paused briefly, head tilting. "I mean, I guess you did. You'll remember all of it when all your other selves come together, right?"

I shrugged. "That's the way I understand it. Sands and Sarah probably will too, once we catch up with their Desoto-bound selves. And speaking of understanding things, I get why you were all at the different rifts, and seriously, thank you for being there. But why are you here at this one? Why are so many of you in this place and time? I really don't understand."

So, they told me the next part of what had happened. Apparently after I went through each of those rifts, they didn't just go back to the modern day like we had thought they would. Instead, they had all found themselves taken to the Roundabout shortly after I left the place behind. That was where this version of Sands and Sarah had been sent to as well. Not to help deal with a huge problem, or for any nefarious purpose. No, they'd been taken there for a vacation. Yup, seriously. They were all there to have a break from all the endless shit everyone had to deal with. One of the other versions of me was there too, and we had all spent time doing nothing but relaxing. Well, relaxing and an awful lot of training, of course. Avalon was there, after all.

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That little vacation had lasted several months. Actual months spent without any huge problems, no horrible catastrophes. My parents were there too, eventually. For just over four months, we had all just enjoyed life and helped set up even more details about my school. All these guys had helped with that. Which meant they had met Laein, and that was something I wished I'd seen. Oh, right, yeah, like Roxa had said, one version of me had seen that and I'd (we?) would remember it once all my different selves came together. This was… weird, yeah. Definitely weird. Just how hard was it going to be to cope with having all the memories from those separate versions of me shoved together into my head all at once?

Anyway, apparently after awhile people started being sent back to the present gradually. My parents were a couple of the first to go, wanting to give me a little extra time with my friends before returning to the chaos. But before they could all leave, Aylen had shown up. The older Aylen. She explained that there was going to be a big problem at a future rift, this rift. She had it on good authority from people with powerful foresight gifts that Invidia would have an army waiting here, ready to ambush us-- me, that is, in a way that I couldn't stand up against. Invidia's army would be too much for Columbus, Koren, and me, and things just… wouldn't go well. It was going to be bad. So Aylen wanted to counter that by having a small army of her own to back me up.

That, of course, was where these guys came in. Aylen asked for volunteers and they all agreed. So she put them in what amounted to suspended animation to wait for the exact right time. Suspended animation within the Roundabout itself, in a secret set of rooms that were hidden out of the way. Only Laein had known they were there, and I could just imagine how much she had enjoyed keeping such a secret.

Anyway, they were frozen like that until just recently. Which kind of made it a good thing that my parents hadn't been there when Aylen showed up. Dad-- well Dad would've been okay, but Mom would've been forced to stay behind. Her younger self was alive right now, so she couldn't be here. Maybe that was why the Ankou had made sure to nudge them back to the present first along with any other adults who might have that sort of problem?

Yeah, Mountebank agreed while sounding just as awed as I felt in that moment, that sounds like something Ceili would do.

Of course, that made me think of another problem, and my eyes snapped over to Asenath. "What--"

"I'm not here right now," she immediately informed me, reading my reaction. Honestly, she'd probably been waiting for it. "The other me who actually lived back in this time period, that is. I had a mystery client back in these days convince me to take a little job to another world. I didn't do it often, but they were very convincing. Never did find out who the client was." Her gaze shifted over to Aylen. "Until now."

Aylen, in turn, offered a tiny smile. "You wanted to participate in this. I just gave the other you a good reason to leave for awhile so you could do it. She won't be back for another few days, and by then you should be safely back in stasis."

But yeah, that's why these guys were here. They'd come out of suspended animation, did some preparation, then showed up here ahead of time and ambushed the would-be ambushers. Invidia had been here, but took off when it was clear she'd been outplayed. Her army was routed and these guys, my… my friends had set up camp to wait for me. And here we were.

"You guys are just…" I opened and shut my mouth a couple times before ducking my head. It took a second to collect myself. But at that point, all I could do was quickly embrace each of them, one at a time, all over again. "I'd be lost without you, just-- lost."

"Sounds like all three of us would've lost," Koren pointed out with a grimace. "So, uh, thanks. I like not dying. I'm kind of addicted to the whole living thing."

That started even more conversation about all that, while we ate. Eventually, Namytwiep the pixie captain returned with a couple of his people and handed me the monocle they'd made. It was beautiful, the frame and chain attached to it a mix of black and gold, while the lens itself was, of course, the same blue as the stone it had been made from. The pixies also gave me back what was left of the actual stone. They'd included an enchantment on the monocle that would keep it in place no matter how much I jostled it by jumping around, which was nice.

Finally, after tucking the monocle away and attaching it to my Jacob costume, I spoke up. "The rift is in that cave, right? Please tell me there's someone watching it, just in case Invidia tries something else."

Aylen gave a soft chuckle. "Where do you think Laein and her undead army are? Trust me, the rift is safe for the moment. If anything happens, they'll let us know."

"Loudly and probably with a lot of big explosions," Tabbris put in sagely. "Laein really likes explosions."

I frowned just a little thoughtfully, reaching out with my power. I couldn't feel any--oh, there it was. I hadn't been able to sense any undead creatures before, but now that I was actually trying, I could feel some vague impressions. They were hidden really well, either purposefully by Laein or as a product of the nearby rift. Or maybe both. Whatever the reason, I could barely sense them even when actively searching and knowing they were there.

But I did detect something else, while stretching out my senses searching for Laein's army. It was something I didn't understand, a weird… sensation near what I assumed was the rift itself, at the heart of the cave. I was standing up before even realizing what I was doing, my voice coming a second later. "There's something… weird about that rift, it feels-- we need to check on it."

More than one of the others murmured something about this being completely unsurprising, even as we left the tent and made our way into the cave itself. The tunnel led down at a gentle slope for a good two hundred yards, then twisted back on itself and went down at a steeper angle for another quarter mile before finally opening up into a roughly oval-shaped cavern that was maybe a hundred or so feet across, with a twenty foot ceiling.

On our way down, we were met by a handful of ghost guardians, and by the time we actually got to the main area, Laein herself was right there. The pink-skinned girl came dashing right up to where I was standing at first, almost looking like she was actually going to throw herself at me just like Tabbris had, before putting on the brakes at the last second when she noticed the others. Skidding to a halt, she gave me a pointedly imperious look. "Oh, you've decided to join us, have you? Good to know you didn't get lost on your way here." Even then, she was fidgeting, her clear body language desire to give me a hug at war with her words. It was kind of adorable. Not that I'd say that to her face.

With a smile, I cleared my throat, giving a little bow. "Apologies for the tardiness, Laein. It's nice to know there's someone like you around to help pick up the slack when I fall behind."

As she preened, I stepped further in, my attention moving to a flickering haze in the air right in the middle of the cavern. The rift. My frown had returned. You feel that, right?

Mountebank immediately confirmed, Yeah, there's something weird about that thing. I mean, it'd be weird anyway, it's a hole in space and time, but even beyond that. The energy around it… tastes funny on our tongue. There's Necromancy there.

I explained what I was sensing, and Laein agreed that she had felt something similar but assumed it was just something about the rifts themselves. It wasn't as though she'd been near them before, after all. But I knew, I just… knew there was something wrong here. Something that shouldn't be. Which started a whole discussion about what it could be, including whether it was 'just' the relative proximity of so many dead people at the nearby warfront that was tainting this rift. That… yeah, they had a point there. Still, I felt like there was more to it, this wasn't incidental. It was… it was…

"Someone did this," Aylen murmured, moving closer to the rift. She took a knee next to it, scrawling out some sort of symbol on the ground before waving her hand over it. "Invidia. Before we chased her off, she… must have managed to get one of her ghosts in here or something. She used a spell, she… wait."

What followed was about ten minutes worth of examination and testing. When she was finally done, the part-Reaper girl slumped back on her heels from that kneeling position and proceeded to curse, vividly and creatively, for another twenty seconds. I was pretty sure that wasn't a positive sign.

"So," Tristan piped up, "it's good news then?"

Once he was appropriately swatted by several of the others, Aylen explained. "My best guess is that she was trying to trap the thing. She would have hidden the effects so we never sensed them, but we interrupted before she could finish. The trap was supposed to ummm, well, rip your soul through space and time and send you right to her to be uh, claimed the way she took one of you already."

I blinked a couple times. "Oh. Lovely. But it doesn't do that now?"

Her head shook. "As I said, she didn't complete the spell. What she did was umm… bend the rift back on one of its other selves. I can't tell which one, but it's pretty far in the past. If you go through it, you'll be sent back to that rift, probably right after the other version of yourself goes through it."

Asenath looked from her to me and back again, speaking carefully. "I don't understand, so she'd be sent through time back to the past for a little while, and then rejoined with the rest of her other selves as soon as the rifts are all dealt with?" Even as she said that, I could tell she didn't believe it would actually be that simple. Apparently I'd used up the entire supply of things being simple by arriving after the actual fight for the rift was over.

"Not exactly." With that soft, regretful murmur, Aylen rose once more and looked at me. "Flick, cutting you off from your other selves was basically the only part of the spell Invidia actually completed. If you go through that rift, it won't just send you back in time temporarily. It'll completely cut you off from your other selves. You'll never be able to combine with them. It'll… change you in a way that can't be undone. The tainted rift energy will essentially make this version of you, this you too different to actually reform with the rest. This specific version of you will always be a separate person from the ones that went to all the other rifts."

I was still absorbing that as she continued. "And… and there's more. You won't be able to take a quick way back. It'll leave you stranded there, in the past. The rift will leave… contaminating pieces of itself on you, making you allergic to time travel or suspended animation. You'll have to live through the entire timeline from that point on. The good part, if you can call it that, is that that whole being too different to recombine with your other selves bit means that existing in the same time as another version of yourself won't create any… explosive problems. But you'll be stuck there. Stuck living through every year from that point until the present. Your other selves, the ones at the rest of the rifts, will come together like they were supposed to, but you… you'll be on your own. If you go through that rift, you'll never be able to combine with your other selves, and you'll be stuck living through however many decades or centuries there are between then and your real present."

Oh. Well…

That sucked.