Heretical Edge

Maybe there was a better thing we could have done with these people other than take them all to Laramie Falls. It would be a whole new life for them, in more ways than one. They would be taken from their homes to live in an unfamiliar land, far from where they'd ever been and amongst strangers who were… well, to be fair, I didn't actually know how much of the Laramie Falls population would still be Alters at this point. We were currently in-- wait, what year were we in? A quick check with the ship computer when that thought came informed me that it was 1875.

So yeah, we were in 1875 right now. Which meant Laramie Falls had been around for just a bit under three hundred years. A lot could have happened since I left those people there the last time and went off to start this whole thing with Ehn. They'd had three hundred years of growth.

Sure, a fair amount of that would have been completely insular. It would have taken quite awhile for outsiders to find the place and settle there. But it had probably happened by now. I just had to wonder how they were holding up, how different the place was, and how the people would feel about me bringing all these newcomers and asking if they could all move into town with them.

There could have been a better plan than that, but I didn't have one. I couldn't just throw these people out to the wild and hope for the best, not after everything they'd been through. I had to help them, and the best way we'd come up with to do that was to take them to my old childhood home, the town I had grown up in and later accidentally helped create. Yeah, my life was weird.

We were also in a bit of a time crunch. Fossor would only be distracted for so long, and we still had to find the rift. So this was going to have to be a quick trip. I left Sands and Sarah to do their best to explain to these people what was happening. At least I could be pretty sure that the Bystander Effect wouldn't kick in yet. After everything they'd seen already, it would just wait until they were out of the obviously supernatural situation, then erase their memories of this whole thing. Unless we did something to stop that, anyway. But if nothing else, the twins could give the people a very basic idea of what was happening and what we were going to do, and let them all choose for themselves if they wanted to be taken to this new town. I wouldn't force them into it.

Meanwhile, as those two worked on getting the confused and terrified civilians… maybe not on the same page, but at least in the same library as the full story, I focused on Laramie Falls, teleporting myself there instantly. But not until after I told the ship to fly exactly a hundred miles south and then eighty miles east. I wanted it to be far away from that place in case Fossor came back early. Even if it was cloaked, I wasn't stupid enough to risk just leaving the ship right there.

But now that it was as safe as I could make it under the circumstances, I sent myself back to my old home, bracing for what sort of town I might find after all that time. And also before all that time. As usual, time travel was weird.

The place I sent myself to had, back when I left centuries earlier (from their point of view), been the very edge of town. In my own time, it was where a Wal-Mart had been. But right now, the second I appeared, the first thing I saw was a great big field of carrots and potatoes. At least I was pretty sure they were carrots and potatoes, given the baskets of those two vegetables sitting nearby. There was a farmhouse and a barn in the distance, and I could see some workers going around what turned out to be a vast field. Some looked human, others very clearly were not. I could even see a pair of tree-like Relekun working together to carry an enormous basket.

All of them, Alters and humans alike, stopped as soon as they spotted me. They just stood there and stared in what I could only imagine was bewilderment bordering on fear. And who could blame them? They were seeing this complete stranger dressed like… well, like I was as Jacob. I had appeared completely out of nowhere, standing in the middle of this field without any warning. At least I had turned off my dramatic shadows and wind effect. I could only imagine how bad this whole situation would've gone if I'd still had all that going when I showed up here.

For a brief second, I froze, unsure of how I should get into this. I hadn't actually thought this far ahead, to be honest. How was I supposed to explain who I was or what I wanted? Hell, who was I even supposed to talk to? I had no idea who was in charge right now. It would be the mayor, right? Would they know about Alters and stuff like that? I was starting to doubt this whole idea all of a sudden. Why would this place be any better than other areas I could've taken those people?

Fortunately, before I could let those thoughts take over too much, one of those Relekun approached. His voice was cautious. "You are Jacob, yes?" He sounded nervous and uncertain which I really couldn't blame him for. "I was only a sapling when you were here last, forty years back, but I remember the jacket. I remember… you are him. You came back, like they said you would. They said you always come back, even if it takes decades before you visit again."

He sounded positively awed, his voice almost making me blush. What did these people say about me? Also, forty years ago? Oh right, that must've been another one of my rift-chasing selves.

Shaking that off, I glanced at the other people who were still watching curiously before giving the Relekun guy in front of me a short nod. "Yes, I am Jacob. I… I'm sorry, I'm kind of in a hurry right now. Would you mind… okay I really can't believe I'm saying this, but would you mind taking me to your leader? The leader of the town, I mean. I need to talk to whoever is in charge around here about having, uh, some new people move in." To the rest of those farmhands who were still watching curiously, I raised a hand and waved. "Hey, sorry, I'll be out of your field in a minute!"

They all waved back at me, most of them looking at least as awed as the Relekun himself. I uh, well, apparently I had a reputation here as Jacob. It made me wonder just how long that rep would last. If I showed up as Jacob in the present (my normal present that was), would there be Alters who would know me? Wait, wait, would Calvin know about Jacob? The thought of my old theater manager, who ended up becoming one of the Wonderland Septs, knowing Jacob almost made me need to sit down just to process.

Even as I was going through that in my head, my new friend quickly agreed to take me to the mayor. He beckoned for me to follow as he headed out of the field and to a cobblestone road leading down through this farmland area and into the main part of town. The place really had grown a lot since those first days, even if it wasn't anywhere near what it would be in the present. There were fields full of crops all around these outskirts, just outside of the defensive walls. Actually, two layers of wall, I realized belatedly. There was a smaller wooden wall closer to the center of town, but also a much larger stone one just at the very edge of where the farming area started. It formed kind of an oblong oval shape around the main population area, with a couple troops clearly on guard duty near the gate as we approached. They started to call out to the Relekun, before going completely silent the second they saw who was with him. Both looked, if possible, even more shocked and overwhelmed than the farmers had. It kinda looked like they were about to bow or kneel or something, which would've been really embarrassing for everyone involved.

Fortunately, we were all saved from that when a voice called out from just inside the gate area. "I guess I owe my prophet friend a week's worth of free lunches, you really did come here."

My brain had just started to register the fact that the voice was really familiar when the figure came into view and I immediately realized why. And then it was my turn to gape in shock, my mouth falling open as I managed a weak, "Aylen?" What the hell? How was she here right now? Was she part of the rift group? That didn't make any sense, she would've been there with Sands and Sarah. Was she part of a different rift group? Was there one here right now? Wait, no, she said something about a prophet friend. But I-- but she-- wait, hang on, just what was going on? Also, no, she didn't look just like Aylen. She looked like a slightly older version of Aylen. Like an older sister or something. But that would mean… wait, what was I missing here? Besides 'a lot.'

The Relekun farmhand who had led me down here was giving me an odd look, as were the two guards. "Ah, Mister Jacob, sir," he started carefully, "this is our mayor, Alisien Dumas. Is there--"

"It's okay, Yole," Aylen-- or Alisien apparently, assured him. "I've got it from here, you can head back. Thank you so much for bringing Jacob down. We ahh… have quite a bit to talk about."

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She offered the same reassurance to the guards before offering her hand my way. "Shall we?"

Well, what the hell else was I going to say to that? Accepting the offered hand, I started walking into the main part of town with her. "Okay, hang on, are you actually-- I mean this is probably gonna sound really weird if you're not actually-- that is, I um, you really look an awful lot like--"

"I thought Jacob was supposed to be smooth." With those words and a smile of amusement, Aylen finally took pity on my confusion. "Yes, Flick, I'm really me. Though to the rest of these people I look like an older white woman with gray hair. I simply exempted you from the illusion."

Okay, so that answered basically nothing. But she went on as we walked through what turned out to be a fairly decent-sized town for this time period. The place looked like it was maybe just under two-thirds the size it would be in my present, which was pretty impressive for a town in Wyoming in the eighteen hundreds, as far as I knew. But on the other hand, that also meant it wouldn't grow much more between now and then. Or… or maybe it did get bigger and something happened to destroy some of the place before I was born and… okay, I really had to stop letting my brain run wild. Especially when there was plenty to focus on right in front of me.

Speaking of what was right in front of me, Aylen took a moment to explain everything that was going on. And, even more usefully, she used a time-stall spell to do so, allowing her to get all the way through what amounted to a good thirty minutes of explanation in only about two minutes of real time, so we didn't risk giving Fossor too much of a chance to finish his search and go back.

And what an explanation it was. Aylen had been here on Earth since her own rift situation had gone wrong back when Arthur and Gaia were kids? She stuck around, became Ganieda, an actual part of the Arthurian myths, and met another version of me decades later. All of which led to her deciding to stick around to find a way to both help with as many of those rifts as possible, and to find a way to use that Dragon-bonded energy to bring Arthur back. She just put herself in a sort of suspended animation for decades at a time between the rifts they were able to identify.

Oh yeah, and then there was the fact that having this Saign guy as a Natural Heretic of… myself was apparently far from my biggest problem. Because of course it was. No, that whole thing sounded absolutely simple compared to the fact that fucking Invidia had managed to somehow merge with another part of me and… and now she had all my power and was-- yeah, it was bad.

That was another reason Aylen had decided to stick around rather than trying to find a way to go back to the present immediately. She thought it would be a good idea to have someone who could warn me that Invidia might show up to fuck with things again. Apparently that worked better in some cases than it did in others. She didn't get into the details about that, and I didn't really want her to. Not right now anyway. I wanted to finish dealing with this rift and move on.

To that end, Aylen informed me that she had been living here in Laramie Falls under this identity for the past four years, and was elected mayor a year earlier. She had some prophetic friends who had told her this was the place to come and wait for me at this time, though they weren't able to narrow it down any more than that timespan of a few years. All she knew was that I would be here at some point, and that I would need the sort of help someone in charge of the place could provide. She'd spent the past few years making sure the town was ready for this.

And it was. The population around here was apparently about half and half divided between Alters (and a few Bonded) and Bystander humans who didn't know the truth about things. But no matter how much or how little the people were aware of, Aylen had ensured they were prepared for the idea that there would be an influx of settlers. They weren't quite up to having homes for this many, but it would be much less of a burden than it would've been without her preparations. The town would be okay, and she had not only potions prepared to help block the Bystander Effect for the members of my rescued civilians who wanted to remember the truth but also plenty of Alters who were ready to volunteer to try the bonding process. That would take awhile to make stick, but the potions and other measures would help stop those people from just forgetting all of it.

All of which meant this place was far more ready to handle the situation I'd brought them than I could even have hoped. Aylen was just… yeah, I had to give her a hug, which she returned easily. Both of us embraced, and I couldn't help but shudder at the thought of going through what she was. Yes, I was bouncing around through the timeline, but each version of me was only experiencing one rift. She might not be experiencing the full passage of time, given how much of it she spent in stasis, but still. She did spend years awake around each rift. She'd lived through decades already. Decades away from everyone else, especially Avalon. God, Aylen felt the same way I did about Valley. How would I have dealt with being apart from her for so long? Could I have made that choice to go through all this the long way? Aylen was… definitely special. If we made it through all these rifts and brought Arthur back, it would be thanks to her.

I could tell there was more she wanted to say, more we could have gotten into, but there wasn't time. Even with her spell, it really wasn't a good idea to push things too much. Not when there was Fossor and this Invidia bitch to worry about. I had to get back to that rift and go through. But the good part of that was that Aylen had another treat for me, an enchanted stone that could lead me to the rift through a sort of hot-cold game as soon as I was in the right general area.

Moving quickly after that, I took Aylen with me back to the ship. She had a meeting with the twins, using another time-stall spell thing over in a corner of the cargo bay so she could explain everything to those two. Meanwhile, I met with the townspeople, asking what they wanted to do. Almost every single one, save for about five, chose to go to Laramie Falls and retain their memories. Of the five who wanted to forget and go elsewhere, three were a small family of a husband, wife, and their small son. They wanted to return to Boston where they had living in-laws they couldn't give up on. The other two were an old man who seemed angry at the whole world and just wanted to live in a cabin in the woods, and a scared young woman who was maybe a year older than me. She wanted to go to England, far away from all of this 'nonsense.' I didn't have the heart to tell her that it didn't matter where on Earth she actually went as far as 'that nonsense' was concerned. Hopefully she'd be able to have as simple of a life as possible.

Working quickly, I took those five where they wanted to be. It wasn't difficult, thanks to the Cryptseeker's ability to show me images of those places on the screen. I transported them over, gave them whatever supplies they needed to set themselves up, then left them. The Bystander Effect would kick in soon enough and they'd only remember very basic details. Probably something about choosing to leave the town once it was attacked and pillaged by bandits.

Once that was done, Aylen had finished explaining things to the other two. On top of everything else, she was going to take Saign off my hands, promising to deal with him. I told her about the stone indicating that he was important, and she assured me she wouldn't kill him. She'd just… make sure he wouldn't be a problem for awhile. I trusted her to know what she was doing.

So, I used a few separate trips to take everyone over to Laramie Falls. Then I used a couple more to grab everything I could from the old town they were being forced to abandon. I sent my ghosts out to grab all the family keepsakes, supplies, tools, everything useful or sentimental, and brought it to the townspeople. It wasn't the same as being able to stay in their actual homes, but at least it was something.

With that, we said our goodbyes and I brought Sands and Sarah right back to where we'd started. We appeared right in the middle of what was now quite literally an empty town. I had no idea how long we had left before Fossor would come back, but it definitely wasn't the right time to stand around chatting. I took the rock Aylen had provided, and the three of us quickly began to follow its directions. The thing glowed brightly whenever I was facing the right direction, and pulsed that light faster and faster the closer we got.

It didn't take long to find the rift that way. The thing was in a grove of trees that seemed a bit out of place in the midst of this otherwise empty desert, and I was almost surprised it hadn't already been found. It really seemed like the rift itself had made the trees and lush grass grow.

And there it was, a rip in space and time just sitting there in the middle of that grove. I felt it pulling at me, even as Sands and Sarah made joint noises of awe. The latter swallowed and offered a weak, "That's it?"

"That's it," I confirmed, turning back to them. "Thanks, guys. I guess when I go through, you'll be transported back home. But just in case, use that signal stone Aylen gave you so she can get you out of here."

"Oh believe me, we will," Sands assured me. "We're not about to stick around for Fossor to take out his annoyances on. We uhh, we'll see you on the other side."

I embraced both of them, squeezing tightly. Then I offered them a small smile. "Well, here goes nothing." With that, I turned back to the rift and took a step that way.

Which was the moment another figure appeared right there in the middle of that rift, coming from the other direction. Even as I reeled back in confusion, the figure resolved a bit, giving me a good look at some small somewhat androgynous figure with black hair that was cut short on one side and long on the other, the tips dyed pink. They were wearing a Seosten bodysuit.

"Hey there," the newcomer greeted us, "Name's Cassiel. I swear I'll explain later, but right now, we gotta go." They pointed both hands, shooting out some sort of… red paint that hit the three of us. And just like that, all of us were being yanked into the rift. This Cassiel person's last words echoed through the small grove just before we disappeared.

"Time to go fight the Fomorians in Desoto!"