Cronos

Avalon Pilot part III-7: Kairos

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“Children?  Child?”  Doctor Procter tried to get the children’s attention.

“Kairos?”  Mingus tried, and the children at least stopped crying.

“Glen?” Boston spoke, and the children looked up.  Both sets of eyes got big and both mouths spoke in perfect unison.

“Boston!”  Then both mouths closed and there appeared to be some internal struggle before the boy spoke first and then the girl.

“I am Zadok, a word for rock.”

“I am Amri, a word for love.”

“Glen is here but not,” Zadok continued.  “I don’t know if I can reach him, exactly.”

“Or Alice,” Amri said.  “And I know where she is.

“I am confused…”

“…and I don’t know why.”

“I cannot send you home, either.”

“I don’t even know if the gods can.”

“Hold it.”  Lockhart interrupted.  “Could just one of you speak?  I’m getting dizzy.”

The children looked at each other before they nodded.  “I will talk,” Amri said.

“I will listen,” Zadok finished the thought.

“Wait a minute,” Lincoln stepped forward.  “You are like the Princess and he is like the Storyteller, or…”

“No, dear,” Alexis explained.  “They are one and the same person, only that one person is in two bodies.”

“Actually,” Amri looked briefly at Zadok.  “I am one being, like one consciousness in two persons.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Lincoln said.  “How can you be one being in two persons?”

Amri and Zadok looked briefly at each other once more.

“Amri likes to talk,” Zadok said.

“Zadok likes to listen so it works out well.”

Boston inched up close and squatted.  “What are you, six?”  Both heads nodded before Amri spoke again and it sounded like a hurried speech.

“You have guns that will never run out of bullets and vitamins that will never run out no matter how many people start taking them.  But that is all I can do for your health and safety.  That, and remind you that when the demon Ashteroth invaded Avalon and gained access to the Heart of Time, she wanted to change time.  She thought she could do that through the Heart of Time.  It doesn’t work that way, but in the attempt, she let all sorts of horrid creatures into time.”  Amri paused.  Someone had come up to the top of the hill.  The old man, Nimrod, interrupted everyone with a roar.  He looked bruised and bloodied in any number of places.   His face looked pummeled, and included the beginning of a terrific black eye.

“You!”  Nimrod pointed at Lockhart.  “You caused all this.”  Boston moved slightly and that attracted Nimrod’s attention.  The man shouted on sight of the children and raised his spear.  He threw it at Zadok, but Boston jumped.  The spear grazed her side and caused a great gash and a great deal of blood, but its trajectory changed, so Zadok was spared.

Roland’s arrow arrived first in Nimrod’s chest.  A look of utter surprise crossed the old man’s face before Lockhart’s slug from his shotgun and corresponding fire from Captain Decker knocked the man completely off his feet to roll back down the hill, dead.

“Boston!”  Zadok reacted first.

“Alexis!”  Amri seconded the sound of concern, but called for help.  Alexis, already on the way, started to open the medical kit.

“Daughter?”  No one understood what might be going through Mingus’ mind, but Alexis waved him off, locked her thumbs, and placed her hands an inch away from the gash in Boston’s side.  A golden-white glow of magic formed around Alexis’ hands, but when they touched Boston, Boston grimaced for a moment before she relaxed.  Lincoln, Lockhart and the others all watched while the bleeding stopped and the wound slowly closed-up.  The healing was not as fast or as complete a healing as Lockhart’s hand, but clearly Boston would be fine.  All the same, Alexis wrapped Boston in some gauze and tape, and helped her stand.  She then helped her repair her fairy weave clothes.

“I’ll be fine,” Boston said, as she felt two arms encircle her and two heads press up against her, with tears welled up in Amri’s eyes.  “Oh,” Boston returned the hug.  She wanted to squat again and hug the Kairos properly, but she was not sure if she could squat.  “You are cute when you are young.”  She said, instead.

“Of course.”  Zadok looked up with a smile and Boston saw the same smile spread across Armi’s face.  “I’m always cute.”  The twins backed up and looked once around at everyone.  Then Amri spoke again.

“You must go.  Nimrod might have died alone, the tower fallen, and him ever so slightly afraid that something of him might survive death after all.  You may have done him a mercy, but now you must go.  Godfather Cronos must come to see me, and the tower must be shattered.”

Lieutenant Harper, who craned her neck to see the top, nodded.  “Bad bricks.  Straw would have helped.”

“Ahem!”  Captain Decker coughed to get her quiet.

“You better hurry,” Amri said.  “I feel Cronos may come tomorrow, and shortly after he arrives, the tower will fall and I will cease.  Then I don’t know.   This time zone might start again at the beginning—at the moment of my conception.  It would be better if you were not here when it reset.”

“So, we have until tomorrow to get to the next time gate,” the doctor summarized and got out his amulet.  He turned to face the woods, then he turned back to say farewell.

“Will you be all right?”  Lockhart asked.

“Of course,” Amri responded.  “I live here.  But you must hurry.”

“And Lockhart,” Zadok interrupted himself, or rather, herself.  “I am sorry to burden you with having to get everyone back home the hard way, but I believe in you.”  Amri nodded her head in agreement, quite independently of what Zadok was doing.

Lockhart said nothing.  He just turned and followed the others back down the hill, toward the woods.

Avalon Pilot part III-2: Myths and Legends

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Lockhart peered out, like from a cave on to a ridge, but he could not see much or very far outside of a blue hazy line in the great distance.  He thought that might be the sea.  He put his hand gently forward until he touched the gate.

“I see the shimmer of the gate in this light,” Boston said, and everyone nodded.  She had come up to the front and looked around at her fellow-travelers.  They could all see it, but not well.

“This would be easy to overlook, especially if we were in a hurry,” Lieutenant Harper said.

“Weapons ready?” Decker suggested, and Lockhart nodded.  Mingus rolled his eyes, but Roland got out his bow, Boston fetched her Beretta, Lincoln checked his pistol, and Lockhart cradled the shotgun in his arms like a baby.  The marines, of course, were always ready.  Doctor Procter pulled a rickety stick from some secret place up his sleeve.  It was his wand, and with that, Alexis felt prompted to look around for something she might use to focus her magic as well.

When they were set, Mingus rolled his eyes again, but Lieutenant Harper saw and threw the elf’s words back at him.  “Better to be safe,” she said, and they all stepped into the next time zone.

The ridge top proved not very wide, and though it did not end in a cliff or sharp drop off, the slope looked steep enough to make them keep to the ridge top in the hope of finding an easier way down.  Lockhart headed them east, toward the rising sun, and Boston remarked how lucky they were to arrive at sunrise instead of the dark of night.

“Of course it is dawn.”  Doctor Procter squinted in the early light.  “The time zones all share the same twenty-four-hour cycle.  They may be different days or different times of year, or on different phases of the moon, but they all have twenty-four hours.”

Mingus added a thought, getting used to making up for what the Doctor left unsaid.  “He means when it is noon here, it will be noon in every time zone.  The only way we will enter a zone at night is if we leave a zone at night.”

“Nine in the morning or so, not dawn,” Lincoln interrupted.  “It is hard to tell with the sun rising behind the mountains.”

“Chain of mountains,” Alexis spoke to her husband.  “And we seem to be fairly-high up, though it is warm.  I would guess near the tropics.”  Lincoln nodded and for the first time he got out his proverbial notepad and pen.  The pistol got put away since there did not appear to be anyone or anything around apart from a few birds.

After a short distance, they found a place where the ridge crumbled and rolled to the bottom ages ago.  It seemed a gentle slope, but instead of being full of rocks and loose pebbles, it had become covered in grass.

“Our way down,” Lockhart said.

“Mmm.”  Boston looked around and half-listened, as usual.  She had her hand up to shade her eyes, and looked up now that they could see several peaks at once above them.  “I like the way the rising sun sets off the peaks like so many islands in the sea.”

“Islands in the sea, indeed.”  Captain Decker pointed across the slope to where the ridge top picked up again.  A large wooden structure looked abandoned there—a man-made structure.  It remained partly hidden behind some boulders, but for want of a better word, it looked like a boat, and a big boat at that.

“It can’t be.”  Doctor Procter said it first.  No one else said anything until they arrived at the site, and then they all said, “It can’t be,” except Mingus, who suggested it stunk.

“Father!”  Alexis protested and Roland stood right beside her.  “You stuff all those animals in a boat for forty days and forty nights and see how much stink there is.”

“The stink is hardly the point,” Roland added.

“Look at this.”  Doctor Procter got everyone’s attention.  The boat had graffiti on one panel near the quadruple-wide door and ramp.  Over all was a picture of the sun and the moon squeezed together so it was a half-moon and a half-sun.  A mermaid had been crudely drawn on one side.

“Half-woman and half-fish,” Alexis said while Lincoln desperately tried to make a rendering of the drawings in his notebook.  He cursed not having a camera.  “And a centaur, half-man and half-horse on the other side,” Alexis finished her thought.  She ignored her husband’s curse and pointed with her finger.

“And the middle picture?”  The captain, lieutenant and Lockhart did not see it, but to their defense, the pictures were very primitive.

“The Kairos,” both Doctor Procter and Boston spoke together, and Boston let the doctor describe it.

“The two persons of the Kairos are attached on her right and his left, so there are only three legs and two hands on a double-wide body.  You can see the two heads clear enough.”

“And she has little boobs,” Boston added, and watched Roland redden just a bit.

“So, you like my work?”  Everyone jumped and looked up.  A man stood inside the Ark, at the top of the ramp.  “You are future travelers.  I thought that sort of thing was not possible—a self-contradicting proposition.”

“We are accidental travelers.”  Lockhart spoke up quickly and just as quickly got Captain Decker to lower his weapon.  Lockhart stood back from the others and still cradled the shotgun.  Mingus stood beside him on the other side and frowned for some reason.  “We plan to move on as soon as we can,” Lockhart finished.

The man nodded and asked for no further explanation.  “I am just glad there is a future.  I have worked hard so what I once saw might not come true.  My wife says I am making freaks.  I said they are her children too.”  He paused to smile, but since no one but Decker joined in the smile, he finished his thought.  “The truth is these offer hope, and there are others working elsewhere.”

“Why centaurs and mermaids?” Lieutenant Harper asked.

“Because the world is empty and needs to be filled.  If the ones who would-be gods have nothing to occupy their time and attention, they will be occupied with each other, and that would be very dangerous.”

“Do I know you?” Doctor Procter asked, and squinted at the man, but the man shook his head.

“But I know you.  I can’t help it.  Boston.  You will live much longer than a human should live.  Alexis, your days will be shorter than they might have been.  Doctor.”  The man paused and scrutinized the doctor.  “There is something different about you—something wrong.”

“He is half-elf and half-human,” Boston suggested.

“Half and half.  No.  But what an interesting concept.  I wonder why I did not think of that.  It would certainly cut down on their wild rampaging through the earth.”

“But wait,” Lieutenant Harper spoke quickly.  She felt afraid that the man might run off, or maybe just disappear.  “I still don’t understand the centaurs and mermaids.  What about human beings.”

The man looked up at the lieutenant and smiled.  “A sharp mind.  They are the future—your future.  But right now, they are all bunched up on the plains of Shinar.  Oh, there are some small groups scattered here and there around the world, but mostly Shinar.”  He pointed.  “I see your way lies in that direction.”  People looked, though there was nothing to see but mountainside.  He waited until they all looked at him again before he spoke.  “I must think on these things you have said, only I fear my children will find me before I can act on my thoughts.”  He vanished.  One moment he stood there, contemplating eternity, and the next moment he disappeared.  Mingus answered everyone’s question when he spat the man’s name.

“Cronos.”

Avalon Pilot part II-6: Before the Beginning

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Too far, Glen thought.  Alice, how did you make things work at the beginning?  How did you survive? he asked himself, and felt surprised that Alice was not there in his subconscious to answer.  He had to think, and quick.  He expended his air at last with the words “Air bubble.”  A bubble of air instantly formed around him.  He quickly said, “Big air bubble to encompass everyone, and normal light.” The air bubble grew until everyone was inside of it.  They were still floating weightless, but a quick scan around him told Glen that everyone would survive despite the hacking, gagging, and gasping for breath.

Think, Glen told himself.  Way back at the beginning of time he remembered Alice appeared in a place on a rock.  The old god, Cronos appeared, along with Angel—that is what he called him anyway, if Angel could be called a him.  With that thought, he said, rock and stared down beneath his feet, though everyone’s feet were certainly not pointed in that direction.  Still, the rock began to grow and it continued until the air bubble became a dome.  Then he said, “Solid and heavy with gravity like a mountaintop on Earth.”  Everyone fell.

Glen felt lucky.  He was the one who fell the farthest, then Roland, but the elf proved to be nimble enough to avoid being hurt, and Boston, though she was young enough to also go without injury.  Some of the military equipment in the backpacks bumped rather hard, but Glen did not worry about that.   He felt he twisted his ankle.  He tried the word, “Heal,” but it had a minimal effect.  Meanwhile, Lockhart held up the bleeding hand he used to catch himself.  Everyone watched in amazement as the bleeding stopped.  In only a few seconds, the wound healed itself.

“Because we are at the beginning of things?” Boston wondered out loud.

“The grace of our god.”  Roland had another suggestion, and looked at Glen.

“Some magical cure?” Lieutenant Harper asked.

Glen shook his head.  “He is still filled with those Gaian healing chits that healed his back and legs.  They may help you, Lockhart, but you best not depend on them.  I’ll say it again, leaning on them is a good way to get killed.”

“Understood.”  Lockhart responded shortly, since he already stood and reached out from the edge of the rock to touch the stuff of Primordial Chaos.

“Big dome of air.  Plenty of air.”  Glen said and waved his hands.  The swirling mass complied and soon they had no fear of running out of air.

“Doctor Procter?”  Roland knelt beside the old man.  Doctor Procter wore the amulet, but held it in his hands and shook it, like he could not see what he needed to see.

“Lincoln?”  Meanwhile, Boston knelt beside Lincoln because the man looked ready to cry.

“I’ll get our bearings in a minute,” Doctor Procter responded, as Roland looked over at Boston and Lincoln.

“No way she survived this, even with her magic.  I don’t see how.”  Lincoln let his tears flow.

“Confession.”  Glen spoke loud enough to get everyone’s attention.  “I was afraid something like this might happen.  We went back further than I planned.  It all happened so fast.  I could not control it.  Alice is out of touch.  It may take a long time to get home, as I feared.”

“What?”  Lockhart pulled away from the edge, and even Lincoln looked up.

Boston thought it through and lifted her voice in protest.  “But I can’t live 6500 years to get back to where I belong,”

Glen waved off her complaint.  “The time gates should still be there where I am at the center.  Doctor Procter’s amulet should work as well.  How I get home may be a bit more problematic.”  He mumbled most of that.

“Man!” Boston started again but stopped when she got interrupted by a great light at her back and a voice in her mind that said, simply, “Do not be afraid.”

Boston turned to see Lockhart, Glen and both soldiers on their knees, and she felt the need to join them, especially after Glen named their visitor.  “Angel.”

“Come. Kairos.  Stand.  You are required to resolve this.”

Glen got slowly to his feet while Angel did something to lessen his own light so the others felt less afraid and could look up.  Even so, none dared to look into Angel’s face.

“How can I resolve this?” Glen asked.

The answer came without hesitation.  “You must offer yourself in place of the woman.”

Glen stepped over to touch the sticky ooze.  “Will I die?”

“I cannot say.”

“Will Mingus return with the woman?”

“I cannot say.”

“Will I still be able to help my friends get home?”

“I cannot say.”

“What?”  Lincoln found the courage to speak.  Perhaps it was the prospect of getting his wife back after all that inspired him.  “You do not know, or you are not allowed to say?”

“I cannot say.”  Apparently, that was the only answer they were going to get.

Glen looked at the suffocating mass that surrounded them before he turned from the chaos at the edge of the rock to face them all.  He took the glowing golden ball out of his pouch and Boston saw that it was indeed an apple.  With a sharp knife that Glen also carried in his pouch, he cut three slices.  He handed the first to Lincoln.  “Take and eat,” he said.  Lincoln ate the slice and at least half or more of his age fell away from him.  He still seemed older than Boston, but not much older.  He ended up around thirty at the most.

“Take and eat.”  He handed a slice to Lockhart and with the same effect.  “The golden apple of youth,” he explained.  “You will age normally from this point, but I could not let a couple of old men face the time zones.  You would not live long enough to get home.”  He turned toward Boston.  “Sometimes you may have to run,” he confessed with a grin.  “And to you I give this slice for Alexis.  I know you won’t eat it because you won’t want to become a baby.  Tell her to take and eat as soon as she arrives.  And now the one-minute review.”

“It would be best to stay out of whatever trouble you can and not kill if you can help it.  Remember, no matter how impossible it may seem, these are real people in real time and they are capable of fear and pain and they will respond to hate as well as love and kindness.  I understand there may be times when you will have to defend yourselves.  Do not hesitate.  Remember, if you die you will stay dead.”   Glen looked at Angel, but there was nothing there for him to hold on to.  He needed to do this himself.

“Two things.

One:  The only difference between you and the people is they are confined to their place in time whereas you can move from zone to zone through the gates and can jump forward anywhere from a few years to fifty or more years at a time.  Not counting the things you have with you, whatever other stuff you take from time zone to time zone, will age a corresponding number of years based on the number of years in your time jump.

Two:  Don’t forget that Ashtoreth wanted to control and change time.  Some of her creatures are still out there.”  He paused before he added, “Most dangers you can escape by simply going through the next time gate.  I suppose if they can follow you from time zone to time zone, you will know they are a real danger.”  He turned on the marines.

“Decker and Harper.  You need to consider Lockhart your General, and in his absence, Lincoln is your Colonel.  If I recall, he got designated a light Colonel at one point with the CIA.  Anyway, they know more about what is involved than you do, so don’t get cocky or I’ll see you stranded in some place unpleasant.  Is that clear?”

“Sir, yes sir.”  Lieutenant Harper responded.  Decker said nothing, but he nodded his agreement.

“Boston, you have the medical kit?”  Boston nodded.  “Let us hope you don’t have to use it.  Meanwhile, I have filled your packs with elf bread-crackers since you don’t have to carry extra clothes.  The fairy weave you wear can be shaped to your needs, and just so you know, Boston has vitamins in the med kit since you won’t always get a square meal.  Oh yeah.”  He clapped his hands twice.  “So now you will understand and be understood whatever the language.  It will all just sound like English to you.  Now I have to go.”  Trouble does come in threes, he thought, and with the word, “Three,” he ran and leapt into the ooze before he changed his mind and chickened out.

Alexis immediately came back, Mingus clinging to her sleeve.  And after Boston gave Alexis the apple slice, she became more nearly Boston’s age and flew into Lincoln’s arms.  They kissed for a long time.

Boston licked her fingers and became something closer to twenty-three.  Mingus fumed to see his daughter in the arms of that human, but with his son holding him back there was little he could do—not to mention the fact that the presence of the angel scared him beyond reason.  Lockhart, alone kept his head.

“But where do we go from here?” he asked.

“I can’t get a good reading this deep before history,” Doctor Procter admitted with a whack of his amulet.  “Your thoughts Mingus?”

Mingus said nothing, but the angel said one more thing.  It pointed opposite the direction Glen had jumped and a bit of the primordial goo cleared off to reveal a tunnel that led a long way to a distant light.  Angel spoke.

“This is your way home.”

************************

MONDAY

The Travelers move into the beginning of History in Part three of the Pilot Episode. Starting Monday. Until then, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon Pilot part I-5: Humanity

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People, maybe a million souls, stretched out on the flat land beyond the tower.  They dressed in ragged animal skins, or went naked, looked gaunt and starved, but for some reason, they kept working—gathering clay, whatever grass or bark they could to strengthen the bricks, baking the bricks, and adding them to the tower.  Why they would continue to work while they starved to death, Mingus could not imagine.  They were human, he concluded.  They were crazy.

“We need glamours, an illusion so the people think we are one of them.”

“Father,” Alexis objected.  “These people need help.”

“That may be, but we dare not stop among them.”  He paused to look at his daughter.  He dressed her in fairy weave for their first journey, a magical cloth that could be shaped, colored, and given texture as desired.  Alexis shaped her fairy weave to give it the look of raged, animal-skin clothing.  She added the glamour to appear too skinny, like a person half-starved, and she added a slightly bloated belly, but he made her adjust the look.

“You need to darken your hair so you don’t look so old.  I suspect when the elderly collapse, they probably get eaten.”

“Father,” Alexis objected again, but she made the change.

“Now follow me,” Mingus said.  “I believe we have jumped to the first days, before the human race got scattered and the language broke into a million forms.  These people likely speak the universal tongue, which you should understand.  But if they speak to you, do not answer them.  Keep your head down, and do not meet them in the eyes.  We are going to try to skirt the edge of this mass of people, and walk.  Only walk.  If we must run, I will tell you to run; but if we show these people our backs, I suspect they will be after us like a pack of dogs.”

“Father.” Alexis said it a third time, but she voiced no more objections.

The people grunted and moaned, but few talked.  It seemed like talking would take too much energy, and that was energy they needed to use for brick making and building.  No one moved, or stepped aside for the couple.  Mingus and Alexis had to walk around people, fire pits, and bricks laid out to bake in the sun.  It felt like they were weaving a thread through a tapestry.

The first portion of the journey went well. The people ignored them, but the mass of people stretched for several miles, up to the edge of a hill that looked a long way away.

“There is some powerful enchantment at work here,” Mingus said.  Being an elf, he was able to direct his words to Alexis’ ears only.

Alexis felt unsure if she could still do that.  She knew the little ones in the future could hear, understand, and respond to any human language, but Alexis knew she could no longer do that since she became human.  Too bad, she thought.  It would have helped when she and Benjamin traveled to France.  Alexis contented herself with listening.

“It appears to be centered in the middle of this mass of people, and feels like some form of compulsion.  No doubt that is why these starving people are continuing to work day and night.  And here, I thought they were just expressing typical human insanity.”

Father!  Alexis did not say the word out loud, but she thought it as hard as she could.

Two-thirds of the way along the edge of the camps, and Alexis could not hold her eyes to the ground.  The distraction came in the form of a dozen naked, filthy children attempting to run and play.  It looked like a game of tag, and for the most part, the adults around them ignored them.  Sometimes the children got yelled at.  Sometimes they got pushed to the ground or got hit.  One brute picked up a little girl and threw her into the fire.  He laughed as the girl scrambled to get out.  She did not get badly injured, but Alexis could not help herself.

“Father.  The children.”  She watched a baby try to suckle a dry and shriveled breast.  The mother had nothing to give.  “The children,” Alexis repeated.

A man stood in their path and signaled for others to join him.  “What about the children?” the man asked.

“They are making a nuisance of themselves,” Mingus quickly lied.  “We can’t get any work done.”

“I’ve watched you,” the man said.  “You haven’t been working.  You are not staying in your place.  I think you are trying to escape.”

The crowd that gathered began to make noises about taking them to Nimrod.  More than one suggested eating them.

“We are going to collect plants for the bricks,” Mingus tried.  “In the hills.  It is the new place.”  He pointed up the hill at the end of the camp.  “We were sent to see what is there that may be useful.”

The man paused, rubbed his chin, and the crowd noise toned down.  The man looked once up the hill before he decided.  “No.  That is the place from which destruction comes.  No one goes into the hills.”  The crowd noise started up again. Alexis pulled her wand. Mingus made a fist around which he formed a small fireball.  Then everything stopped and became utterly silent.  Everyone looked frozen in place, unable to move.

A woman appeared in that same instant.  She looked young and seemed to be well fed, which made her stand out in the crowd.  The man who blocked their way and the crowd did not appear to notice.  In fact, after a moment, the people all went back to what they were doing as if nothing at all happened.

“Let me look at you,” the woman said, and grabbed Mingus by the chin.  He squinted as she squeezed, but did not resist.  “Elder elf.  You two are leaking the future all over the place.”  She let go and looked at Alexis.  She smiled.  “Former elf,” she said, correctly.

“Yes, ma’am,” Alexis offered, and felt it was only right to curtsey.

“Your Kairos.  I see you belong to them.  They are right now wending their way back to the tower.  They are not in a position to draw attention to themselves by meeting up with you.  Really.  You must stop leaking the future.  I have already been exposed to far more knowledge about the future than is safe.  The Kairos is beginning to leak, badly.  I had to put a hedge around them so the others could not find out about tomorrow.”

“I am sorry,” Alexis said, feeling the need to apologize out of her confusion.  She did not understand why this woman referred to the Kairos as they and them.

“We don’t know how to stop leaking,” Mingus admitted.  He imagined this woman had to be a goddess and she unconsciously read their minds.

“I can see your limitations.  I am a titan.  The gods have not begun yet, though young Zeus has been born and he is coming to kill his father.”  She raised her hands, one to each of them.  “There.  I have placed a hedge also around you, and I will ask others to strengthen it. I have also scrambled your words, so when you speak of future things, no one may hear unless they are standing with you and hear by normal hearing.  The gods to be do not need to know what will be.”

“But what if I inadvertently say something in the wrong ears?” Alexis felt concerned.

“Then you will give the Kairos in the future many headaches.”

Mingus understood what confused Alexis.  The Kairos in this day had to be the twins, Zadok and Amri, if the history was correct.  He looked at his daughter with his expressionless look, but the woman read the elder elf’s true insides.

“You love your daughter well.  That is the only reason I did not give you to the bokarus of the woods.  And yes, the Kairos is Amri and Zadok.  And yes, I can still read your thoughts.  It is my hedge, but it is too late for me.  I have already been tainted by the future, even beyond the day of the dissolution of the gods, though most of the gods have not yet been born.”  The woman raised her hand and the three of them vanished from that place and reappeared on the distant hilltop, the one before the mountain that still had grass and trees upon it.

A fire had already been made, and a beast of some sort, well cooked, roasted slowly over the flames.

 

“But who are you?” Alexis asked.

 

 

“Leto,” the woman said, and she had two things to add.  “I will also put a hedge around your friends when they arrive, so you may have to explain it to them.  Now I go to mourn.  I know Zeus will bring an end to the days of Cronos.  That is as it must be.  Time being the mere counting of days will come to an end.  Time will now be vested in the Kairos.  Everything will get complicated and confusing.  It will be counted by events and the rise and fall of great civilizations.  Now, we begin event time, and I know the tower will fall.”  She vanished.

Alexis turned to her father.  “What friends?”

 

Mingus shrugged.  “All I know is the way to get home is to go back to the beginning of time.  Once we break through the last barrier, we should automatically go back to our own time.”  He lied.

“Should?”

“Will.”

“So why did you kidnap me if you were just going to bring me right back?” she asked in her sharpest voice.

Mingus shrugged.  “I realized when we got here that it was not fair to you.  What I want doesn’t matter.”  He looked sad, but elves could fake that look very well.

Alexis did not buy it.  “Change of heart?”  She scoffed.

Mingus shook his head and offered another lie.  “Actually, in the forest, I realized I was putting you in far more danger bringing you here than leaving you back home.  I never could fool you, or your mother.  Here.  Have some lunch.  Then you can lie down for a while and get some rest.”

Alexis did not trust her own father, but that did not prevent her from eating and lying down.  She trusted enough to know her father would watch over her while she slept.

Alexis woke up around four in the afternoon, as near as she could tell.  It appeared to be summer, so the sun was still well up in the sky.  Mingus had the campsite cleaned up, so all they had to do was walk.

“You wouldn’t have liked the climb earlier, in the heat of the day.”  Mingus tried to sound like he cared.

Again, Alexis did not exactly buy it, but she went along because she had no choice.  And it felt all uphill.  After a short way, it seemed like they left the hill and started to climb a mountain.  The sun eventually set off to their left hand, but Mingus did not want to stop.  He made a fire into a small floating globe of light to trail them in the dark.  Alexis used her wand to make a fairy light, to light their steps and shed some light on the way ahead.

Alexis had to stop about every hour to catch her breath, but Mingus seemed kind to her, even brushing off logs and boulders to let her sit and rest her legs.  Near midnight, they finally came to a dark entrance to a cave.

“No,” Alexis objected.  “I’m not going in there.”

“I’m sorry, but this is the way.  Trust me.  We are almost there.  Besides, I don’t want to risk sleeping again out in the open.  Trust me.  Another hour and we will be home.”

Alexis screwed up her face and tried to shove her fairy light into the cave.  It immediately went out.  She took out her wand and tried again.  The second light fared no better than the first.

“Wait, let me show you.” Mingus said.  He stepped through the opening and made a fire light that lit up the way for a short distance.

“A tunnel?” Alexis asked.

“That is how I know we are in the right place, now come on.”

Alexis stepped forward and felt her whole-body tingle as she stepped through the opening.  She watched her wand rapidly shrink.  The oak stick became covered with bark before it sprouted a leaf, became a twig, and vanished altogether.  “What?”

“Proof we are on the right road,” Mingus said.  “You don’t need the wand to make a light.”

“It helps.  I’m tired, already.  The wand helps me maintain focus so I don’t have to do it all in my head.  That is very draining.”

“But only one more gate and we will reach the last point,” Mingus assured her.  “When we pass the last point, we will be home.”

“Is that what that was, a gate?”

“Like an invisible door,” Mingus said.  He knew she did not remember much from their journey home from the eighteenth century.  He made sure she did not remember.

“It felt like spider webs.”

“So only one more web, and after that we will come to our destination.”

“I don’t like spiders,” Alexis said, and shivered, but she walked.

************************

MONDAY

Missing Person: Glen has to put together a rescue team and bring it to Avalon and the tower of the Heart of Time. Until then, Happy Reading

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Golden Door Chapter 7 Explanations, part 2 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

With that, the picture began to pull back, and they saw that Alice and Cronos and the door were all on a very small island, indeed. Outside of the bare rock and dirt on which they stood the rest of that place looked like little more than a swirl of colors. Even the sky above their head appeared as a swirl.

“Primordial soup.” Inaros spoke almost as softly as James.

“That’s the way of the second heavens in many places,” Deathwalker explained. “And it may be the way for this place again if we don’t do something about it.”

“But that is not what we found out there,” Chris said.

“But that is because the Lady Alice is holding things together for the present, but with her sick and all, there is no telling how long she may be able to keep it together.” Mrs. Aster sounded very concerned.

“That is Avalon?” Beth asked, but the picture began to change.

“All there was at the beginning of time,” Deathwalker nodded.

“I always preferred the name Shamballa.” Inaros spoke up. “My grandfather brought the family from that region of the world and into the Roman Empire around the time of the first Caesar, Augustus, if I remember. Of course, that was before my time.”

“Hey!” Inaros’ recollection got interrupted by several voices of protest. Mrs. Copperpot reached out with her cooking spoon and tapped the wall, so the picture froze in place. They saw a woman with stringy, light brown hair who stood beside an old stone wall. She wore something like a Roman style toga, but her back was turned so they could not see her face.

“The children got to be prepared before they see more,” she said.

Deathwalker and Mrs. Aster exchanged a glance, but it was Deathwalker who spoke. “You will see the demons,” he said flatly. “Poor Lydia. Her mother suffered from demon oppression, but her mother got set free, by—by the one who was and is…” His voice trailed off.

“Jesus?” Chris asked.

The goblin squinted as if struck by a blow but nodded. “Lydia went to the crucifixion, but then her mother got killed on the road to the coast and the girl got stolen and carried off to slave in a brothel. She escaped. She married a fine Roman, a centurion. She had some adventures, but one day, they found her and dragged her back to the brothel. Many demons came into her in that place, but with her knowledge of the future, she became a prophetess and made money for her owners.”

Mrs. Aster took up the story. “But you understand that while Lydia’s body got saved from the degradation of the brothel, her spirit fell into eternal danger.”

“The spirit of the Kairos. The whole future of the human race stood in danger,” Inaros added.

“If it weren’t for the apostle.” Mister Deathwalker shook his head and the picture started again. The woman turned around. Beth let out a shriek, Chris gasped, James closed his eyes for a second, and David looked away altogether.

Lydia’s hair writhed without reason, her eyes looked blood red apart from the great black rings around them, like she had two black eyes. She had a cut on one cheek, and several cuts on her forearms where she had clearly tried to hurt herself. A bit of drool came from her mouth on a face that appeared so distorted it hardly looked human. Most of all, she showed hatred, fear, pure evil in those eyes and in that expression, which looked willing to destroy the whole world if it could only figure out how. Then she started to yell, and the voice gave chills down the spine as nothing else can.

“Listen to these men! They are telling you the way to salvation! Listen to them!” The picture got paused again by the cooking spoon.

“Demons are stupid,” Inaros said, and Mrs. Copperpot nodded but spoke differently.

“But do not be fooled to think the one in the castle is stupid,” and she started the picture again.

They heard the apostle speak in the name of Jesus and command the demons come out of her.

“No!” Lydia was not willing. “No!” The scene changed, suddenly. Lydia fell on the grass in the meadow that stood before the castle, but the voice came, relentless.

“Come out of her!”

It carried all the way into the second heavens. It reverberated from the rocks like a storm and came across the sea like a tidal wave. It shook the earth and the walls of the castle on the hill shook until it became difficult to see how the walls stayed up. Lydia tore her clothes, and things came out of her. They were identified by the little black dots, though at first, they came so thick together they looked like a pall of smoke. The picture paused again. Mrs. Aster did it this time with her wand. She circled one of the dots which appeared gray in color.

“Ashtoreth,” she announced, and the picture faded. “And she hid while the Knights of the Lance rooted out all the demons and drove them from Avalon and the Isles,” she finished the story.

“Actually.” Inaros put up his finger like he was testing the wind. “The isle of Avalon, the one by name, King Arthur’s Avalon which is the isle of the apples, is over that way.” He pointed.

“Knight?” Beth asked, as she remembered seeing one not many hours ago.

“Knights of the Lance?” Chris asked. He ignored the old man. Mrs. Aster nodded and the picture changed again.

They looked through a door in a darkened room and were hardly aware of the people in that room because of the vision through that door. It did not look like the golden door, but it was a door between the earth and Avalon. They could see the castle in the background beyond the green field. It looked like late afternoon, and an honest-to-goodness knight covered head to toe in brilliant, shining armor rode across the grass on a tremendous horse in full charge. The lance he carried, no toy for sport or jousting, was a real, wicked looking weapon intended to do great damage to an enemy. Chris understood in that moment why the knights of old sometimes got referred to as medieval tanks. This knight chased after one of those same creatures that had chased the children earlier that evening. He caught it by the door. The lance pinned the creature to the far earthly wall, while a very fairy-like fairy, with bumblebee wings, and a young woman with very light blond hair and light brown eyes and freckles, screamed. None of the children blamed them for screaming, and then the picture went away altogether until nothing remained but big, empty white wall.

“Hey!” Deathwalker objected. “The story of Greta is one of my favorites.”

“Greta?” David asked.

“The Kairos,” three people answered.

“My father,” Beth said softly, trying to grasp the image of her father living over and over and sometimes as a woman.

James yawned. Inaros leaned his head on his walking stick and nearly slipped as he almost fell asleep.  David wondered how anyone could sleep after what they just saw. He knew it had gotten well past time for bed. They knew of nothing they could do until morning, and the overhead light had dimmed a great deal, enough to show that there was a ceiling up there after all.

“But who is this Angel?” James heard Beth ask, and he wanted to hear. He thought that might help him get the picture of Lydia out of his mind.

“She is one of the first and greatest of all of the spiritual creatures,” the fairy answered.

“He,” Inaros objected.

“It,” Deathwalker said, and added, “Now go to bed.”

“No wings,” James whispered, and Mrs. Copperpot hushed him, pulled up a chair, sat down beside his bed, and brushed back his hair as he curled up under the covers.

“Come on, boy. You go to bed, and I’ll stand guard,” Inaros intoned. David crawled into bed, but he did not feel too certain about the arrangement. Sure enough, the minute Inaros sat in his chair he started to snore, and David found himself staring at the ceiling and trying not to remember Lydia’s face. Then he remembered that Angel said do not be afraid, and with that thought held firmly in his heart, he slept, despite all the snoring around him.