Earth - A little while ago

Kane

‘Well, Kane, you have visited your mother, and it went well, better than you expected, you said, so what next? How do we find and destroy him?’ Jain asked.

The six of us, Alex, Carthia, Jain, Jalholm, Tomas, and myself sat in an expansive living room, three on one sofa, and two on the other, while I paced the floor between them.

It was the very same retreat of Jalholm’s where he said, in some months time, after David’s return, he and Alex would use his rod to travel to Ellas.

Using Jalholm’s hoarded wealth and the two travel rods, Jalholm’s now fully functional after he had applied a few tweaks, the six of us had leapt about the world ensuring that none followed.

‘We do nothing,’ I said, with finality in my voice, as the others all looked toward me with looks that ranged from surprise to shock.

I looked at each in turn before I spoke again.

‘We can watch, we can try to locate his hideout, we can try to find Anna if she’s still her.’ If she’s still alive, I though but did not say.

‘But other than a few things that we must do, those that Alex and Jalholm have spoken of, we must do nothing other than ensure that my earlier self is returned safely to Ellas.

‘He… his people obviously know about me, the earlier me I mean, otherwise there would have been no attacks, and so the warning from Jain would not have been necessary. But we must do all we can to stop him learning of our presence.’

‘So the few things we must do are…?’ Jain asked, as I knew he would. No omission or secret was safe from Jain.

I smiled as I looked first to Jalholm, and then to Alex. ‘You tell them of the warnings you received.’

Alex and Jalholm looked to me, and then to each other.

‘You go first, Jalholm’, Alex said. ‘It happened first, and besides, I only know what you told me.’

Jalholm began to stand, but I held my hand up to stop him. ‘No need to be formal, Jalholm, we are all friends here. Please remain seated.’

Jalholm’s face coloured slightly, as he sat back. ‘Of course… sorry, it was the old me resurfacing.’

So he told us all of how he was woken out of a drug fuelled sleep at the institute he was held, and urgently told to leave.

It took only moments to tell, but took far longer to answer the myriad questions that the others threw at him, not least of all being who it was that warned him. Was it Alex or was it Carthia?

All agreed that, given what he said about the terror he felt as he activated his rod to flee, the one who spoke to him must have been Luke. The thought that Dar’cen had created another was too much for any of us to contemplate.

‘So who will it be?’ Alex asked, when everyone fell silent.

‘We have a while yet before we need to decide,’ I said. ‘So let’s move to the other warning… where again the same question will face us.’

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Alex began to stand, and then sat back down, a grin on her face as she looked at Jalholm sat opposite her, next to Jain.

‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘Couldn’t resist.’

So she then related what happened in the alley where David was returned, and the words spoken to her by, who she then thought was her dead sister, Sarah. All through the telling Alex clasped Carthia’s hand tightly in hers.

This time there was no real discussion about who it was that threatened them; we all agreed it must have been Luke.

They did however go over and over the words spoken to Alex, attempting to discern whether it was Alex herself or Carthia that spoke.

Finally, I spoke over them, ‘Again a decision for later, but based on Jain and Jalholm’s view, the future is already set, for whoever we choose for both warnings, the choice will be correct… because it has already happened for us.’ I looked to both of them as I finished. ‘That is correct, isn’t it?’

Jain spoke first, just beating Jalholm who had inadvertently began to rise again.

‘Yes, Kane,’ he said. ‘Something will sway us either way… who knows what, but as far as I, and you my friends here, are concerned, the choice is set… already made so to speak.’

‘So we are all agreed that we decide later,’ I said, looking to each in turn for affirmation.

After a moment’s silence. ‘There is one other item that I must take care of,’ I said, looking at Alex, who looked back blankly.

‘The phone,’ I added.

‘Oh, of course,’ Alex said, ‘I forgot all about that.’

‘And that’s the first of our interventions and, regardless of what Jain and Jalholm think, it’s the one that most bothers me with regard to potentially changing future events.’

‘But—’ Jain began.

‘Let me finish, Jain, please... I worry because we only have what Jamie related to Alex of the encounter, and that seems to be limited to “David gave me a phone and told me to watch over you, and use the phone if anything out of the ordinary happened,” or something just as vague.

‘We don’t know what I’m actually supposed to say, let alone where or when I am supposed to give Jamie the phone. And it bothers me… it bothers me greatly.’

‘There’s nothing to be done about that, Kane,’ Alex said, before either of the two scholars could speak. ‘Nothing! You just have to give him the phone and the warning… and frighten the shit out of him, because that’s what he said you did.’

I sighed. ‘I know you’re right, Alex, and before you guys say anything, I know that you’re right too, but I am still nervous about how it could go wrong. But for now, I will follow your council, and think on what I will actually say.’

I stopped pacing and pushed in and sat between Jain and Jalholm, both grumbling at having to make room.

‘So,’I said, ‘until those events are upon is, we watch and remain hidden. ‘Yes, we can spend some of our time attempting to locate where he has ensconced himself… but with great care to not be discovered.

‘Finding Anna is to be a priority, but he too believes her to be her, and so will be expending great resources to locate her, so we must do nothing that might expose her to him or his people.’

I stood again, ‘Is there anything else to discuss?’

Tomas, who had not spoken throughout the conversation, finally spoke up, ‘I guess it’s me that makes the tea and coffee, again,’ as he stood and turned toward the kitchen.

###

The months that followed were perhaps the quietest and possibly the most relaxed since my kidnapping.

We did three things - followed and kept an eye on David and Alex from a distance, watched for signs of Dar’cen or Luke, or others that they had coerced or corrupted, and searched in vain for Anna. How I prayed that she still lived - I truly believed that she had come to Earth, but as to the when, that I did not know.

She used the rod and Jalholm’s portal, his Looking Eye, and so she could have travelled to Earth’s distant past.

Those strong in Magic lived long lives, and Anna had already outlived all of her peers, but could even she be alive here, now on Earth. I prayed it was so.