Ellas - Two years ago

Kane

Ten minutes, ten bloody minutes, was all Jain took to tell us all he knew of where the wondrous, all knowing words of his precious prophecies had come from.

I had forgotten how angry Jain used to make me, how easily he angered me. He had not lied, not deceived us at all, I was sure of that. But he knew very little; there was very little to be known, and he had said so at the start, most clearly.

But even then I had expected more, much more that he finally told. There was even less than Anna herself had told me a few years ago, on the only occasion that she opened up.

Long ago, Jain said. Thousands upon thousands of years ago, the prophecies were said to have existed as seven tomes. Of who wrote them, there was nothing, only that they were ancient even then.

They foretold of the doom that would come to the world, and the salvation that might follow.

The tomes themselves had long been lost with the ages, but their words lived on, he said.

Those that attended the Citadel were the elite from society, those with the spark of magic. But within that elite was an inner sanctum, the elite within the elite, he had said – those trusted with the words of the prophecy.

Though the tomes themselves had long been lost to the world, their content was passed, word for word, down the ages by the devotees of the inner sanctum – this nameless body of men and women whose very existence was unknown to all but those who had been chosen to be guardians of the words.

Seldom was one new chosen to join their ranks, but they met often to hear an initiate recount the words for all to hear, to test that he or she spoke true. No deviances were tolerated, no embellishments of word, phrase or emphasis – all had to be as the first was spoken.

After the testing, Jain said that much debate would take place over what the words had predicted and that which had already taken place. Many meanings could be attributed to the words, he said, and if not for those that dreamed, the path to salvation might easily have been lost for all time.

Anna had been a dreamer, one of whom he talked. And what he said confirmed her words – they, the dreamers, were a part of the prophecy, she had said. He spoke of Anna, too. Not privy to her part in my life, only Setia and Carthia knew of that, but I was sure the time would come when I would at last share that story with my old friend Jain.

He told only of who she had been, and her part in Dar’cen’s fall. And even then, what he said was vague at best, and littered with flaws. But as he’d said, I was there, with Anna and would know the truth of it. If only that were true, if only I did know all that had happened that day.

Now, Jain sat, face expectant, waiting for the tale I would tell of my life, my life from the moment it had forever changed, only brief hours ago when I had been sent back.

And so I told them, at least that which could be told in what was left of the evening. I told of my return, the accident and the hospital, the reunion with Maggie and the inevitable break from my family.

Jain was upset at that, he had always wanted a son, he said, and would have devoted his life to the child’s upbringing.

Tarnia had snorted, proclaiming that there was a baby Jain in every town he had ever visited.

Then I told of Alex, and the help she had been. I told Nothing of how we met though, nothing of her looks, her book or her sister’s dreams – I needed still to think on that, and then Carthia would be the first to hear of it.

I told of the mysterious messages, of the attack in New York, and of the Travelling Rod that was delivered to me, the rod that took me back to become Al’kar; the Travelling Rod that now hung from my belt.

I told it all, but it was brief, containing only that which held relevance, and that which I was ready to share.

Jain quizzed me throughout. He was especially interested in the messages, in those that had sent them and why, but I had no answers for him.

Then, when I told of how I was sent to that so distant past, and of how the rod was delivered to me, he could barely contain himself.

‘Why did you send yourself back earlier today?’ he asked, ‘Why did you do that, and why, at the last, pretend that we were to be killed? Those have been questions that I have longed to ask all night, yet waited thinking that you would answer them in your tale. Why?’

They were questions that I myself had pondered for many years. And even Anna, after I had finally confessed to her who I was and all that I meant to her dreams and her life to come, could not, or would not, add anything that could give any explanation to the questions Jain had just asked.

All she had said was that I should treat the moment of my return with the utmost caution, that I should strive to make it exactly as it had been, that I should not deviate in the least from what was said and done when I was returned.

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‘I do not know the answers to your questions, Jain,’ I said. ‘It was how it happened to me, and all I could think to do was to let history repeat itself. If I had not done so then what would have become of me? What would have become of us all? If I had not been sent back, would another Al’kar have magically appeared, would Dar’cen have been defeated?

I could not risk all our futures by second guessing my actions. And as to the threat upon your lives, that too was how it was for me. Why? Perhaps to drive me, to spur me to find a way to return to avenge you.

And it did; that and the messages directed my actions for almost the whole of the time I was at my home. But I still do not understand why I was sent there, what it was I was to do or learn of.

Nothing I did there… nothing I saw or learnt, helped in his defeat – nothing at all. And I have only theories and suspicions about the messages and those that sent them. But as to why I was returned home, I have no clue at all. It is as much a mystery now as it was to me all those centuries ago!’

‘You have suspicions about the messages, then?’ Jain asked, ‘Share them with us, for those alone may open other doors.’

The all knowing look was back on his face, the I know something and you’re going to have to work for it, look.

‘You know something, Jain, or at least you suspect. So let us all hear your thoughts before I say any more. I have talked long enough this night, and you have shared very little so far.’

‘Yes,’ Tarnia said. ‘Out with it, Jain. Even I can see that you’ve a prize that needs teasing out. For once don’t make us all plead and beg for your morsels.’

‘You are all such bores! Why is it that you are always so impatient? You spoil all my fun. What is the point in being clever if I am not allowed to flaunt it and make you work for my answers?’ Jain said, grinning.

‘Oh, very well. Just this once I will tell you what I believe… but only because it is such an obvious answer. Kane, you sent yourself back. Why? – because it is what happened to you. You had no understanding of why you did what you did. You simply repeated history. Am I correct?’ Jain asked, but not waiting for an answer, he quickly continued.

‘And, you were sent back to Ellas, albeit in the distant past, by a Travelling Rod, the one you just used to send yourself home this very day, the one that hangs from your belt even now, if I am not mistaken. That is so, is it not?’ This time he did wait for a response.

‘Yes. It is the same,’ was all I said in reply.

Jain paused, obviously wanting more, but when I just stared back at him knowingly, he snorted with laughter. ‘My turn to tease out your morsels then, is it? Not a problem… I am a patient man. So tell me then, Kane, where did you get that rod, the one you now carry.’

‘It was given to me a long time ago, by a very dear friend,’ I answered. Not a complete answer, but more I did not want to say for reasons that I could not fathom.

‘Anna?’ he said, a statement, only the barest hint of a question in his tone.

I nodded, my voice choked at her memory and the thought of voicing her name aloud.

Jain smiled at me, a gentle smile, almost sympathetic as if he knew or guessed at my pain. After a pause, he said, ‘Then it is clear to me that it is you who directed your own return to Ellas from your home world. And from that follows that you must have been responsible for the messages.’

‘Not such a great revelation, Jain,’ I said. ‘One I have considered many times over the years since my return, since my conclusion that I was responsible for sending myself home all those years ago… those few hours ago, yet it is one that makes no sense.

'It is a loop, a closed loop with no rhyme or reason – I send my other self home for no apparent reason at all, keep that other self jumping through hoops until I eventually send him to the distant past to become Al’kar, defeat Dar’cen, and then live long enough to be here to today and do it all again.

'It does not make sense. It is a paradox… a bloody chicken and egg paradox.’

‘It does sound strange indeed when put in such a way,’ Jain said, a puzzled look on his face. He sat silent a moment, his hand on his chin, his eyes closed. I had seen him in that same pose many a time. Sometimes he would sit that way for an hour or more, as he had the day we found the crystal block and the portal inside it at Falhar. And that day, his hour of deliberation yielded nothing at all, at least nothing that he chose to share. One day soon, I will have to tell him what I now know of that infernal portal, and of my last hours with Anna.

Jain coughed, a cough patently used to bring me back from my thoughts to the here and now.

‘Do you wish to know what I think?’ he asked, ‘or would you rather go back to the daydream that I’m sure you will refuse to share?’

‘Please do,’ I said, with a grin. ‘Tell us all what conclusion you have come to, my old friend,’ I added, apologetically.

‘Humility suits you, Kane. You should act thus more often. But less of the old if you please.’

‘But you are bloody old!’ Tarnia laughed. ‘Apart from Setia, there is no one older on the whole of Ellas.’

‘I might agree with you if not for Kane here,’ Jain retorted.

‘But let us get to the point, shall we? …I believe that some hand, some fate, directs our lives, and that part of what we do is governed by the words of the prophecies and the dreams that enlighten them.

'But I also believe that ultimately those same prophecies are but the tools that are used by the hand that directs us. I believe that all things have a purpose, from the most minute of actions all the way up to you being sent home, Kane.

'It is my certain belief that you were sent home to your world for a reason. That you do not know what reason was, is irrelevant.

'Perhaps you are never meant to know, or it may be that some future event will take place that makes the purpose clear… Perhaps all that has happened, the closed loop as you put it – your being sent back to you’re home, becoming Al’kar and defeating him, all of it – was but preparation for what is to come.

'A means for that divine hand to test and train you, give you the strength and wisdom to face the future that is now upon us… to give us all the strength and wisdom we need – only time will tell.

'But your actions there, your being there, has set other actions in motion. Actions that I believe are deemed necessary by the hand that guides our lives. I cannot think otherwise, for if I did so, my belief system, the belief system of the Citadel and the ancients before them, would have no meaning. My life would have no meaning.’

‘Bit deep, don’t you think?’ Garam said.

But I could see that, despite his mocking tone, he had followed what Jain had said, and, if he was the man I remembered, believed every word that Jain had spoken. As did I, now that Jain had put it into words, words that had finally put some possible clarity to all the strange events that were my life.

‘Thank you, Jain,’ I said. ‘I have pondered all that has happened over the years, and never have I once considered the future.

'Always, I looked within that loop, that closed loop, seeking answers. Now you have perhaps made some sense of it all, and given me hope… hope that it was all for a reason; is all for a reason… Again, I say, thank you, my friend.’