Ellas

Alex

‘You're the old man from the alley, aren't you? It was you who took back the rod.’

Jain started, confused at the question and the tone of my voice.

‘Don't look at me like that. You can't deny it. For days now I've been watching you, wondering where I'd seen you before… but crazy as it sounds, I know it was you who delivered the rod to David, the rod that took him back to Ellas.

Openly, Jain's face still showed confusion, but inside I was sure that his emotions battled between his guess being right – Kane had orchestrated his own sending back – and what my words now meant for him.

He smiled. ‘No Alex, that was not me… but it seems that it will be. Come, let us go and seek out Kane, your friend, David as you seem to name him.

###

‘It was Jain?’ David asked incredulously. ‘How? Why?’

‘Oh come on, Kane. We spoke of this. You knew what I thought, and you too had come to a similar conclusion.’

‘So I sent you back… and you leave the messages, and then you leave the rod for me to go back as Al'kar? Alex, are you sure of this? Are you sure that it was Jain you saw?’

‘As sure as I can be, David. I was very much in shock… who wouldn't be. But I saw his face… Jain's face as he comforted me.’

My voice hardened as I said, ‘Or at least pretended to comfort me just so that he… you could get your hands on the rod.’

I was glaring at Jain as I finished. I knew it was irrational, but my life had turned upside down on that day.

‘It can't be that simple though, can it? The messages were too varied, and then there was the attack. It was long ago, but I can't forget that. It was almost as if there were two factions… two messengers. And besides that, how do I send you back… with the rod, that much is clear, but how do I set it? The instructions for sending me back came from…’ Kane's voice trailed off.

‘From whom, Kane? Who gave you the instructions?’ Jain asked suspiciously.

‘A friend. A very dear friend who is with us no longer. It's a very long story, but one day I will share with you… but not today. Not now.’

Jain harrumphed. ‘I am supposed to be the one who holds back, Kane… not you, but I can be patient. As to the how, follow those same instructions and settings to send me back. I will arrive at the same location as you did… we will need some minor adjustments to ensure that you do not see me. But I am sure that between us we can work it out. Obviously, use of the two must relate to time, so we only need to adjust the other setting —’

‘But even if we could do such a thing, how will you return? How will you fathom the settings required to bring you back to us?’ David asked.

A voice from behind spoke up, ‘I believe that I may be able to help with that. After all, I did create that particular rod.’

I had seen Jalholm approach from behind David, and by his bearing I knew that David too knew of his approach.’

Jalholm smiled at David. ‘The one that took it from me, the one that saved me, she gave it to you, did she not, Kane. She gave it to you long ago when you were Al'kar?’

‘Not quite so long ago, Jalholm. No, not so very long ago at all. But in answer to your first question… yes she gave it to me.’

‘Anna?’ Jain said, almost silently.

‘Stop digging, old man,’ David said gently. ‘You will get your story… if you remain patient… but first we must work all this through. The planning must be meticulous… if the one we send back is to become Al'kar… if he is to become me. So we have to hurry.’

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Jain laughed, a cross between a belly laugh and a snort. ‘We have all the time in the world, Kane. The rod ensures that. As long as we get it right, that is. We can spend six months planning this should it be required, for you will send me to the same place and time, regardless.

I found it strange; they were so matter-of-fact about this. Jain would be sent back to plant the messages that both of us had followed; been driven mad by even.

‘But what do the messages mean, then? Back then, when you were David, we could make no sense of them. Do you now know what they meant? Why you were sent back at all even?’

Jain and David exchanged knowing locks.

‘Jain, has your theory on the messages and my sending back expanded in light of what Alex has said… and indeed Alex's and Jalholm's timely arrival here with us? Is it as you postulated… that my sending back to become Al'kar via my home was to trigger some other future event… such as their arrival here?’

‘My thoughts then were a guess, Kane. An educated guess, but that was all that I could make of the tale you told. But yes, now I am sure. I was sure but hours after their arrival… the Sisters of the Soul are united and the Unwitting One has returned. I fear for us, Kane. I fear for us all. The final days approach.’

###

What the hell had Jain meant by all that… Sisters of the Soul I understood to mean Carthia, or Sarah as I believed her to be, and myself. The Unwitting One had to be Jalholm. But what did it all mean for us, and where did he get those so-called prophecies of his?

David and I, Kane, I reminded myself, had painstakingly put together the messages that we'd received and where and when they been delivered. Kane had insisted that they had to be exact; exactly as written, word for word. But hell, there was no way we'd get them exact… was there?

Anyway, they were all fiddling with that bloody rod now. Jain was going over and over the written instructions that Carthia had given him to set the rod when David was returned to earth, and David was arguing with almost every suggestion for modification that Jain and Jalholm came up with. It had gone on for over an hour already.

Carthia, my sister, squeezed my shoulders. ‘This man, Jain, makes me grind my teeth, sister. And Kane sometimes is no better, certainly since the old man has returned to him. What say you that we stop the fool men bickering?’

I did not have time to agree, not even time to nod, for Carthia shouted, ‘Enough! Stop this foolishness. If the tale you told us is true, Kane, then all you attempt to achieve with your paper and these men's tampering, has already happened… and cannot be changed. You have written your so very important messages… and now you prevaricate.

'Use the rod, Jain. Go do Kane's bidding… but please, please take your time.’

We both laughed at that.

Despite his scowl, Jain said, ‘I fear that there is wisdom in her words, Kane. Jalholm has told us all he can, and the instructions here, and the settings on the rod are still what sent you back. Change only the one, of the two, and if Jalholm… if we are correct, I will arrive mere days after your other self did.’

‘And returning? That at least has not happened yet,’ David said as he turned his look upon Carthia.

‘Jalholm's best guess is to reverse all the settings on the two. He has told me of the settings to return to Ellas. It is only the time that we must be concerned with. It will work, my friend. Fear not.’

But David did look afraid. Something I had never thought to see on his face.

‘I have not long had you returned to me, old friend. I do not wish to lose you again.’

‘It has already happened, Kane. Alex saw me recover the rod, and so it is something that I must do; something that I have already done.’

So it was decided. Hugs and kisses followed as all wished Jain well. I swear that I saw tears in Carthia's eyes despite all her supposed bad feeling towards the man.

Jain stood in the centre of us all. He insisted that no one should be within ten feet of him. Then, with a grin of excitement he touched down on the bird in flight while clenching the base of the rod with his other hand. Simple really, one-handed and the rod remained behind; two hands and it travelled with the holder.

And then, as happened with David, Jain in his old grey cloak and tunic simply faded away. I choked at the memory, and at the fear that the kindly yet ever so irritating man might never return.

David walked over to me and took me in his arms. ‘I am so very sorry for leaving you behind, Alex. I suspected, but I could not throw away the opportunity. Hardly a day has passed since, when I have not thought of you. You should not have had to witness what you just did. I —’

‘Oh getaway you big lummox,’ I said, as tears filled my eyes.

‘What is it, Sister? What has the fool man done now that has upset you?’

I laughed. ‘He has done nothing, Sarah… Carthia. He has only confirmed my trust in him.’

‘Men,’ Carthia muttered

We laughed together then, a tension breaker only, but it did help to set the mood.

Only Jalholm remained pensive, his head scanned from side to side as he turned full circle. He came to a stop looking directly at me, and then suddenly his pensive look was replaced with one of pleasure, and a big grin spread across his face.

‘What is it, Jalholm?’ I asked, as I realised that the grin was not intended for me but for someone behind me.

‘Jain, my friend. Welcome home,’ Jalholm said, as he rushed past me to clasped hands with the old man; the old man now dressed in modern 20th-century khaki trousers and sweatshirt.

‘I was beginning to worry that I'd got it wrong… that I'd failed you.’

All head turned, all with the same look of astonishment on their faces that I knew filled mine.

‘How?’ I asked

Jalholm replied with a single word, ‘Time,’ and then he and Jain burst into laughter.