—The Priestess is from the future! —Paris repeats again with more effusiveness when we appear in Mr. Stonecraft's workshop. She has joined us very quickly; I'm still catching my breath.

Paris rushes out of the glass cockpit. The control center flashes red and green colored lights. Her father is not there. But she seems hypnotized, her mind lost, tying up loose ends. Then she'll have to explain, because I don't understand anything.

—How can this be possible, Paris? Could it be that we'll meet her on other jumps and that's it?

—No, Eric. It's from the future. I just know it.

—What if she really was the Goddess's envoy to Earth? With powers...and all that.

—Eric? —Paris rolls her eyes—. That's even crazier. Religion only serves to control. The Goddess gives us unity, hope, a future. And that's what we need to believe. That's what it's always been for....

—What do we do now?

—Ask for explanations to the only one who knows who this woman is: my father.

Paris' brain is running at full speed and her words are pouring out of her mouth. My head hurts, my eyebrow wound is already closed, and I am physically exhausted. I am just relieved to know that we are home, out of danger. It is a very distressing feeling to be trapped in a space and time that does not belong to you, knowing that you cannot return. I have fulfilled, in short, the purpose for which I was bought. To protect Paris. And I feel accomplished, like I've served a purpose. I spent a whole month in this house doing nothing, wasting valuable days, but I've learned a lot with Paris and her father. And that has changed my thinking about the elite, slavery and the United Provinces. Freedom is also in knowledge, and I have it closer and closer. I can feel it. Also, although not enough, we have made progress in the investigation, because Paris has gotten some clues about what happened in the Collapse and what life was like after it.

We run into Matt Stonecraft, who, minus his usual white techno-scientist's coat, hurries down the stairs to the basement.

—Finally, Paris, are you all right? —he says before hugging his daughter with all his strength. She doesn't respond so affectionately—. It's been a whole day, I couldn't track your signals to force you to come back and I feared the worst... I was going to use the other prototype machine to go and look for you! You missed New Year's Eve....

—It's all right, Dad. Eric and I can take care of ourselves.

—You didn't go to Collapse, did you?

—It was a close call, Mr. Stonecraft—I tell him.

—The important thing is that you are here. Thank heaven—He hugs her again.

—No, thanks to the Goddess—She squeaks.

We go upstairs to the living room where Paris and I drink a lot of water and eat something, under the watchful eyes of her father. Paris grabs her reheated plate of pasta and I see in her gestures the need to start the interrogation.

—Dad, there's a woman from our time stuck in the post-Collapse years and I know you have something to do with her.

—Have you seen it? —Matt reacts aggressively. His eyes almost pop out of their sockets. He comes up to us and shakes us by the arm—. Have you been with her? How is she? What does she say?

Mr. Stonecraft is a mysterious and interesting guy; more than he appears behind that boring image he has and more than one would expect from his routine life as a technoscientist. He is possibly the one who has invented the most transcendental machine of mankind and has not sold it to get filthy rich, neither to the Provinces nor to any Company. Despite being under pressure to continue his work, despite being abandoned by his wife and having to raise a daughter alone. And now he indirectly confesses to us that Paris is right. That the first Priestess is from the future and that he knows her.

—I swear I tried to go...for her...when things calmed down and bring her back to this time, but...it was too late. The Companies were already watching me... —Paris and I don't understand him. He talks fast and eats words. If he doesn't calm down, he won't be able to explain himself—. I knew it. I knew that... that this moment would come. I knew that sooner or later, it would happen. Just like I knew you'd find your mother's letter...

Paris helps her father sit on the sofa. His eyes are lost and he is trembling. He is afraid and I can see it on his face. I bring him a glass of water and we sit down across from him.

—I've been preparing for this ever since...but I don't know if I'm ready.

—Relax, Dad. We won't judge you. Things happen as they happen, that's all there is to it. We just... we have to know who this woman is. It's very important.

—I was studying quantum physical technoscience at the University of New America. There I met Logan, a friend, and we became interested in wormholes and the possibility of wormholes transporting matter in space-time. Techno-scientific projects were the basis of the University and we wanted to propose something that would give us recognition. But the Goddess and the Priestess hit the city hard, especially the young students. We were idealistic, we dreamed of another, fairer world. We made a good group of friends, followers of the Goddess, each from a different scientific discipline, and we fought blindly for peace, equality and freedom. There she was, your mother... We were really against slavery and in favor of the rights and liberties of the slaves of a United Provinces corrupted to the marrow in their basic structures. We were looking for utopia. The rebellion of 168 came for all that. The days of strikes, protests, clashes with the Provincial Police and so on ended up separating us all. One girl, Karen Lane, died from a beating by two policemen who were cruelly cruel to her. Some of us went back to our studies, disavowing religion, while others had to flee or hide far from the city. And everything changed the day Eric visited me.

—Wait a minute—I don't understand, he's talking about when he was young—. Me?

—Yes, you. I thought it was a spy from some Company or the Provinces looking for some evidence to arrest me for belonging to the religion of the Goddess or because they had discovered the time travel project, despite the precautions both Logan and I had taken. But no. It was you, Eric. You showed me the photograph of the three of us in this very house, the one we took the other day celebrating New America United's victory in the 190 A.C. Year End Cup. At that moment I realized that our project had been a complete success. We had made it. When I saw you at the slave market, I didn't let Paris look to anyone else to buy you. It was you.

—And what did I tell you? —It seems that my future involves going back to the past a few more times, if the Provinces don't prevent it.

—You got me out of the tremendous block I was in. You gave me the exact key to continue designing and configuring the parts of the machine.

—How? Every time he talks to me about science, I switch off. I don't know anything.

—Attends this time. You will go back in time and discover me as a young man. You'll have to look for me around the University campus and tell me the key I'm talking about: alternate magnetic containers.

—Alternate the magnetic containers—I repeat quietly several times to memorize it.

—That doesn't explain who this woman is and what she is doing lost in the Collapse years—.Paris is anxious.

—She was sentenced to death. The State of the United Provinces was going to execute her—. Matt's speech is choppy, emotional and melancholy. What does that story sound like to me? —. She escaped from prison after a riot. There were thousands of followers of the Goddess imprisoned. She spent a few months living on the streets of New America, as a vagrant. She managed to go unnoticed, but she felt she was being hunted. She came asking Julie and I to hide her at home for a few days, because we were good friends and had been together before, during and after the slave rebellion. And I...I told her about the possibility of...well, of being free in another time, and she didn't hesitate. It was about... —Matt Stonecraft looks at me—Lunetta. Lunetta Gordon.

What? My mother? My mother was that first Priestess? Was it Lunetta? Impossible! She would have told me! But... Gordon? Lunetta Gordon? That's old Greg's last name! Lunetta was a slave, his property. She couldn't have been.

—Eric's mother? —Paris asks, puzzled. I can't do it; my whole body is paralyzed.

—I'm afraid not—Mr. Stonecraft scratches his bald head and grimaces—. I've sometimes heard you speak of Lunetta as Eric's mother, but that's not so. Lunetta had no children, nor was she a slave. In fact, she was the daughter of one of the richest and most powerful landowners in all the Provinces...

—Greg Gordon—I finish his sentence.

So, Simon Moon was right. Lunetta was not a slave and she is not my mother. I get dizzy, my senses become confused and I think I'm going to fall down a bottomless pit. The most basic pillar of my life has collapsed. What has given me strength, what has allowed me to go on when I thought I couldn't go on any longer is it all a lie?

—I don't believe you, Mr. Stonecraft. You didn't know her.

—I don't have to deceive you, and I don't have to convince you. I'm sorry, Eric.

And I start to cry. Tears flow, one after the other, non-stop. My cheeks fill with salty rivers. I have no past, no memory, no history.

—Who am I, Paris? —I say when he tries to comfort me, throwing an arm around my neck.

—Lunetta had a heart that wouldn't fit in her chest—Mr. Stonecraft continued—. She adopted the orphaned slaves on her father's plantation, even though her father often scolded her for being so empathetic and caring. I guess...you will be one of those children...I told you I was not prepared for this… It hurts me too to tell....

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

—But Lunetta is alive, then. In time! —I say.

—And we've been with her— Paris whispers to me—. Dad—she turns to him—this is beyond the Collapse. Lunetta Gordon, whom we met in Monroe, is the first Priestess. She created the religion of the Goddess!

—Is it true? —Matt is amazed—. Time, how capricious it is. We had to twist it to keep our timeline intact. Nature is perfect—. I don't know how Mr. Stonecraft hasn't exploded with all that stored up for years—. I tried to go after her soon after. But the Tecnofield Science Company wanted to sign me and did everything to get me. I had to put the project aside because I wasn't sure. When Paris got older...I knew I had to take it up again.

—Is that why Mom left?

—Paris, this is not... Let's not mix...

Matt Stonecraft rises from the couch, a weight lifted off his shoulders. He snorts and puts a hand on my shoulder. I have a blank stare.

—Take your time.

I can't take my time, damn it! My mother's not my mother! Lunetta just adopted me. Is that why old Greg was so patient with me? What if my parents are...the Halls? I'm going crazy. None of this is real, none of this is happening. I'm dreaming. It's a nightmare.

When her father leaves, Paris hugs me so hard it feels like she's going to break every bone in my body.

—Relax—she says, rubbing my back—. It's all right.

She faces me. She rests her forehead against my forehead. She wipes away my tears with her fingers, which gently caress my cheeks. And Paris kisses me. A shy kiss at first that becomes quicker and more passionate. I melt my lips with her lips, even though I can't stop crying. I feel her mouth, her saliva, her heat. No, I'm not dreaming, Paris is very real.

—What are we going to do now, Paris? —I ask her. She pulls away and becomes thoughtful—. I don't mean the kiss, I mean... —She gave it to me, it's a kiss, just a kiss. It doesn't have to mean anything. I hope she's not thinking about that damned Edgar.

—I know, I know... The future has spoken, Eric. We have to listen to it. We'll have to make more trips, the Priestess and my father said so.

—Paris, our contract ends in three months. I will leave—I wipe away my last tears—. And you still haven't finished your research...

—Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Three months is still a long time. Let's go back to the Collapse, just like I planned before all this got so tangled up. I'm going to write that thesis and I'm going to give you the freedom I promised you.

She seems very confident that she can do everything she says, but those last two promises will be difficult to keep because the Provinces will not allow it. Still, I want to believe her. I go to my room. I have to face it and come to terms with it: I am a slave. My ancestors were slaves. I do not know and will never know who my family is. The only thing left for me is to reach freedom. That's all. It doesn't take me long to fall asleep, even if it's mid-morning: physical exhaustion has joined the psychological pain.

When I wake up at night, Paris is sitting at the foot of my bed.

—The world still sucks—she says.

—What a novelty.

—Are you feeling better?

—I don't know—I stretch out my arms and yawn—. I'm still alive, for the moment.

—I've been thinking, Eric. In History, in time travel...that the first Priestess who did extraordinary things after the Collapse is from the future....

—And you've come to the same conclusion I have: religion is just another lie of this fucking world.

—Stop talking like Alecsander Reed, it makes me nervous—I shut up so he continues—. And no, religion is not a sham. The Goddess has always been there. Lunetta, as the first Priestess, did a magnificent job. She laid the foundation for what religion is today. She gave us the weapons we needed to take on the Provinces.

—The United Provinces have put an end to all slave rebellions. —I remind her.

—The Goddess is still alive. There is hope.

—Paris, you and I know the truth. The Priestess was not the messenger of the Goddess. Religion needs faith. Magic. Miracles. There is none of that, it's a scam.

—All that exists, Eric. It exists if you really believe it. The Goddess's is the right message to give to the slaves, for the equality of mankind. It's simple, straightforward. Easy to fit in and internalize. Righteous. Religion is a tool we have to use. It is what can unite the majority against the minority.

—It sounds like the music of angels. I wish it would do some good, but... what happens when Julie Bell, for example, discovers the truth? What would happen if the followers of the Goddess find out? The Provinces could beat us once again without firing a single electric blast.

—We can't let that information leave this house. You, me, my father. As before.

—Don't be overconfident, Paris. The world comes crashing down when you least expect it. Like me...

If I were free, I could stay with Paris forever...I think I could become happy. If she wanted me to...I'd give up my past for everything we could build. But things are not as easy as one imagines them to be. The kiss is gone. As if it never happened. And I begin to think it was more a form of comfort, of soothing me, than anything else. Paris' cell phone rings. It's Edgar. He's leaving. I sigh. I turn on the Screen to see if there's soccer, but a notification pops up from Paris's email. It's Isaak Backer:

"Alleged Miss Paris Bell,

I don't know who you are, but I'm going to find out. Nobody fools a Backer. We'll see you."

—Paris! —I call out to her—It looks like we're still in trouble....

If Isaak Backer gets our data and talks to the Provincial Police he will say that we named the Goddess. We will go straight to jail. Not only us, but the entire Goddess community is threatened.

—We have to warn them! —I say to Paris as he peeks out. I seem to have become a docile and professional slave. I advise my mistress and meddle in her plans more than she does because I'm still that no matter how many kisses or words she gives me.

It doesn't take us long to make our way along the New America boardwalk until we reach the market. It has become dark and the only stalls left open are the food and drink stalls. The others are picking up as Diego Marquez and his son do. Diego seems to understand us as soon as he sees us in front of his stall with worried and tired faces. He leaves his son in charge of some boxes and approaches us with dissimulation.

—You can't just show up here, just like that... I told you...

—Believe me, Diego—Paris confesses to him with a hand on his chest—. It's serious. We are all at risk.

He looks at both of us for a second, checking that we're not joking. He curses.

—It better be something important. Come on, I'll cover you.

Diego Márquez accompanies us to the cliff beach. The moon has

waned this time. Paris helps me to get into the water and swim. We cross the underwater rock and reach the small beach where a gap opens up to the catacombs where the Goddess community hides.

We discover that the catacombs are full of people going about their daily lives. Beyond the rock-hewn temple is a huge hall and a library. And, from what Julie Bell tells us, the lower floors contain private quarters.

—Daughter—Paris' mother hugs her as soon as she sees her. She only gives me a sidelong glance. She definitely doesn't like me and I don't know why.

—Can we talk in private?

Julie changes her expression and takes us to the solitary temple. There, Paris explains the situation in an accelerated manner. I have to intervene to make some remarks. She leaves out, though, that we know Lunetta is not my mother. She probably knows it too and kept her mouth shut the other time.

—We took care of it, Paris. We have infiltrators in town and maybe they can do something about this Isaak Backer. Don't worry about it.

Julie Bell leaves for a moment and returns within minutes. I don't feel good knowing that others have to fix the issue that we have unleashed.

—It's good to see you again, daughter.

Paris hugs her again and I feel uncomfortable. Not only because I know Julie Bell can't see me, but because I'm envious. Healthy envy. I wish I could hug my real mother. And my mind traces the ultimate goal regarding my past: to go back in time to Greg Gordon's plantation and observe my parents before I was born. To at least know what they look like.

—How is the investigation going?

—I almost got it, Mom. The History of the Goddess is exciting and I've been able to come to some very interesting conclusions by looking at the history of the Provinces from this perspective. But...I still have important questions to fit into this puzzle.

—When do you think you will finish?

—It depends on...many things....

I am removed from the conversation, even though I am only inches away from Paris, so I just stand at attention and wait. Paris doesn't notice that I'm uncomfortable with her mother in front of me, and Julie is the same way. What have I done to her, if I don't know her?

—Paris...we need your work from the Goddess and the Provinces urgently. The Goddess is urgently asking for it. It is vital for her, for us.

—How? —Paris is as confused as I am.

—Paris, you are a historian, you know the enormous power of history. Whoever has history in his hands, has everything. Whoever controls the past, controls the present and can look to the future. To know who we are, why we are the way we are, how we got here, where we come from... These are questions that every human being asks and wants to answer. However, the United Provinces left aside History itself, focusing on Technoscience, the standard of progress and comfort. So, if we get your study on the Goddess and the Provinces published throughout the State...we will spread the religion and better understand who we are and why we are here. If every citizen reads your thesis...we will be invincible.

Julie Bell's words are so accurate and direct, that not only Paris, but I too, am dismayed. Paris was only looking for a teaching position at the University to avoid the loss of historical studies and this has turned into an investigation that aims to give power to the Goddess and her religion. I am aware that, although I don't like it, Julie is right. The slaves are ignorant of their own history, I myself was ignorant until I came to the house of Paris, and they need to open their eyes to the Goddess. To know what the Provinces have done and how they have treated them, the crimes and outrages they have committed against them. To recognize themselves in characters who lived and whose ideas are silenced. We slaves need and deserve to be aware of our history.

—The Bible... —Julie Bell tries to convince her daughter—it's just an ancient book, full of inaccurate terms, incredible miracles, distant feats and doctrines that deserve to be carefully thought out. It is a forbidden book, and one that sends shivers down the spines of the slaves, because they know that having it is dangerous. But if we give all those people scientific research like yours, based on real sources, on objective facts, talking about the Priestess and what our ancestors have done in the name of the Goddess...About what the United Provinces have hidden for so long....

Paris must decide. It is up to her. Her privileges, the University, her well-to-do life or to go against the main support of the United Provinces system: slavery. And she has, this time, a double advantage to do so: History and the Goddess are on her side. I think that if Paris cedes the work to the Goddess community and this one manages to transmit it to the millions of slaves...another rebellion can be organized, again. You can win or lose, but the fight will be inevitable. I am fine with that, because nothing matters to me anymore, I have no roots and I have nothing to lose, only the invisible chains that imprison me as a slave. But Paris… she is of the elite, she has privileges, Edgar....

—Mom...You are asking me the same thing the Provinces are asking me. To use History. Use it.

—History is never innocent, daughter. The question is what it is used for. To continue exploiting slaves or to free them. You decide.

Paris hesitates. She does so because whatever decision she makes is positioning her on one side. She is either with the Goddess or with the United Provinces. There is no middle ground.

—We have the capacity to physically edit thousands of copies of your books and publish them digitally on the Net, flooding all the Provinces. The Goddess needs you, Paris, and we don't have much time.

If I want to be free, Paris must choose the right side. It's a real chance for freedom, rather than jumping back in time and making a place for myself there. That's why I intervene:

—That's what you were saying, Paris: move just one piece or break the whole board?