Elias had returned two days later than planned. During that time, I'd answered an emergency call from a village where one of the Prophet of the Valley's old disciples had caused trouble–someone who generally I considered to be harmless unless he got particularly drunk–and I'd joined one battle to push the Flatlanders back.

I had also gotten a full night's sleep for once.

When Elias arrived, I didn't want to waste any time. He showed up at the Sacred School and found us while we were all eating dinner. Wren and Leif had been staying so that we would all be together.

"Let's go," I said the moment I spotted Elias.

He smiled at my eagerness. "First, let's discuss our plan. My people know about your world and they're monitoring my movements. I told them that I was gathering information about our world and I hadn't wanted to tell anyone until I knew more, because I would feel rushed to action. Some of the leaders bought this and some didn't, because they are rushing me."

"Great." I crossed my arms. "What do they want?"

"Detailed reports. One of the leaders insisted that I connect with them to share memories, but we have the right to refuse that in my world without question. There's due process to force it. Even then, I can resist, and usually that works. But I'd be arrested at that point. I want to avoid that."

"Doesn't this give away to your guild that you're betraying them?" Leif asked.

"Not necessarily. I often go on my own way but I always come back and do what's best for the guild. This venture certainly pushes the limits of what I can get away with not telling them, but it isn't that different from my normal behavior. My concern is that when I return to my world, they'll monitor me, and know that I brought you."

"What if you take us some place far away from your guild?" I asked.

"That's a good idea. You can travel with us and they won't recognize your power reading. If you get too close to a city, people will be alarmed by the burst of energy. It's very large. We'll have to travel on horse."

"Old fashioned," I said.

"It is. We actually have some automobiles, but not like the kind from the original Earth."

"Some what?" Nash asked.

"I'll explain later," I said. "Once we get to your world, how will we operate without being discovered?"

Eliash let out a long sigh. "That's the hard part. I'm being scrutinized more closely. If I cut my hair to look like Piercey's, we could bring him over."

"One of you could provide a distraction so that we can do whatever we need to do without being seen." I nodded. "That's a good idea."

"If I connect with Piercey, I can share my life with him, and he'll have all the information he needs to pretend to be me."

I lifted my hand to him. "Connect with me. I need to know too."

He looked at my hand warily. "I don't connect often. I'm not very skilled with selectively sharing."

"You'd rather hide your secrets from me than give us the best chance to deal with your guild?"

The uncomfortable look on his face gave me pause. What was he trying to hide?

"I can," Elias said finally. "I just would rather not."

I scoffed. "So if I take you to Piercey right now, you'll connect with him."

"Yes, if everyone agrees to it."

"But not with me?"

"If you insist, I will."

I tilted my head at him.

"Piercey is another version of me. It's intimate to connect with someone. It'll be hard enough being honest with myself by giving it to him. There's too much that has happened with your counterpart in my world. For you to experience it all…"

Nash gave my hand a tug and forced my attention. "Listen to him, Max. This is his life you're asking him to give to you."

"It's not something to take lightly," Elias said in a quiet voice. "You should think about whether you really want Piercey to have my experiences."

The discomfort I'd seen in Elias shifted to me. Though no one had said it aloud, I was confident that the relationship between Elias and Ashton had gone further than mine had with Piercey. My friend here in this world would experience how life could have been for him. Wouldn't that just break his heart? And wouldn't it be too intimate? I hadn't let myself dwell too long on the fact that Elias knew Ashton so intimately.

"How long did it last?" I asked.

"Us?" Elias glanced quickly between Nash and myself. "One year at first. We ended things and got back together. The time was three years."

"Three years?" Nash and I had only been together for one. Elias had been with Ashton three times as long. Piercey would have way too many memories of another version of me if they connected. The same would be true if I connected with Elias. If we chose another party, then they would, and that seemed even worse.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

I rubbed my arm and turned my back on them. Even if I got past my feelings about the situation, Piercey had loved me once. I wasn't sure how deep his feelings still ran. I hoped that he'd moved on. It seemed unfair to do to him though. Showing Piercey how our life could have been seemed incredibly cruel when we would never be together in this world. Although, maybe it would give him some resolution if he saw that even having the chance at being with me didn't work.

"What if you share up until the point that we got together?" I faced Elias again. "Could you try sharing different parts of your life?"

"I can try. Sometimes though when you try not to share something, you think about it too much, and it's all you share."

Leif threw up his hands. "This is too complicated."

"You can do it," I said, taking even myself by surprise. "Only if Piercey is okay with it and only if you try not to share too much about us."

The heavy look filled Elias's eyes again. He wasn't over Ashton, at all, and it felt really strange to see that. "I'll try."

"He came in through a portal with Gael. Let me call him over. We should give them some privacy, everyone."

Leif and Wren walked away. Nash caught my eyes first. "You're sure? You're okay?"

"I'm fine."

"I'm sorry," Elias said.

"Don't be."

"I suppose now we'll find out how speaking with our counterpart affects us. You managed to see and hear Ashton without being too affected."

"Yeah, well with your tendency to analyze, it may break your brain."

Elias chuckled. "Yeah."

----------------------------------------

After Piercey had arrived, we'd eased into the two men seeing each other. Both of them had stared, dumbfounded, at another version of themselves. Piercey had reasoned it was no different than seeing a twin while Elias remarked that clone had a creepier feel to it and I reminded them that they were merely the same exact consciousness uploaded to different experiments. Surreal.

The two had abandoned their initial shock, however, to sit across from one another and rapid-fire shoot theories at one another.

"Enough." I smacked my hands down on the table. "You two could talk all day. We need to decide if you're sharing or not."

Piercey leaned in and spoke quietly, as if I couldn't hear him clearly, which I obviously could. "Is she as scary in your world?"

"Scarier. This one is nicer."

"I'm standing right here," I said.

"Nicer, really?" Piercey leaned back, looking deep in thought for several seconds. "I wonder why."

"I believe it's the time she spent living in the village, especially being an aunt to Rune and now having Elsie. She's more mature and considerate, which makes her feel nicer."

"I'm just as scary." I pointed at Elias. "Don't forget that."

"Fine." The man lifted his hands. "I remember."

Piercey twisted to face me. I could see the difference in the two men now, not just because of their hair, but because of the way they looked at me. Piercey held all of our memories in his eyes, memories I knew. I didn't recognize what I saw in Elias.

"Max, I know you said to do this, but are you sure? I would never want to experience anything you didn't want me to."

"Our world is at stake again. I trust you." One nod at Elias and I hardened my voice enough that Piercey would know he didn't need to question me again. "This is up to you now."

"I'll do it." Piercey sat up straighter. "I'm ready."

I decided it was better to give them privacy. So I wandered the hall outside and looked out the window while they connected. It made me feel better to know that Elias would struggle to hold anything back, because despite the problem it posed, it would make it hard for him to lie to Piercey.

After fifteen minutes, I'd started to get nervous. Had the experience been too much for Piercey? Finally, he entered the hallway.

I stared at him nervously, wondering if he'd see me differently.

He smiled, looking like my old Piercey. "It worked."

"Can we trust him?" I asked.

Piercey met my eyes, glanced away as he took in a deep breath, and then looked at me again. His gaze was full of memories that he possessed and I knew nothing about, but even with that, he still looked at me the same as before. "Yes. He's had to make hard decisions and he has his regrets, but he's not going to hurt our world. He really does want our help and really wants to help us."

"Thank you, Piercey." My heart ached as I thought about him seeing that other life. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, looking thoughtful. "I really am. You don't need to worry about me."

"So do you think you can do it? Can you pretend to be him."

"I can. We'll have to alter our plan so I can join you. Since we're dealing with the time relativity, I won't miss anything here with Gael and his people. Let me have Gael and his people settled in for the night. Then, we can leave."

After he left, I wondered about everything he'd just seen. In a strange and entirely unexpected way, I didn't mind Piercey peering into a world where we'd loved one another. If we hadn't been apart, I would have done the same thing I had in the other world. In a way, I alway wished I'd been able to give him at least a little bit of time, because he did mean so much to me. Wasn't that strange? I didn't have feelings for him and I didn't want to be with him. I knew, though, how it felt to be in love and to want someone so badly that it felt impossible to survive without them. While I had not been able to give Piercey my heart here, he'd received it in another world, and now both versions of himself had closure.

"Has he moved on?" I asked Elias without facing him. "I can't bear to ask him and risk hurting him."

Elias smiled softly. "He has peace. He's moving on, especially recently."

I gasped and twisted to him this time. "What does that mean? A lady?"

"You need to talk to your friend about this. I'm just letting you know that you don't need to worry."

After hesitating for a few moments, I asked another question that had been bothering me. "What about you?"

The pain I saw now, that I'd been seeing, answered my question. "It's easier for Piercey than it is for me."

"Would you switch places?"

"No." Elias spoke confidently and without hesitation. "Never. It was worth the suffering."

The assurance stilled my breathing. "Does she know how you feel?"

"She does. It seems no matter the world, my soul and her soul are not meant to be. Maybe one day I'll find my peace like Piercey has."

"I'm sorry."

"That's not something to apologize for. You don't owe anyone your heart."

It touched a sore place in my heart for the guilt I still carried over not being able to make Piercey happy. Knowing he had peace helped me put that away.

Once everyone had gathered back together, we all locked arms, and prepared to travel to Elias's world. There we would take the power we needed and we wouldn't come back without a solution for the guild that now wanted to enter our world.