The place we were supposed to meet Ehn was in what would one day be Kansas. Not too far away from Wyoming, as far as that went. I’d checked as soon as we got the letter, and the distance between Laramie Falls and this place we were supposed to go was about four hundred and fifty miles. Incredibly far for people stuck using normal Bystander transit of today, but fortunately I wasn’t one of those people. As evidenced by the fact that I’d spent part of the day in Desoto all the way down near Florida, a short-yet-intense part fighting Heretics in Wyoming, then yet another part at the Roundabout school in Montana. The distance between the latter two on its own was like six hundred miles, and another fifteen hundred miles between the first two. This teleportation power really let me bounce around everywhere, cutting out so much travel time.
And yet, I wasn’t going to use it to go meet Ehn. Oh, sure, I could have. Even though I hadn’t actually been to that location before, all I had to do was put the coordinates into one of the computers, get an image of what the area looked like, and then focus enough to teleport there. But no, I was gonna take the ship. Not the Reaper one, not the Roundabout itself. Fahsteth’s ship, though we’d renamed it. Now it was officially (well, as officially as it could be when only a few living people and a bunch of ghosts had ever heard it) known as Cryptseeker.
On top of that, we’d… well, sort of redecorated it. We took down some of the exterior walls and replaced them with metal from the Roundabout, the kind that could reshape itself. Now the Cryptseeker was still about five hundred feet long (and boy was it wild that I considered that small compared to the former Lashra Vaeil turned Roundabout), and it was sort of still shaped like a long Y, with the cargo bay taking up one of the diagonal slants and the docking bay taking up the other. And the engines, crew quarters, and such were still located throughout the main bottom part of the Y. But now, instead of having a bubble/ball-shaped bit between the two diagonal slants where the bridge was, it was shaped like a large skull. Because Laein wouldn’t have it any other way.
And those diagonal parts didn’t just slope off into sharp ends. No, that wasn’t fitting enough. Now there were giant metal hands, made to look like skeleton hands, naturally, attached to them. And the ‘arms’ could extend to about twice their usual length so those hands could grab or smack things in their way. Yes, we gave our spaceship giant metal hands to grapple other ships. Or whatever we wanted them to grab. Hands were pretty versatile. Especially when they were made of incredibly durable metal and happened to be almost a hundred feet long. I really wanted to see what would happen if we got into a fight with another ship and just grabbed onto it. Especially since we’d put airlocks in the palms, so it was possible to literally hold onto an enemy ship and board them that way. Or just send some undead friends through to soften them up.
Was that already over the top? Maybe. Was it over the top enough? Clearly not, because there was more. It also had a cloak. Well, okay, the ship already had a cloaking device allowing it to turn invisible. But this was an actual cloak. Or at least it looked like one, anyway. Basically, we had attached dozens of extra shield projectors along several parts of the ship. Each of those projectors linked to others near it to create part of a wavering red energy shield, which actually drifted and fluttered like it was made of cloth and was blowing in nonexistent wind even in the dead of space. We could also adjust the position of the cloak-shield to put more protection where it was needed, which often ended up looking like the cloak was being swept in front of the skull in the center, or over the ship’s extended ‘arms.’ The shield was actually part-sail. Not in a ‘move the ship’ sort of way, but a thing that could soak up energy around it both to reinforce its protection, and to give power to the ship itself.
So, the ship was called the Cryptseeker, we’d replaced the central orb where the bridge was with a skull, the cargo and hangar bay diagonal lengths looked like extended arms, and it had a glowing, flowing ‘cloak’ shield. Laein was basically beside herself with glee by the time we’d finished setting the whole thing up. And honestly, I had to admit, I thought it was pretty cool too. And worth all the work to remodel it.
Maybe Laein was rubbing off on me a bit.
In any case, Percy and I took the ship to meet Ehn. Whatever was going to happen, I wanted to make sure we went in style. Cerberus and Eurso were with us, but I had left Laein back at the Roundabout with most of the ghosts and zombies. She had specific instructions about what to do if we disappeared for a while. Mostly it involved laying low until I found her again. I’d even made sure she had a single button that could send the whole place back to Desoto if anyone found it and started causing trouble. She’d be able to find Gaia from there.
I didn't expect us to have that sort of issue, considering the whole discussion I’d had with the man the last time he jumped me through time without warning, but still. Better to be prepared.
Actually, at this point, if he tried that sort of thing again, we were going to throw hands. Not that I expected mine to accomplish anything, even if I used one of the giant metal ones from the Cryptseeker, but at least I’d give it a shot. And if nothing else, I would demand that he take us back to as close to this time as possible. Demanding might not usually be worth much when it came to someone as powerful as he was, but even he had to listen if I told him I had a Reaper ship that he was leaving behind.
Oh, and obviously we didn’t have a full crew complement for the Cryptseeker. But that was okay, since a lot of it was run by very simple robots that didn’t care who was in charge of it, and for the parts that needed actual conscious attention, there were ghosts. I was crewing the ship with some of them, along with more energy-orbs they could draw from in order to turn themselves solid to interact with the controls whenever it was needed.
Which, yes, meant our skull-ship was filled with ghosts. We were consistent in our theming, at least.
Taking the ship to the coordinates in question, I stood on the bridge almost exactly on the spot where Fahsteth had died. My attention was focused on the viewing screen, where we could see what looked like a lumber camp below. They were cutting massive trees down and sending them along the Arkansas river to some other location.
The ship was invisible at this point, since we didn't want to completely terrify everyone down there. Whether they were all Bystanders or not, showing up with our skull spaceship hovering in the air like this probably wouldn't go over well regardless. And I didn't feel like Ehn would appreciate us turning a meeting into World War Three. Wait, it would be World War Zero considering the date, wouldn't it?
Anyway, I couldn't see the man in question. Which meant I was just going to have to go down there and ask around. So, after asking the others to keep an eye on things and only intervene if they needed to, I focused on part of the ground below us, a bit away from the logging camp itself. We were low enough for me to use my transportation power, and a second later, I was there. I’d adopted the Jacob guise again, since that was basically second-nature by this point. I didn’t know who I might run into in this time period who could potentially recognize me in the future, but the list of possibilities wasn’t exactly short. Heretics lived for a long time.
And so did some Alters if the Heretics didn’t get to them first.
Of course, showing up like that, in my black suit with gold trim that was more at home in the eighteen hundreds than the late fifteen hundreds, probably wasn't exactly blending in either. Especially out here in what amounted to the middle of nowhere. But it still stood out a hell of a lot less than the skull spaceship did. And I didn’t mind if the people here told stories about Jacob.
Unsurprisingly, the lumberjacks noticed as I walked out of the tree line and up toward the cluster of buildings. Were they called lumberjacks in this time? I wasn't sure if that word was even invented yet.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I’d tell you, Story, the Flique member who was riding shotgun at this point put in, but I haven't read enough actual Earth history. Most of my knowledge is about stuff that stopped existing a few hundred thousand years ago, at best. We need to get more up-to-date books. Maybe some nice fairy tales, they tend to have some good information if you read between the lines. Like in Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood.
I’ll get right on it, I sent back with a small smirk. And don't discount the knowledge you do have. It's helped a lot with setting up the school and all that. Plus, I feel like it’s important to have that knowledge. Those people are gone forever, but at least some part of them is still around. You have the stories from their books, some of their spells, their histories, it’s… it’s--
I couldn't finish explaining my feelings on that subject at the moment, because seven or eight of the maybe-lumberjacks were approaching. They all looked human for the most part, aside from one of them, who had very dark yellow skin and a face that was insect-like, with two sets of mandibles and big bulbous green eyes. He stayed at the back, though he, like the other six, was armed with a very large axe.
I stopped walking as they approached, doing my best to appear non-threatening without completely letting down my guard. I wasn't stupid. After all, this could've been another one of Ehn’s tests, seeing how I would deal with some violent situation or another. Just because he’d sent me these coordinates didn't necessarily mean everything was gonna immediately be hunky dory here.
Keeping my hands behind my back rather than spreading my arms, I spoke as calmly as possible. “Well good evening, gentlemen. I was wondering if you could help me. I'm supposed to meet a friend here. I think it was here, anyway. It's possible that I got a little turned around. He’s about yay tall--” I used one hand to illustrate. “--with brownish-red hair and a short beard. Calls himself Wig sometimes.” I was doing my best not to pay too much attention to the yellow insect man.
Tehphq, Story put in easily. They’re a burrowing species, really good at digging in dirt. They can basically disintegrate it with these beams from their hands, and they spit this clear fluid stuff that spreads and hardens quickly. Sort of like that resin stuff you can spit, actually. But it spreads further. They use it to harden the tunnels they dig so they won’t collapse. At least, that’s what they did a long time ago. A lot might’ve changed.
See? I replied cheerfully while waiting for the men to respond to my greeting, You’re already super-useful.
Speaking of a response, there wasn’t one at first. There was just silence for a moment, as the men simply stared intently at me, like they were trying to decide whether I was a threat or not. Then one of them leaned forward to whisper to another. I obviously wasn't supposed to hear any of it, but still managed to easily pick up, “--said we were watching for a little blonde girl, not a man. Maybe he killed her.”
Part of me was tempted to simply shift my form right then to settle this, but I still wasn't sure how much they knew or how they might react to something like that. Besides, for all they would know, I could simply be shifting myself to look like the person they were waiting for. So, I simply cleared my throat. “Sorry for the confusion and the… you know, sort of menacing atmosphere I might give off. I promise, I am the one he's expecting. I'm sure if you could just tell me where to meet him, this’ll all be fine.” I tried offering a smile, hoping it would help.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem to. The people were just as apprehensive and clearly ready for a fight as ever. Them being on edge probably shouldn't have been surprising, considering the man who was apparently staying with them. Ehn seemed to have a habit of attracting danger so he could see how well people reacted to it. For all I knew, he'd put these guys through the same sort of things as he had me, as part of his tests.
On the plus side, one of the men decided to take my advice. He told the others to watch me before turning to head back to one of the buildings at a quick jog. The whole thing made me want to roll my eyes, but I managed to restrain myself since I didn’t know how they would react. Obviously Ehn already knew I was here. Either he knew who I really was, or he'd want to investigate the newcomer. Whichever it was, the fact that he hadn’t shown himself yet had to be some sort of game. Was he testing me, or these people? And which of those answers would make me more annoyed?
Trying to shake that off, I focused my attention on the tense guys in front of me. “So, you’re woodcutters, huh?” Oh wait, yes, there, that was the word for lumberjack I'd been looking for, woodcutter. Like the guy from-- oh. The guy from the Red Riding Hood story. And Snow White. Sometimes called the Huntsman, but often the Woodcutter.
Congratulations, Story put in with obvious mild amusement.
You know, if you knew the word, you could’ve just told me, I sent back. Instead of vaguely hinting that it was in those stories.
Aww, but where would the fun be in that? She paused then before adding, Besides, that’s how Marnnik used to teach me, to be honest. It’s a hard thing to get past. And we do need more books for up-to-date knowledge.
Before I could respond to that, the only recognizable Alter guy turned to look at the building in the distance, pausing as though he was listening to something. Then he grunted and looked back at me. “Go,” he ordered while pointing that way. “They're waiting for you. In the building, down the stairs. All the stairs. Don’t touch anything else. Don’t take anything.” The ‘or else’ went unsaid, but very implied.
Well, what else was I going to do? I shrugged and thanked them before walking up that way. I could feel their gazes on me, and even noticed other people standing inside the buildings I passed with my item sense. And speaking of the item sense picking up people, there was a guy walking about ten feet away who was completely invisible and silent. I could sense his clothes, a sword sheathed at his side and a pistol crossbow on the opposite hip, along with other objects all in roughly the shape of a person. He was definitely walking right with me, apparently acting as an escort to make sure I didn't try anything funny.
During the short walk to the building, I distracted myself by talking with Story about our plan to make it easier for me to switch between at least a few of them. We were going to create that mental waiting room, the midway point between the island Archive where everyone else was, and the backseat of my mind. She'd been reading up on some ancient meditation books that would help, as soon as we had a chance to sit down and work on it.
As soon as we found out what Ehn wanted and dealt with this whole situation, in other words.
Yes, Story, as soon as that happened.
Maybe it was a bad idea. Maybe I should have resisted the impulse. But when we got to that building, I casually tugged the door open, then stepped aside before looking directly at the invisible person. My arm rose in a gesture for them to go ahead. “After you,” I announced grandly.
There was a brief pause, before I heard an audible sigh. Then the figure walked past me and into the building. At first I thought they were sulking, but then I caught a hint of a snicker they were trying to muffle. So hey, at least they were amused by me catching them.
As promised, there was a set of stairs on the far side of what turned out to be an otherwise simple living cabin. We followed them down, down, down far underground, the figure remaining invisible the whole time. I was pretty sure they were just doing it to spite me at that point. Or because they thought it was funny.
Whichever it was, we eventually came off the stairs and into an underground cavern. It was clearly under construction, a chamber about the size of the entire encampment up above, with a dozen or so guys using shovels and picks to carve out more. And right there in the middle of the chamber, clearly supervising, was Ehn.
He turned to face me, raising an eyebrow. “Have you gone and discovered something deeply personal about yourself, or is this a disguise?”
His question made me cough, shaking my head. “I thought it’d be a good thing for me to have a way to walk around without destroying the timeline.”
“Oh no, I’m not judging,” he assured me. “On the contrary, this puts us ahead of schedule. I thought one of our steps was going to be finding a way to get in contact with the elusive Jacob for you to learn from him.”
“Wait, let me get this straight,” I managed, “one of the people you brought me here to learn from… was me?”
His chin inclined in a short nod. “As I said, we’re ahead of schedule. And now, hmmm…” He paused there, giving me a curious, lingering look. “Perhaps it’s best if we start with what you’ve been up to so far. Tell me what you’ve done.”
“Uh, well…” I grimaced. “Can you magic up some chairs?
“Cuz it’s a really long story.”