For several long seconds after the man said those words, I simply stood there and stared at him with my mouth open. No sound escaped me at all. I was just standing like that in complete silence. Finally, I held up both hands to stop both him and Persephone from talking and turned away. Taking a few steps in the other direction, I looked over the field while trying to ignore the high pitched whistling of panic in the back of my head. Everything in me was screaming about how dangerous this was. Being cut off from everyone else aside from Percy and Cerberus, having no way to get back home or even contact anyone I knew so that I was essentially completely dependent on this guy, it all added up to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up as my flight or fight response tried to kick in. Growing up the way I had, my father had always warned me about danger signs when you were around someone who could hurt you, and this was setting off all sorts of alarms in my brain. I just had to try to ask myself if those alarms were intentional and real or just a product of Ehn not thinking about what he was doing and being accustomed to never having to explain himself ahead of time or get permission for anything.
There were some sort of buildings in the distance, but I couldn’t make out any details. We were standing in the middle of nowhere for the most part. With my back to the others, I lowered my head and took a long, deep breath. I was trying to pull myself together and figure out exactly how to react to this. My first instinct, which involved shouting, probably wasn’t a good idea.
Eventually, I closed my eyes and let out another long breath before opening them as I spoke up. “I don’t suppose you could have warned me about what was going to happen?” I didn’t shout or curse or anything, but I made it as clear as I could in my tone that I wasn’t happy.
There was a brief pause before the man replied simply, “There did not seem to be any point. After all, this is what had to happen. Now we have enough time to get the training you need done, without forcing you to miss too much. Truthfully, I had thought you would be happy that most of your training would take place in the past so that you will only need to be away from your loved ones for a few weeks, from their point of view. You won’t miss nearly as much as you would have this way. We will, of course, still need to take some of the time in the present to do things that cannot be done here in the past. Certain events cannot begin to take place any earlier than the moment we left. But that will be the end of your training, not the beginning.”
“The end of my–” Stopping myself in mid-sentence before I could say anything else, I shook my head briefly before finally turning to face him once more. Persephone was standing a bit at the side with one hand on Cerberus’s back, looking anxiously at me. She mouthed that she hadn’t known what was about to happen, and I nodded to her before focusing on Ehn. “Look, I know you’re accustomed to doing anything you want because you’re the biggest, strongest person in any given room. Hell, on any given planet. And I know that I can’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. But this is me asking you as politely as I can to warn me when something big like that is going to happen. First of all, you want me to trust and listen to you, but I can’t do that when my brain is screaming at me that you’re a threat. You cut me off from almost everyone I care about, you made me dependent on you to get home, to even survive. For a girl–hell for anyone in a position of such a terrible power imbalance, that’s dangerous. If you want me to learn from you, I can’t be dealing with every instinct I have telling me this is dangerous and I have to run away. Sure, I couldn’t actually get anywhere if you didn’t want me to, but I also wouldn’t learn anything. I can’t get stronger, I can’t get better the way you want me to be, if I’m distracted thinking about how dangerous this situation is.”
Once I let that sit in his head for a moment, I continued. “And second, if something goes wrong with me here in the past, my family won’t know what happened. I won’t be able to tell them. Maybe you’d explain things to them and maybe you wouldn’t, but either way they wouldn’t take it well. I needed to be able to tell them that I was going back in time. Maybe they could have done something, tell me where to go if I needed to contact someone without changing the timeline or whatever. But now my connection with my sister is broken. She’s going to freak out the second that happens. Or the second it did happen, or… whatever. The point is, they’re all going to react, and it won’t be pretty. I don’t want to put them through that. If you’d told me so I could warn them that the connection would break for a few seconds before we caught up to that time again and that I’d contact them as soon as that happened so we’d only be out of touch for a few seconds, this whole thing could’ve been avoided.” I was very careful to explain my entire point without raising my voice, trying to get the man to see how simply warning me would have been better.
Ehn took in my words, his expression completely unreadable for a moment before he acknowledged them with a very slight nod. “Perhaps you have a point. It was never my intention to… intimidate you or make you feel unsafe. Quite the opposite, I want you to know that I both mean you no harm and will not allow any harm to befall you while under my… supervision. I suppose I hadn’t considered how it could appear from your point of view, or that being cut off from those you care about and becoming entirely dependent on someone you barely know would cause anxiety even in the best of circumstances. You don’t know me and I’ve made you reliant on a stranger to even survive, let alone find your way back home. I apologize for that. I never considered any of that the way you would see it. That’s… not something I do often.
“As for how the others will react, I simply assumed you would be able to contact those you care about as soon as we were back in the correct time. But you are correct that something could happen to you, and that even if it does not, they may react poorly even in the short time span they would be cut off. And it was wrong to make such assumptions without giving you some level of warning. I apologize for that as well.” It sounded like he was being sincere, at least. “Perhaps I might suggest a solution which does not require wasting the amount of energy and time it would take to jump all the way back to that point simply to leave a message?”
He waited until I nodded hesitantly before continuing. “You may compose any message you wish to warn them about what just happened, and that it was my doing. I will ensure that they receive it at the very moment before your connection to them is temporarily broken. I have people in place who can make certain that happens at the correct time. That way, they will be warned. They will receive the message right before the connection breaks.”
It was probably the best deal I could expect from the man. Honestly, I was relieved that he actually listened to my point and didn’t just dismiss it. So, I accepted that. “Right, sure. I think that’s the best way to go. But–wait. Okay, I thought being in the same time period and galaxy as another version of yourself was… uhh, explosively bad. So what’s going to happen as soon as we catch up with the time period where I was? Wait, part two, when exactly are we? How far back did we go? How–how much training are you planning on giving me?”
I swore a very small smile played at the man’s face before he replied, “First, you’re absolutely correct. Being too close to another version of yourself at the same time is incredibly dangerous. Some do believe you cannot be in the same galaxy without explosive results, though that is not exactly true. In actuality, being in separate solar systems is generally enough distance. For obvious reasons, most people aren’t willing to risk testing that sort of thing. If your time-traveling self gets too close to the past version, the one… furthest ahead within your own personal timeline will spontaneously combust, killing you and doing substantial damage to the area around you. It is…” He actually grimaced a little. “It’s not pretty, let’s leave it at that.”
I wanted to ask just how much experience he had with that sort of thing, and how many people had died during his experiments to get those sorts of details. Instead, I replied, “So why don’t people use that to insta-kill their enemies? Whoops, you got sent back in time five seconds to when another version of you existed in the same room. Now you’re dead. Well, that was an easy way to get rid of my nemesis, no idea why it took me so long to think of that. Let’s go get some churros.” A brief pause followed before I muttered, “I hope we’re in a time period that has churros because I just made myself hungry.”
Before the man could answer me, Persephone piped up. “Flick is correct, churros are very good. If you have not had them before, you’re missing out, Mr. Ehn.” She said that with a broad, encouraging smile, head bobbing up and down excitedly. “Especially if you get them fresh.”
“I shall… keep that in mind,” Ehn murmured, his expression remaining unreadable. Then he focused on me once again. “To answer your most important question, the reason this is not used as an attack is that any time travel, no matter how short the trip, requires an incredible amount of energy. Most people are incapable of doing it at all, even for themselves, let alone targeting someone else with it. And even when they are capable, the amount of preparation and energy it requires is incredibly inefficient. Even without the other reasons, killing someone by sending them back in time would be like using a planetary annihilation weapon to kill a small animal.
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“Truthfully, the only people it might be appropriate to use against have their own defenses against being unexpectedly transported, either physically or temporally. Put simply, for anyone it would actually work against, there are much less demanding, not to mention dependable, methods of killing them. And for anyone for whom that amount of effort and power would be appropriate, the attempt would almost certainly fail anyway. And all of that, of course, is ignoring the instinctive double defense.”
“The instinctive what?” I found myself asking immediately. The guy really did know a lot, that much was obvious. He also seemed to enjoy explaining things, which I wasn’t going to object to. No matter how this whole situation had come about, I’d already had a much worse teacher than this guy. He might’ve been stronger than Fossor, but he didn’t come anywhere near that level of being a piece of shit. Well, not so far anyway. I had been able to force down my reactions to that bastard enough to let him teach me something about Necromancy, so learning from Ehn was a piece of cake.
“Instinctive double defense,” he replied. Yeah, he was definitely smiling a bit, apparently enjoying this chance to teach me stuff. “You see, whenever a person is about to be placed within the same time period and general location as another version of themselves, there is a… reaction. I’m sure you know what it’s like when you try to press two magnets together when the same–ahh what was the word you use… polarity. When you attempt to press two magnets of the same polarity together, they resist. There is a similar reaction when the same person is about to exist in the same time period and general location. They push against one another, and both are generally sent far enough away, both physically and temporally, to avoid being killed. Even those strong enough to resist the effect are also generally capable of understanding what is happening, and simply allow it to send them away. When another version of themselves is pushed into the same time period, the other one has a good chance of being shoved to another location far enough away to survive. So you see, there is very little purpose in attempting to kill someone with that method.”
Right, he had a point. I definitely hadn’t known anything about that whole magnet repelling effect for time travel, but I was willing to take his word for it. Something told me there were very few people who had the level of experience and knowledge about that stuff that he did. I filed the information away for later before focusing on him once more. “So about those other questions? The one involving when exactly we are right now so I know how long this is going to take, and the one about how we’re going to avoid having me end up in the same time period and solar system as my past self. Unless you’re planning on taking a trip to some other planet until we pass that point.” I was really trying not to freak out about how long this might actually end up taking.
Ehn met my gaze. “Well, first of all, precisely when we currently are holds almost no bearing for how long it will take to reach your present day. We will be jumping around in time to various points when it is most useful for me to train you. I keep extensive notes of precisely what time and in what locations I happen to be in at any point so that there is no crossover. When the time comes to return to the present, we will make another jump to a point shortly after we left. Then we will continue our training in the present, until you are ready to go back to your people.”
He gave me a moment to digest that before adding, “But to answer the basic question, we are currently in North America in what you would consider to be the year fifteen hundred and eighty-six, common era.”
Yeah, that made me stagger a little bit reflexively. We were in 1586 CE? I’d gone back in time over four hundred years. The thought of that was… oh. Oh I really needed to sit down.
And just like that, Cerberus approached, laying down right behind me so I could lower myself against his back. All without me even saying anything. He was such a good dog. And Percy was a good friend. I was glad they were both here, because I had no idea how I would’ve gotten through this if I was alone with this guy, friendly and polite as he seemed.
Finally, I pulled myself together, got over the shock as well as I could in the moment and looked at him once more. “Okay, one quick question. Did you know for certain that Persephone wasn’t on Earth at this point in time? Because yeah, you could’ve been pretty confident that I’ve never time traveled into the past like this, to say the least. But she’s been around for a long time. Believe me, I don’t care how strong you are. If you had just yanked us back here without any warning and ended up killing Percy because she already existed here, you and I would’ve had a pretty big problem. Even with that magnetic pole defense thing, there’s always the chance something could’ve gone wrong. So we should’ve been warned.” I was staring him down intently, trying to stop myself from shaking too much. I was even angrier at the thought that he could have hurt Percy than I’d been about being cut off from everyone else.
“Aww, thank you, Flick!” Beaming even more, Percy stepped over and sat down next to me on Cerberus’s back. Her arm went around me to squeeze firmly. “I’m also very glad I did not explode. I appreciate new experiences, but that is one I would prefer to avoid.”
Bowing his head in acknowledgment to both of us, the man replied, “As I said, you are correct. I should have warned you about what was coming rather than simply act without your knowledge. You deserved that much, for all the reasons you stated. That said, I did indeed perform checks on whether the Revenant girl was present on this world at this time. As it happens, she left only a few years before this point on one of the many journeys the Seosten, Manakel, often sent her on in order to remove her from his presence. She will not return for a couple of decades, by which point we will have moved again. I promise you, I will ensure that she is not present in any of the time periods we move to. And if it will make you more comfortable with the situation, I will do so in part by asking Persephone herself.” He turned his attention to her then, adding, “Does that work for both of you?”
I waited for the other girl to nod before agreeing. “Yeah, that’s–I mean sure, thanks. I just don’t want to lose her.” Flushing a little bit with embarrassment, I quickly stood up to stare off at the distant structures. “But we’re really in the fifteen hundreds, huh? So what are those buildings?”
Without looking that way, the man answered. “Those are the homes of a native tribe, a mix of humans and what you would call Alters. Most of the humans have enough Alter blood within them to see through the Bystander Effect. It is quite strong by this point, after well over a thousand years of steady growth. But those who live here are far enough away from its origin point, and have intermixed with Alters enough, that it has less of an effect. This is something the Seosten will correct when this land is further settled.”
Grimacing a little, I quietly guessed, “That’s why so many of them die, isn’t it? Because the Seosten are clearing out potential threats to their new system.”
“That is part of the reason,” he confirmed. “Though they are not entirely to blame. Or even majorly. Many European settlers simply could not stand to share land with the Natives. The Seosten simply took advantage of that for their own purposes. Humans and Seosten alike are responsible for the atrocities that will be, and have been, committed upon these people.”
After a brief hesitation, I exchanged a look with Percy while speaking up. “Uh, don’t take this the wrong way or whatever, but that’s really not how I expected you to talk. From everything I’ve heard about you, I thought you were supposed to be all rah rah humans rule over everyone, you know? I didn’t expect you to say anything bad about how we’ve acted.”
“I do believe that humanity has a destiny,” the man agreed quietly, yet firmly. “But I also believe we have a responsibility. Part of that means accepting the bad things we have done in the past. I believe it is our place to lead and guide all other species into a glorious, prosperous future for all. That also means protecting them. We are supposed to be the guardians, protectors, as well as leaders. I wish for all species to thrive. Those humans who would unnecessarily harm, kill, or enslave others for any reason are no better than the cow pasture filth you would avoid stepping in. I do not believe that humans are inherently superior. I believe we have the potential and capacity to help create a universe that is as free from suffering as possible.”
“So, humans who betray that, or make things worse, you see them as worse than Alters who do the same thing?” I hesitantly asked.
“In a way,” he agreed. “I believe it is a waste of our potential. There are far better things we are capable of than what filth like that would have us do. We are capable of greatness. And we will achieve that greatness when the time comes.”
Yeah, this guy was definitely a true believer. Which could be dangerous, obviously. But at least he actually believed that humans should be held responsible for what they did, and was disgusted by those who treated non-humans badly. He wasn’t–well he was a supremacist in a way, but I’d seen worse. I honestly wasn’t sure how to react to this sort of thing. I had to see more of how he acted, how he thought. More importantly, I had to see how he put his opinions into action. As of right now, I told myself to be incredibly cautious about how much I listened to him. I could learn a lot, but it also seemed like a very slippery slope. Even if he did think humanity should be held to a high standard, that still elevated them over nonhumans, and that was a dangerous way to think.
Finally, I shook all that off and focused. “Well, you wanted to start this training thing, right? Maybe we should get into that.
“After all, it sounds like we’ve got plenty of time.”