We couldn't get into everything right there on the rooftop, of course. Well, to be completely fair, we couldn't get into all of it full stop. There was too much that Arthur flat out could not be told, let alone all his people. This was going to be complicated and difficult enough to deal with in a way that wouldn't completely break the timeline to begin with. We had to be incredibly careful about how we went about answering his extensive questions.

The first thing I did was tell the man the truth on that subject. Rather than beating around the bush, I stated very succinctly, “I am a time traveler, and I don't want to change the future. I know that might be hard to believe, but it's the truth. I come from many years from now. I can't say much more than that. But I can tell you a little bit. Just not here, and not in front of everyone. If you want to know what I can tell you, we need to go back to the cave my friends and I were at before. There's a thing there that we need to find. I can take you. But only you.”

Obviously, that prompted a loud chorus of arguments, especially from Gwen, disguised as Lancelot. But Arthur stopped them with a raised hand. His eyes were on me as he spoke carefully. “I believe him, and this isn't an opportunity we can afford to simply throw away. After all, it's not often that we get to meet the fabled Jacob Donn.”

Yeah, it was my turn to be confused and taken aback. He knew my fake alter ego name? Sure, Aylen had made it clear that people somehow knew the name and associate him with a Necromancer or something like that. But this was Arthur. As in King Arthur. Just how famous was my fake identity? I was starting to think this was a bigger deal than I’d understood or accepted when we'd been talking before. And it made me wonder just what the hell those other versions of me in the past were doing.

Also, Donn? Since when did Jacob have a last name?

I shook that off as Arthur agreed to go with us, taking a moment to assure his people that he would be fine. I could tell they really didn't like it, especially after what just happened. But he was the king, and his word was final. Besides, he told them they needed to stay here and help the people recover. And, of course, he pointed out that he wouldn't be alone after all. He would be going alongside Ganieda, one of the most trusted mages and prophets in the kingdom. The very fact that that seemed to calm them down was astounding. Aylen had really made a name for herself here. They trusted her enough for her presence to settle their distrust and anxiety about all this.

She was the mythological Ganieda. Or historical, I should have said. She hadn't simply borrowed that identity, she created it, and was that person. Which, of course, meant there was a bootstrap paradox going on. She had created the identity based on stories she had heard, but she had only heard those stories because she herself had created them. She named herself after an identity she created. And if I thought about that anymore, I was probably going to go permanently cross-eyed.

In the end, Arthur came with us. Us being myself, disguised as Jacob, Aylen-as-Ganieda, and Asenath and Shiori in their own unnamed disguised forms. All four of us looked different than we should have, one of very few things keeping the timeline intact at this point. I felt like I could hear it creaking already.

I also almost expect to find Invidia back in that cave with the rift when we teleported in. But she wasn't there. I supposed she would have known we would go there immediately, so it wasn't a safe place to retreat to. Either way, there were still some soldiers looking around, who immediately hit the ground in deep bows when Arthur arrived. At least, as soon as they recovered from their shock at our sudden arrival.

Insisting they get back up, Arthur sent all the men out of that bottom cave and told them to secure the area outside. Which left the five of us standing there facing the rift. He stared at it for a moment before turning back to me. “You said there was some of this that you can explain, Time Traveler Jacob. That's something I'd be most interested in hearing. I must admit, I didn't believe you were a real person until now. At the most, I assumed you were multiple people across history being combined into one. That seemed far more likely than the idea that a single person could actually be responsible for… all of that.”

Well, the absurdity of hearing that from him was almost enough to make me laugh. Seriously, it was a very close thing. But I caught myself, realizing that was probably a bad idea under the circumstances. Instead, I exhaled and nodded. “I'll explain what I can, but I'm afraid you'll be disappointed in how little that is. My friends and I come from the future. You--you fight the Seosten. Do you know about the beings they fight?”

He paused, glancing over at Aylen briefly before confirming, “Fomorians. I have yet to see one myself, but I have heard the stories.”

My head bobbed. “So you know how bad they are. Or at least you have some idea. You also know that you're a Dragon-Bonded, and what that means. There's another one of you. I mean, not literally another version of you. There's another Dragon-Bonded. I can't get into all the details, I just can't. But the short version is that there are many rifts like this, scattered across history, in many different years. This other Dragon-Bonded, he… his power is spread through the rifts, and it's going toward those Fomorians. If I don't go through every single one of these rifts to close them, then that power, the same sort of power that you have, will make them about a thousand times more dangerous. It will go to them and make them stronger, unless I go through these rifts. Like this one. That creature you saw, she's an evil being worshiping something worse than you can imagine. She's trying to make this whole situation fall apart. Apparently she already managed that once. She found another version of me--it's a long story--and took my power. She killed the other me and now she can do everything I can do. I'm not sure what that means exactly, or what else she's going to do with it. But I do know that I need to go through this rift. I need to close all of them before the Fomorians become… unstoppable.”

With all that said, I took a second to just stare at the impressive man. “I wish there was more I could say. I wish I could tell you everything about making the future better. But it wouldn't help. No matter how many warnings I gave you, it wouldn't change our history. It would just create a new, different world.”

A very faint smile flickered across the man's face before he bowed his head. “Yes, I have heard that sort of thing before.” He took a second to collect himself before speaking again. “I can't say that I wouldn't prefer to have more information. Especially after what we just witnessed. But I believe I can trust you. If Ganieda does?” He waited until Aylen nodded. “So, do what you must here. I will attend to my people. And, be careful, Jacob Donn. I believe that will not be the last you've seen of that creature you say already killed… one of you.” His face twisted just a little as though recognizing the absurdity of the words, before extending a hand to me.

Oh it was probably a bad idea to let myself fangirl about this entire situation. Seriously, I was talking to Arthur Pendragon and he wanted to shake my hand. Giggling and having a complete freakout about that wouldn't give the right impression.

Instead, I accepted the shake, though Arthur quickly adjusted it so we were clasping one another's forearms. He squeezed firmly while meeting my gaze. “It has been quite the pleasure to meet you, Jacob, even under the circumstances. I hope that one day in the future, the two of us may sit for a much longer discussion about all of this. Especially about why you are so thoroughly loathed by the Seosten.”

Wait, loathed by the Seosten? Okay, what were those other versions of me doing?

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Getting in trouble, obviously, Fathom put in. Does that even shock you at this point? Cuz I gotta tell you, there's a bunch of us in here, and not one of us is even slightly surprised. There is not a single raised eyebrow in this place.

She had a point, and I put that aside before offering the man in front of me a slight smile. One that I hoped wouldn't give too much away. “Believe me, sir, I hope so too. Either way, good luck with everything.”

He looked like he had something to say to that, but thought better of it. Instead, he simply nodded, said his goodbyes to the others, and turned to walk out of the cave. He was leaving us here to do what we needed to. He didn't even seem surprised that Aylen-Ganieda was staying.

Which left us standing there staring at one another. Or, to be specific, left Aylen, Shiori, and Asenath standing there staring at me. Once we were alone and certain that we weren't being observed, we all just started to talk at once. We were all saying different things, blurting out questions and answers with no apparent rhyme or reason.

Finally, I held up my hands. “Okay, I think it's pretty obvious there's a lot going on. I mean, that's pretty much par for the course, but still. Invidia is out there and apparently she has all my powers. All thanks to Tartarus, because we didn't have enough problems already. Now it turns out that evil sapient universe wants to help make things worse.”

Shiori moved over to me, catching my hands and squeezing them. Her voice caught. “She really killed one of the other yous? Does that mean she could show up at another rift and kill more of you? Wait, if she kills more of you, will she stack your powers and get even stronger? How does that even work?”

Blanching, I squeezed her hands and shook my head. “I… I don't know. I have no idea. I don't think so, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. It seems like that should be impossible for her to stack the same powers over and over again. But then again, I would've said it should be impossible for her to kill one of me and manifest my powers just like that in the first place. I think it has to do with merging herself with me or something. So maybe that means she just has the single version of my powers. She sure didn't seem all that interested in trying to merge with me this time. So maybe she can only do it once?”

“Even then, having access to one set of your powers makes her indescribably dangerous,” Asenath noted softly. “Between that and the abilities she already had, including Charmeine’s Tartarus gift, there's no telling what she's capable of now.”

She was right, of course. Though I hadn’t seen much of it in use, I knew Charmeine’s power made her stronger, faster, just overall more dangerous the more she hated whoever she was fighting, or the more she cared about whoever she was defending. The more emotional she was about the fight, the more dangerous she was. It had been almost lucky that when we fought her, she had mostly contempt for us. If she had hated me then as much as she did now, I was pretty sure we would've been ripped apart without a single chance to defend ourselves. And now that power was being used by someone who had all my powers as well. Yeah, this wasn't good.

Unfortunately, the only thing we could do right now was push forward. So, I held my girl by the face and leaned in to kiss her gently. Feeling her melt against me, I shivered. It was so hard not to give into the impulse to take a little more time with her. The thought that we still had several days before the time limit was up flashed through my mind. But I knew how selfish and stupid that would be. After all, we had no idea if Invidia or anyone else would come back while we were wasting time. This was the best chance I was going to get to go through this portal, and we couldn't let it go. Not when there was so much riding on all this.

So, with obvious reluctance, I released Shiori from the kiss and offered her a weak, “You know, one of these days, we're going to be able to take an actual vacation and just have fun.”

Swallowing, she gazed at me with those beautiful dark eyes and managed a quiet, “I'll hold you to that. All of you.” She added that bit pointedly while staring into my eyes, looking at the rest of the Flique in that moment.

Pulling her into another embrace, I held tight before looking over at Aylen. “I don't know what's going to happen when I go through that rift. I mean, I already didn't know what was going to happen with these two. I think they're supposed to be sent back or something. But with you, I'm really not sure. Maybe if you're just close enough to the rift when it closes, they'll get the point and you'll get sent back along with the others.”

Aylen, however, shook her head. “I’m not ready to go. Don't get me wrong, I'm ready to see Avalon again. I miss her so much. And I miss the rest of my family. But these people need me here now. They need the witch. I can't warn them about what's coming without messing up the future, but I can help make the time they have here as good as possible. I can help set things up so Camelot can be restored in the future at some point. I can't stop the fall, but I can do everything I can to make sure it's not permanent. They're my friends, and part of my family. I can't just abandon them.”

After getting all that out, she paused before offering me a small smile. “I will find my own way back to the present when needed. I have ideas. But you don't need to worry. I will be okay. I have been so far.” With that, her expression fell. “I am very sorry that I couldn't help that other you. I was sent to protect you, to watch your back, and I failed at that.”

My head shook. “Don't worry. That wasn't your fault. From the sounds of it, you weren't even awake when things went down. Besides, I think you were always meant to stay here through all this time. You were in the stories, after all. And like you said, these people are your family. Maybe that's why you're the Merlin Key. You are Merlin's sister. Maybe you need to be here to understand things and to become the sort of person who can do what you need to do to bring him back.”

Before I could say anything else, Asenath made a noise of realization and straightened up. As we all looked at her, she took a second before speaking slowly. “The Merlin Key. She is the Merlin Key. She’s supposed to bring Arthur back. She was supposed to be the last ingredient they needed to find a way to resurrect him. What if you're right? What if her being here and developing this connection with Arthur is what makes her the Key?”

She pressed on quickly. “The entire point of this, the whole thing you're trying to stop, is that all of Ehn’s dragon energy, his entire life force, is about to empower the Fomorians, right? What if you could direct that power somewhere else? To someone else.”

Straightening up, I stared at her. “You mean direct it to Arthur's remains. You’re talking about taking Ehn’s life force and using it to resurrect the other Dragon-Heretic. Do you actually think that would work?”

Shiori bounced up and down a little, making a soft squeaking sound of excitement. “It makes sense, doesn't it? If you're going to resurrect someone as powerful as a Dragon-Bonded, you need a huge jolt of power. The kind of power that only something like another Dragon-Bonded could create. If all that energy is enough to supercharge the Fomorians, then it should be enough to give Arthur a jumpstart.”

I rocked backwards a little, letting that run through my mind. “But I don't even know how that would work. I don't know how to send that energy anywhere. All I'm doing is going through the rifts to close them.”

Aylen offered a slight smile. “Let me worry about that. I've already examined this rift, so I think I could find more in the future. I will track down another one and talk to another version of you, or multiple versions. I'll study the rifts and figure out how to do what we need to do. This all might be happening at the same time for all the different versions of you, but I can spend years, decades, studying them and figuring out what to do. That has to be why I’m here. That's why it was important for me to end up trapped in this time. I can do what we need to prepare until we get to the last rift in the timeline. Then I'll make sure that energy goes where it needs to be.”

Stepping that way, I took the girl's hand and squeezed it before pulling her into an embrace when she accepted it. “Aylen, you understand what you're signing yourself up for? You’d have to be… you’d have to live through all those years, all those--all that time. You’re volunteering for a hell of a lot of work.”

“No more than you,” she assured me. “I'm just taking the long way around, with a lot of boring parts. But all that matters is that we make it work. If we can do this, if we can resurrect Arthur, it could change everything. We need him. I understand that now more than I ever did before.”

There was so much else I wanted to say, but none of it would help right then. This was the right move, and we all knew it.

Instead, I took another few minutes with them, with Aylen, Shiori, and Asenath. Not a lot, because we knew the stakes. We knew I couldn't delay too much. But for just a few minutes, I spent some time with my girlfriend and the others. I promised them that I would see them in the future, that when this was over, we would take some time for ourselves no matter what tried to get in the way.

Then I stepped up to the rift. I could feel it pulling at me like a magnet, trying to yank me in. It wanted me to go through it. Standing right there on the cusp, I turned back to the others. They were staring at me intently, emotions written across their faces. We were all afraid of what would come, of how this would turn out. There was no way to know for certain without going for it.

So, giving them a wave, I pushed down my doubts and insecurities before turning and leaping forward. I felt the rift open up for me, wrapping its energy around me as I passed through it.

And with that, I was gone.