GREAT GRANDMOTHER

Without explaining what she meant, Great Grandmother looked at me and grinned as she took her hand away. “Sadly for you, I’m all you’ve got.”

“I would bet gold you have stories to tell yourself.”

“And you’d not be wrong. I’ve wandered the Americas and learned its languages, including English and French. There are so many interesting things going on in the outside world.”

I chuckled. “Grandfather once told me about an ancient Chinese curse which says: ‘May you live in interesting times’.”

She gave me a broad grin of white, well formed teeth. “The times are indeed interesting. Yet my home is here, along the river, tending to the garden I love best.” Great Grandmother’s voice became apologetic. “Ran-Li wanted me to tell you that she is sorry for deceiving Shabaka, John Stephens, and Catherwood, by not explaining the differences between the two creatures. However, she told me that if she had, the French would’ve definitely invaded with an army and more of those automatons. She couldn’t take the risk.”

My eyes narrowed. “Ran-Li knew Professor Bella was going to do this?”

“Black Lion,” she replied in a gentle voice, “Ran-Li no more knew what Bella was going to do than her granddaughter did. The difference is that Ran-Li trusted the words of the Guardian, who simply told her what had happened before, and would likely happen again. The Guardian, in turn, trusted her to figure out the best way to counter the threat without his getting involved. He gets cross when he has to intervene.”

I blinked, my expression returning to normal as I carefully chose my words. “Back in Campeche City, I met an older gentleman who told me we had met before, though it was physically impossible since I have never visited the Yucatan.”

We finished the stew, and Great Grandmother got to her feet to collect the bowls, waving Rainbow back down when she offered to help. “You need to sit still and just be, for the moment.” She placed the bowls into a shallow basket before sitting back down. “It pleases him when someone is respectful, even if they don’t believe what he’s telling them is the truth. So, did he explain about the worlds above and below?”

“He gave an analogy of the world floating on top of the water in a cenote, and that what swims below cannot break the surface without help.”

“Excellent. So, say I drop a rock into the center of this cenote. What happens?”

I shrugged. “If the water was perfectly still, ripples would form in a ring until they reached the edge of the cenote.”

“For the sake of argument, let’s assume the first ripple is expanding the cenote in all directions, and that the center is constantly creating more ripples for as long as the first ripple continues expanding. Are you with me so far?”

“I think so.”

“Good. So again, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that these ripples are all segments of time, and Earth’s riding one of these ripples as we speak, the ripple moving through time as it expands outward. Now, ahead and behind this ripple are other Earths riding their own ripples, each one in a perfect row from the Earth’s creation to its ultimate fate, whatever that is. No one on any of these ripples has any awareness that other ripples exist, for they live above the water. However, those living below, or those who have been below, even for a brief time, know that other ripples exist, and if they are below, can actually see them. At least to a point.”

I struggled to comprehend what she was saying. “You are telling me that, what is happening right now has already happened on a ripple traveling ahead of us, while on the ripple traveling behind, none of this has occurred.”

Great Grandmother set her cup down. “Exactly. The only difference is that the events which happened upon the ripple ahead of us may be similar, but not the same, as what is happening now. Or the events may not have happened at all.”

“In other words, on the previous ripple, it is possible we never made it here.”

“Or did make it here and rudely laughed in my face.” I blinked in astonishment, for I could not imagine myself doing something so ungentlemanly as she went on. “Now, let’s talk about the spirits inhabiting the planetoids circling the Earth, the ones the Eldarions call upon to channel them Aethyr magic.”

“You are speaking of the old gods, who the Eldarions used to believe they had to invoke in order to channel energy from the planetoids.” In the British empire, it was taught in school that the old gods were a myth and nothing more.

She waved her hand in a way like tossing something aside. “Different words for the same thing. So, long ago these old gods were eldritch beings that lived below the surface of the water, who could see the ripples ahead and behind the one we’re on right now.”

“All the ripples?”

Great Grandmother shook her head. “Only the One who created the cenote and dropped the rock that began the ripples of time can see them all. Everything else under the water can only see a part of the whole, depending on their nature and abilities, making them outside of a mortal’s capacity to understand them.”

“Because we live above the water on our own ripple.”

“Exactly. Now, the old gods living below found a way to move through the surface of the water and live above, inhabiting the planetoids to exploit the magic… or energy, of the Aethyr crystals that are part of each planetoid. However, now that they’re part of the world above, they’re subject to its laws.”

“Such as?”

Great Grandmother picked up her cup of tea and drank. “They cannot move freely through time,” she said, placing her cup back on the table. “Nor can they see the ripples ahead or behind anymore, though they know when something has been changed from an alteration in the past.”

“Why did they come across in the first place?” Rainbow asked.

Great Grandmother gave her a sly look. “Ask the Guardian if you want to know.” Rainbow shook her head and the Maya woman sighed. “Child, I know you fear him, yet he protects you as he does all the Maya children, in his own way.”

“Using us up like corn stripped of its kernels, then throwing us into the fire when there’s nothing left,” Rainbow said, rubbing at her eyes. “Everyone saw the scars on my mother’s face. The scars on her soul are what they didn’t see, or more likely, didn’t want to see.” She motioned at her chest. “I was her confidant. I received the full brunt of the bitterness no one else had to fight against, the verbal attacks followed by her agonized apologies after she calmed down.”

“The Guardian didn’t cause those scars.”

“No, but he has the same nature as the one who did, and I will never trust him.” Rainbow’s gaze dropped to the cup clenched in her hands as her voice dropped to a whisper. “I don’t dare.”

I reached out with my hand, unsure if I should touch her or not. “I have no choice.” She looked up me and grabbed it, holding on with an intense grip as I squeezed her back. I held onto her hand as my gaze went to the Maya woman. “Great Grandmother, even though the old gods and the older gentleman are beyond my comprehension, I would still like to understand them as much as possible.”

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Great Grandmother waited while I took a moment to order my thoughts. “He not only told me we had met before, but that this time I was different, with more gravitas in my soul or something like that.” I took a deep breath as I turned this knowledge over in my mind. “If I am not the same person I was before, then something in the past was altered. Yet, you said they cannot move freely through time.”

Great Grandmother smiled at me like my teachers had done when I began to understand a difficult subject. “You are correct. Only one of the old gods, thankfully only one, has the ability to create what’s called a ‘set point’ in time. So, suppose you’ve reached a point in time where everything you’ve plotted to achieve has occurred. He has the ability to create an anchor in that moment of time, so if his future plots go awry, he can move the ripple back to that original moment and begin again.”

“Meaning the ripple of time where I made a dog’s dinner out of everything and got the expedition killed was not what this old god wanted, and so he brought time back to the segment where he had created this set point and began again?”

“While I don’t know what caused him to return to a previous time, your death, as I’m assuming happened, wasn’t what he wanted at all. Now, while I told you he can’t move freely through time, it’s not difficult for him to move back to a previous set point. Just annoying, since he’s got to re-live again everything that happened in the past. However, when he creates a new set point, all the flux caused by time marching forward catches up with him and lays him low, so he will only create a new one when he’s sure the agony’s worth it.”

I gave her a puzzled look. “I fear I do not follow.”

“Are you familiar with rubber in the form of bands?” I nodded, and she said, “Imagine that you could attach tens of thousands of large bands to the present moment, the bands stretching as far as they can go the moment time moves forward, and that you could use the built up energy in those bands to return to the point they were anchored.”

“Does it matter how far into the future you are?”

Great Grandmother shook her head. “Logically, it doesn’t make sense, but the flux remains constant whether you go forward a minute or a millennium.” Her expression became sly. “Now, if you direct the bands to let go, then reattach themselves to the moment you’re now living in, what happens when the bands snap back at you?”

Remembering pranks we played on each other in school, I winced. “It hurts. A lot.”

“Compared to the agony he suffers, all those bands snapping back would seem like he was being caressed. Yet, whatever drives him to do this must be important enough for him to endure the pain and the weakening of his strength, which each new creation of a set point causes.”

Rainbow asked, “Don’t you know what this old god wants?”

“Child, I’m a devotee of Ix-Chel, not the Lady of the Moon herself. And even if I asked, she would likely decline to tell me, for she respects the Guardian who always prefers for mortals to figure things out on their own.” She turned her gaze towards me. “At least you understand now why Ran-Li hid the truth about the Camazotz from Shabaka and the others.”

“I understand her reasoning, yes.” Great Grandmother, a questioning expression on her face, raised her eyebrows, and again I chose my words with care. “Are you familiar with the story of Doubting Thomas?”

“From your bible, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Thomas was the disciple of Jesus who insisted he had to see the risen Lord and stick his finger into His wounds before he would believe. The story is used to encourage faith, but my grandfather used it to encourage my reason, insisting that Thomas did the right thing by refusing to believe without seeing the truth for himself.

“What the older gentleman and yourself have told me might very well be true. Yet, it contradicts everything I know about science, and while I will take the path of prudence and act as if everything you told me is true, until I can see evidence with my own eyes and poke my fingers in it, I will never believe it as you do.”

“Which can’t happen,” Rainbow said, “since we’ve never lived below the water.”

“True,” Great Grandmother said, the sly expression returned to her face. “However, if Black Lion were to be transformed into spirit, carried below the water to a previous ripple of time, and then made to inhabit another mortal’s body, when he returned to the original ripple he would have two sets of memories. For anything changed in the past changes the present.”

While I did not believe a word of this, it was intriguing. “Because of what I did when I was controlling this mortal, whose body I was forced into?”

“First, neither you or the mortal can be forced into this, as both must want it to happen, and the mortal will be the one in charge. Think of it more like a blending of two spirits into one. Second, your actions, but also random chance, will affect the outcome. Some events seem to be destined to happen, and if you go back and eliminate what causes it, the event happens another way. Regardless, you’ll remember both lives when you return.”

“What about people?” Rainbow asked in a wary voice. “Are they destined to die the same way each time?”

“Child, every living thing above the water’s destined to die. However, while some events are predestined, a mortal’s death can be prevented… or hastened, depending again on changed actions, or random chance.” She made an open gesture with her hands. “There’s much that’s been hidden from me, so it’s possible that a mortal’s death is preordained as well. I simply don’t know.”

“How do you know any of this at all?” I asked. “Forgive my rudeness, but if I began spouting this as the gospel truth, I would be placed in a hospital for the mentally ill and never released.”

“Then tell no one,” Great Grandmother said, reaching across the table to cover my hand with her thicker one. “Remain free as the lion you’re named for, and never let yourself become trapped in a place. As I am.” My expression began reflecting my puzzlement, and hers slid into sadness. “As the last devotee of Ix-Chel, I’m the only one who understands her mysteries. The only one who truly cares.”

I felt compassion then and letting go of Rainbow, laid my other hand on top of hers. “I am the last of the line of Nubian kings, though I am only now beginning to understand exactly what that means.”

Her cheeks dimpled as she smiled. “Then let me give you a free piece of advice: While you’re poking fingers into holes, my doubting Thomas, remember to keep an open mind.”

“I promise you I will.”

“Excellent.” Great Grandmother squeezed my hand and let go before heaving herself to her feet. “Now, before I leave the two of you here for the night, I want to give you both the traditional drink of posh that used to be given to those who came to the shrine in times past, even though we’re in my house.”

Rainbow said, “We can’t turn you out of your own bed.”

The large Maya woman gave her an amused snort. “How else are you going to get Ran-Li the great-grandchild she wants? Oh, and that reminds me: I’m going to add a pinch of the special herbal mixture used before the Spanish effectively closed off the shrine.”

“Great Grandmother, you don’t-”

“Child, humor me. For all I know, this may be the only time you’ll have to be together like this, and I want to see something good come out of it. Nothing pleases me more than the laughter of little children. As for you, Black Lion,” her words overriding the protest I was about to make, “you’re holding onto your emotions tighter than a serpent squeezing its prey. The posh will relax you.” She motioned towards the loft. “Both of you climb up there and sit on the edge so I can hand it up to you. Otherwise…” She waved her arms like someone falling from a height, and Rainbow and I both laughed.

It seems strange that I did as she wanted without protest, climbing up the ladder before giving Rainbow a hand up, while Great Grandmother poured blue liquor from a glass bottle into two small ceramic glasses. She mixed a small amount of herbs into one and handed them up to us. When we hesitated, she made a ‘well, get on with it’ gesture with her hand, and we both drank. The liquor had a sharp, smoky taste different than anything else I had ever had, Rainbow shaking her head as she made a face. We handed the glasses back down to her.

The Aethyr hit me like a large glass of Eldarion summer wine and I almost fell off the edge of the loft. Rainbow broke into a fit of giggles as we helped each other slide along the wooden floor until we bumped into the bed, prompting more laughter from both of us.

Great Grandmother looked up at us and smiled. “The world will reap what you sow tonight, and for all the days you are together. Some things cannot be altered no matter how hard he tries.” I would have asked her what she meant, except that my hands on Rainbow’s slender body seemed far more important at that moment, though I glanced down at her as she turned and moved towards the doorway.

The shadows had become strange, and though in the candlelight Great Grandmother remained what she was, a large woman in a simple dress, her shadow had changed to a great rounded shape with two long ears and claws where her fingers were supposed to be. I blinked and shook my head before I looked again.

She had already stepped through the doorway into the darkness beyond.

The Eldarion-Maya still use liquefied Aethyr in their rituals (decidedly not the ones shown to tourists). And since I am on the subject of tourists to the sanctioned areas of Eldarion-Maya homeland, I should mention that the half-blood practitioners are not true shaman, even if they call themselves such. Oh, they have had shamanistic training, but a true Eldarion-Maya shaman is a full blooded Eldarion, who would commit ritual suicide before ‘performing’ for a gaggle of outsiders.

That being said, they also understand the value of letting their half-blood daughters play the part. The worst fear of all is fear of the Unknown, and the more the outside world sees that the play-acting of these ‘shaman’ is not only benign, but also valuable, the more likely they are to leave the Eldarion-Maya homeland in peace.

The true shaman keep their darker, more sinister rituals to themselves…