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  Idara rubbed the back of her neck. “So, somewhere in my past, a cave-dwelling ancestor or a woman bounding across the plains was infected by this ancient universe, and she passed that trickle of power on to me?”

  “More or less. The power has to degrade to the point where it is simply buried in your genes, and when you died, we had free rein to pull you out of that universe and bring you Home.”

  “Why did I have to die?”

  He steepled his hands in front of his face, and his voice took on a lecturing tone. “We all make an impact on others within our timeline. Families, friends, they all are touched by our presence in their lives. When we died, our timeline officially came to an end. The death has to be one that we could not recover from, and in that moment, a burst of energy calls to the Orb of Time, and it sends one of us to retrieve you.”

  “How could you be there before I died? I mean, if you were waiting for the signal, you should have only shown up after I died, not before.”

  “The Orb gave me an image of you that I had to match to your experiences and appearance. As for the before part, we are talking time travel after all. You are allowed to enter and observe any timeline that is not your own.”

  She sipped at her coffee and sighed as the heat relaxed her throat. “So, you are saying that I will be able to traipse through time?”

  He grinned. “You will be assigned a tutor from those who are available and from there you will have someone to ask your questions of as well as you will accompany them on their travels to get a feel for stepping through time.”

  “There is a pool of prospective tutors?”

  He shrugged. “The Council of Seven usually matches the tutor with the pupil based on information given to the speaker of the council. Currently, Ravikka is holding that position, and she is fair and direct with her communications. She will choose the right tutor for you.”

  Idara sighed, “I hate waiting for other people to decide things in my life.”

  Harken grinned and took her hand. “Then, it is a good thing that your life is over.”

  She blinked for a few seconds before she burst out laughing. “I think that that might be the single most insensitive thing that any man has ever said to me, and I have heard some doozies.”

  He grinned, “The Admaryn always strive to make an impression, even if they are basically extinct right now.”

  Idara sighed, “What if I don’t want to be one of you? What if I want my old life back?”

  He shook his head. “You can’t. You are no longer part of that universe, and they will see you as something that does not belong.”

  A very unladylike snort came from her. “I have never belonged. I don’t even know what I am doing off my planet.”

  He nodded. “Walk with me. It is easier to accept Home if you can see it.”

  She got to her feet, and the tray she had been eating from disappeared. She looked back at the space where it had been and frowned. “Where did it go?”

  “Acquisitions obtains the food and disposes of the plates when they are empty.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, and he started a slow walk out the door and onto one of the ramping walkways that connected the buildings.

  “Acquisitions?”

  “They are a group of the Nameless responsible for bringing food, clothing and amenities here. If you want anything in particular, Acquisitions will pull it from time and deliver it Home.”

  “Anything?”

  “Within reason. Books, hobbies, games, anything that has been mass-produced basically. You can also take a stint in Acquisitions if being in service to the Orb is too difficult.”

  They were walking in the eternal light that pulsed from the stars above, and she had to smile at the elegant grace of the stellar dance. “It really is lovely.”

  “I am glad you think so.”

  “Where are we headed?” The boots she was wearing made no sound on the bridge that spanned a crack in the ground beneath her. When she noticed that there was nothing but empty space on the other side of the crevice, she moved more to the centre of the walkway.

  “To the council hall.”

  “So, this is being done no matter what I want?”

  “Sometimes fate cannot be avoided. Your new life is about to start. Do you wish it to start without you?”

  She pondered the twisted logic of his words as they moved inexorably toward the building that housed her fate, whether she wanted it to or not.

  Chapter Four

  Idara stood in the centre of the mark on the floor and waited for the councillors to speak. She was very good at keeping herself quiet when folks in power were deciding what to do next.

  Apparently, when she had been in the Volunteer recruitment centre, it was her very avoidance of confrontation or eye contact with the interviewers that had captured their imagination. People who were entirely non-confrontational were in high demand when dealing with royal families across the Alliance.

  Idara stood with her feet slightly apart for balance, her hands behind her back and her head slightly down.

  “Idara Queering, palace courier and member of the Alliance Protectorate of Terra. How are you adapting to the thought of being a member of our select gathering?” The voice was a pleasant female tone, and it must be the speaker that Harken had referred to.

  “It will be interesting. It will certainly be better than living in the Skiilar palace and probably less dangerous as well.”

  A ripple of laughter spread through the people in the room. There were folks standing in shadows behind the council, and they chuckled as well.

  “That is probably true, but know that while we do live a strange existence outside time, we can and do die when the damage is great. Are you prepared to go where you are sent no matter the consequences?”

  “I am. It is what I have done up until this point, so there is no use changing my career at this stage in the game.”

  The woman stood up and stepped out of the shadows. “That is all we can ask. Come and meet the Orb. I get the feeling that it has a special task for you.”

  Harken followed behind, the king of the shadows that surrounded her.

  As they stepped down into the belly of the building and to a stone spiral that was fixed over the vast expanse of open space, Idara looked for him to comfort herself. When she saw him off to one side, witnessing what was about to happen, she relaxed marginally.

  “You will know what to do, Idara. The Orb would not bring you this far and not tell you what you needed to do.” The woman smiled and walked along the narrow edge of the wall, standing next to a protrusion that seemed to have a purpose that Idara could not figure out.

  Her instincts told her to walk the wide spiral to the centre of the room, and she throttled down her conscious mind that told her it was the stupidest idea she had ever had.

  Breathing calmly, she walked around the spiral, and when she reached the centre, seven figures around the wall touched the icons next to them.

  Looking into the swirling vastness, a tiny piece separated from it and came toward her.

  A glow hovered in front of her, twinkling playfully before it eased itself into her chest and bloomed inside her.

  Flickers of awareness started in her mind, scenarios she had never seen began to play themselves out. Idara began to see the effect of every decision she had ever made.

  Putting herself between her sister and harm had been the first decision that she saw. The two branches of reality that could have come out of it were so different, she swayed in shock.

  Remembering where she was, Idara quickly walked the spiral out and onto solid ground. The speaker took her arm and led her up the stairs.

  “The disorientation fades. It is showing you the branches of your life, is it not?”

  Idara swallowed. “It is. Some of them are quite frightening.”

  “If you did not live the frightening ones, then you made the correct decision. That is what matters. The Orb insists that we learn the options for our actions.�
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  Idara shook her head. “It hurts.”

  “That will pass. Now, come and get your belt and dagger. We wear the dagger to give us a last line of defense if we are confronted.”

  Idara blinked. “Does that happen a lot?”

  The woman shrugged, “Often enough. We try to keep ourselves out of the line of fire, but sometimes, it cannot be avoided.”

  They were back in the council hall, and the speaker walked to a huge chest, removing a length of leather and a knife in a scabbard.

  She helped Idara get the belt into place around her hips. “After a while, you won’t feel dressed without it.”

  “What is your name?”

  The woman blinked, “I thought that Harken would have told you. I am Ravikka, speaker of the Council of Seven.”

  Idara smiled as the weight of the knife slowly felt less foreign. “Pleased to meet you, Ravikka. Now what?”

  Ravikka looked at her with her swirling, starry eyes. “I think you are one of those who will work best with the man who retrieved you. Harken will be your new tutor and will be responsible for answering your questions and making sure that you learn the ins and outs of being a Nameless.”

  “What if that relationship doesn’t work out? Can I get a new tutor?”

  A voice rumbled from behind her. “I will make that extra effort for you, Idara. Now, if you would care to see your new rooms? They overlook…everything.”

  His pause was suspicious, but she turned and smiled up at him. “Can we walk there?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good. I am still acclimating.”

  He offered her his arm, and they walked out into the light.

  * * * *

  The councillors turned to Ravikka.

  Gwetho whispered, “What did the Orb intend for her?”

  “She’s a patcher. She will skip through time and remove folk who have slipped into disaster that does not involve them.”

  The others murmured, and Gwetho scowled, “Shall we make room in the tower?”

  Ravikka shook her head. “Not necessary. She is here to put things right. No timeline will be altered, but ones that have been skewed will be corrected.”

  He scowled. “This is far more fancy than our lives as observers. What is the Orb doing?”

  “It is carrying out its plan, and we are simply the tools that it uses. You know that, Gwetho. Perhaps you need to be called out of Home more often. It seems to be something that you are forgetting frequently.”

  Gwetho’s frown intensified. “And you seem to be forgetting the regulations that we put in place centuries ago. They are there for a reason, Ravikka.”

  Ravikka felt a surge of heat from the base of her soul and light streamed from her mouth and eyes, bathing Gwetho.

  When the wave completed, Ravikka closed her mouth and licked her lips. “I believe that that answers your comments, Gwetho.”

  He blinked, and his eyes had gone from Nameless black to blazing white.

  Ravikka gestured to the two nearest councillors, “Help him to medical. He has been blinded until he can see things the way they are. If the Orb wants to give these new recruits a purpose, it is not for us to deny them.”

  Gwetho gave her a shaky bow, and the councillors helped him walk from the council hall and into the daylight.

  Ravikka sighed as the other members of the seven dispersed, leaving her alone with the heartburn aftershock of the Orb’s emanation.

  The newcomers were satisfying something that the Orb had been waiting for, but instead of having them snatched from their times, they had been given a chance to learn what they were. It was a gift, whether they knew it or not.

  Chapter Five

  Idara stood on her balcony and watched the slow turning of the stars above her.

  “This is really my home?”

  “It is. My room is just across the hall, so feel free to knock any time.” Harken was watching her from the doorway.

  She turned and smiled. “When does the whole tutoring thing begin?”

  “Whenever you like. What would you like to know?”

  She turned and placed her hands on the waist-high edge of stone. “Why me? There are other women far better suited to this sort of action.”

  “But none that have the destiny looming before them that you do. Out of all the descendants of your originally selected parent, you are the only one that the Orb chose. It sets us on our path, and while we don’t know it at the time, it shapes us. It is very humbling to know that some of my best choices in life were nudged there.”

  He joined her looking out over the expanse of the city.

  “It explains why my first memories after it entered were all the crossroads moments in my life. It was there every time I wanted to back away and run, whispering that I needed to try harder, do what was necessary.”

  “It tends to do that. It drives us to put ourselves in the position where we become what it wills us to be. The best our genes can make us, I suppose.”

  “This happened to you?”

  “Far away and long ago, but yes. I was standing between a village and a drunken Admaryn. He had a long knife that sliced through my torso. It was not pleasant, but my death was quick.”

  “Who retrieved you?”

  “An Enjel named Krassion. He passed away a century ago. He was the first Nameless I had ever seen. The Admaryn called us the Hooded Ones and that was what came to take me Home.” He sighed, and she could see the shift in his shoulders as he remembered his rescuer.

  “Was he your tutor?”

  “No. That was Veviki. He was a Kreedan with a bad temper, but he taught me what I needed to know to serve the Orb of Time.”

  She chuckled. “The Kreedans are born bad tempered.” The race was thousands of years old in the Alliance and yet, the insectoid population was constantly harping and nit picking on other species.

  “That they are. He was an informative tutor though. The Orb sent him to worlds where his body would not cause comment.”

  She smiled, “When do I pick a cowl?”

  “Whenever you like. We can go to the repository now if you like. You can get a better feel for what is available.”

  She nodded. “I am not tired, so we may as well go. When is sunset?”

  “It depends. Your perceptions will colour the amount of light that comes into your rooms. When you are tired, the light will fade and trigger your sleep cycle.” His voice was matter of fact.

  They walked across the bridges, and when she heard the only sounds of mechanical movement on the whole way, she knew that they had reached their destination.

  Inside the building, she noted a line up and a large display where one of the Nameless was making selections. “What is this place, exactly?”

  “It is the Acquisitions repository. Anything you can imagine can be provided and all clothing that we use is obtained and stored here.” His arm waved out to cover the entire warehouse.

  The whirring that was audible belonged to the mechanical arms that swivelled on bases and visited all portions of the warehouse. The arms not only delivered objects to the waiting Nameless, but they were putting objects away and dropping some into slots connected to long tubes that disappeared into the floor.

  “They deliver too?”

  He laughed, “Once you know what you have in mind, you can request clothing to be sent to your rooms. It isn’t something to do lightly though, you can order far more than you think if you are not careful.”

  She smiled, “So, I simply get in line?”

  “That is the way it works. You see that man who just started to glow?”

  “Yes.”

  “The others will let him pass. That glow is the sign of the Orb calling him to duty.”

  He was right. As soon as the others noted the glow, they parted and gave the illuminated one first crack at the selector.

  “Well, that is polite.” She smiled and walked toward the line of folks waiting to take their turn at the selector.

  Th
e process went pretty fast. She kept an eye on the glowing man as he returned from a change room, and when he flared brightly and disappeared, she closed her mouth with a snap.

  “Wow. I thought I was imagining the flash of light.”

  Harken was surprised. “You remember that?”

  “Well, more like it was printed on my memories. I can see myself falling out a window. Wait, did that Geenari toss me out a window?”

  He looked abashed, “He did. That is where I caught you. The Orb must have given you my point of view of the event. If you want to see it from another perspective, we can go to the library after you have obtained your cowl.”

  “Library?”

  “Key moments in time are stored and recorded in the library. You can view any moment from countless worlds.” He grinned, “It is both educational and entertaining.”

  They moved forward in line, and she peeked over the shoulder of the woman in front of her as she made her selections. The process seemed straightforward.

  Idara moved up and started by selecting the scan-for-measurements feature. The beam shot out and covered her from head to toe. From there, she was free to pick the style that best suited her.

  She selected a cowl that would look like a loose collar until she lifted the hood. Once she had made her selections, she stepped to the side and waited.

  The box was narrow, but once she had put the cowl into place, the robot arms removed the empty box, and she turned to Harken with a happy smile. “There, all…uh oh.”

  He was glowing. It was a strange look. It lit all of his musculature from within.

  Idara’s fingers curled into fists to stop the urge to touch.

  “You are glowing, Harken.”

  He laughed, “It happens, Idara. Would you care to accompany me to witness?”

  She cocked her head as thoughts began to stream into her mind. Images of another world, a procession and an explosion rippled through her consciousness.

  There was a woman outlined in black light, and to Idara, she glowed more brightly than any other being at the procession. With her skin matching her target, she looked to Harken helplessly.