| |
NICK CLIMBED the tower while reading with his hands and supporting himself with his legs. Timepieces glowed as he touched them. An image of a tree decorated with bulbs, ornaments and tinsel came to mind—one with chaser lights set at the slowest setting. Only, instead of the bulbs lighting up, the ornaments did. Calla would have liked it.
One by one, clocks and watch faces, hourglasses and sundials lit up and faded as Nick read them, searching for the piece that represented Susana, if such a world existed.
His hands landed on an object that didn’t look like a timepiece at all—not an hourglass, and not a calendar of days or minutes. It was a glass ball. When Nick touched it, it glowed differently than the others. First white, and then blue. A spray of light bent out of it like a prism, scattering fragments of light in each color of the rainbow.
Ray shuddered and fell to the ground, clenching his head. I stood back, wondering what he saw that I couldn’t see aside from the glowing, the colors and the light. He who had the ability to see during travel. And who—in excruciating detail—recorded his experience maneuvering through the various layers of the Fire Falls.
“That’s quite a reaction, friend. Could you come over here and help me?”
Ray crawled toward Nick’s voice, clawing at the ground. Plaka rushed to his side, comforting him with healing. Both hoisted Ray to where he could better see the glass ball.
He looked inside. “It’s filled with smoke...and words.”
“What does it say, Technician?”
Ray shook his head, and then frowned. “But I’m a Detail Technician! This is ridiculous. It can’t be... This makes me completely useless.”
Not able to stand it any longer, I shot forward, climbed the tower and looked with my own eyes. I understood Ray’s pain immediately. Holding the cool crystal of the ball in my hands, I saw not a place, but words.
I read aloud so everyone could hear, including Ivory and Edgar’s silhouette, who remained on the ground. “Time is relative, a measurement. Without it, one becomes Lost. But with time, one becomes fixed. The Lost are free. The claimed, the Found, remain tethered to the TSTA.”
“Tethered to the TSTA?” Plaka hissed.
Ray turned from the tower and jumped. “How is that possible? When convicted travelers are sentenced to find the lost, doesn’t everyone who was lost become found?”
“Well, friend, you did say the file labeled The Found appeared to be a small one. Perhaps most of the missions failed.”
“But how are they found tethered to the TSTA—and how can time be either fixed or relative?”
Above the murmurs and other sounds of confusion, Edgar’s voice rang clear. “What, Mr. Raymond, is the present?”
“Now,” he said, waving his arms. “This very moment.”
“Oh? And what about—” Edgar exhaled sharply. “Now?”
“Yes.”
“And... Now?”
“Of course.”
“Well, then, if now is the present, then what were the first two nows we just discussed?”
From where I clung to the Clock Tower, the glow of the glass ball highlighted portions of Ray’s face and hair. “The past,” he said.
“So, again, I ask you: What is the present?”
“It’s the future’s past and the past’s future, but nothing in and of itself.” Ray sighed.
“Yes. Time is a measurement of life. History is a recording of the past, including those lives that have already ended and the past moments of currently existing lives.”
“Which means the future is—”
“Life that remains left to be lived.”
“Before our time—”
“Runs out.”
Ivory groaned. “So then what is real and what isn’t?”
Edgar smiled. “All points in time are real, but not necessarily all places.”
I squeezed my forehead with my hand. “Uncle Edgar, since when do you believe in Eternalism?”
Ivory groaned again. “Are you done philosophizing yet? We need to go—you know, to get to where we’re going.”
“If the future already exists,” said Ray, completely oblivious to her outburst, “then how could it possibly be changed? Calla changed it. Daily Reminders record time-changing events—they reflect those changes. Daily Reminders cause the memories of events to be remembered.”
“Ah,” sighed Edgar. “That is true indeed.”
“Then how do you explain it—the paradox?”
“Perhaps we will find the answer in Susana.”
“Are we ready, friends? Shall we find out for ourselves?” Upon hearing no objection, Nick placed both hands on the ball. “Attach yourself by looping your arm through mine, Plaka. Valcas, link with Plaka. Ivory, Ray, Edgar—it would behoove you to join us, if you’d like to come along.”
They scrambled up the tower and linked arms. Edgar’s eyes shone with excitement. A pang of regret spread through my chest. I suddenly wished I’d spent more time with my uncle when he was alive.
“We’re ready, Nick,” said Ivory, when all were assembled. “Unlock the portal.”
“Gladly, love.”
The light and the prism of colors grew stronger, bolder—possibly even louder, tingling my ears with static electricity. My earlier trip with Nick to TSTA Headquarters was a walk in the park compared to this. I gritted my teeth against the intensity of the portal as we traveled through.
Ray’s scream made me shudder. The poor Technician would have nightmares for the rest of his life after this. I owed him for everything, all that he’d done to help revive the search for Calla. All his talent, his strength. He was a better person than me. More deserving of love. More deserving of her. It finally occurred to me that such a choice was neither his nor mine; it was Calla’s, assuming we found her.
We dropped as a single unit, in a new place. The jolt of our landing was jarring, but our arms remained linked. Feet first, indeed.
The portal behind us closed with a crackling, sucking sound.
I caught my breath, only to lose it again once I took a better look at our surroundings.