Chapter Twenty-Three

I hit the ground hard and the wind was knocked out of me. I rolled onto my back, gasping for air and opening my eyes wide.

I was staring up at a tent with multiple holes everywhere, allowing beams of moonlight to stream inside. My body was in shock, my chest and arm burning, but I forced myself to sit up and turn around. Callan’s portal was behind me, and in front of me…

“Rogue.” Mixuné stood several feet away, covered from head to toe in her flowing robes, her hood drawn up, shadows spewing from its depths. She was as familiar as though I had last seen her yesterday.

“Need…your help…please,” I said breathlessly. I had only seconds, I could feel it. “Need you to…”

“I know what is needed,” she said. “Go, little ones.”

Then I saw them.

Cephis.

They flew through the tent and straight into the portal.

It seemed like there were thousands of them when the tent shouldn’t have been big enough to hold that many. An intense feeling of relief fell over me and I collapsed to the ground again, staring up at the rush of glowing bodies flying over me.

Their collective chittering sounded like the most beautiful music I had ever heard. I watched as they appeared from within the beams of light that filled the tent, as though the moonlight was creating them. It probably was.

Tears stung the corner of my eyes as I felt the brush of so many wings flying toward the portal, through time, to purify the Majimorta.

Once all the Cephis had disappeared into the portal, Mixuné came into view again, standing behind me, her head tilted down. My body felt heavy, like I was becoming rooted to the earth. My eyes drifted closed, and I couldn’t open them.

“We did it,” I whispered, before darkness dragged me far, far, under.

…

I opened my eyes to the soft glow of moonlight streaming down. I took a deep breath, feeling a sense of calm I hadn’t felt in a long time.

But that calm didn’t last long.

I sat up straight and gasped, looking around and touching my body as though to make sure all of it was still there. I’d been lying on a mound of large, soft pillows, covered with a fur blanket. My wounds had also been tended to; my chest and arm were bandaged, and I no longer felt any burning pain, just soreness.

“Tea?” a quiet voice asked.

I jumped, not having sensed anyone come up next to me.

A young girl who looked to be in her late teens knelt down beside me. She was dressed in robes similar to Mixuné, but her face was visible. Mixuné’s apprentice. I remembered her from my last card reading. She offered me a wooden mug and I took it. The warm spiced tea smelled amazing.

I took a sip. It tasted even better than it smelled. It almost brought a tear to my eye to find myself drinking magic-era tea again.

Wait.

I paused, the mug halfway to my mouth. I lowered it and stared at the girl.

“How long have I been asleep?” I dreaded the answer.

“It has been mere hours, Rogue.”

I turned to see Mixuné kneeling behind her low table. There were two card boxes in front of her. Her apprentice rose and went to sit behind her and slightly to the side.

I took the tea and slowly stood up, making sure I wouldn’t be hit with dizziness before walking over to Mixuné’s table and sitting down on the other side of it.

“Hours,” I repeated. “So, does that mean…”

“I have purified you from the card reading that put you to sleep,” she said.

“How?” I asked.

“It was allowed.” She said no more.

That was enough explanation for me. I felt so relieved, I almost slumped down on the table.

“I wasn’t sure what the outcome for me would be. I had a small window to get here and get you to send Cephis through.” I paused, frowning slightly. “But you already seemed to know that.”

“You might say I was expecting you.” She pushed one of the card boxes toward me.

The scrap of paper with Rogue written on it lay on the closed lid.

“You found your way,” she said.

I looked from the paper to Mix. “You knew this would happen.” I picked up the piece of paper. “Did you orchestrate all this? When you read my cards you said you saw things…did you…”

“I cannot manipulate, I can only guide. I saw much of what you have lived, Pennrae. All I was able to do was help you. I did not craft your thoughts and actions, those were your own. Finding your way back to me so I could send the Cephis through was a result of your own strength and cunning.”

“Help me,” I said. “You helped me this whole time. First, by protecting Ashe and me. Keeping us in a time pocket and leaving Cephis to protect us.”

She inclined her head in agreement. “I had my apprentice shadow you, and when you fell, we took you somewhere safe.”

“Thank you. For everything.” I furrowed my brow as I thought it through some more. “Gideon, Toji, Callan…it was no coincidence that I met them, was it?”

“I wove threads into yours that would move favorable assistance into your path, in whatever form they came.”

I released a breath and took a few more sips of tea as I let all of this settle on me. I looked over my shoulder at where Callan’s portal had been. “I can hardly believe it’s over. We really stopped Varian. Or I should say, King Thareon.”

“King Thareon,” she said. “It is he behind this?”

“You didn’t see that?”

“I Divined you, I could see only a part of the picture, not the full. I could sense only enough to know what you might need to help you.”

“King Thareon is a Necromajin who drank Stasis Water and rendered himself immortal,” I said. “Under the Auraxa Reiv he attempted a ritual to bring his dead wife back to life, but instead her soul turned into the ultimate Jigori. You Diviners sacrificed yourselves to stop it by sealing it into the nexus points and locking them. Magic faded from the world after that.” I stared at her. “You didn’t sense that when you read my cards?”

“I cannot Divine from you that which you are not a part of,” Mixuné said. “You knew nothing of Thareon and his machinations then, hence it was not there for me to read.”

“But aren’t you…aren’t Diviners…”

She waited.

“Something else? Something more powerful than then rest of us Talented? Aren’t you more like…Wild magic?”

“We are beyond such,” she said. “But there are ways in which we are bound. Do not probe deeper for the limits of our knowing and unknowing. This I warn.”

I swallowed hard. “Duly noted. If you knew what Thareon was going to do, you would have stopped it, got it.” I thought of something else, since she’d confirmed my suspicions that Divine magic was different than the rest. “Why is there a Diviner nexus point then? No one is born a Diviner, right?”

“It is an anchor,” she said. And offered nothing more. I guessed this was also something I shouldn’t probe.

“Please tell me those Cephis were enough. That Ashe and Callan…”

“They were enough.”

I released another sigh of relief. The Majimorta was purified and hadn’t unleashed chaos on the world with Callan and Ashe at ground zero. “Cephis are…amazing. There was one left when we woke up and she stayed with us. Luce.”

“You named it.” She sounded amused.

My last memory before jumping through time was seeing Luce fall after releasing tremendous magic to purify the Jigori and Shamblers.

I hoped she’d survived and been able to replenish her magic under the moonlight.

I looked around the tent. There were a fair number of Cephis around, flitting playfully around the pools of light, or perched on the cushions. A couple were even nestled in the apprentice’s hair. My eyes landed on the Gladius, which was lying on the floor near where I’d woken up. Several Cephis were inquisitively checking out the glowing blade.

“Divine weapons are gifted only to those deemed worthy enough to wield them,” Mix said. She, too, was looking at the sword. “Very few can touch such a weapon, far less use it.”

“I thought Luce was just helping me out when a Jigori tracked me down.”

“It would not have been inclined to provide help, had it not thought you worthwhile of the blessing. But it is a blessing that can be taken away if the magic no longer sees you fit.”

“So we could have been mauled to death by a Jigori if I was a shit person.” I shook my head. “Incredible. I had no idea.” Something else occurred to me as I became more and more grounded in the reality of being back in the magic-era. “Wait, when exactly did I jump back to?”

“A question I was waiting for you to ask,” Mixuné said. She opened her other card box, the one that hadn’t taken a journey through time, and started to lay out the cards. “We are days away from the Auraxa Reiv aligning.”

“Days…” My eyes widened. “That means this is around the time I came for my cards to be read. Wait…” I wrinkled my brow as confusing thoughts about time travel crowded my brain. “Am I about to show up here? Are there now…two of me?”

“There is but one on this journey,” she supplied. I didn’t quite understand, but now wasn’t the time to focus on that. My more immediate concern was…

“Lord Choplim… My mother and sister. I have to save them. Mixuné, please tell me I can save them. We could even stop Thareon from creating the Majimorta.”

“There is much that is possible,” Mix said. She held out her hand to me. “Come, let us see if perhaps now the cards have something different to say.”

They did.

Mixuné’s card reading gave me a clear path to Choplim’s head the next day, and I had never relished anything so much.

Afterward, I had found my mother and Kinari, and did I ever have a long, unbelievable story for them.

…

“Tell me again about…cellular phones?” Kinari said. I laughed, as her pronunciation had been on the wrong syllables.

“I’m rather interested in this machine for sewing that you described,” my mother, Tsula said. She tucked a graying strand of hair behind her ear. Most of her hair was wrapped up in one of her beautifully patterned head wraps, but Ma had always said our untamable hair came from her. Nothing could contain the curls.

“I would have loved to see you with a sewing machine,” I said. “I reckon you would have made one row of stitches, then declared it didn’t hold a candle to what you could do with your magic.”

“That does sound like me,” Ma said, pursing her lips.

I took a deep breath, inhaling the crisp night air. I was unashamed in my bias that this was the freshest air the world had ever known. The modern world had its conveniences, but a lot of those conveniences came at the expense of nature.

Ma, Kinari, and I were sitting at a wooden table behind our house in a small village called Brackenlik, having dinner. I ran my hands over the surface of the table. I had Shaped this table when I was eighteen, with wood from the nearby forest. Some feet behind us, the burbling of a stream was a soothing sound to my ears.

The sky was blanketed with clouds but we had lanterns with Firi stones set up around the yard, providing a warm glow.

Just a day ago, Thareon had been confronted by dozens of Diviners and subjected to purification. He was no longer a Necromajin, although he’d already drunk the Stasis Water, so he was still immortal. At least now he wouldn’t have an appetite for magic that would drive him to madness. He was imprisoned and his throne was given over to his council until they could decide which of the remaining family members would succeed him.

“Your Da would be having a riot of a time listening to your stories,” Ma said, sadness in her voice. I reached over and squeezed her hand, trying to give what comfort I could. “My Dwinor would want to hear all about modern medicine and how they heal without magic.”

“I think he’d enjoy hearing about radios and televisions and cars, too,” Kinari said. “Did you like it there? Being a karate teacher and taking the underground train to travel? Not having magic around?”

“It took a long time to adjust. I kept people away because I didn’t want anyone to know I had magic. Toji and Gideon were pretty much the only ones I grew close to.”

“And there’s also this Callan…” Ma ventured. A mix of complicated emotions roiled through me at the mention of his name.

“Don’t give me that look, Ma,” I said, throwing a piece of bread at her. “But yes, there was also Callan. We were…becoming something.” What that something was, I didn’t know, as it had started to blossom right as all hell had broken loose.

But if I went back and we didn’t have to spend every other second fighting for our lives, what would we become? Part of me still resisted the thought of getting closer to him and all the vulnerabilities it would open up. But I also wanted it.

“Were?” Kinari said.

I shrugged, not sure I looked convincing. “I’m here now.” I reached across the table and placed my hand on hers. “With you and Ma.”

“But without Ashe,” Kinari said. “That must not be easy.”

“No,” I said, sighing. And there was nothing else I could say.

It had been only a few days, but it felt like two of my limbs were missing, being away from my Familiar like this. Our blood bond wasn’t broken because we were in different times, and I knew she would be suffering without me, too.

“You’re a hero, Penn,” Kinari said. “You deserve to get everything that would make you happy.”

“You and Ma make me happy,” I said. “It was the worst pain I ever felt when Choplim…when he…” Ma placed her hand on top of mine and squeezed gently. “And then to get you back again, Kinari, and it all went so wrong. But you were so brave to know you had to go, and to give Gideon your time.” Tears shimmered in Kinari’s eyes.

“Guess you aren’t the only brave sister.”

“I never was, little sis. This is where I belong.” But I didn’t sound as strong as I thought I would saying that.

I looked around, at the glowing Firi stones, the treetops swaying in the night breeze, the light spilling from the open back door to our house.

This was the world I’d been born into. The one I fit into, the one I belonged to.

But was it the only one?

“Do you mind if we join you?”

The three of us turned to see two figures crossing the lawn toward us.

Even though all Diviners were completely cloaked and hooded, I would always know Mix from any other. Tonight, Mix’s robe was dark blue with golden patterns, and as usual, there was no hint of her face to be seen within the depths of her hood.

The other was a woman I had never met, but there was something very familiar about her. She extended her arm and we clasped.

My eyes narrowed slightly as I looked her over. She was a head taller than Ma, with sienna-brown skin, long-lashed gray eyes graced with light wrinkles at the corners, and full lips that offered me a smile.

My eyes widened as I made the connection as to why she seemed familiar… “Are you…Linella?” There were similarities between Callan and Marcai, but now that I’d seen her, I realized he favored his mother. He had her eyes.

“I am,” she said, smiling. Like Ma, her hair was wrapped in a colorful scarf. She wore a long, flowy skirt and a sleeveless top.

I looked from Linella to Mixuné. A few more things were starting to make sense.

“You created the time pocket Ashe and I slept in,” I said. “And…you came into possession of Mixuné’s card box.”

“I bequeathed it to her,” Mixuné said. “That she may take it through her journey in time.”

“Like you, I sought Mixuné for a card reading,” Linella said.

“And I discerned things that saw her thread cross with yours in the future.”

“But why didn’t you just leave the card box with me?” I asked.

“Because Linella needed it first,” Mixuné said. “For protection. The Auraxa Reiv is a tremendously destabilizing entity. It can have as devastating an effect on magic as it can a favorable one. Had the Temporals moved through time on their own accord, they would have been shredded into nonexistence.”

I blinked once, twice. “Come again? You’re saying walking through time with your card box kept them from dying?”

“Yes,” Mix replied. “Without an object of Divine magic to harbor them, time travel under the Auraxa Reiv would have been a futile endeavor.”

I swallowed hard. I had time jumped under the Auraxa Reiv without knowing how dangerous it was. Granted, I’d had Mix’s card box and my Divine sword, but still. Damn.

“Did the Auraxa Reiv also make them move forward through time? Usually Temporals can move only to the past and back to where they left.”

“Yes,” Linella replied, inclining her head. “From what I’ve learned from Mixuné, the Auraxa Reiv was powerful enough to change the restrictions of our magic. There could have been any number of outcomes to us moving through time under its influence. We might not have ended up in the past we’d been intending to anyway, even with our anchors. However, it apparently threw us into the future.”

Whoa. That meant I was lucky Callan’s portal had brought me where I wanted to go and not elsewhere in the past, or even the future.

“Woulda been nice if you left me a more detailed note, Mixuné,” I muttered. I rubbed my hands over my face then looked at Linella again. “We both needed to end up in the future in order to change the past,” I said, voice low. “Our journeys were vastly different, but here we are, standing together.”

So many threads crossed between this time and the one I’d woken up in, it was almost too overwhelming to understand.

“Everything that happened helped me and my friends survive Varian’s schemes, but why care so much about me to even do all of this?” I asked Mix.

“Such is not a question for this night.” Mixuné’s voice was low, almost inaudible, and it felt like an invisible wall had been put up. I bit my tongue against pursuing the issue.

“I’m glad I was able to help Mixuné protect you and your Familiar,” Linella said.

I was still stunned over all of this. Callan’s mother had been a part of my story long before I’d even known who she was. I couldn’t believe how everything seemed to come full circle now, how the connections between myself and everyone in my life had come to be.

“Thank you,” I said to Linella. “Your son…he is amazing. We didn’t get along at first, I’ll admit, but he grew on me.” From wanting to punch him in the face to not wanting to let him go so I could step back to my original time. Yeah, he’d grown on me a lot.

Linella chuckled. “It is not the first time I’ve heard my son referred to as an acquired taste. I thank you for your candor about him.”

“A lot…a lot happened to you, to your family…” I trailed off, not knowing how much I should say. Linella was a brave and strong woman, I could tell after only just meeting her. She’d saved a lot of lives, and it wasn’t fair that she’d ended up dead at the claws of Varian’s Jigori.

She seemed to pick up on my thoughts and held up her hand. “I do not wish to know what has transpired with the version of me that jumped through time,” Linella said. “It is knowledge I do not need. Though I am grateful to hear my son is alive and well.”

“I understand.” I introduced Mixuné and Linella to my mother and Kinari, and invited them to sit around the table. We offered Linella some berry juice. I knew better than to offer a Diviner food. They were probably sustained on moonlight like Cephis.

“What cause have you to travel all this way to see us?” Ma asked.

“We wished Pennrae to know all she needed to know before she decided where she wanted to be,” Mixuné said.

“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning slightly.

“It is the night of the Auraxa Reiv’s full alignment,” Linella said.

I looked up, and through a break in the clouds realized there was a supermoon overhead, surrounded by the same colorful nebula and pattern of constellations I’d seen before Callan and I had entered the conservatory.

I hadn’t had much cause to use my magic today, but if I tuned in to it, I could sense there was a stronger surge than there usually was.

“And the world is safe,” I said.

“Thanks to the knowledge you brought back, yes,” Mixuné said. “If you so desire, Linella can send you back to the present time you stepped away from. But she can do so only tonight, through the power of the Auraxa Reiv. Since you possess an object of Divine magic, your sword, you can move through the channels of time in safety.”

I opened and closed my mouth, not knowing what to say.

I thought this decision would be easier.

If I stayed here, would I miss Gideon, Toji, and Callan? More than I knew how to say.

Would I suffer without Ashe? Yes.

But I never thought I’d hesitate between choosing my home and choosing the future.

I looked at Ma and Kinari, expecting them to look indignant at the idea of me saying I wanted to be anywhere but here, but I was met with looks of understanding.

“I wish to offer you all a card reading,” Mix said.

“Because it will tell me which choice I should make?”

“Because it will give you more information upon which to make that decision,” she replied.

I looked at Ma and Kinari, who nodded. Mix’s card box was on the table even though she didn’t have a bag and hadn’t walked with it in her hands.

I had never done a group card reading before, hadn’t realized it was possible.

Ma, Kinari, and I removed our Mortalstones and lay them on our palms.

Mixuné then went through the motions of drawing out our Mortal Threads, and I watched as she loosely coiled the three strands around one another before moving them over the cards.

I felt breathless, weighed, buoyant, vastly empty, and overflowing as I watched Mixuné work. The entire table was swathed in moonlight like there was a spotlight directly above us.

Mix untangled our threads and guided them back into our Mortalstones. We drew our hands back and put our stones on again. Then we waited.

Like the time she’d read my cards under the last Auraxa Reiv, Mix was taking longer than usual, and apprehension wound its way through me. Also like then, I noticed that a number of the cards she’d turned over were completely black.

Finally, she tilted her head up to me and spoke. “Without you, those in the future you left behind, the ones you care for, will fall.”

“What?” I startled, my voice coming out louder than I’d intended.

“You must understand something about yourself, here and now,” Mixuné said, her voice sounding as though it was coming from both inside me and all around me. “Beneath not one, but two Auraxa Reiv alignments, you made choices that shaped the world and those around you.” She touched one of the cards. “The Temporal, whose memories you restored.” She moved her hand to another card. “The one descended from the apprentices who was brought into his knowledge.” She touched a third card. “And the one whose life was restored.”

“Gideon,” I whispered.

“They will be faced with…much.” She touched each of the cards that were completely black. “It is all I am allowed to say.”

“And I need to be there to help them? Without me, they die?”

“There are many ways to fall.”

I blew out a breath and sat back, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me.

I looked at Ma, Kinari, and Linella. Ma and Linella were doing a good job keeping their expressions unreadable, but Kinari’s brows were creased with worry as she met my gaze. Finally, I looked back to Mix and her cards. “You’re saying if I stay with my family, my friends will suffer in some way.”

“Yes. Even the one bound to you by blood, whose own thread I can see clearest as it is woven with yours.”

“Ashe?” My eyes grew wide.

“Touched by Divine magic, the Circoux whose fire now runs white. Yes, she as well.”

“That’s permanent?” I thought Luce had been giving us a boost during the fight. Had Luce turned Ashe into a permanent weapon of Divine magic? I didn’t know where to rest my thoughts on that. “And what if I stay with my family?”

Mixuné moved her hand to a card whose entire surface was patterned with a beautiful, coiling design that reminded me of twisting vines. “Peace.”

I made a frustrated sound. “You’re basically saying I can stay with my family and be happy, but my friends will ‘fall,’ or I can go back and help, but lose my family. Again. That isn’t fair.”

“There are always choices,” Mix said. “Just as there are consequences for every choice. You must decide which path you want, or need, to walk.”

“Need…”

“We are not always able to make selfish choices.” Linella said, her voice soft. “Sometimes, we must do what’s needed, no matter how much it hurts.”

“Rogue.” My attention turned back to Mix. “You have made powerful moves that have altered the course of the entire world. Should you return to the future, it will not be as you left behind. And the cosmic magic that guides all who are Divine has taken notice.” She nodded at the Gladius, which was propped up against a rock a few feet away.

“And I suppose you can’t elaborate on what the hell that means?”

She inclined her head.

I wanted to scream but took a deep breath instead, grounding myself with the most important part of what she’d said. “Gideon, Toji, Callan, and Ashe. I left them in a world that won’t be the same, and because of their interactions with me, their lives could be in danger.”

I got up and started pacing, running my hands through my hair. Ma came over and stopped me, putting her hands on my shoulders. Kinari came up on my other side.

“My girl, be still and listen to yourself, your heart, your soul. Where does it say you want to be?” Ma asked.

“With you,” I answered immediately.

“And where does it say you need to be?” she asked next.

This time, my answer wasn’t so immediate. “Need and want, why can’t I be where I want to be?”

“Because you’re a hero,” Kinari said, taking one of my hands.

“But that’s not all I am,” I said. “I’m a daughter, a sister. I’m myself. I’m more than just someone who jumps into battles and tries to save the day. I don’t want to lose you again.”

“But…” she ventured. “Say it, Penn. Be honest with yourself.”

I sighed. “I think I need to go back. Ashe, and my friends…I can’t leave them in danger. But you and Ma won’t exist there…” I could barely stand the thought of being separated from them forever. “I want to be selfish. I want to stay here with you, or ask you to come with me but…”

“That time is not for us, it is a journey for you alone,” Ma said gently. She cupped my cheek. “Think on it some more before you make your choice.” She stepped away and took the few remaining dishes inside, beckoning for Kinari to follow her.

I excused myself and walked away toward the stream.

I could see the clear water rushing over the smooth, flat stones at the bottom.

Ashe used to drink from this stream all the time, and try to catch any fish that would journey through it, although they were never big enough to be more than an appetizer.

I stared at the moon’s rippling reflection and thought for a long time about everything that had happened in my life and how it had led me to this moment, when everything should seem okay, the day had been saved, the bad guy taken down. I had saved my friends and kissed the guy, yet it also felt like some things were just beginning.

I didn’t know how long I stood there, but eventually I turned and walked back to the table.

Mixuné and Linella were still seated, and Kinari and Ma had come back outside.

There were a couple bags lying on the table that I knew had been made by Ma. They were crafted from the hides of Vicasiv, who shed their skin regularly. Modern day leather couldn’t hold a candle to its buttery softness and durability.

Ma opened the larger bag and I gasped when I saw what she pulled out.

“Armor,” I said, taking it from her hands. There were a few pairs of pants, a corset with pauldrons for shoulder protection, arm and leg bracers, skirt, belt, and gauntlets. It was dyed a dark purple that was almost black with silver stitchwork that offset it beautifully. “When did you have time to make this?”

“Don’t you worry about that,” she said.

“It’s beautiful.” I gave her a hug. “Thank you.”

“Here.” Kinari picked up the smaller pouch and gave it to me. “Elixirs I made from some of my herbs. They can help with all sorts of injuries and ailments.”

I opened it to see vials of liquids and small envelopes of powder, all carefully labeled. “Thank you.” I frowned at her and Ma. “Did you make these knowing I would choose to leave?”

“We made them because a warrior needs a good set of armor and a supply of remedies, no matter when or where she’s fighting,” Ma said.

“Have you decided?” Linella asked.

I looked at the armor in my hands, gently rubbing my thumb across the supple material. I could stay here with Kinari and Ma and hopefully live a few more decades. I could continue to be a warrior for hire, travel the world, come home every so often, take care of my family, and be happy.

Or I could go back to the future and make sure I hadn’t changed the world and made it worse for the people I’d left behind. The people I cared about, who had already been changed by everything I had brought into their lives.

I knew what I had to do.

I fetched the Gladius and strapped it to my back, then turned to Linella and Mixuné.

“I want to stay,” I said. “But I need to go back. That is my choice.”

“Very well,” Linella said, inclining her head. “I can push you through as far as I can, and Mixuné told me she can offer protection that will keep your journey from being heavily influenced by the Auraxa Reiv, but unless you have an anchor, I cannot guarantee where you may end up.”

An anchor. Like Mixuné’s card box, which had brought me directly to her.

I fished into my pants pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. I held it up.

“I have an anchor that will take me exactly where I need to go.”