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Everyone tumbles out of the portal. They’re still in Madagascar, crowded in
the hut, but it’s no longer only part of it. Every part of it is here and
unbroken. Everyone seems to be pretty tired, but otherwise okay. “I left
something by a particular tree,” Tarboda announces. “If it’s there, we’re
still in the Facsimile.” He steps through the door, and disappears. He
doesn’t just blink out of existence, though. The faint hologram of two
parallel lines appears at his back, and fades away shortly after he does.
“I don’t think this is the Facsimile,” Leona looks around to make sure no
one else steps out of the hut. “It’s the Parallel. Is this where Cheyenne
wanted us to go?”
“I don’t care which reality it was, as long as it gets me away from you
people.” Erlendr huffs, and steps through the door. Instead of parallel
lines, his hologram is of four quadrants.
“Okay, we’re all going to different places, it looks like. No one leaves
until we can figure this out,” Leona orders.
“Screw that, I’m outta here.” Fairpoint runs out of the door. Two parallel
lines. He appears to have gone to the same world as Tarboda.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop this,” Aldona says. “I
have to get back to work, so hopefully I’ve been assigned the Third Rail,
and if not, I’ll make my way back. It’s what I do.” She leaves, ignoring
Leona’s protests. She goes to the Fourth Quadrant, which is sad for her, but
at least someone is there to keep Erlendr in line.
“Dad!” Bridget shouts, but Senator Morton is already too close to the edge.
When she tries to pull him away, they both end up returning to the Third
Rail. So that’s...good?”
“I’ll follow your lead, Leona,” her future grandfather, Labhrás promises.
Leona shakes her head. “She’s right, nothing can stop this. I’m feeling a
pull to leave anyway, like being here is making me ill. Anyone else
experiencing the same?”
There aren’t many of them left, but they all nod.
“Still,” Winona says, “on your orders.”
“Cross the threshold, soldier.”
Winona walks through, leaving behind a fading hologram for the Fifth
Division.
Labhrás nods cordially, and leaves right after her, and ends up going to the
main sequence, which may be the only one that makes sense since he’s
supposed to go back in time and father Leona’s father.
Mateo frowns at his wife. “Winona’s alone.”
“I know.”
“So is Labhrás.”
“I’m not so worried about that.”
I’m just saying...”
“That either you and I are going to different places, or the math isn’t
going to work out very well,” she figures.
He sighs, and holds out a hand. “Let’s try to stick together.”
She takes it. “Okay, we’ll try.”
They walk through the door side by side, staring into each other’s eyes.
Leona’s hand slowly collapses into a sort of fist as her husband disappears.
“Were I you,” she hears his voice call out to her from the aether. She
echoes the words, but can’t know whether he got them.
She’s back in the white, where they were between leaving the Facsimile, and
ending up back in that limbo hut. If this is what either the main sequence
or Fifth Division look like right now, they could be in a lot of danger.
That’s probably not it, though. Aldona was right. These are not random;
they’re assignments, and Leona apparently doesn’t have one, which would have
pissed her off if it had happened to her when she was in school. Another
blur forms before her, and is taking a long time to solidify. It’s not
Cheyenne this time, though. She looks a little bit like Alyssa. “Are
you...Mrs. McIver?” Leona guesses.
She laughs, and holds out a hand for Leona to shake. “Ebora.” They
shake. “Trina Ebora.”
“Oh. All growed up. I kind of thought you led a normal life.”
“Pretty much, but I’m still a Keyholder, and I still have a destiny.”
“Are the keys...”
“A bloodline?” Trina assumes she was going to ask.
“Yeah.”
Leona starts listing them off. “So Iris is Summit’s mother, and Summit
is....someone’s father.”
“Kyra Torosia,” Trina fills in.
“My husband went to a planet called Torosia once.”
Trina nods. “Named for her. It’s Durus. Well, it’s what Durus becomes. They
put the past in the past, and start a new chapter, which is why it needed a
new name.”
“I see.”
“Go on,” Trina encourages.
“So Kyra is—I’m guessing—secretly Vearden’s mother. Then Vearden is
Cheyenne’s father, and Cheyenne is Cedar’s mother.”
“You got it.”
“So the Keyholders are you, your dad, whoever Vearden’s dad is, Arcadia, and
Curtis,” Leona finishes.
“Perfect.”
“What do the Keys do?”
“The realities are collapsing, every single one of them. You have met, and
will meet, those who claim that it’s inevitable, and they’re just helping it
along, but they are the ones instigating it. The reason they don’t want to
take the blame is because no one knows whose idea it was, but it doesn’t
matter, because it’s happening, and in order to prevent quadrillions and
quadrillions of people from dying, the Keys are going to transport everyone
to a new universe.”
“The Sixth Key.”
“Right again.”
“What do you and the other Keyholders do?”
“The Keys need to welcome everyone in the Sixth Key. The Keyholders need to
hold open the doors that will let everyone through.”
“And what is our purpose; me, my team, and...the others who aren’t on the
team? It seems like they were split up across the realities too.”
Trina nods. “The Keyholders need protection while they’re fulfilling their
destinies. Your friends and enemies are going to have to work together, but
I believe they can do it. We couldn’t just choose any random ten people.
They had to already have been involved in all this stuff. We don’t have time
to explain that time travel exists, or that the Sixth Key does. You’ve all
been hearing the rumors for a while now.”
“Where is Mateo?”
“Main sequence.”
“Who’s with Winona in the Fifth Division then?”
“You’re not gonna like it.”
“Who?”
“Someone you know who is from there.”
“Oh, that guy who tried to kill me. I still don’t know his name.”
“It doesn’t matter. He’ll do his job, or I’ll leave him in that reality, and
close the door behind me and Winona.”
“That’s ten protectors for five Keyholders for five Keys in five realities.
What am I meant to do?”
Trina reaches into her bag and retrieves a wrapped gift that fits in the
palm of her hand. “You have the most important job of all.”
Leona accepts it, and starts to unravel the ribbon.
“You’re the Captain,” Trina finishes.
Leona opens the box. Inside is a metal plate. Engraved on it are the symbols
for the six realities, and in the center is a tiny little wooden boat helm
with six spokes. “Does it allow me to travel between them?”
“Yes, it will be your responsibility to make sure that everyone does what
they must to make all of this happen. You can travel freely between
realities, and you’ll at least have to do it once, because Vearden needs to
get in place after his baby is born.”
“How does it work?” Leona asks. “Each of the spokes is pointing towards one
of the realities.”
“See that red thing sticking out of the very center? Pull that off, and
place it over one of the spokes. That will activate the device. You have
five seconds to turn it to the reality you want to go to, and then five
seconds to pull the tip back off once you arrive.”
“Or else what?”
“Or the device will deactivate permanently, and you’ll be stuck wherever you
are.”
“How do I get back here?” Leona questions.
“You don’t,” Trina answers.
“Are there any limits, and are there any other rules?”
“You can take two people with you from one reality to another, just like
regular teleportation mass restrictions. Don’t do this unless it’s
necessary. You are not a ferry service. This is not meant for you to rescue
people in trouble. It is not to be used for anything but official Key
business.”
“No abuse of power. Got it. Anything else?”
“Yeah, take everything you know of your past and future, and throw it out
the window. “Literally everything is in flux right now. You could
hypothetically let everyone die in the collapsing realities, and it will not
create a paradox. Your grandfather doesn’t have to survive, the Keys don’t
have to survive. Success is not certain. We all have to put in the work. If
we fail, you specifically will survive to remember what happened...alone in
the infinite void. So don’t fuck this up.”
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