Microstory 2479: Glaciadome

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Brr, chicken! That’s what my dad used to say. Brr, chicken! It’s cold up here. There is not much dihydrogen monoxide on Castlebourne—compared to say, Earth or Europa, but there is some. Some of it is in the form of water ice, and some of that in the form of glaciers. The largest of these is called Sanaa Glacier. I’m not sure where the name comes from, but I’m guessing this Sanaa woman isn’t too happy about it. The Sanaa Glacier is up there in the northern hemisphere, not too far from Aquilonian Deep. It’s about 2.16 million square kilometers in area, which makes it the largest region on the planet that is not covered by domes. That is for an obvious reason, which is that glaciers, by definition, are always on the move. They move very, very slowly, but they are not still. They’re never still. You can imagine that erecting a dome on top of one is difficult at best, and quite risky. Yet they did it. Glaciadome sits right in the middle of Sanaa, which is the most stable part of it. It’s not immune to the glacier’s movements, but it’s your safest bet. It’s unlike any other dome on the planet. It’s totally unique. Instead of being made out of the usual graphene composite, its frame is instead composed of carbon nanotubes, which can be made to be more flexible. That’s why we use them for space elevator tethers. Instead of diamonds, the panels are made out of a more flexible polycarbonate. This allows the dome to shudder and shake as the glacier flows, and against the extremely heavy winds outside. There’s an old saying, if it doesn’t bend, it’ll break, and that’s true. Glaciadome will survive over time because it’s designed to withstand the stress of movement without buckling. It’s not completely impenetrable, and it’s not nearly as strong as the other domes, but it does its job, and it does it well. You can tell that it works too, because while you can’t physically feel the glacier’s flow unless you’re an advanced lifeform with the right onboard sensors, you can certainly hear it. It’s always screamin’ at ya while the ice breaks and slides. Why do this? Why build a dome on top of something so unstable, in such a hostile environment? Well, what the hell are we doing here if we’re not engineering megastructures for the sake of the challenge. Do you need any other reason? I surely don’t. Researchers live here to be closer to what they’re studying, such as the geologic history of this planet, the composition of the water and ice, and of course, the glacier itself. There are also some winter sports here, like dog sledding, and cross-country skiing, but it’s not as comprehensive as Winterbourne Park. A lot of it has to do with the novelty of the experience. You can live in an igloo, or an ice palace. You can go cold-weather camping, or just make snow angels. It may not be as exciting as one of the adventure domes, but it gives you what it promises. And for me, that’s enough.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: August 12, 2158 Redux

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Now only three people were left; the original team of Mateo, Leona, and Kivi. They had all been together since before even Jeremy was with them so it was fitting that they should end it together. They knew that this could happen, which was why the order of disappearances was as it was. Ramses could take care of himself, which was why it made sense for him to disappear first. If Anatol and Zeferino managed to remember him despite Tertius’ interference, he was willing to accept any consequences that might come out of that. Next in line after him—once the scheme proved viable—were D.B. and Dalton, who they had known the least, followed by Siria. Only then did they begin removing official members of the team: Olimpia, Angela, and finally Jeremy. They were so surprised it took The Warrior this long to figure it out, but it seemed to have worked. Even though he now knew his memory had been tampered with, he didn’t appear to know who he was missing. Even a future version of him never apparently came back to mess things up. Their secret plan had worked, and if the rest of them never made it out alive, well then, it was all a longshot anyway.

The last jump was particularly brutal. They appeared a few meters above the ground, and fell down on the sand hard. Anatol didn’t give them much time to recover before he appeared. He was holding the device that Holly Blue designed to remove Cassidy cuffs before they realized doing so could cause more problems than it solved. He threw it down in front of them with attitude. “There are presently eighty-three people on Tribulation Island,” he began. “That number will fluctuate, but not too much. It is your responsibility to choose your replacement.”

“I don’t understand,” Mateo said. He got to his feet, struggling against the pain from the fall.

“There’s charge enough for one change-over,” Anatol went on, still cryptically. “By the deadline, you must choose someone to take the cuffs for you, and continue on the pattern with Leona and Kivi.”

“What will become of me?” Mateo asked.

Anatol smirked. “It’s August 12, 2158. Or should I say, it’s August 12, 2158 again. Do you know what day that is?”

Much of the time, Mateo needed Leona to translate mathematical questions for him. She always recognized the significance of a date, if there was one. In this case, however, Mateo didn’t need any help. He recognized it himself. “This is the day I disappear. This is the day The Superintendent takes me out of reality, and erases the memory of nearly everyone I have ever met.”

“That’s right,” Anatol confirmed. “In a matter of hours, you’re going to blink out of existence. Not just the other you, but you you. You cannot exist between today, and October 4, 2212.”

“So I’ve heard,” Mateo said, referring to Thack Nataline Collins’ warnings about the issue back in 2156. She wasn’t here with a solution this time. “We’ve been through this game before. I don’t need to play it again.”

Now Anatol laughed. “You don’t understand. This is not a game. You’re not getting out of it this time. I am sentencing you to death, and not in a way that allows you to come back. Pryce’s afterlife simulation cannot save you now. Dead is dead is dead is dead.”

“And if I refuse, what happens? You can’t force me to choose a victim,” Mateo contended.

Anatol consulted his primary cuff. “You forget, you’re linked to your friends. I don’t know how you managed to unlink your other friends, but I assure that will not work again. I have taken steps to prevent anyone from messing with my memories. If you’re still wearing that cuff when the Superintendent takes all Mateo Matics out of the timestream, Leona and Kivi will be taken with you. So you either choose to keep the team going without you, or end it right here.”

Leona stepped forward. “We’re prepared to do that. We’re prepared to do whatever it takes to end this, now that our people are safe.”

“Yes,” Kivi agreed.

“No,” Mateo said. “I’m not. Why sacrifice all of us when we only need to sacrifice the one? There are plenty of people on this island right now I know would be okay with being on this team. Some might even enjoy it. Gilbert loves games; everyone knows this about him.”

“Mateo, I’m not going to go on without you,” Leona insisted.

“You won’t remember what you’re missing anyway,” Mateo reminded her.

Kivi was shaking her head. “There has to be another way.”

“There is,” Anatol said, then he abruptly removed a gun from his waistband, and shot Mateo in the gut with it. “If he dies, he loses his identity. His body will remain, as will your memory of him.”

Leona dove down, and pressed her hand against Mateo’s stomach. “Let this happen,” she whispered. “You’ll go to the simulation, and we’ll figure it out from there. We’ve done it before. Pryce, we can work with. This one is just impossible.”

“Afraid that won’t work this time,” Anatol said. He pantomimed pushing something away from him. The world around them began to flicker, and didn’t stop. They were now in the middle of a transition window to The Parallel. “This is limbo. You will be saved neither by Pryce’s simulation, nor the Parallel’s own advanced anti-death protocols.”

“It’s okay,” Mateo promised his wife as he caught a glimpse of her watch. He then turned his attention back to Anatol. “Fix this. Fix my wound, and I’ll do it. I’ll go find someone. I already have the right candidate in mind.”

Anatol weighed his options for a moment. Then he reached up and took hold of an imaginary dial the size of his palm. He turned it backwards, and reversed time, pulling Mateo back up to his feet, and the bullet out of his belly, back into the gun. Everyone could remember what happened, and three of them didn’t want it to happen again. The fourth one could take it or leave it. “Now...there is only one way.”

No. This was what Anatol wanted, and they had already decided that they couldn’t let him control their lives forever. The whole point of shunting their friends away was to protect them so they could work against him safely. They might as well start now. Mateo reached down and retrieved the cuff remover. When he tried to leave, Leona tried to follow. “No. It’s bad enough that there will be two versions of me here. Just wait for my replacement.”

“I need to be there with you,” she begged. “If this is really happening...”

“You’ll find a way to beat him, and bring me back.”

“I don’t think so this time,” Leona lamented.

Mateo faced Kivi. “Thank you for being here all this time. I wish I could explain. Everything will be all right. He faced Leona again. “Were I you.”

“Were I you.”

Mateo checked Leona’s watch one last time, and then ran off into the woods. This was the one day that he knew by heart. He memorized every single second of it, and he knew exactly how long it would take him to get to where he was going. He had enough time, but he had to run fast, and he had to be sneaky. He burst out of the jungle, and down the beach. He passed some people he recognized, and some he didn’t. They all knew who he was, though, and could tell that there were two versions of him in the same moment. This would not matter for long, for their memories were about to be erased. Before Mateo was ripped from the timestream, he escorted Gilbert and Zeferino to Glubbdubdrib, along with Leona and Horace. Together, they said their farewells as the two dead men walking stepped through the Extraction Mirror, and returned for their destinies. This was about to all go down soon.

To get to the other land mass, Kayetan Glaston remotely created a merge point, and the only way Future!Mateo was going to beat The Warrior was if he met up with the group after the merge, and not before. That was why the time was so vital. He succeeded. Without any of them noticing, he slipped past the boundary a few meters down the beach, and moved to the new location with them. He then hid behind a pile of rocks so his friends would keep going towards the palace without noticing him.

Like a secret agent, he followed behind them quietly and carefully. He wasn’t as good as he thought, though. Horace realized that they were being tailed. He turned back and locked eyes with Future!Mateo. He stared for a moment before making a decision. After a quick wink, and turned back around, and continued on with the group without saying a word. They entered the palace, and made their way to the corridor where the mirror was being held. Future!Mateo listened to the conversation again, waiting until The Rogue and The Cleanser were back where they belonged before revealing himself.

His past self and Leona looked back at him, not knowing what to think. Horace was delighted, but still didn’t know what was going to happen. The Maverick, Darrow didn’t seem to care one way or the other. “I don’t have much time,” Future!Mateo said. “You’re just going to have to trust me that this is what’s best. He mostly spoke to his younger, naïve self. “Things are going to get bad for you.”

“I know. I’m about to be taken out of reality,” Past!Mateo said, thinking he understood.

“What? No. That’s not a big deal, you’ll get over that. But if you don’t—” He placed the remover against his cuff, and tried to release the latch. “Wow, this is harder than Holly Blue made it look. It’s partially mechanical.” He twisted the remover, and forced the cuff to open. “There we go—if you don’t put this on, Leona is going to disappear too, and she will never come back.”

Without hesitating, Past!Mateo took the cuff from his future self’s wrist, and gladly wrapped it around his own.

Future!Mateo smiled. “Mr. Ness, I implore you to open a portal to Lebanon, Kansas on October 6, 2212, and then forget I was ever here.”

“I see no reason not to,” Darrow said. He reached up and adjusted the controls.

The image of a gas station bathroom appeared. Mateo stepped through just in time. He looked back at his once and future wife one last time.

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Microstory 1704: Aquarius

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This is it, it’s finally happened. Out of all contenders, I have been chosen to succeed my predecessor in the highest rank possible for someone of my station. Today, I become the Sovereign Supreme’s Aquarius, and I could not be more honored. I’m too excited to fall asleep naturally the night before, but I need to be well-rested and alert, so I ask my friend to sneak me some polpenroot. It’s not illegal, but the Sovereign Supreme doesn’t like his personal staff using drugs, even for medicinal purposes. When I awaken, I rush up to the palace, eager to begin my duties. The current aquarius is waiting for me at the reservoir, perhaps remembering how impatient he was when it was his turn. In the meantime, he gives me a tour, even though I’ve been here a million times to train. Water is sacred, and I know everything about how we conserve and utilize it wisely. It will soon be my job to collect, transport, and protect the Sovereign’s personal water rations. Of course he deserves the most out of anybody, but he never takes too much. He’s trained his body to survive on less, as we all have. Still, people are envious of his power, and they attempt to steal rations from him more than anywhere else, not only to make their own lives a little easier, but to make it harder on him. I won’t let that happen. No one has managed to steal from the Supreme in over thirty years, and I’m not about to end that trend. My predecessor finishes the tour, and instructs me to go to the Great Hall, where a breakfast banquet is being set up. It’s not just in recognition of me. Many other positions on the royal staff are being backfilled today, and I am only one. I believe mine is the most important job, but I imagine all of the others say the same about their own.

The Sovereign Supreme is pacing back and forth in front of his throne, rehearsing his speech. I watch him in awe. I’ve seen him before, but he looks even more glorious now that I’m a part of his detail. I am humbled in his presence. My predecessor comes in, but he’s not alone. He and a team of reservoir workers are rolling in a tank full of water. It is the most I’ve ever seen in my entire life outside of the reservoirs. These banquets only take place every several years, and attendees can reportedly drink as much as they want, but I’ve never heard confirmation of that. I hope it’s not true, as it would be so wasteful. The people are dying of thirst, and the reason I admire the Sovereign Supreme so much is that he’s fair and just. He understands what his people need, and he does everything in his power to keep us alive. The current aquarius and his team continue rolling the tank to the other side of the hall, and through another set of doors. Curious, I casually follow them in. I’m not sure I’m allowed to be in here, but this will be me in a few hours, so it can’t be that big of a deal. There’s something weird about this room. A beautiful shimmering light dances upon the walls, mesmerizing me, and keeping my eyes from seeing where I’m going. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the tank stop. One of the workers warns me to look out, but I don’t hear her in time. I slip on the edge, and fall down. I don’t hit the stone, though. Instead, I fall right into water. What is this, a secret reservoir? I scramble back to the surface, and struggle to stay up before realizing that my feet can touch the tile floor. I stand and look around. I’ve never seen anything like it before, but I’ve read about the way people lived long ago. This was back when they were frivolous and wasteful, and did not have to ration their water. The current aquarius is laughing. “It’s not time to swim yet! Wait until after breakfast!”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: August 12, 2158

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There was nothing special about the twelfth day in August of the year 2158. That it was Mateo’s last in existence did not matter much to the universe. When most people die, the worlds keep spinning, despite what others may feel about it. In this case, not even people would recognize that something was wrong, or different. Everything would just continue as if he had never existed, and any impact Mateo had on history would be reattributed to someone, or something, else. There was something liberating about that. It reminded him of his great grandfather’s death. Mateo was very young at the time, but he remembered vividly a conversation he witnessed between the man that everyone called Grandaddy Kai. He was a proud man who had sacrificed so much for his family that he never wanted to leave them. Mateo’s mother, Carol was not blood-related to Kai, but she took just as much care of him in his final days as anyone else, if not more. She told Kai that the family would be okay once he was gone. He was in so much pain, and the only reason he held on, whether he understood this or not, was because he thought everyone needed him too much. And they loved him, and they wanted him to stay, but his time was nearing, and he would need to let go. He raised fine children, who raised fine children of their own, who were still raising their own, using skills they ultimately learned from him. He could leave, because his job was done.

Mateo’s departure was not like this. Like everyone else, at least when he was first growing up, his time was not infinite. He too would one day die, whether this all happened to him or not. But no one needed to have a conversation with him about how they would survive without him. It wasn’t clear what lessons or feelings he would leave behind, or rather what exactly time would do with those experiences. He could take comfort in the fact, though, that his exit would not leave a hole in anyone’s heart. Not even Leona would feel a loss, and this made it easier for him to leave. “We need to spend every single second of today together,” Leona said, but was this true? You spend time with the people you love so you can remember those moments, and reflect on them later out of joy. Since this couldn’t happen with her, what did that matter?

“Without memories, what we do today is irrelevant,” Mateo said. “Neither of us will know a difference.”

“I’m still holding out hope,” Leona said in response. “I may one day get you back, you never know.”

The Superintendent would have to arbitrarily decide that this was going to happen,” Mateo calmly contended. “You certainly won’t be able to fight for it yourself.”

“I don’t believe that. Doesn’t your religion claim the soul to be real. If it is, maybe other people’s effect on it is not as easily erased as the mind is.”

“That may be, but you still won’t know what you’re missing, which means you won’t know where to look.”

“I dunno, I’m pretty smart. Maybe I’ll figure it out.”

“Maybe. But let us not worry about that. And let us not admit that this is an end. I’d like us to just go about our day as if it were like any other. I don’t want to eat a salmon dinner for the last time, or drive a muscle car for the last time, or even kiss you for the last time. Those...those symmetries are nothing more than illusions, especially when considering our unique situation.”

“So what do you wanna do today?”

“I just wanna relax.”

She sighed, and said nothing else.

“Mateo!” Gilbert’s voice came from down the beach. “Hey, Mateo!” He was waving excitedly, nearly dragging Zeferino Preston with him. As they got closer, they could see that the two of them were handcuffed together. Island dwellers thought it was weird, but not enough to ask questions. Everyone watched for a few seconds, and then just shrugged it off.

Mateo and Leona ran down to meet him halfway. “What are you doing?”

“I caught a big fish for ya,” Gilbert said proudly.

Zeferino just snarled.

“How old are you?” Mateo asked.

“It’s not polite to ask a lady her age,” Zeferino spit.

“Where have you been?”

“The Superintendent sent me back almost 2,000 years. I occasionally find someone who lets me hitch a ride to another planet, but I’ve mostly just been walking around this whole time, completely powerless, like an animal.”

“That’s a decent life,” Gilbert said, pulling his captive up so he couldn’t sit down to rest. “Even longer than mine when you add it all together.”

“What’s this about, Gilbert?” Mateo asked.

“I hear you’re going away,” Gilbert said.

“I am.” Mateo nodded his head. “I don’t suppose you two will be able to remember me.”

“Not this time buddy.” Gilbert shook his head. “That’s sort of why I’m here.”

“Oh?”

Gilbert continued, “I don’t like you leaving with loose ends. When you’re gone, the two of us should be too.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s time,” Gilbert said. “No one should live forever who’s done the kinds of things we have. I appreciate you getting me out of the extraction mirror. I’m sure Zeffy here does too.”

Zeferino said nothing.

“Zeffy!”

“Yes!” he shouted. Then he quieted down, “thank you. You didn’t have to do that. You would have found some other way to get Darko back, I’m sure.”

Gilbert redirected his attention to Mateo. “We’re all going back to Glubbdubdrib where the two of us will be reinserted into the last moments of our respective deaths.”

“Is that necessary?” Mateo asked. “Can’t you just...live forever?”

“We’ve gotten lucky,” Gilbert explained. “If I die before going back to the mirror, I create a paradox. Same goes for this asshole.” He had to pull Zeferino up again to prevent him from resting. “What’s done is done. It’s created the reality we live in now. Don’t get me wrong, I have a long history of changing reality, but I don’t wanna do that anymore, especially not when it comes to you. He’s even more dangerous outside of the mirror. His death is marked by the hound, which is a metaphor I made up just now to describe people who have died under conditions of the hundemarke. Like I said, we’ve lived long lives, and they are already over. We just have to make it official.”

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Mateo pressed.

“No,” Zeferino answered instead.

“Shut the f—” Gilbert breathed in, and then out. “Yes.”

“Well, I can’t say I’ll miss you,” Mateo said, trying to laugh through the pain.

“I will,” Leona said.

“As will I,” Horace said as he was coming up to them.

“Did you hear all of that?” Gilbert questioned.

Horace took out a set of ear plugs. “Ellie gave these to me as a wedding present many years ago. She calls them bergbuds, but I don’t know why.”

“You little spy,” Mateo said with a smirk.

“Some things never change,” Horace said. “And good thing I was listening. I was able to call in a favor, so you won’t have to paddle to the palace...like an animal.”

Lifeless barrens magically appeared over the water, and floated towards them. Once they were all standing on the other side of the merge point, the beach disappeared, leaving them only a kilometer or so away from their destination.

“Thank you, Kayetan!” Mateo called out to the aether.

“Fuck off!” an echo of Kayetan replied without showing his face. They were never going to be friends. Well, after today, they couldn’t anyway.

The five of them started walking towards Palace Glubbdubdrib, but didn’t say a word on the way. There really was nothing to say. Mateo might have expected Zeferino to burn off some gallows humor, as he was known to do, but perhaps it wasn’t so funny when they were marching towards his death. He was literally born to live for eternity, and probably never considered his own mortality. Back when his death first happened, things were moving too quickly for him to process it, but now that it was about to happen again, his mind was probably racing with thoughts of fear, and regret.

They entered the palace, and walked down the corridors to the mirror room. A man was waiting for them, in front of the extraction mirror, which was already paused on the final moment of Zeferino’s death.

“Darrow?” Gilbert asked upon seeing the man. “What are you doing here?”

“Hello, Boyce,” Darrow said. “I am the bringer of death. I am present at the end of all salmon and choosers.”

“I...did not know that. You’re supposed to be The Maverick.”

“No, that’s not what I’m supposed to be, that’s just what I am. What my job originally entailed was to pull people from the brink of death if the powers that be weren’t done with them. They came up with more sophisticated means of doing this, so they abandoned me, and I struck out on my own. I came here today, because extractions are easy, but insertions take a little more finesse. They require a talent that none of you possesses.”

“Then thank you,” Gilbert said.

“First subject,” Darrow said, stepping aside to let Zeferino through.

“Am I entitled to some final words?” Zeferino asked.

“Yes,” Mateo said, but before Zeferino could speak more, Mateo pushed him through the mirror. “And those were pretty good ones.”

“Would you like to watch?” an apathetic Darrow asked.

“No, thank you,” Leona said.

Darrow reached up to the edge of the opening, and switched the view of the extraction mirror to Gilbert’s death.

“What about me?” Gilbert asked.

“You may have as much time as you need to say whatever you need to say,” Mateo assured him. “Or you can back out. No judgment, really.”

“I die here today, but it will not be the first time,” Gilbert began. “It will simply be the last. I have been given many opportunities to improve as a person, and have squandered the majority of them, if not all.”

Mateo was going to argue against that, but this was Gilbert’s moment. He had to say his peace.

“But there is hope. If I had been born a girl, my parents would have named me Quivira. As the timeline gods would have it, this is the truth of the timeline we’re in now. Quivira Boyce is a flawed, strong, beautiful woman. She dedicated her life to jumping through time, using her powers to help everyone she can. She is what I should have been, and I’m glad that this universe...will remember me as her.” He was tearing up. “Mateo..Leona, I thank you for your understanding. For your patience. For your love. When all I ever gave you was reason to doubt me. I have lived many lives, but the best two were the ones when we were friends, the ones when I was just me. I cherish the relationship you allowed to grow between us. I only wish I had some way to repay everything you’ve given me. Instead, Leona, I’ll give you some advice. Remember.” With that, Gilbert Boyce stepped into the insertion mirror...and vanished.

Darrow slid his hand on the edge of the opening again, revealing an image of Tribulation Island. “Fear not,” he said. “I can insert anyone anywhere, to any time; this doesn’t mean you’ll die. It’s just a portal back to your home.”

Leona looked up at Horace. “Is this our home?” she asked.

“Do we have another?” Horace asked back.

“I would much like to return to Earth, I believe,” she acknowledged.

“I can switch you to that,” Darrow said.

“We’ll find a way back on our own,” Horace said. “There is still much to do on the island. We have to get Serif anyway.”

“Of course,” Leona agreed. “Thanks for coming with me to see them off. I know you have mixed feelings about Gilbert.”

“I loved him as strongly as I love anyone else in our family,” Horace replied.

The two of them locked arms and stepped through the portal together.

That evening, Leona revisited the idea of finally getting off this planet at dinner. It was a huge feast that included everyone there at the time, though they couldn’t all fit at the big table. Dar’cy and Lincoln had long since returned from their trip to see friends in Sutvindr. Mario, on break for a few days, was excited to tell everyone what kind of person Winston Churchill was. His wife, Lita revealed an admiration for the historical figure. Aura, Samsonite, and Téa were wondering why they didn’t expand the island as a resort to attract tourists from the mainland. Baudin was open to starting talks about such a thing.

Paige Turner was happy with her job in the Hall of Records, but was quite interested in Leona’s plan to go back to Earth, as was Dar’cy. The latter had spent some time in two now-collapsed timelines, but very little in this reality.

“What do you think, Serif?” Leona asked.

“I go wherever you go, Leona Matic,” Serif said with a loving smile. “Were I you.”

“Were I you,” Leona echoed.

They kissed.

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Microstory 624: Appointment of the Loctener

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The Loctener may be the important taikon out of all of them. It is certainly the most important one yet. It refers to the second highest position in the galaxy, and it’s also never been held before. Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir—in his unmatched wisdom, and capacity of humility—came up with the idea during the first exodus from Earth. He wanted someone with unparalleled loyalty, who would never betray him, and who would be able to act on his behalf. By the time the exodus ships reached Fostea, however, he had changed his mind. He determined that his eleven eidos would be good enough to manage the galaxy in his stead. Yet he kept the concept of the Loctener in the back of his mind, and decided that such a position would most likely need to be filled during the fulfillment of the taikons. And of course, as always, was he right. With the forces of the Lightseer military spread across multiple battlefronts, as well as other related war campaigns, even the great Sotiren Zahir needed help. The Loctener was designed to be the Savior’s right hand, but also to lead the war efforts, so it needed to be filled by someone with basically the same qualities. He needed someone who was just as loud, just as passionate, and just as strategically intelligent. The Book of Light, in other passages, speaks of the divinity of humility; that those with little had just as much chance of gaining power as someone born with it. The galaxy was founded on this principle, making it the only consistent concept amongst the belief systems of all residents, regardless of religion. Literally everyone here believes that no one has unfair advantage over anyone else. Perhaps there is no one more humble than the Grelvo citizens who rose against their oppressive dictator, and usurped his power. They were led by a man named Luvras Seldasic. He was one of Grelvo’s youngest warriors, but was a force to be reckoned with. As a born leader, he was instrumental in breaking the giant wall that separates Townville City from Castle Palace. It was his unorthodox and masterful strategy that caught the Sacred Savior’s eye. Only Seldasic could become the first and only Loctener, but only after proving himself by completing a task of strength and bravery. He would have to find a way to eradicate the gardbirds of Narvali. Fortunately, he had some experience getting through walls.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: June 13, 2098

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Mateo’s predicted, but still surprising, reunion with Horace was going to have to wait. He had a responsibility to speak with his birth mother first. He woke up rather late in the afternoon of June 13, 2098, knowing that it had been two years since she saw him. This was going to be even more awkward than if he had been given the chance to explain himself entirely after first dropping that bomb on her.

“I don’t feel awkward about it,” Aura assured him.

“You don’t find it strange to be speaking to a son you can’t remember from an alternate timeline?” he asked.

“I’ve experienced stranger things.”

Mateo shivered at those words.

“Oh, sorry,” she apologized. “I recognize that your trauma was quite recent for you. It must be difficult, seeing people around you get past events that only just happened. I would find that quite frustrating.”

Mateo nodded gently. “The trauma of the time jumps themselves have become easier to swallow. I met a choosing one who had the ability to keep me in a temporal bubble for five years from my perspective. While there, she taught me some coping techniques. I’ve just not had time to meditate today, but when I do, I’ll have absorbed the time that I missed.”

“You can absorb time?” Aura asked with interest.

“Not literally. Sorry, that was unclear. I just mean that I can redirect short-term memories so that they feel older. It’s a technique the chooser picked up in the future that therapists use to help patients recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“That’s fascinating,” she said. “You’re fascinating. I wish I could remember the reality where I knew you.”

“I don’t know that you do. The price would be too high.”

“No, not by this Blender woman. From what I hear, we can’t trust her. I just mean...tell me about yourself. Tell me about our relationship. Why did you not live with me? Was I a bad parent?”

“You were young,” he began to explain. He then paused to gather his thoughts. “A lot of people thought you were selfish for giving me up, but that’s not what happened. Your own parents were...unhelpful. You knew Randall and Carol from the hair salon. By coincidence, your schedule matched up with Carol’s for a couple months, and evidently you would spend more time than you needed there, just talking. Eventually, they took you under their wing and you became friends outside of the salon. When you found out that you were pregnant with me, they were the first people you told. Over the course of the next nine months, they took care of you, and of me, by extension. When I was finally born, it was a no-brainer. They just kept taking care of me while you took your time to grow up and mature.

“You didn’t sign any documents, you didn’t see a courtroom. We were all just a family. Had you not disappeared, like you evidently did in this timeline as well, I probably would have moved in with you in a couple years. You were ready by then.”

Aura did not speak.

“No, your friends didn’t understand why you remained in my life even when I had Carol and Randall. They thought that was a perfect opportunity to get out of your responsibilities. But you were so wise, so careful. So thoughtful. Carol and Randall weren’t just my parents. They were yours. They were there for you when no one else was.” Now he began to tear up. “They had so much love, and they could no longer manage it between the two of them.”

Aura was tearing up as well.

“I was angry at you for a very long time. For leaving us. They gave you more than I think that version of you realized, and you just threw it away. But they were never angry. No, not them. Not Randall and Carol Gelen. They still had all that love in their hearts, and they raised me to learn to love you again. And they raised me with religion because they knew it was important to you.”

Aura waited, understanding that he was not quite finished.

“I wish they could have been alive to see you return, to see that their faith in you was not unfounded. To see that it was not your fault, that someone else did this to you...to us. To see that they were right.”

“They sound like wonderful people.”

He was now full-on crying. “They were. You would have liked them. They were the same in this reality too. They raised my girlfriend for me. No matter what timeline these people create, those two will always be helping someone.” He wiped some tears away with his sleeve. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to talk so much about them. You asked about yourself.”

“I was asking about you,” Aura corrected.

Mateo nodded and sniffled. “I killed Hitler. That’s who I am. That’s what got me into this mess. That’s what erased me from this timeline, and here I was thinking that that was the worst part.”

She looked at him like a concerned psychologist. “So, what is the worst part?”

“That I didn’t hesitate. I pointed a weapon at a man’s head and set it off. Then I just stood there, like it was Tuesday. Removing you and Leona from my life was punishment for that. From God, or Satan.”

“We’re here now.”

“Exactly. That’s why The Cleanser is still doing this to me. I wasn’t able to suffer from my original punishment so he’s picking up the slack.”

“Mateo, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. You’re not being punished. God didn’t change the timeline, you did. That was a human choice, and as I understand it, you saved thousands of lives by doing it. What the Cleanser is doing to you is also a human choice. And he can be stopped. You just have to keep trying.”

“I’ve been trying. Nothing has worked. He’s too powerful.”

“Well now you have me. And Samsonite, and Téa. You have people who care about you, even if they don’t remember why. You do not have to do this alone.”

“You’re right.”

“It happens.”

“The Cleanser has been pulling me away from the people I love this whole time. He’s kept me isolated and angry. He knows that I can’t defeat him on my own, so he’s orchestrated these tribulations. But why? Why does he care so much about me?”

“He’s afraid of you.”

“I’m just a salmon, what can I do?”

“You own a planet. That’s a pretty big deal for someone like us, isn’t it?”

“You’re right, I do. But only because of The Rogue.”

“Yeah, I’m still not quite clear what his deal is. Is he good, is he bad?”

“He’s a Boyce is what he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that he positively detests Horace Reaver.”

“I thought he was dead anyway?”

“We’re time travelers. No one ever really dies.”

“What are you saying, Mateo?”

“Everything that has happened to me is designed to keep me alone, we’ve established that. Even if I overcome that obstacle, he knows who I’ll choose to help me. He knows that I’ll lean on you and Leona for support.”

“He sounds smart.”

“He sounds limited. Horace Reaver’s return was a calculated move. He and Nerakali think that I can never trust him.”

“Can you?”

“More than anyone else right now. Except for Boyce.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to start fighting back. Stay here.” Mateo left his room, ignoring Aura’s protests. He walked down the hall and opened Horace’s door.

“Mateo, how can I help you?” Horace asked, book in hand, reminding him of the time he was reading in Panamanian basement just before murdering Leona.

“I need your door.”

“It’s yours.”

Mateo closed the door behind him and then performed a Constructor knock on it, but he didn’t actually give Baudin enough time to answer. He opened the door to his headquarters himself.

Horace followed obediently.

“Sir, sir!” a man exclaimed. “You cannot come in here without an appointment.”

“I have a standing appointment.”

“Mister Matic, I know that is not true. And that man is not allowed within a hundred lightyears of this place.”

“He’s with me.” Mateo opened the door to Baudin’s office who appeared to be with a client, but there was no time to worry about interrupting them. “I need you to take us to Palace Glubbdubdrib.”

“I’m sorry?”

“This one thing and I’ll never ask for anything again.”

“Mateo, this is not a contest. You can ask me for favors, but I don’t see why you need to—”

“Can you send me or not? I just need a door that goes there. You don’t even have to come with.”

Baudin sighed slightly but pointed to another door. “That closet.”

“Thank you. Come, Horace.”

Mateo opened the closet door and entered the palace. Years had passed since they were last there, and it was obvious that no one had been around to take care of it. Cobwebs and dust littered the floor and furniture. “Crap. I should have been more specific.”

“What is this place?” Horace asked while Mateo was zipping through the hallways in search of the right one. “What are we doing here?”

“We are looking for the magic mirror.”

“I believe you’re mixing metaphors.”

“This is it,” Mateo finally said. He removed a small pocket knife from his handy time traveler’s tote and slit his own finger which he placed on the mirror. “I stand at the gates of life and death. Come forwards. Come forwards, spirits! Here is life. Boyce, rogue agent and trusted friend, smell blood! Smell life! I summon you!”

The mirror adjusted the scenery so that it was showing Makarion in his final moment. He had just revealed to Mateo that he had been the Rogue the whole time. They were just starting to form an understanding, and develop an alliance when the Cleanser somehow leapt into Makarion’s body himself and destroyed it from the inside. Mateo and Horace watched from the other side as the scene played out in slow motion, but then something happened that Mateo never saw the first time around. A figure, like a ghost, lifted itself from Makarion’s body and began to walk away from it. It wasn’t just any Boyce. It was the Boyce. It was the only Boyce that Mateo had ever known.

“Gilbert?”

“Mateo? You’re using the extraction mirror.”

“I am. What is happening? How are you...?”

Gilbert looked back to the exploding Makarion. “It looks like I’m about to die. The mirror was designed only to remove people from the timestream at their final moments, to avoid altering the timeline. Most choosers don’t worry about that, of course.”

“Would you...would you have ever told me that you were Gilbert? I mean that Gilbert was the Rogue. I mean...I don’t understand.”

Gilbert smiled and reached through the magical mirror to place his hand on Mateo’s shoulder for comfort. “I can explain everything, as long as you can explain what the hell Horace Reaver is doing with you.”

“So you can come all the way out of the mirror?”

Gilbert stepped through as proof. “I will have to return one day, but for now, I’m all yours.”

“Like Clara?” Horace asked.

Gilbert laughed. “Ya know, I may just get along with this version of you.”

“Come,” Mateo said. “It’s time to face the raven.”

“Not yet I hope.”

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