The Advancement of Leona Matic: August 13, 2159

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Leona woke up next to Serif feeling rested and renewed. Today was the day, they were finally going back to Earth. There were a few people on the island yesterday who could have taken them, but that was a whole year ago. They would have to find someone with the power and willingness who was around now. It shouldn’t be that hard, though, people were pretty friendly around here. Paige and Dar’cy were in, along with Lincoln, who was looking to get his life back on track. Horace decided to stay, hoping being on the island would keep him out of trouble. Paige was disappointed, but it wouldn’t be the first time they were worlds apart. Dar’cy’s parents, Darko and Marcy had built a home for themselves here, so they weren’t leaving. In fact, they were presently on a cruise in the Morden Sea. But they could easily return to Earth whenever they wanted. So it would just be the five of them. They packed their respective belongings, said their goodbyes, and went out to look for a ride.

Their first stop was at The Overseer’s office. She was responsible for managing personnel for massive salmon and chooser endeavors, like Operation Second Wind, the Second War Battalion, or something they called The Crowd at Myrtle Beach. She knew literally everyone who was on Tribulation Island at any one time. You couldn’t get within ten kilometers of this woman without her being able to pick up your scent. If anyone was presently here who could transport them all back to Earth, she would know. “Trotter,” she said to them after thinking over their question.

“Who’s that?” Paige asked.

“He’s a planet hopper. He has...terrible aim. It’s not his fault, though. He can go to any planet in the universe in a matter of minutes, regardless of how far it is. Exactly where on that world he ends up is anyone’s guess, but he can get you safely back on Earth.”

“He can take all of us?” Dar’cy confirmed.

“Yeah, he’s pretty strong. He could probably take an entire planet worth of people to another planet. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Do you happen to know where he is at the moment?” Serif asked.

The Overseer closed her eyes and breathed in through her nose. “Gandren Hall.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Leona admitted.

“It’s a venue in central Norvata,” Dar’cy said. “On the mainland. They do concerts and stuff there. Beethoven himself played last month, it was an amazing show.”

“Thank you so much for your help,” Leona said to the Overseer, who smiled and nodded.

As they were leaving, Serif noted that she did not want to have to sail all the way to Norvata. “I can put you in touch with The Caster,” the Overseer added. “She can send Trotter a message for you.”

“Thank you again,” Leona said. “You have been a big help.”

They went downstairs to the Caster, who agreed to send a psychic message to the Trotter. This place was like a well-oiled machine. Everyone had a part to play, except for the five of them. That’s why they were leaving. Fortunately, the Trotter agreed to make a quick trip back to Earth, even though that wasn’t next on his itinerary. He spent his days jumping from planet to planet, just to look around, only spending significant time on inhabited worlds. It was he who discovered Dardius in the first place, somehow intuiting its shocking similarity to Earth without having arrived yet.

“You’re going to need a little boat,” the Trotter, whose real name was Maqsud said.

“Why’s that?” Leona asked.

“It helps me expand my energy,” Maqsud explained. “I can take multiple people with me, but water makes it easier. It’s up to you, but I recommend a raft, or something, to put your stuff on.”

“That works,” Leona said. “Lincoln, there’s a door next to the water heater in our basement that used to separate the shower and toilet from the sink. It was just in the way, so we took it off. Could you run up and grab that for us?”

“Sure thing, boss,” Lincoln answered, and then he ran up the beach to get it.

“Will that do?” Leona asked Maqsud.

“That should work. You all need to understand the risks, though. My body has a natural instinct to land safely. That does not necessarily extend to my passengers. I don’t normally take people with me, so I’m just not used to it. Try to find your footing right away, and if you have to fall down, be sure to do it correctly.”

“There’s a correct way to fall?” Dar’cy asked.

“Yeah,” Leona said. “Stay loose and break the fall with your upper arms. Don’t try to break it with your wrists, that could do a lot of damage.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” Maqsud assured them. “I just want to make you aware that you’re not just going to disappear from this world, and suddenly be standing on the next. It involves falling. It looks like you’re falling, and you gather a tiny bit of momentum. Can we all handle this?”

Leona looked around. Everyone seemed to be ready for the risk. “Yeah, I think we’ll be okay.”

As Lincoln was slowly carrying their door raft to them, a young woman appeared from down a ways, carrying luggage, and in a rush. “Wait! Wait! I’m coming with you!”

“It’s okay!” Serif called back. “We won’t leave without ya!” She spoke sideways, “do you know who that is?”

“Yeah, uhh...” Leona went into her memory archives. “Missy. She was at the Colosseum tribulation in the alternate reality.”

“Whew,” Missy said, dropping her bags onto the beach. “Thanks for letting me tag along. A precog stopped me in the jungle and told me I had to come. She didn’t say why, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Earth again anyway.”

“Well, we’re glad to have you,” Paige said, holding out her hand. “Paige Turner.”

“Paige...Turner? Really?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Nothing.” Missy was genuinely trying to hide a smirk at the pun that Leona wasn’t sure Paige ever noticed herself.

“Welcome aboard!” Maqsud said enthusiastically. When Lincoln came up with the door, he said it again, “welcome...a board.” Not too funny. “All right, fine. Everybody put your belongings on the door, and let’s wade into the water. Oo, and almost forgot.” He handed them all sunglasses. “The future’s so bright.”

They followed directions, and walked into the sea, holding their shades, letting the water get about chest high. It was as cold as any ocean water was meant to be, but then it started getting warmer.

“I didn’t fart, Maqsud said. “That’s just my energy, working to connect us all together, so you don’t tip over and wind up in the vacuum of space.”

Missy looked terribly frightened by this, so Serif shook her head comfortingly.

“Everybody ready? We’re nearly at critical mass.” No one answered him, which meant they were.

As the energy intensified, Leona started losing her vision. At last she saw, others were experiencing the same thing, blinking their eyes and moving their heads around, trying to hold on to their sight. The darkness that filled her eyes eventually evened out, and transitioned to a sort of gray color. Now she knew why she needed to wear the glasses. The light before them was increasing in brightness, threatening to permanently blind her. Hopefully the others eventually put them on too, like they were supposed to. She could feel her body being pulled away from the surface of the planet, but could still see nothing, like the first tunnel of a roller coaster. The anticipation was killing her. Eventually, her body acclimated to the acceleration, and now it just felt like falling, just as Maqsud had described it. Still, all she could see was gray. It was hyperspace. While movies and TV often portray faster-than-light travel as looking like stars being stretched across the sky, or pretty, cloudy colors dancing in a tunnel, it really looked like this. Just light. Blinding, relatively uniform, light.

After a few minutes, though, the light subsided, and they could see the solar system. The Earth was coming towards them fast, but they would not reach it. Mars got in the way, and suddenly they were heading towards the surface of the red planet. Though they were moving fast enough to kill them on impact, Leona could feel that they were safe. When she hit the ground, her knees buckled, and she fell to her side. She could see arms and legs all around her, as well as the luggage door. Then she saw Lincoln. He had not been as lucky as them. They had landed on the edge of a cliff, but he was just too far over it, and he fell away.

“No!” Leona screamed, but there was nothing they could do.

Missy slithered towards the edge, and stuck her arms over it. Likely fearful for Missy’s life, Serif grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her back. “It doesn’t matter,” Missy said. I think I slowed him down a little bit, but he was just going too fast. I don’t think it was enough.”

“What was that?” Paige asked. “What did you do?”

“I form time bubbles. I was trying to slow the time around him.”

“Can you do it again?” Dar’cy questioned. “Can you get us down there?”

“Now that I have time to prepare, yeah. That’ll be easy.”

“Then let’s go.”

They were probably about twenty-five or thirty meters up, which no normal person would be able to survive. Nor did it look like Lincoln would either. Though Missy likely did manage to slow his descent, she did so only minimally. He had still hit the ground with deadly force. They huddled around him, keeping pressure on his wounds, hoping for a miracle, but mostly just trying to keep him comfortable as the light left his eyes. Then something strange happened. A grayish smoke came out of Serif’s mouth, like breath on a cold day. It spread out over Lincoln’s body, moving in a completely unnatural pattern.

“What the hell is that?” Dar’cy asked.

Lincoln coughed and twitched.

“You’re hurting him!” Paige cried.

The cloud entered Lincoln’s body, and caused him to writhe around, not in pain, but more like he was just trying to scratch an itch without using his fingernails. As they watched, his bones appeared to realign, and his wounds sealed up. After only a few moments, he was back to his old self. He was completely healed. As one would expect, the first thing he said was, “what happened?”

“We have no idea,” Paige answered.

“Serif, what was that?” Leona asked her.

“I don’t know either,” Serif replied. “Did I do that?”

“I think you did,” Leona told her. She found a sharp rock and cut herself on the arm.

“Leona!” Serif exclaimed. “What did you do?”

“Breathe on it,” Leona ordered.

“What?”

“Breathe on it,” Leona repeated.

Serif took a deep breath, and let it out over Leona’s cut. Another gray puff came out, and stuck to Leona’s skin. It healed her as well.

“You can heal people?” Maqsud asked. “I’ve never heard of anyone who could do that? Is that a time power?”

“Jesimula Utkin,” Leona said.

“Is that a band?” Maqsud asked, embarrassed for not knowing the reference.

“She can alter the speed of time, kinda like you, Missy. She healed Serif once.”

“She didn’t heal me,” Serif pointed out. “She just sped up my recovery. It didn’t feel good. It actually felt like I was gonna die. And it didn’t look like that.”

“I’ll have to study it,” Leona said confidently. “For now, we need to get to civilization.” She looked up. “We’re on Mars, and lucky we landed in one of the habitat domes. Most people live in the lava tubes.”

“I don’t know what happened,” Maqsud said apologetically. “My aim is inaccurate by design, but I’ve never ended up on the wrong planet!”

“It’s okay,” Leona promised him. “This is close enough. Lincoln could have fallen off a cliff on Earth. You told us the risks.”

“Lincoln didn’t hear the risks,” Dar’cy reminded them.

“I’m fine,” Lincoln said. “Thank you, Serif, for whatever you did.”

“How do we get to Earth from here?” Dar’cy continued. “Honestly, even though this seems to have turned out okay, I wouldn’t be comfortable riding with Maqsud again. At least not so soon.”

Leona frowned at Maqsud. “That’s okay. There are other ways home. Let’s get to a hospital, though. I wanna make sure Lincoln’s condition is permanent.”

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The Burning of Effigy: Chapter Four

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We’re in a hallway in what appears to be a high school. I look around and let my eyes adjust to the change in light. Yes, it’s not just a high school, but the high school. Are we back in Springfield? I find the nearest window, hoping to see a landmark I recognize, but the terrain is that of the weird planet, so we are still stuck here. We can hear voices down the way, so we follow them. “Our calculations were off,” a woman is saying. “We’re speeding toward Earth much faster than we thought. Well, we were supposed to have more time, but Hokusai’s arrival has given it some kind of boost. If we want to stop the world before it collides with Earth, we must act now.” Hokusai, she’s here too?

I round the corner and step into the room to watch. Everybody stops and looks at me.

“Uncle Kal?” the woman who was talking before asks.

“Kallias, you’ve come,” Hokusai says. “How fortunate.”

“You can see me?” I question.

“I told you that I don’t have control of it,” Effigy says. “They’re not meant to see us, it was an accident.”

“No, it’s fine,” the woman who called me Uncle Kal says. “It’s nice to see you.”

“Effigy, is that you?” yet another woman asks.

“It is, Miss Kovac.”

“I’m so lost,” I say. “What the hell is happening here?”

“It’s me, Hogarth. I’m...quite a bit older, I know. You must have thought I was dead.”

“No, I didn’t,” I half-interrupt her. “I saw you a long time ago. You were running from that Smith asshole with Hilde and Paul Harken.”

This she clearly did not know. “His eyes. You did that.”

“Okay,” Miss Kovac, as Effigy would call her, says. “We don’t time for this. Hokusai, you have to get your work done. Mister Bran, we could really use your help.”

“With what?”

“I’ve lost most of my powers,” Kovac begins to explain, “and there’s a horde of angry men on their way who don’t realize we’re trying to save their lives.”

“Well, I don’t have powers.”

“She does.” Kovac gestures to Effigy. “And you have a penis. The army out there will only respond to someone born with such a gift.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I say honestly.

“They’re chauvinists, and they won’t listen to us.”

“What about those guys?” I point to two old men.

Kovac nearly rolls her eyes. “Escher and Rothko have business in here.”

“Escher? Rothko?”

“Yes, yes, yes, they’re alive and older. Very exciting and surprising.”

“Escher, Rothko,” I repeat. “Hogarth, Hokusai.”

“Could we be quite quick?” Kovac pushes.

“I have been looking for everyone in this room, some for decades, so you’re going to give me a second to a second to wrap my head around it.”

“However long it’s been for you,” Kovac begins, “it’s been longer for most of them. “You didn’t find them, you stumbled upon them. Right now, though, they all need you. They need you to go out there and stall for time. If you don’t, this planet is going to hit Earth. I mean that literally.”

I say nothing.

“If you help me with this now, I promise to help you and Effigy get to where you need to be. Do this one thing now. Do one more thing after that, and you can go home. You can put all of this behind you. Escher, Rothko, Hogarth, Hokusai. They all belong here. You’ve done your job. You solved the case...es. You solved the cases.”

I take a good look at all these missing people. They’ve clearly each been through a lot, and if this is what they turn out to be, I can’t go back in time and change that. Who knows what I could screw up in the timeline? She’s right; it’s time to move forward. “Come on, Eff.”

“Eff you,” Effigy says, but just as a joke. We both walk out of the room, out of the high school, and towards an oncoming army.

The army is disorganized and untrained, but the soldiers look antsy and hungry for blood. “Is there any way for you to protect them?” I ask of Effigy.

“Go on and do your thing,” she tells me, staying back and looking like she’s preparing to cast a spell over the school. I approach the no man’s land between us and the men. One of them pushes his way out of the crowd to meet me halfway, a second man at his flank. Behind me, Effigy is creating a barrier of fire to stop anyone from nearing the school, or—is that a ship? It’s sitting several meters away.

“I am Common Purcell,” the man says with the air of formality. The other one, his personal security guard, says nothing.

“Your name is Common?” I ask.

“No, it’s my title, dumbass. Common. You’ve never heard of a military Common?”

“You mean Commander?” I offer.

“No, it’s...ugh.”

Then I get an idea. “General. You mean General.”

“Yeah, that’s an archaic term,” Common Purcell says. “I don’t know why it changed.”

“It’s because you people are stupid, and didn’t understand that general isn’t a synonym for common in this context.”

“Are we having parlor, or not?”

“Do you mean parley. Jesus, what have you done with my language?”

“Where are you from?”

“The past,” I answer.

“That explains your...insolence. You protect the Earthan visitor?”

“I am an Earthan visitor. And yes. Whatever you want with those people, you can’t have it.”

“They threaten our way of life.”

“Your way of life sucks balls.”

Purcell and the other man look to each other for answers. It’s probably best they don’t fully understand the derogatoration.

“My friend back there is trying to do better. I suggest you don’t piss her off.”

“Yes, we can see that she’s a mage remnant.”

This time, I don’t recognize the term. “I don’t believe so. She’s the real thing.”

He slowly stands up straighter, surprised, but still hardened. “She’s a full mage.”

“One of the most powerful; possibly the most. She can take out your whole regiment with nothing more than a thought.”

“What are your demands?”

“Leave them alone. Apparently this world is on a collision course with Earth. As you can imagine, this is not something I’m interested in seeing happen either. We all want the same thing.”

“It is women like her who did this to us in the first place.” He’s not referring to Effigy this time. He’s talking about Hokusai.

“Does that really matter? If she can fix it, you need to let her do it.”

He tenses up at the sight of something behind me. I look back to see the group leave the high school, and head for the ship. I also hear the army of men collectively drawing their weapons. Purcell holds one arm out, indicating to the army that they should stay back. “Hold!”

“Have you ever had faith, Mister...” I close my eyes at the mere thought of having to use this ridiculous term, but I do anyway, “Common?”

“You want me to have faith...in a woman?”

“Many men before you have done just that,” I reason.

“And how did that work out for them?” Purcell asks smugly.

“Perfectly,” I say with all honestly. “You’ve been living a nightmare, brother.”

He tilts his head at this. “What did you say?”

“This is a nightmare. The whole world...Earth isn’t like this. We have a sun.”

“The Nightmare Brother,” he says in shock. “You’re the Nightmare Brother.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Purcell turns to his men. “He is the Nightmare Brother!”

After a few moments of silence, theoretically waiting for Purcell to admit it to be a joke or something, everyone in the army bends their knee, and bows their head.

“What..is going on?” I’m so confused.

Purcell is now smiling widely. “You are the prophesied arrival in the words of Orabela, The Teller. You have come to save us from The Falling Planets.”

“What planets? No planets are falling.”

Purcell looks up at the sky. “Yes, they are.”

I look up as well and see that he’s telling the truth. Massive planetary bodies are falling down like rain in the distance. But that can’t be what’s happening. I recognize the distinct coloring of Jupiter right away. The others must have been Neptune Uranus, and Saturn. What’s happening is the planet we’re on is heading towards Earth at an incredibly, impossibly, insanely fast rate. The fire Effigy had created has died down now, and I can hear Hokusai’s ship powering up. Rothko Torchlight shines from it, extending upwards through my home solar system. Earth is still a distance away, but it’s coming down fast.

“How is this possible!” I scream to Effigy. The rumbling from the ship echoes across all dimensions. The ground itself vibrates with immense power. 

“Time, right!?” she calls back. “You’re lucky to see this!”

I crouch down to lower my center of gravity. The planets keep falling, but we appear to be rotating. Somehow, Hokusai is turning the whole of the planet we’re on. In no time, Mars begins falling up, up, and away from us. The power surging through everything around me intensifies, and threatens to tear my whole body apart. The Rothko Torch, now facing the right direction to act as a rudder, adjusts the planet’s path. It does so just in time, it would seem. Earth comes inconceivably close to us, I can almost see people waving as we pass by. We continue past Venus and Mercury. Once we’re clear of the sun, the Rothko Torch flickers off, the vibrations abate, and it feels like we’re slowing down.

The rest of the crowd stands up with me, still staring up at the sky, watching the solar system drift away from us. “Did we just avoid hitting Earth?” I ask, knowing the answer.

Effigy smiles and puts her hand on my shoulder. “Just barely. This is good for us. The power that Hokusai just unleashed; I can feed off of it. I can get us back to the 21st century, exactly when and where we’ll need to be to close the portal once and for all. If we don’t do that, Gimura will never be able to save the world.”

We make one more jump.

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Microstory 740: Credos, Convention Eleven: Collegiality

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When the wandering child lifted his leg from the tenth canister, he looked upon the next two. They could hardly be called canisters. Sure, they had some depth, but they were long and shallow. He looked upon himself and realized he had not quite run out of body parts. He still had his back, and his stomach. “This is an unusual quest,” he said to himself. “How many other quests have you been on?” the fish woman asked him from the aether, even though the magic communication cup was not filled with water. She had a good point, though, so he continued with his task by opening the eleventh canister. He recognized the young man of this story, for his story had already been told. He was the same man from the lesson about cordiality. He had had trouble finding a job, because he did not want to engage in dull conversations with the interviewers. He ended up having to learn to fake his way through it, and succeeded. He was now part of a team, but was still struggling. All he would do is sit at his desk, with his headphones on, and complete the work that was assigned to him. He would go to the meetings he was scheduled for, and listen to the presenters with respect, but never engage with his colleagues. Then it was the time of the year when the sections heads had to make personnel decisions. Some were going to lose their jobs, and others were going to receive promotions. The awkward man’s manager pulled him into her office to have a chat. This was it, he knew he would be let go, and have to find a whole new job.

“We are not letting you go,” his manager said, much to the awkward man’s relief. “But we are also not promoting you.” It wasn’t the worst news in the world, but it also wasn’t the best. His productivity was higher than anyone else’s. By anyone’s measure, he was the best worker in the department. That promotion should be his. “It’s not that you are not productive,” his manager said, as if reading his mind. “You are a very hard worker, and you make few mistakes, but that is not all it takes to be part of the team.” “What else does it take?” the awkward man asked. “You have to actually participate in that team. You have to have conversations around the proverbial water cooler. You have to go out for drinks after hours.” The boy interrupted her, “does everything that’s required of me involve fluids?” This did not seem like a joke to the awkward man, but it did seem funny to his manager, and she laughed. “This is not so,” she said. “I’m not telling you specific things that you must do, but giving you ideas of what you can do to improve your standing in this department. People around here expect some level of collegiality. Honestly, I barely knew who you were when I read your name on my evaluations list. Your numbers speak for themselves, but it is your actions that must be doing the talking. You must show that you belong here, and that you want to be here. The work itself simply cannot be your only concern. Promotions come for people who have the potential to be leaders. A leader speaks to his colleagues, and I have not so far seen that from you.” “I understand,” the awkward man said, even though he didn’t. Calling upon the advice from his parents when he was interviewing in the first place, the awkward man began to fake his interest in what he perceived to be the pointless social aspect of the job. And though no one grew to like him, and he was never good enough to earn promotions, he did earn wage increases, and maintained his steady position until the day he retired.

Microstory 739: Credos, Convention Ten: Congeniality, Chapter Two

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What the town did not know was that their dealings were being watched by a visiting alien from another planet. This alien was intelligent, and powerful, and his morals were fundamentally unfathomable to the people in the town, or the rest of their planet. He felt that it was his obligation to teach this world how he believed they should behave. They needed to be punished for how they had treated the doctor. With a great sense of irony, he set upon the town, and its neighbors, an epidemic. Nearly everyone in the region was infected with the pathogen, for which there was no apparent cure. It discolored their blood, and saturated it with harmful fluids. They had not encountered anything like it before, and none of their home remedies was working. Fortunately, no one was dying from this, but they were still in such incredible pain. It was after two days when someone broke through their delirium to remember that the rude doctor actually specialized in infectiology, which meant if anyone could have figured out the cure, it would have been him. “O,” they cried, “how foolish we have been. This must be the fury of The Dying Light, here to end our world.” But this was not so, it was only a person, flesh and blood, who had done this to them. Feeling more resentful about some other entity receiving credit for his doings that he thought he would, the alien who had infected them stepped forward and made himself known. He removed his modifications that allowed him to look like them, and spoke to the crowd. “This is what you have done. You have brought this upon yourselves. Are you better than the man you shunned, and indirectly killed? Your hearts were filled with as much hate as his, and now you must accept the consequences. Now it is your hearts that will kill you.” He raised a device about the size of a pen. “With this, I will exact my final solution. For now, the pathogen causes painful symptoms, but not death. With the push of this button, that shall change.” Then what appeared to be a female counterpart to the alien stepped up onto the stage. She had been visiting another town during this whole ordeal, completely unbeknownst to the male alien. With one look, she caused him to doubt himself, and he dropped the death device. And she spoke to the crowd, and him, “what these people need is example. They cannot learn to be better if they’re dead, can they? What you people lack...is congeniality, and to understand this, I will show you what it looks like.” And they believed she would simply provide for them the cure for the alien disease, and she did, but that was not all. She also invited them to her ship, where she transported them to her homeworld. There they lived in peace in a society that had moved completely beyond negative traits, such as jealousy and discordancy. Everyone was loved.

Microstory 738: Credos, Convention Ten: Congeniality, Chapter One

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The small town had but one physician. This physician hated everybody, but put up with them, because he had a monopoly on the market. Since he was the only medical professional around, he knew he could do whatever he wanted with his patients. He could charge whatever he wanted, lazily prescribe medication, or even refuse to see them at all, if he just didn’t feel like it. Everyone hated him back, but of course, there was little they could do about it. Though there were other physicians in the region, they had struck secret deals with each other, to prevent any one of them from gaining an edge over the others. Plus, traveling to these other towns was often not worth the trouble. Though no one was outwardly racist, citizens of the other towns tended to be rather opposed to visitors. One day, the rude physician fell ill himself, but was unable to carry out his own treatment. He tried to self-medicate, but nothing was working. He would have to go far away to find a peer, but he was in no condition to operate a vehicle. He started stumbling around town, asking people for transport, but no one was nice enough to agree. He contacted other physicians, asking them to come to him instead, but they all rejected him. It was the rude physician’s idea to unethically keep prices high, and not compete with each other, and this was causing them their own problems. No one wanted to help, and the rude physician eventually wandered into the woods, and died.

Microstory 737: Credos, Convention Nine: Commitment, Chapter Two

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For a long time, the girl was embarrassed of her shameful jalaxian harmony bowl performance. She immediately gave it up, and fell into a depression, spending her days in self-pity and remorse. Her father decided that she needed to get out of her own way, and stay busy. If she couldn’t play the jalaxian harmony bowl, then maybe she needed to help other people play it. Though he was not known for designing the bowls himself, he was an accomplished metal worker, and knew he could figure out how to do it. He brought her on board for a new department in his small business, where they learned to make harmony bowls together. She took to the trade quite well, enjoying the tediousness and focus that metalwork forced her to adopt. She was starting to think that she should go into the family business permanently once she was finished with her general studies. Meanwhile, her infamous recital piece was uploaded to the global network so that anyone and everyone could see it, and make fun of her. Some of the comments on her video were offensive, but many were more playful. A not insignificant number of people were actually suggesting that she become a comedian. Those closest to her made their own remarks, saying that what she lacked in talent for the harmony bowl, she made up for in her stage presence, and comedic timing. When she wasn’t in school, or building harmony bowls with her father, she was practicing her comedy act at local establishments. This was becoming difficult to manage, however. She never had time to sleep. Her studies faltered, her work at the factory was subpar, and her comedy routines were rather weak. She asked her mother, “what am I to do? I cannot handle all this at once. But I must study to earn my degree, and I have an obligation to the factory, and comedy is my passion.” The mother sat down and spoke. “You are trying to do too much. You cannot divide your attention to so many things at once. If you want to be good at any one of them, you must devote all of your time to it.” “But what will happen to the other two things?” the girl asked. Her mother answered, “you will not be able to do all three. You must decide what is most important to you.” “I don’t know what that is,” the girl said, “they’re all important.” “I cannot choose for you.” So the girl made the decision on her own. She stopped working at the factory, and started concentrating most substantially on her education. She continued to work on her comedy, but only when she had extra time, for no matter what she ended up doing with her life, she would need her degree to fall back on. When she grew up, she refocused her efforts back on comedy, committing to her skill with vigor. She utilized what she learned in school to make her jokes more meaningful and thought-provoking, able to make references to history and pop culture she would not have been able to without a well-rounded education. She even incorporated a little manufacturing into her routines, building her own custom-made props to accentuate the skits. And she became one of the most famous comedians in her world.

Microstory 736: Credos, Convention Nine: Commitment, Chapter One

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The wandering boy lifted his lower leg from the canister. “Wow, these stories all seem to be about people working together.” He filled his special communication cup with water and sought help from the fish woman. “What am I to learn from these canisters?” he asked. “They all seem to be teaching me the same thing.” “Be patient, my child,” the fish woman said. “You will understand, but you must finish the canisters first.” “Has anyone else been on this quest before? Or am I the first? If so, will I be the only?” “The canisters are meant for but one. They are meant for you. Others have tried, but failed to learn. Because of this, they have lost the new light...and have lost themselves. You must complete the task, and you must figure out what it means.” “I will,” the boy affirmed. “I will.” And so the boy placed his leg into the much deeper ninth canister, and watched the next lesson, which was much shorter than the others. There was a girl who wanted to play the jalaxian harmony bowl for scores of people. But she never wanted to practice. She dreamed of the day when she would be able to walk on stage and start playing and everyone would be soothed and happy by her music. But she didn’t understand what it took to get to that point. She figured all she had to do was decide to become a jalaxian harmony bowlist, and one day, she would be good enough. She failed to recognize all the hard work in between. Her teacher kept asking her to work harder, but she would not listen. She could not hear her own notes; that she was not playing them correctly. Finally the day of her first recital was upon her. Still she thought she was good enough to play, for she had never truly listened to herself. The performance was a disaster. She made a fool out of herself, and made it awkward for everyone else. She had not committed to her trade, and because of this she could never be great.

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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