Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

“Thank gods for that. Sorry, rambling there, trying to distract myself from what I just saw. Of course, that means I’ve seen both of you naked now, so my brain’s going to be coming up with all kinds of weird stuff. Dear gods, I need a drink!” At last, she paused for breath.

“Finished?” Daelen asked.

“Haven’t even started yet,” the figure replied. Taking a deep breath, Mandalee began again. “You’ve overslept, Daelen.”

“And since when were you my Timekeeper?”

“I’m not, although you’re pretty close with the title. Anyway, it’s not your fault – someone’s been messing with your head and interfering with events that really ought not to be tampered with any more than they already have been. Which means now someone’s got to tamper some more to get things back on track.”

“Are you going to start making sense anytime soon?” Daelen asked.

“I ask myself that question all the time, so probably not, which means you’re just going to have to pay more attention. Listen, you need to get yourself over to Tempestria right now. Events are moving there, and you’re out of the loop.”

Daelen shook his head. “I get an alert whenever there’s higher planar activity, and right now everything’s quiet,” he disputed.

“That’s because this time the activity is quiet. At least for now. I can show you telepathically better than I can tell you, if you’ll let me,” the visitor offered.

Although Daelen could sense his visitor had powers perhaps to rival his own, he was convinced she was no threat, so he agreed to give her limited access to his mind.

“Very well, shroud your powers. Absolute minimum level and follow me. We’re going on a little astral trip.”

The shadow warrior’s consciousness left his body and followed his visitor where she led. They swept across the face of Tempestria so fast, even his senses couldn’t make out more than a blur. Eventually, the image slowed and zoomed in. It appeared to be one of Tempestria’s deserts, but things are not always as they seem. There was a wall of energy there that was a commonplace sight on the higher plane he once called home. It had no place here. The wall was curved, forming a vast dome. Slipping through the barrier, Mandalee showed him the interior. There, arrayed before him, concealed within the dome, was an army of demons from the planes of hell. Mortal wizards, warriors and clerics were there alongside them. More recruits arrived as he watched, but what really drew his attention was a fortress in the middle of the camp. It fairly resonated with power – a power with which he was all too familiar.

“We must go carefully now, Daelen,” the visitor warned him. “We don’t want to alert him to our presence. That would be very…awkward.”

Daelen didn’t need to ask, “him who?” for the answer was obvious. She was right to be cautious, because there was always a chance, albeit slim – that he could detect them even when they were only a projection and not really there. He was a dark, shadowy figure, sitting on a throne on a dais, in the centre of a chamber, in the heart of the fortress, in the middle of the camp, like an enormous spider in a city-sized web. He was Kullos.

“How is this possible?” Daelen whispered. “Kullos has never done anything like this, before. Why would he suddenly start building an army?”

“Because he thinks you are.”

“What?” the shadow warrior demanded. “Why would he think that?”

“Because someone’s been messing with his head, too,” she explained. “Be very still and watch.”

Daelen took her advice and remained absolutely still. The shadow warrior thought he could sense something. He wasn’t sure what, but he didn’t dare unshroud his power, so he simply waited. He didn’t have to wait long before a new figure materialised, standing beside Kullos. Daelen had seen this being only once before, and then only briefly. This was the being Michael had described as a ‘void-creature.’ All he knew about it was that it had nearly killed Michael permanently and devastated an entire Quarthonian Faery community before some other unknown beings chased it away. Daelen could feel its power and malevolence, and it scared him. He, a mighty shadow warrior, was afraid of what this unknown creature was and what it might be able to do.

“Seen enough?” Mandalee asked. She sensed him nod.

Slowly, carefully, she pulled them back outside the fortress. They passed through the dome shield and then accelerated until they were back in their bodies where they had been standing all along.

“I’ve seen that void-creature before!” Daelen breathed. “It—”

To his astonishment, his visitor seemed to put her fingers in her ears and sing, “La la la! Can’t hear you! Please stop talking!”

He complied, and Mandalee relaxed. “Whew!” she breathed. “That was nearly an even bigger hole in the cosmos. Daelen, there’s a lot of Time manipulation going around at the moment. Most of it has already been accounted for, but this is new. I don’t know anything about this void-creature, as you call it, and learning about it from you could create all kinds of trouble.”

*****

She was right, gentle reader. Gaining information from someone in the past in this way is hazardous.

Imagine Scenario 1: Nobody else in her time knew about the void-creature, either. That could indicate that Daelen never told anyone.

Scenario 2: Daelen did tell someone, that information was available in Mandalee’s time, and it was just that Mandalee herself didn’t know. In that case, Mandalee could simply tap into the years of research on the subject that was just sitting there waiting for her to find. But if Daelen told Mandalee directly at that moment, he might then decide he shouldn’t share it with anyone from his own time, in the interests of preserving the Timeline. All of a sudden, we’ve switched back to Scenario 1. Now, when Mandalee returned to her present, the research that would have been done in Scenario 2 never happened. Such are the hazards of Time