The Ten Guardians: The Mother Tree©

Chapter Fourteen

              The party said nothing to one another as they watched the events unfold. It was eerie being so close to people you considered your friends, people you had bled in battle with, and saying nothing to them. Sparrow reminded them that they could speak to one another, but everyone was too busy absorbing information and looking for signs of a paradox to say anything.

Sparrow was startled when Stein appeared and very interested in what she had to say about the great battle where Lebine had died. It was difficult for him to put aside his feelings of anger and confusion as her story differed from what he remembered. She had been there and had been the main agitator of the other guardians that prevented him from stopping Lebine’s death … but he would have to figure that out at a later time. They saw walls pop up around them made of tree roots and listened to the entire story told to Stein by the others.

 Then when Jonathan and Grey left, Sparrow spoke up, saying, “Follow them. Drock is at the camp, and only the empowering of his essence can alter time.”

They followed the couple down the hill and approached the camp with them. That was when the amplification spell was finally spotted and where a possible scenario began to play out in Sparrow’s mind. Sparrow directed the invisible group to stand far enough away from the campsite that they could still hear what was happening, without risking being too close if something went wrong.

Then something went very wrong, and the party watched as the explosion rocked the hillside. They were protected from the blast by Sparrow’s shield around them, not even feeling the air of the blast rush past them. Likewise, the pockets of altered time around them did not affect the party. Controlling small pockets of broken time and whether it influenced him was second nature to the Lord of Time and done without thought.

 Then they watched as Jonathan took action, cutting Drock’s finger through a portal of time, and casting the spell.

“Here it comes,” Jaya said with apprehension.

“What do we do?” Myrum asked excitedly.

Sparrow could feel the ring of time they existed in and could see the resetting of the ring coming upon them. He was slightly surprised by what he saw but knew what it meant and told the party.

“Keep watching. There is still too much time until the ring resets. Our particular paradox has two anchors; we haven’t reached the second anchor yet. Either the first attempt doesn’t work, or they do it twice for some reason, and the second attempt is when it fails.”

They all saw Stein merge with the glowing finger and disappear, and then the world appeared white around them as if they existed in a room made of nothing. It only lasted half a second, and then they were standing near the unharmed camp again, with Jonathan and Grey conversing like before.

They stood by awkwardly as the two embraced.

“About time,” Myrum said under her breath, with an air of approval.

Then they watched them battle Drock and the Elder tree’s roots for their lives. They watched Jonathan leave in the form of a bird, heading for the top of the hill where the sound of another battle was taking place. Then saw Grey pick up the staff Jonathan left behind and enter the Great Road as Lebine’s emissary.

“Should we follow Jonathan?” Lone Wolf asked.

“No, stay with Drock. He has to be part of the next attempt. Let’s see what is going on in the Great Road,” Sparrow said as he pulled at Grey’s mind with his powers. He was able to hear the conversation taking place with her consciousness and projected the sound for the others around him to hear.

It was then that Sparrow reached his greatest challenge so far when he learned that Mantorine had impersonated Stein and corrupted the other elemental guardians against him. It was Mantorine that was to blame for Lebine’s death and all that had transpired because of it. He wanted to destroy the creature immediately but knew it would only harm an echo. He turned his anger inwards, searing the information to memory, and did nothing.

After a few moments, the runes on the staff depleted, and Grey erupted in flames as she destroyed the roots around her and set the fire as a shield to protect Drock before heading up the hill. The party watched as she ran, but it was Lone Wolf’s keen eye that pointed out the slightest ripple of dirt along the path where Grey was running. It was a root acting as a trip wire just below the surface. Grey stepped on it, and her body jerked as she was impaled.

“No!” Jaya gasped, stepping in Grey’s direction before Lone Wolf touched her arm to steady her resolve.

The party was silent as they listened to the rest of the battle unfold at the top of the hill. They watched silently as an injured Jonathan, supported by Izreea and Jareth, limped down the hill. Then they watched in silence as Jonathan’s grief caused him to mimic the actions of a certain Guardian of Time and try resetting the history of the world. If only by a few moments.

Then, Sparrow saw the runes Jonathan wrote on Drock’s chest. It was an arcane language that was never meant to be used in this world, one that even Sparrow could not read or understand. That was the answer. The power of another plane of existence was implemented as an energy source that corrupted the spell.

Sparrow could see he was out of time and had to decide what action to take. He knew the ring of time was finite, so it would still reset even if he stopped Jonathan from casting the spell. He grabbed the ring with his mind and slowed it down as much as he could without draining himself completely. That bought him slightly more time to discuss what to do with the others, who were shielded with his spell still, so time moved normally for them.

“We have mere moments. Thoughts?” Sparrow said with obvious difficulty, putting urgency in his voice.

“It is Jonathan who created the paradox, so we need to stop him somehow. Should we do something to prevent Grey from saving him in the first explosion? He would die, but time would be corrected,” Jaya said quickly.

If she had more time to process, she would have realized how harsh and final of a solution this was. She knew other actions could work instead, but they were running out of time, so she thought of the quickest and easiest solution they could take and voiced it.

“No, all of you must survive, or we will fail our ultimate goal of giving stewardship of this world to mortals,” was Sparrow’s response. He didn’t need to look into the myriad of possible futures to know this. He had looked many times before.

“Jonathan is acting out of grief for the death of one he loves,” Myrum said as she took Lone Wolf’s hand in hers. “We need to save Grey in order to stop Jonathan …”

“… in order to save the world,” Sparrow finished.

“Should we somehow stop the root from giving her that mortal blow?” Jaya asked.

“That would not save her. There were dozens of roots along that path waiting for that same action. We have to stop her from taking the path,” Lone Wolf said as he stepped closer to Myrum, pulling her closer as he sensed their mortal end coming.

“Why did her runes not protect her?” Jaya thought out loud.

“Because the first time they reset time, it had drained her powers. Stein’s as well, apparently, as she is missing from the battle with Mantorine,” Sparrow replied.

The answer came to Sparrow like an arrow to a target in his mind. He knew what he needed to do, and it was so simple he almost doubted the thought. Sparrow looked at Izreea as she ran to Jonathan’s side in slow motion. Tears were in her eyes, and her stomach was glowing as she accessed her hidden reserve of magic to help Jonathan with his spell.

“Oh, that poor woman,” Jaya said softly, knowing what was happening and empathizing with her sacrifice.

Quickly, Sparrow pulled at those around him, and energy came from their minds, including Grey on the hill. If Jonathan and Izreea noticed, time was too slow for them to react. The only exceptions were Myrum and Jaya, as he had already linked their memories to himself. Then he smiled at those around him.

“Thank you. All of you. I know what needs to be done now, and I couldn’t have done it without you. Lone Wolf, you said to take care of your family earlier, but this is our family.”

Before anyone could react or respond, Sparrow triggered the event that would kill them. He reached into the core of the thread of time they were living in and started to break it down at the molecular level. The ring stopped spinning entirely as the world slowly transformed into raw energy.  Sparrow seemed to separate from the world as everything was consumed, disintegrating and collecting into a sphere of power. The energy was similar to Jonathan’s amplification spell, but comparing the two was like comparing a candle to the energy of the sun.

Sparrow was reminded of when he tried to reverse time all those years ago, pulling the landscape around him to use as energy, which created the meadow they had fought his fellow guardians in. In the real timeline, he wouldn’t have been able to destroy the entire world to do this as it would create another paradox, one where he always destroyed the world to reset time.

Sparrow was all that was left in this timeline, floating next to a ball of compressed energy the size of a small moon. Everything else around him was endless black. Sparrow was about to reach into the energy and begin to pierce the layers of looped time back to the beginning when Ultaris and Lebine appeared in the darkness nearby. Lebine had an unreadable expression on her face. Ultaris looked almost like Sparrow again, just a little older with graying hair and an eyepatch. Gone was the image of the corrupted older man with disgusting hair and a scraggly beard.

“You! You, arrogant fool!” Ultaris shouted heatedly, gesturing to the emptiness around them. “You thought I would simply allow myself to be dissolved through your pathetic attempt to stop me? You simply gave me the energy I needed to turn back the clock of time!”

Sparrow realized that Ultaris was unaware he was part of a narrow paradox, reliving time repeatedly in only a matter of days. Sparrow could pick up on this immediately, which was well within the scope of Ultaris’ abilities. Sparrow looked at Lebine, his confusion plainly painted upon his face.

“Be not surprised by his lack of understanding. The void has no concept of time, and he was imprisoned for centuries in the gesangnus created by the souls of Dardwain seekers. This compounded his madne-” Lebine said before Ultaris cut her off with his screams.

“SILENCE! Do not speak of me as if you understand anything I have been through! You are but a shadow, an ignorant flicker of your old self!”

Ultaris’ body fluctuated between the regal, if terrifying, image of Sparrow and the repulsive older man. Sparrow realized the fluctuation in Ultaris’ external image was a symptom of his madness and that he needed to tread carefully. Regardless of his lack of understanding of their situation, Ultaris could still try to merge with Sparrow. If Ultaris won that confrontation, he could use the massive energy source next to him as he saw fit, unaware that any action he took would only apply to the ring of time they were trapped in.

Maybe that was enough for this version of Ultaris? Sparrow thought to himself. Living a farce with the one he loved might be worth it for him, but how would he feel when he was restored and knew the truth?

“Ultaris, hear me out. Time was stuck in a paradox, constantly expanding new timelines from a starting point. I was the first new timeline to see what was happening and take action. I separated that loop from the rest of the timeline, dooming this timeline to repeating the same few days over and over again.”

“I know all of this! I am you! I know everything you know!” Ultaris howled as he continued to flicker between the two images.

“Yes! Right! So, you already know that anything you do to this timeline will only impact this one timeline and not correct the paradox the true timeline is experiencing,” Sparrow explained to the madman, making his attempts to guide the conversation too apparent.

“You are wrong, my lesser half. You misunderstand that there is no ‘true’ timeline. There is this timeline, and there are other timelines, and all of them are true to themselves. One is no more real than another to those inhabiting it,” Ultaris explained as if he was addressing a troublesome student, all hint of madness gone.

Sparrow was stunned by the sanity and logic of his response. He was wrong, but it still made sense.

“To a mortal, and even the other guardians, this is true, but we are not fortunate enough to remain unaware of our situation. Otherwise, the bliss of a customizable timeline would be heaven. We will always see the other timelines, and that one timeline continues forward as the others stutter in their attempt to emulate it,” Sparrow countered.

Ultaris was quiet, his hand on his chin as he looked down in thought. After a moment, he turned completely into the older man, then looked up and made eye contact with Sparrow.

“So much filth coming out of my own face. You are mine, now,” Ultaris said as he attacked Sparrow, intent on dominating and absorbing his essence. Ultaris had no doubt who would win that battle.

 Lebine had been preparing herself as the two had conversed, knowing Ultaris would eventually attack Sparrow. When he attacked, so did she. A beam of continuous light made of her essence and immortality shot from her hand. Ultaris did not see the blow coming and had no time to react or respond. After a moment, the beam stopped, and Lebine collapsed onto an invisible floor in the sea of blackness.

The light was plastered to Ultaris’ chest and shoulders like golden blood from a massive wound. He started to dissolve and crumble into himself slowly. He looked at Lebine, all signs of insanity gone, and smiled at her. He opened his mouth to say something. Then the light faded from his eyes as he finally succumbed to the attack and turned into dust.

Sparrow rushed to Lebine’s side and cradled her in his arms. She was still alive but fading, and he knew she would be gone soon.

“Why?” Sparrow asked sadly, even though he knew it was illogical to be sad or to care about what was happening in this moment. He would also soon cease to exist right along with her.

“He deserved it,” she said weakly, “besides, you didn’t turn me into energy like the rest of the world, so I assumed it was so I could help confront him.”

“No … I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I already lost you once …” he cried softly.

“Well … you didn’t have to listen to his prattle for millennia,” she said with a smile. Then with the last of her strength, she reached up and touched his cheek. “I’ll see you soon, Mies Seibas,” she whispered as she joined Ultaris as dust.

Until that moment, Sparrow did not know his people could truly die. He assumed they would always return from any death they faced. Yet, he knew to his core that this death was final. It took one of their own to make a killing blow, ending immortality together.

Sparrow suddenly felt more alone than he ever had before. He was the last of existence in this timeline. He had sacrificed all of his friends, and felt as if he would never be made whole with Ultaris gone. He hated this feeling, this burden of loneliness and incompletion.

He decided to get on with it. Sparrow opened his soul to the swirling moon of energy next to him and began assessing the amount of energy he had available to him. He felt along the timelines, counting the loops and estimating what he needed to pierce through them. He decided he would have barely enough to accomplish his task. It was enough, though.

Sparrow began pulling at the energy, stretching it out as if pulling a thread from fabric but keeping it straight as a needle. The energy stretched endlessly before him, long and thin, with a sharp point on one end and an opening on the other. Sparrow planted what he wanted to change along the timeline within the hole, along with his memory and all the memories of his friends, knowing it would all be pushed to the pointed end and injected as part of the original timeline.

He imagined this is what a syringe looked like to something as small as bacteria. The thought made him smile for some reason. It was as if he was injecting the timeline with a cure and saw no reason to delay the action. Sparrow thought of the timeline and all the layers hanging off it. Then he thought of the point where everything began, where the loops of alternate timelines began, and he shoved the needle of energy directly before that point.

The needle sunk through the layers, dissipating as it pierced each layer. The loops were intact, but their time was frozen when they were pierced, waiting for the needle to run out of energy so their timelines could resume. Sparrow kept pushing the needle through hundreds of timelines until the needle was almost spent. There were several layers left when the needle’s energy was gone, so Sparrow linked his soul with the needle and used its energy to finish the job.

Sparrow began to fade away as his soul was converted into energy and sucked into the spell. He faded completely just as the needle reached the last layer, and its tip gently pierced the side of the main timeline for this world, and the memories and concepts he had implanted flooded into the timeline.

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