“HOW LONG WAS I there?”
“Only a few moments. The time in Jinsaih’s world is brief,” Naliv said.
“It felt longer.”
“You integrate easily into it. Do you know who you remind us of?”
“I heard you the last time. Hernot. The troublemaker.”
“We need to begin our work before he is born.”
Nathan sighed. “What makes you so sure of that? How can one man affect so much, create the path that has led to where we are now?”
“Is that not what you have done? One person can do anything. For Hernot, however, his purpose is to sow discontent. Words can kill as easily as a weapon—this is what we have become aware of now. Yes, we believe he is the source of the problem.”
“So you get rid of him.”
“Oh, Nathaniel, no,” Naliv said, her voice filled with compassion. Did she feel that for him, or for Jinsaih’s world, or for herself and Elaimat? Nathan wondered. In his heart, he knew it was for all of them.
“We re-create the beginning of Elaimat to a time before he exists,” she said. “He will still live. Do you see? We are choosing a different probability for our Elaimat, that is all. It is something the shaman understands. Probabilities are vibrations. The slightest effect alters them. Yet there is no end to their number. She already knows she has to choose a different one. She feels that where she is, because of Hernot.”
“Your Elaimat won’t be the same.”
“To an extent, but the differences will not be great, and we can adjust. Unless we do this, Calum’s fear and anger will wipe us out. We have nothing to lose, you see.”
“What if you’re wrong? What happens to me? Do I end up in Calum’s world, then? Or maybe none at all!”
“Except, have you not been telling us this is a dream, and you will wake from it?” Naliv asked, her voice soft. “Is it possible that now you believe in us?”
“I don’t know.”
“We know now that we need to join Jinsaih in her rituals, be within the power she enters there. That is how we will know what to do. We can receive that power she shows to us through you and give that knowledge to the source, to the Harec. We will know how to make the transformations we need. Then Calum will not send the source into your world. Then our Soran will not die.”
“So if I take you there again, and you figure out how to do that, I’ll disappear when you succeed.”
“And wake up forever in your own world. Whether you help us or not, you will have that outcome, Nathaniel,” Naliv said.
“You know, you could forget about the shaman and just stop Calum yourselves,” Nathan said.
Kilan gestured beyond the entrance to the cave. “You have seen what it is out there. We told you we cannot get near him. He cannot control what he has set in motion. He is not even aware of us anymore. He is consumed by grief and fear and thus he has split us and all of Elaimat apart!”
“I told you Nathaniel, we can only create in harmony,” Naliv said. “The Harec needs the power of the shaman to restore that balance to us.”
Nathan looked at the faces of those around him. They were so familiar now. A sudden thought surprised him. If they did succeed in what they wanted to do, he would never see them again. He had wanted things to be as they were, for the dreams to end. Was that still true? The idea was one he found confusing and unwelcome.
YOU ARE READING
The Magic Hour
Mystery / Thriller"It was not exactly dark, but a kind of twilight or gloaming. There were neither windows nor candles, and he could not make out where the twilight came from, if not through the walls and roof." -Childe Rowland "T...
