The Calling of Time

Future Paths

“It was just…weird. We were in a bar, and there was this guy…” I paused, remembering what he’d said. “He said his name was Horace…” this time the name sent a red flag up. In my dream I hadn’t remembered, but now…

“Wait,” I said. “Horace…that’s…”

“The third guardian.” Jai nodded. “What you just had wasn’t a dream, it was a vision.” He glanced over at Manda again. “So, he’s in a bar.”

“Big surprise,” she snapped. “That doesn’t help us one bit. I could have told you that. And when I find that goof I’m going to pound his head in.”

“In my dream you looked like you were going to,” I said, and Manda fell silent. I shifted in my seat, not sure if I was exactly comfortable with this. “So, that was, it was something that’s going to happen?” This was bugshit crazy. I wasn’t sure how much weird stuff like this I could handle. "Time to explain, right?"

Jai looked sympathetic. “I know it’s a bit much all at once. I was hoping you wouldn’t have a vision until later, when you were more at ease with everything I’ve told you already. I didn’t want to give you information overload.”

“Too late,” I muttered.

“Time is fluid for you,” he explained patiently. “You are time, so the rules don’t apply to you. So you can see into the past, and the future.”

I blinked furiously, trying to process the new information. “Wait, so when she said Lady Time...time...like time on the clock?"

"Lady Time," Manda put in, unhelpfully.

“Technically you rule the realm of time, our realm. Hence the visions of the future. Since you don’t remember everything this time you’ll probably have to relearn how to do it.” He tugged at his lower lip unconsciously, looking at the ceiling as he thought. “Apparently your subconscious is doing it for you though.”

“I’m not sure if I like that.” I wasn't sure if I liked any of this. Lady Time? It sounded ludacris.

Manda flew through a stop sign, pressing down on the gas when she saw the dark shape of another soul sucker on the road. “Well that’s great. She finally found out she's Lady Time. We can all have a party later. But right now, it doesn’t help us diddly squat. That bar could be anywhere.” The soul sucker darted to one side and the jeep blew past it. "Damn, missed it!"

Jai leaned toward me eagerly. “What did the bar look like, can you remember?”

“It was dark,” I said, trying to think of all the weird little details in my dream. “There was hardly anyone there…” the crunching sound under my feet came back to me suddenly. “There were…peanuts on the floor. Or, peanut shells I guess. Lots of them.”

Manda and Jai exchanged another look, which I was starting to get sick of. Manda finally said, “That could be Diego’s. Still vague though, Toronto’s a big city.”

“But what other bar has peanut shells on the floor? Is that common?” Jai asked. “I don’t go to bars much.”

“I don’t know, there might be more, but I know for sure Diego’s has them, and it’s always dark in there. It’s a pit, that place, I could see Horace taking to it.”

“You remember what street it’s on?”

I sat back and listened to them talk, hearing the rustle of paper as Jai flipped through a map book, tracing his fingers over the illustrations until he found what he was looking for. My mind was racing. So, I was having visions of the future now? Did that mean I would be that girl? The one who was confident and in charge? The vision had ended there though. I had no idea how Horace had responded to me. For all I know he might tell me to take a hike.

So when we get there he was obviously going to act all weird like that. That’s what the vision was telling me. Was the vision always one hundred percent accurate?

“Jai?”

He looked up from the map. “Hm?”

“The visions, or dreams, or whatever. Are they set in stone? Is it going to be exactly like I see it?”

“Usually,” Jai said. “You've changed visions before though, altered the course of history.” His voice settled into a lecturing tone. “When mortals try to change the future, the universe has a way of course correcting. For example, say the future was that I get hit by a bus. I could attempt to change it, and I might. But the next day I could walk out onto my driveway and get hit by a runaway semi truck. Something ridiculous like that. It often happens that way. But you, you’re different, if you decide to change the future you have a much better chance at it, being Lady Time. The universe would still course correct, but it would be in a much smaller way.”

“Like you might get hit by a toy bus?” I offered, and was pleased when Jai laughed at my lame joke.

“Something like that, yeah.”

“So,” I said slowly. “In my vision, Horace was obviously really…reluctant.”

Manda made a rude noise at this. “That’s also not surprising. What did he say?”

“Not much, just mumbled “no” a lot, and something about failing.”

Another brief glance between Jai and Manda.

“Shit,” Manda growled. “He’s going to be difficult.”

Jai sighed. “I guessed he might be, but I was hoping he’d be better by now.”

“What?” I demanded. “What does that mean? Failed at what?”

This time it was just Jai shooting Manda a nervous look, and Manda looking stubbornly straight ahead out the window. Jai finally said quietly, “Horace blames himself for letting you go. For letting Thanatos take you. I mean, we all do, to a certain point…” another quick look at Manda. “But Horace took it especially hard.”

“He was a mess.” Manda’s eyes were still fixed on the road. Her voice was hoarse. “I’d never seen him like that before. I couldn’t do anything for him. He wouldn’t let me…” her voice cracked and she fell silent abruptly, as if she couldn’t stand to talk about it anymore.

“But, it wasn’t any of your fault, right?” I said. “I mean, Thanatos is like, an arch villain or whatever? He sounds really powerful?”

Jai’s bright eyes were sad, and it made my heart wrench in my chest a little. He said softly, “We got lazy, Kali. It was our fault. We were too comfortable. We weren’t on our guard anymore.”

I blinked at him, not sure what to say. I wanted to defend him, to make excuses for him, but I realized I really didn’t know anything about the situation, even though I seemed to be right in the middle of all of it. It was frustrating.  After a second I blurted, “I wish I could remember!”

The guilty expression was back on Jai’s face as soon as I said it, and I felt even worse. I stammered, “I mean…I’m sure Lady Time…I mean, I’m sure I wasn’t mad at you. I’m not mad at you now. It wasn’t your fault!”

He smiled. “You’re sweet, Kali. But someday you’ll remember, and we’ll see….we’ll see how you feel then.” He turned back to the front before I could say anything.

Someday I’ll remember?