The Keepers of Azera ( Book 1 of the Keepers Trilogy)

Chapter 6

Training day. One of my favorite days of the week. There's a lot I still need to learn about my power before I can actually travel through time-like paradoxes. I know my limits in when and where I can go, but I'm still unfamiliar with some of the consequences. So I sit with James, who has his nose in a book, and Matilda, who has her usual I ate a lemon face. I flip the clock around the chain until Matilda snaps, "Stop it. It's making an awful noise."

I don't hear any noise, but I drop the necklace under my shirt. Today I've forgone my regular robe and pulled on a regular light grey shirt and pants in the same fabric. I rest my chin on my hand and wait for Matilda to finish finding the proper papers. When she does, she clears her throat and I sit up straight.

"Today I shall be teaching about paradoxes and other possible consequences of time travel," Matilda says in a crisp, official voice. I always have to hide a snicker when she uses this voice. It's a lesson, not a court session. James smirks into his book. Matilda pretends she doesn't notice this and continues talking.

"You are well aware of the limits in your time travel, am I correct?" Matilda continues.

I refrain from saying, Of course you are. You taught me! Instead, I say, "I am only able to go up to two weeks in the past, and only five days into the future, and only to places and periods I have visited/will visit."

She nods. "Good. And what happens to you when you travel into the future?"

"I will disappear from the time stream between now and reappear at the time I traveled to. I would land at the spot where I would've been if no time travel had been involved." It's not the exact words I was taught, but I did get all the points down, and it sounds formal enough that Matilda probably won't care.

"Correct. Now, with going to the past, that's a bit more complicated." Matilda clears her throat again, and opens her mouth to explain, but James beats her to the punch.

"When you travel to the past," he begins, ignoring Matilda's glare, "there is always the possibility of paradox. Though you can go to more places than the one you were originally in-if that makes sense-"

"Meaning you can go to any place you have experienced, not just where you were at that time," Matilda says, still glowering at James.

"Yeah, I got that," I say. I only dare press Matilda's buttons if James gets involved, too. Matilda likes to feel smart, but so does James, and he doesn't make people feel stupid at least. "Continue, James?"

He smirks at Matilda. "So as I was saying-actually, to make things simpler, can I just say that it's the exact opposite rules of traveling to the future?"

"You mean, I can go to any place, as long as I've experienced it and as long as I've never been there?" I ask.

"Exactly," James says with a nod.

"But there's a lot more involved in that," Matilda says.

"Yes, but you're here to teach the basics," James reminds her. "It's my job to actually get in depth."

Matilda's face turns an ugly shade of red as I struggle to keep from laughing, let alone a straight face. James doesn't like Matilda either, but he can be a wise guy at times, and that's quite an entertaining combination. The best part is Matilda's so stuck-up, she can't walk away without looking bad. So she grits her teeth and sticks through it.

Matilda opens her mouth to continue talking, and her teeth are tightly clenched. "My business here is to teach the abilities and the affects of the power. Your job is to teach exactly how to use the power. I will do my job, and you will do yours and not do mine."

"Point taken," James says pleasantly. He opens his book and bows his head to it. Matilda takes a deep breath and continues as if this conversation never happened, though there's a note of irritability in her voice. "There is a limit of places you can go. The most obvious one is, of course, if you have never been to that place. The other limit applies to places where you have a chance of meeting your past self. Otherwise, a paradox.

"You know that no one else alive has your power, but others have had it, and one incident involving this particular power necessitated the addition of these measures. You know what that is?"

I nod. "The Pradon paradox. Where Pradon, the first owner of this necklace-" I hold it up, "- was killed by his past self. This also put in the travel distance limit, because if anyone traveled to that point in time and witnessed it, the paradox would consume the entire time-space relation. "

Matilda clears her throat. "Yes. That's the reason of the two-week limit. It almost caused the destruction of time. In this universe anyhow-you are familiar with how alternate universes are formed, yes?"

"Our choices," I say immediately. "Alternate universes are created when we make a choice. Or when a Time Keeper-" I again hold up the necklace- "goes back or forth in time and changes something. That changes the time stream, and creates an alternate reality that Time Keepers end up in when they go back to present day."

"Correct. Now traveling into the past..."

The lesson goes on for a couple hours. At the end, we both stand up, and she shakes my hand very formally. As she walks away, I roll my eyes at her back. James snorts with quiet laughter and asks me what I want to do now. I shrug. All around us, people are packing up and heading back to their dorms.

"James," I ask after leaving the Training Room, "how are they able to add permanent measures in the power, like with Pradon's paradox?"

"It's sort of like Blocking, only...there's a biological connection between you and your necklace."

"Because it's a bio-chip." Bio-chips work both with brains and with computers. They use a conductor to form a connection between the brain and the chip itself, which is why they're made into necklaces.

"Yeah, but Blocking affects that connection. And it doesn't require actually integrating it into the coding of the bio chip. Adding permanent measures does."

Astrid is nowhere in sight. Before my lesson, I went to her room, and Isa told me that Astrid would not be joining us today. "Think I should check on Astrid?" I ask James.

He shakes his head. "This has been very traumatizing for her. I think you should leave her be. Isa will take care of her."

I nod and sigh. "I think I'll head to Floor Two. I overheard some of the older Keepers talking about setting up a film in the theater."

James frowns, the way he does when he's trying to make up his mind. "Yeah, I'll come with," he decides. "Do you know what they'll be playing?"

"I have no idea," I say. "I don't even know if they're actually playing a film. Shall we go see?"

"Let's," he replies. He offers me his elbow, which I take. Then I pull away, because James is a full foot taller than me. "I think I'll just walk next to you."

"Fair enough," James says.