I'd never really appreciated Syha for the genius she is until that moment.
After Ezrial and Syha vanished, the
Lyrii moved off to reconsider their position. To be fair, we did pretty much the same thing.
Clearly they believed we'd collaborated on the Great Story. And in the strictest sense we had, because Ezrial and Syha had traveled through time. It was the very thing the Time Warrens were originally trying to prevent in the 30th generation when they first sent delegates to visit
Serghan's people. This particular foray into Time and Space had thwarted their attempts to alter Ezrial, at least for now. Further, it had thrown into doubt their assumptions about our abilities.
And perhaps most importantly it had completely eluded them that we had done all of this using the repaired Fourth Gate. Clearly they had never seen a really good magic act or experienced sleight of hand.
Where had they gone? Or more to the point, when had they gone?
The Lyrii were probably scouring all of Time and Space to find them right now. I could just picture the scope of the temporal game of tag...or perhaps it was better described as hide and seek. Had our friends gone back to prevent the original artifact theft shenanigans? Had they traveled into the future to prevent the original tensions between Lyrii and Wanderers? This is the way the Lyrii think, clearly, because these are the sorts of solutions they had tried in traveling back to our time to disable or control the Gate.
There is something to be said for hiding in plain sight. With our cloudy friends scouring all over the Great Story, past and future, could there be a more elegant solution than to duck out of sight, here and now?
Ezrial and Syha jumped back in time just exactly long enough to be out of sight when the Lyrii first arrived on the scene. They waited, even now, just outside of the compound of the Fourth Gate. A bit of a ballsy gambit to be sure, but it seemed to be working. We knew the Time Warrens felt the ripples in the Great Story acutely when Time was altered.
"Don't suppose you guys are up for a little negotiation?"
Tindar hollered across the compound.
The Lyrii seemed to turn their attention back in our direction for the moment.
There was still a pretty significant communication issue to deal with.
Or was there?
"You guys solved this one once before." Tindar prompted them.
I felt an anxiety then unlike anything I'd ever experienced before...a feeling I hope never to feel again. My breath grew shallow. There was a heavy weight on my chest. I closed my eyes, forcing myself to take a deep breath. Another. Gradually the feeling started to fade. Looking around, I could see many of my fellow Wanderers had experienced something similar.
Quite suddenly our position seemed to have taken an ominous turn. The Lyrii swept around us collectively in the middle of the compound. Now the panic started to rise again, this time, not because of some internal shift, but because of what was going on around us.
Why do we always presume a threat first? We resort so easily to our fight or flight responses when things change beyond our comprehension.
It was Danidesh who restored some semblance of order with a single word, "wait", spoken firmly and confidently. I looked around. The Lyrii were not threatening. Their shade was not dark. Their movements were not threatening. The anxiety faded
"Like the ripples in time, the loss of self that Syha kept describing every time these beings approached us," Tindar nodded toward the group of Time Warrens. "Except maybe this time a little more up close and personal, so we could all enjoy the feeling."
"They are trying to overcome the communication issue,"
Ascher burst out. "They are trying to collaborate. Listen, inside."
Sure enough, my brain was a whirl of sensations and impulses. In one part, I heard all of Ezrial's objections to a collaboration all over again. We are too different, the moment and the vastness of time. Our needs. Our histories.
"Balance in all things. That's the hard part," I agreed aloud.
As if arguing with my own subconscious, internally I heard, "How can we agree on this balance? How can we discuss in this primitive way, every detail and nuance? We will bog down."
"That's also the hard part," I smiled. "Well, okay. It would seem there are a lot of hard parts. But it is so worthwhile."
In another part of my brain, other images flooded my thoughts, overlapping, the differences mixed with possibilities.
If I closed my eyes, I could see the Fourth Gate crumbling to dust around us, repercussions rippling off toward forever.
I could see another human, or rather human and Lyrii combined in a single being, as Ezrial had been. Her communication with both species glowing like golden threads in a night sky.
"These are all of the possibilities they see," Tindar gasped, astonished.
"They are so brave," I cried.
I could see Ezrial returned, altered as they had planned before...more Lyrii than the original version. It was not a threat or an agenda, just another thing that could be.
I could see the Lyrii, locked out from their communication through the Great Story, sick and dying as a race, unable to perform their basic function.
I saw Wanderers exploring the farthest reaches of all that is, respectfully touching the Great Story in unison with our Lyrii cousins. I saw this at the end of a long and difficult struggle, but also in the here and now. Was this because both are the same to them?
"How do we choose?" Ascher wanted to know.
"As we have always chosen," I told him. "Through our actions."
"But we need to communicate. There has been so much misunderstanding."
"Aye. We need to communicate about the middle ground between our focus, about the needs of each of our races," I conceded.
"But we don't need to discuss every detail and ramification of every instant," Tindar added.
"We need only to address the full field of choices and choose with good intent," Serghan let out a long nervous breath after saying this.
He inhaled sharply right after.
"You have led a merry chase indeed. Welcome back friends. In imposing silence, we seem to have opened quite a dialogue," I laughed.
Ezrial and Syha had emerged from their hiding place behind the Gate structure.
"And you have done well, I assure you," Ezrial smiled.
"We've been eavesdropping vigorously," Syha laughed.
"And?" Tindar questioned.
"The Wanderers and the Lyrii seem to be very much on the same page," Ezrial assured us.
"Working toward the beautiful continuous flow of Time," Syha beamed a smile.
"So what do we do now?" the ever pragmatic Tindar wanted to know.
He was looking for the next step. The next choice we needed to make to resolve the dispute, meet the needs of both parties. We could make a Chandorean of that boy yet. But none of that really mattered in the long run, as long as we were all willing to keep trying together. We'd reached a kind of forced symbiosis with the Lyrii. There was so much to learn.
I thought about what Serghan had once told us," There is nothing but chance in this grand old Universe! Well, Choice actually...sort of the same thing, or they blur into each other, or something." The little guy raves like a prophet. I smiled to myself.
"We begin the greatest adventure of our lives, of course," Syha could hardly contain her eagerness.
Those adventures of the Wheels Clan will doubtless someday be told. For next month however, join us to see another tale of Wanderer adventure from a different generation.
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The Wheels Clan Chronicles
series ©2006-2008 by Jeff Beardwood.
