"The Lyrii are a very old race in the Universe. You know, I've often wondered what evolutionary forces had to be present to make time travel a boon to natural selection."
Serghan was waxing obscure while we were going through the usual security process at the airport. And he was doing it a little too loudly for my tastes.
"Have you asked them? I mean when you first met them, didn't you ask them a million questions about where they came from?"
Danidesh wondered, completely missing my "don't encourage him" glare.
"You don't exactly just sit down to tea and chit-chat with a Time Warren," Serghan chuckled with less than his usual sense of mirth.
"Wait. You're telling me this ability is biological, not technological?" I asked over my shoulder as I did a pirouette for the person with the metal detector.
"It certainly seems that way. That is, it's our best guess," Serghan said beginning his own pirouette. "There might be some contraption to enhance the ability, but I've never seen it in use and as I said before, it is humans who have this niche as builders in the Universe."
That remark got a puzzled stare from the security guard and earned Serghan several minutes of additional search time. In answer to my silent prayers, while they searched most thoroughly, they didn't ask him many direct questions. Much to his consternation, they did insist he send the little pouch he carried his flute in with our checked baggage. I couldn't imagine what threat it posed to our security on the flight, but neither could I understand how much parting with it troubled him.
With that finally done, we made our way to the gate.
"Edmonton here we come," I said.
"A funny place to hide a gate," Danidesh commented.
"Actually the land around there feels like it must be full of hidden secrets, marked by the ice mist off the rivers, the northern lights glowing in the cold night sky. What else would compel anyone to live in an environment that can be that harsh and uninviting?"
"You got that right. I hate the cold."
"It's like they lopped off an appendage, the barbarians!" Serghan was still fussing and spitting venom about his flute as we sat down to await our flight.
We were early and the gate area was almost deserted. That gave us a bit of time to talk freely without worry anyone might overhear us and freak out.
"Why don't you just sit down and chit-chat with a Time Warren?" Danidesh asked, picking up the thread of the conversation from the security check point.
"Well, for one reason they have little patience for it...or for anything for that matter. No patience at all." Serghan was remembering some circumstance from his distant past, our distant future.
"Kind of a funny thing for beings that regularly bend Time to their will," I noted.
"Indeed, I always thought so too," Serghan shook his head. I remembered some of his exchanges with
Tindar...how some of his round about thought processes got under Tindar's skin. I tried to imagine a member of the Lyrii going through that same trial of waiting for Serghan to get to the point. I half suppressed a smile. "And then there is the barrier of language," Serghan was going on.
"You had trouble understanding each other's language?" Danidesh asked.
"They don't seem to have one at all, actually. And no, it doesn't seem to be telepathic either. With every other race we've encountered in the Universe, there has been something to build upon, even if it's just a glimmer of meaning or intent picked up by some of our more sensitive Wanderers. But here, nothing."
"That's impossible. Every creature communicates in some subtle way to their own kind," I protested.
"We have never found any evidence of it."
"Then how do you know as much as you do about the Lyrii?" Danidesh beat me to the question, just barely.
"Two of them stayed in our midst for over a year. The Ambassadors of Silence, we called them. One day, they just started talking to us...in our own language. Never to each other, mind you. You'll never see a Time Warren speak to another of its kind. Up until then, we strongly doubted they had anything like functional vocal chords. They never made any sound at all before that. Then poof, they speak to us perfectly in our own tongue. They have never really got the hang of verb tense mind you, but I suppose that's to be expected."
"So everything to them is the present tense?" Danidesh wondered.
"You'd think, wouldn't you," Serghan shook his head in wonder. "But no, oddly to them everything is in the past tense. It takes a little getting used to."
"What would make them hang around us for a whole year in complete isolation? Humans just aren't that interesting," I joked.
"Actually to the Lyrii, I believe we are," Serghan corrected. "In our approach to the universe, we are like a complete photo negative of each other. Think especially here of the Wanderer tendency to be immersed in each moment. Then think of how interesting that must be to a race like the Lyrii who are all about the big picture. They are making up a true story about the universe. It doesn't get much bigger than that. How can we dwell in a moment, adapt and be changed by it when their life view touches all of everything?"
"What do they look like?" it suddenly dawned on me to ask.
"Ah, that also takes a little getting used to," Serghan smiled. "In their natural state, and when they are traveling in time, they look like a transparent, greyish cloud. Inside that cloud you can see a lot of swirling movement. There is a center-something to the cloud, not really a light but hard to describe any other way off the top of my head. Your gaze is sort of drawn there. I've always thought of this as looking them in the eye."
"You said 'in their natural state'?" I asked, puzzled.
"Well one day, out of the blue, one of them appeared in human form. I think it was meant as a sign of respect."
"You don't suppose you should have mentioned this to the others as we were preparing to split up?"
"It's not that big a deal really. We've only ever seen one of them do it. Besides, you can tell. The only way you'd be fooled is from a distance, or if it was sleeping or something. As soon as it moves, you'd know something was off."
