After the other two teams left Jerome's farm, there was a debate about the best course of action. Jerome and Anna agreed that the best thing to do would be to stay at the house to be in closer contact with the others. In that way, if something went wrong, they could be warned, instructed and otherwise informed.
Ascher thought differently about the matter. He insisted the wisest thing to do would be to stand watch at the ruins. There was no guarantee that the Time Warrens would pass by the house on the way to the Fourth Gate, many miles away in the forest. He reminded them how
Serghan had come upon them suddenly out there in the wilds. If their goal was to protect the Gate, it couldn't be done well from many miles away, completely out of sight.
Anna even offered to stay behind at the house, allowing Jerome and Ascher to hike on to the ruins. Then she would be able to come to them and pass along any news.
"I don't think it's wise to further split up. In fact, I don't think it's safe," Ascher insisted.
"Are you expecting trouble?" Jerome wanted to know.
"Nothing in particular makes me think so, but we would be foolish to be unprepared simply because we hope we won't see any trouble," Ascher explained. "We are, after all, the last line of defense."
"And what do you think we can do?" asked Anna. "If they come to the Gate, what are we supposed to do to stop the
Time Warrens?"
"Our best?" Ascher shrugged.
"Serghan was terribly unspecific about that," Jerome chuckled.
"It's his way," Ascher smile back. "I'd like to say you'll get used to it, but I haven't yet myself."
And with that, the three packed up for the long return march back to the Fourth Gate. Their early start that morning meant there was still plenty of light for their return trip.
"We're taking a slightly different path this time," Ascher noted after they had walked for some time.
"Habit," Jerome breathed heavily as he marched onward. "I try very hard not to leave an obvious worn trail for others to follow."
"Very wise."
Although the specific trail was different, the general pattern was the same. First, they climbed steeply plunging into the woodlands from the lawn. This was the hardest part of the trail by far and Ascher thought the climb lasted an interminably long time, much more so than the first hike. At last, they slowly started to descend again. The easier hiking made conversation an option again at last.
"Did your mother never offer any explanation for the discrepancy?" Ascher picked up the thread of an old conversation. "I mean those symbols couldn't have been first drawn by someone in the second generation but also find their way etched into the design of a 10,000 year old ruin."
"I honestly don't think the idea ever troubled her at all. It was something she just accepted."
"Hard to believe. It's been eating at me ever since I heard about it," Ascher laughed.
"Well, I may have mentioned, mother had a sort of mystical...I think I used the word flighty before...her outlook would have no trouble seeing the Wanderer dream as a vision. And to be honest, I can't think of a likely alternative to offer in place of that myself. It seems no big deal to me."
"Did you ever own a long-haired cat, Jerome?" Ascher asked on a wild tangent.
Without so much as blinking, Jerome fired back, "yep".
"It doesn't matter how much you clean, vacuum, use a lint brush, brush the animal, pray, curse...it gets everywhere. It rolls around under the couch like tumbleweed. You find clumps of it outside your front door. It's on your clean laundry as you're folding it. It's inside your freezer for crying out loud. The stuff has a migratory life of its own."
Jerome chuckled deeply at Ascher's light-hearted description.
"Maybe cross-pollination in Time works kind of the same way," Ascher suggested. "Maybe you can try to keep things all nice and tidy, but things turn up unexpectedly in weird places."
"And you think the Wanderer symbols for each Way predating the Wanderers themselves might be one of these mysterious hairballs of the Universe?" Anna smiled.
"Well, if Serghan and the Wanderers of the Thirtieth generation have traveled extensively in time, it wouldn't be so hard to believe," Ascher thought aloud.
"Maybe it's not so hard to understand why the Time Warrens have a bone to pick about us messing up their story after all," Jerome mused.
"It does make you wonder about the impact. It makes me wonder what else they might be dabbling in. Serghan did talk like he'd been here before," Anna remembered.
They trekked on through the bush. Again Ascher heard the stream, this time on his left instead of his right. And this time they didn't pause to refresh themselves. There was an unspoken urgency. Jerome opened up his stride, pushing the pace as they approached the Gate. The others did their best to keep up with him.
This time, instead of walking along the flat of the meadow, they emerged near the end of the long open area from the cedar forest banking up its one side. Jerome followed the tree line closely. The sun was not yet below the horizon, but the shadows were getting longer. It had been full dusk among the trees and even here on the edge of the open meadow, it was fast approaching twilight.
Ahead, the treed area concealing the ruins loomed. Like before, it was impossible to tell there was any structure hidden behind the trees. And from the angle of the tree line, the clearing was even more completely obscured. Some of the trees on the edge of the forest towered 35 feet above them. Jerome stopped short, so that Ascher almost knocked him over in his hustle to keep up the pace. At first it was almost imperceptible, but as Ascher followed Jerome's stare and his eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, he saw it too. There was a faint illumination ahead. Not a fire like they had set when they camped there. It was too dim for that. And it didn't seem to be at ground level, but much higher.
"What is it? Have you seen this before in your visits?" Ascher asked.
Jerome put his finger to his lips, hushing Ascher and Anna. Clearly he had not seen this before. They moved slowly forward. There was no sound. Not a whisper. No breeze in the trees, nor the soft chatter of small animals and insects. Nothing. As they drew nearer, Ascher saw Jerome hold his hand up. Everyone stopped at his command. Ascher saw Jerome peak around the trunk of a particularly large tree. His face reflected the pale light. It seemed to shimmer slightly as if the light danced across the surface of a lake on a sunny day. Jerome looked up and stared for the longest time. Finally Anna took a step forward and placed her hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of his shock.
"Well I'll be damned," Jerome said in a loud clear voice. He stepped forward into the clearing, the other two followed closely. The Fourth Gate was no longer in ruin. It was not restored to its former glory, but a rudimentary structure, much shorter than the original, closed only in a semi-circle was fashioned and the domed ceiling was intact. This was the source of the faint light glimmering.
"Well I didn't see that coming," Jerome took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"What does it mean?" Anna asked.
It was a great question.
