The Butterfly Effect

At least the reality was nice enough to happen while she was sleeping. She gave it extra credit for being much better than everything else it had been showing her the past couple of days.

“Enn, I can’t let you,” Imre sighed.

“What if I promised to be careful?” she insisted. “I’ll be safe! I got a charm on my last trip that shines pure light; that could get rid of any Skiá I come across. Besides, it’s in Qizar! There’s a lot less Skiá in Qizar than Seothia.”

“You’re still right by the border. And with the nature of your adventures, we’ll need to make sure Zofie’s okay with you coming in there…”

“I don’t intend on destroying anything!”

“I didn’t intend on needing to keep track of your whereabouts but here we are. Things are different now. You can’t just blindly run into whatever danger you want.” He put a hand on hers. “We can’t lose you.”

“Please, Imre. What if I promise to come back by the end of the month?”

“Why are you so interested in doing this?”

The exact words she wanted to say couldn’t make it out. “I just… need this. I swear I’ll be there for Tavin’s birthday. But as things are now, I… I don’t think I can do it. This is my chance of getting some closure on it all. Can you deny me that?”

“No,” was his eventual response. “Alright, you can go, just… stay safe. Let me know when you get there and when you’re leaving. Come back as soon as you’re ready.”

“You’re my favorite king, you know that?” She settled with a smile to show her happiness, since he was sitting down and a hug was impossible.

He made an attempt to share it with a small smile of his own. “Now, can I get back to working? There’s a lot I need to get done…”

She laughed. “Yeah. And remember Dimas and Samone are here for a reason—don’t forget to take a break when you need it.” She waved goodbye and left his office.

Her next mission was to find Tavin. It was, actually, much simpler than she’d expected it to be when he and Natheniel rushed down the hall. Tavin, nearly as soon as seeing her, darted behind her.

“No hiding!” Natheniel remarked with a hmph.

Lydia bent down to ruffle both of their hair and said, “You boys better be playing nice.” Neither of them admitted to the reason for their chase, and it wasn’t her plan to demand one. So instead she just directed her attention to Tavin. “I’m going to go on a trip for a little while, okay?”

He nodded.

“I’ll be back for your birthday, I promise.” She gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Love you.”

“Love you,” he repeated.

From the moment she got to Qizar, she decided she wasn’t going to be telling Imre how it went. At least for a decade or two.

Skiá had shown up and made it quite obvious they weren’t going to leave her alone. She wasn’t backing down now, however, and started running.

She laughed when one of them threatened to get too close. “You need to try a little better than that, you big shadow! I’ve encountered way scarier things than you!” She proved her point when a few more tried to come close—she pulled out a glowing gem from her satchel and shown it in their direction.

To her, they were just a distraction; worrying never solved anything for her, so after a while she figured it was better not to. She had a different mission than entertaining them, she just needed to keep an eye out for her next stop.

She purposely hit a tree branch, knowing that it would bring her to what she wanted. In front of her, the door to an old Qizarn temple opened up and she slipped inside.

Several Skiá attempted to follow her, but none got past. She smirked. “Darkness can’t get in places dedicated to the gods. Not so tough now, huh?” The door closed again but light didn’t disappear completely; a vague glow caused her to turn around.

She only stared at the wispy figure for a moment before dropping to her knees. “Usiu, the Guide of the Lost…”

“You have gone through great lengths to achieve this,” the figure mused. She didn’t dare look up at it—she was afraid it might disappear if she did. “Do you truly desire my prize that much?”

It was happening. It was really happening. “Yes.”

“Then take it—I assume I don’t need to tell you what it is. May you all find peace and move on to see a brighter tomorrow.”

She carefully picked up the clasp, smiling and on the verge of tears. “A brighter tomorrow indeed…”

She’d stayed in the temple a little longer to appreciate everything written in it. Not all of it was optimistic, however; parts of it praised the powers of the angel Usiu, while others warned of the dangers of neglecting the need to move on. How would it be neglecting the need to move on? She was sure this is what she needed, after all, and that wouldn’t be possible without Usiu’s powers.

For the most part, she shrugged off the bad stuff. She scribbled down a couple notes in her journal that sounded like promising leads for journeys elsewhere then left.

…

It seemed like everyone else was already awake by the time she was, though that didn’t mean she was left out on anything. The sky was only now being dyed red by the glow of the comet. Most things that made the day memorable was at its peak in a couple of hours, meaning it was preparation time.

Clare, Elena, and one of the kids were in the kitchen. What they were doing was the extent of preparations that needed to be made—Clare always made sure everything else was ready before they came. That left everyone else the whole morning to do whatever else they wanted, meaning being gathered together to hear a tale from Andrew.

“We knew that, when the comet was over, we’d had lost our own opportunity. Yet together we still braved all the perils that may have lurked there—we still had to try! Nothing was going to stop us, no matter how hard it got…”

Diana couldn’t help but add comments, however. “That’s not how I remember it. You were the only one stupid enough to still go on.”

“Where’s the fun in that, dear?” he said in a near-whisper and with a nervous laugh. “It’s keeping them all entertained, isn’t it? Now let me keep going.” Much louder, he continued, “Where was I? Right! We were on the verge of a history-altering discovery…”

He had all the kids enchanted, at least, and the other adults would have been too if it weren’t for the hushed conversation upheld by Lewis and Naviya. Lydia thought about joining them before deciding to move on, acknowledging that she’d already heard the story dozens of times before. It was great, but years of demanding the tale had made it somewhat lose its value.

She went outside instead, sitting on one of the picnic baskets Clare must’ve set out earlier. It had been a while since she was with anyone else during the comet… and she’d forgotten how much she missed the view from the edge of her aunt’s property.

“Mind having some company?” Henry asked with a grin, settling down next to her. Tim and Tavin soon followed.

Lydia smiled. “Of course not.”

“After this it’s back to the adventure, isn’t it?” Tavin mumbled. “Do you think we’ll be able to figure anything else about the clue?”

Tim apparently had it, pulling it out to look at it. “We could always try looking around at old records and try to find anything that matches.”

“Maybe something at the Archive could give us some more details,” Henry offered. “I, for one, wouldn’t mind having an excuse to spend all day there.”

“I think you spoke for all of us,” Tavin remarked.

Lydia nodded. “We can definitely try the Archive again, at least. It won’t hurt, and we can bring back some more stuff for Dad to look at while we’re at it. I know this can’t be a dead end.” There wouldn’t have been a reason for any of this if it was.

“Do you think… we’re going to have enough time?” Tim asked quietly, now fidgeting with the ring.

Henry swatted at him. “We’ve got all the time in the world. Right?”

“Sooner or later, we need to move on,” Tavin said. “We can’t keep doing this forever. Time is still moving on around us. Eventually we’re going to need to keep up with it before we’re too far behind.”

She hated how much sense he was making, but she couldn’t let it show. As wrong as it felt… she needed to make it look like it was only him; like she wasn’t noticing the impracticalities, realizing how little of this made sense compared to the reality they came out of.

“We’re going to see the end of this,” she assured them, “together.”