The Butterfly Effect

“I finally figured it out!” Tim announced in front of everyone the next morning. He showed them all what he could create from the three artifacts. “The picture’s still a bit blurry, but I think this glow will get brighter when we get closer to it.”

“Only took you all night,” Henry yawned. “You couldn’t have done that any quieter?”

Lydia chose to ignore him in favor of praise. “Great job. That should make finding it a bit easier.”

Even Zulana, who was more or less passing by, stopped to admire it. “You made that whole thing on your own?”

“Well, technically no,” Tim responded. The attention on his work made him blush. “They were all artifacts that we found on our adventure. I just combined them all together until it did this.”

“May I see it?” Once he handed it to her, she kept moving it around and admiring it. “I’d guess that it wasn’t easy to come up with these connections. You did this all on your own?”

He nodded.

Zulana handed the artifact back to him. “You know, Lydia, for a while I didn’t think the Stones would be made for anything except running around and wasting others’ time. But this one’s got a good future ahead of him, if you’re willing for your family name to mean something other than adventure.”

Tim perked up at the thought. “You really mean it?”

She gave him a small smile. “Seothia could use smart people like you—people willing to forge a better future for the world without magic. I can almost guarantee you’ll have a place here if you ever decide to settle down.”

They set out as soon as everything was ready. They made sure they were prepared for plenty of time spent here—and they made sure it stayed that way by visiting almost every town they came across along the way.

“Stay a little closer!” Lydia called to Tim, who was some way ahead of them and much more interested in observing the artifact than watching out for his surroundings. “You’ve got to keep up with the rest of us!”

His reverie broken, he looked back at her, nodded, and slowed down enough to be just in front of her instead.

“The only thing we know about the place is that clue, ‘where myth is made but none shall live,’” Henry remarked, glancing at her. “Do you know any stories about where it might be?”

Lydia gave it a moment of consideration before nodding. “There aren’t a lot about the desert, but I think there’s one that might be worth considering here. I mean, it’s pretty much the only one about an oasis that a Stone hasn’t figured out in one way or another.”

With the intent gaze of at least one of the boys, she went on to detail the story. “There’s supposedly an oasis around here that no one’s been able to find before; no matter how hard they look, it’s like it never existed in the first place. But if anyone can find it, then the waters reflect a part of a person’s mind. What exactly that means isn’t really something that’s explained better, though, so that’s all we know about it.”

“Do you think that’s where this is going to lead us?” Tim asked, although his main focus still wasn’t on the rest of them.

“It would make sense,” Tavin mumbled. “There’s very few places that would be able to match both descriptions.”

“What kind of stuff do you think the water reflects?” Henry wondered aloud.

She sighed. “When are you going to realize that there’s a reason I didn’t tell you anything about the forest?”

“I’ll believe it when I hear it. The only thing you’ve ever told us about it was that you weren’t going to explain what all of those voices meant. None of us are going to accept that as a good enough reason.”

“Well, that’s the only kind of reason you’re getting. Usually you’re all a lot more subtle when you want to get some kind of information…”

“Every other time it didn’t feel like it was important to what we were doing now.”

“It’s not important. In fact it’s only going to make things worse if I tell you. It’s better for all of us if you pretend like you never heard it in the first place.”

She knew her resistance wasn’t helping. But she was more afraid of what they would do if they knew—if knowing was the thing that made the whole thing fall apart. She couldn’t risk ending it. Not when they were so close.

It seemed Henry understood, though, that he wasn’t going to be able to get anything else out of her. The most they spoke to each other was reminders to stick together and Tavin’s absent declaration that they were going to be passing another town soon.

“We’ll stay here for the night,” Lydia decided.

“I want to try messing with this a little more,” Tim said. “I might be able to make it a little easier to tell where we’re supposed to be going.”

Henry nodded. “There’s still plenty of time left until sunset. We can go get a room at the inn while the two of you make sure we have everything we need for the morning.”

“I’m trusting you not to get into trouble,” she reminded them as she pulled out a smaller pouch and handed them a couple of silver coins. “That should definitely cover it. Just stay there until we come back and, if there’s still time, we can wander around for a while.”

Henry—the more responsible of the two—took the coins and the twins walked towards the inn.

Lydia told herself they’d be fine and looked through the rest of the things in her satchel. “It looks like we’re still good on most of the supplies, but there’s still a few places we could stop by. I can probably handle this all myself if you’d rather rest with them.”

Tavin shook his head. “I want to be with you.”

She became uncomfortably aware of reality and couldn’t help but be haunted by Dimas’s voice; “Lydia’s good at keeping her promises; she’ll come around eventually.” There was someone waiting for her. And she was letting him down.

But there he was in front of her, tilting his head curiously at his mother’s lack of response.

“Let me know if you decide to change your mind,” she eventually said. “I don’t mind going by myself. We’ve covered a lot of ground today and, with any luck, maybe we’ll be able to cover more tomorrow.”

“Tim mentioned earlier about how we were already pretty close to it,” he mumbled. “I don’t think it’s going to take us very long to get there. You seem pretty interested in getting this finished as soon as possible.”

“I don’t understand what that has to do with how close the oasis is.”

“I think you do.”

That was, surprisingly, the last thing he said on the matter. She wondered how obvious it was that she was glad he didn’t go any further.

“How many more of these do you think we’re going to do?” Tavin asked as they walked around town, mostly wondering aloud. “We’ve already found five things and soon about to find a sixth.”

“So far there was one thing in every territory,” Lydia pointed out. “We didn’t find anything in Raisul territory, so maybe we’ll need to go back there, and there’s probably something in Mikkel territory. The only place we haven’t been to at all is Rymbai, so… I guess we’re almost finished.”

“Do you really want this to end?”

She didn’t think too much before admitting the truth to him. “Not really. Spending time with the three of you has been amazing, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for it to end.” Thinking about it a little more, she asked, “What about you?”

“I like this. I feel like I’m able to do things that I never would’ve otherwise. But… I also feel like there’s something going on without me—that staying here means I’m missing something else. I think… I’ll be sad when this is all over, but then I’ll be glad that I’m able to experience the real world again.”

His words stayed with her for the rest of the day. She should have been the one to say that; she knew that was what, after all this time, she was supposed to be thinking. Yet she couldn’t let it go that simply. As much as she kept being reminded of the other things, she couldn’t imagine being able to leave and move on like that. Not as things were now.

When they came back to the inn, Tim had good news for them. He’d been able to tinker with the artifacts enough to get a clearer picture—and he was able to tell exactly where they were supposed to be heading.