Thoughts for a portal, p.30
Thoughts for a Portal, page 30
part #4 of Tales of Lentari Series
“Meaning a vision will appear in my head,” Steve guessed.
Luther nodded. “That’s right. Once you have the picture then you should get a feeling of being in control. By that, I mean you should now be able to mentally push the image and see it move. Once you’re at that state then, and only then, do we address time. What you’ll have to do is find a way to have time represented in your vision. You can try a timeline, such as Quinn suggests. In my vision it was the movement of the sun. However you choose to let it form, determine what it’ll take to modify time. Accelerate the sun, move an X across a line, whatever works. For this exercise you should use the physical timeline paradigm. Let the line form. That’s what you’ll give to your jhorun. Your natural jhorun, that is. Once your jhorun has something to reference then you’ll more than likely feel the barrier I was referring to before. Whenever you try to push time forward then that force will push back.”
“What if Quinn’s line analogy doesn’t work for me?” Steve asked. “What should I do then?”
“It’ll work,” Luther assured him. “That’s why our first attempt lasted so long. I was trying everything I could think of to get time represented in such a way that I could relate to it. Mister Quinn’s illustration allowed me to do just that, only for me, my jhorun latched on to the sun and its movement across the sky. I think you’ll just have to see what works best for you. Hopefully it’ll be something like Quinn’s illustration.”
Steve sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, all without breaking contact with the portal. Luther and Mina did the same.
Thirty seconds later Steve heard Luther grunt satisfactorily.
“I am ready.”
“I’m not,” Mina immediately told him. “I’m not there yet.”
“Dude, I don’t even have a picture yet,” Steve complained.
“Fear not, Steve,” Luther assured him. “We will wait for you.”
A few minutes later Mina was ready. Scowling, Steve tried to quiet his mind, as he was instructed, but it was a losing battle. Didn’t Luther say to not block any errant thoughts but, instead, to allow them to come?
It wasn’t working.
The errant thoughts were coming, no doubt about it, but they wouldn’t leave him alone. What would happen if this didn’t work? What does Aislinn look like in his time? Would Caradoc still be alive? Would Pryllan know that she had died in another time?
“Steve?” Luther’s voice cut in. “Are you having any luck?”
“None whatsoever.”
“Try taking a nap!” Sarah’s voice called up from below.
Steve’s eyes snapped opened.
“A nap? Really?”
When no answer was forthcoming, Steve shrugged. What could it hurt to try? Since both Luther and Mina were now waiting patiently for him to catch up the least he could do is try his wife’s suggestion.
Steve spun his chair around so that he could lean back, rest his head, and still maintain physical contact by wedging his hand in between the chair and the frame. Comfortable, and much more relaxed, Steve felt himself drift off. He briefly wondered what sort of prank Sarah would play on him if he were to actually doze off.
One by one the thoughts bouncing around his head started to disappear. Sighing contentedly, Steve waited to see what would happen next. When the last thought vanished, namely the question about whether or not Pryllan’s father would be alive in their time, an image formed. Steve was so surprised he almost opened his eyes.
“I’ll be damned,” Steve muttered. “I didn’t see that one coming.”
“Is it working?” Luther’s gentle voice asked. “Can you see anything?”
“Yep. I’m looking at the path in the forest, the same one Sarah and I have used a bunch of times.”
“Excellent. Just a moment. Mina and I will join you there.”
“You will? How?”
“You’ll see. We’re tuning in now…”
Steve felt another presence in the woods. He couldn’t see anyone else. Heck, for that matter, he couldn’t see himself. Having never had an out-of-body experience, Steve could only imagine what he was supposed to be feeling. Shock and amazement, he decided, was high on the list.
This is weird, Steve thought to himself.
No more so than seeing someone light their hand on fire, Luther mentally said to him. Mina, are you here?
Aye. I am here.
Are we ready to try again?
Aye. I am ready.
Steve? Are you ready?
Uh, sure. Let’s take a crack at this. What do you need me to do?
Do you remember what I told you about visualizing time? Try to either imagine time as a line, or if that doesn’t work, see what you can use as a reference to the passage of time.
Yeah, sure. Easier said than done.
I need you to do that for me now. Once all three of us are in agreement and are in harmony with one another then we will be facing the same time barrier and collectively we should be able to push against it.
Was the image both you and Mina were looking at before the same thing? Steve wanted to know.
No, Mina answered. Luther pictured the sun. I watched water flowing over the waterfall.
Steve sighed. Okay. I’ll see what I can come up with. Better give me a minute.
We’ll wait, Luther’s voice told him in his mind. Let us know when you’re ready.
Right. Geez, no pressure. What the hell. I can do this. Give me a moment.
Steve thought back to Quinn’s explanation of the timelines. It really was a simple way to describe time, Steve decided. Those lines, with all the Xs they had added, had been a clear and precise way to describe just how mucked up their original timeline had become. Battles, skirmishes, alliances… All were nothing but points of time on a long line that stretched off to infinity. Could he imagine that he, along with Luther and Mina, were nothing more than another X on a line that was slowly ticking forward, like the second hand on a watch?
His focus on the mental scene was gently pulled to the side, until he was facing the nearby trees. Steve angrily shook his head. How were trees supposed to help him?
He refocused his attention back on the path in the woods. Once again his attention was pulled up and to the left until he was looking at a large pine tree that stretched upward for at least a hundred feet.
As he watched the trees gently swaying in the breeze Steve realized that watching the trees were something that could show the passage of time. It could grow larger, it could shed its needles during the seasons, and it could even be cut down.
I’m looking at a tree, Steve announced. It’s not perfect but it’ll work.
A tree? You’re looking a tree and not a line? Luther was silent as he considered. Very well. We may each have different visions but this should still work. Now, we all need to try and accelerate time. Mina, increase the flow the water. Steve, umm, what are you supposed to do? Make the tree grow?
It was swaying earlier, Steve told him.
That will do. Is it swaying now?
Yes.
Then you must make it sway faster.
Easier said than done. How, exactly?
Try to give the tree a mental push.
I did. Nothing happened.
Did you feel any sort of resistance?
It felt like I was trying to push a brick wall, Steve told him.
Steve felt Luther’s excitement.
Well done, Steve!
Well done? The damn thing didn’t move. You don’t offer congratulations for that.
That resistance you felt is the barrier.
Oh. What now?
Collectively we will all push against our barriers at the same time. In essence you are using my strength and Mina’s to move the tree. For Mina you and I are going to help affect the flow of water. And for me, you…
Yeah, yeah, Steve cut in. We’re moving the sun. We got it. Let’s give this a try.
Very well. Mina, Steve, we’re going to focus all our attention, all our energy, on the barrier. Pretend you’re standing directly behind the barrier and give it a mental push, as though a door inside your home is closed and all it needs is a push to open it up.
My barrier is a tree, not a door, Steve pointed out.
It’s the same principle. Go on, give it a try.
Steve focused his attention and thought about the tree. He imagined he was standing directly in front of it and tried giving it a mental push. The tree didn’t give him the slightest indication that it had been affected. He cleared his mind and tried again. Nothing.
Switching tactics, Steve pushed his vision of the tree to the side and brought up an image that infuriated him to no end: waiting in line at a restaurant drive-thru. The car ahead of him was, for whatever reason, holding up the line. Steve imagined he was sitting in his truck and for once, was allowed to throw his truck in gear and push the offending vehicle out of the way.
This time there was no denying the time barrier. Something was pushing him back. There was no way the little hybrid car in front of him would be able to keep from being pushed away from the window. In his drive-thru truck scenario the driver in front of him had thrown his car into reverse and had slammed on the gas.
Steve scowled and stamped down on the accelerator. His truck lurched, pushing the small car a few feet forward.
It’s working! Luther’s excitedly told him. It’s moving!
Steve concentrated harder. He willed the truck to push the errant vehicle out of the way. He felt the barrier slip a few more notches as the car in his drive-thru scenario was forced another few feet away from the cashier’s window. He brought back the image with the tree. It was swaying faster! Not much, but it did look like a healthy breeze was blowing.
Luther’s voice spoke again.
On the count of three we are going to all stop pushing. One, two, three!
Steve mentally took his foot off his truck’s accelerator just as he allowed the drive-thru scenario to vanish.
Wizards be damned! It’s correcting itself!
What?
We should awaken. We must inform the others.
Wait! Inform me first! What the hell just happened?
Luther and Mina’s presence faded from his mind. The tree vanished, followed shortly by the entire vision of the forest path. Steve grunted and groggily sat up in his chair. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. He cast a worried look at Luther, who was staring at him.
“Oh, man. Tell me I didn’t just dream all of that.”
Luther gave him a sad smile.
“You didn’t, my friend. We were able to modify the time barrier.”
“Then why do you look so sad? We did it! We changed the portal’s time! This should be a cause for celebration!”
“On the contrary, all we did was adjust the portal’s time by no more than ten seconds.”
“But we did move it,” Steve argued. “I don’t care how you look at it. It’s good news.”
“Did you do it?” Sarah excitedly asked from the ground floor. “Did I hear that right?”
“Sarah,” Luther called, “could you bring everyone up here? We have some news.”
Less than five minutes later everyone was crowded around the master bedroom doors once more. Steve looked at Luther and indicated the group.
“You’re the gatekeeper. You understand it better than anyone else. You tell them.”
“Very well. We were successful, only –”
Luther trailed off as he was drowned out by Sarah’s whoop of joy, Lissa’s squeal of excitement, and Quinn’s victorious shout.
“Let me finish. It worked, only not by much.”
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked, her joy quickly evaporating. “How far were you able to change it?”
“About ten seconds,” Steve answered. He frowned at Luther. “I don’t care what he says. I think it’s a good thing.”
“Did you not see how difficult it was to accomplish?” Luther argued. “The three of us could barely change it, and that was only for a few seconds. We need to push it forward by over a hundred years! At the rate we were pushing we would run out of strength long before we were anywhere close to where we needed it to be.”
“So you’re saying we need a fourth,” Steve guessed. “Is that it?”
“A fourth what? Gatekeeper? You may have noticed that we don’t have one. There are no more in Lentari.”
In less than sixty seconds the entire group had gone from joyous celebration to utter hopelessness.
Cora gave a quiet cough and cleared her throat. “Perhaps I could help?”
Luther shook his head. He had risen from his chair and was irritably pacing around the top floor.
“You’re not Lentarian,” he angrily told his wife. “You wouldn’t be able to do anything. We need another gatekeeper. Do you understand that? I knew we potentially had two, with myself and Steve. My sister’s arrival was an uncalculated surprise, and a most welcome one, but believe me when I say that there are no more.”
“There is one you’re overlooking,” Cora quietly insisted. She was standing, motionless, with her hands clasped together in front of her. Cora watched as her husband came to a halt directly in front of her. Luther took her hands in his.
“Dearest, you must be mistaken. You know of no one from Lentari. The only gatekeepers that exist happen to be in this very room, nowhere else. Do you understand?”
Cora nodded. “Perfectly. There are four gatekeepers in this room.”
Confused, Luther looked at Steve, then Mina, and finally back at his wife.
“I do not understand.”
Sarah’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hands excitedly as she bounced up and down.
“Oh! Oh! I know!”
Cora smiled warmly at her. She nodded.
“Cora’s pregnant!” Sarah announced to the room. She smiled at Luther. “There’s your fourth gatekeeper. Cora’s baby has Lentarian blood. Your blood, Luther. Just like Steve turned out to be a gatekeeper, so will this baby!”
Luther had sunk back into his chair as he stared at his wife.
“Is it true? Are you pregnant?”
Cora nodded happily. “I’ve had my suspicions but I wasn’t sure until earlier today. I have been waiting for the right opportunity to say something. I guess I couldn’t ask for a better time than now.”
“The baby’s jhorun isn’t going to be that strong,” Steve pointed out. “Are you sure this will work?”
“The level of jhorun matters not,” Luther answered. “As you yourself pointed out, Steve, your natural jhorun, your gatekeeper jhorun, has been reduced in power due to the amount of Lentarian blood in you. You still have it, but it is very weak. Despite that you were still able to help Mina and I modify the portal. The added strength from a fourth gatekeeper will tip the scales in our favor.”
Steve spun in his chair until he had wedged his hand up against the door frame.
“Let’s find out, shall we?”
Chapter 14 – No Time like the Present
“We had that sun flying across the sky,” Steve happily told his wife while the others listened closely. He smiled again as he remembered what had happened in his drive-thru scenario. Thanks to the added strength of a fourth gatekeeper his truck had morphed into a retro muscle car with well over 600 horses under the hood. He had rammed the car that had been holding up the line so hard that he had embedded it in the building across the street. Once the barrier was gone they were easily able to push the portal’s time forward. In fact, it was like someone had hit the fast-forward button on the vision they were watching. They collectively watched the sky go dark as the sun set, then in only a matter of minutes it brightened as the new day started. Flexing their mental muscle, they pushed harder and watched the scene flicker between day and night so fast that it had become a blur.
Just as before, once they stopped modifying the portal’s time it would slowly revert back to what it was originally preset to. Their window of opportunity would only be open for about five seconds before the portal started to revert back to its original state. That meant Steve would have to help get the portal tuned to his own time and once he released his hold he’d have less than five seconds to hurry through before the time would start reverting back to normal.
As Luther explained what was going to happen Sarah brought up a very good point, silencing everyone on the spot.
“How are we going to know when you guys have hit the correct time on the portal? If you’re moving time that fast, couldn’t you accidentally exceed the right time and end up going too far forward?”
Steve, Mina, and Cora all looked expectantly over at Luther.
“That’ll be the difficult part,” Luther admitted. “The only thing we can do is slow the passage of time as we watch the events transpire or else we could determine how many nights must pass in order to be at the correct time. Then we could count how many days and nights as they pass by.”
“That sounds very time consuming,” Quinn observed. “May I make a suggestion?”
Steve nodded. “You’ve got the floor, professor.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Forget it. What’s on your mind?”
“One of you ought to change the portal’s destination. Point the portal at something that you can easily follow through time.”
Steve nodded as he looked over at his ancestor. “That could work. What do you think would be the best thing to watch?”
The schoolmaster was ready with an answer.
“The portal we all fell in. That way you could theoretically watch us fall in again and since Steve said he was the last one to go through it then once you see him go in you’ll know you’ve arrived at the right place. And then…”
“And then Luther would have the power to change the portal back to where it’s supposed to be pointing too,” Steve finished. He grinned at their resident scholar. “Well done, Quinn!”
