Chapter 8

Meanwhile, gentle reader, from their concealed vantage point overlooking the Black Tower, my mother and Aunt Mandalee watched as yet another group of slaves were escorted to receive Ulvarius’ tender care. Aunt Mandalee had been growing increasingly restless with every batch, and now she’d had enough.

Pulling a pair of swords from the scabbards on her back, she stood and declared, “No more.”

“Mandalee, get down!” Cat hissed in warning.

In theory, while they were still in their Timeless state, they were undetectable. But given Ulvarius’ own power plus what he had gained from an unstable fragment of a dimensional control device, she didn’t want to chance it.

“Come on, Cat!” Mandalee shot back, refusing to do as she was asked. “You can’t really be OK with this. Those are innocent people being taken to him in his Tower.”

“You think I don’t know that? Of course I’m not OK with it, but this is history. This happened. We can’t go changing history because we don’t like it.”

“Why not?” Mandalee demanded. “This isn’t some grey area where we can’t be sure who’s in the right. This is clear cut: Ulvarius is evil and those people, whoever they are, don’t deserve what he has in store for them. I accept that we can’t go in there and kill the bastard ourselves for the sake of history, but that doesn’t mean we can’t rob him of some of his victims.”

Cat was torn. She could see her friend’s point, but she was still worried about impacting history more than they had to.

“We can’t predict the outcome of our actions here.”

“Sounds just like every other day of our lives to me,” Mandalee countered. “I know we can’t save everyone, but surely every person we rescue is a victory.”

“Is it, though? What if, because he doesn’t get person A, he kills person B instead? Isn’t that on us?”

Mandalee was adamant in her response, “No, it’s on him.”

“But what if somebody dies who’s supposed to live, or somebody lives who’s supposed to die?”

“You didn’t worry about that when you created a whole new world to try and save it,” Mandalee pointed out.

“That wasn’t me, that was the other me. The one from the original Tempestria.”

“Like you would have done anything different in her place!” Mandalee scoffed.

Cat flushed. Her friend was right, and she knew it. She would have done the same thing, but surely that was different, wasn’t it?

“She – I – only did that because it was the end of the world, otherwise.”

“Cat, every person out there who is going to die today – for them, this is the end of the world.”

Cat laughed, incredulously, “So you’re going to fight death now, are you?”

Mandalee wasn’t laughing. “Isn’t that what living is? Isn’t that why we saved the world from Kullos? Don’t you think that’s why I fight at all? Of course I’m fighting death, and of course I’m going to lose in the end, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop fighting. Every day I live is a victory against death. Every time I save a life, that’s a victory, too.”

“What about when you kill?” Cat blurted out before she could stop herself.

She didn’t even know why she’d asked – she knew better than that. She cringed away from the look of shock and fury in her friend’s eyes, bracing herself from the onslaught that was coming.

“I take life in defence of life, Cat,” Mandalee seethed. “I thought you understood that! I kill those who seek to take the lives of innocent people. By killing those people, I am saving lives. I act in the name of their victims, past and future. You know that!

“You’ve killed, too. Those clerics that used their entire congregation, including children, to attack you. You ended their lives because not doing so would have been to allow them to abuse more innocent people. Then there’s that prisoner you tortured – you still haven’t explained that, by the way – so don’t you dare start questioning my morality!”

“I’m not!” Cat protested.

“No?”

She hung her head. “I didn’t mean to,” she promised softly. “I’m sorry. Of course, I know why you kill, and you’re right – about that and about the morality of this situation. We should help, obviously we should. It’s just…I never thought it would be like this, our first job as Guardians. I thought we’d have had long discussions with the Council, laid down the rules. I don’t like going into a situation, not knowing the rules.”

“Rubbish!” her friend scoffed, not buying it. Cat looked up at her, doing her best to meet her friend’s gaze. “How many times did you make up your own rules when we were up against Kullos?”

“That’s different,” Cat refuted. “I didn’t have time to sit and wait like this. Time to fret. Time to worry.”

Mandalee narrowed her eyes as she studied Catriona’s face. A face she knew better than her own – literally, given the way it recently changed along with her body. Sheathing her swords, she crouched down opposite her.

“Nope,” she shook her head. “Still not buying it. It’s closer to the mark, but it’s still not right.” She reached out to her friend. There was something wrong, and Mandalee was determined that it was her job to find out what it was. “Third and final chance, Cat,” she insisted. “What’s really going on?”

Trembling, Cat let out a deep sigh. “He wanted to kill my baby,” she whispered.

“What?” Mandalee gasped, unable to process what she’d just heard. “Who did?”

“That man I tortured. At first, I thought he was being controlled. There was definitely another presence inside him, but it wasn’t controlling him. It was more like a passenger, encouraging him to do it, but not forcing. He wanted to do it. Can you believe that?”

She burst into tears at the horror of the memory.

Mandalee held her friend, her own tears flowing in wordless shock and sympathy.

“You want to talk about killing to protect the innocent? Well, that’s why I did it. He actually wanted to slaughter my unborn baby.”

“But you didn’t even know you were pregnant then,” Mandalee protested, unable to grasp the concept.

“He was from the future,” Cat explained. “I don’t know how, but he was. He knew. As for me, I didn’t know whether he was right about my being pregnant or delusional. It didn’t matter. His intent was the same either way and cutting my belly open with those claw weapons would have made the question academic.”

Mandalee continued to hold her friend close and rock her gently. “But he didn’t succeed. You stopped him, and he won’t get the chance to hurt anyone ever again.”

Cat pulled away. “But that’s just it – I didn’t stop him!” she insisted. “That other being did. The figure with the white aura.”

Mandalee didn’t see the difference. “He was stopped either way. Surely that’s what counts.”

Cat smiled, ruefully and shook her head, telling Mandalee there was something she wasn’t seeing.

“Have you looked in a mirror since I changed your body?”

Trying to lighten the mood, Mandalee quipped, “Are you kidding? I have to look every day to make sure it was real, and I didn’t dream it all. Besides, how do you think I did my make-up this morning? It doesn’t apply itself by magic, you know.” She paused and considered that. “Actually, do you think it could – you know – with the right magic? Because that would be awesome.”

Ignoring Mandalee’s question, Cat qualified her own. “Have you checked your reflection as the White Guardian, while Timeless?”

Mandalee scratched her head, considering that. “No,” she admitted. “I don’t think I have.”

Cat stood up and motioned for her friend to do the same. Then, the druidess put her hand in her pouch of sand, sprinkled some in the air and worked her magic to conjure a full-length mirror. She gestured for Mandalee to look.

The White Guardian had no idea what her friend was driving at, or what any of this had to do with her reluctance to save people in this time. As a healer, though, she knew that often a patient would guide their own treatment. Before she could help anyone else in this time, Mandalee first needed to help her friend, so if looking into a mirror would somehow help Cat, then that’s what she would do. When she finally did, she instantly turned away. She couldn’t believe what it was showing her, but when she looked again, it was the same vision. Somehow, her image was that of a figure floating in the air, glowing with a white aura. Not quite the same as what she had seen by Catriona’s side that day, just before the final push to fight Kullos’ army, but close enough to remove all doubt.

“How long have you known?” Mandalee asked.

Cat stepped around to stand in front of the mirror herself, and Mandalee could see her reflection was similar, only with an aura of red.

“Known? Since I saw your reflection in the river in my Meadow,” Cat replied. “Suspected? Since the moment it happened. I mean, come on – a figure in white materialises out of nowhere to stand by my side and protect me when I need help more than ever? Who else would it be? It had to be you. It’s always been you. Even though that one time I wasn’t there for you and Shyleen, you’ve never once failed to be there for me. Why would the future be any different?”

“So, let me get this straight,” Mandalee breathed, trying to wrap her head around it. “One day, when I get a lot more powers than anything I have now, I’m going to travel back in time to that moment and save you?”

“Not just to save me,” Cat told her. “To save your niece.”

“Niece?”

“Or nephew,” she added as an afterthought. “Either way, you’ll be an aunt.”

“Technically, I’d have to be your sister for that,” Mandalee pointed out.

Cat looked genuinely puzzled at that, as the mirror returned to the sand that created it. “You are my sister,” she insisted. “How are you not my sister?”

“Biologically?” the White Guardian smiled, mischievously.

Cat snorted, derisively. “Like you weren’t biologically female? Screw biology. You’re a woman, you’re my best friend, and you’re my sister, and yes, one day, you will travel back to protect us. But not if you get yourself killed here, trying to protect people who are already dead, according to history.”

Mandalee wasn’t unsympathetic, but she couldn’t let Catriona’s fears stop her. “Cat—”

“—Yes, I know it’s selfish,” she interrupted. “But there it is. I’m scared, Mandalee.”

Finally, the White Guardian felt like they were getting to the heart of why her friend seemed so paralysed and unwilling to act.

“When I rushed recklessly into danger before, I was only risking myself,” Cat continued. “If I do that now, it’s not just my life on the line; it’s the life of your future niece or nephew, ‘Aunt Mandalee’.”

Mandalee took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She got it. How could she not? Cat wasn’t afraid for herself, but for her child. How could she criticise? Her friend was right – of course she would travel back in Time to protect them both. As for what Catriona did to that man – he was threatening, even delighting in the idea of murdering a pregnant woman to slaughter her unborn child. How could any response be considered extreme or unjustified against that? But despite her future self’s efforts, that incident had left a scar. Not a physical one – the would-be foetus murderer hadn’t laid a finger on her – but a psychological one.

Mandalee supposed things had been too full-on immediately after that incident for Cat to dwell on it. Then after revealing her pregnancy and the downtime between the fall of Kullos and this morning, relatively speaking, she had obviously been thinking about it.

But this wasn’t Catriona. Not really. This wasn’t the person she had befriended years ago, stuck naked in one of her demon traps. The person who’d spent two days running around as a Trickster just to get her hands on a book with a tarnished reputation. The Catriona she knew and loved – her best friend, her sister – she was full of ridiculous radical ideas. That was who she was, and after helping Mandalee find her true self, she wasn’t going to let Catriona shy away from being the bright, vibrant young woman that was her true self.

After a moment, the assassin felt she had her argument straight in her head, and began, “Forget that this is the past, for the moment, and forget about time travel. Can you do that?”

Cat nodded.

“Now, imagine the future. Your personal future. A future in which you’ve long since given birth and your child isn’t a child anymore. They’re all grown up.”

“They do that so fast, these days,” she sighed, wistfully.

Mandalee had to hide a smile to prevent things from getting off track. “Just imagine your future child is about our age.”

Again, Cat nodded and closed her eyes, trying to focus. She sucked at visualisation – seeing pictures in her head. She wondered if it was related to the fact that she didn’t recall dreams or even remember having dreamt at all. But she did her best to pretend to herself that she could see the future that Mandalee was describing.

“In front of his – or her – eyes, he – or she—”

“Let’s go with ‘she’,” Cat suggested. “Easier on the pronouns.”

“Alright,” Mandalee agreed. “She sees a group of innocent people being taken away to be tortured and killed by a terrible tyrant. Let’s say an evil shadow warrior.”

“Impossible,” Cat objected, her eyes snapping open. “There aren’t any more shadow warriors.”

“Just go with it, OK?” Mandalee implored her.

Cat held her hands up in surrender. “OK, OK. Sorry. Evil shadow warrior tyrant. I’m imagining, I’m imagining!” She closed her eyes again. “Go on.”

“Right, well, she can’t get at the tyrant because he’s too well protected, so what does she do?” Mandalee asked.

“She does what she can,” Cat answered. “She saves as many lives as possible while she gains the knowledge and power to stop him permanently.”

“What if that’s somehow against the rules? What if there’s some messed-up law that means she can’t interfere?”

“Then she’s like, ‘Screw the rules. Screw the law. Doing the right thing is more important to me’.”

“What if there are unforeseen consequences?”

“Then she’ll face them. But right now, at this moment, she’s going to help those people.”

“Really?” Mandalee shot back, acting scandalised. “Where do you suppose she picked up that kind of reckless attitude?”

Cat smiled and opened her eyes. She could see what her friend was doing. “From me, I hope.”

“And how are you going to teach her that? By sitting here and refusing to help because you’re worried about whether it breaks some rules, or it’s against some messed up law of Time, or you’re scared of possible future consequences?”

Cat shook her head. “No,” she insisted. “I’m going to show her by doing what she would do in my place – I’m going to help.”

“But we might change the future!” Mandalee protested. “People might die who lived before.”

“And I’m sorry for that, but I’m not a god or an Angel. I’m just a simple half-Faery druid girl who’s going to do her best to deal with what’s in front of her.”

“People might live who were supposed to die,” Mandalee objected.

“And what’s wrong with that? They’ll be alive. Isn’t that good?”

“What about future consequences?”

Cat grinned. “Screw them! I’ll deal with them later. For now, I’m doing the right thing.”

Mandalee shook her head. “No, Cat. We will deal with the consequences – just as we’re going to deal with what’s in front of us – together.”

She held out a hand to her friend, but Cat was having none of it.

“As you once told Dreya, ‘Screw the handshake.’” She hugged her friend tight. “Thanks, Mandalee. You’re the best.”

“Hey, don’t squeeze too tight,” the assassin warned her. “You’re carrying my future niece in there!”

“It’s OK, she’s tough,” Cat assured her, breaking the embrace. “Don’t you know? She just saved a whole bunch of people from an evil shadow warrior in the future!”

“Did she really?”

Cat nodded. “I saw it all so clearly. She was awesome.”

“Of course she was,” Mandalee stated as though it were obvious. “She’s your daughter.”

“And your niece!” Cat reminded her. “She reckons she’s got the best aunt ever, you know?”

“Really? In that case, I think it’s about time we did something to earn our future reputations, don’t you?”

“Definitely,” Cat agreed.

As one, then, they dropped their connection to Catriona’s Meadow, let go of their Timeless state and entered the local Timestream.

Ulvarius’ undead army was escorting another batch of victims to the Black Tower, but Ulvarius was about to be disappointed. His endless supply of living test specimens was hereby cut off.

First, though, there was one more thing Mandalee had to do. She deftly lifted a bottle of beer out of a pocket and downed it in one.

“I always drink when I’m on duty, remember?” she said, answering Cat’s unspoken question. “Besides, I’m about to interfere in the past for the first time. There’s no way I’m doing that sober.”