Kay Hooper - The Wizard Of Seattle

"Of all our abilities, it's the most dangerous." His gaze turned to her, still brooding. "It's also forbidden without the approval of the Council."

"Do we… have its approval?"

Merlin shook his head.

All Serena knew of the Council of Elders was that it was the ultimate authority among wizards. Merlin hadn't told her much more than that. But it was enough to make her feel a little chilled just then.

She attempted a laugh that didn't quite come off. "You, Richard, breaking a rule?"

His mouth twisted oddly. "If I had not broken another… Well, never mind that now. I'll deal with the Council, if need be, when we return."

"This is very important," she realized.

"Very."

"Why?" She wasn't sure he would answer.

Merlin hesitated. "The less you know about the specifics, the better our chances of success."

"Really?" She couldn't help doubting that.

"Really, Serena. I'll take an oath if you like, but I hope you won't need that from me. The truth is I honestly believe that for you to know everything at this point is to invite potential disaster."

The sincerity in his voice convinced Serena he meant what he said. It was frustrating, but she had to trust that he knew what he was doing. "All right. What can you tell me?"

Merlin obviously chose his words carefully. "I believe that something went wrong in our past."

"Our past?"

"The past of wizards. I can't be sure, since it was so long ago and most of the records haven't survived- either because of the passage of time or because they were deliberately destroyed. All I am certain of is that we must go back and try to understand what happened."

She frowned. "And change it?"

Again he hesitated. "I don't know. That decision can only be made when we have more information. If we make a mistake-change too much or the wrong thing-we could destroy our present."

Serena felt another chill. "If we did that-made a mistake in the past, I mean-then couldn't we go back again and just fix the mistake?"

Merlin shook his head. "Not even a wizard can exist twice in the same time and place. Paradox: the bane of time travel. Once we go back, then we were there."

"Yes, but…" Serena chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to figure that out.

Patiently Merlin said, "There are two paradoxes in time travel. The first is our inability to alter our individual lives-our personal time lines-in any way whatsoever. Any change, however minor, affects who and what we became; that, in turn, affects our reason for going back in the first place."

Serena blinked. "Um… I'm confused."

He smiled briefly. "All right, then consider the example today's thinkers like to offer when they say time travel is impossible. Suppose you build a time machine, and it takes you back along your personal time line- which is, in effect, the direct line of your ancestry. You encounter your father years before your own conception. Either directly or merely by your presence, you influence events in his life, and he dies."

She waited, then said, "And so?"

"And so it isn't possible. If your father dies before your conception, then you are never born to build a time machine and travel back in time. Paradox."

That example worked. Serena nodded slowly. "I get it. We can't do anything that would directly affect our own present, because it would change too much for us to be able to go back."

"Close enough," Merlin murmured.

"But you said there were two kinds of paradoxes. What's the second one?"

"In a sense the second is much simpler. Once we go back, we were there. What do you suppose would happen, Serena, if you went back to the same place a second time and came face-to-face with yourself?"

She shivered. "That's eerie."

"It's also dangerous. The theory is that a duplication of self occupying the same place and time would fracture that time line. Destroy it-or unalterably change what must be."

Serena cleared her throat. "So what would happen to me in that case? Both of me?"

"I can only offer you another theoretical answer. In theory, there would be, from that point on, two separate Serena's in two separate-and probably quite different-time lines. Alternate lives, alternate futures, and both of you would be diminished."

"Yuk." She stared at him. "I don't like the sound of that at all."

"I should hope not."

"So we only go back once."

"We could go back to an earlier or later time, or another place in the same time, but we aren't allowed the luxury of repeating our actions until we're satisfied with them." He looked at her steadily. "It's a one-shot deal, Serena. We have to get it right the first time."

After a moment she said, "But how can we go back into the past of wizards? Won't that affect our present?"

"Not yours or mine, no, at least not directly. I've traced our ancestries back as far as possible, and neither of our personal time lines in any way touches Atlantis."

Serena leaned forward slowly in her chair, reaching out for the edge of the desk as if for support. "Atlantis? The lost continent? That's where we're going?"

"Yes." A frown tugged at his brows, and he said almost to himself, "Still a risk if we change anything, unless there were no survivors. And if there were no survivors, how could what happened there have changed the history of wizards?"

A little numb, she murmured, "Another paradox?"

Merlin stopped scowling and shrugged. "Perhaps. But there must have been survivors. At least one. Someone had to tell the others what happened there. Someone had to know what had gone wrong, or else why would they have felt so strongly that they made the law-and made it so inviolate."

"What law?"

He looked at her for a long moment, then shook his head a little. "The point is that someone must have survived the destruction of Atlantis, and because of that person's beliefs or experiences, a decision was made that altered the society of wizards. That's the only possible answer."

Aware that her question hadn't been answered, but assuming it was because she had strayed into the part of all this he didn't want her to know about, Serena merely said, "Are you sure it was only one person?"

"I'm not sure of anything. My guess is that there couldn't have been more than a few survivors. Atlantis was too remote, and travel too difficult in those days, for it to be very likely that many escaped."

"Surely they had time to plan their escape. Wouldn't there have been some kind of warning? I mean, the whole continent vanished. Even if it sank all at once, wouldn't the people have realized long before it actually happened that they were heading for disaster?"

Merlin shrugged again. "It's difficult to say. I doubt the continent existed in calm for years and then simply disappeared one day; there must have been earthquakes, volcanic activity-something. But that may have been going on for so long that the people simply accepted it as normal. Or they may have been trapped there with no way of escape. Or, even more likely, they may not have realized that their whole world could vanish so completely. Look at the people today who build houses and businesses along earthquake fault lines, Serena; they may know the risks intellectually, but do you honestly think they really face the knowledge that one day it could all be gone?"

"I see what you mean. So the people of Atlantis might have gone blindly to their fate. But at least one escaped."

"I believe that must have happened. Atlantis was so cut off from the other civilizations in the world that no one could have known for certain what happened there unless they were told by a witness."

"Were there a lot of wizards then?" Serena asked curiously.

"More than today-relative to the population at least. And those in Atlantis were probably in some sort of control over their society."