L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

How could he not…when she had already been through so much?

Finally, he looked at her again. I love you. I trust you. Do what you feel is right.

I love you…more than you know.

Maarlyna turned slightly and stepped forward. So did the indistinct figure…and they merged. Just as suddenly, Maertyn and Maarlyna stood alone in a small room. Thin consoles sheathed in golden-silver light lined the walls. Several panels on the consoles displayed stylized digits he could read, and letters he could not. At the same time, he had the feeling that the consoles were both there…and not there…although they did not flicker in and out of existence.

"What happened?" Maertyn swallowed.

The woman before him had Maarlyna?s features and slim figure, but the amber eyes were now silver, and her hair was a shade that somehow combined gold and silver without appearing old. And she wore the scarlet singlesuit.

"You…you?re the one, now, who appeared in the tube-train station?"

"Not exactly. That was a probability construct of the…canal." A sad smile crossed her lips. "I have a faint recollection of that, just as my memories of the Maarlyna who was before you healed her are faint."

"Why you?" asked Maertyn.

Maarlyna looked at him. "Why me? Did you hear what she said?"

He shook his head, trying to concentrate on his wife…if she were any longer just his wife.

"She said that I have less knowledge than others, but that knowledge can be learned. What cannot be learned is to see things as they are…as once in ancient times, a poet said, to see them played upon a blue guitar…" Maarlyna offered an embarrassed smile, one that recalled the woman he loved. "I couldn?t make up words like that, you know?"

Maertyn had liked the flow of those words, and the feeling they evoked, but could only guess at the instrument to which they referred. "But…what was she?…and you?"

"She was the construct…the…pattern…the knowledge…of the last keeper of the Bridge…the canal." Maarlyna took his hand, and hers was cool, but still warm enough for him to know that she was indeed still there. "We need to go back. I…we have some things to do."

"Where?"

"Back in the station. It?s easier there, or it will be for them."

"Them? Are the black-shirts in the station? How could they-"

"No. These aren?t the Gaerda. I can?t explain yet, not exactly, because I?m still two people, except I?m not, and I?m afraid if I don?t do what I must while I still know what it is, I won?t be either." Maarlyna began to walk back along the corridor, now lit in the pervasive silver-gold, but without any consoles.

"What are you going to do?"

"Prevent the unraveling of eternity…in our universe. If I can…The keeper…the pattern…said I could…"

The unraveling of the universe? Maertyn wanted to shake his head. In the space of a few days, his once-quiet wife had gone from someone he thought he knew into someone very different, more confident…and someone or even something possibly far more powerful. And he really didn?t understand why or how, all because he?d maneuvered himself into getting assigned an obscure research project, as much to protect her as anything.

He found he had to walk quickly to keep up with her as she walked through what was, or had been, the lower kitchen area and up the ramp to the main level and into his laboratory. There she glanced around. So did Maertyn. All his tables and equipment were there, but overlying them were colored but more than ghost-like images of consoles sheathed in light.

Maarlyna kept looking, although Maertyn had the feeling she was looking somewhere he could not see.

Then the light shifted again, and Maarlyna seemed to shimmer, as if she were there, and not quite there, except she was. Before her, as if through a shining veil or a misty mirror, stood two indistinct figures, although one was apparently a tall woman clad in pale golden armor, or something similar.

Maarlyna said something, but it meant nothing to Maertyn. He concentrated, realizing that the little he "heard" was in his mind and thoughts.

…face the end of eternity…

Why…nothing fixed before? asked one of the ghost images.

You could not see it…needed key and keeper…no time…You perceive…continuityas…temporal…no time. There are only…event-points.

…something you're doing for us?

That is what a keeper does.

With those words, Maertyn sensed sadness…melancholy. He wondered why and lost his concentration on what was going on before him.

…universe…a pivot point…battle…that will decide whether all continues.

What about you?

I am the keeper…last keeper fought…the ring in the heavens…

Maertyn tried to follow the seemingly mental interchanges, but lost much of what Maarlyna was saying. He did get a sense that whoever she addressed faced a far bigger problem than he and she did, and that the political machinations of Tauzn were almost trivial by comparison.

Suddenly, the light changed, and the two of them stood alone in the workroom.

Maarlyna looked very tired.

"Are you all right?"

"We need to eat."

"Can you tell me what all that was about?" Maertyn rubbed his forehead, trying to massage away the headache he hadn?t realized that he even had.

"After we eat. Doing…that…is harder than I thought."

"Doing what?"

"Talking across time. But time doesn?t work that way." She turned. "I have to eat something. I?ll tell you then."

Her face was pale. He didn?t say another word, just took her hand and walked out of the laboratory and down the ramp to the kitchen area.

The darkness vanished. Duhyle and Helkyria stood in her workroom-or what had been her workroom. The worktables and equipment were there, untouched, but over and around them were ghost images of consoles sheathed in silver-gold light. Behind them, Duhyle sensed Symra, but he did not look back because between Helkyria and Duhyle stood a woman in a scarlet singlesuit. Her hair was silver-gold. Her eyes were silver, her features fine on an oval face. Behind and to her left was another figure, in silver and gray, barely visible, an image as insubstantial as those of the consoles.

You face the end of eternity. The words filled Duhyle?s thoughts.

That's possible, replied Helkyria.

Why was nothing settled or fixed before? asked Duhyle.

The woman in scarlet smiled, apologetically. It was as fixed as it ever was. You could notsee it as such.

Why can we now? Helkyria?s words were hard.

The woman in red glanced to the silver-shadowed figure to her left, as if inquiring, then finally spoke. You needed key and keeper.

Who or what are the key and keeper? asked Helkyria. Why would the canal need that,since it stands in de pen dent of time?

Not in de pen dent, warrior woman, not in de pen dent. The scarlet woman tilted her head, as if listening, then nodded. There is…no time…You perceive…continuity as…temporal.The canal…Bifrost Bridge…is linked to all event-points in this universe over which itwas…constructed.

Duhyle frowned. The keeper sounded hesitant, as if she was having trouble explaining. Were the Vanir that backward? Or…Why hadn?t the keeper appeared at first? Or was it simply a linguistic problem?

Time is a mere perception? interjected Helkyria. Then the synchronizer would notwork…and we would not be here, wherever or whenever here is…

There is no time. There are only…event-points. The experience of those event-pointscreates the perception of time in all intelligences.

Duhyle slowly turned his head and looked at Helkyria, simultaneously wearing the ice-blue singlesuit and formfitting armor running from her neck to wrists and ankles and comprised of small diamond-shapes of silver-gold light.