John Schettler - Anvil of Fate

“I did say we were getting very clever,” said Rantgar.

“Clever is a word and a half for it,” said Paul. “This is the second time we’ve had unexpected guests come in through the Arch. The thought that we would find an Assassin there has also crossed our minds. This is maddening! What’s to stop them from shifting in here and killing us all? We thought we were indispensible, but that’s clearly no longer the case.”

“Oh, I’m sure they would love to do just that,” said Rantgar, but they can’t. They based their technology on quantum string theory. We use the singularity that you first developed. So our Arch corona is fully compatible with yours, but their system is… well, on another wavelength, as it were. Think of it like the AM and FM band on your radios. The two wavelengths can’t be tuned in at the same time. They did this deliberately, you know. Otherwise we would have just shifted in commandos and taken out all their Arch complexes when we had the upper hand on them. Now, when they have the advantage, the situation affords us some small measure of protection. So have no fear. Besides that, you can stop an incoming shift at your whim, as you probably know. Though I’m very grateful you allowed me to come through. Things were about to get very complicated for me on my assigned Meridian, and this seemed a safe way to solve the problem.”

“Well you should have sent commandos to take out all their Arch sites while you could,” said Robert.

“The trouble, of course, is finding them,” said Rantgar. “Look how long it took your whole American Army to hunt down Bin Ladin, ten years! In like manner, their Arch complexes are deviously hidden, as are ours.”

“Rantgar…” Maeve suddenly remembered the significance of this man’s name. “That’s the name of Grimwald’s assassin! Are you saying that you are the man responsible for his death?”

“Forgive me, but yes. I am Rantgar of Frisia, the ‘impious wretch’ spoken of in the continuation of the Chronicles of Fredegar . I was sent back to assure the death of Grimwald in the year 714, though my post starts much earlier. I arrive in the year 700, you see. It does take some time to worm one’s way into the thick of the weave in any given milieu. So I lived out my time there until things started to change. We got word that Lambert’s martyrdom had somehow been prevented by the other side. The ramifications were severe, as you undoubtedly know, because it affected my mission assignment considerably. So the Order was establishing an alternative scenario concerning the elimination of Grimwald, when, well, someone took a shot at me with a poisoned tipped arrow while I was out hunting one day! It seems the Assassins are keen on eliminating me from the picture. But at that very moment I had stooped to tighten a strap on my leggings, and the arrow whizzed harmlessly by. Needless to say, I have been told to be on guard.”

“The Assassins were trying to kill you?” said Paul. “Then I guess the gloves are coming off in this difference of opinion. When I fell through the Well of Souls I was treated with the utmost respect and deference by my captors.”

“Things have changed,” said Rantgar. “I’m afraid they are not so polite now. This is war, ladies and gentlemen, and I’m afraid you’ll have to pick a side. We know your actions to date have been in the interest of preserving your own view of things, the history that you have stored here in your computers, but I’m afraid you’ll have to make some hard choices in the days and years ahead.”

“Then you were sent here for your own personal safety?” asked Maeve.

“Precisely,” said Rantgar. “Once warned that all operatives were now considered at risk, I tried to keep a very low profile. You’ll see that the history has very little to say about this man, Rantgar. He appears at a critical moment, slays Grimwald, and then just seems to vanish. No mention of him in any other narrative on the period. He disappears, you see, because I’m the man who ends up killing Pippin’s legitimate son, and then, immediately afterwards, I’m scheduled to shift safely away to my home Meridian.”

“To the future,” said Paul.

“Yes, but I can’t get back there now. No one can. Palma’s Shadow is simply too intense. So when the Order discovered that you good people were running an intervention they bent all their remaining resources to assisting its successful completion. We saw the continuum open at the dates presumed for the Battle of Tours, and at first we wondered what you were about there, because we knew the real problem started much earlier, with the Bishop Lambert. But it seems you are as resourceful as we had hoped, and you managed to identify the crucial Nexus Points in play here. Bravo! Our heartfelt congratulations.”

He nodded his head with a smile, then sighed heavily. “But I’m afraid they’re trying to kill me now that you’ve reassured Lambert’s death. At first I received instructions to head east and get as far away from Gaul as possible. But one leaves a subtle impression on history, in spite of every effort to remain anonymous and unseen. So the only real way to assure my safety was to remove me from the Meridian entirely. When research determined the most likely hour and place for Ms. Lindford’s retraction, an opportunity arose to try and move me forward. And so here I am. On ice, as it were.”

“Rantgar….” Nordhausen turned the name over in his mind, trying to remember source material he had uncovered in the research. “Yes, he was a Frisian, the son of Belial, a pagan of the house of Ratbod of Frisia, who remained unconverted and at odds with Pippin when he came to power. The two reached an accommodation when Ratbod betrothed one of his daughters to Pippin’s son Grimwald. Our history seems to think Rantgar assassinated Grimwald because of some conflict surrounding this daughter. Yes, the heathen Rantgar, or so he was called. One of history’s rogues, I suppose.”

“Well they can’t very well know the real reason we had to kill Grimwald, eh?”

“You’re murdering Primes?” said Maeve, with just a hint of derision in her voice.

“When we must,” said the visitor. “Grimwald isn’t really a Prime, however. Unlike the good Bishop Lambert…” He let that dangle a moment. “No one is going to build a shrine to Grimwald, or a chapel that becomes a city in future days, as with Lambert. But when our enemies act to preserve the life of a man fated to die, then we must have no scruples in setting that history right again. It may be very uncomfortable, but there it is. I only just learned that your intervention in the case of the Bishop Lambert was successful. I’m sure it wasn’t the most pleasant experience for you, but your screen there clearly shows the awful consequences were this man allowed to live out his life. So we have hardened ourselves with the understanding that we must sometimes do some very despicable things to preserve the lives of countless billions, and the culture and history we hold dear.”

“You keep saying you were warned about these events,” said Paul. “That you received instructions; that you already knew Maeve’s intervention was successful.”

“As I said,” the man continued, “we can get information through Palma’s Shadow. The other side can as well.”

Paul was suddenly very curious. “How?” he asked. “Have you mastered quantum entanglement across Space-Time?”

“Well, wouldn’t that be nice!” said Rantgar. “No, I’m afraid we just do things in a fairly straightforward manner. We shift back messages. Dull but effective. The other sided uses rubbings from their hidden touchstone, in a language we’ve been unable to decipher, the ancient Hieroglyphics of Egypt.”