“How’s the training going?” Silver inquired.
“It feels like I’m trying to wear my skin inside out.”
“That bad?”
He glanced and saw Silver was smiling. “Wipe the feces-eating grin off your face.”
Silver shrugged. “Really, is it that bad?”
“I don’t think I have the talent for this. I feel like I’m in some sort of medieval movie with comedic overtones.”
Silver shook his head. “You’ll get the hang of it, and you’ll become better than you will realize. I don’t know if Cassandra told you, but training pays off when you’re in the direst of situation. Do you think all of that swinging of your weapon is just for show? It’s just like in martial arts. Your body eventually remembers, and you just have to put it to use when the time comes.”
“You seem like you know a lot about this. You went through training, too?”
Silver nodded. “Cassandra trained me, too. Well, she will, or however you want to look at it.”
“Tell me . . . how do I turn out?”
“You know I can’t tell you that.”
“I’m not looking for specifics. Throw me a bone here.”
“I can tell you that everything you have gone through, and will go through, will all be worth it. I’ll tell you this, too: sometimes it will be very hard, and other times will feel like a dream.”
“It doesn’t seem so right now.”
“That’s always been your greatest weakness. You don’t give yourself enough credit for being the person you are. You’ve changed a lot of people in your life. You just don’t realize it.”
Ken shook his head. There were a handful of people he could think of, but they weren’t changed in the good way, and he regretted his actions toward them every day of his life.
“How about we do a little more training? It’ll take your mind off of things.”
“How will we do that?”
“Let’s try some target practice.”
* * *
“I always wonder about this phasing thing here. What happens if you blow something up in here?”
“You can’t, actually. Due to the fluctuation and solidification here, inanimate objects can’t be destroyed. I think.”
“You think?”
“I’ve never seen anything that could chip away at anything here.”
Ken tapped on his car with his hand. It still felt like metal, but was cold to the touch.
“For example,” Silver said.
Ken turned and saw Silver collect a ball of energy into his right hand, and tossed it at Ken’s house.
Before Ken could shout an objection, the ball exploded against the house. When the smoke cleared, there was no damage; not even a scratch or crack.
“See?” Silver pointed.
“Warn me before you do that, you twisted moron!”
* * *
“Do I always have to throw it?”
“No. When you don’t have enough room to move, you can use a little bit of space-time to ‘push’ it out of your grasp. Think like a gun, or cannon.”
Ken calculated, the ball appeared in his hand, and he held it forward. He kept that image in his head, then pulled some more space-time and ‘repulsed’ the ball away from him. It flew from his grasp and created a small explosion.
“Not bad,” he could hear Silver comment.
Silver was some thirty paces away.
“What are you doing over there? Did I do something wrong again?”
“No. I just need to teach you something else.”
“What’s that?”
It was almost too quick to react.
Silver calculated and tossed an energy ball at Ken in one motion.
In a panic, Ken threw up his hands in a futile attempt to block the attack. He could only think about defending himself.
The ball exploded. Ken was expecting to be knocked back – a limb taken off at a minimum – but all he felt was a sting across his body, almost like one would feel when touching a pot that was too hot. He took stock of his limbs, found them all, and was relieved he was fine.
“What’d you do that for!?”
“So that you’d do just what you did.”
There was a distinct blue ‘haze’ in front of Ken, and disappeared when the danger had passed.
“That was a ‘dispersal field,’ or what we just call a ‘field’ for short. It diverts some space-time energy away from you, making an effect lighter than it would have been.”
In retaliation, Ken quickly tossed a ball at Silver. Instead of creating a field like Ken did, Silver used his staff to bat the ball away into the air. It exploded far away from them.
“You’re getting faster. Splendid. Now try it again. This time, make it bigger.”
* * *
“So, what do you think?” Silver asked Cassandra.
She was propped up against Ken’s car, watching Ken swing his pipe as practice strikes. Silver took up a spot next to her.
“Stiff. An amateur. But that’s what I expected. He’s got no experience.”
“Is he workable?”
“If you think he’s going to be a master combatant by the end of the week, you need a miracle worker, not a trainer. And even then, I’m not a trainer . . . I’ve never trained anyone before.”
“You’ll do a fine job.”
“How do you know? Can you see into the future?”
Silver just smiled.
“Creepy,” she remarked.
“How about I give you a demonstration?” he said, walking toward Ken.
“Huh?”
“Hey, Ken!” Silver shouted.
Ken stopped and walked over to them.
“You’re here early.”
“Take a break. I need to make a demonstration, so watch closely.”
Silver held out his hand for Ken’s pipe.
Ken looked at his pipe, then at Silver. “Don’t you have your own?”
“Yeah, but it will be more fun this way.”
Ken shrugged, handed it over, and then sat on the front bumper of his car. Silver headed to the middle of the back yard. Cassandra followed, puzzled.
Silver stopped, and motioned for her to take a position opposite him. She eyed him quizzically as she took up a spot eight feet away from him.
Then he did something that surprised her. He took up a widened stance, left hand extended forward, and holding the pipe almost over his head above his right shoulder with his right hand, yet slightly to the side, pointed a little down and toward her.
“Falcon Stance. So how much Talsenian combat have you studied?”
“I’ll use the old ‘I’ll tell you if you can beat me’.”
Cassandra brandished her still-sheathed weapon half-heartedly. She guessed he was probably better than Ken, but wouldn’t be much better.
The Falcon Stance was used for extended range combat. It used the tip of the weapon to inflict damage out of the range of other weapons. Traditionally, a long saber would be used. The pipe he was holding was about that length.
“Ready?” he said.
She gripped her blade.
Silver pivoted with his left foot with great speed, and thrust right for her head. She turned to the side, and knocked the pipe away. She was about to slash back, but he had already stepped back out of range. She stepped forward and swung from her right foot diagonally up to his head. He parried the attack, and then spun around for another thrust, which she avoided; she tried her own thrust, but he had moved aside.
She was slightly impressed. He knew how to hold a weapon, and knew how to swing. She knew he had been trained in melee combat. If they had been using real weapons, she might have been in trouble.
The Falcon Stance needed space to execute its attacks. Though it was considered flamboyant, there was no doubt that it was deadly. In any combat, a slash could take off a limb, but the target could survi
ve as long as the head wasn’t removed. How would one survive a thrust through the skull, heart, or stomach? The Falcon Stance was supposed to end things quickly. If she could just stay in very close range, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about. That is, unless he changed stances. There would be no way he could know more—
Silver shifted his gait, bent over ever so slightly. The way he held the weapon was now different: he held the pipe with the longer end resting under his forearm.
Now it was the Hawk Stance.
He had to be more than he was letting on.
He stepped forward and slashed for her body. If she recalled his archaic stance correctly, the first strike wasn’t intended to injure—
She parried the strike to her chest.
—it was to mask the turning follow-through.
She stepped back and barely avoided the slash to her midsection.
Cassandra decided to go on the offensive. She obviously didn’t need to train Silver. She committed to a downward slash, but was parried. She whipped her sword down and tried once again. Silver wheeled his pipe from the ground upward to block the attack. She tried twice more, as did he. She did a last-ditch thrust, and it went right past his head. He quickly knocked her blade up and stepped back.
He pulled the pipe up, holding it over his right shoulder, and extended his left hand forward.
Cassandra bit her bottom lip. He had taken up yet another Talsenian sword fighting style, the Eagle Stance. All of the stances he had taken up were valid in combat, but old. She’s studied them before, but few on Talsenian currently practiced them.
She stepped forward and slashed sideways across his chest. He brought the pipe down at an insane speed, knocking the tip of her blade to the ground. He pulled it back up just as fast, and she could have sworn it brushed against the very tip of her nose.
He brought it back down again; she whipped her weapon back up to parry, then back downward as she stepped back. He spun around, going down into a crouch and extending his arm with pipe up toward her head. She arched her neck back to avoid the attack that would have – in a real combat situation – punctured her skull, if she hadn’t avoided it.
After the attack, he returned to the first posture of the stance and knocked her next attack down, much like the first time she had attacked when he adopted the Eagle Stance, and then they both hopped backward.
Silver held the pipe up like a normal weapon, both hands gripping the base.
“So,” she said while taking up a similar stance, “you want to end this in one shot, huh?”
“That’s the plan.”
Cassandra focused and ran forward.
Silver did the same.
The two weapons were swung—
Both challengers ended up behind the other.
Silver dropped the pipe, sunk down to his knees, and then sat down on his rear. He rubbed his stomach. “Ow. That hurt, you know.”
She walked over and pointed her weapon in his face. “I win. Tell me what you know.”
Silver laughed in defeat. “I give. Before I tell you, could you tell me something?”
“What’s that?”
“What happened to your shirt?”
“What?”
“Oh, that’s where that birthmark is,” she heard Ken shout.
She looked down. Half of her shirt was gone. Two of her friends were out in the open – and they weren’t Silver and Ken.
She calmly covered herself with her right arm, and gave Silver a left hook.
* * *
“Spill it,” she ordered.
If he did tell her, would she believe him? Ken sincerely didn’t think most people really believed in time travelers, so why should she? Then again, Ken used to be a skeptic, and no longer was.
“I’m a time traveler,” Silver said.
Ken’s face faulted. “There’s nothing like getting right to the point, is there?”
“Oh, really?” she remarked.
Neither Ken nor Silver knew if she was being sincere or sarcastic.
“Yes. A Time Coordinator. I’ve come back to help Ken out mainly, but to help everyone else here, too.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him, and then her expression softened.
“It’s true, then. They do exist.”
“Come again?” Ken said waving his arms around for emphasis. “Helloooo! This guy just said he’s a time traveler! You’re going to believe him just like that? Without any proof?”
“I remember reading some books on time and space as part of my physics studies at school. Some were by noted scientists, and some were by crackpots. One claimed there were several organizations that ‘patrolled’ time. The woman who wrote the book said she actually interviewed a time traveler, and he called himself a ‘Time Coordinator.’ In the interview, he talked vaguely about how space and time works, and how some people strive to keep the universe going, and others try to stop reality from working altogether. There weren’t any specifics, just a lot of conjecture.”
Silver nodded. “It was probably true. Was the author’s name Tandra Clearance?”
“Yes! How did you know?”
“I’m pretty sure the one who she interviewed was me.”
“Hold it!” Ken interjected. “Do time travelers normally give interviews!?”
“She had some interesting theories, and I needed to set her on the right track. I was a lot younger at the time, so I couldn’t give her all the specifics, since I didn’t really know them back then.”
“I do have a question, though,” Cassandra asked.
“Go ahead.”
“Is it all right for you to be telling us this?”
“I already know,” Ken said.
“Okay, fine. Is it all right for you to be telling me this?”
Silver grinned at her. “What are you going to do? Tell people, ‘Hey! I know a time traveler!’ They’d think you’d be a what?”
“. . . a crackpot . . . ” she breathed.
“Right. Just like you thought Miss Clearance was until a moment ago. It’s the perfect alibi. I could tell you the complete truth, and no one would believe you.”
“Are you part of an organization? I mean, are there other people like you on this planet?”
“Yes. In fact, there’s another one in this very house.”
He pointed to the top of the display case.
“Come on out, Katrina. I know you’re listening.”
Katrina sheepishly poked her head out from over the edge of the cabinet. “I didn’t mean to hear everything. My headphones were off.”
She floated down and landed on Ken’s head.
Cassandra’s face went blank. “Katrina’s a time traveler, too?”
Katrina shook her head. “No. I don’t have that kind of ability. I just track chronological phenomena.”
“Is it bad out here or something?” Ken asked.
“I’m not sure. I was just assigned to keep tabs on this planet, just in case, since Earth is far away from any major space-time points. Many parts of the universe have those points, where space-time is the strongest. We Cataloguers like to call them ‘ponds.’ Sometimes when something disturbs it, there are ripples that spread out, kind of like when you drop a rock into a pond. Places close to those ponds tend to be affected more than planets like Earth. Those effects are called ‘chronological phenomena.’
“There are no ponds in this area of the universe, so it’s really weird when I see fluctuations.”
“Would there be a reason for it?”
Katrina’s made a face like she was trying to solve a puzzle. “This area, specifically Earth, is unique. There are no ponds around, but there are many different kinds of currents that flow through where Earth is situated. Kind of like a space-time crossroads. I’m still working on it.”
Ken was impressed with the little lady on his head. Normally she had the bubbly personality, but she was rather smart when i
t came to space-time . . . and serious.
“I . . . I do have another question,” Cassandra asked, shyly.
“Yes?”
“You . . . probably can’t tell me a lot about it, but do I—”
“Cassandra, you turn out fine. I’ll tell you that there are going to be some hard times coming. They won’t be easy, and some will be downright dangerous. But it will all be worth it in the end.”
“Dangerous!?” Cassandra, Katrina and Ken exclaimed simultaneously.
Ken remembered Silver saying that ‘they would all die.’ That was the danger he was talking about.
“Yes. But we have time to get everyone prepared.”
“Is this why you asked me to start training Ken?”
Silver nodded.
“It’s kind of hard to do this on faith alone.”
“Sometimes faith is the best thing to go on.”
* * *
Silver had returned to wherever his home was, and Ken, Cassandra and Katrina ate dinner with everyone else, but were a little more quiet than usual. It’s not as if they didn’t talk, but Alisa, Natalia and Sasha failed to notice the subtle change.
After the meal, Sasha loaded the dishes into the dish washer. Ken stepped into the kitchen.
“Sasha, I can take care of the rest. Why don’t you get ready for that show . . . what was it again?”
“Twilife Zone?”
“Yeah. You and your creepy shows.”
She laughed and left to, presumably, get changed. Ken had found some of his sister’s clothes in the storage room, and seemed to fit her, though were about a size too big.
Ken heard someone come into the kitchen. He looked up and saw Cassandra.
“Yes?”
“What do you think?”
“Dunno. I think you’d look better in pink or powder blue.”
“I appreciate the fashion tip, but that’s not that I mean.”
Ken put the last dish in the washer, closed the door, and hit the start button. He casually looked out in the living room to see no one.
“About Silver?”
“Yeah. Did you think about what he said?”
“Every day since he showed up.”
“Do you think he’s telling the truth?”
“I think he’s got something there. He’s been training me to manipulate space-time, so he seems to be the real deal.”
“Did he give you any ideas about what’s going to happen?”
He could tell her what Silver told him.