Chapter 7: Forward Scouting Thread

"You gotta leave here and you must do that right away. Find a quiet country spot well away from cities and wait out the war. Maybe four years, maybe longer. Change your names, keep faith with your new neighbors but don't let on that you have magic, and live good lives with each other."

He gets uncomfortably close. "Do all of that. No second guessing."

Verrian hesitates, looking as though she's going to speak, then doesn't.

Then she clears her throat and adds, "You may even want to start over in a city. I hear good things about life in Meriava."

A thought strikes her, and she says to Alinsa, "You mentioned having a Naucan friend. Who was it? We may have a mutual friend."

"You're saying that you're from our future," says Jassin. His face slowly drains of color. "And that... things didn't go well."

His voice cracks slightly. "But somehow, you traveled back in... time..." He trails off, and looks at Alinsa, eyes widening. She turns away from him, just enough to avoid meeting his eyes. "But... but you... can't control it. You can't do what they're saying, creating wards and setting contingencies and..."

Jassin can't finish, and Alinsa is resolute in not looking at him. Finally, he kneels down in front of her and reaches up to gently turn her face toward him. "Can you? Control it?" he whispers.

Alinsa's eyes are filled with tears as she looks at her husband. "Sometimes. When I really have to," she says in a small voice. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Jas, but I couldn't... I didn't want you to live with having that knowledge. With having to keep that secret. I couldn't put you in that kind of danger."

Wordlessly, Jassin puts his arms around her shoulders and draws her into a tight embrace. After a few moments, he says to her, "And do you trust what these people have to say? Should we follow their advice?"

She nods. "They wouldn't be here if we couldn't trust them."

Jassin holds his wife at arm's length, searching her face, and finally nods his acceptance. "We will leave as soon as we can. We can always rebuild a home, as long as we live."

There are a few minutes of grateful thanks exchanged, much of the tension draining from the room as a plan of action is agreed upon, at least in a preliminary fashion.

Alinsa, finding herself next to Verrian, answers the other woman's earlier question. "Adaye of Nigen is her name," she says, watching Verrian's face for hints of recognition. "We worked together quite a bit some years ago. I grew up in eastern Hara, near the border with Nauca. She was the one that encouraged me to come to Hara in the first place, so at the very least, I owe her for that, since it put me in Jassin's path."

Verrian allows herself to show recognition of Adaye's name. She's still wearing the one-eyed version of Jassin's face, so keeping signs of any residual feelings of anger toward Adaye off her face is a little easier. "I know Adaye well, actually. I mean, I know her now, but our relationship will grow more over time."

She looks between Alinsa and Jassin and finally lets the glamor drop, returning to her normal appearance. She gestures toward Uelten. "My friend is right that you need to pull up stakes and leave this place immediately. You already know they are looking for mages to help with the war effort. You need to realize that that is not going to end anytime soon. Having magical talent will put a target on your back for the foreseeable future.

"You could go north, away from the Alcavian border, or to Valerma or Nauca and be safe... for a while. But..." She swallows, reluctant to take the step she's about to take. "But there's only one place that we know will be safe for mages from now until the time we come from, and that's Meriava. So my advice is, leave this beautiful little farm you've created and go to Meriava. Look up Adaye - she's on the faculty at the College of the Seven Stones. She will help you to get settled, I'm sure. But say nothing about what we've told you about the future. That would only complicate things for you, I think."

Off to the side, you might hear Zhaar mutter to himself "Hmmph, my tribe would still be alive right now... don’t think there’d be any convincing them to change though."

Swan gives them an encouraging nod. "Even if we can only save you two, Destiny smiles favorably."

To that others, he says, "Come stalwart companions, the morning grows late and there are more lives than two relying on us. We must be off."

Verrian simply looks at him. "I don't think we should leave this place until we snap back to our own place in time."

"Clearly we have to leave the area? Mayhaps perchance?" He gives Alinsa a questioning appeal of a glance.

Wil also looks to Alinsa.

Do you know how we get back to our own time?

Alinsa looks in wonder at Verrian, then nods once. "Thank you," she says in a small voice. As the others ask their questions, she looks tentatively at her husband, then admits — haltingly at first, but growing in confidence — "I can let you return to your time," she says. "Whenever you’re ready."

She adds, after a long moment, "I can’t thank you all enough for what you’ve done here."

Swan makes sure they have all their traveling gear, and then nods to her.

Verrian hadn't realized that she was holding her breath, but when she hears this, she lets it out in a brief sigh and feels tension leaving her shoulders. She looks at Uelten and Wil before saying, "We are very glad to have been able to help you. I wish you both the very best of luck, and I hope you'll consider going to Meriava."

She very carefully refrains from saying that she hopes to have a chance to get to know them both better when she's growing up, because that would just be... weird.

"We'd be very happy to return to our own time, at your convenience."

Zhaar looks a little wistfully to the west for a short time but then gathers himself and his gear and gives a nod.

Jassin touches Alinsa's shoulder and gives her a concerned, questioning look. She reaches up and pats his hand to reassure him. As the others gather their things and return to the main room of the farmhouse, Alinsa is talking to Jassin. "You should stay outside. I'm not at all certain that I won't get you caught up in what I'm about to do, and since these people were so kind as to help us stay together, I'd hate to ruin it now," she says.

Jassin catches the serious look in her eyes, at odds with her bantering tone, and doesn't argue. "Thank you. Again. You've... given us a chance that we wouldn't otherwise have had," he says, and bows respectfully to the group before he exits out the back door.

Alinsa turns back to the others and says, "This may take a moment. Try not to move too much, as I need to concentrate on your positions in space in order to move you through time."

It's honestly hard to tell that she's doing anything. Seconds pass, Alinsa breathing evenly and rhythmically, her eyes focused intently on the small group in front of her. Otherwise, she doesn't seem to move at all. Nearly a minute passes, though it's beginning to feel uncomfortably longer than that.

Just as you seriously start to worry whether it's going to work at all, the scene in front of you begins to fade, and the sunlight outside begins to fade back toward dawn. Alinsa appears outlined in a silvery sheen, and she does not fade at the same rate as your other surroundings.

Then, her lips curve into a delighted smile and she gives the group a very obvious wink, her expression growing almost mischievous as she suddenly pops out of existence.

As far as you can tell, you are back in your own time. The house looks abandoned again, the light is back to what it was before this whole encounter began, and... well, it just feels right.

Verrian looks around at her surroundings. If Alinsa and Jassin took their advice, the place should look long abandoned now, rather than recently so.

Verrian, this feels odd to say, and hard to get the right tense...but do you happen to remember Alinsa? Not from here, but from your past? If that even makes sense.

As expected, the house looks far more abandoned than it did before. Not only abandoned, but cleared out. The house is still sturdy and standing strong, but there are almost no personal touches remaining any more.

Looking about the house, it seems that the occupants packed up as much as they could manage to take and carted it away. A glance out the window, though, shows a more significant change.

In the front yard, the small shrine left behind is now a spreading tree, much taller and more mature than you would expect for something planted as Jassin and Alinsa left. Though many of the trees around have yet to unfurl their leaves for the spring, this one looks to be at least a month ahead of the others, young green leaves spread out, taking in the morning sunlight.

Wil looks around.

Well, I think it worked. I feel like we are back when we should be.

He has a sudden thought.

Verrian, this may seem odd, but do you have any memories of them from before the wards came down. Maybe you saw them around town...

He trails off, a little lost in the oddness of it.

Verrian has been smiling at the realization that they've apparently succeeded in saving Jassin and Alinsa from their original fate, but as she realizes that she does not, in fact, have any memories of them from Meriava, the smile fades.

"No, I don't. If they made it to Meriava, I somehow never encountered them in all the years I lived there."

Verrian drifts out the front door of the now long-abandoned house to inspect the tree that, from their perspective, has sprung up in the last few hours.