The Time Voyager's Obsession

Old Scars- II

“I don’t understand,” Hana whimpered, looking down at her hands as though they no longer belonged to her. “What am I?”

Tiberius sighed, continuing his attendance of her jagged wounds. “It’s hard to explain. There is much you do not understand.

“Can’t you at least try?” Hana pleaded, trapping his gaze in that of her own.

“Now is not the time,” Tiberius said dismissively, freeing himself from her hold. “You need to eat something and rest. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“What were those things?” Hana asked with a shiver, clutching her arms over her vulnerable flesh. In his rush to save her, Tiberius had left Hana’s clothes abandoned by the water’s edge.

“Hagleeches, a type of hybridized eel. They burrow into prey, frenzied for their blood. If you try to pull them off, they release a lethal neurotoxin. Burning is the only way to remove them without triggering the venom. Where there is one, there are sure to be more. A dozen Hagleeches can drain a man down to nothing in mere minutes. The waters of Hausafan are filled with them. You’re lucky,” Tiberius said, his voice tight with anger.

“The pool was so shallow and clear, I never thought that inland water would hold the same dangers as the sea,” Hana explained with a shutter.

“You rely too much on sight, Hana Dari. You must develop vision,” the Voyager said, pointing to his forehead. “See with more than just your eyes. They are quick to deceive you. Hagleeches dwell beneath the sand, a man does not see them until it is too late.”

Hana nodded, feeling like a disobedient child. The poultice had dulled the pain of her wounds, but not that of her savior’s rebuke. Hana did not like playing the damsel in distress, but how was she to learn anything when Tiberius refused to educate her? He was right, there was much she did not know, but she was willing to learn. The man was hiding something from her, she was sure of it now.

“I’m going to collect our food. Stay here,” Tiberius ordered, his withered look daring her to defy him again.

“Tiberius?” Hana called to his back.

“Yes?” He returned with a tired sigh, halting without turning to face her.

“Could you bring my clothes as well?” The man stiffened, as though realizing she was disrobed for the first time. He gave a jerky nod before disappearing into the jungle.

***

They dined on a stew made from foraged root vegetables, its flavor surprisingly robust and filling. Hana savored it silently, staring into the flames of the fire. The vibrant tongues of light danced and crackled, sending embers spiraling up into the darkening sky. Hausafan’s days were much shorter than Hana was accustomed to, the dark mouth of its night yawning wide. She had said nothing since Tiberius had returned, feeling that she owed the man that much. Her presence was obviously a burden on him, and she disliked feeling beholden to anyone. Besides, she had her own thoughts to dwell on.

Tiberius cleared his throat, observing her through the haze of smoke. “Are you alright? If your injuries cause you pain, I can make you a tonic,” he offered, his brow folding into a concerned frown. Hana shook her head, resuming her silent brooding. “I will need to douse the fire soon,” he informed her, eyes moving to the encroaching darkness seeping through the underbrush. “If we have any unexpected visitors the smoke will lead them right to us.” Hana nodded again, wincing as she rose from the fireside. She was tired of pressing for answers and didn’t know if she wanted them anyway. The more she heard, the less she liked it. Sleep would offer her a reprieve from Tiberius and his dark revelations.

“I’m sorry,” he said suddenly as she turned towards the hut. Hana paused, eyeing him quizzically over her shoulder. “For earlier, I should not have been so harsh with you. It has been,” he paused, looking up at the emerging stars, “a very long time since I kept company with my own kind.”

“It’s alright,” Hana said, deciding not to press him further. “I’m sorry to have caused you so much trouble.”

“You are no trouble,” he murmured, his eyes far away. “You are a gift, a gift from the universe. You are a chance at redemption.”

Hana’s heart thundered in her chest. Slowly, as though afraid the opportunity would be lost, she walked towards him. Tiberius extended a hand to her, helping Hana ease back down into a sitting position beside him.

“Redemption for Tahlia?” she asked him quietly. Tiberius nodded, his face flooded with pain.

“We were not meant to love each other. She was my Queen. It was my duty to protect her. With time we grew closer. Duty turned to devotion and friendship to romance. I was young, my head was clouded with thoughts of love and lust. I should have been more vigilant. If I had kept my distance she would still be alive, but I wanted her. She was persuasive, and I was not strong enough to refuse her. We both took from each other and paid heavily for it,” the fire cracked and the camp seemed to be growing darker with Tiberius’s past recollections. Hana shivered despite the humid embrace of the night.

“I’m sorry,” Hana said softly, placing her hand over his. He stiffened but did not move away from her touch. “May I ask you what happened to her?”

Tiberius’s face contorted with hatred, his eyes oceans of wrath, “He came.”

“Who came?” Hana asked, a sense of foreboding filling her with dread.

“My doppleganger, your Var, as you call him,” Tiberius spat.

“He killed Tahlia? But how? How is that even possible? He was from my time wasn’t he?” Hana exclaimed, losing her carefully constructed composure.

Tiberius looked at her pityingly, as though what he was about to say would bring her pain. “I can explain, but I will have to start from the beginning.” Hana nodded, willing him to continue. “Life is not unique. Throughout the heavens, every corner of the known universe teems with it. There is also the unknown, stretching out across an infinite flat plane of space and time. But even within the multiverse, there is repetition. Particles can only be configured in so many ways over an infinite amount of space.”

“You’re talking about parallel universes?” Hana asked, recalling her parents’ last published research.

“Yes,” Tiberius confirmed. “Repetition becomes a pattern, and a pattern turns into a memory. You and I are one such memory, a paradox within the multiverse. For us life is death, death is life. We are extinguished in one universe, only to reappear in the next, an infinite cycle of rebirth.”

“Then what makes this different from any other iteration? How did you come to be here?” She could scarcely contain her curiosity. The man was talking about theories her parents had dedicated their lives to researching, and somehow Hana herself fit into the complex equation.

“Although we repeat, there is still variance. Of all our iterations, the one we find ourselves in now is unique. The three of us: you, me, and Var were the only ones born to our universes as Voyagers. We are beings who can manipulate the fabric of time itself, even folding it to travel between parallel universes. It is an extremely rare, dangerous, form of psychokinetic ability. Instead of influencing the physical world of the first three dimensions: length, breadth, depth; you and I can influence the fourth, time.”

Hana sat deathly still, trying to wrap her head around what she had just heard. “And Tahlia, she was a Voyager as well, then?”

Tiberius faltered, the emotion draining from his face, as though he was losing her all over again. “No,” he said after a time. “Tahlia was just Tahlia. Vain, confoundingly stubborn, and inspiringly brave, but she was not one of us.”

“I still don’t understand,” Hana said shaking her head, a muddle of confusion. “If he was a Voyager like you, what part did the other Var have to play in all of this?”

“He wanted Tahlia, in the same way, that I wanted her. He would do anything to get her back,” Tiberius replied, wading through the murky waters of his past.

“Back?” Hana asked sharply. With each passing moment, the Voyager’s tale seemed to bear a new revelation.

“His name was Sano Var, my counterpart. He was the first Voyager amongst us, hailing from a third, separate universe. He triggered the chain of events that has come to pass when he lost his Tahlia. That is when he came looking for mine,” the last word came out a guttural growl, the man’s possessiveness still evident in his tone.

“He kidnapped her from you?” Hana exclaimed in horror.

“She went with him willingly,” Tiberius scoffed bitterly. “Tahlia had a strong sense of her own destiny, and Sano filled her head with everything she wished to hear. The idea of being an all-powerful super-being appealed to her. Tahlia thought she could wield her power to win influence and riches for her planet. She did not realize that the ability was never meant for her. I do not know if Sano was aware or not. He was determined to have her one way or the other, mad in his grief. He tried to leave our world with her. She did not survive the transfer.”

Hana’s eyes widened, the man’s grief settling on her shoulders like a weight. “I’m so sorry,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. The silence of the island stretched between them, filled only with the distant pounding of the surf.

“How did you come to know of me?” Hana asked finally, still struggling to process all that she had learned.

“I came into my ability after Sano stole Tahlia from me. It left me with tremendous guilt and anger, realizing that I could have been worthy of her, saved her, if I had only known who I was. I explored my newfound power learning to track Sano on his path of destruction. At every turn, I was a step behind him. I was too late to save them.”

“Too late to save…” Hanna trailed off, inferring his meaning, much to her horror. “He did not stop with Tahlia,” she said, revulsion rising in her throat.

“No, he did not,” Tiberius confirmed, “World by world, he tested each iteration, looking for his Tahlia, a Voyager like himself. He was determined to undo the past, convinced that his sins would be justified once he had reclaimed what was his. Everything else, everyone else, was just collateral damage.”

“We did not meet by accident then?” Hana replied somberly. I have loved you in every lifetime, defying the bounds of time, space, and dimension… The words of her vision came back to her with haunting clarity, chilling her to the bone.

“Sano had become desperate, he was willing to do whatever it took to get to you. With a Voyager’s ability to manipulate time, comes the power of chronesthesia, or episodic foresight. Our kind can travel to past events, as well as peer briefly into the future. It is how I tracked Sano down, and how he knew to lie in wait for you at Mala Fide. It is a fickle gift, easy to misinterpret certain meanings without the correct references. Somewhere along the line, Sano erred. He did not anticipate his own demise, but I am glad it came nonetheless,” Tiberius said with steely certainty, his mouth set in a hard line.

“What will you do now?” Hana whispered, feeling suddenly drained. Her bed called to her, the ache of her injuries returning with a vengeance.

“What do you mean?” Tiberius asked, his brow furrowed.

“Sano is dead. Tahlia is gone. Everything you did, everything you became, was to avenge her. Now that you have, what will you do?” Hana questioned, shifting her weight to get more comfortable.

“My purpose was never vengeance, Hana,” the Voyager murmured softly. “My purpose was always to find you. Now I will help you discover the pathway to your destiny.”