Ethan
i came from far away
the boy said.
my kind drift among stars
that your kind have not even named
we tell stories
and watch stories
and dream of futures never passed
“His kind are outsiders in all senses of the word,” said the woman, the Attendant. “They are a substance of great density. They require no air. No warmth. They are… difficult to explain.”
Sarah seemed to have some idea what this could mean. “Are you saying he’s some kind of—what—sentient metal?”
“Even that is inadequate, but it is a start. When they come to full maturity, Te’lo’hi’s kind become so heavy and release so much energy that they can bend the weave of existence around them.
When he is full-grown, Te’lo’hi will be able to cross between all the infinite overlapping universes that exist at any given moment.
That is what ‘Te’lo’hi’ meant in our old language. He is The Lake That Travels.”
Ethan said, “That’s what the mirror in the old house was showing us. It was glazed from a piece of Te’lo’hi. It can see the future, the past, all the different ways things could be.”
“So what happened?” Kyla said. “How the hell did you wind up here?”
The silver-eyed boy lowered his head. His long hair, when it rustled, made a sound like rain pinging from a zinc roof.
there was an accident
a mistake
i fell through a gap in time
coming here to this world
i became separated from the others like me
and i lacked the strength to go back
i became trapped here
in this story
and i was alone
i fell to this mountain
and called out for friends
“Our people struggled to survive in a dangerous land. The desert is a cruel place, and it created cruel people. We were often at war,” The Attendant said.
“But we respected this mountain. Even before Te’lo’hi’s arrival, we believed that it held great power.
The power to ensure that all things in the world happened as they needed to happen.
One night, we watched a falling star pierce the sky and land right in the mountain’s heart.
We began to dream of a grand city. A permanent home.
A safe home. We came to this mountain and found things exactly as you have seen them here.
The city had been created for us. We brought seeds and saplings and Te’lo’hi provided the rest. Warmth.
Protection. He sealed the mountain, keeping us safe from the violence outside. For a long time, it was enough.”
until
it was not
“When Te’lo’hi was separated from the others like him, he was not yet fully mature.
He could exist in only this world, unable to travel between other realities—other stories—like the rest of his kind,” the Attendant said.
“However, after many hundreds of years living with us, he realized he was growing older. All beings like him experience a moment when their true strength is awakened. Their full power released. But this awakening would have a devastating effect on this planet.”
Kyla said, “The silver light we saw bursting out of the mountain last night. The end of the world.”
Ethan said, “It sleeps. It wakes.”
“Precisely. The moment Te’lo’hi reached full maturity, the moment he awoke his full power, we understood it would destroy more than we could ever know.
Te’lo’hi did what he could to delay this change, but it brought him great pain.
At last, he created a ceremony that would seal him away and prevent the end of all life as we know it.
By waiting until the night before his awakening—the night his power was at its strongest—we could bend the weave of time, as you’ve seen. ”
“You just had to kill someone to do it,” Ethan said.
The Attendant hesitated. “Yes. Te’lo’hi knew the power of a sundered soul. Of taking a life. It was like a spark needed to start a fire.”
“But the rest of you had to leave the city,” Kyla said. “Te’lo’hi’s power had grown too strong. Too unstable. It would be dangerous to live here.”
“Yes. Twelve of our people volunteered to undertake the first ceremony. The rest of us left the city and encountered the real world for the first time, believing that we would be called back when the time came to repeat it. Te’lo’hi had warned us that there was conflict and pain outside, but we were not prepared for the violence that had swept this continent.
The white men. The disease. The starvation.
Our people were scattered and lost. Soon, we had forgotten our true history.
Except for a few relics passed down from parents to children, nothing remained of the city for us. Nothing but legends.”
the story was beautiful
Te’lo’hi said.
until it was not
Above them, Ethan couldn’t hear any sounds of fighting, but he doubted Hunter and Ryan could hold out forever against Jack Allen. Ethan caught Kyla’s eye, saw a nervous twitch in her lip.
They needed to hurry this up.
Sarah Powers, though, had other ideas.