Chapter XLV: The Thirteenth Watcher (Cont.)

Adelia’s eyes narrowed as she tried to understand, “What do you mean? Who are you?”

The figure held out his hand, a glistening blue shining from his fingertips, “Take my hand…and you will know.”

Adelia slowly, cautiously held out her hand; tricks had been played on her mind before, and this time she was thinking of it.

The figure smiled again, his beautiful smile piercing her, “Don’t worry. There is no danger…I do not intend to harm you, nor shall I.”

Adelia continued her cautious, curious stare and placed her hand in his. A rush of feelings overwhelmed her as images flashed before her eyes. Millions of years sped past as she tried to keep her wits about her and focus on what she was seeing. She saw the formation of the worlds, the mountains rising with a collosal boom, the oceans flooding into the great basins where they now lay. Land cracked under the sun, snow falling constantly until the earth was buried so deep that it would never be seen, ice flows carving out cavern after cavern beneath the various lands, forests bursting forth with their canopies a brilliant green that seemed to sparkle. Then, she saw the birth of creatures, their bodies formed from nothing and being born together upon the land. She saw her ancestors evolve, her friend’s ancestors evolve, and races and creatures she had never seen die off completely. She saw the birth and death of billions upon billions of beings as the images began to slow in their volleys. She saw the building of cities, the making of governments, the wars, the battles, the famines, and the celebrations. She saw the kings of Azurat rise and fall, the emperors of Bouat, the elven cities divide, unite, fall, and battle against the orcs. She saw all of her universe’s past in two blinks of an eye and then, she saw herself. It was not the beginning of her life, however, but she saw herself sitting in the room at Maximure, studying, looking up….looking directly at where her eyes now were………

“NO!” She pulled away, a few crackles of blue sparking across the ground as she stared at the figure before her.

The figure nodded slowly, “Yes.”

Adelia cocked her head and stared at the figure, slowly bringing her hand up and touching the side of the man’s face softly, the crackling power rolling around it and the images flowing into her mind telling her that it was true. “Baen? My God…it is you! But…what happened…to you?”

Baen smiled softly, “This is me, Adelia…this was me. When God first made me, this was who I was.”

“But,” Adelia began, “are you…the him now?”

Baen laughed at the question, though it wasn’t the old laugh of darkness and despair–this one was as light as a feather. What amused him was the question itself, it was a ludicrous one to ask, in any other situation than the present. “No. I am his past self, you are right in assuming so. Who I am, who he is now, is not me.”

“You exist at the same time? You’re separate beings?”

“Not exactly…..we are the same. We are one being…together. Though he does not remember me anymore, just as I cannot relate to what he is and what he does now.” Adelia stared at him, still not sure what to make of the gorgeous figure that stood before her. “Listen. I have come now….I’m reaching out to you, piercing the darkness, so that I might try and bring you back. Your friends need you….they need your strength. Even now, they do not falter, and it is this solidity that shall be their end. For they will fight to the death for you, so you must not let them do so.”

“But how? I….I can’t….do what they ask. It’s…”

“Unfair? Yes. But this is the way it must be.”

“Why me?”

“Because you are the chosen one to do so. If not you, then someone else would have been chosen, but you showed the great potential, that is what Maximus saw in you,” Baen said.

“Maximus saw in me?”

“Yes. You wondered who sponsored you…who brought you to the University so that you could study the arts of time and mind. It was Maximus himself who did so, for he wrote down, long before he knew why, your name, your address, and the year they were to come and find you. For he did exist at one time, and it was his great power, the magic that he learned studying in all those rooms, tapping into the great Stream of Time, that helped bring about a chance to save mankind. I know you shall not truly understand, for you have learned but a fraction of what Maximus did, but nonetheless, that is how you came to be in the University.”

“Maximus knew this day would come before he became a Watcher?”

Baen smiled, “Can one ever really say whether an event occurred at the time it did or if someone just placed it there for us to remember later? That is the secret the Watchers have. Who knows when that moment in time truly was, but nevertheless, it was he who brought you here.”

Adelia stared at the floor, she couldn’t believe it. She was overwhelmed by feelings of sorrow, of hatred, of fear; was she to do what they intended of her? Could she endure the pain…the chaos…the anger?

“I know what you would say. And if anyone understands, you must remember that it is me who can. For I have endured that burden for eons, more than even I can remember or count. That memory is too strong for even me, a figment of the past, to forget. It is awful I understand, to be asked to bear such a burden, but you must. My time has ended, for I have finally succumbed to the darker natures and will never be saved again. Even my love for you is nothing more than a flickering light which is me. I am the last small bit of love Baen is capable of, one last candle flickering in the wind. Whether you choose to accept or whether you choose to decline, I shall forever be gone.”

“It’s funny,” Adelia said. “All my life I wanted to have a purpose. I wanted to know that my life was meant for something absolutely amazing. Something brilliant….something…”

“Like this.”

“Yes…”