The traveler

A trip down memory lane

Wow, my head hurts. My lord, what happened?
"Pierce!" someone shouts. "You're awake!"
That's the voice of a woman. This is not right, I haven't met with any woman lately. Is this another time again?
"Are you all right?" another person says. That's the voice of a man, but I don't recognize it.
"Yes, I'll be fine," I said. "Where am I?"
Both of them look quite shocked.
"He can hear again, it's fine," the woman says.
"Was I deaf then?" I asked.
"You didn't react to anything we said the moment you heard that sound... and definitely not after the shockwave."
What are they even talking about?
"What sound? What shockwave?"
They looked at each other.
"I think he lost his memory again," the man said before turning to me again. "Do you remember who we are?"
I shake my head.
"Well then... This is Rechra," he says while pointing at the woman, "and I'm Merithorn. We found you unconscious before with a complete memory loss, and maybe you've had it again."
"I don't have a complete memory loss," I say. "I still remember leading a life as a man named Isaac. But that might not have been while I was with you."
"Most definitely not," Rechra says. "Last time we called you Pierce, but before Merithorn found you, you introduced yourself to me as Keymard."
"What year is it now?" I ask.
"We've been over this," said Merithorn. "I don't know what a year is..."
"It's the 9th age of the Julian calendar," Rechra replies.
So I'm in the past now. Quite interesting. Meanwhile, I notice Merithorn just staring at Rechra in astonishment.
"So could you tell me what our situation is exactly?" I ask.
"Well, we're in a lot of trouble here," Merithorn says. "Before you fainted, we found a hatch in the forest, through which we went. After some time, there was a terrible screech which made you deaf for some time, and something I don't even know what it was, but it knocked us all on the floor. After some time, you fainted, while a hooded man came to us and took us all away. They put us here...but they got the Talisman."
"Well, I don't know if you remember," Rechra says, "but we were carrying the Talisman of Legends, an object said to contain the minds of everyone."
"And, as it turns out..." Merithorn begins. He pauses for a while, giving a dramatic effect. "The people who took us are part of a cult, whose name must not be spoken."
"Do you mean the Caust-"
Merithorn immediately cuts me off. "Don't say it out loud!" he says. "That bears misfortune and bad luck with it. Besides, how do you even know that? We never told you!"
"I...remember that. Why can't I say it?"
"That's secret as well."
Well that's really quite helpful. Why do medieval guys always have to keep mysteries around everything?
"So, about something else... What does the Talisman look like?" I ask.
"Well, it's just a sheet of parchment, as most other talismans, but it's so special because the words written on it are in a language nobody understands."
Interesting. I think I've heard that before somewhere...

I don't really get the time to think on about the Talisman, because the door opened and two more hooded men came in to take us away. After walking through some dark corridors, we entered a massive room. It was actually quite stunning: it had an amazingly high ceiling, even though we were underground – either we were deeper than I thought, or the room must be built underneath a hill or mountain. I'll never forget it – that is, if I don't faint and lose my memory again.
On the other side of the room there was a man, clearly the leader, sitting on a large chair; he probably pretended it was a throne. He also wore a dark cloak with a hood.
"So these are the interested folks?" he asked.
One of our guards nodded.
"I've just got one question for you guys," he said. Then he sharply raised his voice. "What were you doing in our base?"
Then I've got a great idea.
"We found this weird sheet of parchment, in a completely foreign language," I started. "We were wondering what it was and figured you might have known."
Both Merithorn and Rechra looked at me in a surprised way.
"Really?" was the answer. "Strange. You asked me the same thing last time as well."
Well, what can I say? Merithorn and Rechra aren't the only two people to be surprised now.
"There was a last time?" we all said at the same time.
"Just him, actually. It was two weeks and four days ago."
Two weeks, four days. That's 18 days. That means it was about when Merithorn found me in the forest, nearly dead. These guys must have something to do with it.
I'm starting to think they're evil, but seeing as they made me deaf, locked me up and that I'm now standing before their leader, that actually does make some sense.
"I guess it must've worked then," the leader added.
"What worked?" I nearly shouted.
"I know enough," he said. "Take them away again."

"This is bad," Merithorn said. "Very, very bad.And really nasty. I can't believe this..."
I think I'm just going to ignore the face he just made.
"Not all is lost," I say. "I think I now quite remember what happened lasttime, and what is going on..."
Both of them immediately look at me.
"First, I'm going to have to explain the concept of travelling through time toyou."
Their eyes enlarge even more.
"Aren't we all?" Rechra said. "Constantly, without knowing it?"
"Very clever," I said. "But that's not what I mean. I mean going faster andslower, and even going back."
I think Merithorn almost fainted due to a sheer overflow of information.
"You know how you can travel from one point to another. For example, I can gofrom this wall to the other one. I can also do that quickly and slowly, so atdifferent speeds. And I can also come back from the wall, back over here."
Rechra nods enthusiastically. Merithorn is still busy fainting.
"Time is quite like that, but in normal conditions we can only go forward atone constant speed. Later, people will find a way to go faster and backwards,but we can't do everything yet: we can't stop nor go slower."
They both think for a while.
"What is this," says Merithorn. "I don't even-"
"That's amazing!" says Rechra. "So you actually come from the future?"
"As far as I remember, yes. But I don't actually remember voluntarilytravelling through time."
"What happened then?"
"It's all due to this... cult," I said. "Apparently they still exist in thefuture, seeing as they did this to me."
Rhetorical silence. Why am I even doing this? I'm not giving a speech or so...
"It all started sometime in the future, where people dreamed of time travel butcouldn't do it yet. If I'm not mistaken, my full name actually was Isaac PierceKeymard, and I was just a simple man doing his job. But then there was this oneperson, Tim, who did some really suspicious things. I decided to follow himonce, but I got into trouble and I got stuck, after which he noticed me. Thenthere is a part I don't remember."
Another rhetorical silence.
"The next thing I remember is waking up in this time, in Priflart, apparentlyalready living a life. And for you," I say, looking at Merithorn, "that waswhere I first met Rechra and heard the story of the Talisman."
"Which is when you set off with Odhans to find this place the first time,right?" Rechra asked.
"Exactly," I said.
"Wait, who is Odhans?" Merithorn asked.
"He was the person who told Pierce the story along with me, and came to thisfacility first with him," Rechra explained.
"Indeed," I added. "Unfortunately, I don't think he survived the security system..."
More silence, but this time not rhetorical.
"Moving on," I said, "that's also when I was here earlier like their leadertold us. I don't really remember what happened after that conversation, but Ithink I woke up again as yet another person, Keymard, this time in the furtherfuture than I actually was at first... but that life doesn't really seem to beconnected with what happened here."
Rhetorical silence number three.
"And then the loop seemed to be complete, because after I was done beingKeymard, I was Isaac again. I was held in some sort of facility, but I managedto escape. I travelled through time again, slightly accidentally, and by somehuge coincidence ended up in the same time as Keymard. I wanted to go see him...but that's where my memory fails again, so I don't really remember whathappened there."
We're all silent for a while.
"And that's about as far as I remember for now."
I look at Merithorn. Quite surprisingly, he didn't faint. Rechra seems to bethinking about all this.
"I think I've got an idea," she says. "But it might be very dangerous."