Chapter Thirteen: Through a Thousand Eyes

Hawthorne stopped slaughtering innocent civilians for a moment, blood still dripping from her sword and armor, and glanced about. "Sindri?" she called out. "Did you sense that? I felt something weird..." However, Sindri was not there, and her rage was rapidly leaving her. "Sindri, where are you?"

Frowning, Hawthorne put away her sword and proceeded to scan the area for Sindri or any trace of residue that he might have teleported out. However, unable to locate anything after several minutes, she thought that was odd and decided to head back to Shieltas. Maybe Suzcecoz had seen him, or perhaps she had beamed him back to headquarters. She stepped into Suzy's office and began, "Hey, Suzy-" but then noticed Suzy wasn't there. "Hmm, maybe she's working on something somewhere else. Computer, locate Suzcecoz."

"Searching," the computer said obediently, listing a progress meter and failed locations as Suzcecoz was not found in the most likely places for her to be. After a minute of searching, the computer replied, "Suzcecoz Ilawi not found."

Hawthorne frowned again, then asked, "Did you search the alternate universes as well?"

"Negative. Do you wish to add them to the search?"

"Yes," Hawthorne said impatiently.

"Resuming search," the computer said. Hawthorne sighed softly and replicated a carbonated beverage to quaff while it continued with the search, leaning against a wall which was primarily mostly empty solely for the purpose of being leaned against. She seemed to remember something about having been killed, but it was fading like a strange dream. Perhaps she was merely being delusional. After several minutes, the computer finally said again, "Suzcecoz Ilawi not found."

"What?" Hawthorne said. "Where in the Abyss could she be?"

"Suzcecoz Ilawi is not in the Abyss."

Hawthorne glared at the computer for a moment and resisted the urge to smash it. "Computer, locate Sindri," Hawthorne grated instead. She finished up her soda pop, let out a belch, and shoved the empty cup into the disposal slot for recycling. She did a scan of her own while she waited, assuring herself that Keolah and Rhuan were at least where they were supposed to be.

Several minutes later, the computer said, "Sindri not found."

"This is very weird," Hawthorne muttered, leaving the office and heading downstairs to find Keolah. She knew they would have to be somewhere insanely well-warded for Suzy's computer to be unable to locate them, as it could penetrate most wards. However, the computer still had difficulty penetrating the Ethereal Plane, and so Keolah might be able to find them where it failed.

Meanwhile, the effects of the paradox were being felt elsewhere as well. A small group of Tau suddenly found themselves alone in a Darknova fighter they did not know how to fly. Luckily for them, they were able to voice-activate the autopilot, which landed them more or less safely on the nearest planet, Wegana. Nearby, Theodore in his own Darknova picked them up on his scanners, as well as the Chaos fleet moving through already.

Iyriel desparately tried to stop them somehow. However, when he reached the gateway, he suddenly found himself frozen in time. Theodore, sensing something was wrong, flew in after him, avoiding the Chaos ships with some fancy flying. He flew in close to the gateway and snagged Iyriel up into his ship and flew off post-haste, setting off for the nearest planet, Wegana, and landing near where his scanners picked up the other Darknova and recognized it as Kalli's.

However, over in Torn Elkandu, Sheniro's situation was considerably less hectic than theirs, and he was able to grasp his strange fleeting memories more firmly than they had. Even if he could not keep hold of the details for very long, he held firmly to the essense of them and set out immediately to find the other members of Pyroluminescence. As it turned out, they were looking for him as well, and they ran into one another in the Exploding Gnome Tavern.

"You all sensed it too?" Zelen said, a bit incredulously. "I had thought that surely only I would have, being the only inborn Time Mage among us."

"I don't really remember much," Sheniro admitted. "It's fading fast, like a waking dream."

"I do, though," Zelen said. "It's clear as day."

"So what happened?" Elgar asked.

"My best guess is that it appears to have been a paradox," Zelen said. "Since you all don't seem to remember the future that we just narrowly avoided, I'll summarize." The others sat down around a table to listen. "Sheniro went first to the Dragon Ball universe, where he started performing. Not long after that, the bridge to the Warhammer universe was destroyed and, sometime after that, Sardill removed Chaos from the universe. However, by that point the rest of us had realized we were terrible at actually fighting, and that we were meant to be together, and we rejoined Sheniro and got the band together again. A couple months after that, the universe was utterly destroyed and everyone was killed by the gods of death, the Nameless Ones."

Sheniro started at the tabletop as Zelen finished speaking, and said slowly, "Our true power is through working together. Separated, we are but mediocre mages, but together, we are Pyroluminescence. We are the greatest."

He had known what his true calling was and what he intended to do after having spoken with Sindri, and learned about the Word Bearers. However, as powerful as he was on his own-and he was one of the most powerful Speakers alive-with the rest of the band, he was unstoppable. Music was a tool, and a powerful one, one which most people upon hearing it did not even realize what he was doing until it was far too late to do anything about it. Merely speaking, he was not half so powerful, and people would figure out what he was up to much sooner. Elkandu were notoriously wary of Speakers, to the point where he had had to conceal his true power his entire life for fear of being killed simply for being one.

"Yes," Zelen agreed. "We were meant to be together. Much as some of us would like to think otherwise." He gave a look toward Karn, who glared sulkily.

"A reunion concert," Sheniro said. "We will show the universe our true power."

"And if anyone gets killed in the pyrotechnics, it wasn't my fault," Karn said.

They filed out of the tavern and set up their instruments in Thought's Square. Normally, they played in Fire's Square, but today was a special day. Today was the day that they had gotten a second chance, beyond all hope. Around them, mages were milling about in confusion, many of them remembering snatches of the future they no longer had to face. Arguments were starting to break out, and many of those who had at least some Time Magic remembered things more clearly, and some of them did not like ending up Chaos again.

Sheniro smiled to himself and pulled out his microphone, tossing back his long, pink hair, and began to sing, the band joining in behind him on cue. The people milling about stopped what they were doing and went silent as they began to listen. The power of the four members of Pyroluminescence joined together in Sheniro, as it always did, pulsating through him and strengthening his already-strong magic. Today, they played with renewed vigor and a sense of purpose, and he could feel that echoing through his veins. Even if they did not fully remember all that Zelen had told them, they still held feelings of it, and knew that they were always meant to be together.

As the band played, the crowd calmed somewhat, and began to cheer in excitement at their music. When the song was over, there were no more arguments or doubts. Sheniro grinned a bit, and they teleported to Water's Square to perform another song and do the same there, and Soul's Square after that. Elkandu were fickle at times, but they just needed a little encouragment and they would see the proper course. And none of them could resist the power of Pyroluminescence.

Back in Castle Shieltas, Keolah shook her head and said to Hawthorne, "I can't find them, either. Let's go find Rhuan. Maybe he'll have some better idea what just happened. I have a feeling it was a paradox. I seem to have memories of events that did not happen. But that in and of itself does not really explain their disappearance, although I don't doubt there is a connection."

Rhuan, however, was shortly returning to Shieltas himself, and appeared as they were preparing to go find him. He looked fairly grim. "Rhuan!" Hawthorne said, running over to hug him. "What in the Abyss is going on here?"

"There has been a paradox," Rhuan said, then explained briefly about what he remembered of the future as it would have been. Hawthorne frowned deeply at the description of the Nameless Ones, as well as how Chaos would have been removed mere days after she had finally decided to join up.

"But where are Suzy and Sindri?" Hawthorne said. "They just... disappeared!"

"I don't know," Rhuan said. "But I would guess if you cannot find them, they must be in another timeline." He looked off thoughtfully. "I will see if I can find them."

Keolah said, "Also, I detected the Chaos fleet having crossed the bridge and rapidly approaching. I also picked up a good deal of Time Magic in their vicinity. A temporal gateway."

"That would explain the paradox," Hawthorne said. "Is Zso with them?"

Keolah said, "That guy you met back on that other planet? I think so. You wanna go find out what's going on on their end?"

Hawthorne nodded. "Maybe they'll have some answers. Coordinates?" Keolah tepped her the coordinates, and Hawthorne nodded again and teleported away.

Keolah glanced over to Rhuan, who was concentrating on Time-Seeking alternate timelines in hopes of locating Suzcecoz. Finally he said, "I think I have found a Suzcecoz matching the proper temporal signature. Will you be alright here?"

"I'm fine," Keolah said. "I'll try to keep an eye on things around here."

Rhuan nodded, and said, "Very well. I will return shortly." He vanished in a flash of blue Time Magic, crossing time and space to where he had detected Suzcecoz.

Keolah, alone now, waited for a few seconds as if expecting him to return within the minute, then finally shrugged and headed up toward Suzy's office to see how things unfolded. She set several screens to monitor activitied in Torn Elkandu, Tinemocun, and other important locations, while tracking the fleet's movements through the Ethereal Plane as best as she could herself. She relaxed to Pyroluminescence's music, leaning back in Suzy's comfortable office chair, and wondered just when somebody would try to get her to join Chaos as well. Perhaps they were all afraid of her. No matter, she thought. What would happen, would happen. Or would not happen, as the case may be. Damned paradoxes.