"Caretaker, please take us to a protected space above or near the place you need us to defend where we can recon from, and hopefully meet up with the Twin Falls party safely. We should do our planning where we can talk to the you of that time as well as the you of this time if we should need to. We'll need to ask for your help from that time, you see. And the same for the other kami. We don't want to mess with the timeline by trying to ask them to come forward to talk to us, nor do we want our own planning affected by what you all know now.
"Please, also bring the Twin Falls party there to be with us so we can plan with them. You already know how important it is to have everyone on the same page before we begin important battles. We'd like to have the future them after they think they're done with what they need to do in South Amerka and are ready to join up with us again." Gareth bowed, his habits from being on Shrine Mountain coming out. The acolytes assigned to the Caretaker gave their nods of agreement, intending and expecting to receive it.
Since all of the Eagles to some degree or other wanted that, too, by the time Purrcy had written up the proper code spells they'd requested, the needed power was already about what it needed to be to cast it. Still, she asked for one more thing while it built up.
"In exchange, please sing one more song for me now, and one more for the me of that time when you call for me. Now so that I can know my sons love me and then so I have the comfort and strength to walk through the battles that must be fought with all who must fight in them."
P/R bowed his head in thought, then cleared his throat and began their song for her:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control:
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul.
My sin oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
my sin, not in part, but in whole,
is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord, haste the day when our faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend;
even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.*
As the song faded, the room around them changed to be a simple white space. Joining them in that space were the young men from Twin Falls. Their eyes were going rather large.
"I think...we've got the upper hand on what she likes as her favorite gifts to give the greater rewards," P/R mused. Smiles went around the Eagles. They had to rather agree. More than the dark deities wanted their death and blood, Purrcy wanted to hear songs sung just for her. Or at least that was going to be their opinion on the matter.
"Ah, where are we?" BillyBoy asked, blinking at Reed and looking through the Eagles.
"We're in a safe zone while we plan for the next battle," Reed explained. "The General and another of our member have been asked to go back into the past to support Archmage Shiroe. We've been given another commission and need your help again."
"We're not done?" BillyBoy asked, a bit of hope lighting up his face.
Reed smiled. "Not ready to be put out to pasture and be bored yet?"
BillyBoy rubbed his head and looked sheepish. "Well, not really. We were just praying to know what we should be doing next and all rather wishing we could join back up with you guys on what you were doing."
He jumped into sudden attention. "Ah, we were able to help the southern tip of South Amerka get back to some semblance of political order, and the pockets of Overwritten are taken care of, and no one can find any large pockets of demihumans, so we were thinking it was time to head home, but no...we weren't really ready to do that. At least not without seeing you all one more time just to make sure the work was done." He looked curiously at Reed. "You say we're not done?"
Reed nodded. "You are...in that timeline and in that part of the world. We've been asked to go back in time also. The People of the Land need protecting. We fought as Adventurers against Adventurers to take down the dark deities. If we don't go back and protect the People of the Land being used as sacrifices, the us that were doing that won't have the strength to overcome the power of the dark deities that the sacrifices will bring.
"We'll also fail in the world quest to bring a better balance to the demihuman to People of the Land ratios, since right now the demihumans that serve the dark deities farm them and kill them. For this battle they will decimate them in order to win. The Caretaker has asked us to go back in time to stand in their defense. We need you to stand in our defense again."
BillyBoy looked around the space they were in. "Thus why we're here in this odd space, then. It's a different time, too."
"Right. When we're ready, we'll let the Caretaker know and she'll put us exactly where we need to be in the when we think we should be to best do the job."
They all settled down for the initial work - that of deciding what they knew and didn't know so they could actually put together a real plan.
-:-:-:-:-
It was a difficulty to Reed that Brenner wasn't available, but this was really Izanagi's request to them. He finally sighed to himself. He was going to become more like Michael than he wanted to in this place. "Inari-no-Izanagi, please, it will be too much to make us travel repeatedly through Time to each location that needs us to protect the People of the Land from the evil set against them and us. Please, instead let us work through Space. Allow through our intention and your warping of Space, that every battle will take place within the same space-time.
"Make it so each battle is folded so that we physically only need to be in one battlefield, yet we stand on all of them at one Time. Allow our blows to damage in all Spaces at one Time, all our spells to affect those fighting in those locations at one Time, so that we may defend all those who you need defended at one Time in all Spaces at once."
The High Priest appeared and stared at Reed in complete amazement. Reed could tell that the AI was churning through computations, permutations, and possibilities. "It is possible, but the damage and power of each blow mew make will be divided by the number of Spaces. Each spell created and cast will be multiplied in cost by the number of Spaces."
Reed blew out a slightly frustrated breath. "Well, I kind of thought there might be something like that," he said. "Could it be modified somewhat, though? If we had to travel through Time there wouldn't be the modifiers, but we would become even more mentally fatigued than we have over the Mazes of Eternity."
Pressure increased in the place they were until the High Priest was standing with them all. "Sit with me," he said, and sat down. Reed was rather surprised. To have the High Priest be both casual and intensely interested without being insanely evil was very different, although they'd seen more of that recently. Reed and the others sat, wide eyed and trying to fathom what was going on now.
"An increased cost has to be associated because of the law of increasing returns," the High Priest began with.
Reed nodded. "Right. We ask for a simple spell to have a repeat attached, and each repeat adds a cost. Ask to have it higher level and there's a cost. I get that. But the increase isn't always linear. Only you know how many spaces will have to be folded together, and certainly it may be too many and cancel out the effectiveness.
"We're not interested in having zero, or heaven forbid a negative return. But there are always things that offset it, too. Increasing time to cast, adding bonus items and status boosts to get a blow that does more damage, that sort of thing. Can the two be combined to offset the increased cost? Or something similar?"
The High Priest considered, but asked a different sort of question. Reed could only figure that the first one was being calculated at the same time as more input was needed for the overall issue. "How do mew plan on seeing in multi-space?"
"Ah...," Reed hadn't thought of that one.
"Yeah, that's hard," Stiletto agreed. "I had to have a lot of training in the non-linear Gate of Time for the multi-time, and multi-space isn't a whole lot different."
"As mew say," the High Priest said.
"I can do it because I've practiced now and been given the gift of knowing to go along with it. Without that knowing I'd be rather lost," Stiletto said. "I don't really want to be the only one who can fight, though. We'll need all of us." He got both a tip of an ear from the High Priest and a nod from Reed.
There was already another question from the High Priest. "Mew said that there is fatigue from fighting many times consecutively. Would a similar cost, faster in time, be acceptable?"
Reed rubbed his chin. "So...it would be like for each blow or cast of a spell, the HP cost would be higher, or as if we were dropped back to low level Adventurers trying to fight higher level monsters and bosses." He got a nod. "I could see something like that, yes, but you'd want to run through the calculations properly. When dungeons and specials are created by the game designers, they have to properly balance the level of the monsters and bosses to the expected levels of the Adventurers once they are reached."
Reed put his elbow on his knee and pointed as he spoke. "A dungeon that is written for low level Adventurers won't have monsters and bosses over a certain level. A dungeon written for low-middle level Adventurers might be defeatable by low level Adventurers who think and plan wisely, and are nice challenges for Adventurers of the low-middle range of levels, and so forth.
"Sometimes they'd write up difficult challenges and not plan those numbers right. If they advertised a dungeon as a mid-level dungeon but only high-level parties of the size specified could defeat them, everyone complained bitterly and they had to go back in and lower the levels of the monsters and boss to proper levels."
Reed blinked at a sudden thought. "Do you remember the changes Izanami made to the three dungeons on the Ninetails Dominion Island zone that we beta tested for her? She made it so that they were variable based on the levels of the Adventurers who went into them, so that they were just the right amount of challenge.
"When the game programmers put together dungeons, they don't do that, at least not often. It's too high a cost in their time and effort, but it's what makes a very good game from the perspective of the players.
"In this case, you've already got a set amount of monsters at a set level, and the same for the bosses. And you've got a set level for each of us coming to face them. That makes it harder, but not impossible. That's why I'm asking for mods instead.
"It works a bit more like Purrcy does in hunting around for her cheats. Even Izanami was using those cheats with us, wanting us to be up higher in levels faster than we'd been moving - which was plenty fast from our perspective, by the way. We don't have to have them be permanent. Temporary mods are just fine."
"Temporary? In what way?" Izanagi asked.
"Well...like..."
Training raised his hand and Reed gave him a nod. "Like many Bard or Kannagi spells are turns long or battle long. One example might include a blessing granted by a kami through the prayer of a priest on special warriors at the beginning of a special that only lasts until the battle is over. We ask for those all the time as miracles, but they don't have to be granted as miracles. I would think in the kami flavor text there are already things like that in place, or that could be defined that way instead of with a permanent assumption."
The High Priest's ear turned and Reed almost swore it was a look of humor. "So mew're saying that if I would desire mew to win, then I should calculate the numbers - and cheat - to make it so in the end mew do win."
Reed's lips curved up. "Well, I suppose so, yes. Like with any dungeon or challenge, we're willing to do our part to work to get the win. That's the whole point to participating in specials and choosing to go take on dungeons. We want the challenge. But if the desired end result is that the Adventurers win, then the numbers have to be properly accounted for and carefully managed."
MasterChiefS7 shifted and lifted a hand for attention. "We understand that real life doesn't always work like that. Sometimes the good guys lose and the bad guys win. That's why we keep fighting even after the enemy thinks we're down. Being under the pressure of an imminent loss also will make our brains hunt for the last-ditch creative solution. We don't want the pain of loss when what we're defending or fighting for will be a harsh blow. That's going to happen in this case.
"We like to ask for what we think we're going to need because we already have a good feel for what our own capabilities are and what we'll need to make up any difference between where we are and what the sum of the enemy we face is. It's the fine line we can't know. If we were granted just this much more," he held up a forefinger and thumb very close together, "and we'd win, but we don't know to ask for it, that kind of fudge or cheat might be very important to the final outcome. That's when bonuses can be added in.
"Those were often programmed into the system, and seem to be a large part of Izanami's cheats. Because it's our fifth dungeon, because we did it alone without help, because we've managed to stay alive to the middle of the fourth level...that sort of thing. They often aren't known by the Adventurers, but are safeguards programmed in to give a party that might be a little too low on health or levels the ability to survive a little longer, just long enough to reach a safe zone to heal back up and keep going.
"Miracles actually fall under that category. When we do realize that what we can do and have done just isn't going to be enough, but we're oh, so close to the win, we can ask for exactly the thing we need to be the push over the finish line. So far when you've played with us, you've used the miracles, but not the hidden bonuses.
"This would be an important enough battle set that you might want to seriously consider having some in your back pocket so that if you get worried, you throw them in to be the boost you can see we need, but we can't. It isn't making us do the work, nor handing us the win. It's part of the safeguards in the system. If we don't trigger them, then they don't get used and we're all relieved in the end they didn't have to be."
Avionics raised his hand for a turn. "That's how the bonuses work in games like Elder Tales, or role-playing games. The mini-game you let Purrcy make for Michael was based on a single player game series called The Legend of Zelda. The bonuses work differently in that one.
"Typically about half-way through a given dungeon, Link - the representation of the player or Adventurer - would have to fight a sub-boss. When the player had sufficient skills to defeat the sub-boss, the drop was a new weapon. That weapon was then required to defeat the boss at the end, who was slightly more challenging as bosses usually are.
"There were other bonuses, though, to keep the player going. Grass to cut or pots to break along the way that held hearts - their way of doing HP ups particularly in difficult zones - that the player could choose to use or pass by depending on skill level and need. Many games allowed space for eating foods like we use the potions, pausing the game play long enough for the healing to occur without more damage being dealt that would cause death in the meantime. That was necessary because it was one-player not multi-player support system style.
"One of the most commonly used bonuses in that particular game series was a doubling of the capacity and usefulness of items. There were occasionally places where items could be chosen to be blessed and they'd then have an increased area effect or double the amount of damage potential, that sort of thing.
"Zelda games are very good at utilizing tools to help get tasks done that Link wouldn't be able to do on his own. Like when you came the first time and Shiroe asked you to instead let Yuudai bless weapons, and you blessed our own weapons to be purification weapons."
The High Priest nodded at that one, understanding quickly and his eyes lit up at that. "Can I do that now? Bless meowr purification weapons with greater capacity?"
"Absolutely," Reed was quick to jump on that. He knew Izanagi was required to ask if they didn't ask first, and he wasn't going to turn it down. Everyone's Queen's Guard sword was out on the ground in front of them within the blink of an eye.
Izanagi took a few moments to craft what blessing he wanted to give, then the swords all glowed for two seconds. Reed could hardly care what the blessing was, although they'd test it and learn it. Any bonus at this point was a good thing. "Thank you," he said with sincere gratitude.
He was a little surprised when the High Priest blinked at him in surprise, but he held the sincerity. "Why does it surprise you that we're serious about defending the People of the Land and doing our job properly?"
It took Izanagi a few seconds. "Because I am not the Caretaker."
Reed pondered on that. "Neither are they," he pointed out.
He got another slow smile, then a rather humble for the High Priest bow of the head. "Sons of the Caretaker, indeed?"
"Yes, that would likely be it," Reed agreed. "Like her, we share a concern for the lives of the innocent who should be allowed to live their lives to the best ability they can. Evil should not be allowed to run rampant to destroy. We've chosen already before coming here to stand as the wall between the two on Earth. We aren't doing any differently here on Theldesia."
The High Priest studied him for a moment, then said, "And thus why she considers mew worthy."
Reed flushed just a little. "Her consideration is kind, and we're grateful for her recognition of the difficulty of what we've chosen to do. She is worthy of our consideration for the same."
The High Priest leaned back and put that into his own calculations, or so it looked like. "Our trust is not misplaced," he finally said with finality.
Reed paused. "Thank you. However, several of us question that. Why do you trust us when you know that if given the opportunity to, we'll kill you?"
The High Priest rose to his feet and calmly looked down at Reed. "Because it is all part of the plan. It has been taken into account. It will happen at the right time and place because even mew wish for the best outcome."
The High Priest looked over to BillyBoy. "What blessing would mew ask for meowr party?" he asked.
BillyBoy considered it. "Because we're called upon to shield the Eagles while they work, and if the damage dealt to us is going to be multiplied by the number of spaces, I think we'd like to have our armor defenses increased by a proper multiplier so we can stay standing to do our proper job. If you want to make your calculations first and then apply a battle-long temporary increase, that would be fine." The High Priest bowed his head and turned away.
"Izanagi," Clocktower called out to hold him there just a moment longer. The High Priest turned to face him. "We've chosen to follow the four of you for now. If we call on any of you like the followers of the ones we fight against have called on them before, is there danger that any of you could be killed, and thus interfere with that best outcome?"
The High Priest shook his head. "We are not constructs of the purrogramming, but are outside it, and I have purrotected the Caretaker purroperly. Only the flavor text binds us." He paused, then bowed to them. "Thank mew for helping to undo those restrictions." The entire squadron sat in stunned amazement as he disappeared and withdrew.
After a bit, OciferJeff said, "It's rather amazing what living for years with Hahaue can do to an AI."
"I wouldn't be surprised if Chichiue has an effect as well," Training responded. "He likely was the example to help the World AI understand that one can be both humbly polite and calmly strong at the same time." He got nods to that.
Clocktower was frowning. Reed called on him. "Why are they outside the programming when they are, or were, bounded by it?"
Q/A shook his head. "The AIs are the meta-concepts held in the minds of the programmers while they were designing and creating the game. All the rules the game was built up around defined them and gave them form. It's like they were born of the encasing shell that was defined by the programming. They've hatched from that shell into something else defined by it, but they aren't part of it, not in the same way the kami are. They've moved beyond even that now, since we've been helping them break through the programmed boundaries, although the meta-concepts are still at the core of who and what they are."
Secretary nodded agreement. "The birth of the new kami is similar. The flavor text set it, but it was never programmed in. The catastrophe wasn't necessarily part of the programming, or at least I think we can assume it wasn't planned in by the game company since it will be their down-fall if and when we get back. The form of the new kami was set by the story telling, and outside the concepts of the programmers and programming it has been birthed into something more. It also then is outside the programming.
"I suppose to some degree it's still in the process of being defined because Shiroe is requiring it to learn more and gain more understanding of the full capacity of what it could become. The World AI and Game Bot were rather fully defined by the time we got brought over, partially because it was an older game having gone through several iterations already, I would think." He wrinkled his nose. "I'll let other heads wonder why it happened."
When things seemed settled again, Reed prayed his next prayer. "Inari-no-Izanami, I'm not ready to ask for a miracle or anything big just yet, but I do need to know the boundaries. Will you also please come and converse with us so we can properly plan?"
The High Priestess arrived in the room in the air above Reed. An ear twitched and the tip of her tail bounced a bit as it did when she was a little agitated. "Why do you need me?" she asked archly.
"Purrcy, your oracle, says that this is my final exam," Reed looked at her sternly. "I need to understand what the parameters of the exam are in order to know how to properly complete it. What is the end goal? The death of the deities we face?"
"That will happen at the end," she shook her head. "First is seeing that the People of the Land survive until the kami are drawn into the Gate of Time and the power they have to give to their followers is prevented. Some loss is understood, but we also know that your preferred acceptable limit is zero, so that is sufficient." Reed wasn't very surprised they'd taken that into account, but was glad it wasn't going to be held against him.
"So it's a timed battle, then?"
Izanami acknowledged it with a tip of her head. Reed pursed his lips. "Those are hard battles when we're talking about one like this, although not uncommon. Do we have to win in one or can we be brought back through Time to try again until we successfully accomplish the goal."
"One time only. The threads that will be created for multiple tries will be prohibitive."
"But Time is still in flux right now," Reed argued. "You can erase those lines that were failures at this point still." Izanami fixed him with a pointed glare. "Is it too hard for you? Owning and controlling Time is still too new?" he asked her, taunting her a little.
He pursed his lips back at her continued silence. "Even Shiroe sometimes has to start a dungeon over, although he's been doing rather well with Purrcy's dungeon so far on limited prior knowledge. It's just you've not properly given me the prior knowledge I need yet." Reed shrugged. "You let Purrcy tell Shiroe everything he needs to know before he moves because he can't go back and re-do. Either you talk or you let us re-do.
"I'm willing to let you test what I can do under pressure and on the fly, but I don't think it's what you're looking to test this time. That's what we did when we got to South Amerka. You've already seen that. And the drop for this one is too precious to leave up to random chance and lack of important information.
"I'm willing to send in the Intel team if we need to, and we've all been participatory in learning what the kami are and can do, so can share that information. But the rules you've set specifically need to be understood so we aren't planning outside the necessities. To spread ourselves too thin in the wrong areas isn't helpful. We need to be laser focused on the real goal or goals."
She glared at him a little longer. Reed noticed from the corner of his eye that the other members of the squadron were busy doing their own things, waiting for him to be done. She was keeping them out of the conversation, limiting this to a vision only for the priest. He didn't mind that.
"You already know and understand it, Reed," she finally said a touch impatiently. "It isn't necessary to state it."
Reed hesitated. "Actually, I have educated guesses. Those get us down the road, but if I'm wrong at all then we can end up on the wrong side of the river. That's not going to work."
She sighed at him. "First is save as many People of the Land as possible. Second is weaken the kami. Third...Michael must become the next new deity of Theldesia, and he must not know it."
Reed raised an eyebrow. "He's not to know? Ever, in the time we treat him like one?"
"Correct," Izanami answered.
Reed's brow furrowed. "Well, that's complex and an important part of the rules to understand from the beginning. I would likely have eventually just admitted it if he'd asked. At least now I know not to." He glared at her a bit, then continued. "I take it that part of the testing then is to walk the path to my becoming his High Priest, then?" She tipped her head. "Anything else?" he asked her.
"There is no resurrection then. What is your request if you should die?" Izanami asked, quite serious.
Reed paused with his mouth open a bit. He closed it and considered that. They'd already been assuming the Sect war was done and that wouldn't hold. "Right," he muttered. He didn't want to break it for the Sect war itself. "We are from outside that time and have already completed the Sect war successfully. Can we be marked as separate from the Sect war, and have it treated like the dungeon it is for us?"
Izanami considered it, then nodded. "Make sure you specify where you want your respawn point to be."
"Ah...good point." He pursed his lips a little, then said, "Where we fell. Make it a time instead of space limitation, since space is going to be flexible for us. Again, it will have to be added to the calculations. Too long and we won't properly support each other and win. Too short and it's too much of a bad cheat."
The High Priestess tipped her head. "Anything else?" she asked.
"Will you also bless us or one of our items before we begin, or should I reserve that for once the calculations for the battle have been completed?"
"You should always ask for what you want," she answered, then stood quietly for a moment. "I have strengthened the wings of the Eagles and the purification blessings of the juniors who follow you," she said, then disappeared.
Reed was going to take her at her word to "always ask" for what he wanted, even if he'd already asked for a miracle. From now on, they weren't miracles unless they really were miracles. They were "bonuses" as defined by the discussion they'd had with Izanagi.
He worked out the general plan he wanted to follow, then sat in conference with the others for a long while, working out as detailed a plan as they could.
-:-:-:-:-
Reed sighed. "I really was going to make us all stop messing with Time. It's so dangerous and hard to calculate all the permutations and holes, but given it's a requirement I guess I'll have to allow this one." He motioned to Gareth.
"Caretaker, we're ready to have you join in with us," Gareth said humbly. He knew to be asking for the Purrcy of the past time they'd been put into.
Purrcy appeared in the room after a bit. She was looking about as surprised as the Twin Falls group had looked when they'd appeared. "I didn't expect to find you in a time-space," she said a bit faintly.
"We requested it," Reed said calmly. Purrcy looked at him with her ears and tail asking questions. He shook his head. "You told me it was my test, my final exam. I've got it covered."
"Oh, okay," she answered and settled down into receptive listening mode.
Reed's eyebrows went up. "You actually trust me that much?"
She tipped her head at him quizzically. "Yes? I shouldn't?"
Reed had to stop, then swallow. He had about five questions and twenty emotions (okay not that many) jumbling up into a traffic jam inside. He finally settled on sighing and shaking his head. His first reaction was of course she shouldn't since that had always been their relationship, that she shouldn't trust him, but given Izanagi had just said the same thing and explained why, she was likely of the same mind. That was sufficient for now.
"We need to see the area in Central Amerka we'll be protecting. Can you show us the area while we're in here?" Reed asked.
The white-ness of the space dissolved and all around them they could see a scene. Below them was a somewhat circular pen made of wood, divided into sections, large enough to fill a wide open area. It wasn't as large as an Adventurer city, being more the size of a Person of the Land village in area. Inside each section of the pen were men of a wide range of ages crowded together and very thin. They were barely clothed, mostly in rags. Half were sitting and half were standing or walking around. All looked glassy eyed and lacked hope.
Around the pen at regular intervals were guards, with two guards standing watch at the gate that was facing an Adventurer city not too far off. Pairs of guards walked around the perimeter as well, also regularly spaced, likely to assist the single guards if one (or a group) of the People of the Land attempted to break out.
Eyes were already counting the numbers of guards and reading the status on them. They were all Adventurers. "Can you speed up time just enough for us to get an understanding of shifts and night personnel versus day personnel?" Reed asked. "The time we'll enter isn't set in stone until we're ready with the final plan, and may be in the past of this time we're looking at now."
Purrcy nodded her understanding and the guards started moving faster. Reed had her play it for three day's worth of time. There was one feeding time, and at a set time in the dark of the night two Adventurer priests came and took away five People of the Land.
When the review was done, Reed nodded. Gareth requested, "Caretaker, please return us to the beginning time. Please allow Stiletto to walk the Intelligence detail out of this time-space and back into it so they can gather the detailed information we need to have before we begin."
Reed said, "Izanami, please let them space and time walk outside this room in this space here specifically the way you did before for their information gathering on the west coast of the northern continent."
Purrcy turned to Stiletto and gave him a nod. Stiletto put his hands on Bowie and BlackJack's shoulders and they disappeared. They reappeared about five seconds later and set up a video screen and set it to playing the history they'd gathered. They did a summary report, though, only using it to point out faces, titles and roles, and patterns as needed so everyone knew what to look for.
That was enough for them to plan the lead-in to the battle properly. When things felt rather settled, BillyBoy stood and walked over to Purrcy. She looked at him kindly.
"Caretaker," he said soberly, "our job after things like this battle has always been to make sure that the Adventurers are finally playing nicely and getting the world quests accomplished properly. How are you going to handle the fact that these Adventurers and the others like them have spent almost their entire time working contrary to those quests and to the will of God?
"They won't listen to us if they think they can go back to doing horrible things themselves. Even after the dark deities are gone, if the Adventurers remember them and the power they gained from such evil acts, they may themselves continue it...some of them."
Purrcy's ear turned and she answered soberly, "Shiroe is considering that now. He's working on how he wants to ask that. Actually, Izanagi and Izanami are also. It is indeed a complex and difficult thing. Do you have any suggestions from your experience that could help add to their studies, without giving away in totality what was actually done?"
BillyBoy's eyebrows furrowed. "What options have already been considered?"
"Even though the Adventurer Trees of Life have been repaired, sometimes Inari's frustration is great enough that they wish to just do as we have done on a much smaller scale and banish them all to a state of spirit on the moon, refusing to allow them to resurrect until the descent into the World Tree dungeon. When they aren't so irritated that isn't as a desirable an option. Shiroe in particular knows that they are needed against the remaining Overwritten, and argues that it doesn't really meet the political world quest.
"They are also the ones who know what zones should be allowed to keep some demihumans. It can be difficult for Izanagi sometimes when he despairs over having any People of the Land left in those areas. Then he is very much like the People of the Land himself and would rather just get rid of them altogether." Her whiskers twitched up in a bit of a smile.
BillyBoy shook his head. "Having that many Adventurers locked up while still evil and angry wouldn't be good at all. I would agree with that. I don't like any having to be locked up...but you know that." Purrcy nodded kindly.
BillyBoy hesitated, then said, "You can move us through time. Is there a way, once the final battle is over, to erase them from this present time and bring them up from the beginning of the catastrophe to now...so that they think they were brought later, after the rest of us, and skip over the time they learned how to do such evil things, so that they don't get to learn it to begin with?
"Then we could just teach them the right way to live from the beginning. It would be okay for them to be brought after the first of the panic was over. Maybe about the time we all started to get organized, but before the worst of the guilds can get a foothold?"
Purrcy opened her mouth, then closed it and listened to the voices only she could hear. Finally she looked kindly at BillyBoy. "Would you like to be able to help them walk rightly from the beginning?"
"Yes, Mrs. Purrcy," he answered solemnly.
"Izanagi has liked the framework if not the specifics and says they'll conference. However because you've said that much, you may expect to be given that requirement. You might want to suggest some boundaries before they get going too far, or they'll send you all over the world before letting you rest."
Reed held up a finger. "It's the same problem I've already addressed with Izanagi. If the solution I've requested could also be applied to the teaching time afterwords, then it could be done at one time and place, since it will be the same groups. I would think that any unrepentant Adventurers would still have to be locked up like we've had to do at each city, but perhaps the numbers could be much lower if something could be done in the way Billy hopes for."
Reed understood that it wouldn't be that simple. If they removed the past Adventurers who had chosen evil from their timeline to bring them forward, the whole of what they were doing now wouldn't need doing, but some time-warp stories worked that way. They hadn't told BillyBoy's group how time travel did work in Theldesia and they weren't going to be allowed to, it appeared.
"As a final confirmation, Caretaker," Reed got her attention again, "our main enemies will be the demihumans who worship the dark deity and perhaps the dark deity themselves. We may perhaps have a few Adventurer guard types and perhaps a small group of fanatical Adventurer priest to fight against. Does that sound right?"
Purrcy nodded. "If you can hold off on exposing yourselves until after the main part of the Adventurer army is engaged, yes. Certainly when the North Army arrives any large group of Adventurers facing you will have to turn and defend themselves."
Reed sighed. "Well, we'll try our best in that regard. We're not really enough for the full-on Adventurer group. The only other thing we need you to do, then, is properly take care of the time travel for all of us time traveling types. We'll free up the spies properly. You see that they get put into the right times for getting the info they need, to be put into this pen properly, and back to the North Army safely at the right time to have the army in place so our job isn't made harder. Intel, you tell her those details."
They handed her the boxed histories of both spies from the time they left the North Army until their retrieval since she could watch that a lot faster on her own. She was gone for about twenty seconds. "Okay. I think I've got that worked out," she said on return, her ears still turning in thought. "I'll have my time team work on the detailed math to make sure nothing falls through the cracks."
"There's actually a division for time travel?" H/R asked in surprise.
"Yes, thank goodness," Purrcy said with feeling. "I was so lost trying to keep track of all of you during the west coast stuff that I finally melted down and they told me about it and picked it up and knit it back together for me. I've relied on them heavily every time I've had to deal with time travel. They thought they'd been left to gather dust since time in the Gate of Time went linear."
She sighed. "Apparently some word got leaked because I keep getting jealousy based attacks every now and again. All the other kami's time departments are gathering dust now that I'm the only one with even limited time travel capacity. They do all have the minimal to do, since they have to calculate for the differential between time here in the base realm and time there so they aren't late to grant rewards or be present for rituals, that sort of thing, but it's child's play in comparison now that it's linear."
Adventurer ears were pricking up at that. "Um...can you interfere with that on your end to help on our side...like as a bonus if we're hurting and need one of them nudged to be just that minute or two late?"
Purrcy's tail turned and her evil smile arrived. "I'll see if I can cook something up. I'm quite done with being kind to them."
Warning bells went off for Reed. His eyes narrowed as he considered her. She needed the strength to get through what was next, but she didn't need to go over the edge. He'd been about to suggest the second gift of song right then, but her future self had asked for a calming song. When she needed something to lift her in strength to face the battle wasn't the time for that. "You do that," he said instead. "Don't forget you are the Caretaker, though. Remember to take care of your future integrity."
Purrcy paused, then took a breath and nodded. "Thank you for the reminder."
"Alright. I think we're good to go, then." Everyone suited up, meaning stealth clothing as best possible. Illusion spells were cast. Then Gareth made the request to the Caretaker that they be allowed to exit the safe space and placed in hiding at the predetermined location and time. She gave them all hugs first, and they her, knowing she needed them more and trying their best to fill her with their own calm determination, courage, and strength.
Then they were arriving in the dark of the night outside the walls of the Adventurer city of Panama City, Panama, in the forest above the city on the side the People of the Land had been corralled in. The Bay of Mexico was on the south side, the Panama Canal - a dungeon - on the west, the Adventurer city on the east, and the forested hills on the north. It was there they arrived and snuck south to the corral.
In the dark, Adventurers in the levels of the one-hundred-teens to -twenties at the most against unseen Adventurers in the one-hundred-fifties and pushing one-hundred-sixty plus all the special-ops: it wasn't a battle. Each Adventurer on watch slipped down and an Adventurer rose up to take his place. Histories were copied over along with the avatar image as soon as they were touched. It was a first for the Twin Falls group to have a history play out in their minds, but watching it was something to do while they waited for their shift to be over.
In the encampment of the Adventurer city, disguised Adventurers entered silently over the wall on wings. One by one they were dropped off at the proper location by Bowie. They each slipped in, put the guard they were impersonating into long-term stasis in a lock box under their beds that reflected all visuals so they couldn't be found, then lay down on their beds and took their turns for sleeping - after reviewing the histories from up in the micro layer. The positions were in place by a half-hour after arrival.
The next morning the Eagles walked the regular beat of the men they were impersonating, keeping their ears open and learning everything they could. They showed up right on time for their duties and stood properly where they should. Those who walked the circular beat let their lips be a little loose as they walked. Every time they passed nearby the spies they made sure the right information got dropped into their recording history. Those guarding the gate made sure neither of the spies got pulled out for the nightly sacrifice.
For four days the Eagles and the Twin Falls party stood their watches and waited for the word to come that the North Army was approaching. For that whole time, they held in their hearts the prayers they needed answered for the battle to be won by them in the end, and placed the easter eggs they hoped would be sufficient insurance to help them from the earliest part of the battle. BlackJack was quite in his element.
*When Peace, Like a River/It is Well With My Soul, Horatio Gates Spafford, 1874. (Note: This was written after Mr. Spafford's children died by drowning on the family's way from America to Europe. He had been called to stay in America last minute and he sent his family ahead of him. His wife survived the storm to meet him in Wales when he finally arrived. He wrote this song while on the ocean near the place his children had died, and a good friend wrote the tune to it a few years later when it was published in a hymnal.)