The great tragedy of the true prescient is this: while all of Time flows through him, he must forever remain extra-temporal. While all people and all cultures flow through him, he must remain aloof in the knowledge that he is unique. While all knowledge and experiences are there for him to know, he may never have the wonder of what sets human above animal- the ability to experience novelty, react, and then learn.
-Taelyn, Lord Protector of The Realm
From the Journals of Aer'rhi, qran'Acolyte 2nd Plateau



Chapter 2: Taelyn

Taelyn landed with a dull thud that echoed just it had in the vision. He'd reached the temple's antechamber; the next door opened to the surface of Tleilaxu's moon. What arrogance, to name their star system, their homeworld, and their capital city after themselves. Even their religion was based on a belief that only their culture was worthy of His recognition. Still, they were his people, and the Bene Tleilax had a potential for such greatness
The acolyte running behind him smelled nervious, and hadn't said more than simple directions for leaving the temple after his initial prayer in the cell that Taelyn had known the boy would stumbled into. His power was called prescience by the Masters who'd loomed over him for longer than his clouded memory extended. It offered him glimpses of potentials, and usually showed him how to acheive them. It had allowed him flee to the moon temple's catacombs just as it had allowed him to escape the Masters. A mixed blessing, though, Taelyn suspected, as his power was the cause of the Masters' attention to him in the first place.
Not knowing why it would work, he placed his thumb on a genetic scanner by the main door to the outside, which happily opened for him. Prescience was an uncertain and maddening science- it showed him what ends could be acheived by what means, but not how or why they did so.
When the two meter polaz door had creaked far enough ajar, Taelyn ambled casually across the empty spaceport. There was an extra lightness in his step-- one aspect of the temple's physical training was living for years in twice normal gravity, and the surface of the tiny moon was only one-quarter normal gravity. The sky was deepening to a beautiful crimson from the setting sun, broken only by the green orbs of another moon and Tleilaxu itself, together directly overhead. It would have been a remarkable sight for one who'd never seen the surface of a planet, except that Taelyn had seen witnessed the spectacle hundreds of times in visions of this moment.
He heard lasgun fire behind him, and spun, searching desperately for a place to hide. The unfamiliar but comforting weight of a stolen projectile pistol struck his thigh. The spaceport was an open field with no ships nearby to offer cover. He was caught in the open! Why hadn't he seen this coming? He'd flawlessly forseen and countered every move of every adversary thus far, but a period on the twisting and crossing paths of time was unreadable. Timelines, including the one he was following, went into this void, and twice as many potential timelines came out the other side. A few showed Taelyn dead, but most featured his capture and a continuation of the Masters' torturous study he'd barely escaped the first time.
It seemed they'd been ordered to take him alive if possible.
He would never go back to the Masters' labs, he swore (and a few potential timelines of his capture disappeared). Taelyn would be the first to say that he was no hero, but a cornered animal facing death, or worse, becomes capable of amazing feats.
Taelyn could see now there were three qran'il-Tveik guardians sprinting toward him. He had a short moment of foolish pride that he meritted the talents of three of the supreme fighters of the Tleilaxu, before lasgun fire incinerated ground in front of him. He was thrown onto his back by the shockwave and debris, but the low gravity prevented serious injury.
Terrible purposes! He was not going to die here! Fragmented visions of the battle to come hit Taelyn like slaps in the face, and the superhuman speeds of his opponents became normal, then slower, as if they moved through water. His brain had forced itself to a higher level of awarness, as his mental reflexes moved at an impossible speed.
Perhaps his mind had known, presciently, the only way to survive.
With his heightened awarness, Taelyn could see that the block on his visions was really other splitting timelines crossing his, and pushing them onto different courses. Someone else was prescient! He could see himself battle two of the guardians, but not the third, and lost the thread of the vision whenever one of her actions effected him. The Masters had a potential prescient under their upturned noses. The guardians were ten meters away, but would take hours to reach Taelyn; he had time for irony.
He sat up, legs crossed, in a meditative pose, and willed time to move faster. The guaridans had a burst of speed, but still advance at a comfortable pace. It was amazing how efficiently they moved, without unnecessary bobbing or glances away from their objective. He watched the female, the potential prescient, for a long time. She had a pretty face, and he wondered what she was shaped like under her light combat armor.
Mentally rested and prepared for battle, Taelyn pushed off a large piece of debris at his feet, and aided by the low gravity executed a perfect back flip in mid-air. His feet finally made contact with the side of a small passenger shuttle behind him, and he pushed off it back toward the guardians. He drew his stolen pistol, and, still in the air, began unloading it at them.
As soon as they saw the weapon, they began to dance through a complicated series of evasive manuvers, avoiding even prescience-guided shots with ease. The female dodged left, one ducked to the right, and the third jumped straight up. He had already gone up two meters before flipping so that he was looking straight down his lasgun at his black-garbed target. Taelyn was twisting in the air to get a clear shot at the the biggest threat to him, the female, when a bullet tore though his left thigh.
He lost his concentration, and the world sped up again. Landing hard on his right shoulder, a jolt of pain to shot down his arm. Taelyn rolled again, and felt a shower of concrete exploding from the place he'd had just been.
Bringing his left arm up to fire, his was in control again. Seconds once again stretched into hours as his potent mind took stock of his situation.
The man above had missed completely with an entire round (Taelyn had somehow subconsciously avoided every shot), and was reloading as he landed. The guardian that had dodged right had removed an object from a pocket that he would throw in four seconds and would explode in twelve a pace to the right of where Taelyn lay.
The female who'd shot Taelyn remained the largest threat-- her light lasgun rifle was leveled at his head, and her finger hovered just off the trigger. Her lips moved dramatically and one corner of her mouth was beautifully agitated, but Taelyn's mind was processing too quickly to make sense of the slow and deliberate words.


He couldn't remember being without his prescience, and for the first time in his life was truly excited. The over two guardians wouldn't bother him for another eight seconds at least, and with the slowed timeflow his mind showed him, and occasional visionary overlays of reality, Taelyn could really enjoy this fight.
The most obvious move was to duck and hope to shoot faster than her, and so he flipped backwards again. She was admirably quick to overcome her confusion, but a moment was all Taelyn needed. He landed on his unwounded leg and, with help from the weak gravity, launched off it again. As he flew toward her, her erratic shots missed by inches-- as soon as they left her gun, she no longer effected them, and Taelyn could see their paths and avoid them. He brought the pistol to bear again, but couldn't fire. Here he saw perhaps the only person that could bring excitement to his life, even if she was his fanatical enemy.
Taelyn landed with one foot in her stomach, knocking her gun aside with the other, and launched himself back to the shuttle, and rebounded toward the man who'd just finished reloading. With complete control and prescience once again, Taelyn dispatched both guardians and finally landed, in his arrogance, without checking his prescient vision.
He grimaced as he landed on his wounded left leg, and pain shot up his side. He found himself a moment of agony later sprawled on the gound, and before he could gasp a breath, he felt a lasgun barrel press against the back of his head.
You shouldn't have let me live, the female guardain whispered close to his ear.


Ignoring his wound, Taelyn planted his feet and stood completely still. The guardain sprinted toward him and at the last moment jumped and flashed a foot toward Taelyn's unprotected head. He casually knocked the blow aside with his forearm. She recoved quickly and rained a barrage of blows on him, every one of which he blocked with a forearm or palm, on occasion rolling his head aside to dodge a fist which penetrated his whirling black shield. After minutes, only Taelyn appeared to be tiring, and a high kick finally connected with his right shoulder.
A grin twitched to life in one corner of his mouth.