Happy Holidays! Just a few more days to Christmas. I hope you're all having a good time, whatever you celebrate. :)

Anne Camp: Clockwork is still bound to the Observants, at this point. He went to them for help before the beginning of human history. Clockwork is old.

Hopefully, most of the other questions in the reviews will be answered in this chapter or the next one. Thank you for reviewing!

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Chapter 175: Heh Heh Heh

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As they got farther from the Core's center, the little ghost in Heh's arms started to move, and began to become clingy, as child ghosts tended to do after a fright. Heh had, of course, known that child ghosts did that. He knew everything, or at least as near to everything as made no difference to a casual observer, if not an Observant.

It was only that he had never expected that clinginess to be directed at him. Lord Heh was the monster ghost parents told their children. Behave, they would say, don't terrorize too many villages, don't flood that river, don't wreck our floating island, stop sabotaging the community, put down that sword, you don't want Lord Heh to come and get you, do you? He knows when you're about to do something bad! You don't want him to eat you, do you?

The last was unfair. He had never eaten any children, not even when he was raving mad. Even with all his powers, he had not been able to track down the beginning of that pernicious and perennial rumor. The rest... Heh's powers were at the beck and call of the Observants. For that matter, so was Heh. It was part of the bargain he had made in return for sanity. Not all the tasks they set him were particularly pleasant.

The few children Lord Heh had interacted with directly had been terrified of him. He had not minded that, actually. Much. He was a ghost, he liked being scary. But there were limits to that, much like how a human might like garlic, but wouldn't want it in every meal, or with sweets. Probably. Humans could be as strange and disgusting as any ghost.

Beyond his reputation, Lord Heh probably had his appearance to blame for that. It was not designed to appeal to children. Or anyone. Quite the opposite, actually.

The way this little ghost was acting was... different. He clearly wasn't afraid of Lord Heh.

Embarrassingly enough, Heh was unsure where, and when, exactly the little ghost was from. The tree of time branched in millions of directions even in the next hundred or so years. Heh rarely looked thousands of years ahead, unless he was dealing with a paradox, or wanted to see very long term consequences of an action. Even then, he tended to either look only at very local circumstances, or to look only at generalities. Averages. The general flow of history. Not what might happen to one specific person. Too much could change between then and now.

Although... Heh had once gotten a message from a version of himself who might come to exist in the time frame of 'several thousand years from now.' It had been something frivolous about appearances, and he had ignored it. Could it have been important after all?

Once, Heh, or an intelligence that would become (had become, was becoming, is becoming, became) part of Heh, had been able to encompass each and every eternal and infinite thread of time. The problem was that such an existence could not deal with cause and effect, or even things as simple as the concept of the now. Equally, a mind that could understand and operate with such concepts could not contemplate eternity. Not all of it, anyway. Not if it wanted to stay sane.

Lord Heh's existence was a compromise. One that he was not looking forward to combing through all the futures this child could have come from. Truly, the version of himself from that timeline should have warned him, sent a message back along the tree of time. Then he wouldn't have to do that combing. He would know.

(A compromise, and an illusion. A trick. He was not nearly so omniscient as some believed. His knowledge took effort, for all that most of that effort was expended between moments, in private, or, rarely, by future versions of himself, where no one could or would see it.)

Lady Ereshkigal's comments, sparked by whatever she had read from the child's mind, narrowed down the options slightly. There were a number of branches where he eventually became known as 'Clockwork.'

Heh was so intent on determining how else Ereshkigal's comments might make the of resolving this paradox easier, that he almost failed to foresee the ambush he was flying into. Well, far be it from him to deprive Nebet-Het of her fun. Heh had to work with her, and she made things difficult when she felt slighted. He did wish that she had not convinced the other two to go along with her. Between the three of them, they would likely wheedle their way into his lair, and proceed to be generally obnoxious.

His scowl deepened. They would probably want to play with his oven, the barbarians.

Well, there was no avoiding them now, as much as he would prefer to do so. He might as well get it over with.

The child in his arms moved slightly, wiggling to get closer to Heh. It really was strange, how this child was acting. Of course, even looking into the future a few hours revealed some of the why, but not nearly all of it.

Nebet-Het appeared from the ectoplasmic mist, as if from nowhere. Even among the Anunnaki, she was the most skilled at invisibility. It was, perhaps, to be expected. Change and death could both appear without warning.

"Well," she said, Zaqar and Nu appearing behind her. "That was certainly exciting. Embarrassing, too. The first real threat in ages, and we are too busy arguing over kings to notice."

So, she had decided against the direct approach to satisfying her curiosity. That wasn't entirely unexpected. Nebet-Het was younger than Heh, Nu, and Nergal, but older than the other Anunnaki. She had had time to learn subtlety. She was also young enough, and bold enough, to choose not to use it on occasion, and flexible enough to change her mind. Taken together, these things made Nebet-Het difficult to predict.

"I did suggest periodic recesses," said Heh, flying on.

He should, perhaps, have chosen his rejoinder more carefully, but he had been distracted by how the child reacted to Nebet-Het's appearance. The child had pulled himself still closer to Heh, with what was probably all his strength, his fists closing weakly around... nothing, actually. Interesting. Heh would have to take some measurements when he got back to Long Now.

Provided he could distract his brethren long enough for him to do so.

"Yes," said Zaqar, "but you could have told us that Enki's granddaughter was making her move while we were in the meeting, or did you not know?"

"I did not," admitted Heh, knowing that doing so would throw Zaqar off. "As you should be aware, I have consented to my powers being limited. For the good of the Realms."

This was a jab at the differences between Heh's powers and Zaqar's. Time was, ultimately, a much more universal concept than dreams. Dreams only existed in the flow of time, after all.

Nu had yet to speak. Out of all the Anunnaki, Heh got along best with Nu. That might have been because Nu spent as much time traveling as he could spare from his duties as one of the Anunnaki. It might also have been because Nu was similar to Heh in social situations: reserved, and just a touch sarcastic. That Nu was the one with the closest experiences to Heh might also have helped things.

They were not friends, however. Never friends. Heh did not do friends.

In any case, it did not seem as if Heh and Nu would get along today. The curiosity that drove Nu to spend his time exploring was now focused on the child. In fact, all three Anunnaki were focused more on the child than on Heh. As Heh had known they would be.

It was only a matter of who would broach the subject first.

"So," said Nebet-Het, in a teasing tone, "what did the Lady Ereshkigal mean when she said he had your eyes? I did not think you had a child."

"I do not," said Heh, repressively.

Surprisingly enough, this elicited a tiny squeak from the child ghost. Heh had missed that detail when looking forward. It was somehow much more noticeable in real-time.

"What did she mean, then? His eyes certainly do not look anything like yours. Is he a seer? Does she want you to train him? Give him over to the Observants?"

Again, the child reacted, though these reactions were even harder to interpret than the squeak. Perhaps when they got farther from the Core, and the child was able to move freely again, Heh would be able to read him better.

As for Nebet-Het's question, Heh shuddered internally. The contract he had with the Observants was bearable. Bearable, but less than ideal. They treated their apprentices better. Still. He couldn't see this child among their ranks, undergoing those physical changes.

Heh frowned. He truly could not see that. Not even in the timelines where the child was forced to stay in the present, rather than be returned to the future, due to errors on Heh's part. That future simply did not exist. Odd. On the surface of it, the suggestion did not seem so impossible.

"No," he said.

"Then what?"

If Heh deflected the question again, all he would achieve would be to start the other two harassing him over the answer. Even if none of them were going to understand the answer when he gave it.

"I believe," said Heh, "that he is seeing multiple timelines at once. In the present moment."

Nebet-Het raised an eyebrow. "I thought there was only one timeline in the present moment. In fact, I remember you saying just that."

"I also said that was a simplification. Usually, there is only one timeline in the present moment, but in the case of paradox, there may be multiple. That is one of the reasons it is so important to handle paradoxes carefully, and to ensure there are as few as possible, lest the timeline collapse."

"The child is a paradox?" asked Nu with concern.

"Not necessarily," said Heh. "Even I will not be sure until the present reaches the moment he was sent back. This could be a stable loop. There are a number of other ways to solve a paradox of this nature, besides. For example, on reaching the appropriate moment, I could send back different candidates to delay Inanna until a stable loop is achieved. If this does evolve into a paradox, I might not need to solve it, even then. At that point, enough time may have passed for the paradox to be negligible, even if it does evolve that we do not travel in the direction he originates from."

Heh looked down. The little ghost, who had been calming from his surprise at Nebet-Het and the others' appearance, was starting to be scared again.

"It is also possible that the child is strong enough to sustain the paradox on his own, and become 'timeless' in a sense. It occurs, sometimes, that a strong ghost may jump from one timeline to another," said Heh, hoping to soothe the child somewhat. "Considering that he was able to exist in the presence of the Core, that is actually rather likely."

Sadly, this seemed to make the child more anxious.

Zaqar waved a sharp-tipped hand. "I am sure that is all correct. But what are you going to do now?"

"I am going to send the child back," said Heh.

"Why don't you just do that now?" asked Nebet-Het, all innocently.

"Yes, yes," said Zaqar, "you can send things through time from anywhere, can you not?"

Heh sent Nebet-Het a glare. It was a small one, Heh had already come up with an excuse that did not boil down to 'I do not know where to send him.' Which was, of course, the real reason.

"Sending things so far is difficult," said Heh. "Even sending, say, a simple message to my past self, nothing physical at all, would take a great deal of power." Perhaps that was why the version of Heh in the future the child was from had not warned him: he couldn't afford the cost of the message. "As you might imagine, I prefer to spend that power in my lair."

"Why not move yourself there, then?" asked Nu. "You can do that as well as I could."

That was a good question, actually. One to which Heh had no good answer. He had not really thought of why. Perhaps he hadn't wanted to disturb the child with such a sudden move..? He knew other ghosts often found his portals jarring.

He shrugged.

"How long will it take you to send him back?" asked Nebet-Het.

"As much time as it takes, that is to say, none at all."

"Oh, really?"

This earned Nebet-Het another glare. Nebet-Het had, through abominable persistence, had learned much about Heh's powers that he would prefer to keep secret.

On occasion, Heh would admit, grudgingly, that this behavior was almost endearing. Almost. Usually, Nebet-Het respected certain of Heh's limits. But right now, it seemed that she was intent on calling him out. Heh knew why, too. It was no secret that Nebet-Het had a soft spot for children. She wanted a chance to 'play with the baby,' even if this child was a decade away from an age where he could properly be called a 'baby,' and would likely be resentful if he was called a 'baby,' even if it was by someone as long-lived as Nebet-Het. There was also that this particular child was much more in Nebet-Het's domain than even most of the Dead were.

Heh looked down the several most likely timelines, and did not bother to hide a grimace. He might as well get this over with.

"It may evolve that I do not know precisely what timeline this child is from, and it will take some effort on my part to determine that."

"Ah, in that workroom of yours?"

"Perhaps."

Nebet-Het flew closer to Heh. Curiously, the child did not tense at this, instead simply regarding Nebet-Het with large green eyes. Odd. Before she could make any suggestions, ask any more questions, or generally make herself a pain, however, Zaqar interrupted.

"Why don't you look ahead, and see what you find out?" asked Zaqar.

Heh gave him a look. Zaqar was one of the younger Anunnaki, and still prone to asking ridiculous questions. "Because that would be a paradox." There was the related issue that doing something like that would change the relative positions of their present time and the child's point of origin by changing the timeline, rendering the information useless.

"So is the boy," pointed out Zaqar.

"A paradox in my own timeline," clarified Heh, a little annoyed, "and the boy might not be a paradox." He had just gone over this. "A paradox like that would cost me more effort than simply finding out on my own."

"But what about when you answer our questions before we ask them?" pressed Zaqar. "Is that not the same thing?"

"No," said Heh, not feeling like clarifying, or explaining the differences between time travel and looking into the future. Or between different types of looking into the future. Or between creating paradoxes in his actions and in the actions of others. Or between different kinds of information.

(Perhaps it wasn't such a ridiculous question. He still couldn't do it easily.)

"In any case," said Nebet-Het, brightly, "we can help you. We can watch him while you tinker."

Heh doubted very much that Nebet-Het would be any help at all. In fact, she would probably be a distraction, as he would have to ask the child questions and get answers to narrow down the timelines he could be from.

Still. He relented. "Fine." There were a few futures where her presence, and the presence of the other two Anunnaki, would be useful. A few.

At about that time, the four Anunnaki passed from the periphery of the Core. Heh braced himself, but did not feel the need to warn his companions.

The child's aura flared, and warped into a ring, before flashing sideways and out. The child inhaled deeply and sighed, then, his range of motion restored by distance from the Core, wrapped one arm around Heh's neck, and pressed his face into Heh's chest. The child's hair was black, now, and his clothing was quite different.

Despite being able to see the future, Heh was surprised. Despite foreseeing this series of events, he had more than half expected the child to push away from him once he was able.

"Oh!" said Nebet-Het, one hand raised to her lips. She looked charmed. Zaqar, meanwhile, looked confused, and Nu's expression was carefully neutral, if curious. "A doorway spirit!"

Zaqar reached out, as if to poke the child, and Clockwork shifted away. "Let him rest," he said, and felt the child relax a little more. With luck, the child would be asleep when they reached Long Now.