Hey! Guess what? I am now 26. I've made it another whole year without dying. Accomplishment!

To start this year off right, I've decided to start sharing some of my original writing. You can find the first chapter of In the Water on AO3 under the name Marsalias. If you like magic powers, amnesia, people who may or may not be dead, conspiracies, and weird small towns, In the Water may be right for you! It's also a completely written story, so updates are only limited by my bravery. Or cowardice, as the case may be.

Reviews:

Jeptwin: I conceptualized it more as wanting children/family, but fatherhood is a good way to put it, and more succinct.

neokid93: Thank you for your well-wishes. I am currently enjoying the Merlin fandom.

DarkFoxKit: That's amazing to hear! Admittedly, I haven't finished your fic yet, it's been languishing amongst my 2 dozen open tabs. I do intend to finish it eventually, though! It's an interesting mix of outsider/insider pov.

Purest of the Hearts: The timeline in this is all screwed up, isn't it? But it has to be, otherwise the Observants will find out. :) I like the timeline pretzel. (Also, some of the timeline pretzel can be viewed in Grandfather Clocks.)

Annie Camp: Yeah, he's had a hard time. Poor Clockwork.

ReflectiveReader: More or less, yes.

Black Cat: OH GOSH I DIDN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT VLAD'S LAIR. Do you have any idea how many ideas you've given me? What have you done? :)

Eyriegirl: Thank you for reading and your feedback! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I probably would tighten up the Tower arc a bit if I was rewriting. I put a bunch of stuff in there just to be silly.

BreannaAiedail: Yes, I hurt the boy, but I balance it with love. Equivalent exchange, you see. :) Thank you for reading!

JustHereToReadYas: Thank you! I always worry about characterization, so it's good to hear when I've nailed it. I hope you continue to enjoy the story!

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Chapter 181: As We Plan for the Future

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Nebet-Het returned to a conspiracy.

At least, that's what it looked like, with the three Anunnaki bent close together and whispering. She raised an eyebrow, and cleared her throat.

"What are you doing?"

"Shh!" hissed Heh. "Daniel is sleeping."

Nebet-Het's other eyebrow inched up to join the first. She surveyed Heh more closely. He had changed. In just the small amount of time she had left him alone with the child, he had been changed. There were differences in the other two, as well.

She approved. They were, in her opinion, good changes. Changes that needed to happen.

"What is that?" whispered Zaqar, pointing to the box she was holding.

"A box," answered Nebet-Het, feeling perverse.

"What's in the box?"

"The crown."

"Inanna's crown?" asked Nu.

Nebet-Het shrugged.

"Why did you bring it back?"

Nebet-Het looked at the room's newest addition. Having a bed in the middle of this huge atrium was... odd, but Nebet-Het honestly had not expected anything better from these three. The Anunnaki were alien, even to each other.

"I wanted to test something." She looked back at Heh. "I suspect you already know the result of the test, however."

Heh shook his head, and now Nebet-Het noticed that he looked faintly ill. "There are too many paradoxes here, too many paradoxes starting, for me to be completely sure of anything."

Nebet-Het frowned. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," said Heh, waving her off. "What is it that you wanted to test?"

Nebet-Het held up the box. "I want to see whose crown this is."

"Is it not Inanna's?" asked Zaqar.

"That remains to be seen. I confess, I am uncertain how time travel affects these matters, but the crown here is... more that Inanna's crown should have been."

"You are not suggesting..." started Zaqar.

"Merely testing, at this juncture." She shrugged. "Even should the test, ah... bear fruit, it is not conclusive. The child may merely have an unusual ability. Either way, it is interesting, and it does fall under my domain, so to speak."

She walked over to where Daniel was sleeping, her colleagues trailing after her, curious. He really was a charming child. He looked so sweet, all wrapped up in Nu's much-too-large cloak, one hand lying loose on top of the covers. She settled down, cross-legged, on the floor by the bed. She opened the box carefully, and removed the crown. The cold of it bit at her fingers, despite her gloves.

After a moment's thought, she slipped it under Daniel's hand. His fingers closed on it reflexively, and he stirred, turning onto his side. Where he touched it, the metal blushed paler still, tiny patterns of frost creeping along the surface.

(Nebet-Het saw Heh smile faintly out of the corner of her eye, but his brow was still furrowed in concern. Interesting.)

As the Master of Change (and Death) Nebet-Het had a number of unusual powers. One of them was accelerating change. On occasion, Nebet-Het wondered if, thematically, that didn't fit better with Heh's power set than her's. Either way, what was, was. She rarely used the power on people. People were not as predictable as things. They way they changed changed as they did. Besides, she had been told it was traumatic.

She reached her power through her gloves, to touch the crown. It had already undergone so many changes, but it was yearning for more.

Inasmuch as an inanimate object could yearn, in any case.

(Which, as it so happens, is more for ghostly objects than strictly mundane ones.)

The metal flexed, rippled, and, yes, changed. It broke at the front, and twisted, becoming an open circlet, rather than a full one. It branched, growing leaves and little flowers, weaving in and out, tying itself into decorative knots. Bulges at the surface morphed into stars, nestled easily, naturally, among the leaves and knotwork. Tiny runes and symbols, so fine they were almost invisible, etched themselves into the surfaces, blending in as details on the branches and leaves.

Then it stilled. Daniel rolled back onto his back.

"That's as far as it will go for now," said Nebet-Het, softly. She worked the crown out of Daniel's fingers.

"For now?" asked Zaqar.

"Yes. For now. It cannot go any farther at the moment, but I do not believe that it is finished. You recall how long it took Gugalana's crown to fully form? Now, add to the fact that this is a child, and that he is likely not aware of his status..."

"So, you are suggesting that he is king in his time?" asked Nu.

"He is," said Heh.

"You found where he has come from, then?"

Heh hesitated. It was for such a brief moment that anyone who did not know him well would miss it entirely. "Yes," he confirmed.

"Then why haven't you sent him back?!"

"Shhh!" Heh hissed at Zaqar, sending a worried glance at Daniel. He pulled them away from where the child was sleeping.

Nebet-Het had to suppress a smile. Oh, Heh had it bad, and so quickly, too.

"I was about," said Heh, stiffly, "to tell you, when Nebet-Het came in."

"You were talking about politics, and what we would be willing to do for an ideal future," said Zaqar, rather flatly.

"I was leading into it."

"Why would an ideal future lead into where Daniel comes from?" asked Nebet-Het. "And how? Even allowing for abuse at Inanna's hands, he is damaged."

Heh closed his eyes briefly, then opened them. "Because, I want Daniel to exist," Heh said, finally, "and I need your help make sure he does."

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There were a number of issues with what Heh wanted.

Primarily, there was the paradox Daniel could see, and the numerous (and very nearly unconscionable) pitfalls on the path to his future. He did, however, have a plan for those. Sort of.

The next problem: Nu would disappear between then and now, his fate unknown. Heh had not, in the brief time since he had discovered this, been able to discover how or why.

However, Nu did not seem to particularly care about this.

"Perhaps I ended. Perhaps I simply decided to disappear for a few centuries. Perhaps I got lost. It is possible, if I passed my powers on to one of you, along with my responsibilities."

"Why would you decide to disappear for a 'few centuries?'" asked Heh, a little aggrieved. Even with their sense of time warped by how ancient they were, a few centuries was a long time. Then again, they were planning millennia ahead. Perhaps it wasn't such a ridiculous thing to say, after all.

Nu shrugged. "Because of this conversation, perhaps?"

Fine. On to the next problem, then. Heh's masters.

Once he stopped to think about it, Heh was shocked that they hadn't arrived to prevent Heh from bonding with the child hours ago. Heh forming a bond with anyone was cause to give them concern. A bond, they said, would make him biased, no longer neutral. Considering what he was currently doing, there might have been some truth in that. He didn't really care.

But then, the paradox that was giving Heh such a hard time was likely to be beguiling the Observants as well. Beyond that, they did not see the future in as much detail as Heh, and they would be cross to realize it, but Heh had determined that they did not see as many versions of the future as he could, nor as far. They could divine, perhaps, a hundred years before their vision blurred to uselessness.

That meant that, so long as Heh did not 'resolve' the paradox before Daniel was sent home, they wouldn't be able to see Daniel until a mere hundred years before his birth, and wouldn't spot his importance until 86 years before. That was still more than enough time for them to interfere, however.

"That's millennia from now," said Nebet-Het. "If there is one thing you can be sure of, things will change between now and then."

"I know, I know. I have seen them."

"I do not think you have," said Nebet-Het, calm and contemplative. "I do not pretend to understand how your powers work, but I have now known you for many years, and I know that five millennia is more time than you may go over in close detail. I do not believe you have gone over this year in perfect detail. What mind could? It would be incomparably boring. You have gone to the end, and looked only at Daniel, and the events he remembers."

Heh hid a wince.

"Things will change, and you will have a better idea of how when you are standing there."

So they moved on to the next issue.

"I need to lose my mind," said Heh.

"Why?" asked Nebet-Het.

"Yes, why?" echoed Zaqar. "I was not around at the time, but I have heard rumors. Didn't you go through rather a lot to cure yourself of madness?"

"I did. That is part of the problem."

"How so?"

This was not something Heh wanted to talk about. It was, in fact, a subject he avoided with prejudice. However, if he was going to convince the others to help, he would have to be honest with them. "The trouble I went through included giving up a fair amount of my autonomy and powers to the Observants, who used their understanding of divination to suppress my abilities. The Observants of the now are... tolerable. They make mistakes, and our goals have not always aligned, but they serve the Infinite Realms faithfully. The Observants of the future are not so. More importantly, they are a threat to Daniel. The reason that he is here, in this time, is that a leader of the Observants used an artifact derived from my powers to cast Daniel onto Inanna's path."

"Why?" asked Nu. "That is not a casual thing to do. There must be some reason."

"There must be," agreed Heh. "But I have not yet discovered one that makes sense." He made a face, and admitted, "My sight is less accurate over such a long distance, and where events impact me and my timeline directly, it is even harder to see clearly."

"I think," said Nebet-Het after a moment, "that this is the most you have ever spoken about yourself in my hearing. But you haven't answered my question."

"I am approaching it," said Heh, shooting her a small glare. "I was, however, distracted."

Nebet-Het rested her cheek on a closed fist. "You know, you sound like the Observants when you do that."

"When I do what?"

"Get all haughty like that."

"I do not."

"You do, actually," said Zaqar.

"Can we get back to the point," said Nu, rubbing his temple.

"Yes. Well." Heh adjusted his position slightly. "The point is, that there is a loophole in my agreement with the Observants. If I were to lose my mind, fall back into madness, I would be free of my obligations to them."

"You would also be mad," pointed out Zaqar. "Is it worth being free of the Observants only to be trapped in your own mind? Be aware that I am the person who does that kind of thing offensively and as a punishment."

"I am aware. I believe that, if we plan this carefully, I might lose my mind, and then be cured without recourse to the Observants. And, well, if I am wrong, I suppose I could let the Observants cure me, and I would be no worse off."

"How would you manage that?" asked Zaqar.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Nebet-Het. She looked across the room to where Daniel slept. "Considering how much he trusts Heh, they must have quite a bond. Losing track of him... It wouldn't be pleasant."

Zaqar frowned. "But would it really be losing track of him? If you got there, you would know this had happened. It would be a closed loop."

"That would assume that I remembered what happened."

The Anunnaki grew quiet. The only sound in Long Now was Daniel's steady breathing.

"It comes back down to Nisaba, then?" asked Nebet-Het.

"Yes. Between my own... issues, and the Observants' powers, the only way to create Daniel's timeline is if I do not remember what has happened, and that time becomes confusing enough that both I and the Observants become unable to see what will occur."

"But... Will Nisaba do it? You would have to explain everything to her," said Zaqar.

"She will."

"You said she would fade," pointed out Zaqar.

"Yes. But only because she was satisfied. Because she received everything. More than everything. She was fulfilled. She will help us, for that."