Author's Note: Hey everyone, sorry about the wait. I had 3 horrible summer classes to take. Now, on with the story!
6
Ramble dripped water on the bathroom tiles. He seemed none the worse for wear, though it had taken him ten minutes to wake up after the woman who he'd shown such reverence had returned them to the top of the hill where their ships sat. Then the Lady had turned her smile on the Doctor. The Walker had the image of her grandfather's face imprinted in her mind; a mixture of surprise, chagrin and annoyance. He was still outside, presumably speaking with the woman. The Walker glanced at the man as she grabbed a towel out of the nearest bathroom her TARDIS had provided and handed it to him.
"Here. Dry yourself off, and you'd best get out of those wet things. My ship can find a few garments for you if you like. You can change in here." she said, stepping out of the bathroom before turning back to face her visitor. He stood still, watching her, his head canting to the side slightly. He looked down at the towel, stared at it with a remote expression, then looked back up at her inquiringly. "Why?" he asked.
The Walker blinked."Why what?"
"Why should I remove my clothes?"
"Because you're sopping wet," the Walker said, "and very soon you'll be chilled. Water evaporation pulls heat away from the body, you see. You'll be more comfortable if you get out of them."
He inclined his head slightly, as if considering her words. "Ah. I see" He glanced down-and his clothes were gone. He stood there, naked. Stark naked. His amber-green eyes met hers calmly.
The Walker blinked. "I suppose I did say get out of them, didn't I. I meant to say that you should put on other garments."
"Why?"
She was not going to look any lower than his eyes.
"Because you'll be cold without them." A level reply. Good work.
He cocked his head, blinking as if this was a novel concept. "Yes. I suppose I may be. Cold." He glanced down absently, and his clothes returned clean and fresh. "My thanks."
"Don't mention it." she turned away. Unfortunate that she was so neat, or she could pretend to be straightening something.
"Well…if you don't need the restroom, we might as well go and sit down." she said, turning away to walk down the hall. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Better."
"Good."
The silence lay down in the hallway, bearing down like high gravity.
"I had not expected such power to be needed." Ramble murmured. The Walker could feel his eyes on her back.
"I am…I required a small amount of power from your ship to succeed, once more. I had too little of my own."
"I know." the Walker said. The ship had told her that another six percent of its power supply had gone.
"Ah. Of course." he said. She was surprised at the tone of his voice. It sounded almost apologetic. "I will return it as soon as I may."
"Don't concern yourself. If you can stop using her as a power supply, then she'll soon be able to recoup her energy, as will Grandfather's ship."
There was a small laugh behind her. "I wish I were as strong. I do not recover energy with such ease."
The Walker paused, her mind lining up the many questions on her mind in order of relevance."Which is why you fainted, am I right?"
Ramble met her eyes with a sense of agreement.
"If you have less energy than your elders, why did they ask you to come here?"
"Because…they cannot…I…" the man gave a slight, irritated shrug. "I am weak, and half-blooded, but I can find roads. They are not able. They forget. I remember. It is my…ability. My…" he said a word that didn't translate. But with it came a series of concepts that flashed through her mind; being talented with finding, being proud of a skill, the innate sense of knowing tempered by training.
The Walker nodded. "I see."
The silence descended again. Ramble's behavior reminded the Walker of the way Beta Tau, a shy boy in her Primary class, had acted when he was trying to make friends in their first week of school.
The hallway wound past the kitchen, which had moved from its usual place down the second hall. Ramble paused. "I think I may be in need of energy. Food. Might you have something?"
The Walker turned. She couldn't help but smile at the odd phrasing. "I'm sure I can find something to eat. Follow me."
She dug out two sets of the rice balls that she'd fallen in love with in sixty-first century Japan, cracked the vial on the lid of the packages, releasing a heated steam that cooked the food instantly, and set the packages on the table.
Ramble studied the food, then took one of the rice balls. He took a thoughtful bite, and brightened.
"I see now what they meant." he said between bites. "He was right. There is so much to learn here."
"Who?" the Walker asked. She'd given up trying to follow his conversation in favor of asking where he was in it. It seemed to be a workable system. The Eternal glanced at her inquiringly. "If you opened your mind, we could speak with more ease."
"It's not something I'd be very comfortable with, I'm afraid." the Walker replied. Her words sounded stiff and formal. Ramble shrugged it off. "It is a kinsman. He has said this world is worthy of praise, and he spoke well. There is so much…difference, in this world. In the minds and in the food. You are unlike men, and foods are unalike. Variety. Taste. Flavor. So much I can learn. It's…wonderful." He bit into another rice ball with enthusiasm.
Further down the hall, a door slammed. The sound of boots clattered down the hall.
"He's gone." Jenny said, skidding into the room. The Walker looked up in alarm.
"What?"
"Father. He's gone. That woman took him off somewhere." She turned, glaring at Ramble. "Where is he?"
Ramble blinked back up at her. "He is with the Lady."
"Yeah, I get that, but I want a geographic point. Coordinates. Where are they?"
"Meeting. They are well. You need not worry."
"I won't worry if you take me to him." Jenny said, her voice light and dangerous. Ramble glanced up at him, and cocked his head. "You are angry. And afraid. There is no need for such things. He is safe with the Lady. She may require his aid."
"First off, stay out of my head." Jenny said slowly, "And second off—"
"And secondly," the Walker interrupted, " we'll need to go out on the hill and do our best to repair the damage that was done by Ramble's arrival outdoors. We'll have to find some way to explain this to the townsfolk."
Jenny shot the older girl a glare. What the hell are you trying to do? We've got to get to Father, and I'm not about to—
We're not about to start a fight with this man. We don't want to annoy him unnecessarily. Grandfather can take care of himself quite well. In the mean time, do calm down and be reasonable.
I am being reasonable. Jenny returned irritably, glaring at the Eternal who looked politely back. I haven't hit him.
You are overreacting. Give Grandfather time to find out what is happening here. He'll find his way back here when he wants to. There are very few things that can stop him if he's feeling determined and you know it. It's almost proverbial. If he takes too long, then we'll force the point, but not before hand. Now calm down.
Jenny let out a long breath. Then she nodded sharply. "Fine. I'll be outside on the hill." With a last prickly look at the Eternal, Jenny turned on her heel and marched out. Ramble watched her go curiously.
"She is like fire." he said softly. "Always bright." Then he returned his attention to the rice ball in his hand. Before he'd finished the food, he paused, glancing up as if he'd heard a sound.
"Is something wrong?" the Walker asked politely.
"My kinsmen." he said, half listening. "They are coming."
…
Another pair of Eternals appeared in the dappled shade. The Doctor watched them, leaning against the wide bole of the oak tree. One looked essentially human, except for pure black eyes. The other looked like a deer, if a deer had been taken, stretched, taught to walk on two legs and given long slender hands on its forefeet. The Doctor rolled his eyes. If they were going to form constructs, you'd think they'd use something sensible.
He was being unreasonable and cranky, and he knew it. It came of being treated like a child who had better just wait till he was called. And being dragged all over the place without so much as a word of consent from him. It was a pretty rare thing for the Doctor to be treated like this, and he didn't think much of it. The only comfort he had was that he wasn't the only one who seemed confused. Some of the Eternals seemed positively bewildered. The Lady had moved the little gathering to a shady place beneath the branches of a wide, spreading oak universe-knew-where after five of her kind had showed up, and the rest seemed to figure out where she was, but not much else. A few were staring at everything with a look that usually implied the use of some form of mind-altering substance. Others just seemed cheerfully muddled; they milled about, occasionally walking through the tree.
The Doctor sighed. He hated waiting.
He had been drawing travel and trajectory diagrams in the dirt with a twig for some time before he was approached by an Eternal. This one had adopted a shape that was a fox-human hybrid, and a fairly pretty one.
"Come." it said, "the Lady calls you."
Deeper into the shade, the Lady was sitting in the grass, studying an oak leaf that almost matched her dress. Around her, a group of Eternals were staring at each other, shaking their heads and gesticulating. A telepathic conversation was obviously going, but based on his experience with Ramble he wasn't about to open his mind far enough to listen. He wasn't in the mood to try to sort through their kind of whirlwind discussion.
"Words, my own. Use words." the Lady said softly. The group looked at her. A sharp-faced man with skin the color of walnuts sighed. A bird-headed creature cocked its head, and two others glanced at each other with annoyance.
She looked up, and smiled warmly. "Doctor. Our rambler has told us about you.I am the lady Rhiannion."
"Thought you were called the Lady?" the Doctor asked in a dry tone. The woman smiled.
"It is respect. My spoken name is Rhiannon." She smiled at the circle, then held out a hand to offer the Doctor a seat. The other Eternals watched him carefully as he sat.
"You've already done us a great service by aiding our Ramble." the Lady said lightly. Something about her expression hinted at humor just under the surface, hiding in her deep green eyes.
"Oh, wasn't much really." the Doctor said, matching her tone. "By the way, your verbal communication is really quite good."
"I thank you. I have been here often. I am afraid I have been too lax with the younger of us." She said, looking over the others in the circle. "I allow them to stay too much in that between state we have created. It defeats the purpose of this experiment to fail in truly living in this plane." She smiled slightly, sadly. She wasn't bad in the facial expressions either. She looked nearly human. "I've called you here because I fear I shall need to ask more aid of you. We need an impartial emissary. Not a man, for a man would have no respect among us. And yet not one of m own."
"And an emissary would be needed because…" the Doctor let the sentence peter out, cocking an eyebrow.
The lady Rhiannion sighed. "For discussion. A…disagreement has grown up between us, and has reached such a heat that we cannot now speak civilly. Ramble has told you some of it."
"The bare bones, yes. If I got it straight, some of you want to return to your usual form of existence and some don't?"
"Precisely. Some wish to end this experiment with ephemeral existence. And I have agreed to do so, over time. But over time is not agreeable to some of us. They demand…speed. Swift action. And this I cannot aceed to."
"Right. You're still comfortable here?"
"I am. And I have no wish to harm this world that has hosted us in our leaving." She plucked an acorn, running it between her fingers. "If we were to leave suddenly it would be…devastating. We would need to take back all the energy invested in our…I believe the term is pocket universe. And that universe is bound into this one tightly."
"How tightly, exactly?" the Doctor asked.
"Do not question the Lady." the bird-headed creature said. The Lady waved a hand."Enough, M'lor."
She turned back to the Doctor. "Tightly. I have told the other part of you the rest. She can keep it best."
"Thanks, then." the Doctor said. "But you know that you're already starting to do damage. Had you noticed just how tightly the timelines are strung around here? I've already seen one irregularity this morning, and anything that goes wrong here will have repercussions."
Most of the circle roused this time. "Do not-" the bird headed man began. The Lady held up a hand, quelling them. When she looked back, some of the humor had faded from her face, leaving her looking somewhat sad. "And you do not think that we see this same, time weaver? What we harm we shall mend. What we wound we always heal. Time is not as difficult as you might see it to weave and unweave. This planet has hosted me, and I would not willingly do its evolution harm."
"Thank you, then." he said. The Lady held his eyes, and smiled. "We will call the parlay in a day. I will call you at that time." She stood.
"One more thing." The Doctor said, "Do you know if any of your relatives have a habit of drinking energy? From living things?"
The Lady stilled. "Why?"
"I found a dead man this morning. His body was drained of chemical energy."
The Lady nodded slowly."That would be my kin. At times energy is needed after traversing the lands, and some…take it where they can. It is…unfortunate. I will mention it in the parlay."
Then the Lady turned away.
…..
Jenny's head jerked up as the TARDIS door opened.
"Father! You okay?"
"I'm fine." The Doctor said quickly, striding in with barely a glance. "And I might just know what's going on." Moving to the main monitor, he began to tap at the keys. He shook his head, then closed his eyes. Echoes of questions and answers between the Time Lord and his ship ran through his daughter's head. The screen lit up with information.
"There we go." the Doctor murmured. He perused the information. Then he let out a long, low whistle.
"Got to hand it to them. They really know how to muck things up." he motioned to his daughter.
"Look at this. They've worked it right into the planet's electromagnetic field. And the timelines too. The entire planetary timeline."
Jenny stepped to the monitor, watching an image of the planet rotate. In the multi-spectrum image of the planet the globe was covered with a second skin.
"The pocket universe?"
"Yup. And look how it's bound into the planetary systems." the Doctor said, almost enthusiastic. Then his forehead creased. "See what she means now."
"That woman?"
"She's called the Lady. Yes." the Doctor reached fingers through his dark hair, grabbing at a handful distractedly. "Gah. And just look what they've done to the timelines. These time paradoxes will have given me a headache pretty soon. What a bloody mess. And yet they keep it working. That's just not fair."
"And what's up with her?"
"With her people, mostly." the Doctor replied. "And with this. How much energy do you think is bound up in those bonds anchoring the pocket?"
Jenny leaned forward, studying. "A sextisol, I guess." she said, referring to the amount of power contained in six g-type stars.
"Septisol, actually. Lots of power, right?"
"Yeah."
"And what would happen if that power was taken out of this system all at once?"
Jenny's eyes widened. "You mean, break all these bonds? At once?"
"Yup."
"It would rip a hole in the electromagnetic field. A gigantic hole. Probably in the ozone layer too. And the timelines would be shot all to hell."
"Pretty much," the Doctor said, "the planet would be ripped to bits. And that's what'd happen if these Eternals pulled their energies out. Kaboom."
Jenny crossed her arms over her chest. "Nasty."
The Doctor sighed. "Yes. Nasty." He glanced at his daughter. "And that's what happens, if we can't talk them out of it." He laughed slightly. "Hope I remember my diplomacy."
….
The meeting was set for a hill over a deep pool. Ramble brought them to the site, and they stood waiting as the Eternals gathered.
The Lady was standing close to them, facing the west, her firey hair ruffled in the breeze.
And then there was another woman standing, facing her. Her hair was the color of honey, outlining a triangular face and eyes so light a green that they were nearly yellow. The Doctor thought she looked a little feline.
The Lady nodded slightly. "Cousin."
The other lady stared at her. "You come to speak to me, and you use this form of communication?"
"For the moment."
"For these?" the Eternal said, turning an impassive glance over the three Time Lords. "What are these?"
"Arbittrators. You will not speak with me easily, and so I ask him" she pointed to the Doctor, "to speak between us."
"Them?" the catlike woman snorted. "Epheremals?"
"Look closer." the Lady said calmly. The woman waved a hand.
"Let it be as you wish, then. I have not changed in my…needs, my thoughts on the thing."
"And how could you still hold that course, after all that I have said?" the Lady said. She seemed about to say more, but turned to the Doctor. "We shall address ourselves to our people. Each of us shall describe our thoughts on the subject in words and other ways. You will see that neither of us over speaks the other. You will see that each of us takes our time and our turns. You will be impartial."
The Doctor nodded. He was rather poor at being impartial, but this probably wasn't the time to voice it.
The Lady nodded. Turning outward, she spoke. "Listen, A Danu. Listen, Kindred. This place has been good to us. There is no need for us to harm it in our leaving. Let us go slowly over the centuries. Let us go gently."
"But why should it matter, what happens here?" the other woman said, her voice deep and sweet as a bell. "It matters not. A speck in the stars. A few ephemerals. What of it?"
"I have lived among these ephemerals." the Lady rejoined. "They are small, and their lives short. But their stretch is long throughout the stars. We cannot undo all that they will one day do."
"All ephemeral things. Easily written out of existence. It would not harm the universe to reweave so that they had never been, so there is little import to any of them. We are A Danu. Why concern ourselves with such things?" she turned to the Lady. "Can you not remember what you once were?" she said earnestly, "The strength of it? The glory of it? The power?"
"Can you not remember?" the Lady rejoined. "The boredom? The meaningless drifting? No life, no change, no challenge, no difference. All the power in us, and no use for it. Here, we have sensation, experience, change, difference. Here we experience Life. We learn, we grow. I would rather that than every measure of my self at my finger tips."
"That is not your right to choose." the woman said sharply, the catlike look sharper in her face. "If we all choose to be free of this place, you have no right to hold us back. To be free, to shuck this puny planet and become what we ought to be."
"But we do not all so choose." the Lady said softly. "Many of us prefer this place. Its changing, its life and vitality. There are great dreams and hopes here. There is lush growth. And we wish to enjoy our place here, unimpeded. We will not work in breaking away."
For a moment the other woman's face held a wholly alien expression, empty of all emotion."Then there must be a manner of deciding." she said, facing the people again. "All here, or all free? Half trapped? How do we decide?"
There was a murmur, and the Doctor glanced at his family, tapping his forehead and then chopping his hand down in a private signal to shield their minds. He could feel the maelstrom swirling around them even behind the strongest shields he could raise around his mind. He put a hand on Jenny's shoulder, doing his best to shield her as well.
"Seems to me they should vote. Something to decide once and for all." he said quietly. Then he noted the sharp gaze of the Lady's counterpart.
"Something to decide? Once and for all?" She paused for a moment, then laughed. "Very well. A challenge. A threefold challenge. The time child can judge for us. You choose the first."
The Lady nodded. "The first challenge shall be a work of calling. Gather what men you may, and I shall gather those who belong to my heart. Who hath the greatest number has the first."
"Granted. Then the second shall be the work of arms. The men shall fight, and we shall see. That shall give the second."
"Now hold on!" The Doctor said sharply, "You can't bring a bunch of men in and make them fight to the death! These aren't toy soldiers you're talking about."
"And why not?" a voice from the crowd said. "Their little kings do the same."
"Exactly." Said the tall, blonde woman. "We give them the honor to fight for the future they choose. Is that not just?"
"Not if you trick them into fighting for you." the Doctor said sternly. The Eternal shook her head. "Silly little man. We speak to them. It is their choice whether they follow us to battle or no."
She turned to the Lady with a mocking smile. "It will be an interesting… experience, war. And you are the one who so encourages us to experience. You agree?"
The Lady's face was set when she replied, "I do."
"But you can't just-" the Doctor began hotly.
"It is not your place to choose the method of contest." The woman said sharply, "Only to judge. Two contests decided upon."
"And the third," said the Lady, "Shall be a work of seeking. You may make a nexus, the first step in the process you wish to enact. We shall find it and destroy it if we can, in three days. That is the third."
The Doctor stepped forward. "Right. If this is going to be a contest, then there are going to be rules. If I'm the judge, then it is my place to make the rules."
Both Eternals turned to look at him. "Rules, little man?" the catlike woman smiled.
"Yes, rules." the Doctor replied. Holding up his fingers, he ticked them off. "First off, any man you ask to fight your little war has to be asked honestly. No tricking his thought processes or his senses. No lying to him, no forcing him." he met both women's eyes."Swear to this, by your names."
"By my name." the Lady said after a moment.
After a long look at her counterpart, the other woman repeated the words.
At least he knew that oath as the one they'd keep. No Eternal would break an oath on their name, which would require them to give their true name to the one they'd made their oath to. It was too precious to them.
"Secondly, this fight involves just this island. I don't want anyone mucking up the whole planet. Seems like a fair gameboard. Right?"
Slowly, both women nodded.
"And thirdly, you have to swear that what you do here harms nothing. This fight has to happen somewhere uninhabited, somewhere where their fighting won't harm any timelines. And any timelines that are broken or rearranged get rerouted to keep the essential timeline chugging along. You return your fighters, you don't interrupt planetary evolution. Got it?"
"Yet our removal might…interrupt it." The honey-haired woman said, smiling. The Doctor met her eyes.
"If you win we'll come to that. But first you swear. Right?"
"By my name." said the Lady.
"By my name." said the other Eternal, slowly.
"Fine." the Doctor said. This was probably a very bad course of action. But at least this way, he could try to outsmart them. And if he couldn't…
Well, what else could he do. He had no authority here. And there was no way he could point to an authority, any authority, over Eternals. There was no authority over them.
But there were the rules of the game. And Eternals loved to play games.
"Then we begin." the Lady said. Her cousin nodded mockingly, and vanished.
Of course, he thought guardedly, they also love to cheat.