Jigsaw World (31 page)

They arrived in the kitchen and found that
others in the group had a similar plan, and had initiated it
sooner. Vera and Veritasia were busy making pancakes, with sausage
on the side. Markus had created a pot of coffee, and a bunch of
sleep-hungry people were standing in the way, waiting for the food
to be ready. Everyone was there, except for the Sorcerer, who was
sitting in the parlor reading the newspaper again. Tom had the
stray thought that someone should introduce him to the internet.
That person should not be Tom.

Tom got a cup of the coffee, and then he
wandered into the parlor to wait for the food to be ready. He sat
down in a stuffed chair near to the Sorcerer, and then he just
stared at him steadily while he waited. It took a couple of
minutes, but soon the Sorcerer was nervously glancing up from the
newspaper every few seconds to see if Tom was still staring. Tom
wasn’t sure why, but he rather enjoyed putting people like the
Sorcerer (whom he actually liked) in an uncomfortable state of
mind. It was sort of a cat playing with a mouse type of
game.

Karla wandered into the parlor, carrying a
plate of pancakes and sausages for them both. Tom stopped staring
at the Sorcerer to smile at her, and because he suspected that her
nurturing nature would be upset with such minor cruelty. Reflecting
on that made him smile a bit inwardly, since as a female, she was
naturally capable of much more cruel games, and she would look good
doing it.

As soon as everyone had loaded their plates,
they all crowded into the parlor with their food. The Sorcerer
sighed as he set his newspaper aside, convinced at last that there
was no further possibility of reading the newspaper in peace this
morning. The half of the crowd that was going to attend the
planting of the Seed today was half excited and half anxious about
the prospects. The other half was semi-bored.

The roster of those who would be going to the
Place of Beginnings after noon this day was the Seer, Tom, Tyr,
Karla, Heimdall, Veritasia and Arpad. Cernunnos, Vera, Charlie,
Markus, the Sorcerer, the Sage and the Herald would be sitting this
one out. Neither option seemed to Tom to be a desirable one. It
really should be all going or none going, but that was way too
many.

The group ate their fill, and drank their
coffee, and talked about silly little inconsequential things, and
even about important things, occasionally. Tom even got to play two
games of pool with Charlie, who was much better at the game than he
looked. In one of the games, it took Tom three turns to win,
because Charlie had a nasty habit of putting Tom’s cue ball in a
snooker position when he missed.

Eventually, it was 1:00 PM, and Tom and Karla
went back to the bedroom to prepare for the trip. They dressed in
what was essentially hiking garb, and Tom wore the 44 caliber
revolver on his right, and strapped the Claymore on the left. Karla
had a blade that was either a long knife or a short sword, but for
the most part, she was just going to be the custodian of the Seed
of Creation. It was currently inside a brown knapsack that she
would be taking with her.

Tom made the mistake of focusing on her very
green eyes for an instant too long, and then he was forced by the
onset of the hormonal addiction to engage in a lengthy process of
attempting to explore her oral cavity with his tongue, while
tactilely mapping the topography of her lips. This process was
finally discontinued by the need to breathe.

The pair made their way out of the bedroom and
back to the parlor, where the rest of the expeditionary party was
already present. The two Asgardians were in their traditional
leather and plate, and were carrying swords, and in Tyr’s case, his
silvery spear. Veritasia and Arpad were decked out with Glocks,
AK-47s, swords and in Arpad’s case, his Duda.

Tom stood with his left side away from the
Sage, still unconsciously trying to hide the theft of the Claymore
from its rightful owner. So it was that he was more than a little
irritated when the Sage came up to him and expressed satisfaction
that he had it handy for the trip.

“
What the hell do you mean?” Tom
yelled. “Aren’t you pissed that I ripped off your
sword?”

“
No, I planned to give it to you
anyway.” The Sage responded. “You just beat me to it.”

“
It takes all of the fun out of
crime, when the asshole you rip off doesn’t mind.” Tom admitted
palely.

“
Luck of the draw. That’s why I
stay mostly legit, outside of the occasional bogus reading.” The
Sage admitted. “Let that be a lesson to you. Don’t tell fortunes.
If you can see the future, it is invariably the sort of thing the
rube doesn’t want to know about. Make up the reading, no matter
what you see!”

“
I’m pretty sure that is your
shit, and not mine, but thanks.” Tom moved off to see if he could
find some more interesting company to talk to. The Sage had started
to spout more bullshit in response to whatever he was responding
to, and so Tom left quietly enough that he had the gratifying sight
of the Sage standing and waxing eloquent all by himself. He talked
for a full minute before realizing that Tom was no longer
present.

Tom found himself back in the presence of
Karla and the rest of the away team, quietly discussing a montage
of subjects relating to the Healing. The only one of the team that
was missing was the Seer, and he came over while they were talking
to tell them that they were nearly ready to depart.

They all gathered in front of the hallway
double doors, and the Seer raised his staff, and the crowning
crystal glowed in the now familiar manner. The doors flew open, and
the swirling wormhole could now be seen beyond the brightness of
its mouth. The Seer stepped into the light, and the rest of the
team followed him.

In a moment they walked from the other mouth
of the conduit into the Place of Beginnings. The sometimes Tree was
still there, still strobing from energy to tree and back again. The
group approached the Tree, and the Seer came to a stop in front of
the Tree and turned to face them.

“
We are come to plant the Seed of
Creation.” Said the Seer. “Karla will place the Seed at my
instruction, while the rest of you hold the resistance, in whatever
form it may be, at bay.”

Tom, Arpad, Veritasia and Tyr formed a
semicircle around the Seer and Karla, while Heimdall stood behind
her as her Second. Everyone drew their weapons, or made them ready,
and watched for signs of activity from the surroundings.

“
Take out the Seed, and make it
ready.” The Seer incanted. The Tree strobed faster as he said this.
Karla took the Seed of Creation out of her knapsack, and the Seed
seemed to throb with the same cadence as the Tree.

The Seed looked like nothing so much as a
peach pit, if a peach pit was rounder and about the size of a
football. If one got away from the whole peach pit/almond analogy,
it resembled a football in any non-seed description. When you
looked at it, you came away with the conviction that it was a
living thing, and powerful.

Karla cradled the Seed in her arms, and waited
for the next event or instruction. She did not have long to wait.
All around the group, a mist or fog suddenly appeared, and within
the depths of the fog, strange groans and growls could be
heard.

“
Defense, focus your power upon
the fog, and will it to be contained.” The Seer said. “Karla, when
I show you the place and time, place the Seed carefully at the
point I indicate on the Tree.”

The four in the semicircle began to focus in a
meditative state upon the fog, visualizing an invisible shield
holding it and what it contained at bay. Heimdall drew his
broadsword, and put his back to Karla’s, watching the periphery of
the scene.

A tentacle whipped out of the fog bank, and
slithered close to the group. Tom stepped forward, and used the
Claymore to cut the limb in two. A growling scream rose from the
fog, as the stump withdrew. A moment later, several more emerged
from the fog, and all of the defenders were busy hacking away at
them. For a while it was active, but none of the tentacles ever
really got that close to Karla. Heimdall did not have any
opportunity to use his sword.

“
Place the Seed there, now!” The
Seer said as he pointed at a point about fourteen inches above the
ground slightly to the right of the center of the Tree, or the
glowing Orb that it was at that second. As soon as he said that,
Karla placed the Seed at the place in the flaring energy ball that
he had specified. The light flared up several times brighter,
before resolving itself back into the image of a tree.

The things in the fog went crazy as this
occurred, whipping out of the fog to fall beneath the blades of the
four. The feeling passed through Tom that he could deal with the
resistance in a more direct way. He remembered the sensation that
he felt when the Sorcerer gave him the telekinetic test, the focus
and the connection he felt, and he duplicated it now. He focused on
the fog, and on the things which moved within it, and he built up
the power that swirled within his mind. When it was right, he let
it uncoil from his mind, and strike deep within the fog.

As he struck, he felt the power flowing, and
he felt the creatures dying, their moaning screams diminishing in
the places beyond this place that he sent their remnants to.
Finally, the resistance was gone from the Place of Beginnings, and
Tom felt a delicious tiredness. The others all look a little bit
spooked by the sudden end of the opposition. It did not matter.
They were almost done here.

The Seed was gone, melded into the Tree, which
already looked healthier. The leaves that it projected was greener
and plumper, the branches seemed thicker. Karla and the Seer were
standing close to the Tree, waiting for the company to be ready to
depart.

“
We are done here.” The Seer
pronounced. “It is time for us to leave.”

Tom looked at his wristwatch, and was
astounded to discover that about an hour and Forty-five minutes had
passed for them in this place. Time to go indeed! Everyone gathered
beside the Seer, who raised his staff without ceremony, and caused
the staff to flare as he led them all back to the normal
world.

Tom saw the familiar sight of the parlor as
the light faded from around the expedition, as they exited the
glowing wormhole mouth, and the hallway door swung shut behind them
at the Seer’s behest. The rest of the people who didn’t go on the
trip were in the parlor, awaiting the conquering Heroes’
return.

Tom and Karla immediately went over to the
table where the perpetual daily newspaper always was, and they were
even polite about the way they jostled the Sorcerer as they pawed
through it for the divergent news of the day. Most particularly,
they wanted to see if there were any changes in the policy about
the current flood of Illegal Aliens.

They were surprised to learn that there had
been no substantive changes to that policy. What they did discover
was that the Congress had voted in favor of impeachment proceedings
against the President, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney
General, and was set to defund the IRS and the EPA, and was
currently engaged in discussions of how best to get rid of the
Federal Reserve. Tom considered that a good start. None of it had
been mentioned this morning in this same newspaper.

The Asgardians were not really interested in
changes of history, so Heimdall and Tyr went out into the Courtyard
to go a few rounds of swordplay practice. All of the native humans,
the Sorcerer, the Sage and the Seer sat down to discuss the
differences. Arpad was on a short leash with Veritasia, so he had
to join the discussion as well.

There had been a few more historically
pervasive changes in events as well. One such change was that the
United States was much more firmly behind Israel in the world of
politics than they were just yesterday. At the end of the Iraqi
war, there had even been some conversation about turning the
country over to the Israeli’s to administrate, under the idea that
the Jewish state could use the oil revenue and the territory, and
it would send a huge message to the Arab world about causing
trouble. The last thing that any of the Arabs would want is to be
the subjects of the Hebrew state.

The group spent a couple of hours discussing
the differences that they found, which brought the evening to the
midnight hour. Everyone knew that they should be getting to bed, as
Vera would be reading the Book of Eternity tomorrow, but everybody
was amped up right then, and there were still tidbits of important
facts to uncover. Tom and Karla had no worries, as they would be
able to drink beer and eat pizza all day.

As the discussion wore on, the Sorcerer
started wearing a thoughtful face, which was similar to but
distinguishable from his constipated face. At one point, he pulled
the Sage and the Seer to one side, and the humans could see them as
they held a heated but sub-rosa argument. After a few moments of
that, the Seer got up and came over to the rest of them.

“
The Sorcerer had a good idea.”
The Seer said. “Before the end of this task, we will all be
remembering different histories. The Sorcerer thinks that he can
fix that.”

“
How can he fix that unless we all
go every time?” Karla asked. “I thought we all decided that was not
practical.”