Dedicated to @vyomaa_verse @kasross @isthisnametakentwo @powersohm @chrissydsvid and @CJJurgens

Thank you for all the love and support.

See, Zadek, you thought you'd ask...

How clear it is that remarkable knowing that all is well in one's life, thought the elder Zadek as his younger self had been carried away back to his timeline. How wonderfully complete we are at all times, in all the moments of our lives, he went on thinking.

How complete are you now? asked Omiran.

The elder Zadek looked out through the glass-wall, whose doors were ajar, past the white, transparent curtains swaying in the breeze, and said, "I like who I've become."

Then you are complete, remarked Omiran, but there was a lingering half-thought/half-feeling merged into oneness as well, as if Omiran may have easily continued that sentence into something vastly arcane, incomprehensible, at a higher level than all the mind-stretching, soul-expanding, wonderful blessings in disguise that were, at times, his riddles.

Am I? said Zadek, deciding to play along.

Would you like to see for yourself? his Maker asked.

Of course! came Zadek's reply, unexpectedly faster than he would have imagined.

Omiran laughed. Your younger self has stirred within you a spark you've put aside in a while. He's reminded you of himself.

There you had it: the riddle. One of those which he most enjoyed giving.

You have me confused now, Zadek answered, for if he's reminded me of who he is, then who am I in the bigger scheme, and why am I not him?

Because you have travelled beyond that timeline, and he's free to move around and make choices that are different from your own.

The choice-ribbons, commented Zadek, nodding.

Exactly, answered Omiran. And if you remember what you've just said about the other one who's made a different choice regarding Lera, then you understand.

Zadek scanned Time-bands in search for an answer to a new curiosity he immediately had.

Omiran laughed. How many of you are there now? He seemed overjoyed.

Oh, the games you play! thought Zadek, a big smile on his face. "I like them. I love them, in fact!" he said aloud, a bit louder than he might have thought.

Then Omiran asked, How many?

Zadek paid closer attention. I see four, he then said. This encounter has added two more possibilities for our lives to unfold. Then he corrected himself, My life. Then paused. Ours?

No answer came from Omiran.

Stage two of the riddle, thought Zadek. Fun. Omiran selectively responds.

Then he perceived emotions swell in his energy field in front of his chest. He counted the pattern signatures. He needed a moment or two to adjust, thus took deep breaths in and out, slowly and patiently, observing without reacting, detaching as he'd learned a long time ago by imagining he were swaying on gentle, etheric waves that surround him a bit higher than chest-level, his mind soothed of all unwelcome thought, his emotions balanced, simply observing without interfering.

A pattern emerged with clarity.

That one is my own, he deduced. My own from now. Z1, I'll call it. Good.

Then he went on observing.

He felt tingling sensations that were unfamiliar to him. Ideas and beliefs that seemed strange at first, as if one were reading a note in a different dialect that one had long lost touch with and is trying to bring to mind the meaning of the words. He breathed deeper and relaxed into it, and as he was doing that, the pattern brought memories. He saw blue people in a tribe and himself – or a self like him, but master of his own life choices – around them, he saw himself be a part of that tribe.

B-17. You didn't know where to find Lera.

He smiled. Then the wave in his energy field brought more knowledge to his mind and emotions. He discovered love, a love for the land, a love for another way of life, a love for the universe, a completeness by merging with the essence one has and sees in facts; he saw himself in the presence of Hee'Taa, learning from the tribe leader; notion upon notion came to mind, his own self enriched by the knowledge and wisdom of that tribe; he noticed his mind had expanded to incorporate all that his other self had learned and he felt immensely grateful and wanted to repay that self and Hee'Taa as well and his tribe, its lineage and customs and ancestors – all of them; and thus he imagined them all in a giant orb of light receiving his blessing and thank you.

He waited a moment. The energy was swelling. He had to let go. He knew Hee'Taa's ancestors had received the blessing and now he consciously let the orb fade from awareness.

Then after a few moments, he pondered, That's one, and turned his attention back to the 4-fold emotion patterns in his energy field in front of his chest. And I'm another. Two more.

He focused on one of the patterns he intuitively recalled as being the one he'd mentioned to his younger self during his visit. He felt stagnation, fear, lack, disillusionment, and was surprised and displeased. His first reaction was to intervene.

Do not, Omiran immediately transmitted. Let him learn his lesson. He keeps returning to past pain instead of burying it and stepping aside from it by consciously choosing joy instead. He keeps being lonely and disgraceful, not utilizing his gifts because he imagines he does not deserve them. He's bought into the illusion that it's not fair to receive from me any advantage.

He's saying no to his very nature, Zadek thought, still in disbelief. How strange!

Omiran made a pause – the one he made occasionally, as a father would when talking to his child – and then said, You will not intervene in any way. Trust him. He will, sooner or later, choose to return to himself.

I could avoid all this pain, thought Zadek.

He could, Omiran said, pressing onto the first word.

After a moment of silence, while his downward curve to his lips had remained, Zadek said, It is clearer now, what you said about different choices, different Zadeks.

Regain emotional control, Omiran advised.

Straight to the essence, back on track through a glimmer of the answer.

Zadek gave a nod.

He's a smart guy, he encouraged himself.

Somehow, he felt Omiran smile.

Do not doubt this self or that, his Maker retorted.

Now Zadek laughed, as if freed by Omiran's trust and faith in all the Zadeks he's made and co-created continuously with across the lines of time-expression of himself.

You are not a victim of your choices, Zadek pondered.

Then after a moment, Omiran retorted, seeming slightly amused, You are never a victim, and that's the true end of the sentence.

Zadek nodded.

Who else have you found? Omiran changed the subject.

Thus Zadek returned to paying attention to his energy field and the emotion patterns therein, three of which he'd already understood on some level. Then there was this fourth one, which seemed utterly fantastic to him. Somehow, until now, he had not been able to correlate an emotion pattern with colour, but this one seemed to emerge in his awareness colour-first. It was midnight-blue, with lighter nuances within; he noticed beautiful pulsations of azure-turning-into-bright-white and he went on noticing pathways and wonderful scales of depth and height to his feelings (the "he" that was this other self, much more evolved than himself or any of the other two timeline-variable versions of himself), and it gave him great joy.

That's what I've been waiting to discover, he thought of saying.

That's what you are, Omiran said.

Zadek was taken aback. What about the different Zadek across the lines of time? What about me being me and them being they? What about–

Then he stopped.

A centering of essence selves, he tried to guess.

A deepening mystery, Omiran said, awaiting a clearer mind and new pathways to form to enable understanding.

Wait, Zadek said. I need to reconnect with it.

You've connected with your higher self again, said Omiran.

Again? Zadek asked, momentarily not understanding, but then a thought saved him: this fourth self, he's taken leaps by frequently connecting to his higher self, which is one for all.

Or is it? laughed Omiran.