No Year

“Hello, Arthur,” said a woman’s voice. It was everywhere and nowhere. He floated

in blackness, looking for the source. “I suppose you’re wondering why I called you

here.”

“Yes,” said Arthur. He looked down at his hands. He noted that they were made of

blocks of light, instead of flesh and blood. He looked around for the voice, ignoring

the queasy feeling in his stomach.

“I lost the war with the Abyssal Plane,” said the voice. “I let my world fall down into

the darkness after a long struggle. I underestimated the resources that could be

brought to bear against the meager defenses of my heroes. Baldwin was the last to

fall, but it did fall. Now there’s nothing left.”

“If there’s nothing left, where are we?,” asked Arthur.

“In the belly of the beast,” said the voice. “I’m protecting you with the last of myself.

I need you to do something for me, Arthur. I need you to take on a task a normal man

was not meant to do.”

“It doesn’t look like I have a choice,” said Arthur. “What’s the job, lady?”

“I need you to go back to the start of history, and change time,” said the voice. “You

will grow incredibly old trying to stop the end of my universe. You will be bitter.

Everyone you know will grow old and die around you. If you can reach the end of the

world in that timeline, I will release you, and find some other to take your place.”

“So I have to fight the future until I stop this from happening,” said Arthur.

“Will you do it?,” asked the voice. “Will you be my knight?”

“I can stay here and die, or I can change the future as much as I can but still die trying

to save the day,” said Arthur. “It’s not much of a choice.”

“I know,” said the voice.

“I’ll do it,” said Arthur. “I don’t know if I can do it, but I have nothing to lose. Do

what you can.”

“Good luck, my knight,” said the voice.

The air grew excited as whispers of light pierced the mass around them. Arthur

caught a vision of the loveliest woman he had ever seen, but she was the size of a

giant, and burned with energy coursing under her skin. She struck the squamous

mass with her fist. Blinding light blasted through the eyes and tentacles and mouths

and other organs that he didn’t want to think about and couldn’t unsee.

Arthur realized that the goddess, the queen, had used the mass to power her last spell.

He frowned. How did he help her when he didn’t know how to help himself?

A massive hand of blue steel and white lightning picked him up. He flew through the

opening created in the universe, falling back through the years. He felt things slicing

him as he fell toward his end goal.

He hit the ground and rolled. He thought he heard a bone snap, but when he stood,

he didn’t feel anything hurting out of the ordinary pains of falling on his face.

Where was he? When was he?

He realized the flaw in the goddess’s plan. How was he going to change the future if

he didn’t know where he was, and what lines he was supposed to change? He

supposed that would be his first fix.

He sat down in the long grass. His head was full of things he shouldn’t know. He

raised his hand to his eye to keep it from blasting out of its socket. He couldn’t move

as he fought down the line of known knowledge from the forefront of his brain. He

closed his eyes and concentrated on how to find out where and when he was.

Once he knew that, he could start trying to fix things for the Queen.

He pulled a handful of grass out of the ground. He pulled the dirt from the roots and

squeezed. A small metal disk rested in the palm of his hand. He crushed the grass

together until he had wires hanging from his hand.

He fitted the wires to the disk. He shook his head. What was he missing? He needed

some more parts.

He gathered some leaves. He worked them with his fingers as he stretched the

material. He smiled when he could fit them on the disk as covers. The wires plugged

in the disc easily.

He needed one more thing to make it work. He looked around. He found a rock laying

by itself. It begged to be used. He picked it up and massaged it into the shape he

wanted. He fused it with the disc. He pressed the changed rock with his thumb.

Numbers and symbols lit up the glass he had made.

“So Baldwin is going to be here in another few thousand years,” said Arthur. “That’s

great. They’re the last country to survive the onslaught from the enemy. Why?”

He cast about for the reason. His memory flooded in with the green lights. They were

able to change reality with their ability. And that ability allowed them to hold out

against the Abyss longer than anyone else.

But he didn’t see the source of that ability. What could it be?

He realized this was his first fix in the timeline. The green lights had to be created

with a device. No one knew who had made that device. It had been found buried

during a construction project. And then someone had made it work, but history didn’t

say who.

He closed his device. He knew what he had to do. He had to create the device to

create the green lights that protected Baldwin. Then he could move on to other places

where he could shore up reality’s defenses.

He decided the best thing he could do was build whatever he was going to build in

a pit as close to the original find as he could. Then he could bury it and let the future

Baldwin grow up and find the thing.

He also needed some clothes. He couldn’t go around without them.

He decided that the best thing he could do was create a device to make creating other

devices easier. That should help him create the thing used by the green lights. And

he needed clothes so he didn’t have problems moving in the woods that dominated

this part of the world.

In the distance, he could see mountains. He supposed they were Corwin’s Mansions.

He couldn’t see moving through them unless he wanted to fix things.

He grabbed a stick. He straightened it out into a rod. He cast it into metal with a small

jewel at one end. He realized that he had recreated one of the most famous magic

sticks in history. He should have foreseen that.

He might have to recreate it at some point in the future. Right now, it was going to

help him with his two problems before he did something else to help the Queen.

He took some grass and used that to patch his pale blue suit, and darker shirt. He

looked down at himself. He smiled. Now he had pockets for his equipment.

He dug out a pit to what he thought was the right dimensions. He walked to a nearby

tree and gathered up some of the loose limbs. He laid the limbs in a circle in the

bottom of the pit. He used the rod to join the limbs together. Then he rubbed dirt on

the ring to change the circle into a thing of metal. He inserted a changed rock to

power it up.

He smiled. The more green lights invested in the system, the stronger their powers

would be. It should be enough to do protect Baldwin at the end of the world.

What about the rest of the world?

He couldn’t count on the green lights protecting the world from the threat on their

own. Everyone they lost would cut into their powers. When they lost their majority,

they would lose everything.

He decided not to reverse the energy matrix. He needed them to police the world as

much as they could. Once the Abyss broke through, they would have to fight for their

lives just like everyone else.

He covered the ring over with dirt and hardened it against anything that might open

the time capsule before it was ready. The vault would know when it needed to be

opened.

He rubbed his face as he looked the scene over. He had to start moving. He wondered

what he would see, who he would meet, what he could do to keep the world moving

in the right direction.

How long did he have before the Abyss started trying to stop him? He would know

it was close when they started breaking down the boundaries. He had to have most

of his pieces in play by that time.

He doubted he would last the amount of time granted him. Things happened. He

expected to get killed in the first attempt to stop the Abyss.

He laughed as he walked. He would probably lose his mind carrying out his mission

long before he had to worry about getting killed by some unnatural expressions from

another universe.

He wondered how many people he was going to sacrifice to save the planet.

He decided that he needed to find someone to talk to so he didn’t go crazy and kill the

first person he ran into after he went out of his mind.

He pulled out his rod and started shaping limbs into a rough skeleton as he walked.

He placed the skeleton on the ground. A dog barked at him. He patted its head.

“Let’s get a bite to eat, and figure out how we’re going to save the world,” he said.

He put the rod inside his jacket. “I think Woody would be a good name for you.”

The dog barked and wagged its tail.

“I know,” he said. “You know I can’t remember what my name is. Isn’t that odd?”

The dog barked.

“I’ll think of something,” he said as he kept walking.