Star shakes her head, though she doesn’t look happy. {Star} Not really, thanks, Halfaz… thanks for your concern for me. It’s just a difficult situation. I’ve been at odds with a group of Mages and others that he has association with, or rather, they have been at odds with me.
It hasn’t degenerated into open hostilities, and we are fundamentally on the same side, we all act for preservation. We just don’t agree on methods. Or fundamentals, for that matter.
Ptolemaeus, here, says he disagrees with them in some of the same ways I do, but he still keeps his association with them. I can tell by his equipment, for one thing. And, Ptolemaeus, by your information, for another; there are very few in the Multiverse who could help you track my movements in Temporal Prime besides the Guardians Star shifts her attention to Ptolemaeus.
{Star} Cat and human… and a Maelstrom. Lorelei and Marianna. Yes. I was saving them from the disaster, pulling them around it. The Maelstrom itself… yes. She is a little embarrassed and defensive. I did cause it indirectly, but the proximate cause was what some other creatures did. I… I didn’t intend the results they triggered. But I have to accept responsibility for guilt by association, and for contributing to the situation. Winston and I are handling, have handled, the repairs. That atmosphere replacement company was very expensive, and their megalomaniac leader was a nuisance to deal with… Winston put that name to him and it’s a lovely one… but it’s all done, and no one the worse for wear except the ones who deserved what they got... the innocents are fine. So, yes, there is a Maelstrom formed in the Timestream then, but it’s self-contained and isn’t spreading anywhen else. I’m not going to describe the details; that level of destructive knowledge should not be in wide circulation. I know the Guardians like to have complete archives, but I’m not putting that in a library.
Star continues thoughtfully. {Star} I should be able to visualize your path now. You came to the Maelstrom in Temporal Prime. You saw me and Lorelei and Marianna. You picked up a huge ball of Strands, which you must have done there, and then rode it here. So you must have ridden the shock wave from the Maelstrom to have so much Time Momentum to be out of control arriving here. So why not follow me with Lorelei and Marianna… Ah. Too much Time Momentum, you were out of control. And I was preoccupied in finding myself with Halfaz to join him now, so I was inattentive. I’ll have to be more careful, I told you I bear some responsibility for our crash.
You haven’t told me how you knew to come to that Maelstrom to find me, but I suppose the Guardians aren’t the only source. Just the most likely source. Tell me that they told you, or how you knew, or not. I won’t hold it against you either way; we don’t need to reveal all of our sources to be friends.
Friends are more concerned about who they tell things to, and less about who they hear them from.
As to helping you find a particular Chronomancer… I might be able to do that, though you already know how hard that is since you’ve been looking yourself. But unless he can fix your partially doubled Aura... that’s what your problem is, so consider that piece of free information a gesture toward friendship… then finding him may be a priority to your heart, which I understand, but it may please you to consider other priorities too.
Star taps her forefinger on her lips, lost in thought for a moment. {Star}Ptolemaeus, you were driven to find me to help you find him. I say ‘driven’ because you risked entering Temporal Prime, at a Maelstrom no less, and threw yourself into a shockwave to get to me, if my analysis of your movements was correct, and the reason for these actions by your own account was just to ask me this.
If he is in the incident that partially doubled your aura… since he is a Chronomancer, that is not a far-fetched guess… then part of the reason for feeling driven, that he remains Looping in your re-experiencing of him vividly, over and over… it is all one thing. Do you see that? I am suggesting that your feeling that you dwell on him is not only because he means a lot to you emotionally, but also because he is part of your doubled Loop.
I must warn you, then, that if my guess is true, and if I did help you with your doubled Aura, you might lose some of the intensity that is of significance to you. It would be a repair for your Aura, arguably healthier, but… are you sure you want the headachy flashbacks, the vivid re-experiencing of past events if they are with him, over and over, those things that give him such immediacy for you… do you want those to end? Or if he is not in the flashbacks, then whatever they may be, may lose intensity for you. If they are unpleasant, you might be happier, and live life more… normally, but happiness is not the only measure of a life.
I am just guessing about you, putting together pieces that make the puzzle whole in my view. Only you know the truth of it. But I would not want to help make you well, and cost you a part of your identity as you now see it. Not unless you are sure you want it.
I have changed my own being a few times myself, but I have always thought very carefully about it. And I have declined some very beneficial changes, after due consideration. So I will not be offended if you turn down my help, Ptolemaeus, and choose to live with yourself the way you are.
Halfaz. I’ve been ignoring you while I ponder the problems Ptolemaeus presents. We have our own, though. I have had an idea that I just realized, and to begin our mission best, I intend to proceed to Sigil, not Bral. I am concerned that going to Bral at this moment might just give aid to our enemies. Does it please you to accompany me to Sigil?
And now that you are “Captain” Halfaz with your own glorious ship, in Sigil I can buy you a really, really big hat, if it pleases you. She grins merrily at him.
