Ascent of the Aliomenti (11 page)

But in the first village they’d encountered following their escape, they learned that language was not universal. Though their money talked a bit, they struggled to communicate their needs, simple though they were. To save funds, they posed as a woman traveling with her daughter and son-in-law, and thus customs of the day enabled them to retain a single room. They’d managed to communicate their situation and needs with gestures and pointing, but the fact remained that they were among people who spoke a different language.

“This is going to get frustrating,” Eva muttered.

“With Energy, though, we ought to be able to figure out a solution,” Will replied.

Hope looked thoughtful. “I think I might have an idea.” She paused, as if collecting her thoughts. “It’s not an issue to understand what’s being said; we’re all able to perform telepathy to understand ideas, and empathy to understand tone and intent.”

“True,” Will agreed, and Eva nodded.

“The trick is talking
back
to them. And here’s where
our
intent becomes important. If we impress upon the minds of the people we’re speaking with the ideas we want to communicate, it works, but it’s confusing. They’re hearing confusing sounds in their ears, but clear thoughts in their minds.”

“Exactly,” Eva said. “So... we’re able to get close, but how do we overcome that last part?”

“Why not convince them that they are seeing and hearing the concepts we’re pushing into their minds? We’re not trying to persuade them to do anything they don’t want to do; we’re simply encouraging communication.”

Will and Eva looked at each other, surprised, and then Will smiled. “I think that’s a great idea. And when we get to a village where we’ll stay for a longer term, that language will eventually become one we can understand and speak without any additional help.”

They tested the process out the next day, as they went to the local market to purchase some provisions. Though the process was difficult, and required a higher degree of concentration than most conversations, they were able to make the process work. They left the first village with a greater degree of confidence about their ability to communicate with others throughout the remainder of their travels.

The patient, casual journey enabled the trio to continue deepening their bonds, and, as they moved ever-closer to the Great Sea, they were able to enjoy the scenery and the gradually warming temperatures. As they located small villages upon their path, they’d stop for several days, utilizing the ever-present inns available for weary travelers. Most expressed surprise that the trio was traveling on foot, but all had great concern about them traveling on the roads connecting cities without any type of weaponry. On more than one occasion, Will was taken aside and scolded for his lack of a weapon, and many expressed the belief that the women must be of little concern to him if he refused to arm himself.

“But I don’t
need
a weapon,” Will fumed, his voice quiet as the trio enjoyed an evening meal at an isolated table.

Eva looked thoughtful. “You don’t,” she agreed. “But perhaps, in the interest of avoiding significant attention, it would be best to carry a weapon, though you’d never need to actually
use
one.”

Will frowned. “I don’t like it, Eva. I don’t want to spend money on something I don’t need. I’d prefer to conserve as much as possible until the two of you are permanently settled, and a sword would make a huge dent in our money supply.”

Hope glanced at Eva. “Will, we’re trying to make certain that there’s nothing to draw attention to our travels, aren’t we? What would be a more obvious identifier to Arthur than an unarmed man with dark hair? Should anyone remember you... they’d probably remember us as well.” She shuddered.

Will purchased a sword the next day, strapping it over his back. It was a shorter sword, reminiscent of those used by the future Hunters and Assassin. The choice was a practical one, for he had no interest in carrying the weight of larger sword that he’d never use. Since the blade was primarily a diversion, a means to make the trio less memorable as they traveled south, he kept his expenditure at a minimum, concerning himself little with quality, decoration, or sharpness.

Eva frowned at him. “You’re going to regret that choice at some point, Will. We’re all rather proficient at making more money, and we have no specific schedule to keep. Why not spend the money on a quality blade, one that others will see as an actual deterrent against attacks? They’ll see
that
blade and think you’re asking for trouble, and you may well get it.”

Will sighed, and replaced the low-end blade with one far more decorative, light to the touch but still sharp, and invested in a quality scabbard across his back as well, along with supplies necessary for cleaning and sharpening.

Hope winked at him. “Now I feel safe in your company, Sir Will.”

He laughed.

They were never approached on the roads. Will had taught them how to project Energy laden with emotion out, and the trio broadcast a veritable force field of Energy suggesting that they weren’t there and wouldn’t be worth attacking in any event. The few travelers who passed by paid them no attention. Those thieves they were able to sense with their telepathic and empathic skills all reasoned that an attack on the trio would be pointless, not yielding sufficient treasure to make an attack worthwhile.

Over the course of the months spent on their journey towards the Great Sea, their feet would blister on a regular basis, forcing them to extend their stay at a town until the injuries healed. After intense discussion, they elected to once again expend funds, this time on horses. They’d resisted, not because of the cost, but because they knew it would bring their journey to an end more quickly. It was an end none of them wanted. Will found himself suggesting longer stays in each village they visited; he had no interest in trading Hope and Eva’s company for Arthur and Adam’s.

At long last, they were on the shores of the Great Sea. The Mediterranean stretched out before them, the waters vanishing out of sight into the horizon and beyond.

“It’s the edge of the world,” Hope whispered. “You can see where it ends, where sailors fear to travel. I hope we are never near the edge.”

Will smiled. “You are no nearer the edge today than when we started our journey.”

Hope turned upon him, her eyes wide. “How can you say that? Can you not see the end?”

“I do see it. It is not the edge. It is simply the edge of what we can see.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “Stop telling her tales, Will. You shouldn’t put fanciful ideas into her mind.”

“They are no tales, Eva, but truth. Would like proof?”

Hope eyed him with great curiosity. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You truly believe there’s no edge of the world, or, at least, that we aren’t seeing it up ahead?”

He held out his hand. “Would you like to see?”

She hesitated, and then took his hand. “Show me.”

His Energy had grown throughout their travels, for they’d spent a great deal of time working to expand their skills. Hope and Eva both lacked the comfort and confidence he had with clairvoyance, the ability to transfer one’s senses outside the body to see and hear events happening at a distance, though both had more than enough Energy to accomplish the feat. Will suffered from no such lack of confidence. He took his senses outside his body, transferring the sights to Hope’s mind, so that she soared above the ground with him.

He took them up several thousand feet, a height which afforded them the sight of a beautiful patchwork of plant and sea, and she gasped in appreciation of the natural beauty before her. “Look closely into the distance. You are now seeing much farther than you did before. You are seeing past that edge you expressed so much fear of earlier. Does it look like the edge of the world?”

“There is still an edge, Will,” she told him, their voices echoing in each other’s minds much like their remote telepathic conversations. “The fact that I now see that it’s further away... that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

Will soared higher, stopping only when he reached ten miles into the air. “Look again.”

She looked, and the horizon was even further away than before. And she noticed something more. “Why... why does it look like it’s... crooked?”

He smiled. “Hang on tight.”

They flew higher and higher, up through the clouds, higher and higher, through the atmosphere, to such great heights that she feared to look down. He could sense her thrill, but recognized that she was frightened at the possibility that, though she knew her body remained safely on the ground, she’d somehow fall from this great height and suffer mortal injuries.

They burst through the atmosphere. Will knew that if they were truly flying, they’d be incinerated instantly at these speeds, speeds that left Hope screaming, though whether in terror or exhilaration he did not know.

“We’re going to crash through the dome!” she screamed.

“No,” he whispered back. “We’re far beyond the reach of any dome.”

They burst through the outer atmosphere, and suddenly they were in outer space. Even in non-corporeal form, she knew something was strange and different about this experience, for she no longer saw grass and trees and mountains, no longer saw the waves of the Great Sea lapping against the shore.

“Where are we?” she whispered.

“You live on a giant sphere, a giant ball, called Earth,” he explained. “It is not flat. It is a circle, in every direction, and impossible to fall off.” He nodded downward with his head. “Look.”

She looked, and marveled at the sight of the massive sphere below. They floated further away from the planet’s surface, even as she watched, and the enormity of the world she inhabited became far more real as he pointed out the small blue speck that was the Great Sea, and noted the small sliver of greenery that represented the distance they’d taken months to travel.

They floated there, their consciousnesses in space marveling at the grandness of all creation, and realized the very small portion of the world they’d actually seen. He felt her understanding grow, an understanding that would not reach the general population for centuries, as she realized the size of the world she inhabited.

She asked the question on her mind. “Where are you from? Show me.”

In answer, they flew to their left, moving to the west, and she saw the enormity of what would become known as the Atlantic Ocean, an overwhelming sight. She saw the huge mass of land on the opposite side, and as she did, he zeroed in on the area that would become Pleasanton, and they flew down through the atmosphere. The speed was fantastic, every sight crisp and pure. As they reached more normal altitudes, as they flew back beneath the clouds, Will wished that they were in physical form, to feel and marvel at the wind in their faces and to truly experience the speeds they attained.

“This is where I lived, or very nearly so,” he said, stopping just a few miles above the surface, with the river that would become known as the Ohio well to their south. “And one day, this is where you’ll live as well. Our home will be beautiful because you’ll know
exactly
how it should be built. It will be built to be safe, a place where anyone who might want to hurt you can’t get through. Except...”

She’d heard some of the story, but not all of it. She knew
he’d
been attacked, and that the attack had been the event that had started him on his journey through time to find her. But he’d never mentioned that she and their son would be attacked as well that fateful day.

The emotion was transparent to her. “I’m hurt as well? Am I... killed?”

He shook his head in her mind. “No, you aren’t. Angel is born after that. I don’t know how you survive, just that you do. As does Josh. Everyone survives. I wish... I wish I’d known who they were sooner, so that I’d been able to ask them more about that day.”

“We have the time to figure that out, Will.” Her voice was strong, and it soothed him. “We have a thousand years to figure it out, and a thousand years to figure out how to make sure that... the children can exist.” She was worried about the sterility caused by the ambrosia fruit, and yet the immortality conferred might well be the key to finding that cure.

“We need to go back,” he told her. “Eva will probably wonder why we both seem to have fallen asleep.”

Hope smiled. “It’s not difficult to be tired after such a long journey. After all, we
did
just travel an incredible distance.”

He chuckled at her double meaning. “When you return, take a moment before you open your eyes and move. It’s like waking up from a deep sleep; don’t move too quickly.”

As they both slowly regained consciousness on the shores of the Great Sea, they found Eva hovering over them, her face lined with worry. “Can you hear me, Will? Hope, can you hear me?”

“We’re fine, Eva,” Hope replied. “I now know I need to work on my clairvoyance skills. It’s an incredible ability, and can be highly educational.”

They both sat up, and Eva arched an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Give me a few moments, and I’ll show you,” Will replied. “We’ll explore the area, looking for an island off the coast here, and a village that will be an ideal fit for the two of you.” He glanced at Hope, memories of her deep concern and worry about the fate of their future children still weighing heavily on him. “I know now that I must get to work back at the Aliomenti village, trying to understand how to reverse the effects of the ambrosia. But I also know that I can visit with the two of you at any time. And I will.”