“Not if you don’t tell me the full truth,” I said a bit petulantly. “Seven years ago you left me thinking you were dead, and it nearly killed me. I don’t care what your prophetic powers warned you about; you’d best tell me all of it this time.”
Penny’s eyes crinkled a bit, full of sympathy. “I will. There’s nothing hidden, at least nothing in the present. I can tell you everything that I know.”
Before she could continue I put in, “What do you mean, the present?”
“If you’ll shut up, I will tell you!” she snapped back.
I was already riled, up but I paused for a moment, and after giving it some thought, I decided she had a point. I closed my mouth without further comment and waved my hands indicating she could continue.
After a moment she did, “I’ll start at the beginning. Like you, I saw the gods tear a hole in the fabric of the world allowing them to cross over completely, but unlike when Celior crossed, this time they were able to manage the crossing without any aid from our side.”
I bit my lip. It was plain that her vision had included a lot more detail than mine, but I didn’t dare ask questions yet. I made a mental note to bring it up when she was finished. It shouldn’t be possible for them to cross without the aid of someone of power on this side.
“All three of the remaining Shining Gods have entered our world, and they were followed by Mal’goroth. The meaning of that I am unsure of, but I’m certain that it can’t be good,” she told me.
I nodded, doing my best to let her finish. I’ve been waiting for their retribution for seven years, since the day I imprisoned their brother, I noted mentally, but I always hoped it would be one at a time… not like this!
Penny took a deep breath, “This is the part you may not like.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know much else, my vision was interrupted by someone, and I was given a choice: knowledge without the ability to affect the outcome, or ignorance with the hope of protecting those I love.” She stopped after that, waiting for my reaction.
I had a better handle on myself by then, and I answered in a more controlled fashion. “First, I’d like to know more precisely who you were talking with.”
“Myself,” she replied. “I spoke with a future version of myself, one that had seen the vision I was about to see.”
“I thought she seemed familiar,” I muttered. “So, why would you interrupt your own vision?”
“It was my only remaining choice. Things hadn’t gone well for that other me. She was somehow able to warn me, to start over. For some reason, ignorance may offer more hope than knowledge,” she answered.
I could sense the hesitation in her voice. “Does this mean our actions will alter her future? Or is she from a different future?” My head was whirling with possibilities.
Penny put her hand on my chin. “Pay attention. Don’t let that big brain of yours lead you astray. The important thing is that she gave us a chance to make better choices. According to what she told me, we have at least a week or more, and if I had accepted the full knowledge the vision would have laid before me, my choices would have been fixed, and we would most certainly have lost some, or maybe all of our children.”
“What!?” I said, with some alarm. Apparently my safeguards weren’t sufficient, which despite the situation was a surprise. I had spent a considerable amount of time planning contingencies. Any man fearing the gods might seek vengeance through his family would do likewise… if he had the resources at my disposal.
Penny’s hand on my arm stilled me for a moment. “That won’t happen, Mort. I chose a different path. Taking my other-self’s advice, I was able to end the vision and deny myself that knowledge. My choice now is simply to prepare, with you, for what we know must be coming.”
I shook my head in bewilderment. “What can you do Penny? Not that I ever liked your visions, but knowledge was your only advantage.” I stopped myself before adding, ‘you’re helpless’.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said suddenly, “and you know there are other options. Give me power Mort. Let me protect our children.” Her eyes were emphatic as they bored into my own.
“You know better than that. I’ll never remake that bond, Penny,” I said flatly.
She put her hand in my hair. “Not that bond… the earth bond; make me as your Knights of Stone.”
“There’s a limit to what I can do…,” I began. “I can only create twenty of them.”
“Don’t feed me stories Mordecai. You picked that number out of the air. I’m certain you can manage another if you really feel it to be necessary,” she argued.
“Just a few hours ago you were angry that I used magic on the children. Now you want me to do something far more serious to you. We don’t know what this might do. What if you could no longer have children? What if they were stillborn?” I said, and in my mind were visions of hard rocklike children.
“I am not one of the children, and if you don’t give me the power to defend them who will?” she replied passionately.
“I will!” I barked back at her. “You’ve seen what the earth bond does to people. I’ve already had to release and replace three of them.”
“You can’t protect everyone, Mort! We learned that lesson already, and all of these plans and contingencies you’ve created over the years are just that… plans. When they come for us all, your plans will dissolve into chaos in a matter of moments. I need the ability to protect our children, and frankly I don’t care what the costs are. We have four children now, and I would rather keep the ones we have than worry about whether we’ll be able to have more in the future.”
When she finished she simply stopped and her eyes bored into me. I could see desperation there, the same desperation I would have felt if I was facing our current situation without any power of my own. I felt my love for her grow, as it always had, and without hesitation I reversed my stance. I knew my objections were based purely on fear, fear of losing her, but we both feared something worse… losing our family. It was a moment of ironic tragedy and camaraderie, both at the same time. The tragedy was my realization that I was willing to trade her safety, her life, for our children if necessary. The camaraderie came from the fact that we both shared that decision, that if necessary, they were more important than either of our lives. We had each become secondary to their safety.
“I could never have chosen a better mother for my children,” I said abruptly, putting my hand against her cheek. Her face grew curious at my change in demeanor, so I explained, “I loved you more than my own life, more than I thought I could love anything. Then we had children, and somewhere along the way, without realizing it, I grew to love them so much, that I am now willing to risk your life for theirs… and somehow I still love you even more than I did before.”
I felt tears welling in my eyes, but somehow Penny had still begun crying before me, her face was already wet when she answered, “That’s not fair Mort. You can’t just stop and say something like that in the middle of an argument.” She wiped her cheeks. “Look at what you did.”
I drew her close and we stayed quiet for a while, simply breathing and taking comfort in each other’s arms. “I will give you the bond,” I told her at last, “but I won’t make you one of my knights.”
She nodded, glancing up at me. “I never asked you to make me a knight, but since you brought it up… why not?”
“I don’t want you beholden to any oaths, not to me, not to our people, or anyone else. I will give you strength, but I want you to use it purely at your own discretion, and by that I mean, that if you need to abandon everyone and everything else to save our children… I want you to do so,” I explained.