Un2talented (Book 3 of the Un2 Series)

Dorian and Cate passed through the portico and stood upon a balcony overlooking a chamber that rivaled anything that Hollywood could conceive. Immense columns lined either side of the great hall, disappearing into the vault that blanketed the room like a night sky. The carved stone that had served as the original temple had been augmented with elements taken from every major architectural movement since time began. Chiseled limestone mingled with polished mahogany, brass, and glass. Sharp geometric angles blended effortlessly into a free-flowing tapestry of fabrics and foliage that softened the perimeter of the great hall. The evolution of building techniques and materials could be seen everywhere except for the apparatus for which the space was constructed. It remained in its original, unadulterated form. Five stone flumes emptied into the far side of a massive circular pool that swirled around the base of a gilded effigy of its creator, Chronos. A single channel extended from the side nearest to Dorian and Cate. It emptied into a smaller pool and then branched off into two smaller channels. One channel veered into the darkness on the left side of the hall, the other veered to the right. A pillar of brightly illuminated water connected the smaller pool to the velvet black vault above. Dorian strained to see its source.

“That goes way up there, doesn’t it?”

“Farther than you could imagine,” Cate replied.

“This place would fit right in the Wisconsin Dells. They could call it ‘Waterpark of the Gods’”.

“I doubt that would ever fly,” Cate disagreed.

“Why?”

“It doesn’t have ‘Chronos’ as part of the name!” Cate laughed. “Besides, nobody would enjoy those waters unless they’re into things like hate, pain, evil, forgetfulness, and woe.”

“Like the waters we used to open the portal!” Dorian exclaimed.

“Yes. The waters created the link you needed to access this plane. It takes a lot of energy to generate time. There’s an incredible amount of power in those emotions.”

“Time is made from a lot of miserable stuff! That’s kind of depressing, don’t you think?” Dorian sighed.

“It’s not as bad as you think. All of those waters churn together and end up flowing right over there.”

Cate walked Dorian down to the edge of the pool at the base of the glowing column.

“This basin is full of ‘today’. To be more precise, it is filled with ‘this exact moment’. All that misery is being tempered by a single column of hope.”

The light from the column danced across their faces.

“We haven’t decided if we find that to be the most beautiful thing that we have ever seen or the most saccharine.”

“Beautiful!” Dorian affirmed.

“The channel that flows to our left becomes the past. The one to the right flows toward the future. You’ll be using the left-hand channel to travel back to find Cadence.”

Dorian watched the waters of the present-day rush past him through the channel and disappear into the past. He looked to his right and noticed the other channel was dry.

“Should I be concerned about the lack of water leading to the future?”

Cate shook her heads. “We are at the bow of the Chronostream. From where we stand the future hasn’t happened yet. Those waters will become visible once you travel to an older lifestream. Even then, the waters will only flow as far as the present day. Even the Chronostream has its limits.”

“So, I can’t jump into a life stream that has flying cars, transporters, and all that other world-of-the-future stuff? That sucks!”

“We didn’t say that. It would be possible to jump into a future life stream once the future has happened.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Well,” Cate began, “When De Leon had control of the armor, he spent hundreds of years bouncing around through ancient life streams. While he was busy doing that, time continued flowing, thus creating more future, as far as he was concerned. Eventually, the Chronostream had built up enough future that he was able to jump into the nineteen seventies and begin his rise to rock god.”

“He had, like two hits,” Dorian interjected.

“That was his description, not ours.”

“Actually, he had one monster hit and one of those follow-ups that got more airplay than it deserved due to the success of the first hit. That seems to happen a lot.”

“True.”

“He was huge in Europe.”

“Also, true. Can we get back on track, please?” Cate growled.

“Sorry. Go on.”

“You will travel on that stream to the point in time where Charlie is holding Cadence. When you get there, you will be in this hall, but as it was in the late fourteen-hundreds. You’ll have to find your way back to the portal. It should be a relatively straight shot since the maze of hallways making up the office complex wasn’t created until the twentieth century. Charlie, along with Cadence and De Leon will be in the cavern on the other side.”

“And then?” Charlie urged.

“And then you execute your extraction plan,” Cate replied.

“Uh, yeah, about that. Remember how my plan relied heavily on the powers of a magical time-traveling breastplate that is no longer in my possession?”

“We think you need to resort to your ‘Plan B’.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have a spare ‘Plan B’ laying around here anywhere, would you?”

“Sorry. You’re it.”

Dorian looked puzzled.

“You’re our ‘Plan B’. We mean, you can’t possibly think that sending you to thwart Charlie’s plan was our first choice?”

Dorian began to object, but then shrugged, “I see your point.”

“You play with the cards you’re dealt, regardless of how crappy the hand.”

“Ouch! I got your point the first time!”

“It’s a cat thing,” Cate apologized.

“What am I supposed to do? I need some help, here.”

“Give us a moment.”

Cate’s three heads clustered together in a conference. A consensus was reached quickly since they were all of one mind.

“This will be risky, but it’s the best we can come up with considering the options we have available to us. Using your recent upgrades, you find Cadence and bring her back to this hall using the channel that leads to the future. Then, you can return to the mansion through the portal that brought you here.”

“That doesn’t sound all that bad.”

“Not that bad? First, you need to free a hostage from the hands of a demonic middle manager who is in league with a ruthless conquistador. Then, you need to navigate a river created in the underworld into the future whilst being pursued by the previously noted dastardly duo. If you make it that far you will still need to exit and shut down the portal before they make it through because if you don’t, they will follow you into the present day.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Dorian swallowed hard.

“Wait! There’s more!”

Cate directed Dorian to an articulated panel beneath the mezzanine.

“On top of all that, you’ll need to do all of that while using what’s behind door number one!”