Fallen Empire

chapter 4

IV.

Alice takes a deep breath and steps into her Infinity Gate. She watches as her laboratory disappears above her; her vision is clouded by swirling mist. She is smothered in it, sinking to an unknown end. The mists begin to clear and Alice finds herself in a tunnel of storms, its circular chaos formed and maintained by swirls of angry clouds with bolts of lightning flashing all about. She is lowered fully into the Infinity Tunnel and enveloped by deep blues, grays, purples, and occasional maroons.

Alice looks at the sides of the tunnel and sees that precise moment happening not only throughout Earth, but also every other planet and galaxy in Eternity. Every creature everywhere is reflected back at her frozen in action as if in the shards of a thousand shattered mirrors.

This stillness lasts less than the blink of an eye before the motion of the Tunnel sweeps through her. It gains speed until Alice can no longer see the individual reflections as they blend with the flashing of lightning. Through the roar of the storm, she can detect fragments of speech. She tries to make them out, but they too converge with the storm of the Tunnel as it moves ever faster.

Alice realizes with a shock that it is she who is moving, rather than the Tunnel. Time whips by her: a hundred years passing too fast to be perceived, a thousand years posing as a second. Here in its element, Time moves in a different sphere of reality, by its own set of rules, it does not recognize the insignificant regulations placed upon on it by humans.

As she looks around in wonder, Alice sees the swirling colors of the Tunnel interrupted by dead blackness. A jagged s***h in the side of the Tunnel looms next to her, and then it is gone. She has no doubt that she has just seen March 15th and the result of a forcible change of history.

As suddenly as the motion of the Tunnel has swept her along, it releases her.  She rises up through another vortex of mist.

It is a still, moonlit night February 15, 44. B.C. Alice pauses for a moment to let her eyes adjust. She steps forward into an olive grove, although the atlas had shown her destination, she was unprepared for the reality. The crisp air moves through the grove and Alice shivers from the cold   and marvels at the smell of fruit, mint and even eucalyptus

Behind her, Seren emerges from the Gate, which dissolves into the sandy soil until the only sign left is a faint spiral in the sand. He looks around and postulates, “Did we really just travel through Time?”

Alice looks around and spots a small, square, marble building to her left, “There’s the Temple of Minerva It must have worked. Show me the map.”

Seren looks at the ground and closes his eyes. He opens them a moment later and a hologram of a detailed map is projected onto the sand at his feet Alice leans over to look.

“There’s the Pilgrim’s Inn. We should be able to find lodging for tonight at least. I do not think many people travel these days.”

“Are you planning for us to walk into town, looking like this, and expect to get service?” Seren asks.

Alice shakes her head at him, “I will go to the laundry and pick out a couple of disguises, then we can go to the Inn together” She pats his shoulder, “If anyone comes, hide behind a tree I will not be long.”

Seren nods in agreement “Be careful.”

“You too,” Alice says before turning from him.

Seren sits and waits patiently in front of a tree. Alice slips along the grove amazed how drastically the urban landscape has changed. Escaping Seren’s view as she leaves the grove; Alice notices that there are no elevated highways here but rather the first roads in the world. It is disconcerting to Alice to see so much of her home city is still there but little things like street lights are missed most. She comes to a series of shops, all closed for the night. She looks through cracks in the wooden shutters, spying on the wears inside. She finds one with lines full of clothes hanging to dry overnight. Taking a small folding knife out of her pocket   Alice inserts it into the c***k. She maneuvers it until the wooden bar across the shutters raises enough for her to open them. She pushes the bar up and climbs through the window.

Looking over the lines, Alice selects a woman’s ankle-length tunic and a cloak for her and pulls it over her head, concealing her modern clothes. She searches some more and finds a hooded rain cloak for Seren. She rolls the cloak up, places it under her arm and finds a pair of large boots in the corner and grabs them before climbing out the window, lowering the bar carefully behind her. The launderer is going to puzzle over the missing garments for days, but she hopes this will not cause any long-term disruption.

Alice returns to the grove unseen by any of the natives. As she enters she immediately spots Seren hiding behind a tree that is much too small to conceal him. She approaches laughing at him, “I hope no one came by, I did not realize you were so bad at hiding.”

“Not a soul is about.” Seren says stepping out from behind the tree.

Alice tosses him the cloak and boots while saying, “I assumed the coast would be clear. They do not have electricity yet so there is not a lot to do at night besides sleep.”

Seren puts the cloak on and it covers his face entirely, “I look ridiculous in this paenula. I cannot even see like this.”

“Switch your optic sensors to thermal-imaging, we cannot let anyone here see your face.”

He does as he is asked while putting on the boots “How much did these clothes cost?”

Alice confesses, “I had to swipe them.”

“You mean you stole them?”

“I am not condoning theft, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We cannot go wandering around ancient Rome in our contemporary clothes, that is liable to make a bigger mess than what we are looking for.”

“Very well, are we off to the Pilgrim’s Inn to ‘swipe’ lodging for the evening?”

Alice smirks at Seren’s jab and replies, “If they are awake I think I will pay for it.” They make their way through the quiet streets to the Pilgrim’s Inn. It is dark except for one room which is illuminated by a single torch. Alice opens the door and is squeamish at the sight of several bugs running across the floor. The innkeeper emerges from a dark room, he is halfway awake and under normal circumstances he would be fast asleep. He is restless because he is unaccustomed to sleeping alone for his wife has recently perished, but as he is awake he is able to accommodate late night  arrivals. He gathers himself in a professional manor and asks “ May I be of assistance?”

Alice is nervous about talking to someone from the past for the first time but does a good job of hiding it, “We seek lodging for the night.”

The innkeeper gives her an odd look, “ I am sorry....”

Seren leans over and whispers to Alice, “They do not yet have a word for lodging. You might want to go with the word room”

Alice thinks for a moment and realizes that even though both her and the innkeeper are speaking Latin there is still a language barrier. “My apologies, my accent must seem unusual to you. We would like a room.”

“It is a little late for arrivals but lucky for you we have a few vacancies. It will cost you a sestertius though.”

Alice hands him a bronze coin and the innkeeper proceeds to grab a key. He walks in front of the counter to show them to a room but he pauses as he looks at Seren. “Is it raining out there?”

Alice, almost smirking says, “It was when we left, it was a very long journey.”

They walk out the back door of the small room and into an atrium. Alice looks up and sees the stars and marvels at their visibility, in her time she would have to leave the city for a sight like that.

The innkeeper unlocks a door to a dark room and says “This is it room number seven. Do you need a torch or anything else?”

“Thank you we can manage.” Alice says as the innkeeper hands her the key.

 The innkeeper makes his way across the atrium and Alice and Seren enter the dark room. Alice asks Seren to take up watch and look for anything out of place while she gets some rest. She finds a straw pallet laying on the floor and realizes that is the only thing resembling a bed in this room. Uncomfortable as it is she lies down and knows she should get some sleep because tomorrow is a big day for both her and Seren. Fully clothed she stretches out and drifts off to sleep.