The battle was over, all they had left was to clean up the tortured souls that escaped the barrage from the Valtaui. Null and Infy knew they would have to surrender to unit 2317. It seemed that where ever they went they cause problems.
The rest of the party had returned from orbit to check up on the twins.
*whistle* "That's a lot of damage, those Valtaui don't play around" Jania was admiring the aftermath of the battle. She was hoping to be on cleanup duty but knew the council would be intervening.
Null was waiting for the rest of the party to arrive when all of sudden he felt like he was being teleported. Null was standing in the middle of a room, and next to him was Infy in his energy Angel form. They had somehow been separated.
"Interesting a soul link, one soul two separate entities, I haven't seen that before" said a disembodied voice.
"Welcome Null Anderson, son of Lyn Anderson and Infinity creation of Sariel the Angel. Users of true magic. You may call me The Primordial, yes that one"
"A Paragon?, I don't believe it" The words had come out of Null mouth and not via any mental link.
"Believe, don't believe it is up to you but know this. The answers you give here will decide if one, both or neither of you are leaving here"
Infy tried to connect to Null mentally to calm him down but was unable to do so.
"That won't work, you aren't physically here, this isn't the physical realm. It is a spiritual realm under my control. I have relocated your mind and soul to this location." The Primordial was the paragon of the spiritual faction so it was not surprising he could control the spirits of others.
"Let me show you something" The Primordial then showed the boys what appeared to be a river of lines that flowed around the room. At random intervals along the lines would be different size spots of colour. The first half of the river was in red and the second half was in white.
"This is our galaxy's timeline, the red is the past and the white is the future. Those spots you see are major events in our galaxy. This one here is when I was born" The Primordial had highlighted a medium size spot near the beginning of the timeline. He continued to explain the demonstration.
"Time travel is impossible even with all our advanced technology and power, time marches forward is a fundamental truth of the universe. The future is always changing those white lines represent possible timelines that we can observe using the time field" The Paragon gave them a chance to look at the line and observe their reactions.
"So is that large spot at the present the fight we just had? Why is it so large" asked Infy
"Well spotted young Angel, yes that is from your battle today. It is so large because it will have a large ripple effect. You both save many souls from being consumed and they will enter the cycle of rebirth which means in the future different people will be born making different decisions. This battle has shifted the possible timelines. If that is a positive or negative outcome only time will tell"
"What is that spot in the future there, it is bigger than all the others?" Null pointed at a spot that looked like it was a fair distance in the future.
"That spot is why you are both here. It only showed up after your birth and all the timeline converge on to it. You were never meant to be, your birth wasn't in any of the previous timelines. You are an anomaly. We can not tell what those spots represent until after the fact all we can infer is that your birth leads to a chain of events that has a major effect on our galaxy. So do you see our problem?" asked the Primordial.
Null didn't say anything, he might be a powerful fighter, but he was still only a slightly more advanced nearly 11 year-old human and all this talk of timelines and their implication was too high level for him.
Infy was the brains so answered for them.
"The problem is, it appears to be a fixed point in time. Our birth was the trigger so any decisions made now won't stop the event from happening but might affect the outcome. You don't know if it will be a positive event or a negative event or if we are even involved. So why tell us?"
"Not a bad analysis, it is only fixed at the moment, any time in the future there may open a path where we can avoid it. The fact that you can use true magic indicates your participation in the events will affect the outcome." The primordial had one question for them
"Now knowing this, I will ask you both one question. Both of you must answer without hearing the other's response. What did you learn today?"
They both spend time pondering the question. Their lives were literally at risk. Null was the first to answer.
"I learnt that it's important to listen to the will of the universe. Those spells sounded wrong. If they had listened to the universe those spells wouldn't have been made and all those souls would have been saved."
Primordial was hesitant at that answer, he was hoping that Null would show some remorse for the loss of life of the other explorers. It had been their decision that lead to the battle. Had they sought help from the council a better solution could have been found.
Infy then gave his answer.
"I learnt that true magic is powerful but dangerous. It needs to be respected at all times. The consequences for failing to understand your spells can lead to dire outcomes for everyone. The lack of restrictions on true magic is also what makes it so dangerous"
Once again the Primordial was unsatisfied with the answer. They both focused on the magical aspect and not the loss of life and danger they exposed everyone to.
"Why didn't you seek assistance once you discovered the spell? You both could have easily left with your party" The Paragon need more information before making his decision, he was concerned about their lack of empathy.
"Help from who? The council won't let us use our power, they took our mentor away and have exposed our homeworld to extreme danger and for what? Because we were born different? The council can go get-- "
"That enough Null!" Infy interrupted him before he could finish the sentence. He shared the same frustrations but he didn't think they needed to be aired in front of a paragon of all people.
"To answer your question. We had to act. It was the will of the universe. The universe was in pain and was begging for us to help"
"The universe spoke to you?" asked The Primordial.
"It is hard to explain, it didn't speak but we could sense its will. Normally the universe is passive but today it wasn't" Infy answered before Null could get them into more trouble.
The Primordial fell into deep thought. He didn't get the answers he was expecting. The character of this unique lifeform was still in question. He did not have enough evidence to act unilaterally. He wouldn't be able to justify his actions to the other paragons so his only option was to let them go.
"I find your lack of empathy towards the others who died today to be disturbing but I also can not detect any evil intent from either of you. I will return you both to your body but I will be watching"