Chapter 86: FAQ About Time Travel
Hermes had expected questions. He had not expected an all-out interrogation.
The moment Dante Quasar mentioned they’d be preparing for time travel, Aphrodite sat forward, bookish eyes bright and his fingers laced neatly on his lap like he was about to take notes.
"Specific date?" He began. "Exact year? Which month? How will we adapt to the culture? Language barriers? What about etiquette? Clothing? Is there going to be some sort of historical immersion training— "
"Do they bathe?" Somner cut in.
He was leaning on the table, chin propped in his palm, eyes alight with curiosity. "And what if everyone smells terrible? Do I have to smell terrible? Because I have a routine, Mister Q. A very important one. Also... what if everyone’s ugly? I don’t want to be trapped in the Middle Ages if everyone looks like rotting bread—"
Apple, sitting like a shadow in the corner, spoke up at the exact same time. "Were there heroes during that time period? How powerful were they? Where did people first get their abilities? And if you can control all of time and space with your powers, why haven’t you dominated it already—"
The overlapping questions collided midair like badly aimed arrows. Hermes pinched the bridge of his nose.
"One at a time." He muttered. "Please."
The ’please’ was strained, the kind that meant he was already regretting being in the same room with them.
But Dante Quasar... White-haired, calm-eyed, carrying an air of timeless amusement... just chuckled.
He was sitting in his armchair like an old coot who had seen every possible foolish question in the universe and found them all equally charming.
"Patience, boys." He said, lifting one palm in an unhurried motion. "One by one."
Aphrodite’s hand shot up, not in jest, but sincerely, as though he were still in some university seminar. "Then my questions first."
Dante inclined his head. "For your concerns... There is no need for lessons in customs or etiquette. When we travel, I will transfer your consciousness into versions of yourselves that already exist in that time... alternate selves, from alternate strands of reality."
He added: "You will arrive already familiar with the language, the customs, the mannerisms. The bodies you borrow will not be strangers to the world they inhabit."
Aphrodite’s brows drew together. "Borrow... as in, we’re taking over their lives?"
"You will be them," Dante said. "For as long as the mission requires. But... "
His tone gained a soft warning "... You will also carry your present memories. Expect headaches in the first few days as two lifetimes try to share one mind. But you will adapt. You always do."
Aphrodite tilted his head thoughtfully. "And the clothes?"
Dante’s smile deepened faintly. "You will already be wearing them."
Somner leaned in, waving a hand. "Right, but... about my thing. What if they smell? And are ugly? Can’t you just make everyone beautiful and clean with your time magic?"
Dante looked at him for a long moment, the kind of look that somehow carried centuries of patience.
"There’s nothing to be done about that, dear boy. At least your borrowed bodies will be accustomed to the living conditions of their time. You will not notice what they would not have noticed."
Somner made a face. "So... medieval ugly is my new normal? Great. Can’t wait."
Hermes shot him a sharp look. "We’re not going there for a vacation, Somner."
"We could." Somner muttered under his breath. "I could use one with how stressful things are nowadays."
Apple’s voice broke the moment, quiet but cutting. "History says power-users were rare in the past, right?"
Dante nodded slightly. "The data we have suggests so. Rifts were fewer then. And with fewer Rifts, fewer power-users. Some powers were passed down through bloodlines. Others manifested rarely and unpredictably. In those days, to see someone wielding abilities was to witness something... mythic."
His office changed again to reflect what he was saying, showing pictures of historical figures, both real and possibly mythical.
"Heroes, monsters, gods... they were often one and the same. Many of the figures in your legends may have simply been people with gifts... or connections to the Void."
Apple tilted his head, eyes sharpening. "So all powers come from the Void?"
Dante’s shoulders lifted in a half-shrug. "Who knows? Not all, perhaps. Or perhaps all of them, in ways we do not yet see."
"And my last question?" Apple leaned forward, voice lower now, almost a whisper. "You can use Multitudes to see everything that has happened, everything that will happen. You could build the perfect world. Why haven’t you done it already?"
Hermes turned sharply toward him. "Apple... "
"It’s a reasonable question." Apple said without looking away from Dante. "If you can control the weave of time, why let it stay in the hands of people who ruin it?"
Hermes’s mouth tightened. "Because he’s not that kind of man."
But Dante’s eyes stayed on Apple, calm as still water. "You’re not the first to ask me that. The conclusion comes naturally to most."
Apple didn’t blink. "And?"
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Dante’s mouth, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. "Who knows? Perhaps I have already changed the world, and nobody noticed. But... I find that living in any world is better than creating one."
The words hung in the air like smoke. Aphrodite’s brows drew together again, but he didn’t speak. Somner fidgeted with a loose thread in his sleeve. Hermes’s gaze flickered between them all, but he said nothing either.
Dante leaned back in his chair, and for a moment it seemed the conversation was over... until Aphrodite spoke again, softly.
"When do we leave?"
Dante’s eyes twinkled. "Whenever you’re ready."
Dante tapped his chin thoughtfully, his gaze drifting toward the window as though it opened onto centuries instead of a street.
"I’ll do some research of my own." he said. "The Somner lineage is... peculiar, and I’d like to see firsthand what threads were cut, and by whom."
He stood, the movement surprisingly spry for someone his age, and a sudden gleam lit his eyes. "It’s been a long time since I’ve gone era-hopping," he admitted with a faint grin. "There’s nothing quite like stepping from one century into the next... smelling the air, hearing the songs, watching history happen without knowing it’s history."
Hermes could swear the old man looked almost young again.
And when he imagined younger Dante in his head... He couldn’t help but feel as sense of familiarity and melancholy from it.
"So... Shall we, lads?"
The four of them looked at each other, then nodded in sync.
"Hold hands then, and keep your feet apart. Take a deep breath, squeeze your buttocks, and...."
CLAP!
At the clap of his hands, he opened a portal through time and space above the four. It swallowed them just before they could shout.
"Bon voyage!"