Lies have a way of healing broken things when applied carefully, like a salve. The best lies are truths with tweaked details to heal. Alexander continued to hug Caleb close to him, running a hand through the boy's hair as Caleb recounted what had happened in 1912. The tension had been defused, but somehow Alexander knew Caleb needed this closeness. And Alexander was fine giving it to him.
He knew he couldn't tell Caleb the truth about Eva Georgetta. Ever. Time held an already determined timeline. Eva Georgetta had died on the Titanic, or was supposed to. A third-class passenger lost in the freezing Atlantic on April 14th. She never would have made it to the United States. On the same evening she ought to have died, Eva had been beaten to death by her drunk husband. The ticket had been her escape card, and she'd had nothing to take on the ship, in fear her husband might find out and stop her.
Time had a way of repairing itself in horrific ways. So Alexander had lied, told his apprentice a twisted version of the truth to spare the pain which might overcome him. Alexander cared about Caleb, and no one deserved the pain of knowing they'd signed a death sentence, no matter how inevitable it had been.
A Timewalker's life was never simple, nor easy. Caleb had already gotten a very small taste of this, but Alexander could not bring himself to make this a teaching moment. No. A lie would be the bandage for a painful wound. He cast aside any guilt that ate at him.
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When All is Null and Void
FantasyWhen Caleb Carlisle is recruited to be a time manipulating artifact collector, it is not for the usual purposes of artifact extraction. The dimension all Timewalkers pass through to reach their destinations is leaking throughout history, infecting t...
