The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 36.3

'We can't hide here forever.' Kran said, getting right to the point.

'But we can't change K'haren within a heartbeat either.' Tarlequin replied.

'It's not within a heartbeat, we've been on this for a long time already.' Raf's voice was calm and steady but Mersha still felt like he was upset about something.

For a while, Mersha only watched and listened to their arguments. Most of them were reasonable and thought-through. Yet it didn't bring them anywhere. At some point, he started wondering how much longer it would take for them to ask the question he'd been expecting all evening. But when they finally did ask, it still caught him off-guard for he hadn't been listening.

'Can't you go to the future, come back and tell us how we did it?' It was Nume who asked which surprised him. Even if it sounded somewhat like a joke, he still saw that she wanted and answer. Mersha would have expected her to know better.

'No, I can't. That would mess things up... You never know what happens if you put the wrong kind of information in the wrong places.' He calmly explained while everybody's eyes rested on him.

'So theoretically, you could help us, but you don't want to?' Kran asked.

'Correct. It's not worth the risk. Also, I believe you'll figure it out yourself. If not, there also wouldn't be a future I could go to and steal the answer from...' The last sentence sounded more pessimistic than Mersha had intended. 'However, I can still help you without cheating. I'm here, I'm old, I've seen quite some things in my life.'

'Then why didn't you say anything all evening?' Tarlequin asked, tiredly rubbing his eyes.

'Nobody asked for my opinion.' For that comment, Mersha earned quite some angry glares.

'Well then, what do you suggest we do?' Raf asked. Mersha knew he would have reacted angrily to anybody else behaving this way and enjoyed his somewhat privileged position.

'I suggest you rethink everything. At the moment, you're only focusing on recent events and speculations about the future. Shouldn't you go back to where this whole thing started?' Mersha finally answered, feeling wise and old.

'You mean Sethara.' Tarlequin stated, looking sad. But then, something in his expression changed and he scratched his beard. 'No, you don't, you mean way back...'

'Exactly.' There was silence for a while until Tarlequin started humming the melody of the prophecy again and Mersha smiled.

'In the song...' Raf said. 'So that's why you taught me then?'

'Well, that and the fact that you had to be struck by the curse...' Mersha admitted. 'When I realised nobody had told you about the prophecy, I knew I had to do it myself.'

'But how did you know about it? I was there when it was first told, but that was way before I first met you...' Tarlequin said.

'Oh well, I didn't need to be there for that. I came from the future, thus the curse couldn't affect me. Any magic has trouble finding me, actually. Well, not anymore now that I'm back... Still, in the past, the curse couldn't harm me.' Mersha explained slowly.

'But couldn't you have warned everybody then?' Nume asked. 'You could have prevented all of this before it even happened.'

'She's right, you could also have saved Raf's parents, that's what started it all, isn't it?' Kran added.

'Don't be silly. Yes, I could have, but no, I couldn't have. It would have created a paradox, haven't you got that yet? I cannot change the world in a way that changes the future to something that wasn't my past. That would change me, too and thus I'd no longer change it in the past... Paradox, you see?' Mersha earned only confused looks. In the end, Raf shook his head.