“Oh no… there’s a page missing!”
Frantically, I thumbed through the journal, searching for the missing entry. But it was gone.
“There must have been something important here.” I tapped the journal’s worn cover. “We need to ask Malik—maybe he knows what happened to it.”
I started to rise, but Emily’s hand caught my arm.
“Let’s finish reading first,” she murmured.
June 5th, 1784
I have been staying with Philip for quite some time. Balthazar has not found me yet. It is only a matter of time, but I am lulling myself into a false sense of safety. To live an ordinary life is divine!
Our life here is quite peaceful. I have grown affectionate with him, and we share a bed now. Even though he is nothing like Balthazar, I have no choice but to enjoy him.
March 10th, 1785
I have met John James! I left Emily with Philip, determined to find him. He was as eager to speak with me as I was to talk to him. We took off together, heading for his cabin.
Along the way, we were attacked by a group of dark-skinned, shirtless men John James called “Pawnee.” John James was able to fend them off with a rifle. After that, we galloped to his cottage, fearful of another attack.
When we arrived at his dwelling, he prepared me some tea by boiling water over an open flame. Then, he sat me down at his rickety table and told me that men like the Pawnee are always looking for people like me, namely, time travelers. He said I needed to speak to another time traveler who lives in a nearby tribe called “the Sioux.”
“I can bring him to speak with you,” John James said.
After finishing our tea, we rode toward where the tribe was camped. John James left me with the horses and strode on foot toward a group of dwellings he called “teepees.”
He returned nearly an hour later to find me sprawled in the grass, drifting to sleep, drowsy from the sun warming myface. He introduced me to a serious-looking fellow named Dancing Fire.
Dancing Fire was an average build with long, dark hair hanging in braids. His expression seemed ancient, as if he had traveled to other worlds. He told me he was a Timeborne like me.
I told them of my relationship with Balthazar, and both men grew somber.
“You must find the Sun and Moon Daggers,” John James said.
“That’s the only way you can defeat Balthazar,” Dancing Fire added. “You’ve got to find them. But there are more resources in the future. I will accompany you there.”
“All right, Dancing Fire,” I said. “We shall leave at the next full moon.”
Emily sniffled beside me. “Mother left to protect herself, me, and Father.”
“So it seems,” I murmured, rubbing the tension from my shoulders. “It makes sense—running might be the only option when a darkness like Balthazar is after you. That’s why we’re here in Malik’s home, right? We want to defeat Balthazar just as desperately as Mom did.”
Emily nodded, her expression solemn. Without another word, we turned back to the journal and resumed reading.
Dancing Fire and I have time traveled for two years and have been unable to find the daggers. We have gone into the 1980s and searched. Finally, frustrated with our search, I returned to see John James again. He told me to find a man named Jack James—he assured me that Jack, a future generation, was key to this entire endeavor.
So, I time traveled, returning to 1987. In 1988, I foundJack James enrolled at a college. I was twenty-eight by then. I registered in the college and started observing him.
He was passionate about the topic of time travel. I didn’t find him attractive, but I admired his heart and soul and the conviction with which he spoke about temporal displacement. I lurked in the audience when he gave his Ph.D. dissertation on temporal journeying. The audience ridiculed him and turned the dissertation into a disaster. He raced from the auditorium, and I later found him in a clock tower, ready to kill himself. I talked him out of it, and we formed a connection I vowed to use—I needed information to defeat Balthazar. I had to succeed.
Jack seemed very self-conscious and walked with a bumbling gait. I didn’t see how I could ever be with him, given his looks and withdrawn mannerisms—not after having been with Balthazar.
My stomach tightened as I read the words. Papa had been a kind and devoted man, giving everything to Mom and me while she was alive. It unsettled me to see how she had thought of him.
April 12th, 1992
I married Jack and graduated as an anthropologist. On our honeymoon, I insisted on combining it with an excavation to search for the daggers. Jack was visibly disappointed, but he relented.
