“Over everyone’s,” Bob said grimly. “No matter what. She’sliterallybound the future in chains, and now we’re in a pickle.”
They were in a lot worse than a pickle. Julius was still trying to wrap his head around how bad this could be when Marci asked, “So where does my Kosmolabe come in? Don’t dragons know how to get back to their own plane?”
“Not any more,” Amelia said sadly. “You gotta understand, we didn’t just trash our home plane. Weobliteratedit. Our ancestors flew out of there one step ahead of total collapse. Things got so bad there at the end, the sphere of our reality actually disconnected completely from the other planes. Now, the only way to get back is by tunneling through the void between worlds, and the only way to dothatis if you have something pointing you in the right direction.”
“Like a Kosmolabe,” Marci said.
“Exactly,” Amelia said, nodding. “Why do you think I’ve been trying for so long to get my hands on one? I’ve been working on opening a portal back to the remnants of our home plane for centuries. Can you imagine how much lost history might still be buried there?”
“History, of course,” Bob said drolly. “And the rumored mountains of treasure abandoned by the fleeing dragon kings hasnothingto do with your interest.”
Amelia shrugged. “Can’t I be interested in both?”
“Be that as it may,” Chelsie said. “Let’s get back to the point. You’re saying Estella used the Kosmolabe she stole last month to go back to our ancient home plane and acquire a seer weapon that forces a specific future onto us?”
“If you want to squeeze it all into one sentence.”
“Then why hasn’t the chain kicked in yet?” she asked, ignoring his sarcasm. “If Amelia and I are already on Estella’s rails, how are we even able to have this conversation?”
“I don’t know,” Bob said, sounding uncharacteristically frustrated. “I told you already, I can’t see either of your futures anymore. For all I know, this is all part of Estella’s plan.”
“Fine,” Chelsie said, “So how do we getoutof it?”
He sighed. “I don’t know.”
“That’s a lot of ‘I don’t knows’ for an all-knowing seer,” Chelsie growled.
“Well, I don’t think that’s odd considering the last time a seer weapon of this sort was used was nine thousand yearsbeforeI was born,” Bob said testily. “I see the future, not the past. But if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say the only way to beat an absolute weapon is with another absolute weapon.”
“You mean go get chains of our own?” Julius asked quickly, eager to break the tension. “Can we do that?”
“If Estella can, I don’t see why we couldn’t,” Bob replied.
“But we can’t get there,” Marci pointed out. “Even if Amelia made a portal, we don’t have a Kosmolabe.”
“Don’t write us off yet,” Bob said. “I might have gotten my teeth kicked in this round, but I’m notcompletelywithout resources. It just so happens I’ve already sent help on that score.”
“The portal or the Kosmolabe?” Marci asked at the same time as Chelsie snapped, “And you didn’t tell us thisearlier?”
“I didn’t want to interrupt the exposition,” Bob said innocently. “And ‘help’ in this case refers to the Kosmolabe. Amelia’s ability to make portals should have already come back.”
Everyone turned to stare at Amelia, who turned up her nose. “Of course. Why else did you think I was sitting around doing nothing but eating and boozing?”
“I don’t know,” Chelsie said. “Sounds like a pretty normal Amelia day to me.”
“I wasrecovering,” Amelia snapped. “Some of us didn’t just fall over for Estella, you know.”
Chelsie bared her teeth, and Julius jumped in before it came to blows. “So you can make portals again! That’s great. But what about the Kosmolabe? When is it coming?”
“You should already have it,” Bob said.
Everyone looked at Julius, who shook his head.
“I dare not say more,” the seer said cryptically. “Just think about it.”
“Now’s not the time, Bob,” Chelsie growled.
“Wrong,” he said. “It’sexactlythe time. How often do I have to repeat thatdecisions make the future?They’re the forks in the stream, the intersections in the road of life, the adventures in the Choose Your Own Adventure!”
