Chapter 6
Hoku was motionless as his mind struggled to keep up with a maelstrom of thoughts.
A weight pressed against his knee, and he flinched, glancing down.
Cheshire stretched lazily, sprawling his sleek limbs over Hoku's leg.
The sunlight sharpened the contrast of his dark fur, lighting the fine silver whiskers fanning around his glistening black nose.
His fangs, long and keen, jutted slightly over his lower lip.
"So… you're my guide?"
Hoku pressed his fingers against his temple, rubbing the vein that pulsed in irritation.
Cheshire, unbothered, flicked his tail and began walking, his small frame moving beyond the sandy path that split the endless field of tulips.
Hoku pondered for a few seconds before concluding that any path was better than standing still, before following after the cat.
Time stretched as they walked. And walked. And walked.
The abiding scenery and unwavering silence intensified the isolated atmosphere.
The sun remained high, as the tulips subtly swayed from their movements. There was no breeze, no birds, no sound but their steps.
After a while more, his coat grew suffocating, and he shrugged it off, draping it over his arm.
He was expecting relief, however, it made no difference.
The silence crept in, and the world closed in, its monotony bearing down on him.
A tight unease coiled in his chest, and he halted in his tracks.
Cheshire's ears twitched. He sniffed the air, before glancing back, his slitted pupils narrowing.
Hoku's voice was quieter than he intended.
"Why am I not tired…? What is this place?"
Cheshire stared a moment then turned and continued walking.
Hoku exhaled sharply and kept moving.
He eventually found himself standing before the same rusted gate, with worn, rough edges.
Beyond it, the manor loomed, mostly unchanged. The path leading to it had vanished and was swallowed by the field.
Hoku's breath hitched. It was exactly as it had been when he first arrived, no sign of time passing, and something in the space beyond the gate felt off.
He huffed and ran a hand through his hair.
'You've got to be kidding.'
At the base of the gate, there were withered tulips twisted around the metal posts.
Their petals curled inward, and their stems blackened with decay appearing much different from the white flower across the rest of the field.
Hoku crouched, running his fingers along a brittle stem.
'This isn't nearly the same as I thought.'
His thoughts started to scatter, and he suddenly remembered something else he had read from Polaris' notes in the study.
'The regency epoch would be acquitted beyond this frail barrier of dead tulips.
An infinite path exists between every parallel time period, the first of which he encounters is described as a frail barrier of dead tulips.
This proclaimed barrier is a space of interconnected past and present. Without a future, the present can only exist as the same 'sequence' over and over again. What is left of the past will gradually evolve into the development of the timelines cavity.
Humans will fall into the earlier epochs of evolution until they reach the beginning—which becomes the end of the original world.
I've gathered that the 'timestream' is a sequel to that ending. It is the future that was revoked from the order of succession.
Whoever tampered with the future for the sake of altering their past is ultimately at fault for the destruction of mankind.
I believe it began in the Manor built in 1812. A researcher who had no means of getting close to the sequel of our universe was robbed.
The outcome led to a much greater threat that a mysterious transmigrator has yet to discover who is responsible for.
His companions have left behind various poorly printed letters deeming him the Navigator [perhaps the term indicating a 'transmigrator' with infinite sequences]
Many were involved, but there is one person who began the creation of a method for extracting the future.
They've managed to procure the past… but at what costs?'
"The world would regress, cycling backward until it reached the beginning. The end of the original world," Hoku muttered back to himself, frowning in puzzlement.
Suddenly, a figure moved in the distance.
Hoku's head darted up, and he found Cheshire perched there atop the porch, staring back.
"What are you doing over there?" He asked, tilting his chin to the side.
Shoving aside his hesitation, Hoku gripped the rusted bars and pulled them open.
The gate groaned, and roots were torn free from the soil, as the more tulips crumpled, "Don't run off so suddenly!"
Hoku warily crossed the garden before walking up the steps onto the porch. A faint gust brushed the back of his neck.
He glanced back just in time to see the sunlight on the porch pillars blench and wane, as though something vast had encompassed the sun.
He craned his head back. The sky above was cloudless, yet the light had turned wan, casting everything in a pallid grey. He turned toward the flowerbed—and stopped.
The whole garden within the gate lay blighted.
Once-green stems turned dark and brittle.
Their petals had curled inward, the shriveled heads dark amid the living stretch of blooms beyond the bed.
Hoku stumbled back until the door struck between his shoulders. Then he spun and rushed inside. The hinges groaned as he shoved it, and on the second try the door lurched open hard enough to tear splinters from the frame. He barely noticed the stale smell of wood and dust as he crossed the threshold.
CRRR… CRACK!
The boards split beneath him.
He managed to seize one leg back, but the other went through the rotting wood before he could find his footing.
Then the floor buckled beneath him, pitching him forward.
Fragments of wood struck his face as he threw out a hand, the sudden lurch beneath him leaving his stomach light and sick.
Wind rushed past his ears as he fell. The last sliver of light above dwindled to a pinprick, and after that Hoku could no longer tell whether sight had left him or whether no light reached so far below.
Ting.
Another followed, then several more—bright, metallic notes that seemed one moment at his very ears and the next to carry from somewhere farther off.
They quickened with the beat in his chest, then ebbed again, each one slower in coming than the last.
The Memoir Chapter 4
Objective 3
The barrier has infinite forms. Each time you interact without caution, the barrier will try to kill you. Follow your guide to the manor from the only sequel, and do not reveal your doubt in him. Otherwise, he won't bother saving you. That green-eyed monster is especially smug.