TLDR: 22 and Colin learned that their captor was going to send 22 into the past to ensure that Zugs McFlair was never born. It was possible for Colin to escape by joining 22 on their forced journey, and moreover, this was the only way he could conceive to avoid sacrificing his friend Atnas. Colin's plan and his willingness to be shut down during the trip to the past would serve to inadvertently protect the timeline and the life of Zugs.
Nůžky's Plot Is Revealed
By the time their captor returned, Colin had successfully modified 22's telepathy unit to grant limited mind-reading capabilities, and 22 used this new ability to examine the gnome's thoughts while Colin asked questions that surreptitiously prompted her to think of specific bits of useful information.
Thus, they learned three important things:
- There was indeed a way to to escape the mesh cage. Although the cage had appeared non-magical, three seemingly arbitrary words spoken in quick succession would trip the latch: "thermal" "exhaust" "port".
- Atnas had not been brought to Cof with Colin but was still held prisoner in Breme.
- Their captor believed Colin's long-time associate Zugs McFlair to be, as the gnome conceived of things, an "anomaly" who should never have existed; and she planned to rectify this by having 22 interfere in his lineage after hiding among the possessions of a time-traveler who she knew would soon be traveling to the past.
- "Zugs McFlair," she thought loudly. "There is no such person."
Before exiting, their captor reminded Colin of the hours he had left to complete his task, and of the consequences if he were to fail.
Colin's Countermeasures
Unfortunately the distance to Breme left them with too little time to rescue Atnas before the gnome's deadline, and after some discussion, Colin resigned himself to a more desperate plan: acquiring the time he needed by to escaping into the past with 22.
Having learned that 22 had often smuggled contraband by simply picking it up and incorporating into the form of some common and inconspicuous beast, he told 22 that they should to use this technique to ensconce Colin himself in a form small enough to carry him beyond the reach of the gnome before she realized he was gone. 22 objected that they would not be able to merge a conscious person into their animal form, and when they insisted on this over his objections, Colin reluctantly revised his strategy to include 22 first removing his data core, thus rendering him inert for transport.
Once they had used the gnome's method of traveling back in time, 22 would restore Colin, he would reverse the modification that bound 22 to the gnome's instructions, Zugs McFlair would be born on schedule, and Colin would be at his leisure to think of a way to keep Atnas safe ...and perhaps a way to keep himself out of Wyvern Mountain.
Armed with this plan, Colin finished the modifications the gnome had mandated (which would allow her to issue commands 22 would follow even far away from her) and bided his time. When the gnome returned and Colin informed her the task was complete, she performed tests until she appeared satisfied with his work, whereupon she began putting it to use.
Instructions for Deleting Zugs
Their captor issued 22's new, persistent instructions:
- Phase 1
- Take the form of a tiny creature, proceed without delay to the spring beyond the nearby hamlet, and wait unseen until the changeling Caligna appears.
- Hide promptly in the changeling's travel gear without attracting his notice or that of his companions.
- Wait discretely until he has travelled in time, and abscond.
- Phase 2
- Travel to Osugbo's west coast without being recognized as a synthetic being.
- Find or construct a place in which you will remain undisturbed for centuries with a broad view of the sky.
- Remain there until you experience a full year during which no dragons appear in the sky.
- Phase 3
- Travel to Champerty without being recognized as a synthetic being.
- Locate the infant Julian McFlair, and plan and execute his successful abduction, also without being recognized as a synthetic being. (Abduction by a frenetic chimpanzee might be funny.)
- Ensure that the boy will never be found by those who had known him in Champerty.
Once she had confirmed that 22 correctly understood these instructions, their captor -- almost as if to maintain a trope -- discontinued the Bluestone signal, relying on 22's new instructions, and left her prisoners alone, claiming she would return with something to help their mission succeed.
22 mentally verified that no conflict existed between the gnome's instructions and Colin's plan, which left them free to begin following both as soon as they were free of the cage. And they reflected on how pleasant it can be to know the secret weakness of the seemingly unassailable apparatus that your powerful enemy has engineered to thwart you.
"Thermal exhaust port," 22 intoned.
Quick Thinking
Outside their former prison lay a trail which led to a hamlet perhaps half a mile distant; and beyond the hamlet, 22 knew they would find a spring and their vehicle to the past: a changeling called Caligna. Seeing others on this trail, 22 devised a plan that would allow them to return to the present without needing to go the long way round.
Reaching out telepathically to a human walking the opposite direction, 22 imparted the following.
"Don't fear, I'm a friend. My mind is in the mouse that is passing you on the road. Please follow briefly. I need help and can reward you.
Please go to The Sky Net and tell the warforged Bones that they must must dig at a particular location, today if possible, that they must pay you handsomely to tell them where, and that this course of action is very important to 22, who also says, 'Tacciath was the most courageous'.
When they accept this proposal, tell them to dig at the northwest corner of the ruined church. Please repeat this plan back to me if you are willing to help."
One at a time, 22 imparted similar messages to three amenable passers by. Two others ignored the request to follow the mouse, and one fled the voice that spoke in her head.
Some elements of this hastily fashioned plan were ill-conceived.
- Although Bones would know that the message was really from 22 (and they would probably give even the late-arriving messengers some small reward for their efforts), if three messengers proved to be too few, 22 could find themself in the distant future.
- Worse yet, if 22 succeeded in their mission to change the past by kidnapping the young Julian McFlair, they would necessarily find themself in a different timeline from the one they had left -- and any such timeline would most probably be one where no extraction request specifying the northwest corner of the ruined church was ever sent.
- Finally, if 22 agreed to leave Colin free to make changes to the past, Colin would likely have some non-trivial ideas about how to "improve" the present, but if 22 somehow forced Colin to accompany them back to the present, it would already be too late to save Atnas from being turned to mud and stranded in some undiscoverable demiplane for eternity.
Despite 22's haste, these issues would all be resolved, some through sheer luck and others through centuries of patience.
- - - - -
Minutes later, still in mouse form, 22 arrived at the spring as instructed, to find the scarred and tattooed Caligna with a synthetic companion whom 22 would later learn was the protoforged 7. The equipment that lay on the ground near the pair included two backpacks, and 22 scurried quickly into the nearer one and nestled carefully into a layer of clothing to wait. It must have been hours later that the strange chanting began as the pack was hoisted off the ground. After another minute, a flash of purple ushered in a brief silence that was soon broken by conversational voices as Caligna presumably began helping 7 get oriented to their new surroundings one thousand years in the past.
