Paradox? I only see the one duck!

((I know, I'm such a comedian.

Checking out the Fight For Your Faction thread on the Sentinels forum inspired a short story that I threw together with a bit of research. It's not the World's Greatest Cynlan Story, but it amuses me, and hopefully it'll amuse you, too. Especially if you're up on Cynlan's present (er, future) affairs...

Enjoy!))

I’ve had dreams where I held whole conversations with “alternate Cynlans,” even destroyed a fel entity who wore my face and sought to replace me. Never in my life, though, had I imagined that I’d be fighting side by side with myself.

“Here come the Infinites! I've got to keep the hourglass safe. Can you help?”

I tore my eyes away from the sight of Nozdormu hovering above us with the Infinite Dragonflight swarming around him, and stared straight into my eyes. Well, my eyes from months back. The other me wasn’t too much younger, but this Past Me had only recently started earning favor with the Wyrmrest Accord, despite my – our – reputation as Dragonslayer of the Blood Knight Order. Of course, that was back when I was hunting down the Black Dragonflight, not the Infinites. The Wyrmrest Accord frowned on hunting down other members of the Accord, and the Blacks were no doubt savoring the fact that I was working with them and not against them.

I did, however, have the blessing of the Accord to turn my dragonslaying skills against the Blue Dragonflight… and the Infinites.

The younger me smiled confidently when I nodded to him, and the two of us took up a defensive stance to either side of the hourglass the Past Me was tasked to defend. How strange it was to be on the other side of this temporal anomaly. Venturing into other time periods through the Cavern of Time was one thing – I’d never run into anyone I knew personally, and even if I had, I was in disguise then. But this, I could safely say, was even stranger than the first time I was here.

“Wish I could remember how many of the Infinite Dragonflight were going to try to stop you,” I muttered to my younger self. “This fight was so long ago.” And most of it happened so fast, I doubt I could recall everything that happened, anyway.

Past Me replied, undeterred, “Chromie said that if I don't do this just right, I might wink out of existence. If I go, then you go!”

Now there was a sobering thought. Think, Dawnstrider, think! How did this fight play out?

The Infinites attacked without warning, appearing suddenly with the Hourglass of Eternity in their sights. I had to trust that I knew what I was doing, that the fight would play out exactly the way it did before. If it didn’t, if I got in my own way, the Infinite Dragonflight would win. And I’d be history.

Fortunately, it played out exactly the way it did before. We were a whirlwind of dragonslaying might, cutting down the Infinites in a dance of blades that I look back on in awe to this day. Past Me focused on defending the hourglass while I focused on watching my – his – back. Wave after wave they came, truly living up to the name of their dragonflight, but they were no match for two of the world’s greatest dragonslayers. Each one met an untimely (heh) demise at my hands, both past and present, until finally…

“What the…? Nozdormu is up there!”

I looked up at the Lord of Time, still hovering above us, still surrounded by hundreds of the Infinites but finally revealed to the Past Me. I remember now. Chromie, the Bronze Dragonflight’s ambassador, sent me here to use the hourglass to uncover the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight. At the time, I had no idea why I only saw Nozdormu in the sky above me, and Chromie was equally baffled. But now, looking up at what Past Me was seeing with a new perspective, a pit of fear took hold in my stomach.

“The hourglass has revealed Nozdormu,” I whispered, finally understanding.

As if he had heard me, the Lord of Time seemed to turn his gaze right toward me. Not Past Me, but me, the me that finally understood the significance of his appearance here in the Dragonshrine. Already I could feel that knowledge slipping away from me through his gaze, and I realized with a panic that the Bronzes could erase certain memories of those who interfered with the timeline. I had to tell someone, quickly, and there was only one other person here to carry my message back to Chromie.

There was only one problem. Past Me was already starting to fade away as the barrier between his time and my own started to reassert itself.

“I feel like I’m being pulled away through time,” the younger me said, though his voice sounded like it was on the other side of a chasm. “Thanks for the help…”

“No!” I shouted, lunging to grab his – my – arm before it was too late. “No, you have to tell her! Tell Chromie-“

*****

“And that was the last thing I remember I – the Future Me – was saying,” Cynlan recounted with a slight frown. “Do you have any idea what it might have meant?”

Chromie gave a small shrug, easy enough for her gnomish form. “I’m not entirely sure, but you – that is, your future self – may well have been trying to confirm that it was Nozdormu’s presence, not the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight, that was at the center of the time storm. It’s the only explanation that fits the facts. Any other questions?”

Cynlan shook his head, still frowning thoughtfully. “No, I suppose not. Thank you for your time, Chromie, no pun intended. If it’s all the same, I think I’ll stick to killing Scourge and leave all this fighting the Infinite Dragonflight to you and the rest of the bronze flight…”