William slept like a drowned man, but I was restive.
I got up and tiptoed over to the small, rough table, reaching into the pocket of my dress that William had thrown onto the floor and taking out Evelyn’s journal.
I pulled out one of the chairs carefully, so as not to wake William, and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. I lit one of the oil lamps and set it next to me on the table. It was cold in the gamekeeper’s shack, and part of me wanted to go back to bed andsnuggle in, next to William. But I knew I wouldn’t sleep; I was too wired.
We hadn’t really talked. But we had reconnected, at least a little, and for that I was grateful.
I crouched down and lit some kindling in the small fireplace and fed it some of the dry wood that was stacked in a neat pile next to it. We hadn’t been disturbed by the owner of the little shack, but a pang of guilt attacked me as I wondered what he would think when he found the place had been used.
I resolved to make sure to ask Nancy to help me the next day – perhaps bring up clean bedding, and some firewood and food to leave as thanks.
I opened the book and turned the pages. I had read all of it, but some of Evelyn’s writing was difficult to make out, some was written in Latin, and some I didn’t understand at all. There was a lot that needed a second or third read, and, since I’d found myself not back in my own time again, I resolved to study the book and try to glean some more wisdom from it that I might have previously overlooked.
Evelyn seemed to favour lists, and there was one list of points that I’d read quickly and passed over before. However, now, I read it again with a renewed interest.
It read:
Rules of the lines of energy: Being a collection of wisdom I have collated from my adventures, by Evelyn Willcock, pellar, of Yew Tree Cottage, St Nantes, 1698
Two versions of the same person cannot exist in the same timeline. This is an unproved thought on my part, but I have tested the idea by trying to travel to Trevarron and my own cottage at the same year without success. The timelines will not align. Yet, I have had success in determining my entrance and egress from other specific years through particular means.This may mean that two versions of me, or anyone else, cannot exist in one time and place for some reason.
Living in a building that sits directly on a line of energy seems to bestow people with a talent for moving through time. So far, I have observed that residents of Trevarron House, my cottage and Cullen’s farm have moved through time. Drawing a straight line on a map between these properties – and onwards – reveals other places of interest along a Mystic Line that follows maps I have found elsewhere.
The portals open at the time of eclipses. A solar eclipse seems to take us back to the past in the location we are already in. A lunar eclipse is a wild card and can take you anywhere at any time.
I have observed that it is possible to travel between times at other special moments of the year, most notably the solstices and equinoxes, if one is somewhere on the lines of energy. But, a high degree of concentration is required, and only for those that have resided on the lines for many years.
It may also be possible to time travel at other times, given the right concentration. As a single person I have found that I cannot produce enough power to make the leap at more mundane times of the year. I wonder, if there were more than one person, whether the combined effort would be enough to force through.
Staying too long in the past seems to create negative situations and have perilous effects on one’s health.
Conversely, I have observed that the pellars of my family have lived long, healthy lives. That may be as a result of living on a line of energy, or the fact that they are pellars and as such able to know the treatments and herbs that aid them.
