After my latest kablooey-switcheroo, and finding out Mokvar’s been experiencing the same thing, I contacted Tirion to arrange for us to bring Faranell with us to the Caverns of Time. I was originally planning to have someone go pick up Edwin in Hearthglen and bring him back to Orgrimmar, but as it turns out, Tirion is concerned enough about Edwin that he insisted on escorting him to the Caverns of Time himself. Liadrin’s offered to come as well, so she’s going to meet them in Hearthglen before heading to Tanaris.

That works out for another reason: From talking to Liadrin, I found out that she’s also been experiencing these flashes, at least the last couple days. Same thing Mokvar and I have had happening – clear out of the blue, finding ourselves in a different situation with different people doing different things than we’d been doing the minute before. I asked around Orgrimmar, but nobody else seems to know what I’m talking about – not Eitrigg, not Nazgrim, not Spazzle, not anybody. Eitrigg, though…well, when he heard Tirion was coming to meet us at the Caverns of Time, he just up and invited himself along. So yay, fun times.

We arrived earlier today, and no surprise, the conversation was eventful.

SORIDORMI: Greetings once again, Warchief.

GARROSH: Sori. You already know Mokvar here.

Soridormi nods politely to Mokvar.

MOKVAR: Ma’am.

GARROSH: And this is Eitrigg, one of my main advisors. Eitrigg, let me introduce Soridormi, Prime Consort of Nozdormu.

EITRIGG: Lady Soridormi.

SORIDORMI: Of course. I haven’t met you yet. Not at all.

EITRIGG: Um…begging your pardon, m’lady?

GARROSH: Just let it slide, Eitrigg.

MOKVAR: Uh oh. Fog alert.

GARROSH: Try not to let yourself get all bent out of shape when they say cryptic stuff like that. They do it all the ffrreeaakkiinngg ttiimmee aaarrrooouuunnnddd hhheeerrreee, aaannnddd…oooohhhh, hhhheeeerrrreeee wwwweeee ggggoooo.

EITRIGG: Iiiissss aaaannnnyyyyoooonnnneeee eeeellllsssseeee nnnnoooottttiiiicccciiiinnnngggg…?

MOKVAR: Yyyyyoooouuuu ggggeeeetttt uuuusssseeeedddd ttttoooo iiiitttt.

The surrounding smoke thickens, and then, in slow motion, Nozdormu enters comes pimping in.

NOZDORMU: Warchief.

GARROSH: Noz.

EITRIGG: Does…he always do that when he arrives?

MOKVAR: Every. Single. Time.

NOZDORMU: I would say I hope you are all well, Garrosh, but based on your message, I know that’s not the case.

GARROSH: You could say that.

MOKVAR: Do you have any ideas about what this could be?

NOZDORMU: I have my suspicions. But I cannot be certain until…ah, here they come now.

Tirion Fordring enters, accompanying his aide Daria L’Rayne, Lady Liadrin, and, lingering behind them, Edwin Faranell.

GARROSH: Tirion, Liadrin.

MOKVAR: Hey Edwin.

TIRION: Greetings, gentlemen. And of course, Lady Soridormi. And the Timeless One, a great pleasure it is finally to make your acquaintance – truly an honor it is to finally stand in the presence of the being who serves our world as the caretaker of time itself.

NOZDORMU: Yes, I’d heard about you being the one responsible for wasting so very much of it.

TIRION: Timeless One?

NOZDORMU: Never mind.

EITRIGG: Tirion!

TIRION: Ah, Eitrigg, my friend! A pleasure and an honor it is to finally stand face to face with you once again! Too much time, far too many years have elapsed since last we stood in each other’s company.

EITRIGG: It’s good to see you again, my friend.

TIRION: A haggard sight, no doubt, for long-absent eyes in my case, noble orc. The intervening years have not, I suspect, been kind, and I fear the pains of loss and war weigh heavily on my face. But not without the accompanying relief of triumph and great hope, I can assure you!

Nozdormu rolls his eyes and waves one hand in Tirion’s direction.

And you, noble Eitrigg! The years, I must say, have been quite kind. Perhaps the stray wht hr, nd line on yr face – brght on, I cn nly hope by lghtr nd bmng smls, rthr thn strsss nd nxts A hrbngr I wld hp ny trst f a grt lnglfyttcmnflldwthjynd cntntmntagrtmsrfwichIcnnlyhpeImyytstndnrtwtnssfrsthnd.

NOZDORMU: Well, that was slightly less painful.

MOKVAR: Did you just fast-forward him?

GARROSH: Dude, is there any way I could get like a bottle of whatever that shit was? I will seriously pay you whatever you want to charge for it.

NOZDORMU: A bottle of dominion over time? Sorry, not really an option.

GARROSH: Dammit.

MOKVAR: Nice try, boss.

GARROSH: I would fucking POUR that shit on Dontrag and Utvoch.

TIRION: Well now, ladies and gentlemen…

GARROSH: Oh no, here he goes. Queue it up again, Noz.

TIRION: …I suppose it is time we addressed the man of the hour, as it were.

Tirion gestures back toward Faranell, who steps up past Liadrin and Daria. Nozdormu stares at Faranell for a long moment with an increasingly worried look.

NODORMU: Oh…oh, that’s not good…

GARROSH: Oh boy…

FARANELL: What’s wrong?

NOZDORMU: You are. Everything about you…you’re… I’m sorry, my friend, but you’re just wrong. You shouldn’t be.

FARANELL: Um, okay…

LIADRIN: I’d worried that it might be this bad…

GARROSH: Okay, so now that we’ve made him feel like crap, can we maybe find out what’s going on and what we can do about it?

NOZDORMU: He doesn’t belong here, in the simplest possible terms.

FARANELL: Because I’m not from this time…

GARROSH: But when we went back to old Hillsbrad, we weren’t from THAT time either, and WE didn’t start going all wonky.

SORIDORMI: When you travel through the time portals here, you do so under the protection of the Bronze Flight. The enchantments of our portals shield you from any ill effects from temporal displacement.

LIADRIN: So Edwin is unstable now because he came through to a different time without being insulated?

NOZDORMU: It’s not so simple with him.

GARROSH: That was simple?

MOKVAR: I think it’s about to get worse.

NOZDORMU: It’s not merely that Dr. Faranell isn’t supposed to be here in this time. He’s not meant to be anywhere, in any time. This Faranell, as he has been since he was brought to our time, should not exist. He’s been cut off from his own future, and time itself is reacting against it.

LIADRIN: So he’s essentially been pulled out of his own timeline, and now it’s causing him to rubber-band back to random points in that timeline?

NOZDORMU: Unstuck in time, yes.

FARANELL: So when I’ve flashed into events I don’t remember, it’s because those events were part of…well, the other me’s past rather than mine.

LIADRIN: They were the past you were supposed to have.

NOZDORMU: Or, in some cases, the future meant for you.

GARROSH: Wait, you mean a possible future, right? Isn’t it still in flux or something depending on what we do in the present?

NOZDORMU: Warchief, what did you do yesterday?

GARROSH: I…well, I went over some tactical plans with Nazgrim and Drok, took Mortimer for a ride around Durotar…um…played some Earth Online…

NOZDORMU: Was it pre-ordained that you do those things, do you suppose, or did you choose to do them?

GARROSH: Well, I guess I chose to…right?

NOZDORMU: And the fact that you can look back at them now doesn’t make them any less your decision at the time?

LIADRIN: I think I see where you’re going with this…

GARROSH: I…well, no.

NOZDORMU: The future is already written, Warchief. For you, me, everyone. We still write that destiny ourselves. But we already have written it. We simply must live it one page at a time.

LIADRIN: And now Edwin is flipping back and forth in the book.

GARROSH: Okay, so that sort of explains why Doc is skipping around his timeline. I guess. What about what’s been happening with me and Mokvar and Liadrin?

NOZDORMU: That…I’m not as sure of.

LIADRIN: It has to be connected to what’s happening to Edwin.

NOZDORMU: There’s no doubt of that, certainly. Let me check something. Chronormu!

Chromie teleports in next to Nozdormu.

CHROMIE: Hey, gramps, what’s— <notices Faranell> HOLY SHIT, what happened to HIM?!

FARANELL: Cut off from my own future.

LIADRIN: Unstuck in time.

MOKVAR: I’ve got the notes if you want to catch up real quick.

CHROMIE: Wowie wow, you’re a big ol’ timey-whimey mess!

FARANELL: We’re aware, yes.

SORIDORMI: Chromie, when the good doctor became displaced in time, he appears to have to have have dnuob to nori have he dna have elbisreverri si have appears ti esuaceb appears gniyfirret si ti laernu si ti esuaceb gniyfirret hold ton si ynitsed ruo snoitalosnoc the terces era dna noitarepsed fo stca eb ot line raeppa esrevinu lacimonortsa eht yned ot fles eht some yned ot some noisseccus had some laropmet had yned had ot had had some had some residual effect on…

Soridormi pauses a moment and looks around. Garrosh, Liadrin, and Mokvar look around as well, a bit disoriented, finding that everyone save themselves and Soridormi has disappeared.

Ah. There we are, finally. I was hoping to have a window while you were here.

Garrosh, Liadrin, and Mokvar exchange one more round of looks, then turn back to Soridormi.

Now then, why don’t we get down to business.

{TO BE CONTINUED…}