Praetorian Series [3] A Hunter and His Legion by Edward Crichton Page B

answers to these questions, but I do know that I am glad for it.  Even as I write this, knowing what Agrippina may soon do to me, I am eternally grateful to have known you, and to have had the opportunity to research this great mystery you have brought into my life.
    The orb.
    I kept nothing from you on that fateful night aboard Agrippina’s barge, for I had not yet divined its secrets.  Please do not think that I kept from you what I am about to tell you here, for that is not the case.  Much has happened in the months since then.  More than I’ll ever truly come to understand.
    Agrippina did not expect you on that night, try as she might have to convince you otherwise.  She may have known then – as I finally do now – what the orb does, but she has never been able to wield its power.  She is a cunning and shrewd woman, and had been lying in wait for you since the moment you left Rome on the tragic day of Caligula’s death.  She later confided in me that she had been purposefully placing herself throughout the empire over the years to draw you out.  That’s all she had ever done, but she succeeded on that night.  Do not let her words intimidate you.  Do not let her suggestions sway your judgment.
    And for the sake of the gods, Hunter, do not think with anything other than your mind when you are with her.  Her nature is her greatest asset, and it is an alluring one.  Do not let your thoughts stray around her.
    But the orb.
    The orb is the key.  And I know now what it does only through a mere fluke.  An accident.  I have once heard how most great discoveries are done so only through such tricks of… yes, fate.
    After what happened aboard the barge, Agrippina urged greater haste with my research and even allowed me access to the orb.  After all those years, finally, I was able to study it in person.  As I am certain you already have inklings as to what it does, I feel safe in my assumption that as you read th ese words, you will not be surprised at what I learned in those wonderful few months.
    The orb is a time manipulation device.
    You are from the future!
    Or course!
    It all makes such sense now.  How could I have been so blind?  It is so obvious.  So obvious.  I was quite angry at myself for some time once I had discovered the truth.
    I tested it with a number of people in Agrippina’s retinue, but not once did it operate between two different individuals as it had you and I.  However, through a single accidental encounter later, I was able to replicate the results we shared and duplicated the orb, but I will not describe that event here.
    But regardless, o nce I had the orb, I pleaded for Agrippina to allow me leave to visit the library at Alexandria to further my research.  After much convincing, she relented.
    That was two months ago as far as she knows, yet, from my perspective over two years have passed.
    Can you imagine it ?
    Can you?
    The amount of knowledge I gained in those two months… those two years … is simply incredible.  I could not take anything with me during those temporal trips, nothing except my mind and my memories.  I learned so much in that time, however, compiling data and decoding lost histories.  The man I worked with at the library could not understand how my knowledge grew as it did.
    I was not bore d in that time.  Nor did I age and I never felt any ill effects from such prolonged use.  It was simply amazing.  My mind grew but my body stayed healthy.  What leaps in knowledge I could have gained had the orb not been taken from me!
    But I get ahead of myself.
    Once I had gained as much research as I felt I needed, I recorded my findings.  This took several weeks, and often I would use the orb to ensure I had everything in order.  My research assistant was Flavius Rumella, a scholar employed with the library.  He and I worked together to make sense of it all, and… Jacob, what we learned was astounding.  I dare not speak of it here for fear that this