Part 8 — Chapter 12

Summary

• The protagonist identifies himself as the catalyst of a time anomaly associated with the Time Institute where he was interviewing himself under the alias Alan Sami from Oklahoma City. He had been overlooked due to meticulously falsified documents by Zoey.
• The protagonist closely observes the anomaly unfolding at the airship terminal in October of 2195, while playing the violin with his dog by his side. He sees two individuals, Olive Llewellyn and a man—at first, unnamed—who just got out from a utility closet.
• The man is said to be heading for an interview at the Time Institute and walks towards the protagonist. As this happens, a ripple in the air accompanies him, indicating the struggles of the intelligence/software that is trying to reconcile the paradox of two versions of the same person existing in the same place.
• The protagonist identifies a third version of himself intertwined in this anomaly, existing in the forest of Caiette. This third version has corrupted the timeline further as it references him hiding in the forest in two different periods, 1994 and 1912. These moments are linked to individuals named Edwin St. Andrew and Vincent Smith.
• The disruptive ripple culminates in a wave of darkness following the man. At this point, their timelines start synchronizing and overlapping, including the past frames of himself, Vincent Smith, and Edwin St. Andrew.
• An airship taking off helps dissipate the anomaly, realigning the current timeline. The man —Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, identified as the protagonist's younger self— hadn’t noticed the anomaly, likely due to nerves and inexperience. He ascribes the sense of abnormality to pre-interview jitters.
• The protagonist reflects upon the discovery, acknowledging that he was the cause—both currently and in the past—of the time anomaly. He recalls Edwin and Vincent witnessing the anomaly with him in the forest and surmises that he was too far from Edwin to have noticed it the first time.
• The protagonist ends his performance, and mentally criticizes his younger self for his ineptitude. His younger self is happy with the performance and introduces himself to the protagonist in an attempt to win him over for an interview on behalf of a music historian.