Everard And Guion II

The Shield Of Time, PART FIVE.

The second time that he interviews Everard, Guion has two things on his mind. First:

"'Monitors have observed anomalous variations in reality.'" (p. 261)

Someone visits a particular period and sees it one way, then revisits it and sees it another way?

Examples given by Guion:

Plautus' Asinaria was first performed in 213 B.C. although later scholars recorded a different date;

Stefan Nemanya, Grand Zhupan of Serbia, abdicated in 1196 A.D. although later scholars recorded a different date;

the exact text of the Asinaria differs from what is later recorded;

the exact objects depicted on a scroll by Ma Yuan differ from what is later recorded.

Just scholars' mistakes? Why refer to anomalous variations in reality?

Timeline 1, in which the Asinaria was performed in 212 B.C. and in which it was therefore later recorded that that play was performed in that year, can change into or be replaced by Timeline 2a, in which the Asinaria was performed in 213 B.C. and in which it was therefore later recorded that that play was recorded in that year, but can Timeline 1 change into or be replaced by Timeline 2b, in which the Asinaria was performed in 213 B.C. but it was nevertheless later recorded that that play was performed in 212 B.C.? How could that happen? Why should it?

Guion claims that these anomalies:

"'...indicate instability in those sections of history.'" (p. 262)

A bigger change could happen? If it did, then the only people to know about it might be some time travellers returning uptime from before the change point. I write "...might be some..." because most time travellers, e.g., all or most of the Time Patrollers returning from their training at the Academy, return uptime without experiencing any alteration. If there were an altered timeline that no time traveller ever entered, then no one would know about it or have to worry about it.

213 B.C. reminds Everard of the Second Punic War and the historical alteration that he had had to counteract. Has one change, resulting from extratemporal intervention, generated an instability, making other changes more probable even without any further intervention?

Guion says that it is impossible to answer the question: how many temporal catastrophes there have been? Why? Because some alterations will have deleted any memory of the pre-alteration state?