22 December 1123

　　It was cold. And wet. Matilda was sick and felt miserable.

　　She`d been jabbed with every vaccine known to man before journeying back in time. The Institute doctors warned that she would encounter innumerable viruses and bacteria, many that hadn`t been seen for centuries. Each would assault her immune system, though the doctors assured Matilda that none were likely to cause any lasting damage to a woman in her prime.

　　They also warned that she would inevitably carry diseases from the future, despite their best efforts to quarantine her from the outside world. Any interaction with the new world risked the exchange of an unknown number of bugs.

　　But being forewarned had done little to help Matilda.

　　All the vaccinations in the world couldn`t have protected against her encounter with the Bishop and his thugs behind the rundown shack. The attack was seared into her memory and she regularly woke in a sweat as the scene replayed on loop, her mind enhancing each nightmarish detail. The vice-like grip on her arms. The putrid breath. The mocking looks in their eyes.

　　Matilda was angry at herself for allowing it to happen. Knowing she would be alone in a distant land, she had spent years before her departure learning selfdefence and sparring against classmates. Years training her body to fight. But there was little anyone could do to protect against a club to the back of the head or a man at least double her weight.

　　She`d let her guard down in her moment of triumph. And she hated herself for it.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

　　Her depression had been building for years, the Bishop`s attack was just the last straw. Leaving her family for the Institute. Studying so hard. The final sprint to prepare for the looming Drop. Leaving behind all that she knew for a plan that had failed. It was little wonder she had fallen.

　　William had been her saviour. Not some strapping man with a chiselled jaw. She`d never have stood for that. But she had been too deep in her depression to save herself, so instead she was rescued by a farm boy.

　　It had been difficult seeing William when he first returned to her cave. He was a reminder of Rachel`s cruelty. And a man. Matilda hadn`t yet forgiven herself for her moment of weakness with the Bishop and she`d been cruel in her grief.

　　Matilda regretted how she had treated the Boy. He`d asked for her help, to cure a disease that she had in all likelihood inflicted upon his village. Yet she continued to wallow. She had let down her only friend in an alien world and hadn`t seen William for days since.

　　What was done was done.

　　There was something so final in his parting words. He wasn`t angry. Disappointed was an understatement.

　　Matilda reflected on everything that had happened since she arrived back in time. All so different from the Institute`s meticulous plans. Her mission was in tatters. The window for arriving in London to meet the King was long gone. Matilda knew that King Henry would be in Normandy to put down a rebellion and wouldn`t return to London for almost a year. Even more time for her best laid plans to go awry.

　　Matilda thought back to the day of her arrival, when she had toasted the fact that she was the smartest person on the planet. She knew now, that all the knowledge and training in the world meant nothing without also knowing how to use it.

　　But she wouldn`t be defeated. Dragging herself from her cot, Matilda gathered up her belongings and wrapped them in her blanket. She looked back at the empty cave as she closed the door. Few traces of her occupation remained.

　　There was no changing the past, William had said.

　　But that was exactly what she was there to do.