”Especially the denizens,” Sven said, by way of emphasis. “Anything else is borrowing trouble. Big trouble. If you piss off somebody who can’t be killed and you end in a life-or-death situation with them, you’ll be the one kissing your backside goodbye.”
”Wait a second,” Margo said with a frown. “What do you mean, somebody who can’t be killed? Anybody can be killed.”
”Not exactly” Kit said quietly. “If someone’s death would alter history, then that person can’t be killed. At least, not by an up-timer. Paradox will not happen. History won’t change. People have tried. It never works.
Never. Let’s say you try to assassinate somebody famous, like George Washington. Your gun will jam or misfire, or you’ll trip at the last second so the knife doesn’t hit a vital spot. Something will happen to prevent you from changing anything critical. The tricky part here is, it can happen when you least expect it.”
”Like if you get into a fatal fight with somebody who seems unimportant,” Sven said quietly. “If their death would affect history, then they won’t die. That doesn’t mean you won’t.”
For once, Margo looked worried instead of flippant. She glanced at Sven, then back to Kit. “Okay.” It came out surprisingly subdued. “What else?”
”Another point to remember is that we’re the outsiders, down time. Even if somebody is unimportant enough that their death wouldn’t matter to history, we don’t have a moral right to go barging in with a macho attitude that we’ll just smash anything that puts us in danger, without taking precautions to avoid problems in the first place.”