The
Nature of Time
I immediately set about arranging a nanny for the child Sarah had seen
fit to saddle me with, as I had no desire to discover the "joys" of
feeding her, changing her, or having her vomit on my clothing.
Fortunately, the Chanicut woman I selected for the task seemed competent
enough, not only in child care, but in sorcery. The latter was essential,
since I had no intention of spending all of my time guarding the child
myself. I had agreed to keep an eye on her for Sarah, but I would not put
my plans on hold because of her.
To explain the child's presence, and my rather unusual interest in
her, I decided to claim that she was my sister, and that I had been
retrieving her from a slow Shadow during the two weeks I had been absent
from the Courts. It was only a story I intended to tell to those who
asked, however, and my position was such that I expected few would dare to
do so. Still, it would be better if there were somewhere other than
Skeltland to keep the child. The less visible she was, the less questions
that would be asked. Father's keep would be the perfect place, if only I
could fix the problems with the time flow...and the climate...and its
guardian. Well, one problem at a time. No pun intended.
I decided that the best place to begin would be to find a way to
establish control over Father's Shadow. If I could do that, I should be
able to resolve both the time flow and the climate problems. Pattern was
the most obvious way to do such a thing, by altering the Shadow itself,
but unfortunately, it was not a power I possessed yet. Logrus could
probably exert the same control as Pattern, but I did not possess that
power either, nor was there any chance I would have the opportunity to
gain it for at least a year, thanks to Sarah's edict. Trump? No, while
Trump was useful for a great many things, this sort of Shadow manipulation
was not one of them. Conjuration? Equally useless. Sorcery? Possible,
but if so, I had no idea how to do it...at least not yet. Still, it had
the most potential, so it was there that I decided to focus my
efforts.
I began by spending some time in my study, reviewing all that I knew
of sorcery...what I had been taught, what I had been told, what I had
learned from my walks of the Magic Circle. Unfortunately, I could think
of nothing to help me in this case. Magic was capable of biologically
speeding up a human being to the maximum of their physical capabilities,
but this did not really affect time, per se. This did not mean that
affecting time was beyond the power of magic, but if there existed a spell
to do so, it was not one that was in my repertoire
There were a few other things I knew of that could influence time that
might loosely be considered magic. The most obvious was the Jewel of
Judgment, once the left eye of the Serpent. Father had been quite
forthcoming with me about its ability to speed up time as the wearer
perceived it. Theoretically, magic that called upon energy from the Jewel
might be able to alter time as well. There was no way to be sure if this
was true without possessing the actual artifact, however, and I considered
that to be far too risky a venture for the benefits I might gain.
The other possibility, although very remote, was bodiless travel.
There was a race of bodiless demons known as Ty'iga that traveled
independent of physical form. From what I understood, they also perceived
time differently than mortals. I had heard rumors that a sorcerer's view
of time could similarly be changed through out-of-body travel.
Unfortunately, out-of-body travel put one's physical form, and thus
continued existence, at serious risk. Again, too risky a venture for what
I might gain, especially since there was no guarantee that this altered
perspective would be of any real use.
My current store of knowledge exhausted, I pondered my next course of
action. Under normal circumstances I would attempt to research the
subject, but in this case that would be rather tricky. Father had never
been terribly forthcoming, and was not the type to put his ideas into
writing. Indeed, if he had written anything down, it would likely be in
his keep, and therefore not very accessible.
Other possible sources included Sarah or Mother. Sarah was one of the
best sorcerers I knew, and Mother had been quite skilled herself. Or I
could ask my half brothers, Adam and Lylesberg, or my pretender half
brother, Jacob, hoping that they might have information about the keep. I
discarded that last idea immediately, though. If any of them knew about
the keep, surely one of them would have claimed it for his own by now.
And if I told them of it, they might want access to the place in exchange
for their assistance. That was a situation I would prefer to avoid.
As for Sarah, I decided to leave approaching her as a last resort.
She appeared to be rather involved in her Arcana project at the moment,
and while she did owe me for looking after Lenore for her, I sensed that
now would not be a good time to disturb her. She would not thank me for
interrupting her moment of triumph for something like this. And, I had to
admit, I preferred for Father's keep to remain my little secret for
now.
So, that left Mother. It was certainly possible that she might have
left some papers or books behind when she "died." Unfortunately, quite a
lot of time had passed in Chaos after the corruption of the Logrus, and
the Abyss War had caused a lot of damage. Although the manor house in
Skeltland had seemed the same to me at first, I had begun to notice that
there differences - minor ones, but differences all the same. Careful
inquiry soon revealed that much of the manor house had been destroyed
during the War, and later rebuilt. Mother's belongings had not been
recovered, at least not those in Skeltland. And if Mother had possessed
her own sanctuary, I did not know of it. So Mother was another dead end,
at least in the short term.
Another possibility had occurred to me, though. I could ask Cerridwen
for help. She had no small amount of skill in sorcery herself, and she,
more than anyone, could be trusted with the knowledge of the keep's
existence. She already knew of Werewindle and my background, after
all...she might even have found the Trump to the keep in Werewindle's hilt
while it was in her possession. Even if she had not, she already had a
sanctuary of her own, so she would have less incentive than most to try
and take mine. And I had watched the Tir for her while she was...unable
to protect it. Had I wanted to, I could have taken control over it, or
allowed Gawain to do so. But I had not, and that, at least, was worth
some assistance in return. We would soon see if she felt the same
way.
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All text on this page is © 1999 by Kris
Fazzari.
Last modified on December 8, 1999 by Kris Fazzari.