A coiled snake

    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.