“Caleb…”
The voice was distant, so distant in the endless emptiness. Caleb drifted, barely noticing the voice. It was something in the nothing, but… how could that be? It was an impossibility, and Caleb couldn’t accept it.
Nothing was all there was. The world was nothing. Time was nothing. He was nothing.
“Caleb…!”
Nearer now. Louder now. Still distant, still impossible, though.
But… there was something. Something tickling the back of Caleb’s mind. Nothing… was nothing really all there was? When had that happened? A memory flickered, in and out of existence.
Caleb. Mister Midnight. And Alexandra.
Wasn’t that…
“Caleb! Wake up!”
Nearer still. Not frantic, or worried, no.
Stern. A bit frustrated. Definitely familiar. Who…?
Whack!
Caleb cried out as a hard slap stung him across the jaw. His eyes snapped open, and…
Something. He was back, back in reality, back in existence, back in a world that had physical form, that had things, and shape, and sound, and light, and…
A person.
Mister Midnight.
“There he is,” Midnight said. He gave Caleb’s hand a squeeze. “Welcome back, kid.”
“Good to be… back?” Caleb trailed off into a question as he sat up, taking in where they were.
They’d entered the River of Time, seeking to dive into Alexandra’s memories. But this place…
It wasn’t where they’d been.
The sky all around — above, around, and even below, as they floated in space — was the blue of the River of Time, deep and bright all at once, flickering here and there with bolts of brighter light, like azure bolts of electricity.
And up and down and all around them were gears, flywheels, and clock hands floating in space, whirring and ticking and rotating independently of each other. Caleb and Midnight were on one such gear, Caleb sitting up, Midnight kneeling beside him, slowly rotating round and round.
But this wasn’t the River of Time, not as Caleb knew it. There was no sensation of the River’s currents, and Caleb knew that if he jumped off of the gear, he’d drop like a stone, like falling through air, tugged downwards by the inexorable pull of gravity.
But then why did this place feel so familiar?
“This place…” Caleb murmured. He started to stand, but vertigo took hold of him, and he sat back, bowing his head, wishing his brain would stop spinning.
“Take it easy,” Midnight said. “What about this place? You know where we are?”
Caleb nodded, a very slight nod. Motion wasn’t agreeing with him right now. But speaking wasn’t so easy, either. Going from nothing to something wasn’t a simple transition.
“Beyond the Time Wilds,” Caleb said. “I… don’t know the name of this place. I’m not sure it has one. But if we go further…” He lifted his head, leaned forward, and peered over the edge, down, down, down. “Yeah. There’s a place down there. And a woman. She presides over the River of Time.”
“Are we really here?” Midnight asked, gazing all around, speaking in a hushed, awed tone. “Or is this just a projection? We’re still in Time-state. I can feel it. But if we’re here, fully here or projection… why? We were trying to look into Alexandra’s memories.”
“I’m guessing the woman can tell us what we need to know,” Caleb said. “You said before, the way Alexandra’s mind works, her experience of time, it’s so different from our own, it might be beyond our comprehension. Even with how my Time Magic’s transformed, how I’ve transformed, it might not be enough to find the answers on our own.”
“Maybe it’s because of how you’ve changed that we were able to come here,” Midnight said. He looked at Caleb, tugging on his hand. “I’m not letting you go. Just in case. I don’t want to get booted out of here and leave you alone. So whenever you’re ready.”
Caleb nodded, taking a few more moments to collect himself. After a while, he could feel it, too — he was in Time-state. What was more, he couldn’t exit Time-state. He didn’t try to, but he could feel that, too.
There’s something we need to do here. I’m not sure if this is really that place beyond the Time Wilds, or some projected version of it, but either way…
We’re meant to be here. Answers are waiting for us down below.
He finally managed to stand up, Midnight standing with him. And when they stood, bolts of azure light raced below them, pulling gear after gear into place, forming a long staircase down to a familiar arching bridge, pearly white, and on its far side, an archway, whatever lay beyond obscured by a curtain of thin cords beaded with blue gemstones.
I’m really back here again.
Down the steps Caleb and Midnight went, student and teacher, hand in hand. They crossed the bridge, and when Caleb stopped in front of the curtain, Midnight didn’t question it.
They waited.
After an immeasurable moment — time had a strange, intangible quality here — a voice spoke from within. “Enter.”
But Caleb paused a moment longer. It wasn’t the voice he remembered. A woman’s voice, certainly, but not the woman he’d met before. Had someone else taken her place? But she had asked Caleb to take her place as the River’s Keeper. Had she already found someone else after he’d refused?
At a questioning glance from Midnight, Caleb shook his head, and led the way inside. Through the curtain, the pair found themselves on a beautiful terrace, gazing down over an alabaster railing into the River of Time. Not an unknowable part of the River, though.
This was the River’s True Source.
“Welcome,” the woman’s voice said. Caleb turned, and saw a woman approach, clad in the same blue gown of the woman he’d met previously, a gown that seemed to ripple and flow, trailing along the floor behind her, as if it had a life of its own.
But this woman was not the one he’d met. She was tall, taller than Caleb, about Midnight’s height, with somewhat tanned skin, high cheekbones, and dark hair that spilled over one shoulder in lustrous curls. Through those curls swept one notable streak of blue, like the streak of blue that Caleb had in his bangs. Her eyes were the same blue color, narrow and striking, glowing just like Caleb’s eyes did.
“You’re… not who I expected,” Caleb said. His voice felt so small in the woman’s presence, while her own voice filled the space, powerful and serene all at once.
“I am before her,” the woman said. She had the same ageless quality of the woman Caleb had met before. She didn’t feel like a new arrival. She felt like she’d been here since time immemorial.
“Before…” Midnight murmured. “We’re… no. Not in the past. But this isn’t a projection, either.”
“Perceptive,” the woman said, nodding to Midnight. “Here, there is no past, no present, no future. Here is Time, at its core, in its purest state. Here is where few are ever privileged enough to tread.”
“No past, no present, no future,” Midnight said. “Then this place… is it the key? To my sister’s state?”
“That is one way you might put it,” the woman said. “But you cannot see as she sees. Your theory was sound, however, even if it brought you to answers in a way you did not expect. Caleb’s transformation, and your knowledge, Lancelot, working in tandem. That is how you have come here.”
“If we can’t see as Alexandra sees, then how can we understand her?” Caleb asked. “We’re trying to help her, trying to make sense of the discrepancies with…” Caleb trailed off as the woman raised a hand.
“I know why you have come,” she said. “You cannot see as she sees. But you can help her to see more clearly. Her soul is intertwined with the True Source. You call her condition chronological displacement, and that is a more accurate description than you realize. Her soul is here, in the River’s True Source, but she is not only a soul. She is a heart and mind and body, as well. And while her soul can exist here, comfortably, the rest of her struggles to rejoin it. If she did not have her mansion, the home that keeps her centered, she would be scattered. Body, heart, and mind would fly to the winds. Eventually, however, they would resolve. Her soul would contain all of her, and be here, safe, peaceful.”
“So… what, she belongs here?” Midnight asked, a slight edge to his voice.
“I did not say that,” the woman said. “How she became who and what she is, I do not know. No one does. It is…” She turned, gazing into the distance, a curious look in her eyes, “she is an enigma. But it cannot simply be said that she belongs here. Her soul may be comfortable here, may fit perfectly in this place. But she is not just soul, but body, heart, and mind as well, is she not? She had parents, and has a brother, and friends. Where she belongs is not so simple a question.”
“But… wait,” Caleb said, thinking. “Her soul’s here, but body, mind, and heart can’t be. Is that it? Like… part of her experiences time as this… whatever it is, past and present and future all at once, but she isn’t just her soul, so the rest of her… it struggles to keep up? Struggles to put together the pieces that her soul alone could understand perfectly?”
“Perceptive,” the woman said. She strode to the railing, rested her hand on it, and turned her attention back to the student and teacher. “She is broken. But do not take that as insult.” She held up a hand as Midnight tensed. There was a melancholy look in her eyes as she continued. “We are all broken, Lancelot. Everyone in different ways. Her brokenness is just the most unique, and certainly the most complex, kind. It is that brokenness, and not understanding that brokenness, that leaves her frightened and confused. When you return to her, bring her this comfort. Some of her memories, some of what she has recounted to Adelaida and Andrea, that they have recorded so accurately… are incorrect. This is no fault of her own. She cannot fully perceive all that her soul perceives. However, she should not carry further doubts than that. Without her unique perspective on time, you would have already fallen to the Lord of Night’s plans, and the Endless Night would be assured. Because of her, you have the time you need, and you are organized in a way you never could have been before. Tell her this.” The woman smiled, ever so slightly. “Her heart is heavy, and this truth will ease her heart’s burden.”
“But then how much do we trust?” Midnight asked. “That’s one of the biggest questions she has, and will have after hearing your answer.”
“Trust as much as you have and feel you can,” the woman said. “That has already proven sound. It was planned that a sister would go to retrieve Caleb and his team from Grimoire, and yet, when Shias stepped up to the task, he proved himself to be the best choice — for your sake, Caleb, as well as for your sisters’ sakes. Follow Alexandra’s guidance, but do not let discussion, debate, and your own ideas be cast aside. If all of you help her and provide your own ideas, you take a great deal of the burden off of her. That is what she needs most.”
Caleb understood, and smiled. “She feels alone,” he said. “We can help her realize that she’s not.”
The woman nodded, and turned away. There was a strange finality to the gesture.
But Caleb didn’t want things to end here.
“Why did we meet you, instead of the woman I met when I was here alone?” he asked. “You said you came before her, but then why did I meet her before you? I understand that in this place, past and present and future are all… kind of… the same? Or, well… I get it, it’s not something I can totally comprehend. I guess I just wonder… she could have given us these answers, too, couldn’t she?”
The woman looked at him over her shoulder, and she was smiling. “You are correct,” she said. “First and foremost, you could not have met me when you came alone. The means of your coming have allowed me to reach you, to speak with you just once. I took that opportunity.”
“You… wanted to meet me?” Caleb asked.
“You, and Lancelot,” the woman said. “I would have liked to have meet your sisters and brother as well, and Chelsea, and so many others.”
“Why?” Caleb asked.
The woman turned fully to face him. Her smile was kind, and knew so much more than it said, and Caleb thought there was a slight glint of amusement in her eyes. “I wanted to make sure I was right about you,” she said. “And I am glad to see that I was.”
“Right about…” Caleb started. But a bell chimed somewhere, and the woman’s slightly alarmed glance upward said more than words could. “Wait!” Caleb reached out, even as the world was starting to fade away, like a dream slipping away with a coming waking. “I never… I never got either of your names. What’s yours?”
The woman looked back at him, the only part of this world still fully solid in his vision. The knowing nature of her smile seemed more emphasized than before, and there was a joy, almost laughter, in her voice as she answered him.
“My name is Ophelia.”