The Trouble with Time, Part 2.8 - Reflect

Sorry this is "late" (tho it's not really late until the day has changed), I had too much school work to write this ahead of time. You know how it goes, getting into the end of the semester and the work really starts to pick up. But I hope this will be worth the wait! Enjoy!

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On the inside he's close to having a panic attack, but on the outside Kevin keeps calm and collected as he digs through his bag to find a map. He has one of the Wilds, and he is glad he took it with him even though he didn't think they could get lost. Granted, it's a century old, but things change very slowly in the Wilds. Especially the direction that matters, Tirduchrainn, which Kevin suspects will still be there even after Time itself comes to a halt.

He unfolds the map and spreds it onto the snow.

"Wow, the capital is huge," says Sam and it is. It stands proudly in the middle of everything, the Castle and surrounding Upper City, surrounded by a tall wall, after which the Lower City stretches out for 20 kilometres into all directions. Another wall, this one less impressive, marks the official city limits, but the residental area continues for a few dozen more kilometres before filtering out into farmland and forests. There's are several other settlements, towns and villages, scattered around the map, but none as big or significant as Tirduchrainn.

"Exactly the reason I wanted to see if we could get any information at the Fair," Kevin says as he pulls out a small vial. He swirls is around and a small vortex appears in the green liquid. "Which... I guess we did, but..."

He trails off. He doesn't need to say it. He doesn't even want to think about it. The King knew he was there. He must have known. But as to why he was teleported away with Alice and Sam instead of taken into custody immediately... Well, the King likes his games.

He takes a deep breath and pours the liquid onto his palm and along down onto the map as he mutters the incantation. The drops of green stop millimetres above the paper, as if repelled, and start to spread around, covering the entire map. There's a moment's pause and then the green rushes into a spot some 15 kilometers west of the outer wall and marks it with an x.

"Shit," says Kevin. "I don't think we'll be able to make it to the city proper before night. But there's inns along the roads there, so we should be able to find a place to stay for today."

"Great, let's get going," Alice says, he voice hoarse and void of emotion.

Kevin wants to say something, but doesn't have the words, so he stays quiet and they start to walk.

~x~

They walk in silence for the next few hours. The beginning is slow, since they have to wade in knee deep snow, but once they find a forest path they pick up the pace. The path turns into a bigger path turns eventually into a proper road, and the forest around them makes way for fields upon fields of snow. One field is full of domesticated polar sheep, which look up form the cow carcass they're grazing on as they pass. Kevin is about to point them out to his companions, but with the mood hanging so low, he stops himself.

As the fields start to give way for a lot more housing they come across a small roadside inn and Kevin finally breaks the silence to tell then they should stop here. It's only a few more hours of walking to the outer wall, but it's late and these parts are dangerous in the dark. Plus, it's been quite a while since they ate and everyone is cold and tired. He doesn't get any objections.

He gets them a room for the night and a hot meal and the three of them pile into their room with bowls of stew. The room is very similar to the one they spent the previous night in, one large bed and a small desk and a washbasin in the corner, but this one doesn't have a window.

For the better really, Kevin decides, looking at the full moon would just make him sad.

They're all silently shoveling stew into their mouths when a soft melody eminates from Alice's bag. She almost inhales some of her foor and is coughing furiously as she digs out the conch shell.

"Vanessa?" she wheezes, waving wildly with her hand. Sam passes her a bottle of water, which she downs instantly. For a moment Kevin is worried she's going to choke on that too.

"Hello, Alice," comes Vanessa's voice from the shell. "I'm--"

"Are you okay?" Alice interrupts. "He said I need to reclaim your heart, did they take your heart? What did they do to you?"

"Calm down, Alice, I'm..." She pauses. "They did take my heart," she says, sounding surprisingly calm for someone without a heart. "But it's not as bad as it sounds, I'm just peary."

"Sorry, did you mean peachy?" Sam asks, giving Kevin a sideways glance. "Are you getting your words mixed up?"

"No," she says and then continues, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, I kept getting interrupted."

"That's fine, I'm just... so glad you're okay," Alice says. He whole demeanor has changed, she's a lot more relaxed. Oddly relaxed, considering their situation, Kevin thinks. "Can you talk now? Or is there someone nearby?"

"Um," says Vanessa.

"There is someone nearby," comes King Oberon's voice from the shell and everyone freezes. "But she can talk anyway."

"You bastard," Alice spits through gritted teeth. "What have you done to her?"

"Oh, it's nothing really," he says, his voice smug and words easy. "A classic procedure. Removing the heart is completely harmless. In the short run anyway."

"What exactly does that mean?" asks Sam, placing a hand on Alice's shoulder. She is seething.

"It means I'm changing," Vanessa says. "Slowly, but surely. The heart is the emotional center, of course, so the longer I'm away from my heart the less I feel things. Or perhaps, less often? I'm not quite sure how to explain it... Everything... fades. A sea of gray where there once was a million colors. But," she pauses, her voice softening, "my feelings for you are so strong they've maintained color even after a year."

"It's quite remarkable, actually," says the King, ever the one to sour the mood. "I was hoping to use her against you if ever you managed to get here, but it seems she's still so in love that's not possible."

"How do I know you're not lying?" Alice asks.

"I'm a Fae!" he scoffs. "I'm incapable of lying."

She looks over at Kevin for confirmation.

"It's true," he says, as quietly as he can. Not quietly enough though.

"Ah, I recognize that voice!" the King says. Kevin's entire body locks up and his blood turns to ice. "I thought I saw a glimpse of you at the Fair, you sneaky rascal."

"Kevin?" Alice says. She and Sam are staring at him, but his throat is clamped up.

"Is that the name you're going by these days? Kevin?" the King says and chuckles. "Very well, I shall humor you."

"You know the King of the Faeries?" she asks. He opens his mouth and closes it again, a fish out of water. Fitting, since he really does feel like he's suffocating.

"Oh, we know each other very well," the King says. "Though apparently not as well as I had once thought."

Sam gives him a look of thinly veiled disgust, which is enough to snap him out of it. "Not like that!" he hisses. On the other side of the conch the King starts to laugh again.

"Um," says Vanessa, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. "I know you can find and reclaim my Heart, Alice. You--"

The King cuts her off again. "Now, now, let's not tell her too much," he says. "It is a game after all, and it wouldn't be fair if you tell her how to win."

"Of course, your highness," she says, her voice small.

Kevin can feel Alice tensing up next to him again. "Don't worry, Nessa," she says. "I'll reclaim your Heart. And then I'll come over to the castle and punch that bastard right in the face."

"Oh ho ho! Upping the ante, I see!" the King says. "Well, if you don't succeed in reclaiming her Heart, maybe I'll keep all your friends in the Wilds as well."

"Wait, hold on," Vanessa says, but her voice sounds distance. "You can't just..."

"Good luck now!" he says over her and then the conch goes silent.

They sit still for a while, processing the conversation that just took place.

"Fuck," Kevin says.

"Yeah," Sam says.

"It'll be fine," Alice says and the other two look at her in surprise. She's taken the conch in her hands and is fiddling with it, running her fingers along the spiral and poking the inside of it.

"What are you doing?" he asks and she gives him a grin. He blinks, taken aback by her sudden shift in mood. 

"She gave me the code word," she explains. "That means there's a secret message hidden in the conch."

"You have a code word?" Sam asks, sounding impressed.

"Several actually," she says. "The one she used was 'peary'. It means she's not able to talk openly but has sent a message." The conch makes a nasty crunch as she twists the top. For a moment Kevin thinks it's broken now, but then a soft voice flows out of it. Vanessa's voice.

"To locate a Heart
You need quite a collection
A good place to start
The revealing reflection"

"Ooh, a riddle," Kevin says.

"Right, can't be too easy, can it?" Sam mutters.

"Why would she just give a riddle?" Alice wonders.

"Well, the rules of the game are binding in both directions," Kevin says, already scribbling down the riddle and other related words onto a pad of paper. "Just as the King has to release you if you succeed, Vanessa can't outright tell you how you can win. What she can do, is give you hints. Of course the King doesn't want her to do that, which is why he's probably going to be keeping a close eye on her from now on. But what he doesn't know," he pauses, both for dramatic effect and to spin the paper around and show it to the other two, "is that she's already given them to us."

"The telltale mirror," Alice reads from the middle of the scribblings. She squints and looks up at him. "Is that supposed to help us more than the riddle?"

"Yes, of course!" he says with a wide grin. "Well, hopefully. No, I mean yes it will help, because I know the place."

~x~

They set out the next day as early as possible. It's still dark, but it's the twilight of the morning and every pasing minute it gets lighter and lighter. They get to the outer wall well before the sunrise.

Tirduchrainn is huge. The castle is built on top of a tall hill, and they can see its silhouette somewhere way up. The outer wall is built along the foot of the hill and all the roads up the side and towards the summit, and the castle. As soon as they pass through the gateway the architecture changes from rustic countryside to a whimsical and frankly logic defying city building. There's houses everywhere, even where there shouldn't possibly be able to be houses. They're built tall and slim, reaching towards the sky at odd angles, and painted with all kinds of colors.

Alice and Sam are looking up and around, both their mouths hanging open. Kevin is more focused on navigating them through the winding paths of the Lower City to appreciate the sights. Besides, he's seen the city many times before.

He leads them further into the city, along small streets and back alleys. They don't move up along the hill very much, but they do go around. Finally they stop in front of a storefront. The windows are large and through them they can see a showroom floor of a shop not unlike Kevin's own, except this one is definitely magic. Antique furniture, random items, shelves along the walls filled with books and bottles and jars. Cabinets filled with magical ingredients.

Above the door hangs a wooden sign, shaped like a hand mirror and on it written in god awful cursive the words "The Telltale Mirror". In the door hangs a plaque, which says "OPEN (subject to change)".

Kevin pauses right before pushing the door open. He thinks for a moment. He turns to Sam and Alice.

"So, the shopkeep is a bit... eccentric," he says. "But she's a good person. And I do owe the success of my shop to her, so... Well, just... be nice, I guess?"

Alice and Sam glance at eachother as Kevin takes one more deep breat and pushes the door open. A cloud of perfume explodes from the store.

Behind the counter at the back sits a tall elf with long, deep blue hair, tied haphazardly into a braided ponytail. She's leaning back in a chair and her feet are propped up on the desk. She is not wearing shoes.

"Welcome to the Telltale Mirror," she says, not looking up from the book she's reading. "How can I help you?"

"Is that the way you greet an old apprentice?" Kevin asks and she almost falls off her chair. She stares at him as they enter the store. Her gobsmacked expression morphs into an almost predatory grin.

"Cadeyrn you bitch," she says and laughs. She pushes herself up from the chair and throws her arms wide open. She starts walking around the counter towards them. "Haven't seen you in nigh a century and now you just waltz here like it's all fine?" Right as she gets over to her she flicks her wrist and there's a dagger in her hand. The smile on her face is gone. "No messages, no visits, no nothing," she says. "Really quite rude."

"It's Kevin now, and you know I had to leave in quite a hurry," he says, not paying any attention to the dagger drawing circles into the front of his coat. "If it's any consolation, I brought you this." He flicks his own wrist and there is a golden orange in his hand.

"Oooh," she says and takes a step back. She plucks the orange from his hand and inspects it. The dagger has already disappeared. "The real deal too," she says and grins at him again. She leans over and pinches his cheek. "You're too nice, you didn't have to actually bribe me. But this," she pauses, turns the orange in her hands. "Whatever do you need if you're giving this in exchange?"

"That's what I was hoping you'd be able to tell me," he says and steps aside to let Sam and Alice into the shop. Both of them look quite frazzled. "These are my friends, Sam and Alice. And this," he gestures at the elf who gives an elaborate bow, "is Alsebah. The proprietor of the Telltale Mirror and my old tutor."

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HELL YEAH I'm finally getting back into the groove of this!! We had a bit of a rough start, but I think this'll be great! Do you think this'll be great? I think this'll be great. There's a story here, a direction! Treasure hunt time!!!

Also fun fact, if you look up hill on wikipedia, there's a picture of Puijo. Pretty cool huh? Next topic is "Inside" bye~

Pie out.