Chapter 43 – The Clocksmith and Chaos

“Your magic is amazing,” Tel said to the meek girl standing on one side of what he’d taken to calling the portal room. Even though, technically, the portal wasn’t actually in the room, instead hovering ominously in the water above the glass ceiling. “We never could have done this without you.”

“It’s nothing,” the girl, Lina, said, hands ringing in front of her while she shuffled one of her feet. She didn’t even lift her head to look him in the eye as she spoke. “My magic is usually so useless. I’m glad I could be of help to somebody.”

Her voice was so quiet, Tel almost had to strain to hear her, but the sincerity of her words was clear. She appreciated being useful.

And he understood that. Better than most. Was this how other people saw him?

“I’m not exaggerating,” Tel said, looking at the piles of dirt packed around three grandfather clocks on the ground. “This stone is order-forged, like the Chronosteel pillars. We would’ve never been able to get underneath by digging, and even if we could’ve, we would’ve ruined how seamless this floor is. Your power though… the magic to make something inside-out, it’s perfect!”

“It doesn’t work on living things,” Lina said. “So I never thought I’d be able to repay the Swallowtails for taking me in.”

“This earns your keep, I’d say. And, honestly, it’s probably better your power doesn’t work on living things. Can you imagine how messy that would be?” Tel said, checking the last of the three clocks to make sure everything was just right. With the tune up he’d given it, it should work for a few years with no problem, at least. “Okay, all done. Can you put them back?”

“Sure,” Lina said, still not looking at Tel, but gave a nod. Holding out her hands, pink butterflies swirled around her fingertips, then shot out to rotate above the first clock. The clock shuddered, the image flickering for a second, and then vanished. “Did it work?” she asked.

Tel walked over to where the clock had been, then leaned down and put his ear to the floor. It wasn’t like he could actually hear the clock ticking on the other side of the thick stone, but he could feel the pulse of the chaos energy coming off it. That pulse quickly got absorbed by the Chronosteel pylons to reinforce the seal on the portal, but it was steady and strong.

“It worked,” he said. Using Lina’s magic to make the stone ‘inside-out’ was messy – Tel glanced at the pile of dirt still on the floor – but it neither damaged the stone or the floor. All they had to do was replace the earth they removed with one of the clocks, make the stone right-side-in, and just like that they had clocks to power the pylons even if the Tailcoats took the bunker. Maybe, just maybe, they’d be able sense the clocks under the floor, but even they would have trouble digging them up.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be worth the effort with how little chaos energy was escaping.

“Let’s get these other two done, and then see what’s going on topside,” Tel said.

“Okay,” Lina said, stretching out her hands to disperse her butterflies over the next clock.

Tel let out a breath as his eyes scanned the edge of the circular room. Half-a-dozen grandfather clocks still lined the wall, including the one he’d practically destroyed. Something inside him still twisted at the memory of damaging it like that. But, it was necessary. And really, compared to some of his other memories, it was pretty tame.

The portal room vanished with Tel’s next blink, the stone walls and even the light of the flameless torches getting replaced with the shroud of night and thick trees around him. Ahead, a wall of dancing light made him wince, but he didn’t turn away from it, despite the tears running down his cheeks or the heat of it slowly burning his young skin.

Tel’s hand made his way to the raw skin of his throat, the merest touch still causing jolts of pain, as he stared at the bonfire.

“Quite the show,” the Voice said, and a strong hand settled on Tel’s shoulder. “I hope it lives up to what you wanted.”

It did. It most certainly did, and Tel nodded as he watched the orphanage burn.

The scene fell apart like breaking glass, just like the last time, and Tel was back in the portal room, Lina just finishing up the second of the grandfather clocks.

“Just one left,” she said quietly.

“I’ll… I need to go check… on something,” Tel forced out, his voice catching as he fought against the memory, and rushed out of the room. He could still feel the heat on his face. Hear the crackling of the wood. Smell the flesh burning.

“Why did you show me that?” he hissed. “I thought you said you were going to help me?”

The hallway in front of Tel shuddered and vanished, quickly replaced by another stone hallway. The air was cool on Tel’s skin, and familiar comfort settled around him. He was… home, and he turned back the way he’d come from. Grund had told him to run. To get to the vault.

He shouldn’t leave the man. He couldn’t…

A terrified scream echoed through the halls, then quickly cut off with a pained gurgle. The Tailcoats were there. Hunting them. Again. Why wouldn’t they just leave them alone?

Leave him alone?

Tel turned from the direction of Grund’s room and hurried ahead. He just needed to get across the small bridge, and he’d be at the vault. He’d take what he could, like Grund said. He was doing his part, wasn’t he?

The bridge was just ahead, and Tel shuffled up to the side of the wall, glancing down at the entryway below as a coppery smell reached his nose. No. Blood and bodies littered the floor…

“No!” Tel growled, pushing the memory away and staggering to the wall outside the portal room. “I get it. Stop showing me these things.”

Shara stood in front of him, that cocky smile on her lips.

“Of course not,” Tel said. “But I can’t…”

“You never thought what I did… what we did… was wrong before,” Tel said, pushing off the wall and staggering further away from the portal room. He couldn’t let Lina see him like this.

“You’re still just trying to get your way,” Tel mumbled, but what the Voice said wasn’t as easy to dismiss as it should’ve been. Yes, it was clearly trying to manipulate him… but could it be right?

Could he make up for what he’d done? He’d tried hiding himself away so he could never hurt anybody, but where had that gotten him? More people were dead. He’d let more people die.

Was there another way…?

Tel waited for the Voice to speak up, to confirm there was indeed another way. But it stayed silent, and that was almost worse.

He glanced back towards the portal room – he could go back and check on Lina – but instead pushed off the wall and continued down the hall in the other direction. She’d be fine without him, and he needed some time to order his thoughts. Ever since his enclave had been attacked, he hadn’t been able to control the memories leaking through the door in his mind, or stop the Voice from whispering in his ear.

No… that wasn’t right. It didn’t start with the attack on the enclave, not exactly. It started in the vault, when he’d used his power to save anything he could.

“Of course,” he mumbled out loud. “That was the first time I’d really used my magic since… that day.”

And he’d been using it constantly since then, prying the door open even further every time. No wonder the damn Voice was so talkative recently.

Tel’s hand went to his head as he squeezed his eyes shut. He’d either have to stop using his magic completely – Shara would miss the meat pies – or he could…

Voices and the sound of shuffling feet snapped Tel’s eyes open, and he forced himself to stand up straight, though his hand still rested against the cool stone of the wall.

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“…to hurry up and get these topside! No, we don’t have time for that. Come on, come on,” the man’s voice said, and Tel shuffled up to the intersection in the hall. Straight would take him to the hidden entrance near the waterfall, and the hallway was long and bare. The right hall, though, led to an entrance hidden within the town, and was lined with doors into workshops and small rooms.

Six people stood in the hall, large clocks on trolleys between pairs, and glanced up when they saw Tel, while a seventh came out of a side room.

“What’s going on?” Tel asked, looking at the people, then at the clocks. Thieves? No, he recognized three of them from the ride out of Bastion. The others looked familiar too. “Where are you taking the clocks?”

“Emergency up above,” the seventh one, who’d just joined the others, said. “The sorcerers need them.”

The sorcerers needed four grandfather clocks…? That could only mean one thing!

“The Tailcoats are here?” Tel asked, cold dread washing through him like ice water, and the door in his mind creaking.

“No,” the seventh said. “Some kind of monsters on the other side of the river.”

“The same ones that attacked us on the road,” another said, one of the ones Tel recognized. “I’m sure they could use your help.”

“How many?” Tel asked, running quick numbers in his head about how many people they had on their side who could fight. They’d been attacked by maybe twenty on the road, so if it was about the same amount…

“Hundreds,” the seventh said.

Tel’s mind went blank.

“Hundreds?” he asked. Maybe he hadn’t heard right.

“Yeah,” the seventh said, glancing at the others, and Tel could see the hopelessness on their faces. “We’re just buying time for everybody to get away.”

Tel looked back towards the portal room. He’d gotten used to the strange pulses from the pylons, but they were strong and steady. The creatures shouldn’t be able to come down there, but there were still all the people above.

“Where’s Shara?” Tel asked. “The one who runs on the air.”

The seven people looked at each other.

“I haven’t seen her for a bit,” one said. “Maybe she’s escorting the evacuees?”

Tel’s eyes fell to the floor. Did she leave without him? Without even saying goodbye?

“No, she’s with the others where we’re taking these,” another of the group said to her comrades. “The one with the pink and silver whip, right?” she asked Tel.

Tel lifted his gaze and nodded at the woman. “That’s her. She’s still here?”

“Of course she is,” the woman said. “Saw her running back and forth swinging that whip around to delay those things.”

“Are you saying I should run away?” Tel hissed, and the seven people in front of him glanced at each other in confusion.

“Then what are you…”

Tel looked at the clocks gently laid on the trolleys, their hands ticking a relaxing rhythm that soothed his mind. They were his escape, representing the years of peace he’d managed to find. But, did he deserve peace after what he’d done?

He shook his head slightly to himself.

The Voice was right. That part of his life was over. He wanted Shara to survive, and for that to happen, it was time to stop pretending.

Cold calm settled over Tel’s shoulders like a cloak, and he looked at the seven people standing in front of him. “Take me with you,” he said simply.

One of them opened his mouth to question, maybe even suggest Tel escape with the others – he wasn’t much of a fighter after all – but something about the look on Tel’s face dissuaded the man.

“Right. Right! We need to hurry. Come on,” the seventh said, leading the way.

“This won’t be like last time,” Tel whispered firmly. “This time we are saving people.”

The Voice didn’t respond again, which was fine, and Tel followed the group down the hall, up the stairs, and through the sweltering forge. As soon as he stepped outside, he looked down the long hill to the river, and couldn’t stop his eyes from widening at the swarming monsters on the other side.

“There’s more than before,” the seventh said, but then he and his people were moving again to transport the clocks.

Tel followed quickly behind, his eyes going from the mass of monsters – Are they building a dam across the river? – to the gathering of people on his side, relief flooding him as he spotted Shara. Besides her, Neela, Born, and Doctor Pain, there looked to be about thirty other people. Thirty against hundreds?

“Enough,” Tel whispered. “I’ve already made up my mind. Just make sure to do your part.”

“I seem to have little choice,” Tel said, then threw the door in his mind wide open, a hooded, silver skull resolving in the darkness beyond.

“Tel,” Shara said with a tired smile as she stepped away from Neela and Born to meet up with him. “Maybe you shouldn’t be here.”

“I won’t be in the way,” Tel said, his eyes estimating enemy numbers and the progression of their dam. Easily three hundred of the things on the far side of the river, along with eight seemingly standing guard on this side. Why hadn’t anybody…? Ah, all eight were Twitchers.

The dam itself was more than half built and progressing quickly with dozens of the creatures felling trees and tossing them in the river. At the pace they were going, it would be finished in the next ten minutes.

Not much time.

Next, his gaze moved to the resources on their side. Four grandfather clocks and – he closed his eyes to feel the ticking – thirteen stopwatches including his own. It would have to do.

“Hey, are you listening to me?” Shara said, and a hand waved in front of Tel’s face. “You spaced out there. Look, I don’t think you’ll be in the way,” she said, then continued quietly. “I just don’t see how we can do this. We’ll hold them off as long as we can, but then we’ll be running.”

“I’m finished running. I’m finished hiding. I’m finished pretending,” Tel said, looking at Shara and putting his hand on her shoulder.

“Pretending?” she asked. “Pretending what?”

“To be something I’m not, of course,” he said, then walked up to join the others. “Your plan is to use the clocks to enhance your magic while you fight back?”

Neela looked over at him. “Yes. We think we can nullify their hearing with The Whistler’s magic…”

“The Whister, see,” a man Tel didn’t recognize said, and Shara rolled her eyes at the comment.

“…and then we’ll hold them back as long as we can,” Neela finished.

“You’ll be overwhelmed,” Tel said, looking at Shara. “It’ll only be a matter of time. I don’t want to see that happen.”

“So, you have a better plan then?” Born asked.

“Yes,” Tel said, pulling his stopwatch out of his pocket. Holding it in the palm of his hand, he pressed the plunger on the top, then lowered his hand away while the stopwatch stayed hovering in the air, a line of rotating pink gears spinning around it.

“Heeeeeey, how are you…?” Shara started, then cut off as the chain around her neck shifted and her stopwatch floated out of the top of her shirt, the same pink gears around it.

And it wasn’t just her eyes that widened, as the other eleven watches copied the behaviour, lifting into the air of within a ring of pink.

“Tel, what are you doing?” Shara asked, though she lifted the necklace over her head so the watch wasn’t connected to her anymore.

“You are a sorcerer,” Neela said like a suspicion was confirmed, her hand near her floating watch, but not quite touching it.

“I am,” Tel said, then focused his attention on Shara. “And… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything. I have two types of magic. The first is my…”

“Dimensional lunch box. Yeah, got that,” Shara said.

“It’s not a…” Tel started, then smiled at his friend. “Yes, that. Also, I am afraid I’m going to need these for my plan to work,” he added, and the other twelve stopwatches darted away from their surprised owners to join his as they circled around his body at chest height.

“You said you have two types of magic,” Neela said. “The other is stealing our watches?”

“No, not exactly,” Tel said, lifting his right hand, and the four grandfather clocks laying on the trolleys shifted, and then stood up in a ring of pink gears. “I can power and control anything mechanical.”

Pink butterflies burst to life around the numerous devices and swirled up into the air to circle above Tel like a giant halo, but it wasn’t enough. The watches and clocks… they weren’t ticking at the same rate.

“And how’s that going to help us now?” Neela asked, her voice laced with impatience.

“You have more weapons, don’t you?” Shara asked. “And you need more power to open your lunch box.”

“That’s about the gist of it,” Tel said, but the power wasn’t anywhere close to what he needed. No, what he needed was…

Tel snapped the fingers of his left hand and every watch and clock stopped suddenly. Pink butterflies immediately began vanishing, and the ambient energy levels quickly dropped, but Tel closed his eyes and felt at the moving parts within each of the devices around him.

Another snap of his fingers and Doctor Pain’s watch – his old, perfect watch – started again, its ticking crisp and clean. Using that as the measure, Tel started his current watch next. He’d had some time to work on it, but it still wasn’t quite at the level as Doctor Pain’s watch.

He could fix that though, now that he was using his magic.

Copying the pace of the perfect ticking in his head, he pushed that rhythm onto the second watch, and chaos energy exploded outward as a resonance field was created.

Now, those two watches alone created almost as much energy as twice their number normally would. Still not anywhere near enough, and Tel started the third watch with another snap of his fingers, then pushed the perfect rhythm on it as well.

The resonance field grew and grew with each snap of his fingers, each addition of another watch and grandfather clock, until pink butterflies swarmed around them like they were at the eye of a hurricane.

“I’ve never…” Doctor Pain said, his usual acidic tone lost to awe and wonder as he turned to look at the display.

“How… how much of this do you need?” Shara asked, gently dipping her hand in the swarm spiraling around them.

“All of it,” Tel said, holding his hands out to the side, and flipping them palm down. At his gesture, the hurricane of chaos energy seemed to tear apart in the air and then rush down in two streams to the ground on either side of him.

Gears, each bigger than a wagon wheel, and in sets of three, materialized on the ground beside him, then slowly began to rotate. The others quick-stepped away from the wild energy, a small space between the gears opening to show an endless darkness.

“I need you to buy me some time,” Tel said, straining to pull the two entrances open, even the power of the resonance field barely enough. The chaos energy was already raging through his veins like a cleansing fire to scour him clean of everything, including his life, and he’d barely begun.

“How are we supposed to do anything without our own magic?” Shara asked. “We can’t protect you like this.”

Tel grimaced as he looked at his friend, and nodded at her point. “Take this,” he said, funneling a small stream of chaos butterflies to each of them, then dropped to one knee as the pain running through his body intensified, and slammed his eyes shut.

“This is barely enough to use my magic,” one of the sorcerers said.

“Look at him,” Shara said. “He can’t share any more.”

“Buy me time, and more will be available to you,” Tel said through gritted teeth.

“How long do we have to wait?” the same sorcerer asked. “When will it be?”

“You’ll know,” he said.

“How do we know this is worth it?” Neela asked. “Maybe we’d be better off using all this energy ourselves.”

Something moved in front of him, and a gentle hand gripped his chin while sweat dripped down his forehead and cheeks.

“Because you became somewhat reliable somewhere along the way, right?” Shara said to him.

“Yes. I’m going to do what I… am best at…” he said.

“Fix clocks?” Shara asked.

“No,” Tel said, opening his eyes, and Shara’s head jerked back at what she saw there. He’d had the same reaction when he’d seen it in the mirror for the first time years before. Gone were his irises, replaced be small gears rotating around his pupils.

“I’m going to kill,” he said.