Killing Time

It was a record.  No student had ever handed in a semester essay months before the due date.  And yet, here was a first year with shadows under her eyes and hair in scraggly pigtails clutching a stack of paper and standing in front of the professor’s desk with a forlorn expression on her face.  The professor of ‘Mancy Phenomena 100 tried to remember her name and failed.

“I must admit,” he said, gingerly taking the paper like it was going to bite him, “I’ve never seen a student finish an essay for my class so fast.  Should I be contacting student psychological services or simply find you a list of campus organizations to get involved in?”

She shrugged off his sarcasm with a small shake of her head.  Presleigh Stormrider, he read off the top of her paper.  There.

“So, how did you get this done so soon?  And on vampires even – interesting.”  He flipped through the first few pages.  It appeared to be very well-written.

“I got bored,” she said in a very heavy voice, like remembering a birthday where it rained during the party.  A long pause and he looked up at her.  “Very, very bored.”



An hour into timeless space – well, at least it felt like an hour as all watches had stopped – and Presleigh was about to go out of her mind with boredom.  The first few minutes were interesting.  Brin tried to make excuses, Aelisha lost her temper for the first time in anyone’s memory and yelled at him for a bit, and Genoa and Presleigh just sat there and were confused.  Finally the commotion died down and Aelisha went to the door and stared out at the city, towards the Academy tower where the ‘mancy working had been launched.  Surveyed the mess they were in.  Sighed.

“Well,” she said in a calm and composed voice, “I suppose I should go make us all some more chocolate.  We’re going to need it.”

And she vanished into the kitchen.  It was at that point that Presleigh jumped at Brin with all her questions as to what had just happened.  This was the explanation she received.

There was a second reason for why massive workings of ‘mancy were spread out across the sky for everyone to see.  It was a warning system.  Large quantities of ‘mancy often reacted badly with humans.  The most common example was a ‘mancer trying to work during a ‘mancy tainted storm and frying his or her brain out.  Insanity or death usually resulted.  Other examples included two ‘mancy workings colliding and blowing stuff up or other, stranger, results.  This was an instance of the second case.

Brin’s reaction to anything that could harm him or others was to step outside the timeline.  He would then move about in what was termed ‘timeless space’ and be able to interact with objects directly coming in contact with his person.  So, he could disarm an attacker, get out of the way of a stampeding horse, or in this case – get his friends away from the exploding window.  He would then step back into the timeline at the exact point he left it and everything he had done in that instance would happen as soon as time resumed for him.  

Of course, stepping outside the timeline as a tidal wave of ‘mancy had cascaded past had a rather interesting side effect.  As Brin put it, the Academy’s working had slammed the door back into the timeline shut.  They were trapped in timeless space.

That was when Presleigh started panicking and yelling at Brin.  Genoa just sat there and watched.  The spat ended when Aelisha returned with more chocolate and Presleigh sulked in silence and nursed her drink while the two eldest ‘mancers set the table back up and sat down, spreading paper before them to think.

“I’ve heard that interacting with things in timeless space is difficult,” Genoa said, watching.

“It’s not so much the interaction as the act of being in timeless space,” Brin replied, “Most of the energy expenditure is keeping that door back to the timeline open so the longer you’re in here the weaker you get and the less able you are to get back.  Of course, since we’re trapped in here, that’s no longer a concern.”

“Brin, has anyone actually gotten out of timeless space?” Aelisha asked.

“I have no idea but we’re going to try and figure that out.  I’m sure we can find something in the Academy libraries about this and we’ll have plenty of time to research.”

That was when Presleigh realized that she was going to be very, very bored during this mess.  

Genoa found that he wasn’t going to be much use in this either.  Brin was the resident expert in chronomancy and Aelisha was useful by sheer virtue of being an Academy graduate and resident of the city and thus familiar with the workings of the school.  That was how he found himself outside on the catwalk with Presleigh, who was tying the laces on a random person’s boots together.

“I suppose I might as well have fun,” she said, “since we’re going to die out here.”

“How do you age without a timeline?” Genoa mused, staring at the streets below, filled with frozen people like the world’s largest wax museum.  

“Ask Brin.”

“He’s busy.”

The two were silent for a moment and could hear voices between Aelisha and Brin, arguing over the principles that trapped them out here in the first place.  Understanding the problem was key to being able to solve it.  Presleigh sighed.  That had been taught to her in her first class on her first day of school.  Understand the problem.  They were going to be here for quite a while.

“Think of all the trouble we could get into though,” she said, “We could sneak into the Emperor’s palace and steal his crown.”

“Let’s not.”

“Hey, what happens if we never get out of here?  I just tied this guy’s shoes together; will he still trip and fall down if we’re stuck forever?  Didn’t Brin say these things happened once we rejoined the timeline though?”

Genoa paused and stuck his head back into the restaurant.  A few words from the two inside and he rejoined Presleigh.

“He says that it’s a matter of merging our personal timelines with the world’s timeline.  We are outside of the world’s timeline but our personal timelines are still continuing, which is why we can still move around.  So we can age in timeless space.  But nothing we do will affect the world’s timeline until we put ours back with its.”

“That’s very confusing.”

“That’s why so few people want to be chronomancers.”

“I want to go exploring.”

Genoa hesitated.  He had a feeling they should stay close to Aelisha and Brin but on the other hand… it seemed unwise to let the girl go wandering about the city on her own.  He compromised.

“Brin,” the vampire said, peeking back into the restaurant, “I’m accompanying Presleigh on an expedition.  We’ll come back here when she gets hungry.”

“Fine, we’ll probably be here for a while,” he replied, waving his hand absently.  The two had already used to up three sheets of paper.

He returned to the catwalk just in time to see Presleigh vanish into a trendy clothes store.  



Presleigh’s adventurous streak did not last nearly as long as Genoa feared it would.  He simply followed her around, talking very little, and Presleigh tried to amuse herself.  She found that timeless space was not exciting like she had first assumed.  Sure, it was funny to steal a dress from a clothing store and put it on a customer’s bored boyfriend that had been drug along, but it was only for four or five seconds when no one else was there to enjoy the joke.  And Presleigh’s imagination as to what would happen once their timelines rejoined the world’s was very limited.  

So the two found themselves on a roof about two blocks down from Liqua’mancy with Presleigh on her stomach staring down at the street below.

“You know what I hate about this place?” she said, “It’s too quiet.  It’s really starting to freak me out.”

“We could go back to the store.  They may be talking science but at least it’s some noise.”

“But it’s even more boring in there.”

Genoa hesitated.  

“Then why don’t you do something constructive that requires some thought?  Say, write your paper?  You’ve got me around for an indefinite amount of time so this would be the perfect opportunity.  I’ll even proofread if you get that far.”

There was no reply from Presleigh.  The only sound was her breathing and this was unnaturally loud in the stillness.  No wind, no footsteps, no voices, nothing.  And finally that caused her to crack.

“If I’m going to go nuts here I might as well get some work done!” she cried, leaping to her feet, “Let’s go.  This place is horrible.”

She slid to the edge of the roof and climbed down a waterspout.  Genoa simply leapt off and landed in a crouch on the catwalk below.  Back at Liqua’mancy the two went to the opposite side of the room and Presleigh pulled out her notebook and started recording what she’d already learned.  Genoa sat nearby and waited for her to think of more questions.  There was very little talk from the other two and they just sat there with heads bowed over their scribbling.  Finally Brin sighed and stood.

“I’m going to the library,” he said, “There’s a few books I want.  You three stay here – I know what I’m looking for and it’ll be faster if I just go and get them.  Thanks for you help so far Aelisha.”

“Not a problem.”

He pulled on his jacket and vanished out the front door.  Aelisha turned to Genoa and Presleigh.

“So,” she said, “Aren’t you going to ask me to help with that essay?  I am a literamancer after all.”

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