Mirrored Time (A Time Archivist Novel Book 1) (17 page)

With a shake of his head, he pulled the familiar mirror from his pocket, the one that would take him back to the Archives.
Back home.

After one last look at the peaceful sky above him, he ran a finger along the edge of the mirror and disappeared.

C
HAPTER TWENTY-TWO

W
ITH BLIND EYES,
Gwen stared at the paperwork before her. Alistair should have been back by now. She didn’t know if it was good news or bad that kept him visiting the Guardians for so long.

Gwen glanced at the clock hanging on her office wall.
Maybe he was just running late.
She smiled. A time traveler running late. Sounded like a bad joke. Even in a group where time had become more malleable, there was still never enough of it to go around.

Sighing, she rocked back in her chair. Another uninterrupted night’s sleep and she was feeling more alert than ever. She wanted to talk to Alistair about what happened in the mirror.
Or Rafe. Talking to him would be okay, too
. Yet Rafe had been absent since she pulled him from the mirror. She frowned, remembering the haunted look in his eyes.

She turned back to the paperwork in front of her. Although the filing of legal documents had been an excuse to get her to the Archives, she found something soothing about the easy work. And it was better than sitting alone and worrying. It took a few false starts, but soon she was focused on work.

The knock at the door interrupted her. She spun around in her chair, trying to ignore the disappointment when she saw it was Alistair. “Everything go all right?” She noticed he looked exhausted and more than a little irritated.

He gave a wry smile. “The Council and I never part on pleasant terms. Even though Cassian is only a pawn, he represents my relationship with the Council leader himself.” With an impatient sigh, he motioned for her to follow him into the main office. “However, we have a guest.”

Gwen smiled when she saw the dark-skinned Guardian. “Hi, Max.”

Smiling, he took her hand and saluted it in a courtly fashion. “Miss Conway, a pleasure. I wish we were meeting for less worrisome reasons.”

She followed the two men into the sitting room. “How do you do it?”

Max turned to her, making a hummed sound of inquiry.

“Whatever you do to make everyone so calm.”

“Would you believe it was my charming personality?”

Gwen crossed her arms.

He raised his hands and laughed. “It’s part of my gift. Not only can I share memories with people but it also allows me to affect emotions in a way. One could say I have the ability to remind you of your happiest memory.”

Nodding as she sat down on the couch, Gwen was quiet as she thought it through. Apparently, there were a lot of varied and unique ways to use one’s gifts.

“Well, now that we are all comfortable, I ask that we make a slight delay before getting to business.” He began ruffling around in his coat pockets. “My mother—” He was interrupted when Rafe strolled in.

Gwen’s heart raced, and she clasped her hands in her lap, trying not to fidget. Rafe moved to sit next to her on the couch, murmuring a soft apology to Max for the interruption.

After he had settled, Gwen gave him a hesitant smile. His answering look was barely a smile, not as wide and teasing as normal.
At least it’s still a smile.
A wave of relief washed over her, and with a quiet exhalation, she turned her attention back to Max.

“As I was saying—” Unlike Rafe’s, his smile stretched across his face showing a row of straight white teeth. “—my mother always told me a good guest never arrives empty-handed.” He located what he wanted in his pockets and tossed Gwen a plain brown box.

She caught it by luck, looking around at the other inhabitants of the room with surprise. “What do I do?”

Rafe leaned closer to her. “I believe in most cultures the proper response is to open it.”

She grinned at his teasing.
Oh God, stop smiling you idiot. You probably look like a grinning jack-o-lantern.
Her cheeks colored, and she opened the box to cover her embarrassment. Inside lay a long leather band looped around to fit in the small box. On the band itself were two small clock faces, one silver and one bronze.

“You would have received it earlier had proper channels been followed.” Max smirked at Alistair. “Be that as it may, you belong to the time streams and they to you. Historically, after the test, the Guardians have presented new travelers with certain gifts. Over time, this process has been simplified so each traveler is presented with a watch. And like everything else around here, it is not a simple watch.”

Gwen laughed. “I’m beginning to accept that nothing around here is ever simple.”

Max grinned. “The silver watch face is, for all intents and purposes, normal. The idea is to set it to the time and date of your home time.” He nodded for Gwen to proceed, so she spun the dial on the watch to set the date and time. “The bronze watch, on the other hand, will always change to reflect the time and date of the location you have traveled to. It also keeps track of the time spent in the visited stream. As a whole, the watch is a way to keep track of where you belong and what time you are in.”

Gwen touched the watch, half-afraid it would suck her into some unknown time. “My smartphone has nothing on this.”

Max laughed. “Technology does have its uses, although there are things that are more helpful to a traveler. Oh, and a last note …”

Gwen’s eyebrows raised. “It does more?”

He laughed again. “Instead of requiring you to spend the next decade or more learning every language you can think of, the watch lets you understand any language spoken around you. There are those of the old guard who may call this laziness. Still, most Guardians will admit expecting new travelers to learn Akkadian or another dead language is outdated.”

“How does it all work?”

“Magic,” Rafe stage whispered in her ear.

Alistair spoke up. “Most of the knowledge that goes into the creation of the watches, as well as the Archives themselves, has been lost. What Rafe says in jest, however, is not inaccurate. In the same way our gifts are said to descend from the gods, these devices are also believed to have divine origin.”

“A helping hand.” Max said.

Alistair nodded. “Traditionally, it is worn as a watch, although the length of the leather band is intended to allow you to wear it in other ways. A watch would not go unnoticed in every time throughout history. A necklace, around an ankle, it only needs to be worn next to the skin.”

Rafe pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and showed Gwen the band looped several times around his wrist. The band was wider and more aged than hers, the watch faces more masculine.

She tried not to stare at the silver watch face. It was cracked and unmoving.

With a little help from Rafe, the watch was wrapped around her wrist. An air of expectation filled the room.

Alistair broke the silence. “I think now is the time for us to speak of what happened in the mirror.”

Gwen felt more than saw Rafe stiffen beside her. She spoke up so Rafe didn’t have to. “What do you need to know?

“From what Alistair has already told me, the events in the mirror played out like a memory.” Max said.

Rafe struggled for words. “I was aware of what was going on; I just had no ability to deviate from what I remember happening.”

The pain was still present in his voice, and Gwen’s heart ached. “I don’t understand. What does that mean?”

Max was no longer smiling. “What happened in the mirror, Gwen?”

Alistair spoke up before she could answer. “And how did you go through the mirror? I was unable to activate the gateway. It was closed to me.”

“My compass didn’t work alone either,” Gwen said. “So I thought maybe together they would be strong enough.”

Max made a thoughtful noise. “An interesting thought, and one that worked well for you. What happened inside the mirror?”

“I could see and hear everything. It was like a projection. I couldn’t interact with anyone or stop anything from happening.” She kept her gaze glued to the floor. “I tried hitting one of the men holding Rafe, and I went right through him, like he was made of smoke.”

Max leaned forward in his chair once again. “And Rafe?”

“Rafe was different. But he didn’t seem to know I was there either. I tried to wake him up.” She could feel her cheeks coloring.
And they act like having fair skin is such a good thing.
“It was like he couldn’t hear me. I jumped on his back when he was walking towards the destruction, and he still wouldn’t stop.”

Max looked intrigued. “Destruction?”

“Oh.” Gwen shook her head, wondering how she could skip the most vital part. “When you showed me the memory of your Athens, it was like that. First, it started in the distance; the buildings were crashing and falling. Like a wave, it grew bigger and faster. Then it was in front of us, swirling and crashing in some kind of whirlpool. Rafe was walking right to it.”

Alistair’s voice was grim. “Rafe, do you remember any of this?”

“Like I told you before, I was stuck in the memory, and I never saw Gwen. I also never saw any of the destruction. The way the real memory played out, I was walking towards a certain destination. So in the fake memory, I did the same.”

“Interesting.” Max sat back. “So had Gwen not rescued you, you would have walked straight into the whirlpool. Very interesting.”

Gwen chanced a look at Rafe. “What would have happened if Rafe had kept walking?”

Max sighed, lowering his hands so he gripped the arms of his chair. He looked like a pagan god deigning to speak to his subjects. “It’s only conjecture. If the destruction you saw in the mirror is the same that destroyed Athens, well, it would be safe to assume Rafe would have met the same fate as my home.”

“Which is?” Rafe’s voice sounded rough.

“While the place still exists in many forms and throughout many ages, my homeland is lost forever. In the time streams, in essence, it has never existed.”

“So that would have happened to Rafe?” Her voice sounded strained to her own ears. “It would have been like he never existed?”

“I could think of a few people who would have been pleased.” Rafe’s voice was dry with sarcasm. Gwen wondered how much that joking statement had hurt him.

Alistair gave Rafe a look. “Perhaps we can deal with the situation as mature adults instead of resorting to jokes.”

Rafe shrugged. “Wasn’t a joke.” He waved off Alistair’s retort. “So was the mirror a trap?”

“Exactly. As a formal representative of the Guardians, we are sorry such a thing has occurred. We will, of course, investigate the matter.” Max smiled grimly. “Since we know Seymour’s involved, I’ll say this for myself. We’ll get the bastard. No worries there.”

His profanity provoked a startled laugh from her. “Thanks, Max. It helps to know you’re on our side.”

Rafe nodded.

“I second Gwen’s statement.” Alistair said. “Seymour and the trap in the mirror are connected. We will need whatever help we can get in stopping him. If Gwen hadn’t shaken off Seymour’s spell, Rafe would have been stuck in the mirror. Thankfully, our enemies miscalculated Gwen’s strength.”

Gwen’s smile was shy. “Why do you say that?”

This time it was Max who spoke. “It takes no mean strength to be able to reverse a memory trap once it has been created. Not only were you able to shake off the trap but you were also able to enter a mirror that’s purpose had been twisted and rescue the person who had been trapped inside.”

“What makes you think it was my strength?”

Alistair raised an eyebrow. “It wasn’t luck.”

Max interrupted her before she could argue with him. “I recognize this is all new to you, Gwen. Still, believe us when we say, you are powerful. Rafe and Alistair themselves do not lack for power. There is a reason they were given access to the Archives. So perhaps you think that everyone can do the things that you are learning about. The reverse is true. There are many travelers stretched out across the universes, and few possess real power. Most have only minor gifts. Your ability to focus on a place or time and reach a destination is a very unusual gift.”

Gwen wasn’t certain what to say. “Why me?”

“Why not?” Rafe said, no hint of laughter in his voice.

“There is no doubt these events speak to a larger problem. The force behind the black mirror is stirring. We will need those with great power to help us combat this evil. Why not you, Gwen?” Alistair said.

She looked around the room at the three men’s faces, and her heart raced. Although there was something life affirming being told she had the power to help defeat a nameless evil, it was also downright terrifying. “Well, if I’m going to help defeat a crazy half-god, can I at least have lunch first?”

Max laughed and Rafe smirked. Even Alistair looked amused. “Perhaps if you and Rafe would be so kind, you could go to the diner around the corner and pick up lunch for us all. There is Archive business I need to discuss with Max.”

Gwen shared a look with Rafe, suspicious about the so-called reason to have them leave the building. When Max didn’t say anything to contradict Alistair, Gwen rose to her feet, and Rafe followed her lead.

“Oh, and Rafe?” Alistair spoke again before they left the room. “Please keep an eye on Gwen and look out for Seymour. If you see him, come back here immediately, and we will determine a plan of attack. Understood?”