Becoming the Timekeeper (for a little bit)

A short story about a Timekeeper's apprentice who is suddenly left to her own devices, and has to save the world.

If there’s a fire you can’t put it out from inside the house, is what the thought behind the Time Office must have been. My name is Corvina, and this is my story. 

When on earth it was August 29th of the year 2024 A.D., I had a problem. I am not human, but I once was, so I can remember how important dates are for you guys. I should mention that the Time Office exists outside of time, so really it wasn’t that time. Anyhow, once upon a while ago I was human, but then I died, as humans do. I didn’t die in the going-to-an-afterlife- and- remaining- there-for -all -eternity kind of way though. For some reason the master has never chosen to disclose to me, I was chosen to be the Timekeeper’s apprentice. 

This brings me back to my previously mentioned problem. See, as a Timekeeper’s apprentice you really aren’t supposed to be running the show, you’re supposed to learn under strict supervision so you can’t accidentally screw everything up. I haven’t been an apprentice in any other places, but I imagine that’s how it works everywhere. And I was totally fine with this, I had no desire to bear the responsibility of the flow of time in this realm and the continued existence of the entire world, no thanks. It wasn’t my idea for the master to leave, even for a short time. So you can imagine how much of an issue it was when he decided to stay gone for a long while (half a year in earthly time) with no return in sight. 

I would love to report that I handled it well, I gracefully took over the master’s role of Timekeeper and there were no incidents ever. I am not a liar though, and apparently also not someone who handles stressful situations well. Had to find that one out the hard way. My problem half a year into the disappearance of the master was a splintering timeline. Now, I had been a Timekeeper’s apprentice for some time before the master disappeared, and I had proven myself capable of handling minor splintering whiting the timeline. You travel to some time before the splintering, make sure everyone makes the choices they are supposed to and once past the moment of splintering and get the f**k out. Simple as can be, one might think. This particular splintering had traveled to so many times I had lost count with no success, and now the splintering was beginning to have splinterings of its own. To put it bluntly: the flowing of time upon which the very existence of our realm depends was breaking down quickly, meaning the end of the f*****g world. And I was the only one who could stop it. 

My plan seemed simple, perhaps too simple for stopping the world from ending. I’d been trying to cut down all the secondary splinterings before moving onto the main splintering, which was now growing suspiciously much into a separate timeline. I believed this might somehow make taking down the mother splintering down easier. In my Hail Mary before accepting that I had single-handedly caused the end of the world, I would travel to a couple of days before the mother splintering took place and scatter those involved to separate ends of the world. I had boiled it all down to a single couple I needed to prevent from ever getting together: lady Marigold Aldridge was not supposed to meet Espen Morgan, a future knight of the king. 

I was dressed the absolute best I could manage in the short timespan I had: I had fashioned a silky bedsheet and a corset into a dress, and figured nobody would see the boots I was wearing underneath. I had put my hair in a half-up-half-down style I figured many women of the time would be wearing. In my humble opinion, I was going to blend. Not ideal however, was the fact that my calculations were slightly off and instead of landing somewhere inside the castle where the party was to be held, I landed in the muddy forest outside. My best guess was it would take me at least half an hour to reach the gates, and who even knows if they’d let me in looking all disheveled and messy. Grumpily and whilst mumbling complaints about the situation under my breath to no one in particular, I began my stupid journey.

It was literally a matter of minutes before a man on a horse raced by me so close, in jumping out of the way I fell in a puddle of mud. I may not be mortal, but that doesn’t mean getting trampled wouldn’t hurt me. The ginormous a*****e just kept going, not bothering to stop and see if I even survived. The a*****e’s companion that was a few seconds behind him did have the decency to stop. A young man climbed down from his horse, short dark hair under his helmet and piercing blue eyes. I immediately recognized him to be Espen. I feel like I got incredibly lucky there, what were the chances I’d run into one of my targets? He asked if I was injured in that weirdly formal way I forgot people in his century talked in, to which I answered my ankle was so hurt I couldn’t possibly stand up, let alone walk. 

Remember when I said I wasn’t a liar? That was a lie. Outside of my bruised ego, I was fine. Espen, being the noble knight he was supposed to become, offered to bring me to the castle. ‘I will sit on your horse,’ I demanded, ‘However, I am a lady, so you’ll have to walk beside the horse. I do not want my honor to suffer.’ The longer I could keep Espen from the castle, the better. I might even be able to stall enough to where we don’t arrive until after the party.

Stretching half an hour into two hours proved to be a challenge. I threw myself off the horse frequently, with every sharp turn or wobbly area. I’d refuse help standing up and proceed to take f*****g forever to get back on the horse. I would insist we were going the wrong way and demand Espen take a different turn, resulting in us taking a longer route. I had bruises all over me when we finally arrived at the castle, and for what? The party was still very much so going on. So we entered the castle. I asked Espen to get me some place to freshen up, and demanded he stand guard outside the door whilst I did so. There is only so many times I can scrub a dress before pure boredom makes it so that I admit I am finished freshing up. To be totally honest, I was also quite looking forward to getting to experience a true ball. I am not the kind of girl who dreams about attending one of them, but I came all this way, and at this point I might as well. Plus, it would probably only go on for another hour or two, I can keep two people who do not know each other apart for that long. What could go wrong?

A hell of a lot could go wrong, it turned out. When we finally entered the ballroom and were announced as Espen Morgan, knight’s apprentice, and Lady Corvina (separately off course, wouldn’t want anyone to think we were together), it took Marigold and her mother all of five minutes to try and approach Espen. I needed to get Espen out of there asap, so I told him we were dancing, and I dragged him to the dance floor. This seemed to confuse him. Understandably so, since my ankle was supposed to be gravely injured to the point of me being unable to stand. ‘Right. Yes, my ankle hurts greatly indeed. I need to sit down for a bit, I fear. Won’t you bring me to a chair and get me something to drink or a fan perhaps? I feel a bit faint.’ 

Women, off course, are very fragile beings in this time. At least, in the eyes of men.  It is very plausible I might faint because of the pain. And I am female, so off course I forget about my own ankle injury. Where would I be without be a noble man like Espen? Worried for my survival, Espen rushes me to an empathy table and sat me down. Then he scurried away to get me something to drink and to cool me down, buying me some time to come up with a better plan than: ‘surely it’ll be fine’. Atop one of the staircases, I saw a man exit a door and not locking it. In a stroke of genius, I decided my best move is to lock Espen up over there for the rest of the ball, insuring he would not meet anyone, especially not Marigold (who seems hellbent on meeting Espen). 

When Espen returned with my drink, I told him I needed to show him something. I steered him towards and all the way up the staircase, claiming: No, I could not tell him where we were going or what exactly I needed to show him. It needed to be a surprise, it’s better that way. In reality I had no clue what kind of a room we were even walking into. The door was indeed unlocked, thank f**k. It was a study. We walking into a small study with a massive open window on the opposite side of the room, and nothing but a desk and some books. What could I possible show the man here? There’s nothing to see. Espen looked at me, waiting. ‘It’s by the window,’ I say. I’d just point at something non-existent and whilst he was trying to find it, I’d sprint out of the room, locking him in behind me. I didn’t fully close the door but left it slightly ajar. I didn’t want him to hear the opening of the heavy door and know what I was up to.

By the window I leaned over the edge, looking for something to point at. Espen decided to stand exactly behind me. Breathing down my neck he said, ‘I know what’s going here.’ Before I knew what happened, he had turned me around and was pushing me against the window frame, leaning in for a kiss. ‘Ew no! What are you, oh no!,’ in my shock I tried to push him back, but accidentally pushed myself back, falling out of the window. I swear I didn’t mean to, but Espen was still holding me, and I may or may not have pulled him with me as I fell. 

We fell some six or seven stories down, and the ground was not exactly a soft landing. That hurt like a m**********r, but luckily I am not exaclty mortal, as I said before. I slowly got up after the fall, ready to apologize to Espen for pulling him out of the window. It really was not my intention. Only, his neck was bended in a weird angle and there was a small pool of blood where his head had landed. I checked to make sure off course, but he was as dead as one gets. There was really no saving him. 

I don’t generally condone murder, I have a moral compass and all that. But you know, many road that lead to Rome and all that. And wouldn’t you say that one man’s life is a worthy sacrifice to save the entire universe? I’m not saying I would not change a thing if I had to do it all again, but I did safe the universe, because with Espen the splintering also died.

When I got back to the Time Office, I saw for the first time in over six months, the master behind his desk. Per usual, he did not look up (luckily so, because the disheveled state of me would have given me away). He asked where I’d been. ‘Nowhere important master, I just had to stop a minor splintering.’ ‘All went well, I assume?’ He followed up. ‘Nothing out of the ordinary master, nothing to report,’ I assured him before scurrying off to cover up my mess.

Author's Note

Please ignore any gramar or spelling issues, I know there probably are some.

Reviews

[Tatenda Chivhondo]

A well articulated piece of writing

[LemonPie]

Thank you!!