Katie

“Time is like fire, and time is like water, it creates and destroys. I aim to tame it. If the empire gains an understanding of the past and future, we will rule the present forever.”-Marin Clockreign, High inventor of the Lisari empire’s journal, chapter 9. 

Katie woke to a strange voice ringing in her ears. 

“...Forces in T minus 24 minutes.” 

She gasps for air, her chest heaving and spasming as she struggles to get up. 

“Where in the hells…” Katie murmurs, nursing an aching headache. Her nose twitches at the warm, salivating vanilla scent of freshly baked bread.

“I’m In the kitchen…or a kitchen...” Her tummy growls, all too eager to feast on the baked goods. 

She nibbles on her lips. “Do I have time?” Katie shakes her head and grabs a loaf of bread, stuffing it in her dress pocket. “Nae…” clutching her belly, she draws a faint breath. 

“Later.”

Katie takes a small step. Then she falls back on her knees, baring her teeth.

“Fucking shite!!!” She screams, holding her leg. “Stop complaining!!” Katie slaps her throbbing limb. “Ashes! I need to get the piss outta here so SHUT UP!” 

With raised lips and ragged breaths she stares at the ceiling, the hissing and creaking noises of the mansion driving her mad.

“I…” Thoughts speed and tear through her mind, of dying.  Of this horrible, wicked place. Of Mum, of her family. Of being loved. 

Her breathing slows to the steady rhythm of the clockwork around her as a sharp high-pitched wail echoes behind her, followed with the drumbeat of metal feet slowly approaching. The air was thin, but she could taste the bronze flaking off of the pipe's metalwork around her and traveling through the steam spewing sporadically from them. These workings were like a metal body, a facade of the random, refined, animalistic beauty of nature: The house was a body, and she was a germ.

“I want to live, I want to live!!!” Katie squeals, bawling as she drags her nails across the floor.

“MUM!” Katie weeps. “Mum…” She whispers, tracing her thumb over the punch card. “Mum.” 

She shuts her eyes, waiting for the breathing to stop. 

Not even a minute later, a small group of strange ironguard walked inside (she counted three). 

They were...different, quite different from their ironwork relations: Shorter, slimmer, more wiry. The taller ironguard brotherhood did not hold weapons, and these had bodies that shined with gold. They must have been exceptionally illustrious in their brutality to have a coating of such pomp. At the center of each chest there was a small collection of rubies. For a fleeting moment, Katie saw an encapsulating heart within the reflection. But above their torso the human resemblance was gone, the heads of these ironguard were artificially smooth, the tips of their cones had an alien resemblance to a beak.

“Heretic spotted.” The three machines clash their weapons together, and march towards her. 

“Quarry injured. Probability of successful neutralization, 79%. Combat tactical 6, hold and execute.”

Katie’s eyes blast open, her pupils radiating a pure white color. “Not today.” She calmly whispers, placing her fingers together and slicing the air as if her arm was a sword. Blades of wind gushed at the robotic men, but their weapons effortlessly cut right through her magic. 

“Alright.” She grins. “Let’s try something different.”

But, the machines grab her arms, pulling her up. Her legs playfully dangle back and forth. 

“By the power invested in our righteous blades, you are hereby sentenced to death.” The clockwork creature raises its halberd, and Katie throws her head back, then headbutts the soldier. She grabs the machine before the sheer force sends it flying to the wall, meaning to hitch a ride away from its allies. 

But to her surprise, the others don’t let go and fly right with her, crashing into the titanium wall just the same. 

Katie giggles then bursts into full-blown cackling. “How’s that for odds you fucking rusty-ass piece of scrap! You even broke my fall!” She climbs to her feet, her eyes still dimly glowing. 

“Arrival of imperial forces in T minus 21 minutes.”

A horrible high-pitched noise tears through the air. 

“I see you’ve survived. I have to admit, I’m impressed.” Pietro says, sounding genuinely perplexed. 

“Ah...but you haven’t been through the heart yet, just the basement. I see. Well, the heart is just up ahead, I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting a taste of our temporal engineering. You won’t make it past-“

Katie frowns, then shoots a blast of wind at the ceiling, destroying the hidden speaker.

“Shut the hells up! I’m tired of hearing your shitty voice, you fucking monster!” 

She walks forward, wincing. “Nae..can’t think about it.” Katie looks onwards and draws a deep breath before breaking into a stumbling sprint. 

The Windborn girl's leg aches as it had never before, but that doesn’t stop her from bounding at full speed, racing through the twisted, noisy corridors. 

The mansion creaks with the familiar sound of cogs and gears spinning, turning, and meshing together. The manor was changing once again, the halls she ran through rearranging and moving before her, but this didn’t stop her stride. She leaps and bounces from one moving foyer to the other, ignoring the clockwork mansion’s ever-shifting architecture. 

Katie gracefully tumbles to a seemingly stable corridor, taking care to land on the right leg. 

She’d always been careful with injuring her limbs, as pain there was seemingly doubled or even tripled compared to everywhere else, courtesy of a betrayal she’d gotten from robbing the wrong prissy nobleman in a moment of desperation on a cold winter eve. 

But she couldn’t stop now, not when she finally had something to lose. Something to dream about. Something to hope.

Katie’s gleaming pupils sharpen. She stops in her tracks, sliding over the floor until she’s lost her momentum. 

“Something’s wrong.” She mumbles, dusting off her rags. 

In the corner of her, she spies a beautiful blue vase, encased in a thick glass dome, the sunshine making it sparkle. And in strange contrast, a small pile of bricks, just lying about. “Can I try that window?” 

She takes a step back and blasts the window with a strong burst of wind, and the window shatters to a thousand pieces. 

Katie giggles and leans over the counter, then breathes out a forlorn sigh. “Too far up…way too far. Even I would never make it.”

She turns to the display case. “Hmm. That looks awfully expensive…could just throw this brick instead of that fancy vase.” She grabs the block, tossing it in her hand a bit. 

“Nah.” Katie breaks the glass dome and throws the vase in front of her. 

From seemingly nowhere, giant arcs of lighting rip the vase to a pile of smoldering pieces. 

“An Arc-gate. Like I’ve never seen those before in the fancy district…”

Katie sighs as yet another screeching sound invades her eardrums. 

“Well done, Katelyn! That may have been one of my favorites vases but this is becoming quite-“ She flicks her wrist, ripping the speaker to shreds with her magic. 

“Arse.” Katie rolls her eyes.

The girl purses her lips, brows furrowed in concentration as she leans on the wall. 

“Arrival of imperial forces in T minus 18 minutes.” 

“No time to waste.” Katie draws in the air around her, boosting her vocal chords. 

“HEY IRONPRICKS! I’M HERE!” She booms, her voice carrying far and wide. 

Katie stretches her shoulders, the dim glow in her eyes growing brighter and brighter once again. 

The clanking of metal sounds in the distance. Not too long now. 

A slim silhouette appears in the distance, followed by dozens more behind it, including several ironguard and even a new cluster of spheres. 

“Okay…” her eyes flick between the horde of metal monsters and the arc gate. “I hope this works…”

The clockwork creatures raise their weapons, almost within spitting distance. 

Katie opens her palms and makes a grabbing gesture, one of the smaller robots gets lifted off its feet, hovering in the air. 

Her arms tremble and her muscles contract. But she spins on her foot and hurls the creature at the Arc gate with a burst of well aimed air. 

The contraption responds to the mechanical soldier, lightning bolts fly at the strange ironguard still suspended in the air. 

“One shot.” Katie whispers under her breath. She dashes forward, narrowly avoiding the clutches of the small clockwork army. Furthermore she leaps in the air, making herself as small as possible. 

Katie soars through the Arc gate, narrowly avoiding its clutches as it’s too focused on striking the smaller iron guard. She hears the crackle of lightning, and feels the static dancing on her skin, time slows down as a stray bolt rushes towards her. But she lands on her hands at the other side, then cartwheels on until the clockwork army is but a fleeting memory. 

She falls on her knees, gasping for air and frantically wiping the blood dripping down her nose. “I can’t believe that worked...” gazing at her cold and clammy hands, she realizes the danger hasn’t passed, far from it. 

“I…I have to get out of here..” Katie clutches her belly, twisted by dread. “I’m nae afraid, I'm nae afraid, I’m nae scared!!!”

She squeals as a pipe creaks and hisses as a burst of steam blasts out at her.

Katie’s blood froze in her veins. “I….I am scared...I’ve got to get outta here…” Her voice was numb and quiet with fright. “I wanna go home!” She mewls, her chest heaving with every sob. 

“Arrival of imperial forces in T minus 15 minutes.”

“FINE!” She shrieks, hitting the stone cold floor with her tiny fists. “Fuck you!” Grimacing from the pain, she staggers up, her shoulders limp.

“I’ll see you again mummy.” The courage in her words masks her raw terror.

Katie surveys her surroundings, and sighs. There was only one way forward, through the door in front of her. 

Her soft hands touch the freezing, bronze door, and she pushes onwards. 

What awaits her behind the door is beyond Katie’s words. 

Hundreds, maybe thousands of person cogs, gears and steam pipes surround a massive white clock, the sheer size of it clenching her stomach. Below it, dozens of smaller and seemingly randomly placed clockwork each tick in a timely fashion. She hadn’t noticed right away, but the hands of these clocks all spun in different directions, and at different paces. 

The rest of the room was dotted by various panels and machinery, all working in an endless rhythm, tirelessly producing those awful sounds that grate her ears and flare her anxiety. It was like she was surrounded by ironguard. 

Katie flinches at the sound of steps, two men, middle aged by the way their boots sound, dragging across the ground. 

She scurries behind a bigger panel, praying they wouldn’t find her. 

“Alright, it’s time for another test. Let’s hope this time we don’t accidentally reset its programming again.” Came a brisk, masculine voice. 

“Yea, yea...doesn’t it bother you that it’s default programming is so…I don’t know.” The meek, faintly high but still masculine voice replies.

“Murderous? My friend, these things are built for war.” 

“Yeah. But...we’re Lisari. Something’s not right with those things. Why do we have to test ironguard anyway? I know the lord said we must test it on complex beings but still...seems like a waste.”

“It doesn't matter to me. I just wanna get paid.”

The men fiddle with some levers and buttons at the large machine in front of the clockwork. Not a moment later a couple of ironguards march in, standing at attention on a rusted platform. 

“Alright, this is workers Giovan and Corlini. Test run of Paradoxia weapon, number 1047. The date is 1499, on the second of Lumanris, time, fifteen past two A’Noon. Starting Ascendant function.”

The large machine whirs, the clock’s hands speed forward at impossible speeds, until you can barely even see they were there. 

The first ironguard’s polished armor grows rusted and dull before her very eyes, but it doesn’t stop there. Moss and plants pops up from nowhere on the metallic soldier, until it’s as still as a statue. Within seconds the proud and shiny ironguard had turned from an image that evokes terror and dread to something akin to a long forgotten statue, it’s only function being a half decent scarecrow. 

“Huh. Test successful. The last time we only succeeded with this function on a sentinel.” 

“Yeah but those smaller things were always easier than their actual Ironguard counterparts. Initiating Descendant function.” 

The gargantuan clockwork freezes, then its hands spin backwards faster and faster in a blur.

The remaining ironguard slowly fell apart. Katie blinks, then clasps a hand over her mouth. Where once stood an ironguard, now there wasn’t anything but bars and clumps of various metals.

“Easy. Logging successes. Let’s get lunch!” The men saunter off, idly chatting about some peculiar brown haired lass they saw at a tavern, and her gigantic blonde haired brother. 

Katie breathes a sigh of relief as their footfalls fade away. Moving out of her hiding place, she approaches the rusted piece of metal. 

“Nae so scary now huh?” She sneers, spitting on the ironguard. “You’re NOT scary!!!” Katie kicks the artificial construct. “You’re just a bunch of metal…” she glances at the still moving clockwork, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She stares at it for a while, fearing to close her eyes as if the machine would attack her if she dared.

Katie releases a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and starts fast walking away. “You’re just a machine…” 

And with that, she crouches and slowly follows the men, hoping to find the way out without being seen. 

Before her lies a crossroads, and three doors. A dull, bronze one in the middle, a wooden dark green door to the left, and a strange door to the right. One half seems in pristine condition, like it’s as new as the day it was made. While the other looks decayed and rotten, as if has stood there for centuries. 

She cocks her head at its strange appearance. Despite her instincts screaming at her to take any other door, Katie walks through the uncanny doorway. 

“The piss?” 

At first glance the hallway looks rather plain, save for a few cabinets. But there was something off about some of the lights illuminating the way. 

“Blue, red?” She giggles with a quizzical smile. She’d never seen lights in these colors, or even shades of blue and red like this before. They were strangely soft and bright. 

Katie waves her hand around in the blue light, and chokes out a gasp. Despite feeling like her hand moves normally, to her eyes her hand moves at a mystifyingly slow motion. “What in the fiery hells…” She flutters her fingers, mesmerized and shocked at their snail's pace. 

Katie draws back her lips and jerks her hand free from the light’s sway. “What is wrong with this place…” 

She takes large strides back, unknowingly walking right into the red light. 

The windborn girl squeals as the red light touches her eyes. She frantically waves her arms around as panic grips at her heart. “Wha?!” Katie rapidly blinks, then suppresses a scream as she can’t stop blinking so fast no matter what she does. 

Glancing at her blurry hands, she lets out a breath so high it was almost a squeak. Even her eyes couldn’t keep up with how fast she was moving. 

Katie stumbles and falls out of the light, her speed returning to normal, for her anyway. 

A fresh wave of fury crashes through her as the shock waves off. “F...fuck...Go hifreann leat!” (To hell with you!) Nobody messes with me like that!! NOBODY!!!” Katie growls, throwing wave after wave of cutting winds at the strange lights, to no avail. All she does in the end is knock over a cabinet, pistols and bullets spilling out.

“Is this a nightmare?” She groans, her face as pale as the winter sky. “I have to be dreaming…” 

“Arrival of imperial forces in T minus 12 minutes.” 

Katie shakes her head, despair festering in her heart. “This isn’t happening...this can’t be real...it’s just..another nightmare. Has to be!” 

Her body trembles as she hugs herself, blinking away the tears glistening on her lashes. 

“Is wrong...it’s all wrong.” She softly wimpers. “I’m gonna close my eyes...then I’ll wake up on my roof.” Katie shuts her eyes. Her heart began to pound, the longer she stayed in this unnatural world, the more hold her panic had over her. 

“Nae, nae, nae! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” With each breath she takes, her body grows more and more tense. 

“Arrival of imperial forces in T minus 10 minutes.” 

Katie’s eyes shoot open, her fear giving way as fury blossoms inside her. “Trasna ort féin…(Go fuck yourself.)” 

Despite the ever present dread gnawing at her, she presses onwards.

Katie kicks her leg behind her, using the force of the kick to propel herself forward out of the mad corridor. 

She storms through the door, and stomps her foot in frustration. “Again?! I fucking hate stairs!” Katie groans, already speeding up the staircase. 

She’s unsure of how long she actually spent racing up the flights of stairs, but for her it feels like an eternity. 

Finally, she finds herself at the end of the flights. She peers at a set of elegantly carved gold and bronze doors, decorated to form images of the stars, moons and planets of nephalia’s solar system. While in the middle there wasn’t the image of the sun like she expected. Instead there was a clock, eclipsed by a dark tree. It’s branches overshadowing most of the timepiece save for its hands pointing at the number thirteen where twelve was meant to be. 

“Thirteen…” Katie mumbles, then shakes her head and enters the room, hoping to find a way out.

“Arrival of imperial forces in T minus 6 minutes.”

Before her lies an almost building sized orrery. Below it, she saw rows after rows of dark mirrors, each with a small ticking timepiece above it. 

“If something fucks with me again…” Her eyes lit up when she sees a small metal sign with the word “exit” on it. With an excited breath she runs forward, but trips over a wire and accidentally pulls a rather large lever, clearly made for hands much larger than her own. 

The orrery softly stirs. Then soundlessly, the planets and moons surrounding the sun and Nephalia begin to swiftly move around in an seemingly endless dance. 

The mirrors gleam and hum, each displaying hundreds of images in a second. Katie’s eyes could only slightly keep up, but she knew she saw flashes of countless metal armies and strange, colored storms. Furthermore she saw a dragon taking flight, a castle covered in thorns, thousands of ravens and crows soaring through the skies, faeries giggling as they played on the thrones of kings and queens. 

A loud metal thud jolts her out of her reverie. Katie glances at the planetarium and notices the large blue planet, Secria, is locked in place in perfect alignment with the sun, moon, and Nephalia itself. 

“What the fuck…”

Another thud, the smaller grey moon Vernia is locked in place. 

A dome descends over the top half of the observatory, simulating a beautiful starry night sky.  “Pretty…” She whispers, mesmerized by the perfect recreation of the night, down to the purple and pink shades of the Aurora Borealis. 

The small jade, blueish planet Spinnia locks in place. 

Katie looks at the panel before her, and notices the small calendar. “Sixteenth of Verdurance...almost a year from now.” 

Three more planets lock in place, almost simultaneously. First is the ringed brown world of Thuria, followed by the large color globe called Gorin, and lastly the ashen grey planet Vorinth clicks into place. 

Last but certainly not least, the bright and colorful emerald and pearly white world of Karametra clicks in place, and her vision grows dark. 

“I can’t see!!!” Katie yells, wildly thrashing around her. A short burst of static noise, then a baritone speaks once again. 

“As you can see or well...not see I should say. The sky has gone dark. On the 13th of Lumanaris 1500, the planets and moons will align in perfect harmony, and the stars will vanish. Along with it, every ounce of power any and all Fabled have. Until the alignment ends of course...but it won’t end for hours I assure you. I am working on the possibility of keeping the worlds aligned but perhaps this is just a pipe dream. Still, my friends! Come! Gaze at yourself in the mirror of my Oracle Engine and be amazed at what futures you might have with this opportunity to conquer the mainland once and for all, but remember. Nothing is set in stone…” 

His voice trails off until another burst of static cuts him off, ending the message. 

Katie crawls away from the orrery, then makes the mistake of eyeing one of the mirrors. It’s surface ripples like water then blinds her with a flash of grey light. 

She sees a girl, her fiery hair whipping in the stormy gales, wearing a suit of red and black leather armor. In front of her stands the ruins of a once great castle. Her eyes catch the faint gleam of two daggers, both look worn and aged, but still clean. A flag slowly burns in front of her, it has a red three headed dragon on a silver field depicted on it. The symbol of house Roarin. 

The girl slowly looks over her shoulder, Katie opens her mouth to scream, she’s looking at her own face, but she’s interrupted by a blinding flash of light. 

Before she knows it, she’s staring at an aged woman on her deathbed, hands being held by Katie’s. She’s wearing just a simple nightgown in a rather plain room, but she seems happy. The old woman reaches out to stroke Katie’s cheek, to her surprise..she lets her, even leans into her touch. 

“I’m glad you decided to stay. I’m happy you decided not to listen to him, in the end.” The woman croaks. “Even if it was his dying wish. You don’t need all those shadows chasing you...But enough of that gloomy talk! How is your sister?”

She spies a tear rolling down her cheeks. “She’s doing really well, Mum.” 

The woman laughs, before breaking into a coughing fit. “I told you, call me mom. You already have a Mum.” 

The other Katie smiles, and lets out a half-chuckle, half-sob. “Nae I told you...I have two mums. You’re as much my mum as she is. Always have been….mummy.”

The lady runs a wrinkled hand through Katie’s hair. “I’m glad. Gods...you still look just like you did when we saved you from that nasty prison. Our little bandit...my little bandit…” 

Katie squeezes her hand, a fresh cascade of tears dripping down her chin. “Mum…”

Her chest heaves as she wheezes from another coughing frenzy. Katie lifts a glass of water and helps the woman drink it to soothe her throat.

“Thanks, honey.” The elderly woman breathes out a sharp sigh. “He’s been dead for decades and I still say it wrong...he loved you, you know? Always has. He just wasn’t very good at talking about his feelings. Stupid dummy…” 

Katie kisses the woman’s forehead. “I loved him too...still do.” 

The ladies laugh together, despite their tears. 

The woman peers out a rainy window. “I’ve lived a full life you know? Don’t have shit to complain about. Hells...I got to hold my grandchildren just to name one thing…”

Katie’s silent for a long, empty moment. “Nae even...you never loved anyone but me. Dinnae you regret nae falling in love?”

The aged lady shrugs. “Nah. I tried love before I even met you, remember? Wasn’t for me. I just wanted a child to care for, that’s all. Really darling…” She strokes her face again, drying Katie’s tears. 

“I'm alright, I’m happy. We’ve had so many adventures haven't we? Even fought a few monsters…and an Angel or two. I’ve lived my life to the fullest. That’s all anyone can ask or hope for. Besides...I got to see you grow up. Best time of my life...even if you’re still just a shorty.”

Katie giggles. “I’m nae a child anymore Mum...besides I grew! A whole centimeter since you last saw me!” 

The lady laughs with her, suppressing a coughing fit. “No...you’re not a child anymore. But you’re still my daughter. Always will be. I love you, Katie...listen,”

She gently takes her daughter’s hand. “Don't blame yourself, i know you’ll want to. You always blame yourself for too much...But I’m glad you got to live beyond my time. No parent should have to bury their child...so don’t be sad I’m gone. Be happy for the time we spent together. Please...don’t cry…” 

The woman runs her thumb over Katie’s cheeks. “Will you smile for me, one last time?” 

She nods, and gives her mother the happiest smile she can muster, for her.

The lady smiles, a loving sparkle in her faded brown eyes. “I remember the first time I saw you smile...took ages. But then one morning you were just standing there in the kitchen with the biggest grin on your face...and you called me mummy. Best day of my life...”

The elderly woman grew still. 

Katie gawks at the still lady. “M..Mum?…mum!!” She embraces the woman, bawling her heart out. “I love you too…I love you too!!” 

Katie stares at the scene, speechlessly wiping her own tears. Then she flinches at a new gleam of light blinding her. 

She eyes herself standing at a graveyard with her fists clenched, rain heavily pouring down from the sky. Her eyes veiled by a glaring white light. 

“They’ll pay.” She snarls, drawing a ornate, scarlet dagger. “So will that arrogant lord. He will pay.” 

Katie blinks, then the vision ripples into a new image.

She drinks in the sight of herself slowly dancing in the Lisari empire’s throne room with a comely pale haired girl, the girl’s eyes the colors of pure amethyst. Both girls are dressed in finery befit of queens in exquisitely made sparkling gowns, their only spectators a small group of marble ironguards. But further behind them lies an army of men and machines, patiently waiting for their leaders to finish their waltz.

“Mox, mundus est nobis, uxor mea.” the pale haired girl whispers with a bubbly smile.

Her eyes grow blurry, then focus on a new scene. 

Katie stares at herself, still dressed in her raggedy dress overlooking a burning battlefield. Hundreds of remnants of burnt colorful banners and simple weapons strewn about in piles across the horizon. Familiar, masculine laughter echoes across the battlefield. 

The other Katie turns around, but she looks...wrong. Her eyes have a red, twisted and mechanical appearance to them. Katie thought the girl’s pupils dilated but that wasn’t right, it was more like the lenses in her artificial eyes focused...the strange Katie charges at her and she screams as the light overtakes her. 

Dozens of cheery, laughing pixies and fairies fly and dance around Katie as she tumbles across the dinner table, then lands on the ground with theatrical flourish. 

The crowd claps and cheers for her, and she hears a warm, though strangely high matronly voice. “Fáilte abhaile, mo pháiste.”

The light fades away. She’s returned to the clockwork mansion once again. Katie rubs her eyes, hazily looking around. 

“Arrival of imperial forces in T minus 1 minute and 59 seconds.”