Ticking Clocks Kill All Men

*Squeak, squeak, squeak*

We’re VIP passengers and they couldn’t even be bothered to oil the carriage’s wheels.

Kiru had only come for me, but Alice had insisted on coming along. Now, all three of us sat in an inconspicuous, brown carriage, with two guards on horses flanking us.

“Okay,” Kiru carefully began. “You might be wondering what’s going on.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Hm? No, this is just another Tuesday,” I sarcastically replied.

“A what?”

“Never mind.”

Kiru glanced at Alice. “You weren’t planned, so I don’t know how much I can say in front of you.”

“I think I know exactly what this is about. And if it is, then you don’t need to worry about Alice,” I assured him.

“Oh? Then, what do you think you’re here for?” Kiru asked, mildly amused.

I turned to Alice. “Alice, did you have a Sator square during the previous trial?”

Alice frowned. “No? What is that?”

“What rooms did you have?”

Alice looked up as she thought. “The first room was blank with two doors describing a paradox. The second one looked like a museum room with a stolen gem. The third was full of ciphers and the fourth room was in the clock tower, where we figured out that we were in a fake reality,” she remembered.

“What were your ciphers like?” I asked.

“Every door had a plaque above it with a different cipher that decoded to make a phrase or word. Every plaque added up to a final sentence that told us which door to enter,” she explained.

I sighed in satisfaction and closed my eyes. “Kiru, you were with me during the second trial, in which we were in a manufactured reality. Now, I know you were monitoring me. The room that stood out the most, was the third one. It contained a Sator square, which is a puzzle from Earth that was made in a way that required me to know Latin. I thought the manufactured realities might be tailored to our subconscious, but that no longer adds up, given what Alice just told me. So, the king knows I’m from Earth, he somehow knows my name and that I’m into puzzles, and he used the second trial to verify my identity,” I concluded. “At least, that’s what I think.”

Kiru gave a faint grin. “You would make a fine Head of Investigations. Unfortunately, the king has bigger plans for you.”

“Bigger and better?” I asked, hopefully.

Kiru’s grin immediately vanished. He closed his eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know anything beyond that.”

***

We were stopped by a group of heavily armoured guards in front of the wall surrounding the gigantic, stone castle. “State your business,” one instructed.

Kiru poked out his head. “Marcellus, it’s Kiru. The king is expecting us with impatience,” he said.

The guard looked surprised. “Sir Kiru? What are you doing in such a dingy coach?”

“Never mind that, Marcellus. We’re in a hurry. Do you mind letting us through?”

“Of course!” Marcellus stood aside and waved us in.

***

Kiru marched us straight past the throne room, where’d I’d expected our journey to end. He took us upstairs, through some winding hallways and eventually in front of a nondescript, metal door. He knocked a unique melody, which I assumed to be a code.

Moments later, the door opened.

A violent burst of light.

When it cleared up, I was back in that smouldering hellscape of a city. However, this time, instead of a towering humanoid in purple armour, there was a glitchy, shadowy mess.

Somehow, I knew it as alive, and yet… I also knew it didn’t truly exist.

Everything moved in slow motion. My vision was hazy. I looked down. Once again, I sported that brilliant, white armour, complete with the finest sword I’d ever seen. I gripped the sword tightly. I didn’t know if the shadow before me was a friend or foe.

I blinked.

A short, haggard, aging man poked out his head.

“Your majesty, I have-” Kiru began.

The king cut him off with a dismissive groan. “That will be all, Kiru. Thank you.”

Kiru nodded and promptly walked off. The king pulled open the door just a little more and quickly ushered us inside. He appeared wholly nonplussed by Alice’s presence.

I looked around. The room was smaller than I’d expected from a king’s chambers. Despite its metal door, the room itself was made of cold, hard stone. My time as an investigator had taught me to be more consciously aware of my surroundings, so I made mental notes of the place: bed in the right corner, desk to the left, one window at the back, and a wooden door, presumable leading to a bathroom.

The king didn’t invite us to sit, though I wasn’t sure whether that was due to his haste, or a simple lack of chairs.

He’s in bad shape, I noted, taking in the old man’s hunched posture and eyebags. “My king, you requested me?”

He glared at me. “Yes, Kugo, I requested you, not this woman, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Alice nervously offered.

The king waved his hand with irritation. “Whatever. You’re both Earthlings, so I won’t be telling you anything too novel,” he replied.

Alice and I both looked at each other in surprise.

“How do you know she’s from Earth?” I asked.

“Never mind that. Listen, you two, we don’t have much time,” the king urgently declared. “My son has been murdered, along with a few other members of the nobility,” the king said.

Ah. So, he wants us to investigate their murders. That’s extremely high profile. Just the case I need to get close to him and uncover his secrets.

“And I know exactly who did it,” the king continued.

Hm? Maybe he wants us to catch the culprit? But how does that tie into us being from Earth?

“Were they killed by an Earthling?” I asked.

“No, no! They were killed by Allister Twain!” he exclaimed.

I was momentarily stunned. “A-Allister?”

Alice glanced up at me with worry. “Allister? Isn’t that the shapeshifter you told me about?”

“Shapeshifter?” I asked, distracted. “Oh, yeah.”

“Well, Kugo, speaking of shapeshifting… he was disguised as your friend Erin,” the king informed me.

Erin?

Suddenly, I was back at the inn.

“I’ll speak to those five and explain the situation.”

“Sorry, did you say there are five of them?”

“There were, but one of them went to the bathroom right before you showed up. I think I saw him go upstairs, when you were drinking.”

The words whispered through my head. I felt dizzy. I couldn’t see straight.

Calm down, Kugo!

I took a deep, shaky breath and closed my eyes. I opened them back up with a reinvigorated determination that I hadn’t felt since entering the Kingdom of Boria. “Tell me what you need from me,” I said.

The king was briefly taken aback. When he recovered, he went in full business mode. “Kugo, I’ve known you longer than you’ve known yourself. You used to be somebody in this world- somebody great. However, eighteen years ago, you were reborn on Earth without your memories,” he said. “Unfortunately, Allister approaches and everything ends if all three of us are in a room together. I don’t have time to explain everything, and quite frankly, I can’t remember it all. Even mine and Allister’s memories took a hit.”

“Just answer me this,” I said. “Who are you?”

I thought the king would tell me off for asking questions and remind me that he was out of time. Instead, he responded in the most surprising way. “Sato Kugo, I am the connection between your mind and Allister’s. I am the link between both worlds. I am the reason you were reborn on Earth. I was moulded out of the bark and sap from the Tree of Everything, and I alone have the power to travel between realms. I will send you to The Nowhere, where you must travel to the Tree of Everything.”

The Tree of Everything? Isn’t that what Allister mentioned in his book?

“The Nowhere is a realm outside time and space. Only I can transport you there,” the king informed me. He reached into one of his droopy sleeves and produced a long, rolled up parchment. He handed it to me. “I had Kiru take your belongings from the hotel you were staying in.”

I unrolled the parchment. “This is the scroll I took from the sky library,” I noted. “Did you decipher it?”

“It is not a language, Kugo. This scroll is the key to deciphering the engravings on the Tree of Everything. The onus of deciphering those engravings falls on you. I trusted in your abilities,” the king replied. “Now, I will take you there.”

“Hold on! Can I come with?” Alice desperately asked.

The king glared at her, and she shrunk. Then, he stretched his arms out the side. He brought them together in an exaggerated clap. A sonic boom emitted from his hands.

Everything went dark.