Ferenc

    The Head Councillor entered a compartment which resembled an old-fashioned mine elevator made of flat metals joined together in a checkered fashion which allowed it to be a see-through compartment. The difference was that this elevator and all others in the council building worked with magic. He closed the sliding door and said a word “ledesharen”, and the compartment began to descend. It descended eight floors below from the ground floor above.

This floor housed the office of the Head Councillor. He got out the elevator compartment when it stopped and walked through the dimly lit corridor that followed, which led after a few meters to the side entrance of a wide rectangular area filled with very busy people typing away with machines that resembled typewriters.

There were twenty-five rows of work desk from left to right each spaced apart about half a meter and fifteen columns from front to back, with no spaces between the desks joined so.

At the front of the room was a long raised desk facing the work desks, with twenty people behind it, they also with their work equipment and also very busy either writing, reading or typing. They were like the high table to the workers infront of them.

Behind the room were seven doors leading to offices, with the fourth leading to the Head Councilors’. There was a space of about two meters between the doors and the workers at the back, and also a pathway separated by pillars at the side of the rooms, where the entrances to the room was. The pillars carried hallways above which lead to other rooms above this floor, so there was an open space to look down at the workers from these hallways. Above the workers on the main desk in front was an which read; Office Of The Head Of Council.

The Head Councillor walked from the entrance he took through the passage separated by the pillars to the back of the room and through the fourth door into another large room, but this time, the room was just a third in size compared to the previous, and had just ten people busy in their work desks at various positions in the room. The room was also quieter but had a more tense atmosphere to it. Ferenc went to the main desk at the left corner of the room which was the seat of his secretary. He gestured for the woman behind the desk to come into his office. Ferenc left the room and through a door few meters from the desk into his office.

His office more or less resembled a mini-hall, about double the size of the room he just left and two floors tall, with a chandelier hanging from the middle of the room’s ceiling. It was quite spacious at the middle, and the walls were of lacquered wood. The whole of the right side of the room close to the wall was like a library, with bookshelves filled with books of different sizes. His work desk was ahead close to the semicircular arched wall.

The office door opened and in came the secretary.

“What may I help with sir?” She asked Ferenc. The woman was in her late thirties. Her cream-coloured clothes – both blazer and skirt, complimented her white hair.

“Yuna, that time’s finally arrived. Follow me!” Ferenc went behind his desk and touched the wall. He said an incantation and the wall parted, forming jigsaws of wood as it did. He entered the room it lead to, followed by Yuna behind. The walls reformed and merged back after they had entered, locking them in.

The room’s walls were of unplastered brown bricks, and two lit candles attached to the walls illuminated the small room. At the middle was a table over which lay a wooden box.

“The failure to get the keys will cost me my life, I already knew that, and this world will fall into chaos either way. Funny what such powers and knowledge does to mankind. I can’t protect anything beyond what I’ve done, and it doesn’t help that I’m seeing as some sort of demon by most, but I want you to do one favour for me; send my daughter through the last to time window available.” Ferenc rested his hands on the table and looked into Yuna’s eyes with intent.

“Wow…why can’t you do it yourself?” Yuna asked, with a serious stare in her face.

“Serantus summons me, they know every spell I perform, and that’ll be too powerful. They’ll notice it fast and kill me before I even complete it” Ferenc responded.

Yuna sighed deeply. “I warned you about this path you were taking, it was never going to end well, but you just seemed to lose your way ever since your wife died…did you ever figure out what Serantus wants with unlocking the Pandora box?”

Ferenc’s face looked shaded with depression. “Merging the keys gives the doer the opportunity to wipe off an event that has already occurred from time. It’ll be like it never happened. Unlocking the Pandora’s box itself is supposed to give you the ability to control all of time itself. But, I realized history might have been warped and it may not be the case.”

Yuna looked at Ferenc in disbelief, and let out another sigh. “Why then did you work with Serantus if you knew this was their aim? Can’t you see they were exploiting you all along, especially as you’re the only one with access to the Pandora?”

Ferenc looked down at the table, and drew the box on it closer to himself. “It’s too complicated to explain all that with the time I have. Atleast it’s worked out well, they aren’t in possession of the keys, so the box will still be useless to them. It’ll seem unfair to you given your loyalty to me, but your ignorance on the matter is for your safety,” Ferenc said.

“You think I won’t handle it then?” Yuna asked him.

“No, I know you won’t. Just follow all these instructions to the bit!” Ferenc responded.

He opened the box, removed the emerald ring he was wearing and tossed it into the box.

“One of the reasons I’m feared is because I can control the faceless shadows, notorious murdering machines. No one knows how. The secret is in that ring. You’re to quietly raise my daughter ,Imogen, for two years.” He picked up an object from the box, a lead ring, and gestured it to Yuna.

“This ring is the third and last time window to a particular time in the future. The Esteria clan had the other two, used one two years ago to teleport their last born daughter to sometime in the future knowing what will happen, Accel used the second to transport her child recently. The third ring, this one, won’t be activated until another two years, so a lot of people will be looking for it, keep it safe till then, activate it at the right time and send Imogen through it away.”

“You burden me with a lot, even though I owe you my life, you’re virtually taking it away with this dangerous mission you’re giving me,” Yuna said, with a lot of concern telling on her face.

“I have no one else to trust, I pretty much fooled everyone in the council with my brave front. The least I could do is save Imogen for her mother’s…and my sake. It may be selfish, but even I am looking for some sort of salvation before I die.” Ferenc closed the box. “All you’ll need is in this box, keep it safe and give it to Imogen when it’s time to send her off.” He gave the box to Yuna.

“I’m off, guess you know how to leave this place.”

Ferenc bent down, took a candle from a stack close to the wall and began drawing symbols for teleporting on the floor.

“So you won’t even tell me bye?” Yuna said, holding the box tight to her chest. Her face was now sober.

Ferenc looked up at her with a feeling of mental anguish for himself, and said; “You forgot it’s not my style!” He turned down to continue his drawing.

Yuna bent down, and leaned beside him. She dropped the box she was holding, and held Ferenc’s head to face hers. Her eyes were welling up, and just as the tears ran down, she closed her eyes, ultimately draining the tears off her eyes and down her face.

She opened her eyes, and hugged Ferenc tightly, who was taken aback by the gesture, but didn’t know how to respond, and kept his hands still by her sides.

Yuna withdrew from the hug, wiped her face, and pecked Ferenc on the lips, then stamping her thumb on them. She picked the box on the floor, and proceeded to leave the room. She stopped, looked back at Ferenc, and said; “I guess this is goodbye, forever.” She turned forward and touched the side of the wall they had entered from, and the wall parted again. She made her way out, after which the walls returned to a closed state. Ferenc watched her leave the room, with the anguish in his face looking even bleaker.

He returned to the symbols he was drawing. After he had finished, he put his right palm to the floor on the drawing, and said an incantation.

The symbols lit up in red lights, which gradually increased in intensity until he disappeared.