The Land Where Time Stands Still is a peculiar place, as I'm sure you can imagine... or perhaps you can't.
In this land, both the sun and the moon rest up in the sky, neither one willing to set.
There is no night. There is no day.

I remember waking to the lively chatter of the sun and the moon.
"I'm sure you recall my cousins, Deimos and Phobos?" The moon inquired of the sun.
"You have many cousins." The sun remarked. "I have no recollection of any of them"
"You're so self-centered."
"Everything does revolve around me."

I rose up from the ground.
Where was I?
I allowed my eyes to wander around the strange land.
It looked so similar to the land I had come from, yet there was something that stood out.

Ah, I knew what it was.
There was not a single movement to be found.
There was no breeze playing in the leaves of the Betula Pendula.
There was not even the smallest of rustles in the Valley grass.
There was not one Convallaria petal drifting away into the sky.
Everything was still and lifeless.

Everything excluding the boisterous conversation between the sun and the moon.

"Oh, she is awake."
"Hush yourself." The sun scolded. "You know the rules."
"Someone is going to break them eventually..."
"Well, it isn't going to be us."

I peered up at them.
"Excuse me?" I called to the heights of the sky. "Do you know where I am?"

"Do tell me about your cousins." The sun blatantly ignored me.
"Ah, Deimos and Phobos." That was to be the beginning of a very long tale, in which the moon told of his cowardly cousins.
I do not recall any of the story now, save for the verses that went with it.

Deimos was the dreaded one
Phobos was the coward
They both had work that needed done
Fate to them empowered
To guard, to care, to overlook
To ensure that all was well
This honor they begrudgingly took
Why they did? I can't quite tell
Deimos was the fearsome one
Phobos was not as much
The work was easy to get done
Deimos would not be touched
All who came near left quite fast
No one dared to mess with him
But could this fear of Deimos last?
There was a secret that was quite grim
Deimos was the one they feared
Phobos was the one they mocked
For, Phobos dreaded all who neared
As did Deimos; we all were shocked
Deimos was not the dreaded one,
Deimos was a coward
They both had work that needed done
But all they did was cower.

It was a tragic tale.
I probably had pushed all recollections of it as far into the back of my mind as possible.
It was depressing, distressing, and dismal.
That was what I endured during my first many moments in the Land Where Time Stands Still. How many moments? I do not know. I suppose I could argue that it hadn't been any moments at all. How can a moment pass in a land where there is no time? Have we been over this? I do believe we have.
Whenever I say that "moments" or "time" has passed, let us keep in mind that it actually has not. It is just the best expression I can use to describe how being in this strange land feels like an eternity.

After this gloomy tale had been told, I tried to get the sun and the moon to talk to me. This proved to be futile. They would not be shaken.
I determined to journey through the Valley, so that I might see if I could locate my home.
I believed it was here somewhere. Everything else looked so familiar. Could it have been possible that my kingdom was still here?
I labored through the tall, green grass and through the white Convallaria.
For how long I traveled, I know not (should I go on about how there is no time again? No, perhaps not).

There it was, just a speck in the distance.
I knew it was my kingdom! I just knew it!
I ran with all my might.
I would be home and this would all have been just a terrible dream.

"She won't like what she finds, will she?" I heard the moon as I sprinted through the Valley.
"I should think not." The sun agreed.
What wouldn't I like? I longed to ask them, but I already knew I would get no response.
No matter, I was almost there. Once I got through those doors, I could put all of that behind me.

As I'm sure you have already figured out, because you are much more clever than I was, I would not be moving on quite as easily as I had hoped. I would not be moving on at all.

Everyone was frozen.

I stepped cautiously across the marble floor of my home, my footsteps echoed throughout the cavernous room.
"Hello?"
No one made a single move. No one flinched even the slightest bit. No one acknowledged my existence. No one so much as breathed one breath.
What was this?
What was going on?
Why were they stuck like this?
I carefully stepped around all the statues of my people. They still made no movement.

I had to get to Ember's room.
I ran the whole way.
I was desperate to get there.
I had to see it for myself.

At last, I arrived.
The sun and the moon were all too correct in their predictions.
I did not like what I saw.
My parents were still standing in the doorway of Ember's bedchamber.
They still had their looks of distain, their looks of absolute hatred.
How could a parent ever look at their son in such a way as that?
Ember was still standing in his room, his eyes flaming, his face red, and his arms burning with his fire.
His room was still ablaze. His walls were still singed and graying.
The smoke was still wishing to intoxicate the Earth.
Nothing made a single show of motion. Nothing made a sound.
There was not a crackle, nor a spark.
There was not a hiss, nor a sizzle.
There was not a flash, nor a flicker.

There was only my furious parents and my fiery brother.
I would never see them move again.
I would never know what would happen beyond this moment.

If only I could have calmed my brother. If only I could have made him stop the fire.
If only I could have one more chance to live in a land where time actually ticks on.
If only I could have warned them.

I can see that there is a question.
"What did you do, Ida?"
What did I do? That is a good question.
I did what any grieving sister would do.

I went to the library and read every single book on every single shelf.
How long did this take me, you ask?
Silly you, there is no time in the Land Where Time Stands Still.