Happy Friday! I feel like spring has come early, here. It's been sunny all week!
Rhonin Magnus: Danny does know about the cloak. And NO ONE is going to want to let Danny out of sight ever again. Too bad he can turn invisible. ;)
DarkFoxKit: Thank you for enlightening me! I guess that makes sense, though, since both they and I are going off of the same historical stuff (ie, ancient Egypt existing).
AzureSkye23: It's not as planned as the rest of it, but, still, sort of.
17: It'll be a bit before we see Vlad again.
Black Cat: Thank you for the encouragement! I'm still working on In the Water, I've just gotten hung up on some dialogue. You may see some more this weekend? :3
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Chapter 185: The Coronation
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Clockwork was not enthusiastic about letting Danny go. For that matter, Danny wasn't enthusiastic about letting go of Clockwork. Clockwork was hurt, and Clockwork was his, and Danny wasn't well yet, but two were better than one and they could each make sure the other one was safe, and fighting like this would be fine. Really.
But Clockwork had enough awareness to bend to reason, and Danny, while he counted his sanity with different numbers than either humans or ghosts, had never really lost his mind, except literally. Danny couldn't open the box, put on the crown, or intimidate Observants while burrowed under Clockwork's chin. Sadly.
He did, however, stay close, more for Clockwork's sake than his. The older ghost really did not look well. The blue of his face was paler than normal, and the sand trickling from his robes was definitely greenish.
Danny handed the box off to Nephthys and opened it. He took out the crown. He had half expected it to have changed, but it hadn't.
"Go ahead," said Clockwork. "It will look lovely. It always looked lovely." He fell back into murmuring about other timelines, some of which were highly disturbing. Danny stopped listening.
The crown was lighter than he thought it would be, and colder. Frost brushed along its surface, giving the silver a bluish cast.
"Not what you imagined your coronation would be like, hm?"
"I didn't really imagine my 'coronation' being like anything," snapped Danny, looking up from the crown. "From my perspective, I've known about this for ten minutes."
"That's true," said Nephthys, evenly.
Danny huffed, and put on the crown. As soon as he put it on, he felt...
… Different.
He wasn't sure what kind of different. He didn't really feel stronger. Or more kingly. Or anything like that. But the crown did have power. He could certainly feel that. He could feel it... drawing on him?
He reached back up to touch the crown. There were structures there that hadn't been before. He explored them with his fingertips, resisting the temptation to pull the crown back off his head. There were cold delicate curves, precise ridges, and geometric rough patches.
"Flowers," said Nephthys, "of ice. I had wondered what those gaps were for."
Danny made a face. "It's a bit much, don't you think?"
"I wouldn't worry about it, were I you," said Clockwork, both hands on Danny's shoulders. "Some things do solve themselves."
Danny turned and hugged Clockwork again.
"I will open a portal," said Nephthys, bringing them back to their task, "back to Long Now. When you see the Observants, tell them to leave and return to their duties."
"Just that, or do I have to get fancy?"
"Just that should be fine. Don't let them talk over you, and don't ask them to leave. Tell them."
Danny nodded. "But nothing, like, I don't know, quoting specific precedents or something?"
"Other than telling them to get out, do what comes naturally to you."
"What happens if they don't go?"
Nephthys frowned. "As with the Ancients, much of a Judge's power is tied to their role in one way or another. But they aren't powerless, even without that. Then again, neither am I. If any of them force the issue, I will have the advantage."
"Even if there's a lot of them?"
"No matter how many of them there are."
"Okay," said Danny, steeling himself. He glanced again at the hole in Clockwork's robe. "Okay. Let's go, then."
Nephthys opened a dark portal with a wave of her hand. They stepped through into the familiar halls of Long Now. The walls ticked uneasily and unevenly, in perfect and broken time with Clockwork's own clock.
The walls were angry. Upset. Little automatons made of brass and porcelain crept out from between the gears. Time burned like oil in sconces, but cast little light.
Clockwork giggled softly. "I've been waiting for this and I didn't even know it. I could be waiting for other things, too... The white roses... and convergence... But where did the giants go? And the pilgrims on their paths... But not yet, not yet... The lightning-struck tower, and the hanged man, and death..." He broke off into muttering. "No, I don't use cards. This time. That's a few paths over. The tree... Is my tree still there? Will it have still been there, until tomorrow?"
"I mean, it was there last time I was," said Danny, straining his ears to hear any intruding Observants. "Where do we need to get you? You know, so you can get fixed."
"There is a river that is a lake," started Clockwork in a lecturing tone, "that is a tree, that is a house on a hill, and all the windows broken, and each a book open, because it is a library, but it is the space it occupies, and a thousand newly-woven strings cut from rainbows that are possibilities and there are so many more flavors than one-thousand and sixty-four..."
"Just being here should help," said Nephthys.
"Wasn't he better before?"
"He wasn't really talking before."
"Have you ever tried baking backwards? Stop playing with my oven. It's mine." The last sentence was spoken in one of the most sinister tones Danny had ever heard from Clockwork, and seemed to refer to Danny more than the oven (which, admittedly, was pretty impressive), considering how he suddenly latched on. "A friend of mine used to have a cloak like this," he said, sadly, completely changing tack, and picking at the cloak's hem.
"I think I got it from him," said Danny.
"Oh, good. He would have wanted someone special to have it. I think I still see him sometimes. Time and space used to be the same."
"Let's try this way," said Nephthys, picking a door. "I think he installed a modern infirmary over this way once he adopted you."
They passed into a slowly-rotating hallway.
"Are you sure this is the right direction? I think we're inside the mechani-" Danny narrowly dodged a powerful bolt of ectoplasm that had been aimed directly at his head.
"Careful, careful," whispered Clockwork as all three of them dove behind a stuck gear. "Don't want to lose your head. Literally. Kings do that far too often. Pedestrian, really, even if they ride about in carriages. Young Sam would be disappointed." Clockwork paused. "You lost your head once. Right here." Clockwork traced a line on Danny's neck. "More than once. Several times, really. Did you know your parents are going to build a dungeon under their house, as soon as they get permission for the second basement from the city? Your sister hasn't even started school yet. It is dreadfully difficult to get rid of all the machetes in your house."
"Uh," said Danny.
The floor opened up underneath them. Nephthys and Danny fell a few feet before instinctively engaging their flight. Clockwork did not. He fell, cackling all the while.
"He is worse," complained Danny, diving down after Clockwork.
Nephthys followed. "Oh, please. This is nothing. You only got the tail end of our fight, when I was winning, you should have seen-"
"You weren't winning!" The passage had morphed into a sort of slide, and Clockwork's voice echoed from some distance down the tube.
"You should have seen me wining against him while he-"
"You weren't winning!"
"After them!" commanded a new voice from behind.
"Why isn't Long Now attacking them?" asked Danny.
"They probably have time medallions, like I do," said Nephthys, touching the gear pendant, "or something like them. Just assume that neither Clockwork's powers nor his lair's will come into play in this fight."
"I was assuming that already," said Danny. "So should I turn around and tell them off now, or..?"
"Best not, there might be two groups."
"Gotcha."
The slide emerged into part of Long Now Danny had never seen before. It looked like it was where Long Now put all of its discarded, broken pieces. There were crushed and warped gears, broken clock-faces, candle stubs, and other detritus, all lying in heaps and piles.
Not a good omen, then. Clockwork was not in a good place mentally if he was chucking himself down a literal garbage chute.
"Clockwork?" called Danny, floating higher in the room. He was glad he didn't have to walk. There was too much broken glass. It glittered like scattered gemstones. "Grandfather?" He caught a glimpse of purple. He flew down. "Grandfather?" he said to the hunched figure. "Are you..?" What could he ask? Clockwork clearly wasn't 'alright.'
"What happened here?" he asked. "There's so much broken... It shouldn't be happening yet." Clockwork picked up a piece of glass. It slipped through his fingers, leaving behind a cut that bled first ectoplasm, then sand. "My lenses... Oh, Daniel, there you are- No, no, you were already here." It was hard to see what Clockwork's red eyes were focusing on. "Congratulations. I must admit I had some doubts as to whether or not the possibilities would coalesce, but apparently you were old enough when you died, so the pregnancy is-" He broke off. "You are upset. What happened?"
Danny took a deep breath, "Where do you go to heal?" he asked. He was very aware that the Observants were approaching, and regardless of whether or not he was king, regardless of Nephthys's powers and protection, he was scared of the Observants. He was even more scared of what they might do to Clockwork in the name of curing him.
"Once there was a wellspring here," said Clockwork, shoulders stooped in melancholy. "When did we come unmoored from the mountains?"
"Before you ever met Danny," said Nephthys. "Focus, brother. Where do you go to heal now?"
Clockwork stared at the glass for a moment longer, then lept up into the air, pointing up. "Yes!" he said, with energy. "No time like the present! What year is it?"
Nephthys and Danny exchanged glances. "Maybe we'll just settle for a way out of here?"
Clockwork pointed up again.
"Ah," said Nephthys. The three of them flew up through the ceiling.
As they flew, Danny started to notice dust sifting down through the air. No, not dust, sand. He squinted at the hole in the ceiling, trying not to get any in his eyes.
"Grandfather," he said, "is- is Long Now a giant hourglass?"
"The time is always now, of course. But I was thinking about doing that. Or I would have been. It seems to have already happened."
"Oh, of course it's a giant hourglass," muttered Nephthys. The concept apparently annoyed her. "It isn't enough that it's all made of clockwork, it has to be an hourglass, too. Why not get a clock-candle on top of all that. Why not put bells everywhere."
"He does have bells everywhere."
Clockwork started singing.
"Clepsydra, clepsydra! Drink and eat and never miss a meal!"
It took a while to fight their way up through the fall of sand. It got everywhere. Into clothing, and eyes, and ears. They only stayed together because Danny had had the foresight to grab on to both of the Ancients before the sandfall got too thick.
When they finally emerged, it was in a round mill-like room. There was a kind of mesh fence around the side of the room, and a great stone rolled around in it, directed by a metal arm, and glass, gears, and other things poured in from a chute near the top. They were crushed by the stone, and then, once they were small enough, forced through the fence as sand. Once the sand was piled high enough, it fell through the hole in the floor.
Danny took this in at about the same time he noticed he was a few feet shorter than usual, at least in comparison to Clockwork and Nephthys. The starry cloak also seemed longer, although his suit still fit, and the crown didn't feel any heavier.
"Please tell me I haven't been turned into a little kid."
"You shouldn't lie to your nephew," said Clockwork.
"I would," said Nephthys, at the same time, "but that would be lying."
Great. He decided not to ask how young he presently looked, or if it would be reversible. On the positive side of things, both Clockwork and Nephthys looked significantly less beat up.
"Do you feel better?" asked Danny, cautiously. "Either of you?"
"Yes, actually," said Nephthys.
Clockwork just hummed, and stared into space. Or was he staring into time?
Nephthys sighed. "For now we need to find a door. He's been getting better at hiding them from me, lately."
"But there's one right there," said Danny pointing. The door was set high in the wall, above the sand level, and was obviously supposed to be hidden, but Danny saw its outline quite clearly.
Nephthys's eyebrows went up. "I think we will have to talk about that," she said. "Later."
They avoided the millstone without too much trouble (the room was large, and the millstone slow), and emerged into a more normal part of Long Now.
More normal being a relative term. The walls appeared to be made out of chronologically arranged sandstone, and the fossils in them were moving. Not a lot, but still. They were definitely animate.
Danny didn't get a good look at them, however, because this is when Clockwork decided to pick him up and run off with him.
He would have liked to blame the ease with which Clockwork did this on his current, diminutive, size, but it honestly would have happened anyway. Child ghosts didn't have any real defenses against the adults they had bonded to, and Danny wasn't exactly weighty even at full size.
Nephthys's curses bounced after them as they retreated down the hallway. Meanwhile, Danny was frozen. This wasn't a situation he would even think of fighting his way out of, and he wasn't going to be able to talk his way out of it. At the same time, a deep instinctual part of him was telling him that this was a great time for a nap, even though he had just slept for hours and hours five thousand years ago (and wasn't that hurting his brain?), and another part of him was having a massive freak out about Clockwork being in danger, and was upset about not being able to do anything about it.
He couldn't really see anything, because Clockwork had bundled him up underneath his cloak, and was holding him pressed tight to his side.
"Grandfather?" he started, hoping to at least get Clockwork's attention.
"Shh, u it aw yegu," said Clockwork. "Iwumu kif, him ha mentu ad."
Danny wondered if the change in language should bother him. He decided it should, especially since it wasn't a language he was familiar with. At all.
They came to a stop in a very dark space. "We should be safe here," said Clockwork, in Latin.
Danny squirmed until he could get a good look at 'here.' At least, he tried to. Even when he got his face angled out, he couldn't see anything. It was that dark. It was close, too, and quiet. The silence pressed on his ears.
The silence...
"Your clock stopped!" exclaimed Danny, with alarm. His words were swallowed by the dark almost before they reached his ears.
"All clocks stop eventually." He sounded distant. "All clocks stop here."
What did that even mean? It sounded ominous.
"I don't think we should be here," said Danny.
"Shh, shh," said Clockwork.
A bright line appeared in the darkness, then widened into a rectangle. Nephthys had opened the door. She pulled Danny and Clockwork out.
"You found us," said Clockwork, pouting.
"I'm Death. I find everything, eventually," she said. "What were you thinking, hiding in there?"
"In where?" asked Clockwork. "I was hiding?"
"Did we lose the Observants?" asked Danny.
"Possibly," said Nephthys. "Let's not stay here. I know where we are now, and I can get us somewhere useful."
This time, Nephthys kept her hand on Clockwork's shoulder, and steered him. The way they went was labyrinthine, but Nephthys was confident. Clockwork kept Danny in his arms, but Danny could tell that he was flagging. He wasn't flying as high, or as fast, and his aura was wavering.
They came into a room lined with tiled arches. The entire floor of it was a pool.
"Roman bathhouse?" asked Danny, after a moment, referring to the architecture.
"I think it was a gift," said Nephthys, vaguely. "For the Truce."
Danny decided he would ask how an entire room, in a lair, with a pool in it, could be a gift, and who would give it to Clockwork, later.
"Clockwork," continued Nephthys, "I think it's time to put Daniel down. We need to look at, well, where I hit you."
This, of course, is when Dan came stumbling into the room from the other side.
