It's Friday?
ReflectiveReader: I like my character growth to be slow burn, I guess. :D Thank you for reading!
lenasmith106: I'm glad you liked Memento's place! I had fun writing it.
Anne Camp: Thank you! I wanted a sort of eldritch location vibe, if you know what I mean.
DarkFoxKit: I think I did mention something like that? Possibly? I'm not sure anymore. I really need to take the time to read back through this.
darkangeloflove15: I noticed the rhyme as soon as I wrote it, but I decided to leave it. I'm glad you're liking Dan's development! I'm trying to do it in a way that's reasonable and doesn't just dismiss or forget his bad behavior. Or, you know, all the murder.
Rosezelene Ersa: It wasn't really supposed to be anything specific about or against ducks, just, you know, a wacky story ending.
Jeptwin: It isn't anyone's heart. It's made of gelatin. The whole routine is something Nephthys and Memento do to confuse people. The word is from a conlang I did a while back. Dan IS changing, but, yeah. It's going to be hard going.
17: I'm glad you're enjoying Dannymay!
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Chapter 196: Reminisce
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Ellie had been able to convince Pandora to take a detour to Long Now. It was just the two of them, since Dora and her knights had to return to Mattingly, after all this time away, and Pandora wanted to leave her people to guard the Panopticon, in case any of the Observants tried to come back.
Long Now and the Panopticon were relatively close to one another, likely something the Observants had forced on Clockwork, to make it more convenient to them.
Wow, Ellie hated them. Maybe they hadn't done that, but it certainly was something they would do. After trying to murder Danny, they might as well be capable of any and every reprehensible thing. If they ate cereal, they'd probably put the milk in first. Even Ellie knew better than to do that.
Movement caught her eye in the distance. It could have been a cloud, or simply something closer than the distant background, moving because of parallax. But whatever it was, it was moving against the direction of everything else, and in towards Long Now.
And it looked like people. Two people.
"Pandora," said Ellie, "do you see that?"
"Yes," said Pandora, looking where Ellie pointed and frowning deeply. "I do. It is Nephthys."
"Who's with her?" asked Ellie. She was getting a bad feeling about that.
"I'm sure there is an explanation," said Pandora, an edge of anger on her voice.
"For what?" asked Ellie. "Who is that with her?" She shielded her eyes and squinted. White fire flashed from the head and shoulders. "No," said Ellie, forcefully.
"There must be an explanation," said Pandora, again. "A very good one."
"No way," said Ellie. "What is she doing?"
"Taking him back to be imprisoned, perhaps," said Pandora. "I would offer up the use of one of my boxes, if I had one to hand that wasn't full of the Observants' sins."
Ellie glowered, and didn't respond.
"Remember," said Pandora, "Daniel is safe, with Clockwork." She sighed. "Not to look too closely on whatever that storm was about…"
Ellie glared. "What should we do?"
"Continue on, at the moment," said Pandora, her hands gripping the hafts of the spears. "We seem to have the same destination. Our paths will intersect before long."
"And then?"
"Then we will hear what Nephthys has to say."
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It only became more apparent that Nephthys's companion was Dan as they drew closer. Nephthys and Dan had clearly noticed them as well. Still, they ignored each other. Well, as much as they could while glaring at one another.
Admittedly, Nephthys's eyes were obscured by her veil, and her body language was light and cheerful.
… And for some reason Dan had drifted slightly behind her and refused to meet Ellie's eyes.
Alright, maybe Ellie was doing most of the glaring. At any rate, each party was incredibly aware of the other.
They reached the doors of Long Now at the same time.
"Hello Pandora, Ellie," said Nephthys. "You are here to check on Daniel?"
"Yes," said Pandora, much more warily. "And Clockwork as well. I felt the storm, and your hand in it. What happened?"
Nephthys twitched her shoulder up. "The culmination of an old arrangement between Clockwork and myself." The shadow of her smile was white and sinister behind her veil, like a crescent moon behind fog. It faltered. "It did not go quite to plan, hence my current errand."
"Oh? That errand being?"
"I think it would be better for Clockwork to explain it," said Nephthys. "It is of a somewhat personal nature."
"I see," said Pandora.
"What is he doing here?" demanded Ellie, no longer able to contain herself.
"Helping me," said Nephthys.
"With what?"
"A number of things. Principally, defending Long Now from the Observants. Don't be rude."
"Nephthys," said Pandora, crossing one set of arms, "why would the Observants attack Long Now?"
"It is related to why I had to go on my errand."
"I see. We had better let you finish it, then."
"He tried to kill Danny!" said Ellie. "You can't be okay with this, Pandora!"
"He didn't, actually," said Nephthys, quite calmly. "Trust me, I know what attempted murder looks and feel like, and his heart wasn't in it."
"He doesn't have a heart."
A new smile spread across Nephthys's face. "Are you sure?" she asked, reaching behind her.
Dan jumped away. "No way! No way in hell are you putting that thing inside me!"
"Aw, but it would have been so funny!"
"No!" said Dan, crossing his arm in front of his chest.
"Spoilsport," said Nephthys, putting her hand on the door. "In his core, then. Either way, the point stands."
Ticking echoed from within Long Now, but it felt off somehow.
"Is Clockwork sick?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," said Dan, sneering.
Ellie sneered back. She wasn't going to take her eyes off him. Whatever Nephthys was doing with Dan, Ellie didn't trust him. Knowing what she did, she didn't think she would ever trust him. He was evil.
Nephthys flew in. Dan hesitated, looking between Pandora and Ellie for a moment, then flew in himself. Pandora and Ellie exchanged a glance. Ellie couldn't interpret Pandora's look.
She watched Dan as they flew deeper into Long Now. There was something different about him, and not just in appearance.
It was like his entire personality had been beaten with a stick. She had expected more taunting, more foul language, more evilness.
This was a trap. Definitely. Very definitely. Dan was half Vlad. It had to be a trap.
"I believe I hear voices from the library," said Pandora.
"I think you're right," agreed Nephthys, turning.
Ellie and Dan wound up floating next to one another, each following their respective Ancient. Ectoplasm sparked around Ellie's clenched fists. She couldn't help but prepare herself for a fight.
"I'm not going to do anything," muttered Dan, as the Ancients chatted about something in front of them.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"And why's that? Why the sudden change of 'heart?'" She made air-quotes around the last word, ignoring that her hands were glowing green as she did so.
"Because Nephthys scares the heck out of me," said Dan.
"That's enough to stop you, is it? She was there in your time, and it didn't stop you then."
"Things are different," grumbled Dan.
"You killed hundreds of people. You think you can just-"
"You don't have a clean record either."
Ellie hissed. "That's not the same! I was created by Vlad and brainwashed!"
"Yeah, well, I was created by Vlad, too, did you think of that?"
She hadn't. "You are Vlad."
"As much as I am your precious Danny," spat Dan, with venom.
"You're nothing like Danny."
"Oh, I am. I'm like you, too. That's the thing you really don't want to admit. You could be a killer, too." When Ellie didn't respond, Dan continued. "You see, I'm not the one you should worry about. There's no reason for me to kill anyone anymore, except maybe those stupid eyeballs. You, on the other hand?"
"Tone it back, Dan," said Nephthys.
"She started it," said Dan. He hunched his shoulders. "Fine. Whatever. You're not like me. You're an innocent little baby. Happy?"
She wasn't.
He gave her a sidelong glance. Was that disappointment in his gaze? What, had he not gotten his fill of taunting her?
Ellie barred her teeth, and drifted closer to Pandora, who mirrored her suspicious gaze.
The murmur of other voices echoed down the hallway, just above the sound of the clocks.
"… and, though armies are not constructed here in the same way as the mortal world, the King has the right to command. Should a threat arise, the levies may be called, though you must first take the oaths of their commanders, and that requires promises… Or is that second? Third? Be careful of the promises you make, or the seeming of promises. People take such things poorly, especially people of power."
"I know, Grandfather. I'm Stygian. I have to be careful with promises."
"Not- No you were- Oh, you would know better than I. What should I say? What was I saying?"
"Armies?"
"Armies! You still have one without the levies, without the will of the rulers of the individual Realms. The thralls and shades that sleep beneath the black castle. They are bound to serve, bound to your will, as King. They are the sinners bound by the Lady Ereshkigal until they can redeem themselves, and those creatures empty of will that are sometimes formed from the mists between the Realms. It is these that Pariah used when you fought him. It is these- You fought Pariah, did you not?"
"Yes," came the hesitant reply.
Alright. Whatever was going on, it was really, really weird. Clockwork should not be asking so many questions about basic things, basic events. The wrongness of it made the hairs on the back of Ellie's neck stand up.
"They are bound to you from the first time you wear the crown… Which you have, very good. It may take some time for you to become accustomed to commanding them, to calling them up. All skills take practice, after all. We must go to the black castle, and make sure you practice. You'll need it. Do you have the mirror and the lens?"
"Yes?"
"Good, good. You need everything you can get. This will be difficult… Practice, practice makes perfect."
"Grandfather, when you say the black castle, do you mean Pariah's Keep?"
"I mean the black castle, which should not presently be named properly. I say the black castle, that is what I mean."
"Was Pariah's Keep even black?" asked Danny.
"If I say it is, then it shall be so," said Clockwork. "No, that's not how things work."
"I mean, alright."
They reached the open arch into the library. Inside, Clockwork was floating in front of a huge blackboard, waving a piece of chalk. Symbols and arrows stretched across it's green-black surface.
At a table at ground level, Danny sat amongst a veritable forest of papers and books, completely surrounded on all sides. It almost looked as if the stacks of them had been built around him as a protective wall, complete with a parapet.
Danny looked confused, and possibly a little afraid. He had a blue-lined one-subject notebook open in front of him and a feather quill clenched in one hand. It quivered back and forth. More importantly, he was wearing an awesome cloak and also a hairclip, for some reason.
Ellie floated up to get a better look at the page in the notebook. Danny hadn't written very much.
As she did so, he glanced over his shoulder at the approaching party. Of course, Danny wouldn't miss them coming in, even if he was focused on Clockwork. He had his ghost sense, just like Ellie.
Why did he look so relieved to see Nephthys? Or was he looking at Dan? He couldn't possibly be looking at Dan. But he didn't look especially surprised to see Dan, or angry, and that was weird.
"You have it?" asked Danny, voice high and hopeful.
"Yes, we were successful," said Nephthys lifting up a- a- Ellie couldn't rightfully describe it. It blurred in front of her eyes, her brain filling in a dozen things that it could be, yet she knew none of them were correct.
"My," said Clockwork, "what brings you here, my sister Ancients?" He tilted up his chin.
"Did you seriously forget already?" drawled Dan, crossing his arms.
"Be nice, he doesn't know why Pandora is here, so…"
"I'm here to check on you two," said Pandora, nodding to Danny and Clockwork, "and to find out what's going on."
"A lesson, Pandora. You rule your kingdom. You know how important these things are." Clockwork gestured back at the incomprehensible chalkboard with a great deal of energy. He lost his grip on the chalk, and it went flying into the heights of the library. It did not come down.
"Oh," said Clockwork, scowling. "That's the fourth one."
"Sixth," corrected Danny, subtly adding a tick mark to his page.
"Clockwork, brother, please," said Nephthys. "Take this. I think it will help with your current issue."
"The chalk?"
"That, too, I suppose."
She held up the… thing. Clockwork squinted at it.
"It does look familiar," he said.
Ellie couldn't see how. Maybe it looked different to him.
While Clockwork examined the object, Danny floated out of his little citadel. Ellie went over to them, and they met halfway.
"Hey," said Ellie. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"Yeah. Some time travel stuff. I might be a king now, I guess?" He got a wide-eyed look on his face as he said the last. "How about you?"
"I'm fine. Wrecked the Observants' house."
"Cool," said Danny.
"Just take it already, Clockwork!"
"What if it breaks my oven, Nephthys? What then?"
"How could this possibly break your oven?"
"I don't know, but you're always doing things that break my oven."
"Your oven can't even break! It's got that reverse entropy thing going on! It fixes itself!"
"But it changes! It gets harder to do every time!" It sounded like Clockwork was close to tears. "Stop being mean to my oven!"
Nephthys sighed. "Daniel, could you possibly talk some sense into him?"
"Stop being mean to my Daniel!" exclaimed Clockwork, wrapping himself around Danny. "Oh, hello, Ellie. How are you, today?"
"I'm fine. Are you okay? You're acting a bit off."
"A bit off? A bit off! My oven is under attack! How am I to make cookies if my oven is under attack?"
"I think you had better take whatever that is," said Ellie.
"Yeah," agreed Danny. "I mean, they went so far to get it, and you need it."
Clockwork made a little unhappy noise in the back of his throat but took the thing. It flickered, and bled into his hand, shrinking and flexing before disappearing entirely. Clockwork stiffened and tilted backwards just slightly.
Danny waved his hand, and used his telekinesis to pull up a chair, which Clockwork sunk into. The old ghost aged years in a minute and pressed a hand to the glass door of the clock in his chest.
Almost, he looked like he was having a heart attack. But that wasn't possible.
Ellie approached to cling to the arm of the chair, hovering with worry. While she wasn't as close to Clockwork as Danny was, and their relationship had started off on a suspicious note, he was one of her very few parental figures. She cared. She cared a lot. On the other side of the room, Danny mirrored her.
White fire flicked in the corner of her eye, and she turned her head slightly to glare at Dan, who had the temerity to look concerned. What an incredibly audacious lie.
"Are you alright?" asked Danny.
"Ah," said Clockwork, his voice hoarse. "Thank you, Nephthys, for bringing that to me. You, as well, Dan. I am sure you hastened the task."
Ellie gave Clockwork an incredulous look, then met Danny's eyes, trying to communicate her question to him.
What had happened, and why was Clockwork acting so crazy?
But Danny looked relieved. Relieved.
Ellie had so many questions. Just. So many.
"Are you feeling better?" asked Danny.
"Yes," said Clockwork. "Thank you, Daniel. You have been a comfort to me these last days." He sighed, deeply, and passed a hand over his eyes. It had a very slight tremor to it.
"Your sight?" asked Nephthys.
"I…" He groaned. "Beyond my control, for the moment. The loss of my workshop will hurt most grievously. Does hurt most grievously," he corrected. He began to grow just slightly younger, wincing as he did so.
"Like, physically?" asked Ellie, all the while wondering how he lost an entire room in his lair.
"Mentally. I built most of those tools myself. It will be far more difficult to manage paradoxes until I repair and replace them. Almost impossible, with my powers acting the way they are."
Pandora tapped the butt of one of her spears on the floor.
"Excuse me," she said. "But I cannot help but feel lost. What, exactly, is going on here? Perhaps I can ask for an explanation? From someone?"
