King Oleron was unsure how he was to approach the subject of his new timekeeper's past to the two princesses. It was unpleasant, to say the least, but Mirana and Iracebeth had been pestering him about it all day… Iracebeth especially, the King had noticed in awe. Iracebeth rarely expressed concern, but she'd been oddly quiet all evening, her mind drifting off somewhere else.
He stepped into the parlour room where Queen Elsemere was sitting with both of the girls, her arms around their shoulders as she told them about the kingdom's variety of songbirds. "They fly to parts unknown, other worlds and foreign lands," she explained, "and then they come back here. The languages that they speak come from faraway lands, places that only your father has been. They fly great distances, riding on the wind, sometimes in flocks, and sometimes alone." She glanced up, smiling at the King with a placid grin. "Oh, hello, dearest heart. Tell me, where is your timekeeper now?"
"Asleep," said the King, "as my darling daughters both should be, as well… but first, there's something that I must tell you both, something very serious. I need you to listen to me, so that you'll understand."
"Of course, Father," agreed Mirana, her doe-eyed stare earnest and attentive.
"Yes, anything," added Iracebeth, leaning forward.
The King settled into his oversized armchair, resting his hands on the red velvet fabric as he leaned back, trying to prepare some proper way to begin. "You know, my beloveds, that I have searched for as far back as I can remember, just as my own father and his father before me searched, for a guardian to finally bring Underland out of chaos and onto a rightful path. My ancestors, as far back as Underland has existed, were never able to accomplish this, and so you see the results. Summers that last forever, days that never seem to end, nights that drag on for what seems like all of life itself… and this is why I found Time. He was, in his own kingdom, sentenced to die. There, he was a treasonous fallen soldier, condemned for dissidence, and this is why he's as damaged as he is, and why I need to repair him before he can be left alone in his own castle."
"Sentenced to die?" Iracebeth asked, confusion sweeping over her. "I don't see what you mean, Father."
"Well… if someone were to drag all of the insides from a clock, all of the vitals that keep it in order, it would stop working, stop keeping time, until it gets repaired," the King explained, "and that's what I have to do. If Time is truly to be immortal, everlasting, then I have to repair him first. It won't be so difficult, really. I can create new internal systems for him, systems that can feel pain, so that he'll know to fight back if ever he's attacked or harmed… and then he can be appointed where he belongs, as the timekeeper of Underland, indefinitely, I can only hope. Do you both understand?"
"I… I think so," said Mirana, but her voice betrayed her. The younger princess couldn't fathom how Time had wound up so broken in the first place.
Iracebeth bit her lip, twirling a lock of her scarlet hair around on her finger as she sat there. The little clockwork being was the prettiest thing that she had ever seen in her entire life, more than any of her glittering gemstones or gold jewellery, with his big sapphire eyes ringed in dark shadows, his hair shining in the light like black obsidian… and his state of disrepair had always been a minor thing to her. Now, she couldn't help but wonder why he had been broken so irreparably in his own kingdom.
"I must add," King Oleron announced, "that I'm afraid he wasn't brought to Underland to be your friend, my daughters. He is here to be of service for his appointed task, but Time is a friend to no man. He is meant to be alone, to maintain the trajectory of time itself, and he isn't a force to be reckoned with. If you're going to play with Time while he's here, try to keep in mind that his recovery in our castle is only temporary."
Both of the girls nodded their heads curtly.
Queen Elsemere patted their heads, rising to her feet as she stood. "It's time that both of you were off to bed," she told them, "so kiss your father goodnight."
