One day to go.
The next morning after breakfast, dorothy found herself tasked with doing a drawing of Alyssa in her wedding dress. Terrance had only ever seen the basic sketch dorothy had made. As he was not allowed to see Alyssa before the next day in the dress, he was confined to the chambers with alex, ellie and Ozma. He was in a bit of a daze just trying to imagine how Alyssa looked in the dress, even though no one would see the drawing apart from dorothy, Madeline, and Alyssa until the reception the following afternoon. As much as alex tried to get Terrance to hold a conversation his mind just wandered back to essentially day dreaming. The scepter was floating idly next to the thrones as they made small talk in the meantime, and it felt like it was going by slowly, each second feeling like an eternity to them, but more so to Terrance. And as he stood there in his daze, he was unaware of the conversation going on behind him.
"you know, watching Terrance, it makes me wonder how you and dorothy will act when you two eventually get married." Ellie said giggling.
"Probably similar to how these two have been acting the past couple of weeks." Alex replied.
"not even gonna try to talk all big and mighty?" Ellie asked sounding a bit surprised.
"Why bother? It's nice to say, 'Oh we'll go about it better' but the way Alyssa and Terrance have been, all nervous, jittery, and consistently trying to distract themselves, it's how many people act as times like this draw closer." Alex said shrugging.
"nicely said." Ozma said smiling.
"anyways, we still haven't figured out what we're going to do about him, I mean it's not causing any harm, him just standing there day dreaming, but, wait a tick do you guys hear something?" ellie asked.
The three of them looked around, and suddenly alex and Ozma heard it. it was a metallic grinding coming from outside the chambers. Alex could have compared it to nails on a chalkboard, but he knew exactly what the source was.
"seems like tin man has rusted again." Alex said as Terrance snapped out of his daze.
"Worse than usual." Terrance said shaking his head to clear it before covering his ears
As tin man struggled into the chambers alex walked over to him.
"how'd you end up like this?" Alex asked curiously.
"Dun-geons" Tin man managed groaned out.
"what were you doing down, never mind, why weren't you consistently oiling your joints?" Ellie asked.
The Tin Man groaned something completely unintelligible and completely froze solid.
"The dungeons have been quite damp recently, I think scarecrow was doing something with his pump, there should be a spare oil can in the workshop." Terrance said covering his ears due to the squeaking.
Alex sighed and ran to the workshop. Aislynn and scarecrow weren't there but the oil can was. Aislynn and scarecrow had been set up as guards on the way to Alyssa's room so that no one would disturb them while dorothy was at work. As he brought the oil can over to Tin man, he started with the obvious place, so they would know what happened, his mouth.
"now, why were you in the dungeons anyways?" Alex asked once tin man's mouth was free of rust.
"I was looking for Finley, you know he usually frequents the dungeons, and since he wasn't in the library, I figured that'd be the next best place to look." Tin man said.
"but it's incredibly damp down there, you must have started rusting quite quickly." Ozma said.
"Indeed, my pump jammed so it made it slightly more difficult, it's a wonder I even managed to make it up here, though the fear of possibly getting stuck somewhere without anyone knowing was enough to try and make it back." Tin man said shivering.
"you know, I may as well ask, have you ever considered having your joints plated in, oh I don't know, nickel or something of that nature?" Alex asked curiously.
"Now why in Lurline's name would I do that?" Tin Man asked curiously.
"because you would rust less often." Ozma said
"I'm sure the tin's smith that put you together could explain the process better than any of us can." Alex said as he continued on the rest of the joints.
"I honestly never really thought about it, I wonder if scarecrow could actually help out in that regard." Tin Man said starting to become curious about the whole prospect.
"you'll have to wait until Dorothy's finished to even ask him though, and who knows how long that'll take." Alex said sighing.
"oh, I know that, but I also have to remember to even ask him." Tin man said.
"we can help in that regard, when he gets back anyways." Terrance said.
"Don't you have your wedding to worry about? I mean it is tomorrow after all." Ellie asked curiously.
"Honestly we've been trying to take our minds off it, it's making us rather jittery." Terrance said shivering.
"Which is understandable, it's a big day for you two tomorrow, you are both within your own rights to be incredibly nervous about it." Tin man said.
"that's true enough, doesn't really make me feel much better about it though." Terrance sighed.
"also, understandable." Tin man added.
Terrance let out a nervous chuckle before taking the oil can from alex and started helping. he and Terrance continued oiling tin man's joints in silence for a few minutes before Ozma sniffed the air. Surprisingly, apart from what she expected, the air smelt like fresh baked cookies instead of cake which everyone knew Brianna was working on.
"Yes, I noticed that too, Brianna said she wasn't going to make the cookies until after the cake was finished though, and it's supposed to be huge." Ellie said.
"oh, I finished a while ago, haven't you guys been keeping track of the time?" Brianna asked coming into the chambers with a steaming plate of cookies.
"No, we haven't, but it feels like we haven't been in here for more than an hour." Ellie said.
Alex and Terrance both checked their watches, they both read half past 2 in the afternoon, they had managed to lose several hours without realizing it.
"its half passed two, how did that happen?" Alex asked holding his watch to his ear to make sure it was still ticking.
Not only was the watch still ticking, but when he put his next to Terrance's he found they were perfectly synchronized. Both of them had several questions most of them being the same, but they knew for a fact they weren't likely to get any answers.
"How could so much time have passed without us noticing?" ellie asked curiously.
"why don't you just save yourself the questions and do what you always do?" Madeline asked as she suddenly appeared in the room.
"What's that?" They all asked in response.
"Just blame me." Madeline said smiling wide.
"When have we ever done that?" Alex asked curiously.
"Well maybe not you specifically, but it's become a bit of a habit around here, if something stranger than normal happens, to just pin the blame on me, I quite like it actually, gives me a sense of more purpose than just making hats and reading Dorothy's thoughts when they come along." Madeline said still smiling.
"well, judging by the fact that you're here, am I right in assuming that dorothy and Alyssa are finished with the picture?" Terrance asked curiously.
"yes, finished no more than ten minutes ago." Madeline said taking out her own watch and looking at it.
Alex shook his head and walked over to Madeline, once again holding his own watch next to hers, they were also perfectly synchronized. Before he could ask any further questions though, the scepter let out a loud, irritated sounding ping as if it were saying 'just give up, you aren't going to get any real answers from her'
"you know, I do have the right to be curious in this situation." Alex said shutting his watch and returning it to his pocket before holding his hand out for the scepter.
"in case you were wondering though, dorothy has returned to her room, I think she's waiting for you." Madeline said.
Alex sighed and decided not to take the matter any further, leaving the chambers without a word he quickly made his way to Dorothy's room. As he walked in, he found her lying on her bed, the slippers sitting on the floor looking like that had just been dumped there. Dorothy however looked completely drained as she lay there just staring at the swirling vine pattern on the ceiling.
"you noticed it, too didn't you?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"the time jumps?" Alex asked.
"yes, that may or may not have been my own fault." Dorothy said shifting her position to a sitting one, her back against the headboard.
"how so?" Alex asked curiously.
"well, when we were getting started, Alyssa said time wasn't of the essence and that we had all day to do it, I told her it was great as I needed time to do the job properly, came out great in my opinion, but you'll have to wait until after the wedding to see it." Dorothy said sighing.
"I still don't see the correlation." Alex said walking over to her and sitting on the bed by her feet.
"well, as soon as I finished saying that, the clock in Alyssa's room struck the hour then stopped mid chime." Dorothy said.
"and you think father time was interpreting your words literally?" Madeline asked appearing in the room giggling.
"yes Maddie, I told you that earlier." Dorothy said.
"well you probably aren't wrong, what time did however, seems to be setting time to remain in today while you worked on the picture, we were there for longer than you know, and you feel completely drained because of it." Madeline said.
"because that definitely makes me feel better." Dorothy said.
"well, all things considered you and Alyssa both just lived through two full days essentially mashed into one, these guys all remained frozen until the time speed up, which explains why tin man's joints rusted badly." Madeline said.
"he knows the dungeons are bad for his joints, it's just far to damp down there." Finley said flying into the room.
"Doesn't help the fact that he was looking for you, where were you anyways?" alex asked curiously.
"the kitchens, assisting Brianna with that giant cake of hers, because even she seems to have little faith of her abilities using a ladder" Finley said referring to the flour on his vest
"I see, and she had you wear gloves I hope?" Madeline asked/
"Gloves, smock, mask, you name it, we were both wearing it, still couldn't keep my vest clean though." Finley said.
"well you are wearing a navy blue, what is that, a butler outfit?" Alex asked.
"Bell hop, but close enough." Finley said.
"ah, right." Alex said
"anyways, if either of you two need me, I'll be at the library with Glinda, she just wanted me to check in with you two." Finley said before flying out.
"he doesn't like to hang about does he?" Madeline asked.
"I feel like you've asked that before." Dorothy said.
"I probably have, and to be brutally honest it wouldn't shock me if I had forgotten." Madeline said sighing before taking out her wand and waving it at the door.
Immediately the door slammed shut and locked. This caused both dorothy and alex to jump.
"why'd you do that?" Alex asked curiously.
"you two deserve some more time alone, I'll tell everyone not to disturb you two until dinner or I'll bring Elena's tray, I haven't decided yet." Madeline said before waving her wand and vanishing.
"okay, so, what just happened?" Alex asked getting up and walking towards the door.
"don't touch it." dorothy said sighing.
"why not?" Alex asked stopping and turning to her.
"we're talking about Maddie." Dorothy said stopping herself there.
Alex thought about this for a moment and several things started coursing through his mind.
"well I see your point, but there's no harm in trying, if anything Maddie would cast a spell on the door in order to stop people from coming in." Alex said reaching for the doorknob.
However, his hand was met with air as the two of them realized they were not where they were meant to be. They were in fact, once more in time's domain, looking they found Alyssa and Terrance. Alyssa now wearing a light gray pair of pants and a plain looking light blue shirt covered by a bath robe, she looked as drained at the moment as dorothy did. Father time however was standing before them, just smiling.
"Any Idea how much power is required to create a localized time distortion like that?" he boomed.
"A lot?" Terrance asked
"do you have any idea why I did so?" He boomed out.
"Because otherwise things would have gone on a lot longer?" Alyssa asked.
"you and Ms. Gale were in that room for the equivalent of a full day, but for everyone in the palace, I ran different rules, unfortunately I did not factor in some things, such as your friend in the dungeons and I do apologize for that." He said walking over to them.
"I thought you perceived every possibility?" Alex asked curiously.
"and sometimes one detail may be overlooked." He responded.
"pretty big detail to overlook, I'm assuming the request was either Glinda or Madeline's doing." Alex said.
"and you would be correct, but I won't tell you on which account." He replied.
"It was more than likely Madeline, as Glinda has made clear, on several occasion's that she is intimidated by you, not because of your powers, but because of one incident, Madeline on the other hand is the only person I'm currently aware of, that has no problem asking you guys for favors." Alyssa said yawning.
"well, you have great deduction skills, ill give you that, I'm not saying you're right, because under the circumstances, Glinda would have much of a reason as hatter would to make the request." He replied.
"well, lets address the elephant in the room now, why did you bring us all here?" Alex asked looking over to dorothy who seemed to be nodding off.
"because I was asked to." Time replied.
"by whom?" Alex responded, the scepter pinging in a curious tone.
"Lady Cassandra, she was fully aware of the time distortion I created, she contacted me and asked that I bring you four here when it was said and done, why, I haven't the foggiest, I see everything, but I cannot read thoughts." Time said.
"unless someone happens to be thinking out loud, which I never do." Came the voice of Cassandra.
"ah, there, now explain to me why you wanted specifically these four brought here?" time asked curiously.
Cassandra said nothing, she simply walked over to dorothy who yawned again. She smiled and produced a silver goblet, inside was a steaming gold liquid. She said nothing more but handed the goblet to her.
"Cassandra, what is that?" Alex asked.
"just a little elixir to give her some pep, when you return it will be almost tomorrow." Came Madeline's voice
"what are you talking about?" Dorothy asked warily sniffing the concoction.
"well from our point of view its been nearly 8 hours since I locked the door on you two, everyone is aware you're here." Madeline said.
"What? Why so late?" Alyssa and Terrance asked worriedly.
"you wouldn't accomplish anything in your state of worry, so we arranged for this." Madeline said walking over to Cassandra.
"somehow, I'm not surprised, Maddie, is it safe?" Dorothy asked.
"perfectly, its off my own design." Madeline said.
"not very reassuring." Alex, Alyssa, and Terrance said
"anyways, why for me?" Dorothy asked curiously
"because these three are used to standing up catnaps, you lose to much sleep and you pass out at the drop of one of my hats." Madeline said.
"Still doesn't provide any decent explanation." Alex said.
"in short, I personally need her to be awake and alert as possible, I had Cassandra make the potion because I don't trust myself with a brew, I've made over 100 times, its essentially a safer version of the energy potion." Madeline said sighing.
"it's perfectly safe, just drink it." Cassandra said/
Dorothy nodded and downed the entire contents of the goblet, it tasted sweet, almost like an unhealthy mix of apples, apricots, and sugar. After a few moments she began to feel more awake and more alert as promised by her double.
"now, how does that feel?" Madeline asked chuckling.
"worrying, how long will this last?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Until long after the wedding, probably by tomorrow night, everyone else in the palace has been working non-stop to get everything set up perfect, we just needed you guys out of the way, so it would be a surprise." Madeline said smiling.
"so why did Cassandra have to be involved?" Dorothy asked.
"Because Glinda would not have approved otherwise." Cassandra said.
"So, answer me this then, what does any of this actually have to do with us?" Alex asked curiously.
"Nothing whatever, but it was easier to just have the four of you here as you four play the largest parts in the wedding, Alyssa and Terrance being the bride and groom, and you two being maid of honor and best man respectively." Time boomed out.
"I'm confused now, that doesn't make as much sense as it should in my mind." Alyssa said.
"Essentially you guys aren't going to have to worry about a thing." Madeline said.
"And you're the one in charge of it? Because if that's so, forgive me for not feeling too reassured." Alex said.
"I'm starting to feel like we've been brought here to stall for time and make pointless banter." Terrance said.
"no, that's what I'm creating, pointless banter, trying to take your minds off a subject that we keep on jumping back too, like I said, from my point of view you all have been gone for hours, and that is what we arranged, Cassandra only plays a minor role here for once, and I remain, as usual, the one not bound to conventions." Madeline said smiling.
"That seems pointlessly over complicated." Alex said.
"you're welcome." Madeline said smiling.
"Anyways, from your point of view then, what time is it?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Almost eleven at night, you guys are lucky, we all had to take the long way around." Madeline said.
"eleven, good grief, that is late, but now the question begs to be asked, time said that Cassandra had arranged this, but now you're saying you're the one who put this all in motion, so which part is true?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"oh, it's all the truth, I planned this with Cassandra while you guys were out on that picnic the other day, she set the wheels in motion with time, and I got everything else prepared, and now everything in the palace is prepared and we can return." Madeline said.
"with 13 hours till the wedding." Alex said.
"oh good, these confusing events haven't completely destroyed your ability to do proper math." Madeline said chuckling.
"Okay, next question, where will we all be returning to?" Alyssa asked.
"to where you ought to be." Time said, his voice echoing.
Suddenly, dorothy, alex, and Madeline found themselves back in Dorothy's room, everything as it was when they left, with the exception being that the door was now open. Dorothy's mind was racing at this point and she found herself becoming incredibly confused. The scepter also let out some confused sounding pings to correlate.
"What was the point of all that?" Alex asked sounding rather confused as well.
"To leave you four asking more questions than you'll ever get answers for and to take your mind off of the wedding for the next few hours." Madeline said smiling before waving her wand and vanishing again.
The two of them remained in silence for a few minutes before dorothy got up, stretched, and walked over to the window.
"you know something alex?" Dorothy asked.
"what?" He replied.
"I don't think I'm actually going to be able to sleep tonight." Dorothy said sighing.
