Chapter Seventeen

Suzy had been removed from the tub into a spare bedroom where she was handed a towel and offered a cup of tea. The peculiar man that she now knew as Ed still gaped at her in astonishment. An exercise she hoped he would tire of, she'd never had anyone leer at her the way he did, except for perhaps Arthur at his welcome back ball, when she had been wearing that dress. But even then there was never anything as intense or unnerving in that gaze as there was in Ed's. Artemis was still conversing with Ed, desperately trying to think of a logical way to explain her origins. Of course there was none. All the boy could say was that she came from another world, and that only made Ed's little head spin.

"Another country? Outer space? Is there more of her kind?"

My kind! She thought, flabbergasted. You'd think I was a species.

"I don't know," Artemis replied truthfully, and then he turned to her and repeated the question.

Suzy shrugged in response a gesture she'd found very useful in the last few minutes.

"All I know is, well I don't suppose mom's told you"

Ed frowned. "Told me what sport,"

Artemis folded his arms crossly. "Don't call me that"

"Artie then" Ed decided.

Suzy giggled to see how much the new nickname irked Artemis the way it did his father.

"What hasn't Leaf told me?"

"You should go over and talk to her now," Artemis said simply. "She'd be the better one to explain"

Noon, Dusk, Noon,

They found themselves in a circular room, a great expanse of white marble flooring. The walls were lined with shelves that curved down from the sky-high ceiling to their feet. Each shelve bearing thousands, upon thousands of our glasses, some turned over so the sand ran down to the bottom, some remained settled, and others periodically turned themselves over. "What in blazes" Arthur began.

"The time life" Noon explained.

"Pardon me?" Scamandross inquired.

Noon sighed. "Each hourglass represents a life, within the House and outside of it. The sand is their aging; they turn themselves when the time is right to continue advancing in years. The ones that simply rest are mostly of children, not meant to mature just yet. The ones turning themselves are of the adolescent or preteen, growing into young men and women. The ones that have been manually turned by Time herself are of the elderly, for when their time runs out."

"This woman is in control of how long my life lasts?"

Noon shook his head in refusal. "Au contraire. The hourglass may only be moved at a time suitable, your clock is not to be turned again until you are old or supremely weakened."

Chauncey sniffled from behind them. "What happens if one of them glasses fall?"

"The life ends, the years of sand swirl into wind and return to the void" Noon informed them. As he finished saying this one of the hourglasses shattered, the shards falling to the floor and the sand beginning to swirl. "That also happens when a life naturally ends"

The whole group gulped.

"Is it time already?" an unfamiliar voice rushed into the room.

Arthur cursed and then shouted. "Who goes there?"

"I'll ask the questions" the voice snapped shrilly. A woman followed the voice, radiant and ageless, though surely by history she should be old and gray.

"Time" Noon whispered and then knelt before her with his head bowed.

She looked down at him and a corner of her mouth quirked up in approval. "Lord Arthur," she addressed him. "At long last, you have arrived."

"What is it you want?"

"Permission to select an heir from your realms"

Noon's head shot up at this. "An heir? From the realms?" Arthur couldn't help but feel as though there was a hint of sadness in Noon's voice. "Time, surely, this must be some mistake,"
The glow of Time's radiance flashed out to look down at the Denizen at her feet. "Dusk? Truly, time does fly," she murmured before extending a hand down to brush his cheek. The pallor beginning to resettle on Noon's face instantly pulsed with eternal glow. "You are a Noon now,"

"My term ends, as Time runs out of hand, my old self resumes it's place"

Time's expression softened. "you object to a human heir" she stated.

"Must this be discussed now?" he pleaded.

Time pursed her lips. "Go, to my chambers, you know the way" she instructed.

It was only a second before a flash of light consumed Noon and he was gone. Time sashayed towards Arthur. "As I was saying, an heir"

"Do whatever you want just leave me out of it" Arthur snapped. He was tired, spent, he wanted to go back to the manor with irritable Dame Primus and Suzy and…SUZY! "Time, I lost a friend of mine back in the flood"

"In the coal cellar," Time drawled disgustedly.

"Yes…how did you know?"

"It leaked into the secondary realms while I was recruiting my heir, I had to bring him here to recuperate. He's gone back home now."

Arthur shook his head. "Yes well, I lost her in the flood. How can I find her?"

"She most likely was swept into your world. Would you have me locate her too?"

"If you could."

Time grumbled before extending her hands. "Time moves forwards but back as well take me to when there was a knell, of warning from a treacherous sea, near drowned and submerged many be and to the survivor of such storm who would in any case seem out of the norm" a sphere of light formed in her hands and she whipped it at the gigantic dial. The face of it dissolved to reveal a glass that began to reflect numerous images. Time stood before it, staring intently. "Was she covered in a garb of strange garments? A robe and multicolored coat?"

"Yes!" Arthur clung to Time's arm desperately. "Please where is she?" He wanted to get Suzy back home, where she belonged with him. Arthur shook his head. He hadn't just thought that. No. He wanted Suzy back at the House, because she made it interesting. Not because he, wanted her. "Tell me where she is," he pleaded still.

"With a man,"

"A man!" Arthur shrieked alarmed.

"Of kin to you I believe, Ed, is it?"

"Oh my gosh! She's back home! But I can't go there."

"Mayhap the improbable stair can assist you" Time suggested.

Scamandross and Chauncey shuffled uncomfortably behind him. Neither had ever been on the stair, only heard fantastic wives tales about it leading one to off kilter lands. "I would vouch to stay here," the Doctor volunteered. Time spun on him then

"I fear you cannot, I have business I need conduct here and you will throw off my concentration"

"As though time wasn't off anyway" Chauncey snorted and then laughed, the doctor promptly joining in.

"Out" Time ordered.

"We don't know how to go back." Chauncey squeaked.

Time sighed, exasperated by their hopelessness "I'll hire a cloud for you, when Arthur needs you he can call. Right Arthur?"

"Uh, mmm, yes yes whatever you say." Arthur rambled out an answer. He was too busy trying to visualize the array of clocks as a stair to leap onto.

"And my heir?" Time asked sweetly.

"Do what you will! Choose whomever you see fit as an heir!" he shouted before landing his right foot solidly on the bottom of a grandfather clock and sailing up into a blinding flash.

"As for you!" Time snapped and a cloud came whizzing in, she efficiently dumped both Chauncey and the doctor on the cloud that whimpered with the impact and gave it a smack to go on its way. "Just take them far away" she called after her it. "Far, far, away"

Reunion.

Noon positioned himself comfortably on a lounge chair as he took in his surroundings; everything was just as the last time he had been there. Just as elegant, as immaculate, as comforting, as full of the essence of the goddess he had left so long ago.

"I see you have made yourself at home" Time whispered as she materialized in the air before him.

"It's hard not to, every bit of this place reeks with you. You've always made me at home."

Time muffled a giggle. "Forgive me but I have a hard time accepting this change, how did you become Noon?"

"A story too long to tell" Noon smiled.

"I've time" she mused.

"But I don't" Noon's cheer dissipated. "In fact too much of that has passed since I last saw you"

"Indeed. I gather you do not approve a human heir"

"I feel there are others more fitting. Who else to be Father Time, if not Time's old consort"

A firey blush rushed across Time's face. Her expression was most sincere as she said. "The son of our Master, Lord Arthur"

Noon choked. "Arthur's son? Does he know?"

"He permitted me to choose who I will."

Noon leaned in close and hissed. "You know full well Lord Arthur will be angry, Dame Primus besides"

"Piffle on Dame" Time dismissed this with a wave of her hand. "Doubtless she already had plans for the boys at any rate"

"The boy does not deserve this," Noon whispered hotly. "Arthur doesn't, his wife doesn't."

"Did I deserve to be thrown away like discarded trash by our Architect? To be bound by a contract that began this whole mess?" she spat.

Noon pulled back and regarded her closely. "Did I, Mistress Time, deserve to have my love put on hold?"

Time bit her bottom lip. "I have missed you, be assured of that."

Noon exhaled and rubbed his head. "What will I tell the others when I get back, they will be curious of our conversation"

Time's eyes shone as she lunged at him and her lips met his. "Tell them how time flies" she breathed.