(A/N): Happy Halloween! Got my obligatory Halloween October TIWTW upload ready to go B) Imagine actually writing your fic.
—
The morning started slow and dreary, how they all seemed to now. The ninja dragged themselves awake to bone-deep aching and dread crushing their eyelids.
Kai rotated the stiffness out of his shoulder blearily, wincing as his arm twinged again. First Karlof falling asleep on him, then Lloyd—like he was a walking furnace or something. He'd need new shoulders at this rate. Maybe a new head, too, given how his was pounding from his spotty sleep.
Carefully, he walked past the other beds, empty except for Cole, freshly relieved of his night shift. Stepping outside revealed the other ninja, groggily portioning out food and bracing themselves for the day. Zane was tending to the painful-looking wounds on Skylor's head while Karlof fussed over her. The expression on her face made Kai's mouth twitch up before he shook his head and redirected his attention to Jay and Lloyd, who had been talking in oddly quiet voices for Jay's regular volume levels before they whipped their heads towards the door at Kai's entrance.
"Good morning, Kai," Zane chirped, directing a weary smile at Kai before focusing his gaze on Skylor again.
"Kai!" Jay called. "Oh my gosh, I forgot you're back. I can't believe I'm saying this but I've missed your stupid hedgehog hair!"
"Hedgehog hair?"
"Personally I get more of a sea urchin feeling from it," Skylor chimed in.
"Et tu, Skylor?! Why did I even come back, I should have just set up camp in one of those tunnels and called it home—"
"I take it back," Jay said.
"Speak for yourself," Lloyd retorted.
"See? Lloyd appreciates greatness when he sees it, unlike the rest of you."
"Yeah, I for one would totally miss your overgrown bramble bush head in the mornings."
"I should have left you in that volcano."
—
Shortly after the sleepy banter wound down, Cole woke up just in time for everyone to eat breakfast. Stomachs rumbled even after they'd finished eating; their meals were meager survival fare, packed for missions, and on top of that they were rationing it so they wouldn't burn through food and starve before they escaped.
"Are you sure you do not want more food for breakfast?" Zane inquired to Jay, who was picking at Chax Mix. "I am able to have Kai melt my ice to rehydrate a more filling meal."
"Not hungry," Jay muttered. "Also Chax Mix is the best start to the day, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Again?" Cole, ever the team nag, chimed in. "Jay, you haven't eaten enough food for a full meal the whole time we've been here."
"Wait, you haven't been eating?" Kai said.
"I don't think I could keep any more down even if I tried, okay? Leave me alone," Jay snapped. "Let's just find a way out of here and I'll feel better."
"Hey, don't gang up on him," Lloyd said. "We should be eating, but I get it. I'm not very hungry either …"
"Blue ninja can eat more later," Karlof said firmly. "Work up appetite. Focus on finding escape for now."
After a beat, the other ninja deflated and dropped it. Then, taking Karlof's advice, Lloyd started asking for what their leads were. There was precious little to work with besides the passages, so they would have to keep looking. Kai pulled out his phone, anxious to get through to Nya, before Jay flatly told him to forget it—he and Lloyd had already tried it, and gotten absolutely zilch. Then Kai and Karlof offered up the passages that they had found while they were lost, and Zane hatched them into his holographic map with delicate blue strokes.
"You didn't happen to see Shade at all while you were lost?" Skylor asked. Karlof shook his head bitterly, and she let out a tense sigh.
"Of course not. That would make things too easy. Just when I'd finally settled on a dang date, too."
"Shade never make anything easy," Karlof said, grinning wanly.
"Don't I know it," Skylor grumbled. "Can I come along? This is giving me a really bad feeling and I want to keep an eye out for him."
"I am afraid that any encounters with the monster outside would exacerbate your concussion and head injuries as they are now," Zane protested. "I apologize for suggesting you remain here yet again while we are out, but I do not know what damage it is capable of causing."
"We'll keep an eye out for him, Sky," Kai added. "Promise. We'll tear him a new one for ruining your reunion plans if we find him."
Discontent roiled behind Skylor's eyes, but finally she nodded in agreement. "I'm holding you to that. If I'm not worse tomorrow, though, I'm coming. I'm tired of being stuck here waiting to see what happens."
Zane looked concerned at the suggestion, but didn't argue.
Next was the question of who would stay behind for the patrols. Zane needed to go as he was putting together the holographic map, Kai and Karlof needed to go to corroborate what they'd seen before, and Lloyd had already stayed with Skylor the day before. Cole agreed to stay behind for part of the day, but only after promising he'd swap out with someone later in the day.
And that was that. The party headed off, grimly prepared for whatever they might find.
—
The morning proved tiring and unfruitful in terms of finding anything useful on the second floor, but they were at least able to map out more of the mansion's second floor. Cole swapped out with a reluctant Lloyd, who had worn himself out taking a wrong turn in a passageway, and the party headed out for round two.
To cover more ground, the group split into two smaller sections, with stern warnings to stay close together. Cole and Zane ducked into a ruined bedroom to see if they'd missed anything, while Kai, Jay and Karlof slipped into a small workshop next to them.
Kai pulled at the drawer of yellowed paper records next to a desk, whooping triumphantly as the opposing wall opened with a deep rumble.
In the corner, Jay hummed as he picked up a key. Experimentally, he stuck it into the handle of a small door near him. To everyone's surprise, the door swung open to reveal shelves overflowing with strewn-about equipment.
"Whoa," Kai remarked, walking up behind Jay. "What is all this stuff?"
"Some of it looks like tools for machines," Jay replied, already riffling through the items with the total disregard of someone used to throwing all caution to the wind. "Which makes sense, since there was some kinda clockmaker dude living here. Hold on, this looks like …" Stretching his arms to reach behind other debris, Jay grabbed and pulled out …
"Medical equipment?" Karlof asked.
"I guess so. There's rolls of bandages, there's dressing, scissors, some kinda wipes …"
The three looked at each other.
"Do. Do we take it?"
"What choice do we have? We're burning through our stuff." Jay scoffed. "Besides, they won't miss it. They're dead."
"Blue ninja not very sensitive," Karlof said, grimacing. "But correct."
"Well, let's go show Cole and Zane then!" Jay turned towards the door, but he and Kai flinched at the loud CRASH! of shattering wood and glass. Karlof yelped and stepped away from the clock he had accidentally knocked off the desk, but before he could say anything, a purple mist fizzed from the remains—
[The world goes awash with sepia. A bloodied Cole shoves the door open and darts in, panicking. He stumbles on his feet and collapses, staining the floor in crimson.
The light pooling in from the entryway goes dark.
He doesn't get back up.]
Color bled back into their visions like a slap.
It was just the three of them again.
For once, Jay was silent, expression shell-shocked. A shaking hand reached towards the spot where the phantom of Cole's body had been.
"What was that?" Kai said breathlessly. "Cole? Why did it show him—You!" he barked, turning to Karlof. "What did you do?!"
"Nothing!" Karlof cried. "Only bumped into clock and it broke. Karlof don't know what happened!"
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the rasp of their harrowed breaths. Then Kai spun past Jay and grabbed at the door.
"Cole!"
—
"Eugh," Cole said eloquently, eyes roaming over the blood on the floor and the sheets of the bed. "Is this fresh? What happened in here?"
"You will have to forgive Kai. It is his blood," Zane informed him. "I found him here on the day we arrived here after we were first attacked."
"He lost all of that and then went missing for a whole day? I'm surprised he's not doing worse."
Zane's weary chuckle told him that he wasn't alone in sharing that feeling.
Kai and Zane had been in this room before, so they had probably poked through the room already, but it was still worth trying to find anything that could help them escape, like a key or a passage switch. Cole swiftly divvied up the room between him and Zane to conduct a more thorough search.
Before they could get their hands really dirty, though, the rattling of the door knob sent them both jumping.
Zane immediately reached for his shuriken. As the rattling turned to frantic knocking, Cole tried to swallow past the lump in his throat and willed his hands not to shake. He knew it was a possibility the moment he'd stepped out of their bedrooms, but he wasn't ready for it again, not yet, not so soon.
"Cole! It's us!" Jay's muffled voice carried through the door.
The sound of his friend's voice made him exhale a breath he didn't know he was holding, but there was a rough edge to it that kept his hair standing up.
"Is the spirit attacking you?!"
"No!" Kai this time. "Just let us in!"
Unsure what to expect, Cole hastily stepped up to the door and unlocked it.
He was met with Kai barreling into him, arms wrapping around his back, followed up with Jay and an exceptionally heavy Karlof doing the same until his ribs ached over his pounding heart.
"Uh. Not that I don't appreciate it immensely," he said, wriggling until they loosened their grip. "But what's all this about? Are you guys okay?"
Jay, Karlof, and Kai exchanged a look.
"Not it."
"Also not it."
"Ugh." Kai pushed his hair back. "Fine." Taking a deep breath, looking nervous in a way that immediately set off red flags, he turned to Cole.
"We were exploring some kinda workshop and suddenly everything went all old-looking, like a photo. Then you walk in, all beaten up and bloody, and you—it looked like you died. But then it went back to normal, and you weren't actually there."
Cole's stomach flipped.
"Why did you guys see that?"
"Karlof telling you, it was clock that caused it!"
"How?" Kai retorted. "How could knocking over a clock cause that?"
"Not ordinary clock! Felt different. Wrong."
"Whoooa, okay!" Jay butt in, eyes narrowing with a pointed gleam. "In the world of science, there's only one way you find anything out." With a flourish, he brandished his nunchucks.
"We test it."
Then, before anyone could protest, he whipped them at the clock on the wooden nightstand near Zane, sending shards and splinters flying with a sharp crack!
For a moment, nothing. Everyone stared at Jay.
"Don't look at me like that. Karlof's right, that felt super wrong when I broke it. Kinda tingly? And cold. Whoa—"
[Cautiously, Zane inches his hand closer to the doorknob, and twists. Thankfully, he was able to confirm Kai's presence in the room with his thermal vision. Now all that is left is to find the other two—
Before his light receptors can adjust to the dim room, something sharp stabs through his torso. The world goes white in a flash of pain. Faintly above the crunching of wires and the sound of his own scream, he hears Kai babbling.
"Zane! No no no, I thought you were the spirit and I panicked. I'm sorry Zane, stay with me—!"]
The world spun when the vision faded, and Cole felt sick.
Zane's hand was clenched in front of his abdomen, where he had witnessed himself being impaled.
"Zane." Kai rasped. "I-I would never do that. I don't know how it's doing that, or why."
"It looked so real …" Cole whispered.
"Is every single clock in this mansion like that?" Jay whined. "I reeeally hope not."
Cole forced himself to breathe in until his lungs filled up. Then out.
… Huh.
He felt less suffocated, although he wasn't inclined to offer up that vulnerability. He could almost breathe easy again. His thoughts were still running away with him about what on the ever-loving planet was happening to them, but the oppressive edge that this mansion had held against his neck felt blessedly absent now.
"Wait." Zane said, turning everyone's attention to him. "PIXAL is detecting a sudden fluctuation in magic readings."
"Don't say even more now," Karlof groaned.
"On the contrary. After breaking that clock, it seems to have drastically reduced. And furthermore … I am able to discern the time."
"Even clocks are magic now?"
"What time is it, Zane?" Cole asked.
"It is currently 2:35 in the afternoon."
"Guys," Jay whimpered. There was a realization in his voice that sent Cole on edge. "Didn't Zane say that magic is keeping us trapped here? And do you remember what Lloyd said about the flow of time being all messed up?"
"No." Kai grit out. "No. We're not breaking every single one of the clocks in here."
"What other choice we have, huh?" Karlof countered. "What other option is there?"
Cole considered the question before he weighed in.
"I hate to say it, but Karlof's right. I just wanna know how it's possible. Those things in the clocks didn't happen, obviously, because I'm still here and Zane isn't scrap metal. How did it look so real?"
"The magic here has already shown it can interfere with our physical energy levels and our powers," Zane pointed out. "It is even interfering with the function of my power source. Perhaps it is twisting even our own anxieties against us, showing us the worst possible outcomes of our actions."
"Let me get this straight." Kai fumed. "Magic clocks show us futures where all our friends die to that thing to mess with our heads? And we have to break those if we want to get rid of the curse and get out?"
There was a loaded moment of quiet where the party processed this.
Jay made a strained whimper. "So this is all some twisted joke, huh?" His voice cracked at the end of the question. "Well, I'm not laughing. It's not funny."
"I knew the mansion would not be easy to escape, but this … is especially cruel." Zane whispered.
It was too much. Cole couldn't be here anymore, out in this maze where the spirit could descend on them at any moment and make them a footnote in history, where everything wanted to eat away at them and leave nothing behind.
"Come on," he said at length. "We have to tell Lloyd and Skylor about this."
—
Zane's internal clock went haywire as soon as they left the room.
"Of course," Kai growled. "Great. What do we do about that?"
"Should we break more of those clocks?" Zane suggested.
"Ugh. I hate to say it, but I agree with Zane," Jay sighed. "How about we stick to the clocks that are right in front of us? That way we get back quick, but still put a dent in the curse on the way."
So the ninja broke the clocks they walked past, gritting their teeth with each new thing they saw. Heads buzzed with racing questions and curses. The ninja had never been a particularly spiritual group, in spite of their connections to the First Master, but there might have been a plea or two in their thoughts. Just in case anything benevolent was listening.
—
[ A hooded figure bursts into the guest room, panting and keening with pain.
The woman sitting at the desk, clad in purple with gold jewelry, bolts to her feet and abandons the paper and ink before her.
"What happened, Hissra?" she demands.
The figure wails, high pitched keening sobs piercing through the soft fizzing of the fireplace. They pull their hood down to reveal a pale green Serpentine face, bruised and bloodied.
"I wass out on the intel mission, but they had one of the Shuravansha sscouts captive! I-I couldn't leave him there to get tortured. The other Sserpentine ssaw uss and gave chasse."
The woman, stunned, works her mouth open and shut.
"So they know the route to the Shuravansha mansion?"
" … I'm s-ssorry. I'm ssso ssorry."
For a moment, the air crackles with wood and tension. Then the woman moves forward, takes Hissra by the wrist, and drags her to sit on the bed.
"Thank you for the warning."
"W-where are you going?! If they ssee me like this, they'll know I'm Serpentine!" "Stay here. I'm sending another informant to tend to your wounds."
With her eyes darkening, the woman turns, stuffs her belongings into a royal purple bag, and marches out the door. Her steps thud over Hissra's muffled sniffling.
"I have a war to prepare for." ]
"Wait, is that one of those Serpentine spies you were talking about?" Kai blinked. "Then that must mean the woman is …"
"Hold on," Cole grumbled. "How come this vision showed people from the past? We don't know who they are. That wouldn't get in our heads at all."
"Just when ya think you've figured something out, it goes ahead and throws you another curveball."
"Well, when you have new data, you gotta change the hypothesis," Jay declared. "There's weird timey wimey stuff going on, right? Maybe some of the clocks show the past, and some of them show potential futures."
"You're being weirdly cavalier about this," Cole remarked.
"Oh, do you want me to cry and scream and throw myself down the stairs? I've been trying really hard to keep my head on straight, but if that's what the people want, then …"
"May I bring our attention back to the matter at hand?" Zane snipped. "Jay's theory does make some sense. It is worth using it as an explanation until we learn more."
"But how the mechanics work? Why some clocks able to show past and some clocks show future, but not present?" Karlof mused.
"Only one way to find out," Kai said grimly, pushing the switch to the passage.
—
[ "How does a person his size just vanish, anyway?" Skylor asks, moving down the hallway.
"And where could he have gone?" Lloyd agrees. "We already looked downstairs. Twice!"
"Let's keep looking on this floor. Maybe he assumed we went up without him." Lloyd forms a small green energy ball in his hands. It comes to life with a faint hum, power wobbling unsteadily for a moment before stabilizing and brightening.
Neither of them are ready for what the light reveals.
Karlof lies in front of them, leaning against a door. Metal gauntlets are mangled almost beyond recognition, his chest ripped open under his armor.
Skylor gasps in horror and kneels down to examine him, hands shaking at the sight of her friend.
Lloyd stands glued to the spot with shock. ]
"Karlof …?" Cole, stomach churning violently, glanced in the metal elemental's direction.
"No more," Karlof whimpered. The dim light that came through the windows glinted off watery eyes. "Just go straight back, please."
The ninja weren't in any mood to argue.
—
"No. No, no, no, it can't be."
It was such a dumb response, but Lloyd couldn't claw any other words out of his mouth.
"I know," Kai exhaled. "I can't believe it either."
"They're so realistic," Cole said. "Like watching a recording of all these awful things happening to us."
"We have to get out! Now!" Karlof wailed.
"How is that even possible?" Lloyd demanded, pointing to a small mantle clock on a nearby stand. "You mean if I broke that right now, there'd be some weird crystal ball vision in this room?"
"Why don't we find out the hard way?" Skylor said. "Let's see exactly how all this magic can make us even more miserable."
Lloyd blinked at the bitterness dripping off Skylor's voice. The mansion was definitely taking its toll on her, and being stuck in a room while everyone else explored probably wasn't helping. But this was one mystery that she could witness firsthand …
Glancing at everyone for approval, Lloyd squeezed his eyes shut, slowly lifted his katana, and ran it through the face of the clock. It broke with a resonant 'crunch,' and slowly he opened his eyes. Once he took in what was happening to his vision, they flew open.
Incredibly, it was just as the others had said. Wisps of purple dissipated into the air. Then, like coffee stains, brown spilled across his eyesight and—
[A little girl with short black curls excitedly leads a woman in purple robes and brown braids around the room, greeting other people in the rooms and chattering about the training she receives from everyone.
"That's Vik! They teach our navigation lessons so when we get big enough to go on patrol with the others, we don't get lost in the woods!" She points to another woman with messy hair draped around a weary face, wrapped in indigo blues.
"And that's Aya! She teaches our weapons studies. It's my faaavorite class! I don't get to use the swords and spears because everyone else needs them right now …" The girl's face falls. "But when it's all over, I can move to the next level of training. Aya said I'm the best student in my class."
"Hello, Sayika. I hope she's not giving you trouble," Aya says to the stern woman clad in purple.
"Not at all," she responds. "This has been very helpful for acquainting me with the Shuravansha. I even got a complimentary tour." Aya snorts. "I'm glad to hear it. She seems to like you; have you got some stories to keep her interest? She hasn't been this excited in a while, not since … well, forget it. If you need her off your case to focus on your work, come get me." "Noted," says the woman.
"Byee, Aya!" Sayika says. "I have to show her the kitchen now. Papa said they're going to build a tunnel in there!"
The girl leads the other by the hand, before the woman asks a question.
"What do your clansfolk call your Papa? He asked me to call him 'the Clockmaker,' but surely that is not his name." Sayika turned big, questioning eyes her way.
"They call him 'badhaayi.' It means he's a carpenter. Papa doesn't like his name but he won't say why."
The woman paused to ponder this information.
"Ah. Forgive my intrusion. I would appreciate completing the tour."
"Yeah, come on! Let's go see the kitchen before they start building!" With a squeal, Sayika tugged them both to the door, slamming it shut behind them.]
"That's what you guys were losing your minds over?" Lloyd said, breaking the hush that had fallen over the room. "That wasn't bad at all!"
"Hey, none of ours were that cute!" Jay protested. "No fair, how come all the ones we saw are all doom and gloom and you get the kid?"
"I'm just that special, I guess."
"That must have happened in the past, too!" Kai butted in. "We saw that same woman in the purple—she was in our old room before we moved over here, and one of those snake spies came in to warn her about an attack!"
"So is that our elemental master?" Skylor mused. "We still don't know why Shade would have wanted to come here. Maybe she has something to do with it?"
"What Shade want with old master?"
"Beats me," she scoffed. "Not like he ever told me anything."
"Did the Serpentine in the clock vision really seem loyal?" Lloyd asked.
"Weirdly, yeah," Cole said. "She said something about how she got caught rescuing a Shuravansha scout. Doesn't seem like something you'd do if you weren't actually trying to help."
("So that's how you say it," Jay muttered to himself.)
"We know how to say the name of the Clockmaker's daughter now, too," Skylor said, sounding the name out. "SAH-yi-kah."
"The magic levels in this room have decreased significantly as a result of shattering that clock," Zane remarked. "Is our new plan to locate every clock and break it?"
"There's so many," Jay groaned. "That's gonna take forever."
"Well, let me know if you come up with anything better, sparkplug," Cole said grimly.
"We'd also get closer to knowing what happened here if there's more clocks with visions like that," Skylor agreed. "I know it's been a long day, but maybe we should read one more diary entry from that elemental master to see if she mentions anything like what we just saw."
"Over food. After today, I'm not hungry—and I can't believe I'm saying that—but we have to keep our energy up."
—
As everyone settled down to eat, Zane took a few portions of spare food out of his bag for the others to help themselves before moving over to Jay. The latter, he noted concernedly, had only pecked at half his meal before packing the rest away.
"Jay, are you free?"
Jay looked up from his phone to see Zane and put it away.
"Yeah, I'm not up to much, heheh. Just trying to see if I can get anything working on my communicator or my phone, since we still haven't gotten any word out," he sighed. "But that can wait. What's up?"
"I … You have not eaten much lately."
Jay's mouth twisted into a frown. "You too?"
"I did not mean to be pushy," Zane said hastily. "I apologize; I am merely concerned. I came to ask if I could speak with you privately for a moment."
Jay put his hand to his mouth, eyebrows scrunching together pensively. "Private is hard to get around here if we wanna be safe. We definitely can't go outside. How about the passage?"
Zane indicated that the passage system was an agreeable solution, and they made their way out after promising the other ninja they would return.
"Alright, Zane," Jay said once the passage door groaned shut. "What's going on?"
"I wanted to address two things, actually," Zane said, eyes bright against the gloom. "I would like you to check my internal technology and confirm whether its efficiency has improved after the clock in this room was broken—as I said, I suspect they release magic due to my internal clock being able to detect a time, even if it may be off."
"I was wondering about that, actually! You got it."
"But first, I wanted to inform you again about something we have discussed previously." Zane riffled through the information in his mind in search of one particular file. Then he projected a holograph of a line chart through his eyes and let Jay examine it as he spoke.
"This graph represents the readings of magic levels surrounding you. I wanted to make you aware that your levels have increased since I last told you about this. Is it possible that this is behind your lack of appetite and poor mood? If there is a way to dispel it, like the clocks we found, I would like to pursue that. I am concerned it is negatively affecting you."
"Oh." Jay blinked, clearly disconcerted. "Uhhh, wow. That line sure is going up. But maybe breaking the clocks will make it go down too?"
"I dislike the idea of simply waiting and observing," Zane fretted, thinking about how much his friends had struggled with the effects of the mansion's magic curse. "We do not know how it will affect you in the meantime."
"I know!" Jay threw his hands up. "But what else am I supposed to do? I can't just say a magic word and make it all go away!"
He sighed then, and Zane was painfully aware of how exhausted his friend looked under the veil of determination he was trying to take on—deep bags sat under dark eyes, and Jay idly picked at scarring wounds inflicted by the spirit. How thin this mansion was stretching all of them. If only all the power housed in his core, thrumming through his parts, were enough to banish his family's pain.
"If it helps, I don't feel that worse? Anyway," Jay waved his hand, oblivious to Zane's despair. "Come on, Zane. Lemme take a look at you. What's PIXAL saying about your power levels?"
—
Skylor stared down at her food, half-heartedly chewing a mouthful as she processed her thoughts. She had so many new pieces of information, and even more suspicions—and Jay and Zane stepping out had given her the opportunity to look where she could confirm one of them. Something was very wrong with the ninja. Or perhaps, some one.
But she had been distracted into shelving the mystery for later when she realized how her head felt—or didn't feel. And if what the others were saying now about their experiences was true, then …
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the passage door sliding open behind her.
"We're back! Heheh," Jay said. "Miss us?"
"I think that clock we just broke healed our wounds," Skylor blurted out.
She was met with stunned silence.
"I thought we were going to tell them a little more slowly?" Kai chuckled. "But yeah. We compared notes while you were out. My arm isn't totally healed, but it feels a lot better, and apparently Sky's head does, too."
"It doesn't hurt as much to put weight on my leg, either," Cole chimed in.
"... What?"
For all that they had figured out in their careers as ninja, Zane thought, fans whirring with his racing mind, this mansion was going to be the death of him.
—
16 March XXXX
The majority of the shelter rooms have been finished. Finally we can get nearly everyone moved—only a few straggler groups are still waiting, and they remain in the backmost Shuravansha bedrooms. Garmadon owes me dinner, at least. I haven't been this exhausted since Maya had the bright idea to do some "unconventional" practice with her powers and we had to drain the entire monastery.
I might have signed up to do this voluntarily, but that's besides the point.
Sayika hovers close much of the time, and rarely plays with other children. Aya, the weapons trainer and head of the central patrol, informed me that Sayika's mother passed in a recent battle with Serpentine and the whole clan has taken the loss hard. I found her inquisitive, but I had not noticed until now how her behavior changes around her peers and clansfolk. What a horrible thing, to be ripped so suddenly from your family.
Thank the First Master Garmadon allowed my plan for defending the Southern Woodlands. The north is already scrambling after Earth's betrayal, and Birchwood Forest is lost.
If fortune smiles on us, no more people will be lost in this war, human or Serpentine.
—
(A/N): Some pronunciation notes for the ethnic names, paste the names written in Devanagari into Google translate under "Hindi" and then hit the text-to-speech icon for a rough idea of how to pronounce them:
Sayika - सायिका
Shuravansha - शूरअवंशअ (this is totally incorrect for Hindi spelling, just a rough transliteration from Sanskrit to make Google pronounce it correctly)
Hope y'all enjoy the chapter! I'm really excited to introduce the clock mechanic. Unfortunately this will make some people point at me and go [REDACTED MEDIA] even harder but I already knew I wasn't beating the allegations. so