In the world of mirrors, where right is left and up is down. Do not move the hands of time. Walk backwards on the path you taken. Ignore the false eyes that gaze beyond. Only then everything you care for will be safe and sound. -- Anon Guest
I have walked into Rorrim knowing well the hazards. I knew what I had to do. Everything is backwards in Rorrim. It is, after all, the realm of reflection. You go ahead by walking backwards. Everything right is left, everything wrong is right. It's a peculiar realm, but I needed to go there.
To save a life. More specifically, to prevent a death. It's wrong to mess with time, but it's perfectly right in Rorrim. Some people who live there do it all the time. As long as you avoid the Echolalies, you're mostly fine doing anything in there. Mostly.
Do not accept a gift in Rorrim, for that is stealing. Throw coins at people who do you wrong, that is hostility. Pay for things in stone if you must try to trade. Drink sand, and eat toxic leafs and mushrooms. They won't harm you in Rorrim. That said, it's best to fast for a day and a night before you go back. Trust me on this.
It took five Rorrim days to get to the Omniclock, including the time it took to get used to everything being upside-down. Those were five days I would have to take off my calculations. Backwards, remember? Everything is backwards.
You do not adjust clocks in Rorrim. First - there's no need to. Second, they actually control time rather than monitor it. The Omniclock even moreso. For an artifact that has such a great impact, it is a rather small thing. It looks almost like a regular clock. The main difference is that it has hands for days, weeks, months and years. If you know where to look, there's also a hand for decades and centuries. There's rumoured to be ones for millennia and eons, but I can't perceive them. You need to be immortal to see those.
Me? I'm entirely too mortal. So was my Beloved. For my Fen, I am willing to do this. I've been wearing my Locket of Thorns since I made plans to step into Rorrim and take the risks. I've put up with it scratching minor wounds into my skin for five days. The message within is important. It's worth one life.
Finally and at last, I face the Omniclock. I open its case by closing it. One hand on the varnished wooden case, I put my finger to the first hand. I knew the rules. As long as contact is maintained, then the movement of the hands will not be in effect. Anything currently touching flesh will come with you through time when you are done. Move the biggest hands first.
One week, five days, three hours, and fifteen minutes.
Do not move them backwards, as that would only take the worlds of known and unknown reality forwards by that time. No. In Rorrim, you move them forwards.
To a space of time just before things went bad.
"I'm ready," I whispered, and let go.
Dizziness. Disorientation. Debilitating nausea. The three D's of sudden bodily -and temporal- displacement. I was back then again. Fen was alive again. No. It was 'still'. Fen was still alive.
I fell to my knees with the branching pathway still ahead of us. Retched. Memory was already fading, but something was scratching at the skin over my heart.
Fen, my love, doubled back to see to me. Full of concern. "Are you all right?"
"Told you they were banging," said Braid the Bard.
I fished out the locket. I had not been wearing it just seconds ago. There was only one reason why I'd be wearing it. A critical failure in our mission. I had just Undone something.
I bled to open it, and found the message. Turned backwards by a trip through Rorrim, but not a trip back out.
HTAERB S'NOGARD FO HCNARB EHT TA TFEL NRUT
We put it in front of a mirror to read it, and I put the locket of thorns away in the special pouch. I still had my scroll of Recall. Why that was important had faded away.
Paradox protection. I could not go forward from this moment and remember what had gone wrong last time. We only had one hint, and that was it. A message that could fit on a piece of paper big enough to fit in the locket. Twenty-five words at maximum.
We took a short rest, and turned left. Hopefully towards a better fate.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ollyy]
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