Being a nun was hard work. Of course, a lot of work fell upon the High Priestesses of Time, Bridget and Akita, but Cassiopeia had to work just as hard behind the screens. All in service of their deceased goddess, lady Alinavious. Even in her passing, their faith remained strong. Time, the goddess’ legacy, is important and is to be preserved. Right now though, that’s not what the nun was working on. No, right now, she was in the incubation room. The sounds of crying filled the room as there were lots of babies needing to be tended to. She was currently carrying one in her arms; the newest baby, formerly Edwin Thamos. Just earlier that day, Edwin had been a wealthy arcanist. Cassiopeia herself had approached him months ago to ask if he could fund the rebuilding of the temple. He had agreed under the condition that the time elementals could reverse his age and restore his youth. While this did succeed, Edwin got a little more than he’d bargained for, resulting in his infantile state now. The nun cradled him in her arms to try and get him to stop crying. That’s when she suddenly felt a kiss right upon her cheek. Gasping, she looked over to see who it was. Before her stood a posh lady wearing clothes as if she was ready for the desert. Her body was made up of glass. From up in her chest down to her hips, an hourglass could be seen inside. Her arms and legs were covered in black latex and her head and hair were purple. The whites of her eyes were black instead and her irises were swirling. It was almost hypnotic to look at. She carried with her a staff, featuring an hourglass at the top. Cassiopeia was surprised to see this woman at first. Over the last months, she had missed someone in her life. Someone that should have been there, but wasn’t. Images of an hourglass had flashed through her mind countless times. Now though, these feelings vanished. As if they had never been there. As if this person had been there alongside her all this time. Yes, of course, she HAD been there all this time. She was her lover. The Bishop of Alinavious and the youngest sister of Time.
“L-Lavini,” Cassiopeia said. “You startled me.” It was about 5 years ago now that Bridget, Akita and herself had met lady Lavini. Cassiopeia did not like her at first. She thought that the lady was stuck up, overly nice and way too confident about everything she did. The most intriguing part about her though was the fact that she did not know what her name was. According to her, she was a nameless orphan until she was taken in by a mysterious caretaker called Lavini. This caretaker had taught her everything she knew. Time magic, upper class customs, teachings from the goddess and more. As time went on, Lavini had started charming Cassiopeia until finally, the two were caught kissing by Bridget and Akita. She never heard the end of that! Not that it mattered anymore. Still, all that time she just called her ‘Lady’. It wasn’t until Bridget and Akita had transformed into time elementals that Lady had started suspecting something about her caretaker. Sure enough, about a week later, Lavini had led Lady to the hourglass DLC and revealed herself to be Lady from the future. From that moment on, she understood. She accepted the DLC as her own and accepted the name ‘Lavini’ as her own. Cassiopeia found it quite hard to wrap her head around it all but most of all, she felt a little bit left behind. Of the four, she was the only human now. It was then that Lavini used her temporal powers and turned her into the half human, half elemental that she is today.
“I’m sorry, love,” Lavini replied with a chuckle. “How are things going here?”
“The three from last week are making progress,” the nun sighed. “I’m glad you are here now. Means no more new ones.” The room was filled with several machines. Incubation pods. Each held a different baby. Most of them were male and only a handful were female. Each of them victims of their own greed as they mishandled one of the goddess’ special Divine Level Creations in order to regain their youth. Each of them failed however, de-aging them way too much. Now though, to prevent further mishaps, Lavini kept the DLC on her at all times so that it wouldn’t happen anymore. The hourglass stood proudly on top of her staff, shimmering in synchronisation with the sands in her own body.
“I’m sorry, my Cassie,” the bishop said and carefully touched the hourglass in her staff. “I was far too late…”
“It’s alright, my dear,” Cassiopeia said with a smile. “I know you have your reasons. Just so long as you let me in on these reasons every now and then.”
“Of course, love, of course,” Lavini said and gave the nun a careful hug. “Sometimes though, I don’t even quite know the reasons myself. Just that it all has to happen as time decides.” The baby, Edwin, tried to grab at her hair but she quickly got out of the way again from his grabby little hands.
“Will you stay here with me?” the nun asked.
“Not quite yet, I’m afraid, but I will in a moment.” the hourglass keeper said. Ever since her transformation, she has been going back in time to guide her younger self as well as others in the past. She does this in order to preserve the current timeline and she simply knows what exactly needs to happen in order for current events to come to pass. As such, she sometimes had to give the past a helping hand. She used her staff to create a portal of sand. “About a week ago, ‘someone’ needs to inform a certain thief about a wealthy old man visiting a church.”
“I wonder what that will result in,” the nun said, chuckling. It was then that Edwin grabbed one of her breasts. “Ah, I think someone’s hungry.”
“Hmm, why not mother this one?” Lavini said with a chuckle. “I think you’d make a lovely parent.” Cassiopeia gasped and thought about it. The ages of each of the babies in the pods were being restored on their own. She hadn’t quite thought of the idea of actually treating one of them as her own child. There seemed to be one problem with that idea though.
“But Lavini,” she said, placing her free hand over her mouth, “this is Edwin Thamos. THE Edwin Thamos. I can’t just do this. He would kill me once he’s old enough to remember everything.” The hourglass timekeeper placed her hand on the baby’s little head then.
“I foresee a wonderful future for this one,” she said. “Mother him. Teach him our ways. Make some adjustments here and there if necessary.” She smiled warmly before kissing her lover on the cheek. “I really must be going now. I don’t wish to be late a second time. I will help out whenever necessary, my dearest grain of sand.”
“I… I will,” Cassiopeia said, nodding. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Lavini said with a wink. With these parting words, she stepped through the portal and vanished, just before the portal itself dissipated as well. She was alone again in the incubation room. Edwin, who had been crying non-stop, was now softly snoozing in the nun’s arms. She looked him over with a caring smile of her own. Maybe Lavini was right. Maybe she would make for a great mother, even if this was Edwin Thamos. A baby does need a mother after all. Softly, she placed a kiss on his head before placing him in an empty pod. The machines were all designed by Akita and though she still hadn’t quite figured out how they worked, she knew how to start up the process of growth at least. There were several options at her disposal for the process: Gestate, incubate, ripen, evolve and manual input. For the method in which this is carried out, there were more options: Digital, Temporal, Mechanical, Natural and manual input again. She thought about this for a moment. If she wanted a child, she should definitely go for the evolution process. The method was a bit harder to choose though. The first three options would obviously result in an Edwin version of any of the three timekeepers. After some thinking though, she decided to go for the natural method. A thought occurred to her then. Lavini had mentioned that she should make some adjustments where necessary. A display showed the current natural evolution process that was about to unfold.
“What if…” she said to herself before changing up some of the evolutionary steps. “Perfect.” She smiled as the display now showed an evolution from a baby boy into a grown-up young woman. She decided to have Edwin age up at a rate of one year per day, right up until the age of 18. Next up, she decided that it was probably best to wipe out his memories. That way, she would have no trouble convincing him that she was his mother. It was also important that nobody mentioned his accelerated growth as he would not be aware of any changes happening. It would take some time for the process to take effect so until then, she had to prepare.

Day 1
When Cassiopeia woke up, she stretched her arms. Lavini was not sleeping with her that night. Of course, ever since her transformation into the time elemental that she is now she no longer needed sleep, so the nun was used to that. That said, she was still by her side often enough at night and in the mornings. Right now though, she figured that Lavini must have still just been busy with other pressing matters. Thus she went down to the incubation room. It was rather quiet, but that was only because the incubation pods kept each of the growing babies in a sleep like stasis. She checked each one of them to make sure everything was going well before going to baby Edwin’s pod. When she opened it and picked him up, he instantly awoke and started crying again. Cassiopeia chuckled.
           “Don’t worry, Eddie,” she whispered softly, “mommy’s here now.”

Day 2
Baby Eddie sure got hungry a lot. Cassiopeia wasn’t sure whether this was because of his accelerated growth or not. He was not going to show any signs of femininity until about day 10 so she was still fine with calling him Edwin. Taking him on her lap, the nun opened her dress and exposed her bare breast. The baby in her arms grabbed for it immediately and started suckling her nipple. Though she was part time elemental, her human half was still able to produce breast milk. The nun smiled at the adorable sight. If only Lavini had been there to see it.

Day 3
“Come on, Eddie,” Cassiopeia said, cheering the little toddler on as he was standing up, “you can do it.” He reached forwards with his hands and after a few moments of hesitation, he finally placed one foot in front of the other and started walking forwards. When he reached her, the nun clapped.
   “Well done, Eddie!” she cheered.
   “M-mommy,” he said then. This caused Cassiopeia to go wide-eyed. He was three years of age now so it was not uncommon for children to start talking now. For him to actually recognize her as his mother though, that was something she did not expect. She smiled broadly.
   “Yes… yes, I am your mommy,” she said. Just then, the little boy crashed down on her lap and gave her a hug. She simply hugged him back. It seemed like such a strange idea to take him on as her son but now, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Day 4
“This, Eddie, is a clock,” Cassiopeia explained. She was holding his hand as they were walking through the church. They had just reached one of the many mechanical clocks scattered throughout the building.
   “What’s a cwock?” the young boy asked.
   “The clock tells us what time it is,” his new mother replied. “Of course, this is only one kind of clock. Time will play an important part in your life, dear.”
   “It will?” he asked curiously.
   “Yes,” Cassiopeia nodded. “Time is everlasting. Always flowing. It is an important force that ticks on every day.” The young child looked up puzzled. Maybe this was too hard for his young mind? She bent down then.
   “You are breathing air now, are you not?” she said. This caused Edwin to focus extra hard on his breathing and playfully breathed in extra hard. The nun chuckled. “Time is just as important as the air you are breathing.” Edwin’s mouth went wide then as he now understood the importance of time. He looked back at the clock then and started nodding his head back and forth in tune to the clock’s ticking. He started giggling then before running around his mother in circles.
   “Tick, tock, tick, tock,” he shouted playfully. Cassiopeia chuckled at the sight. Her new son was growing up.

Day 5
“This is your new room, Edwin,” Cassiopeia said, showing him the room that she had prepared for him overnight. She was quite tired but it was well worth it for her little boy.
   “Yay!” Edwin cheered, rushing inside and flopping down on his new bed. The room featured many different clocks, ranging from mechanical to digital and of course hourglasses. Gears were a recurring theme throughout the room, as it did throughout the rest of the temple. Of course, the whole building ran on them and each gear was important. If one were to fail, it would be noticeable everywhere. The nun just stood in the doorway, watching as her son explored his new room. It was funny to think that just 6 days ago, he was a grumpy old man who treated those around him awfully. Now, the innocence of childhood was showing. He’d grow up to be a great priestess one day, she figured. That’s when Edwin suddenly pointed towards her. The nun tilted her head when she noticed that he was actually pointing towards somewhere behind her.
   “Who’s that?” he asked. Turning around, she saw that Lavini was standing behind her.
   “Lavini!” she said, gasping. “Why do you always have to sneak up on me?”
   “I simply delight in your reactions,” Lavini said, chuckling before kissing the nun on her cheek. “How are things going here?”
   “Well,” Cassiopeia started when she suddenly felt something hug her leg. Looking down, it seemed that the young blonde boy was hiding himself behind her mother, clearly very shy. “Things are well. Edwin is making good progress. He’s 5 years old already.”
   “Oh my, such a big boy!” Lavini said warmly. The nun bent down then to console Edwin who was not so sneakily peeking up at the hourglass time mage.
   “Eddie, this here is Lavini,” she explained. “You can trust her. I love her and she loves me. You could say she is your second mommy.” Edwin tilted his head in curiosity.
   “You are mommy too?” he asked, looking up. Lavini bent down then herself.
   “Yes, love,” she said with a wink. The young boy looked over her, amazed by her appearance. The blacks of her eyes, the sand continuously trickling down inside of her glass body, her purple hair, it was all very intriguing.
   “You stayed away for quite some time again,” Cassiopeia said then.
   “Yes,” Lavini said, looking up and sighing. “My apologies for that. My tasks took longer than I had anticipated.”
   “I understand,” the nun said, standing up straight again, “but please. Don’t stay away for such long periods of time. Our son needs you. I need you.”
   “You are right,” Lavini said, sighing and looking a bit sad. “I have been excluding you too much since my transformation.” Just then, Edwin started hugging her leg. She gasped before smiling and placing her hand on his blonde hair. “But… I will be here for you from now on.”

Day 6
“So, this is him, huh?” Akita said. The latex-clad blue woman removed the visor from her helmet to take a better look at the young boy with her own, neon lit blue eyes. The digital representations of time scattered across her body flashed, catching the boy’s attention. Edwin was holding the hands of both Cassiopeia and Lavini.
   “How adorable,” Bridget said, placing her hand on her chin. The movement of the pink metal woman was dictated by the movement of the gears inside of her body. Her irises were clocks, telling the current time in the mechanical way rather than Akita’s digital way. She stood on the tips of her toes as a ballerina would yet she seemed to have no trouble with her balance whatsoever. Much like Cassiopeia and Lavini, the two were lovers.
   “Edwin, these are Akita and Bridget. Your aunts,” Cassiopeia explained.
   “They’re family too?” Edwin asked. He still seemed a little bit shy but he eyed these two new women very curiously.
   “Yes, dear,” Lavini said. Both of his mothers let go of Edwin’s hands then to let him investigate the two Time elementals. He hesitated at first but finally he took his first brave steps forwards. First, he went to Akita. The flashing lights seemed to have intrigued the young lad a lot.
   “11… 34?” he asked.
   “Heh, you’re a bright one,” Akita said. “That’s right. That’s the current time. 11:34.” She placed her hand on his head and gave it a good rub, causing Edwin to giggle. Next up, he approached Bridget who looked down upon him with a modest smile. At least, he started doing so but he halted. She tilted her head in response and frowned.
   “What’s the matter, dear?” she asked. Just like that, he ran back and hid behind Cassiopeia’s legs. The nun gasped, followed by Lavini bending down to come face to face with him.
   “Is something wrong, love?” she asked. Edwin seemed really quite scared for some reason.
   “Huh,” Akita said, raising an eyebrow. “I guess his firewall is blocking you out, Bridget.”
   “So it seems,” Bridget said, confused. Lavini picked up Edwin then and hugged him. Cassiopeia followed their example and hugged the two.
   “We’ll figure out what’s up,” the nun said.
   “Don’t worry, my little grain of sand. There is nothing to worry about,” Lavini whispered. Edwin just murmured something inaudible in return.

Day 7
Cassiopeia and Lavini entered Edwin’s room in the early morning.  Edwin seemed to lying in bed, curled up in a ball. The two women looked at each-other before moving over and sitting down next to their son. Ever since his meeting with Bridget last night, the young boy had been silent and simply refused to talk. Lavini placed her hand on his head while Cassiopeia started talking softly.
   “Do you want to tell us something, Edwin?” she asked. The boy just shook his head in reply.
   “We can not help you if you do not tell us what is troubling you, dear,” Lavini said, stroking his head softly.
   “Will you at least let us guess?” Cassiopeia asked. To this, Edwin nodded his head softly.
   “You are afraid of Bridget dear, are you not?” Lavini asked. Edwin nodded again.
   “Did she do something bad to you?” the nun asked, answered by another nod from Edwin. The two women looked at each-other. When Edwin was still an old man, it was Bridget who had allowed him to use the DLC that eventually led to his current state. Of course, it was Edwin himself who wanted this done. In his infantile state though, he must have somehow thought of Bridget as being the cause of all this.
   “Did this happen in a dream?” Lavini asked. Edwin seemed to have a hard time thinking about that. “It must have happened in a dream, my little grain of sand. You did not meet Bridget until yesterday, did you not?” This did seem to make sense to the boy as he finally nodded his head. Lavini then stood up and indicated for Cassiopeia to follow her outside. Once there, the nun expressed her worries.
   “What are we going to do now?” she asked. “This is bad, Lavini. Really bad. I made sure to wipe out his memories, but...” Lavini nodded.
   “Memories of his old self must still be lingering within his mind somewhere,” she finished the nun’s sentence. “It is of vital importance that we help him cope with this. Make it seem as if it were merely a bad dream.” Cassiopeia placed her hands on her head.
   “I knew this was a bad idea,” she said. “I knew we should have just let him grow old as himself again. All of this messing around with his head is going to wreck him!”
   “Cassie, my love, please. Calm down,” Lavini said, remaining calm throughout it all. “Time has already decided that these are the chain of events that must come to pass. We can merely carry out what needs to be done.”
   “But…” the nun started.
   “Come now, dear. You wanted this,” Lavini said, placing her hand on the nun’s cheek. “It will be alright. Trust me.” She then gave her a kiss on the mouth before entering the room again. Cassiopeia sighed.
   “I trust you,” she said before following her lover back inside.

Day 8
“Whew, you’re better at this than I thought, Gigabyte!” Akita laughed.
   “I’m gonna win! I’m gonna win!” Edwin cheered. The two were playing a racing game together that Akita had designed. Cassiopeia and Lavini figured that it would be best for the young boy to be cheered up through distractions. Sure enough, that seemed to be working.
   “Just two more laps,” Akita grinned. “Get ready because here I come!” Lavini chuckled at the sight of her sister and her son duking it out like this while Cassiopeia just seemed glad to see Edwin smile again. The rest of the race progressed smoothly and in the end, Edwin emerged victorious.
   “Yeeeaaaaah! I win! I win!” he cheered. Cassiopeia and Lavini applauded him.
   “Nice going!” the nun cheered.
   “Well done, my dear,” Lavini smiled.
   “Alright, alright. I admit defeat,” Akita chuckled while winking at the two mothers. As agreed, she had let Edwin win.
   “That was fun!” Edwin said with a smile.
   “It sure looked fun,” Cassiopeia said.
   “Heh, wanna have a go yourself then, Cassie?” Akita said.
   “Uhm, well…” the nun hesitated, but Edwin ran towards her and tugged on her sleeve.
   “Come on, mom! Let’s play!” he shouted.
   “Oh alright, I’ll play with you,” Cassiopeia chuckled, rolled her eyes and picked up the controller from Akita.
“Kick her ass, Eddie!” Akita cheered.
“I will!” Edwin cheered. The blue time elemental went over to stand next to Lavini then as the two players started up a new race.
   “How has he been doing?” Akita asked.
   “He is improving,” Lavini smiled. “This is most certainly helping.”
   “Good, good,” Akita said as strange symbols flashed across her visor. “My sensors are telling me, though, that we don’t have the admin rights to edit his core memories. I’m afraid it won’t be easy for him to accept Bridget into his life.”
   “I see,” Lavini sighed and bent her head down. “Then I see only two ways for us to progress from here.”
   “Do tell, Gigabyte,” Akita answered.
   “We either give it time and let him adjust naturally, or…” Lavini paused for a moment, “or we make dire, huge alterations to his mind.”
   “What, you wanna hack into his mind?” Akita said, raising an eyebrow behind her visor.
   “No,” Lavini said, shaking her head. “I much prefer the first option. Cassie dear is right. If we go with option two, it would wreck him. So… for now we wait and see what comes to pass.”

Day 9
“It’s… 10:21:43,” Edwin said.
   “Yes, that is correct,” Lavini said with a smile. She and Cassiopeia were helping the young boy attuning to time. They had taught him a lot already, but there was still so much to know.
   “Do you also know how much time has passed since you woke up?” Cassiopeia asked.
   “Uhm,” Edwin pondered this for a moment. “I think… 1 hour, 43 minutes and 17 seconds?”
   “Very good, very good,” Lavini said. “That is correct.”
   “Nicely done, Eddie,” Cassiopeia applauded. “If you keep training like this, you’ll master this in no time.”
   “Pun intended?” Lavini asked with a chuckle. Edwin started giggling at this as well until he suddenly fell silent again. The two women were confused at first and they were about to ask when a familiar voice spoke up.
   “Good afternoon, you all,” Bridget said, entering Edwin’s room. She overlooked him for a moment but upon seeing that he still seemed unwilling to trust her, she focused her attention solely on his mothers.
   “Greetings, Bridget dear,” Lavini smiled while Cassiopeia stood over the young boy protectively. She knew there was nothing to worry about, yet she hoped that it would at least ease his mind a little bit.
   “I just came to remind you of our new year’s event coming up next month,” Bridget said. “You haven’t forgotten about that, I hope?”
   “Oh my,” Cassiopeia gasped and bowed politely. “I’m sorry, lady Bridget. I have been so busy with Edwin here.”
   “As have I,” Lavini said, nodding.
   “I know you two are busy,” Bridget said, “but this will be the first time that the centennial clock will ring for the new year in over a thousand years.”
   “Yes, you are correct,” Lavini said. “This will be a momentous event. We should really begin our preparations now if we want to make this the grandest it can be.”
   “Thank you,” Bridget said with a smile before turning to the nun. “Would you mind it if I borrowed her for a bit longer than usual?” Of course, Lavini was the bishop of the church so she had plenty of daily tasks outside of Edwin. So far though, all of her spare time was spent with Edwin. It seems that was about to change now.
   “N-not at all, milady,” Cassiopeia bowed.
   “I will be back again in the evening,” Lavini winked and gave her nun as well as her son a kiss on the cheek before following Bridget outside. From the hallway, she could overhear the start of a conversation on Edwin’s current stance towards the mechanical time elemental but before long, she was all alone with the young boy again. He had grown so much already, now reaching up to just below the nun’s chest. Right now though, he had made himself small again and was fiddling with his shirt.
   “Come,” Cassiopeia said, trying to distract him. “We’ll go over the goddess’ teachings about time some more.”