“Master Thamos will see you now,” a man dressed in a black suit said.

“Finally… we’ve been sitting here for 36 minutes and 19 seconds,” Akita groaned.

The man bowed his head slightly. “I am sorry, ma’am. Master Thamos is a busy man.”

“It is quite alright,” Lavini smiled.

“Yeah. Better late than never,” Bridget added.

As the three women entered the office of the well-known tycoon Edwin Thamos, they were greeted by the lingering smell of cigars. Most of the furniture in this office was made with engraved mahogany and there were several golden statuettes lining some of the shelves. On the opposite side of the room, there was a large window overlooking the city outside.

In the middle of the office stood a large desk and sitting at this desk was a cranky old man with a permanent frown on his face. He, too, was wearing a suit, though looking even more lavish than that of the assistant that had let them in. The man looked quite surprised by the appearance of Bridget and Akita but then he just signaled for his assistant to close the door behind them.

“Miss Providence, Miss Harrison, and Miss Hirano I presume,” the man said. Even his voice sounded a bit grumpy. He just sounded very tired. As if he didn’t get enough sleep last night, or ever for that matter. Being a successful businessman must be hard work!

“That is correct,” Lavini answered.

“Edwin Thamos,” the man said, extending his hand and giving each of them a handshake. As he shook Lavini’s hand, she was just barely able to prevent herself from wincing since his grip was quite firm. Next to her, Akita looked like she experienced the same thing but Bridget being made of metal was of course perfectly fine.

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Bridget said.

“Take a seat,” Edwin said. He certainly wasted no time on unnecessary words.

As the girls sat down, Edwin picked up a letter that had been lying on his desk. It was the letter that Lavini had sent him. “You’re here to ask for funding,” he said.

“Yup. We wanna build our church of time but we don’t have enough money to do so right now,” Akita said. Since her transformation, she had gotten quite a bit more confident and was able to speak her mind a bit more freely now than she had been able to in the past.

“I get people asking for funding on a weekly basis. People wanting money to start up their own businesses or churches. Why should I give you this funding?” Edwin asked. He was quite an intimidating person.

“As I have already stated in my letter, we are wanting to create a new church of time, dedicated to the goddess Alinavious. Now, this goddess was unfortunately killed by the goddess of chaos but her legacy lives on. Her gift of time has been going on and we wish to make a church for that,” Lavini explained.

“Hmpf,” Edwin grunted. “A church dedicated to a dead goddess. Right.”

Lavini ignored the remark for now, not wanting to be discouraged. “The gift of Time was given to us all by the goddess originally and it has been going on in her absence thanks to six Keepers of Time. My friends here, Bridget and Akita, have both been transformed into time elementals as well and have now taken up their own positions as Keepers. A church dedicated to this all is a natural progression for these are holy transformations,” she continued.

“Time elementals?” Edwin asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We are, yes,” Bridget smiled. “Akita and I were both transformed by divine trinkets that were bestowed upon us. We believe that we were chosen by the goddess herself a thousand years in advance.”

“And we are currently looking for four more chosen people to be transformed as well,” Akita added.

“Right,” Edwin said. He stood up and walked up to the window, looking down on the people outside. “Miss Providence. As I understand, you have recently lost your mother,” he said.

Bridget and Akita, both a little shocked, looked at their friend. “That is correct,” Lavini sighed, looking down to the carpeted floor.

“Is that not something you should be focusing on instead?” Edwin asked.

Akita stared daggers at Edwin while Bridget placed her hand on Lavini’s lap. Lavini herself took in a deep breath while she considered her next words. “While my mother’s disappearance is regrettable, there is little more I can do about that. She is gone and I simply have to live with this fact.”

“Then what about using your own funds?” Edwin suggested.

Lavini thought about her next answer for a moment. It was something that they had considered earlier. “I do not own nearly enough for this construction. On top of that, the money technically still belongs to my mother. Yes, I will come to own it if she is still missing in two months but it is not mine as of now,” she explained.

“I see,” Edwin grunted.

Akita looked to her companions. She made a holographic screen appear in front of her, which was something she learned how to do over the last three months since her transformation. On the screen, there was text reading ‘I really don’t like this guy’. She then quickly stowed the screen again and just stayed silent. Both Lavini and Bridget had to agree.

“Tell me… as time elementals, do you have the power to alter time itself?” Edwin asked, turning around again.

“What… do you mean?” Bridget asked.

“Can you turn me young again?” Edwin asked.

All three women gasped at this sudden request.

Edwin sighed, leaning on his desk as the frown he had been wearing suddenly vanished from his face. “I am old. I have lived my life… and I am not happy with what I did.” His gruff, stern voice had made way for something a lot softer. “I have done terrible things that I regret. I have run people into the ground for getting in my way. All for the sake of profit. Profit that will be useless to me soon enough when my time has come.”

Lavini looked between Akita and Bridget. Neither of them really knew what to say or do and so it was up to Lavini to talk. “Mister Thamos… what you are asking is rather serious,” she said.

“I know… I know…” Edwin said as he sat back down again. “Most people who send me letters such as yours get turned down before even seeing me. But when I received your letter, I had this idea that you might be able to carry out for me.”

“We… are capable of doing it,” Bridget said, having found her voice again.

“But it’s not something we do lightly. We can not let the public know because a lot of people would want in on the action,” Akita added.

Edwin looked at his three guests and nodded. “I understand. I also would not want the public to know about my doing this. Heck, I don’t even want myself knowing about it,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Lavini asked.

“I… want to forget about this. All of this. I don’t want to remember being Edwin Thamos. I do not want to be wracked by guilt for what I have done. I want to live a new life. A completely new life,” Edwin explained.

“You… would want to be a completely different person?” Bridget asked.

“I want to be me… I just don’t want to remember being me,” Edwin said.

“So… you still want to have your personality and all that. Just not the memories,” Akita nodded.

“But everything else can be different,” Lavini added.

“Yes, that’s right,” Edwin nodded.

“Even… your gender?” Lavini proposed. Bridget, Akita, and Edwin were taken by surprise with that question. “I mean, it would make it at least a little bit harder to trace yourself back to who you are now,” Lavini added.

Edwin thought about it for a moment longer. “Yes, even my gender,” he finally said. “If you can do this for me, you will have your funding,” Edwin finally said.

“We… have to discuss this with each-other,” Lavini said after some consideration.

Edwin nodded. “How long will you need?” he asked.

“A few days, I imagine,” Bridget said.

“Understood. Then I will have my assistant make a new appointment with you for next week. Do you have lodgings in the city?” Edwin asked.

“Not yet. Our friend Cassie is looking for something as we speak,” Akita answered.

“No need,” Edwin said as he took out a piece of paper. He scribbled something on it and then gave it to Lavini. It appeared to be an address. “Go here. Tell them Edwin Thamos sent you.”

The three women looked from the paper to Edwin with disbelief. “That is… quite the honour!” Bridget said. Though none of them had ever visited Pronce before, anyone would recognize that address, for it was the address of one of the fanciest hotels in the whole world. A lot of people could only dream of staying in such a place and Edwin was just handing them a room there?!

Edwin went back to his business persona, frowning and looking quite gruff. “With that said, I believe our meeting is finished. My assistant will see you out,” he said.

“Thank you ever so much, sir Thamos,” Lavini said.

Thamos just nodded as he pressed a button, causing the suited man from before to re-enter the room.

This was getting quite interesting…