“The goddess gave us time, and in doing so, she has gifted us the power of change. We would still be sitting around in caves, throwing spears to hunt for our food if it weren’t for time. We grew. We learned. We created. Everything we see around us. Everything we use around us. Down to my own latest technologies in magitech. It is thanks to time that we have progressed this far and we can only be thankful for that. Hence why we come together in this church. To thank our goddess for this wonderful gift that she has given us.”

Akita fell silent in order to let the moment run its course and allow the gentle ticking of the building fill the air. The church was jam-packed with people yet again, all eager to listen to the teachings of Alinavious. They bowed their heads to thank the goddess just as Akita had asked of them. It was great and exhilarating to see it all happen! It sure gave her an insight into what Bridget enjoyed so much about performing in front of an audience.

Still, Akita had to admit, even time elementals get exhausted. She had to do mass on a daily basis in the mornings and evenings. At first she had thought to do mass in the afternoons as well but Bridget and Lavini had advised her many times to use that time to take a break instead. Something she had actually been sticking to. Well, sort of. The fact that Cassie was here helped out a ton. The nun was likely also just as tired but she refused to show it in front of Akita.

The absence of most of the church, especially the absence of Zexa and Xeza, also gave Akita some free time to work on a secret project of hers. A project only she knew about. Well, she and Estella, who had snuck into the room on several occasions and spotted what she was up to. Luckily, her niece agreed to remain silent on the matter.

Akita was about to speak up again wanting to continue mass but the words died in her mouth. The people in the church looked at each-other in confusion but Akita no longer cared. She dove off the stage and ran towards the entrance. She couldn’t get there fast enough!

When she got there, Akita gave the tightest of hugs to the lady of clockwork that had just entered. A hug that was instantly returned.

“You’re back,” Akita spoke softly. However, she had forgotten to turn off her voice amplifier and so it was blasted throughout the church.

“We are,” Bridget said happily. “I missed you so much, Aki.”

Akita grinned, shoved her mouthpiece away and kissed her lover. In response, several of the surrounding church guests let out a big ‘awww’.

“Can’t believe you’d interrupt mass,” Akita said with a smirk.

Bridget chuckled and rubbed her arm. “Sorry about that. We were tired though… long trip and all.”

“One that was dreadfully boring,” Lavini said. She had entered the church while Akita and Bridget were kissing and she had already been joined by Cassie it seemed.

It was then that the twins Zexa and Xeza entered the church as well, almost hanging off of Julia. They were groaning and muttering among themselves and Akita was able to catch the words ‘tired of boredom’. Akita decided to ignore them for now. It was… easier that way.

But there was one member of the party that appeared to be missing. “Where’s Estella?” Akita asked.

“Yes. Where is she?” Cassie asked, just as confused.

Lavini coughed and her eyes shifted back and forth for a moment. “Estella… will be joining us later,” she said.

Akita and Cassie both looked at each-other. “She’s not in trouble, is she?!” Cassie asked.

“Not yet…” Bridget muttered.

It caused Cassie to grow even more concerned but Akita decided to change the subject preemptively. “I read your letters about what happened at the festival. All around wonderful news!” she said.

“Yeah! Who would have thought that one of the original six keepers of time was sleeping in that old temple?” Julia said.

“And on top of that, she is going to accompany us to the site of the possible location of one of the other priestesses!” Bridget cheered excitedly.

“Incredible. We’re finally making these giant leaps!” Akita said eagerly.

“Unfortunately though, Rylla was not able to tell us everything. Her memories can be a little spotty at best and on top of that, she can only reach locations that are connected to water, meaning that the locations of the others remain a mystery for now,” Lavini said.

“Great, more water…” Akita muttered. “But wait a minute, didn’t you say she was a seeress? How come she doesn’t remember everything?

“She is a Seeress of currents. She sees all current events when she’s in the Spring of Aeons but she quickly forgets about them afterwards,” Bridget said.

“Ah… I see,” Akita mused. Even her biggest hard drives did not have even remotely enough space to store all the data on all the goings on with every New Stepolis citizen alone. It was no wonder then that this Seeress would let it all flow right through her the moment it entered.

“So I guess that means you’ll be heading off again then, huh?” Akita asked.

“I will be going alone,” Lavini said resolutely. “Well, together with Cassie and Rylla, that is.”

“M-me?” Cassie gasped.

“Why yes. I have missed you these last three weeks, after all. Estella can take over your duties,” Lavini said.

“And you get to take a long break as well, Aki,” Bridget said, pointing her finger right into her lover’s face. 

    “Ahm… Well…” Akita stammered.

    “I know you. I know you didn’t rest like I told you to, so I’m going to make sure that you do from now on!” Bridget huffed.

    Akita clenched her teeth together. Where had Bridget gotten the power to see right through her? “Fiiiine. But then… won’t you be doing too much work?”

    Bridget grinned. “Not at all. Don’t forget, we have two more priestesses here with us to hold mass.” With that, she turned around to face the twins, who had kind of been standing behind them all in silence. It appeared that they did not really know yet how or even if it would be appropriate to talk when with Akita.

    “You mean,” “us?” the twins asked.

    “You have made wonderful progress since joining our church and you did excellently during our excursion to Listanta. Bridget and I see no reason to delay your first public mass any longer,” Lavini said.

    The twins looked at each other, overjoyed. “Thank you,” “so much!” They cheered and they both went in to hug Bridget and Lavini.

    “... Congratulations…” Akita muttered. She had talked to Lavini and Bridget often about it. Because of her personal grudges against the twins, they had agreed that her opinion would not be taken into account since it would not be fair otherwise.

    The twins turned towards Akita. It unnerved her a little, just like it used to back in the day. There was still a part of her that expected bullying whenever they would give her attention. While the silver Xeza looked a little uneasy, Zexa was frowning angrily and she clutched their staff a little tighter. “Thank you,” they said together.

    “A-anyway, don’t you have mass to finish?” Bridget said, trying to break the awkward silence that fell.

    Akita gasped and turned around to face the crowd of people still seated, wondering what was going on. “Right! Right, I’m sorry! I’ll get to that first!” Akita gasped. With that, she ran back to the stage to continue mass.

“She’s still,” “not,” “over it, even after being,” “apart,” “for some time,” Zexa huffed. While Akita had climbed back up onto the shrine where she resumed mass.

“I’m sorry, you two. I wish it were different too,” Bridget said apologetically.

“She should get,” “over,” “herself! How can we,” “hope,” “to prove ourselves if she’s not even,” “giving,” “us a chance?!” Zexa hissed angrily.

“She’s trying,” “her,” “best, Zexa,” Xeza whimpered.

“And it is just,” “not,” “happening at this rate!” Zexa spat. Listening to the twins argue with each-other while still filling in parts of the others sentences was quite a sight to behold, and it was a little hard to keep track of who talked when.

“Alright, enough of that, you two,” Julia butted in.

“I believe that the time for reconciliation will still come to pass, though I cannot say when. Trust in time, and trust in yourselves. Be yourselves and Akita will come around to you in time,” Lavini said calmly.

Zexa puffed up her cheeks while Xeza simply looked down to the ground. Julia took this opportunity to wrap her arms around both girls. “Come on, you two. Let’s go to our room to relax from the long trip,” she said while picking them both up. They yelped and couldn’t help but start giggling as they were dragged off towards the staircase down.

It was then that Cassie finally spoke up again. “So… what happened? Where is Estella?”

Bridget let out a sigh while Lavini frowned a little. “It is a long story, and Bridget and I only found out the details halfway through our trip,” she said.

Cassie gulped. “Meaning…?” she asked.

“Well…” Bridget started.

“Are you sure about this?” Estella asked.

“We’re going to be in so much trouble and we’re going to anger both of our families… but there’s no other way! We have to do this,” Dawnyte said while checking their surroundings for any potential eavesdroppers. They had met up in secret close to one of the sidevents of Mount Manwe’e, making sure nobody saw them and imbuing each-other with the courage they needed to carry out their plan. After all, there would be no going back afterwards.

Estella looked a little uneasy. “This is still your home, though. You’re not gonna miss it here?” she asked.

“I will… but I’ll take New Stepolis over staying with my over controlling father any day,” Dawnyte said firmly. “Are you sure as well?”

“Pfft, I get in trouble with my mom all the time. Plus, I wanna help you,” Estella responded. 

    A maniacal grin formed on Dawnyte’s face, happy to have found a partner in crime.

“I’ll distract the watcher long enough while you do your part of the plan,” Estella said.

“And then we’ll meet back up in your room on the ship,” Dawnyte said.

“You remember how my timer works, right?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. It’ll be exactly an hour before it activates, right?”

“Yep. So we have one hour to be safely out at sea.”

Dawnyte grinned. “Let’s do this then!” With that, she started sneaking off closer to the vent while Estella began crawling back towards the pathway. They had managed to find a rocky outcrop to hide behind so they could talk out of sight but it was go time now.

Higher up, on a platform above the path stood a man surveying the surrounding area. He was mostly there to watch the volcano but he was also on the lookout just in case someone would get too close to some of the more dangerous areas, like the one Dawnyte was now trying to get to.

Sneakily, Estella got back onto the path and started climbing to reach the surveyor. After all, she was to be the distraction. She took in a few deep breaths, put up her best poker face, and approached him. “Good afternoon, sir!” she called out.

The man turned around in surprise and raised his eyebrow at her. “Uhm… What are you doing here?” he asked.

Estella started giggling nervously. “Well… heheheh, you see, Dawnyte showed us around this place on the first day we were here but… well, I was kind of tired back then and didn’t really catch everything. Soooo, I still had some questions on how you guys deal with the volcano. I wanted to ask because we’re heading out soon and all, and if I didn’t, then it’ll keep bothering me,” she explained. She had practised what she was going to say many times over the last three days that she and Dawnyte had been planning this but the real deal was still quite intimidating.

“Ah, I see. Well, I can tell you more about it, no problem,” the man said with a friendly smile.

A nervous grin formed on Estella’s face as she struggled to remember her prepared questions. “So… how do you uh… how do you predict when a volcano will erupt?”

The man rubbed the back of his head. “We don’t,” he started. “Volcanoes are fickle things and have minds of their own. Manwe’e here erupts when he pleases,” he explained.

“Really? But then… What about earthquakes?” Estella asked, genuinely curious now.

“Earthquakes are a symptom of an eruption, yes, but they can also just happen on their own. Manwe’e could rumble and quake for weeks without an eruption,” the man responds.

Estella tilted her head and looked at the cloud covered caldera up above. “You talk about the mountain as if it’s a person,” she said.

The man laughed. “You could say that. Most volcanoes have their own personality or spirit. There have even been many people that attribute a volcano’s behaviour to a deity of some sort. I’ve been to several across the world and most are different. Some will sleep for years and then suddenly explode while others just spew out ash continuously. As for Manwe’e, he’s a grumpy one. He rumbles and shows off his might but lava and ash only really happen once every so often. That is why Kelahilians deem it safe to live here. Well, with some safety precautions of course,” he replied.

“Wow… that’s pretty cool!” Estella said. She had not expected the topic to be so interesting. As such, she continued her questions about Manwe’e and about volcanoes in general. None of these questions were ones that she had prepared but that was okay. The goal of keeping the surveyor distracted was still met this way.

It was actually the man who, after half an hour of their conversation, spoke up about it. “Now, I don’t mean to chase you off, Miss Providence, but doesn’t your boat leave soon?”

Estella gasped. “The boat! Dammit! I lost track of time!” she cried out. “I’m supposed to be a nun of time, how could I lose track of it?!”

The man laughed. “I believe you still have some time left. You’d better hurry though,” he said.

“Right, right… thanks for the chat, sir!” Estella said. With that, she started running back to the village where, undoubtedly, everybody else was waiting for her.

“Estella!” Lavini huffed. 

“Soooorry, mother!” Estella said apologetically. She had come running back to the village and was now very much out of breath and drenched in sweat. It was far too warm to be exercising.

“By Alinavious, where have you been?!” It wasn’t easy to make the Keeper of the Sands angry but woe be the one who managed it.

Estella placed her hands on her hips and threw her head back to try and cool herself off before she could even start making her excuse. “I was… saying goodbye… to Dawnyte,” she stammered.

Lavini frowned and folded her arms. “And did you have to do that on the other side of the island?” she asked.

Estella chuckled nervously. “Where else, right?” she said. However, her mother wasn’t really seeing the humour in it. Instead, she just sighed and turned around. 

    “Your stuff has already been loaded onto the ship. And if you do not hurry, you will miss out on saying goodbye to captain Ael,” she said and began walking towards the docks.

    Estella watched her go for a moment and looked over to the bungalow that they had been occupying. Though it had only been two weeks, this had become a temporary home and she was definitely going to miss it here. Especially the hammock that she had occupied the most often out of all of them. She was going to have to install one of those back in the church gardens for sure!

    “Don’t dawdle any longer, Estella!” Lavini called after her.

    The girl yelped. “Coming, mother!” Though she was late, things had still gone according to plan. All she could really do now was hope that Dawnyte’s side of the plan went smoothly as well.

    When she got to the boat, everybody else was already on board. Bridget just looked amused while Julia and the twins looked mostly sad. They had thoroughly enjoyed this trip so much and they were not at all looking forward to the boat trip back home.

    Estella climbed on board and looked at them all apologetically. “Sorry…” she said.

    Bridget laughed. “It’s okay. I know how difficult it is to say goodbye.”

    “Goodbye,” “vacation,” “Goodbye,” the twins muttered solemnly, as if their pet had just died.

When the ship finally left the docks behind, Estella couldn’t quite justify going below deck just yet. After all, there was still one more thing left to do. And indeed, as they got a little bit further out into the sea, a progression of merfolk poked their heads out of the ocean next to the ship, with captain Ael being among them. The other merfolk started chanting their spell, causing the captain to start rising up on a platform of water.

“My friends,” she said happily. “It has been an honour guiding you.”

“Captain, thank you for all your help,” Bridget said.

“Oh no, it is us who should be thanking you,” Ael said.

“Yeah, what she said!” came a familiar voice. It was Rylla, who had swam up so swiftly that she jumped out of the water and landed on the platform of water right next to the captain. “Uhm… thanks for what again?”

Everybody fell silent for a moment and it was only broken by Julia in the end. “You’re welcome,” she said dryly.

“Rylla, It has been a true honour meeting you. I am certain I speak for all of us when I say that we are overjoyed to have found you and I am very much looking forward to our reuniting over the Alina river,” Lavini said to her.

“Oh? Oh! Right, yes, of course! I hadn’t forgotten. Of course I hadn’t!” Rylla said proudly while folding her arms.

Captain Ael leaned forwards and spoke a little softly so that only Lavini and Estella could hear. “I’ll make sure she will be there,” she said.

“Don’t forget about me,” came a third voice. All merfolk made way as a second platform rose up out of the water. On it was Empress Nerissa. Instantly, the crew of the ship bowed their heads out of respect that this mermaid demanded.

“Empress Nerissa!” “What an honour that,” “you’ve come to see,” “us off,” Zexa and Xeza said.

“I couldn’t exactly let you go without a proper goodbye,” the Empress responded while chuckling.

“Nissa wanted to say that you should totes come more often!” Rylla said.

The Empress coughed and frowned a little. “To put it more eloquently, you are cordially invited to come back at a later point in time. I would very much like to meet Rylla’s companions,” she said.

“Of course, Your Highness,” Lavini said. “And perhaps we are able to find a way to take Akita along as well.”

“She’s the blue one, right?” Rylla mused.

Bridget gasped. “How do you…”

“Duh, I’m the Seeress of Eternal Currents. I see everything!” Rylla said while using her fingers to open her eyes even wider than normal.

The twins narrowed their eyes simultaneously. “You’re not peeking,” “at us during the night,” “are you?” they asked.

“Of course not! What kinda girl do you take me for?” Rylla exclaimed.

“Regardless, we bid you all a safe journey home. Until next we meet,” Empress Nerissa said.

While the three mermaids were slowly lowered down to the water again, Estella saw this as her chance to make sure that phase two of the plan had gone well. She coughed and nervously rubbed her arm. “I’m… gonna make sure that all of my stuff is actually on board,” she said.

Lavini shook her head, a little amused. “Kind of late for that, is it not?”

“Yeah… but I can ask Dawnyte to send things to me I’ve forgotten,” Estella stammered.

Behind Lavini, Estella could see the curious glances she got from Julia. It didn’t matter for now though. So long as her mother didn’t find out!

“That is true enough, I suppose,” Lavini nodded.

With that, Estella moved on over to the stairs that would lead below deck. She took one last glance behind her. The whole group of church members appeared to be silently talking amongst themselves. Were they all onto her?... No, that couldn’t be it. They had planned this all out perfectly. No-one would suspect a thing.

Hurriedly, Estella entered the room assigned to her. The size of the ship allowed for her to have one to herself, even if it was a little cramped. Sure enough, she encountered  her trunk there. The girl peeked around herself before closing her door again and kneeling down to open it carefully.

“Finally!” Dawnyte grunted as she shot up from the trunk.

“Sssshhh!” Estella hissed. “I’m sorry! The merfolk came to say goodbye too which took up a lot of time.”

Dawnyte stood up and started stretching her limbs. “Next time, you’re gonna be the one to hide in the suitcase,” she huffed.

Estella giggled nervously. “Alright, alright,” she sighed. “Did everything go well for you at least?”

Dawnyte grinned deviously. “Of course! And I believe I set the timer right as per your instructions,” she said.

Estella nodded. “Then it should go off within the next five minutes,” she said. 

    It was right at that moment that there was a knock on the door.

    Both Estella and Dawnyte gasped. The latter held in her breath while Estella moved to the door and leaned against it. “W-who is it?” she stammered nervously.

    “It’s me, Julia.”

    Estella let out a sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t her mother. Still, it would be bad if Julia learned of the secret so Estella opened the door just a tad and peeked through the crack. Luckily, it appeared that Julia was alone. “Yes?” Estella asked innocently.

    Julia frowned and tilted her head. “Alright, Estella, the jig is up. What are you hiding?” she asked softly.

    “H-hiding? I’m not hiding anything!” Estella stuttered.

    “Then why aren’t you opening the door all the way?” Julia asked.

    Estella gulped. “I’m… changing clothes…” she said. 

    Julia peeked down at what Estella was wearing as best she could through the door. She didn’t say anything but she just folded her arms. Next to Estella, Dawnyte had her hand on her forehead. Well, if there’s one thing that Estella learned from this whole experience, it’s that she’s a terrible liar.

    “Alright… can you keep a secret?” Estella asked.

    “I’m not keeping secrets from Zexa and Xeza,” Julia said.

    Estella closed her eyes and snuck a peek at Dawnyte, who looked increasingly worried. This plan was quickly falling apart at the seams…

    “Fine…” Estella said as she let Julia in. If she was going to deny her entrance now, then the suspicions would only increase. At least this way, she could try to pursue some kind of damage control, even if it did mean that the twins would inevitably be in on the secret. At least Bridget and Lavini would still be out of the loop.

    When Julia entered and spotted Dawnyte, she gasped and could barely hold her hands over her mouth. Dawnyte, in turn, looked down awkwardly while rubbing her legs together. “Surprise…”

    Estella quickly closed the door again. Her room was starting to be quite crowded now with how little room there actually was.

    Julia frowned. “Why are you here?!”

    “Well…” Dawnyte said.

    “Does your father know you’re here?!”

    “Eheh, about that…”

    “Your absence will definitely be noticed!”

    “Which is why we created a diversion,” Estella butted in. 

    “A diversion?” Julia asked. Right at that moment, a loud bang echoed across the surface of the sea. Yelps of surprise rang out all over the ship. Julia’s eyes went wide and she climbed over Estella’s bed to see outside the window where she got a clear view of what appeared to be black smoke coming from the side of Mount Manwe’e, making it appear as if there had been an eruption.

    Slowly, Julia turned around to face the two girls who both looked extremely guilty. “You got some ‘splainin’ to do!” she spat.

“So you became,” “a stowaway on this ship,” “to get away from your,” “father and your responsibilities?” Zexa and Xeza asked. After Julia had gotten over her initial shock, she had gone back up on deck to get the twins here who just seemed to find the whole situation incredibly amusing, even if they had gotten a lot more spooked by the fake eruption than Julia did. Since Estella’s room definitely couldn’t fit five people, especially not when two of them wore big, puffy ball gowns, they had moved sneakily over to the room the twins shared with Julia.

“That’s the gist of it,” Dawnyte admitted.

“And you decided to fake an eruption… to do what?” Julia asked.

“As a distraction, of course! We imagine that there’s chaos and hysteria going on on the island right now. By the time the dust settles, we’ll be long gone,” Estella explained.

Julia facepalmed while Zexa and Xeza just started giggling among themselves. “And what did you think was going to happen once we got to New Stepolis? Were you going to hide Dawnyte in the church and hope your mother doesn’t find out?” she asked.

“No,” Dawnyte said. “You dedicate your lives to honour and serve your goddess but I can’t really do that. It’d feel like bowing down to a higher power all over again.”

“We don’t live,” “our lives like that,” “at all. We simply act,” “by her ideals and morals,” the twins explained.

Dawnyte shrugged. “Same difference if you ask me,” she huffed. “The only reason I was in your church last year was to show my gratitude for time and that’s it.”

Estella smirked. “Believe me, I tried telling her otherwise as well myself.”

“Instead, I want to travel! I will travel the world, meet lots of different people, and see lots of different sights!” Dawnyte said excitedly.

“Wha… couldn’t you just… do so? Without such an elaborate scheme?” Julia asked in disbelief.

Dawnyte sighed and shook her head. “No. My father wouldn’t let me leave the island without him at all…” she muttered.

    Zexa and Xeza looked sadly at her. “We know what it’s,” “like to have a difficult,” “parent that won’t,” “let go of you,” they said. In turn, Dawnyte gave them a meek smile, happy to hear that she wasn’t the only one to have such issues.

    Julia got a look of pity. “I… understand where you’re coming from…” she said. “But that doesn’t take away the fact that your plan was ridiculous.”

    “Pffpth, nonsense!” Estella cried out. All Julia did in response was point to the smoke plume back on the island.

    “Okay… maybe a little bit…” Estella admitted.

“That insolent…” Cassie hissed and she made several notions that hinted at what she was about to finish her insult with. “How could she do this?!”

    “We’ve told her off already when Lavini and I found out about their little stunt halfway through our trip. Estella couldn’t exactly keep Dawnyte a secret for long,” Bridget said.

    “And nobody came to find her? They didn’t send the merfolk after your ship?” Cassie asked.

    “Curiously enough, they did not. I imagine that they might come to visit our church within the coming days, however,” Lavini said.

    “So what is she doing now then?” Cassie asked.

    “Saying goodbye to Dawnyte for now,” Bridget said while shrugging.

    “Hmmpf… I can’t believe she would do this,” Cassie said.

    Lavini nodded. “Her reasons are sound. Estella cares a great deal about those close to her, and Dawnyte was her first ever friend. I just wish that she had come to me first,” she said.

    “What sort of punishment would be appropriate for this?” Cassie pondered aloud.

    Lavini sighed and looked off towards the gates. “The only punishment appropriate would be for her to face the consequences of her actions herself. Hence why I decided to leave Estella here at the church for this next trip to the Alina river. Should Dawnyte’s father come looking for her, it will be up to Estella to explain the situation.”

    Cassie scoffed and frowned. “Is that all?!” she hissed.

    “If we punish her too severely, she will not learn from her mistakes,” Lavini said.

    “Don’t worry, Cassie. Zexa, Xeza, and I will be looking after her,” Bridget said reassuringly.

    Cassie closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out again through her nose. “Very well…” she muttered. “This Alina river. How far away is it?”

    All Lavini did was give her a knowing smile.