This is the first story in this series!
Second half of this story: Like Clockwork AT 00:00 - A New Discovery P2“Whyyyyy,” Bridget whined. After the show had ended, there was an afterparty, but she and Akita only stayed long enough to say goodbye to their old classmates before leaving again.“Because it’s getting late and we made a deal, remember?” Akita grinned. “Besides, it’s payback for pulling me up on stage like that.”“But, but, but… I wanted you to feel appreciated!” Bridget smiled.“And I did, Bridge. Thanks for that,” Akita smiled, halting momentarily to place a hand on Bridget’s cheek. “But we’re still going,” she giggled and moved on again.Bridget cursed silently under her breath. “I barely got enough time to change into my regular clothes.”“Again, we would have been late otherwise!” Akita laughed. “You do wanna stick to the deal, right?”“Yes… yes I do,” Bridget sighed.“Then let’s go before they close!” Akita said.Before the finals, Bridget really didn’t think that she would pass them. Akita, however, believed in her girlfriend all throughout and so they made a deal. If Bridget passed, they would celebrate all night long doing all sorts of activities, starting with a visit to the Book of the Gods. Once during a school trip, the pair went to see it but they didn’t get to actually open it. Ever since, Bridget had often talked about wanting to do so. Supposedly, it was a divine book that showed the reader what god or goddess fits them the best.Rounding a corner, the couple could already see the place where the book was kept up ahead. It was quite hard to miss after all with its large spires. It was the Cathedral of the Pantheon; a church dedicated to every single god of all origins, right in their hometown of New Stepolis. It was a magnificent sight to behold. There were flying buttresses on all sides of a large central tower, topped with a dome. Around it was a lush garden already containing several different idols. There was a shrine dedicated to the human god of nature next to that of the fairy goddess that most scholars agreed likely referred to the same exact deity. The formless tengu wind god was represented here as well through the ever present breeze that wafted around the church. Some say that if ever speeds up, the wind god is angered and needs to be appeased.“Let’s hurry it up!” Akita shouted as her walking increased into running. “Wait for me!” Bridget called after her, breaking into a sprint as well. After all, the two could already see hordes of people leaving the church. They were going to close for the night soon enough!When they finally reached the grand gold-plated front doors, they had to catch their breath first. They really weren’t made for running. It didn’t help that it was the height of summer and it was still pretty warm out, even at this late hour.“Alright… let’s… go in… shall we?” Bridget panted.“Halt!” A sudden loud voice interrupted. It was one of the church’s gate guards. “The church is closing for the night. You may return again tomorrow.”“But… we came… running… all this way!” Akita complained through her panting.“Please! We… only wish… to see the… Book of the Gods!” Bridget pleaded.“We just… graduated… high school… Give us a break,” Akita added, hoping it would perhaps sway the guard.The man eyed the girls for a moment, placing a hand under his chin. “Very well then. Speak to the priest at the altar. Tell him you have my permission,” he nodded. “And congratulations,” he added with a very meek smile.“Thank you so much!” Bridget cheered. Hurriedly, the girls entered the Cathedral, dodging the crowds of people that were trying to leave. The interior was as grandiose as the exterior suggested. There were countless altars, idols, statues, and murals displayed absolutely everywhere to so many different gods and other deities. Alas, Bridget and Akita had no eye for any of it. They were in a hurry, after all. Eventually, they arrived at the altar in the exact center of the church, where a priest stood watching the people. He was an elderly, gentle-looking man. Bridget recognized him as the high priest of this cathedral, which he had been for as long as she could remember.“Uhm… excuse us uh… father,” Akita stammered. She always had trouble talking to strangers for the first time. She didn’t really know how to act around them. She took a deep breath in. “We wish to see the book of the gods.”“Ah, I am sorry, my child,” the gentle priest said. “We are closing for the night.”“Please, sir. The guard at the gate said we had his permission to ask you,” Bridget pleaded.“Ah, did he now?” the priest chuckled. “Hmm… very well then. Please follow me.” The old man proceeded to lead the two girls through the large hallway behind the altar. It was actually a lot easier to walk around now, since most people naturally got out of the way for the high priest! Eventually, the three arrived at an old wooden door, closed off from the public. After all, the book was a holy object, and the priests did not want people to be able to get to the book without supervision. When the priest opened the door, the girls got their view of the book. It was a pretty large, ancient looking, leather-bound book that was resting on a pedestal. It looked a little fragile perhaps but it also appeared to be faintly glowing. The tell-tale sign of a divine object.“Are you both interested in opening the book?” the priest asked as they approached the book.“Well, she certainly is,” Akita giggled.“Ah… yes! But so is she!” Bridget insisted.“Wha… fiiine,” Akita huffed.The priest chuckled. “Very well. Let me explain how it works. All you need to do is walk up to the book. It has many pages but the only pages accessible to you will be those of your deity. As such, the book will open on its own as you approach the page of your god or goddess. It will show you their name and symbol. The pages thereafter will contain more information about them. The book is old, so please handle it with great care.”“Of course,” Bridget nodded. She had been wanting to open this book, partially because she was curious about what god would fit her but mostly also because she was very curious about the book itself. She approached it carefully and as she did so, the hairs on the back of her neck began standing upright from being so close to something so divine. Up close, she could spot more details. The leather looked very much intact and it was probably the biggest reason for why the book was still intact after all these years. Especially since the paper inside was more brown than white. The front of the book seemed fairly nondescript but it appeared that this was merely a result of old age as there was still vague lettering visible. It was so hard to believe that even a divine book could be affected by time like this.Bridget peeked behind her for a moment with a big smile on her face. She could see that Akita chuckled at her giddiness. “My bet’s on the god of dance,” she said.Rolling her eyes, Bridget just turned back and took the final step to the book. Sure enough, the book started glowing a little bit more than it was already and it actually started opening! She watched with bated breath as the old tome opened to a page somewhat early in the book, only to be greeted by a cloud of dust. It caused her to start coughing quite a bit.“How odd,” Bridget muttered to herself between her coughing. How could a page in this book be so dusty? Did she stumble upon a rare god or something? She softly blew away some of the dust at the top of the page to at least gather the name of the god or goddess that was her closest fit.“Well? Who is it?” Akita asked behind her.“It’s… Alinavious. Goddess of time,” Bridget replied after a few more moments of dedusting. The goddess of time? Really?“Huh… unexpected but cool!” Akita cheered behind her. “Now… where have I heard that name before…” Indeed, the name Alinavious rang familiar to Bridget as well. She couldn’t quite remember where from though. That is, until the priest suddenly spoke up again.“Impossible… that cannot be true!” he said, sounding quite alarmed. Both girls could see that he was becoming very pale too.“Impossible? Uhm… what do you mean, ‘impossible’?” Bridget asked, turning around.“The… the goddess of time has been dead for a thousand years now!” the high priest said.“She’s WHAT now?!” Akita gasped.“The great timestorm… she… her death…” the priest blabbered.“Timestorm… wait! Alinavious is that goddess?!” Bridget gasped. She remembered now. Roughly a thousand years ago, there was a great timestorm caused by the death of this particular goddess. It threatened to absolutely wreck reality but then it mysteriously stabilized itself again seemingly on its own. To this day, no-one really knows the reason for her death, or what stabilized the timestorm for that matter, but the fact of the matter was that this particular goddess was dead. And this same goddess now showed up as a fit for Bridget…“Okay, hold up. This can’t be real, right?” Akita argued.“No… it cannot be!” the priest agreed.“Is the book broken or something?” Akita asked.“Impossible! The book has never been wrong before!” the priest answered.“Well, then how do you explain this?” Akita asked, raising an eyebrow.“I… do not know! This is unprecedented…” the priest stammered.This back and forth between Akita and the priest went on for a bit. Bridget, in the meantime, was quite shocked by all of this. Of all the gods in the pantheon, why did the book show her a dead goddess? What did that mean for her? Questions filled her head when suddenly, she realized her hand was resting on something unexpected. Ignoring the argument between Akita and the high priest for now, she turned around to see what was going on. It appeared that there was some kind of bump in the book? Turning the page, Bridget’s eyes widened at what she saw. There was a pristine, brass cogwheel hidden within one of the pages detailing a little bit more information about Alinavious.“Whoah,” she whispered to herself as she picked it up carefully to inspect it. It felt quite cold to the touch, and heavier than she expected. There appeared to be a set of seven odd symbols circling around the center. Bridget could only really identify one of the symbols, since it matched with the depiction of the symbol of Alinavious herself in the book. At the very least, that did link this gear with this goddess. However, what the other six symbols could refer to, she had no idea. Turning over the cogwheel revealed an even more puzzling sight. There was… writing? At least, it looked like writing but it wasn’t written in any language she was familiar with. It too circled around the center. What could all of this mean? And why was this in the book?“Bridget!” came Akita’s sudden voice from behind her, shaking her out of her entranced state.“Ah! Sorry!” Bridget turned around again as if she was caught red-handed. She noticed something then. “Wait… where’s the high priest?” she asked.“You really didn’t notice?” Akita laughed. “He’s off to talk to some other priests about all this.”“Oh… really?” Bridget chuckled nervously. Had she really been so mesmerized by that gear that she missed the priest leaving the room?“Uhm… what’cha got there, Bridge?” Akita asked, raising an eyebrow.“Huh? Oh! It’s… some kind of cogwheel?” Bridget pondered aloud.“Well, I can see that, but where did you get that?” Akita asked.“It was hidden in the book,” Bridget explained.“... What? A gear hidden in the Book of the Gods? Why would it be in there?” Akita frowned.“I don’t know! It was hidden in one of the pages about this time goddess!” Bridget replied. Saying it out loud made it all sound that much more alien to her, even though it had just happened.“Is there anything on those pages about that gear?” Akita asked.“Ah, maybe? I’ll read…” Bridget muttered. Carefully, she blew away more of the dust on these pages and started reading aloud what she could. “The goddess of time is the seventh daughter of Isaye, goddess of the Cosmos, and twinned to Unthala, goddess of Space. She granted the world the gift of time. It is her belief that all things are deserving of time, no matter where they come from or what they decide to do with her gift. That is, unless the actions of one may take away the gift of time from others. As such, she is a peaceful yet neutral goddess.”“How poetic. The whole ‘everybody deserves time’ thing, I mean,” Akita interrupted.“Yeah… I agree,” Bridget nodded with a modest smile. She proceeded to read aloud the rest of the pages, skimming through most of it. There was some more information about the goddess’ domain of time and what she taught to her followers. Other than that though, there was surprisingly little information to be found here about her history, her connections to the other gods, or even anything about her death and the timestorm that followed afterwards. Something that Bridget would have expected from something called The Book of the Gods. There was also absolutely no information that detailed anything about this gear or what the symbols and texts meant. When she finished reading the page, she tried turning it but found herself unable to do so. Of course, it was the magical properties of the book preventing her from doing so.“That’s all of it,” she said.“Hmmm, what a mystery. Can I see that thing?” Akita asked.“Ah, sure,” Bridget said, stepping away from the book again. As she did so, the book instantly closed itself on its own. Only now that she stepped away from the book was she able to see that this cogwheel actually also had its own faint, divine glow. Regardless, she handed it over to her girlfriend.“Whew… surprisingly heavy,” Akita muttered as she eyed the gear herself for a moment on all sides before handing it back again.“What do we do with it?” Bridget asked nervously.A wide grin appeared on Akita’s face then. “You keep it, of course!”“What?!” Bridget gasped. Was her girlfriend really suggesting stealing from the cathedral?!“Think about it. This gear has been hidden on the page of this goddess probably since her death. Obviously, it was meant to be found by another follower of hers,” Akita said.“Wha… I’m not her follower! She’s just my closest fit!” Bridget huffed. Indeed, this book was mostly seen as a suggestion rather than a hard lock. Some people just thought it was an interesting and fun thing to do while others disregarded what god the book linked them with altogether, turning to a different god or goddess instead.“So what? The point is that this gear was clearly meant to be found by you,” Akita grinned.“You’ve got to be joking…” Bridget sighed.“Come now, when have I ever made jokes?” Akita laughed.“Cut it out! This is serious!” Bridget huffed.“Alright, alright,” Akita chuckled. That’s when the doors to the room swung open again. The priest had returned looking noticeably paler than before.“You girls have to go,” he said.“Wha-huh?” Bridget gasped.“We cannot determine what is going on here. Whether this is some kind of prank or if there is something fishy going on with all we know of the past, or even whether this is the work of devilry,” the priest replied rather hastily.“But… we didn’t…” Akita tried to explain but she was cut off by the priest again.“The fact of the matter is that we cannot allow anyone near this book until we have made a proper examination of this all. For your own good, please leave this place!” he said.Bridget looked from the priest to Akita and back again. This all seemed very strange but she really didn’t want to get into any sort of trouble tonight. This was supposed to be a time of celebration after all. “Alright… let’s go, Akita,” she said.Akita stared back at her for a moment in silence before nodding in agreement. “Right,” she muttered., When the girls left the church, the doors were practically slammed shut behind them, leaving Bridget feeling quite anxious about the whole thing. Perhaps coming here was a mistake…“Well… that happened,” Akita finally said. There was a bit of a tremble in her voice. She must have been just as anxious.“Y-yeah… I wonder what was up with all of that,” Bridget pondered aloud, placing a hand under her chin.“Not a clue…” Akita muttered. Suddenly, she gasped. “Bridge! The gear!”“Huh?” Bridget pondered when she too realized it. She still had the gear in her hand!“You actually took it with you?! You KNOW I was kidding, right?” Akita cried out.“I… I know! I just… well he caught me off guard and… I didn’t even realize I still… I’M SORRY, OKAY?!” Bridget cried out herself, scared about what she had done. How could she have been so careless? She stole something from the church without even realizing it!Akita, however, actually started laughing. “Unbelievable. My girlfriend, a criminal,” she chuckled.“Knock it off!” Bridget huffed, still panicking and turning a crimson shade of red now. “I’m returning it right away…”“Wait, stop!” Akita grabbed Bridget’s arm. “This may actually work in our favour.”“F-favour?!” Bridget asked hysterically.“Yeah. I was mostly joking in there about the gear belonging to you but it’s not like that was all false. Nobody but you could find that gear,” Akita reasoned.Well, that much was true. The pages of the goddess of time in that book were only accessible to those best suited for this particular goddess, which apparently included Bridget.“Furthermore, we have no clue about what’s going on with any of this and aren’t you the least bit curious? You and I both know that the church is just going to sweep all of this under the rug, so they won’t be much help. But maybe if we find out a little more about this gear here, we may uncover what in the world is going on with this goddess as well,” Akita explained further.“I… guess so…” Bridget said, calming down somewhat. “But it’s still stealing!”Akita thought it over for a moment and nodded. “Tell you what. We hold onto this cogwheel for now and do some research into it. Then, if we don’t discover anything, we can always return it later and just say we found it somewhere or something.”“I… well… okay fine!” Bridget blurted out. She really did not want to steal from the church at all, but she could not deny her own curiosity. She wanted to know more now. About this gear. About this goddess. About the great timestorm.Akita’s grin only turned broader at that. “Wonderful,” she said. “But for now, this was supposed to be a night of celebrations!”“R-right,” Bridget stammered.“Come on, my junior criminal, let’s go,” Akita chuckled as she started walking off again.“Cri-... oh, quit it, you!” Bridget huffed before sighing. Akita sure could be a handful sometimes. But then… she couldn’t really imagine a life without her., Akita let out a sigh of relief as she stumbled back into her room. What a night it had been. She and Bridget had dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant, they watched a funny transformation show, they did some stargazing. Akita especially took joy in the part where they went to a park and just shouted obscenities, most of which she directed at Zexa and Xeza. They even got to drink their first ever cocktails, but they both agreed that it would be their last ones as well. They celebrated all night until the sun rose once more, doing things they had been wanting to do for a while now but rarely had the chance to, if at all.But now that the night was over, it was time to sleep. Bridget had already crashed into bed while Akita had taken a bathroom break.She smiled. Seeing Bridget sleeping so soundly like that. She often considered herself the luckiest woman alive. Too lucky, perhaps. How did she come to deserve a wonderful girlfriend like Bridget? Ah, but Akita was far too sleepy to start worrying about that again. Bridget had told her many times before that such worries were a waste of energy after all.Not wanting to wake up Bridget, Akita tried to move over to the bed as quietly as possible, making sure to avoid the one creaking floorboard, when…She had to breathe in through her teeth to prevent herself from crying out, as she stubbed her toe into Bridget’s backpack, nearly causing her to fall over. She cursed at her own clumsiness under her breath when the sound of something rolling caught her attention. Something metal? Looking down, she found the source of the sound soon enough.“Right… I almost forgot about you,” she whispered to herself as she picked up the mysterious cogwheel from before. It really was quite an intriguing thing. Why was this thing where it was? How come Bridget was able to find it? Why Bridget?And why did Akita become so invested in this gear herself? After all, she never got to open the book of the gods for herself so there was no way of knowing what god would have been shown to her. And yet, she had convinced Bridget to keep the gear not just for her sake but for Akita’s own curiosity as well. There were simply too many questions left unanswered!“We’ll… figure you out, one way or another,” Akita muttered. She placed the cogwheel on her desk and quietly joined her sleeping girlfriend in bed.