My mother had read all about Calin’s Tower and knew the legend well. You see, gentle reader, the reason I gave earlier for the location of the Tower was only half the story. The other half had become known as the Mystery of Calin’s Tower, although that was something of a misnomer since the Mystery pre-dated the Tower by centuries. The Tower was simply built around it.
There was a mysterious inscription set in the stone floor at the exact centre of the Tower. Despite its age, it had not suffered from any erosion or damage. In fact, nothing could even mark it. Anything placed over it was either moved or destroyed by forces unknown. The inscription, just three bold symbols, was as clear as if it had been carved yesterday. Unfortunately, no one knew what it was supposed to say. It was utterly unlike any known language form. If indeed it was a language at all.
As I’m sure you’ve realised by now, gentle reader, my mother loved a puzzle, and she had wanted to see the Mystery since she was a little girl. Now that she was here, though, she at first resisted the impulse to be drawn into another mystery when she already had so many and a mission with Daelen to think about.
Daelen, however, maintaining his cover as ‘Dan,’ encouraged her, “Don’t worry, sweetheart, we can afford the time. It can’t hurt to just take a look. Then we can grab the books you need and be on our way.”
After stealing a staged kiss (at least, she told herself it was just staged) Cat asked Mandalee if she agreed.
“Sure. It beats standing here watching you two lovebirds snogging all the time,” she teased.
So, together, the three accompanied Calin to the site of the inscription.
It was located deep in the shadows, but Catriona took her Crystal Mage Staff out of her pocket dimension and caused the crystal to glow, banishing the darkness. As soon as her eyes adjusted, she gasped, “How? How is this possible?”
“How is what possible?” Daelen asked.
Mandalee, who knew her best, instantly ceased any hint of making fun as she grew worried about Cat’s pale, wide-eyed expression. “What’s up, Cat?” she asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Maybe I have, Mandalee, or at least the work of one.” To Calin, she declared, “Dig hole here.”
“Yes, well, obviously, we’ve tried that, but we’ve never been able to even scratch it.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Cat pressed. “That’s what the inscription says: ‘Dig hole here.’”
“Astonishing!” Calin breathed. “What language does it say that in?”
“That’s the bit that’s got my heart racing… it’s my own personal shorthand. It’s what I use to make notes that I don’t want anybody reading.”
“Where did you learn this shorthand?”
“I didn’t learn it from anywhere. It’s based on a secret language that I made up when I was a little girl. There is literally no way that anybody else could know it. Not unless you believe in huge cosmic coincidences.”
“I don’t,” Calin insisted.
“But this inscription is almost a thousand years old,” Mandalee objected, “it can’t possibly be your shorthand.”
“Yeah, and besides,” Daelen added, “I think you’d remember if you wrote it.”
“Unless I haven’t done it yet,” Cat suggested. “Look, it seems to me that the only way to solve this is to obey the instruction and dig a hole, with your permission, Mistress Calin. Trust me, I can do this without damaging your Tower in any way.”
“But as I said, it’s been tried before. No-one can even scratch it.”
“Has anybody tried it with druid magic?” Mandalee asked, supporting her friend.
She understood what her friend was thinking, and it was ridiculous, but she knew how Cat’s ridiculous radical ideas usually turned out.
“Not to my knowledge,” Calin conceded.
In the end, she agreed to let Catriona try. After all, if it didn’t work, nothing would happen, and if it did, Calin had dedicated her life to the pursuit of knowledge. She could hardly forbid archaeology under her roof.
Catriona asked the others to stand back, and then she concentrated, using her staff to aid her focus.
At first, the rock seemed to resist her reshaping efforts, but then on pure impulse, she commanded, “Open up; it’s Catriona Redfletching. I have come.”
The rock seemed to respond, the resistance ended, and it began to grow molten. The molten rock flowed, creating a hole in the centre, large enough for a person to fit inside.
When it was about six feet deep, Mandalee called out, “Cat, stop, I think I see something!”
Cat stopped digging, cooled the rock and used her staff light to see down the hole. At the bottom, the air shimmered, and they could see nothing beneath it.
“What is it?” Calin asked.
“It’s an open pocket dimension,” Catriona replied. “You’ll find the details in the notes I gave you. I use one all the time.”
She put her staff safely on the ground away from the hole. She reasoned she might need two hands for this, but she didn’t want to risk anyone else touching it. She could put it away, but she wasn’t sure what the effects might be of opening a pocket dimension close to another one – it had never come up before.
She lay down and tried to reach down into the pocket dimension in the hole, but it was too far away.
“Oh well,” Cat sighed, “I’ve always wondered what it looks like inside.”
She asked her two friends to grab an ankle each and lower her down, imploring them not to let go.
They lowered her slowly until everything from her waist up disappeared inside the pocket dimension. After a few moments, Mandalee felt her shake her leg, which she took as an instruction to pull her back up until she was back on her feet again, holding a small airtight silver box, which she handed to Daelen. Retrieving her staff, she invited Daelen to open the container while she closed the empty pocket dimension and put the stone floor back as it was, complete with redundant inscription.
“Extraordinary,” Calin breathed.
Cat shrugged and pulled a face. “Thought it quite boring myself. Would you believe the inside of a pocket dimension looks like a completely ordinary night sky? How rubbish is that?”
She was hoping the silver box might contain something more exciting. Inside the box was a piece of parchment – a letter.
“It’s addressed to you, Cat,” Daelen told her.
“It’s OK, just read it out loud,” she replied. “I don’t intend this to be a secret.”
So, Daelen read:
Dear Catriona Redfletching,
There’s no easy way to say this, but basically, I’m here in the past, but from the future. Sort of. Things have gone horribly wrong on my world, and I’m giving you a chance to fix them. Not for us – it’s too late for that – but for you, for your Tempestria. So, yeah, no pressure. Sorry.
In your future, I have gained the power to manipulate Time. Thus, I was able to whizz back a few centuries and leave this letter for you. This is my second Intervention, having laid the groundwork with my first, although if everything goes as planned, you’ll experience them the other way around. (Time travel is complicated.)
There are some major events unfolding in your life right now, but the test that is to come is greater than you realise, and you must be prepared. As ever, knowledge is the key and knowing you as I do, you’ve already borrowed most of what you need from Calin’s Tower, but there’s one other reference you cannot afford to miss, and you won’t find it here. I put it all together too late, so I’m giving you a clue.
You recognised the ‘unknown language’ on the ground in Calin’s Tower. Besides your notebook, it exists in one other place. You saw it once, but you weren’t paying attention. Don’t blame you, neither was I, but you can’t make that mistake again. You need it in your hands before you face Kullos, and you can’t delay your mission. You have connections: use them.
I also offer you some advice: Keep Mandalee close, for she will play an essential role in your future. The three of you are bound by Time and Magic. More than this I cannot say, for to do so would break the laws of time…may the cosmos forgive me, I have already stretched them to their limit.
Aye, ever yours,
“Who is it signed?” Cat asked, already knowing the answer – there was only one person she knew who signed off like that.
In a slightly shaky voice, Daelen answered, “Catriona Redfletching.”
Cat brightened, “Oh well, that explains that, then. Time magic.”
Daelen couldn’t say anything for fear of blowing his cover, but telepathically, he told Cat, ‘I have made portals into the past, but it takes a lot of effort, and even I couldn’t do something like this.’
Underneath Catriona’s signature, there was a postscript.
p.s. Tell our boyfriend, he was adorable when he was younger.
Cat and Daelen turned matching shades of red, while Mandalee burst out laughing.
“Dear gods, it’s totally a love across the ages!”
Just then, a voice came out of the air, instantly sobering the mood:
Red faction first attempt gone. Two attempts remain.
*****
A pair of acolytes were already waiting with the books Cat had requested. She immediately put them safely in her pocket dimension.
On sudden impulse, Cat asked Calin if she had a camera on the premises. She replied that she had indeed introduced a small photography studio as a new way of communicating information.
Calin led them there and showed her how to take a clear photograph of her letter. As she did so, she couldn’t help but marvel at how the parchment was in pristine condition and the script so clear, apart from a few spots that looked as if they had been made by droplets of water. Had she been crying when she hid this letter, she wondered?
Satisfied with her photograph, Cat explained that she needed ‘a contact’ to see it, but she didn’t dare risk losing the original, and she wasn’t confident that sympathic communication would be precise enough. She asked Calin to keep the photograph safe until someone came asking for it. She had already sent a sympathic message, and they would be along shortly.
“How will I know this person is the right messenger?” Calin asked.
“There is a three-word code phrase. The same words that are written in stone.”
Calin gave a sharp nod of understanding.
“Mistress Calin,” Catriona declared, formally, “thank you for sparing your time for us. When our quest is over, I plan to return here and get lost in your Tower for at least a year.”
“And you will be very welcome, my dear,” embracing Cat and each of her other companions. “I hope I live long enough to witness the birth of time magic first-hand, but if that is not to be, I pray only that the knowledge will be brought here to my Tower.”
With that, she escorted them to the exit and wished them a safe journey.
Mandalee, who had been reading the letter for herself, suddenly spoke up, “Erm, guys, a p.p.s. just appeared on the back of this letter.”
“What?” the others exclaimed at once.
Mandalee read it out:
p.p.s. Get out of there fast. Daelen’s dark clone is searching for you, and you need to be well away from Calin’s Tower before he strikes. The Tower must be protected.
Cat rolled her eyes, and remarked, “Next time I write that note, I swear I’m going to give us more time. Let’s go.”
Needing no further encouragement, the three companions ran back to the waiting Dolphin and as soon as they left the harbour, Cat whipped up an excellent tailwind to take them back to StormClaw as quickly as possible.