The Children Of A Traitor

Mika led them to an escalator that took them deep below the ground. They emerged at a crowded platform, where a sleek train sat waiting. They found seats and a few minutes later were hurtling through a dark tunnel, moving almost as fast as they had in the mass driver, and without so much as a squeak from the train.

“We’ll be there in a few minutes. These maglev trains move fast. They’re part of an underground network that connects every major city in the world. Lots of people use them instead of the skyhooks, they’re slower of course, but less frightening.”

“What happens when we get to Alexandria?” asked Tony, not trying to hide the concern on his face.

“I’ll bring us back in time, to when the Great Library was still standing. Once you’ve seen it for yourself, and all the things we can teach the twins there, I know you’ll see it’s what’s best for them.”

Tony looked like he was about to say he’d think nothing of the sort but Leura jumped in with a question of her own.

“How come we can take people with us when we time travel? I mean, you took us all here, and both times I’ve done it I took Wentworth with me.”

“You’ll learn all about that sort of thing when you begin your training, but there’s a simple way we like to explain it to beginners,” answered Mika. “Close your eyes and think about yourself, as you are right now.”

Feeling a little silly, Leura did as she was told. She closed her eyes and pictured herself sitting there, her dark hair and skin, just like her father’s, her short stocky body, the baggy jeans and white t-shirt she was wearing, right down to her faded trainers.

“Okay, I’ve done it,” she said hesitantly, not really sure what the point of all this was.

“The things you’re wearing came to mind along with the rest of you, didn’t they?”

“Well yeah,” answered Leura, opening her eyes again. Mika was holding out his timedial for her to take.

“Hold onto this and then do it again.”

Feeling even more ridiculous, Leura imagined herself once more, and this time the timedial was in her hand.

“When we time travel, we take everything our mind considers a part of us. The things we’re wearing and holding naturally come along. Bringing other people with us is much harder of course. Physical touch helps, but the real trick is to imagine them as an extension of yourself, something you couldn’t live without. I’m not surprised it was easy for you to travel with Wentworth by your side, you’ve hardly spent a moment without him your entire life.”

Leura wanted to ask a million more questions about time travelling, but the maglev train came to a smooth halt and a voice announced they’d arrived at Alexandria.

“Right then, just a short walk to the time capsule, if you’d follow me.” Mika led them out of the station and onto the bustling street. Alexandria was also a flooded city, but looked quite different to Sydney. Instead of the elegant walking bridges connecting the buildings, there were barges tied together into a sort of floating street that bobbed gently up and down with the waves. The buildings sat above the water on great stone slabs, and the bottom few stories were all beautifully designed to look like ancient temples, before switching into glass skyscrapers for the upper floors, rising high into the sky.

They walked along one of the floating streets, and Leura noticed that everyone looked quite similar to the people of Sydney. It seemed at this point in time the only real difference between cities was how they were designed, not who was living there.

“Are we going to another Dials, Springs & Pendulums to travel safely?” asked Wentworth, trying not to sound as worried as he felt.

“Oh no, we don’t have any that go back that far. There’s only one time capsule set up to get to the Great Library, and it’s right over there,” he pointed towards the end of the street, where they could see the water opening up into a vast ocean. Running along the divide between the city and the ocean was a formidable looking stone wall. And right at the point where the wall ended, leaving a wide gap for the flowing water, sat a perfectly round building with a domed roof propped up on white pillars.

“Like most cities near the ocean, Alexandria was flooded long ago by the rising seas and coastal erosion. It makes it a bit complicated to find a safe place to travel from. Luckily for us though, it had a place that would’ve been high enough to sit above the water even now. The Lighthouse of Alexandria.”

The floating street took them right up to the stone wall, only a few metres away from the building that Leura now knew as the top level of a very ancient looking lighthouse. There were a few other people along the wall, enjoying the ocean views, but no one seemed that interested in the building. Sitting inside the pillars was a wall of dark metal, and when Mika approached, a door slid open, just like it had at the time capsule in Dials, Springs & Pendulums. Mika led them inside, and once again Leura felt like she was entering some kind of vault. The room within was much larger than the last time capsule, but the walls were just as packed with items. Once the door had closed behind them, Mika took out his timedial and held it low enough for the twins to see what he was doing.

“Right then, we’re going back quite a long way. The outer ring is for tens of millions of years, so we’re keeping that at zero, same for the next two, which is millions, and hundreds of thousands, then we’ll set the fourth ring like this because we’re going back more than ten thousand years, the fifth here for another few thousand on top, the sixth, seventh, and eighth like this because we want to arrive in the year 145 BC, then the next three like this for the month, week, and day, which brings us to January 4th, the twelfth and thirteenth here so we arrive at the right time - nice and early, eight in the morning - and we’ll leave the disk in the middle alone because getting the exact second right is almost always pointless.” Not seeming to notice the look of utter confusion on the twins’ faces, Mika pocketed the timedial and held out his arms, “hold on tight now.”

As they braced themselves for the room to collapse around them, Leura realised her nerves had reached a whole new level. They were going to the Great Library, the place where time travellers like her mum were trained, but she couldn’t shake that warning from the bearded stranger, or the image in her mind of her mum locked away in some horrible prison. Despite how much she wanted to learn everything Mika and the other librarians could teach her, there was something she wanted far more. Yet, now that the time had come, she wasn’t sure she was brave enough to do what needed to be done. She’d only had a glimpse of her mother’s world, and the scale of it made her feel as small as an ant, in a place that squished bugs like her on sight. She had no idea how she was going to find her mother, or how she was going to free her when she did.

She looked at Wentworth, and saw her own fear and doubt mirrored on his face, but it did not make her feel worse. It made her feel lighter, and breathe easier.

Like all hardships, knowing you do not have to face it alone can make all the difference.

The room sprang back to normal. The racks were now completely bare. Mika walked over to the door and it slid open, letting the bright morning sun flood the room. Leura could hear the sounds of birds and crashing waves, and was instantly reminded of home.

They stepped out onto the narrow landing between the time capsule and the pillars, and stared at the scene around them in stunned silence.

They were at the top of an enormous lighthouse, built from white stone, and standing at least a hundred metres high. Below them was a pristine bay, with sandy beaches and a sprawling town buzzing with movement. There was a harbour with hundreds of wooden boats coming and going from the docks, and a large town square where Leura could see a crowded marketplace. But the building that caught her eye was standing close to the lighthouse, separated from the rest of the town.

It looked like an ancient temple, or maybe even a palace, with giant columns supporting a domed roof that looked big enough to fit the twins’ house in it multiple times over. The dome was decorated with gold, and it glinted in the sunlight. Even from this distance, Leura could tell every inch of it was covered in intricate stone carvings. Smaller buildings branched off from the main one, some of them looking like impressive temples in their own right, and others more like storehouses. There were many courtyards spanning the gaps between the buildings, either filled with trees or with stone monuments. The whole thing looked like a mini town, separated from the rest of Alexandria by distance as well as grandeur.

“Welcome, to the Great Library of Alexandria,” said Mika with reverence as he gazed down at the building. “I never get tired of seeing it from up here.” He let them have a few more moments to take in the view, then made them all jump as he blurted out, “right then! Let’s get the real tour started shall we.” He turned and walked a few paces around the time capsule until they came to the top of a spiralling staircase. “Just got to head down to the next level, we’ll take the elevator from there.”

They climbed down the narrow staircase, trying not to get too distracted by the views out of the round windows and lose their footing. The stairs led them to another landing, much bigger than the higher one, as the lighthouse got wider the closer it was to the ground. There was a glass elevator in front of them, looking very out of place set against the ancient stone. The elevator doors opened noiselessly and they gathered inside, noticing that the walls, floor, and ceiling were also made of glass. As the elevator descended through the interior of the lighthouse they saw that the entire lower part of the building was hollow, and consisted of one enormous hall, with hundreds of arched windows letting in sunlight and providing views of the bay. The elevator was right in the centre of the space, a glass box moving so smoothly it seemed to be floating, and Leura noticed that there were no cords holding it up, reminding her of the maglev trains that seemed to hover rather than run on tracks.

The elevator dropped them off on the marble floor, and Mika led them across the hall and out the open front doors. There was a stone walkway leading from the lighthouse all the way to the open courtyard in front of the library. They walked along in silence, the twins taking in every detail of the impressive building. From the ground it looked much bigger than it had from the top of the lighthouse.

“I’ve brought us here early so we have plenty of time to explore the place before the other white robes arrive,” explained Mika as they neared the towering archway that led into the library.

“What do you mean, other white robes?” asked Leura curiously.

“Sorry, that’s what we call beginners here. The colour of our robes represents our rank, the level of training we’re at.”

“So, we’re not the only beginners then?” asked Wentworth, not sure whether he found that information reassuring.

“Of course not, we train new time travellers in groups so they can learn together. You’d be part of the hundred and forty first white robe class to train here. That is of course if you choose to stay,” he added, glancing sideways at Tony, who was looking at the library like someone who wasn’t quite sure if he was awake or dreaming.

“When do the other beginners arrive?” asked Leura quickly.

“They’ll stagger in throughout the day, we can’t all arrive in the time capsule at once you know.” Mika paused, they were just about to reach the archway into the library. “There’s so much I still need to tell you, but some things you need to see for yourself.” And with that, he strode through the archway.

The twins looked at each other, both wearing the same expression that was half worry, and half excitement. Leura gave Tony a reassuring smile, but he did not return it, and she felt her apprehension grow, knowing it would take a lot more than a few nice views to convince him to let them stay here. She hoped Mika was up for the task.

Side by side, the Fall family walked through the archway, and into the Great Library of Alexandria.

Wentworth had never seen anything so beautiful.

Warm light poured in from the skylights that littered the domed ceiling, sending sunbeams crisscrossing all over the massive atrium. Through the centre of the space were towering columns, decorated with brightly painted hieroglyphs. And along each of the four walls stood colossal shelves filled to the brim with all sorts of scrolls and books. It was the library of Wentworth’s dreams.

“This is like the library of your dreams I bet,” Leura remarked, far less impressed than her twin but still moved by its beauty. There were people hurrying along between the columns, heading into the different doors that led off the atrium into other parts of the library. They all wore robes like Mika, but none were red. Instead, Leura saw groups wearing blue, purple, brown, and even a few in black robes. No one was looking at all the books, apart from Wentworth. Leura spared a glance at Tony, disappointed to see him still looking like he was only half here. She wondered where the other half of his mind kept wandering off to. She guessed it was probably the same place her own kept taking her.

“Why isn’t anyone browsing? I bet there are books on literally everything in here,” said Wentworth.

“There are, but the books are just a collection really, it makes the place look nice too. The real library of Alexandria is stored in its database. It’s in the sub levels, deep below the temple. You’ll get the chance to see it later. First stop on our tour though is to say hello to the Head Librarian.” Mika turned left and headed towards one of the first doors out of the atrium. Leura and Tony followed, but Wentworth hesitated for a moment, casting one more look at the collection of books before scampering after them.

Mika led them through a passage and into a long stone hallway, lit by deep skylights and a few electric bulbs embedded in the wall, looking odd next to the beautifully decorated carvings. At the end of the hallway they turned into a large antechamber. It was completely round, and a circular table sat right in the middle of the space. A group of people were gathered around it. They were all wearing the exact same red robes as Mika.

Mika cleared his throat as they approached. “Librarians, sorry for the interruption, I decided to bring them a little early. I’d like to introduce you to the Fall family. This is Tony, Leura, and Wentworth.”

The group in red turned in unison to look at Mika, then over to the twins and Tony.

“So, the Fall twins have finally come,” said the woman nearest to them. She was tall and thin, with short dark hair and features that Leura couldn’t place, like she shared traits from every major ethnicity of Leura’s time. Something about the way she stared at them, as if taking in every detail and seeing how it compared to her expectations made Leura certain she had once known Raya.

“May I introduce Head Librarian Aristar,” said Mika, extending his arm out towards the tall woman. Leura could tell immediately that Aristar had none of Mika’s warmth. She stood there impassively, with an air of someone in total control of the situation.

“Welcome to our library,” said Aristar in a monotone voice, “you are in very good hands with Mika here, as I’m sure you are aware. I ask that you stick close to him today, it can be a bit… disruptive, when we bring in the new white robes. I wouldn’t want your impressions of us tarnished by something as trivial as being somewhere you shouldn’t.” Leura nodded in response, having no intention of leaving Mika’s side in such a strange place, but she couldn’t help but pick up on the slight threat behind Aristar’s words. And what was worse, she could feel the tension radiating off Tony. The last thing she needed was for the person in charge to be so frightening it made everything the bearded stranger had warned them about seem true.

“Not to worry, Aristar, we’ll stick together. I’m going to give them the grand tour before we head into the market for their robes. We’ll see you at the initiation tonight.” Mika gave her a broad smile and a small bow of respect, then gestured for the twins and Tony to follow him out of the antechamber.

They went without a fuss, happy to get out from under Aristar’s piercing gaze.

“She can be a bit intimidating at first, but she’s brilliant - used to teach me when I was a student here - now she’s the youngest Head Librarian the library’s ever had.” The admiration was thick in Mika’s voice. “You’ll meet more of the Librarians when your lessons begin.”

“Won’t you be teaching us?” asked Leura apprehensively.

“I only teach one white robe class. Basics in Advanced Technology. Not to brag but it usually turns out to be everyone’s favourite,” he said with a wink.

“What are the other classes then?” blurted out Wentworth, giving Mika his full attention.

“Well let’s see,” said Mika thoughtfully, counting each one out on his fingers, “other than my class, you’ll have History of Humanity with Librarian Zenodot, Time Travel Theory & Practise, that’s with Librarian Callimachus, The Fundamentals of Quantum Relativity I think that’s Librarian Theon now, and what else… oh Artificial Intelligence, Awareness and Safety, I like that one, Librarian Chae’s great, and last but not least - another favourite - Space Age Weapons and Combat Training, though some people find Librarian Istros a little scary. I mean, she is scary, but she’s also the nicest person you could ever hope to meet.” Once again, Leura could feel the mounting tension in Tony. Did Mika really have to mention they’d be taught how to fight here?

They’d reached the atrium now and Mika led them towards the far end of the enormous space. All over the vast room were giant stone archways leading off in different directions. The twins were itching to explore them, but Mika chose one that led into a long, curved hallway.

The hallway surrounded a beautiful green courtyard in a perfect circle, with arches along its inner wall, so you could enter the courtyard from anywhere. Along the back wall were giant paintings. As they started walking, all the paintings appeared to be of the ancient past, old cities, and monuments like the great pyramids and the colosseum. But the further along the hallway they walked, the further ahead in time the images in the paintings became. Soon they stopped being paintings altogether, and instead became high-resolution photographs of cities from their own time. The twins even stopped for a moment to look at one of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, feeling a pang of homesickness as they did.

They’d barely made it a quarter of the way around the circle when the photographs turned into moving 3D videos, like portals into other worlds. The twins stared in wonder at what they saw. Cities too big to be real, their skylines reaching above the clouds. Dome structures on a red landscape like nothing on Earth. Settlements built into the hollowed caves of asteroids that seemed to have no real up or down, like gravity didn’t exist there. Leura felt like she was shrinking again, far too small for such a vast world.

“Are these all real places, in the future?” asked Wentworth, his eyes wide with fascination, soaking in every detail.

“Well, pretty much everything is in the future when you’re at Alexandria, but they’re all real yes” said Mika. “We call this the Hall of Creation. All the most important moments in history are represented here, to remind us why it’s so important to protect them. And all of it is connected by the Folded Tree.” He gestured towards a large tree in the centre of the round courtyard. Its branches seemed to fold in on themselves as they grew, making it appear both broken and oddly beautiful at the same time. “Obviously that’s supposed to represent time travellers but sometimes I think just a regular oak or something would have done the job,” said Mika with a sigh. “Anyway, you can check out the rest of the hall later, we’re turning off here.” He led them through a door that took them to a sleek looking escalator that led deep below the surface.

Mika stepped onto the escalator and waved at them to follow. “Beneath the library is a labyrinth of tombs, and we’ve turned the first few levels into the training rooms. We tried to keep as much of the original look as we could, the sarcophaguses, the statues and stone carvings, that sort of thing. Plus the place is still riddled with hidden passageways and secret rooms - the Egyptians knew how to build a tomb, I’ll give them that - but we’ve also upgraded the place with some of the best tech from the Expansionists. This stuff is going to blow your mind.”

“Who were the Expansionists exactly?” asked Wentworth.

“That’s the name humans gave themselves for around a few hundred millennia. It was when they’d really got the hang of colonising other parts of the solar system. Mars had been done first obviously, but it wasn’t until the Expansionists that humans spread to Venus, Mercury, the asteroid belt, Jupiter and Saturn’s moons, they even got a little colony up and running on Neptune for a while there. Had to be suspended in its clouds, basically a glorified hot air balloon if you ask me, but hey, I think they just wanted to challenge themselves at that point.”

They reached the end of the escalator, and stepped off onto a landing with a large stone slab blocking the way. The slab was decorated with more stone carvings and hieroglyphs, but the images showed gruesome scenes of people being mummified by creatures with human bodies but the heads of jackals or crocodiles. Leura had to force herself not to groan in frustration as Tony stared at the carvings with wide, fretful eyes.

“Don’t let that put you off,” said Mika cheerfully, “we removed all the boobytraps a long time ago. Well all the ones in the important rooms anyway.” He stepped up to the slab and waved his wrist band in front of one of the jackal headed creatures. The slab rolled to the side, moving much too smoothly and quietly for a piece of stone that big.

It opened into a large chamber. Beautiful sarcophaguses as tall as Mika and covered in gold decorations lined both sides of the wall, creating an aisle down the centre. A great altar sat along the far wall, with statues of Egyptian gods fanning out on either side of it. Leura felt like they were staring right at her, and a shiver ran down her spine.

“Let’s start with the Sandbox,” said Mika, rubbing his hands together.

“What’s the Sandbox?” asked Wentworth, sounding a little worried.

“It’s the most advanced augmented reality simulator ever built. There’s only about a dozen of them in existence, all from the late Expansionist era.” As he talked, he led them towards the centre of the room and then took a right turn, leading them towards a sleek metal door that looked like it belonged on a spaceship, not an ancient tomb. “We use it to simulate all sorts of training scenarios, but you need to see it for yourselves to get the idea.”

Mika waved his wrist again at the door and it slid open so smoothly and silently that Leura wondered if it was even real, or if they were already in the simulation.

Inside was a room that looked like it was made from pure white light, tricking Leura’s eyes into thinking there were no walls, floor, or ceiling. It looked so convincing, that when Mika stepped through the door she panicked and tried to pull him back by his robes.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” said Mika, trying hard not to laugh at her, “this is just how it looks when it isn’t simulating anything. Here, I’ll show you.” He faced the centre of the room and said in a clear voice, “the clearing.”

Leura gasped. The whiteness was evaporating before her eyes, turning swiftly into a peaceful forest clearing, complete with a flowing stream and even a few deer off to one side grazing. Leura could hear the sounds of birds chirping softly, and the stream bubbling away as it ran over smooth pebbles. She could even smell the flowers growing in bunches along the water’s edge.

“We use this simulation a lot when we’re teaching white robes how to time travel. It helps them relax,” explained Mika. Leura could understand why. She’d never been in a more relaxing environment in her entire life. She exhaled deeply for the first time since they’d arrived. Finally they were seeing something that would help Tony relax, rather than just make his anxiety worse.

They walked as a group into the centre of the clearing. With the door closed behind them, it was impossible to tell they were in a simulation and not really in the middle of a forest. There was even a slight breeze, and when Leura reached down to touch the flowing stream, it felt like water.

“How is this even possible?” she asked Mika.

“Tricking the senses is easier than you think,” he replied simply. “Making that water feel wet is just a matter of dropping the temperature and increasing the air pressure and humidity. A piece of cake for a simulator like the Sandbox. Now let’s see, what else can I show you. Oh I know, Istros loves using this one for sparring. The colosseum!”

The forest clearing disappeared piece by piece, and was replaced by a towering stadium, like a sports arena only much bigger, steeper, and made from dusty stone. It was jam-packed with people in togas, all of them on their feet, shouting and cheering at them down on the ground. The noise was deafening, and incredibly intimidating. Leura’s heart sank, as all the calmness in Tony disappeared with the clearing.

“Sorry about that!” Mika shouted over the roar of the crowd, “I forget how loud they are. Hold on, New Tokyo!”

The Sandbox changed once again, and as it finished Leura’s mouth dropped open. They were standing in a square with skyscrapers all around them, much taller than any building she’d ever seen before. It felt like they should be falling over, unable to hold their own weight. And they seemed to go on forever. No matter which way she looked, there was nothing but more skyscrapers. But unlike the cities from her own time, this one was beautiful.

Green vines climbed most of the buildings for the first few floors, making the street feel more like a jungle than a city. The streets themselves were lined with cherry blossom trees, littered with huge white stones, and even a running stream. Leura could see brightly coloured Koi fish swimming in the clear water. In the air above them, drones of all shapes and sizes whizzed between the buildings in orderly lines, barely making a sound. It seemed at this point in time, everyone travelled by air.

“One of the most important things we use this room for is to prepare white robes for visiting other places in time,” explained Mika. “This is New Tokyo, a Martian city on the northern edge of Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the solar system. It’s also got one of the biggest markets for expansionist tech to ever exist, which is why it’ll be the first place you go with the other white robes. There’s things you’ll need to pick up there for your training.”

As Leura tried to process the fact that she was looking at a city on another planet, she realised that something was wrong with her body. It felt too… light. She lifted her arm and it floated upwards with almost no effort at all.

Mika noticed the startled look on her face and laughed. “Mars only has around a third of the gravity of Earth. You’ll find moving around here a breeze.”

Wentworth tried to take a step and launched himself forward a few feet, shrieking in shock. Leura laughed and did a little hop, sailing upwards over a metre before coming softly back to the ground. Even Tony gave a little whoop of joy as he hopped along after the twins.

“This is amazing!” said Leura, bouncing around the street. She looked again at the skyscrapers that seemed too tall to keep themselves standing, and realised it’s probably a lot easier to build them in Mars’s light gravity than it would be on Earth.

Mika let them explore the Sandbox for a while longer, showing them a few more simulations, including one inside a hollowed out asteroid that had been mined for resources, and one so far back in time there were dinosaurs roaming around. Wentworth almost fainted at the sight of a living Tyrannosaurus Rex, but to Leura’s relief, Tony was finally enjoying himself. He’d spent his entire life looking at relics from the past. Leura knew he loved the museum, sometimes she thought he loved it even more than he loved them, but watching his face light up at the sight of a living, breathing T-Rex, made her wonder… had their repetitive life been just as boring for him as it was for them?

They left the Sandbox, with Mika’s promise that they’d be spending lots of time there once their training started. The next chamber he took them into still had a lot of the original tomb look about it. Set up like a traditional classroom, there were desks made from the crumbling sarcophaguses facing the front, and a raised podium where the Librarians could teach from. Instead of a chalkboard, there was a projector that could make 3D images directly into the air, responding to touch and voice commands, like a smaller and less advanced version of the Sandbox.

They continued to explore, and the twins grew more and more excited about training here. But as that excitement grew, so did their fear that Tony would take it all away from them. Neither could accept that this might be the last time they ever saw this strange and wonderful place.

By now the morning was almost over, and Mika explained that they would have to go down to the town market soon to pick up robes for the twins.

“It’s part of the tradition here, all the beginners get their white robes the day they arrive,” explained Mika as they headed back up the escalator and into the Hall of Creation. “I know it hasn’t been decided whether the twins are staying or not, but I hope I’ve been able to put your mind at ease this morning.”

“It’s all very impressive,” admitted Tony reluctantly, “but there’s still so much we don’t know. How long would they be here for? And when would they get to visit home?”

“Well, we have five ranks they’ll need to complete before they graduate, from white robes to black robes. It usually takes around five years, depending on if they pass all of their gradings. We have holidays throughout the year where students can visit home. You’ll need to decide if you want to stay synced or not, most families do. That means if the twins are away for three months, they’ll come home three months after the day they left, so everyone’s time matches up. Otherwise they can return to the same day, so for you there’ll be no wait at all, but we usually don’t advise that over the long term, it can do some psychological damage seeing your children growing up that fast.”

Tony and the twins stared speechlessly at Mika, who looked panicked as he realised he’d said the wrong thing. “But there’s no need to worry about all that! It’s never a big issue, we can arrange a nice middle ground where the twins visit immediately on their first few holidays and then you can gradually become synced.” He smiled as pleasantly as he could manage, but Tony’s face remained frozen in horror at the thought of the twins growing older in giant leaps. Leura couldn’t blame him, but she certainly could blame Mika. He was messing this up better than she could’ve even if she tried. How were they going to convince Tony to let them stay now?

Mika managed to pull himself together, and a look came over him more serious than they’d ever seen before. “Leura, Wentworth, why don’t you explore the rest of the Hall of Creation while your dad and I have a talk.”

Leaving Tony unsupervised was the last thing Leura wanted to do, but there was something about the shift in Mika that gave her some reassurance. She might not like it, but trusting him was now her only option. So she shuffled off with Wentworth further along the hall, to look at more of the moving scenes from the future, trying not to think about what Mika was saying, and whether Tony was listening.

There was one scene that showed Earth with its entire northern hemisphere covered in one continuous city. Another with a space station that looked bigger than the moon, made with giant spheres filled with plants and people, like enormous terrariums, all connected together by tubes in a criss-crossing pattern that made the whole thing look like a bubbly snowflake. Leura tried to imagine what it would be like to visit a place like that, so far in the future that her own time would be nothing more than speculation, like the first hunter-gatherers are to them now. She wondered why her mum had chosen to live there, to settle down and have children when humanity had barely even begun to show its potential. Just another thing to ask her. Another reason to keep going.

The hall curved around the courtyard in a complete circle, and as they neared the entrance to the atrium, the images began to change once again.

They were now more like animations than real images, and they showed scenes that made Leura shudder. She instinctively wrapped her arms around herself, but it did not comfort her.

She saw great convoys of spaceships leaving behind planets that looked grey and lifeless. Ruins of cities that had once looked so beautiful, abandoned and crumbling into dust. And giant underground bunkers built on a planet that looked scorched from the heat of a giant red sun. The planet was clearly dying, and Leura had the horrible realisation that she was looking at the future of Earth.

“What happened to all the people, the Expansionists?” asked Leura.

“The same thing that happens to all empires sooner or later I guess. They fell,” said Wentworth with a shrug. A crackling laugh from behind them made them jump and spin around on the spot.

A girl was standing a few feet away. She was alone, and wearing white robes. She was very small, even compared to Leura, and she had none of Leura’s stockiness. Her hair was blonde, short, and spiky, and she had a mischievous smile that Leura found rather infectious.

“They got too comfortable, that’s what I heard,” said the girl in a playful voice. “They stopped expanding and started holidaying. The sun got older and hotter, and life got harder but they didn’t get harder with it, so,” and she drew her finger slowly along her throat.

Leura felt a knot in the pit of her stomach. Like most people from her time, she had always doubted if humanity had a grand future ahead of it. But somehow knowing they had one and then lost it, was so much worse.

“Sorry, who are you?” Wentworth asked the tiny girl, sounding anything but sorry.

“I’m Solarius Helenor, but people call me Sol. Who are you?”

“I’m Leura Fall, and this is my twin brother Wentworth, we’re from the year 2024, what about you?”

“Oh that’s pretty close to me! I’m from 2151, I was on the 13th fleet you know. I was a baby at the time, so I don’t remember much, but I grew up in the first proper EcoDomes, much better than those cramped habitats the earlier colonists had to deal with. Then one day my parents told me I was born with some sort of super brain from the future that meant I could time travel and that I had to come here to learn how. They took me on loads of trips here so I already know the place pretty well.” Sol grinned at them again.

“13th fleet to where?” asked Wentworth in a daze.

“Mars of course, didn’t your parents teach you anything before bringing you here?”

Leura shook her head. “Our dad didn’t know anything about this place, and our mum… well, she’s gone.”

Sol tilted her head curiously at them. “And you said you’re twins right? What was your mum’s name?”

Before Leura could answer, the sound of laughter echoed up the hall from behind them and they turned to see three new kids in white robes walking towards them. They were looking at the moving scenes on the wall but when they spotted the twins they made a beeline for them.

“New students too?” asked the boy at the front. He was tall, with long brown hair and looked very strong for his age. There was something about him that reminded Leura of a wolf.

“Yeah, we’re about to go get our white robes,” answered Leura, feeling very out of place in her jeans and t-shirt.

“I’m Cron Malabor,” he said, like the twins should be able to recognise the name, and Sol gave a little gasp.

“You’re Theo Malabor’s son aren’t you?” said Sol, stepping out from behind the twins to get a better look.

Cron flashed a toothy grin that made him look even more wolfish. “The one and only.”

“I’m Stirling, Stirling Weyland,” said the skinny boy on Cron’s right.

“Quillith Trix,” said the tall, slender girl on Cron’s left, before quickly adding “I’m an Expansionist.” She looked thoroughly pleased with herself about it.

“Um, hi, I’m Leura and this is Wentworth.” She gave them a quick wave.

“And you’re what, friends?” asked Cron, looking between them curiously.

“We’re twins,” answered Leura, and Cron’s eyes widened.

“Twins? Were both your parents time travellers?”

“Just our mum,” said Wentworth.

Cron was now looking between them like he couldn’t believe his eyes. “But you’re not… not Raya Volkova’s twins, right?”

Leura’s stomach dropped and her heart rate tripled. “How do you know Raya?”

Cron glanced eagerly at Stirling and Quillith who were both looking as thrilled as he was. “Everybody knows who Raya Volkova is,” he said, facing the twins again with an almost hungry look in his eyes. “The famous traitor… and they’re actually letting Volkova’s twins train here, I can’t believe it!”

Leura felt like the floor was crumbling beneath her feet. “You’re lying,” she said, only just louder than a whisper but Cron heard it perfectly.

“Lying, am I? Then how come I’ve seen her in Jotunheim? You know my dad’s the Warden there right? I can’t wait to tell him I’ve met her twins, the story of how they came for her right after you were born… it’s legendary… everyone knows it.”

Leura’s fists were clenched so tightly she could feel her nails digging painfully into her skin. Wentworth was shaking beside her, though in fear or anger Leura couldn’t tell. It wasn’t true, it couldn’t be. The way Mika spoke about their mother made it seem like it had all been some sort of mistake, that other time travellers were on her side. But these kids clearly thought she was nothing but a criminal. Someone to laugh at. Someone it was okay to hate. But they were wrong. Leura was about to tell them that when a loud voice rang out from beside her.

“Like you can talk, Cron,” said Sol, glaring up at him. She was only about half his size but there wasn’t a trace of fear on her. “I’ve heard all about your dad, and the only reason the Board gave him Jotunheim was because he was the only person savage enough to take the job.”

Cron looked stunned for a moment that someone so small would talk to him like that, but he recovered quickly and sneered down at Sol. “Is that supposed to be an insult? He is the only person savage enough for it. It takes guts, leading all those tribesmen, controlling the beasts they use to guard scum like Volkova. A little runt like you wouldn’t last five minutes.”

“Shut up about our mum!” Leura felt like her whole body was on fire. She wanted to attack Cron, she didn’t care if he looked stronger than all three of them combined. If he said one more thing about Raya she’d launch herself right at him, punching, kicking and scratching every inch of him she could reach.

Cron opened his mouth, a look of triumph on his face, but before he could get a word out, they all heard footsteps approaching around the curve of the hall. Cron’s eyes narrowed as he saw Mika’s red robes sweep into view. He lowered his voice so only they could hear. “Plenty of time to finish this later, it’s only the first day after all.” With a final sneer he turned and walked away down the hall, Stirling and Quillith right behind him.

“Met a few of the other white robes then?” asked Mika cheerfully as he approached. He looked down at Sol. “Hello, I’m Librarian Mika.”

“Solarius Helenor,” said Sol, holding out her tiny hand for Mika to shake. Mika’s hand covered hers completely and a good bit of her forearm too, but he looked delighted at her confidence, and shook her hand enthusiastically.

“Welcome to Alexandria, Solarius, you’re going to do very well here, I can always tell.” Mika turned to the twins. “We better get down to the market and pick up your robes.”

Leura could hear a ringing in her ears from the rage that still coursed through her body. She could hear Cron’s voice echoing around her head, calling her mum a traitor, calling her scum. She would prove him wrong, and anyone else who thought the same. Her mother was innocent - innocent - and good, and missing her daughter… She took a deep breath and tried to appear calm as she turned to her dad and Mika. “Wait, did you say we’re getting robes? Does that mean we get to stay?”

“It means we’re going to give it a trial run,” said Tony quickly. “Mika’s agreed to take you home after your first week of training, back to the day we left so I’ll find out straight away how things are going.” Leura nodded, hardly daring to believe it. She knew that no matter what happened this week, all she was going to tell her dad was how great everything was and that there was nothing to worry about. Just like she’d never tell him the things Cron had just said. She had no idea how Mika convinced him to agree to this, but she smiled at the big man gratefully.

They waved goodbye to Sol, agreeing to find each other at the initiation ceremony that evening, then Mika led them back through the atrium, out into the vast courtyard at the front of the library, and then onwards into the winding streets of the town of Alexandria itself.

The streets were paved with stones, and the buildings looked like a mix of Egyptian and Roman designs, with lots of columns, statues, and detailed carvings making it the most beautiful town Leura had ever seen in her life. It was also full of people.

They stood in front of their storefronts and homes, and walked among the streets, waving cheerily at Mika as he passed. They had dark features, and wore traditional Egyptian tunics. Everyone seemed to be constantly smiling, and they spoke to each other in a language Leura couldn’t understand, but in a tone that made it clear this was a happy and welcoming place.

“Everyone seems really glad to see us, don’t they,” said Leura, as a large family walked past waving enthusiastically at them all.

“Of course they do,” replied Mika, “Alexandria is the wealthiest and safest city in the world right now. These people never have to worry about famine, or disease, or war, because we protect them from all that. Many of them think we’re some sort of gods, but we don’t allow them to worship us in any way. No statues or carvings or anything that could be found in the future and give us away.”

The journey to the marketplace took longer than expected, but Leura didn’t mind, she was enjoying the chance to soak in the sights and smells of Alexandria. It was helping to calm her down, after the encounter with Cron. The breeze coming in from the ocean smelled of the fresh seafood that fishermen were bringing in by the cartful. Shops selling everything from carpets to fine jewellery covered the streets. Leura even saw one selling exotic animals, like snakes, monkeys, and big cats. The young children of Alexandria kept running up to them, laughing, shouting, and high-fiving everyone they could reach.

It was a beautiful place, filled with happy people, and Leura felt herself begin to care for Alexandria in a way she hadn’t felt about any other place in her life. It was already beginning to feel like home.

They entered the town square through a giant stone gate. The market felt like a living breathing creature, and Leura’s senses were flooded with the sights, sounds and smells erupting from the hundreds of stalls that seemed to sell a bit of everything. Mika led them to a clothing stall and they tried on some brand new white robes. Despite feeling a little silly in them, Leura had to admit it was the most comfortable thing she’d ever worn. They bought a few pairs each, and Mika gave the merchant a handful of bronze and silver coins, then they wound their way back up towards the library.

“The initiation is beginning soon, and only students of the Great Library are allowed to attend. It’s time I brought you home, Tony,” said Mika, as delicately as he could.

Leura held her breath as she watched Tony struggle with the weight of the moment. She knew there was still a very good chance that he would change his mind. Mika seemed to agree, because he hastily added, “We will be right behind you just as soon as they’ve had their first week of lessons, you won’t even have to leave Dials, Springs & Pendulums. Remember what we talked about, the greatest danger they face is themselves, they need proper training to learn how to control their abilities.”

So that’s how he did it, thought Leura. He made dad more afraid of what would happen if he took us home than what might happen if he lets us stay. Remembering the night they found Tony broken and alone after they’d accidentally time travelled a week into the future, Leura was not surprised this strategy had worked. She felt a fresh wave of pity for her father. She’d spent so many years thinking he just wanted to control them, but these last few days had shown her that what he really wanted was to protect their family from more loss.

Tony nodded at Mika, but there was a look on his face like every inch of movement was causing him a great deal of pain.

“We’ll be okay dad, I swear we will,” said Leura, squeezing his hand tightly.

“Yeah, we’ll look after each other, we always do,” added Wentworth, taking his other hand.

Tony didn’t seem to be able to speak, but he knelt down and hugged the twins tightly, holding on like he was afraid they would vanish into thin air the moment he let them go. Leura heard him whispering something, but couldn’t tell whether it was meant for them or for himself, and all she caught were the words “I promise”. He slipped something cold and heavy into Leura’s hand, and it took her a few moments to realise it was Raya’s timedial.

Then Tony straightened up, looked Mika dead in the eyes and in a croaky voice said, “okay, I’m ready.”

It was a strange thing, standing there at the entrance to the library and watching their father walk towards the lighthouse with Mika. They’d spent their entire lives being shadowed by him. It had been a great frustration knowing that their dad was always watching them, but it had also been a kind of comfort. And now, he was leaving them like he never had before. This wasn’t like being left with Froggy, or even being dropped off at school. They were about to be separated by more than just distance. Over two thousand years would stand between this moment, and the one where Tony would be waiting for them.

Leura slipped the timedial into her pocket and made a silent promise of her own as she watched them disappear into the lighthouse. That she wouldn’t let him wait for long. Not this time.