Grain....

"I don't want to get used to it! I want to go home!" Amaretto's voice was terse and she was beginning to get angry.

"I'm sorry Ama, but you're going to have to face it; we aren't on Earth Secundus anymore. People will want your Hourglass here too..."

Amaretto looked at her aunt with confusion playing through her features. "Earth Secundus? What's that?"

Katherine sighed in an exasperated tone. "My darling little Ama, that is where you are from. That is the reality where you grew up and where you are most comfortable. This place however, while it is close to your time is very different. It runs on a different time axis and has a whole different history.

Katherine looked out at the street and as she did so Amaretto frowned at her. "Reality and time axis," she mumbled to herself, "I don't understand what you are talking about."

Katherine seemed not to notice Amaretto mumbling and said, "What that history may have been, I am not sure. I will say this however: God save the Realm!" With that she pointed upwards. Amareto allowed for her eyes to wander in the direction in which her aunt was pointing and she gasped. Fluttering and flying in the wind was the Union Jack, but it was slightly different. In the center, superimposed above the traditional colors, was a large bronze gear with a ring of gold in the center.

"What is that?" Amaretto pointed to the flag and looked at her aunt with surprise.

"that my dear," began Katherine, "Is the sign of the Empire and realm of New Machina, also known as the Second Great Empire of England, upon which the sun has never set." Amaretto blinked a few times at this answer. Katherine watched in amusement as Amaretto's mouth dropped open.

"New Machina? What happened to just normal England?" Amaretto turned back to look at the flag as her aunt shrugged.

"That's something that Tempus would be able to answer and explain easier than I. Speaking of which, since we wound up here, he must be somewhere nearby...” Katherine trailed off as Amaretto's head whirled. She had to many questions about what was going on. Wasn't this supposed to be a trial period of some sort? First it was the hourglass, then it was la sorcéire, now it was this. There did not seem to be any shortage of problems going on around here. Amaretto felt like her head was going to explode.

Her Aunt suddenly chimed out happily”There it is! Come on, let's get inside before we are noticed.” Amaretto's hand was grabbed by her aunt and she felt herself being dragged across the street into a watch shop. The rain sloughed down and caught her off guard, but when she got into the shop, she realized that she was soaked anyways, even for the short distance that they had covered from the alley mouth to the shop. It took but a moment more, but her musings about how wet she was were soon replaced with the loud ticking that she head next.

The sound filled the whole of the shop and, though it was very quiet, was actually quite deafening. Amaretto's aunt breathed a sigh of relief. Amaretto was surprised to see that Katherine was not soaking wet. The next thing that went through her mind however was that she was in a watch shop. The horrifying image of all of the watches and clocks going off at the same time went through her mind. She hoped that it would not happened and thankfully, it didn't. Inside of the store behind a rather large counter top was an old woman who looked them both up and down.

The Woman was dressed head to toe in black. She wore a tight corset and a stiff necked blouse that was severely buttoned up all the way to her throat. Her hair was tied up into a bun at the base of her neck and was tightly cinched. The woman looked at the both of them and Katherine tried to smile at her to open the woman a little bit more, but that didn't actually seem to work.

“We are here to see the watch maker, is he in?” Katherine's voice seemed a little forced, but there was nothing that anyone could do about it. The woman behind the counter rolled her eyes and then pointed to a curtained doorway that was behind the counter. Katherine continued to smile and then grabbed Amaretto's hand rather firmly and all but dragged her through the curtained doorway. At that moment, Amaretto felt the familiar pull of something and then there in front of her was Tempus once again.

Tempus' mouth twitched slightly and then he said rather loudly, “you made it! Thank Fate!”

“I don't feel much like thanking anyone,” Amaretto mumbled. It was then that her stomach lurched. She clutched at her middle and fell to her knees.

“Tempus, make some tea. Her stomach is catching up to her now.” Katherine leaned down and patted Amaretto on the back.

The room was familiar to Amaretto, but as she watched Tempus began to set out tea on the small table that sat beneath the towering dark shadow. He started to absently pour himself a cup when he said, “Well I for one am glad to see you both are still alive.”

Amaretto blinked. “Still alive? Still alive? There was a chance that we could have been killed when you sent us off?” Amaretto forced herself off the floor and then shakily stood her ground to stare at Tempus.

Tempus paused and looked at his teacup frowning. He then looked up and said, “Well I hate to admit it, but when I sent you and Katherine to Monde Cruex, I was a little worried...” his voice trailed off.

“You thought that we were going to die! I ought to kill you!” Amaretto surged forward only to be stopped by her churning stomach settling and the firm grip of her aunt's hand on her shoulder.

“Now, now darling. Even though you want to, you can't. The line is simply too long.” Katherine paused to glare at the man in front of them. Tempus actually looked to the ground as his cheeks flared a deep red crimson due to embarrassment.

“sorry,” Tempus said. “When the alarm went off I knew it was trouble ans so I fixed coordinates without even thinking and I didn't realize it till later.”

“Well we made it giver or take a few miles,” replied Katherine acidly. “the temple was not crowded thank god. La sorcéire showed us something rather disturbing though that we were hoping to discuss with you.”

Tempus picked up the cup that he had initially been pouring tea into and then moved forward to pass it to Amaretto. “What did you see?”

The answer burst forth from Amaretto's lips before her aunt could even answer. “Her double at the Sand Mirror is in trouble!”

Shock fell along the lines of Tempus' face for a moment before he placed the cup on a saucer and laid them back upon the table. As he did so, Katherine walked over to the table and searched around the cup s and glasses for a moment before turning her full attention to Tempus. “Still no table brandy Tempus? You really should get some just for me at least.”

“No brandy at high tea,” snapped Tempus. Katherine looked surprised at the tone that Tempus had used. She then sat down in one of the small wicker chairs that surrounded the table and began searching through her purse, all the while muttering dire precautions and unimaginable curses under hear breath at the man who had denied her.

Amaretto looked back behind her aunt and Tempus at the table and once again saw the strange tower once more in her view. It was still shrouded in darkness, but Amarretto swore that as she stared at it, she saw a giant pendulum. It was slowly swinging back and forth without making a single noise. “Hey Tempus, what is this thing?”

Tempus paused in his pacing for long enough to turn his head and gaze towards Amaretto.

Grain Redux... Traveling and Amaretto enters a new Dimension...

The world that swallowed her was bright and filled with sound. It was like a tunnel that seemed to fall in an endless pit. Lights in dots of all sizes whizzed past Amaretto's face and upwards. The sounds of a thousand voices and more filtered past her ears in such a rapid succession that they hardly registered. Most of it was a blur. She looked up, but could not see her aunt through the light. She looked down, but saw nothing except a small pinprick.

Then there was darkness. The darkness of the pinprick widened into a hole and then it seemed to swallow her up and Amaretto felt herself falling through the air and then crashed to the floor. She lay there gasping and choking, starring at the ceiling when a blip appeared before her. She stared at the dot and then heard a sound. Above her, the sudden form of her aunt falling was the next thing that she saw. She tried to move out of the way, but it was in vain. Katherine fell directly on top of Amaretto.

"Please, get off of me."Amaretto sucked in breath as Katherine rolled off of her and then took in ragged breaths of her own.

"That was not a fun trip at all," muttered Katherine.

"Could have fooled me," Amaretto responded acidly.

Katherine sighed and then sat up, dusting herself off. She looked around for a moment and then said, "Wait, where is my purse?" Amaretto tried to give her a look which she hoped was as scathing as possible. She was however very surprised by the look of understanding that crossed her aunt's face. Katherine stuck her arm out and from above them the purse fell. The straps whipped around her wrist perfectly and the bag slipped down , coming to rest and hang from the crook of her elbow.

Amaretto felt her jaw drop. Katherine simply reached into the bag and pulled out a compact. She flipped open the small mirror and began to check her make up. "Well now," she said snapping it shut after a moment, "Let us see where we are."

Amaretto reached out a hand and Katherine helped her to stand up. As she brushed herself off, she reached up a hand to check and see if the necklace was still around her neck. The Hourglass was warm to the touch and Amaretto sighed for just a moment. She watched as Katherine walked over to the end of the small alleyway and then nodded her head. She turned around and at that moment, there appeared to be a popping sound. There was a rush of air and then the world seemed to tilt back into focus. A rush of air swished past Amaretto and she took a breath and she could taste the subtle tang of smog in the air. Rain started to fall from the sky and pierce the area in the small alleyway around her and her aunt. Katherine reached into her purse and pulled out a small parasol umbrella and opened it. Amaretto looked up at her aunt. "What just happened?"

"Oh, the bubble, that was just the adjustment happening. Whenever you travel through time and space, the world creates a small bubble that allows your whole being to adjust to the new world that it is on and also where you have been. You will get used to it soon."

"I don't want to get used to it! I want to go home!" Amaretto's voice was terse and she was beginning to get angry.

"I'm sorry Ama, but you're going to have to face it; we aren't on Earth Secundus anymore. People will want your Hourglass here too..."

Amaretto looked at her aunt with confusion playing through her features. "Earth Secundus? What's that?"

Katherine sighed in an exasperated tone. "My darling little Ama, that is where you are from. That is the reality where you grew up and where you are most comfortable. This place however, while it is close to your time is very different. It runs on a different time axis and has a whole different history.

Katherine looked out at the street and as she did so Amaretto frowned at her. "Reality and time axis," she mumbled to herself, "I don't understand what you are talking about."

Katherine seemed not to notice Amaretto mumbling and said, "What that history may have been, I am not sure. I will say this however: God save the Realm!" With that she pointed upwards. Amaretto allowed for her eyes to wander in the direction in which her aunt was pointing and she gasped. Fluttering and flying in the wind was the Union Jack, but it was slightly different. In the center, superimposed above the traditional colors, was a large bronze gear with a ring of gold in the center.

"What is that?" Amaretto pointed to the flag and looked at her aunt with surprise.

"That my dear," began Katherine, "Is the sign of the Empire and realm of New Machina, also known as the Second Great Empire of England, upon which the sun has never set." Amaretto blinked a few times at this answer. Katherine watched in amusement as Amaretto's mouth dropped open.

"New Machina? What happened to just normal England?" Amaretto turned back to look at the flag as her aunt shrugged.

"That's something that Tempus would be able to answer and explain easier than I. Speaking of which, since we wound up here, he must be somewhere nearby..." Katherine trailed off as Amaretto's head whirled. She had too many questions about what was going on. Wasn't this supposed to be a trial period? First it was the glass, then it was la sorcieire, now it was this. Amaretto felt like her head was going to explode.

Her aunt suddenly chimed happily. "there it is! Come on, let's go before we are noticed." Amaretto's hand was grabbed by her aunt and she felt herself being dragged across the street into a watch shop. The rain that poured down from the sky sloughed down and caught her off guard, but when she got into the shop, she realized that she was soaked. That was second however to the silent ticking that seemed to fill all of the silence next.

Grain Redux... In which a test run is agreed to...

"So I should think of this as a test then?" Amaretto frowned and looked at her aunt. Katherine smiled sadly.

"A test seems to be an interesting way to put it, but yes. This is a test. However, this test has no room for failure." Katherine shook her head ant then looked back at La sorcière who simply stared back in incomprehension. Amaretto was not pleased with the situation and didn't look it either.

"I must say that this seems a little bit rushed... I don't like this at all." Amaretto bit her lip.

La sorcière looked at her with clear eyes that seemed to pierce Amaretto to the core. "When you loose someone close to you, then you can come back to me and tell me that it seems odd. She is normally the only person that I may talk to. If no one goes to save her then I may never talk to anyone ever again except for those who have a wish and those who are on a pilgrimage."

Amaretto looked away, feeling shame color her face. The small girl looked as if she was about to say something when the water around them began to boil.

"What's happening?" Amaretto looked around panicking not sure what it was that she was supposed to do.

Katherine frowned and slightly stumbled as she tried to look up something on her palm pilot. "I have no idea. There is no information on an earthquake today." Amaretto was about to say something, but Katherine prattled onwards. "Though we are in Monde Creux, I don't think that I get reports on the palm for this then."

"I think this is something else though," said La sorcière. Amaretto tried to step back when she almost tripped over her own feet. She fell forward onto her knees. Her ears picked up a slight keening noise. Leaning forward, she realized that it was coming from the mirror below.

"The sound... it sounds like the same one we heard from when we were with Tempus." Amaretto spoke, trying to get her aunt's attention and failed at it. "Aunt Katherine!"

The Godmother didn't look at her but had a surprised and slightly worried look on her face. Amaretto took her index finger and poker her aunt in the side.

"OW! That was uncalled for!" Katherine narrowed her eyes as she looked at Amaretto with displeasure.

"Just listen!" Amaretto pointed at the mirror.

Katherine rolled her eyes and listened for a moment and then knit her brows in frustration. "It does sound the same," she began.

La sorcière pointed to a section of the mirror that cleared and said, "That is why. An alarm has been set off."

"Another alarm, great," Amaretto complained. She looked in the direction that La sorcière was pointing in.

At that moment, there was a sudden screech in the glass around them and the otherwise turbulent water turned a rather rapid shade of greenish red. It was probably the most vile color that Amaretto had ever seen. Katherine looked at it an said so.

"Quickly," La sorcière said.

Katherine held up her hand and shook her head. "There must be something that is tripping an alarm somewhere. What is this alarm for?"

La sorcière waved her hand at the water below them and the whole mirror turned into its innocuous sheet of glass once more. There, displayed on the crystalline surface was a picture of a group of people who were walking across the deserted sands of Monde Creux. They were dressed in a rather strange motley of clothes, but the one thing that stood out was the fact that they were wearing large wooden masks that covered their faces.

"Are they walking towards here?"

La sorcière nodded her head. "That is what it looks like. It appears that she has sent people after you."

Amaretto sneered at first and then her face shifted to confusion. "There is no reason to... wait what?"

La sorcière raised her hand and the whole of the mirror solidified again. Amaretto tried to say something, but Katherine interrupted her by waving her palm pilot around. "I just got an email dictating that the Hourglass is about to be contested! This is not good."

Amaretto looked like she was getting sick. "Contested? What does that mean? Someone else is going to be able to have this thing? I say let them."

Katherine grinned. "It means that if we don't move, we are going to be killed."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Not at all, it is merely the truth." Katherine began to giggle slightly.

Amaretto looked to the girl who was frantically moving towards her side. "you have to get out of here now," said La sorcière. "I cannot allow for her to get her hands on your hourglass!" La sorcière raised her hands and the chamber took on a somber hue at that moment.

"Who is she?" amaretto's voice was full of confusion. She looked at her aunt who was frantically using her palm pilot.

La sorcière ignored her though. "I'm going to send you through paralax..."

"Para-what?" amaretto tried to say more, but was cut off at that moment.

Grain Redux... In which all is revealed...

Amaretto grasped her aunt's hand and stepped onto the small glass enclosure. La sorcière smiled at them and motioned for them to follow her to the direct center of the dome and as they did so, the area that they were not on began to dissolve into water.

"This large lake that we are standing on is known as the Water Mirror," began La sorcière. "It is one of two mirrors that are known to produce visions that are truthful."

Amaretto cut in at this moment. "Truthful? You mean that there are others that can lie?"

La sorcière shook her head. "Not in the way that you are thinking no. What I mean to say is that these two mirrors are the only way that someone can see a possible future that is truthful. Not only that, but this is one of two mirrors that one can see the Possibilities in, the other being the Sand Mirror."

"Possibilities?" Amaretto had cut in again and Katherine shook her head.

"Perhaps we should start at a different place Ama darling," her aunt said. "Your hourglass runs on something called 'Possibility'. It is that small thing that allows anything in the known universe to actually work. It is how your Hourglass actually allows you to transfer from place to another without any consequences. It is the possibility of the fact that the action could happen and therefor, the hourglass permits it. Does that make more sense in the first place?"

Amaretto nodded at her Aunt's explanation and then frowned. "Are you trying to say that this glass doesn't actually travel? It's only the possibility of that travel that makes it happen?"

La sorcière nodded her head. "That is correct. It is in that thinking that you are able to do it. It is also these possibilities that the Mirrors are able to watch. Nothing more and nothing less." Amaretto nodded and then motioned for La sorcière to continue. The girl nodded.

"It is here that we discovered what had happened. I have one person to whom I must answer to, and we call her the Lady. I work in service to her and she is known to be more powerful than I, though most do not known it. She is the one who allows the Hourglasses to work. She is the one who works the other mirror, almost like my twin. We often talk to each other in order to correlate what it is that we see, and make changes accordingly. However, it has always been known that one cannot change what is written in stone."

"You are babbling on," Katherine said.

La sorcière paused for a moment and then blushed. "You are right. I digress. To put it simply, the Lady has not been in contact with me for quite some time. I later discovered that she had been," La sorcière covered her mouth for a moment as if she was choking on something and then said, "kidnapped."

Amaretto scoffed. "Kidnapped? You called us here because of a simple kidnapping?"

Katherine frowned. "Amaretto, this is unfortunately a rather big deal. This is bigger than I initially thought."

"No, this is a simple thing of there being nothing to think of at this moment," said Amaretto. "If she says anything more, then we will be obliged to help."

"We are already obliged," said Katherine in a small voice.

"What? NO! I refuse!" Amaretto stomped her foot down and the glass rang out with crystal clarity. La sorcière simply shook her head.

"It is not that simple. She was not only kidnapped, but imprisoned. Beneath the Sand mirror."

"Beneath the, I don't know where you are getting your script from but this is it, I am done, I don't want to hear any more." Amaretto began to try to stalk off of the glass, but was surprised when she realized that it was all water. The water itself shimmered for a moment and then a picture began to form. A young blond girl was sitting in a large cavern and all around her was stone, much like the cavern that they stood in now, only this one was centered around what looked to be a large writhing mass of sand rather than a glass dome. The sands seemed to writhe and above it, the ledge on which the girl sat. She looked down at the sand and seemed to move her lips, no words issuing forth from them, but as she did so, the sand reacted and upwards surging from the swirling mass, a woman's form. the form grew until it was a large shape, taking over half of the cavern.

The girl spoke out loud and then the sand form placed its hands in front of it, almost as if it was forming another mirror when the picture seemed as if it was accruing static. Then, quite suddenly, they watched as the girl was pulled downwards into the sand pit and spewing froth from it, the shape of another woman made of sand, this one solidified until it became an almost exact duplicate of the first girl. The second one, looked down beneath her feet and smiled maliciously as she looked down. Below her, the original blond, whom Amaretto assumed to be the Lady, seemed to be shackled in a room far below the surface.

"I need your help to free her." La sorcière's voice was quiet, but Amaretto knew what it was that the woman was thinking.

"I said no the first time and I'll say it again now. No." Amaretto crossed her arms and looked at her Aunt. "Why does it have to be us anyway? Why couldn't it have been someone else?"

The small sorceress looked at Amaretto straight in the eyes and then frowned. Amaretto stared back at her and they both said nothing as they stood there. Katherine reached into her purse and pulled out her palm pilot and then with her stylus, began to rapidly began to work on it. The silence seemed to stretch on and then the small girl said, "Why ever not you?"

This took Amaretto by surprise and she put her hands on her hips. "I can think of several reasons, the foremost that this is not my problem at all."

"However it is your problem," Katherine said absentmindedly.

Amaretto turned to her aunt, the frown still on her lips, making a slight pout. "what do you mean that it is my problem."

"Well, you see it's like this," her aunt replied, pulling a pair of glasses from her purse to put them on. She then began to then read from her palm pilot, holding it aloft. "It says here, 'When one is given an Hourglass, hereafter referred to as a Glass," her aunt made a small quotation mark with her free hand. "They are entered into a legal and binding contract in this and any other reality, hereafter referred to as the domains." Another set of air-quotes were made. Amaretto waved her hands in front of her aunt to make her stop. Katherine paused. "If you want to read it, it's all right here." She lifted the palm pilot.

"So you are saying that because you gave me this hourglass, that I am no accountable to the whims of this little girl?"

"Correction," La sorcière said, "I am the one who says that you must listen. The law is clear on this and has already been laid out since the beginning o the possibility of such." The words were clear and the harshness of them made Amaretto shiver.

La sorcière moved forward slowly from where she was standing away from where Katherine and Amaretto were standing. As she walked away, Amaretto noticed a distant quality in her eyes as she spoke. "A single possibility from the universe that signifies what can, will, and should happen. Though even with this sand, one can never say that a 'one-grain possibility' is impossible." La sorcière continued to walk across her watery mirror where it would form solid underneath her feet as she walked.

She waved her hand in front of her and the water slid upwards underneath almost as if in an effort to be caressed by her hand. The water formed a small shape and then expanded into something that looked like an hourglass and then began to pour sand from the top to the bottom one grain at a time. "If one grain of sand holds the future of a single posibility, then it is enough to suppose and assume that multiple grains hold multiple posibilities." At this moment, the faux hourglass began to pass more grains. "When bringing these grains together, one can act on these seperate realities. In doing so, one must have a catalyst; for example, an hourglass..."

La sorcière trailed off and Amaretto screamed at her. "I don't care what you say! I am not going to do this!"


Katherine placed her hand on her god-daughter's shoulder and then said, "There is no choice in this matter."

"Everyone has a choice," replied amaretto bitterly. She stared as the mirror once again replayed the images of what happened at what La sorcière called the Sand Mirror. As she watched it, she felt something stirring inside of her. It was a stark sense of pity. She looked over to La sorcière and then felt the pity raise in her as she watched the small girl watch as the one person she could talk to always vanished beneath a sea of sand.

"In this case, it is the one thing that you must do." Katherine stared hard through her glasses at the small palm pilot in her hand. "Think of it as your first time trial and then you are free to do what you want?"

Amaretto nodded her head once. "All right then. If this is a trial run, that means if I don't like it, I can return it."

Her aunt nodded her understanding.

Grain Redux... In which Amaretto meets La Sorcière...

As Amaretto and her godmother stepped out of the corvette-tank, Katherine began to walk forwards. As she did so, Amaretto frowned and said, "What about the car?"

Katherine waived a hand at it absently. "It will keep."

She continued to walk towards the strange temple after her aunt. "You know. It looks like something straight out of an Indiana Jones film."

Kathrine paused at the the steps and then paused to root around in her purse. She then pulled out a pair of 'queen' high heel open-toe sandals with a bow detail. Katherine looked to her godchild and then said, "They are pale pink python with light gold." She smiled and Amaretto rolled her eyes.

"Do you always have to do that?"

Katherine smiled. "You mean pull a new pair of shoes when the occasion warrants?"

"Something like that," said Amaretto.

They walked into the first antechamber of the room and what Amaretto saw made her wonder. There was a small hall at the end of the antechamber and through the hall, there was a small doorway with the glow of light at the end of it. The hall was carved through the rock as well and the sides were carved into beautiful reliefs and as she walked towards the other end of the hall, she noted that the women all had sad smiles.

As she stepped from the hall into the new cavern, her mouth seemed to drop open at what she saw. The cavern itself seemed to keep raising up into the solitary mountain and along the walls, carved from the living rock, there was nothing but caryatids and statues of people, doing all manner of things that were akin to life. Amaretto stared at them in awe looking around at all of them. Amongst the statues, hundreds upon thousands of candles were placed in niche and convenient spots so that the light would be bale to be cast everywhere. Flickering flames swayed to the rhythm of their own wind.


That was not what made her stare however though. In the center of the room, on the floor, spanning almost thirty feet across, was a large glass dome. The sides were almost all but bolted to the floor by a large gold band that had runes all across it. The strange runes that danced across the gold band, made it seem as if they were constantly shifting, though the glass itself never did. The glass dome didn't seem to raise above ground level anymore than two inches.

In the direct center of the strange glass dome, standing on the top was a small girl who had dark colored hair which was tied up into several braids and long sticks were used to keep them up as they trailed down the sides of her face. Her eyes were a deep sable green and golden flecks swam in there. She stared at her two new arrivals and then clasped her hands firmly in front of her.

"It seems that you have finally come around and shown up now." the girls voice was musical and floated on the air in between the candles and flowed around the whole room and echoed softly as well.

Amaretto blinked at that moment and then heard her godmother curse. "I didn't wear the right kind of shoes. This is horrible," was all she said under her breath as she pulled her PDA from her purse and then nodded. "This girl in front of us is indeed who we are looking for. This is la sorcière. Be nice then."

Amaretto almost didn't say anything at first and then she scoffed. "This girl is her?"

La sorcière smiled and then said, "It is quite all right. I don't expect you to understand." The girl smiled.

"So this is la sorcière? Not much of what I thought that she would be," Amaretto paused, not sure of what it was that she was to be expecting.

"Taller perhaps?" Katherine's voice was not at all what Amaretto had expected to answer her and actually la sorcière giggled at the joke.

"I don't think that I have ever heard that one before." As musical voice responded, it drifted once again and Amaretto noticed that the candles all responded and swayed. Amaretto looked at the woman that everyone seemed to be calling "the witch of time and space" and was still rather unimpressed.

"So then," began Amaretto, "What is it that I am here for?"

La sorcière smiled. "there is a small problem, one that you can fix, but do not necessarily have to."

Amaretto put her hands up almost as if in defense against the words that La sorcière was saying.

"Don't try to talk circles around me; I've seen the lord of the rings. I've also read plenty of books. You can't say that I can turn you down cause there is always some terrible consequence for doing so." Amaretto looked rather proud for a moment. She then felt that she had figured it all out. "So if you do tell me why I am here, the I will feel obligated to you. Which when I think about it, that is not so good. I don't like that idea.

La sorcière looked amused and Katherine looked a little aghast. "She might have a point," La sorcière said, "However, I cannot argue on this one." Her voice was quiet, but the authority was there. "Unfortunately, you have to hear it anyway."

The small girlish body began to move its way slowly across the glass surface. Amaretto watched the bare feet hit the surface hit the surface without a sound. La sorcière stopped in front of Amaretto and then stared at her with clear eyes.

"There are those who even I answer to here in my Hollow World. Even I am not entirely a slave to what I see, though I may never leave." Amaretto watched as La sorcière tried to step off of the glass surface and the surface contorted and a lash of water surged upwards and like a manacle, clamped around her foot right before it could touch the ground. The shackle and watery chains tightened and Amaretto could see a look of slight pain on the girls face. She pulled her foot back and stepped back onto the mirror.

"As you can see, even if I wanted to leave to help I cannot." La sorcière words were true to her voice and Amaretto could only nod her head.

"I think that I understand you." Amaretto's voice was quiet.

Katherine nodded herself and then said, "Well, we can't stand here all day now can we?" With that, she stepped up onto the glass and her shoes made a resounding crack upon it. The sound echoed all around the area and she turned around and held out a hand or her godchild. "Come along now. I don't have all day and we should see what she wants without any more trouble. There's a sale at Gucci that I really want to get to as some point in time." She smiled her winning smile and Amaretto could feel her eyes rolling into her skull even though she tried to will them not to.

Grain Redux... In which we discover the Corvette is not all that it seems...

While following her aunt, there was not much to do. The world around them was desolate and bleak. There also seemed to be nothing but the strange sand everywhere. The monotonous gray sky stretched onwards. Occasionally, there were streaks of dark blues, but other than that there was almost no color to the sky at all. A crescent Moon hung in the sky, shedding pale white light. The Moon itself was rather awful to look at as well. Amaretto was about to complain when she realized that her aunt was no longer carrying her shoes.

"Aunt Katherine, where are your shoes?"

Katherine stopped and paused and then said, "I traded them out for these loafers." As if to emphasize her point, she lifted her foot up off the ground and showed Amaretto a pair of canvas and suede loafers that were encasing her feet. "As we both know," she prattled on, "High heels are not suitable for the desert."


"But where did they go Aunt Katherine?" Amaretto's voice was slightly terse.



"I put them in my bag."



"In your bag?"



Katherine nodded her hand and then pulled up her purse. "I keep all my shoes in here."



Amaretto blinked. "Excuse me?"


Katherine pointed towards her bag and said, "I keep all of my shoes in there. There's plenty of space in there."

Amaretto snorted. "Who the hell are you. A British nanny?"


"Do I look like I am practically perfect in every other way?" Katherine huffed.

"Hah, didn't you once say that your favorite drink was whisky? That hardly points towards perfection." Amaretto snorted.


"So I like to nip a little now and then, that makes me a British nanny more than some. Still, we aren't going to get anywhere without this." Katherine had paused in her walking and she pulled out a little dust from the inside of her purse and raised it in the palm of her hand. raising her hand to her lips, she blew on it and the dust swirled off of his hands and then from the within the small swirl, it grew even larger and then began to encompass the space before them. Amaretto took a breath and when she released it, there stood her aunt's car.

"Your answer to this is a 1969 Skyline Corvette?" Amaretto seemed to stare at it with a rather voided interest.

"Yes, but it has tank wheels. That should get us through the desert a little quicker and closer to our destination." Katherine had a smirk on her face and then climbed into the driver's seat. Amaretto looked at where the wheels should have been and sure enough, there were tank treads on the bottom.

"They are called treads, not wheels," was all she said as she climbed into the passenger seat. Katherine chuckled and then turned the key in the ignition. The car rumbled and then sped onwards towards the horizon again.

Sand whipped past along with the wind. Amaretto didn't know where they were going, but she now knew that Monde Creux was nothing but sand and emptiness. The sand continued to pass by for several minutes before Amaretto finally said, "There's nothing here."

"The woman is here. There as a mater of fact." Katherine pointed her finger towards a small spot on the horizon and as Amaretto stared at it, she realized that there was indeed something that looked like a mountain there.

"What is that?"

"That is where la sorcière is, watching over the Water Mirror."

This piqued Amaretto's interest however. "The Water Mirror? What is that, a large lake?"

Katherine snorted. "Your powers of perception are as sharp as ever. However, you are wrong. You will see when we get there." Amaretto made a sound that was oddly like a grumble. they continued on before amaretto broke the silence once more.

"What happened while we were at Tempus'?"

Aunt Katherine's face went stony. "The alarm went off. That was all."

"What kind of alarm was it?"

"It was simply an alarm," Katherine said heatedly. "It was only important that we keep our appointment so that,"

Amaretto interrupted, "There has to be a reason why we were whisked off so suddenly. Why did Tempus send us to Monde Creux so quickly?"

Kathrine answered testily, "La sorcière will be able to tell you soon enough."

"Soon enough? We aren't even there yet!"

Katherine shook her head. "Shows how much you know. Here in Monde Creux, Time is not constant." Katherine pointed upwards and there it was, staring at them with grim efficiency, the side of a single mountain and carved into the side of the rock, a large temple.

The architecture was simple. Three arches, side by side, more arches above it, but in each of the arches except the middle one on the bottom, a thousand candles were lit. The light had a splendid effect, as directly in the center archway, a single statue was there. It was a rather large woman dressed in long and flowing robes, with her hands out in front of her. Katherine pulled up the tank-car in front of the temple and then smiled at her god-daughter.

"Next stop, la sorcière, the woman who can tell you everything."

Amaretto turned away from the temple to look Katherine. "Everything?"

Katherine reached into her purse and then pulled out a pair of movie star sunglasses, product of Gucci of course. Putting them on she smiled and then said, "Everything."

Grain REdux... In which Amaretto and Katherine travel through dimensions,,,

Amaretto tried to answer back, but all she heard was a popping sound and then, she was in her bedroom. Her bedroom was a mess as it always was, but this time she was deposited into that mess with her Godmother, and that did not do well for Katherine at all. However, Amaretto ignored her aunt as she found a bra that was sitting on her head.


“Ama darling,” her aunt drawled. “When was the last time that you cleaned your room?”


“Not now Auntie. I have to look around for the box,” said Amaretto. She had initially looked at the dresser top when she came in but noticed that the box was not there.


Katherine looked petrified. “You lost the box? With the Glass still inside?” Katherine fished into her purse and pulled out her palm pilot. Taking the stylus, she frantically tapped around and searched through the memory with wide eyes, sending frantic emails and half starts of other messages to various people. Thanks to the speed of the Internet, she didn't have to use magic (which could have taken her days), to learn what she did in less than three minutes.


“Doom. We're doomed.” Her voice had a bit of finality to it and she sat down on the bed with a look of despair and defeat.


Amaretto continued to look around her room, now searching though her dirty clothes that she had thrown in a corner. “What do you mean by doomed?”


“I mean that I'm going to get sacked, canned, downsized, outsourced...” Aunt Katherine continued to named all the words except for the term 'fired'. It didn't seem as if she had the heart. Amaretto frowned and ignored her rather dramatic aunt as she continued to search for the Glass. It took her a few moments to realize that her dresser had shifted forward. Amaretto grabbed the dresser and yanked it forward. There nestled in the back behind the dresser, was the box that her Aunt had given her for her eighth birthday.


She smiled and called to her aunt. “I found it!” At this her aunt stopped her mindless rambling.


“You did? Where was it?”


“It had fallen behind the dresser.”


“If you kept your room clean,” Her aunt started, “Then we wouldn't have wasted all this time thinking that I was going to get fired as your Fairy godmother.”


Amaretto rolled her eyes and then opened the box with such force that she snapped the hinges on the box. Her Aunt was surprised. “My, what a strong grip you have.”


Amaretto ignored the quip however. She saw the familiar glass shape under her hand and lifted it out. Her aunt stood up and walked over to behind her and then paused for a moment. “You have to take the catch off before you can tip it. Once you tip that Glass, Tempus' coordinates should kick in and it is Monde Creux for us to see la sorcière du temps et de l'espace. How fun.”


Amaretto found the familiar catch and unclipped it from the glass. The single ruby in the bottom seemed to glitter for a moment and then she saw the glass tilt. She turned around and looked at her aunt with a horrified look. Katherine simply grabbed onto her by the shoulder and smiled. “Here we go my little Amaret!” Her voice was excited and she even had a little glint in her eyes.


At that moment, once more, Amaretto heard that familiar popping sound, which made her wonder, why didn't traveling though time and space not have another sound, like a whoosh or a bang? She didn't have time to contemplate it however as she and her aunt Katherine were skyrocketed though that time and space towards Monde Creux.


The first thing that Amaretto saw was sand. The second thing that she saw was Aunt Katherine flying through the air, or more aptly falling, directly at her. She shrieked and rolled to the side. Aunt Katherine hit the ground with a muffled thump, her legs and arms flying akimbo. Katherine was stuck in what appeared to be a small sand dune and Amaretto looked around as her Aunt tried to get herself out of it.


The surrounding area was a bleak black sky and what seemed like an endless expanse of sand. Sand covered everything and was everywhere and Amaretto felt as bleak as her surroundings looked. Katherine soon managed to get the sand out of her hair, but not out of her shoes.


“I swear that these shoes are ruined. That makes me so mad.” Her aunt growled as she held up her pair of Prada. She looked at her godchild and then said, “Now aren't you glad you are wearing suitable jeans?”


Amaretto paused for a moment and then did have to silently agree that her aunt had been right. The Jeans were a godsend. At least her other pants would not get sand all over them. Then she remembered. “Wait! What happened to our bag of clothes?”


“I left them in your room when we made the jump,” said her aunt as she began to search around in her purse once more. This made Amaretto sigh with relief. No lost pants. They had been hard to come by. Her aunt continued on however without another thought. “Though I seem to have also lost my lip balm as we made the jump. How annoying, chapped lips and nothing to soothe them.” Her aunt sighed and then stood up from the sand dune that she was sitting on.


“Come along then. I am more than sure that la sorcière has been expecting us.” Katherine began to trudge in a random direction where there seemed to be nothing but sand.


“Expecting us?" Amaretto looked rather annoyed and peeved. "Aunt Katherine, there is nothing here. Are you sure that Tempus sent us in the right direction? Oh, and before we go any further, can someone explain all of this to me in the first place and how it can be happening?”

Amaretto looked at her aunt and then walked over and pinched her.


Katherine jumped and began rubbing her hand. “Dear lord! Does it run in your family?”


Amaretto looked at her quizzically. “Does what run in my family?”


“When I first met your mother, she pinched me to make sure that it wasn't a dream. I figured that was why you pinched me now.”


“That is why I pinched you; but my mother did it too?” Amaretto looked a little concerned.


Katherine rolled her eyes before she answered in a huffy voice. “Yes when I told her that I was going to be your godmother.”


“Well if a strange woman walked up to you and said that, wouldn't you want to know if it was a dream too?” Amaretto scowled.

Katherine rolled her eyes. “No, I would thank my lucky stars. It's fine if you back talk to me, I know your are a teenager. However, la sorcière might have a different reaction if you do it to her.” Katherine continued to walk and Amaretto had no choice in but following her.