The Clocks

To a casual observer it would have seemed as if Father Elias Townsend was indifferent to the sounds emanating from the waters behind him. To his right he heard the murmur of voices in what appeared to be serious conversation, and he nodded his head. Trust Lady Aradia to maintain her composure, even in a situation such as this where she suddenly found herself totally naked and alone with a likewise naked and handsome young man.

From his left, well, Philipa had always been the lusty type who watched her horses breeding with a great deal more than innocent interest. That was all he was going to say, or think, about that. Besides, he had other things on his mind that were, or seemed to be, more important. Only, given the situation, he wasn't so sure about that any more.

When he had heard them talking so wisfully about taking a bath, it had taken all his prodigious will power to keep from jumping to his feet and shouting at them, "What in God's name are you thinking!?" Men and women who were complete strangers simply did NOT bathe together. In his, albeit limited, experience even married couples almost never did.

The only thing that restrained him was a dream...no...it wasn't a dream. For what was possibly the first time in his life, Elias was being forced to be brutally honest with himself. He'd always loved the idea of service to others and had been drawn to the Church like a moth to a flame. Oh, yes, he'd been more than a little irritated when he was assigned to this benighted region of what was nominally Italy, but he'd adjusted and had been happy. Or at least that was what he'd convinced himself of.

Finding himself forced into a soldier's uniform on threat of great bodily harm by the unlamented Baron Jeffries had nearly unbalanced him, which said much about the Baron's state of mind as well. One does not force a churchman into military garb, even if, as he had been told, it was to impress upon any enemy observer that there were more soldiers than expected in the Baron's force.

Elias snorted. As if one extra body would make any difference.

It was total nonsense of course. The Baron had nobody to send out to be a scout, so why would that other Baron, what was his name? Oh yes, Childers. An odd name that. Anyway, where was he? Yes, right, that. He was sitting by a fire listening to.... Oh God! His mind was going in circles. Focus, focus! There was definitely something in this fog or mist or whatever that made it hard to concentrate. Or perhaps it was the crushing fatigue that had accumulated in the past five weeks.

Where was he? The dream. Right. No, the vision he'd had last night. Since he was being honest, he might as well admit that he'd been having visions for years, including that time he'd been warned not to let on that he was a much better mage than his superiors suspected. If he had, he'd probably be back in Naples or Rome or Milan living a life of relative luxury in service to a bishop or archbishop. Then he wouldn't be here in this Godforsaken place.

He cocked his head and considered. Perhaps it wasn't Godforsaken after all. The miraculous happenings of the past hour could hardly have happened in a place that God had abandoned. And there he was again, letting his mind veer away from what he needed to do.

Focus, focus.... The vision last night had been full of colors and swirling lights and strange, nearly overwhelming sounds. Rather like the past hour. Then there had been the voice. Even now he couldn't tell if it had been a male or a female voice. That was passing strange. Well, he supposed that it didn't matter. What did matter was what it said which was:

"There will be great turmoil in the sky which will be reflected on the Earth, and all will be turned upside down. Then that which should not be will come to pass for it is that which must be, and from this will come that which cannot be imagined but which will one day be imagined. In the fullness of time, there will be order that exists only because of ongoing disorder, and the world will be entirely changed from what was known."

It was that which kept him sitting and shivering by the fire. Bah, he was an idiot! There was no reason to hide any longer, and he hated being cold. Thus he shrugged himself out of the odoriferous tunic and pulled his clerical robe out of his backpack. Then he caused all the water on his skin and in his clothing to go elsewhere, leaving him dry and, by the time the two couples returned, warm.

He turned to face them and noticed without a trace of surprise that each couple was holding hands. Although he was dry, he was still tired, dirty, and hungry. In his haste to be the first on the high ground, the Baron hadn't bothered to feed anyone that morning.

Seeing the earnest young faces in front of him, and before they could interrupt with any meaningless, embarrassed drivel, he spoke first, "All right. I suppose congratulations are in order, so let's get on with it, shall we?"

William and Philipa looked at each other, then turned back to Father Elias with puzzled faces. Aradia and the Emil boy however.... They blushed and nodded at him. Elias had long known that she had a good head on her shoulders. It was encouraging that this tall, heavily muscled young man was also quick on the uptake.

"I'll make it short seeing has how there are two 'armies' down the sides of the hill who are probably getting extremely curious about now. We don't want your efforts at making peace to get ruined by another battle, do we?"

Their reactions were interesting. Philipa and William shook their heads "no," while Aradia and Emil shook theirs "yes." No matter how simply you say something, two people often manage to interpret it differently.

"Ok then." He turned slightly to his left. "Aradia, do you take Emil to be your lawful husband?"

"I do."

"Emil, do you take Aradia to be your lawful wife."

Tongue-tied, Emil nodded, several times.

"Right then. You're now husband and wife."

He turned to William and Philipa, "Now then, your turn. Will you consent to be married?"

They looked at each other and also blushed as they finally understood what was going on. Next they looked back to Father Elias and whispered, "yes".

"Good. You're married too. Now each of you couples get out there and fix things." Saying that he waved his hands in the general directions of the two forces.

It was Philipa who blurted out what three of them had been thinking, "But Father Elias, are you sure? Is it legal to do it this way? Getting married I mean?"

Hearing this man who had recently been wearing a soldier's tunic called "Father" by Philipa was most reassuring to William and Emil. It was Aradia who answered Philipa's question, and she counted her points off on her fingers.

"1) He is a properly ordained priest and can legally perform marriages.

"2) A marriage requires the consent of those being married. We meet that requirement.

"3) There must be two adult witnesses. We satisfy that as well.

"4) Well, there is no four. By custom we have rather elaborate ceremonies for nobles, but commoners just throw a party." She turned to Emil, "Don't they?"

Seeing his nod, she continued, "There's nothing in the law dictating how the priest handles the actual marriage. That being the case, we're married." She turned back to Elias, "Are we not?"

"Indeed you are child. Now get going. Off wit ye!"

The children shrugged, smiled at each other, then wandered off hand-in-hand in approximately the correct directions. As for Elias....

Now that they were gone, he intended to have a good soak himself before all the others arrived. If he knew his people, and he did, they were all going to want to wash their clothes and get warm, and he supposed that the other side would as well. That of itself should put to an end any lingering resentment toward their opposites. It's hard to be angry when you're naked and having a comfortable soak in hot water.

Suddenly he knew what he needed to do as soon as it proved possible. The community that would form here would need a church, maybe two depending on how many people came and stayed. He intended that the first one be dedicated to the memory of the miracles that had just happened.

-------------------------

"That's enough for now. The rest of the story is mostly what you were taught in school. Take some deep breaths and focus your minds on being Sara and Paolo rather than.... Anyway, concentrate."

Paolo and Sara blinked as if the light in the room were too bright, then shook their heads. Their vision was a bit fuzzy but soon resumed normal focus.

Paolo exclaimed, "That...that was incredible! Did it really happen like that?" He blushed furiously, which was quite an accomplishment given his dusky coloring. "I mean did those other two really do...that...right after they met?"

Sara whacked him on the back of the head with her palm. She said not a single word, but she was blushing brightly as well.

Lady Blue ignored Paolo's intent and instead answered him literally, "Yes they really did get married. Baron Jeffries forces seeing Aradia and Emil walking toward them holding hands, and Baron Childers' seeing William and Philipa doing the same, put to rest any possible lingering thoughts of fighting.

"That's important of course, but what's pertinent for you today is the consequences of their marriages. I'll give you two hints. William and Philipa's first children were born nine months and seven days later. Out of an eventual total of nine children, there were three sets of twins.

"Aradia and Emil were a bit more careful seeing as how they were essentially in charge of the construction and organizing of the new town that William and Philipa laid out. Their first child was born something over two years later. All in all, among their six children, there were two sets of twins."

Blue stared at them. "Well, I'm waiting I'm rather good at it, so feel free to take your time, though I'd suggest that it not be over a week. You can die without having food or water for a week you know."

Lady Blue waited, showing no sign of impatience. After about five or six minutes she sighed. "Oh all right, I'll give you a hint. In the entire rest of the world, on average, there is one set of twins out of every 84 births. Here it is one in four. This is also almost the only place in the world where every single set of twins can speak in 'twin'."

After that hint, Sara figured out what was what in less than two minutes. "Oh! The water. There's something about the water from the spring that makes women have twins so often!"

"Bingo! We have a winner." The lady applauded quietly. "Indeed, the water. Its presence is at least as important, and perhaps more so in the grand scheme of things, than the presence of The City itself. Without the water you don't have all those twins. Without the twins you'd have a great deal more inefficiency in critical positions in the military, government, business, and such.

"I suspect that Emil and Aradia figured that out fairly quickly since a law requiring that each head of a family must either have the water piped to their homes or contribute to the plumbing of whichever bathhouse was closest if there was insufficient room in their homes..

"From day one, for sanitary reasons, watering the animals was limited to water that had flowed at least half-way down the hill. I must say that it's fortunate indeed that an aqueduct to bring water from higher in the mountains nearby was built within a few decades. If not for the sewer system that was built then, things might have been most unpleasant what with all the livestock in The City in the early years."

Lady Blue bent forward slightly and put her hands on her slim hips. "You really have no idea at all how fortunate you are to live where there is hot running water for your baths and fairly clean water on tap in your kitchens and jakes. The incidence of serious diseases here is less than a tenth of what it is in the rest of Europe."

Her expression was one of restrained sadness when she added, "Though the side effect of all this is a much higher than normal frequency of miscarriages." She shook herself. "My, my, look at me. I went off into lecture mode again. You really need to stop me when I do that."

Seeing the helpless looks on the children's faces, she relented sooner than she'd originally intended. "I'm joking. I'm joking. I know that you're much too polite to interrupt me, at least for now. We'll see how things play out in three or four decades."

Sara and Paolo turned toward each other and had another silent conversation. Then they turned back to Lady Blue, obviously wanting to ask something but clearly not sure of how to go about it. "Hmm. What's this I see? Doubts? Let me check."

She looked carefully at each of them for several seconds. "Ah. So that's it. First, let's see if I've figured out your question and then I'll answer it, OK?"

Not waiting for them to reply, she forged ahead, "You're both wondering how much of this I made up. You're having problems believing that two couples who had just met could fall instantly in love. You're both aware of it happening with Cabinet Master Linton and his wife eight years ago, but it's pretty rare, and two at once is a no-go from where you sit. "Did I get it right?"

Seeing surprised nods, she nodded herself. "I can't give you a detailed answer, not for a while anyway, but I will say this. I ALWAYS keep my promises. That being the case, I helped each of them along a bit by letting each of them see how compatible they were. And, before you ask, no I will NOT tell you how I did that. You don't need to know, at least not yet. All you need to know right now is that it all happened exactly as you saw it. Capiche?"

"Yes my Lady." "Sure, I guess so."

She tapped her forefinger against her cheek. "Let's see, where was I? Oh yes. There is a point to all this apparently useless information. And the point is this. Those so-called 'temporal engineers' who came up with the idea of building The City are exactly that. Engineers. They have no skills in city planning, management of human relations, politics, or anything else that doesn't involve a laboratory. That's why I got involved.

"Someone had to help with growing The City and keeping the people in it strong and healthy, and that person is me. Otherwise the engineer's plan would have fallen apart within no more than a decade. That's why your parents and their ancestors have kept their secret journals, as a history detailing what works and what doesn't and, as best they've been able to determine, why. To the engineers this is all an experiment. They don't understand how to work with people -- which is why they accidentally almost destroyed your mind this morning Paolo."

She was interrupted by an odd growling sound. At first there was no clear source, but, as it got louder, it became evident that what was growling was Sara. Not only that, she looked ready to shred someone.

Lady Blue laughed. "That's my girl!" She turned to Paolo and mock whispered, "You'd better get your bottom in high gear, otherwise you're never going to be strong enough to be her partner in crime."

As Paolo struggled with the idea that Lady Blue knew what he'd been thinking at the dinner on Friday, she turned to Sara and began to stroke her head. "Don't worry child. Miranda chewed them up one side and down the other when she found out what they'd done.

"Let me tell you, if I hadn't had a wall of silence between us at the other end, my laughter would surely have scared them out of their wits since they couldn't see me. No, correct that. They were already scared out of their wits by Miranda. Hmm. Then would they have been scareder out of their wits? Is 'scareder' a word? I'll have to think on it.

"At any rate, they won't do anything that stupid again, which I guess is a good reinforcement of my point. We can't have them knowing that I, and my allies in The City, have been working on the social engineering of The City while they've worked on the physical end. I'm absolutely sure that they'd want to meddle."

Paolo raised his hand. "Ah, my lady, does that mean that we," he pointed to himself and Sara, "have been elected as your next generation of allies?"

The lady clapped her hands together and giggled. "What a good boy. You're starting to use that mind of yours now. You are correct. You're among the first few of the next generation of allies. Counting backwards you're the 34th generation I'll be working with."

She looked out the window. "My the time has flown, hasn't it? I'll pop downstairs to see Miranda, and then I'll stop by to see Blair to let her know that Sara will be having dinner here tonight."

The look she directed at the couple was almost, but not quite, a leer. "Then Paolo can walk you home. After all, a young lady shouldn't be out on the streets after dark, not even in a city as safe as this one. And, who knows, a few kisses and such might be exchanged in a sheltered spot or two on the way."

Lady Blue stood and brushed off her skirt. "I really must go. Things to do and people to see you know. I'll drop in on you later, but not tonight. Goodbye my dears."

Sara and Paolo didn't move. They couldn't. They'd both been looking right at the lady. Suddenly she wasn't there anymore. Paolo recovered first and said, "She said that we'll be the 34th generation she's worked with. I wonder how old she is?"

"I HEARD THAT! Blue's voice resounded in their minds.

"Never ask a lady her age. Besides, it doesn't matter how old she is. A lady who looks after her health, eats well, and exercises regularly will always look younger than her chronological age, and that's what really matters.

"Oh yes, I forgot one thing. I figure that you have about 11 and a half minutes before I'm through talking with Miranda and she comes up after you, so that's all the time you have for whatever you might do until then. And don't forget that Sara will need at least a minute to fix herself so she doesn't look mussed."

Sara looked at Paolo speculatively and saw him looking back with the same expression. As it played out, they cut things a bit close. But, by helping each other, they both managed to be completely presentable when they opened Paolo's door and met his mother, who was almost at the top of the stairs.

Miranda's eyebrows both twitched slightly as she took in their overly innocent faces. Only one who was an expert at reading people would have noticed that she was working very hard not to react more strongly than that to the faint, nearly subsonic purring coming from Sara.

All she said was, "It's so good of you to join us for dinner Sara. If you'll both come with me please?"

Sara bowed her acquiescence, and the trio made their way to the dining room.