Labyrinth Through The Mirror of Time Chapter 5

 Chapter 5: The Wall of Ether

Remi sat on the chest of the boy called Demir. Her collar was throbbing. The colour-split bead flickered, as if it was about to teleport her somewhere. She swallowed hard. She just hoped everything would go well and she could save the boy.

"What am I supposed to do now?" she asked, her voice heavy with sleep.

The boys' grandmother brought over a ball of hemp twine. It smelled strongly of cedar resin and heavy incense. With sure, practiced movements, she wrapped the thick fibre around Demir’s weak wrist. Then she looped it around Remi’s white paw, around Samir’s wrist, and tied the final knot around her own. She dropped the rest of the ball onto the slightly rusty marble floor.

"We only have one hour," the woman said. "We can’t risk any more than that. You, El-Beyda, hold my boy’s hand and bring him home. After an hour, I will cut the connection and pull you back. That clock..." she added, pointing to an ebony nightstand Remi hadn't even noticed until now, "...will ring in exactly one hour."

Remi fixed her eyes on the clock. It looked like a toy sea turtle. Shahrazad’s voice started counting down directly into her ears. It was calm and steady, starting from ten. Her eyelids grew heavy. A cold, milky mist swallowed her whole.

Then, someone squeezed her hand. She was in a completely different reality. She had her human body back. Demir was right beside her.

"Don’t let go of my hand!" the boy said. "We’re going to save my mum."

"Your mum? Where are we?"

Demir looked around with a worried frown. "I’m not entirely sure. We’re here, but we’re not! Look at us. We look like ghosts."

Remi looked at him and squeezed his hand. He felt real. Then she looked around. They were in a shady inner courtyard from a long-lost era. Two thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girls stood next to a rectangular pool filled with blooming blue lotuses. They were identical twins. Their skin was pale, as if they had spent their whole lives hidden from the sun. Their features looked exactly like Remi’s own face when she was fourteen.

"That’s exactly how I looked at fourteen," the writer whispered.

"Aye, El-Beyda, that’s you alright," Demir said. "Your eyes are exactly like theirs. I want to talk to them, to warn them, but I can’t. You can’t either! Watch this."

He pulled Remi along. He reached out with his free hand to touch an alabaster statue of the goddess Bastet. Their hands just sliced through empty air. The statue was like a projection, a hologram.

"Your gran said the Mirror of Time is broken," Remi tried to reason with him. "She told me to bring you back."

"Shahrazad isn't exactly our gran. You'll see."

"But she has your eyes..."

"That’s because she’s the reincarnation of our grandmother, the Pharaoh's mother. We’ve gone back to a moment before the wedding. Before Akhenaten was poisoned. But I can't warn them..."

"Maybe we should go back," Remi urged. "Your gran and your brother need you."

"Not yet. Let’s stay a bit longer," the boy said. He sat cross-legged right on the edge of the stone pool, near the two girls who were close to his age. "I just want to get to know them. Which one do you reckon is our mum?"

One of the twins looked painfully fragile. She wore a dress made of royal Amarna linen. It was so fine and sheer it looked like liquid spiderweb, pleated into thousands of uneven rays. Her short, heavy Nubian wig framed a face wet with silent tears.

The second twin stood straight beside her, solid as a rock. She rejected the palace style. Instead, she wore a traditional, simple Kalasiris dress made of a single piece of spotless white linen. Her natural hair was cut into a short, rebellious bob. Around her neck—Remi gasped—was the exact same Collar of the Two Skies that kept her trapped in a cat's body.

"They are taking me to the palace tomorrow," the first girl said.

"Oh, my sweet Meritmut, we will always have each other," the second girl whispered. "I will pray for the goddess to protect you." She fastened a collar around Meritmut’s neck, identical to her own.

"Yes," Demir whispered. "She must be my mum, Meritmut. And her sister is Meritbastet, the priestess."

Right at the priestess’s feet, lazing on the cold stone, was a coal-black tomcat. His fur was glossy and his eyes were sharp and clever. He seemed to look straight through the Wall of Ether, locking his gaze right on Remi.

*He looks just like Mistral,* Remi thought. She waved her hand in front of the cat's eyes. He seemed to flinch.

"Can you see me?" she asked.

To their absolute shock, the cat answered. He sounded a bit bored, and a bit annoyed that these intruders were bothering him.

"Of course I can see you! Why is it such a big deal to be seen? Who do you think you are anyway? You look a bit like the girls' mother, but why are you floating around like that? Don't you lots have bodies?"

Remi stared at the boy in shock. Then they both looked back at the cheeky black cat.

"By the Eye of Horus," the cat muttered, "I swear I don't understand where you get the cheek to wander around without bodies!"

Right then, a loud, annoying buzzing sound cut the cat off. The spell broke instantly, pulling Remi straight back into Demir’s bedroom.