"Yeah, it really is. I bet you and Josephine will have a lot to talk about." Lianna smiles at you with that same expression she had when she was talking about Janice's chemistry work; she doesn't understand it, but she admires it. Maybe she admires it even more because she doesn't understand it.
"So, yeah, you can get time from objects. Or you can get it from people. They don't even know, usually! You take a little bit of time from each person, and it adds up. I think Josephine takes an hour every night, or something like that. While people are sleeping, so they don't even know.
"And that's where the camp comes in. Back in the day, Josephine got some of her friends on the board of directors of Camp Cedarcrest and made sure that it would stick around in the same location. Having a group of people right near the Timeless Circle lets Josephine renew the magic once a year. A little bit from each camper every night, and then a lot right at the end.
"You have that bonfire at the camp, right, where you burn little pieces of paper with your memories on it? That takes those pieces of time—the time that you've written about—and turns it into magic that Josephine can use to refresh the Timeless Circle. It's only a couple hours from each person. Not enough to seriously shorten their lives.
"So that's why the camp is so important," Lianna finishes. "We need it to survive. We couldn't renew the Timeless Circle without it. There's always a couple people who are friendly to the Timeless Circle who work at the camp, too, to help get us supplies and to keep an eye on things. Tom Desjardins works as, like, a groundskeeper or something, right?
"So, that's why we're worried about the fact that it might be closing."
Taking time out of people.
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