"I'm sorry, sir?" My mind burst into a million thoughts. Who had gotten the watch? How did someone get it before me? Is this a joke? Did someone figure me out? All these thoughts and more raced through my brain.
"You heard me. The watch has been obtained. We detected a large increase in magic aura in your area. Are you telling me that someone else managed to find it before you?"
I was stunned. The boss's voice clearly came through the phone, but I was unable to hear. I stood, frozen in place. I had failed. This was the worst possible time to fail as well. One giant piece of the puzzle is now missing.
"Disgraceful." The boss's voice snapped me out of my haze. "I thought we trained you better than this. We will have you removed from the school immediately. Your punishment will be discussed when you return to our facilities. And here I thought I saw something in you."
"Wait!" I let a cry escape my mouth, taking a few moments to gather my shattered emotions before responding. The boss's silence rang through my ears. "I can find out who did this… just please… allow me to finish what I started."
Time felt like it slowed as I awaited the boss's response, swallowing a hard lump that had formed in my throat.
"Fredrick, you know we have a zero tolerance policy for failure. In order to prove your worth, you will be reassigned. You will need to locate the glass of time, according to our researchers, it will be significantly harder to obtain than the watch. You will be given the same progress updates we receive from your replacement. Speaking of which, we will be issuing someone who you are very familiar with to take your place." The second I heard the words leave my boss's mouth, my heart dropped. I knew exactly who he was talking about.
"No… You're going to send that demon to this innocent little school? Are you sure that this isn't complete overkill?"
The laugh I heard from my boss made me shudder to my very core.
"Oh, but of course Fredrick! You understand that we have to get this watch, right? I will be sending Mr. Thorne down there immediately. You can have a day to warn people who you seem fit, or gather some notes to make his life easier, after that, you will be returned to our facilities. Once you make it back to our facilities, we'll punish you as we deem fit."
I swallowed the hard lump that had formed in my throat.
"Alright, boss. Whatever you say."
"Good, good. Well then, I'll see soon, Fredrick." He said and immediately hung up the phone, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I was furious with myself for letting this happen, but I had to remain calm, and think. There was literally nobody who could've even known about the watch. The only thing that stuck out to me was the "prank" that Jeffrey guy had pulled on me. Maybe I should interrogate him? No, that wouldn't work, if he's smart enough to figure this out it would reveal too much information about my abilities, and my goals. I'd have to set up a trap for him, but how? All of a sudden the perfect idea came to my head. I know when the new teacher is coming, but who will he replace? So far, that has not been decided since the boss knows I will go back and warn people, then gather notes to help Mr. Thorne so he wouldn't get mad at me. Or at least, that's what the boss hopes I will do. What I will do instead is going to be a lot more fun.
The next day came and I hurried my way to school, stopping to chat with a few kids who saw me when I defended Emma. Talking with all these people reinforces my idea that Emma has a high social status, so assuming I get to continue my mission, she will be key to my success.
I get to class and am greeted by Emma herself.
"Hi, Fredrick!" She says with a big smile on her face.
"Hey, Emma, how are you feeling today?"
"Oh, I'm doing fine, thanks."
"That's good to hear, since I wasn't here for the first month, could you catch me up to speed on what we're learning in Mrs. Johnson's class?"
"Oh, yeah, I can do that."
"Thank you."
I, of course, did not actually need to be caught up. From the lesson Mrs. Johnson gave yesterday, the stuff being taught here was stuff I was forced to learn long ago in the Arcane Syndicate. The reason for doing this was actually a really simple psychology trick. If you want people to be really fond of you, just ask them for help or to borrow something. People will feel useful if you ask them for help, most of the time it's as simple as asking someone if you can borrow their pencil, and they'll happily agree and become more fond of you. Doing this here with Emma works perfectly in my behavior, I can get caught up on the material I'm not supposed to already know, and now she'll be even more warmed up to me. Although, maybe this isn't all that useful…
"Oh hey Emma." I asked while she was talking about the quadratic function. They're only just now learning this? Aren't we supposed to be in 12th grade? I learned this when I was 5…
She paused and looked up.
"'Sup?"
"We should exchange schedules real quick, so that way we know where the other person is at all times."
"Oh that's a great idea!" She beamed, wearing a radiant smile. Today, she was dressed differently than yesterday. Wearing pink diamond-shaped earrings and a black oversized sweater that went past the short denim shorts she had on. The school's dress code clearly does not apply to her.
We both pulled out our schedules and we took pictures of them. At that point, the bell had rang signaling the start of the school day, and Mrs. Johnson walked in the room. The day flew by until lunch period. At which point I went down to the IT room to execute the next phase of my plan. Emma had also texted me a picture of Jeffrey and TJ's schedule. She was curious about my reasoning, but luckily I had prepared an answer. I texted her on my way to the IT room, telling her I was going to do it during lunch, but got called down to the office for some reason. I asked her to do it in my stead and she happily agreed.
After cross-checking their schedules, I was able to find a teacher that Jeffrey and TJ have together that Emma does not. This would allow me to monitor their activity through the updates I would be receiving.
Next, a trap. The school will obviously send out a notification message informing the classes about the teacher swap, this will be when I set the trap out. My plan was to sabotage Jeffrey's phone, making it so the notification about the teacher swap will be automatically read by the system, so he won't be able to see it.
Now, you might be thinking I'm testing his intelligence by seeing if he finds the notification and figures out the purpose behind it, but that's not what I'm after. In fact, I want him to find me, but let's not get too hasty. What will happen is this, when Mr. Thorne inevitably snaps at him for not paying attention, I know this will happen based on Emma has told me, he will give Mr. Thorne a response. The response is what's important. Based on what he does with limited information should give me important information about his way of thinking. Of course, I won't be there myself to observe body language, but I trust Mr. Thorne's ability. Now, it's very likely he doesn't report this at all, but it'll likely ease my doubts about this guy.
Finally, the resolution. Mr. Thorne will need to be cautious, since it's still highly likely that someone from the school got the watch, in fact I am 100% confident it was. So, I will give instructions on what to do. If he gets a ping indicating that time has frozen, he is to book it towards the IT room. Whoever enters that room while time is frozen will obviously be the person who got the watch. Mr. Thorne is a top notch fighter, serving in the army for several years, and also being an expert boxer, there's almost no human alive that could hope to take him on in a fight. Heck, even I'd struggle against him.
Of course, I can't sabotage a message that can't be sent yet. So, I'll ask one of the IT employees to show me around the room, and how some things work and since I'm a new student, they will happily agree to do so. Once I get a rough understanding of how things work, I will rig Jeffrey's cell phone to not receive any messages from the school, except for copies that I will be sending to him.
This plan isn't 100% perfect, but I doubt I will need to use any more of my cognitive abilities. If I'm proven wrong, then it will be the best case scenario, since I've been actively wanting someone to challenge me in terms of wit.
I arrived at the IT room and everything went smoothly. Hooked myself up to Jeffrey's phone without a hitch, and silenced notifications from the school. Since we receive the same messages, and I have a vast knowledge of IT from my studies, I can send replica emails for the time being.
The bell rang for lunch to end, and the staff from IT gave me a note to prove I was with them, and actually earned me some extra credit with the school, which I couldn't complain about.
The rest of the school day went by in a flash and before I knew it, I was back in my apartment room awaiting a call from my boss.
I answered the phone.
"Well, Fredrick, what all have you managed to accomplish? Hopefully something that attempts to make up for your pitiful performance." The boss's voice came over raspy, and disappointed. My knees shook as I lifted my trembling hands to my ears and I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat.
"Well… yes, actually. I have a strong theory that one of two students have obtained the watch. Both of them have one shared class, an English class with Ms. Smith during the 3rd period of the day. I believe it would be best if Mr. Thorne were to take her place. The two students are TJ Juckson, and Jeffrey Thompson."
"Excellent work, Fredrick." His voice said with no hint of being impressed. "I will be reporting these findings to Mr. Thorne, now, you will be collected in 30 minutes. Get to packing." He said as he hung up.
Great, my entire life was made for this mission, and this is how it goes? Whatever, at least I set up a lot of traps, and if I can figure out the person who has the watch before Mr. Thorne, I may have a shot. But, nonetheless, I have to get packing.
…
I awoke to a familiar feeling in my former bed. Upon surveying my surroundings, it appears that nothing has visibly changed in my room, but the lingering feeling of defeat will be a tough one to wash out. As I exit my room and view the facility, I get a feeling of helplessness that you can't escape from in these walls. This place was a prison. They call it an education facility, but it's a prison. I hate every second I've ever spent in these walls, but I can't deny how much help they've been to me. For that, I tolerate the pain.
The boss strolls up to me very slowly with two guards trailing behind. They look at me funny before returning to a nonchalant look.
"Are you ready, Fredrick?" He asks with a grueling smile.
"Yes, and I always will be, sir."
"Good…"
The boss turns and motions for me to follow. I slowly comply as he leads to a room I have never seen before.
The room is enormous, easily the size of the dining halls you'd see in movies. With monstrous walls that have a purple gleam to them. The floor is made of pure white marble, and all our shoes made a squeaky noise as we walked. In the center of the room, there is a massive setup with several monitors and multiple desks overflowing with paper.
The boss showed me to the computers and pointed out the clue left behind by the Ancient Ones about the Glass of Time. I stared at the screen and to see a note that had very faded handwriting, but read:
"In the land where shadows dance with light,
Where the eagle's fall and fire's flight,
A poet's tale of woe was spun,
By the shores where the great horse runs.
Seek the place where tides don't turn,
And fabled fires forever burn,
Where time once shattered, now it flows,
In whispers only the wise one knows.
Follow the path of the fallen stars,
Past where the twin rivers carve their scars,
To the city where the sun is blind,
And the hourglass of ages you shall find."
I gave this poem a good hard look for about 8 seconds, and I had the answer.
"The ruins of Babylon." I said.
"What?" Everyone in the room said in unison.
"Allow me to explain." I said, taking a step back and turning towards everyone. "Each line of the poem is a reference to a figure from ancient history. For example, line one talks about an eagle's fall and fire's flight which is an allusion to the Greeks taking down Troy in the Trojan War with fire. The rest of the lines just affirm the historical connections and aren't super useful. The real fun lies in that final line. "To the city where the sun is and the hourglass of ages you shall" obviously points us towards Babylon, the sun is blind is a reference to its downfall when it was completely overrun by the Persians, and all its knowledge was lost. Really simple once you take some time to analyze it. We're specifically looking for a temple where they used to worship the god Marduk since this is where time was supposedly first measured and manipulated. This does sound quite similar to the Maze of Aion we studied a while back."
Everyone just sat stunned for a few seconds before the boss regained his composure and began to speak. But, before he was able to say something, a loud series of BEEPs escaped from the computer. The boss and I snapped our heads to the monitors, and my heart dropped. They read:
ALERT! TIME HAS BEEN STOPPED.