NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 143

When I awaken, it is at the feet of lions draping seven narrow steps. I make one step forward but then natural instinct ties my feet together so that I freeze in spot, right foot and left arm extended. Then I remember that this is just a game and quickly pull myself together. A star pitches in approval. It falls somewhere beyond the steps. Curiousity tugs on the knot until my feet break free. Inhale. Exhale. Here's goes nothing. It's definitely not how I intended to die. And to think I opted out of freefalling only to be shredded by fourteen hungry lions. But as I mount the first step the two most menacing ones lie down. So I continue climbing, and them bowing, until I reach the top.

I stand frozen, fixated on what appears to be a throne made of three interlocking mirrors, one at the back and the other two at forty-five degree angles, all partially hidden by an electric storm of colourful mists with a fleeting image galloping through them. I steady my breathing to slow the image down and for a brief moment I see its form. Or at least I think I do. Then absolutely nothing! Even the storm is gone. Just three mirrors remain with nothing to reflect, not even the raging ocean that is its seat. And then a man appears standing at the left of the throne, a Rubrum with a staff in his hand that is really driftwood and looks like a giant bent magic wand. Light tiptoes across his black onyx eyes as he points it at me.

"A war is coming, Mary!" he warns. "You make sure everyone is ready."

And then Kat appears on the right and adds, "I think you're ready now."

But as I'm about to tell her that I couldn't possibly be ready to fight anyone's war, the Rubrum taps the ground three times with his rod and summons such a persistent ringing that all my senses get triggered. Then the glass shatters and their images disappear on the ground with my past.