Space-Time of Death: an Al Squires of the Protectorate Novel

Ch. 4.1: What's Time to a Time Traveler?

When the debrief was officially over, those of us who volunteered (who didn't have the ability to shapeshift clothing) went over to our Division's Wardrobe Department to get dressed for the occasion, so to speak. The Ouroboros agents that were joining us went to their own HQ elsewhere to get theirs. Or maybe 'else-when;' seeing as both the physical and temporal location of their HQ is kept hush-hush. My theory has always been that it's somewhere in the Still, the interdimensional phenomenon that allows those who enter it (mostly those In the Know) to move in-between Time itself. But they go through great lengths to keep outsiders guessing.

I'd go into what happened in the Wardrobe Department (or, the Wardrobe, as we like to call it), but frankly, most of what happened is pretty much filler. So, let me just give you a brief summary of what happened:

First, Me, Norah, Clint and Rozz entered the Wardrobe, which looks a lot like what would happen if the Stacks and a walk-in closet had a baby. To give a brief description of the Wardrobe, it contains about six stories worth of outfits, and a single wide aisle that goes straight on farther than the naked eye can see.

Then we enlisted the aid of Taylor, the AI in charge of the Wardrobe and the creation of its contents. He- or, more accurately- his holographic avatar appeared before us when we summoned him. For those who'd like a description of his avatar, picture a tall skinny well-dressed Englishman with a curly mustache and, like his namesake, a tape measure hanging around his neck that was more for aesthetic purposes.

Being an AI, Taylor had already been apprised of the situation via the Division's network, along with what we needed clothes-wise for this and all the other parts of this mission. But, before they did anything else, Taylor needed to get Norah's measurements; seeing as she this is her first official mission, and he had yet to memorize them. After measuring her, Taylor gave the rest of us recommendations of what we'd want to wear according to our individual tastes and preferences. For Norah's outfit, well, I'm going to make that a surprise.

Let's skip ahead to where we get into some important dialogue: after Taylor gave us our outfits (which were delivered in clothing bags via drones), we then head to the changing rooms. There are two alcoves of changing rooms on each of the great aisle that makes up the Wardrobe. When we got to the alcoves, I casually asked Clint and Rozz to go one alcove while Norah took the other. Not seeing anything wrong with that, they agreed. Of course, the real reason for this was so Norah and I needed to talk about what the witch had told us and how it was connected to this 'Father Time' case. And we couldn't do that with a Thrope and Demon in earshot of us; not when we were still under the Power of the Name.

I'd go into detail about the changing rooms inside each alcove, but really, what's to go over? They're just changing rooms. The only difference in the Wardrobe's changing rooms is that the line of booths on either side of each wall seemed to go on for as far as the human eye could see. However, I suspect that's just a complex optical illusion. Anyway, let's get back to the story.

Just as we entered the alcove, Norah started to go into one of the changing booths closer to the entrance, before turning around as if she was going to say something. Just as she opened her mouth, I made a stop motion. "Hold that thought," I said to her, "I think it'd be more productive if we change while we talk about you-know-what." I looked back to the other alcove before looking back to Norah.

"But before we do that..." I trailed off, then motioned her to move down a few booths. After that, I turned around and whispered, "Norah and I are under a geas placed a witch who had vaguely warned about this mission." Satisfied by the fact that I was able to say that, I turned around to face Norah. "Okay," I said to her in a whisper, "we should be able to talk about what happened to us. Provided of course we don't talk any louder than this. Oh, and don't worry about ears of an electronic variety hearing us; I wouldn't have been able to say anything if there were."