Tearha: The Number 139

Chapter Forty-Six: The Lady in Waiting

"From the Endless War to the Solaris War. The Battle of Haven to the Fight for Genesis. Even the Vashmir Pandemic and the War of the Mist." Kathleen Ambershey set the final book, Years to the End of the World, down on a table with eight others. "How many times did you actually take part in a story?"

"Just two of them," The Watcher replied. "I was a bystander for the others."

He was in a rotund room. Two storey tall, the ceiling was lit by dozens of flecks of light that resembled stars. Bookshelves lined the walls, with roundels above each that glowed a soft white acting as sources of light. Four wood doors were poised at each cardinal directions upon a annulus platform of velvet carpet.

The platform led down to the grassy circular 'ground floor', which consisted of a round table bolted to the centre of the room and three swivel chairs surrounding it, despite never having had more than two occupants in the enclosure at once. Piles of books occupied the table mountainously. Above the table, hanging down from a ceiling mount that pivoted was a monitor that showed the world outside his body. The Watcher sat on one of the chairs, writing feverishly into an empty book.

Taking a seat opposite him, Kathleen spun on the chair, admiring the place. "I like this room. It's so much more decorative than all the others."

"I saw the design on a television show once. Thought it looked neat." He did not take his hand away from his frantic scribbling. Despite the speed of his writing, the words seemingly squirmed into a perfected readable font. Noting the lights, he said, "I liked the round things on the wall."

As he set the final period onto the last page, the book he wrote on shrunk to fit the text. He closed it, the title reading Ulysses. He sat the book upon the pile, with works ranging from The Hobbit to Don Quixote. Even one titled, Height Hack: A Universal Guide on Stretching.

Kathleen finally caved and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I've read many books in my lifetime." Involuntarily, he taut his back in a stretch. What for he was not sure, as he had not felt any physical discomfort since his arrival. "I thought it would be a good way to kill some time to write them from scratch."

"You're joki – no. That look on your face is totally sincere."

He twisted his vision and lopped his tongue out the side of his mouth in comedic response.

"You should take things a little more seriously," she sternly reprimanded.

He looked up at the monitor. In it, Light was frozen midway through a slash down towards his head. At the corner of the screen, he could see Nadier and Adelaide, an image he had recently seen arrive. However, they moved at a speed so slow, you could only tell they were not motionless by comparing minute to minute freeze frames. Or, if you were The Watcher.

"How long do you think they'll stay there?" he asked.

"I don't know. How long before you leave this place?"

"Once they realize there's no way out of the time bubble without my say so, they'll give up," he convinced himself.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course. They're tenacious, not stupid."

"What's the difference?"

He made a quick calculation as he watched Nadier's eyes slowly closing in a blink. It was off, watching someone blink in slow motion. Without realizing, most people have slight ticks, making one eyelid close slower. Nadier's left eye was just less than a fraction of a tenth of a second faster than his right.